Instability of Poiseuille flow at extreme Mach numbers: linear analysis and simulations.

PubMed

Xie, Zhimin; Girimaji, Sharath S

2014-04-01

We develop the perturbation equations to describe instability evolution in Poiseuille flow at the limit of very high Mach numbers. At this limit the equation governing the flow is the pressure-released Navier-Stokes equation. The ensuing semianalytical solution is compared against simulations performed using the gas-kinetic method (GKM), resulting in excellent agreement. A similar comparison between analytical and computational results of small perturbation growth is performed at the incompressible (zero Mach number) limit, again leading to excellent agreement. The study accomplishes two important goals: it (i) contrasts the small perturbation evolution in Poiseuille flows at extreme Mach numbers and (ii) provides important verification of the GKM simulation scheme.

Diffusion of test particles in stochastic magnetic fields for small Kubo numbers.

PubMed

Neuer, Marcus; Spatschek, Karl H

2006-02-01

Motion of charged particles in a collisional plasma with stochastic magnetic field lines is investigated on the basis of the so-called A-Langevin equation. Compared to the previously used A-Langevin model, here finite Larmor radius effects are taken into account. The A-Langevin equation is solved under the assumption that the Lagrangian correlation function for the magnetic field fluctuations is related to the Eulerian correlation function (in Gaussian form) via the Corrsin approximation. The latter is justified for small Kubo numbers. The velocity correlation function, being averaged with respect to the stochastic variables including collisions, leads to an implicit differential equation for the mean square displacement. From the latter, different transport regimes, including the well-known Rechester-Rosenbluth diffusion coefficient, are derived. Finite Larmor radius contributions show a decrease of the diffusion coefficient compared to the guiding center limit. The case of small (or vanishing) mean fields is also discussed.

How small firms contrast with large firms regarding perceptions, practices, and needs in the U.S

Treesearch

Urs Buehlmann; Matthew Bumgardner; Michael Sperber

2013-01-01

As many larger secondary woodworking firms have moved production offshore and been adversely impacted by the recent housing downturn, smaller firms have become important to driving U.S. hardwood demand. This study compared and contrasted small and large firms on a number of factors to help determine the unique characteristics of small firms and to provide insights into...

Measuring Marbles: Demonstrating the Basic Tenets of Measurement Theory

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wininger, Steven R.

2007-01-01

A hands-on activity is described in which students attempt to measure something that they cannot see. In small groups, students estimate the number of marbles in sealed boxes. Next, students' estimates are compared with the actual numbers. Last, values from both the students' estimates and actual numbers are used to explain measurement theory and…

Are there meaningful differences between major depressive disorder, dysthymic disorder, and their subthreshold variants?

PubMed

Moore, Michael T; Brown, Timothy A

2012-09-01

A number of researchers have proposed adding an increasing number of subthreshold variants of major depressive disorder (MDD) as new mood disorder. However, this research has suffered from a number of theoretical and methodological flaws that the current investigation has attempted to address. Individuals with MDD (n = 470) were compared with individuals with subthreshold MDD (n = 57). Individuals with MDD reported consistently more severe symptoms, albeit of small magnitude, as well as differences in comorbidity with only two disorders. Results also indicated that diagnosis did not significantly predict rate of symptom change when MDD was compared with its subthreshold variant. Taken together, the aforementioned evidence suggests that small differences exist between MDD and its subthreshold variant. In addition, the extent to which the latter serves as useful analogs for the former may depend upon the variables under study.

Lipoprotein profile assessed by 2D-1H-NMR and subclinical atherosclerosis in children with familial hypercholesterolaemia.

PubMed

Rodríguez-Borjabad, Cèlia; Ibarretxe, Daiana; Girona, Josefa; Ferré, Raimon; Feliu, Albert; Amigó, Núria; Guijarro, Eugenio; Masana, Luis; Plana, Núria

2018-03-01

Familial hypercholesterolaemia (FH) is underdiagnosed in children. In addition to lipid concentrations, lipoprotein particle quantity and quality could influence cardiovascular risk. We aimed to perform a comprehensive plasma lipid study, including lipoprotein particle number and size assessment by two-dimensional nuclear magnetic resonance (2D-1H-NMR), in children with FH compared to non-affected children and to evaluate the clinical value of these factors as subclinical atherosclerosis biomarkers. One hundred eighty-three children participating in the broad "Hypercholesterolemia Early Detection Programme" (Decopin Project) were recruited. They were categorized as FH, if they had either a positive genetic test or clinical certainty, or as control children (CCh). Medical history, anthropometry and clinical variables were recorded. Standard biochemical measurements were performed. The lipoprotein profile was studied by 2D-1H-NMR. Carotid intima-media thickness (cIMT) was assessed by sonography in 177 children. FH children had a significant 36% increase in LDL particles. The small LDL fraction was increased by 33% compared to CCh. The relative relationship between large, medium and small LDL and the mean LDL particle size was similar between FH children and CCh. The total and small LDL particle numbers were directly associated with and contributed to the determination of the mean cIMT according to bivariate and multivariate analyses in FH children. The higher cholesterol levels of FH children are due to an overall increased number of all LDL particle subclasses, including a notable 33% increase in small LDL. Total and small LDL particle number shows a good correlation with cIMT in FH children. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

School Principals--Entrepreneurial Professionals.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jenkins, Hugh

This paper examines the ways in which a small number of school principals in England and Wales are making changes in their management structures and processes to cope with an increasingly turbulent environment. Using evidence on a comparative basis from organizations outside education, this paper looks at the way in which a number of principals…

Sound and fluctuating disturbance measurements in the settling chamber and test section of a small, Mach 5 wind tunnel

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Anders, J. B.; Stainback, P. C.; Beckwith, I. E.; Keefe, L. R.

1975-01-01

Disturbance measurements were made using a hot-wire anemometer and piezoelectric pressure transducers in the settling chamber and free stream of a small Mach 5 wind tunnel. Results from the two instruments are compared and acoustical disturbances in the settling chamber are discussed. The source of the test-section noise is identified as nozzle-wall waviness at low Reynolds numbers and as eddy-Mach-wave radiation from the turbulent boundary layer on the nozzle wall at high Reynolds numbers.

Exploration of multiphoton entangled states by using weak nonlinearities

PubMed Central

He, Ying-Qiu; Ding, Dong; Yan, Feng-Li; Gao, Ting

2016-01-01

We propose a fruitful scheme for exploring multiphoton entangled states based on linear optics and weak nonlinearities. Compared with the previous schemes the present method is more feasible because there are only small phase shifts instead of a series of related functions of photon numbers in the process of interaction with Kerr nonlinearities. In the absence of decoherence we analyze the error probabilities induced by homodyne measurement and show that the maximal error probability can be made small enough even when the number of photons is large. This implies that the present scheme is quite tractable and it is possible to produce entangled states involving a large number of photons. PMID:26751044

Simulation of electron transport in GaAs/AlAs superlattices with a small number of periods for the THz frequency range

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Pavelyev, D. G., E-mail: pavelev@rf.unn.ru, E-mail: obolensk@rf.unn.ru; Vasilev, A. P., E-mail: vasiljev@mail.ioffe.ru; Kozlov, V. A., E-mail: kozlov@ipm.sci-nnov.ru

2016-11-15

The electron transport in superlattices based on GaAs/AlAs heterostructures with a small number of periods (6 periods) is calculated by the Monte Carlo method. These superlattices are used in terahertz diodes for the frequency stabilization of quantum cascade lasers in the range up to 4.7 THz. The band structure of superlattices with different numbers of AlAs monolayers is considered and their current–voltage characteristics are calculated. The calculated current–voltage characteristics are compared with the experimental data. The possibility of the efficient application of these superlattices in the THz frequency range is established both theoretically and experimentally.

A reliable method of analyzing dietaries of mycophagous small mammals

Treesearch

W. Colgan; A.B. Carey; James M. Trappe

1997-01-01

Two methods of analyzing the dietaries of mycophagous small mammals were compared. Fecal pellets were collected from 11 northern flying squirrels and 12 Townsend's chipmunks, all caught live. In 1 method, pellets from each individual were examined microscopically; in the other, samples from 3 or 4 individuals from each species were pooled and the number of slides...

Single-wave-number representation of nonlinear energy spectrum in elastic-wave turbulence of the Föppl-von Kármán equation: energy decomposition analysis and energy budget.

PubMed

Yokoyama, Naoto; Takaoka, Masanori

2014-12-01

A single-wave-number representation of a nonlinear energy spectrum, i.e., a stretching-energy spectrum, is found in elastic-wave turbulence governed by the Föppl-von Kármán (FvK) equation. The representation enables energy decomposition analysis in the wave-number space and analytical expressions of detailed energy budgets in the nonlinear interactions. We numerically solved the FvK equation and observed the following facts. Kinetic energy and bending energy are comparable with each other at large wave numbers as the weak turbulence theory suggests. On the other hand, stretching energy is larger than the bending energy at small wave numbers, i.e., the nonlinearity is relatively strong. The strong correlation between a mode a(k) and its companion mode a(-k) is observed at the small wave numbers. The energy is input into the wave field through stretching-energy transfer at the small wave numbers, and dissipated through the quartic part of kinetic-energy transfer at the large wave numbers. Total-energy flux consistent with energy conservation is calculated directly by using the analytical expression of the total-energy transfer, and the forward energy cascade is observed clearly.

A performance comparison of two small rocket nozzles

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Arrington, Lynn A.; Reed, Brian D.; Rivera, Angel, Jr.

1996-01-01

An experimental study was conducted on two small rockets (110 N thrust class) to directly compare a standard conical nozzle with a bell nozzle optimized for maximum thrust using the Rao method. In large rockets, with throat Reynolds numbers of greater than 1 x 10(exp 5), bell nozzles outperform conical nozzles. In rockets with throat Reynolds numbers below 1 x 10(exp 5), however, test results have been ambiguous. An experimental program was conducted to test two small nozzles at two different fuel film cooling percentages and three different chamber pressures. Test results showed that for the throat Reynolds number range from 2 x 10(exp 4) to 4 x 10(exp 4), the bell nozzle outperformed the conical nozzle. Thrust coefficients for the bell nozzle were approximately 4 to 12 percent higher than those obtained with the conical nozzle. As expected, testing showed that lowering the fuel film cooling increased performance for both nozzle types.

High Reynolds number analysis of an axisymmetric afterbody with flow separation

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Carlson, John R.; Reubush, David E.

1996-01-01

The ability of a three-dimensional Navier-Stokes method, PAB3D, to predict nozzle afterbody flow at high Reynolds number was assessed. Predicted surface pressure coefficient distributions and integrated afterbody drag are compared with experimental data obtained from the NASA-Langley 0.3 m Transonic Cryogenic Tunnel. Predicted afterbody surface pressures matched experimental data fairly closely. The change in the pressure coefficient distribution with Reynolds number was slightly over-predicted. Integrated afterbody drag was typically high compared to the experimental data. The change in afterbody pressure drag with Reynolds number was fairly small. The predicted point of flow separation on the nozzle was slightly downstream of that observed from oilflow data at low Reynolds numbers and had a very slight Reynolds number dependence, moving slightly further downstream as Reynolds number increased.

Interaction between numbers and size during visual search.

PubMed

Krause, Florian; Bekkering, Harold; Pratt, Jay; Lindemann, Oliver

2017-05-01

The current study investigates an interaction between numbers and physical size (i.e. size congruity) in visual search. In three experiments, participants had to detect a physically large (or small) target item among physically small (or large) distractors in a search task comprising single-digit numbers. The relative numerical size of the digits was varied, such that the target item was either among the numerically large or small numbers in the search display and the relation between numerical and physical size was either congruent or incongruent. Perceptual differences of the stimuli were controlled by a condition in which participants had to search for a differently coloured target item with the same physical size and by the usage of LCD-style numbers that were matched in visual similarity by shape transformations. The results of all three experiments consistently revealed that detecting a physically large target item is significantly faster when the numerical size of the target item is large as well (congruent), compared to when it is small (incongruent). This novel finding of a size congruity effect in visual search demonstrates an interaction between numerical and physical size in an experimental setting beyond typically used binary comparison tasks, and provides important new evidence for the notion of shared cognitive codes for numbers and sensorimotor magnitudes. Theoretical consequences for recent models on attention, magnitude representation and their interactions are discussed.

Numerical Test of Analytical Theories for Perpendicular Diffusion in Small Kubo Number Turbulence

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Heusen, M.; Shalchi, A., E-mail: husseinm@myumanitoba.ca, E-mail: andreasm4@yahoo.com

In the literature, one can find various analytical theories for perpendicular diffusion of energetic particles interacting with magnetic turbulence. Besides quasi-linear theory, there are different versions of the nonlinear guiding center (NLGC) theory and the unified nonlinear transport (UNLT) theory. For turbulence with high Kubo numbers, such as two-dimensional turbulence or noisy reduced magnetohydrodynamic turbulence, the aforementioned nonlinear theories provide similar results. For slab and small Kubo number turbulence, however, this is not the case. In the current paper, we compare different linear and nonlinear theories with each other and test-particle simulations for a noisy slab model corresponding to smallmore » Kubo number turbulence. We show that UNLT theory agrees very well with all performed test-particle simulations. In the limit of long parallel mean free paths, the perpendicular mean free path approaches asymptotically the quasi-linear limit as predicted by the UNLT theory. For short parallel mean free paths we find a Rechester and Rosenbluth type of scaling as predicted by UNLT theory as well. The original NLGC theory disagrees with all performed simulations regardless what the parallel mean free path is. The random ballistic interpretation of the NLGC theory agrees much better with the simulations, but compared to UNLT theory the agreement is inferior. We conclude that for this type of small Kubo number turbulence, only the latter theory allows for an accurate description of perpendicular diffusion.« less

Evaluation of Electronic and Paper Textual Glosses on Second Language Vocabulary Learning and Reading Comprehension

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lee, Ho; Lee, Hansol; Lee, Jang Ho

2016-01-01

Second language studies have supported the use of glossing for enhancing vocabulary learning. Along with technological developments, an increasing number of studies have examined electronic textual glossing in computer-assisted environments, yet only a small number of studies have compared electronic glossing to its traditional paper counterpart.…

Does Man Marking Influence Running Outputs and Intensity During Small-Sided Soccer Games?

PubMed

Aasgaard, Mats; Kilding, Andrew E

2018-06-20

Aasgaard, M and Kilding, AE. Does man marking influence running outputs and intensity during small-sided soccer games? J Strength Cond Res XX(X): 000-000, 2018-Small-sided games (SSGs) are considered an effective training tool for physical development in soccer. Small-sided games can be modified in several ways to manipulate the physical demands to best match the game demands, player characteristics, and session objectives. The aim of this study was to compare the physiological, perceptual, and Global Positioning System (GPS)-derived time-motion characteristics of man marking (MM) vs. non-man marking (NMM) in 2v2, 3v3, and 4v4 SSGs. In an acute crossover design, 8 amateur soccer players (mean age ± SD: 23.6 ± 3.3 years) played 2v2, 3v3, and 4v4 SSGs consisting of 4 × 4-minute bouts, with 2-minute passive recovery. During all SSGs, players wore a heart rate (HR) monitor and GPS unit and reported their rating of perceived exertion (RPE). Average percent HR (%HRave) induced small to moderate effects with MM compared with NMM (%Δ = 1-2.7%; effect size [ES] = 0.22-0.65). Comparisons between MM formats indicated a decrease in %HRave with increased player numbers (%Δ = 1.6-3.5%; ES = 0.39-0.86). Perceptual load increased with MM compared with NMM (%Δ = 6.7-17.6%; ES = 0.66-2.09), whereas increases in player numbers (MM only) reduced RPE output (%Δ = 9.4-24.3%; ES = 1.14-3.61). Time-motion characteristics revealed substantially greater total distance covered in MM irrespective of player number (%Δ = 6.8-14.7%; ES = 1.34-2.82). There were very likely increases in distances covered at striding (13.1-17.8 km·h) (%Δ: 23.4-33.2; ES = 2.42-4.35) and high-intensity running (HIR) (17.9-21 km·h) (%Δ: 47.3-104; ES = 0.91-1.68) for MM compared with NMM irrespective of player number. In conclusion, MM substantially elevated perceptual load and distances from striding to HIR regardless of player number, whereas differences between NMM and MM for internal load remain unclear. Use of MM may allow coaches to condition for particularly demanding phases of the game and prescription of larger SSG formats to increase distance covered at higher velocities.

Effects of the oral administration of the exopolysaccharide produced by Lactobacillus kefiranofaciens on the gut mucosal immunity.

PubMed

Vinderola, Gabriel; Perdigón, Gabriela; Duarte, Jairo; Farnworth, Edward; Matar, Chantal

2006-12-01

The probiotic effects ascribed to lactic acid bacteria (LAB) and their fermented dairy products arise not only from whole microorganisms and cell wall components but also from peptides and extracellular polysaccharides (exopolysaccharides) produced during the fermentation of milk. There is a lack of knowledge concerning the immune mechanisms induced by exopolysaccharides produced by lactic acid bacteria, which would allow a better understanding of the functional effects described to them. The aim of this study was to investigate the in vivo immunomodulating capacity of the exopolysaccharide produced by Lactobacillus kefiranofaciens by analyzing the profile of cytokines and immunoglobulins induced at the intestinal mucosa level, in the intestinal fluid and blood serum. BALB/c mice received the exopolysaccharide produced by L. kefiranofaciens for 2, 5 or 7 consecutive days. At the end of each period of administration, control and treated mice were sacrificed and the numbers of IgA+ and IgG+ cells were determined on histological slices of the small and large intestine by immunofluorescence. Cytokines (IL-4, IL-6, IL-10, IL-12, IFNgamma and TNFalpha) were also determined in the gut lamina propria as well as in the intestinal fluid and blood serum. There was an increase of IgA+ cells in the small and large intestine lamina propria, without change in the number of IgG+ cells in the small intestine. This study reports the effects of the oral administration of the exopolysaccharide produced by L. kefiranofaciens in the number of IgA+ cells in the small and large intestine, comparing simultaneously the production of cytokines by cells of the lamina propria and in the intestinal fluid and blood serum. The increase in the number of IgA+ cells was not simultaneously accompanied by an enhance of the number of IL-4+ cells in the small intestine. This finding would be in accordance with the fact that, in general, polysaccharide antigens elicit a T-independent immune response. For IL-10+, IL-6+ and IL-12+ cells, the values found were slightly increased compared to control values, while IFNgamma+ and TNFalpha+ cells did not change compared to control values. The effects observed on immunoglobulins and in all the cytokines assayed in the large intestine after kefiran administration were of greater magnitude than the ones observed in the small intestine lamina propria, which may be due to the saccharolytic action of the colonic microflora. In the intestinal fluid, only IL-4 and IL-12 increased compared to control values. In blood serum, all the cytokines assayed followed a pattern of production quite similar to the one found for them in the small intestine lamina propria. We observed that the exopolysaccharide induced a gut mucosal response and it was able to up and down regulate it for protective immunity, maintaining intestinal homeostasis, enhancing the IgA production at both the small and large intestine level and influencing the systemic immunity through the cytokines released to the circulating blood.

Accuracy of the lattice Boltzmann method for describing the behavior of a gas in the continuum limit.

PubMed

Kataoka, Takeshi; Tsutahara, Michihisa

2010-11-01

The accuracy of the lattice Boltzmann method (LBM) for describing the behavior of a gas in the continuum limit is systematically investigated. The asymptotic analysis for small Knudsen numbers is carried out to derive the corresponding fluid-dynamics-type equations, and the errors of the LBM are estimated by comparing them with the correct fluid-dynamics-type equations. We discuss the following three important cases: (I) the Mach number of the flow is much smaller than the Knudsen number, (II) the Mach number is of the same order as the Knudsen number, and (III) the Mach number is finite. From the von Karman relation, the above three cases correspond to the flows of (I) small Reynolds number, (II) finite Reynolds number, and (III) large Reynolds number, respectively. The analysis is made with the information only of the fundamental properties of the lattice Boltzmann models without stepping into their detailed form. The results are therefore applicable to various lattice Boltzmann models that satisfy the fundamental properties used in the analysis.

Spontaneous Representations of Small Numbers of Objects by Rhesus Macaques: Examinations of Content and Format

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hauser, Marc D.; Carey, Susan

2003-01-01

The project of comparative cognition benefits from common measures across species. We report here on five experiments using the violation of expectancy looking time measure with free-ranging rhesus macaques ("Macaca mulatta"), each designed to build on current knowledge concerning spontaneous representations of number. Each subject, tested in only…

Direction Counts: A Comparative Study of Spatially Directional Counting Biases in Cultures with Different Reading Directions

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shaki, Samuel; Fischer, Martin H.; Gobel, Silke M.

2012-01-01

Western adults associate small numbers with left space and large numbers with right space. Where does this pervasive spatial-numerical association come from? In this study, we first recorded directional counting preferences in adults with different reading experiences (left to right, right to left, mixed, and illiterate) and observed a clear…

Racial Integration in American Neighborhoods: A Comparative Survey.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bradburn, Norman M.; And Others

An estimated 36 million Americans--or 19 percent of the population--lived in racially integrated neighborhoods in the spring of 1967. Yet, the number of Negroes living in such neighborhoods tended to be small in comparison with the number of whites. The research operations for this study, which began in the autumn of 1966, were divided into three…

Spontaneous representations of small numbers of objects by rhesus macaques: examinations of content and format.

PubMed

Hauser, Marc D; Carey, Susan

2003-12-01

The project of comparative cognition benefits from common measures across species. We report here on five experiments using the violation of expectancy looking time measure with free-ranging rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta), each designed to build on current knowledge concerning spontaneous representations of number. Each subject, tested in only one experimental condition, watched as eggplants were placed behind a screen one at a time, after which the screen was removed revealing an outcome that either matched or did not match the number placed there. Subjects looked longer at impossible than possible outcomes in 1+1=2 or 3, 1 small+1 small=1 big or 2 small, 2+1=2 or 3, and 2+1=3 or 4 conditions. They failed in 2+1+1=4 or 3 or 5 and in 1+1+1=2 or 3 conditions. This pattern of results closely matches that observed across several previous studies of human infants. The data allow us to test among four different proposals concerning the format and content of the mental representations underlying looking in these experiments. Object file representations are favored over: (i) low-level perceptual representations, (ii) representations of continuous variables such as volume or surface area, and (iii) analog magnitude representations of number. We conclude by considering exactly how the object tracking system revealed in these and other related experiments does and does not represent number, and how it might be one evolutionary precursor of the human specific system of number representations.

Reducing the number of reconstructions needed for estimating channelized observer performance

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pineda, Angel R.; Miedema, Hope; Brenner, Melissa; Altaf, Sana

2018-03-01

A challenge for task-based optimization is the time required for each reconstructed image in applications where reconstructions are time consuming. Our goal is to reduce the number of reconstructions needed to estimate the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) of the infinitely-trained optimal channelized linear observer. We explore the use of classifiers which either do not invert the channel covariance matrix or do feature selection. We also study the assumption that multiple low contrast signals in the same image of a non-linear reconstruction do not significantly change the estimate of the AUC. We compared the AUC of several classifiers (Hotelling, logistic regression, logistic regression using Firth bias reduction and the least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO)) with a small number of observations both for normal simulated data and images from a total variation reconstruction in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). We used 10 Laguerre-Gauss channels and the Mann-Whitney estimator for AUC. For this data, our results show that at small sample sizes feature selection using the LASSO technique can decrease bias of the AUC estimation with increased variance and that for large sample sizes the difference between these classifiers is small. We also compared the use of multiple signals in a single reconstructed image to reduce the number of reconstructions in a total variation reconstruction for accelerated imaging in MRI. We found that AUC estimation using multiple low contrast signals in the same image resulted in similar AUC estimates as doing a single reconstruction per signal leading to a 13x reduction in the number of reconstructions needed.

AtSRP1, SMALL RUBBER PARTICLE PROTEIN HOMOLOG, functions in pollen growth and development in Arabidopsis.

PubMed

Chi, Yong Hun; Kim, Sun Young; Lee, Eun Seon; Jung, Young Jun; Park, Joung Hun; Paeng, Seol Ki; Oh, Hun Taek; Melencion, Sarah Mae Boyles; Alinapon, Cresilda Vergara; Lee, Sang Yeol

2016-06-24

To identify novel roles of SMALL RUBBER PARTICLE PROTEIN Homolog in the non-rubber-producing plant Arabidopsis (AtSRP1), we isolated a T-DNA-insertion knock-out mutant (FLAG_543A05) and investigated its functional characteristics. AtSRP1 is predominantly expressed in reproductive organs and is localized to lipid droplets and ER. Compared to wild-type (WT) Arabidopsis, atsrp1 plants contain small siliques with a reduced number of heterogeneously shaped seeds. The size of anther and pollen grains in atsrp1 is highly irregular, with a lower grain number than WT. Therefore, AtSRP1 plays a novel role related to pollen growth and development in a non-rubber-producing plant. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Minimal volume vitrification of epididymal spermatozoa results in successful in vitro fertilization and embryo development in mice

PubMed Central

Horta, Fabrizzio; Alzobi, Hamida; Jitanantawittaya, Sutthipat; Catt, Sally; Chen, Penny; Pangestu, Mulyoto; Temple-Smith, Peter

2017-01-01

This study compared three cryopreservation protocols on sperm functions, IVF outcomes, and embryo development. Epididymal spermatozoa cryopreserved using slow-cooling (18% w/v raffinose, RS-C) were compared with spermatozoa vitrified using 0.25 M sucrose (SV) or 18% w/v raffinose (RV). The motility, vitality, and DNA damage (TUNEL assay) of fresh control (FC) spermatozoa were compared with post-thawed or warmed RS-C, RV, and SV samples. Mouse oocytes (n = 267) were randomly assigned into three groups for insemination: RV (n = 102), RS-C (n = 86), and FC (n = 79). The number and the proportion of two-cell embryos and blastocysts from each treatment were assessed. Sperm motility (P < 0.01) and vitality (P < 0.05) were significantly reduced after vitrification compared with slow-cooled spermatozoa. However, DNA fragmentation was significantly reduced in spermatozoa vitrified using sucrose (15 ± 1.8% [SV] vs 26 ± 2.8% [RV] and 27 ± 1.2% [RS-C]; P < 0.01). Although the number of two-cell embryos produced by RS-C, RV, and FC spermatozoa was not significantly different, the number of blastocysts produced from two-cell embryos using RV spermatozoa was significantly higher than FC spermatozoa (P = 0.0053). This simple, small volume vitrification protocol and standard insemination method allows successful embryo production from small numbers of epididymal spermatozoa and may be applied clinically to circumvent the need for ICSI, which has the disadvantage of bypassing sperm selection. PMID:27427551

Optimising technical skills and physical loading in small-sided basketball games.

PubMed

Klusemann, Markus J; Pyne, David B; Foster, Carl; Drinkwater, Eric J

2012-01-01

Differences in physiological, physical, and technical demands of small-sided basketball games related to the number of players, court size, and work-to-rest ratios are not well characterised. A controlled trial was conducted to compare the influence of number of players (2v2/4v4), court size (half/full court) and work-to-rest ratios (4x2.5 min/2x5 min) on the demands of small-sided games. Sixteen elite male and female junior players (aged 15-19 years) completed eight variations of a small-sided game in randomised order over a six-week period. Heart rate responses and rating of perceived exertion (RPE) were measured to assess the physiological load. Movement patterns and technical elements were assessed by video analysis. There were ∼60% more technical elements in 2v2 and ∼20% more in half court games. Heart rate (86 ± 4% & 83 ± 5% of maximum; mean ± SD) and RPE (8 ± 2 & 6 ± 2; scale 1-10) were moderately higher in 2v2 than 4v4 small-sided games, respectively. The 2v2 format elicited substantially more sprints (36 ±12%; mean ±90% confidence limits) and high intensity shuffling (75 ±17%) than 4v4. Full court games required substantially more jogging (9 ±6%) compared to half court games. Fewer players in small-sided basketball games substantially increases the technical, physiological and physical demands.

Completing the mechanical energy pathways in turbulent Rayleigh-Bénard convection.

PubMed

Gayen, Bishakhdatta; Hughes, Graham O; Griffiths, Ross W

2013-09-20

A new, more complete view of the mechanical energy budget for Rayleigh-Bénard convection is developed and examined using three-dimensional numerical simulations at large Rayleigh numbers and Prandtl number of 1. The driving role of available potential energy is highlighted. The relative magnitudes of different energy conversions or pathways change significantly over the range of Rayleigh numbers Ra ~ 10(7)-10(13). At Ra < 10(7) small-scale turbulent motions are energized directly from available potential energy via turbulent buoyancy flux and kinetic energy is dissipated at comparable rates by both the large- and small-scale motions. In contrast, at Ra ≥ 10(10) most of the available potential energy goes into kinetic energy of the large-scale flow, which undergoes shear instabilities that sustain small-scale turbulence. The irreversible mixing is largely confined to the unstable boundary layer, its rate exactly equal to the generation of available potential energy by the boundary fluxes, and mixing efficiency is 50%.

Small-airway obstruction and emphysema in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

PubMed

McDonough, John E; Yuan, Ren; Suzuki, Masaru; Seyednejad, Nazgol; Elliott, W Mark; Sanchez, Pablo G; Wright, Alexander C; Gefter, Warren B; Litzky, Leslie; Coxson, Harvey O; Paré, Peter D; Sin, Don D; Pierce, Richard A; Woods, Jason C; McWilliams, Annette M; Mayo, John R; Lam, Stephen C; Cooper, Joel D; Hogg, James C

2011-10-27

The major sites of obstruction in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) are small airways (<2 mm in diameter). We wanted to determine whether there was a relationship between small-airway obstruction and emphysematous destruction in COPD. We used multidetector computed tomography (CT) to compare the number of airways measuring 2.0 to 2.5 mm in 78 patients who had various stages of COPD, as judged by scoring on the Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (GOLD) scale, in isolated lungs removed from patients with COPD who underwent lung transplantation, and in donor (control) lungs. MicroCT was used to measure the extent of emphysema (mean linear intercept), the number of terminal bronchioles per milliliter of lung volume, and the minimum diameters and cross-sectional areas of terminal bronchioles. On multidetector CT, in samples from patients with COPD, as compared with control samples, the number of airways measuring 2.0 to 2.5 mm in diameter was reduced in patients with GOLD stage 1 disease (P=0.001), GOLD stage 2 disease (P=0.02), and GOLD stage 3 or 4 disease (P<0.001). MicroCT of isolated samples of lungs removed from patients with GOLD stage 4 disease showed a reduction of 81 to 99.7% in the total cross-sectional area of terminal bronchioles and a reduction of 72 to 89% in the number of terminal bronchioles (P<0.001). A comparison of the number of terminal bronchioles and dimensions at different levels of emphysematous destruction (i.e., an increasing value for the mean linear intercept) showed that the narrowing and loss of terminal bronchioles preceded emphysematous destruction in COPD (P<0.001). These results show that narrowing and disappearance of small conducting airways before the onset of emphysematous destruction can explain the increased peripheral airway resistance reported in COPD. (Funded by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute and others.).

Measurements of the Absorption by Auditorium SEATING—A Model Study

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

BARRON, M.; COLEMAN, S.

2001-01-01

One of several problems with seat absorption is that only small numbers of seats can be tested in standard reverberation chambers. One method proposed for reverberation chamber measurements involves extrapolation when the absorption coefficient results are applied to actual auditoria. Model seat measurements in an effectively large model reverberation chamber have allowed the validity of this extrapolation to be checked. The alternative barrier method for reverberation chamber measurements was also tested and the two methods were compared. The effect on the absorption of row-row spacing as well as absorption by small numbers of seating rows was also investigated with model seats.

[A Paired Case Controlled Study Comparing the Short-term Outcomes of Da Vinci RATS and VATS Approach for Non-small Cell Lung Cancer].

PubMed

Dai, Feng; Xu, Shiguang; Xu, Wei; Ding, Renquan; Liu, Bo; Meng, Hao; Kang, Yunteng; Meng, Xiangrui; Lin, Jie; Wang, Shumin

2018-03-20

Da Vinci Surgical System is one of the greatest inventions of the 20th century, which represents the development direction of the precise minimally invasive surgical techniques, the aim of this study was to comparing the short-term outcomes between da Vinci robot-assisted lobectomy and video-assisted thoracic surgery (VATS) lobectomy for non-small cell lung cancer. 45 pairs of non-small cell lung cancer patients underwent pulmonary lobectomy with da Vinci Robotic assisted thoracoscopic (RATS) and VATS approach during the same period from January 2014 to January 2017. The operative time, estimated blood loss (EBL), total number and total groups of dissected lymph nodes, postoperative duration of drainage, the first day volume of drainage, total volume of drainage were compared. No perioperative death and convertion to thoracotomy occured in both groups. There were significant difference between RATS group and VATS group in EBL [(50.30±32.33) mL vs (208.60±132.63) mL], the first day volume of drainage [(275.00±145.42) mL vs (347.60±125.80) mL], the dissected total number [(22.67±9.67) vs (15.51±5.41)] and total team [(6.31±1.43) vs (4.91±1.04)] of lymph node. There were no significant difference in other outcomes. RATS is safe and effective and took better short-outcomes than VATS in non-small cell lung cancer.

Field emission characteristics of a small number of carbon fiber emitters

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tang, Wilkin W.; Shiffler, Donald A.; Harris, John R.; Jensen, Kevin L.; Golby, Ken; LaCour, Matthew; Knowles, Tim

2016-09-01

This paper reports an experiment that studies the emission characteristics of small number of field emitters. The experiment consists of nine carbon fibers in a square configuration. Experimental results show that the emission characteristics depend strongly on the separation between each emitter, providing evidence of the electric field screening effects. Our results indicate that as the separation between the emitters decreases, the emission current for a given voltage also decreases. The authors compare the experimental results to four carbon fiber emitters in a linear and square configurations as well as to two carbon fiber emitters in a paired array. Voltage-current traces show that the turn-on voltage is always larger for the nine carbon fiber emitters as compared to the two and four emitters in linear configurations, and approximately identical to the four emitters in a square configuration. The observations and analysis reported here, based on Fowler-Nordheim field emission theory, suggest the electric field screening effect depends critically on the number of emitters, the separation between them, and their overall geometric configuration.

Free-ranging dogs assess the quantity of opponents in intergroup conflicts.

PubMed

Bonanni, Roberto; Natoli, Eugenia; Cafazzo, Simona; Valsecchi, Paola

2011-01-01

In conflicts between social groups, the decision of competitors whether to attack/retreat should be based on the assessment of the quantity of individuals in their own and the opposing group. Experimental studies on numerical cognition in animals suggest that they may represent both large and small numbers as noisy mental magnitudes subject to scalar variability, and small numbers (≤4) also as discrete object-files. Consequently, discriminating between large quantities, but not between smaller ones, should become easier as the asymmetry between quantities increases. Here, we tested these hypotheses by recording naturally occurring conflicts in a population of free-ranging dogs, Canis lupus familiaris, living in a suburban environment. The overall probability of at least one pack member approaching opponents aggressively increased with a decreasing ratio of the number of rivals to that of companions. Moreover, the probability that more than half of the pack members withdrew from a conflict increased when this ratio increased. The skill of dogs in correctly assessing relative group size appeared to improve with increasing the asymmetry in size when at least one pack comprised more than four individuals, and appeared affected to a lesser extent by group size asymmetries when dogs had to compare only small numbers. These results provide the first indications that a representation of quantity based on noisy mental magnitudes may be involved in the assessment of opponents in intergroup conflicts and leave open the possibility that an additional, more precise mechanism may operate with small numbers.

aCGH Local Copy Number Aberrations Associated with Overall Copy Number Genomic Instability in Colorectal Cancer: Coordinate Involvement of the Regions Including BCR and ABL

PubMed Central

Bartos, Jeremy D.; Gaile, Daniel P.; McQuaid, Devin E.; Conroy, Jeffrey M.; Darbary, Huferesh; Nowak, Norma J.; Block, Annemarie; Petrelli, Nicholas J.; Mittelman, Arnold; Stoler, Daniel L.; Anderson, Garth R.

2007-01-01

In order to identify small regions of the genome whose specific copy number alteration is associated with high genomic instability in the form of overall genome-wide copy number aberrations, we have analyzed array-based comparative genomic hybridization (aCGH) data from 33 sporadic colorectal carcinomas. Copy number changes of a small number of specific regions were significantly correlated with elevated overall amplifications and deletions scattered throughout the entire genome. One significant region at 9q34 includes the c-ABL gene Another region spanning 22q11–13 includes the breakpoint cluster region (BCR) of the Philadelphia chromosome Coordinate 22q11–13 alterations were observed in nine of eleven tumors with the 9q34 alteration Additional regions on 1q and 14q were associated with overall genome-wide copy number changes, while copy number aberrations on chromosome 7p, 7q, and 13q21.1–31.3 were found associated with this instability only in tumors from patients with a smoking history Our analysis demonstrates there are a small number of regions of the genome where gain or loss is commonly associated with a tumor’s overall level of copy number aberrations Our finding BCR and ABL located within two of the instability-associated regions, and the involvement of these two regions occurring coordinately, suggests a system akin to the BCR-ABL translocation of CML may be involved in genomic instability in about one-third of human colorectal carcinomas. PMID:17196995

[Abundance of larvae and nymphs of the taiga tick Ixodes persuicatus (Acari: Ixodidae) on small mammals in the cut-over lands of the middle taiga subzone of Karelia].

PubMed

Bugmyrin, S V; Bespiatova, L A; Anikanova, V S; Ieshko, E P

2009-01-01

Data of long-term investigations (1998-2004) on the abundance of the taiga tick larvae and nymphs in the cut-over lands of different age in the middle taiga subzone of Karelia (62 degrees 04'S; 33 degrees 55'W) are presented. The investigation was carried out on three model cut-over lands of different age: 1) "young" cut-over land; age of cut-over in the beginning of investigation is 7 years; Betula-Deschampsia cespitosa-Agrostis tenuis; 2) "middle" cut-over land; age of cut-over is 12 years; Salix-Deschampsia cespitosa-Agrostis tenuis; 3) "old" cut-over land; age of cut-over 25 years; Alnus incana-Rubus idaeus-grass. The number of ticks was estimated by using common parasitological indices: prevalence, abundance, and index of feeding intensity (the tick abundance multiply by the number of small mammals per hundred traps-nights). In the beginning of investigation the "young" cut-over land was a typical meadow association. The lowest tick abundance was recorded here. That was a result of unfavorable abiotic conditions and low number of small mammals in the beginning of summer. "Middle" cut-over land is characterized by the highest number of the tick larvae, which is the evidence for high number of the hosts of tick imago. "Old" cut-over land has the optimum conditions for development of taiga ticks. High abundance of the ticks (larvae and nymphs) was recorded during the whole period of investigations. The number of preimaginal ticks is shown to be much higher in cut-over lands as compared with that in mixed and coniferous forests, due to the higher number of small mammals.

Microgravity Propellant Tank Geyser Analysis and Prediction

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Thornton, Randall J.; Hochstein, John I.; Turner, James E. (Technical Monitor)

2001-01-01

An established correlation for geyser height prediction of an axial jet inflow into a microgravity propellant tank was analyzed and an effort to develop an improved correlation was made. The original correlation, developed using data from ethanol flow in small-scale drop tower tests, uses the jet-Weber number and the jet-Bond number to predict geyser height. A new correlation was developed from the same set of experimental data using the jet-Weber number and both the jet-Bond number and tank-Bond number to describe the geyser formation. The resulting correlation produced nearly a 40% reduction in geyser height predictive error compared to the original correlation with experimental data. Two additional tanks were computationally modeled in addition to the small-scale tank used in the drop tower testing. One of these tanks was a 50% enlarged small-scale tank and the other a full-scale 2 m radius tank. Simulations were also run for liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen. Results indicated that the new correlation outperformed the original correlation in geyser height prediction under most circumstances. The new correlation has also shown a superior ability to recognize the difference between flow patterns II (geyser formation only) and III (pooling at opposite end of tank from the bulk fluid region).

Effect of a hot milk drink on movements during sleep.

PubMed

Southwell, P R; Evans, C R; Hunt, J N

1972-05-20

The effects on sleep of a hot drink of milk and Horlicks were compared with those of hot water taken before retiring by medical student volunteers. Horlicks reduced the number of small movements made during sleep.

On the effects of viscosity on the stability of a trailing-line vortex

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Duck, Peter W.; Khorrami, Mehdi R.

1991-01-01

The linear stability of the Batchelor (1964) vortex is investigated. Particular emphasis is placed on modes found recently in a numerical study by Khorrami (1991). These modes have a number of features very distinct from those found previously for this vortex, including exhibiting small growth rates at large Reynolds numbers and susceptibility to destabilization by viscosity. These modes are described using asymptotic techniques, producing results which compare favorably with fully numerical results at large Reynolds numbers.

Hybrid Binary Imperialist Competition Algorithm and Tabu Search Approach for Feature Selection Using Gene Expression Data.

PubMed

Wang, Shuaiqun; Aorigele; Kong, Wei; Zeng, Weiming; Hong, Xiaomin

2016-01-01

Gene expression data composed of thousands of genes play an important role in classification platforms and disease diagnosis. Hence, it is vital to select a small subset of salient features over a large number of gene expression data. Lately, many researchers devote themselves to feature selection using diverse computational intelligence methods. However, in the progress of selecting informative genes, many computational methods face difficulties in selecting small subsets for cancer classification due to the huge number of genes (high dimension) compared to the small number of samples, noisy genes, and irrelevant genes. In this paper, we propose a new hybrid algorithm HICATS incorporating imperialist competition algorithm (ICA) which performs global search and tabu search (TS) that conducts fine-tuned search. In order to verify the performance of the proposed algorithm HICATS, we have tested it on 10 well-known benchmark gene expression classification datasets with dimensions varying from 2308 to 12600. The performance of our proposed method proved to be superior to other related works including the conventional version of binary optimization algorithm in terms of classification accuracy and the number of selected genes.

Hybrid Binary Imperialist Competition Algorithm and Tabu Search Approach for Feature Selection Using Gene Expression Data

PubMed Central

Aorigele; Zeng, Weiming; Hong, Xiaomin

2016-01-01

Gene expression data composed of thousands of genes play an important role in classification platforms and disease diagnosis. Hence, it is vital to select a small subset of salient features over a large number of gene expression data. Lately, many researchers devote themselves to feature selection using diverse computational intelligence methods. However, in the progress of selecting informative genes, many computational methods face difficulties in selecting small subsets for cancer classification due to the huge number of genes (high dimension) compared to the small number of samples, noisy genes, and irrelevant genes. In this paper, we propose a new hybrid algorithm HICATS incorporating imperialist competition algorithm (ICA) which performs global search and tabu search (TS) that conducts fine-tuned search. In order to verify the performance of the proposed algorithm HICATS, we have tested it on 10 well-known benchmark gene expression classification datasets with dimensions varying from 2308 to 12600. The performance of our proposed method proved to be superior to other related works including the conventional version of binary optimization algorithm in terms of classification accuracy and the number of selected genes. PMID:27579323

Small Proteins Can No Longer Be Ignored

PubMed Central

Storz, Gisela; Wolf, Yuri I.; Ramamurthi, Kumaran S.

2014-01-01

Small proteins, here defined as proteins of 50 amino acids or less in the absence of processing, have traditionally been overlooked due to challenges in their annotation and biochemical detection. In the past several years however, increasing numbers of small proteins have been identified either through the realization that mutations in “intergenic” regions actually are within unannotated small protein genes, or through the discovery that some small, regulatory RNAs (sRNAs) encode small proteins. These insights together with comparative sequence analysis indicate that tens if not hundreds of small proteins are synthesized in a given organism. This review will summarize what has been learned about the functions of several of these bacterial small proteins, most of which act at the membrane, illustrating the astonishing range of processes in which the small proteins act and pointing to several general conclusions. Important questions for future studies of these overlooked proteins also will be discussed. PMID:24606146

The regional abundance and size distribution of lakes and reservoirs in the United States and implication for estimates of global lake extent

USGS Publications Warehouse

McDonald, Cory P.; Rover, Jennifer; Stets, Edward G.; Striegl, Robert G.

2012-01-01

We analyzed complete geospatial data for the 3.5 million lakes and reservoirs larger than 0.001 km2, with a combined surface area of 131,000 km2, in the contiguous United States (excluding the Laurentian Great Lakes) and identified their regional distribution characteristics. For Alaska, we also analyzed (1) incomplete data that suggest that the state contains 1–2.5 million lakes larger than 0.001 km2 covering over 50,000 km2 and (2) localized high-resolution (5 m) data that suggest that the number of very small water bodies (< 0.001 km2) may be comparable with the number of lakes > 0.001 km2 in some areas. The Pareto distribution cannot accurately describe the lake abundance-size relationship across the entire size spectrum, and extrapolation of this density function to small size classes has likely resulted in the overestimation of the number of small lakes in the world. While small water bodies dominate in terms of numbers, they are not numerous enough to dominate in terms of surface area, as has been previously suggested. Extending our results to the global scale suggests that there are on the order of 64 million water bodies larger than 0.001 km2 in the world, with a total surface area of approximately 3.8 million km2.

Numerical analysis of the angular motion of a neutrally buoyant spheroid in shear flow at small Reynolds numbers.

PubMed

Rosén, T; Einarsson, J; Nordmark, A; Aidun, C K; Lundell, F; Mehlig, B

2015-12-01

We numerically analyze the rotation of a neutrally buoyant spheroid in a shear flow at small shear Reynolds number. Using direct numerical stability analysis of the coupled nonlinear particle-flow problem, we compute the linear stability of the log-rolling orbit at small shear Reynolds number Re(a). As Re(a)→0 and as the box size of the system tends to infinity, we find good agreement between the numerical results and earlier analytical predictions valid to linear order in Re(a) for the case of an unbounded shear. The numerical stability analysis indicates that there are substantial finite-size corrections to the analytical results obtained for the unbounded system. We also compare the analytical results to results of lattice Boltzmann simulations to analyze the stability of the tumbling orbit at shear Reynolds numbers of order unity. Theory for an unbounded system at infinitesimal shear Reynolds number predicts a bifurcation of the tumbling orbit at aspect ratio λ(c)≈0.137 below which tumbling is stable (as well as log rolling). The simulation results show a bifurcation line in the λ-Re(a) plane that reaches λ≈0.1275 at the smallest shear Reynolds number (Re(a)=1) at which we could simulate with the lattice Boltzmann code, in qualitative agreement with the analytical results.

Higher incidence of small Y chromosome in humans with trisomy 21 (Down syndrome).

PubMed

Verma, R S; Huq, A; Madahar, C; Qazi, Q; Dosik, H

1982-09-01

The length of the Y chromosome was measured in 42 black patients with trisomy 21 (47,XY,+21) and a similar number of normal individuals of American black ancestry. The length of the Y was expressed as a function of Y/F ratio and arbitrarily classified into five groups using subjectively defined criteria as follows: very small, small, average, large, and very large. Thirty-eight % of the trisomy 21 patients had small or very small Ys compared to 2.38% of the controls (P less than 0.01). In both populations the size of the Y was not normally distributed. In the normals it was skewed to the left, whereas in the Downs the distribution was flat (platykurtic). A significantly higher incidence of Y length heteromorphisms was noted in the Down as compared to the normal black population. In the light of our current understanding that about one-third of all trisomy 21 patients are due to paternal nondisjunction, it may be tempting to speculate that males with small Y are at an increased risk for nondisjunction of the 21 chromosome.

Combined rule extraction and feature elimination in supervised classification.

PubMed

Liu, Sheng; Patel, Ronak Y; Daga, Pankaj R; Liu, Haining; Fu, Gang; Doerksen, Robert J; Chen, Yixin; Wilkins, Dawn E

2012-09-01

There are a vast number of biology related research problems involving a combination of multiple sources of data to achieve a better understanding of the underlying problems. It is important to select and interpret the most important information from these sources. Thus it will be beneficial to have a good algorithm to simultaneously extract rules and select features for better interpretation of the predictive model. We propose an efficient algorithm, Combined Rule Extraction and Feature Elimination (CRF), based on 1-norm regularized random forests. CRF simultaneously extracts a small number of rules generated by random forests and selects important features. We applied CRF to several drug activity prediction and microarray data sets. CRF is capable of producing performance comparable with state-of-the-art prediction algorithms using a small number of decision rules. Some of the decision rules are biologically significant.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Weinbeck, S.

Meteorological data collected at SRS since the mid-1960’s have been analyzed for trends in minimum and maximum temperature, heating and cooling degree days, precipitation and relative humidity. The trends in meteorological data collected have been relatively small compared to the interannual variability that is observed. The observed increases, while small, appear to be real (statistically significant). Overnight low temperatures (3.1°F) have increased over twice as fast as the increases in daytime highs (1.4°F). Similarly, there are statistically significant increases in the number of cooling degree days as well. There has been a similar decrease in the number of HDD andmore » freezing days, consistent with the overall increase in overnight low temperatures.« less

Numerical solution of the Black-Scholes equation using cubic spline wavelets

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Černá, Dana

2016-12-01

The Black-Scholes equation is used in financial mathematics for computation of market values of options at a given time. We use the θ-scheme for time discretization and an adaptive scheme based on wavelets for discretization on the given time level. Advantages of the proposed method are small number of degrees of freedom, high-order accuracy with respect to variables representing prices and relatively small number of iterations needed to resolve the problem with a desired accuracy. We use several cubic spline wavelet and multi-wavelet bases and discuss their advantages and disadvantages. We also compare an isotropic and anisotropic approach. Numerical experiments are presented for the two-dimensional Black-Scholes equation.

Numerical simulation of small-scale thermal convection in the atmosphere

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Somerville, R. C. J.

1973-01-01

A Boussinesq system is integrated numerically in three dimensions and time in a study of nonhydrostatic convection in the atmosphere. Simulation of cloud convection is achieved by the inclusion of parametrized effects of latent heat and small-scale turbulence. The results are compared with the cell structure observed in Rayleigh-Benard laboratory conversion experiments in air. At a Rayleigh number of 4000, the numerical model adequately simulates the experimentally observed evolution, including some prominent transients of a flow from a randomly perturbed initial conductive state into the final state of steady large-amplitude two-dimensional rolls. At Rayleigh number 9000, the model reproduces the experimentally observed unsteady equilibrium of vertically coherent oscillatory waves superimposed on rolls.

Effect of a Hot Milk Drink on Movements During Sleep

PubMed Central

Southwell, P. R.; Evans, C. R.; Hunt, J. N.

1972-01-01

The effects on sleep of a hot drink of milk and Horlicks were compared with those of hot water taken before retiring by medical student volunteers. Horlicks reduced the number of small movements made during sleep. PMID:5067671

Three-dimensional Structures of Carotenoids by X-ray Crystallography

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Helliwell, Madeleine

The number of crystal structures of carotenoid molecules and carotenoid derivatives deposited in the Cambridge Crystallographic Data Centre [1] is still relatively small, but has increased compared with the previous survey [2]. The list is summarized in Table 1.

Continued results of the seeds in space experiment

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Alston, Jim A.

1992-01-01

Two million seeds of 120 different varieties representing 106 species, 97 genera, and 55 plant families were flown aboard the Long Duration Exposure Facility (LDEF). The seeds were housed on the Space Exposed Experiment Developed for Students (SEEDS) tray in the sealed canister number 6 and in two small vented canisters. The seeds were germinated and the germination rates and development of the resulting plants compared to the control seed that stayed in the storage facility. There was a better survival rate in the sealed canister in space than in the storage facility. At least some of the seed in the vented canisters survived the exposure to vacuum for almost six years. The number of observed mutations was very low. In the initial testing, the small seeded crops were not grown to maturity to check for mutation and obtain a second generation seed. These small seeded crops are now being grown for evaluation.

Selective accumulation of langerhans-type dendritic cells in small airways of patients with COPD

PubMed Central

2010-01-01

Background Dendritic cells (DC) linking innate and adaptive immune responses are present in human lungs, but the characterization of different subsets and their role in COPD pathogenesis remain to be elucidated. The aim of this study is to characterize and quantify pulmonary myeloid DC subsets in small airways of current and ex-smokers with or without COPD. Methods Myeloid DC were characterized using flowcytometry on single cell suspensions of digested human lung tissue. Immunohistochemical staining for langerin, BDCA-1, CD1a and DC-SIGN was performed on surgical resection specimens from 85 patients. Expression of factors inducing Langerhans-type DC (LDC) differentiation was evaluated by RT-PCR on total lung RNA. Results Two segregated subsets of tissue resident pulmonary myeloid DC were identified in single cell suspensions by flowcytometry: the langerin+ LDC and the DC-SIGN+ interstitial-type DC (intDC). LDC partially expressed the markers CD1a and BDCA-1, which are also present on their known blood precursors. In contrast, intDC did not express langerin, CD1a or BDCA-1, but were more closely related to monocytes. Quantification of DC in the small airways by immunohistochemistry revealed a higher number of LDC in current smokers without COPD and in COPD patients compared to never smokers and ex-smokers without COPD. Importantly, there was no difference in the number of LDC between current and ex-smoking COPD patients. In contrast, the number of intDC did not differ between study groups. Interestingly, the number of BDCA-1+ DC was significantly lower in COPD patients compared to never smokers and further decreased with the severity of the disease. In addition, the accumulation of LDC in the small airways significantly correlated with the expression of the LDC inducing differentiation factor activin-A. Conclusions Myeloid DC differentiation is altered in small airways of current smokers and COPD patients resulting in a selective accumulation of the LDC subset which correlates with the pulmonary expression of the LDC-inducing differentiation factor activin-A. This study identified the LDC subset as an interesting focus for future research in COPD pathogenesis. PMID:20307269

Negligence and Athletic Events.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mawdsley, Ralph D.

2001-01-01

Although athletic events generate their share of negligence lawsuits, the relatively small number, compared with other education areas, suggests that defenses (like assumption or risk and contributory negligence) have a better fit in athletics. Implications of newer litigation trends involving coaches' misconduct and interpretation of state…

Low Reynolds number airfoil survey, volume 1

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Carmichael, B. H.

1981-01-01

The differences in flow behavior two dimensional airfoils in the critical chordlength Reynolds number compared with lower and higher Reynolds number are discussed. The large laminar separation bubble is discussed in view of its important influence on critical Reynolds number airfoil behavior. The shortcomings of application of theoretical boundary layer computations which are successful at higher Reynolds numbers to the critical regime are discussed. The large variation in experimental aerodynamic characteristic measurement due to small changes in ambient turbulence, vibration, and sound level is illustrated. The difficulties in obtaining accurate detailed measurements in free flight and dramatic performance improvements at critical Reynolds number, achieved with various types of boundary layer tripping devices are discussed.

Is 9 louder than 1? Audiovisual cross-modal interactions between number magnitude and judged sound loudness.

PubMed

Alards-Tomalin, Doug; Walker, Alexander C; Shaw, Joshua D M; Leboe-McGowan, Launa C

2015-09-01

The cross-modal impact of number magnitude (i.e. Arabic digits) on perceived sound loudness was examined. Participants compared a target sound's intensity level against a previously heard reference sound (which they judged as quieter or louder). Paired with each target sound was a task irrelevant Arabic digit that varied in magnitude, being either small (1, 2, 3) or large (7, 8, 9). The degree to which the sound and the digit were synchronized was manipulated, with the digit and sound occurring simultaneously in Experiment 1, and the digit preceding the sound in Experiment 2. Firstly, when target sounds and digits occurred simultaneously, sounds paired with large digits were categorized as loud more frequently than sounds paired with small digits. Secondly, when the events were separated, number magnitude ceased to bias sound intensity judgments. In Experiment 3, the events were still separated, however the participants held the number in short-term memory. In this instance the bias returned. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Efficient eigenvalue determination for arbitrary Pauli products based on generalized spin-spin interactions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Leibfried, D.; Wineland, D. J.

2018-03-01

Effective spin-spin interactions between ? qubits enable the determination of the eigenvalue of an arbitrary Pauli product of dimension N with a constant, small number of multi-qubit gates that is independent of N and encodes the eigenvalue in the measurement basis states of an extra ancilla qubit. Such interactions are available whenever qubits can be coupled to a shared harmonic oscillator, a situation that can be realized in many physical qubit implementations. For example, suitable interactions have already been realized for up to 14 qubits in ion traps. It should be possible to implement stabilizer codes for quantum error correction with a constant number of multi-qubit gates, in contrast to typical constructions with a number of two-qubit gates that increases as a function of N. The special case of finding the parity of N qubits only requires a small number of operations that is independent of N. This compares favorably to algorithms for computing the parity on conventional machines, which implies a genuine quantum advantage.

Perturbations of the Richardson number field by gravity waves

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Wurtele, M. G.; Sharman, R. D.

1985-01-01

An analytic solution is presented for a stratified fluid of arbitrary constant Richardson number. By computer aided analysis the perturbation fields, including that of the Richardson number can be calculated. The results of the linear analytic model were compared with nonlinear simulations, leading to the following conclusions: (1) the perturbations in the Richardson number field, when small, are produced primarily by the perturbations of the shear; (2) perturbations of in the Richardson number field, even when small, are not symmetric, the increase being significantly larger than the decrease (the linear analytic solution and the nonlinear simulations both confirm this result); (3) as the perturbations grow, this asymmetry increases, but more so in the nonlinear simulations than in the linear analysis; (4) for large perturbations of the shear flow, the static stability, as represented by N2, is the dominating mechanism, becoming zero or negative, and producing convective overturning; and (5) the convectional measure of linearity in lee wave theory, NH/U, is no longer the critical parameter (it is suggested that (H/u sub 0) (du sub 0/dz) takes on this role in a shearing flow).

Large- and small-scale constraints on power spectra in Omega = 1 universes

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Gelb, James M.; Gradwohl, Ben-Ami; Frieman, Joshua A.

1993-01-01

The CDM model of structure formation, normalized on large scales, leads to excessive pairwise velocity dispersions on small scales. In an attempt to circumvent this problem, we study three scenarios (all with Omega = 1) with more large-scale and less small-scale power than the standard CDM model: (1) cold dark matter with significantly reduced small-scale power (inspired by models with an admixture of cold and hot dark matter); (2) cold dark matter with a non-scale-invariant power spectrum; and (3) cold dark matter with coupling of dark matter to a long-range vector field. When normalized to COBE on large scales, such models do lead to reduced velocities on small scales and they produce fewer halos compared with CDM. However, models with sufficiently low small-scale velocities apparently fail to produce an adequate number of halos.

Small Business Procurement Event

DTIC Science & Technology

2014-08-13

Small Business Procurement Event 5a. CONTRACT NUMBER 5b. GRANT NUMBER 5c. PROGRAM ELEMENT NUMBER 6. AUTHOR(S) 5d. PROJECT NUMBER 5e. TASK...NUMBER 5f. WORK UNIT NUMBER 7. PERFORMING ORGANIZATION NAME(S) AND ADDRESS(ES) Department of the Navy,Office of Small Business Programs,720 Kennon...distribution unlimited 13. SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES NDIA 27th Navy Gold Coast Small Business Procurement Event, 12-13 Aug 2014, San Diego, CA. 14. ABSTRACT

Binomial outcomes in dataset with some clusters of size two: can the dependence of twins be accounted for? A simulation study comparing the reliability of statistical methods based on a dataset of preterm infants.

PubMed

Sauzet, Odile; Peacock, Janet L

2017-07-20

The analysis of perinatal outcomes often involves datasets with some multiple births. These are datasets mostly formed of independent observations and a limited number of clusters of size two (twins) and maybe of size three or more. This non-independence needs to be accounted for in the statistical analysis. Using simulated data based on a dataset of preterm infants we have previously investigated the performance of several approaches to the analysis of continuous outcomes in the presence of some clusters of size two. Mixed models have been developed for binomial outcomes but very little is known about their reliability when only a limited number of small clusters are present. Using simulated data based on a dataset of preterm infants we investigated the performance of several approaches to the analysis of binomial outcomes in the presence of some clusters of size two. Logistic models, several methods of estimation for the logistic random intercept models and generalised estimating equations were compared. The presence of even a small percentage of twins means that a logistic regression model will underestimate all parameters but a logistic random intercept model fails to estimate the correlation between siblings if the percentage of twins is too small and will provide similar estimates to logistic regression. The method which seems to provide the best balance between estimation of the standard error and the parameter for any percentage of twins is the generalised estimating equations. This study has shown that the number of covariates or the level two variance do not necessarily affect the performance of the various methods used to analyse datasets containing twins but when the percentage of small clusters is too small, mixed models cannot capture the dependence between siblings.

Comparative cytogenetics among populations of Astyanax altiparanae (Characiformes, Characidae, Incertae sedis)

PubMed Central

2009-01-01

Cytogenetic data are presented for Astyanax altiparanae populations from three Brazilian hydrographic systems. The chromosomal data obtained in A. altiparanae support the hypothesis of diploid number conservation. However, small differences in the karyotype formula and number of nucleolar organizer regions were observed in these populations. The apparent karyotypical similarity among the studied populations strongly suggests a close relationship among them with some chromosomal divergences due to gene flow restriction. PMID:21637456

Comparison of a large and small-calibre tube drain for managing spontaneous pneumothoraces.

PubMed

Benton, Ian J; Benfield, Grant F A

2009-10-01

To compare treatment success of large- and small-bore chest drains in the treatment of spontaneous pneumothoraces the case-notes were reviewed of those admitted to our hospital with a total of 73 pneumothoraces and who were treated by trainee doctors of varying experience. Both a large- and a small-bore intercostal tube drain system were in use during the two-year period reviewed. Similar pneumothorax profile and numbers treated with both drains were recorded, resulting in a similar drain time and numbers of successful and failed re-expansion of pneumothoraces. Successful pneumothorax resolution was the same for both drain types and the negligible tube drain complications observed with the small-bore drain reflected previously reported experiences. However the large-bore drain was associated with a high complication rate (32%) with more infectious complications (24%). The small-bore drain was prone to displacement (21%). There was generally no evidence of an increased failure and morbidity, reflecting poorer expertise, in the non-specialist trainees managing the pneumothoraces. A practical finding however was that in those large pneumothoraces where re-expansion failed, the tip of the drain had not been sited at the apex of the pleural cavity irrespective of the drain type inserted.

Effects of Trifolium alexandrinum phytoestrogens on oestrous behaviour, ovarian activity and reproductive performance of ewes during the non-breeding season.

PubMed

Hashem, N M; El-Azrak, K M; Nour El-Din, A N M; Sallam, S M; Taha, T A; Salem, M H

2018-03-08

Phytoestrogens are classified as naturally occurring endocrine disrupting chemicals that may affect reproductive performance of farm animals. To investigate the effects of Berseem clover phytoestrogens on reproductive performance of seasonal anoestrus ewes, twenty four late pregnant Rahmani ewes were fed either Berseem clover or maize silage (n = 12/treatment). Treatment started 2 months prepartum and continued until oestrous induction (week 8 postpartum), using the CIDR-eCG based protocol, and early pregnancy. Throughout the 2-8 weeks postpartum, oestrous rate and ovarian activity were not affected by treatment. After oestrous induction, ewes in both groups expressed comparable oestrous rates; however feeding Berseem clover extended (P < 0.05) interval to oestrus (57.00 compared with 42.54 h) and shortened (P < 0.05) oestrous duration (20.0 compared with 34.90 h). Feeding Berseem clover did not affect follicular activity except the number of medium follicles, which was less (P < 0.05) on day of oestrus (Day 0). Feeding maize silage increased (P < 0.05) the total number of follicles and number of small and medium follicles the day before oestrus (Day -1). On Day 0, the greater total number of follicles was due to the greater (P < 0.05) number of medium follicles that was associated with less number of small follicles. Although, the number and diameter of corpora lutea (CLs) were not affected by treatment, serum P 4 concentration was greater (P < 0.05) for ewes fed maize silage than for those fed Berseem clover. Fecundity and litter size tended to be greater (about 35%; P = 0.132 and 0.085, respectively) in the maize silage fed ewes. In conclusion, feeding Berseem clover throughout seasonal anoestrus disrupted aspects of behavioural oestrus and there was less luteal P 4 synthesis and fecundity of ewes. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Magnetic helicity generation in the frame of Kazantsev model

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yushkov, Egor V.; Lukin, Alexander S.

2017-11-01

Using a magnetic dynamo model, suggested by Kazantsev (J. Exp. Theor. Phys. 1968, vol. 26, p. 1031), we study the small-scale helicity generation in a turbulent electrically conducting fluid. We obtain the asymptotic dependencies of dynamo growth rate and magnetic correlation functions on magnetic Reynolds numbers. Special attention is devoted to the comparison of a longitudinal correlation function and a function of magnetic helicity for various conditions of asymmetric turbulent flows. We compare the analytical solutions on small scales with numerical results, calculated by an iterative algorithm on non-uniform grids. We show that the exponential growth of current helicity is simultaneous with the magnetic energy for Reynolds numbers larger than some critical value and estimate this value for various types of asymmetry.

Permutational distribution of the log-rank statistic under random censorship with applications to carcinogenicity assays.

PubMed

Heimann, G; Neuhaus, G

1998-03-01

In the random censorship model, the log-rank test is often used for comparing a control group with different dose groups. If the number of tumors is small, so-called exact methods are often applied for computing critical values from a permutational distribution. Two of these exact methods are discussed and shown to be incorrect. The correct permutational distribution is derived and studied with respect to its behavior under unequal censoring in the light of recent results proving that the permutational version and the unconditional version of the log-rank test are asymptotically equivalent even under unequal censoring. The log-rank test is studied by simulations of a realistic scenario from a bioassay with small numbers of tumors.

Differentiation of flea communities infesting small mammals across selected habitats of the Baltic coast, central lowlands, and southern mountains of Poland.

PubMed

Kowalski, Krzysztof; Eichert, Urszula; Bogdziewicz, Michał; Rychlik, Leszek

2014-05-01

Only a few studies comparing flea composition on the coast and in the mountains have been conducted. We investigated differences in flea communities infesting small mammals in selected habitats in northern, central, and southern Poland. We predicted (1) a greater number of flea species in the southeastern Poland and a lower number in the north, (2) a greater number of flea species in fertile and wet habitats than in poor and arid habitats, and (3) a low similarity of flea species between flea communities in western and eastern Poland. We found a negative effect of increasing latitude on flea species richness. We suppose that the mountains providing a variety of environments and the limits of the geographic ranges of several flea subspecies in southeastern Poland result in a higher number of flea species. There was a positive effect of increasing wetness of habitat on flea species richness. We found a high diversity in flea species composition between western and eastern Poland (beta diversity = 11) and between central and eastern Poland (beta diversity = 12). Re-colonization of Poland by small mammals and their ectoparasites from different (western and eastern) refugees can affect on this high diversity of flea species.

Numbering questionnaires had no impact on the response rate and only a slight influence on the response content of a patient safety culture survey: a randomized trial.

PubMed

Kundig, François; Staines, Anthony; Kinge, Thompson; Perneger, Thomas V

2011-11-01

In self-completed surveys, anonymous questionnaires are sometimes numbered so as to avoid sending reminders to initial nonrespondents. This number may be perceived as a threat to confidentiality by some respondents, which may reduce the response rate, or cause social desirability bias. In this study, we evaluated whether using nonnumbered vs. numbered questionnaires influenced the response rate and the response content. During a patient safety culture survey, we randomized participants into two groups: one received an anonymous nonnumbered questionnaire and the other a numbered questionnaire. We compared the survey response rates and distributions of the responses for the 42-questionnaire items across the two groups. Response rates were similar in the two groups (nonnumbered, 75.2%; numbered, 72.8%; difference, 2.4%; P=0.28). Five of the 42 questions had statistically significant differences in distributions, but these differences were small. Unexpectedly, in all five instances, the patient safety culture ratings were more favorable in the nonnumbered group. Numbering of mailed questionnaires had no impact on the response rate. Numbering influenced significantly the response content of several items, but these differences were small and ran against the hypothesis of social desirability bias. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Generic Learning-Based Ensemble Framework for Small Sample Size Face Recognition in Multi-Camera Networks.

PubMed

Zhang, Cuicui; Liang, Xuefeng; Matsuyama, Takashi

2014-12-08

Multi-camera networks have gained great interest in video-based surveillance systems for security monitoring, access control, etc. Person re-identification is an essential and challenging task in multi-camera networks, which aims to determine if a given individual has already appeared over the camera network. Individual recognition often uses faces as a trial and requires a large number of samples during the training phrase. This is difficult to fulfill due to the limitation of the camera hardware system and the unconstrained image capturing conditions. Conventional face recognition algorithms often encounter the "small sample size" (SSS) problem arising from the small number of training samples compared to the high dimensionality of the sample space. To overcome this problem, interest in the combination of multiple base classifiers has sparked research efforts in ensemble methods. However, existing ensemble methods still open two questions: (1) how to define diverse base classifiers from the small data; (2) how to avoid the diversity/accuracy dilemma occurring during ensemble. To address these problems, this paper proposes a novel generic learning-based ensemble framework, which augments the small data by generating new samples based on a generic distribution and introduces a tailored 0-1 knapsack algorithm to alleviate the diversity/accuracy dilemma. More diverse base classifiers can be generated from the expanded face space, and more appropriate base classifiers are selected for ensemble. Extensive experimental results on four benchmarks demonstrate the higher ability of our system to cope with the SSS problem compared to the state-of-the-art system.

Generic Learning-Based Ensemble Framework for Small Sample Size Face Recognition in Multi-Camera Networks

PubMed Central

Zhang, Cuicui; Liang, Xuefeng; Matsuyama, Takashi

2014-01-01

Multi-camera networks have gained great interest in video-based surveillance systems for security monitoring, access control, etc. Person re-identification is an essential and challenging task in multi-camera networks, which aims to determine if a given individual has already appeared over the camera network. Individual recognition often uses faces as a trial and requires a large number of samples during the training phrase. This is difficult to fulfill due to the limitation of the camera hardware system and the unconstrained image capturing conditions. Conventional face recognition algorithms often encounter the “small sample size” (SSS) problem arising from the small number of training samples compared to the high dimensionality of the sample space. To overcome this problem, interest in the combination of multiple base classifiers has sparked research efforts in ensemble methods. However, existing ensemble methods still open two questions: (1) how to define diverse base classifiers from the small data; (2) how to avoid the diversity/accuracy dilemma occurring during ensemble. To address these problems, this paper proposes a novel generic learning-based ensemble framework, which augments the small data by generating new samples based on a generic distribution and introduces a tailored 0–1 knapsack algorithm to alleviate the diversity/accuracy dilemma. More diverse base classifiers can be generated from the expanded face space, and more appropriate base classifiers are selected for ensemble. Extensive experimental results on four benchmarks demonstrate the higher ability of our system to cope with the SSS problem compared to the state-of-the-art system. PMID:25494350

Parallel computation for biological sequence comparison: comparing a portable model to the native model for the Intel Hypercube.

PubMed

Nadkarni, P M; Miller, P L

1991-01-01

A parallel program for inter-database sequence comparison was developed on the Intel Hypercube using two models of parallel programming. One version was built using machine-specific Hypercube parallel programming commands. The other version was built using Linda, a machine-independent parallel programming language. The two versions of the program provide a case study comparing these two approaches to parallelization in an important biological application area. Benchmark tests with both programs gave comparable results with a small number of processors. As the number of processors was increased, the Linda version was somewhat less efficient. The Linda version was also run without change on Network Linda, a virtual parallel machine running on a network of desktop workstations.

Bose-Einstein condensation of photons from the thermodynamic limit to small photon numbers

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nyman, Robert A.; Walker, Benjamin T.

2018-03-01

Photons can come to thermal equilibrium at room temperature by scattering multiple times from a fluorescent dye. By confining the light and dye in a microcavity, a minimum energy is set and the photons can then show Bose-Einstein condensation. We present here the physical principles underlying photon thermalization and condensation, and review the literature on the subject. We then explore the 'small' regime where very few photons are needed for condensation. We compare thermal equilibrium results to a rate-equation model of microlasers, which includes spontaneous emission into the cavity, and we note that small systems result in ambiguity in the definition of threshold.

Effects of gonadotropin-releasing hormone agonist/recombinant follicle-stimulating hormone versus gonadotropin-releasing hormone antagonist/recombinant follicle-stimulating hormone on follicular fluid levels of adhesion molecules during in vitro fertilization.

PubMed

Fornaro, Felice; Cobellis, Luigi; Mele, Daniela; Tassou, Argyrò; Badolati, Barbara; Sorrentino, Simona; De Lucia, Domenico; Colacurci, Nicola

2007-01-01

To compare the effects of GnRH-agonist/recombinant rFSH versus GnRH-antagonist/recombinant FSH stimulation on follicular fluid levels of soluble intercellular adhesion molecule (sICAM)-1 and vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 (sVCAM-1) during in vitro fertilization (IVF). Prospective, randomized study. University hospital. Seventy-three women underwent IVF. GnRH-agonist/rFSH or GnRH-antagonist/rFSH administration and collection of follicular fluid from 3 small (11-14 mm in diameter) and 3 large (18-21 mm in diameter) follicles on the day of oocyte retrieval. Follicular fluid levels of sICAM-1 and sVCAM-1 and intrafollicular estradiol and progesterone were also measured. Women who underwent GnRH-agonist/rFSH showed higher concentrations of sICAM-1 in both small and large follicles were compared with patients who received GnRH-antagonist/rFSH treatment; follicular fluid levels of sVCAM-1 were similar between the 2 stimulation protocols. Content of sICAM-1 in small and large follicles positively correlated with the number of follicles of > or =15 mm and the number of oocytes that were retrieved in both study groups. Concentrations of follicular fluid sVCAM-1 and progesterone were higher in large than in small follicles and were correlated positively to each other in both follicular classes. In IVF, GnRH-agonist/rFSH is associated with higher follicular fluid levels of sICAM-1 compared with GnRH-antagonist/rFSH regimen. Intrafollicular sICAM-1 content may predict ovarian response, and sVCAM-1 appears as an indicator of the degree of follicular luteinization.

Comparison of the yields of downstream migrant salmonids before and after logging and road construction on the South Fork Caspar Creek, Mendocino County

Treesearch

David S. Graves; James W. Burns

1970-01-01

Yields of juvenile steelhead rainbow trout Salmo gairdnerii gairdnerii) and silver salmon (Oncorhynchus kisutch) emigrants were compared in South Fork Caspar Creek, a small coastal stream in Mendocino County, California, before and after construction of a logging road along the stream in the summer of 1967. Numbers, lengths, and age class structures were compared....

Visualizing Energy on Target: Molecular Dynamics Simulations

DTIC Science & Technology

2017-12-01

to be construed as an official Department of the Army position unless so designated by other authorized documents. Citation of manufacturer’s or...tend to be small, whereas corresponding coefficients for molecules with low-frequency vibrations close to the impact surface are comparatively much...This is due to the reduced number of N2 collisions with the target resulting from this comparatively weak value of vimp. Figures 10–12 are

Efficacy and toxicity profiles of two chemoradiotherapies for stage II laryngeal cancer - a comparison between late course accelerated hyperfractionation (LCAHF) and conventional fractionation (CF).

PubMed

Okazaki, Eiichiro; Matsushita, Naoki; Tashiro, Mari; Shimatani, Yasuhiko; Ishii, Kentaro; Hosono, Masako; Oishi, Masahiro; Teranishi, Yuichi; Iguchi, Hiroyoshi; Miki, Yukio

2017-08-01

To evaluate the treatment results of late course accelerated hyperfractionation (LCAHF) compared with conventional fractionation (CF) for stage II laryngeal cancer. Fifty-nine consecutive patients treated for stage II laryngeal cancer were retrospectively reviewed. Thirty-two patients underwent LCAHF, twice-daily fractions during the latter half with a total dose of 69 Gy. Twenty-seven patients received CF of 70 Gy. The local control rates (LCRs), overall survival (OS), and disease-specific survival (DSS) at 5 years were 80.6%, 74.0%, and 90.4%, respectively, after LCAHF and 64.7%, 68.2%, and 90.5%, respectively, after CF. There were no significant differences in LCR, OS, and DSS (p = .11, 0.68, and 0.69, respectively). In a small number of patients with supraglottic cancer, LCAHF was associated with a significantly higher LCR at 5 years compared with CF (100% vs. 41.7%; p = .02). This is the first report that compared the results of LCAHF and CF for stage II laryngeal cancer. We could not find significant differences in LCR, DSS, and OS rates between LCAHF and CF groups. Although in a small number of patients with supraglottic cancer, LCAHF may improve the LCR compared with CF.

Preservation of mitochondrial functional integrity in mitochondria isolated from small cryopreserved mouse brain areas.

PubMed

Valenti, Daniela; de Bari, Lidia; De Filippis, Bianca; Ricceri, Laura; Vacca, Rosa Anna

2014-01-01

Studies of mitochondrial bioenergetics in brain pathophysiology are often precluded by the need to isolate mitochondria immediately after tissue dissection from a large number of brain biopsies for comparative studies. Here we present a procedure of cryopreservation of small brain areas from which mitochondrial enriched fractions (crude mitochondria) with high oxidative phosphorylation efficiency can be isolated. Small mouse brain areas were frozen and stored in a solution containing glycerol as cryoprotectant. Crude mitochondria were isolated by differential centrifugation from both cryopreserved and freshly explanted brain samples and were compared with respect to their ability to generate membrane potential and produce ATP. Intactness of outer and inner mitochondrial membranes was verified by polarographic ascorbate and cytochrome c tests and spectrophotometric assay of citrate synthase activity. Preservation of structural integrity and oxidative phosphorylation efficiency was successfully obtained in crude mitochondria isolated from different areas of cryopreserved mouse brain samples. Long-term cryopreservation of small brain areas from which intact and phosphorylating mitochondria can be isolated for the study of mitochondrial bioenergetics will significantly expand the study of mitochondrial defects in neurological pathologies, allowing large comparative studies and favoring interlaboratory and interdisciplinary analyses. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

A 13-year time trend analysis of 3724 small bowel video capsule endoscopies and a forecast model during the financial crisis in Greece.

PubMed

Triantafyllou, Konstantinos; Gkolfakis, Paraskevas; Viazis, Nikos; Tsibouris, Panagiotis; Tsigaridas, Athanasios; Apostolopoulos, Periklis; Anastasiou, John; Hounda, Eleni; Skianis, Ioannis; Katopodi, Konstantina; Ndini, Xhoela; Alexandrakis, George; Karamanolis, Demetrios G

2017-02-01

Since its introduction, small bowel video capsule endoscopy (VCE) use has evolved considerably. Evaluation of the temporal changes of small bowel VCE utilization in three tertiary centers in Greece in Era 1 (2002-2009) and Era 2 (2010-2014) and the development a forecast model for future VCE use during 2015-2017. Data from all small bowel VCE examinations were retrieved and analyzed in terms of the annual number of the performed examinations, their indications and the significance of their findings. Overall, we evaluated 3724 VCE examinations. The number of studies peaked in 2009 (n=595) and then decreased to reach 225 in 2014. Overall, more (53.8 vs. 51.4%) patients with iron-deficiency anemia and obscure gastrointestinal bleeding (IDA/OGIB) and fewer (10.7 vs. 14%) patients with chronic diarrhea were evaluated in Era 2 compared with Era 1 (P=0.046). In Era 2, there were more nondiagnostic examinations (39.5 vs. 29.3%, P<0.001), whereas the rate of cases with relevant findings decreased from 47.8 to 40.9%. According to the time trend analysis, we developed a forecast model with two scenarios: the pessimistic and the optimistic. Validation of the model with 2015 data showed that reality was close to the pessimistic scenario: the number of exams further decreased to 190, studies carried out for IDA/OGIB increased to 67%, and there were more negative than positive exams (40.7 vs. 39.2%). The number of VCE studies carried out after the emergence of the financial crisis decreased significantly and VCE indications were optimized. Our forecast model predicts lower numbers of VCE studies, with IDA/OGIB being the dominant indication. However, the predicted increase of negative exams requires further evaluation.

Planning multi-arm screening studies within the context of a drug development program

PubMed Central

Wason, James M S; Jaki, Thomas; Stallard, Nigel

2013-01-01

Screening trials are small trials used to decide whether an intervention is sufficiently promising to warrant a large confirmatory trial. Previous literature examined the situation where treatments are tested sequentially until one is considered sufficiently promising to take forward to a confirmatory trial. An important consideration for sponsors of clinical trials is how screening trials should be planned to maximize the efficiency of the drug development process. It has been found previously that small screening trials are generally the most efficient. In this paper we consider the design of screening trials in which multiple new treatments are tested simultaneously. We derive analytic formulae for the expected number of patients until a successful treatment is found, and propose methodology to search for the optimal number of treatments, and optimal sample size per treatment. We compare designs in which only the best treatment proceeds to a confirmatory trial and designs in which multiple treatments may proceed to a multi-arm confirmatory trial. We find that inclusion of a large number of treatments in the screening trial is optimal when only one treatment can proceed, and a smaller number of treatments is optimal when more than one can proceed. The designs we investigate are compared on a real-life set of screening designs. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. PMID:23529936

Utilizing Interlayer Excitons in Bilayer WS2 for Increased Photovoltaic Response in Ultrathin Graphene Vertical Cross-Bar Photodetecting Tunneling Transistors.

PubMed

Zhou, Yingqiu; Tan, Haijie; Sheng, Yuewen; Fan, Ye; Xu, Wenshuo; Warner, Jamie H

2018-04-19

Here we study the layer-dependent photoconductivity in Gr/WS 2 /Gr vertical stacked tunneling (VST) cross-bar devices made using two-dimensional (2D) materials all grown by chemical vapor deposition. The larger number of devices (>100) enables a statistically robust analysis on the comparative differences in the photovoltaic response of monolayer and bilayer WS 2 , which cannot be achieved in small batch devices made using mechanically exfoliated materials. We show a dramatic increase in photovoltaic response for Gr/WS 2 (2L)/Gr compared to monolayers because of the long inter- and intralayer exciton lifetimes and the small exciton binding energy (both interlayer and intralayer excitons) of bilayer WS 2 compared with that of monolayer WS 2 . Different doping levels and dielectric environments of top and bottom graphene electrodes result in a potential difference across a ∼1 nm vertical device, which gives rise to large electric fields perpendicular to the WS 2 layers that cause band structure modification. Our results show how precise control over layer number in all 2D VST devices dictates the photophysics and performance for photosensing applications.

Rapid area change in pitch-up manoeuvres of small perching birds.

PubMed

Polet, D T; Rival, D E

2015-10-26

Rapid pitch-up has been highlighted as a mechanism to generate large lift and drag during landing manoeuvres. However, pitching rates had not been measured previously in perching birds, and so the direct applicability of computations and experiments to observed behaviour was not known. We measure pitch rates in a small, wild bird (the black-capped chickadee; Poecile atricapillus), and show that these rates are within the parameter range used in experiments. Pitching rates were characterized by the shape change number, a metric comparing the rate of frontal area increase to acceleration. Black-capped chickadees increase the shape change number during perching in direct proportion to their total kinetic and potential energy at the start of the manoeuvre. The linear relationship between dissipated energy and shape change number is in accordance with a simple analytical model developed for two-dimensional pitching and decelerating airfoils. Black-capped chickadees use a wing pitch-up manoeuvre during perching to dissipate energy quickly while maintaining lift and drag through rapid area change. It is suggested that similar pitch-and-decelerate manoeuvres could be used to aid in the controlled, precise landings of small manoeuvrable air vehicles.

Vorticity, backscatter and counter-gradient transport predictions using two-level simulation of turbulent flows

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ranjan, R.; Menon, S.

2018-04-01

The two-level simulation (TLS) method evolves both the large-and the small-scale fields in a two-scale approach and has shown good predictive capabilities in both isotropic and wall-bounded high Reynolds number (Re) turbulent flows in the past. Sensitivity and ability of this modelling approach to predict fundamental features (such as backscatter, counter-gradient turbulent transport, small-scale vorticity, etc.) seen in high Re turbulent flows is assessed here by using two direct numerical simulation (DNS) datasets corresponding to a forced isotropic turbulence at Taylor's microscale-based Reynolds number Reλ ≈ 433 and a fully developed turbulent flow in a periodic channel at friction Reynolds number Reτ ≈ 1000. It is shown that TLS captures the dynamics of local co-/counter-gradient transport and backscatter at the requisite scales of interest. These observations are further confirmed through a posteriori investigation of the flow in a periodic channel at Reτ = 2000. The results reveal that the TLS method can capture both the large- and the small-scale flow physics in a consistent manner, and at a reduced overall cost when compared to the estimated DNS or wall-resolved LES cost.

The evolution of the complex sensory and motor systems of the human brain.

PubMed

Kaas, Jon H

2008-03-18

Inferences about how the complex sensory and motor systems of the human brain evolved are based on the results of comparative studies of brain organization across a range of mammalian species, and evidence from the endocasts of fossil skulls of key extinct species. The endocasts of the skulls of early mammals indicate that they had small brains with little neocortex. Evidence from comparative studies of cortical organization from small-brained mammals of the six major branches of mammalian evolution supports the conclusion that the small neocortex of early mammals was divided into roughly 20-25 cortical areas, including primary and secondary sensory fields. In early primates, vision was the dominant sense, and cortical areas associated with vision in temporal and occipital cortex underwent a significant expansion. Comparative studies indicate that early primates had 10 or more visual areas, and somatosensory areas with expanded representations of the forepaw. Posterior parietal cortex was also expanded, with a caudal half dominated by visual inputs, and a rostral half dominated by somatosensory inputs with outputs to an array of seven or more motor and visuomotor areas of the frontal lobe. Somatosensory areas and posterior parietal cortex became further differentiated in early anthropoid primates. As larger brains evolved in early apes and in our hominin ancestors, the number of cortical areas increased to reach an estimated 200 or so in present day humans, and hemispheric specializations emerged. The large human brain grew primarily by increasing neuron number rather than increasing average neuron size.

For-Profit Postsecondary Educational Institutions: Overview of Accreditation and State and Federal Oversight

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Foster, Lisa K.

2004-01-01

Postsecondary education in California includes public community colleges and universities, private nonprofit colleges and universities, and private proprietary and for-profit schools. While small in number compared with public and private nonprofit institutions, proprietary and for-profit schools and career colleges are growing and serving an…

The Next Best Thing to Family

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stuart, Reginald

2008-01-01

A generation ago, Latina sororities were in their infancy on American college campuses. Membership has ebbed and flowed since the founding of the first one, Lambda Theta Alpha, at Kean University in Union, New Jersey, in December 1975. Though still small in member numbers today, compared to more long-established mainstream fraternities and…

Monitoring Shifts in Campus Image and Recruitment Efforts in Small Colleges.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Murray, David

1991-01-01

Without an institutional research office to look at recruitment and retention programs, DePauw University (Indiana) relies heavily on institutional trend data and comparative information to assess the effectiveness of three initiatives: recruitment of large numbers of minority students, strategic use of financial aid, and use of market…

A Molecular-Based Approach for Examining Responses of Eukaryotes in Microcosms to Contaminant-Spiked Estuarine Sediments

EPA Science Inventory

Ecotoxicological information for most contaminants is limited to a small number of taxa, and these are generally restricted to comparatively hardy organisms that are readily extractable from test media and easily identifiable. Advances in DNA sequencing can now provide a comprehe...

Knock-on Effects of Mode Change on Academic Discourse

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gardner, Sheena

2004-01-01

Factors such as increases in student numbers and technological developments are threatening the luxury of one-on-one tutorials and bringing changes in modes of academic discourse. This small scale exploratory study identifies characteristics of taped oral, compared to written, feedback that are attributable to its spoken nature (longer, less…

Cow genotyping strategies for genomic selection in small dairy cattle population

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

This study compares how different cow genotyping strategies increase the accuracy of genomic estimated breeding values (EBV) in dairy cattle breeds with low numbers. In these breeds there are few sires with progeny records and genotyping cows can improve the accuracy of genomic EBV. The Guernsey bre...

A Reynolds Number Study of Wing Leading-Edge Effects on a Supersonic Transport Model at Mach 0.3

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Williams, M. Susan; Owens, Lewis R., Jr.; Chu, Julio

1999-01-01

A representative supersonic transport design was tested in the National Transonic Facility (NTF) in its original configuration with small-radius leading-edge flaps and also with modified large-radius inboard leading-edge flaps. Aerodynamic data were obtained over a range of Reynolds numbers at a Mach number of 0.3 and angles of attack up to 16 deg. Increasing the radius of the inboard leading-edge flap delayed nose-up pitching moment to a higher lift coefficient. Deflecting the large-radius leading-edge flap produced an overall decrease in lift coefficient and delayed nose-up pitching moment to even higher angles of attack as compared with the undeflected large- radius leading-edge flap. At angles of attack corresponding to the maximum untrimmed lift-to-drag ratio, lift and drag coefficients decreased while lift-to-drag ratio increased with increasing Reynolds number. At an angle of attack of 13.5 deg., the pitching-moment coefficient was nearly constant with increasing Reynolds number for both the small-radius leading-edge flap and the deflected large-radius leading-edge flap. However, the pitching moment coefficient increased with increasing Reynolds number for the undeflected large-radius leading-edge flap above a chord Reynolds number of about 35 x 10 (exp 6).

Soccer small-sided games in young players: rule modification to induce higher physiological responses

PubMed Central

Chtourou, H; Dellal, A; Chaouachi, A; Chamari, K

2017-01-01

The aim of this study was to identify the physiological responses of 3 forms of players’ numbers during two different games rules of small-sided games (SSG: stop-ball vs. small-goals rules). Eighteen youth amateur soccer players (age 13.5±0.7 years; height 168.9±6.1cm; body mass 63.1±7.7 kg) participated in this study and performed 3 SSGs with varying players’ number (2vs.2; 3vs.3 and 4vs.4): stop-ball SSG (SB-SSG) vs. small-goals SSG (SG-SSG) in a randomized and counter-balanced order on a constant pitch dimension (20×25m). The players performed 4×4 min SSG with 2-min of passive recovery in-between. Heart rate (HR), (expressed in bpm and % HRmax), lactate ([La-]), and rating of perceived exertion (RPE) were collected during each session. SB-SSG induced the higher HR values in comparison with the SG-SSG for the 3 game formats (2vs.2; 3vs.3 and 4vs.4). Also, compared with SG-SSG, SB-SSG induced the higher HR values during 2vs.2 compared with 4vs.4 games rules (178 vs. 174 and 175 vs. 171 bpm, respectively). However, the SB-SSG was more intense compared with SG-SSG in the 2 vs. 2 game rule compared with the two others (3 vs.3 and 4 vs. 4) for [La-] and RPE (7.58 vs. 7; 7.25 vs. 6.75 and 6.5 vs. 6.16 mmol ∙ L-1, and 7.75 vs. 7.33; 7.41 vs. 7.08 and 7.16 vs. 6.83, respectively). Therefore, the use of 2 vs. 2 and 3 vs. 3 SSG with SB-SSG seems to represent an alternative to coaches to increase cardiovascular and metabolic demands in youth soccer players. PMID:28566810

Communication Application for Use During the First Dental Visit for Children and Adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorders.

PubMed

Zink, Adriana Gledys; Molina, Eder Cassola; Diniz, Michele Baffi; Santos, Maria Teresa Botti Rodrigues; Guaré, Renata Oliveira

2018-01-01

The purpose of this study was to develop and evaluate an application (app) facilitating patient-professional communication among individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and compare it with the Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS). Forty nine- to 15-year-olds were randomly divided into two groups: G1 (app; N equals 20) and G2 (PECS; N equals 20). Initially, the visual contact timing of the groups was measured. Pictures of a room, ground, chair, dentist, mouth, low-speed handpiece, and air-water syringe were presented to both groups. Each picture was shown up to three times per appointment to evaluate whether or not the child accepted the procedure. After dental prophylaxis, caries experience was recorded. The prevalence of dental caries was 37.5 percent. Differences in the number of attempts required for each picture to acquire the skill proposed were found between the groups (Mann-Whitney, P<0.05). A significant difference in the median number of attempts (G1 equals 9.5 and G2 equals 15) and appointments (G1 equals three and G2 equals five) was observed (Mann-Whitney, P<0.05). The app was more effective than the Picture Exchange Communication System for dentist-patient communication, decreasing the number of appointments required for preventive dental care and clinical examinations.

Pigovian taxes which work in the small-number case

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Wittman, D.

1985-06-01

An appropriately conceived pollution tax can achieve a Pareto optimal equilibrium which is (1) stable in the presence of myopia, (2) not subject to strategic manipulation even in the small-number case, and (3) resistant to inefficient cost shifting by the participants when transaction costs are low. A considerable amount of confusion in the literature exists because different authors use different tax formulas (often implicitly) and different assumptions regarding conjectural behavior. Some of this confusion is cleared up by formally presenting various Pigovian tax formulas, explicitly considering whether there is Cournot or Stakleberg behavior, and comparing the properties of the variousmore » configurations. The author argues that charging for mitigated marginal cost rather than for actual damage avoids many pitfalls typically associated with Pignovian taxes. 15 references, 1 table.« less

Experimental quantification of nonlinear time scales in inertial wave rotating turbulence

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yarom, Ehud; Salhov, Alon; Sharon, Eran

2017-12-01

We study nonlinearities of inertial waves in rotating turbulence. At small Rossby numbers the kinetic energy in the system is contained in helical inertial waves with time dependence amplitudes. In this regime the amplitude variations time scales are slow compared to wave periods, and the spectrum is concentrated along the dispersion relation of the waves. A nonlinear time scale was extracted from the width of the spectrum, which reflects the intensity of nonlinear wave interactions. This nonlinear time scale is found to be proportional to (U.k ) -1, where k is the wave vector and U is the root-mean-square horizontal velocity, which is dominated by large scales. This correlation, which indicates the existence of turbulence in which inertial waves undergo weak nonlinear interactions, persists only for small Rossby numbers.

Oscillatory Activity in the Infant Brain and the Representation of Small Numbers

PubMed Central

Leung, Sumie; Mareschal, Denis; Rowsell, Renee; Simpson, David; Iaria, Leon; Grbic, Amanda; Kaufman, Jordy

2016-01-01

Gamma-band oscillatory activity (GBA) is an established neural signature of sustained occluded object representation in infants and adults. However, it is not yet known whether the magnitude of GBA in the infant brain reflects the quantity of occluded items held in memory. To examine this, we compared GBA of 6–8 month-old infants during occlusion periods after the representation of two objects vs. that of one object. We found that maintaining a representation of two objects during occlusion resulted in significantly greater GBA relative to maintaining a single object. Further, this enhancement was located in the right occipital region, which is consistent with previous object representation research in adults and infants. We conclude that enhanced GBA reflects neural processes underlying infants’ representation of small numbers. PMID:26903821

Oscillatory Activity in the Infant Brain and the Representation of Small Numbers.

PubMed

Leung, Sumie; Mareschal, Denis; Rowsell, Renee; Simpson, David; Iaria, Leon; Grbic, Amanda; Kaufman, Jordy

2016-01-01

Gamma-band oscillatory activity (GBA) is an established neural signature of sustained occluded object representation in infants and adults. However, it is not yet known whether the magnitude of GBA in the infant brain reflects the quantity of occluded items held in memory. To examine this, we compared GBA of 6-8 month-old infants during occlusion periods after the representation of two objects vs. that of one object. We found that maintaining a representation of two objects during occlusion resulted in significantly greater GBA relative to maintaining a single object. Further, this enhancement was located in the right occipital region, which is consistent with previous object representation research in adults and infants. We conclude that enhanced GBA reflects neural processes underlying infants' representation of small numbers.

The diagnostic performance of expert dermoscopists vs a computer-vision system on small-diameter melanomas.

PubMed

Friedman, Robert J; Gutkowicz-Krusin, Dina; Farber, Michele J; Warycha, Melanie; Schneider-Kels, Lori; Papastathis, Nicole; Mihm, Martin C; Googe, Paul; King, Roy; Prieto, Victor G; Kopf, Alfred W; Polsky, David; Rabinovitz, Harold; Oliviero, Margaret; Cognetta, Armand; Rigel, Darrell S; Marghoob, Ashfaq; Rivers, Jason; Johr, Robert; Grant-Kels, Jane M; Tsao, Hensin

2008-04-01

To evaluate the performance of dermoscopists in diagnosing small pigmented skin lesions (diameter

A comparison of machine learning methods for classification using simulation with multiple real data examples from mental health studies.

PubMed

Khondoker, Mizanur; Dobson, Richard; Skirrow, Caroline; Simmons, Andrew; Stahl, Daniel

2016-10-01

Recent literature on the comparison of machine learning methods has raised questions about the neutrality, unbiasedness and utility of many comparative studies. Reporting of results on favourable datasets and sampling error in the estimated performance measures based on single samples are thought to be the major sources of bias in such comparisons. Better performance in one or a few instances does not necessarily imply so on an average or on a population level and simulation studies may be a better alternative for objectively comparing the performances of machine learning algorithms. We compare the classification performance of a number of important and widely used machine learning algorithms, namely the Random Forests (RF), Support Vector Machines (SVM), Linear Discriminant Analysis (LDA) and k-Nearest Neighbour (kNN). Using massively parallel processing on high-performance supercomputers, we compare the generalisation errors at various combinations of levels of several factors: number of features, training sample size, biological variation, experimental variation, effect size, replication and correlation between features. For smaller number of correlated features, number of features not exceeding approximately half the sample size, LDA was found to be the method of choice in terms of average generalisation errors as well as stability (precision) of error estimates. SVM (with RBF kernel) outperforms LDA as well as RF and kNN by a clear margin as the feature set gets larger provided the sample size is not too small (at least 20). The performance of kNN also improves as the number of features grows and outplays that of LDA and RF unless the data variability is too high and/or effect sizes are too small. RF was found to outperform only kNN in some instances where the data are more variable and have smaller effect sizes, in which cases it also provide more stable error estimates than kNN and LDA. Applications to a number of real datasets supported the findings from the simulation study. © The Author(s) 2013.

Reciprocal translocation of small numbers of inbred individuals rescues immunogenetic diversity.

PubMed

Grueber, Catherine E; Sutton, Jolene T; Heber, Sol; Briskie, James V; Jamieson, Ian G; Robertson, Bruce C

2017-05-01

Genetic rescue can reduce inbreeding depression and increase fitness of small populations, even when the donor populations are highly inbred. In a recent experiment involving two inbred island populations of the New Zealand South Island robin, Petroica australis, reciprocal translocations improved microsatellite diversity and individual fitness. While microsatellite loci may reflect patterns of genome-wide diversity, they generally do not indicate the specific genetic regions responsible for increased fitness. We tested the effectiveness of this reciprocal translocation for rescuing diversity of two immunogenetic regions: Toll-like receptor (TLR) and major histocompatibility complex (MHC) genes. We found that the relatively small number of migrants (seven and ten per island) effectively brought the characteristic TLR gene diversity of each source population into the recipient population. However, when migrants transmitted TLR alleles that were already present at high frequency in the recipient population, it was possible for offspring of mixed heritage to have decreased gene diversity compared to recipient population diversity prior to translocation. In contrast to TLRs, we did not observe substantial changes in MHC allelic diversity following translocation, with limited evidence of a decrease in differentiation, perhaps because most MHC alleles were observed at both sites prior to the translocation. Overall, we conclude that small numbers of migrants may successfully restore the diversity of immunogenetic loci with few alleles, but that translocating larger numbers of animals would provide additional opportunity for the genetic rescue of highly polymorphic immunity regions, such as the MHC, even when the source population is inbred. © 2017 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Inference With Difference-in-Differences With a Small Number of Groups: A Review, Simulation Study, and Empirical Application Using SHARE Data.

PubMed

Rokicki, Slawa; Cohen, Jessica; Fink, Günther; Salomon, Joshua A; Landrum, Mary Beth

2018-01-01

Difference-in-differences (DID) estimation has become increasingly popular as an approach to evaluate the effect of a group-level policy on individual-level outcomes. Several statistical methodologies have been proposed to correct for the within-group correlation of model errors resulting from the clustering of data. Little is known about how well these corrections perform with the often small number of groups observed in health research using longitudinal data. First, we review the most commonly used modeling solutions in DID estimation for panel data, including generalized estimating equations (GEE), permutation tests, clustered standard errors (CSE), wild cluster bootstrapping, and aggregation. Second, we compare the empirical coverage rates and power of these methods using a Monte Carlo simulation study in scenarios in which we vary the degree of error correlation, the group size balance, and the proportion of treated groups. Third, we provide an empirical example using the Survey of Health, Ageing, and Retirement in Europe. When the number of groups is small, CSE are systematically biased downwards in scenarios when data are unbalanced or when there is a low proportion of treated groups. This can result in over-rejection of the null even when data are composed of up to 50 groups. Aggregation, permutation tests, bias-adjusted GEE, and wild cluster bootstrap produce coverage rates close to the nominal rate for almost all scenarios, though GEE may suffer from low power. In DID estimation with a small number of groups, analysis using aggregation, permutation tests, wild cluster bootstrap, or bias-adjusted GEE is recommended.

Randomness in Competitions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ben-Naim, E.; Hengartner, N. W.; Redner, S.; Vazquez, F.

2013-05-01

We study the effects of randomness on competitions based on an elementary random process in which there is a finite probability that a weaker team upsets a stronger team. We apply this model to sports leagues and sports tournaments, and compare the theoretical results with empirical data. Our model shows that single-elimination tournaments are efficient but unfair: the number of games is proportional to the number of teams N, but the probability that the weakest team wins decays only algebraically with N. In contrast, leagues, where every team plays every other team, are fair but inefficient: the top √{N} of teams remain in contention for the championship, while the probability that the weakest team becomes champion is exponentially small. We also propose a gradual elimination schedule that consists of a preliminary round and a championship round. Initially, teams play a small number of preliminary games, and subsequently, a few teams qualify for the championship round. This algorithm is fair and efficient: the best team wins with a high probability and the number of games scales as N 9/5, whereas traditional leagues require N 3 games to fairly determine a champion.

Eosinophils may play regionally disparate roles in influencing IgA(+) plasma cell numbers during large and small intestinal inflammation.

PubMed

Forman, Ruth; Bramhall, Michael; Logunova, Larisa; Svensson-Frej, Marcus; Cruickshank, Sheena M; Else, Kathryn J

2016-05-31

Eosinophils are innate immune cells present in the intestine during steady state conditions. An intestinal eosinophilia is a hallmark of many infections and an accumulation of eosinophils is also observed in the intestine during inflammatory disorders. Classically the function of eosinophils has been associated with tissue destruction, due to the release of cytotoxic granule contents. However, recent evidence has demonstrated that the eosinophil plays a more diverse role in the immune system than previously acknowledged, including shaping adaptive immune responses and providing plasma cell survival factors during the steady state. Importantly, it is known that there are regional differences in the underlying immunology of the small and large intestine, but whether there are differences in context of the intestinal eosinophil in the steady state or inflammation is not known. Our data demonstrates that there are fewer IgA(+) plasma cells in the small intestine of eosinophil-deficient ΔdblGATA-1 mice compared to eosinophil-sufficient wild-type mice, with the difference becoming significant post-infection with Toxoplasma gondii. Remarkably, and in complete contrast, the absence of eosinophils in the inflamed large intestine does not impact on IgA(+) cell numbers during steady state, and is associated with a significant increase in IgA(+) cells post-infection with Trichuris muris compared to wild-type mice. Thus, the intestinal eosinophil appears to be less important in sustaining the IgA(+) cell pool in the large intestine compared to the small intestine, and in fact, our data suggests eosinophils play an inhibitory role. The dichotomy in the influence of the eosinophil over small and large intestinal IgA(+) cells did not depend on differences in plasma cell growth factors, recruitment potential or proliferation within the different regions of the gastrointestinal tract (GIT). We demonstrate for the first time that there are regional differences in the requirement of eosinophils for maintaining IgA+ cells between the large and small intestine, which are more pronounced during inflammation. This is an important step towards further delineation of the enigmatic functions of gut-resident eosinophils.

Evaluating the Operational Features of an Unconventional Dual-Bay U-Turn Design for Intersections

PubMed Central

Xiang, Yun; Li, Zhibin; Wang, Wei; Chen, Jingxu; Wang, Hao; Li, Ye

2016-01-01

Median U-turn intersection treatment (MUTIT) has been considered an alternative measure to reduce congestion and traffic conflict at intersection areas. The MUTIT is sometimes difficult to implement in the field because it requires wide median on arterials for U-turn vehicles. The objective of this study is to introduce an unconventional U-turn treatment (UUT) for intersections which requires less median space but is also effective. The UUT has a dual-bay design with different turning radiuses for small and large vehicles. The VISSIM simulation model was developed to evaluate the operational features of the UUT. The model was calibrated using data collected from intersections in China. The capacity, delay and number of stops were evaluated and compared with the direct-left-turn (DLT) for the same intersections. The results showed that the UUT significantly improved the operations at intersection areas, especially when volume/capacity ratio is small, and ratio of left-turn to through traffic is small. With the UUT, the capacity is increased by 9.81% to 10.38%, vehicle delay is decreased by 18.5% to 40.1%, and number of stops is decreased by 23.19% to 36.62%, when volume/capacity ratio is less than 0.50. The study also found that traffic efficiency could be further improved when the UUT is designed in conjunction with signal control. In the case, the UUT plus signalized control increases the capacity by 25% to 26.02%, decreases vehicle delay by 50.5% to 55.8%, and reduces number of stops by 69.5%, compared with the traditional DLT. PMID:27467127

Evaluating the Operational Features of an Unconventional Dual-Bay U-Turn Design for Intersections.

PubMed

Xiang, Yun; Li, Zhibin; Wang, Wei; Chen, Jingxu; Wang, Hao; Li, Ye

2016-01-01

Median U-turn intersection treatment (MUTIT) has been considered an alternative measure to reduce congestion and traffic conflict at intersection areas. The MUTIT is sometimes difficult to implement in the field because it requires wide median on arterials for U-turn vehicles. The objective of this study is to introduce an unconventional U-turn treatment (UUT) for intersections which requires less median space but is also effective. The UUT has a dual-bay design with different turning radiuses for small and large vehicles. The VISSIM simulation model was developed to evaluate the operational features of the UUT. The model was calibrated using data collected from intersections in China. The capacity, delay and number of stops were evaluated and compared with the direct-left-turn (DLT) for the same intersections. The results showed that the UUT significantly improved the operations at intersection areas, especially when volume/capacity ratio is small, and ratio of left-turn to through traffic is small. With the UUT, the capacity is increased by 9.81% to 10.38%, vehicle delay is decreased by 18.5% to 40.1%, and number of stops is decreased by 23.19% to 36.62%, when volume/capacity ratio is less than 0.50. The study also found that traffic efficiency could be further improved when the UUT is designed in conjunction with signal control. In the case, the UUT plus signalized control increases the capacity by 25% to 26.02%, decreases vehicle delay by 50.5% to 55.8%, and reduces number of stops by 69.5%, compared with the traditional DLT.

Programmed death ligand 1 expression and CD8+ tumor-infiltrating lymphocyte density differences between paired primary and brain metastatic lesions in non-small cell lung cancer.

PubMed

Zhou, Jie; Gong, Zhihua; Jia, Qingzhu; Wu, Yan; Yang, Zhen-Zhou; Zhu, Bo

2018-04-15

Immunotherapy targeting the programmed cell death-1/programmed death ligand 1(PD-L1) pathway has shown promising antitumor activity in brain metastases (BMs) of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients with an acceptable safety profile; however, the response rates often differ between primary lesions and intracranial lesions. Studies are necessary to identify detailed characterizations of the response biomarkers. In this study, we aimed to compare the differences of PD-L1 expression and CD8 + tumor-infiltrating lymphocyte (TIL) density, two major response biomarkers of PD-1/PD-L1 blockade, between paired primary and brain metastatic lesions in advanced NSCLC. We observed that among primary lesions or BMs, only a small number of patients harbored common PD-L1 expression on both tumor cells and tumor-infiltrating immune cells. Additionally, we found that the numbers of CD8 + TILs were significantly fewer in BMs than in primary lung cancers. Low stromal CD8 + TIL numbers in BMs were associated with significantly shorter overall survival compared to high stromal CD8 + TIL counts. Notably, we demonstrated a discrepancy in PD-L1 expression and CD8 + TIL density between primary lung cancers and their corresponding BMs. Such heterogeneities are significantly associated with the time at which BMs occurred. Our study emphasizes the spatial and temporal heterogeneity of biomarkers for anti-PD-1/PD-L1 therapy, which should be concerned in clinical practice. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Emergence of Exploratory, Technical and Tactical Behavior in Small-Sided Soccer Games when Manipulating the Number of Teammates and Opponents.

PubMed

Torrents, Carlota; Ric, Angel; Hristovski, Robert; Torres-Ronda, Lorena; Vicente, Emili; Sampaio, Jaime

2016-01-01

The effects that different constraints have on the exploratory behavior, measured by the variety and quantity of different responses within a game situation, is of the utmost importance for successful performance in team sports. The aim of this study was to determine how the number of teammates and opponents affects the exploratory behavior of both professional and amateur players in small-sided soccer games. Twenty-two professional (age 25.6 ± 4.9 years) and 22 amateur (age 23.1 ± 0.7 years) male soccer players played three small-sided game formats (4 vs. 3, 4 vs. 5, and 4 vs. 7). These trials were video-recorded and a systematic observation instrument was used to notate the actions, which were subsequently analyzed by means of a principal component analysis and the dynamic overlap order parameter (measure to identify the rate and breadth of exploratory behavior on different time scales). Results revealed that a higher the number of opponents required for more frequent ball controls. Moreover, with a higher number of teammates, there were more defensive actions focused on protecting the goal, with more players balancing. In relation to attack, an increase in the number of opponents produced a decrease in passing, driving and controlling actions, while an increase in the number of teammates led to more time being spent in attacking situations. A numerical advantage led to less exploratory behavior, an effect that was especially clear when playing within a team of seven players against four opponents. All teams showed strong effects of the number of teammates on the exploratory behavior when comparing 5 vs 7 or 3 vs 7 teammates. These results seem to be independent of the players' level.

Genetic analysis of rice mutants responsible for narrow leaf phenotype and reduced vein number.

PubMed

Kubo, Fumika Clara; Yasui, Yukiko; Kumamaru, Toshihiro; Sato, Yutaka; Hirano, Hiro-Yuki

2017-03-17

Leaves are a major site for photosynthesis and a key determinant of plant architecture. Rice produces thin and slender leaves, which consist of the leaf blade and leaf sheath separated by the lamina joint. Two types of vasculature, the large and small vascular bundles, run in parallel, together with a strong structure, the midrib. In this paper, we examined the function of four genes that regulate the width of the leaf blade and the vein number: NARROW LEAF1 (NAL1), NAL2, NAL3 and NAL7. We backcrossed original mutants of these genes with the standard wild-type rice, Taichung 65. We then compared the effect of each mutation on similar genetic backgrounds and examined genetic interactions of these genes. The nal1 single mutation and the nal2 nal3 double mutation showed a severe effect on leaf width, resulting in very narrow leaves. Although vein number was also reduced in the nal1 and nal2 nal3 mutants, the small vein number was more strongly reduced than the large vein number. In contrast, the nal7 mutation showed a milder effect on leaf width and vein number, and both the large and small veins were similarly affected. Thus, the genes responsible for narrow leaf phenotype seem to play distinct roles. The nal7 mutation showed additive effects on both leaf width and vein number, when combined with the nal1 single or the nal2 nal3 double mutation. In addition, observations of inner tissues revealed that cell differentiation was partially compromised in the nal2 nal3 nal7 mutant, consistent with the severe reduction in leaf width in this triple mutant.

Microcanonical model for interface formation

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Rucklidge, A.; Zaleski, S.

1988-04-01

We describe a new cellular automaton model which allows us to simulate separation of phases. The model is an extension of existing cellular automata for the Ising model, such as Q2R. It conserves particle number and presents the qualitative features of spinodal decomposition. The dynamics is deterministic and does not require random number generators. The spins exchange energy with small local reservoirs or demons. The rate of relaxation to equilibrium is investigated, and the results are compared to the Lifshitz-Slyozov theory.

Plating isolation of various catalase-negative microorganisms from soil

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Labeda, D. P.; Hunt, C. M.; Casida, L. E., Jr.

1974-01-01

A unique plating procedure was developed that allows isolation, but not enumeration, of representatives of the catalase-negative soil microflora. The numbers recovered, however, are low as compared to the numbers recovered when the modified dilution-to-extinction isolation procedure is used. The latter procedure provides prolonged inoculation in sealed tubes containing a nutritionally rich broth medium over small submerged agar slants. In contrast, the plating procedure utilizes nutritionally minimal media and the shorter incubations mandated by the inherent problems associated with plating.

Parallel computation for biological sequence comparison: comparing a portable model to the native model for the Intel Hypercube.

PubMed Central

Nadkarni, P. M.; Miller, P. L.

1991-01-01

A parallel program for inter-database sequence comparison was developed on the Intel Hypercube using two models of parallel programming. One version was built using machine-specific Hypercube parallel programming commands. The other version was built using Linda, a machine-independent parallel programming language. The two versions of the program provide a case study comparing these two approaches to parallelization in an important biological application area. Benchmark tests with both programs gave comparable results with a small number of processors. As the number of processors was increased, the Linda version was somewhat less efficient. The Linda version was also run without change on Network Linda, a virtual parallel machine running on a network of desktop workstations. PMID:1807632

Infants' Auditory Enumeration: Evidence for Analog Magnitudes in the Small Number Range

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

vanMarle, Kristy; Wynn, Karen

2009-01-01

Vigorous debate surrounds the issue of whether infants use different representational mechanisms to discriminate small and large numbers. We report evidence for ratio-dependent performance in infants' discrimination of small numbers of auditory events, suggesting that infants can use analog magnitudes to represent small values, at least in the…

Multidimensional indexing structure for use with linear optimization queries

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bergman, Lawrence David (Inventor); Castelli, Vittorio (Inventor); Chang, Yuan-Chi (Inventor); Li, Chung-Sheng (Inventor); Smith, John Richard (Inventor)

2002-01-01

Linear optimization queries, which usually arise in various decision support and resource planning applications, are queries that retrieve top N data records (where N is an integer greater than zero) which satisfy a specific optimization criterion. The optimization criterion is to either maximize or minimize a linear equation. The coefficients of the linear equation are given at query time. Methods and apparatus are disclosed for constructing, maintaining and utilizing a multidimensional indexing structure of database records to improve the execution speed of linear optimization queries. Database records with numerical attributes are organized into a number of layers and each layer represents a geometric structure called convex hull. Such linear optimization queries are processed by searching from the outer-most layer of this multi-layer indexing structure inwards. At least one record per layer will satisfy the query criterion and the number of layers needed to be searched depends on the spatial distribution of records, the query-issued linear coefficients, and N, the number of records to be returned. When N is small compared to the total size of the database, answering the query typically requires searching only a small fraction of all relevant records, resulting in a tremendous speedup as compared to linearly scanning the entire dataset.

Parity violation in electron scattering

DOE PAGES

Souder, P.; Paschke, K. D.

2015-12-22

By comparing the cross sections for left- and right-handed electrons scattered from various unpolarized nuclear targets, the small parity-violating asymmetry can be measured. These asymmetry data probe a wide variety of important topics, including searches for new fundamental interactions and important features of nuclear structure that cannot be studied with other probes. A special feature of these experiments is that the results are interpreted with remarkably few theoretical uncertainties, which justifies pushing the experiments to the highest possible precision. To measure the small asymmetries accurately, a number of novel experimental techniques have been developed.

Peripherally Inserted Central Catheter Placement with the Sonic Flashlight: Initial Clinical Trial by Nurses

PubMed Central

Wang, David; Amesur, Nikhil; Shukla, Gaurav; Bayless, Angela; Weiser, David; Scharl, Adam; Mockel, Derek; Banks, Christopher; Mandella, Bernadette; Klatzky, Roberta; Stetten, George

2010-01-01

Objective We describe a case series comprising the first clinical trial by intravenous (IV) team nurses using the Sonic Flashlight for ultrasound guidance of peripherally inserted central catheter (PICC) placement. Methods Two IV team nurses with more than 10 years experience placing PICCs and from 3–6 years experience with ultrasound (US) attempted to place PICCs under US guidance in patients requiring long-term IV access. One of two methods of US guidance was used: conventional ultrasound (CUS) (60 patients) or a new device called the Sonic Flashlight (SF) (44 patients). The number of needle punctures required to gain IV access was recorded for each subject. Results In both methods, 87% of the cases resulted in successful venous access on the first attempt. The average number of needle sticks per patient was 1.18 for SF-guided procedures, as compared to 1.20 for CUS-guided procedures. No significant difference was found in the distribution of the number of attempts between the two methods. Anecdotal comments by the nurses indicated the comparative ease of use of the SF display, although relatively small scale of the SF image compared to the CUS image was also noted. Conclusions We have shown that the Sonic Flashlight is a safe and effective device for guidance of PICC placement in the hands of experienced IV team nurses. The advantage of placing the ultrasound image at its actual location must be balanced against the relatively small scale of the SF image. PMID:19389904

Attitudes of Austrian veterinarians towards euthanasia in small animal practice: impacts of age and gender on views on euthanasia.

PubMed

Hartnack, Sonja; Springer, Svenja; Pittavino, Marta; Grimm, Herwig

2016-02-04

Euthanasia of pets has been described by veterinarians as "the best and the worst" of the profession. The most commonly mentioned ethical dilemmas veterinarians face in small animal practice are: limited treatment options due to financial constraints, euthanizing of healthy animals and owners wishing to continue treatment of terminally ill animals. The aim of the study was to gain insight into the attitudes of Austrian veterinarians towards euthanasia of small animals. This included assessing their agreement with euthanasia in exemplified case scenarios, potentially predicted by demographic variables (e.g. gender, age, working in small animal practice, employment, working in a team, numbers of performed euthanasia). Further describing the veterinarians' agreement with a number of different normative and descriptive statements, including coping strategies. A questionnaire with nine euthanasia scenarios, 26 normative and descriptive statements, and demographic data were sent to all members of the Austrian Chamber of Veterinary Surgeons (n = 2478). In total, 486 veterinarians answered sufficiently completely to enable analyses. Responses were first explored descriptively before being formally analysed using linear regression and additive Bayesian networks - a multivariate regression methodology - in order to identify joint relationships between the demographic variables, the statements and each of the nine euthanasia scenarios. Mutual dependencies between the demographic variables were found, i.e. female compared to male veterinarians worked mostly in small animal practice, and working mostly in small animal practice was linked to performing more euthanasia per month. Gender and age were found to be associated with views on euthanasia: female veterinarians and veterinarians having worked for less years were more likely to disagree with euthanasia in at least some of the convenience euthanasia scenarios. The number of veterinarians working together was found to be the variable with the highest number of links to other variables, demographic as well as ethical statements. This highlights the role of a team potentially providing support in stressful situations. The results are useful for a better understanding of coping strategies for veterinarians with moral stress due to euthanasia of small animals.

Coronary artery calcium: a multi-institutional, multimanufacturer international standard for quantification at cardiac CT.

PubMed

McCollough, Cynthia H; Ulzheimer, Stefan; Halliburton, Sandra S; Shanneik, Kaiss; White, Richard D; Kalender, Willi A

2007-05-01

To develop a consensus standard for quantification of coronary artery calcium (CAC). A standard for CAC quantification was developed by a multi-institutional, multimanufacturer international consortium of cardiac radiologists, medical physicists, and industry representatives. This report specifically describes the standardization of scan acquisition and reconstruction parameters, the use of patient size-specific tube current values to achieve a prescribed image noise, and the use of the calcium mass score to eliminate scanner- and patient size-based variations. An anthropomorphic phantom containing calibration inserts and additional phantom rings were used to simulate small, medium-size, and large patients. The three phantoms were scanned by using the recommended protocols for various computed tomography (CT) systems to determine the calibration factors that relate measured CT numbers to calcium hydroxyapatite density and to determine the tube current values that yield comparable noise values. Calculation of the calcium mass score was standardized, and the variance in Agatston, volume, and mass scores was compared among CT systems. Use of the recommended scanning parameters resulted in similar noise for small, medium-size, and large phantoms with all multi-detector row CT scanners. Volume scores had greater interscanner variance than did Agatston and calcium mass scores. Use of a fixed calcium hydroxyapatite density threshold (100 mg/cm(3)), as compared with use of a fixed CT number threshold (130 HU), reduced interscanner variability in Agatston and calcium mass scores. With use of a density segmentation threshold, the calcium mass score had the smallest variance as a function of patient size. Standardized quantification of CAC yielded comparable image noise, spatial resolution, and mass scores among different patient sizes and different CT systems and facilitated reduced radiation dose for small and medium-size patients.

Multi-fidelity methods for uncertainty quantification in transport problems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tartakovsky, G.; Yang, X.; Tartakovsky, A. M.; Barajas-Solano, D. A.; Scheibe, T. D.; Dai, H.; Chen, X.

2016-12-01

We compare several multi-fidelity approaches for uncertainty quantification in flow and transport simulations that have a lower computational cost than the standard Monte Carlo method. The cost reduction is achieved by combining a small number of high-resolution (high-fidelity) simulations with a large number of low-resolution (low-fidelity) simulations. We propose a new method, a re-scaled Multi Level Monte Carlo (rMLMC) method. The rMLMC is based on the idea that the statistics of quantities of interest depends on scale/resolution. We compare rMLMC with existing multi-fidelity methods such as Multi Level Monte Carlo (MLMC) and reduced basis methods and discuss advantages of each approach.

Human Activity Recognition by Combining a Small Number of Classifiers.

PubMed

Nazabal, Alfredo; Garcia-Moreno, Pablo; Artes-Rodriguez, Antonio; Ghahramani, Zoubin

2016-09-01

We consider the problem of daily human activity recognition (HAR) using multiple wireless inertial sensors, and specifically, HAR systems with a very low number of sensors, each one providing an estimation of the performed activities. We propose new Bayesian models to combine the output of the sensors. The models are based on a soft outputs combination of individual classifiers to deal with the small number of sensors. We also incorporate the dynamic nature of human activities as a first-order homogeneous Markov chain. We develop both inductive and transductive inference methods for each model to be employed in supervised and semisupervised situations, respectively. Using different real HAR databases, we compare our classifiers combination models against a single classifier that employs all the signals from the sensors. Our models exhibit consistently a reduction of the error rate and an increase of robustness against sensor failures. Our models also outperform other classifiers combination models that do not consider soft outputs and an Markovian structure of the human activities.

Reproductive potential of Spodoptera eridania (Stoll) (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) in the laboratory: effect of multiple couples and the size.

PubMed

Specht, A; Montezano, D G; Sosa-Gómez, D R; Paula-Moraes, S V; Roque-Specht, V F; Barros, N M

2016-06-01

This study aimed to evaluate the effect of keeping three couples in the same cage, and the size of adults emerged from small, medium-sized and large pupae (278.67 mg; 333.20 mg and 381.58 mg, respectively), on the reproductive potential of S. eridania (Stoll, 1782) adults, under controlled conditions (25 ± 1 °C, 70% RH and 14 hour photophase). We evaluated the survival, number of copulations, fecundity and fertility of the adult females. The survival of females from these different pupal sizes did not differ statistically, but the survival of males from large pupae was statistically shorter than from small pupae. Fecundity differed significantly and correlated positively with size. The number of effective copulations (espematophores) and fertility did not vary significantly with pupal size. Our results emphasize the importance of indicating the number of copulations and the size of the insects when reproductive parameters are compared.

Modeling of stochastic motion of bacteria propelled spherical microbeads

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Arabagi, Veaceslav; Behkam, Bahareh; Cheung, Eugene; Sitti, Metin

2011-06-01

This work proposes a stochastic dynamic model of bacteria propelled spherical microbeads as potential swimming microrobotic bodies. Small numbers of S. marcescens bacteria are attached with their bodies to surfaces of spherical microbeads. Average-behavior stochastic models that are normally adopted when studying such biological systems are generally not effective for cases in which a small number of agents are interacting in a complex manner, hence a stochastic model is proposed to simulate the behavior of 8-41 bacteria assembled on a curved surface. Flexibility of the flagellar hook is studied via comparing simulated and experimental results for scenarios of increasing bead size and the number of attached bacteria on a bead. Although requiring more experimental data to yield an exact, certain flagellar hook stiffness value, the examined results favor a stiffer flagella. The stochastic model is intended to be used as a design and simulation tool for future potential targeted drug delivery and disease diagnosis applications of bacteria propelled microrobots.

A mesostate-space model for EEG and MEG.

PubMed

Daunizeau, Jean; Friston, Karl J

2007-10-15

We present a multi-scale generative model for EEG, that entails a minimum number of assumptions about evoked brain responses, namely: (1) bioelectric activity is generated by a set of distributed sources, (2) the dynamics of these sources can be modelled as random fluctuations about a small number of mesostates, (3) mesostates evolve in a temporal structured way and are functionally connected (i.e. influence each other), and (4) the number of mesostates engaged by a cognitive task is small (e.g. between one and a few). A Variational Bayesian learning scheme is described that furnishes the posterior density on the models parameters and its evidence. Since the number of meso-sources specifies the model, the model evidence can be used to compare models and find the optimum number of meso-sources. In addition to estimating the dynamics at each cortical dipole, the mesostate-space model and its inversion provide a description of brain activity at the level of the mesostates (i.e. in terms of the dynamics of meso-sources that are distributed over dipoles). The inclusion of a mesostate level allows one to compute posterior probability maps of each dipole being active (i.e. belonging to an active mesostate). Critically, this model accommodates constraints on the number of meso-sources, while retaining the flexibility of distributed source models in explaining data. In short, it bridges the gap between standard distributed and equivalent current dipole models. Furthermore, because it is explicitly spatiotemporal, the model can embed any stochastic dynamical causal model (e.g. a neural mass model) as a Markov process prior on the mesostate dynamics. The approach is evaluated and compared to standard inverse EEG techniques, using synthetic data and real data. The results demonstrate the added-value of the mesostate-space model and its variational inversion.

Small numbers are sensed directly, high numbers constructed from size and density.

PubMed

Zimmermann, Eckart

2018-04-01

Two theories compete to explain how we estimate the numerosity of visual object sets. The first suggests that the apparent numerosity is derived from an analysis of more low-level features like size and density of the set. The second theory suggests that numbers are sensed directly. Consistent with the latter claim is the existence of neurons in parietal cortex which are specialized for processing the numerosity of elements in the visual scene. However, recent evidence suggests that only low numbers can be sensed directly whereas the perception of high numbers is supported by the analysis of low-level features. Processing of low and high numbers, being located at different levels of the neural hierarchy should involve different receptive field sizes. Here, I tested this idea with visual adaptation. I measured the spatial spread of number adaptation for low and high numerosities. A focused adaptation spread of high numerosities suggested the involvement of early neural levels where receptive fields are comparably small and the broad spread for low numerosities was consistent with processing of number neurons which have larger receptive fields. These results provide evidence for the claim that different mechanism exist generating the perception of visual numerosity. Whereas low numbers are sensed directly as a primary visual attribute, the estimation of high numbers however likely depends on the area size over which the objects are spread. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Immediate Small Number Perception : Evidence from a New Numerical Carry-Over Procedure

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Demeyere, Nele; Humphreys, Glyn W.

2012-01-01

Evidence is presented for the immediate apprehension of exact small quantities. Participants performed a quantification task (are the number of items greater or smaller than?), and carry-over effects were examined between numbers requiring the same response. Carry-over effects between small numbers were strongly affected by repeats of pattern and…

A replacement for islet equivalents with improved reliability and validity.

PubMed

Huang, Han-Hung; Ramachandran, Karthik; Stehno-Bittel, Lisa

2013-10-01

Islet equivalent (IE), the standard estimate of isolated islet volume, is an essential measure to determine the amount of transplanted islet tissue in the clinic and is used in research laboratories to normalize results, yet it is based on the false assumption that all islets are spherical. Here, we developed and tested a new easy-to-use method to quantify islet volume with greater accuracy. Isolated rat islets were dissociated into single cells, and the total cell number per islet was determined by using computer-assisted cytometry. Based on the cell number per islet, we created a regression model to convert islet diameter to cell number with a high R2 value (0.8) and good validity and reliability with the same model applicable to young and old rats and males or females. Conventional IE measurements overestimated the tissue volume of islets. To compare results obtained using IE or our new method, we compared Glut2 protein levels determined by Western Blot and proinsulin content via ELISA between small (diameter≤100 μm) and large (diameter≥200 μm) islets. When normalized by IE, large islets showed significantly lower Glut2 level and proinsulin content. However, when normalized by cell number, large and small islets had no difference in Glut2 levels, but large islets contained more proinsulin. In conclusion, normalizing islet volume by IE overestimated the tissue volume, which may lead to erroneous results. Normalizing by cell number is a more accurate method to quantify tissue amounts used in islet transplantation and research.

Weakly Informative Prior for Point Estimation of Covariance Matrices in Hierarchical Models

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chung, Yeojin; Gelman, Andrew; Rabe-Hesketh, Sophia; Liu, Jingchen; Dorie, Vincent

2015-01-01

When fitting hierarchical regression models, maximum likelihood (ML) estimation has computational (and, for some users, philosophical) advantages compared to full Bayesian inference, but when the number of groups is small, estimates of the covariance matrix (S) of group-level varying coefficients are often degenerate. One can do better, even from…

Canadian and U.S. Systems of Care for the Mentally Ill Elderly.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Liptzin, Benjamin

1984-01-01

Compares the United States and Canada in the funding and organization of psychiatric services for the elderly. Acute hospital, medical, and nursing home services are more accessible in Canada because of universal health insurance, but in both countries, services are limited by the small number of professionals. (JAC)

Effects of Camera Arrangement on Perceptual-Motor Performance in Minimally Invasive Surgery

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Delucia, Patricia R.; Griswold, John A.

2011-01-01

Minimally invasive surgery (MIS) is performed for a growing number of treatments. Whereas open surgery requires large incisions, MIS relies on small incisions through which instruments are inserted and tissues are visualized with a camera. MIS results in benefits for patients compared with open surgery, but degrades the surgeon's perceptual-motor…

A comparative analysis of auditory perception in humans and songbirds: a modular approach.

PubMed

Weisman, Ronald; Hoeschele, Marisa; Sturdy, Christopher B

2014-05-01

We propose that a relatively small number of perceptual skills underlie human perception of music and speech. Humans and songbirds share a number of features in the development of their auditory communication systems. These similarities invite comparisons between species in their auditory perceptual skills. Here, we summarized our experimental comparisons between humans (and other mammals) and songbirds (and other birds) in their use of pitch height and pitch chroma perception and discuss similarities and differences in other auditory perceptual abilities of these species. Specifically, we introduced a functional modular view, using pitch chroma and pitch height perception as examples, as a theoretical framework for the comparative study of auditory perception and perhaps all of the study of comparative cognition. We also contrasted phylogeny and adaptation as causal mechanisms in comparative cognition using examples from auditory perception. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Health Care Resource Utilization for Outpatient Cardiovascular Disease and Diabetes Care Delivery Among Advanced Practice Providers and Physician Providers in Primary Care.

PubMed

Virani, Salim S; Akeroyd, Julia M; Ramsey, David J; Deswal, Anita; Nasir, Khurram; Rajan, Suja S; Ballantyne, Christie M; Petersen, Laura A

2018-06-01

Although effectiveness of diabetes or cardiovascular disease (CVD) care delivery between physicians and advanced practice providers (APPs) has been shown to be comparable, health care resource utilization between these 2 provider types in primary care is unknown. This study compared health care resource utilization between patients with diabetes or CVD receiving care from APPs or physicians. Diabetes (n = 1,022,588) or CVD (n = 1,187,035) patients with a primary care visit between October 2013 and September 2014 in 130 Veterans Affairs facilities were identified. Using hierarchical regression adjusting for covariates including patient illness burden, the authors compared number of primary or specialty care visits and number of lipid panels and hemoglobinA1c (HbA1c) tests among diabetes patients, and number of primary or specialty care visits and number of lipid panels and cardiac stress tests among CVD patients receiving care from physicians and APPs. Physicians had significantly larger patient panels compared with APPs. In adjusted analyses, diabetes patients receiving care from APPs received fewer primary and specialty care visits and a greater number of lipid panels and HbA1c tests compared with patients receiving care from physicians. CVD patients receiving care from APPs received more frequent lipid testing and fewer primary and specialty care visits compared with those receiving care from physicians, with no differences in the number of stress tests. Most of these differences, although statistically significant, were numerically small. Health care resource utilization among diabetes or CVD patients receiving care from APPs or physicians appears comparable, although physicians work with larger patient panels.

Population estimate of the preantral follicles and frequency of multioocyte follicles in prepubertal and adult bitches.

PubMed

Lunardon, N T; Silva-Santos, K C; Justino, R C; Dessunti, G T; Seneda, M M; Martins, M I M

2015-04-01

Oocytes from preantral follicles could be an alternative for in vitro maturation because most follicles are at the preantral stage. There are few studies that have sought to estimate the number of preantral follicles in bitches. Therefore, the aims of this study were to estimate the population of preantral follicles in the ovaries of small- and medium-sized prepubertal and adult bitches and compare the population of preantral follicles between the right and left ovaries and evaluate the frequency of multioocyte follicles (MOF). Eighty ovaries were collected by elective ovariohysterectomy from 40 healthy bitches. The bitches were divided into four groups: small-size prepubertal bitches (<10 kg, n = 20), medium-size prepubertal bitches (10-20 kg, n = 20), small-size adult bitches (<10 kg, n = 20), and medium-size adult bitches (10-20 kg, n = 20). Immediately after surgery, the ovaries were fixed in Bouin's solution and processed for histology. For each specimen, 70 histologic sections were cut and mounted on slides; then, the number of preantral follicles was estimated using a correction factor. The preantral follicles were classified according to the developmental stage. The data were analyzed using the Kruskal-Wallis test followed by Dunn's test for comparison between groups, and Fisher's exact test was used to evaluate the frequency of MOF (P ≤ 0.05). Considering the population of preantral follicles from the pair of ovaries, medium-size prepubertal bitches had the highest (P < 0.05) population of preantral follicles compared with the small and medium-size adult groups. There was a large variation in the numbers of preantral follicles among individuals of the same weight and within each group. There were differences between medium-size prepubertal and adult bitches regarding the population of preantral follicles in the right ovaries (145,482 ± 110,712 vs. 49,500 ± 44,821; P = 0.02); however, no differences were observed between the groups on the basis of comparisons of the number of preantral follicles in the left ovaries (P > 0.05). The prevalence of primordial MOF was higher in prepubertal bitches (47% vs. 28%), whereas adult bitches had a higher frequency of secondary MOF (49% vs. 25%; P < 0.05). We conclude that medium-size prepubertal bitches had the highest population of preantral follicles compared with small and medium-size adult bitches, and the use of only one ovary per bitch implied contrasting result. The presence of primordial MOF was higher in prepubertal bitches and at the secondary stage in adult bitches. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Maternal high-protein diet during pregnancy, but not during suckling, induced altered expression of an increasing number of hepatic genes in adult mouse offspring.

PubMed

Vanselow, Jens; Kucia, Marzena; Langhammer, Martina; Koczan, Dirk; Metges, Cornelia C

2016-04-01

Indirect effects of a high-protein maternal diet are not well understood. In this study, we analyzed short-term and sustainable effects of a prenatal versus early postnatal maternal high-protein diet on growth and hepatic gene expression in mouse offspring. Dams were exposed to an isoenergetic high-protein (HP, 40 % w/w) diet during pregnancy or lactation. Growth and hepatic expression profiles of male offspring were evaluated directly after weaning and 150 days after birth. Offspring from two dietary groups, high-protein diet during pregnancy and control diet during lactation (HPC), and control diet during pregnancy and high-protein diet during lactation (CHP), were compared with offspring (CC) from control-fed dams. Maternal CHP treatment was associated with sustained offspring growth retardation, but decreased numbers of affected hepatic genes in adults compared to weanlings. In contrast, offspring of the HPC group did not show persistent effects on growth parameters, but the number of affected hepatic genes was even increased at adult age. In both dietary groups, however, only a small subset of genes was affected in weanlings as well as in adults. We conclude that (1) prenatal and early postnatal maternal HP diet caused persistent, but (2) different effects and partially complementary trends on growth characteristics and on the hepatic transcriptome and associated pathways and that (3) only a small number of genes and associated upstream regulators might be involved in passing early diet-induced imprints to adulthood.

Real-Time Ultrafine Aerosol Measurements from Wastewater Treatment Facilities.

PubMed

Piqueras, P; Li, F; Castelluccio, V; Matsumoto, M; Asa-Awuku, A

2016-10-18

Airborne particle emissions from wastewater treatment plants (WWTP) have been associated with health repercussions but particulate quantification studies are scarce. In this study, particulate matter (PM) number concentrations and size distributions in the ultrafine range (7-300 nm) were measured from two different sources: a laboratory-scale aerobic bioreactor and the activated sludge aeration basins at Orange County Sanitation District (OCSD). The relationships between wastewater parameters (total organic carbon (TOC), chemical oxygen demand (COD), and total suspended solids (TSS)), aeration flow rate and particle concentrations were also explored. A significant positive relationship was found between particle concentration and WWTP variables (COD: r(10) = 0.876, p <.001, TOC: r(10) = 0.664, p <.05, TSS: r(10) = 0.707, p <.05, aeration flow rate: r(8) = 0.988, p <.0001). A theoretical model was also developed from empirical data to compare real world WWTP aerosol number emission fluxes with laboratory data. Aerosol number fluxes at OCSD aerated basins (9.8 × 10 4 lbs/min·cm 2 ) and the bioreactor (7.95 × 10 4 lbs/min·cm 2 ) were calculated and showed a relatively small difference (19%). The ultrafine size distributions from both systems were consistent, with a mode of ∼48 nm. The average mass concentration (7.03 μg/cm 3 ) from OCSD was relatively small compared to other urban sources. However, the in-tank average number concentration of airborne particles (14 480 lbs/cm 3 ) was higher than background ambient concentrations.

76 FR 32069 - Safety Zone; Lorain Independence Day Fireworks, Black River, Lorain, OH

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-06-03

... grant or loan recipients, and will not raise any novel legal or policy issues. Small Entities Under the... economic impact on a substantial number of small entities. The term ``small entities'' comprises small... number of small entities. This rule will affect the following entities, some of which may be small...

Effects of Mach number on pitot-probe displacement in a turbulent boundary layer

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Allen, J. M.

1974-01-01

Experimental pitot-probe-displacement data have been obtained in a turbulent boundary layer at a local free-stream Mach number of 4.63 and unit Reynolds number of 6.46 million meter. The results of this study were compared with lower Mach number results of previous studies. It was found that small probes showed displacement only, whereas the larger probes showed not only displacement but also distortion of the shape of the boundary-layer profile. The distortion pattern occurred lower in the boundary layer at the higher Mach number than at the the lower Mach number. The maximum distortion occurred when the center of the probe was about one probe diameter off the test surface. For probes in the wall contact position, the indicated Mach numbers were, for all probes tested, close to the true profile. Pitot-probe displacement was found to increase significantly with increasing Mach number.

The evolution of the complex sensory and motor systems of the human brain

PubMed Central

Kaas, Jon H.

2008-01-01

Inferences about how the complex sensory and motor systems of the human brain evolved are based on the results of comparative studies of brain organization across a range of mammalian species, and evidence from the endocasts of fossil skulls of key extinct species. The endocasts of the skulls of early mammals indicate that they had small brains with little neocortex. Evidence from comparative studies of cortical organization from small-brained mammals of the six major branches of mammalian evolution supports the conclusion that the small neocortex of early mammals was divided into roughly 20–25 cortical areas, including primary and secondary sensory fields. In early primates, vision was the dominant sense, and cortical areas associated with vision in temporal and occipital cortex underwent a significant expansion. Comparative studies indicate that early primates had 10 or more visual areas, and somatosensory areas with expanded representations of the forepaw. Posterior parietal cortex was also expanded, with a caudal half dominated by visual inputs, and a rostral half dominated by somatosensory inputs with outputs to an array of seven or more motor and visuomotor areas of the frontal lobe. Somatosensory areas and posterior parietal cortex became further differentiated in early anthropoid primates. As larger brains evolved in early apes and in our hominin ancestors, the number of cortical areas increased to reach an estimated 200 or so in present day humans, and hemispheric specializations emerged. The large human brain grew primarily by increasing neuron number rather than increasing average neuron size. PMID:18331903

The prevalence of antimicrobial-resistant Escherichia coli in two species of invasive alien mammals in Japan.

PubMed

Nakamura, Ichiro; Obi, Takeshi; Sakemi, Yoko; Nakayama, Ayano; Miyazaki, Kei; Ogura, Go; Tamaki, Masanobu; Oka, Tatsuzo; Takase, Kozo; Miyamoto, Atsushi; Kawamoto, Yasuhiro

2011-08-01

The prevalence of antimicrobial resistance in 128 Escherichia coli isolates was investigated in two species of invasive alien mammals (IAMs): the small Asian mongoose (SAM) and Japanese weasel (JW). The SAM is found on the main island of Okinawa, Japan, where a large number of livestock is available, and the JW is present on a small island, where is isolated from the main island, and have a small number of livestock. We focused on the two IAMs, inhabiting under the different environments, and compared their prevalence of antimicrobial-resistant E. coli. In the comparison of the frequencies of antimicrobial-resistant E. coli isolates between the SAM and JW, JW showed significantly higher prevalence of resistance against three drugs, ampicillin, chlortetracycline and nalidixic acid, compared with SAM's test results (P<0.05). The bla(TEM) gene and the aph1 gene were detected in 35 subjects (91%) of ampicillin-resistant isolates and 6 subjects (100%) of kanamycin-resistant isolates, respectively. The tet (A) gene was detected in 62 subjects (46%) of CTC-resistant isolates, and the tet (B) gene was detected in 25 subjects (8%) of those in IAM. The present results suggest that some IAMs were the carrier of antimicrobial-resistant bacteria and their genes, and the frequencies of these resistances were different between two IAM species.

Oviposition substrate in Asian tiger mosquito surveillance: Do the sizes matter?

PubMed

Falsone, Luigi; Brianti, Emanuele; Severini, Francesco; Giannetto, Salvatore; Romi, Roberto

2015-12-01

Ovitraps are regarded as a reliable system to monitor Aedes albopictus dynamics. However, the dimensions of the oviposition substrate are not standardized, and no studies have investigated which should be the most effective sizes. In this study, the effect of paddle sizes in tiger mosquito egg collection was evaluated. Egg count and density on the wide surfaces and margins of different-sized oviposition substrates have been evaluated in two studies (A and B). In study A, a total of 29,995 Ae. albopictus eggs was counted in 250 classic oviposition substrates. Eggs were found on both wide surfaces (53.1%) and margins (46.9%). Egg density was significantly larger in margins compared to wide surfaces. Overall in study B, 983 Ae. albopictus eggs were collected. According to paddle sizes, 51.8% of eggs were on large and 48.2% on small paddles. Mean egg density of wide surfaces was significantly larger in small paddles (0.25 eggs/cm(2) ) compared to large paddles (0.06 eggs/cm(2) ). Results indicate that wider oviposition substrates do not mean larger number of Ae. albopictus eggs. Indeed, on paddles four times thinner than others, the number of eggs counted was not statistically different. These findings suggest that small paddles may be routinely employed in ovitraps, thus allowing savings of materials and money. © 2015 The Society for Vector Ecology.

A Comparison of mucosal surface area and villous histology in small intestines of the Brazilian free-tailed bat (Tadarida brasiliensis) and the mouse (Mus musculus).

PubMed

Zhang, Zhi-Qiang; Brun, Antonio; Price, Edwin R; Cruz-Neto, Ariovaldo P; Karasov, William H; Caviedes-Vidal, Enrique

2015-01-01

Studies on birds have led to the hypothesis that increased intestinal absorption between enterocytes (paracellular) evolved as a compensation for smaller intestinal size in fliers, which was perhaps selected to minimize the mass of digesta carried. This hypothesis predicts that bats will also exhibit relatively reduced intestinal size and high paracellular absorption, compared with nonflying mammals. Published studies on three bat species indicate relatively high paracellular absorption. One mechanism for increasing paracellular absorption per cm2 small intestine (SI) is increased number of tight junctions (TJs) across which paracellular absorption occurs. To our knowledge, we provide the first comparative analysis of enterocyte size and number in flying and nonflying mammals. Intestines of insectivorous bats Tadarida brasiliensis were compared with Mus musculus using hematoxylin and eosin staining method. Bats had shorter and narrower SIs than mice, and after correction for body size difference by normalizing to mass3/4, the bats had 40% less nominal surface area than the mouse, as predicted. Villous enhancement of surface area was 90% greater in the bat than in the mouse, mainly because of longer villi and a greater density of villi in bat intestines. Bat and mouse were similar in enterocyte diameter. Bats exceeded mice by 54.4% in villous area per cm length SI and by 95% in number of enterocytes per cm2 of the nominal surface area of the SI. Therefore, an increased density of TJs per cm2 SI may be a mechanistic explanation that helps to understand the high paracellular absorption observed in bats compared to nonflying mammals. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

High Reynolds number analysis of flat plate and separated afterbody flow using non-linear turbulence models

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Carlson, John R.

1996-01-01

The ability of the three-dimensional Navier-Stokes method, PAB3D, to simulate the effect of Reynolds number variation using non-linear explicit algebraic Reynolds stress turbulence modeling was assessed. Subsonic flat plate boundary-layer flow parameters such as normalized velocity distributions, local and average skin friction, and shape factor were compared with DNS calculations and classical theory at various local Reynolds numbers up to 180 million. Additionally, surface pressure coefficient distributions and integrated drag predictions on an axisymmetric nozzle afterbody were compared with experimental data from 10 to 130 million Reynolds number. The high Reynolds data was obtained from the NASA Langley 0.3m Transonic Cryogenic Tunnel. There was generally good agreement of surface static pressure coefficients between the CFD and measurement. The change in pressure coefficient distributions with varying Reynolds number was similar to the experimental data trends, though slightly over-predicting the effect. The computational sensitivity of viscous modeling and turbulence modeling are shown. Integrated afterbody pressure drag was typically slightly lower than the experimental data. The change in afterbody pressure drag with Reynolds number was small both experimentally and computationally, even though the shape of the distribution was somewhat modified with Reynolds number.

Social and natural sciences differ in their research strategies, adapted to work for different knowledge landscapes.

PubMed

Jaffe, Klaus

2014-01-01

Do different fields of knowledge require different research strategies? A numerical model exploring different virtual knowledge landscapes, revealed two diverging optimal search strategies. Trend following is maximized when the popularity of new discoveries determine the number of individuals researching it. This strategy works best when many researchers explore few large areas of knowledge. In contrast, individuals or small groups of researchers are better in discovering small bits of information in dispersed knowledge landscapes. Bibliometric data of scientific publications showed a continuous bipolar distribution of these strategies, ranging from natural sciences, with highly cited publications in journals containing a large number of articles, to the social sciences, with rarely cited publications in many journals containing a small number of articles. The natural sciences seem to adapt their research strategies to landscapes with large concentrated knowledge clusters, whereas social sciences seem to have adapted to search in landscapes with many small isolated knowledge clusters. Similar bipolar distributions were obtained when comparing levels of insularity estimated by indicators of international collaboration and levels of country-self citations: researchers in academic areas with many journals such as social sciences, arts and humanities, were the most isolated, and that was true in different regions of the world. The work shows that quantitative measures estimating differences between academic disciplines improve our understanding of different research strategies, eventually helping interdisciplinary research and may be also help improve science policies worldwide.

Correlation Analysis between Motor Vehicle Types and Air Pollution in Shijiazhuang City

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pan, Wei-Yi; Shen, Hong-Yan

2018-05-01

Air pollution is more serious than before in Shijiazhuang in recent years, motor vehicle exhaust emissions is one of the major causes of air pollution. The economy is developing rapidly in Shijiazhuang, the motor vehicles increase at a rate of 20% per year. In August 2017, the number of motor vehicles exceeded 2.6 million in Shijiazhuang. In order to explore the relationship between the types of motor vehicles and air pollution in Shijiazhuang. This paper chose the traffic information of the typical roads which are Heping East Road and Yuhua East Road, and determined emission factors, such as CO, HC, NOx, PM10 and so on. The EDMS model was used to calculate the air pollutant discharge emissions inventory and compared with the traffic information. The conclusion is that small cars account for 85% of the total traffic volume, the vehicle exhaust account for 68% of CO, 74% of HC, 77% of NOx and 77% of PM10. Air pollution and the number of small cars have a great correlation. The pollutants contributed by motor vehicles mainly for the small car discharge, in order to reduce the air pollution, relevant departments can take effective measures which include road pricing and limit the number of motor vehicle.

Effectiveness of bed bug monitors for detecting and trapping bed bugs in apartments.

PubMed

Wang, Changlu; Tsai, Wan-Tien; Cooper, Richard; White, Jeffrey

2011-02-01

Bed bugs, Cimex lectularius L., are now considered a serious urban pest in the United States. Because they are small and difficult to find, there has been strong interest in developing and using monitoring tools to detect bed bugs and evaluate the results of bed bug control efforts. Several bed bug monitoring devices were developed recently, but their effectiveness is unknown. We comparatively evaluated three active monitors that contain attractants: CDC3000, NightWatch, and a home-made dry ice trap. The Climbup Insect Interceptor, a passive monitor (without attractants), was used for estimating the bed bug numbers before and after placing active monitors. The results of the Interceptors also were compared with the results of the active monitors. In occupied apartments, the relative effectiveness of the active monitors was: dry ice trap > CDC3000 > NightWatch. In lightly infested apartments, the Interceptor (operated for 7 d) trapped similar number of bed bugs as the dry ice trap (operated for 1 d) and trapped more bed bugs than CDC3000 and NightWatch (operated for 1 d). The Interceptor was also more effective than visual inspections in detecting the presence of small numbers of bed bugs. CDC3000 and the dry ice trap operated for 1 d were equally as effective as the visual inspections for detecting very low level of infestations, whereas 1-d deployment of NightWatch detected significantly lower number of infestations compared with visual inspections. NightWatch was designed to be able to operate for several consecutive nights. When operated for four nights, NightWatch trapped similar number of bed bugs as the Interceptors operated for 10 d after deployment of NightWatch. We conclude these monitors are effective tools in detecting early bed bug infestations and evaluating the results of bed bug control programs.

The effect of gravity on liquid plug propagation in a two-dimensional channel

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Suresh, V.; Grotberg, J. B.

2005-03-01

The effect of plug propagation speed and gravity on the quasisteady motion of a liquid plug in a two-dimensional liquid-lined channel oriented at an angle α with respect to gravity is studied. The problem is motivated by the transport of liquid plugs instilled into pulmonary airways in medical treatments such as surfactant replacement therapy, drug delivery, and liquid ventilation. The capillary number Ca is assumed to be small, while the Bond number Bo is arbitrary. Using matched asymptotic expansions and lubrication theory, expressions are obtained for the thickness of the trailing films left behind by the plug and the pressure drop across it as functions of Ca, Bo, α and the thickness of the precursor films. When the Bond number is small it is found that the trailing film thickness and the flow contribution to the pressure drop scale as Ca2/3 at leading order with coefficients that depend on Bo and α. The first correction to the film thickness is found to occur at O(Ca) compared to O(Ca4/3) in the Bo=0 case. Asymmetry in the liquid distribution is quantified by calculating the ratio of liquid volumes above and below the centerline of the channel, VR ˙. VR=1 at Bo=0, indicating a symmetric distribution, and decreases with Bo and Ca, but increases with the plug length Lp. The decrease of VR with Ca suggests that higher propagation speeds in small airways may result in less homogenous liquid distribution, which is in contrast to the expected effect in large airways. For given values of the other parameters, a maximum capillary number Cac is identified above which the plug will eventually rupture. When the Bond number becomes equal to an orientation-dependent critical value Boc, it is found that the scaling of the film thickness and pressure drop change to Ca1/2 and Ca1/6, respectively. It is shown that this scaling is valid for small increments of the Bond number over its critical value, Bo=Boc+BCa1/6, but for higher Bond numbers the asymptotic approach breaks down.

SMALL BUSINESS: Status of Small Disadvantaged Business Certifications

DTIC Science & Technology

2001-01-01

Management and Budget. We will also make copies available to others on request.Page 13 GAO-01-273 Small Business If you have questions regarding this...GAO United States General Accounting OfficeReport to Congressional RequestersJanuary 2001 SMALL BUSINESS Status of Small Disadvantaged Business ...34) Title and Subtitle SMALL BUSINESS Status of Small Disadvantaged Business Certifications Contract or Grant Number Program Element Number Authors

Analysis of Different Blade Architectures on small VAWT Performance

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Battisti, L.; Brighenti, A.; Benini, E.; Raciti Castelli, M.

2016-09-01

The present paper aims at describing and comparing different small Vertical Axis Wind Turbine (VAWT) architectures, in terms of performance and loads. These characteristics can be highlighted by resorting to the Blade Element-Momentum (BE-M) model, commonly adopted for rotor pre-design and controller assessment. After validating the model with experimental data, the paper focuses on the analysis of VAWT loads depending on some relevant rotor features: blade number (2 and 3), airfoil camber line (comparing symmetrical and asymmetrical profiles) and blade inclination (straight versus helical blade). The effect of such characteristics on both power and thrusts (in the streamwise direction and in the crosswise one) as a function of both the blades azimuthal position and their Tip Speed Ratio (TSR) are presented and widely discussed.

Water use for aquaculture in Minnesota, 1984

USGS Publications Warehouse

Trotta, L.C.

1988-01-01

Little change in the number of licensees since 1980 -indicates that aquaculture is a viable segment of the Minnesota economy. Trout farming has grown from 10 farms in 1978, to 23 in 1984; most use dug ponds sustained by ground-water inflow. Withdrawals for aquaculture are nonconsumptive and are small compared to other water-use categories in Minnesota.

Enumeration of Objects and Substances in Non-Human Primates: Experiments with Brown Lemurs ("Eulemur Fulvus")

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mahajan, Neha; Barnes, Jennifer L.; Blanco, Marissa; Santos, Laurie R.

2009-01-01

Both human infants and adult non-human primates share the capacity to track small numbers of objects across time and occlusion. The question now facing developmental and comparative psychologists is whether similar mechanisms give rise to this capacity across the two populations. Here, we explore whether non-human primates' object tracking…

Two Models of Raters in a Structured Oral Examination: Does It Make a Difference?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Touchie, Claire; Humphrey-Murto, Susan; Ainslie, Martha; Myers, Kathryn; Wood, Timothy J.

2010-01-01

Oral examinations have become more standardized over recent years. Traditionally a small number of raters were used for this type of examination. Past studies suggested that more raters should improve reliability. We compared the results of a multi-station structured oral examination using two different rater models, those based in a station,…

Teacher Quality: A Comparison of National Board--Certified and Non--Board--Certified Teachers of Deaf Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Scheetz, Nanci A.; Martin, David S.

2006-01-01

The study was designed to identify specific components of teacher excellence, focusing initially on the characteristics of the small number of teachers of the deaf who are certified by the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS), then comparing those with the characteristics of other teachers identified as master teachers by…

College Student Drug Usage in a State System as a Function of Type of Institution

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Schoenfeldt, Lyle F.; Strimbu, Jerry L.

1975-01-01

Over 4,500 students from 28 universities, colleges, and junior colleges constituting a state system of higher education were compared on extent of drug use. The largest differences were between universities and junior colleges on alcohol and marihuana. Differences in terms of actual numbers of users were small. Implications are discussed.…

Evaluation of a Secondary School Science Program Inversion: Moving from a Traditional to a Modifified-PCB Sequence

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gaubatz, Julie

2013-01-01

Studies of high-school science course sequences have been limited primarily to a small number of site-specific investigations comparing traditional science sequences (e.g., Biology-Chemistry-Physics: BCP) to various Physics First-influenced sequences (Physics-Chemistry-Biology: PCB). The present study summarizes a five-year program evaluation…

Different Anaphoric Expressions Are Investigated by Event-Related Brain Potentials

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Streb, Judith; Hennighausen, Erwin; Rosler, Frank

2004-01-01

Event-related potentials were recorded to substantiate the claim of a distinct psycholinguistic status of (a) pronouns vs. proper names and (b) ellipses vs. proper names. In two studies 41 students read sentences in which the number of intervening words between the anaphor and its antecedent was either small or large. Comparing the far with the…

Effects of fire and browsing on regeneration of blue oak

Treesearch

James W. Bartolome; Mitchel P. McClaran; Barbara H. Allen-Diaz; Jim Dunne; Lawrence D. Ford; Richard B. Standiford; Neil K. McDougald; Larry C. Forero

2002-01-01

Blue oaks (Quercus douglasii) are not regenerating well over much of California. The roles of fire and browsing in regeneration are probably significant, but poorly understood. We burned two foothill blue oak woodland sites which contained significant numbers of small trees between 40 and 70 cm tall, then compared height growth over 14 years among 48...

Rethinking a Case Study Method in Educational Research: A Comparative Analysis Method in Qualitative Research

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Murakami, Yusuke

2013-01-01

There are two types of qualitative research that analyze a small number of cases or a single case: idiographic differentiation and nomothetic/generalization. There are few case studies of generalization. This is because theoretical inclination is weak in the field of education, and the binary framework of quantitative versus qualitative research…

Emotions Matter: Teachers' Feelings about Their Interactions with Teacher Trainers during Curriculum Reform

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yin, Hong-biao; Lee, John Chi-Kin

2011-01-01

Compared with the rich exploration of teachers' emotional geographies in the West, there have been only a small number of studies conducted in Chinese societies that have adopted Hargreaves's emotional geographies to analyze human interactions in education. This study explores the nature of emotions felt by teachers during their interactions with…

DYZ1 copy number variation, Y chromosome polymorphism and early recurrent spontaneous abortion/early embryo growth arrest.

PubMed

Yan, Junhao; Fan, Lingling; Zhao, Yueran; You, Li; Wang, Laicheng; Zhao, Han; Li, Yuan; Chen, Zi-Jiang

2011-12-01

To find the association between recurrent spontaneous abortion (RSA)/early embryo growth arrest and Y chromosome polymorphism. Peripheral blood samples of the male patients of big Y chromosome, small Y chromosome and other male patients whose partners suffered from unexplained RSA/early embryo growth arrest were collected. PCR and real-time fluorescent quantitative PCR were used to test the deletion and the copy number variation of DYZ1 region in Y chromosome of the patients. A total of 79 big Y chromosome patients (48 of whose partners suffered from RSA or early embryo growth arrest), 7 small Y chromosome patients, 106 other male patients whose partners had suffered from unexplained RSA or early embryo growth arrest, and 100 normal male controls were enrolled. There was no fraction deletion of DYZ1 detected both in big Y patients and in normal men. Of RSA patients, 1 case showed deletion of 266bp from the gene locus 25-290bp, and 2 cases showed deletion of 773bp from 1347 to 2119bp. Of only 7 small Y chromosome patients, 2 cases showed deletion of 266bp from 25 to 290bp, and 4 cases showed deletion of 773bp from 1347 to 2119bp and 275bp from 3128 to 3420bp. The mean of DYZ1 copies was 3900 in normal control men; the mean in big Y patients was 5571, in RSA patients was 2655, and in small Y patients was 1059. All of the others were significantly different (P<0.01) compared with normal control men, which meant that DYZ1 copy number in normal control men was less than that of big Y chromosome patients, and was more than that of unexplained early RSA patients and small Y patients. The integrity and copy number variation of DYZ1 are closely related to the Y chromosome length under microscope. The cause of RSA/early embryo growth arrest in some couples may be the increase (big Y patients) or decrease of DYZ1 copy number in the husbands' Y chromosome. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Improved classification of small-scale urban watersheds using thematic mapper simulator data

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Owe, M.; Ormsby, J. P.

1984-01-01

The utility of Landsat MSS classification methods in the case of small, highly urbanized hydrological basins containing complex land-use patterns is limited, and is plagued by misclassifications due to the spectral response similarity of many dissimilar surfaces. Landsat MSS data for the Conley Creek basin near Atlanta, Georgia, have been compared to thematic mapper simulator (TMS) data obtained on the same day by aircraft. The TMS data were able to alleviate many of the recurring patterns associated with MSS data, through bandwidth optimization, an increase of the number of spectral bands to seven, and an improvement of ground resolution to 30 m. The TMS is thereby able to detect small water bodies, powerline rights-of-way, and even individual buildings.

SU-C-BRE-01: 3D Conformal Micro Irradiation Results of Four Treatment Sites for Preclinical Small Animal and Clinical Treatment Plans

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Price, S; Yaddanapudi, S; Rangaraj, D

Purpose: Small animal irradiation can provide preclinical insights necessary for clinical advancement. In order to provide clinically relevant data, these small animal irradiations must be designed such that the treatment methods and results are comparable to clinical protocols, regardless of variations in treatment size and modality. Methods: Small animal treatments for four treatment sites (brain, liver, lung and spine) were investigated, accounting for change in treatment energy and target size. Up to five orthovoltage (300kVp) beams were used in the preclinical treatments, using circular, square, and conformal tungsten apertures, based on the treatment site. Treatments were delivered using the imagemore » guided micro irradiator (microIGRT). The plans were delivered to a mouse sized phantom and dose measurements in axial and coronal planes were performed using radiochromic film. The results of the clinical and preclinical protocols were characterized in terms of conformality number, CTV coverage, dose nonuniformity ratio, and organ at risk sparing. Results: Preclinical small animal treatment conformality was within 1–16% of clinical results for all treatment sites. The volume of the CTV receiving 100% of the prescription dose was typically within 10% of clinical values. The dose non-uniformity was consistently higher for preclinical treatments compared to clinical treatments, indicating hot spots in the target. The ratios of the mean dose in the target to the mean dose in an organ at risk were comparable if not better for preclinical versus clinical treatments. Finally, QUANTEC dose constraints were applied and the recommended morbidity limits were satisfied in each small animal treatment site. Conclusion: We have shown that for four treatment sites, preclinical 3D conformal small animal treatments can be clinically comparable if clinical protocols are followed. Using clinical protocols as the standard, preclinical irradiation methods can be altered and iteratively improved to achieve a clinically relevant irradiation model.« less

A Dark Asteroid Family in the Phocaea Region

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Novaković, Bojan; Tsirvoulis, Georgios; Granvik, Mikael; Todović, Ana

2017-06-01

We report the discovery of a new asteroid family among the dark asteroids residing in the Phocaea region the Tamara family. We make use of available physical data to separate asteroids in the region according to their surface reflectance properties, and establish the membership of the family. We determine the slope of the cumulative magnitude distribution of the family, and find it to be significantly steeper than the corresponding slope of all the asteroids in the Phocaea region. This implies that subkilometer dark Phocaeas are comparable in number to bright S-type objects, shedding light on an entirely new aspect of the composition of small Phocaea asteroids. We then use the Yarkovsky V-shape based method and estimate the age of the family to be 264 ± 43 Myr. Finally, we carry out numerical simulations of the dynamical evolution of the Tamara family. The results suggest that up to 50 Tamara members with absolute magnitude H< 19.4 may currently be found in the near-Earth region. Despite their relatively small number in the near-Earth space, the rate of Earth impacts by small, dark Phocaeas is non-negligible.

Swimming of a linear chain with a cargo in an incompressible viscous fluid with inertia

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Felderhof, B. U.

2017-01-01

An approximation to the added mass matrix of an assembly of spheres is constructed on the basis of potential flow theory for situations where one sphere is much larger than the others. In the approximation, the flow potential near a small sphere is assumed to be dipolar, but near the large sphere it involves all higher order multipoles. The analysis is based on an exact result for the potential of a magnetic dipole in the presence of a superconducting sphere. Subsequently, the approximate added mass hydrodynamic interactions are used in a calculation of the swimming velocity and rate of dissipation of linear chain structures consisting of a number of small spheres and a single large one, with account also of frictional hydrodynamic interactions. The results derived for periodic swimming on the basis of a kinematic approach are compared with the bilinear theory, valid for small amplitude of stroke, and with the numerical solution of the approximate equations of motion. The calculations interpolate over the whole range of scale number between the friction-dominated Stokes limit and the inertia-dominated regime.

Exact diagonalization of quantum lattice models on coprocessors

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Siro, T.; Harju, A.

2016-10-01

We implement the Lanczos algorithm on an Intel Xeon Phi coprocessor and compare its performance to a multi-core Intel Xeon CPU and an NVIDIA graphics processor. The Xeon and the Xeon Phi are parallelized with OpenMP and the graphics processor is programmed with CUDA. The performance is evaluated by measuring the execution time of a single step in the Lanczos algorithm. We study two quantum lattice models with different particle numbers, and conclude that for small systems, the multi-core CPU is the fastest platform, while for large systems, the graphics processor is the clear winner, reaching speedups of up to 7.6 compared to the CPU. The Xeon Phi outperforms the CPU with sufficiently large particle number, reaching a speedup of 2.5.

Design Improvements in Underground Watering System for Small Local Farming Industries

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ariff, T. F.; Tukiman, N. H. A.; Bahar, R.

2016-02-01

The implementation of underground watering system is basically to supply crops with enough quantities of water. In Malaysia, most farming industries use sprinkler irrigation system. The water is only distributed over the surface whilst the roots actually need water the most. Thus, this research is conducted to design the improvements of watering system for small local farming industries by using underground watering system. Design improvements of the watering system had been done using CATIA software. The design had been fabricated using rapid prototyping/3D printer, tested and evaluated by conducting experiments. Four different plants were prepared and labelled as Plant A, Plant B, Plant C, and Plant D. Plant A and Plant C were not be equipped with the underground watering device while Plant B and Plant D were equipped with the device. The growth of every plant is measured in terms of height, number of newly grown leaves, number of flowers and number of fruits for the duration of 60 days. The plant equipped with the device has the quickest growth measurement (59.68%), continued to produce new leaves rapidly (89.20%), and produced the most number of flowers (19 flowers) and fruits (15 fruits) when compared with the plants without the underground watering device. The difference in growth development is very significant. Therefore, the underground watering system does have a positive impact in nourishing the plant from the root efficiently and can be used productively in small local farming industries.

Tidal amplitude and fish abundance in the mouth region of a small estuary.

PubMed

Becker, A; Whitfield, A K; Cowley, P D; Cole, V J; Taylor, M D

2016-09-01

Using an acoustic underwater camera (Dual Frequency IDentification SONar, DIDSON), the abundance and direction of movement of fishes > 80 mm total length (LT ) in the mouth of a small South African estuary during spring and neap tidal cycles were observed. While the sizes of fishes recorded were consistent across both tide cycles, the number of fishes passing the camera was significantly greater during the smaller neap tides. Schooling behaviour was more pronounced for fishes that were travelling into the estuary compared to fishes swimming towards the ocean. © 2016 The Fisheries Society of the British Isles.

A Numerical-Analytical Approach to Modeling the Axial Rotation of the Earth

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Markov, Yu. G.; Perepelkin, V. V.; Rykhlova, L. V.; Filippova, A. S.

2018-04-01

A model for the non-uniform axial rotation of the Earth is studied using a celestial-mechanical approach and numerical simulations. The application of an approximate model containing a small number of parameters to predict variations of the axial rotation velocity of the Earth over short time intervals is justified. This approximate model is obtained by averaging variable parameters that are subject to small variations due to non-stationarity of the perturbing factors. The model is verified and compared with predictions over a long time interval published by the International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service (IERS).

Simulation-based power calculation for designing interrupted time series analyses of health policy interventions.

PubMed

Zhang, Fang; Wagner, Anita K; Ross-Degnan, Dennis

2011-11-01

Interrupted time series is a strong quasi-experimental research design to evaluate the impacts of health policy interventions. Using simulation methods, we estimated the power requirements for interrupted time series studies under various scenarios. Simulations were conducted to estimate the power of segmented autoregressive (AR) error models when autocorrelation ranged from -0.9 to 0.9 and effect size was 0.5, 1.0, and 2.0, investigating balanced and unbalanced numbers of time periods before and after an intervention. Simple scenarios of autoregressive conditional heteroskedasticity (ARCH) models were also explored. For AR models, power increased when sample size or effect size increased, and tended to decrease when autocorrelation increased. Compared with a balanced number of study periods before and after an intervention, designs with unbalanced numbers of periods had less power, although that was not the case for ARCH models. The power to detect effect size 1.0 appeared to be reasonable for many practical applications with a moderate or large number of time points in the study equally divided around the intervention. Investigators should be cautious when the expected effect size is small or the number of time points is small. We recommend conducting various simulations before investigation. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Two Types of Well Followed Users in the Followership Networks of Twitter

PubMed Central

Saito, Kodai; Masuda, Naoki

2014-01-01

In the Twitter blogosphere, the number of followers is probably the most basic and succinct quantity for measuring popularity of users. However, the number of followers can be manipulated in various ways; we can even buy follows. Therefore, alternative popularity measures for Twitter users on the basis of, for example, users' tweets and retweets, have been developed. In the present work, we take a purely network approach to this fundamental question. First, we find that two relatively distinct types of users possessing a large number of followers exist, in particular for Japanese, Russian, and Korean users among the seven language groups that we examined. A first type of user follows a small number of other users. A second type of user follows approximately the same number of other users as the number of follows that the user receives. Then, we compare local (i.e., egocentric) followership networks around the two types of users with many followers. We show that the second type, which is presumably uninfluential users despite its large number of followers, is characterized by high link reciprocity, a large number of friends (i.e., those whom a user follows) for the followers, followers' high link reciprocity, large clustering coefficient, large fraction of the second type of users among the followers, and a small PageRank. Our network-based results support that the number of followers used alone is a misleading measure of user's popularity. We propose that the number of friends, which is simple to measure, also helps us to assess the popularity of Twitter users. PMID:24416209

Effects of monochromatic light on mucosal mechanical and immunological barriers in the small intestine of broilers.

PubMed

Xie, D; Li, J; Wang, Z X; Cao, J; Li, T T; Chen, J L; Chen, Y X

2011-12-01

Our previous studies demonstrated that green and blue monochromatic lights were effective to stimulate immune response of the spleen in broilers. This study was designed to investigate the effects of monochromatic light on both gut mucosal mechanical and immunological barriers. A total of 120 Arbor Acre male broilers on post-hatching day (P) 0 were exposed to red light, green light (GL), blue light (BL), and white light (WL) for 49 d, respectively. As compared with broilers exposed to WL, the broilers exposed to GL showed that the villus height of small intestine was increased by 19.5% (P = 0.0205) and 38.8% (P = 0.0149), the crypt depth of small intestine was decreased by 15.1% (P = 0.0049) and 10.1% (P = 0.0005), and the ratios of villus height to crypt depth were increased by 39.3% (P < 0.0001) and 52.5% (P < 0.0001) at P7 and P21, respectively. Until P49, an increased villus height (33.6%, P = 0.0076), a decreased crypt depth (15.4%, P = 0.0201), and an increased villus height-to-crypt depth ratio (58.5%, P < 0.0001) were observed in the BL group as compared with the WL group. On the other hand, the numbers of intestinal intraepithelial lymphocytes (27.9%, P < 0.0001 and 37.0%, P < 0.0001), goblet cells (GC, 22.1%, P < 0.0001 and 18.1%, P < 0.0001), and IgA(+) cells (14.8%, P = 0.0543 and 47.9%, P = 0.0377) in the small intestine were significantly increased in the GL group as compared with the WL group at P7 and P21, respectively. The numbers of intestinal intraepithelial lymphocytes (36.2%, P < 0.0001), GC (26.5%, P < 0.0001), and IgA(+) cells (68.0%, P = 0.0177) in the BL group were also higher than those in the WL group at P49. These results suggest that both mucosal mechanical and immunological barriers of the small intestine may be improved by rearing broilers under GL at an early age and under BL at an older age.

Large number discrimination by mosquitofish.

PubMed

Agrillo, Christian; Piffer, Laura; Bisazza, Angelo

2010-12-22

Recent studies have demonstrated that fish display rudimentary numerical abilities similar to those observed in mammals and birds. The mechanisms underlying the discrimination of small quantities (<4) were recently investigated while, to date, no study has examined the discrimination of large numerosities in fish. Subjects were trained to discriminate between two sets of small geometric figures using social reinforcement. In the first experiment mosquitofish were required to discriminate 4 from 8 objects with or without experimental control of the continuous variables that co-vary with number (area, space, density, total luminance). Results showed that fish can use the sole numerical information to compare quantities but that they preferentially use cumulative surface area as a proxy of the number when this information is available. A second experiment investigated the influence of the total number of elements to discriminate large quantities. Fish proved to be able to discriminate up to 100 vs. 200 objects, without showing any significant decrease in accuracy compared with the 4 vs. 8 discrimination. The third experiment investigated the influence of the ratio between the numerosities. Performance was found to decrease when decreasing the numerical distance. Fish were able to discriminate numbers when ratios were 1:2 or 2:3 but not when the ratio was 3:4. The performance of a sample of undergraduate students, tested non-verbally using the same sets of stimuli, largely overlapped that of fish. Fish are able to use pure numerical information when discriminating between quantities larger than 4 units. As observed in human and non-human primates, the numerical system of fish appears to have virtually no upper limit while the numerical ratio has a clear effect on performance. These similarities further reinforce the view of a common origin of non-verbal numerical systems in all vertebrates.

A comparative presentation of implementation of ISO 22000 versus HACCP and FMEA in a small size Greek factory producing smoked trout: a case study.

PubMed

Arvanitoyannis, Ioannis S; Palaiokostas, Christos; Panagiotaki, Panagiota

2009-02-01

ISO 22000 is the new standard bound to replace HACCP on issues related to food safety. Although several companies, especially the big ones, have either implemented or are on the point of implementing ISO 22000, there are many others which are rather timid and/or reluctant to implement it. The main reason behind that is the lack of information and the fear that the new standard is too demanding in terms of bureaucratic work. This paper aims at making a comparative presentation of how the two systems can be applied to a small smoked salmon producing company thereby facilitating the emergence of the differences. The main difference is that in ISO 22000 systems like Good Manufacturing Practice and Good Hygiene Practice are prerequisites thus leading to lower number of CCPs. In this case study for example, the number of CCPs dropped from eight (8) in HACCP to four (4) in ISO 22000. Furthermore, the Failure Mode and Effect Analysis was applied to the smoked trout manufacturing process in an attempt to calculate quantitatively the Risk Priority Number (RPN) and to find out whether it can be effectively correlated to ISO 22000 and/or HACCP. RPN was found to be higher than 130 for eight steps, in close agreement with HACCP, thereby indicating that corrective actions will have to be undertaken.

Gonorrhoea and Syphilis Epidemiology in Flemish General Practice 2009–2013: Results from a Registry-based Retrospective Cohort Study Compared with Mandatory Notification

PubMed Central

Schweikardt, Christoph; Goderis, Geert; Elli, Steven; Coppieters, Yves

2016-01-01

Background The number of newly diagnosed gonorrhoea and syphilis cases has increased in Flanders in recent years. Our aim was to investigate, to which extent these diagnoses were registered by general practitioners (GPs), and to examine opportunities and limits of the Intego database in this regard. Methods Data from a retrospective cohort study based on the Flemish Intego general practice database was analyzed for the years 2009–2013. Case definitions were applied. Due to small case numbers obtained, cases were pooled and averaged over the observation period. Frequencies were compared with those calculated from figures of mandatory notification. Results A total of 91 gonorrhoea and 23 syphilis cases were registered. The average Intego annual frequency of gonorrhoea cases obtained was 11.9 (95% Poisson confidence interval (CI) 9.6; 14.7) per 100,000 population, and for syphilis 3.0 (CI 1.9; 4.5), respectively, while mandatory notification was calculated at 14.0 (CI: 13.6, 14.4) and 7.0 (CI: 6.7, 7.3), respectively. Conclusion In spite of limitations such as small numbers and different case definitions, comparison with mandatory notification suggests that the GP was involved in the large majority of gonorrhoea cases, while the majority of new syphilis cases did not come to the knowledge of the GP. PMID:29546196

Multiobjective Resource-Constrained Project Scheduling with a Time-Varying Number of Tasks

PubMed Central

Abello, Manuel Blanco

2014-01-01

In resource-constrained project scheduling (RCPS) problems, ongoing tasks are restricted to utilizing a fixed number of resources. This paper investigates a dynamic version of the RCPS problem where the number of tasks varies in time. Our previous work investigated a technique called mapping of task IDs for centroid-based approach with random immigrants (McBAR) that was used to solve the dynamic problem. However, the solution-searching ability of McBAR was investigated over only a few instances of the dynamic problem. As a consequence, only a small number of characteristics of McBAR, under the dynamics of the RCPS problem, were found. Further, only a few techniques were compared to McBAR with respect to its solution-searching ability for solving the dynamic problem. In this paper, (a) the significance of the subalgorithms of McBAR is investigated by comparing McBAR to several other techniques; and (b) the scope of investigation in the previous work is extended. In particular, McBAR is compared to a technique called, Estimation Distribution Algorithm (EDA). As with McBAR, EDA is applied to solve the dynamic problem, an application that is unique in the literature. PMID:24883398

Present and Future Surface Mass Budget of Small Arctic Ice Caps in a High Resolution Regional Climate Model

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mottram, Ruth; Langen, Peter; Koldtoft, Iben; Midefelt, Linnea; Hesselbjerg Christensen, Jens

2016-04-01

Globally, small ice caps and glaciers make a substantial contribution to sea level rise; this is also true in the Arctic. Around Greenland small ice caps are surprisingly important to the total mass balance from the island as their marginal coastal position means they receive a large amount of precipitation and also experience high surface melt rates. Since small ice caps and glaciers have had a disproportionate number of long-term monitoring and observational schemes in the Arctic, likely due to their relative accessibility, they can also be a valuable source of data. However, in climate models the surface mass balance contributions are often not distinguished from the main ice sheet and the presence of high relief topography is difficult to capture in coarse resolution climate models. At the same time, the diminutive size of marginal ice masses in comparison to the ice sheet makes modelling their ice dynamics difficult. Using observational data from the Devon Ice Cap in Arctic Canada and the Renland Ice Cap in Eastern Greenland, we assess the success of a very high resolution (~5km) regional climate model, HIRHAM5 in capturing the surface mass balance (SMB) of these small ice caps. The model is forced with ERA-Interim and we compare observed mean SMB and the interannual variability to assess model performance. The steep gradient in topography around Renland is challenging for climate models and additional statistical corrections are required to fit the calculated surface mass balance to the high relief topography. Results from a modelling experiment at Renland Ice Cap shows that this technique produces a better fit between modelled and observed surface topography. We apply this statistical relationship to modelled SMB on the Devon Ice Cap and use the long time series of observations from this glacier to evaluate the model and the smoothed SMB. Measured SMB values from a number of other small ice caps including Mittivakkat and A.P. Olsen ice cap are also compared with model output. Finally we use climate simulations forced with two different RCP scenarios to examine the likely future evolution of SMB over these small ice masses.

A water-soluble extract from cultured medium of Ganoderma lucidum (Reishi) mycelia attenuates the small intestinal injury induced by anti-cancer drugs

PubMed Central

KASHIMOTO, NAOKI; ISHII, SATOMI; MYOJIN, YUKI; USHIJIMA, MITSUYASU; HAYAMA, MINORU; WATANABE, HIROMITSU

2010-01-01

The present study investigated whether a water-soluble extract from the culture medium of Ganoderma lucidum (Reishi) mycelia (MAK) is able to protect the small intestine against damage induced by anti-cancer drugs. Six-week-old male B6C3F1/Crlj mice were fed a basal diet (MF) alone or with various doses of MAK or Agarics blazei Murrill (AGA) beginning one week before treatment with the anti-cancer drugs. Mice were sacrificed 3.5 days after injection of the anti-cancer drug, the small intestine was removed and tissue specimens were examined for the regeneration of small intestinal crypts. In experiment 1, the number of regenerative crypts after the administration of 5-fluorouracil (5FU) intravenously (250 mg/kg) or intraperitoneally (250 or 500 mg/kg) was compared after treatment with MAK or AGA. MAK protected against 5FU-induced small intestinal injury whereas AGA did not. In experiment 2, we investigated the protective effect of MAK against small intestinal injury induced by the anti-cancer drugs: UFT (tegafur with uracil; 1,000 mg/kg, orally), cisplatin (CDDP; 12.5 and 25 mg/kg, intraperitoneally), cyclophosphamide (CPA; 250 mg/kg, orally) and gefitinib (Iressa; 2,000 and 4,000 mg/kg, orally). UFT and CDDP decreased the number of regenerative crypts, but treatment with MAK attenuated the extent of UFT- or CDDP-induced small intestinal injury. CPA or Iressa plus MAK up-regulated crypt regeneration. The present results indicate that MAK ameliorates the small intestinal injury caused by several anti-cancer drugs, suggesting that MAK is a potential preventive agent against this common adverse effect of chemotherapy. PMID:22966257

Perylene-Diimide Based Donor-Acceptor-Donor Type Small-Molecule Acceptors for Solution-Processable Organic Solar Cells

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ganesamoorthy, Ramasamy; Vijayaraghavan, Rajagopalan; Sakthivel, Pachagounder

2017-12-01

Development of nonfullerene acceptors plays an important role in the commercial availability of plastic solar cells. We report herein synthesis of bay-substituted donor-acceptor-donor (D-A-D)-type perylene diimide (PDI)-based small molecules (SM-1 to SM-4) by Suzuki coupling method and their use as acceptors in bulk heterojunction organic solar cells (BHJ-OSCs) with poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) polymer donor. We varied the number of electron-rich thiophene units and the solubilizing side chains and also evaluated the optical and electrochemical properties of the small molecules. The synthesized small molecules were confirmed by Fourier-transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy, nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, and high-resolution mass spectroscopy (HR-MS). The small molecules showed extensive and strong absorption in the ultraviolet-visible (UV-Vis) region up to 750 nm, with bandgap (E_{{g}}^{{opt}} ) reduced below <2 eV. The energy levels of small molecules SM-1 to SM-4 were suitable for use as electron-accepting materials. The small molecules showed good thermal stability up to 300°C. BHJ-OSCs with SM-1 and P3HT polymer donor showed maximum power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 0.19% with V oc of 0.30 V, J sc of 1.72 mA cm-2, and fill factor (FF) of 37%. The PCE decreased with the number of thiophene units. The PCE of SM-2 was lower than that of SM-1. This difference in PCE can be explained by the higher aggregation tendency of the bithiophene compared with the thiophene unit. Introduction of the solubilizing group in the bay position increased the aggregation property, leading to much lower PCE than for the small molecules without solubilizing group.

Small and Large Number Processing in Infants and Toddlers with Williams Syndrome

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Van Herwegen, Jo; Ansari, Daniel; Xu, Fei; Karmiloff-Smith, Annette

2008-01-01

Previous studies have suggested that typically developing 6-month-old infants are able to discriminate between small and large numerosities. However, discrimination between small numerosities in young infants is only possible when variables continuous with number (e.g. area or circumference) are confounded. In contrast, large number discrimination…

Impulse Oscillometry and Spirometry Small-Airway Parameters in Mild to Moderate Bronchiectasis.

PubMed

Guan, Wei-Jie; Yuan, Jing-Jing; Gao, Yong-Hua; Li, Hui-Min; Zheng, Jin-Ping; Chen, Rong-Chang; Zhong, Nan-Shan

2016-11-01

Both impulse oscillometry and spirometry can reflect small-airway disorders. The objective of this work was to investigate the diagnostic value of impulse oscillometry and spirometry small-airway parameters and their correlation with radiology, disease severity, and sputum bacteriology in mild to moderate bronchiectasis (bronchiectasis severity index <9) and to validate these findings in sensitivity analyses (mild bronchiectasis). We recruited 94 subjects with mild to moderate bronchiectasis and 26 healthy subjects. The diagnostic value of small-airway parameters was compared using the receiver operating characteristic curve. Chest high-resolution computed tomography (HRCT), impulse oscillometry measurement, spirometry, and sputum culture were performed. Correlation between small-airway parameters and clinical indices was determined, adjusting for age, sex, body mass index, and smoking history. Sensitivity analyses were repeated when excluding subjects with bronchiectasis severity index ≥9 or HRCT score ≥13. Impulse oscillometry and spirometry small-airway parameters could discriminate mild to moderate bronchiectasis from healthy subjects and correlated significantly with HRCT score and the number of bronchiectatic lobes and the bronchiectasis severity index (all P < .01). Small-airway parameters were more aberrant in subjects with dyshomogeneity and cystic bronchiectasis but were independent of Pseudomonas aeruginosa isolation or the location of predominant bronchiectatic lobes. Spirometry, but not impulse oscillometry, small-airway parameters differed statistically between subjects with isolated peripheral-airway bronchiectasis and those with peripheral plus central-airway bronchiectasis (all P < .01). Subgroup analyses yielded similar findings, except for the lack of correlation between small-airway parameters and clinical parameters in subjects with HRCT score ≤6. Impulse oscillometry and spirometry small-airway parameters have similar diagnostic value in reflecting peripheral-airway disorders and correlate with the HRCT scores, the bronchiectasis severity index, and the number of bronchiectatic lobes in mild to moderate bronchiectasis. Assessment of small-airway parameters should be incorporated in future lung function investigations in bronchiectasis. Copyright © 2016 by Daedalus Enterprises.

Presaddle and postsaddle dissipative effects in fission using complete kinematics measurements

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rodríguez-Sánchez, J. L.; Benlliure, J.; Taïeb, J.; Alvarez-Pol, H.; Audouin, L.; Ayyad, Y.; Bélier, G.; Boutoux, G.; Casarejos, E.; Chatillon, A.; Cortina-Gil, D.; Gorbinet, T.; Heinz, A.; Kelić-Heil, A.; Laurent, B.; Martin, J.-F.; Paradela, C.; Pellereau, E.; Pietras, B.; Ramos, D.; Rodríguez-Tajes, C.; Rossi, D. M.; Simon, H.; Vargas, J.; Voss, B.

2016-12-01

A complete kinematics measurement of the two fission fragments was used for the first time to investigate fission dynamics at small and large deformations. Fissioning systems with high excitation energies, compact shapes, and low angular momenta were produced in inverse kinematics by using spallation reactions of lead projectiles. A new generation experimental setup allowed for the first full and unambiguous identification in mass and atomic number of both fission fragments. This measurement permitted us to accurately determine fission cross sections, the charge distribution, and the neutron excess of the fission fragments as a function of the atomic number of the fissioning system. These data are compared with different model calculations to extract information on the value of the dissipation parameter at small and large deformations. The present results do not show any sizable dependence of the nuclear dissipation parameter on temperature or deformation.

Design criteria for small coded aperture masks in gamma-ray astronomy

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Sembay, S.; Gehrels, Neil

1990-01-01

Most theoretical work on coded aperture masks in X-ray and low-energy gamma-ray astronomy has concentrated on masks with large numbers of elements. For gamma-ray spectrometers in the MeV range, the detector plane usually has only a few discrete elements, so that masks with small numbers of elements are called for. For this case it is feasible to analyze by computer all the possible mask patterns of given dimension to find the ones that best satisfy the desired performance criteria. A particular set of performance criteria for comparing the flux sensitivities, source positioning accuracies and transparencies of different mask patterns is developed. The results of such a computer analysis for masks up to dimension 5 x 5 unit cell are presented and it is concluded that there is a great deal of flexibility in the choice of mask pattern for each dimension.

Differential sampling for fast frequency acquisition via adaptive extended least squares algorithm

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kumar, Rajendra

1987-01-01

This paper presents a differential signal model along with appropriate sampling techinques for least squares estimation of the frequency and frequency derivatives and possibly the phase and amplitude of a sinusoid received in the presence of noise. The proposed algorithm is recursive in mesurements and thus the computational requirement increases only linearly with the number of measurements. The dimension of the state vector in the proposed algorithm does not depend upon the number of measurements and is quite small, typically around four. This is an advantage when compared to previous algorithms wherein the dimension of the state vector increases monotonically with the product of the frequency uncertainty and the observation period. Such a computational simplification may possibly result in some loss of optimality. However, by applying the sampling techniques of the paper such a possible loss in optimality can made small.

Association of Higher Defensin β-4 Genomic Copy Numbers with Behçet's Disease in Iraqi Patients.

PubMed

Hameed, Ammar F; Jaradat, Sameh; Al-Musawi, Bassam M; Sharquie, Khalifa; Ibrahim, Mazin J; Hayani, Raafa K; Norgauer, Johannes

2015-11-01

Behçet's disease (BD) is an immune-mediated small vessel systemic vasculitis. Human β-defensins are antimicrobial peptides associated with many inflammatory diseases and are encoded by the β-defensin family of multiple-copy genes. However, their role in BD necessitates further investigation. The aim of the present study was to investigate the possible association of BD in its various clinical forms with defensin β-4 (DEFB4) genomic copy numbers. This case-control study was conducted from January to September 2011 and included 50 control subjects and 27 unrelated Iraqi BD patients registered at Baghdad Teaching Hospital, Bagdad, Iraq. Copy numbers of the DEFB4 gene were determined using the comparative cycle threshold method by duplex real-time polymerase chain reaction technology at the Department of Dermatology of Jena University Hospital, Jena, Germany. DEFB4 genomic copy numbers were significantly higher in the BD group compared to the control group (P = 0.010). However, no statistically significant association was found between copy numbers and clinical variables within the BD group. The DEFB4 copy number polymorphism may be associated with BD; however, it is not associated with different clinical manifestations of the disease.

Measurement of clathrate hydrates via Raman spectroscopy

USGS Publications Warehouse

Sum, A.K.; Burruss, R.C.; Sloan, E.D.

1997-01-01

Raman spectra of clathrate hydrate guest molecules are presented for three known structures (I (sI), II (sII), and H (sH)) in the following systems: CH4 (sI), CO2 (sI), C3H8 (sII), CH4 + CO2 (sI), CD4 + C3H8 (sII), CH4 + N2 (sI), CH4 + THF-d8 (sII), and CH4 + C7D14 (sH). Relative occupancy of CH4 in the large and small cavities of sI were determined by deconvoluting the ??1 symmetric bands, resulting in hydration numbers of 6.04 ?? 0.03. The frequency of the ??1 bands for CH4 in structures I, II, and H differ statistically, so that Raman spectroscopy is a potential tool to identify hydrate crystal structure. Hydrate guest compositions were also measured for two vapor compositions of the CH4 + CO2 system, and they compared favorably with predictions. The large cavities were measured to be almost fully occupied by CH4 and CO2, whereas only a small fraction of the small cavities are occupied by CH4. No CO2 was found in the small cavities. Hydration numbers from 7.27 to 7.45 were calculated for the mixed hydrate.

A number sense intervention for low-income kindergartners at risk for mathematics difficulties.

PubMed

Dyson, Nancy I; Jordan, Nancy C; Glutting, Joseph

2013-01-01

Early number sense is a strong predictor of later success in school mathematics. A disproportionate number of children from low-income families come to first grade with weak number competencies, leaving them at risk for a cycle of failure. The present study examined the effects of an 8-week number sense intervention to develop number competencies of low-income kindergartners (N = 121). The intervention purposefully targeted whole number concepts related to counting, comparing, and manipulating sets. Children were randomly assigned to either a number sense intervention or a business as usual contrast group. The intervention was carried out in small-group, 30-min sessions, 3 days per week, for a total of 24 sessions. Controlling for number sense at pretest, the intervention group made meaningful gains relative to the control group at immediate as well delayed posttest on a measure of early numeracy. Intervention children also performed better than controls on a standardized test of mathematics calculation at immediate posttest.

A Number Sense Intervention for Low-Income Kindergartners at Risk for Mathematics Difficulties

PubMed Central

Dyson, Nancy I.; Jordan, Nancy C.; Glutting, Joseph

2012-01-01

Early number sense is a strong predictor of later success in school mathematics. A disproportionate number of children from low-income families come to first grade with weak number competencies, leaving them at-risk for a cycle of failure. The present study examined the effects of an 8-week number sense intervention to develop number competencies of low-income kindergartners (n = 121). The intervention purposefully targeted whole number concepts related to counting, comparing, and manipulating sets. Children were randomly assigned either to a number sense intervention or a business as usual contrast group. The intervention was carried out in small group, 30-minute sessions, 3 days per week for a total of 24 sessions. Controlling for number sense at pretest, the intervention group made meaningful gains relative to the control group at immediate as well delayed posttest on a measure of early numeracy. Intervention children also performed better than controls on a standardized test of mathematics calculation at immediate posttest. PMID:21685346

On the spatial distribution of small heavy particles in homogeneous shear turbulence

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nicolai, C.; Jacob, B.; Piva, R.

2013-08-01

We report on a novel experiment aimed at investigating the effects induced by a large-scale velocity gradient on the turbulent transport of small heavy particles. To this purpose, a homogeneous shear flow at Reλ = 540 and shear parameter S* = 4.5 is set-up and laden with glass spheres whose size d is comparable with the Kolmogorov lengthscale η of the flow (d/η ≈ 1). The particle Stokes number is approximately 0.3. The analysis of the instantaneous particle fields by means of Voronoï diagrams confirms the occurrence of intense turbulent clustering at small scales, as observed in homogeneous isotropic flows. It also indicates that the anisotropy of the velocity fluctuations induces a preferential orientation of the particle clusters. In order to characterize the fine-scale features of the dispersed phase, spatial correlations of the particle field are employed in conjunction with statistical tools recently developed for anisotropic turbulence. The scale-by-scale analysis of the particle field clarifies that isotropy of the particle distribution is tendentially recovered at small separations, even though the signatures of the mean shear persist down to smaller scales as compared to the fluid velocity field.

Error Patterns with Fraction Calculations at Fourth Grade as a Function of Students' Mathematics Achievement Status.

PubMed

Schumacher, Robin F; Malone, Amelia S

2017-09-01

The goal of the present study was to describe fraction-calculation errors among 4 th -grade students and determine whether error patterns differed as a function of problem type (addition vs. subtraction; like vs. unlike denominators), orientation (horizontal vs. vertical), or mathematics-achievement status (low- vs. average- vs. high-achieving). We specifically addressed whether mathematics-achievement status was related to students' tendency to operate with whole number bias. We extended this focus by comparing low-performing students' errors in two instructional settings that focused on two different types of fraction understandings: core instruction that focused on part-whole understanding vs. small-group tutoring that focused on magnitude understanding. Results showed students across the sample were more likely to operate with whole number bias on problems with unlike denominators. Students with low or average achievement (who only participated in core instruction) were more likely to operate with whole number bias than students with low achievement who participated in small-group tutoring. We suggest instruction should emphasize magnitude understanding to sufficiently increase fraction understanding for all students in the upper elementary grades.

Low Copy Numbers of DC-SIGN in Cell Membrane Microdomains: Implications for Structure and Function

PubMed Central

Liu, Ping; Wang, Xiang; Itano, Michelle S.; Neumann, Aaron K.; de Silva, Aravinda M.; Jacobson, Ken; Thompson, Nancy L.

2014-01-01

Presently, there are few estimates of the number of molecules occupying membrane domains. Using a total internal reflection fluorescence microscopy (TIRFM) imaging approach, based on comparing the intensities of fluorescently labeled microdomains with those of single fluorophores, we measured the occupancy of DC-SIGN, a C-type lectin, in membrane microdomains. DC-SIGN or its mutants were labeled with primary monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) in either dendritic cells (DCs) or NIH3T3 cells, or expressed as GFP fusions in NIH3T3 cells. The number of DC-SIGN molecules per microdomain ranges from only a few to over 20, while microdomain dimensions range from the diffraction limit to > 1μm. The largest fraction of microdomains, appearing at the diffraction limit, in either immature DCs or 3T3 cells contains only 4-8 molecules of DC-SIGN, consistent with our preliminary super-resolution Blink microscopy estimates. We further show that these small assemblies are sufficient to bind and efficiently internalize a small (~50nm) pathogen, dengue virus, leading to infection of host cells. PMID:24313910

[Scientific collaboration and article citations: practices in medical journals].

PubMed

Bador, Pascal; Lafouge, Thierry

2012-01-01

In order to characterize scientific collaboration the best way is to study co-signature of articles. Two indicators are interesting: number of authors and international character. The objective is to study correlation between these two indicators and citation number. We selected two pharmacy and medicine journals in order to compare practices. We used a sample of about 800 articles published in 2002-2005 for which we collected citations up to 2010. We transformed numeric variables, authors number and citation number, into qualitative variables. "Authors" and "Citations" variables are not independent. Less cited articles are often published by one author or a very small team while international character of articles generally increases citation number. This micro-analysis also allowed us to better understand publication practices. © 2012 Société Française de Pharmacologie et de Thérapeutique.

Comparing University Academic Performances of HSC Students at the Three Art-Based Faculties

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ismail, Noor Azina; Othman, Azmah

2006-01-01

University Malaya enrolls students from all states in Malaysia as well as a small number of students from overseas. The objective of this paper is to investigate the effect of past performance on students at three faculties, namely, Faculty of Economics and Administration(FEA), Faculty of Business and Accounting(FBA) and Faculty of Arts and Social…

"All Your Dreadful Scientific Things": Women, Science and Education in the Years around 1900

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jones, Claire G.

2017-01-01

In the years around 1900, more women were benefiting from a university education and using it as a pathway to acquiring research expertise and contributing to the development of scientific knowledge. Although numbers were small compared with men, it is clear that the idea of a female researcher was no longer an oddity. As illustrated by…

Medication errors in a rural hospital.

PubMed

Madegowda, Bharathi; Hill, Pamela D; Anderson, Mary Ann

2007-06-01

The purpose of this investigation was to compare and contrast three nursing shifts in a small rural Midwestern hospital with regard to the number of reported medication errors, the units on which they occurred, and the types and severity of errors. Results can be beneficial in planning and implementing a quality improvement program in the area of medication administration with the nursing staff.

The Use of Quality Control and Data Mining Techniques for Monitoring Scaled Scores: An Overview. Research Report. ETS RR-12-20

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

von Davier, Alina A.

2012-01-01

Maintaining comparability of test scores is a major challenge faced by testing programs that have almost continuous administrations. Among the potential problems are scale drift and rapid accumulation of errors. Many standard quality control techniques for testing programs, which can effectively detect and address scale drift for small numbers of…

3D reconstruction of a tree stem using video images and pulse distances

Treesearch

N. E. Clark

2002-01-01

This paper demonstrates how a 3D tree stem model can be reconstructed using video imagery combined with laser pulse distance measurements. Perspective projection is used to place the data collected with the portable video laser-rangefinding device into a real world coordinate system. This hybrid methodology uses a relatively small number of range measurements (compared...

Hantavirus Prevention: Cleanup of Rodent Contamination

DTIC Science & Technology

2008-09-01

Hantaviruses in the Americas may cause human disease involving the lungs, hence the name " hantavirus pulmonary syndrome" (HPS). Since May 1993, a...humans are also found in other rodents, but the number of cases stemming from these hantaviruses is small when compared to SNV. Hantavirus is shed in... HANTAVIRUS PREVENTION: CLEANUP OF RODENT CONTAMINATION Technical Information Paper 18-001-0306

Scottish Literature on the International Scene: Evidence from the National Library's "Bibliography of Scottish Literature in Translation"

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McClure, J. Derrick

2011-01-01

A search in the online "Bibliography of Scottish Literature in Translation" (BOSLIT) reveals that the attention given by translators to a small number of outstanding Scottish writers has been at the expense of others of comparable merit. On the other hand, poetry of the twentieth-century Scottish Renaissance period and later has…

Jaw muscles in older overdenture patients.

PubMed

Newton, James P; McManus, Frank C; Menhenick, Stephen

2004-03-01

To determine, using computer tomography (CT), whether the retention of a small number of teeth in the older adult used to support overdentures could affect the cross-sectional area (CSA) and X-ray density of two jaw closing muscles. Cross-sectional study of a group of older patients subdivided into dentate, edentulous and those wearing overdentures supported by two to five teeth. The sample consisted of 24 subjects aged 55-68 years. CSA and X-ray density of two jaw closing muscles, masseter and medial pterygoid were measured and evaluated using CT. There were no significant differences between left and right jaw muscles, but the CSA of the masseter muscles were significantly larger than the medial pterygoid muscles. The CSA of the masseter and medial pterygoid muscles was significantly smaller in edentulous subjects compared with dentate subjects but no significant difference was observed between subjects wearing overdentures and those with a natural dentition. No significant differences were observed with the X-ray density between different muscles or dental states. The retention of a small number of teeth in the older adult used to support overdentures appears to sustain the CSA of two jaw closing muscles and therefore could enhance these patients' masticatory ability compared with those who were edentulous.

Comparative analysis of human tissue interactomes reveals factors leading to tissue-specific manifestation of hereditary diseases.

PubMed

Barshir, Ruth; Shwartz, Omer; Smoly, Ilan Y; Yeger-Lotem, Esti

2014-06-01

An open question in human genetics is what underlies the tissue-specific manifestation of hereditary diseases, which are caused by genomic aberrations that are present in cells across the human body. Here we analyzed this phenomenon for over 300 hereditary diseases by using comparative network analysis. We created an extensive resource of protein expression and interactions in 16 main human tissues, by integrating recent data of gene and protein expression across tissues with data of protein-protein interactions (PPIs). The resulting tissue interaction networks (interactomes) shared a large fraction of their proteins and PPIs, and only a small fraction of them were tissue-specific. Applying this resource to hereditary diseases, we first show that most of the disease-causing genes are widely expressed across tissues, yet, enigmatically, cause disease phenotypes in few tissues only. Upon testing for factors that could lead to tissue-specific vulnerability, we find that disease-causing genes tend to have elevated transcript levels and increased number of tissue-specific PPIs in their disease tissues compared to unaffected tissues. We demonstrate through several examples that these tissue-specific PPIs can highlight disease mechanisms, and thus, owing to their small number, provide a powerful filter for interrogating disease etiologies. As two thirds of the hereditary diseases are associated with these factors, comparative tissue analysis offers a meaningful and efficient framework for enhancing the understanding of the molecular basis of hereditary diseases.

Analysis of Running and Technical Performance in Substitute Players in International Male Rugby Union Competition.

PubMed

Lacome, Mathieu; Piscione, Julien; Hager, Jean-Philippe; Carling, Christopher

2016-09-01

To investigate the patterns and performance of substitutions in 18 international 15-a-side men's rugby union matches. A semiautomatic computerized time-motion system compiled 750 performance observations for 375 players (422 forwards, 328 backs). Running and technical-performance measures included total distance run, high-intensity running (>18.0 km/h), number of individual ball possessions and passes, percentage of passes completed, and number of attempted and percentage of successful tackles. A total of 184 substitutions (85.2%) were attributed to tactical and 32 (14.8%) to injury purposes respectively. The mean period for non-injury-purpose substitutions in backs (17.7%) occurred between 70 and 75 min, while forward substitutions peaked equally between 50-55 and 60-65 min (16.4%). Substitutes generally demonstrated improved running performance compared with both starter players who completed games and players whom they replaced (small differences, ES -0.2 to 0.5) in both forwards and backs over their entire time played. There was also a trend for better running performance in forward and back substitutes over their first 10 min of play compared with the final 10 min for replaced players (small to moderate differences, ES 0.3-0.6). Finally, running performance in both forward and back substitutes was generally lower (ES -0.1 to 0.3, unclear or small differences) over their entire 2nd-half time played compared with their first 10 min of play. The impact of substitutes on technical performance was generally considered unclear. This information provides practitioners with practical data relating to the physical and technical contributions of substitutions that subsequently could enable optimization of their impact on match play.

Beware of external validation! - A Comparative Study of Several Validation Techniques used in QSAR Modelling.

PubMed

Majumdar, Subhabrata; Basak, Subhash C

2018-04-26

Proper validation is an important aspect of QSAR modelling. External validation is one of the widely used validation methods in QSAR where the model is built on a subset of the data and validated on the rest of the samples. However, its effectiveness for datasets with a small number of samples but large number of predictors remains suspect. Calculating hundreds or thousands of molecular descriptors using currently available software has become the norm in QSAR research, owing to computational advances in the past few decades. Thus, for n chemical compounds and p descriptors calculated for each molecule, the typical chemometric dataset today has high value of p but small n (i.e. n < p). Motivated by the evidence of inadequacies of external validation in estimating the true predictive capability of a statistical model in recent literature, this paper performs an extensive and comparative study of this method with several other validation techniques. We compared four validation methods: leave-one-out, K-fold, external and multi-split validation, using statistical models built using the LASSO regression, which simultaneously performs variable selection and modelling. We used 300 simulated datasets and one real dataset of 95 congeneric amine mutagens for this evaluation. External validation metrics have high variation among different random splits of the data, hence are not recommended for predictive QSAR models. LOO has the overall best performance among all validation methods applied in our scenario. Results from external validation are too unstable for the datasets we analyzed. Based on our findings, we recommend using the LOO procedure for validating QSAR predictive models built on high-dimensional small-sample data. Copyright© Bentham Science Publishers; For any queries, please email at epub@benthamscience.org.

TIME DISTRIBUTIONS OF LARGE AND SMALL SUNSPOT GROUPS OVER FOUR SOLAR CYCLES

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Kilcik, A.; Yurchyshyn, V. B.; Abramenko, V.

2011-04-10

Here we analyze solar activity by focusing on time variations of the number of sunspot groups (SGs) as a function of their modified Zurich class. We analyzed data for solar cycles 20-23 by using Rome (cycles 20 and 21) and Learmonth Solar Observatory (cycles 22 and 23) SG numbers. All SGs recorded during these time intervals were separated into two groups. The first group includes small SGs (A, B, C, H, and J classes by Zurich classification), and the second group consists of large SGs (D, E, F, and G classes). We then calculated small and large SG numbers frommore » their daily mean numbers as observed on the solar disk during a given month. We report that the time variations of small and large SG numbers are asymmetric except for solar cycle 22. In general, large SG numbers appear to reach their maximum in the middle of the solar cycle (phases 0.45-0.5), while the international sunspot numbers and the small SG numbers generally peak much earlier (solar cycle phases 0.29-0.35). Moreover, the 10.7 cm solar radio flux, the facular area, and the maximum coronal mass ejection speed show better agreement with the large SG numbers than they do with the small SG numbers. Our results suggest that the large SG numbers are more likely to shed light on solar activity and its geophysical implications. Our findings may also influence our understanding of long-term variations of the total solar irradiance, which is thought to be an important factor in the Sun-Earth climate relationship.« less

Tuning jammed frictionless disk packings from isostatic to hyperstatic.

PubMed

Schreck, Carl F; O'Hern, Corey S; Silbert, Leonardo E

2011-07-01

We perform extensive computational studies of two-dimensional static bidisperse disk packings using two distinct packing-generation protocols. The first involves thermally quenching equilibrated liquid configurations to zero temperature over a range of thermal quench rates r and initial packing fractions followed by compression and decompression in small steps to reach packing fractions φ(J) at jamming onset. For the second, we seed the system with initial configurations that promote micro- and macrophase-separated packings followed by compression and decompression to φ(J). Using these protocols, we generate more than 10(4) static packings over a wide range of packing fraction, contact number, and compositional and positional order. We find that disordered, isostatic packings exist over a finite range of packing fractions in the large-system limit. In agreement with previous calculations, the most dilute mechanically stable packings with φ min ≈ 0.84 are obtained for r > r*, where r* is the rate above which φ(J) is insensitive to rate. We further compare the structural and mechanical properties of isostatic versus hyperstatic packings. The structural characterizations include the contact number, several order parameters, and mixing ratios of the large and small particles. We find that the isostatic packings are positionally and compositionally disordered (with only small changes in a number of order parameters), whereas bond-orientational and compositional order increase strongly with contact number for hyperstatic packings. In addition, we calculate the static shear modulus and normal mode frequencies (in the harmonic approximation) of the static packings to understand the extent to which the mechanical properties of disordered, isostatic packings differ from partially ordered packings. We find that the mechanical properties of the packings change continuously as the contact number increases from isostatic to hyperstatic.

The number of striatal cholinergic interneurons expressing calretinin is increased in parkinsonian monkeys.

PubMed

Petryszyn, Sarah; Di Paolo, Thérèse; Parent, André; Parent, Martin

2016-11-01

The most abundant interneurons in the primate striatum are those expressing the calcium-binding protein calretinin (CR). The present immunohistochemical study provides detailed assessments of their morphological traits, number, and topographical distribution in normal monkeys (Macaca fascicularis) and in monkeys rendered parkinsonian (PD) by MPTP intoxication. In primates, the CR+ striatal interneurons comprise small (8-12μm), medium (12-20μm) and large-sized (20-45μm) neurons, each with distinctive morphologies. The small CR+ neurons were 2-3 times more abundant than the medium-sized CR+ neurons, which were 20-40 times more numerous than the large CR+ neurons. In normal and PD monkeys, the density of small and medium-sized CR+ neurons was twice as high in the caudate nucleus than in the putamen, whereas the inverse occurred for the large CR+ neurons. Double immunostaining experiments revealed that only the large-sized CR+ neurons expressed choline acetyltransferase (ChAT). The number of large CR+ neurons was found to increase markedly (4-12 times) along the entire anteroposterior extent of both the caudate nucleus and putamen of PD monkeys compared to controls. Comparison of the number of large CR-/ChAT+ and CR+/ChAT+ neurons together with experiments involving the use of bromo-deoxyuridine (BrdU) as a marker of newly generated cells showed that it is the expression of CR by the large ChAT+ striatal interneurons, and not their absolute number, that is increased in the dopamine-depleted striatum. These findings reveal the modulatory role of dopamine in the phenotypic expression of the large cholinergic striatal neurons, which are known to play a crucial role in PD pathophysiology. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Quantile-based permutation thresholds for quantitative trait loci hotspots.

PubMed

Neto, Elias Chaibub; Keller, Mark P; Broman, Andrew F; Attie, Alan D; Jansen, Ritsert C; Broman, Karl W; Yandell, Brian S

2012-08-01

Quantitative trait loci (QTL) hotspots (genomic locations affecting many traits) are a common feature in genetical genomics studies and are biologically interesting since they may harbor critical regulators. Therefore, statistical procedures to assess the significance of hotspots are of key importance. One approach, randomly allocating observed QTL across the genomic locations separately by trait, implicitly assumes all traits are uncorrelated. Recently, an empirical test for QTL hotspots was proposed on the basis of the number of traits that exceed a predetermined LOD value, such as the standard permutation LOD threshold. The permutation null distribution of the maximum number of traits across all genomic locations preserves the correlation structure among the phenotypes, avoiding the detection of spurious hotspots due to nongenetic correlation induced by uncontrolled environmental factors and unmeasured variables. However, by considering only the number of traits above a threshold, without accounting for the magnitude of the LOD scores, relevant information is lost. In particular, biologically interesting hotspots composed of a moderate to small number of traits with strong LOD scores may be neglected as nonsignificant. In this article we propose a quantile-based permutation approach that simultaneously accounts for the number and the LOD scores of traits within the hotspots. By considering a sliding scale of mapping thresholds, our method can assess the statistical significance of both small and large hotspots. Although the proposed approach can be applied to any type of heritable high-volume "omic" data set, we restrict our attention to expression (e)QTL analysis. We assess and compare the performances of these three methods in simulations and we illustrate how our approach can effectively assess the significance of moderate and small hotspots with strong LOD scores in a yeast expression data set.

Flow and Noise Control in High Speed and High Reynolds Number Jets Using Plasma Actuators

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Samimy, M.; Kastner, J.; Kim, J.-H.; Utkin, Y.; Adamovich, I.; Brown, C. A.

2006-01-01

The idea of manipulating flow to change its characteristics is over a century old. Manipulating instabilities of a jet to increase its mixing and to reduce its radiated noise started in the 1970s. While the effort has been successful in low-speed and low Reynolds number jets, available actuators capabilities in terms of their amplitude, bandwidth, and phasing have fallen short in control of high-speed and high Reynolds number jets of practical interest. Localized arc filament plasma actuators have recently been developed and extensively used at Gas Dynamics and Turbulence Laboratory (GDTL) for control of highspeed and high Reynolds number jets. While the technique has been quite successful and is very promising, all the work up to this point had been carried out using small high subsonic and low supersonic jets from a 2.54 cm diameter nozzle exit with a Reynolds number of about a million. The preliminary work reported in this paper is a first attempt to evaluate the scalability of the technique. The power supply/plasma generator was designed and built in-house at GDTL to operate 8 actuators simultaneously over a large frequency range (0 to 200 kHz) with independent control over phase and duty cycle of each actuator. This allowed forcing the small jet at GDTL with azimuthal modes m = 0, 1, 2, 3, plus or minus 1, plus or minus 2, and plus or minus 4 over a large range of frequencies. This power supply was taken to and used, with minor modifications, at the NASA Nozzle Acoustic Test Rig (NATR). At NATR, 32 actuators were distributed around the 7.5 in. nozzle (a linear increase with nozzle exit diameter would require 60 actuators). With this arrangement only 8 actuators could operate simultaneously, thus limiting the forcing of the jet at NATR to only three azimuthal modes m = plus or minus 1, 4, and 8. Very preliminary results at NATR indicate that the trends observed in the larger NASA facility in terms of the effects of actuation frequency and azimuthal modes are similar in both small GDTL and larger NASA jets. However, the actuation authority seems to fall short in the larger jet at higher Mach numbers, resulting in decreased amplitude response compared to the small jet, which is attributed at this point to the lack of sufficient number of actuators. The preliminary results seem also to suggest that amplitude of actuation tones is similar in both the small and larger jets.

Impact of Spot Size and Spacing on the Quality of Robustly Optimized Intensity Modulated Proton Therapy Plans for Lung Cancer.

PubMed

Liu, Chenbin; Schild, Steven E; Chang, Joe Y; Liao, Zhongxing; Korte, Shawn; Shen, Jiajian; Ding, Xiaoning; Hu, Yanle; Kang, Yixiu; Keole, Sameer R; Sio, Terence T; Wong, William W; Sahoo, Narayan; Bues, Martin; Liu, Wei

2018-06-01

To investigate how spot size and spacing affect plan quality, robustness, and interplay effects of robustly optimized intensity modulated proton therapy (IMPT) for lung cancer. Two robustly optimized IMPT plans were created for 10 lung cancer patients: first by a large-spot machine with in-air energy-dependent large spot size at isocenter (σ: 6-15 mm) and spacing (1.3 σ), and second by a small-spot machine with in-air energy-dependent small spot size (σ: 2-6 mm) and spacing (5 mm). Both plans were generated by optimizing radiation dose to internal target volume on averaged 4-dimensional computed tomography scans using an in-house-developed IMPT planning system. The dose-volume histograms band method was used to evaluate plan robustness. Dose evaluation software was developed to model time-dependent spot delivery to incorporate interplay effects with randomized starting phases for each field per fraction. Patient anatomy voxels were mapped phase-to-phase via deformable image registration, and doses were scored using in-house-developed software. Dose-volume histogram indices, including internal target volume dose coverage, homogeneity, and organs at risk (OARs) sparing, were compared using the Wilcoxon signed-rank test. Compared with the large-spot machine, the small-spot machine resulted in significantly lower heart and esophagus mean doses, with comparable target dose coverage, homogeneity, and protection of other OARs. Plan robustness was comparable for targets and most OARs. With interplay effects considered, significantly lower heart and esophagus mean doses with comparable target dose coverage and homogeneity were observed using smaller spots. Robust optimization with a small spot-machine significantly improves heart and esophagus sparing, with comparable plan robustness and interplay effects compared with robust optimization with a large-spot machine. A small-spot machine uses a larger number of spots to cover the same tumors compared with a large-spot machine, which gives the planning system more freedom to compensate for the higher sensitivity to uncertainties and interplay effects for lung cancer treatments. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

A comparative DFT study of interactions of Au and small gold clusters Aun (n = 2-4) with CH3S and CH2 radicals

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Blaško, Martin; Rajský, Tomáš; Urban, Miroslav

2017-03-01

We compare DFT binding energies (BEs) of Au and small gold clusters interacting with CH3S and CH2 ligands (Aun-L complexes, n = 1-4). The spin state and the binding mechanism in Aun-L varies with the participation of singly occupied non-bonding orbitals or doubly occupied lone-pair orbitals of a ligand and on the number of atoms (even or odd) of Aun. The highest BE, 354 kJ/mol, exhibits the Au3-CH2 complex with the covalent bond in which participate two singly occupied orbitals of the triplet state of CH2. With CH3S the highest BE (277 kJ/mol) is calculated for Au3-SCH3 with the single Au-S bond.

FAST TRACK COMMUNICATION A DFT + DMFT approach for nanosystems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Turkowski, Volodymyr; Kabir, Alamgir; Nayyar, Neha; Rahman, Talat S.

2010-11-01

We propose a combined density-functional-theory-dynamical-mean-field-theory (DFT + DMFT) approach for reliable inclusion of electron-electron correlation effects in nanosystems. Compared with the widely used DFT + U approach, this method has several advantages, the most important of which is that it takes into account dynamical correlation effects. The formalism is illustrated through different calculations of the magnetic properties of a set of small iron clusters (number of atoms 2 <= N <= 5). It is shown that the inclusion of dynamical effects leads to a reduction in the cluster magnetization (as compared to results from DFT + U) and that, even for such small clusters, the magnetization values agree well with experimental estimations. These results justify confidence in the ability of the method to accurately describe the magnetic properties of clusters of interest to nanoscience.

Small bait traps as accurate predictors of dipteran early colonizers in forensic studies

PubMed Central

Farinha, Ana; Dourado, Catarina G.; Centeio, Neiva; Oliveira, Ana Rita; Dias, Deodália; Rebelo, Maria Teresa

2014-01-01

Abstract Insect carrion communities vary among habitats and over time. Concerning the dipteran early colonizers of carrion, the use of small bait traps should be accurate because the odors emitted from meat baits should contain many of the volatile organic compounds emitted from the freshly dead mammals. In addition, this kind of trap is easy to replicate and set in position in a given habitat. In the present study, small bait preferences of early Diptera carrion colonizers were examined in an urban biotope. Specifically, three baits were compared (pork muscle, pork liver, and fish flavored cat food) in respect to the number of specimens and species captured and the presence or absence of oviposition at high and low environmental temperatures. A total of 2371 specimens were trapped, primarily belonging to three insect orders, Diptera, Coleoptera, and Hymenoptera. Diptera was the predominant order, with blowflies (Calliphoridae) being the most representative family, followed by filth flies (Muscidae). The pork muscle bait was responsible for the highest number of captures and the highest diversity. The community of Diptera collected with the most efficient bait, pork muscle, was compared with the carrion communities reported in the literature from the Iberian Peninsula. Similar taxonomic species composition was found regarding Calliphoridae species. A specimen from all species morphologically identified were also identified at a molecular level using the cytochrome c oxidase I (COI) barcode region, and the sequences were submitted to online databases. PMID:25373224

Competitive foods in schools: Availability and purchasing in predominately rural small and large high schools

PubMed Central

Nollen, Nicole L.; Befort, Christie; Davis, Ann McGrath; Snow, Tricia; Mahnken, Jonathan; Hou, Qingjiang; Story, Mary; Ahluwalia, Jasjit S.

2013-01-01

OBJECTIVES Schools have an important role to play in obesity prevention, but little is known about the food environment in small, predominately rural schools. The primary purpose of this study was to compare the availability and student purchasing of foods sold outside of the reimbursable meals program through a la carte (ALC) or vending (i.e., competitive foods) in small (n = 7) and large (n = 6) Kansas high schools. METHODS A cross-sectional observational study design was used to capture the number of ALC and vending items available and purchased, and the fat and caloric content of all available and purchased items on a single school day between January and May 2005. RESULTS Small schools had significantly fewer vending machines than large schools [median=3.0 (range=2.0–5.0) versus 6.5 (range=4.0–8.0), p<0.01]. Vending and ALC items at small schools contained a median of 2.3 fewer fat grams per item (p≤0.05), while vending products contained a median of 25.0 fewer calories per item (p≤0.05) than at large schools. Significantly less fat (median= −15.4 grams/student) and fewer calories (median= −306.8 kcal/student) were purchased per student from all competitive food sources and from ALC (median= −12.9 fat grams and −323.3 kcal/student) by students in small schools compared to students in large schools (p≤0.05). CONCLUSIONS The findings, which highlight less availability and lower energy content from competitive foods at small compared to large schools, have implications for understanding how small schools support their food service programs with limited dependence on competitive foods and the impact that food and nutrition professionals can have on the school environment by providing more oversight into the nutritional quality of foods available. PMID:19394472

Development and evaluation of deep intra-uterine artificial insemination using cryopreserved sexed spermatozoa in bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus).

PubMed

Robeck, Todd R; Montano, G A; Steinman, K J; Smolensky, P; Sweeney, J; Osborn, S; O'Brien, J K

2013-06-01

Since its development in bottlenose dolphins, widespread application of AI with sex-selected, frozen-thawed (FT) spermatozoa has been limited by the significant expense of the sorting process. Reducing the total number of progressively motile sperm (PMS) required for an AI would reduce the sorting cost. As such, this research compared the efficacy of small-dose deep uterine AI with sexed FT spermatozoa (SEXED-SMALL; ~50×10(6)PMS, n=20), to a moderate dose deposited mid-horn (SEXED-STD, ~200×10(6)PMS; n=20), and a large dose of FT non-sexed spermatozoa deposited in the uterine body (NONSEXED-LARGE, 660×10(6)PMS, n=9). Ten of the 11 calves resulting from use of sexed spermatozoa were of the predetermined sex. Similar rates of conception (NONSEXED-LARGE: 78%, SEXED-STD: 60%, SEXED-SMALL: 57%) and total pregnancy loss (TPL: NONSEXED-LARGE: 28.6%; SEXED-STD: 41.0%; SEXED-SMALL: 63.6%) were observed across groups, but early pregnancy loss (EPL,

Variability of intertidal foraminferal assemblages in a salt marsh, Oregon, USA

USGS Publications Warehouse

Milker, Yvonne; Horton, Benjamin P.; Nelson, Alan R.; Engelhart, Simon E.; Witter, Robert C.

2015-01-01

We studied 18 sampling stations along a transect to investigate the similarity between live (rose Bengal stained) foraminiferal populations and dead assemblages, their small-scale spatial variations and the distribution of infaunal foraminifera in a salt marsh (Toms Creek marsh) at the upper end of the South Slough arm of the Coos Bay estuary, Oregon, USA. We aimed to test to what extent taphonomic processes, small-scale variability and infaunal distribution influence the accuracy of sea-level reconstructions based on intertidal foraminifera. Cluster analyses have shown that dead assemblages occur in distinct zones with respect to elevation, a prerequisite for using foraminifera as sea-level indicators. Our nonparametric multivariate analysis of variance showed that small-scale spatial variability has only a small influence on live (rose Bengal stained) populations and dead assemblages. The dissimilarity was higher, however, between live (rose Bengal stained) populations in the middle marsh. We observed early diagenetic dissolution of calcareous tests in the dead assemblages. If comparable post-depositional processes and similar minor spatial variability also characterize fossil assemblages, then dead assemblage are the best modern analogs for paleoenvironmental reconstructions. The Toms Creek tidal flat and low marsh vascular plant zones are dominated by Miliammina fusca, the middle marsh is dominated by Balticammina pseudomacrescens and Trochammina inflata, and the high marsh and upland–marsh transition zone are dominated by Trochamminita irregularis. Analysis of infaunal foraminifera showed that most living specimens are found in the surface sediments and the majority of live (rose Bengal stained) infaunal specimens are restricted to the upper 10 cm, but living individuals are found to depths of 50 cm. The dominant infaunal specimens are similar to those in the corresponding surface samples and no species have been found living solely infaunally. The total numbers of infaunal foraminifera are small compared to the total numbers of dead specimens in the surface samples. This suggests that surface samples adequately represent the modern intertidal environment in Toms Creek.

Activated Notch signaling cascade is correlated with stem cell differentiation toward absorptive progenitors after massive small bowel resection in a rat.

PubMed

Sukhotnik, Igor; Coran, Arnold G; Pollak, Yulia; Kuhnreich, Eviatar; Berkowitz, Drora; Saxena, Amulya K

2017-09-01

Notch signaling is thought to act to drive cell versification in the lining of the small intestine. The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the role of the Notch signaling pathway in stem cell differentiation in the late stages of intestinal adaptation after massive small bowel resection in a rat. Male Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly assigned to one of two experimental groups of eight rats each: Sham rats underwent bowel transection and reanastomosis, while SBS rats underwent 75% small bowel resection. Rats were euthanized on day 14 Illumina's Digital Gene Expression (DGE) analysis was used to determine Notch signaling gene expression profiling. Notch-related gene and protein expression was determined using real-time PCR, Western blot analysis, and immunohistochemistry. From seven investigated Notch-related (by DGE analysis) genes, six genes were upregulated in SBS vs. control animals with a relative change in gene expression level of 20% or more. A significant upregulation of Notch signaling-related genes in resected animals was accompanied by a significant increase in Notch-1 protein levels (Western blot analysis) and a significant increase in the number of Notch1 and Hes1 (target gene)-positive cells (immunohistochemistry) compared with sham animals. Evaluation of cell differentiation has shown a strong increase in total number of absorptive cells (unchanged secretory cells) compared with control rats. In conclusion, 2 wk after bowel resection in rats, stimulated Notch signaling directs the crypt cell population toward absorptive progenitors. NEW & NOTEWORTHY This study provides novel insight into the mechanisms of cell proliferation following massive small bowel resection. We show that 2 wk after bowel resection in rats, enhanced stem cell activity was associated with stimulated Notch signaling pathway. We demonstrate that activated Notch signaling cascade directs the crypt cell population toward absorptive progenitors. Copyright © 2017 the American Physiological Society.

The effects of neuron morphology on graph theoretic measures of network connectivity: the analysis of a two-level statistical model.

PubMed

Aćimović, Jugoslava; Mäki-Marttunen, Tuomo; Linne, Marja-Leena

2015-01-01

We developed a two-level statistical model that addresses the question of how properties of neurite morphology shape the large-scale network connectivity. We adopted a low-dimensional statistical description of neurites. From the neurite model description we derived the expected number of synapses, node degree, and the effective radius, the maximal distance between two neurons expected to form at least one synapse. We related these quantities to the network connectivity described using standard measures from graph theory, such as motif counts, clustering coefficient, minimal path length, and small-world coefficient. These measures are used in a neuroscience context to study phenomena from synaptic connectivity in the small neuronal networks to large scale functional connectivity in the cortex. For these measures we provide analytical solutions that clearly relate different model properties. Neurites that sparsely cover space lead to a small effective radius. If the effective radius is small compared to the overall neuron size the obtained networks share similarities with the uniform random networks as each neuron connects to a small number of distant neurons. Large neurites with densely packed branches lead to a large effective radius. If this effective radius is large compared to the neuron size, the obtained networks have many local connections. In between these extremes, the networks maximize the variability of connection repertoires. The presented approach connects the properties of neuron morphology with large scale network properties without requiring heavy simulations with many model parameters. The two-steps procedure provides an easier interpretation of the role of each modeled parameter. The model is flexible and each of its components can be further expanded. We identified a range of model parameters that maximizes variability in network connectivity, the property that might affect network capacity to exhibit different dynamical regimes.

Normal modes of a small gamelan gong.

PubMed

Perrin, Robert; Elford, Daniel P; Chalmers, Luke; Swallowe, Gerry M; Moore, Thomas R; Hamdan, Sinin; Halkon, Benjamin J

2014-10-01

Studies have been made of the normal modes of a 20.7 cm diameter steel gamelan gong. A finite-element model has been constructed and its predictions for normal modes compared with experimental results obtained using electronic speckle pattern interferometry. Agreement was reasonable in view of the lack of precision in the manufacture of the instrument. The results agree with expectations for an axially symmetric system subject to small symmetry breaking. The extent to which the results obey Chladni's law is discussed. Comparison with vibrational and acoustical spectra enabled the identification of the small number of modes responsible for the sound output when played normally. Evidence of non-linear behavior was found, mainly in the form of subharmonics of true modes. Experiments using scanning laser Doppler vibrometry gave satisfactory agreement with the other methods.

The cost of large numbers of hypothesis tests on power, effect size and sample size.

PubMed

Lazzeroni, L C; Ray, A

2012-01-01

Advances in high-throughput biology and computer science are driving an exponential increase in the number of hypothesis tests in genomics and other scientific disciplines. Studies using current genotyping platforms frequently include a million or more tests. In addition to the monetary cost, this increase imposes a statistical cost owing to the multiple testing corrections needed to avoid large numbers of false-positive results. To safeguard against the resulting loss of power, some have suggested sample sizes on the order of tens of thousands that can be impractical for many diseases or may lower the quality of phenotypic measurements. This study examines the relationship between the number of tests on the one hand and power, detectable effect size or required sample size on the other. We show that once the number of tests is large, power can be maintained at a constant level, with comparatively small increases in the effect size or sample size. For example at the 0.05 significance level, a 13% increase in sample size is needed to maintain 80% power for ten million tests compared with one million tests, whereas a 70% increase in sample size is needed for 10 tests compared with a single test. Relative costs are less when measured by increases in the detectable effect size. We provide an interactive Excel calculator to compute power, effect size or sample size when comparing study designs or genome platforms involving different numbers of hypothesis tests. The results are reassuring in an era of extreme multiple testing.

Gene selection and cancer type classification of diffuse large-B-cell lymphoma using a bivariate mixture model for two-species data.

PubMed

Su, Yuhua; Nielsen, Dahlia; Zhu, Lei; Richards, Kristy; Suter, Steven; Breen, Matthew; Motsinger-Reif, Alison; Osborne, Jason

2013-01-05

: A bivariate mixture model utilizing information across two species was proposed to solve the fundamental problem of identifying differentially expressed genes in microarray experiments. The model utility was illustrated using a dog and human lymphoma data set prepared by a group of scientists in the College of Veterinary Medicine at North Carolina State University. A small number of genes were identified as being differentially expressed in both species and the human genes in this cluster serve as a good predictor for classifying diffuse large-B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) patients into two subgroups, the germinal center B-cell-like diffuse large B-cell lymphoma and the activated B-cell-like diffuse large B-cell lymphoma. The number of human genes that were observed to be significantly differentially expressed (21) from the two-species analysis was very small compared to the number of human genes (190) identified with only one-species analysis (human data). The genes may be clinically relevant/important, as this small set achieved low misclassification rates of DLBCL subtypes. Additionally, the two subgroups defined by this cluster of human genes had significantly different survival functions, indicating that the stratification based on gene-expression profiling using the proposed mixture model provided improved insight into the clinical differences between the two cancer subtypes.

An approach to enhance pnetCDF performance in ...

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

Data intensive simulations are often limited by their I/O (input/output) performance, and "novel" techniques need to be developed in order to overcome this limitation. The software package pnetCDF (parallel network Common Data Form), which works with parallel file systems, was developed to address this issue by providing parallel I/O capability. This study examines the performance of an application-level data aggregation approach which performs data aggregation along either row or column dimension of MPI (Message Passing Interface) processes on a spatially decomposed domain, and then applies the pnetCDF parallel I/O paradigm. The test was done with three different domain sizes which represent small, moderately large, and large data domains, using a small-scale Community Multiscale Air Quality model (CMAQ) mock-up code. The examination includes comparing I/O performance with traditional serial I/O technique, straight application of pnetCDF, and the data aggregation along row and column dimension before applying pnetCDF. After the comparison, "optimal" I/O configurations of this application-level data aggregation approach were quantified. Data aggregation along the row dimension (pnetCDFcr) works better than along the column dimension (pnetCDFcc) although it may perform slightly worse than the straight pnetCDF method with a small number of processors. When the number of processors becomes larger, pnetCDFcr outperforms pnetCDF significantly. If the number of proces

McTwo: a two-step feature selection algorithm based on maximal information coefficient.

PubMed

Ge, Ruiquan; Zhou, Manli; Luo, Youxi; Meng, Qinghan; Mai, Guoqin; Ma, Dongli; Wang, Guoqing; Zhou, Fengfeng

2016-03-23

High-throughput bio-OMIC technologies are producing high-dimension data from bio-samples at an ever increasing rate, whereas the training sample number in a traditional experiment remains small due to various difficulties. This "large p, small n" paradigm in the area of biomedical "big data" may be at least partly solved by feature selection algorithms, which select only features significantly associated with phenotypes. Feature selection is an NP-hard problem. Due to the exponentially increased time requirement for finding the globally optimal solution, all the existing feature selection algorithms employ heuristic rules to find locally optimal solutions, and their solutions achieve different performances on different datasets. This work describes a feature selection algorithm based on a recently published correlation measurement, Maximal Information Coefficient (MIC). The proposed algorithm, McTwo, aims to select features associated with phenotypes, independently of each other, and achieving high classification performance of the nearest neighbor algorithm. Based on the comparative study of 17 datasets, McTwo performs about as well as or better than existing algorithms, with significantly reduced numbers of selected features. The features selected by McTwo also appear to have particular biomedical relevance to the phenotypes from the literature. McTwo selects a feature subset with very good classification performance, as well as a small feature number. So McTwo may represent a complementary feature selection algorithm for the high-dimensional biomedical datasets.

Analytical performance of reciprocal isotope labeling of proteome digests for quantitative proteomics and its application for comparative studies of aerobic and anaerobic Escherichia coli proteomes.

PubMed

Lo, Andy; Weiner, Joel H; Li, Liang

2013-09-17

Due to limited sample amounts, instrument time considerations, and reagent costs, only a small number of replicate experiments are typically performed for quantitative proteome analyses. Generation of reproducible data that can be readily assessed for consistency within a small number of datasets is critical for accurate quantification. We report our investigation of a strategy using reciprocal isotope labeling of two comparative samples as a tool for determining proteome changes. Reciprocal labeling was evaluated to determine the internal consistency of quantified proteome changes from Escherichia coli grown under aerobic and anaerobic conditions. Qualitatively, the peptide overlap between replicate analyses of the same sample and reverse labeled samples were found to be within 8%. Quantitatively, reciprocal analyses showed only a slight increase in average overall inconsistency when compared with replicate analyses (1.29 vs. 1.24-fold difference). Most importantly, reverse labeling was successfully used to identify spurious values resulting from incorrect peptide identifications and poor peak fitting. After removal of 5% of the peptide data with low reproducibility, a total of 275 differentially expressed proteins (>1.50-fold difference) were consistently identified and were then subjected to bioinformatics analysis. General considerations and guidelines for reciprocal labeling experimental design and biological significance of obtained results are discussed. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Integrating small mammal community variables into aircraft-wildlife collision management plans at Namibian airports.

PubMed

Hauptfleisch, Morgan L; Avenant, Nico L

2015-11-01

Understanding ecosystems within and around airports can help to determine the causes and possible mitigation measures for collisions between aircraft and wildlife. Small mammal communities are an important component of the semi-arid savanna ecosystems of Namibia, its productivity and its ecosystem integrity. They are also a major direct attractant for raptors at airports. The present study compared the abundance and diversity of small mammals between Namibia's 2 main airport properties (Hosea Kutako International Airport and Eros Airport), and among areas of land used for various purposes surrounding the airports. A total of 2150 small mammals (3 orders, 11 species) were captured over 4 trapping seasons. Small mammal abundance was significantly higher at the end of the growing season than during the non-growing season. The grass mowing regimen in current management plans at the airports resulted in a significant reduction of small mammal abundance at Hosea Kutako during the non-growing season only, thus indicating that annual mowing is effective but insufficient to reduce the overall abundance of mammal prey species for raptors. Small mammal numbers were significantly higher at Hosea Kutako Airport compared to the cattle and game farming land surrounding the airport, while no differences in small mammal densities or diversity were found for areas with different land uses at and surrounding Eros. The study suggests that the fence around Hosea Kutako provides a refuge for small mammals, resulting in higher densities. It also indicates that different surrounding land use practices result in altered ecosystem function and productivity, an important consideration when identifying wildlife attractants at airports. © 2015 International Society of Zoological Sciences, Institute of Zoology/Chinese Academy of Sciences and Wiley Publishing Asia Pty Ltd.

Parental and perinatal risk factors for sexual offending in men: a nationwide case-control study.

PubMed

Babchishin, K M; Seto, M C; Sariaslan, A; Lichtenstein, P; Fazel, S; Långström, N

2017-01-01

Prior studies suggest parental and perinatal risk factors are associated with later offending. It remains uncertain, however, if such risk factors are similarly related to sexual offending. We linked socio-demographic, family relations, and perinatal (obtained at birth) data from the nationwide Swedish registers from 1973 to 2009 with information on criminal convictions of cases and control subjects. Male sex offenders (n = 13 773) were matched 1:5 on birth year and county of birth in Sweden to male controls without sexual or non-sexual violent convictions. To examine risk-factor specificity for sexual offending, we also compared male violent, non-sexual offenders (n = 135 953) to controls without sexual or non-sexual violent convictions. Predictors included parental (young maternal or paternal age at son's birth, educational attainment, violent crime, psychiatric disorder, substance misuse, suicide attempt) and perinatal (number of older brothers, low Apgar score, low birth weight, being small for gestational age, congenital malformations, small head size) variables. Conditional logistic regression models found consistent patterns of statistically significant, small to moderate independent associations of parental risk factors with sons' sexual offending and non-sexual violent offending. For perinatal risk factors, patterns varied more; small for gestational age and small head size exhibited similar risk effects for both offence types whereas a higher number of older biological brothers and any congenital malformation were small, independent risk factors only for non-sexual violence. This nationwide study suggests substantial commonalities in parental and perinatal risk factors for the onset of sexual and non-sexual violent offending.

Automatic extraction and processing of small RNAs on a multi-well/multi-channel (M&M) chip.

PubMed

Zhong, Runtao; Flack, Kenneth; Zhong, Wenwan

2012-12-07

The study of the regulatory roles in small RNAs can be accelerated by techniques that permit simple, low-cost, and rapid extraction of small RNAs from a small number of cells. In order to ensure highly specific and sensitive detection, the extracted RNAs should be free of the background nucleic acids and present stably in a small volume. To meet these criteria, we designed a multi-well/multi-channel (M&M) chip to carry out automatic and selective isolation of small RNAs via solid-phase extraction (SPE), followed by reverse-transcription (RT) to convert them to the more stable cDNAs in a final volume of 2 μL. Droplets containing buffers for RNA binding, washing, and elution were trapped in microwells, which were connected by one channel, and suspended in mineral oil. The silica magnetic particles (SMPs) for SPE were moved along the channel from well to well, i.e. in between droplets, by a fixed magnet and a translation stage, allowing the nucleic acid fragments to bind to the SMPs, be washed, and then be eluted for RT reaction within 15 minutes. RNAs shorter than 63 nt were selectively enriched from cell lysates, with recovery comparable to that of a commercial kit. Physical separation of the droplets on our M&M chip allowed the usage of multiple channels for parallel processing of multiple samples. It also permitted smooth integration with on-chip RT-PCR, which simultaneously detected the target microRNA, mir-191, expressed in fewer than 10 cancer cells. Our results have demonstrated that the M&M chip device is a valuable and cost-saving platform for studying small RNA expression patterns in a limited number of cells with reasonable sample throughput.

Characteristics of meta-analyses and their component studies in the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews: a cross-sectional, descriptive analysis

PubMed Central

2011-01-01

Background Cochrane systematic reviews collate and summarise studies of the effects of healthcare interventions. The characteristics of these reviews and the meta-analyses and individual studies they contain provide insights into the nature of healthcare research and important context for the development of relevant statistical and other methods. Methods We classified every meta-analysis with at least two studies in every review in the January 2008 issue of the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews (CDSR) according to the medical specialty, the types of interventions being compared and the type of outcome. We provide descriptive statistics for numbers of meta-analyses, numbers of component studies and sample sizes of component studies, broken down by these categories. Results We included 2321 reviews containing 22,453 meta-analyses, which themselves consist of data from 112,600 individual studies (which may appear in more than one meta-analysis). Meta-analyses in the areas of gynaecology, pregnancy and childbirth (21%), mental health (13%) and respiratory diseases (13%) are well represented in the CDSR. Most meta-analyses address drugs, either with a control or placebo group (37%) or in a comparison with another drug (25%). The median number of meta-analyses per review is six (inter-quartile range 3 to 12). The median number of studies included in the meta-analyses with at least two studies is three (inter-quartile range 2 to 6). Sample sizes of individual studies range from 2 to 1,242,071, with a median of 91 participants. Discussion It is clear that the numbers of studies eligible for meta-analyses are typically very small for all medical areas, outcomes and interventions covered by Cochrane reviews. This highlights the particular importance of suitable methods for the meta-analysis of small data sets. There was little variation in number of studies per meta-analysis across medical areas, across outcome data types or across types of interventions being compared. PMID:22114982

Use of adjoint methods in the probabilistic finite element approach to fracture mechanics

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Liu, Wing Kam; Besterfield, Glen; Lawrence, Mark; Belytschko, Ted

1988-01-01

The adjoint method approach to probabilistic finite element methods (PFEM) is presented. When the number of objective functions is small compared to the number of random variables, the adjoint method is far superior to the direct method in evaluating the objective function derivatives with respect to the random variables. The PFEM is extended to probabilistic fracture mechanics (PFM) using an element which has the near crack-tip singular strain field embedded. Since only two objective functions (i.e., mode I and II stress intensity factors) are needed for PFM, the adjoint method is well suited.

Are crossing dependencies really scarce?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ferrer-i-Cancho, R.; Gómez-Rodríguez, C.; Esteban, J. L.

2018-03-01

The syntactic structure of a sentence can be modelled as a tree, where vertices correspond to words and edges indicate syntactic dependencies. It has been claimed recurrently that the number of edge crossings in real sentences is small. However, a baseline or null hypothesis has been lacking. Here we quantify the amount of crossings of real sentences and compare it to the predictions of a series of baselines. We conclude that crossings are really scarce in real sentences. Their scarcity is unexpected by the hubiness of the trees. Indeed, real sentences are close to linear trees, where the potential number of crossings is maximized.

78 FR 73580 - Pennsylvania Disaster Number PA-00065

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-12-06

... SMALL BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION [Disaster Declaration 13790 and 13791] Pennsylvania Disaster Number PA-00065 AGENCY: U.S. Small Business Administration. ACTION: Amendment 1. SUMMARY: This is an...: Submit completed loan applications to: U.S. Small Business Administration, Processing And Disbursement...

Rodent and flea abundance fail to predict a plague epizootic in black-tailed prairie dogs.

PubMed

Brinkerhoff, Robert Jory; Collinge, Sharon K; Ray, Chris; Gage, Ken L

2010-01-01

Small rodents are purported to be enzootic hosts of Yersinia pestis and may serve as sources of infection to prairie dogs or other epizootic hosts by direct or flea-mediated transmission. Recent research has shown that small rodent species composition and small rodent flea assemblages are influenced by the presence of prairie dogs, with higher relative abundance of both small rodents and fleas at prairie dog colony sites compared to grasslands without prairie dogs. However, it is unclear if increased rodent or flea abundance predisposes prairie dogs to infection with Y. pestis. We tracked rodent and flea occurrence for 3 years at a number of prairie dog colony sites in Boulder County, Colorado, before, during, and after a local plague epizootic to see if high rodent or flea abundance was associated with plague-affected colonies when compared to colonies that escaped infection. We found no difference in preepizootic rodent abundance or flea prevalence or abundance between plague-positive and plague-negative colonies. Further, we saw no significant before-plague/after-plague change in these metrics at either plague-positive or plague-negative sites. We did, however, find that small rodent species assemblages changed in the year following prairie dog die-offs at plague-affected colonies when compared to unaffected colonies. In light of previous research from this system that has shown that landscape features and proximity to recently plagued colonies are significant predictors of plague occurrence in prairie dogs, we suggest that landscape context is more important to local plague occurrence than are characteristics of rodent or flea species assemblages.

Emission of nanoparticles during combustion of waste biomass in fireplace

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Drastichová, Vendula; Krpec, Kamil; Horák, Jiří; Hopan, František; Kubesa, Petr; Martiník, Lubomír; Koloničný, Jan; Ochodek, Tadeáš; Holubčík, Michal

2014-08-01

Contamination of air by solid particles is serious problem for human health and also environment. Small particles in nano-sizes are more dangerous than same weight of larger size. Negative effect namely of the solid particles depends on (i) number, (ii) specific surface area (iii) respirability and (iv) bonding of others substances (e.g. PAHs, As, Cd, Zn, Cu etc.) which are higher for smaller (nano-sizes) particles compared to larger one. For this reason mentioned above this contribution deals with measuring of amount, and distribution of nanoparticles produced form combustion of waste city biomass in small combustion unit with impactor DLPI.

Application of the Solubility Parameter Concept to the Design of Chemiresistor Arrays

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Eastman, M.P.; Hughes, R.C.; Jenkins, M.W.

1999-01-11

Arrays of unheated chemically sensitive resistors (chemiresistors) can serve as extremely small, low-power-consumption sensors with simple read-out electronics. We report here results on carbon-loaded polymer composites, as well as polymeric ionic conductors, as chemiresistor sensors. We use the volubility parameter concept to understand and categorize the chemiresistor responses and, in particular, we compare chemiresistors fabricated from polyisobutylene (PIB) to results from PIB-coated acoustic wave sensors. One goal is to examine the possibility that a small number of diverse chemiresistors can sense all possible solvents-the "Universal Solvent Sensor Array". keywords: chemiresistor, volubility parameter, chemical sensor

Direct comparison of nanoindentation and tensile test results on reactor-irradiated materials

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Krumwiede, D. L.; Yamamoto, T.; Saleh, T. A.; Maloy, S. A.; Odette, G. R.; Hosemann, P.

2018-06-01

Nanoindentation testing has been used for decades to assess materials on a local scale and to obtain fundamental mechanical property parameters. Nuclear materials research often faces the challenge of testing rather small samples due to the hazardous nature, limited space in reactors, and shallow ion-irradiated zones, fostering the need for small-scale mechanical testing (SSMT). As such, correlating the results from SSMT to bulk properties is particularly of interest. This study compares macroscopic tensile test data (yield and flow stresses) to nanoindentation data (hardness) obtained on a number of different neutron-irradiated materials in order to understand the scaling behavior on radiation-damaged samples.

The Number of Interviews Needed to Yield New Syphilis and Human Immunodeficiency Virus Cases Among Partners of People Diagnosed With Syphilis, North Carolina, 2015.

PubMed

Samoff, Erika; Cope, Anna B; Maxwell, Jason; Thomas, Francina; Mobley, Victoria L

2017-08-01

Compare syphilis investigation yield among patient groups using number needed to interview. To increase investigation efficiency. Retrospective review of North Carolina 2015 syphilis investigations, using the number of cases needed to interview (NNTI) and the total number of cases and contacts needed to interview (TNTI) to compare yield of new syphilis and human immunodeficiency virus diagnoses between patient groups. We reviewed 1646 early syphilis cases and 2181 contacts; these yielded 241 new syphilis cases (NNTI, 6.9; TNTI, 16.4) and 38 new human immunodeficiency virus cases (NNTI, 43). Interviews of women (prevalence difference [PD] = 6%, 95% confidence interval [CI], 12-16), patients <30 years old (PD = 5%, 95% CI, 1-8), and patients with titer >1:16 (PD = 5%, 95% CI, 1-9) yielded more new syphilis cases in our adjusted model; no other patient factors increased investigation yield. The NNTI and TNTI are useful measures of efficiency. Prioritizing early syphilis investigation by gender, rapid plasmin reagin titer, and age provides small increases in efficiency; no other factors increased efficiency.

Prolonged intestinal transit and diarrhea in patients with an activating GUCY2C mutation

PubMed Central

Brønstad, Ingeborg; Gilja, Odd Helge; R. Tronstad, Rune; Sangnes, Dag Andre; Nortvedt, Ragnar; Hausken, Trygve; Dimcevski, Georg; Fiskerstrand, Torunn; Nylund, Kim

2017-01-01

Introduction Increased intestinal hydration by activation of the epithelial enzyme linked receptor guanylate cyclase C (GC-C) is a pharmacological principle for treating constipation. Activating mutations in the GUCY2C gene encoding GC-C cause Familial GUCY2C diarrhea syndrome (FGDS) which has been diagnosed with severe dysmotility. Aim To investigate gut motility and hormones before and after a meal in FGDS patients and compare with healthy controls (HC). Subjects and methods Bristol stool chart and stool frequency was assessed. Before and after a meal occlusive and non-occlusive contractions were obtained using ultrasound. A wireless motility capsule (WMC) recorded gut transit time, pH, contractions and pressure. Plasma levels of selected gut hormones were measured at different time points. Results The FGDS patients had 4 (range 1–10) loose stools/day and prolonged total gut transit time compared to HC, 55.5 h vs 28.5 h, respectively,with significantly increased colon transit time. In FGDS patients, pH in duodenum, small bowel and colon was increased and the number of contractions and the intraluminal pressure were significantly decreased, measured by WMC. Ultrasound showed in small bowel increased number of non-occlusive contractions in the FGDS patients. Serotonin (5-HT) plasma levels in the HC peaked 30 min after the meal, while the FGDS patients had no response. Conclusion Despite having diarrhea, the FGDS patients have prolonged transit time through the gut compared to HC, particularly in colon. The reduced number of intestinal contractions and lack of 5-HT release after a meal in FGDS patients surprisingly resemble colonic motility disturbances seen in patients with constipation. PMID:28957388

The cost of simplifying air travel when modeling disease spread.

PubMed

Lessler, Justin; Kaufman, James H; Ford, Daniel A; Douglas, Judith V

2009-01-01

Air travel plays a key role in the spread of many pathogens. Modeling the long distance spread of infectious disease in these cases requires an air travel model. Highly detailed air transportation models can be over determined and computationally problematic. We compared the predictions of a simplified air transport model with those of a model of all routes and assessed the impact of differences on models of infectious disease. Using U.S. ticket data from 2007, we compared a simplified "pipe" model, in which individuals flow in and out of the air transport system based on the number of arrivals and departures from a given airport, to a fully saturated model where all routes are modeled individually. We also compared the pipe model to a "gravity" model where the probability of travel is scaled by physical distance; the gravity model did not differ significantly from the pipe model. The pipe model roughly approximated actual air travel, but tended to overestimate the number of trips between small airports and underestimate travel between major east and west coast airports. For most routes, the maximum number of false (or missed) introductions of disease is small (<1 per day) but for a few routes this rate is greatly underestimated by the pipe model. If our interest is in large scale regional and national effects of disease, the simplified pipe model may be adequate. If we are interested in specific effects of interventions on particular air routes or the time for the disease to reach a particular location, a more complex point-to-point model will be more accurate. For many problems a hybrid model that independently models some frequently traveled routes may be the best choice. Regardless of the model used, the effect of simplifications and sensitivity to errors in parameter estimation should be analyzed.

UK medical tourists in Thailand: they are not who you think they are.

PubMed

Noree, Thinakorn; Hanefeld, Johanna; Smith, Richard

2014-05-06

Travel for medical treatment is an aspect of globalization and health that is comparatively less understood. Little is known about volume, characteristic and motivation of medical tourists, limiting understanding of effects on health systems and patients. Thailand is amongst a handful of countries that have positioned themselves as medical tourism destination. This paper examines in unprecedented detail volume and characteristics of medical tourists who travel from the UK to Thailand for treatment. As part of a wider medical tourism study, authors gained access to over 4000 patient records from the five largest private hospitals in Thailand. These included information on country of origin, gender, age, arrival month, hospitalization, diagnosis, procedures, length of stay, medical expenditure and type of payment. Patient records were analysed to understand who travels and findings were triangulated with data from the UK International Passenger Survey (IPS). 104,830 medical tourists visited these hospitals in Thailand in 2010. While patients originate all over the world, UK medical tourists represent the largest group amongst Europeans. The majority UK medical tourists (60%) have comparatively small, elective procedures, costing less than USD 500. A significant minority of patients travel for more serious orthopedic and cardiothoracic procedures. Data of individual patient records from Thailand shows a higher number of UK patients traveled to Thailand than indicated by the IPS. Thailand is attracting a large number of medical tourists including larger numbers of UK patients than previously estimated. However, as many patients travel for comparatively minor procedures treatment may not be their primary motivation for travel. The small but significant proportion of older UK residents traveling for complex procedures may point to challenges within the NHS.

UK medical tourists in Thailand: they are not who you think they are

PubMed Central

2014-01-01

Background Travel for medical treatment is an aspect of globalization and health that is comparatively less understood. Little is known about volume, characteristic and motivation of medical tourists, limiting understanding of effects on health systems and patients. Thailand is amongst a handful of countries that have positioned themselves as medical tourism destination. This paper examines in unprecedented detail volume and characteristics of medical tourists who travel from the UK to Thailand for treatment. Methods As part of a wider medical tourism study, authors gained access to over 4000 patient records from the five largest private hospitals in Thailand. These included information on country of origin, gender, age, arrival month, hospitalization, diagnosis, procedures, length of stay, medical expenditure and type of payment. Patient records were analysed to understand who travels and findings were triangulated with data from the UK International Passenger Survey (IPS). Results 104,830 medical tourists visited these hospitals in Thailand in 2010. While patients originate all over the world, UK medical tourists represent the largest group amongst Europeans. The majority UK medical tourists (60%) have comparatively small, elective procedures, costing less than USD 500. A significant minority of patients travel for more serious orthopedic and cardiothoracic procedures. Data of individual patient records from Thailand shows a higher number of UK patients traveled to Thailand than indicated by the IPS. Conclusions Thailand is attracting a large number of medical tourists including larger numbers of UK patients than previously estimated. However, as many patients travel for comparatively minor procedures treatment may not be their primary motivation for travel. The small but significant proportion of older UK residents traveling for complex procedures may point to challenges within the NHS. PMID:24885204

Atorvastatin repurposing for the treatment of cryptosporidiosis in experimentally immunosuppressed mice.

PubMed

Madbouly Taha, Noha; Salah A Yousof, Hebat-Allah; El-Sayed, Shaimaa H; Younis, Azza Ibrahim; Ismail Negm, Mohamed Sherif

2017-10-01

The present study was conducted on 200 male mice for the detection of the effect of Atorvastatin on Cryptosporidium spp. infection versus the commercially used drug Nitazoxanide in experimentally immunosuppressed mice. Atorvastatin was used alone at low dose (20 mg/kg), high dose (40 mg/kg), and combined with Nitazoxanide (1000 mg/kg) with either the low dose or high dose for five consecutive days. Parasitological assessment of the drug effect was done using Modified Z-N staining of stool samples collected from mice. Results revealed a reduction of the number of oocysts shed with percentage of reduction on the 21st day post infection by 53.7%, 67.2%, 70.1% &77.5%, respectively, compared to the infected untreated group. The Nitazoxanide treated group showed 52.7% reduction. In addition, examination of small and large intestinal contents after mice scarification revealed reduced numbers of oocysts by 56.2%-58.8%, 65.1%-65.3%, 70.6%-73.9% and 77.8%-79.9%, respectively, compared to 51.2%-54.1% in Nitazoxanide treated group. The histopathological examination of sections from duodenum, jejunum, ileum, colon, stomach and lungs also revealed a significant improvement of the histopathological changes in Atorvastatin treated groups and more remarkable improvement in the groups treated with combined drugs as compared to infected untreated group. Accordingly, the combination of Atorvastatin and Nitazoxanide showed a synergistic effect through reduction of the number of oocysts shed and improvement of the histopathological changes induced by Cryptosporidium spp. infection in the small intestine, colon, stomach and lungs of infected immunosuppressed mice in comparison to that induced by either Nitazoxanide or Atorvastatin alone. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Parallel Calculation of Sensitivity Derivatives for Aircraft Design using Automatic Differentiation

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bischof, c. H.; Green, L. L.; Haigler, K. J.; Knauff, T. L., Jr.

1994-01-01

Sensitivity derivative (SD) calculation via automatic differentiation (AD) typical of that required for the aerodynamic design of a transport-type aircraft is considered. Two ways of computing SD via code generated by the ADIFOR automatic differentiation tool are compared for efficiency and applicability to problems involving large numbers of design variables. A vector implementation on a Cray Y-MP computer is compared with a coarse-grained parallel implementation on an IBM SP1 computer, employing a Fortran M wrapper. The SD are computed for a swept transport wing in turbulent, transonic flow; the number of geometric design variables varies from 1 to 60 with coupling between a wing grid generation program and a state-of-the-art, 3-D computational fluid dynamics program, both augmented for derivative computation via AD. For a small number of design variables, the Cray Y-MP implementation is much faster. As the number of design variables grows, however, the IBM SP1 becomes an attractive alternative in terms of compute speed, job turnaround time, and total memory available for solutions with large numbers of design variables. The coarse-grained parallel implementation also can be moved easily to a network of workstations.

Too Much to Count On: Impaired Very Small Numbers in Corticobasal Degeneration

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Halpern, Casey; Clark, Robin; Moore, Peachie; Cross, Katy; Grossman, Murray

2007-01-01

Patients with corticobasal degeneration (CBD) have calculation impairments. This study examined whether impaired number knowledge depends on verbal mediation. We focused particularly on knowledge of very small numbers, where there is a precise relationship between a cardinality and its number concept, but little hypothesized role for verbal…

77 FR 42075 - Florida Disaster Number FL-00071

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-07-17

... SMALL BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION [Disaster Declaration 13103 and 13104] Florida Disaster Number FL-00071 AGENCY: U.S. Small Business Administration. ACTION: Amendment 2. SUMMARY: This is an amendment of.../2013. ADDRESSES: Submit completed loan applications to: U.S. Small Business Administration, Processing...

77 FR 55889 - Louisiana Disaster Number LA-00048

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2012-09-11

... SMALL BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION [Disaster Declaration 13271 and 13272] Louisiana Disaster Number LA-00048 AGENCY: U.S. Small Business Administration. ACTION: Amendment 1. SUMMARY: This is an amendment of.../29/2013. ADDRESSES: Submit completed loan applications to: U.S. Small Business Administration...

77 FR 55890 - West Virginia Disaster Number WV-00028

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2012-09-11

... SMALL BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION [Disaster Declaration 13154 and 13155] West Virginia Disaster Number WV-00028 AGENCY: U.S. Small Business Administration. ACTION: Amendment 2. SUMMARY: This is an...: Submit completed loan applications to: U.S. Small Business Administration, Processing And Disbursement...

76 FR 35937 - Arkansas Disaster Number AR-00048

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-06-20

... U.S. SMALL BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION [Disaster Declaration 12560 and 12561] Arkansas Disaster Number AR-00048 AGENCY: U.S. Small Business Administration. ACTION: Amendment 6. SUMMARY: This is an...: U.S. Small Business Administration, Processing and Disbursement Center, 14925 Kingsport Road, Fort...

76 FR 36166 - Tennessee Disaster Number TN-00051

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2011-06-21

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76 FR 35938 - Kentucky Disaster Number KY-00039

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2011-06-20

... U.S. SMALL BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION [Disaster Declaration 12566 and 12567] Kentucky Disaster Number KY-00039 AGENCY: U.S. Small Business Administration. ACTION: Amendment 6. SUMMARY: This is an...: Submit completed loan applications to: U.S. Small Business Administration, Processing and Disbursement...

76 FR 38717 - Arkansas Disaster Number AR-00048

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-07-01

... U.S. SMALL BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION [Disaster Declaration 12560 and 12561] Arkansas Disaster Number AR-00048 AGENCY: U.S. Small Business Administration. ACTION: Amendment 8. SUMMARY: This is an...: U.S. Small Business Administration, Processing and Disbursement Center, 14925 Kingsport Road, Fort...

78 FR 62001 - Colorado Disaster Number CO-00065

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-10-10

... SMALL BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION [Disaster Declaration 13768 and 13769] Colorado Disaster Number CO-00065 AGENCY: U.S. Small Business Administration. ACTION: Amendment 3. SUMMARY: This is an amendment of.... Small Business Administration, Processing and Disbursement Center, 14925 Kingsport Road, Fort Worth, TX...

78 FR 62001 - Colorado Disaster Number CO-00066

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-10-10

... SMALL BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION [Disaster Declaration 13781 and 13782] Colorado Disaster Number CO-00066 AGENCY: U.S. Small Business Administration. ACTION: Amendment 1. SUMMARY: This is an amendment of... completed loan applications to: U.S. Small Business Administration, Processing and Disbursement Center...

78 FR 62001 - Colorado Disaster Number CO-00066

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-10-10

... SMALL BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION [Disaster Declaration 13781 and 13782] Colorado Disaster Number CO-00066 AGENCY: U.S. Small Business Administration. ACTION: Amendment 2. SUMMARY: This is an amendment of... completed loan applications to: U.S. Small Business Administration, Processing and Disbursement Center...

78 FR 49592 - Missouri Disaster Number MO-00066

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-08-14

...: Submit completed loan applications to: U.S. Small Business Administration, Processing and Disbursement... SMALL BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION [Disaster Declaration 13674 and 13675] Missouri Disaster Number MO-00066 AGENCY: U.S. Small Business Administration. ACTION: Amendment 1. SUMMARY: This is an amendment of...

77 FR 58903 - Louisiana Disaster Number LA-00048

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-09-24

.../29/2013. ADDRESSES: Submit completed loan applications to: U.S. Small Business Administration... SMALL BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION [Disaster Declaration 13271 and 13272] Louisiana Disaster Number LA-00048 AGENCY: U.S. Small Business Administration. ACTION: Amendment 5. SUMMARY: This is an amendment of...

"Trapping" of the Radiation of an Excited Particle by Its Stark Interaction with the Nonresonant Levels of Surrounding Particles

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Basharov, A. M.

2018-04-01

It has been shown analytically that an excited particle surrounded by immobile unlike atoms does not emit at a certain number of surrounding atoms. The necessary condition is the smallness of the region occupied by the particle and its environment compared to the wavelength of a photon emitted by an isolated particle in electromagnetic vacuum.

Analysis of a Field Study: Programs, Services, and Approaches Toward the Reduction of Adolescent Pregnancy. Final Report.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Moore, Audrey

This field survey relative to adolescent pregnancy was undertaken through site visits and interviews. Data indicated that: (1) while many people are carrying out excellent programs and activities, the numbers are small compared to the need; (2) in some types of services the old tried-and-found-wanting approaches are perpetuated; (3) in some,…

Post-Secondary Education in the South Pacific: Present Patterns and Future Options. Educational Development in the Small States of the Commonwealth Series.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Crocombe, Ron; Crocombe, Marjorie Tuainekore

This book contains the results of a study examining post-secondary education in the South Pacific by surveying the number of educational opportunities currently offered, by analyzing key trends, and by comparing developments in the Cook Islands and the Solomon Islands. Following an introductory section on terminology and the region, the first main…

The U.S. Farm Sector in the Mid-1980's. Agricultural Economic Report Number 548.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Reimund, Donn A.; And Others

This report compares several farm characteristics of the mid-1980s with those of a decade earlier to document the real amount of change in the farm sector. Farms are stratified into five groups based on their farm income: rural residence, small family, family, large family, and very large. Sources and levels of farm operator income and wealth are…

Micro-buffy coats of whole blood: a method for the electron microscopic study of mononuclear cells.

PubMed

Nunes, J F; Soares, J O; Alves de Matos, A P

1979-09-01

A method for the electron microscopic study of human peripheral lymphocytes by which very small buffy coats are obtained through centrifugation of heparinized whole blood in glass or plastic microhematocrit tubes is presented. This method is time saving and efficient, yielding well preserved material and a comparatively large number of mononuclear cells (mainly lymphocytes) in each thin section.

Anharmonic quantum contribution to vibrational dephasing.

PubMed

Barik, Debashis; Ray, Deb Shankar

2004-07-22

Based on a quantum Langevin equation and its corresponding Hamiltonian within a c-number formalism we calculate the vibrational dephasing rate of a cubic oscillator. It is shown that leading order quantum correction due to anharmonicity of the potential makes a significant contribution to the rate and the frequency shift. We compare our theoretical estimates with those obtained from experiments for small diatomics N(2), O(2), and CO.

Meteoritics, Number 19

DTIC Science & Technology

1964-06-01

of the Migeya meteorite, which contains volatile organic compounds (a feature which proves the absence of overheating during its life), is 4.3...pattern in their discovery of gallium and germanium in iron meteorites as small ad- mixtures. Iron meteorites are divided into four groups by their content...as a basis for the classification of meteorites by their composition that we have suggested- By comparing the data they obtained on gallium and

Using Modern Statistical Methods to Analyze Demographics of Kansas ABE/GED Students Who Transition to Community or Technical College Programs

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zacharakis, Jeff; Wang, Haiyan; Patterson, Margaret Becker; Andersen, Lori

2015-01-01

This research analyzed linked high-quality state data from K-12, adult education, and postsecondary state datasets in order to better understand the association between student demographics and successful completion of a postsecondary program. Due to the relatively small sample size compared to the large number of features, we analyzed the data…

Wilson cycle studies

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1987-01-01

Continents originate by the sweeping together of island arcs. Continental and island arc crusts are dominated by rocks of comparable compositional and density ranges, evidence of the operation of this process is abundant in the geological record, and can be seen in action today in Indonesia. Lineaments within continents are attributable to a small number of processes of continent formation and modification, but interactions among these processes may produce complex patterns.

Robust determination of effective atomic numbers for electron interactions with TLD-100 and TLD-100H thermoluminescent dosimeters

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Taylor, M. L.

2011-04-01

Lithium fluoride thermoluminescent dosimeters (TLD) are the most commonly implemented for clinical dosimetry. The small physical magnitude of TLDs makes them attractive for applications such as small field measurement, in vivo dosimetry and measurement of out-of-field doses to critical structures. The most broadly used TLD is TLD-100 (LiF:Mg,Ti) and, for applications requiring higher sensitivity to low-doses, TLD-100H (LiF:Mg,Cu,P) is frequently employed. The radiological properties of these TLDs are therefore of significant interest. For the first time, in this study effective atomic numbers for radiative, collisional and total electron interaction processes are calculated for TLD-100 and TLD-100H dosimeters over the energy range 1 keV-100 MeV. This is undertaken using a robust, energy-dependent method of calculation rather than typical power-law approximations. The influence of dopant concentrations and unwanted impurities is also investigated. The two TLDs exhibit similar effective atomic numbers, ranging from approximately 5.77-6.51. Differences arising from the different dopants are most pronounced in low-energy radiative effects. The TLDs have atomic numbers approximately 1.48-2.06 times that of water. The effective atomic number of TLD-100H is consistently higher than that of TLD-100 over a broad energy range, due to the greater influence of the higher- Z dopants on the electron interaction cross sections. Typical variation in dopant concentration does not significantly influence the effective atomic number. The influence on TLD-100H is comparatively more pronounced than that on TLD-100. Contrariwise, unwanted hydroxide impurities influence TLD-100 more than TLD-100H. The effective atomic number is a key parameter that influences the radiological properties and energy response of TLDs. Although many properties of these TLDs have been studied rigorously, as yet there has been no investigation of their effective atomic numbers for electron interactions. The discrepancy between the effective atomic numbers of the TLDs and water is significantly higher than would be indicated by comparing effective atomic numbers calculated via the common - but dubious - power-law method. The mean effective numbers over the full energy range are 6.06, 6.09, 3.34 and 3.37 for TLD-100, TLD-100H, soft tissue and water respectively.

On creating macroscopically identical granular systems with different numbers of particles

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

van der Meer, Devaraj; Rivas, Nicolas

2015-11-01

One of the fundamental differences between granular and molecular hydrodynamics is the enormous difference in the total number of constituents. The small number of particles implies that the role of fluctuations in granular dynamics is of paramount importance. To obtain more insight in these fluctuations, we investigate to what extent it is possible to create identical granular hydrodynamic states with different number of particles. A definition is given of macroscopically equivalent systems, and the dependency of the conservation equations on the particle size is studied. We show that, in certain cases, and by appropriately scaling the microscopic variables, we are able to compare systems with significantly different number of particles that present the same macroscopic phenomenology. We apply these scalings in simulations of a vertically vibrated system, namely the density inverted granular Leidenfrost state and its transition to a buoyancy-driven convective state.

A comparison between IMSC, PI and MIMSC methods in controlling the vibration of flexible systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Baz, A.; Poh, S.

1987-01-01

A comparative study is presented between three active control algorithms which have proven to be successful in controlling the vibrations of large flexible systems. These algorithms are: the Independent Modal Space Control (IMSC), the Pseudo-inverse (PI), and the Modified Independent Modal Space Control (MIMSC). Emphasis is placed on demonstrating the effectiveness of the MIMSC method in controlling the vibration of large systems with small number of actuators by using an efficient time sharing strategy. Such a strategy favors the MIMSC over the IMSC method, which requires a large number of actuators to control equal number of modes, and also over the PI method which attempts to control large number of modes with smaller number of actuators through the use of an in-exact statistical realization of a modal controller. Numerical examples are presented to illustrate the main features of the three algorithms and the merits of the MIMSC method.

CT enterography for Crohn's disease: accurate preoperative diagnostic imaging.

PubMed

Vogel, Jon; da Luz Moreira, Andre; Baker, Mark; Hammel, Jeffery; Einstein, David; Stocchi, Luca; Fazio, Victor

2007-11-01

CT enterography (CTE) is a technique that provides detailed images of the small bowel by using a low Hounsfield unit oral contrast media. This study was designed to correlate CTE findings with operative findings in patients with Crohn's disease. We performed a retrospective study of all patients with Crohn's disease of the small bowel or colon, who had CTE and subsequent small bowel or colon surgery within three months after the CT examination. CTE findings of stricture, fistula, inflammatory mass, abscess, and combinations of these abnormalities were compared with operative findings. Specialist radiologists and fellowship-trained colorectal surgeons participated in the study. The Fisher's exact test or chi-squared tests were used with respect to categorical data, and the Wilcoxon's rank-sum test was used for quantitative data. In 36 patients, the presence or absence of stricture, fistula, abscess, or inflammatory mass was correctly determined by CTE in 100, 94, 100, and 97 percent, respectively. The accuracy for stricture or fistula number was 83 and 86 percent, respectively. There were nine patients with multiple disease phenotypes identified on CTE of which eight were confirmed at surgery. CTE overestimated or underestimated the extent of disease in 11 patients (31 percent). CTE is an accurate preoperative diagnostic imaging study for small-bowel Crohn's disease. The ability of this imaging study to detect both luminal and extraluminal pathology is a distinct advantage of CTE compared with small-bowel contrast studies.

Cosmological perturbations in the (1 + 3 + 6)-dimensional space-times

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tomita, K.

2014-12-01

Cosmological perturbations in the (1+3+6)-dimensional space-times including photon gas without viscous processes are studied on the basis of Abbott et al.'s formalism [R. B. Abbott, B. Bednarz, and S. D. Ellis, Phys. Rev. D 33, 2147 (1986)]. Space-times consist of outer space (the 3-dimensional expanding section) and inner space (the 6-dimensional section). The inner space expands initially and later contracts. Abbott et al. derived only power-type solutions, which appear at the final stage of the space-times, in the small wave-number limit. In this paper, we derive not only small wave-number solutions, but also large wave-number solutions. It is found that the latter solutions depend on the two wave-numbers k_r and k_R (which are defined in the outer and inner spaces, respectively), and that the k_r-dependent and k_R-dependent parts dominate the total perturbations when (k_r/r(t))/(k_R/R(t)) ≫ 1 or ≪ 1, respectively, where r(t) and R(t) are the scale-factors in the outer and inner spaces. By comparing the behaviors of these perturbations, moreover, changes in the spectrum of perturbations in the outer space with time are discussed.

Continued results of the seeds in space experiment

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Alston, Jim A.

1993-01-01

Two million seeds of 120 different varieties representing 106 species, 97 genera, and 55 plant families were flown aboard the Long Duration Exposure Facility (LDEF). The seed were housed on the Space Exposed Experiment Developed for Students (SEEDS) tray in the sealed canister number 6 and in two small vented canisters. The tray was in the F-2 position. The seed were germinated and the germination rates and the development of the resulting plants were compared to the performance of the control seed that stayed in Park Seed's seed storage facility. The initial results were presented in a paper at the First LDEF Post-Retrieval Symposium. There was a better survival rate of the seed in the sealed canister in space than in the storage facility at Park Seed. At least some of the seed in each of the vented canisters survived the exposure to vacuum for almost six years. The number of observed apparent mutations was very low. In the initial testing, the small seeded crops were not grown to maturity to check for mutations and obtain second generation seed. These small seeded crops have now been grown for evaluation and second generation seed collected.

Poor correlation between the removal or deposition of pollen grains and frequency of pollinator contact with sex organs

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sakamoto, Ryota L.; Morinaga, Shin-Ichi

2013-09-01

Pollinators deposit pollen grains on stigmas and remove pollen grains from anthers. The mechanics of these transfers can now be quantified with the use of high-speed video. We videoed hawkmoths, carpenter bees, and swallowtail butterflies pollinating Clerodendrum trichotomum. The number of grains deposited on stigmas did not vary significantly with the number of times pollinators contacted stigmas. In contrast, pollen removal from the anthers increased significantly with the number of contacts to anthers. Pollen removal varied among the three types of pollinators. Also, the three types carried pollen on different parts of their bodies. In hawkmoths and carpenter bees, a large number of contacted body part with anthers differed significantly from the body part that attached a large number of pollen grains. Our results indicate that a large number of contacts by pollinators does not increase either the male or female reproductive success of plants compared to a small number of contacts during a visit.

Birds have primate-like numbers of neurons in the forebrain

PubMed Central

Olkowicz, Seweryn; Kocourek, Martin; Lučan, Radek K.; Porteš, Michal; Fitch, W. Tecumseh; Herculano-Houzel, Suzana; Němec, Pavel

2016-01-01

Some birds achieve primate-like levels of cognition, even though their brains tend to be much smaller in absolute size. This poses a fundamental problem in comparative and computational neuroscience, because small brains are expected to have a lower information-processing capacity. Using the isotropic fractionator to determine numbers of neurons in specific brain regions, here we show that the brains of parrots and songbirds contain on average twice as many neurons as primate brains of the same mass, indicating that avian brains have higher neuron packing densities than mammalian brains. Additionally, corvids and parrots have much higher proportions of brain neurons located in the pallial telencephalon compared with primates or other mammals and birds. Thus, large-brained parrots and corvids have forebrain neuron counts equal to or greater than primates with much larger brains. We suggest that the large numbers of neurons concentrated in high densities in the telencephalon substantially contribute to the neural basis of avian intelligence. PMID:27298365

78 FR 7848 - Connecticut Disaster Number CT-00028

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-02-04

... SMALL BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION [Disaster Declaration 13369 and 13370] Connecticut Disaster Number CT-00028 AGENCY: U.S. Small Business Administration. ACTION: Amendment 3. SUMMARY: This is an... information in the original declaration remains unchanged. (Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance Numbers...

78 FR 15110 - Mississippi Disaster Number MS-00064

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-03-08

... SMALL BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION [Disaster Declaration 13492 and 13493] Mississippi Disaster Number MS-00064 AGENCY: U.S. Small Business Administration. ACTION: Amendment 3. SUMMARY: This is an... Domestic Assistance Numbers 59002 and 59008) James E. Rivera, Associate Administrator for Disaster...

78 FR 9448 - Ohio Disaster Number OH-00039

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-02-08

... SMALL BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION [Disaster Declaration 13441 and 13442] Ohio Disaster Number OH-00039 AGENCY: U.S. Small Business Administration. ACTION: Amendment 1. SUMMARY: This is an amendment of the... completed loan applications to: U.S. Small Business Administration, Processing And Disbursement Center...

77 FR 16315 - Kentucky Disaster Number KY-00044

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-03-20

... SMALL BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION [Disaster Declaration 13029 and 13030] Kentucky Disaster Number KY-00044 AGENCY: U.S. Small Business Administration. ACTION: A CTION: Amendment 3. SUMMARY: This is an... applications to: U.S. Small Business Administration, Processing and Disbursement Center, 14925 Kingsport Road...

77 FR 16316 - Kentucky Disaster Number KY-00044

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-03-20

... SMALL BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION [Disaster Declaration 13029 and 13030] Kentucky Disaster Number KY-00044 AGENCY: U.S. Small Business Administration. ACTION: Amendment 2. SUMMARY: This is an amendment of... applications to: U.S. Small Business Administration, Processing and Disbursement Center, 14925 Kingsport Road...

How Small Is a Billionth?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gough, John

2007-01-01

Children's natural curiosity about numbers, big and small can lead to exploring place-value ideas. But how can these abstract concepts be experienced more concretely? This article presents some practical approaches for conceptualising very small numbers using linear models, area models, volume models, and diagrams.

78 FR 36632 - Oklahoma Disaster Number OK-00071

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-06-18

... Deadline Date: 02/20/2014. ADDRESSES: Submit completed loan applications to: U.S. Small Business... SMALL BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION [Disaster Declaration 13586 and 13587] Oklahoma Disaster Number OK-00071 AGENCY: U.S. Small Business Administration. ACTION: Amendment 3. SUMMARY: This is an amendment of...

Improved argument-FFT frequency offset estimation for QPSK coherent optical Systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Han, Jilong; Li, Wei; Yuan, Zhilin; Li, Haitao; Huang, Liyan; Hu, Qianggao

2016-02-01

A frequency offset estimation (FOE) algorithm based on fast Fourier transform (FFT) of the signal's argument is investigated, which does not require removing the modulated data phase. In this paper, we analyze the flaw of the argument-FFT algorithm and propose a combined FOE algorithm, in which the absolute of frequency offset (FO) is accurately calculated by argument-FFT algorithm with a relatively large number of samples and the sign of FO is determined by FFT-based interpolation discrete Fourier transformation (DFT) algorithm with a relatively small number of samples. Compared with the previous algorithms based on argument-FFT, the proposed one has low complexity and can still effectively work with a relatively less number of samples.

Pressure Distributions for the GA(W)-2 Airfoil with 20% Aileron, 25% Slotted Flap and 30% Fowler Flap

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Wentz, W. H., Jr.; Fiscko, K. A.

1978-01-01

Surface pressure distributions were measured for the 13% thick GA(W)-2 airfoil section fitted with 20% aileron, 25% slotted flap and 30% Fowler flap. All tests were conducted at a Reynolds number of 2.2 x 10 to the 6th power and a Mach number of 0.13. Pressure distribution and force and moment coefficient measurements are compared with theoretical results for a number of cases. Agreement between theory and experiment is generally good for low angles of attack and small flap deflections. For high angles and large flap deflections where regions of separation are present, the theory is inadequate. Theoretical drag predictions are poor for all flap-extended cases.

Comparison of growth-related traits and gene expression profiles between the offspring of neomale (XX) and normal male (XY) rainbow trout.

PubMed

Kocmarek, Andrea L; Ferguson, Moira M; Danzmann, Roy G

2015-04-01

All-female lines of fish are created by crossing sex reversed (XX genotype) males with normal females. All-female lines avoid the deleterious phenotypic effects that are typical of precocious maturation in males. To determine whether all-female and mixed sex populations of rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) differ in performance, we compared the growth and gene expression profiles in progeny groups produced by crossing a XX male and a XY male to the same five females. Body weight and length were measured in the resulting all-female (XX) and mixed sex (XX/XY) offspring groups. Microarray experiments with liver and white muscle were used to determine if the gene expression profiles of large and small XX offspring differ from those in large and small XX/XY offspring. We detected no significant differences in body length and weight between offspring groups but XX offspring were significantly less variable in the value of these traits. A large number of upregulated genes were shared between the large XX and large XX/XY offspring; the small XX and small XX/XY offspring also shared similar expression profiles. No GO category differences were seen in the liver or between the large XX and large XX/XY offspring in the muscle. The greatest differences between the small XX and small XX/XY offspring were in the genes assigned to the "small molecule metabolic process" and "cellular metabolic process" GO level 3 categories. Similarly, genes within these categories as well as the category "macromolecule metabolic process" were more highly expressed in small compared to large XX fish.

Small non-coding RNA profiling in human biofluids and surrogate tissues from healthy individuals: description of the diverse and most represented species.

PubMed

Ferrero, Giulio; Cordero, Francesca; Tarallo, Sonia; Arigoni, Maddalena; Riccardo, Federica; Gallo, Gaetano; Ronco, Guglielmo; Allasia, Marco; Kulkarni, Neha; Matullo, Giuseppe; Vineis, Paolo; Calogero, Raffaele A; Pardini, Barbara; Naccarati, Alessio

2018-01-09

The role of non-coding RNAs in different biological processes and diseases is continuously expanding. Next-generation sequencing together with the parallel improvement of bioinformatics analyses allows the accurate detection and quantification of an increasing number of RNA species. With the aim of exploring new potential biomarkers for disease classification, a clear overview of the expression levels of common/unique small RNA species among different biospecimens is necessary. However, except for miRNAs in plasma, there are no substantial indications about the pattern of expression of various small RNAs in multiple specimens among healthy humans. By analysing small RNA-sequencing data from 243 samples, we have identified and compared the most abundantly and uniformly expressed miRNAs and non-miRNA species of comparable size with the library preparation in four different specimens (plasma exosomes, stool, urine, and cervical scrapes). Eleven miRNAs were commonly detected among all different specimens while 231 miRNAs were globally unique across them. Classification analysis using these miRNAs provided an accuracy of 99.6% to recognize the sample types. piRNAs and tRNAs were the most represented non-miRNA small RNAs detected in all specimen types that were analysed, particularly in urine samples. With the present data, the most uniformly expressed small RNAs in each sample type were also identified. A signature of small RNAs for each specimen could represent a reference gene set in validation studies by RT-qPCR. Overall, the data reported hereby provide an insight of the constitution of the human miRNome and of other small non-coding RNAs in various specimens of healthy individuals.

Metabolomics of Small Numbers of Cells: Metabolomic Profiling of 100, 1000, and 10000 Human Breast Cancer Cells.

PubMed

Luo, Xian; Li, Liang

2017-11-07

In cellular metabolomics, it is desirable to carry out metabolomic profiling using a small number of cells in order to save time and cost. In some applications (e.g., working with circulating tumor cells in blood), only a limited number of cells are available for analysis. In this report, we describe a method based on high-performance chemical isotope labeling (CIL) nanoflow liquid chromatography mass spectrometry (nanoLC-MS) for high-coverage metabolomic analysis of small numbers of cells (i.e., ≤10000 cells). As an example, 12 C-/ 13 C-dansyl labeling of the metabolites in lysates of 100, 1000, and 10000 MCF-7 breast cancer cells was carried out using a new labeling protocol tailored to handle small amounts of metabolites. Chemical-vapor-assisted ionization in a captivespray interface was optimized for improving metabolite ionization and increasing robustness of nanoLC-MS. Compared to microflow LC-MS, the nanoflow system provided much improved metabolite detectability with a significantly reduced sample amount required for analysis. Experimental duplicate analyses of biological triplicates resulted in the detection of 1620 ± 148, 2091 ± 89 and 2402 ± 80 (n = 6) peak pairs or metabolites in the amine/phenol submetabolome from the 12 C-/ 13 C-dansyl labeled lysates of 100, 1000, and 10000 cells, respectively. About 63-69% of these peak pairs could be either identified using dansyl labeled standard library or mass-matched to chemical structures in human metabolome databases. We envisage the routine applications of this method for high-coverage quantitative cellular metabolomics using a starting material of 10000 cells. Even for analyzing 100 or 1000 cells, although the metabolomic coverage is reduced from the maximal coverage, this method can still detect thousands of metabolites, allowing the analysis of a large fraction of the metabolome and focused analysis of the detectable metabolites.

Comparative studies of energy sources in gynecologic laparoscopy.

PubMed

Law, Kenneth S K; Lyons, Stephen D

2013-01-01

Energy sources incorporating "vessel sealing" capabilities are being increasingly used in gynecologic laparoscopic surgery although conventional monopolar and bipolar electrosurgery remain popular. The preference for one device over another is based on a combination of factors, including the surgeon's subjective experience, availability, and cost. Although comparative clinical studies and meta-analyses of laparoscopic energy sources have reported small but statistically significant differences in volumes of blood loss, the clinical significance of such small volumes is questionable. The overall usefulness of the various energy sources available will depend on a number of factors including vessel burst pressure and seal time, lateral thermal spread, and smoke production. Animal studies and laboratory-based trials are useful in providing a controlled environment to investigate such parameters. At present, there is insufficient evidence to support the use of one energy source over another. Copyright © 2013 AAGL. All rights reserved.

Nonisentropic unsteady three dimensional small disturbance potential theory

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Gibbons, M. D.; Whitlow, W., Jr.; Williams, M. H.

1986-01-01

Modifications that allow for more accurate modeling of flow fields when strong shocks are present were made into three dimensional transonic small disturbance (TSD) potential theory. The Engquist-Osher type-dependent differencing was incorporated into the solution algorithm. The modified theory was implemented in the XTRAN3S computer code. Steady flows over a rectangular wing with a constant NACA 0012 airfoil section and an aspect ratio of 12 were calculated for freestream Mach numbers (M) of 0.82, 0.84, and 0.86. The obtained results are compared using the modified and unmodified TSD theories and the results from a three dimensional Euler code are presented. Nonunique solutions in three dimensions are shown to appear for the rectangular wing as aspect ratio increases. Steady and unsteady results are shown for the RAE tailplane model at M = 0.90. Calculations using unmodified theory, modified theory and experimental data are compared.

Near-realtime simulations of biolelectric activity in small mammalian hearts using graphical processing units

PubMed Central

Vigmond, Edward J.; Boyle, Patrick M.; Leon, L. Joshua; Plank, Gernot

2014-01-01

Simulations of cardiac bioelectric phenomena remain a significant challenge despite continual advancements in computational machinery. Spanning large temporal and spatial ranges demands millions of nodes to accurately depict geometry, and a comparable number of timesteps to capture dynamics. This study explores a new hardware computing paradigm, the graphics processing unit (GPU), to accelerate cardiac models, and analyzes results in the context of simulating a small mammalian heart in real time. The ODEs associated with membrane ionic flow were computed on traditional CPU and compared to GPU performance, for one to four parallel processing units. The scalability of solving the PDE responsible for tissue coupling was examined on a cluster using up to 128 cores. Results indicate that the GPU implementation was between 9 and 17 times faster than the CPU implementation and scaled similarly. Solving the PDE was still 160 times slower than real time. PMID:19964295

Microscopic Spin Model for the STOCK Market with Attractor Bubbling on Regular and Small-World Lattices

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Krawiecki, A.

A multi-agent spin model for changes of prices in the stock market based on the Ising-like cellular automaton with interactions between traders randomly varying in time is investigated by means of Monte Carlo simulations. The structure of interactions has topology of a small-world network obtained from regular two-dimensional square lattices with various coordination numbers by randomly cutting and rewiring edges. Simulations of the model on regular lattices do not yield time series of logarithmic price returns with statistical properties comparable with the empirical ones. In contrast, in the case of networks with a certain degree of randomness for a wide range of parameters the time series of the logarithmic price returns exhibit intermittent bursting typical of volatility clustering. Also the tails of distributions of returns obey a power scaling law with exponents comparable to those obtained from the empirical data.

Electron-positron pair production in ion collisions at low velocity beyond Born approximation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lee, R. N.; Milstein, A. I.

2016-10-01

We derive the spectrum and the total cross section of electromagnetic e+e- pair production in the collisions of two nuclei at low relative velocity β. Both free-free and bound-free e+e- pair production is considered. The parameters ηA,B =ZA,B α are assumed to be small compared to unity but arbitrary compared to β (ZA,B are the charge numbers of the nuclei and α is the fine structure constant). Due to a suppression of the Born term by high power of β, the first Coulomb correction to the amplitude appears to be important at ηA,B ≳ β. The effect of a finite nuclear mass is discussed. In contrast to the result obtained in the infinite nuclear mass limit, the terms ∝M-2 are not suppressed by the high power of β and may easily dominate at sufficiently small velocities.

Effect of High-Fidelity Ice Accretion Simulations on the Performance of a Full-Scale Airfoil Model

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Broeren, Andy P.; Bragg, Michael B.; Addy, Harold E., Jr.; Lee, Sam; Moens, Frederic; Guffond, Didier

2010-01-01

The simulation of ice accretion on a wing or other surface is often required for aerodynamic evaluation, particularly at small scale or low-Reynolds number. While there are commonly accepted practices for ice simulation, there are no established and validated guidelines. The purpose of this article is to report the results of an experimental study establishing a high-fidelity, full-scale, iced-airfoil aerodynamic performance database. This research was conducted as a part of a larger program with the goal of developing subscale aerodynamic simulation methods for iced airfoils. Airfoil performance testing was carried out at the ONERA F1 pressurized wind tunnel using a 72-in. (1828.8-mm) chord NACA 23012 airfoil over a Reynolds number range of 4.5x10(exp 6) to 16.0 10(exp 6) and a Mach number range of 0.10 to 0.28. The high-fidelity, ice-casting simulations had a significant impact on the aerodynamic performance. A spanwise-ridge ice shape resulted in a maximum lift coefficient of 0.56 compared to the clean value of 1.85 at Re = 15.9x10(exp 6) and M = 0.20. Two roughness and streamwise shapes yielded maximum lift values in the range of 1.09 to 1.28, which was a relatively small variation compared to the differences in the ice geometry. The stalling characteristics of the two roughness and one streamwise ice simulation maintained the abrupt leading-edge stall type of the clean NACA 23012 airfoil, despite the significant decrease in maximum lift. Changes in Reynolds and Mach number over the large range tested had little effect on the iced-airfoil performance.

Sensitivity of Noncontrast Computed Tomography for Small Renal Calculi With Endoscopy as the Gold Standard.

PubMed

Bhojani, Naeem; Paonessa, Jessica E; El Tayeb, Marawan M; Williams, James C; Hameed, Tariq A; Lingeman, James E

2018-04-03

To compare the sensitivity of noncontrast computed tomography (CT) with endoscopy for detection of renal calculi. Imaging modalities for detection of nephrolithiasis have centered on abdominal x-ray, ultrasound, and noncontrast CT. Sensitivities of 58%-62% (abdominal x-ray), 45% (ultrasound), and 95%-100% (CT) have been previously reported. However, these results have never been correlated with endoscopic findings. Idiopathic calcium oxalate stone formers with symptomatic calculi requiring ureteroscopy were studied. At the time of surgery, the number and the location of all calculi within the kidney were recorded followed by basket retrieval. Each calculus was measured and sent for micro-CT and infrared spectrophotometry. All CT scans were reviewed by the same genitourinary radiologist who was blinded to the endoscopic findings. The radiologist reported on the number, location, and size of each calculus. Eighteen renal units were studied in 11 patients. Average time from CT scan to ureteroscopy was 28.6 days. The mean number of calculi identified per kidney was 9.2 ± 6.1 for endoscopy and 5.9 ± 4.1 for CT (P <.004). The mean size of total renal calculi (sum of the longest stone diameters) per kidney was 22.4 ± 17.1 mm and 18.2 ± 13.2 mm for endoscopy and CT, respectively (P = .06). CT scan underreports the number of renal calculi, probably missing some small stones and being unable to distinguish those lying in close proximity to one another. However, the total stone burden seen by CT is, on average, accurate when compared with that found on endoscopic examination. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Organisational factors and occupational balance in working parents in Sweden.

PubMed

Borgh, Madeleine; Eek, Frida; Wagman, Petra; Håkansson, Carita

2018-05-01

Parents with small children constitute a vulnerable group as they have an increased risk of sick leave due to stress-related disorders compared to adults without children. It has been shown that mothers and fathers to small children together spend more time in paid work than any other group, which could create negative stress and an experience of low occupational balance. The aim of this study was to examine associations between organisational factors and occupational balance among parents with small children in Sweden. Data were collected by a survey including questions about occupational balance, organisational factors and age, sex, employment rate, work position, monthly household income, number of children at home, separation/divorce last five years and overtime. The total number of parents included in this study was 718 (490 mothers and 228 fathers). Logistic regression models were applied to examine the odds ratios for occupational balance in relation to organisational factors. Parents who experienced positive attitudes towards parenthood and parental leave among colleagues and managers were more likely to experience high occupational balance than parents who experienced negative or neutral attitudes. Having a clear structure for handover when absent from work was also strongly associated with high occupational balance. The result of the present study indicates that some organisational factors could be important for the occupational balance of parents with small children.

An Early Look At SHOP Marketplaces: Low Premiums, Adequate Plan Choice In Many, But Not All, States.

PubMed

Gabel, Jon R; Stromberg, Sam T; Green, Matthew; Lischko, Amy; Whitmore, Heidi

2015-05-01

The Affordable Care Act created the Small Business Health Options Program (SHOP) Marketplaces to help small businesses provide health insurance to their employees. To attract the participation of substantial numbers of small employers, SHOP Marketplaces must demonstrate value-added features unavailable in the traditional small-group market. Such features could include lower premiums than those for plans offered outside the Marketplace and more extensive choices of carriers and plans. More choices are necessary for SHOP Marketplaces to offer the "employee choice model," in which employees may choose from many carriers and plans. This study compared the numbers of carriers and plans and premium levels in 2014 for plans offered through SHOP Marketplaces with those of plans offered only outside of the Marketplaces. An average of 4.3 carriers participated in each state's Marketplace, offering a total of forty-seven plans. Premiums for plans offered through SHOP Marketplaces were, on average, 7 percent less than those in the same metal tier offered only outside of the Marketplaces. Lower premiums and the participation of multiple carriers in most states are a source of optimism for future enrollment growth in SHOP Marketplaces. Lack of broker buy-in in many states and burdensome enrollment processes are major impediments to success. Project HOPE—The People-to-People Health Foundation, Inc.

Revisiting linear plasma waves for finite value of the plasma parameter

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Grismayer, Thomas; Fahlen, Jay; Decyk, Viktor; Mori, Warren

2010-11-01

We investigate through theory and PIC simulations the Landau-damping of plasma waves with finite plasma parameter. We concentrate on the linear regime, γφB, where the waves are typically small and below the thermal noise. We simulate these condition using 1,2,3D electrostatic PIC codes (BEPS), noting that modern computers now allow us to simulate cases where (nλD^3 = [1e2;1e6]). We study these waves by using a subtraction technique in which two simulations are carried out. In the first, a small wave is initialized or driven, in the second no wave is excited. The results are subtracted to provide a clean signal that can be studied. As nλD^3 is decreased, the number of resonant electrons can be small for linear waves. We show how the damping changes as a result of having few resonant particles. We also find that for small nλD^3 fluctuations can cause the electrons to undergo collisions that eventually destroy the initial wave. A quantity of interest is the the life time of a particular mode which depends on the plasma parameter and the wave number. The life time is estimated and then compared with the numerical results. A surprising result is that even for large values of nλD^3 some non-Vlasov discreteness effects appear to be important.

78 FR 47815 - Illinois Disaster Number IL-00041

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-08-06

... SMALL BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION [Disaster Declaration 13579 and 13580] Illinois Disaster Number IL-00041 AGENCY: U.S. Small Business Administration. ACTION: Amendment 5. SUMMARY: This is an amendment of... INFORMATION CONTACT: A. Escobar, Office of Disaster Assistance, U.S. Small Business Administration, 409 3rd...

76 FR 35935 - South Dakota Disaster Number SD-00041

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-06-20

... U.S. SMALL BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION [Disaster Declaration 12590 and 12591] South Dakota Disaster Number SD-00041 AGENCY: U.S. Small Business Administration. ACTION: Amendment 2. SUMMARY: This is an... applications to: U.S. Small Business Administration, Processing and Disbursement Center, 14925 Kingsport Road...

78 FR 60008 - Colorado Disaster Number CO-00065

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-09-30

... Application Deadline Date: 06/16/2014. ADDRESSES: Submit completed loan applications to: U.S. Small Business... SMALL BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION [Disaster Declaration 13768 and 13769] Colorado Disaster Number CO-00065 AGENCY: U.S. Small Business Administration. ACTION: Amendment 1. SUMMARY: This is an amendment of...

78 FR 60008 - Colorado Disaster Number CO-00065

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-09-30

... Application Deadline Date: 06/16/2014. ADDRESSES: Submit completed loan applications to: U.S. Small Business... SMALL BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION [Disaster Declaration 13768 and 13769] Colorado Disaster Number CO-00065 AGENCY: U.S. Small Business Administration. ACTION: Amendment 2. SUMMARY: This is an amendment of...

76 FR 37166 - Kentucky Disaster Number KY-00039

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-06-24

... SMALL BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION [Disaster Declaration 12566 and 12567] Kentucky Disaster Number KY-00039 AGENCY: U.S. Small Business Administration. ACTION: Amendment 7. SUMMARY: This is an amendment of... Domestic Assistance Numbers 59002 and 59008) James E. Rivera, Associate Administrator for Disaster...

78 FR 11725 - Maryland Disaster Number MD-00024

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-02-19

... SMALL BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION [Disaster Declaration 13425 and 13426] Maryland Disaster Number MD-00024 AGENCY: U.S. Small Business Administration. ACTION: Amendment 1. SUMMARY: This is an amendment of... information in the original declaration remains unchanged. (Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance Numbers...

76 FR 27739 - Georgia Disaster Number GA-00032

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-05-12

... SMALL BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION [Disaster Declaration 12552 and 12553] Georgia Disaster Number GA-00032 AGENCY: U.S. Small Business Administration. ACTION: Amendment 3. SUMMARY: This is an amendment of... the original declaration remains unchanged. (Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance Numbers 59002 and...

76 FR 59479 - Montana Disaster Number MT-00062

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-09-26

... SMALL BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION [Disaster Declaration 12714 and 12715] Montana Disaster Number MT-00062 AGENCY: U.S. Small Business Administration. ACTION: Amendment 2. SUMMARY: This is an amendment of... information in the original declaration remains unchanged. (Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance Numbers...

78 FR 15797 - Mississippi Disaster Number MS-00064

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-03-12

... SMALL BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION [Disaster Declaration 13492 and 13493] Mississippi Disaster Number MS-00064 AGENCY: U.S. Small Business Administration. ACTION: Amendment 4. SUMMARY: This is an.... (Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance Numbers 59002 and 59008) James E. Rivera, Associate Administrator...

76 FR 40765 - Missouri Disaster Number MO-00048

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-07-11

... SMALL BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION [Disaster Declaration 12576 and 12577] Missouri Disaster Number MO-00048 AGENCY: U.S. Small Business Administration. ACTION: Amendment 7. SUMMARY: This is an amendment of... information in the original declaration remains unchanged. (Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance Numbers...

78 FR 15109 - Mississippi Disaster Number MS-00064

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-03-08

... SMALL BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION [Disaster Declaration 13492 and 13493] Mississippi Disaster Number MS-00064 AGENCY: U.S. Small Business Administration. ACTION: Amendment 2. SUMMARY: This is an... declaration remains unchanged. (Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance Numbers 59002 and 59008) James E...

76 FR 32387 - Kentucky Disaster Number KY-00039

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-06-06

... SMALL BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION Disaster Declaration 12566 and 12567 Kentucky Disaster Number KY-00039 AGENCY: U.S. Small Business Administration. ACTION: Amendment 4. SUMMARY: This is an amendment of... original declaration remains unchanged. (Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance Numbers 59002 and 59008...

77 FR 43412 - Florida Disaster Number FL-00071

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-07-24

... SMALL BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION [Disaster Declaration 13103 and 13104] Florida Disaster Number FL-00071 AGENCY: U.S. Small Business Administration. ACTION: Amendment 4. SUMMARY: This is an amendment of... Domestic Assistance Numbers 59002 and 59008) James E. Rivera, Associate Administrator for Disaster...

76 FR 62130 - Texas Disaster Number TX-00381

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-10-06

... SMALL BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION [Disaster Declaration 12815 and 12816] Texas Disaster Number TX-00381 AGENCY: U.S. Small Business Administration. ACTION: Amendment 5. SUMMARY: This is an amendment of... information in the original declaration remains unchanged. (Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance Numbers...

77 FR 68882 - Louisiana Disaster Number LA-00048

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-11-16

... SMALL BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION [Disaster Declaration 13271 and 13272] Louisiana Disaster Number LA-00048 AGENCY: U.S. Small Business Administration. ACTION: Amendment 11. SUMMARY: This is an amendment of... information in the original declaration remains unchanged. (Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance Numbers...

76 FR 72021 - Missouri Disaster Number MO-00052

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-11-21

... SMALL BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION [Disaster Declaration 12736 and 12737] Missouri Disaster Number MO-00052 AGENCY: U.S. Small Business Administration. ACTION: Amendment 2. SUMMARY: This is an amendment of... original declaration remains unchanged. (Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance Numbers 59002 and 59008...

76 FR 70527 - Maryland Disaster Number MD-00018

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-11-14

... SMALL BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION [Disaster Declaration 12874 and 12875] Maryland Disaster Number MD-00018 AGENCY: U.S. Small Business Administration. ACTION: Amendment 1. SUMMARY: This is an amendment of... the original declaration remains unchanged .(Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance Numbers 59002 and...

75 FR 35104 - Nebraska Disaster Number NE-00035

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-06-21

... SMALL BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION [Disaster Declaration 12136 and 12137] Nebraska Disaster Number NE-00035 AGENCY: Small Business Administration. ACTION: Amendment 1. SUMMARY: This is an amendment of the... declaration remains unchanged. (Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance Numbers 59002 and 59008) James E...

76 FR 37391 - Illinois Disaster Number IL-00030

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-06-27

... SMALL BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION [Disaster Declaration 12617 and 12618] Illinois Disaster Number IL-00030 AGENCY: U.S. Small Business Administration. ACTION: Amendment 1. SUMMARY: This is an amendment of... information in the original declaration remains unchanged. (Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance Numbers...

76 FR 50535 - Oklahoma Disaster Number OK-00052

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-08-15

... SMALL BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION [Disaster Declaration 12647 and 12648] Oklahoma Disaster Number OK-00052 AGENCY: U.S. Small Business Administration. ACTION: Amendment 1. SUMMARY: This is an amendment of... information in the original declaration remains unchanged. (Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance Numbers...

76 FR 48939 - Tennessee Disaster Number TN-00058

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-08-09

... SMALL BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION [Disaster Declaration 12704 and 12705] Tennessee Disaster Number TN-00058 AGENCY: U.S. Small Business Administration. ACTION: Amendment 1. SUMMARY: This is an amendment of... information in the original declaration remains unchanged. (Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance Numbers...

75 FR 35511 - Virginia Disaster Number VA-00028

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-06-22

... SMALL BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION [Disaster Declaration 12040 and 12041] Virginia Disaster Number VA-00028 AGENCY: Small Business Administration. ACTION: Amendment 3. SUMMARY: This is an amendment of the... declaration remains unchanged. (Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance Numbers 59002 and 59008) Roger B...

78 FR 13393 - Mississippi Disaster Number MS-00064

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-02-27

... SMALL BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION [Disaster Declaration 13492 and 13493] Mississippi Disaster Number MS-00064 AGENCY: U.S. Small Business Administration. ACTION: Amendment 1. SUMMARY: This is an... Assistance Numbers 59002 and 59008) James E. Rivera, Associate Administrator for Disaster Assistance. [FR Doc...

75 FR 35511 - Kentucky Disaster Number KY-00032

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-06-22

... SMALL BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION [Disaster Declaration 12168 and 12169] Kentucky Disaster Number KY-00032 AGENCY: Small Business Administration. ACTION: Amendment 5. SUMMARY: This is an amendment of the... Domestic Assistance Numbers 59002 and 59008) Roger B. Garland, Acting Associate Administrator for Disaster...

76 FR 59479 - Vermont Disaster Number VT-00021

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-09-26

... SMALL BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION [Disaster Declaration 12784 and 12785] Vermont Disaster Number VT-00021 AGENCY: U.S. Small Business Administration. ACTION: Amendment 5. SUMMARY: This is an amendment of... original declaration remains unchanged. (Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance Numbers 59002 and 59008...

76 FR 28120 - Georgia Disaster Number GA-00032

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-05-13

... SMALL BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION [Disaster Declaration 12552 and 12553] Georgia Disaster Number GA-00032 AGENCY: U.S. Small Business Administration. ACTION: Amendment 1. SUMMARY: This is an amendment of... information in the original declaration remains unchanged. (Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance Numbers...

76 FR 58329 - Connecticut Disaster Number CT-00024

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-09-20

... SMALL BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION [Disaster Declaration 12797 and 12798] Connecticut Disaster Number CT-00024 AGENCY: U.S. Small Business Administration. ACTION: Amendment 1. SUMMARY: This is an... Numbers 59002 and 59008) James E. Rivera, Associate Administrator for Disaster Assistance. [FR Doc. 2011...

75 FR 35103 - Tennessee Disaster Number TN-00038

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-06-21

... SMALL BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION [Disaster Declaration 12161 and 12162] Tennessee Disaster Number TN-00038 AGENCY: Small Business Administration. ACTION: Amendment 8. SUMMARY: This is an amendment of the... the original declaration remains unchanged. (Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance Numbers 59002 and...

75 FR 54923 - Missouri Disaster Number MO-00041

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-09-09

... SMALL BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION [Disaster Declaration 12283 and 12284] Missouri Disaster Number MO-00041 AGENCY: U.S. Small Business Administration. ACTION: Amendment 1. SUMMARY: This is an amendment of... Domestic Assistance Numbers 59002 and 59008) James E. Rivera, Associate Administrator for Disaster...

75 FR 35103 - Tennessee Disaster Number TN-00039

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-06-21

... SMALL BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION [Disaster Declaration 12159 and 12160] Tennessee Disaster Number TN-00039 AGENCY: Small Business Administration. ACTION: Amendment 7. SUMMARY: This is an amendment of the... Federal Domestic Assistance Numbers 59002 and 59008) James E. Rivera, Associate Administrator for Disaster...

78 FR 42994 - Illinois Disaster Number IL-00041

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-07-18

... SMALL BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION [Disaster Declaration 13579 and 13580] Illinois Disaster Number IL-00041 AGENCY: U.S. Small Business Administration. ACTION: Amendment 4. SUMMARY: This is an amendment of... information in the original declaration remains unchanged. (Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance Numbers...

75 FR 55618 - Texas Disaster Number TX-00362

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-09-13

... SMALL BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION [Disaster Declaration 12268 and 12269] Texas Disaster Number TX-00362 AGENCY: U.S. Small Business Administration. ACTION: Amendment 4. SUMMARY: This is an amendment of... of Federal Domestic Assistance Numbers 59002 and 59008) Roger B. Garland, Acting Associate...

78 FR 36630 - Oklahoma Disaster Number OK-00071

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-06-18

... SMALL BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION [Disaster Declaration 13586 and 13587] Oklahoma Disaster Number OK-00071 AGENCY: U.S. Small Business Administration. ACTION: Amendment 2. SUMMARY: This is an amendment of... in the original declaration remains unchanged. (Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance Numbers 59002...

76 FR 58329 - Vermont Disaster Number VT-00021

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-09-20

... SMALL BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION [Disaster Declaration 12784 and 12785] Vermont Disaster Number VT-00021 AGENCY: U.S. Small Business Administration. ACTION: Amendment 4. SUMMARY: This is an amendment of... in the original declaration remains unchanged. (Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance Numbers 59002...

Effect of perioperative feeding with fibre & arginine on morphometrics of ileum after surgical stress.

PubMed

Boylu, Sukru; Ozbas, Serdar; Bozdag, Ali Dogan; Culhaci, Nil; Tuncyurek, Pars; Yardim, Serhat

2005-08-01

Major surgeries as well as other types of injury have been shown to affect the gut function. Enteral diets influence intestinal mucosal morphometry to different extents depending on their composition. Little is known about the effects of these defined-formula diets in patients with surgical stress but no malnutrition. This experimental study was undertaken to compare the effects of different enteral diets on the mucosal morphometrics of small bowel in surgically stressed rats without malnutrition Male Wistar-Albino rats (n=84) weighing between 160-220 g were randomised into three groups. Group A received standard rat chow. Group B received a complete balanced nutrition supplemented with fibre, and the rats in Group C were given an isocaloric specialized elemental nutrition enriched with specific combination of nutrients and arginine. The feeding was started two days before the operation and continued until re-operation. Laparotomy, ileal transection, and end-to-end anastomosis was performed as the surgical procedure. The rats were sacrificed on days 0, 2 and 7 post-operatively. One cm of ileal segment containing the anastomosis was examined histologically. Parameters for intestinal mucosal morphometry (number of villi, villous height, mucosal thickness) and number of mucous containing cells were determined. Number of mucous cells per villus was significantly (P<0.05) higher in group A compared to groups B and C on days 0 and 2 post-operation. On day 7 villous height and mucosal thickness were also significantly higher in group A compared to the other two groups. Laparotomy and a minor surgical intervention such as small bowel transection was not a major surgical stress for intestinal mucosal atrophy in rats without malnutrition. The effect of fibre and arginine enriched defined-formula diets did not seem to improve intestinal mucosal changes in such a surgical stress model compared with normal rat chow.

Reproduction and caste ratios under stress in trematode colonies with a division of labour.

PubMed

Lloyd, Melanie M; Poulin, Robert

2013-06-01

Trematodes form clonal colonies in their first intermediate host. Individuals are, depending on species, rediae or sporocysts (which asexually reproduce) and cercariae (which develop within rediae or sporocysts and infect the next host). Some species use a division of labour within colonies, with 2 distinct redial morphs: small rediae (non-reproducing) and large rediae (individuals which produce cercariae). The theory of optimal caste ratio predicts that the ratio of caste members (small to large rediae) responds to environmental variability. This was tested in Philophthalmus sp. colonies exposed to host starvation and competition with the trematode, Maritrema novaezealandensis. Philophthalmus sp. infected snails, with and without M. novaezealandensis, were subjected to food treatments. Reproductive output, number of rediae, and the ratio of small to large rediae were compared among treatments. Philophthalmus sp. colonies responded to host starvation and competition; reproductive output was higher in well-fed snails of both infection types compared with snails in lower food treatments and well-fed, single infected snails compared with well-fed double infected snails. Furthermore, the caste ratio in Philophthalmus sp. colonies was altered in response to competition. This is the first study showing caste ratio responses to environmental pressures in trematodes with a division of labour.

Practice location factors influencing South Dakota School of Medicine graduates (1977-85).

PubMed

Jarratt, L G; Leonardson, G R; Nord, W J

1989-12-01

Physician numbers and placement continue to be major health delivery concerns in the rural state of South Dakota. This study of four-year graduates (1977-1985) of the South Dakota School of Medicine looks at current factors affecting physician placement and compares placement and location selection factors to a previous study of graduates of the medical school when it was a two-year program (1969-1973). Factors influencing physicians locating in South Dakota were: closeness to their home town and or spouses' home town, residency training in small towns, payment of educational loans, medical school clerkships, time of decision, etc. Factors influencing physicians locating in rural communities (less than 5,000) were: growing up in small communities, residency training in small communities, early location decisions, payment of loans, and high medical need.

Planning Training Workload in Football Using Small-Sided Games' Density.

PubMed

Sangnier, Sebastien; Cotte, Thierry; Brachet, Olivier; Coquart, Jeremy; Tourny, Claire

2018-05-08

Sangnier, S, Cotte, T, Brachet, O, Coquart, J, and Tourny, C. Planning training workload in football using small-sided games density. J Strength Cond Res XX(X): 000-000, 2018-To develop the physical qualities, the small-sided games' (SSGs) density may be essential in soccer. Small-sided games are games in which the pitch size, players' number, and rules are different to those for traditional soccer matches. The purpose was to assess the relation between training workload and SSGs' density. The 33 densities data (41 practice games and 3 full games) were analyzed through global positioning system (GPS) data collected from 25 professional soccer players (80.7 ± 7.0 kg; 1.83 ± 0.05 m; 26.4 ± 4.9 years). From total distance, distance metabolic power, sprint distance, and acceleration distance, the data GPS were divided into 4 categories: endurance, power, speed, and strength. Statistical analysis compared the relation between GPS values and SSGs' densities, and 3 methods were applied to assess models (R-squared, root-mean-square error, and Akaike information criterion). The results suggest that all the GPS data match the player's essential athletic skills. They were all correlated with the game's density. Acceleration distance, deceleration distance, metabolic power, and total distance followed a logarithmic regression model, whereas distance and number of sprints follow a linear regression model. The research reveals options to monitor the training workload. Coaches could anticipate the load resulting from the SSGs and adjust the field size to the players' number. Taking into account the field size during SSGs enables coaches to target the most favorable density for developing expected physical qualities. Calibrating intensity during SSGs would allow coaches to assess each athletic skill in the same conditions of intensity as in the competition.

Founder effects, inbreeding, and loss of genetic diversity in four avian reintroduction programs.

PubMed

Jamieson, Ian G

2011-02-01

The number of individuals translocated and released as part of a reintroduction is often small, as is the final established population, because the reintroduction site is typically small. Small founder and small resulting populations can result in population bottlenecks, which are associated with increased rates of inbreeding and loss of genetic diversity, both of which can affect the long-term viability of reintroduced populations. I used information derived from pedigrees of four monogamous bird species reintroduced onto two different islands (220 and 259 ha) in New Zealand to compare the pattern of inbreeding and loss of genetic diversity among the reintroduced populations. Although reintroduced populations founded with few individuals had higher levels of inbreeding, as predicted, other factors, including biased sex ratio and skewed breeding success, contributed to high levels of inbreeding and loss of genetic diversity. Of the 10-58 individuals released, 4-25 genetic founders contributed at least one living descendent and yielded approximately 3-11 founder-genome equivalents (number of genetic founders assuming an equal contribution of offspring and no random loss of alleles across generations) after seven breeding seasons. This range is much lower than the 20 founder-genome equivalents recommended for captive-bred populations. Although the level of inbreeding in one reintroduced population initially reached three times that of a closely related species, the long-term estimated rate of inbreeding of this one population was approximately one-third that of the other species due to differences in carrying capacities of the respective reintroduction sites. The increasing number of reintroductions to suitable areas that are smaller than those I examined here suggests that it might be useful to develop long-term strategies and guidelines for reintroduction programs, which would minimize inbreeding and maintain genetic diversity. ©2010 Society for Conservation Biology.

Remote sensing with simulated unmanned aircraft imagery for precision agriculture applications

USGS Publications Warehouse

Hunt, E. Raymond; Daughtry, Craig S.T.; Mirsky, Steven B.; Hively, W. Dean

2014-01-01

An important application of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) may be remote-sensing for precision agriculture, because of its ability to acquire images with very small pixel sizes from low altitude flights. The objective of this study was to compare information obtained from two different pixel sizes, one about a meter (the size of a small vegetation plot) and one about a millimeter. Cereal rye (Secale cereale) was planted at the Beltsville Agricultural Research Center for a winter cover crop with fall and spring fertilizer applications, which produced differences in biomass and leaf chlorophyll content. UAS imagery was simulated by placing a Fuji IS-Pro UVIR digital camera at 3-m height looking nadir. An external UV-IR cut filter was used to acquire true-color images; an external red cut filter was used to obtain color-infrared-like images with bands at near-infrared, green, and blue wavelengths. Plot-scale Green Normalized Difference Vegetation Index was correlated with dry aboveground biomass ( ${mbi {r}} = 0.58$ ), whereas the Triangular Greenness Index (TGI) was not correlated with chlorophyll content. We used the SamplePoint program to select 100 pixels systematically; we visually identified the cover type and acquired the digital numbers. The number of rye pixels in each image was better correlated with biomass ( ${mbi {r}} = 0.73$ ), and the average TGI from only leaf pixels was negatively correlated with chlorophyll content ( ${mbi {r}} = -0.72$ ). Thus, better information for crop requirements may be obtained using very small pixel sizes, but new algorithms based on computer vision are needed for analysis. It may not be necessary to geospatially register large numbers of photographs with very small pixel sizes. Instead, images could be analyzed as single plots along field transects.

Physiotherapists use a small number of behaviour change techniques when promoting physical activity: A systematic review comparing experimental and observational studies.

PubMed

Kunstler, Breanne E; Cook, Jill L; Freene, Nicole; Finch, Caroline F; Kemp, Joanne L; O'Halloran, Paul D; Gaida, James E

2018-06-01

Physiotherapists promote physical activity as part of their practice. This study reviewed the behaviour change techniques physiotherapists use when promoting physical activity in experimental and observational studies. Systematic review of experimental and observational studies. Twelve databases were searched using terms related to physiotherapy and physical activity. We included experimental studies evaluating the efficacy of physiotherapist-led physical activity interventions delivered to adults in clinic-based private practice and outpatient settings to individuals with, or at risk of, non-communicable diseases. Observational studies reporting the techniques physiotherapists use when promoting physical activity were also included. The behaviour change techniques used in all studies were identified using the Behaviour Change Technique Taxonomy. The behaviour change techniques appearing in efficacious and inefficacious experimental interventions were compared using a narrative approach. Twelve studies (nine experimental and three observational) were retained from the initial search yield of 4141. Risk of bias ranged from low to high. Physiotherapists used seven behaviour change techniques in the observational studies, compared to 30 behaviour change techniques in the experimental studies. Social support (unspecified) was the most frequently identified behaviour change technique across both settings. Efficacious experimental interventions used more behaviour change techniques (n=29) and functioned in more ways (n=6) than did inefficacious experimental interventions (behaviour change techniques=10 and functions=1). Physiotherapists use a small number of behaviour change techniques. Less behaviour change techniques were identified in observational studies compared to experimental studies, suggesting physiotherapists use less BCTs clinically than experimentally. Copyright © 2017 Sports Medicine Australia. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Making comparative performance information more comprehensible: an experimental evaluation of the impact of formats on consumer understanding

PubMed Central

Damman, Olga C; De Jong, Anco; Hibbard, Judith H; Timmermans, Danielle R M

2016-01-01

Study objectives We aimed to investigate how different presentation formats influence comprehension and use of comparative performance information (CPI) among consumers. Methods An experimental between-subjects and within-subjects design with manipulations of CPI presentation formats. We enrolled both consumers with lower socioeconomic status (SES)/cognitive skills and consumers with higher SES/cognitive skills, recruited through an online access panel. Respondents received fictitious CPI and completed questions about interpretation and information use. Between subjects, we tested (1) displaying an overall performance score (yes/no); (2) displaying a small number of quality indicators (5 vs 9); and (3) displaying different types of evaluative symbols (star ratings, coloured dots and word icons vs numbers and bar graphs). Within subjects, we tested the effect of a reduced number of healthcare providers (5 vs 20). Data were analysed using descriptive analysis, analyses of variance and paired-sampled t tests. Results A total of 902 (43%) respondents participated. Displaying an overall performance score and the use of coloured dots and word icons particularly enhanced consumer understanding. Importantly, respondents provided with coloured dots most often correctly selected the top three healthcare providers (84.3%), compared with word icons (76.6% correct), star ratings (70.6% correct), numbers (62.0%) and bars (54.2%) when viewing performance scores of 20 providers. Furthermore, a reduced number of healthcare providers appeared to support consumers, for example, when provided with 20 providers, 69.5% correctly selected the top three, compared with 80.2% with five providers. Discussion Particular presentation formats enhanced consumer understanding of CPI, most importantly the use of overall performance scores, word icons and coloured dots, and a reduced number of providers displayed. Public report efforts should use these formats to maximise impact on consumers. PMID:26543066

78 FR 64573 - Colorado Disaster Number CO-00065

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-10-29

... SMALL BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION [Disaster Declaration 13768 and 13769] Colorado Disaster Number CO-00065 AGENCY: U.S. Small Business Administration. ACTION: Amendment 4. SUMMARY: This is an amendment of... of Federal Domestic Assistance Numbers 59002 and 59008) James E. Rivera, Associate Administrator for...

76 FR 29285 - Georgia Disaster Number GA-00033

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-05-20

... SMALL BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION [Disaster Declaration 12554 and 12555] Georgia Disaster Number GA-00033 AGENCY: U.S. Small Business Administration. ACTION: Amendment 1. SUMMARY: This is an amendment of... declaration remains unchanged. (Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance Numbers 59002 and 59008) Roger B...

78 FR 45282 - Oklahoma Disaster Number OK-00073

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-07-26

... SMALL BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION [Disaster Declaration 13647 and 13648] Oklahoma Disaster Number OK-00073 AGENCY: U.S. Small Business Administration. ACTION: Amendment 1. SUMMARY: This is an Amendment of... Assistance Numbers 59002 and 59008) James E. Rivera, Associate Administrator for Disaster Assistance. [FR Doc...

76 FR 37166 - Illinois Disaster Number IL-00031

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-06-24

... SMALL BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION [Disaster Declaration 12630 and 12631] Illinois Disaster Number IL-00031 AGENCY: U.S. Small Business Administration. ACTION: Amendment 1. SUMMARY: This is an amendment of... declaration remains unchanged. (Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance Numbers 59002 and 59008) James E...

77 FR 7229 - Virginia Disaster Number VA-00037

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-02-10

... SMALL BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION [Disaster Declaration 12909 and 12910] Virginia Disaster Number VA-00037 AGENCY: U.S. Small Business Administration. ACTION: Amendment 3. SUMMARY: This is an amendment of... remains unchanged. (Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance Numbers 59002 and 59008.) Jane M. D. Pease...

76 FR 62131 - Texas Disaster Number TX-00382

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-10-06

... SMALL BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION [Disaster Declaration 12848 and 12849] Texas Disaster Number TX-00382 AGENCY: U.S. Small Business Administration. ACTION: Amendment 1. SUMMARY: This is an amendment of.... (Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance Numbers 59002 and 59008) James E. Rivera, Associate Administrator...

78 FR 45282 - Oklahoma Disaster Number OK-00071

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-07-26

... SMALL BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION [Disaster Declaration 13586 and 13587] Oklahoma Disaster Number OK-00071 AGENCY: U.S. Small Business Administration. ACTION: Amendment 5. SUMMARY: This is an amendment of... Federal Domestic Assistance Numbers 59002 and 59008) Cynthia G. Pitts, Acting Associate Administrator for...

77 FR 19405 - Kentucky Disaster Number KY-00045

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-03-30

... SMALL BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION [Disaster Declaration 13050 and 13051] Kentucky Disaster Number KY-00045 AGENCY: U.S. Small Business Administration. ACTION: Amendment 1. SUMMARY: This is an amendment of... unchanged. (Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance Numbers 59002 and 59008) James E. Rivera, Associate...

78 FR 3496 - Maryland Disaster Number MD-00025

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-01-16

... SMALL BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION [Disaster Declaration 13394 and 13395] Maryland Disaster Number MD-00025 AGENCY: U.S. Small Business Administration. ACTION: Amendment 3. SUMMARY: This is an amendment of.... (Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance Numbers 59002 and 59008) James E. Rivera, Associate Administrator...

75 FR 57539 - Illinois Disaster Number IL-00025

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-09-21

... SMALL BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION [Disaster Declaration 12290 and 12291] Illinois Disaster Number IL-00025 AGENCY: U.S. Small Business Administration. ACTION: Amendment 1. SUMMARY: This is an amendment of... Numbers 59002 and 59008) James E. Rivera, Associate Administrator for Disaster Assistance. [FR Doc. 2010...

76 FR 59480 - Texas Disaster Number TX-00381

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-09-26

... SMALL BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION [Disaster Declaration 12815 and 12816] Texas Disaster Number TX-00381 AGENCY: U.S. Small Business Administration. ACTION: Amendment 2. SUMMARY: This is an amendment of... declaration remains unchanged. (Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance Numbers 59002 and 59008) James E...

76 FR 70528 - Maryland Disaster Number MD-00018

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-11-14

... SMALL BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION [Disaster Declaration 12874 and 12875] Maryland Disaster Number MD-00018 AGENCY: U.S. Small Business Administration. ACTION: Amendment 2. SUMMARY: This is an amendment of... declaration remains unchanged. (Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance Numbers 59002 and 59008) James E...

76 FR 62132 - Virginia Disaster Number VA-00038

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-10-06

... SMALL BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION [Disaster Declaration 12805 and 12806] Virginia Disaster Number VA-00038 AGENCY: U.S. Small Business Administration. ACTION: Amendment 2. SUMMARY: This is an amendment of... Federal Domestic Assistance Numbers 59002 and 59008) James E. Rivera, Associate Administrator for Disaster...

77 FR 43412 - Florida Disaster Number FL-00072

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-07-24

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2011-06-24

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2012-10-16

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High-Throughput Platform for Patient-Derived, Small Cell Number, Three-Dimensional Ovarian Cancer Spheroids

DTIC Science & Technology

2014-09-01

these small cell number spheroids show 3-D morphology (Figure 3). We also observed differences in the expression of mesenchymal markers when...Scale bar =100 µm. Figure 3: Small cell number spheroids demonstrate 3-D morphology . 3-D reconstructions of confocal z-stacks are shown for...formation was observed with the addition of MSCs, and subsequent co-culture in hanging drop plates preserved spheroid morphology indicated in the phase

Unsteady swimming of small organisms

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, Shiyan; Ardekani, Arezoo

2012-11-01

Small planktonic organisms ubiquitously display unsteady or impulsive motion to attack a prey or escape a predator in natural environments. Despite this, the role of unsteady hydrodynamic forces such as history and added mass forces on the low Reynolds number propulsion of small organisms is poorly understood. In this paper, we derive the fundamental equation of motion for an organism swimming by the means of surface distortion in a nonuniform flow at a low Reynolds number regime. We show that the history and added mass forces, that where traditionally neglected in the literature for small swimming organisms, cannot be neglected as the Stokes number increases above unity. For example, these unsteady inertial forces are of the same order as quasi-steady Stokes forces for Paramecium. Finally, we quantify the effects of convective inertial forces in the limit of small, but nonzero, Reynolds number regime. This work is supported by NSF grant CBET-1066545.

Discrete tomography in an in vivo small animal bone study.

PubMed

Van de Casteele, Elke; Perilli, Egon; Van Aarle, Wim; Reynolds, Karen J; Sijbers, Jan

2018-01-01

This study aimed at assessing the feasibility of a discrete algebraic reconstruction technique (DART) to be used in in vivo small animal bone studies. The advantage of discrete tomography is the possibility to reduce the amount of X-ray projection images, which makes scans faster and implies also a significant reduction of radiation dose, without compromising the reconstruction results. Bone studies are ideal for being performed with discrete tomography, due to the relatively small number of attenuation coefficients contained in the image [namely three: background (air), soft tissue and bone]. In this paper, a validation is made by comparing trabecular bone morphometric parameters calculated from images obtained by using DART and the commonly used standard filtered back-projection (FBP). Female rats were divided into an ovariectomized (OVX) and a sham-operated group. In vivo micro-CT scanning of the tibia was done at baseline and at 2, 4, 8 and 12 weeks after surgery. The cross-section images were reconstructed using first the full set of projection images and afterwards reducing them in number to a quarter and one-sixth (248, 62, 42 projection images, respectively). For both reconstruction methods, similar changes in morphometric parameters were observed over time: bone loss for OVX and bone growth for sham-operated rats, although for DART the actual values were systematically higher (bone volume fraction) or lower (structure model index) compared to FBP, depending on the morphometric parameter. The DART algorithm was, however, more robust when using fewer projection images, where the standard FBP reconstruction was more prone to noise, showing a significantly bigger deviation from the morphometric parameters obtained using all projection images. This study supports the use of DART as a potential alternative method to FBP in X-ray micro-CT animal studies, in particular, when the number of projections has to be drastically minimized, which directly reduces scanning time and dose.

Exonic duplication CNV of NDRG1 associated with autosomal-recessive HMSN-Lom/CMT4D.

PubMed

Okamoto, Yuji; Goksungur, Meryem Tuba; Pehlivan, Davut; Beck, Christine R; Gonzaga-Jauregui, Claudia; Muzny, Donna M; Atik, Mehmed M; Carvalho, Claudia M B; Matur, Zeliha; Bayraktar, Serife; Boone, Philip M; Akyuz, Kaya; Gibbs, Richard A; Battaloglu, Esra; Parman, Yesim; Lupski, James R

2014-05-01

Copy-number variations as a mutational mechanism contribute significantly to human disease. Approximately one-half of the patients with Charcot-Marie-Tooth (CMT) disease have a 1.4 Mb duplication copy-number variation as the cause of their neuropathy. However, non-CMT1A neuropathy patients rarely have causative copy-number variations, and to date, autosomal-recessive disease has not been associated with copy-number variation as a mutational mechanism. We performed Agilent 8 × 60 K array comparative genomic hybridization on DNA from 12 recessive Turkish families with CMT disease. Additional molecular studies were conducted to detect breakpoint junctions and to evaluate gene expression levels in a family in which we detected an intragenic duplication copy-number variation. We detected an ~6.25 kb homozygous intragenic duplication in NDRG1, a gene known to be causative for recessive HMSNL/CMT4D, in three individuals from a Turkish family with CMT neuropathy. Further studies showed that this intragenic copy-number variation resulted in a homozygous duplication of exons 6-8 that caused decreased mRNA expression of NDRG1. Exon-focused high-resolution array comparative genomic hybridization enables the detection of copy-number variation carrier states in recessive genes, particularly small copy-number variations encompassing or disrupting single genes. In families for whom a molecular diagnosis has not been elucidated by conventional clinical assays, an assessment for copy-number variations in known CMT genes might be considered.

Potential wildlife sources of Yersinia pseudotuberculosis for farmed deer (Cervus elaphus).

PubMed

Mackintosh, C G; Henderson, T

1984-12-01

During 1982 and 1983 15 serotype I, 6 serotype II, 1 serotype III and 3 untyped strains of Yersinia pseudotuberculosis were isolated from 675 apparently normal small mammals and birds from the Invermay farm and nearby rubbish tip with the following prevalence rates: feral cats 27.8%, Norway rats 8.6%, mice 5.5%, hares 3.8% rabbits 1.9% ducks 5.3%, sparrows 2.3%, seagulls 2.3% and starlings 1.7%. For rabbits a significantly higher prevalence of infection was found in the autumn/winter period (4.8%) than the spring/summer period (0%). Insufficient numbers of other mammals were obtained to demonstrate any seasonal difference in prevalence. All bird isolations were obtained between March and July (8/158) compared with none from August to October (0/144). It appears that a number of free-living species of small mammal and birds may be reservoir hosts for Y. pseudotuberculosis and potential sources of infection for red deer on the Invermay farm.

Weibel instability for a streaming electron, counterstreaming e-e, and e-p plasmas with intrinsic temperature anisotropy

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Ghorbanalilu, M.; Physics Department, Azarbaijan Shahid Madani University, Tabriz; Sadegzadeh, S.

2014-05-15

The existence of Weibel instability for a streaming electron, counterstreaming electron-electron (e-e), and electron-positron (e-p) plasmas with intrinsic temperature anisotropy is investigated. The temperature anisotropy is included in the directions perpendicular and parallel to the streaming direction. It is shown that the beam mean speed changes the instability mode, for a streaming electron beam, from the classic Weibel to the Weibel-like mode. The analytical and numerical solutions approved that Weibel-like modes are excited for both counterstreaming e-e and e-p plasmas. The growth rates of the instabilities in e-e and e-p plasmas are compared. The growth rate is larger for e-pmore » plasmas if the thermal anisotropy is small and the opposite is true for large thermal anisotropies. The analytical and numerical solutions are in good agreement only in the small parallel temperature and wave number limits, when the instability growth rate increases linearly with normalized wave number kc∕ω{sub p}.« less

Commensurate Priors for Incorporating Historical Information in Clinical Trials Using General and Generalized Linear Models

PubMed Central

Hobbs, Brian P.; Sargent, Daniel J.; Carlin, Bradley P.

2014-01-01

Assessing between-study variability in the context of conventional random-effects meta-analysis is notoriously difficult when incorporating data from only a small number of historical studies. In order to borrow strength, historical and current data are often assumed to be fully homogeneous, but this can have drastic consequences for power and Type I error if the historical information is biased. In this paper, we propose empirical and fully Bayesian modifications of the commensurate prior model (Hobbs et al., 2011) extending Pocock (1976), and evaluate their frequentist and Bayesian properties for incorporating patient-level historical data using general and generalized linear mixed regression models. Our proposed commensurate prior models lead to preposterior admissible estimators that facilitate alternative bias-variance trade-offs than those offered by pre-existing methodologies for incorporating historical data from a small number of historical studies. We also provide a sample analysis of a colon cancer trial comparing time-to-disease progression using a Weibull regression model. PMID:24795786

Simulation analyses of space use: Home range estimates, variability, and sample size

USGS Publications Warehouse

Bekoff, Marc; Mech, L. David

1984-01-01

Simulations of space use by animals were run to determine the relationship among home range area estimates, variability, and sample size (number of locations). As sample size increased, home range size increased asymptotically, whereas variability decreased among mean home range area estimates generated by multiple simulations for the same sample size. Our results suggest that field workers should ascertain between 100 and 200 locations in order to estimate reliably home range area. In some cases, this suggested guideline is higher than values found in the few published studies in which the relationship between home range area and number of locations is addressed. Sampling differences for small species occupying relatively small home ranges indicate that fewer locations may be sufficient to allow for a reliable estimate of home range. Intraspecific variability in social status (group member, loner, resident, transient), age, sex, reproductive condition, and food resources also have to be considered, as do season, habitat, and differences in sampling and analytical methods. Comparative data still are needed.

Direct Demonstration of the Concept of Unrestricted Effective-Medium Approximation

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Mishchenko, Michael I.; Dlugach, Zhanna M.; Zakharova, Nadezhda T.

2014-01-01

The modified unrestricted effective-medium refractive index is defined as one that yields accurate values of a representative set of far-field scattering characteristics (including the scattering matrix) for an object made of randomly heterogeneous materials. We validate the concept of the modified unrestricted effective-medium refractive index by comparing numerically exact superposition T-matrix results for a spherical host randomly filled with a large number of identical small inclusions and Lorenz-Mie results for a homogeneous spherical counterpart. A remarkable quantitative agreement between the superposition T-matrix and Lorenz-Mie scattering matrices over the entire range of scattering angles demonstrates unequivocally that the modified unrestricted effective-medium refractive index is a sound (albeit still phenomenological) concept provided that the size parameter of the inclusions is sufficiently small and their number is sufficiently large. Furthermore, it appears that in cases when the concept of the modified unrestricted effective-medium refractive index works, its actual value is close to that predicted by the Maxwell-Garnett mixing rule.

Latex agglutination inhibition card test for gentamicin assay: clinical evaluation and comparison with radioimmunoassay and bioassay.

PubMed Central

Standiford, H C; Bernstein, D; Nipper, H C; Caplan, E; Tatem, B; Hall, J S; Reynolds, J

1981-01-01

Gentamicin levels were determined in 100 serum specimens by a new latex agglutination inhibition card test, a radioimmunoassay (RIA), and a bioassay. Correlation coefficients determined by linear regression analysis demonstrated that the levels obtained by the latex agglutination inhibition card test had a high degree of correlation with the RIA and could be performed much faster and more economically when processing small numbers of specimens. The bioassay had a slightly lower degree of correlation with both the RIA and the latex test and was adversely influenced by concurrently administered antibiotics which could not be eliminated by beta-lactamase. When measuring gentamicin concentrations above 2 micrograms/ml, the coefficient of variation was less than 14% for the latex agglutination assay compared with 15% for the bioassay and 12% for RIA. The latex agglutination inhibition card test is a rapid, accurate, specific, and reproducible method for monitoring gentamicin levels in patients and is particularly applicable for laboratories processing small numbers of specimens. PMID:7247384

Estimating linear-nonlinear models using Rényi divergences

PubMed Central

Kouh, Minjoon; Sharpee, Tatyana O.

2009-01-01

This paper compares a family of methods for characterizing neural feature selectivity using natural stimuli in the framework of the linear-nonlinear model. In this model, the spike probability depends in a nonlinear way on a small number of stimulus dimensions. The relevant stimulus dimensions can be found by optimizing a Rényi divergence that quantifies a change in the stimulus distribution associated with the arrival of single spikes. Generally, good reconstructions can be obtained based on optimization of Rényi divergence of any order, even in the limit of small numbers of spikes. However, the smallest error is obtained when the Rényi divergence of order 1 is optimized. This type of optimization is equivalent to information maximization, and is shown to saturate the Cramér-Rao bound describing the smallest error allowed for any unbiased method. We also discuss conditions under which information maximization provides a convenient way to perform maximum likelihood estimation of linear-nonlinear models from neural data. PMID:19568981

Estimating linear-nonlinear models using Renyi divergences.

PubMed

Kouh, Minjoon; Sharpee, Tatyana O

2009-01-01

This article compares a family of methods for characterizing neural feature selectivity using natural stimuli in the framework of the linear-nonlinear model. In this model, the spike probability depends in a nonlinear way on a small number of stimulus dimensions. The relevant stimulus dimensions can be found by optimizing a Rényi divergence that quantifies a change in the stimulus distribution associated with the arrival of single spikes. Generally, good reconstructions can be obtained based on optimization of Rényi divergence of any order, even in the limit of small numbers of spikes. However, the smallest error is obtained when the Rényi divergence of order 1 is optimized. This type of optimization is equivalent to information maximization, and is shown to saturate the Cramer-Rao bound describing the smallest error allowed for any unbiased method. We also discuss conditions under which information maximization provides a convenient way to perform maximum likelihood estimation of linear-nonlinear models from neural data.

Energy levels of a hydrogenic impurity in a parabolic quantum well with a magnetic field

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zang, J. X.; Rustgi, M. L.

1993-07-01

In this paper, we present a calculation of the energy levels of a hydrogenic impurity (or a hydrogenic atom) at the bottom of a one-dimensional parabolic quantum well with a magnetic field normal to the plane of the well. The finite-basis-set variational method is used to calculate the ground state and the excited states with major quantum number less than or equal to 3. The limit of small radial distance and the limit of great radial distance are considered to choose a set of proper basis functions. The results in the limit that the parabolic parameter α=0 are compared with the data of Rösner et al. [J. Phys. B 17, 29 (1984)]. The comparison shows that the present calculation is quite accurate. It is found that the energy levels increase with increasing parabolic parameter α and increase with increasing normalized magnetic-field strength γ except those levels with magnetic quantum number m<0 at small γ.

Detection and Estimation of an Optical Image by Photon-Counting Techniques. Ph.D. Thesis

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Wang, Lily Lee

1973-01-01

Statistical description of a photoelectric detector is given. The photosensitive surface of the detector is divided into many small areas, and the moment generating function of the photo-counting statistic is derived for large time-bandwidth product. The detection of a specified optical image in the presence of the background light by using the hypothesis test is discussed. The ideal detector based on the likelihood ratio from a set of numbers of photoelectrons ejected from many small areas of the photosensitive surface is studied and compared with the threshold detector and a simple detector which is based on the likelihood ratio by counting the total number of photoelectrons from a finite area of the surface. The intensity of the image is assumed to be Gaussian distributed spatially against the uniformly distributed background light. The numerical approximation by the method of steepest descent is used, and the calculations of the reliabilities for the detectors are carried out by a digital computer.

Strain and vorticity analysis using small-scale faults and associated drag folds

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gomez-Rivas, Enrique; Bons, Paul D.; Griera, Albert; Carreras, Jordi; Druguet, Elena; Evans, Lynn

2007-12-01

Small-scale faults with associated drag folds in brittle-ductile rocks can retain detailed information on the kinematics and amount of deformation the host rock experienced. Measured fault orientation ( α), drag angle ( β) and the ratio of the thickness of deflected layers at the fault ( L) and further away ( T) can be compared with α, β and L/ T values that are calculated with a simple analytical model. Using graphs or a numerical best-fit routine, one can then determine the kinematic vorticity number and initial fault orientation that best fits the data. The proposed method was successfully tested on both analogue experiments and numerical simulations with BASIL. Using this method, a kinematic vorticity number of one (dextral simple shear) and a minimum finite strain of 2.5-3.8 was obtained for a population of antithetic faults with associated drag folds in a case study area at Mas Rabassers de Dalt on Cap de Creus in the Variscan of the easternmost Pyrenees, Spain.

Nonlinear Excitation of the Ablative Rayleigh-Taylor Instability for All Wave Numbers

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, H.; Betti, R.; Gopalaswamy, V.; Aluie, H.; Yan, R.

2017-10-01

Small-scale modes of the ablative Rayleigh-Taylor instability (ARTI) are often neglected because they are linearly stable when their wavelength is shorter than a linear cutoff. Using 2-D and 3-D numerical simulations, it is shown that linearly stable modes of any wavelength can be destabilized. This instability regime requires finite amplitude initial perturbations. Compared to 2-D, linearly stable ARTI modes are more easily destabilized in 3-D and the penetrating bubbles have a higher density because of enhanced vorticity. It is shown that for conditions found in laser fusion targets, short-wavelength ARTI modes are more efficient at driving mixing of ablated material throughout the target since the nonlinear bubble density increases with the wave number and small-scale bubbles carry a larger mass flux of mixed material. This work was supported by the Office of Fusion Energy Sciences Nos. DE-FG02-04ER54789, DE-SC0014318, the Department of Energy National Nuclear Security Administration under Award No. DE-NA0001944, the Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovacion of Spain (Grant No. ENE2011-28489), and the NANL LDRD program through Project Number 20150568ER.

Diffusion Kurtosis Imaging of Acute Infarction: Comparison with Routine Diffusion and Follow-up MR Imaging.

PubMed

Yin, Jianzhong; Sun, Haizhen; Wang, Zhiyun; Ni, Hongyan; Shen, Wen; Sun, Phillip Zhe

2018-05-01

Purpose To determine the relationship between diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) and diffusion kurtosis imaging (DKI) in patients with acute stroke at admission and the tissue outcome 1 month after onset of stroke. Materials and Methods Patients with stroke underwent DWI (b values = 0, 1000 sec/mm 2 along three directions) and DKI (b values = 0, 1000, 2000 sec/mm 2 along 20 directions) within 24 hours after symptom onset and 1 month after symptom onset. For large lesions (diameter ≥ 1 cm), acute lesion volumes at DWI and DKI were compared with those at follow-up T2-weighted imaging by using Spearman correlation analysis. For small lesions (diameter < 1 cm), the number of acute lesions at DWI and DKI and follow-up T2-weighted imaging was counted and compared by using the McNemar test. Results Thirty-seven patients (mean age, 58 years; range, 35-82 years) were included. There were 32 large lesions and 138 small lesions. For large lesions, the volumes of acute lesions on kurtosis maps showed no difference from those on 1-month follow-up T2-weighted images (P = .532), with a higher correlation coefficient than those on the apparent diffusion coefficient and mean diffusivity maps (R 2 = 0.730 vs 0.479 and 0.429). For small lesions, the number of acute lesions on DKI, but not on DWI, images was consistent with that on the follow-up T2-weighted images (P = .125). Conclusion DKI complements DWI for improved prediction of outcome of acute ischemic stroke. © RSNA, 2018.

The 13-inch magnetic suspension and balance system wind tunnel

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Johnson, William G., Jr.; Dress, David A.

1989-01-01

NASA Langley has a small, subsonic wind tunnel in use with the 13-inch Magnetic Suspension and Balance System (MSBS). The tunnel is capable of speeds up to Mach 0.5. This report presents tunnel design and construction details. It includes flow uniformity, angularity, and velocity fluctuation data. It also compares experimental Mach number distribution data with computed results for the General Electric Streamtube Curvature Program.

The Interplay of Resources and Multiracialism in Small, Four-Year Residential Colleges: A Study of Perception of Multicultural and Human Resource Directors

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Farmer-Hanson, Ashley

2012-01-01

Colleges and universities in the United States need to find ways to meet the needs of the increasing number of multiracial students, faculty, and staff. The purpose of this survey research study was to compare the perceptions of multicultural directors/chief diversity officers and human resource offices about services and systems of support for…

Frequency of Flooding Along U.S. Coasts, 2010-2015 Versus 1950-1959

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

This map shows the average number of days per year in which coastal waters rose above the local threshold for minor flooding at 27 sites along the U.S. coast. Each small bar graph compares the first decade of widespread measurements (the 1950s in orange) with the most recent decade (the 2010s in purple). For more information: www.epa.gov/climatechange/science/indicators

Small-Angle and Ultrasmall-Angle Neutron Scattering (SANS/USANS) Study of New Albany Shale: A Treatise on Microporosity

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Bahadur, Jitendra; Radlinski, Andrzej P.; Melnichenko, Yuri B.

We applied small-angle neutron scattering (SANS) and ultrasmall-angle neutron scattering (USANS) techniques to study the microstructure of several New Albany shales of different maturity. It has been established that the total porosity decreases with maturity and increases somewhat for post-mature samples. A new method of SANS data analysis was developed, which allows the extraction of information about the size range and number density of micropores from the relatively flat scattering intensity observed in the limit of the large scattering vector Q. Macropores and significant number of mesopores are surface fractals, and their structure can be described in terms of themore » polydisperse spheres (PDSP) model. The model-independent Porod invariant method was employed to estimate total porosity, and the results were compared with the PDSP model results. It has been demonstrated that independent evaluation of incoherent background is crucial for accurate interpretation of the scattering data in the limit of large Q-values. Moreover, pore volumes estimated by the N 2 and CO 2 adsorption, as well as via the mercury intrusion technique, have been compared with those measured by SANS/USANS, and possible reasons for the observed discrepancies are discussed.« less

Temporal Variations of Different Solar Activity Indices Through the Solar Cycles 21-23

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Göker, Ü. D.; Singh, J.; Nutku, F.; Priyal, M.

2017-12-01

Here, we compare the sunspot counts and the number of sunspot groups (SGs) with variations of total solar irradiance (TSI), magnetic activity, Ca II K-flux, faculae and plage areas. We applied a time series method for extracting the data over the descending phases of solar activity cycles (SACs) 21, 22 and 23, and the ascending phases 22 and 23. Our results suggest that there is a strong correlation between solar activity indices and the changes in small (A, B, C and H-modified Zurich Classification) and large (D, E and F) SGs. This somewhat unexpected finding suggests that plage regions substantially decreased in spite of the higher number of large SGs in SAC 23 while the Ca II K-flux did not decrease by a large amount nor was it comparable with SAC 22 and relates with C and DEF type SGs. In addition to this, the increase of facular areas which are influenced by large SGs, caused a small percentage decrease in TSI while the decrement of plage areas triggered a higher decrease in the magnetic field flux. Our results thus reveal the potential of such a detailed comparison of the SG analysis with solar activity indices for better understanding and predicting future trends in the SACs.

Small-Angle and Ultrasmall-Angle Neutron Scattering (SANS/USANS) Study of New Albany Shale: A Treatise on Microporosity

DOE PAGES

Bahadur, Jitendra; Radlinski, Andrzej P.; Melnichenko, Yuri B.; ...

2014-12-17

We applied small-angle neutron scattering (SANS) and ultrasmall-angle neutron scattering (USANS) techniques to study the microstructure of several New Albany shales of different maturity. It has been established that the total porosity decreases with maturity and increases somewhat for post-mature samples. A new method of SANS data analysis was developed, which allows the extraction of information about the size range and number density of micropores from the relatively flat scattering intensity observed in the limit of the large scattering vector Q. Macropores and significant number of mesopores are surface fractals, and their structure can be described in terms of themore » polydisperse spheres (PDSP) model. The model-independent Porod invariant method was employed to estimate total porosity, and the results were compared with the PDSP model results. It has been demonstrated that independent evaluation of incoherent background is crucial for accurate interpretation of the scattering data in the limit of large Q-values. Moreover, pore volumes estimated by the N 2 and CO 2 adsorption, as well as via the mercury intrusion technique, have been compared with those measured by SANS/USANS, and possible reasons for the observed discrepancies are discussed.« less

Symmetric scrolled packings of multilayered carbon nanoribbons

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Savin, A. V.; Korznikova, E. A.; Lobzenko, I. P.; Baimova, Yu. A.; Dmitriev, S. V.

2016-06-01

Scrolled packings of single-layer and multilayer graphene can be used for the creation of supercapacitors, nanopumps, nanofilters, and other nanodevices. The full atomistic simulation of graphene scrolls is restricted to consideration of relatively small systems in small time intervals. To overcome this difficulty, a two-dimensional chain model making possible an efficient calculation of static and dynamic characteristics of nanoribbon scrolls with allowance for the longitudinal and bending stiffness of nanoribbons is proposed. The model is extended to the case of scrolls of multilayer graphene. Possible equilibrium states of symmetric scrolls of multilayer carbon nanotribbons rolled up so that all nanoribbons in the scroll are equivalent are found. Dependences of the number of coils, the inner and outer radii, lowest vibrational eigenfrequencies of rolled packages on the length L of nanoribbons are obtained. It is shown that the lowest vibrational eigenfrequency of a symmetric scroll decreases with a nanoribbon length proportionally to L -1. It is energetically unfavorable for too short nanoribbons to roll up, and their ground state is a stack of plane nanoribbons. With an increasing number k of layers, the nanoribbon length L necessary for creation of symmetric scrolls increases. For a sufficiently small number of layers k and a sufficiently large nanoribbon length L, the scrolled packing has the lowest energy as compared to that of stack of plane nanoribbons and folded structures. The results can be used for development of nanomaterials and nanodevices on the basis of graphene scrolled packings.

The first effects of fluid inertia on flows in ordered and random arrays of spheres

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hill, Reghan J.; Koch, Donald L.; Ladd, Anthony J. C.

2001-12-01

Theory and lattice-Boltzmann simulations are used to examine the effects of fluid inertia, at small Reynolds numbers, on flows in simple cubic, face-centred cubic and random arrays of spheres. The drag force on the spheres, and hence the permeability of the arrays, is determined at small but finite Reynolds numbers, at solid volume fractions up to the close-packed limits of the arrays. For small solid volume fraction, the simulations are compared to theory, showing that the first inertial contribution to the drag force, when scaled with the Stokes drag force on a single sphere in an unbounded fluid, is proportional to the square of the Reynolds number. The simulations show that this scaling persists at solid volume fractions up to the close-packed limits of the arrays, and that the first inertial contribution to the drag force relative to the Stokes-flow drag force decreases with increasing solid volume fraction. The temporal evolution of the spatially averaged velocity and the drag force is examined when the fluid is accelerated from rest by a constant average pressure gradient toward a steady Stokes flow. Theory for the short- and long-time behaviour is in good agreement with simulations, showing that the unsteady force is dominated by quasi-steady drag and added-mass forces. The short- and long-time added-mass coefficients are obtained from potential-flow and quasi-steady viscous-flow approximations, respectively.

Training of polyp staging systems using mixed imaging modalities.

PubMed

Wimmer, Georg; Gadermayr, Michael; Kwitt, Roland; Häfner, Michael; Tamaki, Toru; Yoshida, Shigeto; Tanaka, Shinji; Merhof, Dorit; Uhl, Andreas

2018-05-04

In medical image data sets, the number of images is usually quite small. The small number of training samples does not allow to properly train classifiers which leads to massive overfitting to the training data. In this work, we investigate whether increasing the number of training samples by merging datasets from different imaging modalities can be effectively applied to improve predictive performance. Further, we investigate if the extracted features from the employed image representations differ between different imaging modalities and if domain adaption helps to overcome these differences. We employ twelve feature extraction methods to differentiate between non-neoplastic and neoplastic lesions. Experiments are performed using four different classifier training strategies, each with a different combination of training data. The specifically designed setup for these experiments enables a fair comparison between the four training strategies. Combining high definition with high magnification training data and chromoscopic with non-chromoscopic training data partly improved the results. The usage of domain adaptation has only a small effect on the results compared to just using non-adapted training data. Merging datasets from different imaging modalities turned out to be partially beneficial for the case of combining high definition endoscopic data with high magnification endoscopic data and for combining chromoscopic with non-chromoscopic data. NBI and chromoendoscopy on the other hand are mostly too different with respect to the extracted features to combine images of these two modalities for classifier training. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The impact of small irrigation diversion dams on the recent migration rates of steelhead and redband trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss)

USGS Publications Warehouse

Weigel, Dana E.; Connolly, Patrick J.; Powell, Madison S.

2013-01-01

Barriers to migration are numerous in stream environments and can occur from anthropogenic activities (such as dams and culverts) or natural processes (such as log jams or dams constructed by beaver (Castor canadensis)). Identification of barriers can be difficult when obstructions are temporary or incomplete providing passage periodically. We examine the effect of several small irrigation diversion dams on the recent migration rates of steelhead (Oncorhynchus mykiss) in three tributaries to the Methow River, Washington. The three basins had different recent migration patterns: Beaver Creek did not have any recent migration between sites, Libby Creek had two-way migration between sites and Gold Creek had downstream migration between sites. Sites with migration were significantly different from sites without migration in distance, number of obstructions, obstruction height to depth ratio and maximum stream gradient. When comparing the sites without migration in Beaver Creek to the sites with migration in Libby and Gold creeks, the number of obstructions was the only significant variable. Multinomial logistic regression identified obstruction height to depth ratio and maximum stream gradient as the best fitting model to predict the level of migration among sites. Small irrigation diversion dams were limiting population interactions in Beaver Creek and collectively blocking steelhead migration into the stream. Variables related to stream resistance (gradient, obstruction number and obstruction height to depth ratio) were better predictors of recent migration rates than distance, and can provide important insight into migration and population demographic processes in lotic species.

Development of the Statocyst in the Freshwater Snail Biomphalaria Glabrata (Pulmonata, Basommatophora)

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Gao, Wenyuan; Wiederhold, Michael; Hejl, Robert

1997-01-01

The development of the statocyst of the freshwater snail Biomphalaria glabrata has been examined from embryo to adult. Special emphasis was put on the growth of the statoconia in the statocysts. In the statocysts of embryonic snails (90-120 h after oviposition) there is not a single statolith but an average of 40-50 statoconia per statocyst. The number of statoconia increases to 385-400 when the snails reach a shell diameter of 4 mm and remains relatively constant thereafter, irrespective of shell size. Small statoconia are found in supporting cells, which suggests that the statoconia are produced within these cells. The average diameter of statoconia and the total mass of statoconia increase with increasing shell diameter. The average number of large statoconia (diameter greater than 7 micrometers) per statocyst continues to increase from 2 to 10 mm animals while the number of small ones (diameter less than 4 micrometers) initially rises and then decreases after 4 mm. These results demonstrate continuous growth of the statoconia in the cyst lumen of Biomphalaria. The single statoconia vibrate in a regular pattern in vivo, indicating beating of the statocyst cilia. The statoconia sink under the influence of gravity to load and stimulate receptor cells which are at the bottom. The length of cilia and the size of statocyst gradually increase as the animal grows. However, the increase in the volume of the statocyst is relatively small compared with the increase in body weight during normal development.

Fock space, symbolic algebra, and analytical solutions for small stochastic systems.

PubMed

Santos, Fernando A N; Gadêlha, Hermes; Gaffney, Eamonn A

2015-12-01

Randomness is ubiquitous in nature. From single-molecule biochemical reactions to macroscale biological systems, stochasticity permeates individual interactions and often regulates emergent properties of the system. While such systems are regularly studied from a modeling viewpoint using stochastic simulation algorithms, numerous potential analytical tools can be inherited from statistical and quantum physics, replacing randomness due to quantum fluctuations with low-copy-number stochasticity. Nevertheless, classical studies remained limited to the abstract level, demonstrating a more general applicability and equivalence between systems in physics and biology rather than exploiting the physics tools to study biological systems. Here the Fock space representation, used in quantum mechanics, is combined with the symbolic algebra of creation and annihilation operators to consider explicit solutions for the chemical master equations describing small, well-mixed, biochemical, or biological systems. This is illustrated with an exact solution for a Michaelis-Menten single enzyme interacting with limited substrate, including a consideration of very short time scales, which emphasizes when stiffness is present even for small copy numbers. Furthermore, we present a general matrix representation for Michaelis-Menten kinetics with an arbitrary number of enzymes and substrates that, following diagonalization, leads to the solution of this ubiquitous, nonlinear enzyme kinetics problem. For this, a flexible symbolic maple code is provided, demonstrating the prospective advantages of this framework compared to stochastic simulation algorithms. This further highlights the possibilities for analytically based studies of stochastic systems in biology and chemistry using tools from theoretical quantum physics.

The interpretation of dream meaning: Resolving ambiguity using Latent Semantic Analysis in a small corpus of text.

PubMed

Altszyler, Edgar; Ribeiro, Sidarta; Sigman, Mariano; Fernández Slezak, Diego

2017-11-01

Computer-based dreams content analysis relies on word frequencies within predefined categories in order to identify different elements in text. As a complementary approach, we explored the capabilities and limitations of word-embedding techniques to identify word usage patterns among dream reports. These tools allow us to quantify words associations in text and to identify the meaning of target words. Word-embeddings have been extensively studied in large datasets, but only a few studies analyze semantic representations in small corpora. To fill this gap, we compared Skip-gram and Latent Semantic Analysis (LSA) capabilities to extract semantic associations from dream reports. LSA showed better performance than Skip-gram in small size corpora in two tests. Furthermore, LSA captured relevant word associations in dream collection, even in cases with low-frequency words or small numbers of dreams. Word associations in dreams reports can thus be quantified by LSA, which opens new avenues for dream interpretation and decoding. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

A project optimization for small watercourses restoration in the northern part of the Volga-Akhtuba floodplain by the geoinformation and hydrodynamic modeling

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Voronin, Alexander; Vasilchenko, Ann; Khoperskov, Alexander

2018-03-01

The project of small watercourses restoration in the northern part of the Volga-Akhtuba floodplain is considered together with the aim of increasing the watering of the territory during small and medium floods. The topography irregularity, the complex structure of the floodplain valley consisting of large number of small watercourses, the presence of urbanized and agricultural areas require careful preliminary analysis of the hydrological safety and efficiency of geographically distributed project activities. Using the digital terrain and watercourses structure models of the floodplain, the hydrodynamic flood model, the analysis of the hydrological safety and efficiency of several project implementation strategies has been conducted. The objective function values have been obtained from the hydrodynamic calculations of the floodplain territory flooding for virtual digital terrain models simulating alternatives for the geographically distributed project activities. The comparative efficiency of several empirical strategies for the geographically distributed project activities, as well as a two-stage exact solution method for the optimization problem has been studied.

Characteristics of Social Networks and Mortality Risk: Evidence From 2 Prospective Cohort Studies.

PubMed

Kauppi, Maarit; Kawachi, Ichiro; Batty, George David; Oksanen, Tuula; Elovainio, Marko; Pentti, Jaana; Aalto, Ville; Virtanen, Marianna; Koskenvuo, Markku; Vahtera, Jussi; Kivimäki, Mika

2018-04-01

The size of a person's social network is linked to health and longevity, but it is unclear whether the number of strong social ties or the number of weak social ties is most influential for health. We examined social network characteristics as predictors of mortality in the Finnish Public Sector Study (n = 7,617) and the Health and Social Support Study (n = 20,816). Social network characteristics were surveyed at baseline in 1998. Information about mortality was obtained from the Finnish National Death Registry. During a mean follow-up period of 16 years, participants with a small social network (≤10 members) were more likely to die than those with a large social network (≥21 members) (adjusted hazard ratio (HR) = 1.23, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.04, 1.46). Mortality risk was increased among participants with both a small number of strong ties (≤2 members) and a small number of weak ties (≤5 members) (HR = 1.55, 95% CI: 1.26, 1.79) and among participants with both a large number of strong ties and a small number of weak ties (HR = 1.28, 95% CI: 1.08, 1.52), but not among those with a small number of strong ties and a large number of weak ties (HR = 1.04, 95% CI: 0.87, 1.25). These findings suggest that in terms of mortality risk, the number of weak ties may be an important component of social networks.

A meta-analysis of the effects of Lactobacillus buchneri on the fermentation and aerobic stability of corn and grass and small-grain silages.

PubMed

Kleinschmit, D H; Kung, L

2006-10-01

The results of adding Lactobacillus buchneri to silages from 43 experiments in 23 sources reporting standard errors were summarized using meta-analysis. The effects of inoculation were summarized by type of crop (corn or grass and small grains) and the treatments were classified into the following categories: 1) untreated silage with nothing applied (LB0), 2) silage treated with L. buchneri at < or = 100,000 cfu/g of fresh forage (LB1), and 3) silage treated with L. buchneri at > 100,000 cfu/g (LB2). In both types of crops, inoculation with L. buchneri decreased concentrations of lactic acid, and this response was dose-dependent in corn but not in grass and small-grain silages. Treatment with L. buchneri markedly increased the concentrations of acetic acid in both crops in a dose-dependent manner. The numbers of yeasts were lower in silages treated with LB1 and further decreased in silages treated with LB2 compared with untreated silages. Untreated corn silage spoiled after 25 h of exposure to air but corn silage treated with LB1 did not spoil until 35 h, and this stability was further enhanced to 503 h with LB2. In grass and small-grain silages, yeasts were nearly undetectable; however, inoculation improved aerobic stability in a dose-dependent manner (206, 226, and 245 h for LB0, LB1, and LB2, respectively). The recovery of DM after ensiling was lower for LB2 (94.5%) when compared with LB0 (95.5%) in corn silage and was lower for both LB1 (94.8%) and LB2 (95.3%) when compared with LB0 (96.6%) in grass and small-grain silages.

Small-scale dynamo at low magnetic Prandtl numbers

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Schober, Jennifer; Schleicher, Dominik; Bovino, Stefano; Klessen, Ralf S.

2012-12-01

The present-day Universe is highly magnetized, even though the first magnetic seed fields were most probably extremely weak. To explain the growth of the magnetic field strength over many orders of magnitude, fast amplification processes need to operate. The most efficient mechanism known today is the small-scale dynamo, which converts turbulent kinetic energy into magnetic energy leading to an exponential growth of the magnetic field. The efficiency of the dynamo depends on the type of turbulence indicated by the slope of the turbulence spectrum v(ℓ)∝ℓϑ, where v(ℓ) is the eddy velocity at a scale ℓ. We explore turbulent spectra ranging from incompressible Kolmogorov turbulence with ϑ=1/3 to highly compressible Burgers turbulence with ϑ=1/2. In this work, we analyze the properties of the small-scale dynamo for low magnetic Prandtl numbers Pm, which denotes the ratio of the magnetic Reynolds number, Rm, to the hydrodynamical one, Re. We solve the Kazantsev equation, which describes the evolution of the small-scale magnetic field, using the WKB approximation. In the limit of low magnetic Prandtl numbers, the growth rate is proportional to Rm(1-ϑ)/(1+ϑ). We furthermore discuss the critical magnetic Reynolds number Rmcrit, which is required for small-scale dynamo action. The value of Rmcrit is roughly 100 for Kolmogorov turbulence and 2700 for Burgers. Furthermore, we discuss that Rmcrit provides a stronger constraint in the limit of low Pm than it does for large Pm. We conclude that the small-scale dynamo can operate in the regime of low magnetic Prandtl numbers if the magnetic Reynolds number is large enough. Thus, the magnetic field amplification on small scales can take place in a broad range of physical environments and amplify week magnetic seed fields on short time scales.

Small-scale dynamo at low magnetic Prandtl numbers.

PubMed

Schober, Jennifer; Schleicher, Dominik; Bovino, Stefano; Klessen, Ralf S

2012-12-01

The present-day Universe is highly magnetized, even though the first magnetic seed fields were most probably extremely weak. To explain the growth of the magnetic field strength over many orders of magnitude, fast amplification processes need to operate. The most efficient mechanism known today is the small-scale dynamo, which converts turbulent kinetic energy into magnetic energy leading to an exponential growth of the magnetic field. The efficiency of the dynamo depends on the type of turbulence indicated by the slope of the turbulence spectrum v(ℓ)∝ℓ^{ϑ}, where v(ℓ) is the eddy velocity at a scale ℓ. We explore turbulent spectra ranging from incompressible Kolmogorov turbulence with ϑ=1/3 to highly compressible Burgers turbulence with ϑ=1/2. In this work, we analyze the properties of the small-scale dynamo for low magnetic Prandtl numbers Pm, which denotes the ratio of the magnetic Reynolds number, Rm, to the hydrodynamical one, Re. We solve the Kazantsev equation, which describes the evolution of the small-scale magnetic field, using the WKB approximation. In the limit of low magnetic Prandtl numbers, the growth rate is proportional to Rm^{(1-ϑ)/(1+ϑ)}. We furthermore discuss the critical magnetic Reynolds number Rm_{crit}, which is required for small-scale dynamo action. The value of Rm_{crit} is roughly 100 for Kolmogorov turbulence and 2700 for Burgers. Furthermore, we discuss that Rm_{crit} provides a stronger constraint in the limit of low Pm than it does for large Pm. We conclude that the small-scale dynamo can operate in the regime of low magnetic Prandtl numbers if the magnetic Reynolds number is large enough. Thus, the magnetic field amplification on small scales can take place in a broad range of physical environments and amplify week magnetic seed fields on short time scales.

Hydromechanics and biology.

PubMed

Nachtigall, W

1981-01-01

To exemplify relations between biology and hydrodynamics the Reynolds number range and the effects of viscosity and inertia in swimming and flying organisms is discussed. Comparing water beetles and penguins it is shown, that the technical drag coefficient is an adequate means to describe flow adaptation in animals. Compared to technical systems, especially the penguins'drag coefficient is astonishingly low. Furthermore, the question, why comparatively thick bodies in penguins and dolphins show rather low drag is discussed. Distributed boundary layer damping in dolphins and secretion of special high molecular slimes in fishes help to keep flow characteristics laminar. As an example of one easily understood thrust mechanism, the drag inducing pair of rowing legs in water, beetles is morphologically and hydrodynamically analysed. Fish swimming is discussed as a locomotion principle using lift components. Thrust generation by the moving tail fin of a fish is analysed in detail. Coming back to the influence if Reynolds number, it is finally shown, how very small, bristle bearing swimming legs and wings of insects make use of viscosity effects for locomotion.

Comparative Genomics of a Bacterivorous Green Alga Reveals Evolutionary Causalities and Consequences of Phago-Mixotrophic Mode of Nutrition

PubMed Central

Burns, John A.; Paasch, Amber; Narechania, Apurva; Kim, Eunsoo

2015-01-01

Abstract Cymbomonas tetramitiformis—a marine prasinophyte—is one of only a few green algae that still retain an ancestral particulate-feeding mechanism while harvesting energy through photosynthesis. The genome of the alga is estimated to be 850 Mb–1.2 Gb in size—the bulk of which is filled with repetitive sequences—and is annotated with 37,366 protein-coding gene models. A number of unusual metabolic pathways (for the Chloroplastida) are predicted for C. tetramitiformis, including pathways for Lipid-A and peptidoglycan metabolism. Comparative analyses of the predicted peptides of C. tetramitiformis to sets of other eukaryotes revealed that nonphagocytes are depleted in a number of genes, a proportion of which have known function in feeding. In addition, our analysis suggests that obligatory phagotrophy is associated with the loss of genes that function in biosynthesis of small molecules (e.g., amino acids). Further, C. tetramitiformis and at least one other phago-mixotrophic alga are thus unique, compared with obligatory heterotrophs and nonphagocytes, in that both feeding and small molecule synthesis-related genes are retained in their genomes. These results suggest that early, ancestral host eukaryotes that gave rise to phototrophs had the capacity to assimilate building block molecules from inorganic substances (i.e., prototrophy). The loss of biosynthesis genes, thus, may at least partially explain the apparent lack of instances of permanent incorporation of photosynthetic endosymbionts in later-divergent, auxotrophic eukaryotic lineages, such as metazoans and ciliates. PMID:26224703

Measurements of surface-pressure fluctuations on the XB-70 airplane at local Mach numbers up to 2.45

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lewis, T. L.; Dods, J. B., Jr.; Hanly, R. D.

1973-01-01

Measurements of surface-pressure fluctuations were made at two locations on the XB-70 airplane for nine flight-test conditions encompassing a local Mach number range from 0.35 to 2.45. These measurements are presented in the form of estimated power spectral densities, coherence functions, and narrow-band-convection velocities. The estimated power spectral densities compared favorably with wind-tunnel data obtained by other experimenters. The coherence function and convection velocity data supported conclusions by other experimenters that low-frequency surface-pressure fluctuations consist of small-scale turbulence components with low convection velocity.

Prion Diseases: Update on Mad Cow Disease, Variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease, and the Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies.

PubMed

Janka, Jacqueline; Maldarelli, Frank

2004-08-01

Transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs) are a group of progressive, fatal neurodegenerative disorders that share a common spongiform histopathology. TSEs may be transmitted in a sporadic, familial, iatrogenic, or zoonotic fashion. The putative infectious agent of TSE, the prion, represents a novel paradigm of infectious disease with disease transmission in the absence of nucleic acid. Several small but spectacular epidemics of TSEs in man have prompted widespread public health and food safety concerns. Although TSEs affect a comparatively small number of individuals, prion research has revealed fascinating insights of direct relevance to common illnesses. This paper reviews recent advances that have shed new light on the nature of prions and TSEs.

Hydrological Regimes of Small Catchments in the High Tatra Mountains Before and After Extraordinary Wind-Induced Deforestation

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Holko, Ladislav; Hlavata, Helena; Kostka, Zdenek; Novak, Jan

2009-01-01

The paper presents the results of rainfall-runoff data analysis for small catchments of the upper Poprad River affected by wind-induced deforestation in November 2004. Before-event and afterevent measured data were compared in order to assess the impact of deforestation on hydrological regimes. Several characteristics were used including water balance, minimum and maximum runoff, runoff thresholds, number of runoff events, selected characteristics of events, runoff coefficients, and flashiness indices. Despite increased spring runoff minima, which in one catchment (Velick Creek) exceeded previously observed values after deforestation took place, it can be generally concluded that the impact of the deforestation was not clearly manifested in the analyzed hydrological data.

Direct comparison of nanoindentation and tensile test results on reactor-irradiated materials

DOE PAGES

Krumweide, David L; Yamamoto, Takuya; Saleh, Tarik A.; ...

2018-03-13

Nanoindentation testing has been used for decades to assess materials on a local scale and to obtain fundamental mechanical property parameters. Nuclear materials research often faces the challenge of testing rather small samples due to the hazardous nature, limited space in reactors, and shallow ion-irradiated zones, fostering the need for small-scale mechanical testing (SSMT). As such, correlating the results from SSMT to bulk properties is particularly of interest. Here, this study compares macroscopic tensile test data (yield and flow stresses) to nanoindentation data (hardness) obtained on a number of different neutron-irradiated materials in order to understand the scaling behavior onmore » radiation-damaged samples.« less

Compilation of small ribosomal subunit RNA structures.

PubMed Central

Neefs, J M; Van de Peer, Y; De Rijk, P; Chapelle, S; De Wachter, R

1993-01-01

The database on small ribosomal subunit RNA structure contained 1804 nucleotide sequences on April 23, 1993. This number comprises 365 eukaryotic, 65 archaeal, 1260 bacterial, 30 plastidial, and 84 mitochondrial sequences. These are stored in the form of an alignment in order to facilitate the use of the database as input for comparative studies on higher-order structure and for reconstruction of phylogenetic trees. The elements of the postulated secondary structure for each molecule are indicated by special symbols. The database is available on-line directly from the authors by ftp and can also be obtained from the EMBL nucleotide sequence library by electronic mail, ftp, and on CD ROM disk. PMID:8332525

Direct comparison of nanoindentation and tensile test results on reactor-irradiated materials

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Krumweide, David L; Yamamoto, Takuya; Saleh, Tarik A.

Nanoindentation testing has been used for decades to assess materials on a local scale and to obtain fundamental mechanical property parameters. Nuclear materials research often faces the challenge of testing rather small samples due to the hazardous nature, limited space in reactors, and shallow ion-irradiated zones, fostering the need for small-scale mechanical testing (SSMT). As such, correlating the results from SSMT to bulk properties is particularly of interest. Here, this study compares macroscopic tensile test data (yield and flow stresses) to nanoindentation data (hardness) obtained on a number of different neutron-irradiated materials in order to understand the scaling behavior onmore » radiation-damaged samples.« less

Optical Diagnostics for Flow Control on Small Wings

DTIC Science & Technology

2016-07-13

AFRL-AFOSR-VA-TR-2016-0250 Optical diagnostics for flow control on small wings GEOFF SPEDDING UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES...Control on Small Wings 5a. CONTRACT NUMBER 5b. GRANT NUMBER FA9550-15-1-0255 5c. PROGRAM ELEMENT NUMBER 6. AUTHOR(S) Geoffrey R Spedding 5d. PROJECT...Nd:YAG laser has been purchased, installed, and heavily-used in essential work. Two most recent investigations concern the flow over a complex wing

Forecast Verification: Identification of small changes in weather forecasting skill

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Weatherhead, E. C.; Jensen, T. L.

2017-12-01

Global and regonal weather forecasts have improved over the past seven decades most often because of small, incrmental improvements. The identificaiton and verification of forecast improvement due to proposed small changes in forecasting can be expensive and, if not carried out efficiently, can slow progress in forecasting development. This presentation will look at the skill of commonly used verification techniques and show how the ability to detect improvements can depend on the magnitude of the improvement, the number of runs used to test the improvement, the location on the Earth and the statistical techniques used. For continuous variables, such as temperture, wind and humidity, the skill of a forecast can be directly compared using a pair-wise statistical test that accommodates the natural autocorrelation and magnitude of variability. For discrete variables, such as tornado outbreaks, or icing events, the challenges is to reduce the false alarm rate while improving the rate of correctly identifying th discrete event. For both continuus and discrete verification results, proper statistical approaches can reduce the number of runs needed to identify a small improvement in forecasting skill. Verification within the Next Generation Global Prediction System is an important component to the many small decisions needed to make stat-of-the-art improvements to weather forecasting capabilities. The comparison of multiple skill scores with often conflicting results requires not only appropriate testing, but also scientific judgment to assure that the choices are appropriate not only for improvements in today's forecasting capabilities, but allow improvements that will come in the future.

Das Thermometerproblem fuer eine kleine strahlende Kugel in einem stroemenden Medium (The Thermometry Problem for a Small Sphere in a Flowing Medium),

DTIC Science & Technology

conduction and radiation. The sphere is assumed to be sufficiently small so that Reynolds number, Peclet number and Bouguer number are much smaller than one. The results are obtained by an asymptotic expansion.

Comparison of the number of gingival blood vessels between type 2 diabetes mellitus and chronic periodontitis patients: An immunohistological study

PubMed Central

Penmetsa, Gautami Subhadra; Baddam, Satyanarayana; Manyam, Ravikanth; Dwarakanath, Chinni Doraswamy

2015-01-01

Background: The relationship between diabetes and periodontitis has been studied for more than 50 years and is generally agreed that the periodontal disease is more prevalent in diabetic patients compared to nondiabetics. Vascular changes like increased thickness of basement membrane in small vessels has been reported in diabetic patients, but the quantity of blood vessels in gingiva of diabetic patients has not been discussed much. The aim of this study was to compare the number of blood vessels in gingiva between chronic periodontitis (CP) patients, CP with diabetes (type 2), and normal healthy gingiva. Materials and Methods: The study included 75 patients, divided into three groups of 25 patients each-Group I with healthy periodontium (HP), Group II with CP, and Group III with CP with diabetes mellitus (CPDM). Gingival biopsies were obtained from the subjects undergoing crown lengthening procedure for Group I, and in patients with CP and in CPDM biopsies were collected from teeth undergoing extraction. Sections were prepared for immune histochemical staining with CD34. Results: Difference was observed in the average number of blood vessels when compared between HP, CP, and CPDM groups. Statistical significant difference was observed when the HP and CP groups and HP and CPDM groups were compared. Conclusion: The results of the study indicated that the number of blood vessels in gingival connective tissue is significantly higher in CP and CPDM patients. PMID:26015666

Generating Variable Wind Profiles and Modeling Their Effects on Small-Arms Trajectories

DTIC Science & Technology

2016-04-01

ARL-TR-7642 ● APR 2016 US Army Research Laboratory Generating Variable Wind Profiles and Modeling Their Effects on Small-Arms... Wind Profiles and Modeling Their Effects on Small-Arms Trajectories by Timothy A Fargus Weapons and Materials Research Directorate, ARL...Generating Variable Wind Profiles and Modeling Their Effects on Small-Arms Trajectories 5a. CONTRACT NUMBER 5b. GRANT NUMBER 5c. PROGRAM

Endoscopic or surgical intervention for painful obstructive chronic pancreatitis.

PubMed

Ahmed Ali, Usama; Pahlplatz, Johanna M; Nealon, Wiliam H; van Goor, Harry; Gooszen, Hein G; Boermeester, Marja A

2012-01-18

Endoscopy and surgery are the treatment modalities of choice in patients with obstructive chronic pancreatitis. Physicians face the decision between endoscopy and surgery for this group of patients, without clear consensus. To assess and compare the effectiveness and complications of surgical and endoscopic interventions in the management of pain for obstructive chronic pancreatitis. We searched The Cochrane Library, MEDLINE, EMBASE and the Conference Proceedings Citation Index; and performed a cross-reference search. Two review authors performed the selection of trials independently. All randomised controlled trials (RCTs) investigating endoscopic or surgical interventions for obstructive chronic pancreatitis. All trials were included irrespective of blinding, number of patients randomised and language of the article. Two authors independently extracted data from the articles. The methodological quality of included trials was evaluated. Authors were requested additional information in the case of missing data. We screened 2082 publications and identified three eligible trials. Two trials compared endoscopic intervention to surgical intervention. These included a total of 111 patients, 55 in the endoscopic group and 56 in the surgical group. A higher proportion of patients with pain relief was found in the surgical group compared to the endoscopic group (partial or complete pain relief: RR 1.62, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.11 to 2.37; complete pain relief: RR 2.45, 95% CI 1.18 to 5.09). Surgical intervention resulted in improved quality of life and improved preservation of exocrine pancreatic function in one trial. The number of patients did not allow for a reliable evaluation of morbidity and mortality between the two treatment modalities. One trial compared surgical intervention to conservative treatment. It included 32 patients: 17 in the surgical group and 15 in the conservative group. The trial showed that surgical intervention resulted in a higher percentage of patients with pain relief and better preservation of pancreatic function. The trial had methodological limitations and the number of patients was relatively small. For patients with obstructive chronic pancreatitis and dilated pancreatic duct, this review showed that surgery is superior to endoscopy in terms of pain control. Morbidity and mortality seemed not to differ between the two intervention modalities, but the small trials identified do not provide sufficient power to detect the small differences expected in this outcome.Regarding the comparison of surgical intervention versus conservative treatment, this review has shown that surgical intervention in an early stage of chronic pancreatitis seems to be a promising approach in terms of pain control and pancreatic function. Confirmation of these results is needed in other trials due to the methodological limitations and limited number of patients of the present evidence.

Urbanization and physician maldistribution: a longitudinal study in Japan

PubMed Central

2011-01-01

Background The relative shortage of physicians in Japan's rural areas is an important issue in health policy. In the 1970s, the Japanese government began a policy to increase the number of medical students and to achieve a better distribution of physicians. Beginning in 1985, however, admissions to medical school were reduced to prevent a future oversupply of physicians. In 2007, medical school entrants equaled just 92% of their 1982 peers. The urban annual population growth rate is positive and the rural is negative, a trend that may affect denominator populations and physician distribution. Methods Our data cover six time points and span a decade: 1998, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2006, and 2008. The spatial units for analysis are the secondary tier of medical care (STM) as defined by the Medical Service Law and related legislation. We examined trends in the geographic disparities in population and physician distribution among 348 STMs in Japan. We compared populations and the number of physicians per 100,000 populations in each STM. To measure maldistribution quantitatively, we calculated Gini coefficients for physician distribution. Results Between 1998 and 2008, the total population and the number of practicing physicians for every 100,000 people increased by 0.95% and 13.6%, respectively. However, the inequality of physician distribution remained constant, although small and mostly rural areas experienced an increase in physician to population ratios. In contrast, as the maldistribution of population escalated during the same period, the Gini coefficient of population rose. Although the absolute number of practicing physicians in small STMs decreased, the fall in the denominator population of the STMs resulted in an increase in the number of practicing physicians per population in those located in rural areas. Conclusions A policy that increased the number of physicians and the physician to population ratios between 1998 and 2008 in all geographic areas of Japan, irrespective of size, did not lead to a more equal geographical distribution of physicians. The ratios of physicians to population in small rural STMs increased because of concurrent trends in urbanization and not because of a rise in the number of practicing physicians. PMID:21982582

Small field electron beam dosimetry using MOSFET detector

PubMed Central

Heaton, Robert; Norrlinger, Bern; Islam, Mohammad K.

2010-01-01

The dosimetry of very small electron fields can be challenging due to relative shifts in percent depth‐dose curves, including the location of dmax, and lack of lateral electronic equilibrium in an ion chamber when placed in the beam. Conventionally a small parallel plate chamber or film is utilized to perform small field electron beam dosimetry. Since modern radiotherapy departments are becoming filmless in favor of electronic imaging, an alternate and readily available clinical dosimeter needs to be explored. We have studied the performance of MOSFET as a relative dosimeter in small field electron beams. The reproducibility, linearity and sensitivity of a high‐sensitivity microMOSFET were investigated for clinical electron beams. In addition, the percent depth doses, output factors and profiles have been measured in a water tank with MOSFET and compared with those measured by an ion chamber for a range of field sizes from 1 cm diameter to 10 cm× 10 cm for 6, 12, 16 and 20 MeV beams. Similar comparative measurements were also performed with MOSFET and films in solid water phantom. The MOSFET sensitivity was found to be practically constant over the range of field sizes investigated. The dose response was found to be linear and reproducible (within ±1% for 100 cGy). An excellent agreement was observed among the central axis depth dose curves measured using MOSFET, film and ion chamber. The output factors measured with MOSFET for small fields agreed to within 3% with those measured by film dosimetry. Overall results indicate that MOSFET can be utilized to perform dosimetry for small field electron beam. PACS number: 87.55.Qr

78 FR 48537 - Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer Programs...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-08-08

... SMALL BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION [Docket Number: 2013-0008] Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer Programs Commercialization Benchmark AGENCY: Small Business Administration. ACTION: Notice. SUMMARY: The Small Business Administration (SBA) is publishing the Small Business...

Linear reduction method for predictive and informative tag SNP selection.

PubMed

He, Jingwu; Westbrooks, Kelly; Zelikovsky, Alexander

2005-01-01

Constructing a complete human haplotype map is helpful when associating complex diseases with their related SNPs. Unfortunately, the number of SNPs is very large and it is costly to sequence many individuals. Therefore, it is desirable to reduce the number of SNPs that should be sequenced to a small number of informative representatives called tag SNPs. In this paper, we propose a new linear algebra-based method for selecting and using tag SNPs. We measure the quality of our tag SNP selection algorithm by comparing actual SNPs with SNPs predicted from selected linearly independent tag SNPs. Our experiments show that for sufficiently long haplotypes, knowing only 0.4% of all SNPs the proposed linear reduction method predicts an unknown haplotype with the error rate below 2% based on 10% of the population.

Inforna 2.0: A Platform for the Sequence-Based Design of Small Molecules Targeting Structured RNAs.

PubMed

Disney, Matthew D; Winkelsas, Audrey M; Velagapudi, Sai Pradeep; Southern, Mark; Fallahi, Mohammad; Childs-Disney, Jessica L

2016-06-17

The development of small molecules that target RNA is challenging yet, if successful, could advance the development of chemical probes to study RNA function or precision therapeutics to treat RNA-mediated disease. Previously, we described Inforna, an approach that can mine motifs (secondary structures) within target RNAs, which is deduced from the RNA sequence, and compare them to a database of known RNA motif-small molecule binding partners. Output generated by Inforna includes the motif found in both the database and the desired RNA target, lead small molecules for that target, and other related meta-data. Lead small molecules can then be tested for binding and affecting cellular (dys)function. Herein, we describe Inforna 2.0, which incorporates all known RNA motif-small molecule binding partners reported in the scientific literature, a chemical similarity searching feature, and an improved user interface and is freely available via an online web server. By incorporation of interactions identified by other laboratories, the database has been doubled, containing 1936 RNA motif-small molecule interactions, including 244 unique small molecules and 1331 motifs. Interestingly, chemotype analysis of the compounds that bind RNA in the database reveals features in small molecule chemotypes that are privileged for binding. Further, this updated database expanded the number of cellular RNAs to which lead compounds can be identified.

Exhaust pressure and density of various pulsed MPD-Arc thruster systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Michels, C. J.

1973-01-01

Exhaust flow in a new 155-cm-i.d. vacuum facility is compared with earlier measurements in a small (15.2-cm-i.d.) duct. Reductions in post-transient impact pressure are about 5:1 in the larger facility. Corresponding reduced electron number densities (about 2 x 10 to the 13th power per cu cm) are noted. A new 125-microsec pulse-forming network power source produced no major differences in impact pressure compared to the crowbarred condenser bank used earlier. Comparing a puff gas feed of the arc chamber with a new 10-msec steady gas feed also shows no major difference in impact pressure for 125-microsec powering.

Surveying trends in radiation oncology medical physics in the Asia Pacific Region.

PubMed

Kron, Tomas; Healy, Brendan; Ng, Kwan Hoong

2016-07-01

Our study aims to assess and track work load, working conditions and professional recognition of radiation oncology medical physicists (ROMPs) in the Asia Pacific Region over time. A structured questionnaire was mailed in 2008, 2011 and 2014 to senior medical physicists representing 23 countries. The questionnaire covers 7 themes: education and training including certification; staffing; typical tasks; professional organisations; resources; research and teaching; job satisfaction. Across all surveys the response rate was >85% with the replies representing practice affecting more than half of the world's population. The expectation of ROMP qualifications (MSc and between 1 and 3years of clinical experience) has not changed much over the years. However, compared to 2008, the number of medical physicists in many countries has doubled. Formal professional certification is only available in a small number of countries. The number of experienced ROMPs is small in particular in low and middle income countries. The increase in staff numbers from 2008 to 2014 is matched by a similar increase in the number of treatment units which is accompanied by an increase in treatment complexity. Many ROMPs are required to work overtime and not many find time for research. Resource availability has only improved marginally and ROMPs still feel generally overworked, but professional recognition, while varying widely, appears to be improving slowly. While number of physicists and complexity of treatment techniques and technologies have increased significantly, ROMP practice remains essentially unchanged over the last 6years in the Asia Pacific Region. Copyright © 2016 Associazione Italiana di Fisica Medica. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Enhanced enstrophy generation for turbulent convection in low-Prandtl-number fluids

DOE PAGES

Schumacher, Jörg; Götzfried, Paul; Scheel, Janet D.

2015-07-20

Turbulent convection is often present in liquids with a kinematic viscosity much smaller than the diffusivity of the temperature. Here we reveal why these convection flows obey a much stronger level of fluid turbulence than those in which kinematic viscosity and thermal diffusivity are the same; i.e., the Prandtl number Pr is unity. We compare turbulent convection in air at Pr = 0.7 and in liquid mercury at Pr = 0.021. In this comparison the Prandtl number at constant Grashof number Gr is varied, rather than at constant Rayleigh number Ra as usually done. Our simulations demonstrate that the turbulentmore » Kolmogorov-like cascade is extended both at the large- and small-scale ends with decreasing Pr. The kinetic energy injection into the flow takes place over the whole cascade range. In contrast to convection in air, the kinetic energy injection rate is particularly enhanced for liquid mercury for all scales larger than the characteristic width of thermal plumes. As a consequence, mean values and fluctuations of the local strain rates are increased, which in turn results in significantly enhanced enstrophy production by vortex stretching. The normalized distributions of enstrophy production in the bulk and the ratio of the principal strain rates are found to agree for both Prs. Finally, despite the different energy injection mechanisms, the principal strain rates also agree with those in homogeneous isotropic turbulence conducted at the same Reynolds numbers as for the convection flows. Thus, our results have interesting implications for small-scale turbulence modeling of liquid metal convection in astrophysical and technological applications.« less

Department of Defense Agency Financial Report for FY 2011

DTIC Science & Technology

2011-11-01

in size. They range from the very small (an unoccupied site supporting a single navigational aid that sits on less than one-half acre of land) to...U.S. military presence in Iraq will be zero troops (except for a small number under Chief of Mission authority). 48,770 50,000 46,000 1.2.2...number of pieces of rolling stock in Iraq supporting U.S. military troops, will be zero (except for a small number used by military personnel under

Earthquake number forecasts testing

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kagan, Yan Y.

2017-10-01

We study the distributions of earthquake numbers in two global earthquake catalogues: Global Centroid-Moment Tensor and Preliminary Determinations of Epicenters. The properties of these distributions are especially required to develop the number test for our forecasts of future seismic activity rate, tested by the Collaboratory for Study of Earthquake Predictability (CSEP). A common assumption, as used in the CSEP tests, is that the numbers are described by the Poisson distribution. It is clear, however, that the Poisson assumption for the earthquake number distribution is incorrect, especially for the catalogues with a lower magnitude threshold. In contrast to the one-parameter Poisson distribution so widely used to describe earthquake occurrences, the negative-binomial distribution (NBD) has two parameters. The second parameter can be used to characterize the clustering or overdispersion of a process. We also introduce and study a more complex three-parameter beta negative-binomial distribution. We investigate the dependence of parameters for both Poisson and NBD distributions on the catalogue magnitude threshold and on temporal subdivision of catalogue duration. First, we study whether the Poisson law can be statistically rejected for various catalogue subdivisions. We find that for most cases of interest, the Poisson distribution can be shown to be rejected statistically at a high significance level in favour of the NBD. Thereafter, we investigate whether these distributions fit the observed distributions of seismicity. For this purpose, we study upper statistical moments of earthquake numbers (skewness and kurtosis) and compare them to the theoretical values for both distributions. Empirical values for the skewness and the kurtosis increase for the smaller magnitude threshold and increase with even greater intensity for small temporal subdivision of catalogues. The Poisson distribution for large rate values approaches the Gaussian law, therefore its skewness and kurtosis both tend to zero for large earthquake rates: for the Gaussian law, these values are identically zero. A calculation of the NBD skewness and kurtosis levels based on the values of the first two statistical moments of the distribution, shows rapid increase of these upper moments levels. However, the observed catalogue values of skewness and kurtosis are rising even faster. This means that for small time intervals, the earthquake number distribution is even more heavy-tailed than the NBD predicts. Therefore for small time intervals, we propose using empirical number distributions appropriately smoothed for testing forecasted earthquake numbers.

Decomposing the Apoptosis Pathway Into Biologically Interpretable Principal Components

PubMed Central

Wang, Min; Kornblau, Steven M; Coombes, Kevin R

2018-01-01

Principal component analysis (PCA) is one of the most common techniques in the analysis of biological data sets, but applying PCA raises 2 challenges. First, one must determine the number of significant principal components (PCs). Second, because each PC is a linear combination of genes, it rarely has a biological interpretation. Existing methods to determine the number of PCs are either subjective or computationally extensive. We review several methods and describe a new R package, PCDimension, that implements additional methods, the most important being an algorithm that extends and automates a graphical Bayesian method. Using simulations, we compared the methods. Our newly automated procedure is competitive with the best methods when considering both accuracy and speed and is the most accurate when the number of objects is small compared with the number of attributes. We applied the method to a proteomics data set from patients with acute myeloid leukemia. Proteins in the apoptosis pathway could be explained using 6 PCs. By clustering the proteins in PC space, we were able to replace the PCs by 6 “biological components,” 3 of which could be immediately interpreted from the current literature. We expect this approach combining PCA with clustering to be widely applicable. PMID:29881252

Thermal-capillary analysis of small-scale floating zones Steady-state calculations

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Duranceau, J. L.; Brown, R. A.

1986-01-01

Galerkin finite element analysis of a thermal-capillary model of the floating zone crystal growth process is used to predict the dependence of molten zone shape on operating conditions for the growth of small silicon boules. The model accounts for conduction-dominated heat transport in the melt, feed rod and growing crystal and for radiation between these phases, the ambient and a heater. Surface tension acting on the shape of the melt/gas meniscus counteracts gravity to set the shape of the molten zone. The maximum diameter of the growing crystal is set by the dewetting of the melt from the feed rod when the crystal radius is large. Calculations with small Bond number show the increased zone lengths possible for growth in a microgravity environment. The sensitivity of the method to the shape and intensity of the applied heating distribution is demonstrated. The calculations are compared with experimental observations.

Acidic polysaccharide of Panax ginseng as a defense against small intestinal damage by whole-body gamma irradiation of mice.

PubMed

Park, Eunjin; Hwang, Insun; Song, Jie-Young; Jee, Youngheun

2011-01-01

An acidic polysaccharide of Panax ginseng (APG), ginsan, has been reported to protect the hematopoietic system by increasing the number of bone marrow cells and spleen cells. Therefore, we evaluated the ability of APG to protect mice from radiation-induced damage of the small intestine. APG treatment caused the lengthening of villi and a numerical increase of crypt cells in the small intestine at 3.5 days after 7Gy irradiation compared to irradiated, non-treated controls. In addition, APG significantly inhibited irradiation-induced apoptosis by decreasing the amount of pro-apoptotic p53 and Bax as well as augmenting that of anti-apoptotic Bcl-2 at 24h after irradiation. These results indicate that APG might be a useful adjunct to therapeutic irradiation as a protective agent for the gastrointestinal tract of cancer patients. Copyright © 2009 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.

Assessing differential gene expression with small sample sizes in oligonucleotide arrays using a mean-variance model.

PubMed

Hu, Jianhua; Wright, Fred A

2007-03-01

The identification of the genes that are differentially expressed in two-sample microarray experiments remains a difficult problem when the number of arrays is very small. We discuss the implications of using ordinary t-statistics and examine other commonly used variants. For oligonucleotide arrays with multiple probes per gene, we introduce a simple model relating the mean and variance of expression, possibly with gene-specific random effects. Parameter estimates from the model have natural shrinkage properties that guard against inappropriately small variance estimates, and the model is used to obtain a differential expression statistic. A limiting value to the positive false discovery rate (pFDR) for ordinary t-tests provides motivation for our use of the data structure to improve variance estimates. Our approach performs well compared to other proposed approaches in terms of the false discovery rate.

A machine learning model with human cognitive biases capable of learning from small and biased datasets.

PubMed

Taniguchi, Hidetaka; Sato, Hiroshi; Shirakawa, Tomohiro

2018-05-09

Human learners can generalize a new concept from a small number of samples. In contrast, conventional machine learning methods require large amounts of data to address the same types of problems. Humans have cognitive biases that promote fast learning. Here, we developed a method to reduce the gap between human beings and machines in this type of inference by utilizing cognitive biases. We implemented a human cognitive model into machine learning algorithms and compared their performance with the currently most popular methods, naïve Bayes, support vector machine, neural networks, logistic regression and random forests. We focused on the task of spam classification, which has been studied for a long time in the field of machine learning and often requires a large amount of data to obtain high accuracy. Our models achieved superior performance with small and biased samples in comparison with other representative machine learning methods.

Pepsi-SAXS: an adaptive method for rapid and accurate computation of small-angle X-ray scattering profiles.

PubMed

Grudinin, Sergei; Garkavenko, Maria; Kazennov, Andrei

2017-05-01

A new method called Pepsi-SAXS is presented that calculates small-angle X-ray scattering profiles from atomistic models. The method is based on the multipole expansion scheme and is significantly faster compared with other tested methods. In particular, using the Nyquist-Shannon-Kotelnikov sampling theorem, the multipole expansion order is adapted to the size of the model and the resolution of the experimental data. It is argued that by using the adaptive expansion order, this method has the same quadratic dependence on the number of atoms in the model as the Debye-based approach, but with a much smaller prefactor in the computational complexity. The method has been systematically validated on a large set of over 50 models collected from the BioIsis and SASBDB databases. Using a laptop, it was demonstrated that Pepsi-SAXS is about seven, 29 and 36 times faster compared with CRYSOL, FoXS and the three-dimensional Zernike method in SAStbx, respectively, when tested on data from the BioIsis database, and is about five, 21 and 25 times faster compared with CRYSOL, FoXS and SAStbx, respectively, when tested on data from SASBDB. On average, Pepsi-SAXS demonstrates comparable accuracy in terms of χ 2 to CRYSOL and FoXS when tested on BioIsis and SASBDB profiles. Together with a small allowed variation of adjustable parameters, this demonstrates the effectiveness of the method. Pepsi-SAXS is available at http://team.inria.fr/nano-d/software/pepsi-saxs.

When is the Anelastic Approximation a Valid Model for Compressible Convection?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Alboussiere, T.; Curbelo, J.; Labrosse, S.; Ricard, Y. R.; Dubuffet, F.

2017-12-01

Compressible convection is ubiquitous in large natural systems such Planetary atmospheres, stellar and planetary interiors. Its modelling is notoriously more difficult than the case when the Boussinesq approximation applies. One reason for that difficulty has been put forward by Ogura and Phillips (1961): the compressible equations generate sound waves with very short time scales which need to be resolved. This is why they introduced an anelastic model, based on an expansion of the solution around an isentropic hydrostatic profile. How accurate is that anelastic model? What are the conditions for its validity? To answer these questions, we have developed a numerical model for the full set of compressible equations and compared its solutions with those of the corresponding anelastic model. We considered a simple rectangular 2D Rayleigh-Bénard configuration and decided to restrict the analysis to infinite Prandtl numbers. This choice is valid for convection in the mantles of rocky planets, but more importantly lead to a zero Mach number. So we got rid of the question of the interference of acoustic waves with convection. In that simplified context, we used the entropy balances (that of the full set of equations and that of the anelastic model) to investigate the differences between exact and anelastic solutions. We found that the validity of the anelastic model is dictated by two conditions: first, the superadiabatic temperature difference must be small compared with the adiabatic temperature difference (as expected) ɛ = Δ TSA / delta Ta << 1, and secondly that the product of ɛ with the Nusselt number must be small.

Sequence Polymorphisms and Structural Variations among Four Grapevine (Vitis vinifera L.) Cultivars Representing Sardinian Agriculture

PubMed Central

Mercenaro, Luca; Nieddu, Giovanni; Porceddu, Andrea; Pezzotti, Mario; Camiolo, Salvatore

2017-01-01

The genetic diversity among grapevine (Vitis vinifera L.) cultivars that underlies differences in agronomic performance and wine quality reflects the accumulation of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and small indels as well as larger genomic variations. A combination of high throughput sequencing and mapping against the grapevine reference genome allows the creation of comprehensive sequence variation maps. We used next generation sequencing and bioinformatics to generate an inventory of SNPs and small indels in four widely cultivated Sardinian grape cultivars (Bovale sardo, Cannonau, Carignano and Vermentino). More than 3,200,000 SNPs were identified with high statistical confidence. Some of the SNPs caused the appearance of premature stop codons and thus identified putative pseudogenes. The analysis of SNP distribution along chromosomes led to the identification of large genomic regions with uninterrupted series of homozygous SNPs. We used a digital comparative genomic hybridization approach to identify 6526 genomic regions with significant differences in copy number among the four cultivars compared to the reference sequence, including 81 regions shared between all four cultivars and 4953 specific to single cultivars (representing 1.2 and 75.9% of total copy number variation, respectively). Reads mapping at a distance that was not compatible with the insert size were used to identify a dataset of putative large deletions with cultivar Cannonau revealing the highest number. The analysis of genes mapping to these regions provided a list of candidates that may explain some of the phenotypic differences among the Bovale sardo, Cannonau, Carignano and Vermentino cultivars. PMID:28775732

Endoscopic and histological pitfalls in the diagnosis of celiac disease: A multicentre study assessing the current practice.

PubMed

Rostami-Nejad, Mohammad; Villanacci, Vincenzo; Hogg-Kollars, Sabine; Volta, Umberto; Manenti, Stefania; Reza-Zali, Mohammad; Caio, Giacomo; Giovenali, Paolo; Barakauskiene, Ausrine; Kazenaite, Edita; Becheanu, Gabriel; Diculescu, Mircea; Pellegrino, Salvatore; Magazzù, Giuseppe; Casella, Giovanni; Di-Bella, Camillo; Decarli, Nicola; Biancalani, Mauro; Bassotti, Gabrio; Rostami, Kamran

2013-07-01

the diagnosis of celiac disease requires small bowel biopsies to identify the characteristic mucosal changes. The current biopsy practice among endoscopists for celiac disease is in most part unknown. The aim of this study was to compare the different diagnostic policies in various centers in their current practice. information from a total of 931 confirmed celiac disease patients was retrospectively obtained retrospectively from nine centers in European and Middle Eastern countries. The number of small-bowel biopsies obtained from the duodenal bulb and the second part of the duodenum was compared among different centers. the most frequent stage of mucosal changes amongst Iranian subjects was Marsh IIIa whereas in the rest of the study population was Marsh IIIc. Marsh I and Marsh II were more prevalent in adults (P < 0.05) and Marsh IIIc was significantly higher in pediatric ages between 1 and 15 (P < 0.05). The most common number of biopsy specimens obtained from Romanian subjects was 1 (52% of cases), followed by 2 for Iranian (56%), 3 for Lithuanian (66.7%) and British patients (65%) and 4 for Italian patients (48.3%). For majority of cases, anemia was the most prevalent symptom (18.7%) followed by malabsorption (10.5%), diarrhea (9.3%) and dyspepsia (8.2%), respectively. despite the evidence-based recommendations, this study revealed a poor compliance with major guidelines on diagnosis of celiac disease. We emphasize that taking adequate number of duodenal biopsies should be implemented for an accurate diagnosis and also for the exclusion of celiac disease.

Pain-relieving agents for infantile colic.

PubMed

Biagioli, Elena; Tarasco, Valentina; Lingua, Carla; Moja, Lorenzo; Savino, Francesco

2016-09-16

Infantile colic is a common disorder in the first months of life, affecting somewhere between 4% and 28% of infants worldwide, depending on geography and definitions used. Although it is self limiting and resolves by four months of age, colic is perceived by parents as a problem that requires action. Pain-relieving agents, such as drugs, sugars and herbal remedies, have been suggested as interventions to reduce crying episodes and severity of symptoms. To assess the effectiveness and safety of pain-relieving agents for reducing colic in infants younger than four months of age. We searched the following databases in March 2015 and again in May 2016: CENTRAL, Ovid MEDLINE, Embase and PsycINFO, along with 11 other databases. We also searched two trial registers, four thesis repositories and the reference lists of relevant studies to identify unpublished and ongoing studies. We included randomised controlled trials (RCTs) and quasi-RCTs evaluating the effects of pain-relieving agents given to infants with colic. We used the standard methodological procedures of The Cochrane Collaboration. We included 18 RCTs involving 1014 infants. All studies were small and at high risk of bias, often presenting major shortcomings across multiple design factors (e.g. selection, performance, attrition, lack of washout period).Three studies compared simethicone with placebo, and one with Mentha piperita; four studies compared herbal agents with placebo; two compared sucrose or glucose with placebo; five compared dicyclomine with placebo; and two compared cimetropium - one against placebo and the other at two different dosages. One multiple-arm study compared sucrose and herbal tea versus no treatment. Simethicone. Comparison with placebo revealed no difference in daily hours of crying reported for simethicone at the end of treatment in one small, low-quality study involving 27 infants. A meta-analysis of data from two cross-over studies comparing simethicone with placebo showed no difference in the number of of infants who responded positively to treatment (risk ratio (RR) 0.95, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.73 to 1.23; 110 infants, low-quality evidence).One small study (30 participants) compared simethicone with Mentha piperita and found no difference in crying duration, number of crying episodes or number of responders. Herbal agents. We found low-quality evidence suggesting that herbal agents reduce the duration of crying compared with placebo (mean difference (MD) 1.33, 95% CI 0.71 to 1.96; three studies, 279 infants), with different magnitude of benefit noted across studies (I² = 96%). We found moderate-quality evidence indicating that herbal agents increase response over placebo (RR 2.05, 95% CI 1.56 to 2.70; three studies, 277 infants). Sucrose. One very low-quality study involving 35 infants reported that sucrose reduced hours spent crying compared with placebo (MD 1.72, 95% CI 1.38 to 2.06). Dicyclomine. We could consider only one of the five studies of dicyclomine (48 infants) for the primary comparison. In this study, more of the infants given dicyclomine responded than than those given placebo (RR 2.50, 95% CI 1.17 to 5.34). Cimetropium bromide. Data from one very low-quality study comparing cimetropium bromide with placebo showed reduced crying duration among infants treated with cimetropium bromide (MD -30.20 minutes per crisis, 95% CI -39.51 to -20.89; 86 infants). The same study reported that cimetropium increased the number of responders (RR 2.29, 95% CI 1.44 to 3.64).No serious adverse events were reported for all of the agents considered, with the exception of dicyclomine, for which two of five studies reported relevant adverse effects (longer sleep 4%, wide-eyed state 4%, drowsiness 13%). At the present time, evidence of the effectiveness of pain-relieving agents for the treatment of infantile colic is sparse and prone to bias. The few available studies included small sample sizes, and most had serious limitations. Benefits, when reported, were inconsistent.We found no evidence to support the use of simethicone as a pain-relieving agent for infantile colic.Available evidence shows that herbal agents, sugar, dicyclomine and cimetropium bromide cannot be recommended for infants with colic.Investigators must conduct RCTs using standardised measures that allow comparisons among pain-relieving agents and pooling of results across studies. Parents, who most often provide the intervention and assess the outcome, should always be blinded.

A comparison between minerals-modified glutamate medium and lauryl tryptose lactose broth for the enumeration of Escherichia coli and coliform organisms in water by the multiple tube method.

PubMed Central

1980-01-01

In a multi-laboratory trial, minerals-modified glutamate medium (MMGM) was compared with lauryl tryptose lactose broth (LTLB) in the multiple tube method for the enumeration of coliform organisms, including Escherichia coli, in water. Samples of raw and chlorinated waters yielded a total of 2313 positive tube-reactions with MMGM and 2174 with LTLB. These were interpreted either as E. coli; other coliform organisms; or as false positive reactions. The results at first reading (18 or 24 h) and at 48 h have been analysed statistically in terms of (i) most probable numbers of coliform organisms; (ii) positive reactions and their interpretation; and (iii) whether or not the sample yielded any E. coli or other coliform organisms. All three analyses indicated the same trends. For the detection of E. coli in raw waters LTLB was better than MMGM at 18-24 h, but MMGM was better at 48 h with waters containing small numbers of coliform organisms; for raw waters with greater numbers of organisms, both media performed equally well. Analysis of a subset of samples read at both 18 and 24 h indicated that the superiority of LTLB over MMGM with raw waters disappeared by 24 h. For chlorinated waters, LTLB yielded more positive gas reactions at 18-24 h, but fewer of these were E. coli than with MMGM; at 48 h MMGM was clearly better than LTLB for total coliform organisms including E. coli--especially if the numbers were small. MMGM therefore remains the medium of choice for the detection of E. coli as an indicator of faecal contamination of chlorinated drinking water supplies. It is also better for the detection of small numbers of E. coli in other waters. PMID:6762395

Does Epileptiform Activity Represent a Failure of Neuromodulation to Control Central Pattern Generator-Like Neocortical Behavior?

PubMed Central

Traub, Roger D.; Whittington, Miles A.; Hall, Stephen P.

2017-01-01

Rhythmic motor patterns in invertebrates are often driven by specialized “central pattern generators” (CPGs), containing small numbers of neurons, which are likely to be “identifiable” in one individual compared with another. The dynamics of any particular CPG lies under the control of modulatory substances, amines, or peptides, entering the CPG from outside it, or released by internal constituent neurons; consequently, a particular CPG can generate a given rhythm at different frequencies and amplitudes, and perhaps even generate a repertoire of distinctive patterns. The mechanisms exploited by neuromodulators in this respect are manifold: Intrinsic conductances (e.g., calcium, potassium channels), conductance state of postsynaptic receptors, degree of plasticity, and magnitude and kinetics of transmitter release can all be affected. The CPG concept has been generalized to vertebrate motor pattern generating circuits (e.g., for locomotion), which may contain large numbers of neurons – a construct that is sensible, if there is enough redundancy: that is, the large number of neurons consists of only a small number of classes, and the cells within any one class act stereotypically. Here we suggest that CPG and modulator ideas may also help to understand cortical oscillations, normal ones, and particularly transition to epileptiform pathology. Furthermore, in the case illustrated, the mechanism of the transition appears to be an exaggerated form of a normal modulatory action used to influence sensory processing. PMID:29093667

Carbon Ion Radiotherapy for Peripheral Stage I Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kamada, Tadashi; Yamamoto, Naoyoshi; Baba, Masayuki

The National Institute of Radiological Sciences in Chiba, Japan (NIRS) has the highest number of patients with lung cancer treated with carbon ion beams in the world. This report describes the techniques and clinical trials that have been undertaken at NIRS and preliminary results of a current study on single-fraction irradiation. The data are compared to recent results for the treatment of peripheral stage I lung cancer from the literature.

Chemistry and Technology of the Production of Fiber Nitron (Khimiya i Tekhnologiya Proizvodstva Volokna Nitron),

DTIC Science & Technology

1987-07-17

of some salts, mainly thiocyanate sodium. With wet spinning are used water/aqueous precipitation baths or organic coagulants (glycerin, hexanetriol ...comparatively small. During utilization of glycerine, isopropyl, butyl, hexanetriol baths into composition of bath for increasing elasticity of fiber...the number of C-atoms in the chain of their molecules. Therefore the glycerine bath is more than "rigid", than hexanetriol , whose effect/action is

Tutorial: Performance and reliability in redundant disk arrays

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Gibson, Garth A.

1993-01-01

A disk array is a collection of physically small magnetic disks that is packaged as a single unit but operates in parallel. Disk arrays capitalize on the availability of small-diameter disks from a price-competitive market to provide the cost, volume, and capacity of current disk systems but many times their performance. Unfortunately, relative to current disk systems, the larger number of components in disk arrays leads to higher rates of failure. To tolerate failures, redundant disk arrays devote a fraction of their capacity to an encoding of their information. This redundant information enables the contents of a failed disk to be recovered from the contents of non-failed disks. The simplest and least expensive encoding for this redundancy, known as N+1 parity is highlighted. In addition to compensating for the higher failure rates of disk arrays, redundancy allows highly reliable secondary storage systems to be built much more cost-effectively than is now achieved in conventional duplicated disks. Disk arrays that combine redundancy with the parallelism of many small-diameter disks are often called Redundant Arrays of Inexpensive Disks (RAID). This combination promises improvements to both the performance and the reliability of secondary storage. For example, IBM's premier disk product, the IBM 3390, is compared to a redundant disk array constructed of 84 IBM 0661 3 1/2-inch disks. The redundant disk array has comparable or superior values for each of the metrics given and appears likely to cost less. In the first section of this tutorial, I explain how disk arrays exploit the emergence of high performance, small magnetic disks to provide cost-effective disk parallelism that combats the access and transfer gap problems. The flexibility of disk-array configurations benefits manufacturer and consumer alike. In contrast, I describe in this tutorial's second half how parallelism, achieved through increasing numbers of components, causes overall failure rates to rise. Redundant disk arrays overcome this threat to data reliability by ensuring that data remains available during and after component failures.

Hybrid maize breeding with doubled haploids: I. One-stage versus two-stage selection for testcross performance.

PubMed

Longin, C Friedrich H; Utz, H Friedrich; Reif, Jochen C; Schipprack, Wolfgang; Melchinger, Albrecht E

2006-03-01

Optimum allocation of resources is of fundamental importance for the efficiency of breeding programs. The objectives of our study were to (1) determine the optimum allocation for the number of lines and test locations in hybrid maize breeding with doubled haploids (DHs) regarding two optimization criteria, the selection gain deltaG(k) and the probability P(k) of identifying superior genotypes, (2) compare both optimization criteria including their standard deviations (SDs), and (3) investigate the influence of production costs of DHs on the optimum allocation. For different budgets, number of finally selected lines, ratios of variance components, and production costs of DHs, the optimum allocation of test resources under one- and two-stage selection for testcross performance with a given tester was determined by using Monte Carlo simulations. In one-stage selection, lines are tested in field trials in a single year. In two-stage selection, optimum allocation of resources involves evaluation of (1) a large number of lines in a small number of test locations in the first year and (2) a small number of the selected superior lines in a large number of test locations in the second year, thereby maximizing both optimization criteria. Furthermore, to have a realistic chance of identifying a superior genotype, the probability P(k) of identifying superior genotypes should be greater than 75%. For budgets between 200 and 5,000 field plot equivalents, P(k) > 75% was reached only for genotypes belonging to the best 5% of the population. As the optimum allocation for P(k)(5%) was similar to that for deltaG(k), the choice of the optimization criterion was not crucial. The production costs of DHs had only a minor effect on the optimum number of locations and on values of the optimization criteria.

Oestrogen plus progestin and lung cancer in postmenopausal women (Women's Health Initiative trial): a post-hoc analysis of a randomised controlled trial.

PubMed

Chlebowski, Rowan T; Schwartz, Ann G; Wakelee, Heather; Anderson, Garnet L; Stefanick, Marcia L; Manson, JoAnn E; Rodabough, Rebecca J; Chien, Jason W; Wactawski-Wende, Jean; Gass, Margery; Kotchen, Jane Morley; Johnson, Karen C; O'Sullivan, Mary Jo; Ockene, Judith K; Chen, Chu; Hubbell, F Allan

2009-10-10

In the post-intervention period of the Women's Health Initiative (WHI) trial, women assigned to treatment with oestrogen plus progestin had a higher risk of cancer than did those assigned to placebo. Results also suggested that the combined hormone therapy might increase mortality from lung cancer. To assess whether such an association exists, we undertook a post-hoc analysis of lung cancers diagnosed in the trial over the entire follow-up period. The WHI study was a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial undertaken in 40 centres in the USA. 16 608 postmenopausal women aged 50-79 years with an intact uterus were randomly assigned by a computerised, stratified, permuted block algorithm to receive a once-daily tablet of 0.625 mg conjugated equine oestrogen plus 2.5 mg medroxyprogesterone acetate (n=8506) or matching placebo (n=8102). We assessed incidence and mortality rates for all lung cancer, small-cell lung cancer, and non-small-cell lung cancer by use of data from treatment and post-intervention follow-up periods. Analysis was by intention to treat. This study is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov, number NCT00000611. After a mean of 5.6 years (SD 1.3) of treatment and 2.4 years (0.4) of additional follow-up, 109 women in the combined hormone therapy group had been diagnosed with lung cancer compared with 85 in the placebo group (incidence per year 0.16%vs 0.13%; hazard ratio [HR] 1.23, 95% CI 0.92-1.63, p=0.16). 96 women assigned to combined therapy had non-small-cell lung cancer compared with 72 assigned to placebo (0.14%vs 0.11%; HR 1.28, 0.94-1.73, p=0.12). More women died from lung cancer in the combined hormone therapy group than in the placebo group (73 vs 40 deaths; 0.11%vs 0.06%; HR 1.71, 1.16-2.52, p=0.01), mainly as a result of a higher number of deaths from non-small-cell lung cancer in the combined therapy group (62 vs 31 deaths; 0.09%vs 0.05%; HR 1.87, 1.22-2.88, p=0.004). Incidence and mortality rates of small-cell lung cancer were similar between groups. Although treatment with oestrogen plus progestin in postmenopausal women did not increase incidence of lung cancer, it increased the number of deaths from lung cancer, in particular deaths from non-small-cell lung cancer. These findings should be incorporated into risk-benefit discussions with women considering combined hormone therapy, especially those with a high risk of lung cancer. National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, National Institutes of Health.

Preventive effect of irsogladine or omeprazole on non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug-induced esophagitis, peptic ulcers, and small intestinal lesions in humans, a prospective randomized controlled study.

PubMed

Kuramoto, Takanori; Umegaki, Eiji; Nouda, Sadaharu; Narabayashi, Ken; Kojima, Yuichi; Yoda, Yukiko; Ishida, Kumi; Kawakami, Ken; Abe, Yosuke; Takeuchi, Toshihisa; Inoue, Takuya; Murano, Mitsuyuki; Tokioka, Satoshi; Higuchi, Kazuhide

2013-05-14

Proton-pump inhibitors such as omeprazole are a standard treatment to prevent non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug-induced upper gastrointestinal mucosal injuries. However, it is unclear which drugs may protect against all NSAID-induced digestive-tract injuries. Here, we compare the efficacy of the gastromucoprotective drug irsogladine with omeprazole in preventing NSAID-induced esophagitis, peptic ulcers, and small-intestinal mucosal injury in healthy subjects. Thirty-two healthy volunteers were assigned to an irsogladine group (Group I; n = 16) receiving diclofenac sodium 75 mg and irsogladine 4 mg daily for 14 days, or an omeprazole group (Group O; n = 16) receiving diclofenac sodium 75 mg and omeprazole 10 mg daily for 14 days. Esophagitis and peptic ulcers were evaluated by esophagogastroduodenoscopy and small-intestinal injuries by capsule endoscopy, fecal calprotectin, and fecal occult blood before and after treatment. There was no significant difference between Group I and Group O with respect to the change in lesion score in the esophagus, stomach, and duodenum before and after treatment.NSAID treatment significantly increased the number of small intestinal mucosal breaks per subject by capsule endoscopic evaluation, from a basal level of 0.1 ± 0.3 up to 1.9 ± 2.0 lesions in Group O (p = 0.0002). In contrast, there were no significant changes in the mean number of mucosal breaks before and after co-treatment in Group I (0.3 ± 0.8 to 0.5 ± 0.7, p = 0.62), and the between-group difference was significant (p = 0.0040). Fecal calprotectin concentration, when the concentration before treatment was defined as 1, was significantly increased both in Group O (from 1.0 ± 0.0 to 18.1 ± 37.1, p = 0.0002) and Group I (from 1.0 ± 0.0 to 6.0 ± 11.1, p = 0.0280); the degree of increase in Group O was significantly higher compared with that in Group I (p<0.05). In addition, fecal occult blood levels increased significantly in Group O (p = 0.0018), but there was no change in Group I (p = 1.0), and the between-group difference was significant (p = 0.0031). Irsogladine protected against NSAID-induced mucosal injuries throughout the gastrointestinal tract, from esophagus to small intestine, significantly better than omeprazole. This study was registered in the UMIN Clinical Trials Registry (Registry ID number; UMIN000008114).

A comparative study of minimum norm inverse methods for MEG imaging

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Leahy, R.M.; Mosher, J.C.; Phillips, J.W.

1996-07-01

The majority of MEG imaging techniques currently in use fall into the general class of (weighted) minimum norm methods. The minimization of a norm is used as the basis for choosing one from a generally infinite set of solutions that provide an equally good fit to the data. This ambiguity in the solution arises from the inherent non- uniqueness of the continuous inverse problem and is compounded by the imbalance between the relatively small number of measurements and the large number of source voxels. Here we present a unified view of the minimum norm methods and describe how we canmore » use Tikhonov regularization to avoid instabilities in the solutions due to noise. We then compare the performance of regularized versions of three well known linear minimum norm methods with the non-linear iteratively reweighted minimum norm method and a Bayesian approach.« less

Star formation and abundances in the nearby irregular galaxy VII ZW 403

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tully, R. B.; Boesgaard, A. M.; Dyck, H. M.; Schempp, W. V.

1981-05-01

Photometry in J, H, and K bands reveals that there is an unresolved source of infrared emission associated with the brightest H II region in VII Zw 403, and the colors suggest the presence of a substantial number of K and M supergiants in addition to the hot O stars that must be present to account for the ionized gas. Spectrophotometry of this emission region indicates that reddening is substantial, and that the interpretation of the observed Balmer decrement in terms of reddening is not straightforward. The primary nucleosynthesis products O, S, and Ne are underabundant compared with the sun by a factor of 15; N is underabundant compared with the sun by a factor of 160; and the helium abundance suggests that either there could have been only a small number of star formation episodes or the galaxy is younger than the time scale of the process that deposits N in the interstellar medium.

Evaluation of the HARDMAN comparability methodology for manpower, personnel and training

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Zimmerman, W.; Butler, R.; Gray, V.; Rosenberg, L.

1984-01-01

The methodology evaluation and recommendation are part of an effort to improve Hardware versus Manpower (HARDMAN) methodology for projecting manpower, personnel, and training (MPT) to support new acquisition. Several different validity tests are employed to evaluate the methodology. The methodology conforms fairly well with both the MPT user needs and other accepted manpower modeling techniques. Audits of three completed HARDMAN applications reveal only a small number of potential problem areas compared to the total number of issues investigated. The reliability study results conform well with the problem areas uncovered through the audits. The results of the accuracy studies suggest that the manpower life-cycle cost component is only marginally sensitive to changes in other related cost variables. Even with some minor problems, the methodology seem sound and has good near term utility to the Army. Recommendations are provided to firm up the problem areas revealed through the evaluation.

Comprehensive Numerical Analysis of Finite Difference Time Domain Methods for Improving Optical Waveguide Sensor Accuracy

PubMed Central

Samak, M. Mosleh E. Abu; Bakar, A. Ashrif A.; Kashif, Muhammad; Zan, Mohd Saiful Dzulkifly

2016-01-01

This paper discusses numerical analysis methods for different geometrical features that have limited interval values for typically used sensor wavelengths. Compared with existing Finite Difference Time Domain (FDTD) methods, the alternating direction implicit (ADI)-FDTD method reduces the number of sub-steps by a factor of two to three, which represents a 33% time savings in each single run. The local one-dimensional (LOD)-FDTD method has similar numerical equation properties, which should be calculated as in the previous method. Generally, a small number of arithmetic processes, which result in a shorter simulation time, are desired. The alternating direction implicit technique can be considered a significant step forward for improving the efficiency of unconditionally stable FDTD schemes. This comparative study shows that the local one-dimensional method had minimum relative error ranges of less than 40% for analytical frequencies above 42.85 GHz, and the same accuracy was generated by both methods.

Dynamic behaviour of coastal sedimentation in the Lions Gulf. [France

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Guy, M. (Principal Investigator)

1974-01-01

The author has identified the following significant results. A number of ERTS-1 images covering this geographical zone were studied and compared with cartographic maps, air photographs, and thermal-IR images. Old and recent sediments leave traces in the landscape which are decoded by interpreting the shapes of the clear zones forming a network against the black background representing water and humid zones. Current sedimentation and its mechanism were investigated. It had been hoped that a regular sequence of images would make it possible to follow the dynamics of the Rhone and the coastal rivers in relation to meteorological conditions. In any event only a small number of images spread over a wide period of time were obtained, and a complete study was therefore impossible. However, in comparing some of the ERTS-1 images certain thermal-IR images and information on the flow of the Rhone provided some clarification of mechanisms associated with river dynamics.

A study of large scale gust generation in a small scale atmospheric wind tunnel with applications to Micro Aerial Vehicles

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Roadman, Jason Markos

Modern technology operating in the atmospheric boundary layer can always benefit from more accurate wind tunnel testing. While scaled atmospheric boundary layer tunnels have been well developed, tunnels replicating portions of the atmospheric boundary layer turbulence at full scale are a comparatively new concept. Testing at full-scale Reynolds numbers with full-scale turbulence in an "atmospheric wind tunnel" is sought. Many programs could utilize such a tool including Micro Aerial Vehicle(MAV) development, the wind energy industry, fuel efficient vehicle design, and the study of bird and insect flight, to name just a few. The small scale of MAVs provide the somewhat unique capability of full scale Reynolds number testing in a wind tunnel. However, that same small scale creates interactions under real world flight conditions, atmospheric gusts for example, that lead to a need for testing under more complex flows than the standard uniform flow found in most wind tunnels. It is for these reasons that MAVs are used as the initial testing application for the atmospheric gust tunnel. An analytical model for both discrete gusts and a continuous spectrum of gusts is examined. Then, methods for generating gusts in agreement with that model are investigated. Previously used methods are reviewed and a gust generation apparatus is designed. Expected turbulence and gust characteristics of this apparatus are compared with atmospheric data. The construction of an active "gust generator" for a new atmospheric tunnel is reviewed and the turbulence it generates is measured utilizing single and cross hot wires. Results from this grid are compared to atmospheric turbulence and it is shown that various gust strengths can be produced corresponding to weather ranging from calm to quite gusty. An initial test is performed in the atmospheric wind tunnel whereby the effects of various turbulence conditions on transition and separation on the upper surface of a MAV wing is investigated using the surface oil flow visualization technique.

78 FR 59410 - Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer Programs...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-09-26

... SMALL BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION [Docket Number: 2013-0008] Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer Programs Commercialization Benchmark AGENCY: Small Business... Business Administration (SBA) is reopening the comment period for the Small Business Innovation Research...

SU-E-T-551: Monitor Unit Optimization in Stereotactic Body Radiation Therapy for Stage I Lung Cancer

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Huang, B-T; Lu, J-Y

2015-06-15

Purpose: The study aims to reduce the monitor units (MUs) in the stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) treatment for lung cancer by adjusting the optimizing parameters. Methods: Fourteen patients suffered from stage I Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer (NSCLC) were enrolled. Three groups of parameters were adjusted to investigate their effects on MU numbers and organs at risk (OARs) sparing: (1) the upper objective of planning target volume (UOPTV); (2) strength setting in the MU constraining objective; (3) max MU setting in the MU constraining objective. Results: We found that the parameters in the optimizer influenced the MU numbers in amore » priority, strength and max MU dependent manner. MU numbers showed a decreasing trend with the UOPTV increasing. MU numbers with low, medium and high priority for the UOPTV were 428±54, 312±48 and 258±31 MU/Gy, respectively. High priority for UOPTV also spared the heart, cord and lung while maintaining comparable PTV coverage than the low and medium priority group. It was observed that MU numbers tended to decrease with the strength increasing and max MU setting decreasing. With maximum strength, the MU numbers reached its minimum while maintaining comparable or improved dose to the normal tissues. It was also found that the MU numbers continued to decline at 85% and 75% max MU setting but no longer to decrease at 50% and 25%. Combined with high priority for UOPTV and MU constraining objectives, the MU numbers can be decreased as low as 223±26 MU/Gy. Conclusion:: The priority of UOPTV, MU constraining objective in the optimizer impact on the MU numbers in SBRT treatment for lung cancer. Giving high priority to the UOPTV, setting the strength to maximum value and the max MU to 50% in the MU objective achieves the lowest MU numbers while maintaining comparable or improved OAR sparing.« less

Silver enhancement of nanogold and undecagold

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Hainfield, J.F.; Furuya, F.R.

1995-07-01

A recent advance in immunogold technology has been the use of molecular gold instead of colloidal gold. A number of advantages are realized by this approach, such as stable covalent, site-specific attachment, small probe size and absence of aggregates for improved penetration. Silver enhancement has led to improved and unique results for electron and light microscopy, as well as their use with blots and gels. Most previous work with immunogold silver staining has been done with colloidal gold particles. More recently, large gold compounds (``clusters``) having a definite number of gold atoms and defined organic shell, have been used, frequentlymore » with improved results. These gold dusters, large compared to simple compounds, are, however, at the small end of the colloidal gold scale in size; undecagold is 0.8 nm and Nanogold is 1.4 nm. They may be used in practically all applications where colloidal gold is used (Light and electron microscopy, dot blots, etc.) and in some unique applications, where at least the larger colloidal golds don`t work, such as running gold labeled proteins on gels (which are later detected by silver enhancement). The main differences between gold clusters and colloidal golds are the small size of the dusters and their covalent attachment to antibodies or other molecules.« less

Large eddy simulation of turbine wakes using higher-order methods

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Deskos, Georgios; Laizet, Sylvain; Piggott, Matthew D.; Sherwin, Spencer

2017-11-01

Large eddy simulations (LES) of a horizontal-axis turbine wake are presented using the well-known actuator line (AL) model. The fluid flow is resolved by employing higher-order numerical schemes on a 3D Cartesian mesh combined with a 2D Domain Decomposition strategy for an efficient use of supercomputers. In order to simulate flows at relatively high Reynolds numbers for a reasonable computational cost, a novel strategy is used to introduce controlled numerical dissipation to a selected range of small scales. The idea is to mimic the contribution of the unresolved small-scales by imposing a targeted numerical dissipation at small scales when evaluating the viscous term of the Navier-Stokes equations. The numerical technique is shown to behave similarly to the traditional eddy viscosity sub-filter scale models such as the classic or the dynamic Smagorinsky models. The results from the simulations are compared to experimental data for a Reynolds number scaled by the diameter equal to ReD =1,000,000 and both the time-averaged stream wise velocity and turbulent kinetic energy (TKE) are showing a good overall agreement. At the end, suggestions for the amount of numerical dissipation required by our approach are made for the particular case of horizontal-axis turbine wakes.

Estimating multilevel logistic regression models when the number of clusters is low: a comparison of different statistical software procedures.

PubMed

Austin, Peter C

2010-04-22

Multilevel logistic regression models are increasingly being used to analyze clustered data in medical, public health, epidemiological, and educational research. Procedures for estimating the parameters of such models are available in many statistical software packages. There is currently little evidence on the minimum number of clusters necessary to reliably fit multilevel regression models. We conducted a Monte Carlo study to compare the performance of different statistical software procedures for estimating multilevel logistic regression models when the number of clusters was low. We examined procedures available in BUGS, HLM, R, SAS, and Stata. We found that there were qualitative differences in the performance of different software procedures for estimating multilevel logistic models when the number of clusters was low. Among the likelihood-based procedures, estimation methods based on adaptive Gauss-Hermite approximations to the likelihood (glmer in R and xtlogit in Stata) or adaptive Gaussian quadrature (Proc NLMIXED in SAS) tended to have superior performance for estimating variance components when the number of clusters was small, compared to software procedures based on penalized quasi-likelihood. However, only Bayesian estimation with BUGS allowed for accurate estimation of variance components when there were fewer than 10 clusters. For all statistical software procedures, estimation of variance components tended to be poor when there were only five subjects per cluster, regardless of the number of clusters.

The magnitude and colour of noise in genetic negative feedback systems.

PubMed

Voliotis, Margaritis; Bowsher, Clive G

2012-08-01

The comparative ability of transcriptional and small RNA-mediated negative feedback to control fluctuations or 'noise' in gene expression remains unexplored. Both autoregulatory mechanisms usually suppress the average (mean) of the protein level and its variability across cells. The variance of the number of proteins per molecule of mean expression is also typically reduced compared with the unregulated system, but is almost never below the value of one. This relative variance often substantially exceeds a recently obtained, theoretical lower limit for biochemical feedback systems. Adding the transcriptional or small RNA-mediated control has different effects. Transcriptional autorepression robustly reduces both the relative variance and persistence (lifetime) of fluctuations. Both benefits combine to reduce noise in downstream gene expression. Autorepression via small RNA can achieve more extreme noise reduction and typically has less effect on the mean expression level. However, it is often more costly to implement and is more sensitive to rate parameters. Theoretical lower limits on the relative variance are known to decrease slowly as a measure of the cost per molecule of mean expression increases. However, the proportional increase in cost to achieve substantial noise suppression can be different away from the optimal frontier-for transcriptional autorepression, it is frequently negligible.

Diversity of Antisense and Other Non-Coding RNAs in Archaea Revealed by Comparative Small RNA Sequencing in Four Pyrobaculum Species

PubMed Central

Bernick, David L.; Dennis, Patrick P.; Lui, Lauren M.; Lowe, Todd M.

2012-01-01

A great diversity of small, non-coding RNA (ncRNA) molecules with roles in gene regulation and RNA processing have been intensely studied in eukaryotic and bacterial model organisms, yet our knowledge of possible parallel roles for small RNAs (sRNA) in archaea is limited. We employed RNA-seq to identify novel sRNA across multiple species of the hyperthermophilic genus Pyrobaculum, known for unusual RNA gene characteristics. By comparing transcriptional data collected in parallel among four species, we were able to identify conserved RNA genes fitting into known and novel families. Among our findings, we highlight three novel cis-antisense sRNAs encoded opposite to key regulatory (ferric uptake regulator), metabolic (triose-phosphate isomerase), and core transcriptional apparatus genes (transcription factor B). We also found a large increase in the number of conserved C/D box sRNA genes over what had been previously recognized; many of these genes are encoded antisense to protein coding genes. The conserved opposition to orthologous genes across the Pyrobaculum genus suggests similarities to other cis-antisense regulatory systems. Furthermore, the genus-specific nature of these sRNAs indicates they are relatively recent, stable adaptations. PMID:22783241

[Monitoring microbiological safety of small systems of water distribution. Comparison of two sampling programs in a town in central Italy].

PubMed

Papini, Paolo; Faustini, Annunziata; Manganello, Rosa; Borzacchi, Giancarlo; Spera, Domenico; Perucci, Carlo A

2005-01-01

To determine the frequency of sampling in small water distribution systems (<5,000 inhabitants) and compare the results according to different hypotheses in bacteria distribution. We carried out two sampling programs to monitor the water distribution system in a town in Central Italy between July and September 1992; the Poisson distribution assumption implied 4 water samples, the assumption of negative binomial distribution implied 21 samples. Coliform organisms were used as indicators of water safety. The network consisted of two pipe rings and two wells fed by the same water source. The number of summer customers varied considerably from 3,000 to 20,000. The mean density was 2.33 coliforms/100 ml (sd= 5.29) for 21 samples and 3 coliforms/100 ml (sd= 6) for four samples. However the hypothesis of homogeneity was rejected (p-value <0.001) and the probability of II type error with the assumption of heterogeneity was higher with 4 samples (beta= 0.24) than with 21 (beta= 0.05). For this small network, determining the samples' size according to heterogeneity hypothesis strengthens the statement that water is drinkable compared with homogeneity assumption.

P14.21 Can vascular risk factors influence number of brain metastases?

PubMed Central

Berk, B.; Nagel, S.; Kortmann, R.; Hoffmann, K.; Gaudino, C.; Seidel, C.

2017-01-01

Abstract BACKGROUND: Up to 30-40% of patients with solid tumors develop cerebral metastases. Number of cerebral metastases is relevant for treatment and prognosis. However, factors that determine number of metastases are not well defined. Distribution of metastases is influenced by blood vessels and cerebral small vessel disease can reduce number of metastases. Aim of this pilot study was to analyze the influence of vascular risk factors (arterial hypertension, diabetes mellitus, smoking, hypercholesterolemia) and of peripheral arterial occlusive disease (PAOD) on number of brain metastases. METHODS: 200 patients with pre-therapeutic 3D-brain MRI and available clinical data were analyzed retrospectively. Number of metastases (NoM) was compared between patients with/without vascular risk factors (vasRF). Results: Patients with PAOD had significant less brain metastases than patients without PAOD (NoM=4.43 vs. 6.02, p=0.043), no other single vasRF conferred a significant effect on NoM. NoM differed significantly between different tumor entities. CONCLUSION: Presence of PAOD showed some effect on number of brain metastases implying that tumor-independent vascular factors can influence brain metastasation.

76 FR 52269 - Safety Zone; Port Huron Float Down, St. Clair River, Port Huron, MI

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-08-22

... various social-media sites in which a large number of persons may float down a segment of the St. Clair... rule would have a significant economic impact on a substantial number of small entities. The term ``small entities'' comprises small businesses, not-for-profit organizations that are independently owned...

75 FR 16754 - Taking and Importing Marine Mammals; Taking of Marine Mammals Incidental to Conducting Precision...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-04-02

... the Small Diameter Bomb (SDB) exercise under the PSW LOA. Three Griffin\\TM\\ SOPGM system missiles with..., taking of small numbers of marine mammals by U.S. citizens who engage in a specified activity (other than... (Public Law 108-136) removed the ``small numbers'' and ``specified geographical region'' limitations and...

78 FR 52363 - Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants; Designation of Critical Habitat for the Diamond...

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2013-08-22

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Entrepreneurship Education. Trends and Issues Alerts.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Imel, Susan

During the 1980s, most of the new job growth has occurred in small businesses. Not only is the small business enterprise growing, but also its nature is changing. For example, there is an increase in the number of small businesses in the service industry, and a greater number of women than men are starting businesses. Training youth and adults for…

The near extinction of lake trout in Lake Michigan

USGS Publications Warehouse

Eschmeyer, Paul H.

1957-01-01

Comparisons in 1949 and 1950 of numbers of legal-sized lake trout caught in large-mesh nets with numbers of small fish taken in chub nets showed that both large and small lake trout declined over the same period, and that by these years the decline may have been greater among small than among legal-sized fish.

Hyperspectral small animal fluorescence imaging: spectral selection imaging

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Leavesley, Silas; Jiang, Yanan; Patsekin, Valery; Hall, Heidi; Vizard, Douglas; Robinson, J. Paul

2008-02-01

Molecular imaging is a rapidly growing area of research, fueled by needs in pharmaceutical drug-development for methods for high-throughput screening, pre-clinical and clinical screening for visualizing tumor growth and drug targeting, and a growing number of applications in the molecular biology fields. Small animal fluorescence imaging employs fluorescent probes to target molecular events in vivo, with a large number of molecular targeting probes readily available. The ease at which new targeting compounds can be developed, the short acquisition times, and the low cost (compared to microCT, MRI, or PET) makes fluorescence imaging attractive. However, small animal fluorescence imaging suffers from high optical scattering, absorption, and autofluorescence. Much of these problems can be overcome through multispectral imaging techniques, which collect images at different fluorescence emission wavelengths, followed by analysis, classification, and spectral deconvolution methods to isolate signals from fluorescence emission. We present an alternative to the current method, using hyperspectral excitation scanning (spectral selection imaging), a technique that allows excitation at any wavelength in the visible and near-infrared wavelength range. In many cases, excitation imaging may be more effective at identifying specific fluorescence signals because of the higher complexity of the fluorophore excitation spectrum. Because the excitation is filtered and not the emission, the resolution limit and image shift imposed by acousto-optic tunable filters have no effect on imager performance. We will discuss design of the imager, optimizing the imager for use in small animal fluorescence imaging, and application of spectral analysis and classification methods for identifying specific fluorescence signals.

Developmental Changes in the Effect of Active Left and Right Head Rotation on Random Number Generation.

PubMed

Sosson, Charlotte; Georges, Carrie; Guillaume, Mathieu; Schuller, Anne-Marie; Schiltz, Christine

2018-01-01

Numbers are thought to be spatially organized along a left-to-right horizontal axis with small/large numbers on its left/right respectively. Behavioral evidence for this mental number line (MNL) comes from studies showing that the reallocation of spatial attention by active left/right head rotation facilitated the generation of small/large numbers respectively. While spatial biases in random number generation (RNG) during active movement are well established in adults, comparable evidence in children is lacking and it remains unclear whether and how children's access to the MNL is affected by active head rotation. To get a better understanding of the development of embodied number processing, we investigated the effect of active head rotation on the mean of generated numbers as well as the mean difference between each number and its immediately preceding response (the first order difference; FOD) not only in adults ( n = 24), but also in 7- to 11-year-old elementary school children ( n = 70). Since the sign and absolute value of FODs carry distinct information regarding spatial attention shifts along the MNL, namely their direction (left/right) and size (narrow/wide) respectively, we additionally assessed the influence of rotation on the total of negative and positive FODs regardless of their numerical values as well as on their absolute values. In line with previous studies, adults produced on average smaller numbers and generated smaller mean FODs during left than right rotation. More concretely, they produced more negative/positive FODs during left/right rotation respectively and the size of negative FODs was larger (in terms of absolute value) during left than right rotation. Importantly, as opposed to adults, no significant differences in RNG between left and right head rotations were observed in children. Potential explanations for such age-related changes in the effect of active head rotation on RNG are discussed. Altogether, the present study confirms that numerical processing is spatially grounded in adults and suggests that its embodied aspect undergoes significant developmental changes.

Efficacy of mindfulness meditation for smoking cessation: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

PubMed

Maglione, Margaret A; Maher, Alicia Ruelaz; Ewing, Brett; Colaiaco, Benjamin; Newberry, Sydne; Kandrack, Ryan; Shanman, Roberta M; Sorbero, Melony E; Hempel, Susanne

2017-06-01

Smokers increasingly seek alternative interventions to assist in cessation or reduction efforts. Mindfulness meditation, which facilitates detached observation and paying attention to the present moment with openness, curiosity, and acceptance, has recently been studied as a smoking cessation intervention. This review synthesizes randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of mindfulness meditation (MM) interventions for smoking cessation. Five electronic databases were searched from inception to October 2016 to identify English-language RCTs evaluating the efficacy and safety of MM interventions for smoking cessation, reduction, or a decrease in nicotine cravings. Two independent reviewers screened literature using predetermined eligibility criteria, abstracted study-level information, and assessed the quality of included studies. Meta-analyses used the Hartung-Knapp-Sidik-Jonkman method for random-effects models. The quality of evidence was assessed using the GRADE approach. Ten RCTs of MM interventions for tobacco use met inclusion criteria. Intervention duration, intensity, and comparison conditions varied considerably. Studies used diverse comparators such as the American Lung Association's Freedom from Smoking (FFS) program, quitline counseling, interactive learning, or treatment as usual (TAU). Only one RCT was rated as good quality and reported power calculations indicating sufficient statistical power. Publication bias was detected. Overall, mindfulness meditation did not have significant effects on abstinence or cigarettes per day, relative to comparator groups. The small number of studies and heterogeneity in interventions, comparators, and outcomes precluded detecting systematic differences between adjunctive and monotherapy interventions. No serious adverse events were reported. MM did not differ significantly from comparator interventions in their effects on tobacco use. Low-quality evidence, variability in study design among the small number of existing studies, and publication bias suggest that additional, high-quality adequately powered RCTs should be conducted. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Oral health in the Japan self-defense forces - a representative survey.

PubMed

Kudo, Yuka; John, Mike T; Saito, Yoko; Sur, Shachi; Furuyama, Chisako; Tsukasaki, Hiroaki; Baba, Kazuyoshi

2011-04-19

The oral health of military populations is usually not very well characterized compared to civilian populations. The aim of this study was to investigate two physical oral health characteristics and one perceived oral health measure and their correlation in the Japan self-defense forces (JSDF). Number of missing teeth, denture status, and OHRQoL as evaluated by the Japanese 14-item version of the Oral Health Impact Profile (OHIP-J14) as well as the correlation between these oral health measures was investigated in 911 personnel in the JSDF. Subjects did not have a substantial number of missing teeth and only 4% used removable dentures. The mean OHIP-J14 score was 4.6 ± 6.7 units. The magnitude of the correlation between the number of missing teeth with OHIP-J14 scores was small (r = 0.22, p < 0.001). Mean OHIP-J14 scores differed between subjects with and without dentures (8.6 and 4.4, p < 0.001). Compared to Japanese civilian populations, personnel of the JSDF demonstrated good oral health. Two physical oral health characteristics were associated with perceived oral health.

Use of a new ultra-long-range terrestrial LiDAR system to monitor the mass balance of very small glaciers in the Swiss Alps

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fischer, M.; Huss, M.; Hoelzle, M.

2015-12-01

Measuring glacier mass balance is important as it directly reflects the climatic forcing on the glacier surface. Today, repeated comparison of digital elevation models (DEMs) is a popular and widely used approach to derive surface elevation, volume and mass changes for a large number of glaciers. In high-mountain environments, airborne laser scanning (ALS) techniques currently provide the most accurate and highest resolution DEMs on the catchment scale, allowing the computation of glacier changes on an annual or even semi-annual basis. For monitoring individual glaciers though, terrestrial laser scanning (TLS) is easier and more cost-efficiently applied on the seasonal timescale compared to ALS. Since most recently, the application of the latest generation of ultra-long-range near infrared TLS systems allows the acquisition of surface elevation information over snow and ice of unprecedented quality and over larger zones than with previous near infrared TLS devices. Although very small glaciers represent the majority in number in most mountain ranges on Earth, their response to climatic changes is still not fully understood and field measurements are sparse. Therefore, a programme was set up in 2012 to monitor both the seasonal and annual surface mass balance of six very small glaciers across the Swiss Alps using the direct glaciological method. As often nearly the entire surface is visible from one single location, TLS is a highly promising technique to generate repeated high-resolution DEMs as well as to derive seasonal geodetic mass balances of very small ice masses. In this study, we present seasonal surface elevation, volume and geodetic mass changes for five very small glaciers in Switzerland (Glacier de Prapio, Glacier du Sex Rouge, St. Annafirn, Schwarzbachfirn and Pizolgletscher) derived from the comparison of seasonally repeated high-resolution DEMs acquired since autumn 2013 with the new ultra-long-range TLS device Riegl VZ-6000. We show the different processing steps necessary to derive geodetic glacier changes from the raw data (the TLS point clouds), comment on the accuracy of our results and compare them to very dense in-situ measurements, and thus investigate the potential of our approach to circumvent laborious and time consuming glaciological mass balance measurements of very small glaciers.

Life Science Research in Outer Space: New Platform Technologies for Low-Cost, Autonomous Small Satellite Missions

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ricco, Antonio J.; Parra, Macarena P.; Niesel, David; McGinnis, Michael; Ehrenfreund, Pascale; Nicholson, Wayne; Mancinelli, Rocco; Piccini, Matthew E.; Beasley, Christopher C.; Timucin, Linda R.;

New Small Molecules Targeting Apoptosis and Cell Viability in Osteosarcoma

PubMed Central

Maugg, Doris; Rothenaigner, Ina; Schorpp, Kenji; Potukuchi, Harish Kumar; Korsching, Eberhard; Baumhoer, Daniel; Hadian, Kamyar

2015-01-01

Despite the option of multimodal therapy in the treatment strategies of osteosarcoma (OS), the most common primary malignant bone tumor, the standard therapy has not changed over the last decades and still involves multidrug chemotherapy and radical surgery. Although successfully applied in many patients a large number of patients eventually develop recurrent or metastatic disease in which current therapeutic regimens often lack efficacy. Thus, new therapeutic strategies are urgently needed. In this study, we performed a phenotypic high-throughput screening campaign using a 25,000 small-molecule diversity library to identify new small molecules selectively targeting osteosarcoma cells. We could identify two new small molecules that specifically reduced cell viability in OS cell lines U2OS and HOS, but affected neither hepatocellular carcinoma cell line (HepG2) nor primary human osteoblasts (hOB). In addition, the two compounds induced caspase 3 and 7 activity in the U2OS cell line. Compared to conventional drugs generally used in OS treatment such as doxorubicin, we indeed observed a greater sensitivity of OS cell viability to the newly identified compounds compared to doxorubicin and staurosporine. The p53-negative OS cell line Saos-2 almost completely lacked sensitivity to compound treatment that could indicate a role of p53 in the drug response. Taken together, our data show potential implications for designing more efficient therapies in OS. PMID:26039064

On the origins of logarithmic number-to-position mapping.

PubMed

Dotan, Dror; Dehaene, Stanislas

2016-11-01

The number-to-position task, in which children and adults are asked to place numbers on a spatial number line, has become a classic measure of number comprehension. We present a detailed experimental and theoretical dissection of the processing stages that underlie this task. We used a continuous finger-tracking technique, which provides detailed information about the time course of processing stages. When adults map the position of 2-digit numbers onto a line, their final mapping is essentially linear, but intermediate finger location show a transient logarithmic mapping. We identify the origins of this log effect: Small numbers are processed faster than large numbers, so the finger deviates toward the target position earlier for small numbers than for large numbers. When the trajectories are aligned on the finger deviation onset, the log effect disappears. The small-number advantage and the log effect are enhanced in dual-task setting and are further enhanced when the delay between the 2 tasks is shortened, suggesting that these effects originate from a central stage of quantification and decision making. We also report cases of logarithmic mapping-by children and by a brain-injured individual-which cannot be explained by faster responding to small numbers. We show that these findings are captured by an ideal-observer model of the number-to-position mapping task, comprising 3 distinct stages: a quantification stage, whose duration is influenced by both exact and approximate representations of numerical quantity; a Bayesian accumulation-of-evidence stage, leading to a decision about the target location; and a pointing stage. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

QNB: differential RNA methylation analysis for count-based small-sample sequencing data with a quad-negative binomial model.

PubMed

Liu, Lian; Zhang, Shao-Wu; Huang, Yufei; Meng, Jia

2017-08-31

As a newly emerged research area, RNA epigenetics has drawn increasing attention recently for the participation of RNA methylation and other modifications in a number of crucial biological processes. Thanks to high throughput sequencing techniques, such as, MeRIP-Seq, transcriptome-wide RNA methylation profile is now available in the form of count-based data, with which it is often of interests to study the dynamics at epitranscriptomic layer. However, the sample size of RNA methylation experiment is usually very small due to its costs; and additionally, there usually exist a large number of genes whose methylation level cannot be accurately estimated due to their low expression level, making differential RNA methylation analysis a difficult task. We present QNB, a statistical approach for differential RNA methylation analysis with count-based small-sample sequencing data. Compared with previous approaches such as DRME model based on a statistical test covering the IP samples only with 2 negative binomial distributions, QNB is based on 4 independent negative binomial distributions with their variances and means linked by local regressions, and in the way, the input control samples are also properly taken care of. In addition, different from DRME approach, which relies only the input control sample only for estimating the background, QNB uses a more robust estimator for gene expression by combining information from both input and IP samples, which could largely improve the testing performance for very lowly expressed genes. QNB showed improved performance on both simulated and real MeRIP-Seq datasets when compared with competing algorithms. And the QNB model is also applicable to other datasets related RNA modifications, including but not limited to RNA bisulfite sequencing, m 1 A-Seq, Par-CLIP, RIP-Seq, etc.

Acceleration of image-based resolution modelling reconstruction using an expectation maximization nested algorithm.

PubMed

Angelis, G I; Reader, A J; Markiewicz, P J; Kotasidis, F A; Lionheart, W R; Matthews, J C

2013-08-07

Recent studies have demonstrated the benefits of a resolution model within iterative reconstruction algorithms in an attempt to account for effects that degrade the spatial resolution of the reconstructed images. However, these algorithms suffer from slower convergence rates, compared to algorithms where no resolution model is used, due to the additional need to solve an image deconvolution problem. In this paper, a recently proposed algorithm, which decouples the tomographic and image deconvolution problems within an image-based expectation maximization (EM) framework, was evaluated. This separation is convenient, because more computational effort can be placed on the image deconvolution problem and therefore accelerate convergence. Since the computational cost of solving the image deconvolution problem is relatively small, multiple image-based EM iterations do not significantly increase the overall reconstruction time. The proposed algorithm was evaluated using 2D simulations, as well as measured 3D data acquired on the high-resolution research tomograph. Results showed that bias reduction can be accelerated by interleaving multiple iterations of the image-based EM algorithm solving the resolution model problem, with a single EM iteration solving the tomographic problem. Significant improvements were observed particularly for voxels that were located on the boundaries between regions of high contrast within the object being imaged and for small regions of interest, where resolution recovery is usually more challenging. Minor differences were observed using the proposed nested algorithm, compared to the single iteration normally performed, when an optimal number of iterations are performed for each algorithm. However, using the proposed nested approach convergence is significantly accelerated enabling reconstruction using far fewer tomographic iterations (up to 70% fewer iterations for small regions). Nevertheless, the optimal number of nested image-based EM iterations is hard to be defined and it should be selected according to the given application.

Review of ongoing clinical trials in non-small-cell lung cancer: a status report for 2012 from the ClinicalTrials.gov Web site.

PubMed

Subramanian, Janakiraman; Regenbogen, Thomas; Nagaraj, Gayathri; Lane, Alex; Devarakonda, Siddhartha; Zhou, Gongfu; Govindan, Ramaswamy

2013-07-01

Clinical research in non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is a rapidly evolving field. In an effort to identify the current trends in lung cancer clinical research, we reviewed ongoing clinical trials in NSCLC listed in the ClinicalTrials.gov registry in 2012, and we also compared this data to a similar survey conducted by us in 2009. The Web site's advanced search function was used to search for the term "non-small cell lung cancer." The search was further refined by using the following options from the search page drop-down menu, "open studies" and "interventional." Studies with non-NSCLC tumor histologies and pediatric studies were excluded. Of the 477 trials included in the analysis, 105 (22.0%) were phase I, 223 phase II (46.8%), and 63 phase III trials (13.2%). When compared with data from 2009, university-sponsored trials decreased in number (45.4%-34.2%; p < 0.001) whereas industry-sponsored trials remained almost the same. There was a significant increase in trials conducted exclusively outside of the United States (35.9%-48.8%; p = 0.001). The number of studies with locations in China (61, 12.8%) was second only to that in the United States (244, 51.2%). Studies reporting biomarker analysis increased significantly from 37.5% to 49.1% in 2012 (p < 0.001). Biomarker-based patient selection also increased significantly from 7.9% to 25.8% (p < 0.001). Targeted therapies were evaluated in 70.6% of phase I/II and II trials, and the most common class of targeted agent studied was epidermal growth factor receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitors (38.0%). Prespecified accrual times were observed to increase when compared with data reported in 2009, especially among industry-sponsored studies. Our survey identified major changes in lung cancer clinical research since 2009. Almost half of all studies registered at the ClinicalTrials.gov Web site are being conducted outside the United States, and several novel molecularly targeted agents are being evaluated in the treatment of patients with NSCLC. More importantly, we identified a threefold increase in the number of studies that perform biomarker testing to determine patient selection over the last 3 years.

Magnetic field amplification by small-scale dynamo action: dependence on turbulence models and Reynolds and Prandtl numbers.

PubMed

Schober, Jennifer; Schleicher, Dominik; Federrath, Christoph; Klessen, Ralf; Banerjee, Robi

2012-02-01

The small-scale dynamo is a process by which turbulent kinetic energy is converted into magnetic energy, and thus it is expected to depend crucially on the nature of the turbulence. In this paper, we present a model for the small-scale dynamo that takes into account the slope of the turbulent velocity spectrum v(ℓ)proportional ℓ([symbol see text])V}, where ℓ and v(ℓ) are the size of a turbulent fluctuation and the typical velocity on that scale. The time evolution of the fluctuation component of the magnetic field, i.e., the small-scale field, is described by the Kazantsev equation. We solve this linear differential equation for its eigenvalues with the quantum-mechanical WKB approximation. The validity of this method is estimated as a function of the magnetic Prandtl number Pm. We calculate the minimal magnetic Reynolds number for dynamo action, Rm_{crit}, using our model of the turbulent velocity correlation function. For Kolmogorov turbulence ([symbol see text] = 1/3), we find that the critical magnetic Reynolds number is Rm(crit) (K) ≈ 110 and for Burgers turbulence ([symbol see text] = 1/2) Rm(crit)(B) ≈ 2700. Furthermore, we derive that the growth rate of the small-scale magnetic field for a general type of turbulence is Γ proportional Re((1-[symbol see text])/(1+[symbol see text])) in the limit of infinite magnetic Prandtl number. For decreasing magnetic Prandtl number (down to Pm >/~ 10), the growth rate of the small-scale dynamo decreases. The details of this drop depend on the WKB approximation, which becomes invalid for a magnetic Prandtl number of about unity.

Cram

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Gamblin, T.

2014-08-29

Large-scale systems like Sequoia allow running small numbers of very large (1M+ process) jobs, but their resource managers and schedulers do not allow large numbers of small (4, 8, 16, etc.) process jobs to run efficiently. Cram is a tool that allows users to launch many small MPI jobs within one large partition, and to overcome the limitations of current resource management software for large ensembles of jobs.

TF4SM: A Framework for Developing Traceability Solutions in Small Manufacturing Companies

PubMed Central

Bordel Sánchez, Borja; Alcarria, Ramón; Martín, Diego; Robles, Tomás

2015-01-01

Nowadays, manufacturing processes have become highly complex. Besides, more and more, governmental institutions require companies to implement systems to trace a product’s life (especially for foods, clinical materials or similar items). In this paper, we propose a new framework, based on cyber-physical systems, for developing traceability systems in small manufacturing companies (which because of their size cannot implement other commercial products). We propose a general theoretical framework, study the requirements of these companies in relation to traceability systems, propose a reference architecture based on both previous elements and build the first minimum functional prototype, to compare our solution to a traditional tag-based traceability system. Results show that our system reduces the number of inefficiencies and reaction time. PMID:26610509

Parent oriented teacher selection causes language diversity.

PubMed

Cimentepe, Ibrahim; Bingol, Haluk O

2017-09-21

An evolutionary model for emergence of diversity in language is developed. We investigated the effects of two real life observations, namely, people prefer people that they communicate with well, and people interact with people that are physically close to each other. Clearly these groups are relatively small compared to the entire population. We restrict selection of the teachers from such small groups, called imitation sets, around parents. Then the child learns language from a teacher selected within the imitation set of her parent. As a result, there are subcommunities with their own languages developed. Within subcommunity comprehension is found to be high. The number of languages is related to the relative size of imitation set by a power law. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

TF4SM: A Framework for Developing Traceability Solutions in Small Manufacturing Companies.

PubMed

Bordel Sánchez, Borja; Alcarria, Ramón; Martín, Diego; Robles, Tomás

2015-11-20

Nowadays, manufacturing processes have become highly complex. Besides, more and more, governmental institutions require companies to implement systems to trace a product's life (especially for foods, clinical materials or similar items). In this paper, we propose a new framework, based on cyber-physical systems, for developing traceability systems in small manufacturing companies (which because of their size cannot implement other commercial products). We propose a general theoretical framework, study the requirements of these companies in relation to traceability systems, propose a reference architecture based on both previous elements and build the first minimum functional prototype, to compare our solution to a traditional tag-based traceability system. Results show that our system reduces the number of inefficiencies and reaction time.

Modeling of 1.5 μm range gated imaging for small surface vessel identification

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Espinola, Richard L.; Steinvall, Ove; Elmquist, Magnus; Karlsson, Kjell

2010-10-01

Within the framework of the NATO group (NATO SET-132/RTG-72) on imaging ladars, a test was performed to collect simultaneous multi-mode LADAR signatures of maritime objects entering and leaving San Diego Harbor. Beside ladars, passive sensors were also employed during the test which occurred during April 2009 from Point Loma and the harbor in San Diego. This paper will report on 1.5 μm gated imaging on a number of small civilian surface vessels with the aim to present human perception experimental results and comparisons with sensor performance models developed by US Army RDECOM CERDEC NVESD. We use controlled human perception tests to measure target identification performance and compare the experimental results with model predictions.

Adjuvant and induction chemotherapy in non-small cell lung cancer.

PubMed

Pirker, R; Malayeri, R; Huber, H

1999-01-01

About 25%-30% of patients with non-small cell lung cancer can be resected with curative intent. However, systemic relapses occur in up to 70% of these patients. Thus, postoperative adjuvant chemotherapy was evaluated in several randomised trials but the results of these trials were inconclusive with a survival benefit only in some trials. Shortcomings of these trials included low number of patients, poor patient compliance and inadequate chemotherapy protocols. A recent meta-analysis suggested an absolute survival benefit of 5% at five years for postoperative cisplatin-based chemotherapy as compared to surgery alone. Thus adjuvant chemotherapy with both improved chemotherapy protocols and improved anti-emetics is currently re-evaluated in several randomised trials on large patient populations.

Weak Perturbations of Biochemical Oscillators

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gailey, Paul

2001-03-01

Biochemical oscillators may play important roles in gene regulation, circadian rhythms, physiological signaling, and sensory processes. These oscillations typically occur inside cells where the small numbers of reacting molecules result in fluctuations in the oscillation period. Some oscillation mechanisms have been reported that resist fluctuations and produce more stable oscillations. In this paper, we consider the use of biochemical oscillators as sensors by comparing inherent fluctuations with the effects of weak perturbations to one of the reactants. Such systems could be used to produce graded responses to weak stimuli. For example, a leading hypothesis to explain geomagnetic navigation in migrating birds and other animals is based on magnetochemical reactions. Because the magnitude of magnetochemical effects is small at geomagnetic field strengths, a sensitive, noise resistant detection scheme would be required.

Multi-class computational evolution: development, benchmark evaluation and application to RNA-Seq biomarker discovery.

PubMed

Crabtree, Nathaniel M; Moore, Jason H; Bowyer, John F; George, Nysia I

2017-01-01

A computational evolution system (CES) is a knowledge discovery engine that can identify subtle, synergistic relationships in large datasets. Pareto optimization allows CESs to balance accuracy with model complexity when evolving classifiers. Using Pareto optimization, a CES is able to identify a very small number of features while maintaining high classification accuracy. A CES can be designed for various types of data, and the user can exploit expert knowledge about the classification problem in order to improve discrimination between classes. These characteristics give CES an advantage over other classification and feature selection algorithms, particularly when the goal is to identify a small number of highly relevant, non-redundant biomarkers. Previously, CESs have been developed only for binary class datasets. In this study, we developed a multi-class CES. The multi-class CES was compared to three common feature selection and classification algorithms: support vector machine (SVM), random k-nearest neighbor (RKNN), and random forest (RF). The algorithms were evaluated on three distinct multi-class RNA sequencing datasets. The comparison criteria were run-time, classification accuracy, number of selected features, and stability of selected feature set (as measured by the Tanimoto distance). The performance of each algorithm was data-dependent. CES performed best on the dataset with the smallest sample size, indicating that CES has a unique advantage since the accuracy of most classification methods suffer when sample size is small. The multi-class extension of CES increases the appeal of its application to complex, multi-class datasets in order to identify important biomarkers and features.