Evaluating forensic biology results given source level propositions.

PubMed

Taylor, Duncan; Abarno, Damien; Hicks, Tacha; Champod, Christophe

2016-03-01

The evaluation of forensic evidence can occur at any level within the hierarchy of propositions depending on the question being asked and the amount and type of information that is taken into account within the evaluation. Commonly DNA evidence is reported given propositions that deal with the sub-source level in the hierarchy, which deals only with the possibility that a nominated individual is a source of DNA in a trace (or contributor to the DNA in the case of a mixed DNA trace). We explore the use of information obtained from examinations, presumptive and discriminating tests for body fluids, DNA concentrations and some case circumstances within a Bayesian network in order to provide assistance to the Courts that have to consider propositions at source level. We use a scenario in which the presence of blood is of interest as an exemplar and consider how DNA profiling results and the potential for laboratory error can be taken into account. We finish with examples of how the results of these reports could be presented in court using either numerical values or verbal descriptions of the results. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

A probability space for quantum models

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lemmens, L. F.

2017-06-01

A probability space contains a set of outcomes, a collection of events formed by subsets of the set of outcomes and probabilities defined for all events. A reformulation in terms of propositions allows to use the maximum entropy method to assign the probabilities taking some constraints into account. The construction of a probability space for quantum models is determined by the choice of propositions, choosing the constraints and making the probability assignment by the maximum entropy method. This approach shows, how typical quantum distributions such as Maxwell-Boltzmann, Fermi-Dirac and Bose-Einstein are partly related with well-known classical distributions. The relation between the conditional probability density, given some averages as constraints and the appropriate ensemble is elucidated.

A Social Network Analysis of the National Materials Competency at Naval Air Systems Command

DTIC Science & Technology

2002-09-01

language held by individuals within the structure. (Lesser, 2000, p. 4) Bourdieu defines social capital as decomposable into two elements: first, the...The fundamental proposition of social capital theory is that the network ties provide access to resources and that social relations constitute...transferring knowledge are being identified as a central element of organizational advantage. Social capital theory provides a sounds basis for explaining

Citizen Science to Support Community-based Flood Early Warning and Resilience Building

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Paul, J. D.; Buytaert, W.; Allen, S.; Ballesteros-Cánovas, J. A.; Bhusal, J.; Cieslik, K.; Clark, J.; Dewulf, A.; Dhital, M. R.; Hannah, D. M.; Liu, W.; Nayaval, J. L.; Schiller, A.; Smith, P. J.; Stoffel, M.; Supper, R.

2017-12-01

In Disaster Risk Management, an emerging shift has been noted from broad-scale, top-down assessments towards more participatory, community-based, bottom-up approaches. Combined with technologies for robust and low-cost sensor networks, a citizen science approach has recently emerged as a promising direction in the provision of extensive, real-time information for flood early warning systems. Here we present the framework and initial results of a major new international project, Landslide EVO, aimed at increasing local resilience against hydrologically induced disasters in western Nepal by exploiting participatory approaches to knowledge generation and risk governance. We identify three major technological developments that strongly support our approach to flood early warning and resilience building in Nepal. First, distributed sensor networks, participatory monitoring, and citizen science hold great promise in complementing official monitoring networks and remote sensing by generating site-specific information with local buy-in, especially in data-scarce regions. Secondly, the emergence of open source, cloud-based risk analysis platforms supports the construction of a modular, distributed, and potentially decentralised data processing workflow. Finally, linking data analysis platforms to social computer networks and ICT (e.g. mobile phones, tablets) allows tailored interfaces and people-centred decision- and policy-support systems to be built. Our proposition is that maximum impact is created if end-users are involved not only in data collection, but also over the entire project life-cycle, including the analysis and provision of results. In this context, citizen science complements more traditional knowledge generation practices, and also enhances multi-directional information provision, risk management, early-warning systems and local resilience building.

Mind as Space

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

McKinstry, Chris

The present article describes a possible method for the automatic discovery of a universal human semantic-affective hyperspatial approximation of the human subcognitive substrate - the associative network which French (1990) asserts is the ultimate foundation of the human ability to pass the Turing Test - that does not require a machine to have direct human experience or a physical human body. This method involves automatic programming - such as Koza's genetic programming (1992) - guided in the discovery of the proposed universal hypergeometry by feedback from a Minimum Intelligent Signal Test or MIST (McKinstry, 1997) constructed from a very large number of human validated probabilistic propositions collected from a large population of Internet users. It will be argued that though a lifetime of human experience is required to pass a rigorous Turing Test, a probabilistic propositional approximation of this experience can be constructed via public participation on the Internet, and then used as a fitness function to direct the artificial evolution of a universal hypergeometry capable of classifying arbitrary propositions. A model of this hypergeometry will be presented; it predicts Miller's "Magical Number Seven" (1956) as the size of human short-term memory from fundamental hypergeometric properties. A system that can lead to the generation of novel propositions or "artificial thoughts" will also be described.

Benefit/cost framework for evaluating modular energy storage : a study for the DOE energy storage systems program.

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

Eyer, James M.; Schoenung, Susan M.

2008-02-01

The work documented in this report represents another step in the ongoing investigation of innovative and potentially attractive value propositions for electricity storage by the United States Department of Energy (DOE) and Sandia National Laboratories (SNL) Energy Storage Systems (ESS) Program. This study uses updated cost and performance information for modular energy storage (MES) developed for this study to evaluate four prospective value propositions for MES. The four potentially attractive value propositions are defined by a combination of well-known benefits that are associated with electricity generation, delivery, and use. The value propositions evaluated are: (1) transportable MES for electric utilitymore » transmission and distribution (T&D) equipment upgrade deferral and for improving local power quality, each in alternating years, (2) improving local power quality only, in all years, (3) electric utility T&D deferral in year 1, followed by electricity price arbitrage in following years; plus a generation capacity credit in all years, and (4) electric utility end-user cost management during times when peak and critical peak pricing prevail.« less

Managing Distributed Systems with Smart Subscriptions

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Filman, Robert E.; Lee, Diana D.; Swanson, Keith (Technical Monitor)

2000-01-01

We describe an event-based, publish-and-subscribe mechanism based on using 'smart subscriptions' to recognize weakly-structured events. We present a hierarchy of subscription languages (propositional, predicate, temporal and agent) and algorithms for efficiently recognizing event matches. This mechanism has been applied to the management of distributed applications.

Imagery Teaches Elementary Economics Schema Efficiently.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McKenzie, Gary R.

In a complex domain such as economics, elementary school students' knowledge of formal systems beyond their immediate experience is often too incomplete, superficial, and disorganized to function as schema or model. However, visual imagery is a good technique for teaching young children a network of 10 to 20 propositions and the relationships…

Non-Markovian State-Dependent Networks in Critical Loading

DTIC Science & Technology

2013-01-23

networks, see Reiman [18]. The results on the heavy traffic asymptotics for state-dependent rates available in the literature are mostly confined to the case...diffusion, see, Mandelbaum, Massey, and Reiman [13], Pang, Talreja, and Whitt [15], and references therein. We do not consider those set-ups in this paper...and Reiman [7] and also Dupuis and Ishii [4]) yields the regularity of the Skorohod map and is a consequence of Assumption (A1). 6 Proposition 2.3. The

Neural networks and logical reasoning systems: a translation table.

PubMed

Martins, J; Mendes, R V

2001-04-01

A correspondence is established between the basic elements of logic reasoning systems (knowledge bases, rules, inference and queries) and the structure and dynamical evolution laws of neural networks. The correspondence is pictured as a translation dictionary which might allow to go back and forth between symbolic and network formulations, a desirable step in learning-oriented systems and multicomputer networks. In the framework of Horn clause logics, it is found that atomic propositions with n arguments correspond to nodes with nth order synapses, rules to synaptic intensity constraints, forward chaining to synaptic dynamics and queries either to simple node activation or to a query tensor dynamics.

A discussion on the origin of quantum probabilities

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

Holik, Federico, E-mail: olentiev2@gmail.com; Departamento de Matemática - Ciclo Básico Común, Universidad de Buenos Aires - Pabellón III, Ciudad Universitaria, Buenos Aires; Sáenz, Manuel

We study the origin of quantum probabilities as arising from non-Boolean propositional-operational structures. We apply the method developed by Cox to non distributive lattices and develop an alternative formulation of non-Kolmogorovian probability measures for quantum mechanics. By generalizing the method presented in previous works, we outline a general framework for the deduction of probabilities in general propositional structures represented by lattices (including the non-distributive case). -- Highlights: •Several recent works use a derivation similar to that of R.T. Cox to obtain quantum probabilities. •We apply Cox’s method to the lattice of subspaces of the Hilbert space. •We obtain a derivationmore » of quantum probabilities which includes mixed states. •The method presented in this work is susceptible to generalization. •It includes quantum mechanics and classical mechanics as particular cases.« less

Modelling Success Networks to Improve the Quality of Undergraduate Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Woolcott, Geoff; Keast, Robyn; Chamberlain, Daniel; Farr-Wharton, Ben

2017-01-01

Discussions of support and intervention in undergraduate university education are dominated by discussion of attrition. This study quests more broadly in arguing that support and intervention for undergraduate students may also benefit from models of engagement and success as well as conventional risk and failure. Supporting this proposition is a…

Analyzing Problem's Difficulty Based on Neural Networks and Knowledge Map

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kuo, Rita; Lien, Wei-Peng; Chang, Maiga; Heh, Jia-Sheng

2004-01-01

This paper proposes a methodology to calculate both the difficulty of the basic problems and the difficulty of solving a problem. The method to calculate the difficulty of problem is according to the process of constructing a problem, including Concept Selection, Unknown Designation, and Proposition Construction. Some necessary measures observed…

Policy Mobilities and Methodology: A Proposition for Inventive Methods in Education Policy Studies

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gulson, Kalervo N.; Lewis, Steven; Lingard, Bob; Lubienski, Christopher; Takayama, Keita; Webb, P. Taylor

2017-01-01

The argument of this paper is that new methodologies associated with the emerging field of "policy mobilities" can be applied, and are in fact required, to examine and research the networked and relational, or "topological", nature of globalised education policy, which cuts across the new spaces of policymaking and new modes of…

Higher Education and UK Elite Formation in the Twentieth Century

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Williams, Gareth; Filippakou, Ourania

2010-01-01

This study examines the proposition that mass higher education is, in practice, less a network of more or less homogeneous activities than a series of concentric circles in which elite institutions remain at the centre, but are surrounded by increasingly wide bands of universities and colleges, that are less and less likely to set graduates on the…

A Neural Network Architecture For Rapid Model Indexing In Computer Vision Systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pawlicki, Ted

1988-03-01

Models of objects stored in memory have been shown to be useful for guiding the processing of computer vision systems. A major consideration in such systems, however, is how stored models are initially accessed and indexed by the system. As the number of stored models increases, the time required to search memory for the correct model becomes high. Parallel distributed, connectionist, neural networks' have been shown to have appealing content addressable memory properties. This paper discusses an architecture for efficient storage and reference of model memories stored as stable patterns of activity in a parallel, distributed, connectionist, neural network. The emergent properties of content addressability and resistance to noise are exploited to perform indexing of the appropriate object centered model from image centered primitives. The system consists of three network modules each of which represent information relative to a different frame of reference. The model memory network is a large state space vector where fields in the vector correspond to ordered component objects and relative, object based spatial relationships between the component objects. The component assertion network represents evidence about the existence of object primitives in the input image. It establishes local frames of reference for object primitives relative to the image based frame of reference. The spatial relationship constraint network is an intermediate representation which enables the association between the object based and the image based frames of reference. This intermediate level represents information about possible object orderings and establishes relative spatial relationships from the image based information in the component assertion network below. It is also constrained by the lawful object orderings in the model memory network above. The system design is consistent with current psychological theories of recognition by component. It also seems to support Marr's notions of hierarchical indexing. (i.e. the specificity, adjunct, and parent indices) It supports the notion that multiple canonical views of an object may have to be stored in memory to enable its efficient identification. The use of variable fields in the state space vectors appears to keep the number of required nodes in the network down to a tractable number while imposing a semantic value on different areas of the state space. This semantic imposition supports an interface between the analogical aspects of neural networks and the propositional paradigms of symbolic processing.

Evolving bipartite authentication graph partitions

DOE PAGES

Pope, Aaron Scott; Tauritz, Daniel Remy; Kent, Alexander D.

2017-01-16

As large scale enterprise computer networks become more ubiquitous, finding the appropriate balance between user convenience and user access control is an increasingly challenging proposition. Suboptimal partitioning of users’ access and available services contributes to the vulnerability of enterprise networks. Previous edge-cut partitioning methods unduly restrict users’ access to network resources. This paper introduces a novel method of network partitioning superior to the current state-of-the-art which minimizes user impact by providing alternate avenues for access that reduce vulnerability. Networks are modeled as bipartite authentication access graphs and a multi-objective evolutionary algorithm is used to simultaneously minimize the size of largemore » connected components while minimizing overall restrictions on network users. Lastly, results are presented on a real world data set that demonstrate the effectiveness of the introduced method compared to previous naive methods.« less

Evolving bipartite authentication graph partitions

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

Pope, Aaron Scott; Tauritz, Daniel Remy; Kent, Alexander D.

As large scale enterprise computer networks become more ubiquitous, finding the appropriate balance between user convenience and user access control is an increasingly challenging proposition. Suboptimal partitioning of users’ access and available services contributes to the vulnerability of enterprise networks. Previous edge-cut partitioning methods unduly restrict users’ access to network resources. This paper introduces a novel method of network partitioning superior to the current state-of-the-art which minimizes user impact by providing alternate avenues for access that reduce vulnerability. Networks are modeled as bipartite authentication access graphs and a multi-objective evolutionary algorithm is used to simultaneously minimize the size of largemore » connected components while minimizing overall restrictions on network users. Lastly, results are presented on a real world data set that demonstrate the effectiveness of the introduced method compared to previous naive methods.« less

An Instructional Model to Support Problem-Based Historical Inquiry: The Persistent Issues in History Network

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brush, Thomas; Saye, John

2014-01-01

For over a decade, we have collaborated with secondary school history teachers in an evolving line of inquiry that applies research-based propositions to the design and testing of a problem-based learning framework and a set of wise practices that represent a professional teaching knowledge base for implementing a particular model of instruction,…

The geography of hotspots of rarity-weighted richness of birds and their coverage by Natura 2000

PubMed Central

de Albuquerque, Fábio Suzart; Gregory, Andrew

2017-01-01

A major challenge for biogeographers and conservation planners is to identify where to best locate or distribute high-priority areas for conservation and to explore whether these areas are well represented by conservation actions such as protected areas (PAs). We aimed to identify high-priority areas for conservation, expressed as hotpots of rarity-weighted richness (HRR)–sites that efficiently represent species–for birds across EU countries, and to explore whether HRR are well represented by the Natura 2000 network. Natura 2000 is an evolving network of PAs that seeks to conserve biodiversity through the persistence of the most patrimonial species and habitats across Europe. This network includes Sites of Community Importance (SCI) and Special Areas of Conservation (SAC), where the latter regulated the designation of Special Protected Areas (SPA). Distribution maps for 416 bird species and complementarity-based approaches were used to map geographical patterns of rarity-weighted richness (RWR) and HRR for birds. We used species accumulation index to evaluate whether RWR was efficient surrogates to identify HRRs for birds. The results of our analysis support the proposition that prioritizing sites in order of RWR is a reliable way to identify sites that efficiently represent birds. HRRs were concentrated in the Mediterranean Basin and alpine and boreal biogeographical regions of northern Europe. The cells with high RWR values did not correspond to cells where Natura 2000 was present. We suggest that patterns of RWR could become a focus for conservation biogeography. Our analysis demonstrates that identifying HRR is a robust approach for prioritizing management actions, and reveals the need for more conservation actions, especially on HRR. PMID:28379991

The geography of hotspots of rarity-weighted richness of birds and their coverage by Natura 2000.

PubMed

Albuquerque, Fábio Suzart de; Gregory, Andrew

2017-01-01

A major challenge for biogeographers and conservation planners is to identify where to best locate or distribute high-priority areas for conservation and to explore whether these areas are well represented by conservation actions such as protected areas (PAs). We aimed to identify high-priority areas for conservation, expressed as hotpots of rarity-weighted richness (HRR)-sites that efficiently represent species-for birds across EU countries, and to explore whether HRR are well represented by the Natura 2000 network. Natura 2000 is an evolving network of PAs that seeks to conserve biodiversity through the persistence of the most patrimonial species and habitats across Europe. This network includes Sites of Community Importance (SCI) and Special Areas of Conservation (SAC), where the latter regulated the designation of Special Protected Areas (SPA). Distribution maps for 416 bird species and complementarity-based approaches were used to map geographical patterns of rarity-weighted richness (RWR) and HRR for birds. We used species accumulation index to evaluate whether RWR was efficient surrogates to identify HRRs for birds. The results of our analysis support the proposition that prioritizing sites in order of RWR is a reliable way to identify sites that efficiently represent birds. HRRs were concentrated in the Mediterranean Basin and alpine and boreal biogeographical regions of northern Europe. The cells with high RWR values did not correspond to cells where Natura 2000 was present. We suggest that patterns of RWR could become a focus for conservation biogeography. Our analysis demonstrates that identifying HRR is a robust approach for prioritizing management actions, and reveals the need for more conservation actions, especially on HRR.

Competition with and without priority control: linking rivalry to attention through winner-take-all networks with memory.

PubMed

Marx, Svenja; Gruenhage, Gina; Walper, Daniel; Rutishauser, Ueli; Einhäuser, Wolfgang

2015-03-01

Competition is ubiquitous in perception. For example, items in the visual field compete for processing resources, and attention controls their priority (biased competition). The inevitable ambiguity in the interpretation of sensory signals yields another form of competition: distinct perceptual interpretations compete for access to awareness. Rivalry, where two equally likely percepts compete for dominance, explicates the latter form of competition. Building upon the similarity between attention and rivalry, we propose to model rivalry by a generic competitive circuit that is widely used in the attention literature-a winner-take-all (WTA) network. Specifically, we show that a network of two coupled WTA circuits replicates three common hallmarks of rivalry: the distribution of dominance durations, their dependence on input strength ("Levelt's propositions"), and the effects of stimulus removal (blanking). This model introduces a form of memory by forming discrete states and explains experimental data better than competitive models of rivalry without memory. This result supports the crucial role of memory in rivalry specifically and in competitive processes in general. Our approach unifies the seemingly distinct phenomena of rivalry, memory, and attention in a single model with competition as the common underlying principle. © 2015 The Authors. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences published by Wiley Periodicals Inc. on behalf of The New York Academy of Sciences.

Heat exchanger expert system logic

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Cormier, R.

1988-01-01

The reduction is described of the operation and fault diagnostics of a Deep Space Network heat exchanger to a rule base by the application of propositional calculus to a set of logic statements. The value of this approach lies in the ease of converting the logic and subsequently implementing it on a computer as an expert system. The rule base was written in Process Intelligent Control software.

Company profile: labceutics.

PubMed

Reis, Mark; Fe Paz, Maria; Olson, Tiffany

2012-11-01

Laboratories are often the forgotten partners in the delivery of personalized therapies to physicians worldwide, yet the research and quality of their service in delivering seamless test results to physicians can either enhance the value proposition of a targeted therapy or destroy it. The need for integrated highest quality laboratory networks in fragmented markets such as Europe and Asia are needed to truly leverage the power of companion diagnostics.

Transfer and persistence of non-self DNA on hands over time: Using empirical data to evaluate DNA evidence given activity level propositions.

PubMed

Szkuta, Bianca; Ballantyne, Kaye N; Kokshoorn, Bas; van Oorschot, Roland A H

2018-03-01

Questions relating to how DNA from an individual got to where it was recovered from and the activities associated with its pickup, retention and deposition are increasingly relevant to criminal investigations and judicial considerations. To address activity level propositions, investigators are typically required to assess the likelihood that DNA was transferred indirectly and not deposited through direct contact with an item or surface. By constructing a series of Bayesian networks, we demonstrate their use in assessing activity level propositions derived from a recent legal case involving the alleged secondary transfer of DNA to a surface following a handshaking event. In the absence of data required to perform the assessment, a set of handshaking simulations were performed to obtain probabilities on the persistence of non-self DNA on the hands following a 40min, 5h or 8h delay between the handshake and contact with the final surface (an axe handle). Variables such as time elapsed, and the activities performed and objects contacted between the handshake and contact with the axe handle, were also considered when assessing the DNA results. DNA from a known contributor was transferred to the right hand of an opposing hand-shaker (as a depositor), and could be subsequently transferred to, and detected on, a surface contacted by the depositor 40min to 5h post-handshake. No non-self DNA from the known contributor was detected in deposits made 8h post-handshake. DNA from the depositor was generally detected as the major or only contributor in the profiles generated. Contributions from the known contributor were minor, decreasing in presence and in the strength of support for inclusion as the time between the handshake and transfer event increased. The construction of a series of Bayesian networks based on the case circumstances provided empirical estimations of the likelihood of direct or indirect deposition. The analyses and conclusions presented demonstrate both the complexity of activity level assessments concerning DNA evidence, and the power of Bayesian networks to visualise and explore the issues of interest for a given case. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The Design and Analysis of Helium Turbine Expander Impeller with a Given All-Over-Controlled Vortex Distribution

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Liu, Xiaodong; Fu, Bao; Zhuang, Ming

2014-03-01

To make the large-scale helium cryogenic system of fusion device EAST (experimental advanced super-conducting tokamak) run stably, as the core part, the helium turbine expander must meet the requirement of refrigeration capacity. However, previous designs were based on one dimension flow to determine the average fluid parameters and geometric parameters of impeller cross-sections, so that it could not describe real physical processes in the internal flow of the turbine expander. Therefore, based on the inverse proposition of streamline curvature method in the context of quasi-three-dimensional flows, the all-over-controlled vortex concept was adopted to design the impeller under specified condition. The wrap angle of the impeller blade and the whole flow distribution on the meridian plane were obtained; meanwhile the performance of the designed impeller was analyzed. Thus a new design method is proposed here for the inverse proposition of the helium turbine expander impeller.

The Conceptualization of Value in the Value Proposition of New Health Technologies Comment on "Providing Value to New Health Technology: The Early Contribution of Entrepreneurs, Investors, and Regulatory Agencies".

PubMed

Buttigieg, Sandra C; Hoof, Joost van

2017-07-03

Lehoux et al provide a highly valid contribution in conceptualizing value in value propositions for new health technologies and developing an analytic framework that illustrates the interplay between health innovation supply-side logic (the logic of emergence) and demand-side logic (embedding in the healthcare system). This commentary brings forth several considerations on this article. First, a detailed stakeholder analysis provides the necessary premonition of potential hurdles in the development, implementation and dissemination of a new technology. This can be achieved by categorizing potential stakeholder groups on the basis of the potential impact of future technology. Secondly, the conceptualization of value in value propositions of new technologies should not only embrace business/economic and clinical values but also ethical, professional and cultural values, as well as factoring in the notion of usability and acceptance of new technology. As a final note, the commentary emphasises the point that technology should facilitate delivery of care without negatively affecting doctor-patient communications, physical examination skills, and development of clinical knowledge. © 2018 The Author(s); Published by Kerman University of Medical Sciences. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Satisfiability of logic programming based on radial basis function neural networks

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

Hamadneh, Nawaf; Sathasivam, Saratha; Tilahun, Surafel Luleseged

2014-07-10

In this paper, we propose a new technique to test the Satisfiability of propositional logic programming and quantified Boolean formula problem in radial basis function neural networks. For this purpose, we built radial basis function neural networks to represent the proportional logic which has exactly three variables in each clause. We used the Prey-predator algorithm to calculate the output weights of the neural networks, while the K-means clustering algorithm is used to determine the hidden parameters (the centers and the widths). Mean of the sum squared error function is used to measure the activity of the two algorithms. We appliedmore » the developed technique with the recurrent radial basis function neural networks to represent the quantified Boolean formulas. The new technique can be applied to solve many applications such as electronic circuits and NP-complete problems.« less

Optimum load distribution between heat sources based on the Cournot model

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Penkovskii, A. V.; Stennikov, V. A.; Khamisov, O. V.

2015-08-01

One of the widespread models of the heat supply of consumers, which is represented in the "Single buyer" format, is considered. The methodological base proposed for its description and investigation presents the use of principles of the theory of games, basic propositions of microeconomics, and models and methods of the theory of hydraulic circuits. The original mathematical model of the heat supply system operating under conditions of the "Single buyer" organizational structure provides the derivation of a solution satisfying the market Nash equilibrium. The distinctive feature of the developed mathematical model is that, along with problems solved traditionally within the bounds of bilateral relations of heat energy sources-heat consumer, it considers a network component with its inherent physicotechnical properties of the heat network and business factors connected with costs of the production and transportation of heat energy. This approach gives the possibility to determine optimum levels of load of heat energy sources. These levels provide the given heat energy demand of consumers subject to the maximum profit earning of heat energy sources and the fulfillment of conditions for formation of minimum heat network costs for a specified time. The practical realization of the search of market equilibrium is considered by the example of a heat supply system with two heat energy sources operating on integrated heat networks. The mathematical approach to the solution search is represented in the graphical form and illustrates computations based on the stepwise iteration procedure for optimization of levels of loading of heat energy sources (groping procedure by Cournot) with the corresponding computation of the heat energy price for consumers.

Getting support in polarized societies: income, social networks, and socioeconomic context.

PubMed

Letki, Natalia; Mieriņa, Inta

2015-01-01

This paper explores how unequal resources and social and economic polarization affects the size of social networks and their use to access resources. We argue that individual resource position generates divergent expectations with regard to the impact of polarization on the size of networks on one hand, and their usefulness for accessing resources on the other. Social and economic polarization encourages reliance on informal networks, but those at the bottom of the social structure are forced to rely on more extensive networks than the wealthy to compensate for their isolated and underprivileged position. At the same time, social and economic polarization limits the resources the poor can access through their networks. We provide evidence consistent with these propositions, based on data derived from the International Social Survey Programme 2001 "Social Networks" dataset combined with contextual information on the levels of economic inequality in particular countries along with whether they experienced postcommunism. Copyright © 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

A Practical Guide for the Formulation of Propositions in the Bayesian Approach to DNA Evidence Interpretation in an Adversarial Environment.

PubMed

Gittelson, Simone; Kalafut, Tim; Myers, Steven; Taylor, Duncan; Hicks, Tacha; Taroni, Franco; Evett, Ian W; Bright, Jo-Anne; Buckleton, John

2016-01-01

The interpretation of complex DNA profiles is facilitated by a Bayesian approach. This approach requires the development of a pair of propositions: one aligned to the prosecution case and one to the defense case. This note explores the issue of proposition setting in an adversarial environment by a series of examples. A set of guidelines generalize how to formulate propositions when there is a single person of interest and when there are multiple individuals of interest. Additional explanations cover how to handle multiple defense propositions, relatives, and the transition from subsource level to activity level propositions. The propositions depend on case information and the allegations of each of the parties. The prosecution proposition is usually known. The authors suggest that a sensible proposition is selected for the defense that is consistent with their stance, if available, and consistent with a realistic defense if their position is not known. © 2015 American Academy of Forensic Sciences.

The Social and Political Matrix of Environmental Attitudes: An Analysis of the Vote on the California Coastal Zone Regulation Act.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wohlwill, Joachim F.

1979-01-01

Presents a two-part analysis of the note on Proposition 20. Findings suggest that environmental concern may be more broadly distributed across different socioeconomic and political strata of our society than previous investigators have asserted. (Author/MA)

Whence Structured Propositions?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Keller, Lorraine Juliano

2012-01-01

This thesis is a critical examination of "Structured Propositionalism" (SP), the view that propositions are complex entities composed of the semantic values of the (meaningful) parts of the sentences that express them. According to SP, propositions have constituents and are individuated by the identity and arrangement of their…

The Value Proposition in Institutional Repositories

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Blythe, Erv; Chachra, Vinod

2005-01-01

In the education and research arena of the late 1970s and early 1980s, a struggle developed between those who advocated centralized, mainframe-based computing and those who advocated distributed computing. Ultimately, the debate reduced to whether economies of scale or economies of scope are more important to the effectiveness and efficiency of…

A Critical Review of Proposition Analysis in Alzheimer's Research and Elsewhere

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

King, James R.

2012-01-01

Propositional analysis of text, including the generation of proposition density ratios, is examined within the context of Alzheimer's research. A discussion of linguistic modularity raises questions regarding the outcomes of propositional analysis and its applications in Alzheimer's research. (Contains 1 figure.)

Narrative Abilities in Hearing-Impaired Children: Propositions and Cohesion.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Griffith, Penny L.; And Others

1990-01-01

Two linguistic microstructures (propositions and cohesive devices) were analyzed in story recalls by 11 primary and intermediate level hearing-impaired students. When stories were very simple, students generated mostly complete propositions, however as complexity increased, semantic errors resulted in fewer complete propositions. (Author/DB)

Bullying Victimization, Social Network Usage, and Delinquent Coping in a Sample of Urban Youth: Examining the Predictions of General Strain Theory.

PubMed

Baker, Thomas; Pelfrey, William V

2016-12-01

Guided by the propositions of general strain theory, this study examines the impact of experienced and anticipated strains on the delinquent coping of adolescents while accounting for the usage of social networking sites. Specifically, this study uses self-report survey data collected from 3,195 middle and high school students in a single Midwest city in the United States to explore the effect of experiencing the strains of traditional bullying victimization and cyberbullying victimization on adolescents self-reported soft drug use, hard drug use, and weapon carrying behavior. These relationships are explored among both frequent and infrequent users of social networking sites. Results indicate that cyberbullying victimization and the anticipated strain of feeling unsafe at or on the way to or from school are significantly and positively associated with all three mechanisms of delinquent coping among both frequent and infrequent social network users.

Semantics and pragmatics of social influence: how affirmations and denials affect beliefs in referent propositions.

PubMed

Gruenfeld, D H; Wyer, R S

1992-01-01

Ss read either affirmations or denials of target propositions that ostensibly came from either newspapers or reference volumes. Denials of the validity of a proposition that was already assumed to be false increased Ss' beliefs in this proposition. The effect generalized to beliefs in related propositions that could be used to support the target's validity. When denials came from a newspaper, their "boomerang effect" was nearly equal in magnitude to the direct effect of affirming the target proposition's validity. When Ss were asked explicitly to consider the implications of the assertions, however, the impact of denials was eliminated. Affirmations of a target proposition that was already assumed to be true also had a boomerang effect. Results have implications for the effects of both semantic and pragmatic processing of assertions on belief change.

Re-examining the paradox of structure: a child health network perspective.

PubMed

McPherson, Charmaine M; Popp, Janice K; Lindstrom, Ronald R

2006-01-01

In their lead paper, Huerta, Casebeer and VanderPlaat argue that there are several key forces driving the development of health services delivery (HSD) networks, and propose a series of paradoxes and propositions to initiate this timely and essential dialogue. Ultimately, they submit that networks are likely to remain within the healthcare system to build system capacity and drive integration. Given this, they challenge us to further the dialogue and investigate these networks. While this peer commentary shares many of the lead author's perspectives, the generic nature of the discussion does not bring us to the relative complexities revealed in some HSD network practices. A Canadian child health network lens is used to re-examine the lead paper's conceptualization of network typologies and the proposed paradox of structure. We combine network practice and academic expertise to highlight the structural, governance and leadership tensions between traditional hierarchical public service organizations and the non-hierarchical nature of inter-organizational networks. Child health network leaders and members must examine and work with the challenges associated with importing traditional organizational cultures into an inter-organizationally networked context, while simultaneously maintaining these dual (or duelling) cultures.

Debating Values: Key Issues in Formatting an Argumentative Case.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Scott, David K.

This paper analyzes the components of an "ideal" debate using a non-policy proposition. It is argued that debates using non-policy propositions are currently plagued by a variety of problems. Value propositions on the college level are dissimilar to the value propositions used in high school Lincoln-Douglas debate. Many debaters are…

Debating Historical Propositions: Toward a Unique Genre of NEDA Debate.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Scott, David K.

The best way to develop a unique identity for the National Education Debate Association (NEDA) is to debate propositions distinct from National Debate Tournament (NDT) and the Cross Examination Debate Association (CEDA). A neglected area of debate includes propositions temporally framed in the past. Yet, the present propositional categories of…

Propositional density and cognitive function in later life: findings from the Precursors Study.

PubMed

Engelman, Michal; Agree, Emily M; Meoni, Lucy A; Klag, Michael J

2010-11-01

We used longitudinal data from the Johns Hopkins Precursors Study to test the hypothesis that written propositional density measured early in life is lower for people who develop dementia categorized as Alzheimer's disease (AD). This association was reported in 1996 for the Nun Study, and the Precursors Study offered an unprecedented chance to reexamine it among respondents with different gender, education, and occupation profiles. Eighteen individuals classified as AD patients (average age at diagnosis: 74) were assigned 2 sex-and-age matched controls, and propositional density in medical school admission essays (average age at writing: 22) was assessed via Computerized Propositional Idea Density Rater 3 linguistic analysis software. Adjusted odds ratios (ORs) for the matched case-control study were calculated using conditional (fixed-effects) logistic regression. Mean propositional density is lower for cases than for controls (4.70 vs. 4.99 propositions per 10 words, 1-sided p = .01). Higher propositional density substantially lowers the odds of AD (OR = 0.16, 95% confidence interval = 0.03-0.90, 1-sided p = .02). Propositional density scores in writing samples from early adulthood appear to predict AD in later life for men as well as women. Studies of cognition across the life course might beneficially incorporate propositional density as a potential marker of cognitive reserve.

First 5 Kern Annual Report, Fiscal Year 2010-2011

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wang, Jianjun

2012-01-01

Kern County Children and Families Commission (First 5 Kern) is funded by the Proposition 10 ballot initiative to support services for children prenatal to age five in California. The state revenue comes from an extra 50-cent tax on tobacco products, and is distributed according to the proportion of live births in each county. Following a…

Propositional Density and Cognitive Function in Later Life: Findings From the Precursors Study

PubMed Central

Agree, Emily M.; Meoni, Lucy A.; Klag, Michael J.

2010-01-01

Objectives. We used longitudinal data from the Johns Hopkins Precursors Study to test the hypothesis that written propositional density measured early in life is lower for people who develop dementia categorized as Alzheimer's disease (AD). This association was reported in 1996 for the Nun Study, and the Precursors Study offered an unprecedented chance to reexamine it among respondents with different gender, education, and occupation profiles. Methods. Eighteen individuals classified as AD patients (average age at diagnosis: 74) were assigned 2 sex-and-age matched controls, and propositional density in medical school admission essays (average age at writing: 22) was assessed via Computerized Propositional Idea Density Rater 3 linguistic analysis software. Adjusted odds ratios (ORs) for the matched case-control study were calculated using conditional (fixed-effects) logistic regression. Results. Mean propositional density is lower for cases than for controls (4.70 vs. 4.99 propositions per 10 words, 1-sided p = .01). Higher propositional density substantially lowers the odds of AD (OR = 0.16, 95% confidence interval = 0.03-0.90, 1-sided p = .02). Discussion. Propositional density scores in writing samples from early adulthood appear to predict AD in later life for men as well as women. Studies of cognition across the life course might beneficially incorporate propositional density as a potential marker of cognitive reserve. PMID:20837676

"Place" as an integrating concept in natural resource politics: propositions for a social science research agenda.

Treesearch

Antony S. Cheng; Linda E. Kruger; Steven E. Daniels

2003-01-01

This article lays out six propositions centering on a relationship between peopleplace connections and strategic behavior in natural resource politics. The first two propositions suggest a strong and direct connection between self-identity, place, and how individuals perceive and value the environment. The third, fourth, and fifth propositions tie together social group...

Memorisation methods in science education: tactics to improve the teaching and learning practice

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pals, Frits F. B.; Tolboom, Jos L. J.; Suhre, Cor J. M.; van Geert, Paul L. C.

2018-01-01

How can science teachers support students in developing an appropriate declarative knowledge base for solving problems? This article focuses on the question whether the development of students' memory of scientific propositions is better served by writing propositions down on paper or by making drawings of propositions either by silent or muttering rehearsal. By means of a memorisation experiment with eighth- and ninth-grade students, we answer this question. In this experiment, students received instruction to memorise nine science propositions and to reproduce them afterwards. To support memorisation students were randomly assigned either to a group that received instruction to write each proposition on paper or to a group that received instruction to make a drawing about the content of the proposition. In addition, half of the students in both groups received instruction to mutter and the other half of them received instruction to write or draw in silence. The main conclusion from the experiment is that after four weeks students who had made a drawing remembered significantly more propositions than those who had memorised the propositions by writing them down. Our research further revealed that it did not matter whether students muttered or memorised silently.

Pathways towards instability in financial networks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Caldarelli, Guido; Bardoscia, Marco; Caccioli, Fabio; Battiston, Stefano

There is growing consensus that processes of market integration and risk diversification may come at the price of more systemic risk. Indeed, financial institutions are interconnected in a network of contracts where distress can either be amplified or dampened. However, a mathematical understanding of instability in relation to the network topology is still lacking. In a model financial network, we show that the origin of instability resides in the presence of specific types of cyclical structures, regardless of many of the details of the distress propagation mechanism. In particular, we show the existence of trajectories in the space of graphs along which a complex network turns from stable to unstable, although at each point along the trajectory its nodes satisfy constraints that would apparently make them individually stable. In the financial context, our findings have important implications for policies aimed at increasing financial stability. We illustrate the propositions on a sample dataset for the top 50 EU listed banks between 2008 and 2013. More in general, our results shed light on previous findings on the instability of model ecosystems and are relevant for a broad class of dynamical processes on complex networks.

Interpreting Hypernymic Propositions in an Online Medical Encyclopedia

PubMed Central

Fiszman, Marcelo; Rindflesch, Thomas C.; Kilicoglu, Halil

2003-01-01

Interpretation of semantic propositions from biomedical texts documents would provide valuable support to natural language processing (NLP) applications. We are developing a methodology to interpret a kind of semantic proposition, the hypernymic proposition, in MEDLINE abstracts. In this paper, we expanded the system to identify these structures in a different discourse domain: the Medical Encyclopedia from the National Library of Medicine’s MEDLINEplus® Website. PMID:14728345

Interpreting hypernymic propositions in an online medical encyclopedia.

PubMed

Fiszman, Marcelo; Rindflesch, Thomas C; Kilicoglu, Halil

2003-01-01

Interpretation of semantic propositions from bio-medical texts documents would provide valuable support to natural language processing (NLP) applications. We are developing a methodology to interpret a kind of semantic proposition, the hypernymic proposition, in MEDLINE abstracts. In this paper, we expanded the system to identify these structures in a different discourse domain: the Medical Encyclopedia from the National Library of Medi-cine's MEDLINEplus Website.

A Survey of Distributed Capability File Systems and Their Application to Cloud Environments

DTIC Science & Technology

2014-09-01

proposition B∧F →Con f [18, figure 15]. 23 ways in which a program may misbehave and attempt to leak information. 3.3.3 Confused Deputy A confused deputy...weaker notion of confinement, due to the fact that its confinement mechanism relies on trusting that subjects will not misbehave . 6.3 Least Privilege Our

Unscheduled load flow effect due to large variation in the distributed generation in a subtransmission network

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Islam, Mujahidul

A sustainable energy delivery infrastructure implies the safe and reliable accommodation of large scale penetration of renewable sources in the power grid. In this dissertation it is assumed there will be no significant change in the power transmission and distribution structure currently in place; except in the operating strategy and regulatory policy. That is to say, with the same old structure, the path towards unveiling a high penetration of switching power converters in the power system will be challenging. Some of the dimensions of this challenge are power quality degradation, frequent false trips due to power system imbalance, and losses due to a large neutral current. The ultimate result is the reduced life of many power distribution components - transformers, switches and sophisticated loads. Numerous ancillary services are being developed and offered by the utility operators to mitigate these problems. These services will likely raise the system's operational cost, not only from the utility operators' end, but also reflected on the Independent System Operators and by the Regional Transmission Operators (RTO) due to an unforeseen backlash of frequent variation in the load-side generation or distributed generation. The North American transmission grid is an interconnected system similar to a large electrical circuit. This circuit was not planned but designed over 100 years. The natural laws of physics govern the power flow among loads and generators except where control mechanisms are installed. The control mechanism has not matured enough to withstand the high penetration of variable generators at uncontrolled distribution ends. Unlike a radial distribution system, mesh or loop networks can alleviate complex channels for real and reactive power flow. Significant variation in real power injection and absorption on the distribution side can emerge as a bias signal on the routing reactive power in some physical links or channels that are not distinguishable from the vast network. A path tracing methodology is developed to identify the power lines that are vulnerable to an unscheduled flow effect in the sub-transmission network. It is much harder to aggregate power system network sensitivity information or data from measuring load flow physically than to simulate in software. System dynamics is one of the key factors to determine an appropriate dynamic control mechanism at an optimum network location. Once a model of deterministic but variable power generator is used, the simulation can be meaningful in justifying this claim. The method used to model the variable generator is named the two-components phase distortion model. The model was validated from the high resolution data collected from three pilot photovoltaic sites in Florida - two in the city of St. Petersburg and one in the city of Tampa. The high resolution data was correlated with weather radar closest to the sites during the design stage of the model. Technically the deterministic model cannot replicate a stochastic model which is more realistically applicable for solar isolation and involves a Markov chain. The author justified the proposition based on the fact that for analysis of the response functions of different systems, the excitation function should be common for comparison. Moreover, there could be many possible simulation scenarios but fewer worst cases. Almost all commercial systems are protected against potential faults and contingencies to a certain extent. Hence, the proposed model for worst case studies was designed within a reasonable limit. The simulation includes steady state and transient mode using multiple software modules including MatlabRTM, PSCADRTM and Paladin Design BaseRTM. It is shown that by identifying vulnerable or sensitive branches in the network, the control mechanisms can be coordinated reliably. In the long run this can save money by preventing unscheduled power flow in the network and eventually stabilizing the energy market.

A One-System Theory Which is Not Propositional.

PubMed

Witnauer, James E; Urcelay, Gonzalo P; Miller, Ralph R

2009-04-01

We argue that the propositional and link-based approaches to human contingency learning represent different levels of analysis because propositional reasoning requires a basis, which is plausibly provided by a link-based architecture. Moreover, in their attempt to compare two general classes of models (link-based and propositional), Mitchell et al. have referred to only two generic models and ignore the large variety of different models within each class.

Integrating a Hypernymic Proposition Interpreter into a Semantic Processor for Biomedical Texts

PubMed Central

Fiszman, Marcelo; Rindflesch, Thomas C.; Kilicoglu, Halil

2003-01-01

Semantic processing provides the potential for producing high quality results in natural language processing (NLP) applications in the biomedical domain. In this paper, we address a specific semantic phenomenon, the hypernymic proposition, and concentrate on integrating the interpretation of such predications into a more general semantic processor in order to improve overall accuracy. A preliminary evaluation assesses the contribution of hypernymic propositions in providing more specific semantic predications and thus improving effectiveness in retrieving treatment propositions in MEDLINE abstracts. Finally, we discuss the generalization of this methodology to additional semantic propositions as well as other types of biomedical texts. PMID:14728170

Logic integer programming models for signaling networks.

PubMed

Haus, Utz-Uwe; Niermann, Kathrin; Truemper, Klaus; Weismantel, Robert

2009-05-01

We propose a static and a dynamic approach to model biological signaling networks, and show how each can be used to answer relevant biological questions. For this, we use the two different mathematical tools of Propositional Logic and Integer Programming. The power of discrete mathematics for handling qualitative as well as quantitative data has so far not been exploited in molecular biology, which is mostly driven by experimental research, relying on first-order or statistical models. The arising logic statements and integer programs are analyzed and can be solved with standard software. For a restricted class of problems the logic models reduce to a polynomial-time solvable satisfiability algorithm. Additionally, a more dynamic model enables enumeration of possible time resolutions in poly-logarithmic time. Computational experiments are included.

What is the Value Proposition of Persistent Identifiers?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Klump, Jens; Huber, Robert

2017-04-01

Persistent identifiers (PID) are widely used today in scientific communication and documentation. Global unique identification plus persistent resolution of links to referenced digital research objects have been strong selling points for PID Systems as enabling technical infrastructures. Novel applications of PID Systems in research now go beyond the identification of file based objects such as literature or data sets and include the identification of dynamically changing datasets accessed through web services, physical objects, persons and organisations. But not only do we see more use cases but also a proliferation of identifier systems. An analysis of PID Systems used by 1381 repositories listed in the Registry of Research Data Repositories (re3data.org, status of 14 Dec 2015) showed that many disciplinary data repositories make use of PID that are not among the systems promoted by the libraries and publishers (DOI, PURL, ARK). This indicates that a number of communities have developed their own PID Systems. This begs the question, do we need more identifier systems? What makes their value proposition more appealing than those of already existing systems? On the other hand, some of these new use cases deal with entities outside the digital domain, the original scope of application for PIDs. It is therefore necessary to critically appraise the value propositions of available PID Systems and compare these against the requirements of new use cases for PID. Undoubtedly, DOI are the most used persistent identifier in scholarly communication. It was originally designed "to link customers with publishers, facilitate electronic commerce, and enable copyright management systems." Today, the DOI system is described as providing "a technical and social infrastructure for the registration and use of persistent interoperable identifiers for use on digital networks". This example shows how value propositions can change over time. Additional value can be gained by cross-linking between PID Systems, thus allowing new scholarly documentation and evaluation methods such as documenting the track record of researchers in publications and successful funding proposals, apply advanced bibliometric approaches, estimate the output and impact of funding, assess the reuse and subsequent impact of data publications, demonstrate the efficient use of research infrastructures, etc. This recombination of systems raise a series of new expectations and each stakeholder group may have its own vision of the benefits and value proposition of PIDs, which might be in conflict with others. New PID applications will arise with the application of PID Systems to semantic web technologies and to the Internet of Things, which extend PID applications to beyond digital objects to concepts and things, respectively, raising yet again their own expectations and value propositions. What are we trying to identify? What is the purpose served by identifying it? What are the implications for semantic web technologies? How certain can we be about the identity of an object and its state changes over time (Ship of Theseus Paradox)? In this presentation we will discuss a number of PID use cases and match these against the value propositions offered by a selection of PID Systems.

Children's understanding of first- and third-person perspectives in complement clauses and false-belief tasks.

PubMed

Brandt, Silke; Buttelmann, David; Lieven, Elena; Tomasello, Michael

2016-11-01

De Villiers (Lingua, 2007, Vol. 117, pp. 1858-1878) and others have claimed that children come to understand false belief as they acquire linguistic constructions for representing a proposition and the speaker's epistemic attitude toward that proposition. In the current study, English-speaking children of 3 and 4years of age (N=64) were asked to interpret propositional attitude constructions with a first- or third-person subject of the propositional attitude (e.g., "I think the sticker is in the red box" or "The cow thinks the sticker is in the red box", respectively). They were also assessed for an understanding of their own and others' false beliefs. We found that 4-year-olds showed a better understanding of both third-person propositional attitude constructions and false belief than their younger peers. No significant developmental differences were found for first-person propositional attitude constructions. The older children also showed a better understanding of their own false beliefs than of others' false beliefs. In addition, regression analyses suggest that the older children's comprehension of their own false beliefs was mainly related to their understanding of third-person propositional attitude constructions. These results indicate that we need to take a closer look at the propositional attitude constructions that are supposed to support children's false-belief reasoning. Children may come to understand their own and others' beliefs in different ways, and this may affect both their use and understanding of propositional attitude constructions and their performance in various types of false-belief tasks. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Risk assessment for carcinogens under California's Proposition 65

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

Pease, W.S.; Zeise, L.; Kelter, A.

1990-06-01

Risk assessments for carcinogens are being developed through an accelerated process in California as a part of the state's implementation of Proposition 65, the Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act. Estimates of carcinogenic potency made by the California Department of Health Services (CDHS) are generally similar to estimates made by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The largest differences are due to EPA's use of the maximum likelihood estimate instead of CDHS' use of the upper 95% confidence bounds on potencies derived from human data and to procedures used to correct for studies of short duration or with earlymore » mortality. Numerical limits derived from these potency estimates constitute no significant risk levels, which govern exemption from Proposition 65's discharge prohibition and warning requirements. Under Proposition 65 regulations, lifetime cancer risks less than 10(-5) are not significant and cumulative intake is not considered. Following these regulations, numerical limits for a number of Proposition 65 carcinogens that are applicable to the control of toxic discharges are less stringent than limits under existing federal water pollution control laws. Thus, existing federal limits will become the Proposition 65 levels for discharge. Chemicals currently not covered by federal and state controls will eventually be subject to discharge limitations under Proposition 65. No significant risk levels (expressed in terms of daily intake of carcinogens) also trigger warning requirements under Proposition 65 that are more extensive than existing state or federal requirements. A variety of chemical exposures from multiple sources are identified that exceed Proposition 65's no significant risk levels.« less

Why do lab-scale experiments ever resemble geological scale patterning?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ferdowsi, Behrooz; Jones, Brandon C.; Stein, Jeremy L.; Shinbrot, Troy

2017-11-01

The Earth and other planets are abundant with curious and poorly understood surface patterns. Examples include sand dunes, periodic and aperiodic ridges and valleys, and networks of river and submarine channels. We make the minimalist proposition that the dominant mechanism governing these varied patterns is mass conservation: notwithstanding detailed particulars, the universal rule is mass conservation and there are only a finite number of surface patterns that can result from this process. To test this minimalist proposition, we perform experiments in a vertically vibrated bed of fine grains, and we show that every one of a wide variety of patterns seen in the laboratory is also seen in recorded geomorphologies. We explore a range of experimental driving frequencies and amplitudes, and we complement these experimental results with a non-local cellular automata model that reproduces the surface patterns seen using a minimalist approach that allows a free surface to deform subject to mass conservation and simple known forces such as gravity. These results suggest a common cause for the effectiveness of lab-scale models for geological scale patterning that otherwise ought to have no reasonable correspondence.

Topic segmentation via community detection in complex networks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

de Arruda, Henrique F.; Costa, Luciano da F.; Amancio, Diego R.

2016-06-01

Many real systems have been modeled in terms of network concepts, and written texts are a particular example of information networks. In recent years, the use of network methods to analyze language has allowed the discovery of several interesting effects, including the proposition of novel models to explain the emergence of fundamental universal patterns. While syntactical networks, one of the most prevalent networked models of written texts, display both scale-free and small-world properties, such a representation fails in capturing other textual features, such as the organization in topics or subjects. We propose a novel network representation whose main purpose is to capture the semantical relationships of words in a simple way. To do so, we link all words co-occurring in the same semantic context, which is defined in a threefold way. We show that the proposed representations favor the emergence of communities of semantically related words, and this feature may be used to identify relevant topics. The proposed methodology to detect topics was applied to segment selected Wikipedia articles. We found that, in general, our methods outperform traditional bag-of-words representations, which suggests that a high-level textual representation may be useful to study the semantical features of texts.

Topic segmentation via community detection in complex networks.

PubMed

de Arruda, Henrique F; Costa, Luciano da F; Amancio, Diego R

2016-06-01

Many real systems have been modeled in terms of network concepts, and written texts are a particular example of information networks. In recent years, the use of network methods to analyze language has allowed the discovery of several interesting effects, including the proposition of novel models to explain the emergence of fundamental universal patterns. While syntactical networks, one of the most prevalent networked models of written texts, display both scale-free and small-world properties, such a representation fails in capturing other textual features, such as the organization in topics or subjects. We propose a novel network representation whose main purpose is to capture the semantical relationships of words in a simple way. To do so, we link all words co-occurring in the same semantic context, which is defined in a threefold way. We show that the proposed representations favor the emergence of communities of semantically related words, and this feature may be used to identify relevant topics. The proposed methodology to detect topics was applied to segment selected Wikipedia articles. We found that, in general, our methods outperform traditional bag-of-words representations, which suggests that a high-level textual representation may be useful to study the semantical features of texts.

Information infrastructure for consumer health: a health information exchange stakeholder study.

PubMed

Thornewill, Judah; Dowling, Alan F; Cox, Barbara A; Esterhay, Robert J

2011-05-01

An enabling infrastructure for population-wide health information capture and transfer is beginning to emerge in the U.S. However, the essential infrastructure component that is still missing is effective health information exchange (HIE). Health record banks (HRBs) are one of several possible approaches to achieving HIE. Is the approach viable? If so, what requirements must be satisfied in order for it to succeed? The research, conducted in 2007-2008, explored HRB-related interests, concerns, benefits, payment preferences, design requirements, value propositions, and challenges for 12 healthcare stakeholder groups and the consumers they serve in a U.S. metropolitan area of 1.3 million people. A mixed-methods design was developed in a community action research context. Data were gathered and analyzed through 23 focus groups, 13 web surveys, a consumer phone survey (nonstratified random sample) and follow-up meetings. Recruiting goals for leaders representing targeted groups were achieved using a multi-channel communications strategy. Key themes were identified through data triangulation. Then, requirements, value propositions and challenges were developed through iterative processes of interaction with community members. Results include key themes, design requirements, value propositions, and challenges for 12 stakeholder groups and consumers. The research provides a framework for developing a consumer permission-driven, financially sustainable, community HRB model. However, for such a model to flourish, it will need to be part of a nationwide network of HIEs with compatible HRB approaches able to overcome a number of challenges. Copyright © 2011 American Journal of Preventive Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Parents, peer groups, and other socializing influences.

PubMed

Vandell, D L

2000-11-01

Three propositions that are central to J. R. Harris's group socialization theory (1995, 1998) are considered in this review. These propositions are as follows: (a) Parental behaviors have no long-term effects on children's psychological characteristics, (b) peer groups are the primary environmental influence on psychological functioning, and (c) dyadic relationships are situation-specific and do not generalize. The evidence that J. R. Harris has outlined in support of each of these propositions is reviewed, as is additional empirical research not considered by J. R. Harris. Serious limitations to each proposition are identified. The available evidence is more consistent with a model of multiple socialization agents. An expanded research agenda that permits a more definitive test of J. R. Harris's propositions and social relationship theory is proposed.

Curriculum Design and Epistemic Ascent

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Winch, Christopher

2013-01-01

Three kinds of knowledge usually recognised by epistemologists are identified and their relevance for curriculum design is discussed. These are: propositional knowledge, know-how and knowledge by acquaintance. The inferential nature of propositional knowledge is argued for and it is suggested that propositional knowledge in fact presupposes the…

Participatory Democracy and Budgeting: The Effects of Proposition 13.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McCaffery, Jerry; Bowman, John H.

1978-01-01

The complexities associated with Proposition 13 provide a lesson in the hazards of fiscal policy-making through direct voter participation. While the full effects of Proposition 13 are not yet known, it is clear that it has reshaped California local government finance overnight. (Author)

The study on network security based on software engineering

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jia, Shande; Ao, Qian

2012-04-01

Developing a SP is a sensitive task because the SP itself can lead to security weaknesses if it is not conform to the security properties. Hence, appropriate techniques are necessary to overcome such problems. These techniques must accompany the policy throughout its deployment phases. The main contribution of this paper is then, the proposition of three of these activities: validation, test and multi-SP conflict management. Our techniques are inspired by the well established techniques of the software engineering for which we have found some similarities with the security domain.

The "Is-Ought-Is" Problem of the Objective in Adult Education.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mattimore-Knudson, Russell S.

1982-01-01

Shows that adult education objectives must be evaluative propositions rather than descriptive propositions; as evaluative propositions they cannot be used as "evidence" to defend the cancellation or repetition of programs. Presents a possible solution to the "is-ought-is" dichotomy as it relates to the use of evaluative…

Some Propositions about Teaching and Learning.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hunter, Walter E., Comp.; And Others

Various propositions on college teaching and learning, established by the professor and graduate students in a course at the University of Florida, are presented. The importance of both the professional discipline and teaching components is stressed. The propositions are intended for graduate students to use as a resource of basic information…

Proposition 2 1/2: Explaining the Vote.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ladd, Helen F.; Wilson, Julie Boatright

Researchers examined Massachusetts voters' reactions to Proposition 2 1/2--which severely restricts local governments' ability to raise money for local public services--through a statewide telephone survey of 1,561 household heads in 58 towns. Data were gathered on each respondent's vote on the proposition, sex, age, education, occupation, income,…

[NASA/DOD Aerospace Knowledge Diffusion Research Project. Paper 2:] External Information Sources and aerospace R&D: The use and importance of technical reports by US aerospace engineers and scientists

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Blados, Walter R.; Pinelli, Thomas E.; Kennedy, John M.; Barclay, Rebecca O.

1990-01-01

This paper formulates and studies two propositions. Proposition 1 states that information that is external to the aerospace organization tends to be used less than internal sources of information; the more geographically removed the information is from the organization, the less likely it is to be used. Proposition 2 states that of the various sociometric variables assumed to influence the use of an information channel or source, perceived accessibility exerts the greatest influence. Preliminary analysis based on surveys supports Proposition 1. This analysis does not support Proposition 2, however. Evidence here indicates that reliability and relevance influence the use of an information source more than the idea of perceived accessibility.

Towards a unified theory of health-disease: II. Holopathogenesis

PubMed Central

Almeida-Filho, Naomar

2014-01-01

This article presents a systematic framework for modeling several classes of illness-sickness-disease named as Holopathogenesis. Holopathogenesis is defined as processes of over-determination of diseases and related conditions taken as a whole, comprising selected facets of the complex object Health. First, a conceptual background of Holopathogenesis is presented as a series of significant interfaces (biomolecular-immunological, physiopathological-clinical, epidemiological-ecosocial). Second, propositions derived from Holopathogenesis are introduced in order to allow drawing the disease-illness-sickness complex as a hierarchical network of networks. Third, a formalization of intra- and inter-level correspondences, over-determination processes, effects and links of Holopathogenesis models is proposed. Finally, the Holopathogenesis frame is evaluated as a comprehensive theoretical pathology taken as a preliminary step towards a unified theory of health-disease. PMID:24897040

Modeling Bose-Einstein correlations via elementary emitting cells

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

Utyuzh, Oleg; Wilk, Grzegorz; Wlodarczyk, Zbigniew

2007-04-01

We propose a method of numerical modeling Bose-Einstein correlations by using the notion of the elementary emitting cell (EEC). They are intermediary objects containing identical bosons and are supposed to be produced independently during the hadronization process. Only bosons in the EEC, which represents a single quantum state here, are subjected to the effects of Bose-Einstein (BE) statistics, which forces them to follow a geometrical distribution. There are no such effects between particles from different EECs. We illustrate our proposition by calculating a representative number of typical distributions and discussing their sensitivity to EECs and their characteristics.

California's tobacco tax initiative: the development and passage of Proposition 99.

PubMed

Traynor, M P; Glantz, S A

1996-01-01

In this case study, we describe and analyze the development and passage of California's tobacco tax initiative, Proposition 99, the Tobacco Tax and Health Promotion Act of 1988. We gathered information from published reports, public documents, personal correspondence, internal memorandums, polling data, and interviews with representatives from organizations that participated in the Proposition 99 campaign. Proposition 99 passed as a result of the efforts of a coalition of voluntary health agencies, medical organizations, and environmental groups. They organized a long-term effort by conducting essential polling, planning strategies, gaining media exposure, developing a coalition, and running a successful campaign to enact the tax by shifting the venue from legislative to initiative politics. To build the coalition that was needed to pass Proposition 99, public health proponents enlisted the help of medical organizations in exchange for additional revenue to be allocated to medical services. By shifting the venue from the legislature to the general public, advocates capitalized on public concern about tobacco and for youth and took advantage of the tobacco industry's low credibility. The passage of Proposition 99, despite a massive campaign against it by the tobacco industry, represents a milestone in the tobacco control and public health fields. From its passage in 1988 through 1993, tobacco use in California declined by 27 percent, which is three times faster than the United States average. As a result, Proposition 99 has served as a national model for other states and the federal government. Although allocation of tobacco tax revenues specifically to health education and prevention was a primary goal during the development and passage of Proposition 99, when the venue shifted back to the legislature for implementation, medical organizations successfully advocated illegal diversions of Proposition 99 tobacco control and research funds to medical services. Organizations seeking to enact Proposition 99-like tobacco tax increases must be prepared to mount aggressive campaigns to pass the initiative in the face of major tobacco industry opposition and then must continue to work to protect the program after passage by voters.

Proposition 187: An Effective Measure To Deter Undocumented Migration to California?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Alarcon, Rafael

In 1994, California voters approved Proposition 187, which prohibits provision of publicly funded education and social services to undocumented immigrants, and which requires public schools to verify the legal status of students and their parents. This paper examines socioeconomic and immigration trends leading to the emergence of Proposition 187,…

Exploring Task- and Student-Related Factors in the Method of Propositional Manipulation (MPM)

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Leppink, Jimmie; Broers, Nick J.; Imbos, Tjaart; van der Vleuten, Cees P. M.; Berger, Martijn P. F.

2011-01-01

The method of propositional manipulation (MPM) aims to help students develop conceptual understanding of statistics by guiding them into self-explaining propositions. To explore task- and student-related factors influencing students' ability to learn from MPM, twenty undergraduate students performed six learning tasks while thinking aloud. The…

Memorisation Methods in Science Education: Tactics to Improve the Teaching and Learning Practice

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pals, Frits F. B.; Tolboom, Jos L. J.; Suhre, Cor J. M.; van Geert, Paul L. C.

2018-01-01

How can science teachers support students in developing an appropriate declarative knowledge base for solving problems? This article focuses on the question whether the development of students' memory of scientific propositions is better served by writing propositions down on paper or by making drawings of propositions either by silent or…

Associating versus Proposing or Associating What We Propose: Comment on Gawronski and Bodenhausen

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Albarracin, Dolores; Hart, William; McCulloch, Kathleen C.

2006-01-01

This commentary on the article by B. Gawronski and G. V. Bodenhausen (see record 2006-10465-003) highlights the strengths of the associative-propositional evaluation model. It then describes problems in proposing a qualitative separation between propositional and associative processes. Propositional processes are instead described as associative.…

Predictors of Short-Term Treatment Outcomes among California's Proposition 36 Participants

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hser, Yih-Ing; Evans, Elizabeth; Teruya, Cheryl; Huang, David; Anglin, M. Douglas

2007-01-01

California's voter-initiated Proposition 36 offers non-violent drug offenders community-based treatment as an alternative to incarceration or probation without treatment. This article reports short-term treatment outcomes subsequent to this major shift in drug policy. Data are from 1104 individuals randomly selected from all Proposition 36…

The Effects of Proposition 209 on California: Higher Education, Public Employment, and Contracting

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Geshekter, Charles L.

2008-01-01

In 1996, Californians overwhelmingly approved Proposition 209, which prohibited all state agencies from discriminating on the basis of race, ethnicity, or gender in university admissions, public employment, or competition for a state contract. Opponents of Proposition 209 predicted dire consequences for California's ethnic minorities and women if…

Has California's Passage of Proposition 227 Made a Difference in the Way We Teach?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Arellano-Houchin, Anna; Flamenco, Claudia; Merlos, Moises M.; Segura, Lorena

2001-01-01

Examined how teachers were impacted by California's Proposition 227, highlighting changes in teaching styles and beliefs about the proposition and its effectiveness. Teachers had to change their teaching strategies to accommodate the new curriculum. They were not sufficiently trained for immediate implementation of English-only education. Teaching…

Plug-in hybrid electric vehicle value proposition study. Phase 1, task 2, select value proposition/business model for further study

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2008-04-01

The objective of Task 2 is to identify the combination of value propositions that is : believed to be achievable by 2030 and collectively hold promise for a sustainable : PHEV market by 2030. This deliverable outlines what the project team (with inpu...

Rethinking the Value Proposition to Improve Teaching Effectiveness. Rethinking Teacher Compensation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shields, Regis Anne; Lewis, Christopher

2012-01-01

All employers, including school districts, enter into a "Value Proposition" with their employees--the complete set of offerings and experiences provided by the employer, compared to other similar opportunities. A successful Value Proposition reflects the needs of both employer and employee, not only attracting and retaining employees with the…

Diagnostic Reasoning across the Medical Education Continuum.

PubMed

Smith, C Scott; Hill, William; Francovich, Chris; Morris, Magdalena; Robbins, Bruce; Robins, Lynne; Turner, Andrew

2014-07-15

We aimed to study linguistic and non-linguistic elements of diagnostic reasoning across the continuum of medical education. We performed semi-structured interviews of premedical students, first year medical students, third year medical students, second year internal medicine residents, and experienced faculty (ten each) as they diagnosed three common causes of dyspnea. A second observer recorded emotional tone. All interviews were digitally recorded and blinded transcripts were created. Propositional analysis and concept mapping were performed. Grounded theory was used to identify salient categories and transcripts were scored with these categories. Transcripts were then unblinded. Systematic differences in propositional structure, number of concept connections, distribution of grounded theory categories, episodic and semantic memories, and emotional tone were identified. Summary concept maps were created and grounded theory concepts were explored for each learning level. We identified three major findings: (1) The "apprentice effect" in novices (high stress and low narrative competence); (2) logistic concept growth in intermediates; and (3) a cognitive state transition (between analytical and intuitive approaches) in experts. These findings warrant further study and comparison.

How Proposition 227 Influences the Language Dynamics of a First- and Second-Grade Mathematics Lesson.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Paredes, Sara Micaela

2000-01-01

Interviews and observations of a first-grade mathematics class to determine the influence of Proposition 227 on limited-English-speaking students found that many initial fears about Proposition 227 were unfounded; student ability to cope was underestimated; teacher knowledge of Spanish and Latino culture was critical; and students' limited English…

California's Proposition 227: Implications and Costs of the Unz Initiative.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Council of the Great City Schools, Washington, DC.

Voters in California will vote June 2, 1998 to decide the fate of Proposition 227, a measure proposed by businessman Ron Unz that would substantially change the way that students who are not proficient in English are taught. If approved by the voters, Proposition 227, the Unz Initiative, would essentially eliminate bilingual education programs in…

If the Real World Were Irrelevant, so to Speak: The role of propositional truth-value in counterfactual sentence comprehension

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nieuwland, Mante S.; Martin, Andrea E.

2012-01-01

Propositional truth-value can be a defining feature of a sentence's relevance to the unfolding discourse, and establishing propositional truth-value in context can be key to successful interpretation. In the current study, we investigate its role in the comprehension of counterfactual conditionals, which describe imaginary consequences of…

MAC Protocol for Ad Hoc Networks Using a Genetic Algorithm

PubMed Central

Elizarraras, Omar; Panduro, Marco; Méndez, Aldo L.

2014-01-01

The problem of obtaining the transmission rate in an ad hoc network consists in adjusting the power of each node to ensure the signal to interference ratio (SIR) and the energy required to transmit from one node to another is obtained at the same time. Therefore, an optimal transmission rate for each node in a medium access control (MAC) protocol based on CSMA-CDMA (carrier sense multiple access-code division multiple access) for ad hoc networks can be obtained using evolutionary optimization. This work proposes a genetic algorithm for the transmission rate election considering a perfect power control, and our proposition achieves improvement of 10% compared with the scheme that handles the handshaking phase to adjust the transmission rate. Furthermore, this paper proposes a genetic algorithm that solves the problem of power combining, interference, data rate, and energy ensuring the signal to interference ratio in an ad hoc network. The result of the proposed genetic algorithm has a better performance (15%) compared to the CSMA-CDMA protocol without optimizing. Therefore, we show by simulation the effectiveness of the proposed protocol in terms of the throughput. PMID:25140339

Contradictory Reasoning Network: An EEG and fMRI Study

PubMed Central

Thai, Ngoc Jade; Seri, Stefano; Rotshtein, Pia; Tecchio, Franca

2014-01-01

Contradiction is a cornerstone of human rationality, essential for everyday life and communication. We investigated electroencephalographic (EEG) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in separate recording sessions during contradictory judgments, using a logical structure based on categorical propositions of the Aristotelian Square of Opposition (ASoO). The use of ASoO propositions, while controlling for potential linguistic or semantic confounds, enabled us to observe the spatial temporal unfolding of this contradictory reasoning. The processing started with the inversion of the logical operators corresponding to right middle frontal gyrus (rMFG-BA11) activation, followed by identification of contradictory statement associated with in the right inferior frontal gyrus (rIFG-BA47) activation. Right medial frontal gyrus (rMeFG, BA10) and anterior cingulate cortex (ACC, BA32) contributed to the later stages of process. We observed a correlation between the delayed latency of rBA11 response and the reaction time delay during inductive vs. deductive reasoning. This supports the notion that rBA11 is crucial for manipulating the logical operators. Slower processing time and stronger brain responses for inductive logic suggested that examples are easier to process than general principles and are more likely to simplify communication. PMID:24667491

Contradictory reasoning network: an EEG and FMRI study.

PubMed

Porcaro, Camillo; Medaglia, Maria Teresa; Thai, Ngoc Jade; Seri, Stefano; Rotshtein, Pia; Tecchio, Franca

2014-01-01

Contradiction is a cornerstone of human rationality, essential for everyday life and communication. We investigated electroencephalographic (EEG) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in separate recording sessions during contradictory judgments, using a logical structure based on categorical propositions of the Aristotelian Square of Opposition (ASoO). The use of ASoO propositions, while controlling for potential linguistic or semantic confounds, enabled us to observe the spatial temporal unfolding of this contradictory reasoning. The processing started with the inversion of the logical operators corresponding to right middle frontal gyrus (rMFG-BA11) activation, followed by identification of contradictory statement associated with in the right inferior frontal gyrus (rIFG-BA47) activation. Right medial frontal gyrus (rMeFG, BA10) and anterior cingulate cortex (ACC, BA32) contributed to the later stages of process. We observed a correlation between the delayed latency of rBA11 response and the reaction time delay during inductive vs. deductive reasoning. This supports the notion that rBA11 is crucial for manipulating the logical operators. Slower processing time and stronger brain responses for inductive logic suggested that examples are easier to process than general principles and are more likely to simplify communication.

Measuring what we manage - the importance of hydrological data to water resources management

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Stewart, B.

2015-04-01

Water resources cannot be managed, unless we know where they are, in what quantity and quality, and how variable they are likely to be in the foreseeable future. Data from hydrological networks are used by public and private sectors for a variety of different applications. This paper discusses the value proposition behind the collection, analysis and use of hydrological data in support of these applications. The need for hydrological data and the requirements for the data are outlined, and information is provided on topics such as status of networks and data access and sharing. This paper outlines elements of the contribution by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) to hydrological data collection and covers aspects related to quality management in the collection of hydrological data, especially regarding streamflow gauging, network design and capacity building for services delivery. It should be noted that the applications which make use of hydrological data may also be significantly impacted by climate change.

Gann Limit & Proposition 13: Negative Effects on Local Government Agencies, Inlcuding Schools & Community College Districts.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rodda, Albert S.

In fall 1978, Paul Gann, who worked with Howard Jarvis to pass California's Proposition 13 in June 1978, sought to qualify an intitiative placing a constitutional limit on state and local government expenditures. This initiative qualified and was approved by voters in November 1979 as Proposition 4. Gann's solicitation set the limitation's base…

Varying Use of Conceptual Metaphors across Levels of Expertise in Thermodynamics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jeppsson, Fredrik; Haglund, Jesper; Amin, Tamer G.

2015-04-01

Many studies have previously focused on how people with different levels of expertise solve physics problems. In early work, focus was on characterising differences between experts and novices and a key finding was the central role that propositionally expressed principles and laws play in expert, but not novice, problem-solving. A more recent line of research has focused on characterising continuity between experts and novices at the level of non-propositional knowledge structures and processes such as image-schemas, imagistic simulation and analogical reasoning. This study contributes to an emerging literature addressing the coordination of both propositional and non-propositional knowledge structures and processes in the development of expertise. Specifically, in this paper, we compare problem-solving across two levels of expertise-undergraduate students of chemistry and Ph.D. students in physical chemistry-identifying differences in how conceptual metaphors (CMs) are used (or not) to coordinate propositional and non-propositional knowledge structures in the context of solving problems on entropy. It is hypothesised that the acquisition of expertise involves learning to coordinate the use of CMs to interpret propositional (linguistic and mathematical) knowledge and apply it to specific problem situations. Moreover, we suggest that with increasing expertise, the use of CMs involves a greater degree of subjective engagement with physical entities and processes. Implications for research on learning and instructional practice are discussed. Third contribution to special issue entitled: Conceptual metaphor and embodied cognition in science learning

Nursing intellectual capital theory: testing selected propositions.

PubMed

Covell, Christine L; Sidani, Souraya

2013-11-01

To test the selected propositions of the middle-range theory of nursing intellectual capital. The nursing intellectual capital theory conceptualizes nursing knowledge's influence on patient and organizational outcomes. The theory proposes nursing human capital, nurses' knowledge, skills and experience, is related to the quality of patient care and nurse recruitment and retention of an inpatient care unit. Two factors in the work environment, nurse staffing and employer support for nurse continuing professional development, are proposed to influence nursing human capital's association with patient and organizational outcomes. A cross-sectional survey design. The study took place in 2008 in six Canadian acute care hospitals. Financial, human resource and risk data were collected from hospital departments and unit managers. Clearly specified empirical indicators quantified the study variables. The propositions of the theory were tested with data from 91 inpatient care units using structural equation modelling. The propositions associated with the nursing human capital concept were supported. The propositions associated with the employer support for nurse continuing professional development concept were not. The proposition that nurse staffing's influences on patient outcomes was mediated by the nursing human capital of an inpatient unit, was partially supported. Some of the theory's propositions were empirically validated. Additional theoretical work is needed to refine the operationalization and measurement of some of the theory's concepts. Further research with larger samples of data from different geographical settings and types of hospitals is required to determine if the theory can withstand empirical scrutiny. © 2013 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

EHR-based disease registries to support integrated care in a health neighbourhood: an ontology-based methodology.

PubMed

Liaw, Siaw-Teng; Taggart, Jane; Yu, Hairong

2014-01-01

Disease registries derived from Electronic Health Records (EHRs) are widely used for chronic disease management. We approached registries from the perspective of integrated care in a health neighbourhood, considering data quality issues such as semantic interoperability (consistency), accuracy, completeness and duplication. Our proposition is that a realist ontological approach is required to accurately identify patients in an EHR or data repository, assess data quality and fitness for use by the multidisciplinary integrated care team. We report on this approach with routinely collected data in a practice based research network in Australia.

Frequency and types of foods advertised on Saturday morning and weekday afternoon English- and Spanish-language American television programs.

PubMed

Bell, Robert A; Cassady, Diana; Culp, Jennifer; Alcalay, Rina

2009-01-01

To describe food advertised on networks serving children and youth, and to compare ads on English-language networks with ads on Spanish networks. Analysis of television food advertisements appearing on Saturday morning and weekday afternoons in 2005-2006. A random sample of 1,130 advertisements appearing on 12 networks catering to Spanish-language, children, youth, Black youth, and general audiences were analyzed. Each advertisement was coded for the nature of the item promoted, the selling propositions used, and any nutritional claims made. Cross-tabulations using Fisher's exact test (P < .05 criterion). One-fifth of commercials were for food. Food ads were especially prevalent on Saturday programs and children's networks. Seventy percent of food ads were for items high in sugar or fat. More than one fourth of food advertisements were for fast-food restaurants, which were especially common on MTV and Spanish-language networks. Ads for fruits and vegetables were rare (1.7%). One nutrition-related public service announcement was found for every 63 food ads. Food advertisements continue to promote less-healthful items. Until marketing of high calorie, low-nutrient food to children is restricted, education and media literacy remain the best strategies for mitigating advertising effects.

An Alternative Proposition to Lewis' Views on the "Constructions of Professional Identity in a Dynamic Higher Education Sector"

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Feather, Denis

2015-01-01

This paper offers an alternative proposition to that of Lewis on identity and professional identity in higher education (HE). The proposition is provided from the narratives of 26 individual interviewees who deliver HE in college-based higher education, a viewpoint not considered by Lewis, who tends to adopt a more generalist view. Where Lewis…

Inferred Propositions and the Expression of the Evidence Relation in Natural Language Evidentiality in Central Alaskan Yup'ik Eskimo and English

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Krawczyk, Elizabeth A.

2012-01-01

Evidentiality has usually been defined as the grammaticalized expression of a speaker's evidence source for a proposition, where "evidence" is conceptualized as a speaker's source-type for a particular proposition (Aikhenvald 2004). How this evidence source-type and the evidential are related has yet to be formally modeled in…

Proposition 2 1/2: Variations in Individual Preferences and Expectations across Communities.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ladd, Helen F.; Wilson, Julie Boatright

This paper uses data from a large statewide survey of Massachusetts residents to measure support for Proposition 2 1/2. Proposition 2 1/2 required high tax rate communities to reduce property tax levies 15 percent per year until the tax rate is reduced to the maximum allowable rate of 2 1/2 percent of full and fair market value. Specifically, this…

A Hierarchical Multi-Model Approach for Uncertainty Segregation, Prioritization and Comparative Evaluation of Competing Modeling Propositions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tsai, F. T.; Elshall, A. S.; Hanor, J. S.

2012-12-01

Subsurface modeling is challenging because of many possible competing propositions for each uncertain model component. How can we judge that we are selecting the correct proposition for an uncertain model component out of numerous competing propositions? How can we bridge the gap between synthetic mental principles such as mathematical expressions on one hand, and empirical observation such as observation data on the other hand when uncertainty exists on both sides? In this study, we introduce hierarchical Bayesian model averaging (HBMA) as a multi-model (multi-proposition) framework to represent our current state of knowledge and decision for hydrogeological structure modeling. The HBMA framework allows for segregating and prioritizing different sources of uncertainty, and for comparative evaluation of competing propositions for each source of uncertainty. We applied the HBMA to a study of hydrostratigraphy and uncertainty propagation of the Southern Hills aquifer system in the Baton Rouge area, Louisiana. We used geophysical data for hydrogeological structure construction through indictor hydrostratigraphy method and used lithologic data from drillers' logs for model structure calibration. However, due to uncertainty in model data, structure and parameters, multiple possible hydrostratigraphic models were produced and calibrated. The study considered four sources of uncertainties. To evaluate mathematical structure uncertainty, the study considered three different variogram models and two geological stationarity assumptions. With respect to geological structure uncertainty, the study considered two geological structures with respect to the Denham Springs-Scotlandville fault. With respect to data uncertainty, the study considered two calibration data sets. These four sources of uncertainty with their corresponding competing modeling propositions resulted in 24 calibrated models. The results showed that by segregating different sources of uncertainty, HBMA analysis provided insights on uncertainty priorities and propagation. In addition, it assisted in evaluating the relative importance of competing modeling propositions for each uncertain model component. By being able to dissect the uncertain model components and provide weighted representation of the competing propositions for each uncertain model component based on the background knowledge, the HBMA functions as an epistemic framework for advancing knowledge about the system under study.

Modeling of workflow-engaged networks on radiology transfers across a metro network.

PubMed

Camorlinga, Sergio; Schofield, Bruce

2006-04-01

Radiology metro networks bear the challenging proposition of interconnecting several hospitals in a region to provide a comprehensive diagnostic imaging service. Consequences of a poorly designed and implemented metro network could cause delays or no access at all when health care providers try to retrieve medical cases across the network. This could translate into limited diagnostic services to patients, resulting in negative impacts to the patients' medical treatment. A workflow-engaged network (WEN) is a new network paradigm. A WEN appreciates radiology workflows and priorities in using the network. A WEN greatly improves the network performance by guaranteeing that critical image transfers experience minimal delay. It adjusts network settings to ensure the application's requirements are met. This means that high-priority image transfers will have guaranteed and known delay times, whereas lower-priority traffic will have increased delays. This paper introduces a modeling to understand the benefits that WEN brings to a radiology metro network. The modeling uses actual data patterns and flows found in a hospital metro region. The workflows considered are based on the Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise profiles. This modeling has been applied to metropolitan workflows of a health region. The modeling helps identify the kind of metro network that supports data patterns and flows in a metro area. The results of the modeling show that a 155-Mb/s metropolitan area network (MAN) with WEN operates virtually equal to a normal 622-Mb/s MAN without WEN, with potential cost savings for leased line services measured in the millions of dollars per year.

Workforce Professionalism in Drug Treatment Services: Impact of California’s Proposition 36

PubMed Central

Wu, Fei; Hser, Yih-Ing

2011-01-01

This article investigates whether California’s Proposition 36 has promoted the workforce professionalism of drug treatment services during its first five years of implementation. Program surveys inquiring about organizational information, Proposition 36 implementation, and staffing were conducted in 2003 and 2005 among all treatment providers serving Proposition 36 clients in five selected California counties (San Diego, Riverside, Kern, Sacramento, and San Francisco). A one-hour self-administered questionnaire was completed by 118 treatment providers representing 102 programs. This article examines five topics that are relevant to drug treatment workforce professionalism: resources and capability, standardized intake assessment and outcome evaluation, staff qualification, program accreditation, and information technology. Results suggest that Proposition 36 had a positive influence on the drug treatment workforce’s professionalism. Improvements have been observed in program resources, client intake assessment and outcome evaluation databases, staff professionalization, program accreditation, and information technology system. However, some areas remain problematic, including, for example, the consistent lack of adequate resources serving women with children. PMID:21036513

Results Accountability for Proposition 10 Commissions: A Planning Guide for Improving the Well-Being of Young Children and Their Families. Building Community Systems for Young Children.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Friedman, Mark

As part of a series of reports designed to support the implementation of Proposition 10: The California Children and Families Act and to provide comprehensive and authoritative information on critical issues concerning young children and families in California, this report addresses how Proposition 10 Commissions can organize their work and their…

Recapitalization and Acquisition of Light Tactical Wheeled Vehicles (REDACTED)

DTIC Science & Technology

2010-01-29

representative from Red River Army Depot in Texarkana , Texas,18 stated that recapitalizing current HMMWVs to the XM1166 model was an excellent proposition...Red River Army Depot in Texarkana , Texas, stated that recapitalizing current HMMWVs to the XM1166 model was an excellent proposition. The Deputy...Army Depot in Texarkana , Texas, stated that recapitalizing current HMMWVs to the XM1166 model was an excellent proposition because the U.S

Using Correlation to Compute Better Probability Estimates in Plan Graphs

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bryce, Daniel; Smith, David E.

2006-01-01

Plan graphs are commonly used in planning to help compute heuristic "distance" estimates between states and goals. A few authors have also attempted to use plan graphs in probabilistic planning to compute estimates of the probability that propositions can be achieved and actions can be performed. This is done by propagating probability information forward through the plan graph from the initial conditions through each possible action to the action effects, and hence to the propositions at the next layer of the plan graph. The problem with these calculations is that they make very strong independence assumptions - in particular, they usually assume that the preconditions for each action are independent of each other. This can lead to gross overestimates in probability when the plans for those preconditions interfere with each other. It can also lead to gross underestimates of probability when there is synergy between the plans for two or more preconditions. In this paper we introduce a notion of the binary correlation between two propositions and actions within a plan graph, show how to propagate this information within a plan graph, and show how this improves probability estimates for planning. This notion of correlation can be thought of as a continuous generalization of the notion of mutual exclusion (mutex) often used in plan graphs. At one extreme (correlation=0) two propositions or actions are completely mutex. With correlation = 1, two propositions or actions are independent, and with correlation > 1, two propositions or actions are synergistic. Intermediate values can and do occur indicating different degrees to which propositions and action interfere or are synergistic. We compare this approach with another recent approach by Bryce that computes probability estimates using Monte Carlo simulation of possible worlds in plan graphs.

Political and Legal Responses to Proposition 13 in California

DTIC Science & Technology

1980-01-01

govern- ments. iii SUMMARY The passage of Proposition 13, the Jarvis-Gann initiative, by a 2-to- l margin was heralded by some as the cutting...perience with the passage of Proposition 13 in 1978 and the Gann initiative in 1979, it is likely that this ballot measure will pass. l Then local...91 I. INTRODUCTION June 6, 1978, marked the start of what some saw as a national tax revolt. By a 2-to- l margin

Managing expectations: cognitive authority and experienced control in complex healthcare processes.

PubMed

Hunt, Katherine J; May, Carl R

2017-07-05

Balancing the normative expectations of others (accountabilities) against the personal and distributed resources available to meet them (capacity) is a ubiquitous feature of social relations in many settings. This is an important problem in the management of long-term conditions, because of widespread problems of non-adherence to treatment regimens. Using long-term conditions as an example, we set out middle range theory of this balancing work. A middle-range theory was constructed four stages. First, a qualitative elicitation study of men with heart failure was used to develop general propositions about patient and care giver experience, and about the ways that the organisation and delivery of care affected this. Second, these propositions were developed and confirmed through a systematic review of qualitative research literature. Third, theoretical propositions and constructs were built, refined and presented as a logic model associated with two main theoretical propositions. Finally, a construct validation exercise was undertaken, in which construct definitions informed reanalysis of a set of systematic reviews of studies of patient and caregiver experiences of heart failure that had been included in an earlier meta-review. Cognitive Authority Theory identifies, characterises and explains negotiation processes in in which people manage their relations with the expectations of normative systems - like those encountered in the management of long-term conditions. Here, their cognitive authority is the product of an assessment of competence, trustworthiness and credibility made about a person by other participants in a healthcare process; and their experienced control is a function of the degree to which they successfully manage the external process-specific limiting factors that make it difficult to otherwise perform in their role. Cognitive Authority Theory assists in explaining how participants in complex social processes manage important relational aspects of inequalities in power and expertise. It can play an important part in understanding the dynamics of participation in healthcare processes. It suggests ways in which these burdens may lead to relationally induced non-adherence to treatment regimens and self-care programmes, and points to targets where intervention may reduce these adverse outcomes.

Harmony hurts: participation and silent conflict at an Indonesian fish pond.

PubMed

Tam, Chui-Ling

2006-07-01

Participatory environmental and resource management is premised on open communication to reach consensus. However, deliberate and open communication cannot adequately address silent conflict. This begs two questions. First, how is the existence of covert communication and silent conflict to be recognized and addressed? Second, how are the wider social relations and traditions that encompass communication and conflict to be described and explained? These questions revolve around communicative power. Communication of environmental knowledge is deeply embedded in social power structures, with direct implications for participatory resource planning and implementation. Ethnographic research conducted at a failed community-managed fish farming project in Southeast Sulawesi, Indonesia shows that a culture of harmony and respect for authority can silence environmental conflict in the hierarchical "community." Three propositions are offered. First, communication amnesia and exclusion jeopardize participation. Second, cultures of harmony and silent conflict shape planning processes and outcomes. Third, the weak use manipulation and communication strategy to acquire a "voice" while preserving harmony. These propositions address five unresolved issues in participatory resource management: analysis of groups, contextuality, social relationships, nonparticipants, and informal communication. Power, tradition, and social networks affect the valuing of knowledge relative to the power of different individuals and institutions to communicate priorities, values, and needs. These factors are critical to the inclusion of both participants and nonparticipants.

Beginning Typewriting: A Fifty-Fifty Proposition

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ivarie, Ted

1976-01-01

Beginning typewriting should be a 50-50 proposition with equal time devoted to machine operation and skill development and to language arts instruction in elementary and secondary education. (Author/LH)

Outcomes in a Sample of Opiod-Dependent Clients Treated Under California's Proposition 36.

PubMed

Chun, Jongserl; Guydish, Joseph R; Sorensen, James L; Haug, Nancy A; Andrews, Siara; Nelson, Larry

2007-07-01

This study evaluated treatment outcomes for the reduction of criminal justice involvement and substance use among opioid dependent clients in a therapeutic community setting under California's Proposition 36. We compared treatment outcomes between those mandated to treatment under Proposition 36 (n = 24) and those on probation but not involved in Proposition 36 (n = 61) over 12 months. Over time, both groups showed significant improvement on drug use and employment measures, were more likely to be involved in job training and less likely to be engaged in work activity, and had similar retention in treatment. There was no evidence that treatment outcomes were different between the two groups. These findings may be helpful in guiding policy makers and clinicians in states where similar initiatives are under consideration.

Astronomia.pl: Ideas for the International Year of Astronomy 2009

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Czart, K.; Pomierny, J.

2008-06-01

Astronomia.pl is an internet portal for Polish-speaking people. As a website, most of our activities in IYA2009 will focus on the internet and other electronic media. We will prepare a content-rich website, in cooperation with the Polish committee for IYA2009. We present some extended suggestions for ideas proposed by the IAU, like postage stamps or mobile phone wallpapers, ring tones and themes and some original propositions like naming a small Solar System body for each country, a computer game, a stadium as a solar clock, a media event with thousands of amateur astronomers in one place and a network of cities.

Evaluating the Generalization Value of Process-based Models in a Deep-in-time Machine Learning framework

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shen, C.; Fang, K.

2017-12-01

Deep Learning (DL) methods have made revolutionary strides in recent years. A core value proposition of DL is that abstract notions and patterns can be extracted purely from data, without the need for domain expertise. Process-based models (PBM), on the other hand, can be regarded as repositories of human knowledge or hypotheses about how systems function. Here, through computational examples, we argue that there is merit in integrating PBMs with DL due to the imbalance and lack of data in many situations, especially in hydrology. We trained a deep-in-time neural network, the Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM), to learn soil moisture dynamics from Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) Level 3 product. We show that when PBM solutions are integrated into LSTM, the network is able to better generalize across regions. LSTM is able to better utilize PBM solutions than simpler statistical methods. Our results suggest PBMs have generalization value which should be carefully assessed and utilized. We also emphasize that when properly regularized, the deep network is robust and is of superior testing performance compared to simpler methods.

Reasoning about logical propositions and success in science

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Piburn, Michael D.

1990-12-01

Students display a number of misconceptions when asked to reason about logical propositions. Rather than being random, these misconceptions are stereotypic, and relate to age, ability, and success in science. The grades in science achieved by tenth-grade general science students from two parochial single-sex schools in Australia correlated with their scores on the Propositional Logic Test. The students' ability level was consistently related to the pattern of errors they committed on that measure. Mean scores were lowest on a subtest of ability to use the biconditional and implication, higher on the disjunction, and highest on the conjunction. Success in science was predicted most strongly by the disjunction and biconditional subtests. Knowledge of the way in which a person reasons about logical propositions provides additional insights into the transformations information is subjected to as it is integrated into mental schemata.

Menzerath-Altmann law for distinct word distribution analysis in a large text

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Eroglu, Sertac

2013-06-01

The empirical law uncovered by Menzerath and formulated by Altmann, known as the Menzerath-Altmann law (henceforth the MA law), reveals the statistical distribution behavior of human language in various organizational levels. Building on previous studies relating organizational regularities in a language, we propose that the distribution of distinct (or different) words in a large text can effectively be described by the MA law. The validity of the proposition is demonstrated by examining two text corpora written in different languages not belonging to the same language family (English and Turkish). The results show not only that distinct word distribution behavior can accurately be predicted by the MA law, but that this result appears to be language-independent. This result is important not only for quantitative linguistic studies, but also may have significance for other naturally occurring organizations that display analogous organizational behavior. We also deliberately demonstrate that the MA law is a special case of the probability function of the generalized gamma distribution.

Comparing Future Options for Human Space Flight

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Sherwood, Brent

2010-01-01

The paper analyzes the "value proposition" for government-funded human space flight, a vexing question that persistently dogs efforts to justify its $10(exp 10)/year expense in the U.S. The original Mercury/Gemini/Apollo value proposition is not valid today. Neither was it the value proposition actually promoted by von Braun, which the post-Apollo 80% of human space flight history has persistently attempted to fulfill. Divergent potential objectives for human space flight are captured in four strategic options - Explore Mars; accelerate Space Passenger Travel; enable Space Power for Earth; and Settle the Moon - which are then analyzed for their Purpose, societal Myth, Legacy benefits, core Needs, and result as measured by the number and type of humans they would fly in space. This simple framework is proposed as a way to support productive dialogue with public and other stakeholders, to determine a sustainable value proposition for human space flight.

Changing your mind.

PubMed

Walsh, Clare R; Johnson-Laird, P N

2009-07-01

When individuals detect an inconsistency in a set of propositions, they tend to change their minds about at least one proposition to resolve the inconsistency. The orthodox view from William James (1907) onward has been that a rational change should be minimal. We propose an alternative hypothesis according to which individuals seek to resolve inconsistencies by explaining their origins. We report four experiments corroborating the explanatory hypothesis. Experiment 1 showed that participants' explanations revised general conditional claims rather than specific categorical propositions. Experiment 2 showed that, when explanations did revise the categorical proposition, participants also tended to deny the consequences of a second generalization. Experiment 3 showed that this tendency persists when participants previously affirmed these consequences explicitly. Experiment 4 showed that, when participants could easily explain an inconsistency by revising a generalization, they were more likely to accept the consequences of a second generalization. All four results contravene minimalism but support the explanatory hypothesis.

PROMISES THEY CAN KEEP: LOW-INCOME WOMEN’S ATTITUDES TOWARD MOTHERHOOD, MARRIAGE, AND DIVORCE

PubMed Central

Cherlin, Andrew; Cross-Barnet, Caitlin; Burton, Linda M.; Garrett-Peters, Raymond

2009-01-01

Using survey data on low-income mothers in Boston, Chicago, and San Antonio (n = 1,722) supplemented with ethnographic data, we test 3 propositions regarding mothers’ attitudes toward childbearing, marriage, and divorce. These are drawn from Edin & Kefalas (2005) but have also arisen in other recent studies. We find strong support for the proposition that childbearing outside of marriage carries little stigma, limited support for the proposition that women prefer to have children well before marrying, and almost no support for the proposition that women hesitate to marry because they fear divorce. We suggest that mothers’ attitudes and preferences in these 3 domains do not support the long delay between childbearing and marriage that has been noted in the literature. Throughout, we are able to study attitudes among several Hispanic groups as well as among African Americans and non-Hispanic Whites. PMID:19885381

Comparing future options for human space flight

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sherwood, Brent

2011-09-01

The paper analyzes the "value proposition" for government-funded human space flight, a vexing question that persistently dogs efforts to justify its $10 10/year expense in the US. The original Mercury/Gemini/Apollo value proposition is not valid today. Neither was it the value proposition actually promoted by von Braun, which the post-Apollo 80% of human space flight history has persistently attempted to fulfill. Divergent potential objectives for human space flight are captured in four strategic options— Explore Mars; accelerate Space Passenger Travel; enable Space Power for Earth; and Settle the Moon—which are then analyzed for their purpose, societal myth, legacy benefits, core needs, and result as measured by the number and type of humans they would fly in space. This simple framework is proposed as a way to support productive dialog with public and other stakeholders, to determine a sustainable value proposition for human space flight.

DNA strand displacement system running logic programs.

PubMed

Rodríguez-Patón, Alfonso; Sainz de Murieta, Iñaki; Sosík, Petr

2014-01-01

The paper presents a DNA-based computing model which is enzyme-free and autonomous, not requiring a human intervention during the computation. The model is able to perform iterated resolution steps with logical formulae in conjunctive normal form. The implementation is based on the technique of DNA strand displacement, with each clause encoded in a separate DNA molecule. Propositions are encoded assigning a strand to each proposition p, and its complementary strand to the proposition ¬p; clauses are encoded comprising different propositions in the same strand. The model allows to run logic programs composed of Horn clauses by cascading resolution steps. The potential of the model is demonstrated also by its theoretical capability of solving SAT. The resulting SAT algorithm has a linear time complexity in the number of resolution steps, whereas its spatial complexity is exponential in the number of variables of the formula. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Consumer demand as a driver of improved working conditions: the 'Ergo-Brand' proposition.

PubMed

Neumann, W Patrick; Dixon, Shane M; Nordvall, Anna-Carin

2014-01-01

This article develops and explores the 'Ergo-Brand' proposition, which posits that consumers may prefer to buy goods that are made under good working conditions (GWCs). This preference would enhance a differentiation strategy for companies, thereby fostering the application of ergonomics in production. This proposition is developed in the context of a narrative review of the literature on 'ethical consumerism'. This is supplemented with a survey study, conducted in both Canada and Sweden (n = 141) to explore this proposition. Results indicate that consumers would prefer goods made under GWCs, but not unconditionally as quality and price concerns were ranked higher. Access to information on the working conditions in production was seen as a barrier. Nevertheless, the Ergo-Brand concept may be a viable avenue in promoting attention towards ergonomics in companies - particularly if consumer habits are subject to intervention by advertising. Further research on this strategy is warranted.

Customer value propositions in business markets.

PubMed

Anderson, James C; Narus, James A; van Rossum, Wouter

2006-03-01

Examples of consumer value propositions that resonate with customers are exceptionally difficult to find. When properly constructed, value propositions force suppliers to focus on what their offerings are really worth. Once companies become disciplined about understanding their customers, they can make smarter choices about where to allocate scarce resources. The authors illuminate the pitfalls of current approaches, then present a systematic method for developing value propositions that are meaningful to target customers and that focus suppliers' efforts on creating superior value. When managers construct a customer value proposition, they often simply list all the benefits their offering might deliver. But the relative simplicity of this all-benefits approach may have a major drawback: benefit assertion. In other words, managers may claim advantages for features their customers don't care about in the least. Other suppliers try to answer the question, Why should our firm purchase your offering instead of your competitor's? But without a detailed understanding of the customer's requirements and preferences, suppliers can end up stressing points of difference that deliver relatively little value to the target customer. The pitfall with this approach is value presumption: assuming that any favorable points of difference must be valuable for the customer. Drawing on the best practices of a handful of suppliers in business markets, the authors advocate a resonating focus approach. Suppliers can provide simple, yet powerfully captivating, consumer value propositions by making their offerings superior on the few elements that matter most to target customers, demonstrating and documenting the value of this superior performance, and communicating it in a way that conveys a sophisticated understanding of the customer's business priorities.

Social network analysis of multi-stakeholder platforms in agricultural research for development: Opportunities and constraints for innovation and scaling.

PubMed

Hermans, Frans; Sartas, Murat; van Schagen, Boudy; van Asten, Piet; Schut, Marc

2017-01-01

Multi-stakeholder platforms (MSPs) are seen as a promising vehicle to achieve agricultural development impacts. By increasing collaboration, exchange of knowledge and influence mediation among farmers, researchers and other stakeholders, MSPs supposedly enhance their 'capacity to innovate' and contribute to the 'scaling of innovations'. The objective of this paper is to explore the capacity to innovate and scaling potential of three MSPs in Burundi, Rwanda and the South Kivu province located in the eastern part of Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). In order to do this, we apply Social Network Analysis and Exponential Random Graph Modelling (ERGM) to investigate the structural properties of the collaborative, knowledge exchange and influence networks of these MSPs and compared them against value propositions derived from the innovation network literature. Results demonstrate a number of mismatches between collaboration, knowledge exchange and influence networks for effective innovation and scaling processes in all three countries: NGOs and private sector are respectively over- and under-represented in the MSP networks. Linkages between local and higher levels are weak, and influential organisations (e.g., high-level government actors) are often not part of the MSP or are not actively linked to by other organisations. Organisations with a central position in the knowledge network are more sought out for collaboration. The scaling of innovations is primarily between the same type of organisations across different administrative levels, but not between different types of organisations. The results illustrate the potential of Social Network Analysis and ERGMs to identify the strengths and limitations of MSPs in terms of achieving development impacts.

Indoor Air Quality & Preventive Maintenance Value Proposition Worksheet

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

Part of our outreach and education to our webinar registrants is providing them a copy of the Value Proposition Worksheet which accompanies the webinar topic. For this particular webinar the topic is focused on IAQ and Preventive Maintenance.

Modeling and simulating networks of interdependent protein interactions.

PubMed

Stöcker, Bianca K; Köster, Johannes; Zamir, Eli; Rahmann, Sven

2018-05-21

Protein interactions are fundamental building blocks of biochemical reaction systems underlying cellular functions. The complexity and functionality of these systems emerge not only from the protein interactions themselves but also from the dependencies between these interactions, as generated by allosteric effects or mutual exclusion due to steric hindrance. Therefore, formal models for integrating and utilizing information about interaction dependencies are of high interest. Here, we describe an approach for endowing protein networks with interaction dependencies using propositional logic, thereby obtaining constrained protein interaction networks ("constrained networks"). The construction of these networks is based on public interaction databases as well as text-mined information about interaction dependencies. We present an efficient data structure and algorithm to simulate protein complex formation in constrained networks. The efficiency of the model allows fast simulation and facilitates the analysis of many proteins in large networks. In addition, this approach enables the simulation of perturbation effects, such as knockout of single or multiple proteins and changes of protein concentrations. We illustrate how our model can be used to analyze a constrained human adhesome protein network, which is responsible for the formation of diverse and dynamic cell-matrix adhesion sites. By comparing protein complex formation under known interaction dependencies versus without dependencies, we investigate how these dependencies shape the resulting repertoire of protein complexes. Furthermore, our model enables investigating how the interplay of network topology with interaction dependencies influences the propagation of perturbation effects across a large biochemical system. Our simulation software CPINSim (for Constrained Protein Interaction Network Simulator) is available under the MIT license at http://github.com/BiancaStoecker/cpinsim and as a Bioconda package (https://bioconda.github.io).

Hierarchical structure of biological systems

PubMed Central

Alcocer-Cuarón, Carlos; Rivera, Ana L; Castaño, Victor M

2014-01-01

A general theory of biological systems, based on few fundamental propositions, allows a generalization of both Wierner and Berthalanffy approaches to theoretical biology. Here, a biological system is defined as a set of self-organized, differentiated elements that interact pair-wise through various networks and media, isolated from other sets by boundaries. Their relation to other systems can be described as a closed loop in a steady-state, which leads to a hierarchical structure and functioning of the biological system. Our thermodynamical approach of hierarchical character can be applied to biological systems of varying sizes through some general principles, based on the exchange of energy information and/or mass from and within the systems. PMID:24145961

Hierarchical structure of biological systems: a bioengineering approach.

PubMed

Alcocer-Cuarón, Carlos; Rivera, Ana L; Castaño, Victor M

2014-01-01

A general theory of biological systems, based on few fundamental propositions, allows a generalization of both Wierner and Berthalanffy approaches to theoretical biology. Here, a biological system is defined as a set of self-organized, differentiated elements that interact pair-wise through various networks and media, isolated from other sets by boundaries. Their relation to other systems can be described as a closed loop in a steady-state, which leads to a hierarchical structure and functioning of the biological system. Our thermodynamical approach of hierarchical character can be applied to biological systems of varying sizes through some general principles, based on the exchange of energy information and/or mass from and within the systems.

Correlates of hepatitis B virus health-related behaviors of Korean Americans: a situation-specific nursing theory.

PubMed

Lee, Haeok; Fawcett, Jacqueline; Yang, Jin Hyang; Hann, Hie-Won

2012-12-01

The purpose of this article is to explain the evolution of a situation-specific theory developed to enhance understanding of health-related behaviors of Korean Americans (KAs) who have or are at risk for a chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection. The situation-specific theory evolved from an integration of the Network Episode Model, studies of health-related behaviors of people with HBV infection, and our studies of and practice experiences with Asian American individuals with HBV infection. The major concepts of the theory are sociocultural context, social network, individual-level factors, illness experience, and health-related behaviors. The major propositions of the theory are that sociocultural context, social network, and individual-level factors influence the illness experience, and that sociocultural context, social network, individual-level factors, and the illness experience influence health-related behaviors of KAs who have or are at risk for HBV infection. This situation-specific theory represents a translation of abstract concepts into clinical reality. The theory is an explanation of correlates of health-related HBV behaviors of KAs. The next step is to develop and test the effectiveness of a nursing intervention designed to promote behaviors that will enhance the health of KAs who have or are at risk for HBV infection, and that takes into account sociocultural context, social network, individual-level factors, and illness experience. © 2012 Sigma Theta Tau International.

Neighborhood adversity, ethnic diversity, and weak social cohesion and social networks predict high rates of maternal depressive symptoms: a critical realist ecological study in South Western Sydney, Australia.

PubMed

Eastwood, John Graeme; Kemp, Lynn Ann; Jalaludin, Bin Badrudin; Phung, Hai Ngoc

2013-01-01

The aim of the study reported here is to explore ecological covariate and latent variable associations with perinatal depressive symptoms in South Western Sydney for the purpose of informing subsequent theory generation of perinatal context, depression, and the developmental origins of health and disease. Mothers (n = 15,389) delivering in 2002 and 2003 were assessed at two to three weeks after delivery for risk factors for depressive symptoms. The binary outcome variables were Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS)> 9 and > 12. Aggregated EPDS > 9 was analyzed for 101 suburbs. Suburb-level variables were drawn from the 2001 Australian Census, New South Wales Crime Statistics, and aggregated individual-level risk factors. Analysis included exploratory factor analysis, univariate and multivariate likelihood, and Bayesian linear regression with conditional autoregressive components. The exploratory factor analysis identified six factors: neighborhood adversity, social cohesion, health behaviors, housing quality, social services, and support networks. Variables associated with neighborhood adversity, social cohesion, social networks, and ethnic diversity were consistently associated with aggregated depressive symptoms. The findings support the theoretical proposition that neighborhood adversity causes maternal psychological distress and depression within the context of social buffers including social networks, social cohesion, and social services.

Structurally Integrated Versus Structurally Segregated Memory Representations: Implications for the Design of Instructional Materials.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hayes-Roth, Barbara

Two kinds of memory organization are distinguished: segregrated versus integrated. In segregated memory organizations, related learned propositions have separate memory representations. In integrated memory organizations, memory representations of related propositions share common subrepresentations. Segregated memory organizations facilitate…

Comments on "The Acquisition of Propositional Logic and Formal Operational Schemata during the Secondary School Years."

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Treagust, David F.

1979-01-01

Comments on the study reported by Lawson, Karplus, and Adi (1978) which indicated that formal schemata and propositional logic are not part of the same structured unity of mental operations proposed by Piaget. (HM)

Probabilistic evaluation of n traces with no putative source: A likelihood ratio based approach in an investigative framework.

PubMed

De March, I; Sironi, E; Taroni, F

2016-09-01

Analysis of marks recovered from different crime scenes can be useful to detect a linkage between criminal cases, even though a putative source for the recovered traces is not available. This particular circumstance is often encountered in the early stage of investigations and thus, the evaluation of evidence association may provide useful information for the investigators. This association is evaluated here from a probabilistic point of view: a likelihood ratio based approach is suggested in order to quantify the strength of the evidence of trace association in the light of two mutually exclusive propositions, namely that the n traces come from a common source or from an unspecified number of sources. To deal with this kind of problem, probabilistic graphical models are used, in form of Bayesian networks and object-oriented Bayesian networks, allowing users to intuitively handle with uncertainty related to the inferential problem. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Beyond strategy: exploring the brokerage role of facilities manager in hospitals.

PubMed

Heng, H K S; McGeorge, W D; Loosemore, M

2005-01-01

Seeks to explore the brokerage role of facilities manager in hospitals, based on the premise that facilities management (FM) is largely concerned with "strategic brokerage". Strategic brokerage is the term coined by Akhaghi to explain the integration of a wide range of support services to ensure the effective operation of the core business of an organization. The research was conducted in the health service sector using a single case study approach to examine the brokerage potential for FM in a hospital in the Sydney Metropolitan area. A social network analysis technique was used to identify and analyse the communication networks of players in a hospital environment. Two general questions guided the analysis. First, what is the brokerage potential within the FM process? Second, where are the opportunities for brokerage? The results indicate that identifying relationship linkages between different functional units can create potential brokerage opportunities. The proposition is made that viewing FM from a brokerage perspective can add value to the delivery of health-care services.

Comprehensive risk reduction in patients with atrial fibrillation: emerging diagnostic and therapeutic options—a report from the 3rd Atrial Fibrillation Competence NETwork/European Heart Rhythm Association consensus conference

PubMed Central

Kirchhof, Paulus; Lip, Gregory Y.H.; Van Gelder, Isabelle C.; Bax, Jeroen; Hylek, Elaine; Kaab, Stefan; Schotten, Ulrich; Wegscheider, Karl; Boriani, Giuseppe; Brandes, Axel; Ezekowitz, Michael; Diener, Hans; Haegeli, Laurent; Heidbuchel, Hein; Lane, Deirdre; Mont, Luis; Willems, Stephan; Dorian, Paul; Aunes-Jansson, Maria; Blomstrom-Lundqvist, Carina; Borentain, Maria; Breitenstein, Stefanie; Brueckmann, Martina; Cater, Nilo; Clemens, Andreas; Dobrev, Dobromir; Dubner, Sergio; Edvardsson, Nils G.; Friberg, Leif; Goette, Andreas; Gulizia, Michele; Hatala, Robert; Horwood, Jenny; Szumowski, Lukas; Kappenberger, Lukas; Kautzner, Josef; Leute, Angelika; Lobban, Trudie; Meyer, Ralf; Millerhagen, Jay; Morgan, John; Muenzel, Felix; Nabauer, Michael; Baertels, Christoph; Oeff, Michael; Paar, Dieter; Polifka, Juergen; Ravens, Ursula; Rosin, Ludger; Stegink, W.; Steinbeck, Gerhard; Vardas, Panos; Vincent, Alphons; Walter, Maureen; Breithardt, Günter; Camm, A. John

2012-01-01

While management of atrial fibrillation (AF) patients is improved by guideline-conform application of anticoagulant therapy, rate control, rhythm control, and therapy of accompanying heart disease, the morbidity and mortality associated with AF remain unacceptably high. This paper describes the proceedings of the 3rd Atrial Fibrillation NETwork (AFNET)/European Heart Rhythm Association (EHRA) consensus conference that convened over 60 scientists and representatives from industry to jointly discuss emerging therapeutic and diagnostic improvements to achieve better management of AF patients. The paper covers four chapters: (i) risk factors and risk markers for AF; (ii) pathophysiological classification of AF; (iii) relevance of monitored AF duration for AF-related outcomes; and (iv) perspectives and needs for implementing better antithrombotic therapy. Relevant published literature for each section is covered, and suggestions for the improvement of management in each area are put forward. Combined, the propositions formulate a perspective to implement comprehensive management in AF. PMID:21791573

Power laws and extreme values in antibody repertoires

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Boyer, Sebastien; Biswas, Dipanwita; Scaramozzino, Natale; Kumar, Ananda Soshee; Nizak, Clément; Rivoire, Olivier

2015-03-01

Evolution by natural selection involves the succession of three steps: mutations, selection and proliferation. We are interested in describing and characterizing the result of selection over a population of many variants. After selection, this population will be dominated by the few best variants, with highest propensity to be selected, or highest ``selectivity.'' We ask the following question: how is the selectivity of the best variants distributed in the population? Extreme value theory, which characterizes the extreme tail of probability distributions in terms of a few universality class, has been proposed to describe it. To test this proposition and identify the relevant universality class, we performed quantitative in vitro experimental selections of libraries of >105 antibodies using the technique of phage display. Data obtained by high-throughput sequencing allows us to fit the selectivity distribution over more than two decades. In most experiments, the results show a striking power law for the selectivity distribution of the top antibodies, consistent with extreme value theory.

Semantic Information and the Syntax of Propositional Attitude Verbs

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

White, Aaron S.; Hacquard, Valentine; Lidz, Jeffrey

2018-01-01

Propositional attitude verbs, such as "think" and "want," have long held interest for both theoretical linguists and language acquisitionists because their syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic properties display complex interactions that have proven difficult to fully capture from either perspective. This paper explores the…

Intra-Organizational Conflict in Schools.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wynn, Richard

There is no abundance of research on intra-organizational conflict, and there are no simple answers to the tricky business of managing organizational conflicts. This paper states some propositions about conflict and suggests some management stratagems that can be used in sustaining constructive organizational characteristics. The propositions are…

Value and Performance in the IT Society.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bryson, Jo

This paper discusses valuing information and its supporting technologies in the global environment. Different value propositions are explored from a financial, social, cultural, political, economic, corporate, and personal values perspective. Various means of measuring the relevancy of these value propositions to the individual, organization or…

Evaluation of Career Development Programs from an Action Perspective.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Young, Richard A.; Valach, Ladislav

1994-01-01

Presents action-theoretical approach to evaluation of career development programs based on constructionist epistemology. Propositions from action-theoretical perspective center around career and action as related, interpretative constructs. Propositions give rise to implications for evaluation of career programs that address ongoing nature of…

Propositional Versus Dual-Process Accounts of Evaluative Conditioning: I. The Effects of Co-Occurrence and Relational Information on Implicit and Explicit Evaluations.

PubMed

Hu, Xiaoqing; Gawronski, Bertram; Balas, Robert

2017-01-01

Evaluative conditioning (EC) is defined as the change in the evaluation of a conditioned stimulus (CS) due to its pairing with a valenced unconditioned stimulus (US). According to propositional accounts, EC effects should be qualified by the relation between the CS and the US. Dual-process accounts suggest that relational information should qualify EC effects on explicit evaluations, whereas implicit evaluations should reflect the frequency of CS-US co-occurrences. Experiments 1 and 2 showed that, when relational information was provided before the encoding of CS-US pairings, it moderated EC effects on explicit, but not implicit, evaluations. In Experiment 3, relational information moderated EC effects on both explicit and implicit evaluations when it was provided simultaneously with CS-US pairings. Frequency of CS-US pairings had no effect on implicit evaluations. Although the results can be reconciled with both propositional and dual-process accounts, they are more parsimoniously explained by propositional accounts.

A Bayesian account of quantum histories

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

Marlow, Thomas

2006-05-15

We investigate whether quantum history theories can be consistent with Bayesian reasoning and whether such an analysis helps clarify the interpretation of such theories. First, we summarise and extend recent work categorising two different approaches to formalising multi-time measurements in quantum theory. The standard approach consists of describing an ordered series of measurements in terms of history propositions with non-additive 'probabilities.' The non-standard approach consists of defining multi-time measurements to consist of sets of exclusive and exhaustive history propositions and recovering the single-time exclusivity of results when discussing single-time history propositions. We analyse whether such history propositions can be consistentmore » with Bayes' rule. We show that certain class of histories are given a natural Bayesian interpretation, namely, the linearly positive histories originally introduced by Goldstein and Page. Thus, we argue that this gives a certain amount of interpretational clarity to the non-standard approach. We also attempt a justification of our analysis using Cox's axioms of probability theory.« less

Leveraging the real value of laboratory medicine with the value proposition.

PubMed

Price, Christopher P; John, Andrew St; Christenson, Robert; Scharnhorst, Volker; Oellerich, Michael; Jones, Patricia; Morris, Howard A

2016-11-01

Improving quality and patient safety, containing costs and delivering value-for-money are the key drivers of change in the delivery of healthcare and have stimulated a shift from an activity-based service to a service based on patient-outcomes. The delivery of an outcomes-based healthcare agenda requires that the real value of laboratory medicine to all stakeholders be understood, effectively defined and communicated. The value proposition of any product or service is the link between the provider and the needs of the customer describing the utility of the product or service in terms of benefit to the customer. The framework of a value proposition for laboratory medicine provides the core business case that drives key activities in the evolution and maintenance of high quality healthcare from research through to adoption and quality improvement in an established service. The framework of a value proposition for laboratory medicine is described. The content is endorsed by IFCC and WASPaLM. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Modified Dempster-Shafer approach using an expected utility interval decision rule

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cheaito, Ali; Lecours, Michael; Bosse, Eloi

1999-03-01

The combination operation of the conventional Dempster- Shafer algorithm has a tendency to increase exponentially the number of propositions involved in bodies of evidence by creating new ones. The aim of this paper is to explore a 'modified Dempster-Shafer' approach of fusing identity declarations emanating form different sources which include a number of radars, IFF and ESM systems in order to limit the explosion of the number of propositions. We use a non-ad hoc decision rule based on the expected utility interval to select the most probable object in a comprehensive Platform Data Base containing all the possible identity values that a potential target may take. We study the effect of the redistribution of the confidence levels of the eliminated propositions which otherwise overload the real-time data fusion system; these eliminated confidence levels can in particular be assigned to ignorance, or uniformly added to the remaining propositions and to ignorance. A scenario has been selected to demonstrate the performance of our modified Dempster-Shafer method of evidential reasoning.

Exploiting Outage and Error Probability of Cooperative Incremental Relaying in Underwater Wireless Sensor Networks

PubMed Central

Nasir, Hina; Javaid, Nadeem; Sher, Muhammad; Qasim, Umar; Khan, Zahoor Ali; Alrajeh, Nabil; Niaz, Iftikhar Azim

2016-01-01

This paper embeds a bi-fold contribution for Underwater Wireless Sensor Networks (UWSNs); performance analysis of incremental relaying in terms of outage and error probability, and based on the analysis proposition of two new cooperative routing protocols. Subject to the first contribution, a three step procedure is carried out; a system model is presented, the number of available relays are determined, and based on cooperative incremental retransmission methodology, closed-form expressions for outage and error probability are derived. Subject to the second contribution, Adaptive Cooperation in Energy (ACE) efficient depth based routing and Enhanced-ACE (E-ACE) are presented. In the proposed model, feedback mechanism indicates success or failure of data transmission. If direct transmission is successful, there is no need for relaying by cooperative relay nodes. In case of failure, all the available relays retransmit the data one by one till the desired signal quality is achieved at destination. Simulation results show that the ACE and E-ACE significantly improves network performance, i.e., throughput, when compared with other incremental relaying protocols like Cooperative Automatic Repeat reQuest (CARQ). E-ACE and ACE achieve 69% and 63% more throughput respectively as compared to CARQ in hard underwater environment. PMID:27420061

Low-Cost, Robust, Threat-Aware Wireless Sensor Network for Assuring the Nation's Energy Infrastructure

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

Carols H. Rentel

2007-03-31

Eaton, in partnership with Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) has completed a project that applies a combination of wireless sensor network (WSN) technology, anticipatory theory, and a near-term value proposition based on diagnostics and process uptime to ensure the security and reliability of critical electrical power infrastructure. Representatives of several Eaton business units have been engaged to ensure a viable commercialization plan. Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), American Electric Power (AEP), PEPCO, and Commonwealth Edison were recruited as partners to confirm and refine the requirements definition from the perspective of the utilities that actually operatemore » the facilities to be protected. Those utilities have cooperated with on-site field tests as the project proceeds. Accomplishments of this project included: (1) the design, modeling, and simulation of the anticipatory wireless sensor network (A-WSN) that will be used to gather field information for the anticipatory application, (2) the design and implementation of hardware and software prototypes for laboratory and field experimentation, (3) stack and application integration, (4) develop installation and test plan, and (5) refinement of the commercialization plan.« less

The Political Spectacle of Arizona's Proposition 203

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wright, Wayne E.

2005-01-01

Arizona's Proposition 203 places restrictions on bilingual and English-as-a-second-language programs and essentiality mandates English-only education for English language learners (ELLs). This article provides an analysis of this initiative and the wide variations in its interpretation and implementation. Data sources include official policy and…

An Empirical Derivation of Hierarchies of Propositions Related to Ten of Piaget's Sixteen Binary Operations

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Benefield, K. Elaine; Capie, William

1976-01-01

A group of students from grades four through twelve were tested on ten binary operations in four truth conditions. It was found that propositional operations which had greater inclusiveness or breadth of concepts were more difficult to comprehend. (MLH)

Some Propositions about the Role of the School in the Formation of Political Behavior and Political Attitudes of Students: Cross National Perspectives

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Massialas, Byron G.

1975-01-01

This paper identifies some important propositions, which issue from fourteen studies of political socialization, points to research gaps, and draws implications for the planning of political education programs in schools. (Author/RK)

MOOCs: Branding, Enrollment, and Multiple Measures of Success

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Leeds, Elke M.; Cope, Jim

2015-01-01

KSU redefined the MOOC value proposition through collaboration of university leadership and faculty. The new proposition shifts measures of success beyond just course completion to include measures that benefit students, faculty, and the institution. Students benefitted through access to open educational resources, the acquisition of professional…

Sex Differences, Positive Feedback and Intrinsic Motivation.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Deci, Edward L.; And Others

The paper presents two experiments which test the "change in feelings of competence and self-determination" proposition of cognitive evaluation theory. This proposition states that when a person receives feedback about his performance on an intrinsically motivated activity this information will affect his sense of competence and…

Management Planning and Control: Supporting Knowledge-Intensive Organizations

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Herremans, Irene M.; Isaac, Robert G.

2005-01-01

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to develop propositions for empirical validation regarding appropriate management planning and control systems (MPACS) in knowledge-intensive organizations. Design/methodology/approach: The propositions were developed from interviews with members of a knowledge-intensive virtual organization that is known for…

Constructing Matching Texts in Two Languages: The Application of Propositional Analysis.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Valdes, Guadalupe; And Others

1984-01-01

Discusses how current procedures for selecting/constructing equivalent texts may lead to error because of their specific limitations; proposes the utilization of micro-propositional analysis coupled with word-frequency lists and readability formulas for constructing "matching" texts; presents some procedures which researchers working in…

The HPT Value Proposition in the Larger Improvement Arena.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wallace, Guy W.

2003-01-01

Discussion of human performance technology (HPT) emphasizes the key variable, which is the human variable. Highlights include the Ishikawa Diagram; human performance as one variable of process performance; collaborating with other improvement approaches; value propositions; and benefits to stakeholders, including real return on investments. (LRW)

Automated Proposition Density Analysis for Discourse in Aphasia.

PubMed

Fromm, Davida; Greenhouse, Joel; Hou, Kaiyue; Russell, G Austin; Cai, Xizhen; Forbes, Margaret; Holland, Audrey; MacWhinney, Brian

2016-10-01

This study evaluates how proposition density can differentiate between persons with aphasia (PWA) and individuals in a control group, as well as among subtypes of aphasia, on the basis of procedural discourse and personal narratives collected from large samples of participants. Participants were 195 PWA and 168 individuals in a control group from the AphasiaBank database. PWA represented 6 aphasia types on the basis of the Western Aphasia Battery-Revised (Kertesz, 2006). Narrative samples were stroke stories for PWA and illness or injury stories for individuals in the control group. Procedural samples were from the peanut-butter-and-jelly-sandwich task. Language samples were transcribed using Codes for the Human Analysis of Transcripts (MacWhinney, 2000) and analyzed using Computerized Language Analysis (MacWhinney, 2000), which automatically computes proposition density (PD) using rules developed for automatic PD measurement by the Computerized Propositional Idea Density Rater program (Brown, Snodgrass, & Covington, 2007; Covington, 2007). Participants in the control group scored significantly higher than PWA on both tasks. PD scores were significantly different among the aphasia types for both tasks. Pairwise comparisons for both discourse tasks revealed that PD scores for the Broca's group were significantly lower than those for all groups except Transcortical Motor. No significant quadratic or linear association between PD and severity was found. Proposition density is differentially sensitive to aphasia type and most clearly differentiates individuals with Broca's aphasia from the other groups.

A test of the cross-scale resilience model: Functional richness in Mediterranean-climate ecosystems

USGS Publications Warehouse

Wardwell, D.A.; Allen, Craig R.; Peterson, G.D.; Tyre, A.J.

2008-01-01

Ecological resilience has been proposed to be generated, in part, in the discontinuous structure of complex systems. Environmental discontinuities are reflected in discontinuous, aggregated animal body mass distributions. Diversity of functional groups within body mass aggregations (scales) and redundancy of functional groups across body mass aggregations (scales) has been proposed to increase resilience. We evaluate that proposition by analyzing mammalian and avian communities of Mediterranean-climate ecosystems. We first determined that body mass distributions for each animal community were discontinuous. We then calculated the variance in richness of function across aggregations in each community, and compared observed values with distributions created by 1000 simulations using a null of random distribution of function, with the same n, number of discontinuities and number of functional groups as the observed data. Variance in the richness of functional groups across scales was significantly lower in real communities than in simulations in eight of nine sites. The distribution of function across body mass aggregations in the animal communities we analyzed was non-random, and supports the contentions of the cross-scale resilience model. ?? 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Social network analysis of multi-stakeholder platforms in agricultural research for development: Opportunities and constraints for innovation and scaling

PubMed Central

Hermans, Frans; Sartas, Murat; van Schagen, Boudy; van Asten, Piet

2017-01-01

Multi-stakeholder platforms (MSPs) are seen as a promising vehicle to achieve agricultural development impacts. By increasing collaboration, exchange of knowledge and influence mediation among farmers, researchers and other stakeholders, MSPs supposedly enhance their ‘capacity to innovate’ and contribute to the ‘scaling of innovations’. The objective of this paper is to explore the capacity to innovate and scaling potential of three MSPs in Burundi, Rwanda and the South Kivu province located in the eastern part of Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). In order to do this, we apply Social Network Analysis and Exponential Random Graph Modelling (ERGM) to investigate the structural properties of the collaborative, knowledge exchange and influence networks of these MSPs and compared them against value propositions derived from the innovation network literature. Results demonstrate a number of mismatches between collaboration, knowledge exchange and influence networks for effective innovation and scaling processes in all three countries: NGOs and private sector are respectively over- and under-represented in the MSP networks. Linkages between local and higher levels are weak, and influential organisations (e.g., high-level government actors) are often not part of the MSP or are not actively linked to by other organisations. Organisations with a central position in the knowledge network are more sought out for collaboration. The scaling of innovations is primarily between the same type of organisations across different administrative levels, but not between different types of organisations. The results illustrate the potential of Social Network Analysis and ERGMs to identify the strengths and limitations of MSPs in terms of achieving development impacts. PMID:28166226

Family Size, Interaction, Affect and Stress

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nye, F. Ivan; And Others

1970-01-01

Synthesizes previous research on relationship of family size to attitudes. Reduces findings to four propositions and submits these propositions to additional tests utilizing secondary data from two large surveys. Substantively, families of three or four children rank lower in all of the analyses than do families with one or two children. Presented…

The Majority Rule Act. EdSource Election Brief: Proposition 26.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

EdSource, Inc., Palo Alto, CA.

This article summarizes "The Majority Rule Act for Smaller Classes, Safer Schools and Financial Accountability" (Proposition 26). The Majority Rule Act deals with the percentage vote that a school district, county office of education, or community college, needs in an election to authorize local general-obligation bonds for school…

Supporting Parents through Parent Education. Building Community Systems for Young Children.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zepeda, Marlene; Morales, Alex

California's Proposition 10, the "Children and Families Act," has targeted three general areas for improvement in support of families and young children: improved family functioning, improved child development, and improved child health. Proposition 10 views parents as critical to the development of young children. Noting that parent…

Where Does Good Evidence Come from?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gorard, Stephen; Cook, Thomas

2007-01-01

This article started as a debate between the two authors. Both authors present a series of propositions about quality standards in education research. Cook's propositions, as might be expected, not only concern the importance of experimental trials for establishing the security of causal evidence, but also include some important practical and…

Dismantling Bilingual Education Implementing English Immersion: The California Initiative.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rossell, Christine H.

This study explored bilingual education in California, analyzing California law on instruction for English Learners before and after Proposition 227. Proposition 227 required that all English Learners (EL) participate in a sheltered English immersion program in which most instruction was in English with curriculum and presentation designed for…

Vocational Preferences and College Expectations: An Extension of Holland's Principle of Self-Selection

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pike, Gary R.

2006-01-01

Holland's theory of vocational preferences provides a powerful framework for studying students' college experiences. A basic proposition of Holland's theory is that individuals actively seek out and select environments that are congruent with their personality types. Although studies consistently support the self-selection proposition, they have…

Recent Social Movements and Theories of Power in America.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McFarland, Andrew S.

A number of propositions about power in America--taken from the work of Olson, Lowi, McConnell, Schattschneider, and Edelman--are presented and discussed. These propositions comprise an alternative theory to pluralism, which is termed "plural elitism." But neither pluralism nor plural elitism explains the emergence and effects of the…

The Relationship between Mathematical Induction, Proposition Functions, and Implication Functions

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Andrew, Lane

2010-01-01

In this study, I explored the relationship between mathematical induction ability and proposition and implication functions through a mixed methods approach. Students from three universities (N = 78) and 6 classrooms completed a written assessment testing their conceptual and procedural capabilities with induction and functions. In addition, I…

Discriminantly Valid Personality Measures: Some Propositions. Research Bulletin No. 339.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jackson, Douglas N.

Starting with the premise that the construct-oriented approach is the only viable approach to personality assessment, this paper considers five propositions. First, a prerequisite to generalizable and valid psychometric measurement of personality rests on the choice of broad-based constructs with systematic univocal definitions. Next, measures…

Two Propositions on the Application of Point Elasticities to Finite Price Changes.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Daskin, Alan J.

1992-01-01

Considers counterintuitive propositions about using point elasticities to estimate quantity changes in response to price changes. Suggests that elasticity increases with price along a linear demand curve, but falling quantity demand offsets it. Argues that point elasticity with finite percentage change in price only approximates percentage change…

Complex Knowledge Mastery: Some Propositions.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Keller, Joyce A.; Schallert, Diane L.

The proposition that the mastery of complex tasks embodies several components was studied for 236 students in an undergraduate introductory financial accounting course. A new curriculum was developed for the course that included in-depth exposure to the actual financial statements of a company and the understanding of the structural relationships…

Cognitive Integrity Predicts Transitive Inference Performance Bias and Success

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Moses, Sandra N.; Villate, Christina; Binns, Malcolm A.; Davidson, Patrick S. R.; Ryan, Jennifer D.

2008-01-01

Transitive inference has traditionally been regarded as a relational proposition-based reasoning task, however, recent investigations question the validity of this assumption. Although some results support the use of a relational proposition-based approach, other studies find evidence for the use of associative learning. We examined whether…

Consensus among Economists--An Update

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fuller, Dan; Geide-Stevenson, Doris

2014-01-01

In this article, the authors explore consensus among economists on specific propositions based on a fall 2011 survey of American Economic Association members. Results are based on 568 responses and provide evidence of changes in opinion over time by including propositions from earlier studies in 2000 (Fuller and Geide-Stevenson 2003) and 1992…

How to make loss aversion disappear and reverse: tests of the decision by sampling origin of loss aversion.

PubMed

Walasek, Lukasz; Stewart, Neil

2015-02-01

One of the most robust empirical findings in the behavioral sciences is loss aversion--the finding that losses loom larger than gains. We offer a new psychological explanation of the origins of loss aversion in which loss aversion emerges from differences in the distribution of gains and losses people experience. In 4 experiments, we tested this proposition by manipulating the range of gains and losses that individuals saw during the process of eliciting their loss aversion. We were able to find loss aversion, loss neutrality, and even the reverse of loss aversion.

Specifying structural constraints of architectural patterns in the ARCHERY language

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

Sanchez, Alejandro; HASLab INESC TEC and Universidade do Minho, Campus de Gualtar, 4710-057 Braga; Barbosa, Luis S.

ARCHERY is an architectural description language for modelling and reasoning about distributed, heterogeneous and dynamically reconfigurable systems in terms of architectural patterns. The language supports the specification of architectures and their reconfiguration. This paper introduces a language extension for precisely describing the structural design decisions that pattern instances must respect in their (re)configurations. The extension is a propositional modal logic with recursion and nominals referencing components, i.e., a hybrid µ-calculus. Its expressiveness allows specifying safety and liveness constraints, as well as paths and cycles over structures. Refinements of classic architectural patterns are specified.

Strategy selection in the minority game

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

D'hulst, R.; Rodgers, G. J.

2000-04-01

We investigate the dynamics of the choice of an active strategy in the minority game. A history distribution is introduced as an analytical tool to study the asymmetry between the two choices offered to the agents. Its properties are studied numerically. It allows us to show that the departure from uniformity in the initial attribution of strategies to the agents is important even in the efficient market. Also, an approximate expression for the variance of the number of agents at one side in the efficient phase is proposed. All the analytical propositions are supported by numerical simulations of the system.

Hospitality, culture and regeneration: urban decay, entrepreneurship and the "ruin" bars of Budapest.

PubMed

Lugosi, Peter; Bell, David; Lugosi, Krisztina

2010-01-01

This paper considers the relationships between hospitality, culture and urban regeneration through an examination of rom (ruin) venues, which operate in dilapidated buildings in Budapest, Hungary. The paper reviews previous work on culture and urban regeneration in order to locate the role of hospitality within emerging debates. It subsequently interrogates the evolution of the rom phenomenon and demonstrates how, in this context, hospitality thrives because of social and physical decay in urban locations, how operators and entrepreneurs exploit conflicts among various actors involved in regeneration and how hospitality may be mobilised purposefully in the regeneration process. The paper demonstrates how networked entrepreneurship maintains these operations and how various forms of cultural production are entangled and mobilised in the venues' hospitality propositions.

Information Leakage Analysis by Abstract Interpretation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zanioli, Matteo; Cortesi, Agostino

Protecting the confidentiality of information stored in a computer system or transmitted over a public network is a relevant problem in computer security. The approach of information flow analysis involves performing a static analysis of the program with the aim of proving that there will not be leaks of sensitive information. In this paper we propose a new domain that combines variable dependency analysis, based on propositional formulas, and variables' value analysis, based on polyhedra. The resulting analysis is strictly more accurate than the state of the art abstract interpretation based analyses for information leakage detection. Its modular construction allows to deal with the tradeoff between efficiency and accuracy by tuning the granularity of the abstraction and the complexity of the abstract operators.

Truth-Valued-Flow Inference (TVFI) and its applications in approximate reasoning

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Wang, Pei-Zhuang; Zhang, Hongmin; Xu, Wei

1993-01-01

The framework of the theory of Truth-valued-flow Inference (TVFI) is introduced. Even though there are dozens of papers presented on fuzzy reasoning, we think it is still needed to explore a rather unified fuzzy reasoning theory which has the following two features: (1) it is simplified enough to be executed feasibly and easily; and (2) it is well structural and well consistent enough that it can be built into a strict mathematical theory and is consistent with the theory proposed by L.A. Zadeh. TVFI is one of the fuzzy reasoning theories that satisfies the above two features. It presents inference by the form of networks, and naturally views inference as a process of truth values flowing among propositions.

Comprehensive evaluation index system of total supply capability in distribution network

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, Linyao; Wu, Guilian; Yang, Jingyuan; Jia, Shuangrui; Zhang, Wei; Sun, Weiqing

2018-01-01

Aiming at the lack of a comprehensive evaluation of the distribution network, based on the existing distribution network evaluation index system, combined with the basic principles of constructing the evaluation index, put forward a new evaluation index system of distribution network capacity. This paper is mainly based on the total supply capability of the distribution network, combining single index and various factors, into a multi-evaluation index of the distribution network, thus forming a reasonable index system, and various indicators of rational quantification make the evaluation results more intuitive. In order to have a comprehensive judgment of distribution network, this paper uses weights to analyse the importance of each index, verify the rationality of the index system through the example, it is proved that the rationality of the index system, so as to guide the direction of distribution network planning.

Analysis of radiology business models.

PubMed

Enzmann, Dieter R; Schomer, Donald F

2013-03-01

As health care moves to value orientation, radiology's traditional business model faces challenges to adapt. The authors describe a strategic value framework that radiology practices can use to best position themselves in their environments. This simplified construct encourages practices to define their dominant value propositions. There are 3 main value propositions that form a conceptual triangle, whose vertices represent the low-cost provider, the product leader, and the customer intimacy models. Each vertex has been a valid market position, but each demands specific capabilities and trade-offs. The underlying concepts help practices select value propositions they can successfully deliver in their competitive environments. Copyright © 2013 American College of Radiology. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Cooperative Learning for Distributed In-Network Traffic Classification

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Joseph, S. B.; Loo, H. R.; Ismail, I.; Andromeda, T.; Marsono, M. N.

2017-04-01

Inspired by the concept of autonomic distributed/decentralized network management schemes, we consider the issue of information exchange among distributed network nodes to network performance and promote scalability for in-network monitoring. In this paper, we propose a cooperative learning algorithm for propagation and synchronization of network information among autonomic distributed network nodes for online traffic classification. The results show that network nodes with sharing capability perform better with a higher average accuracy of 89.21% (sharing data) and 88.37% (sharing clusters) compared to 88.06% for nodes without cooperative learning capability. The overall performance indicates that cooperative learning is promising for distributed in-network traffic classification.

Is the Internet gaming-addicted brain close to be in a pathological state?

PubMed

Park, Chang-Hyun; Chun, Ji-Won; Cho, Huyn; Jung, Young-Chul; Choi, Jihye; Kim, Dai Jin

2017-01-01

Internet gaming addiction (IGA) is becoming a common and widespread mental health concern. Although IGA induces a variety of negative psychosocial consequences, it is yet ambiguous whether the brain addicted to Internet gaming is considered to be in a pathological state. We investigated IGA-induced abnormalities of the brain specifically from the network perspective and qualitatively assessed whether the Internet gaming-addicted brain is in a state similar to the pathological brain. Topological properties of brain functional networks were examined by applying a graph-theoretical approach to analyzing functional magnetic resonance imaging data acquired during a resting state in 19 IGA adolescents and 20 age-matched healthy controls. We compared functional distance-based measures, global and local efficiency of resting state brain functional networks between the two groups to assess how the IGA subjects' brain was topologically altered from the controls' brain. The IGA subjects had severer impulsiveness and their brain functional networks showed higher global efficiency and lower local efficiency relative to the controls. These topological differences suggest that IGA induced brain functional networks to shift toward the random topological architecture, as exhibited in other pathological states. Furthermore, for the IGA subjects, the topological alterations were specifically attributable to interregional connections incident on the frontal region, and the degree of impulsiveness was associated with the topological alterations over the frontolimbic connections. The current findings lend support to the proposition that the Internet gaming-addicted brain could be in the state similar to pathological states in terms of topological characteristics of brain functional networks. © 2015 Society for the Study of Addiction.

The Role of Identity in Acculturation among Immigrant People: Theoretical Propositions, Empirical Questions, and Applied Recommendations

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Schwartz, Seth J.; Montgomery, Marilyn J.; Briones, Ervin

2006-01-01

The present paper advances theoretical propositions regarding the relationship between acculturation and identity. The most central thesis argued is that acculturation represents changes in cultural identity and that personal identity has the potential to "anchor" immigrant people during their transition to a new society. The article emphasizes…

Equal Opportunity in Higher Education: The Past and Future of California's Proposition 209

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Grodsky, Eric, Ed.; Kurlaender, Michal, Ed.

2010-01-01

This timely book examines issues pertaining to equal opportunity--affirmative action, challenges to it, and alternatives for improving opportunities for underrepresented groups--in higher education today. Its starting point is California's Proposition 209, which ended race-based affirmative action in public education and the workplace in 1996. The…

Language and Ageing--Exploring Propositional Density in Written Language--Stability over Time

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Spencer, Elizabeth; Craig, Hugh; Ferguson, Alison; Colyvas, Kim

2012-01-01

This study investigated the stability of propositional density (PD) in written texts, as this aspect of language shows promise as an indicator and as a predictor of language decline with ageing. This descriptive longitudinal study analysed written texts obtained from the Australian Longitudinal Study of Women's Health in which participants were…

California WIC and Proposition 10: Made for Each Other. Building Community Systems for Young Children.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Whaley, Shannon; True, Laurie

The federal government's WIC program, the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children, is designed to improve the health and development of low-income women and young children. California's passage of Proposition 10, the "Children and Families First Act," has created a climate that encourages collaborative…

Idiosyncratic Deals: Testing Propositions on Timing, Content, and the Employment Relationship

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rousseau, Denise M.; Hornung, Severin; Kim, Tai Gyu

2009-01-01

This study tests propositions regarding idiosyncratic deals (i-deals) in a sample of N = 265 hospital employees using structural equation modeling. Timing and content of idiosyncratic employment arrangements are postulated to have differential consequences for the nature of the employment relationship. Results confirm that i-deals made after hire…

A Test and Reformulation of Reference Group and Role Correlates of Premarital Sexual Permissiveness Theory

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Libby, Roger W.; And Others

1978-01-01

Propositions concerned with reference group and role correlates of Ira Reiss' premarital sexual permissiveness theory were tested. Reiss' basic propositions are only partially supported. Closeness to mother's sexual standards is considerably more predictive of self-permissiveness than was obvious in Reiss' theory. Closeness to friends' and peers'…

Learning the Game of Formulating and Testing Hypotheses and Theories

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Maloney, David P.; Masters, Mark F.

2010-01-01

Physics is not immune to questioning by supporters of nonscientific propositions such as "intelligent design" and "creationism." The supporters of these propositions use phrases such as "it's just a theory" to influence those unfamiliar with or even fearful of science, making it increasingly important that all students and in particular science…

The Extended Parallel Process Model: Illuminating the Gaps in Research

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Popova, Lucy

2012-01-01

This article examines constructs, propositions, and assumptions of the extended parallel process model (EPPM). Review of the EPPM literature reveals that its theoretical concepts are thoroughly developed, but the theory lacks consistency in operational definitions of some of its constructs. Out of the 12 propositions of the EPPM, a few have not…

The Political Discourse of the Campaign against Bilingual Education: From "Proposition 227" to "Horne v. Flores"

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yamagami, Mai

2012-01-01

Using the frameworks of critical discourse analysis, representation theory, and legitimization theory, this study examines the political discourse of the campaign for Proposition 227 in California--particularly, the key social representations of languages, their speakers, and the main political actors in the campaign. The analysis examines the…

Online Concept Maps: Enhancing Collaborative Learning by Using Technology with Concept Maps.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Canas, Alberto J.; Ford, Kenneth M.; Novak, Joseph D.; Hayes, Patrick; Reichherzer, Thomas R.; Suri, Niranjan

2001-01-01

Describes a collaborative software system that allows students from distant schools to share claims derived from their concept maps. Sharing takes place by accessing The Knowledge Soup, a repository of propositions submitted by students and stored on a computer server. Students can use propositions from other students to enhance their concept…

Enhancing Retrieval with Hyperlinks: A General Model Based on Propositional Argumentation Systems.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Picard, Justin; Savoy, Jacques

2003-01-01

Discusses the use of hyperlinks for improving information retrieval on the World Wide Web and proposes a general model for using hyperlinks based on Probabilistic Argumentation Systems. Topics include propositional logic, knowledge, and uncertainty; assumptions; using hyperlinks to modify document score and rank; and estimating the popularity of a…

Automated Proposition Density Analysis for Discourse in Aphasia

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fromm, Davida; Greenhouse, Joel; Hou, Kaiyue; Russell, G. Austin; Cai, Xizhen; Forbes, Margaret; Holland, Audrey; MacWhinney, Brian

2016-01-01

Purpose: This study evaluates how proposition density can differentiate between persons with aphasia (PWA) and individuals in a control group, as well as among subtypes of aphasia, on the basis of procedural discourse and personal narratives collected from large samples of participants. Method: Participants were 195 PWA and 168 individuals in a…

Control of Prose Processing via Instructional and Typographical Cues.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Glynn, Shawn M.; Di Vesta, Francis J.

1979-01-01

College students studied text about an imaginary solar system. Two cuing systems were manipulated to induce a single or double set of cues consistent with one or two sets of text propositions, or no target propositions were specified. Cuing systems guided construction and implementation of prose-processing decision criteria. (Author/RD)

Dynamic geometry as a context for exploring conjectures

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wares, Arsalan

2018-01-01

The purpose of this paper is to provide examples of 'non-traditional' proof-related activities that can explored in a dynamic geometry environment by university and high school students of mathematics. These propositions were encountered in the dynamic geometry environment. The author believes that teachers can ask their students to construct proofs for these propositions.

What Are Data? Museum Data Bank Research Report Number 1.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Vance, David

This paper describes the process of automatic extraction of implicit--global--data from explicit information by file inversion and threading. Each datum is the symbolic representation of a proposition, and as such has a number of movable parts corresponding to the ideal elements of the proposition represented; e.g., subject, predicate. A third…

Leadership for primary health care research.

PubMed

Pendleton, David

2012-10-01

Over the last decade, I have put together a new theory of leadership. This paper describes its four propositions, which are consistent with the research literature but which lead to conclusions that are not commonly held and seldom put into practice. The first proposition is a model describing the territory of leadership that is different from either the Leadership Qualities Framework, 2006 or the Medical Leadership Competency Framework, 2010, both of which have been devised specifically for the NHS (National Health Service). The second proposition concerns the ill-advised attempt of individuals to become expert in all aspects of leadership: complete in themselves. The third suggests how personality and capability are related. The fourth embraces and recommends the notion of complementary differences among leaders. As the NHS seeks increasing leadership effectiveness, these propositions may need to be considered and their implications woven into the fabric of NHS leader selection and development. Primary Health Care research, like all fields of collective human endeavour, is eminently in need of sound leadership and the same principles that facilitate sound leadership in other fields is likely to be relevant to research teams.

Preservation of propositional speech in a pure anomic: the importance of an abstract vocabulary.

PubMed

Crutch, Sebastian J; Warrington, Elizabeth K

2003-12-01

We describe a detailed quantitative analysis of the propositional speech of a patient, FAV, who became severely anomic following a left occipito-temporal infarction. FAV showed a selective noun retrieval deficit in naming to confrontation and from verbal description. Nonetheless, his propositional speech was fluent and content-rich. To quantify this observation, three picture description-based tasks were designed to elicit spontaneous speech. These were pictures of professional occupations, real world scenes and stylised object scenes. FAV's performance was compared and contrasted with that of 5 age- and sex-matched control subjects on a number of variables including speech production rate, volume of output, pause frequency and duration, word frequency, word concreteness and diversity of vocabulary used. FAV's propositional speech fell within the range of normal control performance on the majority of measurements of quality, quantity and fluency. Only in the narrative tasks which relied more heavily upon a concrete vocabulary, did FAV become less voluble and resort to summarising the scenes in an manner. This dissociation between virtually intact propositional speech and a severe naming deficit represents the purest case of anomia currently on record. We attribute this dissociation in part to the preservation of his ability to retrieve his abstract word vocabulary. Our account demonstrates that poor performance on standard naming tasks may be indicative of only a narrowly defined word retrieval deficit. However, we also propose the existence of a feedback circuit which guides sentence construction by providing information regarding lexical availability.

The importance of distinguishing information from evidence/observations when formulating propositions.

PubMed

Hicks, T; Biedermann, A; de Koeijer, J A; Taroni, F; Champod, C; Evett, I W

2015-12-01

The value of forensic results crucially depends on the propositions and the information under which they are evaluated. For example, if a full single DNA profile for a contemporary marker system matching the profile of Mr A is assessed, given the propositions that the DNA came from Mr A and given it came from an unknown person, the strength of evidence can be overwhelming (e.g., in the order of a billion). In contrast, if we assess the same result given that the DNA came from Mr A and given it came from his twin brother (i.e., a person with the same DNA profile), the strength of evidence will be 1, and therefore neutral, unhelpful and irrelevant(1) to the case at hand. While this understanding is probably uncontroversial and obvious to most, if not all practitioners dealing with DNA evidence, the practical precept of not specifying an alternative source with the same characteristics as the one considered under the first proposition may be much less clear in other circumstances. During discussions with colleagues and trainees, cases have come to our attention where forensic scientists have difficulty with the formulation of propositions. It is particularly common to observe that results (e.g., observations) are included in the propositions, whereas-as argued throughout this note-they should not be. A typical example could be a case where a shoe-mark with a logo and the general pattern characteristics of a Nike Air Jordan shoe is found at the scene of a crime. A Nike Air Jordan shoe is then seized at Mr A's house and control prints of this shoe compared to the mark. The results (e.g., a trace with this general pattern and acquired characteristics corresponding to the sole of Mr A's shoe) are then evaluated given the propositions 'The mark was left by Mr A's Nike Air Jordan shoe-sole' and 'The mark was left by an unknown Nike Air Jordan shoe'. As a consequence, the footwear examiner will not evaluate part of the observations (i.e., the mark presents the general pattern of a Nike Air Jordan) whereas they can be highly informative. Such examples can be found in all forensic disciplines. In this article, we present a few such examples and discuss aspects that will help forensic scientists with the formulation of propositions. In particular, we emphasise on the usefulness of notation to distinguish results that forensic scientists should evaluate from case information that the Court will evaluate. Copyright © 2015 The Chartered Society of Forensic Sciences. Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Reverse logistics network for municipal solid waste management: The inclusion of waste pickers as a Brazilian legal requirement.

PubMed

Ferri, Giovane Lopes; Chaves, Gisele de Lorena Diniz; Ribeiro, Glaydston Mattos

2015-06-01

This study proposes a reverse logistics network involved in the management of municipal solid waste (MSW) to solve the challenge of economically managing these wastes considering the recent legal requirements of the Brazilian Waste Management Policy. The feasibility of the allocation of MSW material recovery facilities (MRF) as intermediate points between the generators of these wastes and the options for reuse and disposal was evaluated, as well as the participation of associations and cooperatives of waste pickers. This network was mathematically modelled and validated through a scenario analysis of the municipality of São Mateus, which makes the location model more complete and applicable in practice. The mathematical model allows the determination of the number of facilities required for the reverse logistics network, their location, capacities, and product flows between these facilities. The fixed costs of installation and operation of the proposed MRF were balanced with the reduction of transport costs, allowing the inclusion of waste pickers to the reverse logistics network. The main contribution of this study lies in the proposition of a reverse logistics network for MSW simultaneously involving legal, environmental, economic and social criteria, which is a very complex goal. This study can guide practices in other countries that have realities similar to those in Brazil of accelerated urbanisation without adequate planning for solid waste management, added to the strong presence of waste pickers that, through the characteristic of social vulnerability, must be included in the system. In addition to the theoretical contribution to the reverse logistics network problem, this study aids in decision-making for public managers who have limited technical and administrative capacities for the management of solid wastes. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Stochastic analysis of particle movement over a dune bed

USGS Publications Warehouse

Lee, Baum K.; Jobson, Harvey E.

1977-01-01

Stochastic models are available that can be used to predict the transport and dispersion of bed-material sediment particles in an alluvial channel. These models are based on the proposition that the movement of a single bed-material sediment particle consists of a series of steps of random length separated by rest periods of random duration and, therefore, application of the models requires a knowledge of the probability distributions of the step lengths, the rest periods, the elevation of particle deposition, and the elevation of particle erosion. The procedure was tested by determining distributions from bed profiles formed in a large laboratory flume with a coarse sand as the bed material. The elevation of particle deposition and the elevation of particle erosion can be considered to be identically distributed, and their distribution can be described by either a ' truncated Gaussian ' or a ' triangular ' density function. The conditional probability distribution of the rest period given the elevation of particle deposition closely followed the two-parameter gamma distribution. The conditional probability distribution of the step length given the elevation of particle erosion and the elevation of particle deposition also closely followed the two-parameter gamma density function. For a given flow, the scale and shape parameters describing the gamma probability distributions can be expressed as functions of bed-elevation. (Woodard-USGS)

Fuzzy associative memories

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kosko, Bart

1991-01-01

Mappings between fuzzy cubes are discussed. This level of abstraction provides a surprising and fruitful alternative to the propositional and predicate-calculas reasoning techniques used in expert systems. It allows one to reason with sets instead of propositions. Discussed here are fuzzy and neural function estimators, neural vs. fuzzy representation of structured knowledge, fuzzy vector-matrix multiplication, and fuzzy associative memory (FAM) system architecture.

Unintended Consequences: The Impact of Proposition 2½ Overrides on School Segregation in Massachusetts

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zabel, Jeffrey

2014-01-01

I investigate a possible unintended consequence of Proposition 2½ override behavior--that it led to increased segregation in school districts in Massachusetts. This can occur because richer, low-minority towns tend to have more successful override votes that attract similar households with relatively high demands for public services who can afford…

The Pythagorean Proposition, Classics in Mathematics Education Series.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Loomis, Elisha Scott

This book is a reissue of the second edition which appeared in 1940. It has the distinction of being the first vintage mathematical work published in the NCTM series "Classics in Mathematics Education." The text includes a biography of Pythagoras and an account of historical data pertaining to his proposition. The remainder of the book shows 370…

Convergence and divergence in leisure style among Whites and African Americans: toward an interracial contact hypothesis

Treesearch

Floyd F. Myron; Kimberly J. Shinew

1999-01-01

Drawing upon structural theory and social group perspectives, this study examined two propositions developed to explain the relationship between interracial contact and leisure preferences among African Americans and Whites. The first proposition stated that as interracial contact increases, the greater the probability of observing similarity in the leisure...

The Implementation of Proposition 227 in California Schools: A Critical Analysis of the Effect on Teacher Beliefs and Classroom Practices.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Revilla, Anita Tijerina; Asato, Jolynn

2002-01-01

Explored the relationship between race and language as related to bilingual students' educational experiences. Used Latino/a critical theory, Asian American legal scholarship, and critical race theory as frameworks to examine the aftermath of California's Proposition 227. Data from teachers and administrators highlighted significant variance in…

Piaget's Logic of Meanings: Still Relevant Today

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wavering, Michael James

2011-01-01

In his last book, "Toward a Logic of Meanings" (Piaget & Garcia, 1991), Jean Piaget describes how thought can be categorized into a form of propositional logic, a logic of meanings. The intent of this article is to offer this analysis by Piaget as a means to understand the language and teaching of science. Using binary propositions, conjunctions,…

In Search of the Next Value Proposition

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Huwe, Terence K.

2012-01-01

Although it is pretty easy to find colleagues who will express fatigue or frustration about the constant need for libraries to prove their value proposition, there is also an upside to the exercise of crafting a message that justifies librarians' mission. The catch is that however good their crafted message may be, they must forget about ever…

The Evolution of Software Pricing: From Box Licenses to Application Service Provider Models.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bontis, Nick; Chung, Honsan

2000-01-01

Describes three different pricing models for software. Findings of this case study support the proposition that software pricing is a complex and subjective process. The key determinant of alignment between vendor and user is the nature of value in the software to the buyer. This value proposition may range from increased cost reduction to…

Teaching Semantic Tableaux Method for Propositional Classical Logic with a CAS

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Aguilera-Venegas, Gabriel; Galán-García, José Luis; Galán-García, María Ángeles; Rodríguez-Cielos, Pedro

2015-01-01

Automated theorem proving (ATP) for Propositional Classical Logic is an algorithm to check the validity of a formula. It is a very well-known problem which is decidable but co-NP-complete. There are many algorithms for this problem. In this paper, an educationally oriented implementation of Semantic Tableaux method is described. The program has…

The Future of Nuclear Archaeology: Reducing Legacy Risks of Weapons Fissile Material

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

Wood, Thomas W.; Reid, Bruce D.; Toomey, Christopher M.

2014-01-01

This report describes the value proposition for a "nuclear archeological" technical capability and applications program, targeted at resolving uncertainties regarding fissile materials production and use. At its heart, this proposition is that we can never be sure that all fissile material is adequately secure without a clear idea of what "all" means, and that uncertainty in this matter carries risk. We argue that this proposition is as valid today, under emerging state and possible non-state nuclear threats, as it was in an immediate post-Cold-War context, and describe how nuclear archeological methods can be used to verify fissile materials declarations, ormore » estimate and characterize historical fissile materials production independently of declarations.« less

Analysis of critical operating conditions for LV distribution networks with microgrids

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zehir, M. A.; Batman, A.; Sonmez, M. A.; Font, A.; Tsiamitros, D.; Stimoniaris, D.; Kollatou, T.; Bagriyanik, M.; Ozdemir, A.; Dialynas, E.

2016-11-01

Increase in the penetration of Distributed Generation (DG) in distribution networks, raises the risk of voltage limit violations while contributing to line losses. Especially in low voltage (LV) distribution networks (secondary distribution networks), impacts of active power flows on the bus voltages and on the network losses are more dominant. As network operators must meet regulatory limitations, they have to take into account the most critical operating conditions in their systems. In this study, it is aimed to present the impact of the worst operation cases of LV distribution networks comprising microgrids. Simulation studies are performed on a field data-based virtual test-bed. The simulations are repeated for several cases consisting different microgrid points of connection with different network loading and microgrid supply/demand conditions.

Voltage regulation in distribution networks with distributed generation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Blažič, B.; Uljanić, B.; Papič, I.

2012-11-01

The paper deals with the topic of voltage regulation in distribution networks with relatively high distributed energy resources (DER) penetration. The problem of voltage rise is described and different options for voltage regulation are given. The influence of DER on voltage profile and the effectiveness of the investigated solutions are evaluated by means of simulation in DIgSILENT. The simulated network is an actual distribution network in Slovenia with a relatively high penetration of distributed generation. Recommendations for voltage control in networks with DER penetration are given at the end.

Distribution of shortest cycle lengths in random networks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bonneau, Haggai; Hassid, Aviv; Biham, Ofer; Kühn, Reimer; Katzav, Eytan

2017-12-01

We present analytical results for the distribution of shortest cycle lengths (DSCL) in random networks. The approach is based on the relation between the DSCL and the distribution of shortest path lengths (DSPL). We apply this approach to configuration model networks, for which analytical results for the DSPL were obtained before. We first calculate the fraction of nodes in the network which reside on at least one cycle. Conditioning on being on a cycle, we provide the DSCL over ensembles of configuration model networks with degree distributions which follow a Poisson distribution (Erdős-Rényi network), degenerate distribution (random regular graph), and a power-law distribution (scale-free network). The mean and variance of the DSCL are calculated. The analytical results are found to be in very good agreement with the results of computer simulations.

Taming Prebiotic Chemistry: The Role of Heterogeneous and Interfacial Catalysis in the Emergence of a Prebiotic Catalytic/Information Polymer System

PubMed Central

Monnard, Pierre-Alain

2016-01-01

Cellular life is based on interacting polymer networks that serve as catalysts, genetic information and structural molecules. The complexity of the DNA, RNA and protein biochemistry suggests that it must have been preceded by simpler systems. The RNA world hypothesis proposes RNA as the prime candidate for such a primal system. Even though this proposition has gained currency, its investigations have highlighted several challenges with respect to bulk aqueous media: (1) the synthesis of RNA monomers is difficult; (2) efficient pathways for monomer polymerization into functional RNAs and their subsequent, sequence-specific replication remain elusive; and (3) the evolution of the RNA function towards cellular metabolism in isolation is questionable in view of the chemical mixtures expected on the early Earth. This review will address the question of the possible roles of heterogeneous media and catalysis as drivers for the emergence of RNA-based polymer networks. We will show that this approach to non-enzymatic polymerizations of RNA from monomers and RNA evolution cannot only solve some issues encountered during reactions in bulk aqueous solutions, but may also explain the co-emergence of the various polymers indispensable for life in complex mixtures and their organization into primitive networks. PMID:27827919

Active distribution network planning considering linearized system loss

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Li, Xiao; Wang, Mingqiang; Xu, Hao

2018-02-01

In this paper, various distribution network planning techniques with DGs are reviewed, and a new distribution network planning method is proposed. It assumes that the location of DGs and the topology of the network are fixed. The proposed model optimizes the capacities of DG and the optimal distribution line capacity simultaneously by a cost/benefit analysis and the benefit is quantified by the reduction of the expected interruption cost. Besides, the network loss is explicitly analyzed in the paper. For simplicity, the network loss is appropriately simplified as a quadratic function of difference of voltage phase angle. Then it is further piecewise linearized. In this paper, a piecewise linearization technique with different segment lengths is proposed. To validate its effectiveness and superiority, the proposed distribution network planning model with elaborate linearization technique is tested on the IEEE 33-bus distribution network system.

Youth at ultra high risk for psychosis: using the Revised Network Episode Model to examine pathways to mental health care.

PubMed

Boydell, Katherine M; Volpe, Tiziana; Gladstone, Brenda M; Stasiulis, Elaine; Addington, Jean

2013-05-01

This paper aims to identify the ways in which youth at ultra high risk for psychosis access mental health services and the factors that advance or delay help seeking, using the Revised Network Episode Model (REV NEM) of mental health care. A case study approach documents help-seeking pathways, encompassing two qualitative interviews with 10 young people and 29 significant others. Theoretical propositions derived from the REV NEM are explored, consisting of the content, structure and function of the: (i) family; (ii) community and school; and (iii) treatment system. Although the aspects of the REV NEM are supported and shape pathways to care, we consider rethinking the model for help seeking with youth at ultra high risk for psychosis. The pathway concept is important to our understanding of how services and supports are received and experienced over time. Understanding this process and the strategies that support positive early intervention on the part of youth and significant others is critical. © 2012 Wiley Publishing Asia Pty Ltd.

Age and sex differences in perceptions of networks of personal relationships.

PubMed

Furman, W; Buhrmester, D

1992-02-01

In this study, 549 youths in the fourth grade, seventh grade, tenth grade, and college completed Network of Relationship Inventories assessing their perceptions of their relationships with significant others. The findings were largely consistent with 7 propositions derived from major theories of the developmental courses of personal relationships. In particular, mothers and fathers were seen as the most frequent providers of support in the fourth grade. Same-sex friends were perceived to be as supportive as parents in the seventh grade, and were the most frequent providers of support in the tenth grade. Romantic partners moved up in rank with age until college, where they, along with friends and mothers, received the highest ratings for support. Age differences were also observed in perceptions of relationships with grandparents, teachers, and siblings. Finally, age differences in perceived conflict, punishment, and relative power suggested that there was a peak in tension in parent-child relationships in early and middle adolescence. Discussion centers around the role various relationships are perceived as playing at different points in development.

The Quality Teacher and Education Act in San Francisco: Lessons Learned. Policy Brief 09-2

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hough, Heather J.

2009-01-01

This policy brief reviews the recent experience of the San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD) with the development and approval of Proposition A. Proposition A (also known as the Quality Teacher and Education Act, or QTEA) included a parcel tax mainly dedicated to increasing teachers' salaries, along with a variety of measures introducing…

Propositional Density in Spoken and Written Language of Czech-Speaking Patients with Mild Cognitive Impairment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Smolík, Filip; Stepankova, Hana; Vyhnálek, Martin; Nikolai, Tomáš; Horáková, Karolína; Matejka, Štepán

2016-01-01

Purpose Propositional density (PD) is a measure of content richness in language production that declines in normal aging and more profoundly in dementia. The present study aimed to develop a PD scoring system for Czech and use it to compare PD in language productions of older people with amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) and control…

Affirming Equal Opportunity and Access in the University of California so California Prospers. Higher Education Policy Brief

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Valliani, Nadia

2015-01-01

In 1996, California voters approved Proposition 209--a ban on the consideration of race in the college admissions process at public universities. This policy brief examines the effects of Proposition 209 at the University of California system by analyzing twenty years' of application, admission, and enrollment data. The brief concludes that in…

Why here and not there: The conditional nature of recreation choice

Treesearch

Roger N. Clark; Kent B. Downing

1985-01-01

This paper reports results of several studies to identify the state of the art and direction of research on how recreationists make choices. Findings from the studies have been combined into a list of propositions; the propositions can be considered hypotheses from which future studies can be developed or the effect of management activities on choices can be evaluated...

The Tantric Proposition in Leadership Education: You Make Me Feel Like a Natural Woman.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wislocki-Goin, Marsha

This paper argues that leadership in higher education should be open to a female leadership model expressed in an Eastern "Tantric" model. Suggesting that a male leadership model that oppresses and excludes women has been in effect for the past millennium, the proposed Tantric proposition is a step toward a shared model of leadership which will be…

Local Semantic Trace: A Method to Analyze Very Small and Unstructured Texts for Propositional Knowledge

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pirnay-Dummer, Pablo

2015-01-01

A local semantic trace is a certain quasi-propositional structure that can still be reconstructed from written content that is incomplete or does not follow a proper grammar. It can also retrace bits of knowledge from text containing only very few words, making the microstructure of these artifacts of knowledge externalization available for…

What Is yet to Come? Three Propositions on the Future of Educational Research as a Common Good

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Decuypere, Mathias

2015-01-01

This paper offers some explorative notes accompanying the issues I addressed in the journal's moot, which took place at the ECER 2014 conference (Porto, September 1-5). The notes that follow are explicitly written through the eyes of an emerging researcher, and offer three propositions regarding the future of educational research. These three…

Propositions Toward the Survival of a Self-Endangered Species: The Fundamental Question.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brandwein, Paul F.

The author considers the search for a better, pollution-free environment and the political processes by which various groups attempt to influence or control the actions of others in the context. He defines the goal of conservation as a recognition of the interdependence of man and his environment and lists 13 propositions which indicate the urgent…

Predictors of short-term treatment outcomes among California's Proposition 36 participants.

PubMed

Hser, Yih-Ing; Evans, Elizabeth; Teruya, Cheryl; Huang, David; Anglin, M Douglas

2007-05-01

California's voter-initiated Proposition 36 offers non-violent drug offenders community-based treatment as an alternative to incarceration or probation without treatment. This article reports short-term treatment outcomes subsequent to this major shift in drug policy. Data are from 1104 individuals randomly selected from all Proposition 36 participants assessed for treatment in five California counties during 2004. The overall study sample was 30% female, 51% white, 18% Black, 24% Hispanic, and 7% other racial/ethnic groups. The mean+/-SD age was 37+/-10 years. Counties varied considerably in participant characteristics, treatment service intensity, treatment duration, urine testing, and employment and recidivism outcomes, but not in drug use at 3-month follow-up. Controlling for county, logistic regression analysis showed that drug abstinence was predicted by gender (female), employment at baseline (full or part-time), residential (vs. outpatient) stay, low psychiatric severity, frequent urine testing by treatment facility, and more days in treatment. Recidivism was predicted only by shorter treatment duration. Employment predictors included age (younger), gender (male), baseline employment, and lower psychiatric severity. The study findings support drug testing to monitor abstinence and highlight the need to address employment and psychiatric problems among Proposition 36 participants.

Looking to the future of new media in health marketing: deriving propositions based on traditional theories.

PubMed

Della, Lindsay J; Eroglu, Dogan; Bernhardt, Jay M; Edgerton, Erin; Nall, Janice

2008-01-01

Market trend data show that the media marketplace continues to rapidly evolve. Recent research shows that substantial portions of the U.S. media population are "new media" users. Today, more than ever before, media consumers are exposed to multiple media at the same point in time, encouraged to participate in media content generation, and challenged to learn, access, and use the new media that are continually entering the market. These media trends have strong implications for how consumers of health information access, process, and retain health-related knowledge. In this article we review traditional information processing models and theories of interpersonal and mass media access and consumption. We make several theory-based propositions for how traditional information processing and media consumption concepts will function as new media usage continues to increase. These propositions are supported by new media usage data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's entry into the new media market (e.g., podcasting, virtual events, blogging, and webinars). Based on these propositions, we conclude by presenting both opportunities and challenges that public health communicators and marketers will face in the future.

How to Make Loss Aversion Disappear and Reverse: Tests of the Decision by Sampling Origin of Loss Aversion

PubMed Central

2014-01-01

One of the most robust empirical findings in the behavioral sciences is loss aversion—the finding that losses loom larger than gains. We offer a new psychological explanation of the origins of loss aversion in which loss aversion emerges from differences in the distribution of gains and losses people experience. In 4 experiments, we tested this proposition by manipulating the range of gains and losses that individuals saw during the process of eliciting their loss aversion. We were able to find loss aversion, loss neutrality, and even the reverse of loss aversion. PMID:25485606

Numerical study of the current sheet and PSBL in a magnetotail model

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Doxas, I.; Horton, W.; Sandusky, K.; Tajima, T.; Steinolfson, R.

1989-01-01

The current sheet and plasma sheet boundary layer (PSBL) in a magnetotail model are discussed. A test particle code is used to study the response of ensembles of particles to a two-dimensional, time-dependent model of the geomagnetic tail, and test the proposition (Coroniti, 1985a, b; Buchner and Zelenyi, 1986; Chen and Palmadesso, 1986; Martin, 1986) that the stochasticity of the particle orbits in these fields is an important part of the physical mechanism for magnetospheric substorms. The realistic results obtained for the fluid moments of the particle distribution with this simple model, and their insensitivity to initial conditions, is consistent with this hypothesis.

Just-in-time and stockless programs for hospitals: fad or trend?

PubMed

Lynch, D

1991-05-01

The JIT and stockless approach to provider-supplier relationships has proven to be a win-win proposition for the partners that have implemented it in many manufacturing industries and health care organizations as well. This strategy will fundamentally impact the entire cost structure within the hospital supply distribution chain. rewards have proven attainable and more comprehensive than had been hoped in the health care applications. The sweeping changes the health care industry experienced during the 1980s are leading creative materiel managers to seize the initiative to improve the current operating costs of their hospitals. They do not want to be left behind "holding the inventory."

Electronic health records and disease registries to support integrated care in a health neighbourhood: an ontology-based methodology.

PubMed

Liaw, Siaw-Teng; Taggart, Jane; Yu, Hairong; Rahimi, Alireza

2014-01-01

Disease registries derived from Electronic Health Records (EHRs) are widely used for chronic disease management (CDM). However, unlike national registries which are specialised data collections, they are usually specific to an EHR or organization such as a medical home. We approached registries from the perspective of integrated care in a health neighbourhood, considering data quality issues such as semantic interoperability (consistency), accuracy, completeness and duplication. Our proposition is that a realist ontological approach is required to systematically and accurately identify patients in an EHR or data repository of EHRs, assess intrinsic data quality and fitness for use by members of the multidisciplinary integrated care team. We report on this approach as applied to routinely collected data in an electronic practice based research network in Australia.

Further results from PIXE analysis of inks in Galileo's notes on motion

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Del Carmine, P.; Giuntini, L.; Hooper, W.; Lucarelli, F.; Mandò, P. A.

1996-06-01

We have recently analysed the inks in some of the folios of Vol. 72 of Manoscritti galileiani, kept at the Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale di Firenze, which contains a collection of loose handwritten sheets containing undated notes, data from experiments and propositions on the problems of motion from different periods of Galileo's life. This paper reports specific results obtained from the analysis of some of these propositions, which allowed to make a contribution to their chronological attribution and therefore to the solution of some historical controversies. Even in the case where the "absolute" chronological attributions could not be made on the basis of comparison with dated documents, the PIXE results provided useful information to deny or confirm the hypothesis that different propositions were written in the same or in different periods.

A Complex Network Approach to Distributional Semantic Models

PubMed Central

Utsumi, Akira

2015-01-01

A number of studies on network analysis have focused on language networks based on free word association, which reflects human lexical knowledge, and have demonstrated the small-world and scale-free properties in the word association network. Nevertheless, there have been very few attempts at applying network analysis to distributional semantic models, despite the fact that these models have been studied extensively as computational or cognitive models of human lexical knowledge. In this paper, we analyze three network properties, namely, small-world, scale-free, and hierarchical properties, of semantic networks created by distributional semantic models. We demonstrate that the created networks generally exhibit the same properties as word association networks. In particular, we show that the distribution of the number of connections in these networks follows the truncated power law, which is also observed in an association network. This indicates that distributional semantic models can provide a plausible model of lexical knowledge. Additionally, the observed differences in the network properties of various implementations of distributional semantic models are consistently explained or predicted by considering the intrinsic semantic features of a word-context matrix and the functions of matrix weighting and smoothing. Furthermore, to simulate a semantic network with the observed network properties, we propose a new growing network model based on the model of Steyvers and Tenenbaum. The idea underlying the proposed model is that both preferential and random attachments are required to reflect different types of semantic relations in network growth process. We demonstrate that this model provides a better explanation of network behaviors generated by distributional semantic models. PMID:26295940

Evaluation model of distribution network development based on ANP and grey correlation analysis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ma, Kaiqiang; Zhan, Zhihong; Zhou, Ming; Wu, Qiang; Yan, Jun; Chen, Genyong

2018-06-01

The existing distribution network evaluation system cannot scientifically and comprehensively reflect the distribution network development status. Furthermore, the evaluation model is monotonous and it is not suitable for horizontal analysis of many regional power grids. For these reason, this paper constructs a set of universal adaptability evaluation index system and model of distribution network development. Firstly, distribution network evaluation system is set up by power supply capability, power grid structure, technical equipment, intelligent level, efficiency of the power grid and development benefit of power grid. Then the comprehensive weight of indices is calculated by combining the AHP with the grey correlation analysis. Finally, the index scoring function can be obtained by fitting the index evaluation criterion to the curve, and then using the multiply plus operator to get the result of sample evaluation. The example analysis shows that the model can reflect the development of distribution network and find out the advantages and disadvantages of distribution network development. Besides, the model provides suggestions for the development and construction of distribution network.

Packets Distributing Evolutionary Algorithm Based on PSO for Ad Hoc Network

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Xu, Xiao-Feng

2018-03-01

Wireless communication network has such features as limited bandwidth, changeful channel and dynamic topology, etc. Ad hoc network has lots of difficulties in accessing control, bandwidth distribution, resource assign and congestion control. Therefore, a wireless packets distributing Evolutionary algorithm based on PSO (DPSO)for Ad Hoc Network is proposed. Firstly, parameters impact on performance of network are analyzed and researched to obtain network performance effective function. Secondly, the improved PSO Evolutionary Algorithm is used to solve the optimization problem from local to global in the process of network packets distributing. The simulation results show that the algorithm can ensure fairness and timeliness of network transmission, as well as improve ad hoc network resource integrated utilization efficiency.

Analysis on Voltage Profile of Distribution Network with Distributed Generation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shao, Hua; Shi, Yujie; Yuan, Jianpu; An, Jiakun; Yang, Jianhua

2018-02-01

Penetration of distributed generation has some impacts on a distribution network in load flow, voltage profile, reliability, power loss and so on. After the impacts and the typical structures of the grid-connected distributed generation are analyzed, the back/forward sweep method of the load flow calculation of the distribution network is modelled including distributed generation. The voltage profiles of the distribution network affected by the installation location and the capacity of distributed generation are thoroughly investigated and simulated. The impacts on the voltage profiles are summarized and some suggestions to the installation location and the capacity of distributed generation are given correspondingly.

Micro-Pressure Sensors for Future Mars Missions

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Catling, David C.

1996-01-01

The joint research interchange effort was directed at the following principal areas: u further development of NASA-Ames' Mars Micro-meteorology mission concept as a viable NASA space mission especially with regard to the science and instrument specifications u interaction with the flight team from NASA's New Millennium 'Deep-Space 2' (DS-2) mission with regard to selection and design of micro-pressure sensors for Mars u further development of micro-pressure sensors suitable for Mars The research work undertaken in the course of the Joint Research Interchange should be placed in the context of an ongoing planetary exploration objective to characterize the climate system on Mars. In particular, a network of small probes globally-distributed on the surface of the planet has often been cited as the only way to address this particular science goal. A team from NASA Ames has proposed such a mission called the Micrometeorology mission, or 'Micro-met' for short. Surface pressure data are all that are required, in principle, to calculate the Martian atmospheric circulation, provided that simultaneous orbital measurements of the atmosphere are also obtained. Consequently, in the proposed Micro-met mission a large number of landers would measure barometric pressure at various locations around Mars, each equipped with a micro-pressure sensor. Much of the time on the JRI was therefore spent working with the engineers and scientists concerned with Micro-met to develop this particular mission concept into a more realistic proposition.

Impacts on the Voltage Profile of DC Distribution Network with DG Access

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tu, J. J.; Yin, Z. D.

2017-07-01

With the development of electronic, more and more distributed generations (DGs) access into grid and cause the research fever of direct current (DC) distribution network. Considering distributed generation (DG) location and capacity have great impacts on voltage profile, so use IEEE9 and IEEE33 typical circuit as examples, with DGs access in centralized and decentralized mode, to compare voltage profile in alternating and direct current (AC/DC) distribution network. Introducing the voltage change ratio as an evaluation index, so gets the general results on voltage profile of DC distributed network with DG access. Simulation shows that, in the premise of reasonable location and capacity, DC distribution network is more suitable for DG access.

In Support of Civil Rights: Taking On the Initiative. LEAP (Leadership Education for Asian Pacifics, Inc.) Special Report, Proposition 209, "The California Civil Rights Initiative."

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Leadership Education for Asian Pacifics (LEAP) Asian Pacific American Policy Inst.

Proposition 209 is a statewide constitutional amendment initiative in California, which, if passed in November 1996, will eliminate all statewide affirmative action programs. It is argued that, contrary to its title, this amendment is an extreme and unnecessary measure that will actually undermine further advances in civil rights. There are…

Water quality improvement policies: lessons learned from the implementation of Proposition O in Los Angeles, California

Treesearch

Mi-Hyun Park; Michael Stenstrom; Stephanie Pincetl

2009-01-01

This article evaluates the implementation of Proposition O, a stormwater cleanup measure, in Los Angeles, California. The measure was intended to create new funding to help the city comply with the Total Maximum Daily Load requirements under the federal Clean Water Act. Funding water quality objectives through a bond measure was necessary because the city had...

The Linguistic Discourse Model: Towards a Formal Theory of Discourse Structure.

DTIC Science & Technology

1986-11-01

storyteller should encode propositions with scope outside the storyworld before propositions with scope exclusively ’internal to the storyworld...recovered from storytelling disorder. -f It is imortant to point out, that as treating all disruptions uniformly as embedded relative to the narrative main...therefore, to a brief presentation of one reasonably pervasive storytelling deviation phenomenon. the True Start analyzed informally elsewhere. [48] [55] 84

Education and Tax Limitations: Evidence from Massachusetts' Proposition 2 1/2.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ladd, Helen F.; Wilson, Julie Boatright

This paper uses survey data collected during the 2 weeks following the November 4, 1980, election to answer questions concerning how local public education should be funded in the wake of the passing of Proposition 2 1/2, a measure that requires high tax rate cities and towns to reduce property tax levies by at least 15 percent per year until they…

Image-based systems for space surveillance: from images to collision avoidance

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pyanet, Marine; Martin, Bernard; Fau, Nicolas; Vial, Sophie; Chalte, Chantal; Beraud, Pascal; Fuss, Philippe; Le Goff, Roland

2011-11-01

In many spatial systems, image is a core technology to fulfil the mission requirements. Depending on the application, the needs and the constraints are different and imaging systems can offer a large variety of configurations in terms of wavelength, resolution, field-of-view, focal length or sensitivity. Adequate image processing algorithms allow the extraction of the needed information and the interpretation of images. As a prime contractor for many major civil or military projects, Astrium ST is very involved in the proposition, development and realization of new image-based techniques and systems for space-related purposes. Among the different applications, space surveillance is a major stake for the future of space transportation. Indeed, studies show that the number of debris in orbit is exponentially growing and the already existing population of small and medium debris is a concrete threat to operational satellites. This paper presents Astrium ST activities regarding space surveillance for space situational awareness (SSA) and space traffic management (STM). Among other possible SSA architectures, the relevance of a ground-based optical station network is investigated. The objective is to detect and track space debris and maintain an exhaustive and accurate catalogue up-to-date in order to assess collision risk for satellites and space vehicles. The system is composed of different type of optical stations dedicated to specific functions (survey, passive tracking, active tracking), distributed around the globe. To support these investigations, two in-house operational breadboards were implemented and are operated for survey and tracking purposes. This paper focuses on Astrium ST end-to-end optical-based survey concept. For the detection of new debris, a network of wide field of view survey stations is considered: those stations are able to detect small objects and associated image processing (detection and tracking) allow a preliminary restitution of their orbit.

Research on key technology of planning and design for AC/DC hybrid distribution network

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shen, Yu; Wu, Guilian; Zheng, Huan; Deng, Junpeng; Shi, Pengjia

2018-04-01

With the increasing demand of DC generation and DC load, the development of DC technology, AC and DC distribution network integrating will become an important form of future distribution network. In this paper, the key technology of planning and design for AC/DC hybrid distribution network is proposed, including the selection of AC and DC voltage series, the design of typical grid structure and the comprehensive evaluation method of planning scheme. The research results provide some ideas and directions for the future development of AC/DC hybrid distribution network.

Social diversity promotes cooperation in spatial multigames

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Qin, Jiahu; Chen, Yaming; Kang, Yu; Perc, Matjaž

2017-04-01

Social diversity is omnipresent in the modern world. Here we introduce this diversity into spatial multigames and study its impact on the evolution of cooperation. Multigames are characterized by two or more different social dilemmas being contested among players in the population. When a fraction of players plays the prisoner's dilemma game while the remainder plays the snowdrift game cooperation becomes a difficult proposition. We show that social diversity, determined by the payoff scaling factors from the uniform, exponential or power-law distribution, significantly promotes cooperation. In particular, the stronger the social diversity, the more widespread cooperative behavior becomes. Monte Carlo simulations on the square lattice reveal that a power-law distribution of social diversity is in fact optimal for socially favorable states, thus resonating with findings previously reported for single social dilemmas. We also show that the same promotion mechanism works in time-varying environments, thus further generalizing the important role of social diversity for cooperation in social dilemmas.

Entropy-based heavy tailed distribution transformation and visual analytics for monitoring massive network traffic

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Han, Keesook J.; Hodge, Matthew; Ross, Virginia W.

2011-06-01

For monitoring network traffic, there is an enormous cost in collecting, storing, and analyzing network traffic datasets. Data mining based network traffic analysis has a growing interest in the cyber security community, but is computationally expensive for finding correlations between attributes in massive network traffic datasets. To lower the cost and reduce computational complexity, it is desirable to perform feasible statistical processing on effective reduced datasets instead of on the original full datasets. Because of the dynamic behavior of network traffic, traffic traces exhibit mixtures of heavy tailed statistical distributions or overdispersion. Heavy tailed network traffic characterization and visualization are important and essential tasks to measure network performance for the Quality of Services. However, heavy tailed distributions are limited in their ability to characterize real-time network traffic due to the difficulty of parameter estimation. The Entropy-Based Heavy Tailed Distribution Transformation (EHTDT) was developed to convert the heavy tailed distribution into a transformed distribution to find the linear approximation. The EHTDT linearization has the advantage of being amenable to characterize and aggregate overdispersion of network traffic in realtime. Results of applying the EHTDT for innovative visual analytics to real network traffic data are presented.

Taming Data to Make Decisions: Using a Spatial Fuzzy Logic Decision Support Framework to Inform Conservation and Land Use Planning

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sheehan, T.; Baker, B.; Degagne, R. S.

2015-12-01

With the abundance of data sources, analytical methods, and computer models, land managers are faced with the overwhelming task of making sense of a profusion of data of wildly different types. Luckily, fuzzy logic provides a method to work with different types of data using language-based propositions such as "the landscape is undisturbed," and a simple set of logic constructs. Just as many surveys allow different levels of agreement with a proposition, fuzzy logic allows values reflecting different levels of truth for a proposition. Truth levels fall within a continuum ranging from Fully True to Fully False. Hence a fuzzy logic model produces continuous results. The Environmental Evaluation Modeling System (EEMS) is a platform-independent, tree-based, fuzzy logic modeling framework. An EEMS model provides a transparent definition of an evaluation model and is commonly developed as a collaborative effort among managers, scientists, and GIS experts. Managers specify a set of evaluative propositions used to characterize the landscape. Scientists, working with managers, formulate functions that convert raw data values into truth values for the propositions and produce a logic tree to combine results into a single metric used to guide decisions. Managers, scientists, and GIS experts then work together to implement and iteratively tune the logic model and produce final results. We present examples of two successful EEMS projects that provided managers with map-based results suitable for guiding decisions: sensitivity and climate change exposure in Utah and the Colorado Plateau modeled for the Bureau of Land Management; and terrestrial ecological intactness in the Mojave and Sonoran region of southern California modeled for the Desert Renewable Energy Conservation Plan.

A realist synthesis of cross-border patient movement from low and middle income countries to similar or higher income countries.

PubMed

Durham, Jo; Blondell, Sarah J

2017-08-29

Patient travel across borders to access healthcare is becoming increasingly common and widespread. Patients moving from high income to middle income countries for healthcare is well documented, with patients seeking treatments that are cheaper or more readily available than at home. Less well understood is when patients move from one low income country to another or from a low income country to a higher income country. In this paper, a realist review was undertaken to explore why, in what contexts and how patients from lower income countries travel to countries with the same, or more advanced, economies for planned healthcare. Based on an initial scoping of the literature and discussions with key informants, we generated an initial theory and set of propositions about why, how, who and in what contexts people cross international borders for planned healthcare. We then systematically located and synthesized (1) peer-reviewed studies from the Scopus, Embase, Web of Science and Econlit databases; (2) non-indexed reports using key informants and Google; and (3) papers from the reference lists of included documents, to glean supportive or contradictory evidence for our initial propositions. As we reviewed the literature and extracted our data, we drew on the work of Pierre Bourdieu to understand the interplay between material and non-material capital and cognitive processes in decisions to cross borders for healthcare. Patient travel was largely undertaken due to a lack of services in the home country and/or unacceptability of local services, with decisions on when, and where, to travel, usually made within the patient's social networks. They were able to travel via use of multiple resources, including social networks, economic and cultural capital, and habitus. Those patients with greater volumes of the aforementioned factors had greater healthcare options; however, even those with limited resources engaged in patient travel. Patient movement challenges traditional ways of thinking about public health and the notion of health systems contained within the nation state. Further research is needed to better understand the effects of patient travel, and how to harness the benefits of patient travel without exacerbating existing health inequalities.

No Pet or Their Person Left Behind: Increasing the Disaster Resilience of Vulnerable Groups through Animal Attachment, Activities and Networks

PubMed Central

Thompson, Kirrilly; Every, Danielle; Rainbird, Sophia; Cornell, Victoria; Smith, Bradley; Trigg, Joshua

2014-01-01

Simple Summary The potential for reconfiguring pet ownership from a risk factor to a protective factor for natural disaster survival has been recently proposed. But how might this resilience-building proposition apply to members of the community who are already considered vulnerable? This article addresses this important question by synthesizing information about what makes seven particular groups vulnerable, the challenges to increasing their resilience and how animals figure in their lives. It concludes that animal attachment could provide a novel conduit for accessing, communicating with and motivating vulnerable people to engage in resilience building behaviors that promote survival and facilitate recovery. Abstract Increased vulnerability to natural disasters has been associated with particular groups in the community. This includes those who are considered de facto vulnerable (children, older people, those with disabilities etc.) and those who own pets (not to mention pets themselves). The potential for reconfiguring pet ownership from a risk factor to a protective factor for natural disaster survival has been recently proposed. But how might this resilience-building proposition apply to vulnerable members of the community who own pets or other animals? This article addresses this important question by synthesizing information about what makes particular groups vulnerable, the challenges to increasing their resilience and how animals figure in their lives. Despite different vulnerabilities, animals were found to be important to the disaster resilience of seven vulnerable groups in Australia. Animal attachment and animal-related activities and networks are identified as underexplored devices for disseminating or ‘piggybacking’ disaster-related information and engaging vulnerable people in resilience building behaviors (in addition to including animals in disaster planning initiatives in general). Animals may provide the kind of innovative approach required to overcome the challenges in accessing and engaging vulnerable groups. As the survival of humans and animals are so often intertwined, the benefits of increasing the resilience of vulnerable communities through animal attachment is twofold: human and animal lives can be saved together. PMID:26480038

Organization of the secure distributed computing based on multi-agent system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Khovanskov, Sergey; Rumyantsev, Konstantin; Khovanskova, Vera

2018-04-01

Nowadays developing methods for distributed computing is received much attention. One of the methods of distributed computing is using of multi-agent systems. The organization of distributed computing based on the conventional network computers can experience security threats performed by computational processes. Authors have developed the unified agent algorithm of control system of computing network nodes operation. Network PCs is used as computing nodes. The proposed multi-agent control system for the implementation of distributed computing allows in a short time to organize using of the processing power of computers any existing network to solve large-task by creating a distributed computing. Agents based on a computer network can: configure a distributed computing system; to distribute the computational load among computers operated agents; perform optimization distributed computing system according to the computing power of computers on the network. The number of computers connected to the network can be increased by connecting computers to the new computer system, which leads to an increase in overall processing power. Adding multi-agent system in the central agent increases the security of distributed computing. This organization of the distributed computing system reduces the problem solving time and increase fault tolerance (vitality) of computing processes in a changing computing environment (dynamic change of the number of computers on the network). Developed a multi-agent system detects cases of falsification of the results of a distributed system, which may lead to wrong decisions. In addition, the system checks and corrects wrong results.

Lessons from Climate Modeling on the Design and Use of Ensembles for Crop Modeling

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Wallach, Daniel; Mearns, Linda O.; Ruane, Alexander C.; Roetter, Reimund P.; Asseng, Senthold

2016-01-01

Working with ensembles of crop models is a recent but important development in crop modeling which promises to lead to better uncertainty estimates for model projections and predictions, better predictions using the ensemble mean or median, and closer collaboration within the modeling community. There are numerous open questions about the best way to create and analyze such ensembles. Much can be learned from the field of climate modeling, given its much longer experience with ensembles. We draw on that experience to identify questions and make propositions that should help make ensemble modeling with crop models more rigorous and informative. The propositions include defining criteria for acceptance of models in a crop MME, exploring criteria for evaluating the degree of relatedness of models in a MME, studying the effect of number of models in the ensemble, development of a statistical model of model sampling, creation of a repository for MME results, studies of possible differential weighting of models in an ensemble, creation of single model ensembles based on sampling from the uncertainty distribution of parameter values or inputs specifically oriented toward uncertainty estimation, the creation of super ensembles that sample more than one source of uncertainty, the analysis of super ensemble results to obtain information on total uncertainty and the separate contributions of different sources of uncertainty and finally further investigation of the use of the multi-model mean or median as a predictor.

Design of a national distributed health data network.

PubMed

Maro, Judith C; Platt, Richard; Holmes, John H; Strom, Brian L; Hennessy, Sean; Lazarus, Ross; Brown, Jeffrey S

2009-09-01

A distributed health data network is a system that allows secure remote analysis of separate data sets, each comprising a different medical organization's or health plan's records. Distributed health data networks are currently being planned that could cover millions of people, permitting studies of comparative clinical effectiveness, best practices, diffusion of medical technologies, and quality of care. These networks could also support assessment of medical product safety and other public health needs. Distributed network technologies allow data holders to control all uses of their data, which overcomes many practical obstacles related to confidentiality, regulation, and proprietary interests. Some of the challenges and potential methods of operation of a multipurpose, multi-institutional distributed health data network are described.

Perceived Quality of Private Education and Fears of Stratification: Investigating the Propositions of Human Capital Theory by Exploring the Case of Colombia

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nel Páez, Pedro; Teelken, Christine

2016-01-01

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the recent developments in the higher education system of Colombia in order to illustrate how these encourage stratification between (types of) universities and their students. We do so by discussing propositions generated by human capital theory and apply them to the experiences of students and graduates…

Actes du colloque sur le bilinguisme, Universite de Neuchatel, 14/15 Septembre, 1981 (Proceedings of the Colloquium on Bilingualism, University of Neuchatel, September 14-15, 1981).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

TRANEL, 1982

1982-01-01

This issue contains proceedings of a colloquium on linguistics at the University of Neuchatel: (1) "Propositions epistemologiques pour une etude du bilinguisme (Epistemological Propositions for a Study of Bilingualism)," by B. Py; (2) "Comment on di ca? Prolegomenes a une etude de la composante semantique du langage des migrants (How Do You Say…

Keeping Up with California: The Impact of Massachusetts' Proposition 2-1/2 on Local Children's Services [Chapter Three].

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kim, Karl E.

This analysis is the third of a series of seven reports on the ways that the urban fiscal crisis has affected children. There has been little reorganization of government services on the state, regional, or local level to compensate for the benefits to children lost as a result of local property tax limitations enacted under Proposition 2-1/2 in…

The Cognitive Bases of Intelligence Analysis.

DTIC Science & Technology

1984-01-01

the truth of a single proposition or to discriminate among several propositions. Indicators represent the potentially observable events that form the ...serves as a checklist against which to evaluate an actual Intelligance product. * If the Ideal product Is specified In sufficient detail for a particular...34 Interf’arence In accessing memory occurs for both recognition and recall. Memory retrieval is most efficient when the memories are discriminable . Memories for

Anatomy of a value proposition for laboratory medicine.

PubMed

Price, Christopher P; St John, Andrew

2014-09-25

Value is now becoming a key driver in the ongoing development of healthcare delivery; key facets include the identification of what is valuable and how that value can be identified, leveraged, and delivered. The concept of a value proposition is widely used in business but can be used in healthcare as a statement of the benefits, costs and value that an organization can deliver to its customers. The foundation of this statement in laboratory medicine is evidence of clinical and cost effectiveness, not only for the patient, but also for other stakeholders involved in the delivery of healthcare, e.g., the carer, service provider, commissioner, purchaser, and the supplier of the test or device, as well as society as a whole. However the value of any laboratory medicine investigation is only achieved if the output (the test result(s)), is acted upon by the initiator of the investigation. Laboratory medicine is one part of a complex intervention, and so the value proposition should encompass the breadth of that intervention - from addressing the unmet need through the generation of clinical, operational and economic outcomes. A value proposition in laboratory medicine is central to successful innovation and quality improvement in healthcare. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Topos quantum theory on quantization-induced sheaves

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

Nakayama, Kunji, E-mail: nakayama@law.ryukoku.ac.jp

2014-10-15

In this paper, we construct a sheaf-based topos quantum theory. It is well known that a topos quantum theory can be constructed on the topos of presheaves on the category of commutative von Neumann algebras of bounded operators on a Hilbert space. Also, it is already known that quantization naturally induces a Lawvere-Tierney topology on the presheaf topos. We show that a topos quantum theory akin to the presheaf-based one can be constructed on sheaves defined by the quantization-induced Lawvere-Tierney topology. That is, starting from the spectral sheaf as a state space of a given quantum system, we construct sheaf-basedmore » expressions of physical propositions and truth objects, and thereby give a method of truth-value assignment to the propositions. Furthermore, we clarify the relationship to the presheaf-based quantum theory. We give translation rules between the sheaf-based ingredients and the corresponding presheaf-based ones. The translation rules have “coarse-graining” effects on the spaces of the presheaf-based ingredients; a lot of different proposition presheaves, truth presheaves, and presheaf-based truth-values are translated to a proposition sheaf, a truth sheaf, and a sheaf-based truth-value, respectively. We examine the extent of the coarse-graining made by translation.« less

a New Architecture for Intelligent Systems with Logic Based Languages

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Saini, K. K.; Saini, Sanju

2008-10-01

People communicate with each other in sentences that incorporate two kinds of information: propositions about some subject, and metalevel speech acts that specify how the propositional information is used—as an assertion, a command, a question, or a promise. By means of speech acts, a group of people who have different areas of expertise can cooperate and dynamically reconfigure their social interactions to perform tasks and solve problems that would be difficult or impossible for any single individual. This paper proposes a framework for intelligent systems that consist of a variety of specialized components together with logic-based languages that can express propositions and speech acts about those propositions. The result is a system with a dynamically changing architecture that can be reconfigured in various ways: by a human knowledge engineer who specifies a script of speech acts that determine how the components interact; by a planning component that generates the speech acts to redirect the other components; or by a committee of components, which might include human assistants, whose speech acts serve to redirect one another. The components communicate by sending messages to a Linda-like blackboard, in which components accept messages that are either directed to them or that they consider themselves competent to handle.

The Value of Information in Distributed Decision Networks

DTIC Science & Technology

2016-03-04

formulation, and then we describe the various results at- tained. 1 Mathematical description of Distributed Decision Network un- der Information...Constraints We now define a mathematical framework for networks. Let G = (V,E) be an undirected random network (graph) drawn from a known distribution pG, 1

A Multi-level Fuzzy Evaluation Method for Smart Distribution Network Based on Entropy Weight

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Li, Jianfang; Song, Xiaohui; Gao, Fei; Zhang, Yu

2017-05-01

Smart distribution network is considered as the future trend of distribution network. In order to comprehensive evaluate smart distribution construction level and give guidance to the practice of smart distribution construction, a multi-level fuzzy evaluation method based on entropy weight is proposed. Firstly, focus on both the conventional characteristics of distribution network and new characteristics of smart distribution network such as self-healing and interaction, a multi-level evaluation index system which contains power supply capability, power quality, economy, reliability and interaction is established. Then, a combination weighting method based on Delphi method and entropy weight method is put forward, which take into account not only the importance of the evaluation index in the experts’ subjective view, but also the objective and different information from the index values. Thirdly, a multi-level evaluation method based on fuzzy theory is put forward. Lastly, an example is conducted based on the statistical data of some cites’ distribution network and the evaluation method is proved effective and rational.

Inequality, poverty and development.

PubMed

Ahluwalia, M S

1976-12-01

Dicussion explores the nature of the relationship between the distribution of income and the process of development on the basis of cross country data on income inequality. The results presented are based on a sample of 60 countries, including 40 developing countries, 14 developed countries, and 6 socialist countries. The approach adopted is essentially exploratory. Multivariate regression analysis was used to estimate cross country relationships between the income shares of different percentile groups and selected variables reflecting aspects of the development process which are likely to influence income inequality. The estimated equations are then used as a basis for broad generalizations about the relationship between income distribution and development. There was strong support for the proposition that relative inequaltiy increases substantially in the early stages of development, with a reversal of this tendency in the later stages. The propositions held whether the sample was restricted to developing countries or expanded to include developed and socialist countries. The process was most prolonged for the poorest group. There were a number of processes occurring "pari passu" with development which were correlated with income inequality and which can plausibly be interpreted as causal. These were intersectoral shifts in the structure of production, expansion in education attainment and skill level of the labor force; and reduction in the growth of population. The operation of these processes appeared to explain some of the improvement in income distribution observed in the later stages of development, but they did not serve to explain the marked deterioration observed in the earlier stages. The cross section results failed to support the stronger hypothesis that the deterioration in relative inequality reflected a prolonged absolute impoverishment of large sections of the population in the course of development. The cross country pattern showed average absolute incomes of the lower percentile groups rising as per capita gross national product rises, although slower than for upper income groups. The cross section results failed to support the view that a faster rate of growth is systematically associated with higher inequality than can be expected given the state of development realized. An appendix identifies data sources and problems.

Information Weighted Consensus for Distributed Estimation in Vision Networks

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kamal, Ahmed Tashrif

2013-01-01

Due to their high fault-tolerance, ease of installation and scalability to large networks, distributed algorithms have recently gained immense popularity in the sensor networks community, especially in computer vision. Multi-target tracking in a camera network is one of the fundamental problems in this domain. Distributed estimation algorithms…

Research and Design of the Three-tier Distributed Network Management System Based on COM / COM + and DNA

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Liang, Likai; Bi, Yushen

Considered on the distributed network management system's demand of high distributives, extensibility and reusability, a framework model of Three-tier distributed network management system based on COM/COM+ and DNA is proposed, which adopts software component technology and N-tier application software framework design idea. We also give the concrete design plan of each layer of this model. Finally, we discuss the internal running process of each layer in the distributed network management system's framework model.

Characterization Of Industrial And Background Aerosols In The RhÔne-alpes Region Using Laser Remote Sensing Device.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Geffroy, S.; Rairoux, P.; Mondelain, D.; Boutou, V.; Wolf, J.-P.; Frejafon, E.

Lack of reliable database on aerosol emission and dispersion is one of the main rea- sons for the incertitude of the impact of aerosol on the climate change. International statements and policies requested improvement on the global and on the regional scale. This new project is related to the characterisation of the spatial and time distribution of the aerosols in the Rhône-Alpes region. Actually, aerosols monitoring is mainly performed at ground level in this region and only few studies have been performed on the 3D distribution of urban aerosols (soot) using remote sensing laser device. The Rhône-Alpes region is representative for the regional impact of industry and traffic emission and also for the long-range transport of pollution over the East part of the Alps. The environmental situation of the region in term of sources and localization is especially dominated by: heavy traffic with several motorways (A6 from Paris, A7 to Marseille - both downtown - and A43 to the Alps and Italy) and industrial pollu- tion in particular for Lyon (refinery and several chemistry plants) and Saint Etienne agglomerations, which have a direct impact on the local air quality and also on the regional and national scale. Characterization of the aerosol load and dispersion in this region will be achieved applying two schemes. The first one will be related to the 3D quantitative characterization of diffuse aerosol emission in the industrial areas. Mon- itoring will be performed using a UV-infrared lidar remote sensing device. Emission cadastre elaboration and microphysical characterisation of the emission will be estab- lished. Direct access to several aerosol distribution modes will be used to describe the aerosol population dynamic: sedimentation, transport and aggregation. Studies on the direct impact of the emission on the region will be achieved coupling the 3D and ground level monitoring with dispersion model. The second scheme will be related to the long term remote sensing of the atmospheric background aerosols. Monitoring of the vertical and time distribution of their optical properties will be performed and this at 6 channels laying from the UV to the infrared spectral region. A high priority will be set on the data quality control and assurance in order to elaborate a reliable database. Several analyses will be performed with this dataset: the characterization of the microphysical properties of the aerosols. The regional and continental impact of the aerosols coupling the data with back-trajectories calculation and the validation of radiative model. By achieving a sufficient data quality, a proposition will be made to integrate the data into the European network Earlinet, which establishes a quantita- tive comprehensive statistical data base of both horizontal and vertical distributions of aerosols on a continental scale using a network of advanced laser remote sensing stations distributed all over Europe. This project will begin in summer 2002 and it will be taking place in cooperation with the national office INERIS.

Synaptic Impairment and Robustness of Excitatory Neuronal Networks with Different Topologies

PubMed Central

Mirzakhalili, Ehsan; Gourgou, Eleni; Booth, Victoria; Epureanu, Bogdan

2017-01-01

Synaptic deficiencies are a known hallmark of neurodegenerative diseases, but the diagnosis of impaired synapses on the cellular level is not an easy task. Nonetheless, changes in the system-level dynamics of neuronal networks with damaged synapses can be detected using techniques that do not require high spatial resolution. This paper investigates how the structure/topology of neuronal networks influences their dynamics when they suffer from synaptic loss. We study different neuronal network structures/topologies by specifying their degree distributions. The modes of the degree distribution can be used to construct networks that consist of rich clubs and resemble small world networks, as well. We define two dynamical metrics to compare the activity of networks with different structures: persistent activity (namely, the self-sustained activity of the network upon removal of the initial stimulus) and quality of activity (namely, percentage of neurons that participate in the persistent activity of the network). Our results show that synaptic loss affects the persistent activity of networks with bimodal degree distributions less than it affects random networks. The robustness of neuronal networks enhances when the distance between the modes of the degree distribution increases, suggesting that the rich clubs of networks with distinct modes keep the whole network active. In addition, a tradeoff is observed between the quality of activity and the persistent activity. For a range of distributions, both of these dynamical metrics are considerably high for networks with bimodal degree distribution compared to random networks. We also propose three different scenarios of synaptic impairment, which may correspond to different pathological or biological conditions. Regardless of the network structure/topology, results demonstrate that synaptic loss has more severe effects on the activity of the network when impairments are correlated with the activity of the neurons. PMID:28659765

Structural diversity effects of multilayer networks on the threshold of interacting epidemics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, Weihong; Chen, MingMing; Min, Yong; Jin, Xiaogang

2016-02-01

Foodborne diseases always spread through multiple vectors (e.g. fresh vegetables and fruits) and reveal that multilayer network could spread fatal pathogen with complex interactions. In this paper, first, we use a "top-down analysis framework that depends on only two distributions to describe a random multilayer network with any number of layers. These two distributions are the overlaid degree distribution and the edge-type distribution of the multilayer network. Second, based on the two distributions, we adopt three indicators of multilayer network diversity to measure the correlation between network layers, including network richness, likeness, and evenness. The network richness is the number of layers forming the multilayer network. The network likeness is the degree of different layers sharing the same edge. The network evenness is the variance of the number of edges in every layer. Third, based on a simple epidemic model, we analyze the influence of network diversity on the threshold of interacting epidemics with the coexistence of collaboration and competition. Our work extends the "top-down" analysis framework to deal with the more complex epidemic situation and more diversity indicators and quantifies the trade-off between thresholds of inter-layer collaboration and intra-layer transmission.

Distributed Detection with Collisions in a Random, Single-Hop Wireless Sensor Network

DTIC Science & Technology

2013-05-26

public release; distribution is unlimited. Distributed detection with collisions in a random, single-hop wireless sensor network The views, opinions...1274 2 ABSTRACT Distributed detection with collisions in a random, single-hop wireless sensor network Report Title We consider the problem of... WIRELESS SENSOR NETWORK Gene T. Whipps?† Emre Ertin† Randolph L. Moses† ?U.S. Army Research Laboratory, Adelphi, MD 20783 †The Ohio State University

The evolution of cooperation on geographical networks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Li, Yixiao; Wang, Yi; Sheng, Jichuan

2017-11-01

We study evolutionary public goods game on geographical networks, i.e., complex networks which are located on a geographical plane. The geographical feature effects in two ways: In one way, the geographically-induced network structure influences the overall evolutionary dynamics, and, in the other way, the geographical length of an edge influences the cost when the two players at the two ends interact. For the latter effect, we design a new cost function of cooperators, which simply assumes that the longer the distance between two players, the higher cost the cooperator(s) of them have to pay. In this study, network substrates are generated by a previous spatial network model with a cost-benefit parameter controlling the network topology. Our simulations show that the greatest promotion of cooperation is achieved in the intermediate regime of the parameter, in which empirical estimates of various railway networks fall. Further, we investigate how the distribution of edges' geographical costs influences the evolutionary dynamics and consider three patterns of the distribution: an approximately-equal distribution, a diverse distribution, and a polarized distribution. For normal geographical networks which are generated using intermediate values of the cost-benefit parameter, a diverse distribution hinders the evolution of cooperation, whereas a polarized distribution lowers the threshold value of the amplification factor for cooperation in public goods game. These results are helpful for understanding the evolution of cooperation on real-world geographical networks.

Software-Enabled Distributed Network Governance: The PopMedNet Experience.

PubMed

Davies, Melanie; Erickson, Kyle; Wyner, Zachary; Malenfant, Jessica; Rosen, Rob; Brown, Jeffrey

2016-01-01

The expanded availability of electronic health information has led to increased interest in distributed health data research networks. The distributed research network model leaves data with and under the control of the data holder. Data holders, network coordinating centers, and researchers have distinct needs and challenges within this model. The concerns of network stakeholders are addressed in the design and governance models of the PopMedNet software platform. PopMedNet features include distributed querying, customizable workflows, and auditing and search capabilities. Its flexible role-based access control system enables the enforcement of varying governance policies. Four case studies describe how PopMedNet is used to enforce network governance models. Trust is an essential component of a distributed research network and must be built before data partners may be willing to participate further. The complexity of the PopMedNet system must be managed as networks grow and new data, analytic methods, and querying approaches are developed. The PopMedNet software platform supports a variety of network structures, governance models, and research activities through customizable features designed to meet the needs of network stakeholders.

Leading Others Toward Excellence.

PubMed

Hupp, James R

2015-12-01

This essay puts forth the proposition that academic program excellence does not arise by accident. Effective leadership is required. To support this proposition, the essay discusses the characteristics common to effective leaders. It then proceeds to use the example of a successful academic oral-maxillofacial surgery department and characteristics of its leader to provide evidence that excellence derives from effective leadership. Copyright © 2015 American Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Syllogistic Reasoning Tasks, A Methodological Review.

DTIC Science & Technology

1985-07-01

and that Figure 1 syllogisms were easier than the Figure 4, con- firmed the results reported by Frase (1968). Syllogism figure also had an effect on...241 In other words, both premises must assert class inclusion to entail an af- firmative conclusion. But class inclusion can be expressed only by...34There are no unicorns " does not. * The particular propositions (I, 0) have existential import, while the two * universal propositions (A, E) do not

A Current Logical Framework: The Propositional Fragment

DTIC Science & Technology

2003-01-01

Under the Curry- Howard isomorphism, M can also be read as a proof term, and A as a proposition of intuitionistic linear logic in its formulation as DILL...the obliga- tion to ensure that the underlying logic (via the Curry- Howard isomorphism, if you like) is sensible. In particular, the principles of...Proceedings of the International Logic Programming Symposium (ILPS󈨣), pages 51-65, Portland, Oregon, December 1995. MIT Press. 6. G. Bellin and P. J

Impaired Relational Organization of Propositions, but Intact Transitive Inference, in Aging: Implications for Understanding Underlying Neural Integrity

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ryan, Jennifer D.; Moses, Sandra N.; Villate, Christina

2009-01-01

The ability to perform relational proposition-based reasoning was assessed in younger and older adults using the transitive inference task in which subjects learned a series of premise pairs (A greater than B, B greater than C, C greater than D, D greater than E, E greater than F) and were asked to make inference judgments (B?D, B?E, C?E).…

The value proposition of structured reporting in interventional radiology.

PubMed

Durack, Jeremy C

2014-10-01

The purposes of this article are to provide a brief overview of structured radiology reporting and to emphasize the anticipated benefits from a new generation of standardized interventional radiology procedure reports. Radiology reporting standards and tools have evolved to enable automated data integration from multiple institutions using structured templates. In interventional radiology, data aggregated into clinical, research and quality registries from enriched structured reports could firmly establish the interventional radiology value proposition.

A Sociotechnical Framework for Governing Climate Engineering

PubMed Central

2015-01-01

Proposed ways of governing climate engineering have most often been supported by narrowly framed and unreflexive appraisals and processes. This article explores the governance implications of a Deliberative Mapping project that, unlike other governance principles, have emerged from an extensive process of reflection and reflexivity. In turn, the project has made significant advances in addressing the current deficit of responsibly defined criteria for shaping governance propositions. Three such propositions argue that (1) reflexive foresight of the imagined futures in which climate engineering proposals might reside is required; (2) the performance and acceptance of climate engineering proposals should be decided in terms of robustness, not optimality; and (3) climate engineering proposals should be satisfactorily opened up before they can be considered legitimate objects of governance. Taken together, these propositions offer a sociotechnical framework not simply for governing climate engineering but for governing responses to climate change at large. PMID:26973363

In the trenches: lessons for scientists from California's Proposition 71 campaign

PubMed Central

Goldstein, Lawrence S. B.

2011-01-01

I describe a number of valuable lessons I learned from participating in California's Proposition 71 effort about the role that scientists and rigorous scientific advice can play in a public political process. I describe how scientists can provide valuable information and advice and how they can also gain a great deal from the experience that is valuable to a practicing research scientist. Finally, I argue that in the future, building similar broad coalitions to support biomedical and other areas of scientific research will be essential to protect publicly funded science. Thus, a key lesson from the Proposition 71 experience is that engagement of scientists with diverse nonscientific groups can make a big difference and that scientists must actively engage with the public in the future if we are to contribute robustly to the medical and economic health of our communities. PMID:22039069

Ignorance is a bliss: Mathematical structure of many-box models

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tylec, Tomasz I.; Kuś, Marek

2018-03-01

We show that the propositional system of a many-box model is always a set-representable effect algebra. In particular cases of 2-box and 1-box models, it is an orthomodular poset and an orthomodular lattice, respectively. We discuss the relation of the obtained results with the so-called Local Orthogonality principle. We argue that non-classical properties of box models are the result of a dual enrichment of the set of states caused by the impoverishment of the set of propositions. On the other hand, quantum mechanical models always have more propositions as well as more states than the classical ones. Consequently, we show that the box models cannot be considered as generalizations of quantum mechanical models and seeking additional principles that could allow us to "recover quantum correlations" in box models are, at least from the fundamental point of view, pointless.

75 FR 9343 - Nomenclature Change Relating to the Network Distribution Center Transition

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-03-02

... POSTAL SERVICE 39 CFR Parts 111 and 121 Nomenclature Change Relating to the Network Distribution... (BMC) to network distribution centers (NDC), by replacing all text references to ``BMC'' with ``NDC...: Background: The BMC network was established in the 1970s to process Parcel Post[supreg], Bound Printed Matter...

Planning of distributed generation in distribution network based on improved particle swarm optimization algorithm

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Li, Jinze; Qu, Zhi; He, Xiaoyang; Jin, Xiaoming; Li, Tie; Wang, Mingkai; Han, Qiu; Gao, Ziji; Jiang, Feng

2018-02-01

Large-scale access of distributed power can improve the current environmental pressure, at the same time, increasing the complexity and uncertainty of overall distribution system. Rational planning of distributed power can effectively improve the system voltage level. To this point, the specific impact on distribution network power quality caused by the access of typical distributed power was analyzed and from the point of improving the learning factor and the inertia weight, an improved particle swarm optimization algorithm (IPSO) was proposed which could solve distributed generation planning for distribution network to improve the local and global search performance of the algorithm. Results show that the proposed method can well reduce the system network loss and improve the economic performance of system operation with distributed generation.

Spatial Distribution Characteristics of Healthcare Facilities in Nanjing: Network Point Pattern Analysis and Correlation Analysis.

PubMed

Ni, Jianhua; Qian, Tianlu; Xi, Changbai; Rui, Yikang; Wang, Jiechen

2016-08-18

The spatial distribution of urban service facilities is largely constrained by the road network. In this study, network point pattern analysis and correlation analysis were used to analyze the relationship between road network and healthcare facility distribution. The weighted network kernel density estimation method proposed in this study identifies significant differences between the outside and inside areas of the Ming city wall. The results of network K-function analysis show that private hospitals are more evenly distributed than public hospitals, and pharmacy stores tend to cluster around hospitals along the road network. After computing the correlation analysis between different categorized hospitals and street centrality, we find that the distribution of these hospitals correlates highly with the street centralities, and that the correlations are higher with private and small hospitals than with public and large hospitals. The comprehensive analysis results could help examine the reasonability of existing urban healthcare facility distribution and optimize the location of new healthcare facilities.

Complex Network Theory Applied to the Growth of Kuala Lumpur's Public Urban Rail Transit Network.

PubMed

Ding, Rui; Ujang, Norsidah; Hamid, Hussain Bin; Wu, Jianjun

2015-01-01

Recently, the number of studies involving complex network applications in transportation has increased steadily as scholars from various fields analyze traffic networks. Nonetheless, research on rail network growth is relatively rare. This research examines the evolution of the Public Urban Rail Transit Networks of Kuala Lumpur (PURTNoKL) based on complex network theory and covers both the topological structure of the rail system and future trends in network growth. In addition, network performance when facing different attack strategies is also assessed. Three topological network characteristics are considered: connections, clustering and centrality. In PURTNoKL, we found that the total number of nodes and edges exhibit a linear relationship and that the average degree stays within the interval [2.0488, 2.6774] with heavy-tailed distributions. The evolutionary process shows that the cumulative probability distribution (CPD) of degree and the average shortest path length show good fit with exponential distribution and normal distribution, respectively. Moreover, PURTNoKL exhibits clear cluster characteristics; most of the nodes have a 2-core value, and the CPDs of the centrality's closeness and betweenness follow a normal distribution function and an exponential distribution, respectively. Finally, we discuss four different types of network growth styles and the line extension process, which reveal that the rail network's growth is likely based on the nodes with the biggest lengths of the shortest path and that network protection should emphasize those nodes with the largest degrees and the highest betweenness values. This research may enhance the networkability of the rail system and better shape the future growth of public rail networks.

Multiple-Ring Digital Communication Network

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kirkham, Harold

1992-01-01

Optical-fiber digital communication network to support data-acquisition and control functions of electric-power-distribution networks. Optical-fiber links of communication network follow power-distribution routes. Since fiber crosses open power switches, communication network includes multiple interconnected loops with occasional spurs. At each intersection node is needed. Nodes of communication network include power-distribution substations and power-controlling units. In addition to serving data acquisition and control functions, each node acts as repeater, passing on messages to next node(s). Multiple-ring communication network operates on new AbNET protocol and features fiber-optic communication.

A growth model for directed complex networks with power-law shape in the out-degree distribution

PubMed Central

Esquivel-Gómez, J.; Stevens-Navarro, E.; Pineda-Rico, U.; Acosta-Elias, J.

2015-01-01

Many growth models have been published to model the behavior of real complex networks. These models are able to reproduce several of the topological properties of such networks. However, in most of these growth models, the number of outgoing links (i.e., out-degree) of nodes added to the network is constant, that is all nodes in the network are born with the same number of outgoing links. In other models, the resultant out-degree distribution decays as a poisson or an exponential distribution. However, it has been found that in real complex networks, the out-degree distribution decays as a power-law. In order to obtain out-degree distribution with power-law behavior some models have been proposed. This work introduces a new model that allows to obtain out-degree distributions that decay as a power-law with an exponent in the range from 0 to 1. PMID:25567141

Re-Engineering Alzheimer Clinical Trials: Global Alzheimer's Platform Network.

PubMed

Cummings, J; Aisen, P; Barton, R; Bork, J; Doody, R; Dwyer, J; Egan, J C; Feldman, H; Lappin, D; Truyen, L; Salloway, S; Sperling, R; Vradenburg, G

2016-06-01

Alzheimer's disease (AD) drug development is costly, time-consuming, and inefficient. Trial site functions, trial design, and patient recruitment for trials all require improvement. The Global Alzheimer Platform (GAP) was initiated in response to these challenges. Four GAP work streams evolved in the US to address different trial challenges: 1) registry-to-cohort web-based recruitment; 2) clinical trial site activation and site network construction (GAP-NET); 3) adaptive proof-of-concept clinical trial design; and 4) finance and fund raising. GAP-NET proposes to establish a standardized network of continuously funded trial sites that are highly qualified to perform trials (with established clinical, biomarker, imaging capability; certified raters; sophisticated management system. GAP-NET will conduct trials for academic and biopharma industry partners using standardized instrument versions and administration. Collaboration with the Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI) European Prevention of Alzheimer's Disease (EPAD) program, the Canadian Consortium on Neurodegeneration in Aging (CCNA) and other similar international initiatives will allow conduct of global trials. GAP-NET aims to increase trial efficiency and quality, decrease trial redundancy, accelerate cohort development and trial recruitment, and decrease trial costs. The value proposition for sites includes stable funding and uniform training and trial execution; the value to trial sponsors is decreased trial costs, reduced time to execute trials, and enhanced data quality. The value for patients and society is the more rapid availability of new treatments for AD.

The Role of Graphlets in Viral Processes on Networks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Khorshidi, Samira; Al Hasan, Mohammad; Mohler, George; Short, Martin B.

2018-05-01

Predicting the evolution of viral processes on networks is an important problem with applications arising in biology, the social sciences, and the study of the Internet. In existing works, mean-field analysis based upon degree distribution is used for the prediction of viral spreading across networks of different types. However, it has been shown that degree distribution alone fails to predict the behavior of viruses on some real-world networks and recent attempts have been made to use assortativity to address this shortcoming. In this paper, we show that adding assortativity does not fully explain the variance in the spread of viruses for a number of real-world networks. We propose using the graphlet frequency distribution in combination with assortativity to explain variations in the evolution of viral processes across networks with identical degree distribution. Using a data-driven approach by coupling predictive modeling with viral process simulation on real-world networks, we show that simple regression models based on graphlet frequency distribution can explain over 95% of the variance in virality on networks with the same degree distribution but different network topologies. Our results not only highlight the importance of graphlets but also identify a small collection of graphlets which may have the highest influence over the viral processes on a network.

Comprehensive evaluation of impacts of distributed generation integration in distribution network

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Peng, Sujiang; Zhou, Erbiao; Ji, Fengkun; Cao, Xinhui; Liu, Lingshuang; Liu, Zifa; Wang, Xuyang; Cai, Xiaoyu

2018-04-01

All Distributed generation (DG) as the supplement to renewable energy centralized utilization, is becoming the focus of development direction of renewable energy utilization. With the increasing proportion of DG in distribution network, the network power structure, power flow distribution, operation plans and protection are affected to some extent. According to the main impacts of DG, a comprehensive evaluation model of distributed network with DG is proposed in this paper. A comprehensive evaluation index system including 7 aspects, along with their corresponding index calculation method is established for quantitative analysis. The indices under different access capacity of DG in distribution network are calculated based on the IEEE RBTS-Bus 6 system and the evaluation result is calculated by analytic hierarchy process (AHP). The proposed model and method are verified effective and validity through case study.

Research of the self-healing technologies in the optical communication network of distribution automation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, Hao; Zhong, Guoxin

2018-03-01

Optical communication network is the mainstream technique of the communication networks for distribution automation, and self-healing technologies can improve the in reliability of the optical communication networks significantly. This paper discussed the technical characteristics and application scenarios of several network self-healing technologies in the access layer, the backbone layer and the core layer of the optical communication networks for distribution automation. On the base of the contrastive analysis, this paper gives an application suggestion of these self-healing technologies.

Strategy on energy saving reconstruction of distribution networks based on life cycle cost

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chen, Xiaofei; Qiu, Zejing; Xu, Zhaoyang; Xiao, Chupeng

2017-08-01

Because the actual distribution network reconstruction project funds are often limited, the cost-benefit model and the decision-making method are crucial for distribution network energy saving reconstruction project. From the perspective of life cycle cost (LCC), firstly the research life cycle is determined for the energy saving reconstruction of distribution networks with multi-devices. Then, a new life cycle cost-benefit model for energy-saving reconstruction of distribution network is developed, in which the modification schemes include distribution transformers replacement, lines replacement and reactive power compensation. In the operation loss cost and maintenance cost area, the operation cost model considering the influence of load season characteristics and the maintenance cost segmental model of transformers are proposed. Finally, aiming at the highest energy saving profit per LCC, a decision-making method is developed while considering financial and technical constraints as well. The model and method are applied to a real distribution network reconstruction, and the results prove that the model and method are effective.

Ethics, economics, and public financing of health care.

PubMed

Hurley, J

2001-08-01

There is a wide variety of ethical arguments for public financing of health care that share a common structure built on a series of four logically related propositions regarding: (1) the ultimate purpose of a human life or human society; (2) the role of health and its distribution in society in advancing this ultimate purpose; (3) the role of access to or utilisation of health care in maintaining or improving the desired level and distribution of health among members of society, and (4) the role of public financing in ensuring the ethically justified access to and utilisation of health care by members of society. This paper argues that economics has much to contribute to the development of the ethical foundations for publicly financed health care. It focuses in particular on recent economic work to clarify the concepts of access and need and their role in analyses of the just distribution of health care resources, and on the importance of economic analysis of health care and health care insurance markets in demonstrating why public financing is necessary to achieve broad access to and utilisation of health care services.

Topology Counts: Force Distributions in Circular Spring Networks.

PubMed

Heidemann, Knut M; Sageman-Furnas, Andrew O; Sharma, Abhinav; Rehfeldt, Florian; Schmidt, Christoph F; Wardetzky, Max

2018-02-09

Filamentous polymer networks govern the mechanical properties of many biological materials. Force distributions within these networks are typically highly inhomogeneous, and, although the importance of force distributions for structural properties is well recognized, they are far from being understood quantitatively. Using a combination of probabilistic and graph-theoretical techniques, we derive force distributions in a model system consisting of ensembles of random linear spring networks on a circle. We show that characteristic quantities, such as the mean and variance of the force supported by individual springs, can be derived explicitly in terms of only two parameters: (i) average connectivity and (ii) number of nodes. Our analysis shows that a classical mean-field approach fails to capture these characteristic quantities correctly. In contrast, we demonstrate that network topology is a crucial determinant of force distributions in an elastic spring network. Our results for 1D linear spring networks readily generalize to arbitrary dimensions.

Epidemic extinction paths in complex networks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hindes, Jason; Schwartz, Ira B.

2017-05-01

We study the extinction of long-lived epidemics on finite complex networks induced by intrinsic noise. Applying analytical techniques to the stochastic susceptible-infected-susceptible model, we predict the distribution of large fluctuations, the most probable or optimal path through a network that leads to a disease-free state from an endemic state, and the average extinction time in general configurations. Our predictions agree with Monte Carlo simulations on several networks, including synthetic weighted and degree-distributed networks with degree correlations, and an empirical high school contact network. In addition, our approach quantifies characteristic scaling patterns for the optimal path and distribution of large fluctuations, both near and away from the epidemic threshold, in networks with heterogeneous eigenvector centrality and degree distributions.

Epidemic extinction paths in complex networks.

PubMed

Hindes, Jason; Schwartz, Ira B

2017-05-01

We study the extinction of long-lived epidemics on finite complex networks induced by intrinsic noise. Applying analytical techniques to the stochastic susceptible-infected-susceptible model, we predict the distribution of large fluctuations, the most probable or optimal path through a network that leads to a disease-free state from an endemic state, and the average extinction time in general configurations. Our predictions agree with Monte Carlo simulations on several networks, including synthetic weighted and degree-distributed networks with degree correlations, and an empirical high school contact network. In addition, our approach quantifies characteristic scaling patterns for the optimal path and distribution of large fluctuations, both near and away from the epidemic threshold, in networks with heterogeneous eigenvector centrality and degree distributions.

Research on social communication network evolution based on topology potential distribution

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhao, Dongjie; Jiang, Jian; Li, Deyi; Zhang, Haisu; Chen, Guisheng

2011-12-01

Aiming at the problem of social communication network evolution, first, topology potential is introduced to measure the local influence among nodes in networks. Second, from the perspective of topology potential distribution the method of network evolution description based on topology potential distribution is presented, which takes the artificial intelligence with uncertainty as basic theory and local influence among nodes as essentiality. Then, a social communication network is constructed by enron email dataset, the method presented is used to analyze the characteristic of the social communication network evolution and some useful conclusions are got, implying that the method is effective, which shows that topology potential distribution can effectively describe the characteristic of sociology and detect the local changes in social communication network.

Properties of four real world collaboration--competition networks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fu, Chun-Hua; Xu, Xiu-Lian; He, Da-Ren

2009-03-01

Our research group has empirically investigated 9 real world collaboration networks and 25 real world cooperation-competition networks. Among the 34 real world systems, all the 9 real world collaboration networks and 6 real world cooperation-competition networks show the unimodal act-size distribution and the shifted power law distribution of degree and act-degree. We have proposed a collaboration network evolution model for an explanation of the rules [1]. The other 14 real world cooperation-competition networks show that the act-size distributions are not unimodal; instead, they take qualitatively the same shifted power law forms as the degree and act-degree distributions. The properties of four systems (the main land movie film network, Beijing restaurant network, 2004 Olympic network, and Tao-Bao notebook computer sale network) are reported in detail as examples. Via a numerical simulation, we show that the new rule can still be explained by the above-mentioned model. [1] H. Chang, B. B. Su, et al. Phsica A, 2007, 383: 687-702.

Robust quantum network architectures and topologies for entanglement distribution

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Das, Siddhartha; Khatri, Sumeet; Dowling, Jonathan P.

2018-01-01

Entanglement distribution is a prerequisite for several important quantum information processing and computing tasks, such as quantum teleportation, quantum key distribution, and distributed quantum computing. In this work, we focus on two-dimensional quantum networks based on optical quantum technologies using dual-rail photonic qubits for the building of a fail-safe quantum internet. We lay out a quantum network architecture for entanglement distribution between distant parties using a Bravais lattice topology, with the technological constraint that quantum repeaters equipped with quantum memories are not easily accessible. We provide a robust protocol for simultaneous entanglement distribution between two distant groups of parties on this network. We also discuss a memory-based quantum network architecture that can be implemented on networks with an arbitrary topology. We examine networks with bow-tie lattice and Archimedean lattice topologies and use percolation theory to quantify the robustness of the networks. In particular, we provide figures of merit on the loss parameter of the optical medium that depend only on the topology of the network and quantify the robustness of the network against intermittent photon loss and intermittent failure of nodes. These figures of merit can be used to compare the robustness of different network topologies in order to determine the best topology in a given real-world scenario, which is critical in the realization of the quantum internet.

A decentralized mechanism for improving the functional robustness of distribution networks.

PubMed

Shi, Benyun; Liu, Jiming

2012-10-01

Most real-world distribution systems can be modeled as distribution networks, where a commodity can flow from source nodes to sink nodes through junction nodes. One of the fundamental characteristics of distribution networks is the functional robustness, which reflects the ability of maintaining its function in the face of internal or external disruptions. In view of the fact that most distribution networks do not have any centralized control mechanisms, we consider the problem of how to improve the functional robustness in a decentralized way. To achieve this goal, we study two important problems: 1) how to formally measure the functional robustness, and 2) how to improve the functional robustness of a network based on the local interaction of its nodes. First, we derive a utility function in terms of network entropy to characterize the functional robustness of a distribution network. Second, we propose a decentralized network pricing mechanism, where each node need only communicate with its distribution neighbors by sending a "price" signal to its upstream neighbors and receiving "price" signals from its downstream neighbors. By doing so, each node can determine its outflows by maximizing its own payoff function. Our mathematical analysis shows that the decentralized pricing mechanism can produce results equivalent to those of an ideal centralized maximization with complete information. Finally, to demonstrate the properties of our mechanism, we carry out a case study on the U.S. natural gas distribution network. The results validate the convergence and effectiveness of our mechanism when comparing it with an existing algorithm.

A proposed adaptation of the European Foundation for Quality Management Excellence Model to physical activity programmes for the elderly - development of a quality self-assessment tool using a modified Delphi process

PubMed Central

2011-01-01

Background There has been a growing concern in designing physical activity (PA) programmes for elderly people, since evidence suggests that such health promotion interventions may reduce the deleterious effects of the ageing process. Complete programme evaluations are a necessary prerequisite to continuous quality improvements. Being able to refine, adapt and create tools that are suited to the realities and contexts of PA programmes for the elderly in order to support its continuous improvement is, therefore, crucial. Thus, the aim of this study was to develop a self-assessment tool for PA programmes for the elderly. Methods A 3-round Delphi process was conducted via the Internet with 43 national experts in PA for the elderly, management and delivery of PA programmes for the elderly, sports management, quality management and gerontology, asking experts to identify the propositions that they considered relevant for inclusion in the self-assessment tool. Experts reviewed a list of proposed statements, based on the criteria and sub-criteria from the European Foundation for Quality Management Excellence Model (EFQM) and PA guidelines for older adults and rated each proposition from 1 to 8 (disagree to agree) and modified and/or added propositions. Propositions receiving either bottom or top scores of greater than 70% were considered to have achieved consensus to drop or retain, respectively. Results In round 1, of the 196 originally-proposed statements (best practice principles), the experts modified 41, added 1 and achieved consensus on 93. In round 2, a total of 104 propositions were presented, of which experts modified 39 and achieved consensus on 53. In the last round, of 51 proposed statements, the experts achieved consensus on 19. After 3 rounds of rating, experts had not achieved consensus on 32 propositions. The resulting tool consisted of 165 statements that assess nine management areas involved in the development of PA programmes for the elderly. Conclusion Based on experts' opinions, a self-assessment tool was found in order to access quality of PA programmes for the elderly. Information obtained with evaluations would be useful to organizations seeking to improve their services, customer satisfaction and, consequently, adherence to PA programmes, targeting the ageing population. PMID:21958203

An improved AVC strategy applied in distributed wind power system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhao, Y. N.; Liu, Q. H.; Song, S. Y.; Mao, W.

2016-08-01

Traditional AVC strategy is mainly used in wind farm and only concerns about grid connection point, which is not suitable for distributed wind power system. Therefore, this paper comes up with an improved AVC strategy applied in distributed wind power system. The strategy takes all nodes of distribution network into consideration and chooses the node having the most serious voltage deviation as control point to calculate the reactive power reference. In addition, distribution principles can be divided into two conditions: when wind generators access to network on single node, the reactive power reference is distributed according to reactive power capacity; when wind generators access to network on multi-node, the reference is distributed according to sensitivity. Simulation results show the correctness and reliability of the strategy. Compared with traditional control strategy, the strategy described in this paper can make full use of generators reactive power output ability according to the distribution network voltage condition and improve the distribution network voltage level effectively.

Final Report - Cloud-Based Management Platform for Distributed, Multi-Domain Networks

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

Chowdhury, Pulak; Mukherjee, Biswanath

2017-11-03

In this Department of Energy (DOE) Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project final report, Ennetix presents the development of a solution for end-to-end monitoring, analysis, and visualization of network performance for distributed networks. This solution benefits enterprises of all sizes, operators of distributed and federated networks, and service providers.

Neural networks and MIMD-multiprocessors

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Vanhala, Jukka; Kaski, Kimmo

1990-01-01

Two artificial neural network models are compared. They are the Hopfield Neural Network Model and the Sparse Distributed Memory model. Distributed algorithms for both of them are designed and implemented. The run time characteristics of the algorithms are analyzed theoretically and tested in practice. The storage capacities of the networks are compared. Implementations are done using a distributed multiprocessor system.

Distributed controller clustering in software defined networks.

PubMed

Abdelaziz, Ahmed; Fong, Ang Tan; Gani, Abdullah; Garba, Usman; Khan, Suleman; Akhunzada, Adnan; Talebian, Hamid; Choo, Kim-Kwang Raymond

2017-01-01

Software Defined Networking (SDN) is an emerging promising paradigm for network management because of its centralized network intelligence. However, the centralized control architecture of the software-defined networks (SDNs) brings novel challenges of reliability, scalability, fault tolerance and interoperability. In this paper, we proposed a novel clustered distributed controller architecture in the real setting of SDNs. The distributed cluster implementation comprises of multiple popular SDN controllers. The proposed mechanism is evaluated using a real world network topology running on top of an emulated SDN environment. The result shows that the proposed distributed controller clustering mechanism is able to significantly reduce the average latency from 8.1% to 1.6%, the packet loss from 5.22% to 4.15%, compared to distributed controller without clustering running on HP Virtual Application Network (VAN) SDN and Open Network Operating System (ONOS) controllers respectively. Moreover, proposed method also shows reasonable CPU utilization results. Furthermore, the proposed mechanism makes possible to handle unexpected load fluctuations while maintaining a continuous network operation, even when there is a controller failure. The paper is a potential contribution stepping towards addressing the issues of reliability, scalability, fault tolerance, and inter-operability.

Are Competitive Materialism and Female Employment Related to International Homicide Rate?

PubMed

Chon, Don Soo

2017-04-01

The institutional anomie theory is a proposal that states competitive materialism, an intense cultural pressure for economic success at any costs, and increased female employment may be related to a high homicide rate. The current work tested this proposition by utilizing homicide data collected from 45 developed and developing countries. Regression results did not support the proposition. Competitive materialism and female employment were not significantly related to the cross-national variation of homicide rates.

Interventions en groupe et interactions. Actes du 3eme colloque d'orthophonie/logopedie (Neuchatel, 29-30 septembre, 1994) (Group Interventions and Interactions. Proceedings of the Colloquium on Speech Therapy (3rd, Neuchatel, Switzerland, September 29-30, 1994).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Py, Bernard, Ed.

1995-01-01

Conference papers on group methods of speech therapy include: "Donnees nouvelles sur les competences du jeune enfant. Proposition de nouveaux concepts" (New Data on the Competences of the Young Child. Proposition of New Concepts) (Hubert Montagner); "Interactions sociales et apprentissages: quels savoirs en jeu" (Social Interactions and Teaching:…

An Examination of Change Resulting from a Public Policy Shift from "Falls the Shadow: Changes in Funding Massachusetts K12 Public Education in the First Decade of Proposition 2 1/2, 1982-91."

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Greyser, Linda L.

In November 1980, Massachusetts citizens voted to limit the allowable increase in local property tax revenue by supporting a state-ballot referendum named Proposition 2 1/2. This paper presents findings of a study that examined changes in both the sources and extent of funding for public education in Massachusetts communities during the first…

Corrigendum to ;Lotka-Volterra systems satisfying a strong Painlevé property; [Phys. Lett. A 380 (47) (2016) 3977-3982

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bountis, Tassos; Vanhaecke, Pol

2017-12-01

The comment made after the proof of Proposition 3.3, in our paper [T. Bountis, P. Vanhaecke, Lotka-Volterra systems satisfying a strong Pailevé property, Phys. Lett. A 380 (47) (2016) 3977-3982], saying that the proposition can be generalized when linear terms are added to the Lotka-Volterra systems considered in the paper, is wrong. In general such deformed systems are not even Hamiltonian.

CRESST Human Performance Knowledge Mapping System

DTIC Science & Technology

2002-12-01

link subcategories. Semantica Evaluation copy unavailable Visual Mind M H No Cannot add relation labels. Smart Ideas H H No Easy to use. Linking in...Screen Users can access all top-level functions from the main screen shown in Figure 4. The design of the Web favored breadth over depth, which allows...based on whether their propositions match propositions in the expert map. LifeMap PC on the Web /Mac 0 http:/ /www2.ucsc.edu/-mlrg/mlrgtools.html This

People Like Logical Truth: Testing the Intuitive Detection of Logical Value in Basic Propositions.

PubMed

Nakamura, Hiroko; Kawaguchi, Jun

2016-01-01

Recent studies on logical reasoning have suggested that people are intuitively aware of the logical validity of syllogisms or that they intuitively detect conflict between heuristic responses and logical norms via slight changes in their feelings. According to logical intuition studies, logically valid or heuristic logic no-conflict reasoning is fluently processed and induces positive feelings without conscious awareness. One criticism states that such effects of logicality disappear when confounding factors such as the content of syllogisms are controlled. The present study used abstract propositions and tested whether people intuitively detect logical value. Experiment 1 presented four logical propositions (conjunctive, biconditional, conditional, and material implications) regarding a target case and asked the participants to rate the extent to which they liked the statement. Experiment 2 tested the effects of matching bias, as well as intuitive logic, on the reasoners' feelings by manipulating whether the antecedent or consequent (or both) of the conditional was affirmed or negated. The results showed that both logicality and matching bias affected the reasoners' feelings, and people preferred logically true targets over logically false ones for all forms of propositions. These results suggest that people intuitively detect what is true from what is false during abstract reasoning. Additionally, a Bayesian mixed model meta-analysis of conditionals indicated that people's intuitive interpretation of the conditional "if p then q" fits better with the conditional probability, q given p.

Toward a deeper understanding of the willingness to seek help: the case of teleworkers.

PubMed

Golden, Timothy D; Schoenleber, Alisa H W

2014-01-01

Employees frequently do not engage in help-seeking due to the associated social costs. Despite the importance of help-seeking, little research has been done to explore factors affecting whether individuals will or will not engage in help-seeking at work, and existing research has thus far not addressed help seeking in the telework context. This paper expands the current literature on help-seeking by exploring this behavior in the context of teleworkers and develops propositions regarding how aspects of virtual work environments will help determine teleworkers' willingness to engage in help-seeking behavior. This article presents a review with critical analysis and integration of selected telework and help-seeking literatures. Grounded in the literature on inequity/indebtedness and the literature on threats to self-esteem, theoretically-derived research propositions are developed that help shed insights into help seeking behaviors in the telework context. These research propositions encompass media presence and the teleworker's perceived opportunity for reciprocation, and their associated impacts on the perceived cost of seeking help. The proposed research propositions provide practitioners and researchers a means to be better able to assess telework applications and prevent unintended effects. Through such systematic understanding of how telework alters the perceived cost of seeking help and the teleworker's willingness to seek help, telework may be further improved to contribute to more effective and productive individuals and organizations.

Communicating immunization science: the genesis and evolution of the National Network for Immunization Information.

PubMed

Ledford, Christy J W; Willett, Kristen L; Kreps, Gary L

2012-01-01

For 10 years, the National Network for Immunization Information (NNii) has pursued its goal to "provide the public, health professionals, policy makers, and the media with up-to-date, scientifically valid information related to immunizations to help them understand the issues and to make informed decisions." This investigation provides a critical evaluation of the strategic communication planning and implementation of NNii from conception to present day. The study uses a case study methodology, developing a systematic analysis of organizational documents, the media environment, and in-depth interviews by applying Weick's model of organizing as an interpretive framework. Iterative data analysis included open coding, axial coding, and thematic saturation. Themes were compared with phases of strategic communication and present study propositions. Major themes identified included the organization's informative nature, funding credibility, nonbranding, reflective evaluation, collaborative partnerships, and media strategy. NNii meets the requirements of requisite variety, nonsummativity, and organizational flexibility proposed by Weick's model of organizing. However, a lack of systematic evaluation of organization goals prevents it from adapting communication tactics and strategies. In addition, the authors recommend that NNii, while maintaining its informative nature, adopt persuasive strategies to attract and retain the attention of its target audiences.

Constructing a Watts-Strogatz network from a small-world network with symmetric degree distribution.

PubMed

Menezes, Mozart B C; Kim, Seokjin; Huang, Rongbing

2017-01-01

Though the small-world phenomenon is widespread in many real networks, it is still challenging to replicate a large network at the full scale for further study on its structure and dynamics when sufficient data are not readily available. We propose a method to construct a Watts-Strogatz network using a sample from a small-world network with symmetric degree distribution. Our method yields an estimated degree distribution which fits closely with that of a Watts-Strogatz network and leads into accurate estimates of network metrics such as clustering coefficient and degree of separation. We observe that the accuracy of our method increases as network size increases.

Wealth distribution on complex networks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ichinomiya, Takashi

2012-12-01

We study the wealth distribution of the Bouchaud-Mézard model on complex networks. It is known from numerical simulations that this distribution depends on the topology of the network; however, no one has succeeded in explaining it. Using “adiabatic” and “independent” assumptions along with the central-limit theorem, we derive equations that determine the probability distribution function. The results are compared to those of simulations for various networks. We find good agreement between our theory and the simulations, except for the case of Watts-Strogatz networks with a low rewiring rate due to the breakdown of independent assumption.

Minimizing communication cost among distributed controllers in software defined networks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Arlimatti, Shivaleela; Elbreiki, Walid; Hassan, Suhaidi; Habbal, Adib; Elshaikh, Mohamed

2016-08-01

Software Defined Networking (SDN) is a new paradigm to increase the flexibility of today's network by promising for a programmable network. The fundamental idea behind this new architecture is to simplify network complexity by decoupling control plane and data plane of the network devices, and by making the control plane centralized. Recently controllers have distributed to solve the problem of single point of failure, and to increase scalability and flexibility during workload distribution. Even though, controllers are flexible and scalable to accommodate more number of network switches, yet the problem of intercommunication cost between distributed controllers is still challenging issue in the Software Defined Network environment. This paper, aims to fill the gap by proposing a new mechanism, which minimizes intercommunication cost with graph partitioning algorithm, an NP hard problem. The methodology proposed in this paper is, swapping of network elements between controller domains to minimize communication cost by calculating communication gain. The swapping of elements minimizes inter and intra communication cost among network domains. We validate our work with the OMNeT++ simulation environment tool. Simulation results show that the proposed mechanism minimizes the inter domain communication cost among controllers compared to traditional distributed controllers.

Empirical Reference Distributions for Networks of Different Size

PubMed Central

Smith, Anna; Calder, Catherine A.; Browning, Christopher R.

2016-01-01

Network analysis has become an increasingly prevalent research tool across a vast range of scientific fields. Here, we focus on the particular issue of comparing network statistics, i.e. graph-level measures of network structural features, across multiple networks that differ in size. Although “normalized” versions of some network statistics exist, we demonstrate via simulation why direct comparison is often inappropriate. We consider normalizing network statistics relative to a simple fully parameterized reference distribution and demonstrate via simulation how this is an improvement over direct comparison, but still sometimes problematic. We propose a new adjustment method based on a reference distribution constructed as a mixture model of random graphs which reflect the dependence structure exhibited in the observed networks. We show that using simple Bernoulli models as mixture components in this reference distribution can provide adjusted network statistics that are relatively comparable across different network sizes but still describe interesting features of networks, and that this can be accomplished at relatively low computational expense. Finally, we apply this methodology to a collection of ecological networks derived from the Los Angeles Family and Neighborhood Survey activity location data. PMID:27721556

A distributed lumped active all-pass network configuration.

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Huelsman, L. P.; Raghunath, S.

1972-01-01

In this correspondence a new and interesting distributed lumped active network configuration that realizes an all-pass network function is described. A design chart for determining the values of the network elements is included.

Advancing Underwater Acoustic Communication for Autonomous Distributed Networks via Sparse Channel Sensing, Coding, and Navigation Support

DTIC Science & Technology

2014-09-30

underwater acoustic communication technologies for autonomous distributed underwater networks , through innovative signal processing, coding, and...4. TITLE AND SUBTITLE Advancing Underwater Acoustic Communication for Autonomous Distributed Networks via Sparse Channel Sensing, Coding, and...coding: 3) OFDM modulated dynamic coded cooperation in underwater acoustic channels; 3 Localization, Networking , and Testbed: 4) On-demand

Natural language acquisition in large scale neural semantic networks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ealey, Douglas

This thesis puts forward the view that a purely signal- based approach to natural language processing is both plausible and desirable. By questioning the veracity of symbolic representations of meaning, it argues for a unified, non-symbolic model of knowledge representation that is both biologically plausible and, potentially, highly efficient. Processes to generate a grounded, neural form of this model-dubbed the semantic filter-are discussed. The combined effects of local neural organisation, coincident with perceptual maturation, are used to hypothesise its nature. This theoretical model is then validated in light of a number of fundamental neurological constraints and milestones. The mechanisms of semantic and episodic development that the model predicts are then used to explain linguistic properties, such as propositions and verbs, syntax and scripting. To mimic the growth of locally densely connected structures upon an unbounded neural substrate, a system is developed that can grow arbitrarily large, data- dependant structures composed of individual self- organising neural networks. The maturational nature of the data used results in a structure in which the perception of concepts is refined by the networks, but demarcated by subsequent structure. As a consequence, the overall structure shows significant memory and computational benefits, as predicted by the cognitive and neural models. Furthermore, the localised nature of the neural architecture also avoids the increasing error sensitivity and redundancy of traditional systems as the training domain grows. The semantic and episodic filters have been demonstrated to perform as well, or better, than more specialist networks, whilst using significantly larger vocabularies, more complex sentence forms and more natural corpora.

Distributed Processing System for Restoration of Electric Power Distribution Network Using Two-Layered Contract Net Protocol

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kodama, Yu; Hamagami, Tomoki

Distributed processing system for restoration of electric power distribution network using two-layered CNP is proposed. The goal of this study is to develop the restoration system which adjusts to the future power network with distributed generators. The state of the art of this study is that the two-layered CNP is applied for the distributed computing environment in practical use. The two-layered CNP has two classes of agents, named field agent and operating agent in the network. In order to avoid conflicts of tasks, operating agent controls privilege for managers to send the task announcement messages in CNP. This technique realizes the coordination between agents which work asynchronously in parallel with others. Moreover, this study implements the distributed processing system using a de-fact standard multi-agent framework, JADE(Java Agent DEvelopment framework). This study conducts the simulation experiments of power distribution network restoration and compares the proposed system with the previous system. We confirmed the results show effectiveness of the proposed system.

High Voltage Distribution System (HVDS) as a better system compared to Low Voltage Distribution System (LVDS) applied at Medan city power network

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dinzi, R.; Hamonangan, TS; Fahmi, F.

2018-02-01

In the current distribution system, a large-capacity distribution transformer supplies loads to remote locations. The use of 220/380 V network is nowadays less common compared to 20 kV network. This results in losses due to the non-optimal distribution transformer, which neglected the load location, poor consumer profile, and large power losses along the carrier. This paper discusses how high voltage distribution systems (HVDS) can be a better system used in distribution networks than the currently used distribution system (Low Voltage Distribution System, LVDS). The proposed change of the system into the new configuration is done by replacing a large-capacity distribution transformer with some smaller-capacity distribution transformers and installed them in positions that closest to the load. The use of high voltage distribution systems will result in better voltage profiles and fewer power losses. From the non-technical side, the annual savings and payback periods on high voltage distribution systems will also be the advantage.

Empirical research on complex networks modeling of combat SoS based on data from real war-game, Part I: Statistical characteristics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chen, Lei; Kou, Yingxin; Li, Zhanwu; Xu, An; Wu, Cheng

2018-01-01

We build a complex networks model of combat System-of-Systems (SoS) based on empirical data from a real war-game, this model is a combination of command & control (C2) subnetwork, sensors subnetwork, influencers subnetwork and logistical support subnetwork, each subnetwork has idiographic components and statistical characteristics. The C2 subnetwork is the core of whole combat SoS, it has a hierarchical structure with no modularity, of which robustness is strong enough to maintain normal operation after any two nodes is destroyed; the sensors subnetwork and influencers subnetwork are like sense organ and limbs of whole combat SoS, they are both flat modular networks of which degree distribution obey GEV distribution and power-law distribution respectively. The communication network is the combination of all subnetworks, it is an assortative Small-World network with core-periphery structure, the Intelligence & Communication Stations/Command Center integrated with C2 nodes in the first three level act as the hub nodes in communication network, and all the fourth-level C2 nodes, sensors, influencers and logistical support nodes have communication capability, they act as the periphery nodes in communication network, its degree distribution obeys exponential distribution in the beginning, Gaussian distribution in the middle, and power-law distribution in the end, and its path length obeys GEV distribution. The betweenness centrality distribution, closeness centrality distribution and eigenvector centrality are also been analyzed to measure the vulnerability of nodes.

Research on the framework and key technologies of panoramic visualization for smart distribution network

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Du, Jian; Sheng, Wanxing; Lin, Tao; Lv, Guangxian

2018-05-01

Nowadays, the smart distribution network has made tremendous progress, and the business visualization becomes even more significant and indispensable. Based on the summarization of traditional visualization technologies and demands of smart distribution network, a panoramic visualization application is proposed in this paper. The overall architecture, integrated architecture and service architecture of panoramic visualization application is firstly presented. Then, the architecture design and main functions of panoramic visualization system are elaborated in depth. In addition, the key technologies related to the application is discussed briefly. At last, two typical visualization scenarios in smart distribution network, which are risk warning and fault self-healing, proves that the panoramic visualization application is valuable for the operation and maintenance of the distribution network.

Distributed health data networks: a practical and preferred approach to multi-institutional evaluations of comparative effectiveness, safety, and quality of care.

PubMed

Brown, Jeffrey S; Holmes, John H; Shah, Kiran; Hall, Ken; Lazarus, Ross; Platt, Richard

2010-06-01

Comparative effectiveness research, medical product safety evaluation, and quality measurement will require the ability to use electronic health data held by multiple organizations. There is no consensus about whether to create regional or national combined (eg, "all payer") databases for these purposes, or distributed data networks that leave most Protected Health Information and proprietary data in the possession of the original data holders. Demonstrate functions of a distributed research network that supports research needs and also address data holders concerns about participation. Key design functions included strong local control of data uses and a centralized web-based querying interface. We implemented a pilot distributed research network and evaluated the design considerations, utility for research, and the acceptability to data holders of methods for menu-driven querying. We developed and tested a central, web-based interface with supporting network software. Specific functions assessed include query formation and distribution, query execution and review, and aggregation of results. This pilot successfully evaluated temporal trends in medication use and diagnoses at 5 separate sites, demonstrating some of the possibilities of using a distributed research network. The pilot demonstrated the potential utility of the design, which addressed the major concerns of both users and data holders. No serious obstacles were identified that would prevent development of a fully functional, scalable network. Distributed networks are capable of addressing nearly all anticipated uses of routinely collected electronic healthcare data. Distributed networks would obviate the need for centralized databases, thus avoiding numerous obstacles.

On Prolonging Network Lifetime through Load-Similar Node Deployment in Wireless Sensor Networks

PubMed Central

Li, Qiao-Qin; Gong, Haigang; Liu, Ming; Yang, Mei; Zheng, Jun

2011-01-01

This paper is focused on the study of the energy hole problem in the Progressive Multi-hop Rotational Clustered (PMRC)-structure, a highly scalable wireless sensor network (WSN) architecture. Based on an analysis on the traffic load distribution in PMRC-based WSNs, we propose a novel load-similar node distribution strategy combined with the Minimum Overlapping Layers (MOL) scheme to address the energy hole problem in PMRC-based WSNs. In this strategy, sensor nodes are deployed in the network area according to the load distribution. That is, more nodes shall be deployed in the range where the average load is higher, and then the loads among different areas in the sensor network tend to be balanced. Simulation results demonstrate that the load-similar node distribution strategy prolongs network lifetime and reduces the average packet latency in comparison with existing nonuniform node distribution and uniform node distribution strategies. Note that, besides the PMRC structure, the analysis model and the proposed load-similar node distribution strategy are also applicable to other multi-hop WSN structures. PMID:22163809

A Hierarchical Modeling for Reactive Power Optimization With Joint Transmission and Distribution Networks by Curve Fitting

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

Ding, Tao; Li, Cheng; Huang, Can

Here, in order to solve the reactive power optimization with joint transmission and distribution networks, a hierarchical modeling method is proposed in this paper. It allows the reactive power optimization of transmission and distribution networks to be performed separately, leading to a master–slave structure and improves traditional centralized modeling methods by alleviating the big data problem in a control center. Specifically, the transmission-distribution-network coordination issue of the hierarchical modeling method is investigated. First, a curve-fitting approach is developed to provide a cost function of the slave model for the master model, which reflects the impacts of each slave model. Second,more » the transmission and distribution networks are decoupled at feeder buses, and all the distribution networks are coordinated by the master reactive power optimization model to achieve the global optimality. Finally, numerical results on two test systems verify the effectiveness of the proposed hierarchical modeling and curve-fitting methods.« less

A Hierarchical Modeling for Reactive Power Optimization With Joint Transmission and Distribution Networks by Curve Fitting

DOE PAGES

Ding, Tao; Li, Cheng; Huang, Can; ...

2017-01-09

Here, in order to solve the reactive power optimization with joint transmission and distribution networks, a hierarchical modeling method is proposed in this paper. It allows the reactive power optimization of transmission and distribution networks to be performed separately, leading to a master–slave structure and improves traditional centralized modeling methods by alleviating the big data problem in a control center. Specifically, the transmission-distribution-network coordination issue of the hierarchical modeling method is investigated. First, a curve-fitting approach is developed to provide a cost function of the slave model for the master model, which reflects the impacts of each slave model. Second,more » the transmission and distribution networks are decoupled at feeder buses, and all the distribution networks are coordinated by the master reactive power optimization model to achieve the global optimality. Finally, numerical results on two test systems verify the effectiveness of the proposed hierarchical modeling and curve-fitting methods.« less

Calculating a checksum with inactive networking components in a computing system

DOEpatents

Aho, Michael E; Chen, Dong; Eisley, Noel A; Gooding, Thomas M; Heidelberger, Philip; Tauferner, Andrew T

2014-12-16

Calculating a checksum utilizing inactive networking components in a computing system, including: identifying, by a checksum distribution manager, an inactive networking component, wherein the inactive networking component includes a checksum calculation engine for computing a checksum; sending, to the inactive networking component by the checksum distribution manager, metadata describing a block of data to be transmitted by an active networking component; calculating, by the inactive networking component, a checksum for the block of data; transmitting, to the checksum distribution manager from the inactive networking component, the checksum for the block of data; and sending, by the active networking component, a data communications message that includes the block of data and the checksum for the block of data.

Calculating a checksum with inactive networking components in a computing system

DOEpatents

Aho, Michael E; Chen, Dong; Eisley, Noel A; Gooding, Thomas M; Heidelberger, Philip; Tauferner, Andrew T

2015-01-27

Calculating a checksum utilizing inactive networking components in a computing system, including: identifying, by a checksum distribution manager, an inactive networking component, wherein the inactive networking component includes a checksum calculation engine for computing a checksum; sending, to the inactive networking component by the checksum distribution manager, metadata describing a block of data to be transmitted by an active networking component; calculating, by the inactive networking component, a checksum for the block of data; transmitting, to the checksum distribution manager from the inactive networking component, the checksum for the block of data; and sending, by the active networking component, a data communications message that includes the block of data and the checksum for the block of data.

Complex Network Simulation of Forest Network Spatial Pattern in Pearl River Delta

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zeng, Y.

2017-09-01

Forest network-construction uses for the method and model with the scale-free features of complex network theory based on random graph theory and dynamic network nodes which show a power-law distribution phenomenon. The model is suitable for ecological disturbance by larger ecological landscape Pearl River Delta consistent recovery. Remote sensing and GIS spatial data are available through the latest forest patches. A standard scale-free network node distribution model calculates the area of forest network's power-law distribution parameter value size; The recent existing forest polygons which are defined as nodes can compute the network nodes decaying index value of the network's degree distribution. The parameters of forest network are picked up then make a spatial transition to GIS real world models. Hence the connection is automatically generated by minimizing the ecological corridor by the least cost rule between the near nodes. Based on scale-free network node distribution requirements, select the number compared with less, a huge point of aggregation as a future forest planning network's main node, and put them with the existing node sequence comparison. By this theory, the forest ecological projects in the past avoid being fragmented, scattered disorderly phenomena. The previous regular forest networks can be reduced the required forest planting costs by this method. For ecological restoration of tropical and subtropical in south China areas, it will provide an effective method for the forest entering city project guidance and demonstration with other ecological networks (water, climate network, etc.) for networking a standard and base datum.

Mean-field equations for neuronal networks with arbitrary degree distributions.

PubMed

Nykamp, Duane Q; Friedman, Daniel; Shaker, Sammy; Shinn, Maxwell; Vella, Michael; Compte, Albert; Roxin, Alex

2017-04-01

The emergent dynamics in networks of recurrently coupled spiking neurons depends on the interplay between single-cell dynamics and network topology. Most theoretical studies on network dynamics have assumed simple topologies, such as connections that are made randomly and independently with a fixed probability (Erdös-Rényi network) (ER) or all-to-all connected networks. However, recent findings from slice experiments suggest that the actual patterns of connectivity between cortical neurons are more structured than in the ER random network. Here we explore how introducing additional higher-order statistical structure into the connectivity can affect the dynamics in neuronal networks. Specifically, we consider networks in which the number of presynaptic and postsynaptic contacts for each neuron, the degrees, are drawn from a joint degree distribution. We derive mean-field equations for a single population of homogeneous neurons and for a network of excitatory and inhibitory neurons, where the neurons can have arbitrary degree distributions. Through analysis of the mean-field equations and simulation of networks of integrate-and-fire neurons, we show that such networks have potentially much richer dynamics than an equivalent ER network. Finally, we relate the degree distributions to so-called cortical motifs.

Mean-field equations for neuronal networks with arbitrary degree distributions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nykamp, Duane Q.; Friedman, Daniel; Shaker, Sammy; Shinn, Maxwell; Vella, Michael; Compte, Albert; Roxin, Alex

2017-04-01

The emergent dynamics in networks of recurrently coupled spiking neurons depends on the interplay between single-cell dynamics and network topology. Most theoretical studies on network dynamics have assumed simple topologies, such as connections that are made randomly and independently with a fixed probability (Erdös-Rényi network) (ER) or all-to-all connected networks. However, recent findings from slice experiments suggest that the actual patterns of connectivity between cortical neurons are more structured than in the ER random network. Here we explore how introducing additional higher-order statistical structure into the connectivity can affect the dynamics in neuronal networks. Specifically, we consider networks in which the number of presynaptic and postsynaptic contacts for each neuron, the degrees, are drawn from a joint degree distribution. We derive mean-field equations for a single population of homogeneous neurons and for a network of excitatory and inhibitory neurons, where the neurons can have arbitrary degree distributions. Through analysis of the mean-field equations and simulation of networks of integrate-and-fire neurons, we show that such networks have potentially much richer dynamics than an equivalent ER network. Finally, we relate the degree distributions to so-called cortical motifs.

Modeling complexity in engineered infrastructure system: Water distribution network as an example

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zeng, Fang; Li, Xiang; Li, Ke

2017-02-01

The complex topology and adaptive behavior of infrastructure systems are driven by both self-organization of the demand and rigid engineering solutions. Therefore, engineering complex systems requires a method balancing holism and reductionism. To model the growth of water distribution networks, a complex network model was developed following the combination of local optimization rules and engineering considerations. The demand node generation is dynamic and follows the scaling law of urban growth. The proposed model can generate a water distribution network (WDN) similar to reported real-world WDNs on some structural properties. Comparison with different modeling approaches indicates that a realistic demand node distribution and co-evolvement of demand node and network are important for the simulation of real complex networks. The simulation results indicate that the efficiency of water distribution networks is exponentially affected by the urban growth pattern. On the contrary, the improvement of efficiency by engineering optimization is limited and relatively insignificant. The redundancy and robustness, on another aspect, can be significantly improved through engineering methods.

Benford’s Distribution in Complex Networks

PubMed Central

Morzy, Mikołaj; Kajdanowicz, Tomasz; Szymański, Bolesław K.

2016-01-01

Many collections of numbers do not have a uniform distribution of the leading digit, but conform to a very particular pattern known as Benford’s distribution. This distribution has been found in numerous areas such as accounting data, voting registers, census data, and even in natural phenomena. Recently it has been reported that Benford’s law applies to online social networks. Here we introduce a set of rigorous tests for adherence to Benford’s law and apply it to verification of this claim, extending the scope of the experiment to various complex networks and to artificial networks created by several popular generative models. Our findings are that neither for real nor for artificial networks there is sufficient evidence for common conformity of network structural properties with Benford’s distribution. We find very weak evidence suggesting that three measures, degree centrality, betweenness centrality and local clustering coefficient, could adhere to Benford’s law for scalefree networks but only for very narrow range of their parameters. PMID:27748398

Quantum morphogenesis: A variation on Thom's catastrophe theory

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Aerts, Dirk; Czachor, Marek; Gabora, Liane; Kuna, Maciej; Posiewnik, Andrzej; Pykacz, Jarosław; Syty, Monika

2003-05-01

Noncommutative propositions are characteristic of both quantum and nonquantum (sociological, biological, and psychological) situations. In a Hilbert space model, states, understood as correlations between all the possible propositions, are represented by density matrices. If systems in question interact via feedback with environment, their dynamics is nonlinear. Nonlinear evolutions of density matrices lead to the phenomenon of morphogenesis that may occur in noncommutative systems. Several explicit exactly solvable models are presented, including “birth and death of an organism” and “development of complementary properties.”

Statistical Relational Learning to Predict Primary Myocardial Infarction from Electronic Health Records

PubMed Central

Weiss, Jeremy C; Page, David; Peissig, Peggy L; Natarajan, Sriraam; McCarty, Catherine

2013-01-01

Electronic health records (EHRs) are an emerging relational domain with large potential to improve clinical outcomes. We apply two statistical relational learning (SRL) algorithms to the task of predicting primary myocardial infarction. We show that one SRL algorithm, relational functional gradient boosting, outperforms propositional learners particularly in the medically-relevant high recall region. We observe that both SRL algorithms predict outcomes better than their propositional analogs and suggest how our methods can augment current epidemiological practices. PMID:25360347

[Democratization of homes for the aged].

PubMed

Turksma, L

1981-11-01

The Dutch Central Advisory Committee on Homes for the Aged has now published a commentary on government propositions regarding democratization in these homes. The Committee, while in general agreeing with those propositions, regrets the delay since 1976, and pleads for a more gradual perspective for the influence of the inmates. The independence of inmates' boards should be better implemented. The progress of democratization should be closely followed by evaluative research and experimented with. The present writer indicates a lack of socio-psychological approaches in the commentary.

Business cycles, migration and health.

PubMed

Halliday, Timothy J

2007-04-01

We investigate the proposition that illness poses as an obstacle to one's ability to use migration to hedge the business cycle. We employ data on migration, regional unemployment rates and health status from 10 years (1984-1993) of the US Panel Study of Income Dynamics. Our results provide considerable for support this proposition. The evidence is the strongest for men, but we also find weaker evidence for married women. These results suggest that--ceterus paribus--aggregate health outcomes in an area should improve when the regional economy expands.

Playing distributed two-party quantum games on quantum networks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Liu, Bo-Yang; Dai, Hong-Yi; Zhang, Ming

2017-12-01

This paper investigates quantum games between two remote players on quantum networks. We propose two schemes for distributed remote quantum games: the client-server scheme based on states transmission between nodes of the network and the peer-to-peer scheme devised upon remote quantum operations. Following these schemes, we construct two designs of the distributed prisoners' dilemma game on quantum entangling networks, where concrete methods are employed for teleportation and nonlocal two-qubits unitary gates, respectively. It seems to us that the requirement for playing distributed quantum games on networks is still an open problem. We explore this problem by comparing and characterizing the two schemes from the viewpoints of network structures, quantum and classical operations, experimental realization and simplification.

The Military Theater Distribution Network Design Problem

DTIC Science & Technology

2015-03-26

The Military Theater Distribution Network Design Problem THESIS MARCH 2015 Robert R. Craig, MAJ, USA AFIT-ENS-MS-15-M-137 DEPARTMENT OF THE AIR FORCE...subject to copyright protection in the United States. AFIT-ENS-MS-15-M-137 THE MILITARY THEATER DISTRIBUTION NETWORK DESIGN PROBLEM THESIS Presented...B.S., M.S. MAJ, USA MARCH 2015 DISTRIBUTION STATEMENT A APPROVED FOR PUBLIC RELEASE; DISTRIBUTION UNLIMITED. AFIT-ENS-MS-15-M-137 THE MILITARY THEATER

Source Localization in Wireless Sensor Networks with Randomly Distributed Elements under Multipath Propagation Conditions

DTIC Science & Technology

2009-03-01

IN WIRELESS SENSOR NETWORKS WITH RANDOMLY DISTRIBUTED ELEMENTS UNDER MULTIPATH PROPAGATION CONDITIONS by Georgios Tsivgoulis March 2009...COVERED Engineer’s Thesis 4. TITLE Source Localization in Wireless Sensor Networks with Randomly Distributed Elements under Multipath Propagation...the non-line-of-sight information. 15. NUMBER OF PAGES 111 14. SUBJECT TERMS Wireless Sensor Network , Direction of Arrival, DOA, Random

Degree and wealth distribution in a network induced by wealth

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lee, Gyemin; Kim, Gwang Il

2007-09-01

A network induced by wealth is a social network model in which wealth induces individuals to participate as nodes, and every node in the network produces and accumulates wealth utilizing its links. More specifically, at every time step a new node is added to the network, and a link is created between one of the existing nodes and the new node. Innate wealth-producing ability is randomly assigned to every new node, and the node to be connected to the new node is chosen randomly, with odds proportional to the accumulated wealth of each existing node. Analyzing this network using the mean value and continuous flow approaches, we derive a relation between the conditional expectations of the degree and the accumulated wealth of each node. From this relation, we show that the degree distribution of the network induced by wealth is scale-free. We also show that the wealth distribution has a power-law tail and satisfies the 80/20 rule. We also show that, over the whole range, the cumulative wealth distribution exhibits the same topological characteristics as the wealth distributions of several networks based on the Bouchaud-Mèzard model, even though the mechanism for producing wealth is quite different in our model. Further, we show that the cumulative wealth distribution for the poor and middle class seems likely to follow by a log-normal distribution, while for the richest, the cumulative wealth distribution has a power-law behavior.

Barriers, motivators and enablers for dispensing multifocal contact lenses in Mumbai, India

PubMed Central

Thite, Nilesh; Shah, Ukti; Mehta, Jasmin; Jurkus, Janice

2015-01-01

Purpose To understand the potential barriers, motivators and enablers in dispensing multifocal contact lenses (MFCL). Method Two focus group discussions were conducted to design questionnaires regarding the prescribing habits for multifocal contact lenses (MFCL). Questions on potential barriers and motivators were included. The questionnaires were distributed among 133 eye care practitioners across Mumbai, India. Practitioners fitting one or less patient per month with MFCL completed the survey describing potential barriers, while those who prescribed more MFCL's per month completed the survey describing enablers and motivators. Results Responses from 102 practitioners were received. Most common potential barriers in prescribing MFCL were increased chair time (75%), lack of readily available trials (69%) and limitation in power range (63%). Lack of awareness among patients (90%) was the most common barrier from patients’ outlook. Professional satisfaction (88%) and better business proposition (82%) were observed as main motivators while availability of the trials (84%) and correct patient selection (82%) were the major enablers. Graduate Optometrists felt dispensing MFCL did not offer a good business proposition (p = 0.02). Experienced practitioners were observed to be least motivated (p = 0.01) and believed that their patients found these lenses expensive (p = 0.02). Conclusion To enhance the MFCL practice, barriers like lack of awareness and limitations in power range must be addressed. Trial lens availability may motivate practitioners to prescribe MFCL. Further probing is required to understand lack of motivation among experienced practitioners. PMID:25563404

Barriers, motivators and enablers for dispensing multifocal contact lenses in Mumbai, India.

PubMed

Thite, Nilesh; Shah, Ukti; Mehta, Jasmin; Jurkus, Janice

2015-01-01

To understand the potential barriers, motivators and enablers in dispensing multifocal contact lenses (MFCL). Two focus group discussions were conducted to design questionnaires regarding the prescribing habits for multifocal contact lenses (MFCL). Questions on potential barriers and motivators were included. The questionnaires were distributed among 133 eye care practitioners across Mumbai, India. Practitioners fitting one or less patient per month with MFCL completed the survey describing potential barriers, while those who prescribed more MFCL's per month completed the survey describing enablers and motivators. Responses from 102 practitioners were received. Most common potential barriers in prescribing MFCL were increased chair time (75%), lack of readily available trials (69%) and limitation in power range (63%). Lack of awareness among patients (90%) was the most common barrier from patients' outlook. Professional satisfaction (88%) and better business proposition (82%) were observed as main motivators while availability of the trials (84%) and correct patient selection (82%) were the major enablers. Graduate Optometrists felt dispensing MFCL did not offer a good business proposition (p=0.02). Experienced practitioners were observed to be least motivated (p=0.01) and believed that their patients found these lenses expensive (p=0.02). To enhance the MFCL practice, barriers like lack of awareness and limitations in power range must be addressed. Trial lens availability may motivate practitioners to prescribe MFCL. Further probing is required to understand lack of motivation among experienced practitioners. Copyright © 2014 Spanish General Council of Optometry. Published by Elsevier Espana. All rights reserved.

IEEE 342 Node Low Voltage Networked Test System

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

Schneider, Kevin P.; Phanivong, Phillippe K.; Lacroix, Jean-Sebastian

The IEEE Distribution Test Feeders provide a benchmark for new algorithms to the distribution analyses community. The low voltage network test feeder represents a moderate size urban system that is unbalanced and highly networked. This is the first distribution test feeder developed by the IEEE that contains unbalanced networked components. The 342 node Low Voltage Networked Test System includes many elements that may be found in a networked system: multiple 13.2kV primary feeders, network protectors, a 120/208V grid network, and multiple 277/480V spot networks. This paper presents a brief review of the history of low voltage networks and how theymore » evolved into the modern systems. This paper will then present a description of the 342 Node IEEE Low Voltage Network Test System and power flow results.« less

Under the Influence of Genetics: How Transdisciplinarity Leads Us to Rethink Social Pathways to Illness

PubMed Central

Pescosolido, Bernice A.; Perry, Brea L.; Long, J. Scott; Martin, Jack K.; Nurnberger, John I.; Hesselbrock, Victor

2015-01-01

To extend our understanding of how social structures and social processes impact behavior, sociologists have been challenged to incorporate the potential explanatory role of genetics in their models. Here, we draw propositions from three major understandings of illness causation offered by social theory – fundamental causes, social stress processes, and social safety net theories. We tailor hypotheses to the case of alcohol dependence, long considered a multifaceted problem, defying simple explanation and having both biological and social roots. After briefly reviewing current appeals for transdisciplinary research, we describe both sociological and genetic theories, and derive propositions expected under each and under a transdisciplinary theoretical frame. Analyses of a later wave of the preeminent medical science study, the Collaborative Study on the Genetics of Alcoholism (COGA), reveals a complex interplay of how the GABRA2 gene works with and against social structural factors to produce cases meeting DSM/ICD diagnoses. When both genetic and social factors are controlled, virtually equivalent effects of each remain; and, only modest evidence suggests that genetic influence works through social structural conditions and experiences. Further exploratory analyses using multiplicative terms reveal enhanced gene-environment interactions: 1) women are largely unaffected in their risk for alcohol dependence by allele status at this candidate gene; 2) family support attenuates genetic influence; 3) childhood deprivation exacerbates genetic predispositions. We discuss how these findings lead us to consider the essential intradisciplinary tension in sociological theories (i.e., the role of proximal and distal influences in social processes). Overall, our findings point to the promise of theories blending social and genetic influences by focusing directly on dynamic, networked sequences that produce different pathways to health and illness. PMID:19569404

Distributed Network and Multiprocessing Minicomputer State-of-the-Art Capabilities.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Theis, Douglas J.

An examination of the capabilities of minicomputers and midicomputers now on the market reveals two basic items which users should evaluate when selecting computers for their own applications: distributed networking systems and multiprocessing architectures. Variables which should be considered in evaluating a distributed networking system…

Distributed controller clustering in software defined networks

PubMed Central

Gani, Abdullah; Akhunzada, Adnan; Talebian, Hamid; Choo, Kim-Kwang Raymond

2017-01-01

Software Defined Networking (SDN) is an emerging promising paradigm for network management because of its centralized network intelligence. However, the centralized control architecture of the software-defined networks (SDNs) brings novel challenges of reliability, scalability, fault tolerance and interoperability. In this paper, we proposed a novel clustered distributed controller architecture in the real setting of SDNs. The distributed cluster implementation comprises of multiple popular SDN controllers. The proposed mechanism is evaluated using a real world network topology running on top of an emulated SDN environment. The result shows that the proposed distributed controller clustering mechanism is able to significantly reduce the average latency from 8.1% to 1.6%, the packet loss from 5.22% to 4.15%, compared to distributed controller without clustering running on HP Virtual Application Network (VAN) SDN and Open Network Operating System (ONOS) controllers respectively. Moreover, proposed method also shows reasonable CPU utilization results. Furthermore, the proposed mechanism makes possible to handle unexpected load fluctuations while maintaining a continuous network operation, even when there is a controller failure. The paper is a potential contribution stepping towards addressing the issues of reliability, scalability, fault tolerance, and inter-operability. PMID:28384312

Characterizing the topology of probabilistic biological networks.

PubMed

Todor, Andrei; Dobra, Alin; Kahveci, Tamer

2013-01-01

Biological interactions are often uncertain events, that may or may not take place with some probability. This uncertainty leads to a massive number of alternative interaction topologies for each such network. The existing studies analyze the degree distribution of biological networks by assuming that all the given interactions take place under all circumstances. This strong and often incorrect assumption can lead to misleading results. In this paper, we address this problem and develop a sound mathematical basis to characterize networks in the presence of uncertain interactions. Using our mathematical representation, we develop a method that can accurately describe the degree distribution of such networks. We also take one more step and extend our method to accurately compute the joint-degree distributions of node pairs connected by edges. The number of possible network topologies grows exponentially with the number of uncertain interactions. However, the mathematical model we develop allows us to compute these degree distributions in polynomial time in the number of interactions. Our method works quickly even for entire protein-protein interaction (PPI) networks. It also helps us find an adequate mathematical model using MLE. We perform a comparative study of node-degree and joint-degree distributions in two types of biological networks: the classical deterministic networks and the more flexible probabilistic networks. Our results confirm that power-law and log-normal models best describe degree distributions for both probabilistic and deterministic networks. Moreover, the inverse correlation of degrees of neighboring nodes shows that, in probabilistic networks, nodes with large number of interactions prefer to interact with those with small number of interactions more frequently than expected. We also show that probabilistic networks are more robust for node-degree distribution computation than the deterministic ones. all the data sets used, the software implemented and the alignments found in this paper are available at http://bioinformatics.cise.ufl.edu/projects/probNet/.

Multi-scale modularity and motif distributional effect in metabolic networks.

PubMed

Gao, Shang; Chen, Alan; Rahmani, Ali; Zeng, Jia; Tan, Mehmet; Alhajj, Reda; Rokne, Jon; Demetrick, Douglas; Wei, Xiaohui

2016-01-01

Metabolism is a set of fundamental processes that play important roles in a plethora of biological and medical contexts. It is understood that the topological information of reconstructed metabolic networks, such as modular organization, has crucial implications on biological functions. Recent interpretations of modularity in network settings provide a view of multiple network partitions induced by different resolution parameters. Here we ask the question: How do multiple network partitions affect the organization of metabolic networks? Since network motifs are often interpreted as the super families of evolved units, we further investigate their impact under multiple network partitions and investigate how the distribution of network motifs influences the organization of metabolic networks. We studied Homo sapiens, Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Escherichia coli metabolic networks; we analyzed the relationship between different community structures and motif distribution patterns. Further, we quantified the degree to which motifs participate in the modular organization of metabolic networks.

A Global Perspective on Religious Participation and Suicide.

PubMed

Hsieh, Ning

2017-09-01

Although sociological research in the Durkheimian tradition has generally accepted that religious involvement protects against suicide, few studies have examined this theoretical proposition outside Western industrialized settings. Using multilevel models to analyze data from the World Health Organization Mortality Database and the World Values Survey (1981-2007) across 42 countries in seven geographical-cultural regions, this study explores whether religious participation is more protective against suicide in some regions than others and, if so, why. Results indicate that while religious participation is protective in Latin America, eastern Europe, northern Europe, and English-speaking countries, it may aggravate the risk of suicide in East Asia, western Europe, and southern Europe. This regional variation is the result of differences in both the degree of integration/regulation of religious communities and suicide underreporting. Overall, the findings support the network perspective of Durkheim's classical theory and suggest that researchers should be more cautious about suicide underreporting in less industrialized settings.

Intelligent Document Gateway: A Service System Case Study and Analysis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Krishna, Vikas; Lelescu, Ana

In today's fast paced world, it is necessary to process business ­documents expediently, accurately, and diligently. In other words, processing has to be fast, errors must be prevented (or caught and corrected quickly), and documents cannot be lost or misplaced. The failure to meet these criteria, depending on the type and purpose of the documents, can have serious business, legal, or safety consequences. In this paper, we evaluated a B2B order placement service system that allows clients to place orders for products and services over a network. We describe the order placement service before and after deploying the Intelligent Document Gateway (IDG), a document-centric business process automation technology from IBM Research. Using service science perspective and service systems frameworks, we provide an analysis of how IDG improved the value proposition for both the service providers and service clients.

Dirac strings and magnetic monopoles in the spin ice Dy2Ti2O7.

PubMed

Morris, D J P; Tennant, D A; Grigera, S A; Klemke, B; Castelnovo, C; Moessner, R; Czternasty, C; Meissner, M; Rule, K C; Hoffmann, J-U; Kiefer, K; Gerischer, S; Slobinsky, D; Perry, R S

2009-10-16

Sources of magnetic fields-magnetic monopoles-have so far proven elusive as elementary particles. Condensed-matter physicists have recently proposed several scenarios of emergent quasiparticles resembling monopoles. A particularly simple proposition pertains to spin ice on the highly frustrated pyrochlore lattice. The spin-ice state is argued to be well described by networks of aligned dipoles resembling solenoidal tubes-classical, and observable, versions of a Dirac string. Where these tubes end, the resulting defects look like magnetic monopoles. We demonstrated, by diffuse neutron scattering, the presence of such strings in the spin ice dysprosium titanate (Dy2Ti2O7). This is achieved by applying a symmetry-breaking magnetic field with which we can manipulate the density and orientation of the strings. In turn, heat capacity is described by a gas of magnetic monopoles interacting via a magnetic Coulomb interaction.

On the nature of explanation: A PDP approach

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Churchland, Paul M.

1990-06-01

Neural network models of sensory processing and associative memory provide the resources for a new theory of what explanatory understanding consists in. That theory finds the theoretically important factors to reside not at the level of propositions and the relations between them, but at the level of the activation patterns across large populations of neurons. The theory portrays explanatory understanding, perceptual recognition, and abductive inference as being different instances of the same more general sort of cognitive achievement, viz. prototype activation. It thus effects a unification of the theories of explanation, perception, and ampliative inference. It also finds systematic unity in the wide diversity of types of explanation (causal, functional, mathematical, intentional, reductive, etc.), a chronic problem for theories of explanation in the logico-linguistic tradition. Finally, it is free of the many defects, both logical and psychological, that plague models in that older tradition.

Emotion regulation through execution, observation, and imagery of emotional movements

PubMed Central

Shafir, Tal; Taylor, Stephan F.; Atkinson, Anthony P.; Langenecker, Scott A.; Zubieta, Jon-Kar

2014-01-01

According to Damasio’s somatic marker hypothesis, emotions are generated by conveying the current state of the body to the brain through interoceptive and proprioceptive afferent input. The resulting brain activation patterns represent unconscious emotions and correlate with subjective feelings. This proposition implies a corollary that the deliberate control of motor behavior could regulate feelings. We tested this possibility, hypothesizing that engaging in movements associated with a certain emotion would enhance that emotion and/or the corresponding valence. Furthermore, because motor imagery and observation are thought to activate the same mirror-neuron network engaged during motor execution, they might also activate the same emotional processing circuits, leading to similar emotional effects. Therefore, we measured the effects of motor execution, motor imagery and observation of whole-body dynamic expressions of emotions (happiness, sadness, fear) on affective state. All three tasks enhanced the corresponding affective state, indicating their potential to regulate emotions. PMID:23561915

Method and apparatus for reducing the harmonic currents in alternating-current distribution networks

DOEpatents

Beverly, Leon H.; Hance, Richard D.; Kristalinski, Alexandr L.; Visser, Age T.

1996-01-01

An improved apparatus and method reduce the harmonic content of AC line and neutral line currents in polyphase AC source distribution networks. The apparatus and method employ a polyphase Zig-Zag transformer connected between the AC source distribution network and a load. The apparatus and method also employs a mechanism for increasing the source neutral impedance of the AC source distribution network. This mechanism can consist of a choke installed in the neutral line between the AC source and the Zig-Zag transformer.

Method and apparatus for reducing the harmonic currents in alternating-current distribution networks

DOEpatents

Beverly, L.H.; Hance, R.D.; Kristalinski, A.L.; Visser, A.T.

1996-11-19

An improved apparatus and method reduce the harmonic content of AC line and neutral line currents in polyphase AC source distribution networks. The apparatus and method employ a polyphase Zig-Zag transformer connected between the AC source distribution network and a load. The apparatus and method also employs a mechanism for increasing the source neutral impedance of the AC source distribution network. This mechanism can consist of a choke installed in the neutral line between the AC source and the Zig-Zag transformer. 23 figs.

Decreasing-Rate Pruning Optimizes the Construction of Efficient and Robust Distributed Networks.

PubMed

Navlakha, Saket; Barth, Alison L; Bar-Joseph, Ziv

2015-07-01

Robust, efficient, and low-cost networks are advantageous in both biological and engineered systems. During neural network development in the brain, synapses are massively over-produced and then pruned-back over time. This strategy is not commonly used when designing engineered networks, since adding connections that will soon be removed is considered wasteful. Here, we show that for large distributed routing networks, network function is markedly enhanced by hyper-connectivity followed by aggressive pruning and that the global rate of pruning, a developmental parameter not previously studied by experimentalists, plays a critical role in optimizing network structure. We first used high-throughput image analysis techniques to quantify the rate of pruning in the mammalian neocortex across a broad developmental time window and found that the rate is decreasing over time. Based on these results, we analyzed a model of computational routing networks and show using both theoretical analysis and simulations that decreasing rates lead to more robust and efficient networks compared to other rates. We also present an application of this strategy to improve the distributed design of airline networks. Thus, inspiration from neural network formation suggests effective ways to design distributed networks across several domains.

Decreasing-Rate Pruning Optimizes the Construction of Efficient and Robust Distributed Networks

PubMed Central

Navlakha, Saket; Barth, Alison L.; Bar-Joseph, Ziv

2015-01-01

Robust, efficient, and low-cost networks are advantageous in both biological and engineered systems. During neural network development in the brain, synapses are massively over-produced and then pruned-back over time. This strategy is not commonly used when designing engineered networks, since adding connections that will soon be removed is considered wasteful. Here, we show that for large distributed routing networks, network function is markedly enhanced by hyper-connectivity followed by aggressive pruning and that the global rate of pruning, a developmental parameter not previously studied by experimentalists, plays a critical role in optimizing network structure. We first used high-throughput image analysis techniques to quantify the rate of pruning in the mammalian neocortex across a broad developmental time window and found that the rate is decreasing over time. Based on these results, we analyzed a model of computational routing networks and show using both theoretical analysis and simulations that decreasing rates lead to more robust and efficient networks compared to other rates. We also present an application of this strategy to improve the distributed design of airline networks. Thus, inspiration from neural network formation suggests effective ways to design distributed networks across several domains. PMID:26217933

Investigating the management performance of disinfection analysis of water distribution networks using data mining approaches.

PubMed

Zounemat-Kermani, Mohammad; Ramezani-Charmahineh, Abdollah; Adamowski, Jan; Kisi, Ozgur

2018-06-13

Chlorination, the basic treatment utilized for drinking water sources, is widely used for water disinfection and pathogen elimination in water distribution networks. Thereafter, the proper prediction of chlorine consumption is of great importance in water distribution network performance. In this respect, data mining techniques-which have the ability to discover the relationship between dependent variable(s) and independent variables-can be considered as alternative approaches in comparison to conventional methods (e.g., numerical methods). This study examines the applicability of three key methods, based on the data mining approach, for predicting chlorine levels in four water distribution networks. ANNs (artificial neural networks, including the multi-layer perceptron neural network, MLPNN, and radial basis function neural network, RBFNN), SVM (support vector machine), and CART (classification and regression tree) methods were used to estimate the concentration of residual chlorine in distribution networks for three villages in Kerman Province, Iran. Produced water (flow), chlorine consumption, and residual chlorine were collected daily for 3 years. An assessment of the studied models using several statistical criteria (NSC, RMSE, R 2 , and SEP) indicated that, in general, MLPNN has the greatest capability for predicting chlorine levels followed by CART, SVM, and RBF-ANN. Weaker performance of the data-driven methods in the water distribution networks, in some cases, could be attributed to improper chlorination management rather than the methods' capability.

Value propositions of mHealth projects.

PubMed

Gorski, Irena; Bram, Joshua T; Sutermaster, Staci; Eckman, Molly; Mehta, Khanjan

While mHealth holds great potential for addressing global health disparities, a majority of the initiatives never proceed beyond the pilot stage. One fundamental concern is that mHealth projects are seldom designed from the customer's perspective to address their specific problems and/or create appreciable value. A customer-centric view, where direct tangible benefits of interventions are identified and communicated effectively, can drive customer engagement and advance projects toward self-sustaining business models. This article reviews the business models of 234 mHealth projects to identify nine distinct value propositions that solve specific problems for customers. Each of these value propositions is discussed with real-world examples, analyses of their design approaches and business strategies, and common enablers as well as hurdles to surviving past the pilot stage. Furthermore, a deeper analysis of 42 mHealth ventures that have achieved self-sustainability through project revenue provides a host of practical and poignant insights into the design of systems that can fulfil mHealth's promise to address healthcare challenges in the long term.

The Nature of Science and the Role of Knowledge and Belief

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cobern, William W.

In everyday language we tend to think of knowledge as reasoned belief that a proposition is true and the natural sciences provide the archetypal example of what it means to know. Religious and ideological propositions are the typical examples of believed propositions. Moreover, the radical empiricist worldview so often associated with modern science has eroded society's meaningful sense of life. Western history, however, shows that knowledge and belief have not always been constructed separately. In addition, modern developments in the philosophy and history of science have seriously undermined the radical empiricist's excessive confidence in scientific methods. Acknowledging in the science classroom the parallel structure of knowledge and belief, and recognizing that science requires a presuppositional foundation that is itself not empirically verifiable would re introduce a valuable discussion on the meaning of science and its impact on life. Science would less likely be taught as a `rhetoric of conclusions'. The discussion would also help students to gain a firmer integration of science with other important knowledge and beliefs that they hold.

Propositional idea density in older men's written language: findings from the HIMS study using computerised analysis.

PubMed

Spencer, Elizabeth; Ferguson, Alison; Craig, Hugh; Colyvas, Kim; Hankey, Graeme J; Flicker, Leon

2015-02-01

Decline in linguistic function has been associated with decline in cognitive function in previous research. This research investigated the informativeness of written language samples of Australian men from the Health in Men's Study (HIMS) aged from 76 to 93 years using the Computerised Propositional Idea Density Rater (CPIDR 5.1). In total, 60,255 words in 1147 comments were analysed using a linear-mixed model for statistical analysis. Results indicated no relationship with education level (p = 0.79). Participants for whom English was not their first learnt language showed Propositional Idea Density (PD) scores slightly lower (0.018 per 1 word). Mean PD per 1 word for those for whom English was their first language for comments below 60 words was 0.494 and above 60 words 0.526. Text length was found to have an effect (p = <0.0001). The mean PD was higher than previously reported for men and lower than previously reported for a similar cohort for Australian women.

Motif formation and industry specific topologies in the Japanese business firm network

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Maluck, Julian; Donner, Reik V.; Takayasu, Hideki; Takayasu, Misako

2017-05-01

Motifs and roles are basic quantities for the characterization of interactions among 3-node subsets in complex networks. In this work, we investigate how the distribution of 3-node motifs can be influenced by modifying the rules of an evolving network model while keeping the statistics of simpler network characteristics, such as the link density and the degree distribution, invariant. We exemplify this problem for the special case of the Japanese Business Firm Network, where a well-studied and relatively simple yet realistic evolving network model is available, and compare the resulting motif distribution in the real-world and simulated networks. To better approximate the motif distribution of the real-world network in the model, we introduce both subgraph dependent and global additional rules. We find that a specific rule that allows only for the merging process between nodes with similar link directionality patterns reduces the observed excess of densely connected motifs with bidirectional links. Our study improves the mechanistic understanding of motif formation in evolving network models to better describe the characteristic features of real-world networks with a scale-free topology.

Intertrial correlations and intertrial periods of rest.

PubMed

Jones, M B

1969-03-01

Eight groups of 40 basic airmen each worked the Manual Crank for an initial period of 5 min., rested, and then worked for a final period of 3 min. The eight groups were distinguished according to the load (heavy or light) against which they worked in the two periods and the rest interval (30 sec. or 4 min.) between them. Response was scored in revolutions of the crank handle in each 20 sec. interval (trial). None of the main effects had any bearing on the intertrial correlations within or between the periods of cranking. The results lend further support to the proposition that intertrial correlations are invariant under rest interval (distribution of practice) and the force required to make a response.

Political-economic values and the relationship between socioeconomic status and self-esteem.

PubMed

Malka, Ariel; Miller, Dale T

2007-02-01

Values concerning the distribution of wealth are an important aspect of identity for many Americans, and such values may therefore influence how Americans experience their own socioeconomic status (SES). Based on this proposition, the present research examines political-economic values as a moderator of the relationship between SES and self-esteem. Results supported the hypothesis that there is a stronger relationship between SES and self-esteem among individuals who report relatively inegalitarian values than among individuals who report relatively egalitarian values. This result was replicated using both objective and subjective measures of SES. Implications of the present findings for the study of values and well-being, psychological conflict, and the influence of economic factors on self-esteem are discussed.

Africa's middle class women bring entrepreneurial opportunities in breast care medical tourism to South Africa.

PubMed

Ahwireng-Obeng, Frederick; van Loggerenberg, Charl

2011-01-01

Africa's distribution of specialized private health services is severely disproportionate. Mismatch between South Africa's excess supply and a huge demand potential in an under-serviced continent represents an entrepreneurial opportunity to attract patients to South Africa for treatment and recuperative holidays. However, effective demand for intra-African medical tourism could be constrained by sub-Saharan poverty. Results from interviewing 320 patients and five staff at the Johannesburg Breast care Centre of Excellence, however, reject this proposition, Africa's middle class women being the target market estimated to grow annually by one million while breast cancer incidence increases with middle-class lifestyles. Uncovering this potential involves an extensive marketing strategy. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Topology determines force distributions in one-dimensional random spring networks.

PubMed

Heidemann, Knut M; Sageman-Furnas, Andrew O; Sharma, Abhinav; Rehfeldt, Florian; Schmidt, Christoph F; Wardetzky, Max

2018-02-01

Networks of elastic fibers are ubiquitous in biological systems and often provide mechanical stability to cells and tissues. Fiber-reinforced materials are also common in technology. An important characteristic of such materials is their resistance to failure under load. Rupture occurs when fibers break under excessive force and when that failure propagates. Therefore, it is crucial to understand force distributions. Force distributions within such networks are typically highly inhomogeneous and are not well understood. Here we construct a simple one-dimensional model system with periodic boundary conditions by randomly placing linear springs on a circle. We consider ensembles of such networks that consist of N nodes and have an average degree of connectivity z but vary in topology. Using a graph-theoretical approach that accounts for the full topology of each network in the ensemble, we show that, surprisingly, the force distributions can be fully characterized in terms of the parameters (N,z). Despite the universal properties of such (N,z) ensembles, our analysis further reveals that a classical mean-field approach fails to capture force distributions correctly. We demonstrate that network topology is a crucial determinant of force distributions in elastic spring networks.

Topology determines force distributions in one-dimensional random spring networks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Heidemann, Knut M.; Sageman-Furnas, Andrew O.; Sharma, Abhinav; Rehfeldt, Florian; Schmidt, Christoph F.; Wardetzky, Max

2018-02-01

Networks of elastic fibers are ubiquitous in biological systems and often provide mechanical stability to cells and tissues. Fiber-reinforced materials are also common in technology. An important characteristic of such materials is their resistance to failure under load. Rupture occurs when fibers break under excessive force and when that failure propagates. Therefore, it is crucial to understand force distributions. Force distributions within such networks are typically highly inhomogeneous and are not well understood. Here we construct a simple one-dimensional model system with periodic boundary conditions by randomly placing linear springs on a circle. We consider ensembles of such networks that consist of N nodes and have an average degree of connectivity z but vary in topology. Using a graph-theoretical approach that accounts for the full topology of each network in the ensemble, we show that, surprisingly, the force distributions can be fully characterized in terms of the parameters (N ,z ) . Despite the universal properties of such (N ,z ) ensembles, our analysis further reveals that a classical mean-field approach fails to capture force distributions correctly. We demonstrate that network topology is a crucial determinant of force distributions in elastic spring networks.

Real-time distributed multimedia systems

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

Rahurkar, S.S.; Bourbakis, N.G.

1996-12-31

This paper presents a survey on distributed multimedia systems and discusses real-time issues. In particular, different subsystems are reviewed that impact on multimedia networking, the networking for multimedia, the networked multimedia systems, and the leading edge research and developments efforts and issues in networking.

Directed networks' different link formation mechanisms causing degree distribution distinction

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Behfar, Stefan Kambiz; Turkina, Ekaterina; Cohendet, Patrick; Burger-Helmchen, Thierry

2016-11-01

Within undirected networks, scientists have shown much interest in presenting power-law features. For instance, Barabási and Albert (1999) claimed that a common property of many large networks is that vertex connectivity follows scale-free power-law distribution, and in another study Barabási et al. (2002) showed power law evolution in the social network of scientific collaboration. At the same time, Jiang et al. (2011) discussed deviation from power-law distribution; others indicated that size effect (Bagrow et al., 2008), information filtering mechanism (Mossa et al., 2002), and birth and death process (Shi et al., 2005) could account for this deviation. Within directed networks, many authors have considered that outlinks follow a similar mechanism of creation as inlinks' (Faloutsos et al., 1999; Krapivsky et al., 2001; Tanimoto, 2009) with link creation rate being the linear function of node degree, resulting in a power-law shape for both indegree and outdegree distribution. Some other authors have made an assumption that directed networks, such as scientific collaboration or citation, behave as undirected, resulting in a power-law degree distribution accordingly (Barabási et al., 2002). At the same time, we claim (1) Outlinks feature different degree distributions than inlinks; where different link formation mechanisms cause the distribution distinctions, (2) in/outdegree distribution distinction holds for different levels of system decomposition; therefore this distribution distinction is a property of directed networks. First, we emphasize in/outlink formation mechanisms as causal factors for distinction between indegree and outdegree distributions (where this distinction has already been noticed in Barker et al. (2010) and Baxter et al. (2006)) within a sample network of OSS projects as well as Java software corpus as a network. Second, we analyze whether this distribution distinction holds for different levels of system decomposition: open-source-software (OSS) project-project dependency within a cluster, package-package dependency within a project and class-class dependency within a package. We conclude that indegree and outdegree dependencies do not lead to similar type of degree distributions, implying that indegree dependencies follow overall power-law distribution (or power-law with flat-top or exponential cut-off in some cases), while outdegree dependencies do not follow heavy-tailed distribution.

People Like Logical Truth: Testing the Intuitive Detection of Logical Value in Basic Propositions

PubMed Central

2016-01-01

Recent studies on logical reasoning have suggested that people are intuitively aware of the logical validity of syllogisms or that they intuitively detect conflict between heuristic responses and logical norms via slight changes in their feelings. According to logical intuition studies, logically valid or heuristic logic no-conflict reasoning is fluently processed and induces positive feelings without conscious awareness. One criticism states that such effects of logicality disappear when confounding factors such as the content of syllogisms are controlled. The present study used abstract propositions and tested whether people intuitively detect logical value. Experiment 1 presented four logical propositions (conjunctive, biconditional, conditional, and material implications) regarding a target case and asked the participants to rate the extent to which they liked the statement. Experiment 2 tested the effects of matching bias, as well as intuitive logic, on the reasoners’ feelings by manipulating whether the antecedent or consequent (or both) of the conditional was affirmed or negated. The results showed that both logicality and matching bias affected the reasoners’ feelings, and people preferred logically true targets over logically false ones for all forms of propositions. These results suggest that people intuitively detect what is true from what is false during abstract reasoning. Additionally, a Bayesian mixed model meta-analysis of conditionals indicated that people’s intuitive interpretation of the conditional “if p then q” fits better with the conditional probability, q given p. PMID:28036402

Weighted Scaling in Non-growth Random Networks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chen, Guang; Yang, Xu-Hua; Xu, Xin-Li

2012-09-01

We propose a weighted model to explain the self-organizing formation of scale-free phenomenon in non-growth random networks. In this model, we use multiple-edges to represent the connections between vertices and define the weight of a multiple-edge as the total weights of all single-edges within it and the strength of a vertex as the sum of weights for those multiple-edges attached to it. The network evolves according to a vertex strength preferential selection mechanism. During the evolution process, the network always holds its total number of vertices and its total number of single-edges constantly. We show analytically and numerically that a network will form steady scale-free distributions with our model. The results show that a weighted non-growth random network can evolve into scale-free state. It is interesting that the network also obtains the character of an exponential edge weight distribution. Namely, coexistence of scale-free distribution and exponential distribution emerges.

A Neural Network Aero Design System for Advanced Turbo-Engines

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Sanz, Jose M.

1999-01-01

An inverse design method calculates the blade shape that produces a prescribed input pressure distribution. By controlling this input pressure distribution the aerodynamic design objectives can easily be met. Because of the intrinsic relationship between pressure distribution and airfoil physical properties, a Neural Network can be trained to choose the optimal pressure distribution that would meet a set of physical requirements. Neural network systems have been attempted in the context of direct design methods. From properties ascribed to a set of blades the neural network is trained to infer the properties of an 'interpolated' blade shape. The problem is that, especially in transonic regimes where we deal with intrinsically non linear and ill posed problems, small perturbations of the blade shape can produce very large variations of the flow parameters. It is very unlikely that, under these circumstances, a neural network will be able to find the proper solution. The unique situation in the present method is that the neural network can be trained to extract the required input pressure distribution from a database of pressure distributions while the inverse method will still compute the exact blade shape that corresponds to this 'interpolated' input pressure distribution. In other words, the interpolation process is transferred to a smoother problem, namely, finding what pressure distribution would produce the required flow conditions and, once this is done, the inverse method will compute the exact solution for this problem. The use of neural network is, in this context, highly related to the use of proper optimization techniques. The optimization is used essentially as an automation procedure to force the input pressure distributions to achieve the required aero and structural design parameters. A multilayered feed forward network with back-propagation is used to train the system for pattern association and classification.

On a growth model for complex networks capable of producing power-law out-degree distributions with wide range exponents

PubMed Central

Esquivel-Gómez, J.; Arjona-Villicaña, P. D.; Stevens-Navarro, E.; Pineda-Rico, U.; Balderas-Navarro, R. E.; Acosta-Elias, J.

2015-01-01

The out-degree distribution is one of the most reported topological properties to characterize real complex networks. This property describes the probability that a node in the network has a particular number of outgoing links. It has been found that in many real complex networks the out-degree has a behavior similar to a power-law distribution, therefore some network growth models have been proposed to approximate this behavior. This paper introduces a new growth model that allows to produce out-degree distributions that decay as a power-law with an exponent in the range from 1 to ∞. PMID:25765763

Distributed semantic networks and CLIPS

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Snyder, James; Rodriguez, Tony

1991-01-01

Semantic networks of frames are commonly used as a method of reasoning in many problems. In most of these applications the semantic network exists as a single entity in a single process environment. Advances in workstation hardware provide support for more sophisticated applications involving multiple processes, interacting in a distributed environment. In these applications the semantic network may well be distributed over several concurrently executing tasks. This paper describes the design and implementation of a frame based, distributed semantic network in which frames are accessed both through C Language Integrated Production System (CLIPS) expert systems and procedural C++ language programs. The application area is a knowledge based, cooperative decision making model utilizing both rule based and procedural experts.

A Bayesian network approach to the database search problem in criminal proceedings

PubMed Central

2012-01-01

Background The ‘database search problem’, that is, the strengthening of a case - in terms of probative value - against an individual who is found as a result of a database search, has been approached during the last two decades with substantial mathematical analyses, accompanied by lively debate and centrally opposing conclusions. This represents a challenging obstacle in teaching but also hinders a balanced and coherent discussion of the topic within the wider scientific and legal community. This paper revisits and tracks the associated mathematical analyses in terms of Bayesian networks. Their derivation and discussion for capturing probabilistic arguments that explain the database search problem are outlined in detail. The resulting Bayesian networks offer a distinct view on the main debated issues, along with further clarity. Methods As a general framework for representing and analyzing formal arguments in probabilistic reasoning about uncertain target propositions (that is, whether or not a given individual is the source of a crime stain), this paper relies on graphical probability models, in particular, Bayesian networks. This graphical probability modeling approach is used to capture, within a single model, a series of key variables, such as the number of individuals in a database, the size of the population of potential crime stain sources, and the rarity of the corresponding analytical characteristics in a relevant population. Results This paper demonstrates the feasibility of deriving Bayesian network structures for analyzing, representing, and tracking the database search problem. The output of the proposed models can be shown to agree with existing but exclusively formulaic approaches. Conclusions The proposed Bayesian networks allow one to capture and analyze the currently most well-supported but reputedly counter-intuitive and difficult solution to the database search problem in a way that goes beyond the traditional, purely formulaic expressions. The method’s graphical environment, along with its computational and probabilistic architectures, represents a rich package that offers analysts and discussants with additional modes of interaction, concise representation, and coherent communication. PMID:22849390

Sampling from complex networks using distributed learning automata

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rezvanian, Alireza; Rahmati, Mohammad; Meybodi, Mohammad Reza

2014-02-01

A complex network provides a framework for modeling many real-world phenomena in the form of a network. In general, a complex network is considered as a graph of real world phenomena such as biological networks, ecological networks, technological networks, information networks and particularly social networks. Recently, major studies are reported for the characterization of social networks due to a growing trend in analysis of online social networks as dynamic complex large-scale graphs. Due to the large scale and limited access of real networks, the network model is characterized using an appropriate part of a network by sampling approaches. In this paper, a new sampling algorithm based on distributed learning automata has been proposed for sampling from complex networks. In the proposed algorithm, a set of distributed learning automata cooperate with each other in order to take appropriate samples from the given network. To investigate the performance of the proposed algorithm, several simulation experiments are conducted on well-known complex networks. Experimental results are compared with several sampling methods in terms of different measures. The experimental results demonstrate the superiority of the proposed algorithm over the others.

Regulation of distribution network business

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

Roman, J.; Gomez, T.; Munoz, A.

1999-04-01

The traditional distribution function actually comprises two separate activities: distribution network and retailing. Retailing, which is also termed supply, consists of trading electricity at the wholesale level and selling it to the end users. The distribution network business, or merely distribution, is a natural monopoly and it must be regulated. Increasing attention is presently being paid to the regulation of distribution pricing. Distribution pricing, comprises two major tasks: global remuneration of the distribution utility and tariff setting by allocation of the total costs among all the users of the network services. In this paper, the basic concepts for establishing themore » global remuneration of a distribution utility are presented. A remuneration scheme which recognizes adequate investment and operation costs, promotes losses reduction and incentivates the control of the quality of service level is proposed. Efficient investment and operation costs are calculated by using different types of strategic planning and regression analysis models. Application examples that have been used during the distribution regulation process in Spain are also presented.« less

Engineering of Sensor Network Structure for Dependable Fusion

DTIC Science & Technology

2014-08-15

Lossy Wireless Sensor Networks , IEEE/ACM Transactions on Networking , (04 2013): 0. doi: 10.1109/TNET.2013.2256795 Soumik Sarkar, Kushal Mukherjee...Phoha, Bharat B. Madan, Asok Ray. Distributed Network Control for Mobile Multi-Modal Wireless Sensor Networks , Journal of Parallel and Distributed...Deadline Constraints, IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control special issue on Wireless Sensor and Actuator Networks , (01 2011): 1. doi: Eric Keller

Definition of osteoarthritis on MRI: results of a Delphi exercise.

PubMed

Hunter, D J; Arden, N; Conaghan, P G; Eckstein, F; Gold, G; Grainger, A; Guermazi, A; Harvey, W; Jones, G; Hellio Le Graverand, M P; Laredo, J D; Lo, G; Losina, E; Mosher, T J; Roemer, F; Zhang, W

2011-08-01

Despite a growing body of Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) literature in osteoarthritis (OA), there is little uniformity in its diagnostic application. We envisage in the first instance the definition requiring further validation and testing in the research setting before considering implementation/feasibility testing in the clinical setting. The objective of our research was to develop an MRI definition of structural OA. We undertook a multistage process consisting of a number of different steps. The intent was to develop testable definitions of OA (knee, hip and/or hand) on MRI. This was an evidence driven approach with results of a systematic review provided to the group prior to a Delphi exercise. Each participant of the steering group was allowed to submit independently up to five propositions related to key aspects in MRI diagnosis of knee OA. The steering group then participated in a Delphi exercise to reach consensus on which propositions we would recommend for a definition of structural OA on MRI. For each round of voting, ≥60% votes led to include and ≤20% votes led to exclude a proposition. After developing the proposition one of the definitions developed was tested for its validity against radiographic OA in an extant database. For the systematic review we identified 25 studies which met all of our inclusion criteria and contained relevant diagnostic measure and performance data. At the completion of the Delphi voting exercise 11 propositions were accepted for definition of structural OA on MRI. We assessed the diagnostic performance of the tibiofemoral MRI definition against a radiographic reference standard. The diagnostic performance for individual features was: osteophyte C statistic=0.61, for cartilage loss C statistic=0.73, for bone marrow lesions C statistic=0.72 and for meniscus tear in any region C statistic=0.78. The overall composite model for these four features was a C statistic=0.59. We detected good specificity (1) but less optimal sensitivity (0.46) likely due to detection of disease earlier on MRI. We have developed MRI definition of knee OA that requires further formal testing with regards their diagnostic performance (especially in datasets of persons with early disease), before they are more widely used. Our current analysis suggests that further testing should focus on comparisons other than the radiograph, that may capture later stage disease and thus nullify the potential for detecting early disease that MRI may afford. The propositions are not to detract from, nor to discourage the use of traditional means of diagnosing OA. Copyright © 2011 Osteoarthritis Research Society International. All rights reserved.

Data quality assessment for comparative effectiveness research in distributed data networks

PubMed Central

Brown, Jeffrey; Kahn, Michael; Toh, Sengwee

2015-01-01

Background Electronic health information routinely collected during healthcare delivery and reimbursement can help address the need for evidence about the real-world effectiveness, safety, and quality of medical care. Often, distributed networks that combine information from multiple sources are needed to generate this real-world evidence. Objective We provide a set of field-tested best practices and a set of recommendations for data quality checking for comparative effectiveness research (CER) in distributed data networks. Methods Explore the requirements for data quality checking and describe data quality approaches undertaken by several existing multi-site networks. Results There are no established standards regarding how to evaluate the quality of electronic health data for CER within distributed networks. Data checks of increasing complexity are often employed, ranging from consistency with syntactic rules to evaluation of semantics and consistency within and across sites. Temporal trends within and across sites are widely used, as are checks of each data refresh or update. Rates of specific events and exposures by age group, sex, and month are also common. Discussion Secondary use of electronic health data for CER holds promise but is complex, especially in distributed data networks that incorporate periodic data refreshes. The viability of a learning health system is dependent on a robust understanding of the quality, validity, and optimal secondary uses of routinely collected electronic health data within distributed health data networks. Robust data quality checking can strengthen confidence in findings based on distributed data network. PMID:23793049

LaRC local area networks to support distributed computing

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Riddle, E. P.

1984-01-01

The Langley Research Center's (LaRC) Local Area Network (LAN) effort is discussed. LaRC initiated the development of a LAN to support a growing distributed computing environment at the Center. The purpose of the network is to provide an improved capability (over inteactive and RJE terminal access) for sharing multivendor computer resources. Specifically, the network will provide a data highway for the transfer of files between mainframe computers, minicomputers, work stations, and personal computers. An important influence on the overall network design was the vital need of LaRC researchers to efficiently utilize the large CDC mainframe computers in the central scientific computing facility. Although there was a steady migration from a centralized to a distributed computing environment at LaRC in recent years, the work load on the central resources increased. Major emphasis in the network design was on communication with the central resources within the distributed environment. The network to be implemented will allow researchers to utilize the central resources, distributed minicomputers, work stations, and personal computers to obtain the proper level of computing power to efficiently perform their jobs.

Research on Some Bus Transport Networks with Random Overlapping Clique Structure

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yang, Xu-Hua; Wang, Bo; Wang, Wan-Liang; Sun, You-Xian

2008-11-01

On the basis of investigating the statistical data of bus transport networks of three big cities in China, we propose that each bus route is a clique (maximal complete subgraph) and a bus transport network (BTN) consists of a lot of cliques, which intensively connect and overlap with each other. We study the network properties, which include the degree distribution, multiple edges' overlapping time distribution, distribution of the overlap size between any two overlapping cliques, distribution of the number of cliques that a node belongs to. Naturally, the cliques also constitute a network, with the overlapping nodes being their multiple links. We also research its network properties such as degree distribution, clustering, average path length, and so on. We propose that a BTN has the properties of random clique increment and random overlapping clique, at the same time, a BTN is a small-world network with highly clique-clustered and highly clique-overlapped. Finally, we introduce a BTN evolution model, whose simulation results agree well with the statistical laws that emerge in real BTNs.

Reverse logistics network for municipal solid waste management: The inclusion of waste pickers as a Brazilian legal requirement

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

Ferri, Giovane Lopes, E-mail: giovane.ferri@aluno.ufes.br; Diniz Chaves, Gisele de Lorena, E-mail: gisele.chaves@ufes.br; Ribeiro, Glaydston Mattos, E-mail: glaydston@pet.coppe.ufrj.br

Highlights: • We propose a reverse logistics network for MSW involving waste pickers. • A generic facility location mathematical model was validated in a Brazilian city. • The results enable to predict the capacity for screening and storage centres (SSC). • We minimise the costs for transporting MSW with screening and storage centres. • The use of SSC can be a potential source of revenue and a better use of MSW. - Abstract: This study proposes a reverse logistics network involved in the management of municipal solid waste (MSW) to solve the challenge of economically managing these wastes considering themore » recent legal requirements of the Brazilian Waste Management Policy. The feasibility of the allocation of MSW material recovery facilities (MRF) as intermediate points between the generators of these wastes and the options for reuse and disposal was evaluated, as well as the participation of associations and cooperatives of waste pickers. This network was mathematically modelled and validated through a scenario analysis of the municipality of São Mateus, which makes the location model more complete and applicable in practice. The mathematical model allows the determination of the number of facilities required for the reverse logistics network, their location, capacities, and product flows between these facilities. The fixed costs of installation and operation of the proposed MRF were balanced with the reduction of transport costs, allowing the inclusion of waste pickers to the reverse logistics network. The main contribution of this study lies in the proposition of a reverse logistics network for MSW simultaneously involving legal, environmental, economic and social criteria, which is a very complex goal. This study can guide practices in other countries that have realities similar to those in Brazil of accelerated urbanisation without adequate planning for solid waste management, added to the strong presence of waste pickers that, through the characteristic of social vulnerability, must be included in the system. In addition to the theoretical contribution to the reverse logistics network problem, this study aids in decision-making for public managers who have limited technical and administrative capacities for the management of solid wastes.« less

Analysis of Road Network Pattern Considering Population Distribution and Central Business District

PubMed Central

Zhao, Fangxia; Sun, Huijun; Wu, Jianjun; Gao, Ziyou; Liu, Ronghui

2016-01-01

This paper proposes a road network growing model with the consideration of population distribution and central business district (CBD) attraction. In the model, the relative neighborhood graph (RNG) is introduced as the connection mechanism to capture the characteristics of road network topology. The simulation experiment is set up to illustrate the effects of population distribution and CBD attraction on the characteristics of road network. Moreover, several topological attributes of road network is evaluated by using coverage, circuitness, treeness and total length in the experiment. Finally, the suggested model is verified in the simulation of China and Beijing Highway networks. PMID:26981857

A tangent-ring optical TWDM-MAN enabling three-level transregional reconfigurations and shared protections by multipoint distributed control

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gou, Kaiyu; Gan, Chaoqin; Zhang, Xiaoyu; Zhang, Yuchao

2018-03-01

An optical time-and-wavelength-division-multiplexing metro-access network (TWDM-MAN) is proposed and demonstrated in this paper. By the reuse of tangent-ring optical distribution network and the design of distributed control mechanism, ONUs needing to communicate with each other can be flexibly accessed to successfully make up three kinds of reconfigurable networks. By the nature advantage of ring topology in protection, three-level comprehensive protections covering both feeder and distribution fibers are also achieved. Besides, a distributed wavelength allocation (DWA) is designed to support efficient parallel upstream transmission. The analyses including capacity, congestion and transmission simulation show that this network has a great performance.

Design of Distributed Engine Control Systems with Uncertain Delay.

PubMed

Liu, Xiaofeng; Li, Yanxi; Sun, Xu

Future gas turbine engine control systems will be based on distributed architecture, in which, the sensors and actuators will be connected to the controllers via a communication network. The performance of the distributed engine control (DEC) is dependent on the network performance. This study introduces a distributed control system architecture based on a networked cascade control system (NCCS). Typical turboshaft engine-distributed controllers are designed based on the NCCS framework with a H∞ output feedback under network-induced time delays and uncertain disturbances. The sufficient conditions for robust stability are derived via the Lyapunov stability theory and linear matrix inequality approach. Both numerical and hardware-in-loop simulations illustrate the effectiveness of the presented method.

Design of Distributed Engine Control Systems with Uncertain Delay

PubMed Central

Li, Yanxi; Sun, Xu

2016-01-01

Future gas turbine engine control systems will be based on distributed architecture, in which, the sensors and actuators will be connected to the controllers via a communication network. The performance of the distributed engine control (DEC) is dependent on the network performance. This study introduces a distributed control system architecture based on a networked cascade control system (NCCS). Typical turboshaft engine-distributed controllers are designed based on the NCCS framework with a H∞ output feedback under network-induced time delays and uncertain disturbances. The sufficient conditions for robust stability are derived via the Lyapunov stability theory and linear matrix inequality approach. Both numerical and hardware-in-loop simulations illustrate the effectiveness of the presented method. PMID:27669005

Design framework for entanglement-distribution switching networks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Drost, Robert J.; Brodsky, Michael

2016-09-01

The distribution of quantum entanglement appears to be an important component of applications of quantum communications and networks. The ability to centralize the sourcing of entanglement in a quantum network can provide for improved efficiency and enable a variety of network structures. A necessary feature of an entanglement-sourcing network node comprising several sources of entangled photons is the ability to reconfigurably route the generated pairs of photons to network neighbors depending on the desired entanglement sharing of the network users at a given time. One approach to such routing is the use of a photonic switching network. The requirements for an entanglement distribution switching network are less restrictive than for typical conventional applications, leading to design freedom that can be leveraged to optimize additional criteria. In this paper, we present a mathematical framework defining the requirements of an entanglement-distribution switching network. We then consider the design of such a switching network using a number of 2 × 2 crossbar switches, addressing the interconnection of these switches and efficient routing algorithms. In particular, we define a worst-case loss metric and consider 6 × 6, 8 × 8, and 10 × 10 network designs that optimize both this metric and the number of crossbar switches composing the network. We pay particular attention to the 10 × 10 network, detailing novel results proving the optimality of the proposed design. These optimized network designs have great potential for use in practical quantum networks, thus advancing the concept of quantum networks toward reality.

Applications of Coding in Network Communications

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chang, Christopher SungWook

2012-01-01

This thesis uses the tool of network coding to investigate fast peer-to-peer file distribution, anonymous communication, robust network construction under uncertainty, and prioritized transmission. In a peer-to-peer file distribution system, we use a linear optimization approach to show that the network coding framework significantly simplifies…

Epidemic spreading in weighted networks: an edge-based mean-field solution.

PubMed

Yang, Zimo; Zhou, Tao

2012-05-01

Weight distribution greatly impacts the epidemic spreading taking place on top of networks. This paper presents a study of a susceptible-infected-susceptible model on regular random networks with different kinds of weight distributions. Simulation results show that the more homogeneous weight distribution leads to higher epidemic prevalence, which, unfortunately, could not be captured by the traditional mean-field approximation. This paper gives an edge-based mean-field solution for general weight distribution, which can quantitatively reproduce the simulation results. This method could be applied to characterize the nonequilibrium steady states of dynamical processes on weighted networks.

System and method for islanding detection and prevention in distributed generation

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

Bhowmik, Shibashis; Mazhari, Iman; Parkhideh, Babak

Various examples are directed to systems and methods for detecting an islanding condition at an inverter configured to couple a distributed generation system to an electrical grid network. A controller may determine a command frequency and a command frequency variation. The controller may determine that the command frequency variation indicates a potential islanding condition and send to the inverter an instruction to disconnect the distributed generation system from the electrical grid network. When the distributed generation system is disconnected from the electrical grid network, the controller may determine whether the grid network is valid.

Analysis and Application of Microgrids

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yue, Lu

New trends of generating electricity locally and utilizing non-conventional or renewable energy sources have attracted increasing interests due to the gradual depletion of conventional fossil fuel energy sources. The new type of power generation is called Distributed Generation (DG) and the energy sources utilized by Distributed Generation are termed Distributed Energy Sources (DERs). With DGs embedded in the distribution networks, they evolve from passive distribution networks to active distribution networks enabling bidirectional power flows in the networks. Further incorporating flexible and intelligent controllers and employing future technologies, active distribution networks will turn to a Microgrid. A Microgrid is a small-scale, low voltage Combined with Heat and Power (CHP) supply network designed to supply electrical and heat loads for a small community. To further implement Microgrids, a sophisticated Microgrid Management System must be integrated. However, due to the fact that a Microgrid has multiple DERs integrated and is likely to be deregulated, the ability to perform real-time OPF and economic dispatch with fast speed advanced communication network is necessary. In this thesis, first, problems such as, power system modelling, power flow solving and power system optimization, are studied. Then, Distributed Generation and Microgrid are studied and reviewed, including a comprehensive review over current distributed generation technologies and Microgrid Management Systems, etc. Finally, a computer-based AC optimization method which minimizes the total transmission loss and generation cost of a Microgrid is proposed and a wireless communication scheme based on synchronized Code Division Multiple Access (sCDMA) is proposed. The algorithm is tested with a 6-bus power system and a 9-bus power system.

A data-driven allocation tool for in-kind resources distributed by a state health department.

PubMed

Peterson, Cora; Kegler, Scott R; Parker, Wende R; Sullivan, David

2016-10-02

The objective of this study was to leverage a state health department's operational data to allocate in-kind resources (children's car seats) to counties, with the proposition that need-based allocation could ultimately improve public health outcomes. This study used a retrospective analysis of administrative data on car seats distributed to counties statewide by the Georgia Department of Public Health and development of a need-based allocation tool (presented as interactive supplemental digital content, adaptable to other types of in-kind public health resources) that relies on current county-level injury and sociodemographic data. Car seat allocation using public health data and a need-based formula resulted in substantially different recommended allocations to individual counties compared to historic distribution. Results indicate that making an in-kind public health resource like car seats universally available results in a less equitable distribution of that resource compared to deliberate allocation according to public health need. Public health agencies can use local data to allocate in-kind resources consistent with health objectives; that is, in a manner offering the greatest potential health impact. Future analysis can determine whether the change to a more equitable allocation of resources is also more efficient, resulting in measurably improved public health outcomes.

Structural factoring approach for analyzing stochastic networks

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hayhurst, Kelly J.; Shier, Douglas R.

1991-01-01

The problem of finding the distribution of the shortest path length through a stochastic network is investigated. A general algorithm for determining the exact distribution of the shortest path length is developed based on the concept of conditional factoring, in which a directed, stochastic network is decomposed into an equivalent set of smaller, generally less complex subnetworks. Several network constructs are identified and exploited to reduce significantly the computational effort required to solve a network problem relative to complete enumeration. This algorithm can be applied to two important classes of stochastic path problems: determining the critical path distribution for acyclic networks and the exact two-terminal reliability for probabilistic networks. Computational experience with the algorithm was encouraging and allowed the exact solution of networks that have been previously analyzed only by approximation techniques.

Metro-access integrated network based on optical OFDMA with dynamic sub-carrier allocation and power distribution.

PubMed

Zhang, Chongfu; Zhang, Qiongli; Chen, Chen; Jiang, Ning; Liu, Deming; Qiu, Kun; Liu, Shuang; Wu, Baojian

2013-01-28

We propose and demonstrate a novel optical orthogonal frequency-division multiple access (OFDMA)-based metro-access integrated network with dynamic resource allocation. It consists of a single fiber OFDMA ring and many single fiber OFDMA trees, which transparently integrates metropolitan area networks with optical access networks. The single fiber OFDMA ring connects the core network and the central nodes (CNs), the CNs are on demand reconfigurable and use multiple orthogonal sub-carriers to realize parallel data transmission and dynamic resource allocation, meanwhile, they can also implement flexible power distribution. The remote nodes (RNs) distributed in the user side are connected by the single fiber OFDMA trees with the corresponding CN. The obtained results indicate that our proposed metro-access integrated network is feasible and the power distribution is agile.

A Review of Power Distribution Test Feeders in the United States and the Need for Synthetic Representative Networks

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

Postigo Marcos, Fernando E.; Domingo, Carlos Mateo; San Roman, Tomas Gomez

Under the increasing penetration of distributed energy resources and new smart network technologies, distribution utilities face new challenges and opportunities to ensure reliable operations, manage service quality, and reduce operational and investment costs. Simultaneously, the research community is developing algorithms for advanced controls and distribution automation that can help to address some of these challenges. However, there is a shortage of realistic test systems that are publically available for development, testing, and evaluation of such new algorithms. Concerns around revealing critical infrastructure details and customer privacy have severely limited the number of actual networks published and that are available formore » testing. In recent decades, several distribution test feeders and US-featured representative networks have been published, but the scale, complexity, and control data vary widely. This paper presents a first-of-a-kind structured literature review of published distribution test networks with a special emphasis on classifying their main characteristics and identifying the types of studies for which they have been used. As a result, this both aids researchers in choosing suitable test networks for their needs and highlights the opportunities and directions for further test system development. In particular, we highlight the need for building large-scale synthetic networks to overcome the identified drawbacks of current distribution test feeders.« less

A Review of Power Distribution Test Feeders in the United States and the Need for Synthetic Representative Networks

DOE PAGES

Postigo Marcos, Fernando E.; Domingo, Carlos Mateo; San Roman, Tomas Gomez; ...

2017-11-18

Under the increasing penetration of distributed energy resources and new smart network technologies, distribution utilities face new challenges and opportunities to ensure reliable operations, manage service quality, and reduce operational and investment costs. Simultaneously, the research community is developing algorithms for advanced controls and distribution automation that can help to address some of these challenges. However, there is a shortage of realistic test systems that are publically available for development, testing, and evaluation of such new algorithms. Concerns around revealing critical infrastructure details and customer privacy have severely limited the number of actual networks published and that are available formore » testing. In recent decades, several distribution test feeders and US-featured representative networks have been published, but the scale, complexity, and control data vary widely. This paper presents a first-of-a-kind structured literature review of published distribution test networks with a special emphasis on classifying their main characteristics and identifying the types of studies for which they have been used. As a result, this both aids researchers in choosing suitable test networks for their needs and highlights the opportunities and directions for further test system development. In particular, we highlight the need for building large-scale synthetic networks to overcome the identified drawbacks of current distribution test feeders.« less

Distributed Localization of Active Transmitters in a Wireless Sensor Network

DTIC Science & Technology

2012-03-01

Distributed Localization of Active Transmitters in a Wireless Sensor Network THESIS Oba L. Vincent, 2nd Lieutenant, USAF AFIT/GE/ENG/12-41 DEPARTMENT...protection in the United States. AFIT/GE/ENG/12-41 Distributed Localization of Active Transmitters in a Wireless Sensor Network THESIS Presented to the...Transmitters in a Wireless Sensor Network Oba L. Vincent, B.S.E.E. 2nd Lieutenant, USAF Approved: /signed/ 29 Feb 2012 Maj. Mark D. Silvius, Ph.D. (Chairman

Resilience-based optimal design of water distribution network

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Suribabu, C. R.

2017-11-01

Optimal design of water distribution network is generally aimed to minimize the capital cost of the investments on tanks, pipes, pumps, and other appurtenances. Minimizing the cost of pipes is usually considered as a prime objective as its proportion in capital cost of the water distribution system project is very high. However, minimizing the capital cost of the pipeline alone may result in economical network configuration, but it may not be a promising solution in terms of resilience point of view. Resilience of the water distribution network has been considered as one of the popular surrogate measures to address ability of network to withstand failure scenarios. To improve the resiliency of the network, the pipe network optimization can be performed with two objectives, namely minimizing the capital cost as first objective and maximizing resilience measure of the configuration as secondary objective. In the present work, these two objectives are combined as single objective and optimization problem is solved by differential evolution technique. The paper illustrates the procedure for normalizing the objective functions having distinct metrics. Two of the existing resilience indices and power efficiency are considered for optimal design of water distribution network. The proposed normalized objective function is found to be efficient under weighted method of handling multi-objective water distribution design problem. The numerical results of the design indicate the importance of sizing pipe telescopically along shortest path of flow to have enhanced resiliency indices.

Quantum theory and chemistry: Two propositions

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Aronowitz, S.

1980-01-01

Two propositions concerning quantum chemistry are proposed. First, it is proposed that the nonrelativistic Schroedinger equation, where the Hamiltonian operator is associated with an assemblage of nuclei and electrons, can never be arranged to yield specific molecules in the chemists' sense. It is argued that this result is a necessary condition if the Schroedinger has relevancy to chemistry. Second, once a system is in a particular state with regard to interactions among its components (the assemblage of nuclei and electrons), it cannot spontaneously eliminate any of those interactions. This leads to a subtle form of irreversibility.

Valid approximation of spatially distributed grain size distributions - A priori information encoded to a feedforward network

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Berthold, T.; Milbradt, P.; Berkhahn, V.

2018-04-01

This paper presents a model for the approximation of multiple, spatially distributed grain size distributions based on a feedforward neural network. Since a classical feedforward network does not guarantee to produce valid cumulative distribution functions, a priori information is incor porated into the model by applying weight and architecture constraints. The model is derived in two steps. First, a model is presented that is able to produce a valid distribution function for a single sediment sample. Although initially developed for sediment samples, the model is not limited in its application; it can also be used to approximate any other multimodal continuous distribution function. In the second part, the network is extended in order to capture the spatial variation of the sediment samples that have been obtained from 48 locations in the investigation area. Results show that the model provides an adequate approximation of grain size distributions, satisfying the requirements of a cumulative distribution function.

60-Hz electric and magnetic fields generated by a distribution network.

PubMed

Héroux, P

1987-01-01

From a mobile unit, 60-Hz electric and magnetic fields generated by Hydro-Québec's distribution network were measured. Nine runs, representative of various human environments, were investigated. Typical values were 32 V/m and 0.16 microT. The electrical distribution networks investigated were major contributors to the electric and magnetic environments.

Secure NFV Orchestration Over an SDN-Controlled Optical Network With Time-Shared Quantum Key Distribution Resources

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Aguado, Alejandro; Hugues-Salas, Emilio; Haigh, Paul Anthony; Marhuenda, Jaume; Price, Alasdair B.; Sibson, Philip; Kennard, Jake E.; Erven, Chris; Rarity, John G.; Thompson, Mark Gerard; Lord, Andrew; Nejabati, Reza; Simeonidou, Dimitra

2017-04-01

We demonstrate, for the first time, a secure optical network architecture that combines NFV orchestration and SDN control with quantum key distribution (QKD) technology. A novel time-shared QKD network design is presented as a cost-effective solution for practical networks.

Network Computing for Distributed Underwater Acoustic Sensors

DTIC Science & Technology

2014-03-31

underwater sensor network with mobility. In preparation. [3] EvoLogics (2013), Underwater Acoustic Modems, (Product Information Guide... Wireless Communications, 9(9), 2934–2944. [21] Pompili, D. and Akyildiz, I. (2010), A multimedia cross-layer protocol for underwater acoustic sensor networks ... Network Computing for Distributed Underwater Acoustic Sensors M. Barbeau E. Kranakis

Optimum aggregation of geographically distributed flexible resources in strategic smart-grid/microgrid locations

DOE PAGES

Bhattarai, Bishnu P.; Myers, Kurt S.; Bak-Jensen, Brigitte; ...

2017-05-17

This paper determines optimum aggregation areas for a given distribution network considering spatial distribution of loads and costs of aggregation. An elitist genetic algorithm combined with a hierarchical clustering and a Thevenin network reduction is implemented to compute strategic locations and aggregate demand within each area. The aggregation reduces large distribution networks having thousands of nodes to an equivalent network with few aggregated loads, thereby significantly reducing the computational burden. Furthermore, it not only helps distribution system operators in making faster operational decisions by understanding during which time of the day will be in need of flexibility, from which specificmore » area, and in which amount, but also enables the flexibilities stemming from small distributed resources to be traded in various power/energy markets. A combination of central and local aggregation scheme where a central aggregator enables market participation, while local aggregators materialize the accepted bids, is implemented to realize this concept. The effectiveness of the proposed method is evaluated by comparing network performances with and without aggregation. Finally, for a given network configuration, steady-state performance of aggregated network is significantly accurate (≈ ±1.5% error) compared to very high errors associated with forecast of individual consumer demand.« less

Optimum aggregation of geographically distributed flexible resources in strategic smart-grid/microgrid locations

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

Bhattarai, Bishnu P.; Myers, Kurt S.; Bak-Jensen, Brigitte

This paper determines optimum aggregation areas for a given distribution network considering spatial distribution of loads and costs of aggregation. An elitist genetic algorithm combined with a hierarchical clustering and a Thevenin network reduction is implemented to compute strategic locations and aggregate demand within each area. The aggregation reduces large distribution networks having thousands of nodes to an equivalent network with few aggregated loads, thereby significantly reducing the computational burden. Furthermore, it not only helps distribution system operators in making faster operational decisions by understanding during which time of the day will be in need of flexibility, from which specificmore » area, and in which amount, but also enables the flexibilities stemming from small distributed resources to be traded in various power/energy markets. A combination of central and local aggregation scheme where a central aggregator enables market participation, while local aggregators materialize the accepted bids, is implemented to realize this concept. The effectiveness of the proposed method is evaluated by comparing network performances with and without aggregation. Finally, for a given network configuration, steady-state performance of aggregated network is significantly accurate (≈ ±1.5% error) compared to very high errors associated with forecast of individual consumer demand.« less

Location and Size Planning of Distributed Photovoltaic Generation in Distribution network System Based on K-means Clustering Analysis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lu, Siqi; Wang, Xiaorong; Wu, Junyong

2018-01-01

The paper presents a method to generate the planning scenarios, which is based on K-means clustering analysis algorithm driven by data, for the location and size planning of distributed photovoltaic (PV) units in the network. Taken the power losses of the network, the installation and maintenance costs of distributed PV, the profit of distributed PV and the voltage offset as objectives and the locations and sizes of distributed PV as decision variables, Pareto optimal front is obtained through the self-adaptive genetic algorithm (GA) and solutions are ranked by a method called technique for order preference by similarity to an ideal solution (TOPSIS). Finally, select the planning schemes at the top of the ranking list based on different planning emphasis after the analysis in detail. The proposed method is applied to a 10-kV distribution network in Gansu Province, China and the results are discussed.

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

Dall-Anese, Emiliano; Zhao, Changhong; Guggilam, Swaroop

Power networks have to withstand a variety of disturbances that affect system frequency, and the problem is compounded with the increasing integration of intermittent renewable generation. Following a large-signal generation or load disturbance, system frequency is arrested leveraging primary frequency control provided by governor action in synchronous generators. In this work, we propose a framework for distributed energy resources (DERs) deployed in distribution networks to provide (supplemental) primary frequency response. Particularly, we demonstrate how power-frequency droop slopes for individual DERs can be designed so that the distribution feeder presents a guaranteed frequency-regulation characteristic at the feeder head. Furthermore, the droopmore » slopes are engineered such that injections of individual DERs conform to a well-defined fairness objective that does not penalize them for their location on the distribution feeder. Time-domain simulations for an illustrative network composed of a combined transmission network and distribution network with frequency-responsive DERs are provided to validate the approach.« less

A neural network approach to burst detection.

PubMed

Mounce, S R; Day, A J; Wood, A S; Khan, A; Widdop, P D; Machell, J

2002-01-01

This paper describes how hydraulic and water quality data from a distribution network may be used to provide a more efficient leakage management capability for the water industry. The research presented concerns the application of artificial neural networks to the issue of detection and location of leakage in treated water distribution systems. An architecture for an Artificial Neural Network (ANN) based system is outlined. The neural network uses time series data produced by sensors to directly construct an empirical model for predication and classification of leaks. Results are presented using data from an experimental site in Yorkshire Water's Keighley distribution system.

Ethics, economics, and public financing of health care

PubMed Central

Hurley, J.

2001-01-01

There is a wide variety of ethical arguments for public financing of health care that share a common structure built on a series of four logically related propositions regarding: (1) the ultimate purpose of a human life or human society; (2) the role of health and its distribution in society in advancing this ultimate purpose; (3) the role of access to or utilisation of health care in maintaining or improving the desired level and distribution of health among members of society, and (4) the role of public financing in ensuring the ethically justified access to and utilisation of health care by members of society. This paper argues that economics has much to contribute to the development of the ethical foundations for publicly financed health care. It focuses in particular on recent economic work to clarify the concepts of access and need and their role in analyses of the just distribution of health care resources, and on the importance of economic analysis of health care and health care insurance markets in demonstrating why public financing is necessary to achieve broad access to and utilisation of health care services. Key Words: Ethics • economics • health care financing PMID:11479353

Distributed Computer Networks in Support of Complex Group Practices

PubMed Central

Wess, Bernard P.

1978-01-01

The economics of medical computer networks are presented in context with the patient care and administrative goals of medical networks. Design alternatives and network topologies are discussed with an emphasis on medical network design requirements in distributed data base design, telecommunications, satellite systems, and software engineering. The success of the medical computer networking technology is predicated on the ability of medical and data processing professionals to design comprehensive, efficient, and virtually impenetrable security systems to protect data bases, network access and services, and patient confidentiality.

Traffic-driven epidemic spreading on scale-free networks with tunable degree distribution

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yang, Han-Xin; Wang, Bing-Hong

2016-04-01

We study the traffic-driven epidemic spreading on scale-free networks with tunable degree distribution. The heterogeneity of networks is controlled by the exponent γ of power-law degree distribution. It is found that the epidemic threshold is minimized at about γ=2.2. Moreover, we find that nodes with larger algorithmic betweenness are more likely to be infected. We expect our work to provide new insights in to the effect of network structures on traffic-driven epidemic spreading.

D-MSR: a distributed network management scheme for real-time monitoring and process control applications in wireless industrial automation.

PubMed

Zand, Pouria; Dilo, Arta; Havinga, Paul

2013-06-27

Current wireless technologies for industrial applications, such as WirelessHART and ISA100.11a, use a centralized management approach where a central network manager handles the requirements of the static network. However, such a centralized approach has several drawbacks. For example, it cannot cope with dynamicity/disturbance in large-scale networks in a real-time manner and it incurs a high communication overhead and latency for exchanging management traffic. In this paper, we therefore propose a distributed network management scheme, D-MSR. It enables the network devices to join the network, schedule their communications, establish end-to-end connections by reserving the communication resources for addressing real-time requirements, and cope with network dynamicity (e.g., node/edge failures) in a distributed manner. According to our knowledge, this is the first distributed management scheme based on IEEE 802.15.4e standard, which guides the nodes in different phases from joining until publishing their sensor data in the network. We demonstrate via simulation that D-MSR can address real-time and reliable communication as well as the high throughput requirements of industrial automation wireless networks, while also achieving higher efficiency in network management than WirelessHART, in terms of delay and overhead.

D-MSR: A Distributed Network Management Scheme for Real-Time Monitoring and Process Control Applications in Wireless Industrial Automation

PubMed Central

Zand, Pouria; Dilo, Arta; Havinga, Paul

2013-01-01

Current wireless technologies for industrial applications, such as WirelessHART and ISA100.11a, use a centralized management approach where a central network manager handles the requirements of the static network. However, such a centralized approach has several drawbacks. For example, it cannot cope with dynamicity/disturbance in large-scale networks in a real-time manner and it incurs a high communication overhead and latency for exchanging management traffic. In this paper, we therefore propose a distributed network management scheme, D-MSR. It enables the network devices to join the network, schedule their communications, establish end-to-end connections by reserving the communication resources for addressing real-time requirements, and cope with network dynamicity (e.g., node/edge failures) in a distributed manner. According to our knowledge, this is the first distributed management scheme based on IEEE 802.15.4e standard, which guides the nodes in different phases from joining until publishing their sensor data in the network. We demonstrate via simulation that D-MSR can address real-time and reliable communication as well as the high throughput requirements of industrial automation wireless networks, while also achieving higher efficiency in network management than WirelessHART, in terms of delay and overhead. PMID:23807687

Brain Networks Shaping Religious Belief

PubMed Central

Deshpande, Gopikrishna; Krueger, Frank; Thornburg, Matthew P.; Grafman, Jordan Henry

2014-01-01

Abstract We previously demonstrated with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) that religious belief depends upon three cognitive dimensions, which can be mapped to specific brain regions. In the present study, we considered these co-activated regions as nodes of three networks each one corresponding to a particular dimension, corresponding to each dimension and examined the causal flow within and between these networks to address two important hypotheses that remained untested in our previous work. First, we hypothesized that regions involved in theory of mind (ToM) are located upstream the causal flow and drive non-ToM regions, in line with theories attributing religion to the evolution of ToM. Second, we hypothesized that differences in directional connectivity are associated with differences in religiosity. To test these hypotheses, we performed a multivariate Granger causality-based directional connectivity analysis of fMRI data to demonstrate the causal flow within religious belief-related networks. Our results supported both hypotheses. Religious subjects preferentially activated a pathway from inferolateral to dorsomedial frontal cortex to monitor the intent and involvement of supernatural agents (SAs; intent-related ToM). Perception of SAs engaged pathways involved in fear regulation and affective ToM. Religious beliefs are founded both on propositional statements for doctrine, but also on episodic memory and imagery. Beliefs based on doctrine engaged a pathway from Broca's to Wernicke's language areas. Beliefs related to everyday life experiences engaged pathways involved in imagery. Beliefs implying less involved SAs and evoking imagery activated a pathway from right lateral temporal to occipital regions. This pathway was more active in non-religious compared to religious subjects, suggesting greater difficulty and procedural demands for imagining and processing the intent of SAs. Insights gained by Granger connectivity analysis inform us about the causal binding of individual regions activated during religious belief processing. PMID:24279687

Brain networks shaping religious belief.

PubMed

Kapogiannis, Dimitrios; Deshpande, Gopikrishna; Krueger, Frank; Thornburg, Matthew P; Grafman, Jordan Henry

2014-02-01

We previously demonstrated with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) that religious belief depends upon three cognitive dimensions, which can be mapped to specific brain regions. In the present study, we considered these co-activated regions as nodes of three networks each one corresponding to a particular dimension, corresponding to each dimension and examined the causal flow within and between these networks to address two important hypotheses that remained untested in our previous work. First, we hypothesized that regions involved in theory of mind (ToM) are located upstream the causal flow and drive non-ToM regions, in line with theories attributing religion to the evolution of ToM. Second, we hypothesized that differences in directional connectivity are associated with differences in religiosity. To test these hypotheses, we performed a multivariate Granger causality-based directional connectivity analysis of fMRI data to demonstrate the causal flow within religious belief-related networks. Our results supported both hypotheses. Religious subjects preferentially activated a pathway from inferolateral to dorsomedial frontal cortex to monitor the intent and involvement of supernatural agents (SAs; intent-related ToM). Perception of SAs engaged pathways involved in fear regulation and affective ToM. Religious beliefs are founded both on propositional statements for doctrine, but also on episodic memory and imagery. Beliefs based on doctrine engaged a pathway from Broca's to Wernicke's language areas. Beliefs related to everyday life experiences engaged pathways involved in imagery. Beliefs implying less involved SAs and evoking imagery activated a pathway from right lateral temporal to occipital regions. This pathway was more active in non-religious compared to religious subjects, suggesting greater difficulty and procedural demands for imagining and processing the intent of SAs. Insights gained by Granger connectivity analysis inform us about the causal binding of individual regions activated during religious belief processing.

Vulnerability to fat-stigma in women's everyday relationships.

PubMed

Brewis, Alexandra A; Hruschka, Daniel J; Wutich, Amber

2011-08-01

Obesity is understood as a major medical and public health challenge, but the stigma attached to it also creates extraordinary suffering. The pervasiveness of morally negative views toward the overweight and obese, such as laziness and lack of self-control, are undeniable in mainstream U.S. society, situated both institutionally (such as health care barriers or media stereotypes) and interpersonally (such as the negative comments of others). To test basic pathways related to the etiology of women's vulnerability to feeling "fat-stigma" in interpersonal relationships, we present a study conducted between August and November 2009 that combines social network, anthropometric, body image, and interview data for 112 women aged 18-45 years, living in Phoenix, Arizona, U.S., and linked follow-up interviews with 823 of their social ties. Based on the proposition that some social network characteristics should amplify the personal experience of stigma, and others should ameliorate it, we ask: what relationship qualities make women more sensitive to the judgments of others about their weight? We find that what others say about women has only a very limited influence on how women judge others' negative views of their weight once actual body size is taken into account, but that women are more influenced by the opinions of those they are closer to and interact with more often. Ultimately, the degree to which women perceive themselves to be judged by others regarding their weight is not well explained by the actual opinions of people in their networks, either known or unknown to them. The assumption that social network norms exert considerable influence on people's stigma experiences needs to be carefully evaluated, at least in the domain of overweight and obesity. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Online HIV awareness and technology affordance benefits for black female collegians - maybe not: the case of stigma.

PubMed

Payton, Fay Cobb; Kvasny, Lynette

2016-11-01

We investigate the technology affordances associated with and anticipated from an online human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) prevention awareness platform, myHealthImpactNetwork, intended to reach black female college students. This population is at increased risk for HIV transmission, but is not often studied. In addition, this population regularly uses digital tools, including Web sites and social media platforms, to engage in health information seeking. We conducted 11 focus groups with 60 black female college students attending 2 universities in the United States. Focus groups were recorded, transcribed, and analyzed using content analyses. Contrary to our proposition, the participants' information needs did not align with the anticipated benefits associated with the technology affordances of the prevention awareness platform. Concerns about personal online social capital, reputation management, and stigma limited participants' willingness to engage with the HIV prevention content on the website. Although the participants use digital tools as a primary means of becoming informed about health, concerns that friends, family, and others in their social networks would assume that they were HIV infected limited their willingness to engage with myHealthImpactNetwork. Print media and conversations with health care professionals were preferred channels for obtaining HIV prevention information. Perceptions of stigma associated with HIV negatively impact health information seeking and sharing in the online social networks in which black college students engage. However, by understanding the unanticipated consequences, researchers can effectively design for cultures and subcultures infected and affected by health disparities. © The Author 2016. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the American Medical Informatics Association. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Offdiagonal complexity: A computationally quick complexity measure for graphs and networks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Claussen, Jens Christian

2007-02-01

A vast variety of biological, social, and economical networks shows topologies drastically differing from random graphs; yet the quantitative characterization remains unsatisfactory from a conceptual point of view. Motivated from the discussion of small scale-free networks, a biased link distribution entropy is defined, which takes an extremum for a power-law distribution. This approach is extended to the node-node link cross-distribution, whose nondiagonal elements characterize the graph structure beyond link distribution, cluster coefficient and average path length. From here a simple (and computationally cheap) complexity measure can be defined. This offdiagonal complexity (OdC) is proposed as a novel measure to characterize the complexity of an undirected graph, or network. While both for regular lattices and fully connected networks OdC is zero, it takes a moderately low value for a random graph and shows high values for apparently complex structures as scale-free networks and hierarchical trees. The OdC approach is applied to the Helicobacter pylori protein interaction network and randomly rewired surrogates.

Network placement optimization for large-scale distributed system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ren, Yu; Liu, Fangfang; Fu, Yunxia; Zhou, Zheng

2018-01-01

The network geometry strongly influences the performance of the distributed system, i.e., the coverage capability, measurement accuracy and overall cost. Therefore the network placement optimization represents an urgent issue in the distributed measurement, even in large-scale metrology. This paper presents an effective computer-assisted network placement optimization procedure for the large-scale distributed system and illustrates it with the example of the multi-tracker system. To get an optimal placement, the coverage capability and the coordinate uncertainty of the network are quantified. Then a placement optimization objective function is developed in terms of coverage capabilities, measurement accuracy and overall cost. And a novel grid-based encoding approach for Genetic algorithm is proposed. So the network placement is optimized by a global rough search and a local detailed search. Its obvious advantage is that there is no need for a specific initial placement. At last, a specific application illustrates this placement optimization procedure can simulate the measurement results of a specific network and design the optimal placement efficiently.

Empirical study on dyad act-degree distribution in some collaboration networks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chang, Hui; Zhang, Pei-Pei; He, Yue; He, Da-Ren

2006-03-01

We (and cooperators) suggest studying the evolution of the extended collaboration networks by a dyad-act organizing model. The analytic and numeric studies of the model lead to a conclusion that most of the collaboration networks should show a dyad act-degree distribution (how many acts a dyad belongs to) between a power law and an exponential function, which can be described by a shifted power law. We have done an empirical study on dyad act-degree distribution in some collaboration networks. They are: the train networks in China, the bus network of Beijing, and traditional Chinese medical prescription formulation network. The results show good agreement with this conclusion. We also discuss what dyad act-degree implies in these networks and what are the possible applications of the study. The details will be published elsewhere.

General formulation of long-range degree correlations in complex networks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fujiki, Yuka; Takaguchi, Taro; Yakubo, Kousuke

2018-06-01

We provide a general framework for analyzing degree correlations between nodes separated by more than one step (i.e., beyond nearest neighbors) in complex networks. One joint and four conditional probability distributions are introduced to fully describe long-range degree correlations with respect to degrees k and k' of two nodes and shortest path length l between them. We present general relations among these probability distributions and clarify the relevance to nearest-neighbor degree correlations. Unlike nearest-neighbor correlations, some of these probability distributions are meaningful only in finite-size networks. Furthermore, as a baseline to determine the existence of intrinsic long-range degree correlations in a network other than inevitable correlations caused by the finite-size effect, the functional forms of these probability distributions for random networks are analytically evaluated within a mean-field approximation. The utility of our argument is demonstrated by applying it to real-world networks.

Optimal cost design of water distribution networks using a decomposition approach

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lee, Ho Min; Yoo, Do Guen; Sadollah, Ali; Kim, Joong Hoon

2016-12-01

Water distribution network decomposition, which is an engineering approach, is adopted to increase the efficiency of obtaining the optimal cost design of a water distribution network using an optimization algorithm. This study applied the source tracing tool in EPANET, which is a hydraulic and water quality analysis model, to the decomposition of a network to improve the efficiency of the optimal design process. The proposed approach was tested by carrying out the optimal cost design of two water distribution networks, and the results were compared with other optimal cost designs derived from previously proposed optimization algorithms. The proposed decomposition approach using the source tracing technique enables the efficient decomposition of an actual large-scale network, and the results can be combined with the optimal cost design process using an optimization algorithm. This proves that the final design in this study is better than those obtained with other previously proposed optimization algorithms.

Using technology to engage hospitalised patients in their care: a realist review.

PubMed

Roberts, Shelley; Chaboyer, Wendy; Gonzalez, Ruben; Marshall, Andrea

2017-06-06

Patient participation in health care is associated with improved outcomes for patients and hospitals. New technologies are creating vast potential for patients to participate in care at the bedside. Several studies have explored patient use, satisfaction and perceptions of health information technology (HIT) interventions in hospital. Understanding what works for whom, under what conditions, is important when considering interventions successfully engaging patients in care. This realist review aimed to determine key features of interventions using bedside technology to engage hospital patients in their care and analyse these in terms of context, mechanisms and outcomes. A realist review was chosen to explain how and why complex HIT interventions work or fail within certain contexts. The review was guided by Pawson's realist review methodology, involving: clarifying review scope; searching for evidence; data extraction and evidence appraisal; synthesising evidence and drawing conclusions. Author experience and an initial literature scope provided insight and review questions and theories (propositions) around why interventions worked were developed and iteratively refined. A purposive search was conducted to find evidence to support, refute or identify further propositions, which formed an explanatory model. Each study was 'mined' for evidence to further develop the propositions and model. Interactive learning was the overarching theme of studies using technology to engage patients in their care. Several propositions underpinned this, which were labelled: information sharing; self-assessment and feedback; tailored education; user-centred design; and support in use of HIT. As studies were mostly feasibility or usability studies, they reported patient-centred outcomes including patient acceptability, satisfaction and actual use of HIT interventions. For each proposition, outcomes were proposed to come about by mechanisms including improved communication, shared decision-making, empowerment and self-efficacy; which acted as facilitators to patient participation in care. Overall, there was a stronger representation of health than IT disciplines in studies reviewed, with a lack of IT input in terms of theoretical underpinning, methodological design and reporting of outcomes. HIT interventions have great potential for engaging hospitalised patients in their care. However, stronger interdisciplinary collaboration between health and IT researchers is needed for effective design and evaluation of HIT interventions.

Reliable file sharing in distributed operating system using web RTC

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dukiya, Rajesh

2017-12-01

Since, the evolution of distributed operating system, distributed file system is come out to be important part in operating system. P2P is a reliable way in Distributed Operating System for file sharing. It was introduced in 1999, later it became a high research interest topic. Peer to Peer network is a type of network, where peers share network workload and other load related tasks. A P2P network can be a period of time connection, where a bunch of computers connected by a USB (Universal Serial Bus) port to transfer or enable disk sharing i.e. file sharing. Currently P2P requires special network that should be designed in P2P way. Nowadays, there is a big influence of browsers in our life. In this project we are going to study of file sharing mechanism in distributed operating system in web browsers, where we will try to find performance bottlenecks which our research will going to be an improvement in file sharing by performance and scalability in distributed file systems. Additionally, we will discuss the scope of Web Torrent file sharing and free-riding in peer to peer networks.

Statistics of Weighted Brain Networks Reveal Hierarchical Organization and Gaussian Degree Distribution

PubMed Central

Ivković, Miloš; Kuceyeski, Amy; Raj, Ashish

2012-01-01

Whole brain weighted connectivity networks were extracted from high resolution diffusion MRI data of 14 healthy volunteers. A statistically robust technique was proposed for the removal of questionable connections. Unlike most previous studies our methods are completely adapted for networks with arbitrary weights. Conventional statistics of these weighted networks were computed and found to be comparable to existing reports. After a robust fitting procedure using multiple parametric distributions it was found that the weighted node degree of our networks is best described by the normal distribution, in contrast to previous reports which have proposed heavy tailed distributions. We show that post-processing of the connectivity weights, such as thresholding, can influence the weighted degree asymptotics. The clustering coefficients were found to be distributed either as gamma or power-law distribution, depending on the formula used. We proposed a new hierarchical graph clustering approach, which revealed that the brain network is divided into a regular base-2 hierarchical tree. Connections within and across this hierarchy were found to be uncommonly ordered. The combined weight of our results supports a hierarchically ordered view of the brain, whose connections have heavy tails, but whose weighted node degrees are comparable. PMID:22761649

Statistics of weighted brain networks reveal hierarchical organization and Gaussian degree distribution.

PubMed

Ivković, Miloš; Kuceyeski, Amy; Raj, Ashish

2012-01-01

Whole brain weighted connectivity networks were extracted from high resolution diffusion MRI data of 14 healthy volunteers. A statistically robust technique was proposed for the removal of questionable connections. Unlike most previous studies our methods are completely adapted for networks with arbitrary weights. Conventional statistics of these weighted networks were computed and found to be comparable to existing reports. After a robust fitting procedure using multiple parametric distributions it was found that the weighted node degree of our networks is best described by the normal distribution, in contrast to previous reports which have proposed heavy tailed distributions. We show that post-processing of the connectivity weights, such as thresholding, can influence the weighted degree asymptotics. The clustering coefficients were found to be distributed either as gamma or power-law distribution, depending on the formula used. We proposed a new hierarchical graph clustering approach, which revealed that the brain network is divided into a regular base-2 hierarchical tree. Connections within and across this hierarchy were found to be uncommonly ordered. The combined weight of our results supports a hierarchically ordered view of the brain, whose connections have heavy tails, but whose weighted node degrees are comparable.

Controllability of Deterministic Networks with the Identical Degree Sequence

PubMed Central

Ma, Xiujuan; Zhao, Haixing; Wang, Binghong

2015-01-01

Controlling complex network is an essential problem in network science and engineering. Recent advances indicate that the controllability of complex network is dependent on the network's topology. Liu and Barabási, et.al speculated that the degree distribution was one of the most important factors affecting controllability for arbitrary complex directed network with random link weights. In this paper, we analysed the effect of degree distribution to the controllability for the deterministic networks with unweighted and undirected. We introduce a class of deterministic networks with identical degree sequence, called (x,y)-flower. We analysed controllability of the two deterministic networks ((1, 3)-flower and (2, 2)-flower) by exact controllability theory in detail and give accurate results of the minimum number of driver nodes for the two networks. In simulation, we compare the controllability of (x,y)-flower networks. Our results show that the family of (x,y)-flower networks have the same degree sequence, but their controllability is totally different. So the degree distribution itself is not sufficient to characterize the controllability of deterministic networks with unweighted and undirected. PMID:26020920

Loss Reduction on Adoption of High Voltage LT Less Distribution

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tiwari, Deepika; Adhikari, Nikhileshwar Prasad; Gupta, Amit; Bajpai, Santosh Kumar

2016-06-01

In India there is a need to improve the quality of the electricity distribution process which has increased varying from year to year. In distribution networks, the limiting factor to load carrying capacity is generally the voltage reduction. High voltage distribution system (HVDS) is one of the steps to reduce line losses in electrical distribution network. It helps to reduce the length of low tension (LT) lines and makes the power available close to the users. The high voltage power distribution system reduces the probability of power theft by hooking HVDS suggests an increase in installation of small capacity single-phase transformers in the network which again save considerable energy. This paper is compared to existing conventional low tension distribution network with HVDS. The paper gives a clear picture of reduction in distribution losses with adoption of HVDS system. Losses Reduction of 11 kV Feeder in Nuniya (India) with adoption of HVDS have been worked out/ quantified and benefits thereby in generating capacity have discussed.

Analysis of prototypical narratives produced by aphasic individuals and cognitively healthy subjects

PubMed Central

Silveira, Gabriela; Mansur, Letícia Lessa

2015-01-01

Aphasia can globally or selectively affect comprehension and production of verbal and written language. Discourse analysis can aid language assessment and diagnosis. Objective [1] To explore narratives that produce a number of valid indicators for diagnosing aphasia in speakers of Brazilian Portuguese. [2] To analyze the macrostructural aspects of the discourse of normal individuals. [3] To analyze the macrostructural aspects of the discourse of aphasic individuals. Methods The macrostructural aspects of three narratives produced by aphasic individuals and cognitively healthy subjects were analyzed. Results A total of 30 volunteers were examined comprising 10 aphasic individuals (AG) and 20 healthy controls (CG). The CG included 5 males. The CG had a mean age of 38.9 years (SD=15.61) and mean schooling of 13 years (SD=2.67) whereas the AG had a mean age of 51.7 years (SD=17.3) and mean schooling of 9.1 years (SD=3.69). Participants were asked to narrate three fairy tales as a basis for analyzing the macrostructure of discourse. Comparison of the three narratives revealed no statistically significant difference in number of propositions produced by the groups. A significant negative correlation was found between age and number of propositions produced. Also, statistically significant differences were observed in the number of propositions produced by the individuals in the CG and the AG for the three tales. Conclusion It was concluded that the three tales are applicable for discourse assessment, containing a similar number of propositions and differentiating aphasic individuals and cognitively healthy subjects based on analysis of the macrostructure of discourse. PMID:29213973

Technologies for network-centric C4ISR

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dunkelberger, Kirk A.

2003-07-01

Three technologies form the heart of any network-centric command, control, communication, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (C4ISR) system: distributed processing, reconfigurable networking, and distributed resource management. Distributed processing, enabled by automated federation, mobile code, intelligent process allocation, dynamic multiprocessing groups, check pointing, and other capabilities creates a virtual peer-to-peer computing network across the force. Reconfigurable networking, consisting of content-based information exchange, dynamic ad-hoc routing, information operations (perception management) and other component technologies forms the interconnect fabric for fault tolerant inter processor and node communication. Distributed resource management, which provides the means for distributed cooperative sensor management, foe sensor utilization, opportunistic collection, symbiotic inductive/deductive reasoning and other applications provides the canonical algorithms for network-centric enterprises and warfare. This paper introduces these three core technologies and briefly discusses a sampling of their component technologies and their individual contributions to network-centric enterprises and warfare. Based on the implied requirements, two new algorithms are defined and characterized which provide critical building blocks for network centricity: distributed asynchronous auctioning and predictive dynamic source routing. The first provides a reliable, efficient, effective approach for near-optimal assignment problems; the algorithm has been demonstrated to be a viable implementation for ad-hoc command and control, object/sensor pairing, and weapon/target assignment. The second is founded on traditional dynamic source routing (from mobile ad-hoc networking), but leverages the results of ad-hoc command and control (from the contributed auctioning algorithm) into significant increases in connection reliability through forward prediction. Emphasis is placed on the advantages gained from the closed-loop interaction of the multiple technologies in the network-centric application environment.

PRODIGEN: visualizing the probability landscape of stochastic gene regulatory networks in state and time space.

PubMed

Ma, Chihua; Luciani, Timothy; Terebus, Anna; Liang, Jie; Marai, G Elisabeta

2017-02-15

Visualizing the complex probability landscape of stochastic gene regulatory networks can further biologists' understanding of phenotypic behavior associated with specific genes. We present PRODIGEN (PRObability DIstribution of GEne Networks), a web-based visual analysis tool for the systematic exploration of probability distributions over simulation time and state space in such networks. PRODIGEN was designed in collaboration with bioinformaticians who research stochastic gene networks. The analysis tool combines in a novel way existing, expanded, and new visual encodings to capture the time-varying characteristics of probability distributions: spaghetti plots over one dimensional projection, heatmaps of distributions over 2D projections, enhanced with overlaid time curves to display temporal changes, and novel individual glyphs of state information corresponding to particular peaks. We demonstrate the effectiveness of the tool through two case studies on the computed probabilistic landscape of a gene regulatory network and of a toggle-switch network. Domain expert feedback indicates that our visual approach can help biologists: 1) visualize probabilities of stable states, 2) explore the temporal probability distributions, and 3) discover small peaks in the probability landscape that have potential relation to specific diseases.

Characterizing Topology of Probabilistic Biological Networks.

PubMed

Todor, Andrei; Dobra, Alin; Kahveci, Tamer

2013-09-06

Biological interactions are often uncertain events, that may or may not take place with some probability. Existing studies analyze the degree distribution of biological networks by assuming that all the given interactions take place under all circumstances. This strong and often incorrect assumption can lead to misleading results. Here, we address this problem and develop a sound mathematical basis to characterize networks in the presence of uncertain interactions. We develop a method that accurately describes the degree distribution of such networks. We also extend our method to accurately compute the joint degree distributions of node pairs connected by edges. The number of possible network topologies grows exponentially with the number of uncertain interactions. However, the mathematical model we develop allows us to compute these degree distributions in polynomial time in the number of interactions. It also helps us find an adequate mathematical model using maximum likelihood estimation. Our results demonstrate that power law and log-normal models best describe degree distributions for probabilistic networks. The inverse correlation of degrees of neighboring nodes shows that, in probabilistic networks, nodes with large number of interactions prefer to interact with those with small number of interactions more frequently than expected.

EDDA: An Efficient Distributed Data Replication Algorithm in VANETs.

PubMed

Zhu, Junyu; Huang, Chuanhe; Fan, Xiying; Guo, Sipei; Fu, Bin

2018-02-10

Efficient data dissemination in vehicular ad hoc networks (VANETs) is a challenging issue due to the dynamic nature of the network. To improve the performance of data dissemination, we study distributed data replication algorithms in VANETs for exchanging information and computing in an arbitrarily-connected network of vehicle nodes. To achieve low dissemination delay and improve the network performance, we control the number of message copies that can be disseminated in the network and then propose an efficient distributed data replication algorithm (EDDA). The key idea is to let the data carrier distribute the data dissemination tasks to multiple nodes to speed up the dissemination process. We calculate the number of communication stages for the network to enter into a balanced status and show that the proposed distributed algorithm can converge to a consensus in a small number of communication stages. Most of the theoretical results described in this paper are to study the complexity of network convergence. The lower bound and upper bound are also provided in the analysis of the algorithm. Simulation results show that the proposed EDDA can efficiently disseminate messages to vehicles in a specific area with low dissemination delay and system overhead.

EDDA: An Efficient Distributed Data Replication Algorithm in VANETs

PubMed Central

Zhu, Junyu; Huang, Chuanhe; Fan, Xiying; Guo, Sipei; Fu, Bin

2018-01-01

Efficient data dissemination in vehicular ad hoc networks (VANETs) is a challenging issue due to the dynamic nature of the network. To improve the performance of data dissemination, we study distributed data replication algorithms in VANETs for exchanging information and computing in an arbitrarily-connected network of vehicle nodes. To achieve low dissemination delay and improve the network performance, we control the number of message copies that can be disseminated in the network and then propose an efficient distributed data replication algorithm (EDDA). The key idea is to let the data carrier distribute the data dissemination tasks to multiple nodes to speed up the dissemination process. We calculate the number of communication stages for the network to enter into a balanced status and show that the proposed distributed algorithm can converge to a consensus in a small number of communication stages. Most of the theoretical results described in this paper are to study the complexity of network convergence. The lower bound and upper bound are also provided in the analysis of the algorithm. Simulation results show that the proposed EDDA can efficiently disseminate messages to vehicles in a specific area with low dissemination delay and system overhead. PMID:29439443

Discriminating topology in galaxy distributions using network analysis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hong, Sungryong; Coutinho, Bruno C.; Dey, Arjun; Barabási, Albert-L.; Vogelsberger, Mark; Hernquist, Lars; Gebhardt, Karl

2016-07-01

The large-scale distribution of galaxies is generally analysed using the two-point correlation function. However, this statistic does not capture the topology of the distribution, and it is necessary to resort to higher order correlations to break degeneracies. We demonstrate that an alternate approach using network analysis can discriminate between topologically different distributions that have similar two-point correlations. We investigate two galaxy point distributions, one produced by a cosmological simulation and the other by a Lévy walk. For the cosmological simulation, we adopt the redshift z = 0.58 slice from Illustris and select galaxies with stellar masses greater than 108 M⊙. The two-point correlation function of these simulated galaxies follows a single power law, ξ(r) ˜ r-1.5. Then, we generate Lévy walks matching the correlation function and abundance with the simulated galaxies. We find that, while the two simulated galaxy point distributions have the same abundance and two-point correlation function, their spatial distributions are very different; most prominently, filamentary structures, absent in Lévy fractals. To quantify these missing topologies, we adopt network analysis tools and measure diameter, giant component, and transitivity from networks built by a conventional friends-of-friends recipe with various linking lengths. Unlike the abundance and two-point correlation function, these network quantities reveal a clear separation between the two simulated distributions; therefore, the galaxy distribution simulated by Illustris is not a Lévy fractal quantitatively. We find that the described network quantities offer an efficient tool for discriminating topologies and for comparing observed and theoretical distributions.

Distributed network scheduling

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Clement, Bradley J.; Schaffer, Steven R.

2004-01-01

Distributed Network Scheduling is the scheduling of future communications of a network by nodes in the network. This report details software for doing this onboard spacecraft in a remote network. While prior work on distributed scheduling has been applied to remote spacecraft networks, the software reported here focuses on modeling communication activities in greater detail and including quality of service constraints. Our main results are based on a Mars network of spacecraft and include identifying a maximum opportunity of improving traverse exploration rate a factor of three; a simulation showing reduction in one-way delivery times from a rover to Earth from as much as 5 to 1.5 hours; simulated response to unexpected events averaging under an hour onboard; and ground schedule generation ranging from seconds to 50 minutes for 15 to 100 communication goals.

Parallel Distributed Processing Theory in the Age of Deep Networks.

PubMed

Bowers, Jeffrey S

2017-12-01

Parallel distributed processing (PDP) models in psychology are the precursors of deep networks used in computer science. However, only PDP models are associated with two core psychological claims, namely that all knowledge is coded in a distributed format and cognition is mediated by non-symbolic computations. These claims have long been debated in cognitive science, and recent work with deep networks speaks to this debate. Specifically, single-unit recordings show that deep networks learn units that respond selectively to meaningful categories, and researchers are finding that deep networks need to be supplemented with symbolic systems to perform some tasks. Given the close links between PDP and deep networks, it is surprising that research with deep networks is challenging PDP theory. Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Autonomous distributed self-organization for mobile wireless sensor networks.

PubMed

Wen, Chih-Yu; Tang, Hung-Kai

2009-01-01

This paper presents an adaptive combined-metrics-based clustering scheme for mobile wireless sensor networks, which manages the mobile sensors by utilizing the hierarchical network structure and allocates network resources efficiently A local criteria is used to help mobile sensors form a new cluster or join a current cluster. The messages transmitted during hierarchical clustering are applied to choose distributed gateways such that communication for adjacent clusters and distributed topology control can be achieved. In order to balance the load among clusters and govern the topology change, a cluster reformation scheme using localized criterions is implemented. The proposed scheme is simulated and analyzed to abstract the network behaviors in a number of settings. The experimental results show that the proposed algorithm provides efficient network topology management and achieves high scalability in mobile sensor networks.

Optimal topology to minimizing congestion in connected communication complex network

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Benyoussef, M.; Ez-Zahraouy, H.; Benyoussef, A.

In this paper, a new model of the interdependent complex network is proposed, based on two assumptions that (i) the capacity of a node depends on its degree, and (ii) the traffic load depends on the distribution of the links in the network. Based on these assumptions, the presented model proposes a method of connection not based on the node having a higher degree but on the region containing hubs. It is found that the final network exhibits two kinds of degree distribution behavior, depending on the kind and the way of the connection. This study reveals a direct relation between network structure and traffic flow. It is found that pc the point of transition between the free flow and the congested phase depends on the network structure and the degree distribution. Moreover, this new model provides an improvement in the traffic compared to the results found in a single network. The same behavior of degree distribution found in a BA network and observed in the real world is obtained; except for this model, the transition point between the free phase and congested phase is much higher than the one observed in a network of BA, for both static and dynamic protocols.

Two Dimensional Array Based Overlay Network for Balancing Load of Peer-to-Peer Live Video Streaming

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Faruq Ibn Ibrahimy, Abdullah; Rafiqul, Islam Md; Anwar, Farhat; Ibn Ibrahimy, Muhammad

2013-12-01

The live video data is streaming usually in a tree-based overlay network or in a mesh-based overlay network. In case of departure of a peer with additional upload bandwidth, the overlay network becomes very vulnerable to churn. In this paper, a two dimensional array-based overlay network is proposed for streaming the live video stream data. As there is always a peer or a live video streaming server to upload the live video stream data, so the overlay network is very stable and very robust to churn. Peers are placed according to their upload and download bandwidth, which enhances the balance of load and performance. The overlay network utilizes the additional upload bandwidth of peers to minimize chunk delivery delay and to maximize balance of load. The procedure, which is used for distributing the additional upload bandwidth of the peers, distributes the additional upload bandwidth to the heterogeneous strength peers in a fair treat distribution approach and to the homogeneous strength peers in a uniform distribution approach. The proposed overlay network has been simulated by Qualnet from Scalable Network Technologies and results are presented in this paper.

Is a 4-bit synaptic weight resolution enough? - constraints on enabling spike-timing dependent plasticity in neuromorphic hardware.

PubMed

Pfeil, Thomas; Potjans, Tobias C; Schrader, Sven; Potjans, Wiebke; Schemmel, Johannes; Diesmann, Markus; Meier, Karlheinz

2012-01-01

Large-scale neuromorphic hardware systems typically bear the trade-off between detail level and required chip resources. Especially when implementing spike-timing dependent plasticity, reduction in resources leads to limitations as compared to floating point precision. By design, a natural modification that saves resources would be reducing synaptic weight resolution. In this study, we give an estimate for the impact of synaptic weight discretization on different levels, ranging from random walks of individual weights to computer simulations of spiking neural networks. The FACETS wafer-scale hardware system offers a 4-bit resolution of synaptic weights, which is shown to be sufficient within the scope of our network benchmark. Our findings indicate that increasing the resolution may not even be useful in light of further restrictions of customized mixed-signal synapses. In addition, variations due to production imperfections are investigated and shown to be uncritical in the context of the presented study. Our results represent a general framework for setting up and configuring hardware-constrained synapses. We suggest how weight discretization could be considered for other backends dedicated to large-scale simulations. Thus, our proposition of a good hardware verification practice may rise synergy effects between hardware developers and neuroscientists.

Is a 4-Bit Synaptic Weight Resolution Enough? – Constraints on Enabling Spike-Timing Dependent Plasticity in Neuromorphic Hardware

PubMed Central

Pfeil, Thomas; Potjans, Tobias C.; Schrader, Sven; Potjans, Wiebke; Schemmel, Johannes; Diesmann, Markus; Meier, Karlheinz

2012-01-01

Large-scale neuromorphic hardware systems typically bear the trade-off between detail level and required chip resources. Especially when implementing spike-timing dependent plasticity, reduction in resources leads to limitations as compared to floating point precision. By design, a natural modification that saves resources would be reducing synaptic weight resolution. In this study, we give an estimate for the impact of synaptic weight discretization on different levels, ranging from random walks of individual weights to computer simulations of spiking neural networks. The FACETS wafer-scale hardware system offers a 4-bit resolution of synaptic weights, which is shown to be sufficient within the scope of our network benchmark. Our findings indicate that increasing the resolution may not even be useful in light of further restrictions of customized mixed-signal synapses. In addition, variations due to production imperfections are investigated and shown to be uncritical in the context of the presented study. Our results represent a general framework for setting up and configuring hardware-constrained synapses. We suggest how weight discretization could be considered for other backends dedicated to large-scale simulations. Thus, our proposition of a good hardware verification practice may rise synergy effects between hardware developers and neuroscientists. PMID:22822388

Evolutionary dynamics of cooperation in neutral populations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Szolnoki, Attila; Perc, Matjaž

2018-01-01

Cooperation is a difficult proposition in the face of Darwinian selection. Those that defect have an evolutionary advantage over cooperators who should therefore die out. However, spatial structure enables cooperators to survive through the formation of homogeneous clusters, which is the hallmark of network reciprocity. Here we go beyond this traditional setup and study the spatiotemporal dynamics of cooperation in a population of populations. We use the prisoner's dilemma game as the mathematical model and show that considering several populations simultaneously gives rise to fascinating spatiotemporal dynamics and pattern formation. Even the simplest assumption that strategies between different populations are payoff-neutral with one another results in the spontaneous emergence of cyclic dominance, where defectors of one population become prey of cooperators in the other population, and vice versa. Moreover, if social interactions within different populations are characterized by significantly different temptations to defect, we observe that defectors in the population with the largest temptation counterintuitively vanish the fastest, while cooperators that hang on eventually take over the whole available space. Our results reveal that considering the simultaneous presence of different populations significantly expands the complexity of evolutionary dynamics in structured populations, and it allows us to understand the stability of cooperation under adverse conditions that could never be bridged by network reciprocity alone.

Gene network inference by fusing data from diverse distributions

PubMed Central

Žitnik, Marinka; Zupan, Blaž

2015-01-01

Motivation: Markov networks are undirected graphical models that are widely used to infer relations between genes from experimental data. Their state-of-the-art inference procedures assume the data arise from a Gaussian distribution. High-throughput omics data, such as that from next generation sequencing, often violates this assumption. Furthermore, when collected data arise from multiple related but otherwise nonidentical distributions, their underlying networks are likely to have common features. New principled statistical approaches are needed that can deal with different data distributions and jointly consider collections of datasets. Results: We present FuseNet, a Markov network formulation that infers networks from a collection of nonidentically distributed datasets. Our approach is computationally efficient and general: given any number of distributions from an exponential family, FuseNet represents model parameters through shared latent factors that define neighborhoods of network nodes. In a simulation study, we demonstrate good predictive performance of FuseNet in comparison to several popular graphical models. We show its effectiveness in an application to breast cancer RNA-sequencing and somatic mutation data, a novel application of graphical models. Fusion of datasets offers substantial gains relative to inference of separate networks for each dataset. Our results demonstrate that network inference methods for non-Gaussian data can help in accurate modeling of the data generated by emergent high-throughput technologies. Availability and implementation: Source code is at https://github.com/marinkaz/fusenet. Contact: blaz.zupan@fri.uni-lj.si Supplementary information: Supplementary information is available at Bioinformatics online. PMID:26072487

Current distribution in conducting nanowire networks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kumar, Ankush; Vidhyadhiraja, N. S.; Kulkarni, Giridhar U.

2017-07-01

Conducting nanowire networks find diverse applications in solar cells, touch-screens, transparent heaters, sensors, and various related transparent conducting electrode (TCE) devices. The performances of these devices depend on effective resistance, transmittance, and local current distribution in these networks. Although, there have been rigorous studies addressing resistance and transmittance in TCE, not much attention is paid on studying the distribution of current. Present work addresses this compelling issue of understanding current distribution in TCE networks using analytical as well as Monte-Carlo approaches. We quantified the current carrying backbone region against isolated and dangling regions as a function of wire density (ranging from percolation threshold to many multiples of threshold) and compared the wired connectivity with those obtained from template-based methods. Further, the current distribution in the obtained backbone is studied using Kirchhoff's law, which reveals that a significant fraction of the backbone (which is believed to be an active current component) may not be active for end-to-end current transport due to the formation of intervening circular loops. The study shows that conducting wire based networks possess hot spots (extremely high current carrying regions) which can be potential sources of failure. The fraction of these hot spots is found to decrease with increase in wire density, while they are completely absent in template based networks. Thus, the present work discusses unexplored issues related to current distribution in conducting networks, which are necessary to choose the optimum network for best TCE applications.

The difference in spatiotemporal dynamics between modus ponens and modus tollens in the Wason selection task: an event-related potential study.

PubMed

Li, Bingbing; Zhang, Meng; Luo, Junlong; Qiu, Jiang; Liu, Yijun

2014-06-13

High-density, event-related brain potentials (ERPs) were recorded to explore differences in spatiotemporal dynamics between modus ponens (MP) and modus tollens (MT) in the Wason selection task. Results showed that MP elicits a more positive P3b-like component than MT from 400 to 800 ms. MP appeared to occur earlier than MT in various stages of proposition testing, such as stimulus processing and response selection. ERP results showed that MT has a longer duration and more negative later negative component (LNC) than MP at 2,000 ms. This result suggests that MT occupies more cognitive resources than MP in the final stages of proposition testing. The short and small left frontal LNC obtained by MP implies examination of the expectable conclusion, whereas the long and large left frontal LNC elicited by MT may be involved in the retention operation of the card in working memory from the monitoring and inspecting putative conclusion in the later stages of proposition testing. Copyright © 2014 IBRO. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Large-scale immigration and political response: popular reaction in California.

PubMed

Clark, W A

1998-03-01

Over the past 3 years, the level of political debate has grown over the nature and extent of the recent large-scale immigration to the US in general, and to California in particular. California's Proposition 187 to deny welfare benefits to illegal immigrants brought national attention to the immigration debate, and no doubt influenced recent decisions to significantly change the US's welfare program. The author studied the vote on Proposition 187 in the November 1994 California election to better understand the nature of reaction to large-scale immigration and recent arguments about anti-immigrant sentiment and nativism. The only counties which voted against the proposition were Sonoma, Marin, San Mateo, Santa Cruz, Yolo, Alameda, and Santa Clara, as well as the population of San Francisco. The vote generated political responses from across the border as well as within California. Statements from Mexican and other Central American governments reflected their concern over the possibility of returning populations, for whom there are neither jobs nor public services in their countries of origin. Findings are presented from a spatial analysis of the vote by census tracts in Los Angeles County.

The defeat of Philip Morris' 'California Uniform Tobacco Control Act'.

PubMed Central

Macdonald, H; Aguinaga, S; Glantz, S A

1997-01-01

OBJECTIVES: This paper describes the strategies used by Philip Morris and other tobacco companies to promote a California initiative (Proposition 188) preempting local control of tobacco and those used by public health groups to defeat the initiative. METHODS: Interviews with key informants were conducted, and the written record was reviewed. RESULTS: Tobacco companies nearly succeeded in passing Proposition 188 by presenting it as a pro-health measure that would prevent children from obtaining cigarettes and provide protection against secondhand smoke. Public health groups defeated it by highlighting tobacco industry backing. A private charitable foundation also played an innovative role by financing a non-partisan public education campaign. CONCLUSIONS: Public health forces must be alert to sophisticated efforts by the tobacco industry to enact preemptive state legislation by making it look like tobacco control legislation. The coalition structure that emerged in the "No on 188" campaign represents an effective model for future tobacco control activities. The new role of charitable foundations defined in the Proposition 188 campaign can be used in other public health issues. Images FIGURE 1 PMID:9431289

Individual versus Household Migration Decision Rules: Gender and Marital Status Differences in Intentions to Migrate in South Africa.

PubMed

Gubhaju, Bina; De Jong, Gordon F

2009-03-01

This research tests the thesis that the neoclassical micro-economic and the new household economic theoretical assumptions on migration decision-making rules are segmented by gender, marital status, and time frame of intention to migrate. Comparative tests of both theories within the same study design are relatively rare. Utilizing data from the Causes of Migration in South Africa national migration survey, we analyze how individually held "own-future" versus alternative "household well-being" migration decision rules effect the intentions to migrate of male and female adults in South Africa. Results from the gender and marital status specific logistic regressions models show consistent support for the different gender-marital status decision rule thesis. Specifically, the "maximizing one's own future" neoclassical microeconomic theory proposition is more applicable for never married men and women, the "maximizing household income" proposition for married men with short-term migration intentions, and the "reduce household risk" proposition for longer time horizon migration intentions of married men and women. Results provide new evidence on the way household strategies and individual goals jointly affect intentions to move or stay.

Orienting task effects on text recall in adulthood.

PubMed

Simon, E W; Dixon, R A; Nowak, C A; Hultsch, D F

1982-09-01

This investigation examined the effects of orienting task-controlled processing on the text recall of younger (18 to 32 years), middle-aged (39 to 51 years), and older (59 to 76 years) adults. The participants were presented with a 500-word narrative text. Three groups performed orienting tasks (syntactic, stylistic, advice) within an incidental memory paradigm. A fourth group was asked for intentional recall. Analysis indicated a significant age by orienting task interaction. Younger adults recalled more propositions when recall was intentional or when it was preceded by a deep-orienting task than when it was preceded by a shallow-orienting task. Middle-aged and older adults recalled more propositions when recall was intentional than when it was incidental, regardless of the depth of the orienting task. There were no significant differences in intentional recall. In addition, a significant age x orienting task x propositional level interaction indicated that younger adults recalled more of the main ideas of the text following deep processing, whereas the middle-aged and older adults recalled more of these ideas following intentional processing.

Evidence Combination From an Evolutionary Game Theory Perspective.

PubMed

Deng, Xinyang; Han, Deqiang; Dezert, Jean; Deng, Yong; Shyr, Yu

2016-09-01

Dempster-Shafer evidence theory is a primary methodology for multisource information fusion because it is good at dealing with uncertain information. This theory provides a Dempster's rule of combination to synthesize multiple evidences from various information sources. However, in some cases, counter-intuitive results may be obtained based on that combination rule. Numerous new or improved methods have been proposed to suppress these counter-intuitive results based on perspectives, such as minimizing the information loss or deviation. Inspired by evolutionary game theory, this paper considers a biological and evolutionary perspective to study the combination of evidences. An evolutionary combination rule (ECR) is proposed to help find the most biologically supported proposition in a multievidence system. Within the proposed ECR, we develop a Jaccard matrix game to formalize the interaction between propositions in evidences, and utilize the replicator dynamics to mimick the evolution of propositions. Experimental results show that the proposed ECR can effectively suppress the counter-intuitive behaviors appeared in typical paradoxes of evidence theory, compared with many existing methods. Properties of the ECR, such as solution's stability and convergence, have been mathematically proved as well.

Tail-scope: Using friends to estimate heavy tails of degree distributions in large-scale complex networks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Eom, Young-Ho; Jo, Hang-Hyun

2015-05-01

Many complex networks in natural and social phenomena have often been characterized by heavy-tailed degree distributions. However, due to rapidly growing size of network data and concerns on privacy issues about using these data, it becomes more difficult to analyze complete data sets. Thus, it is crucial to devise effective and efficient estimation methods for heavy tails of degree distributions in large-scale networks only using local information of a small fraction of sampled nodes. Here we propose a tail-scope method based on local observational bias of the friendship paradox. We show that the tail-scope method outperforms the uniform node sampling for estimating heavy tails of degree distributions, while the opposite tendency is observed in the range of small degrees. In order to take advantages of both sampling methods, we devise the hybrid method that successfully recovers the whole range of degree distributions. Our tail-scope method shows how structural heterogeneities of large-scale complex networks can be used to effectively reveal the network structure only with limited local information.

Distribution of Orientation Selectivity in Recurrent Networks of Spiking Neurons with Different Random Topologies

PubMed Central

Sadeh, Sadra; Rotter, Stefan

2014-01-01

Neurons in the primary visual cortex are more or less selective for the orientation of a light bar used for stimulation. A broad distribution of individual grades of orientation selectivity has in fact been reported in all species. A possible reason for emergence of broad distributions is the recurrent network within which the stimulus is being processed. Here we compute the distribution of orientation selectivity in randomly connected model networks that are equipped with different spatial patterns of connectivity. We show that, for a wide variety of connectivity patterns, a linear theory based on firing rates accurately approximates the outcome of direct numerical simulations of networks of spiking neurons. Distance dependent connectivity in networks with a more biologically realistic structure does not compromise our linear analysis, as long as the linearized dynamics, and hence the uniform asynchronous irregular activity state, remain stable. We conclude that linear mechanisms of stimulus processing are indeed responsible for the emergence of orientation selectivity and its distribution in recurrent networks with functionally heterogeneous synaptic connectivity. PMID:25469704

Nursing perception of patient transitions from hospitals to home with home health.

PubMed

Smith, Shannon Bright; Alexander, Judith W

2012-01-01

The study's purpose was to determine nurses' opinions of sending patients from the hospital to home with home health services. The study occurred in the Charleston, South Carolina, Tricounty area (Berkeley, Charleston, and Dorchester counties). Home health agencies and hospitals were invited to participate. The study used a survey design to gather information on nursing perceptions of current practices and needed changes to improve transition of patients. The population was nurses (licensed practical nurses (LPNs) and registered nurses (RNs)) employed at inpatient hospitals or home health agencies in the area. Thirty-four RNs responded with no LPNs respondents. Agency administrators/chief nursing officers agreed for their agencies to participate and distributed the survey using a Research Electronic Data Capture (REDCap) Internet-based survey tool. Using the survey results and information from a literature review, the study developed a list of propositions, which participating administrators reviewed, for improving transitions to home. Both home health and hospital nurses reported a need to improve the process of sending patients from hospital to home with home health services. This study provides hospitals and home health agencies with propositions to facilitate the establishment of a process to communicate effectively patients care needs and streamline the discharging patients from the hospital to home health care; thus, improving patient transition. Case managers and discharge planners will need interagency collaboration along with evidence-based interventions to transition patients from the hospital to home with home health services with various populations. Direct patient care nurses in both hospital and home health settings should share the same accountability as case managers to ensure successful transitions.

The correlation of metrics in complex networks with applications in functional brain networks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Li, C.; Wang, H.; de Haan, W.; Stam, C. J.; Van Mieghem, P.

2011-11-01

An increasing number of network metrics have been applied in network analysis. If metric relations were known better, we could more effectively characterize networks by a small set of metrics to discover the association between network properties/metrics and network functioning. In this paper, we investigate the linear correlation coefficients between widely studied network metrics in three network models (Bárabasi-Albert graphs, Erdös-Rényi random graphs and Watts-Strogatz small-world graphs) as well as in functional brain networks of healthy subjects. The metric correlations, which we have observed and theoretically explained, motivate us to propose a small representative set of metrics by including only one metric from each subset of mutually strongly dependent metrics. The following contributions are considered important. (a) A network with a given degree distribution can indeed be characterized by a small representative set of metrics. (b) Unweighted networks, which are obtained from weighted functional brain networks with a fixed threshold, and Erdös-Rényi random graphs follow a similar degree distribution. Moreover, their metric correlations and the resultant representative metrics are similar as well. This verifies the influence of degree distribution on metric correlations. (c) Most metric correlations can be explained analytically. (d) Interestingly, the most studied metrics so far, the average shortest path length and the clustering coefficient, are strongly correlated and, thus, redundant. Whereas spectral metrics, though only studied recently in the context of complex networks, seem to be essential in network characterizations. This representative set of metrics tends to both sufficiently and effectively characterize networks with a given degree distribution. In the study of a specific network, however, we have to at least consider the representative set so that important network properties will not be neglected.

Robustness of networks formed from interdependent correlated networks under intentional attacks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Liu, Long; Meng, Ke; Dong, Zhaoyang

2018-02-01

We study the problem of intentional attacks targeting to interdependent networks generated with known degree distribution (in-degree oriented model) or distribution of interlinks (out-degree oriented model). In both models, each node's degree is correlated with the number of its links that connect to the other network. For both models, varying the correlation coefficient has a significant effect on the robustness of a system undergoing random attacks or attacks targeting nodes with low degree. For a system with an assortative relationship between in-degree and out-degree, reducing the broadness of networks' degree distributions can increase the resistance of systems against intentional attacks.

A descriptive model of resting-state networks using Markov chains.

PubMed

Xie, H; Pal, R; Mitra, S

2016-08-01

Resting-state functional connectivity (RSFC) studies considering pairwise linear correlations have attracted great interests while the underlying functional network structure still remains poorly understood. To further our understanding of RSFC, this paper presents an analysis of the resting-state networks (RSNs) based on the steady-state distributions and provides a novel angle to investigate the RSFC of multiple functional nodes. This paper evaluates the consistency of two networks based on the Hellinger distance between the steady-state distributions of the inferred Markov chain models. The results show that generated steady-state distributions of default mode network have higher consistency across subjects than random nodes from various RSNs.

Improving Department of Defense Global Distribution Performance Through Network Analysis

DTIC Science & Technology

2016-06-01

network performance increase. 14. SUBJECT TERMS supply chain metrics, distribution networks, requisition shipping time, strategic distribution database...peace and war” (p. 4). USTRANSCOM Metrics and Analysis Branch defines, develops, tracks, and maintains outcomes- based supply chain metrics to...2014a, p. 8). The Joint Staff defines a TDD standard as the maximum number of days the supply chain can take to deliver requisitioned materiel

Dynamics of epidemic diseases on a growing adaptive network

PubMed Central

Demirel, Güven; Barter, Edmund; Gross, Thilo

2017-01-01

The study of epidemics on static networks has revealed important effects on disease prevalence of network topological features such as the variance of the degree distribution, i.e. the distribution of the number of neighbors of nodes, and the maximum degree. Here, we analyze an adaptive network where the degree distribution is not independent of epidemics but is shaped through disease-induced dynamics and mortality in a complex interplay. We study the dynamics of a network that grows according to a preferential attachment rule, while nodes are simultaneously removed from the network due to disease-induced mortality. We investigate the prevalence of the disease using individual-based simulations and a heterogeneous node approximation. Our results suggest that in this system in the thermodynamic limit no epidemic thresholds exist, while the interplay between network growth and epidemic spreading leads to exponential networks for any finite rate of infectiousness when the disease persists. PMID:28186146

Dynamics of epidemic diseases on a growing adaptive network.

PubMed

Demirel, Güven; Barter, Edmund; Gross, Thilo

2017-02-10

The study of epidemics on static networks has revealed important effects on disease prevalence of network topological features such as the variance of the degree distribution, i.e. the distribution of the number of neighbors of nodes, and the maximum degree. Here, we analyze an adaptive network where the degree distribution is not independent of epidemics but is shaped through disease-induced dynamics and mortality in a complex interplay. We study the dynamics of a network that grows according to a preferential attachment rule, while nodes are simultaneously removed from the network due to disease-induced mortality. We investigate the prevalence of the disease using individual-based simulations and a heterogeneous node approximation. Our results suggest that in this system in the thermodynamic limit no epidemic thresholds exist, while the interplay between network growth and epidemic spreading leads to exponential networks for any finite rate of infectiousness when the disease persists.

Dynamics of epidemic diseases on a growing adaptive network

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Demirel, Güven; Barter, Edmund; Gross, Thilo

2017-02-01

The study of epidemics on static networks has revealed important effects on disease prevalence of network topological features such as the variance of the degree distribution, i.e. the distribution of the number of neighbors of nodes, and the maximum degree. Here, we analyze an adaptive network where the degree distribution is not independent of epidemics but is shaped through disease-induced dynamics and mortality in a complex interplay. We study the dynamics of a network that grows according to a preferential attachment rule, while nodes are simultaneously removed from the network due to disease-induced mortality. We investigate the prevalence of the disease using individual-based simulations and a heterogeneous node approximation. Our results suggest that in this system in the thermodynamic limit no epidemic thresholds exist, while the interplay between network growth and epidemic spreading leads to exponential networks for any finite rate of infectiousness when the disease persists.

Surname complex network for Brazil and Portugal

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ferreira, G. D.; Viswanathan, G. M.; da Silva, L. R.; Herrmann, H. J.

2018-06-01

We present a study of social networks based on the analysis of Brazilian and Portuguese family names (surnames). We construct networks whose nodes are names of families and whose edges represent parental relations between two families. From these networks we extract the connectivity distribution, clustering coefficient, shortest path and centrality. We find that the connectivity distribution follows an approximate power law. We associate the number of hubs, centrality and entropy to the degree of miscegenation in the societies in both countries. Our results show that Portuguese society has a higher miscegenation degree than Brazilian society. All networks analyzed lead to approximate inverse square power laws in the degree distribution. We conclude that the thermodynamic limit is reached for small networks (3 or 4 thousand nodes). The assortative mixing of all networks is negative, showing that the more connected vertices are connected to vertices with lower connectivity. Finally, the network of surnames presents some small world characteristics.

Modeling the Citation Network by Network Cosmology

PubMed Central

Xie, Zheng; Ouyang, Zhenzheng; Zhang, Pengyuan; Yi, Dongyun; Kong, Dexing

2015-01-01

Citation between papers can be treated as a causal relationship. In addition, some citation networks have a number of similarities to the causal networks in network cosmology, e.g., the similar in-and out-degree distributions. Hence, it is possible to model the citation network using network cosmology. The casual network models built on homogenous spacetimes have some restrictions when describing some phenomena in citation networks, e.g., the hot papers receive more citations than other simultaneously published papers. We propose an inhomogenous causal network model to model the citation network, the connection mechanism of which well expresses some features of citation. The node growth trend and degree distributions of the generated networks also fit those of some citation networks well. PMID:25807397

Modeling the citation network by network cosmology.

PubMed

Xie, Zheng; Ouyang, Zhenzheng; Zhang, Pengyuan; Yi, Dongyun; Kong, Dexing

2015-01-01

Citation between papers can be treated as a causal relationship. In addition, some citation networks have a number of similarities to the causal networks in network cosmology, e.g., the similar in-and out-degree distributions. Hence, it is possible to model the citation network using network cosmology. The casual network models built on homogenous spacetimes have some restrictions when describing some phenomena in citation networks, e.g., the hot papers receive more citations than other simultaneously published papers. We propose an inhomogenous causal network model to model the citation network, the connection mechanism of which well expresses some features of citation. The node growth trend and degree distributions of the generated networks also fit those of some citation networks well.

The General Evolving Model for Energy Supply-Demand Network with Local-World

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sun, Mei; Han, Dun; Li, Dandan; Fang, Cuicui

2013-10-01

In this paper, two general bipartite network evolving models for energy supply-demand network with local-world are proposed. The node weight distribution, the "shifting coefficient" and the scaling exponent of two different kinds of nodes are presented by the mean-field theory. The numerical results of the node weight distribution and the edge weight distribution are also investigated. The production's shifted power law (SPL) distribution of coal enterprises and the installed capacity's distribution of power plants in the US are obtained from the empirical analysis. Numerical simulations and empirical results are given to verify the theoretical results.

Incentive-Based Voltage Regulation in Distribution Networks: Preprint

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

Zhou, Xinyang; Chen, Lijun; Dall'Anese, Emiliano

This paper considers distribution networks fea- turing distributed energy resources, and designs incentive-based mechanisms that allow the network operator and end-customers to pursue given operational and economic objectives, while concurrently ensuring that voltages are within prescribed limits. Two different network-customer coordination mechanisms that require different amounts of information shared between the network operator and end-customers are developed to identify a solution of a well-defined social-welfare maximization prob- lem. Notably, the signals broadcast by the network operator assume the connotation of prices/incentives that induce the end- customers to adjust the generated/consumed powers in order to avoid the violation of the voltagemore » constraints. Stability of the proposed schemes is analytically established and numerically corroborated.« less

Incentive-Based Voltage Regulation in Distribution Networks

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

Dall-Anese, Emiliano; Baker, Kyri A; Zhou, Xinyang

This paper considers distribution networks fea- turing distributed energy resources, and designs incentive-based mechanisms that allow the network operator and end-customers to pursue given operational and economic objectives, while concurrently ensuring that voltages are within prescribed limits. Two different network-customer coordination mechanisms that require different amounts of information shared between the network operator and end-customers are developed to identify a solution of a well-defined social-welfare maximization prob- lem. Notably, the signals broadcast by the network operator assume the connotation of prices/incentives that induce the end- customers to adjust the generated/consumed powers in order to avoid the violation of the voltagemore » constraints. Stability of the proposed schemes is analytically established and numerically corroborated.« less

Competitive cluster growth in complex networks.

PubMed

Moreira, André A; Paula, Demétrius R; Costa Filho, Raimundo N; Andrade, José S

2006-06-01

In this work we propose an idealized model for competitive cluster growth in complex networks. Each cluster can be thought of as a fraction of a community that shares some common opinion. Our results show that the cluster size distribution depends on the particular choice for the topology of the network of contacts among the agents. As an application, we show that the cluster size distributions obtained when the growth process is performed on hierarchical networks, e.g., the Apollonian network, have a scaling form similar to what has been observed for the distribution of a number of votes in an electoral process. We suggest that this similarity may be due to the fact that social networks involved in the electoral process may also possess an underlining hierarchical structure.

Distribution of shortest path lengths in a class of node duplication network models

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Steinbock, Chanania; Biham, Ofer; Katzav, Eytan

2017-09-01

We present analytical results for the distribution of shortest path lengths (DSPL) in a network growth model which evolves by node duplication (ND). The model captures essential properties of the structure and growth dynamics of social networks, acquaintance networks, and scientific citation networks, where duplication mechanisms play a major role. Starting from an initial seed network, at each time step a random node, referred to as a mother node, is selected for duplication. Its daughter node is added to the network, forming a link to the mother node, and with probability p to each one of its neighbors. The degree distribution of the resulting network turns out to follow a power-law distribution, thus the ND network is a scale-free network. To calculate the DSPL we derive a master equation for the time evolution of the probability Pt(L =ℓ ) , ℓ =1 ,2 ,⋯ , where L is the distance between a pair of nodes and t is the time. Finding an exact analytical solution of the master equation, we obtain a closed form expression for Pt(L =ℓ ) . The mean distance 〈L〉 t and the diameter Δt are found to scale like lnt , namely, the ND network is a small-world network. The variance of the DSPL is also found to scale like lnt . Interestingly, the mean distance and the diameter exhibit properties of a small-world network, rather than the ultrasmall-world network behavior observed in other scale-free networks, in which 〈L〉 t˜lnlnt .

Competitive advantage in the ERP system's value-chain and its influence on future development

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Johansson, Björn; Newman, Mike

2010-02-01

Using the resource-based view, we present a set of propositions related to enterprise resource planning (ERP) development, reflections on competitive advantage and the different roles that stakeholders play in the value-chain. This has the goal of building a foundation for future research on ERPs and how stakeholders' desire to achieve competitive advantage influence ERP development, especially when it comes to development of a more standardised or pre-customised ERP system. The propositions also act as a foundation for increasing our knowledge concerning the difficulty in developing improved ERP systems.

Time crystals: a review

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sacha, Krzysztof; Zakrzewski, Jakub

2018-01-01

Time crystals are time-periodic self-organized structures postulated by Frank Wilczek in 2012. While the original concept was strongly criticized, it stimulated at the same time an intensive research leading to propositions and experimental verifications of discrete (or Floquet) time crystals—the structures that appear in the time domain due to spontaneous breaking of discrete time translation symmetry. The struggle to observe discrete time crystals is reviewed here together with propositions that generalize this concept introducing condensed matter like physics in the time domain. We shall also revisit the original Wilczek’s idea and review strategies aimed at spontaneous breaking of continuous time translation symmetry.

Machine Learning-based Intelligent Formal Reasoning and Proving System

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chen, Shengqing; Huang, Xiaojian; Fang, Jiaze; Liang, Jia

2018-03-01

The reasoning system can be used in many fields. How to improve reasoning efficiency is the core of the design of system. Through the formal description of formal proof and the regular matching algorithm, after introducing the machine learning algorithm, the system of intelligent formal reasoning and verification has high efficiency. The experimental results show that the system can verify the correctness of propositional logic reasoning and reuse the propositional logical reasoning results, so as to obtain the implicit knowledge in the knowledge base and provide the basic reasoning model for the construction of intelligent system.

A strategic approach to employee retention.

PubMed

Gering, John; Conner, John

2002-11-01

A sound retention strategy should incorporate a business plan, a value proposition, progress measures, and management influences. The business plan will indicate whether a healthcare organization will achieve a return on investment for its effort. A value proposition will showcase an organization's strengths and differentiate it from its competitors. Measuring progress toward meeting retention goals at regular intervals will help keep an organization on track. The best managers require accountability, rewarding employees for their successes and taking corrective action as necessary. Retention rate targets must be at a level that will achieve a competitive advantage in the served market.

Astéroides et satellites de Saturne: quelques résultats récents et contribution éventuelle des données Hipparcos.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Viateau, B.; Rapaport, M.

48 astéroides et 2 satellites de Saturne étaient au programme de la mission Hipparcos, et diverses propositions ont été faites pour l'utilisation de ces données. Les auteurs présentent quelques résultats récents concernant ces objets, et susceptibles de 1) donner un supplément d'intére^t aux données astrométriques fournies par Hipparcos, 2) permettre de préciser les objectifs contenus dans diverses propositions.

Distributed Grooming in Multi-Domain IP/MPLS-DWDM Networks

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

Liu, Qing

2009-12-01

This paper studies distributed multi-domain, multilayer provisioning (grooming) in IP/MPLS-DWDM networks. Although many multi-domain studies have emerged over the years, these have primarily considered 'homogeneous' network layers. Meanwhile, most grooming studies have assumed idealized settings with 'global' link state across all layers. Hence there is a critical need to develop practical distributed grooming schemes for real-world networks consisting of multiple domains and technology layers. Along these lines, a detailed hierarchical framework is proposed to implement inter-layer routing, distributed grooming, and setup signaling. The performance of this solution is analyzed in detail using simulation studies and future work directions are alsomore » high-lighted.« less

Compliance and Functional Testing of IEEE 1451.1 for NCAP-to-NCAP Communications in a Sensor Network

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Figueroa, Jorge; Gurkan, Deniz; Yuan, X.; Benhaddou, D.; Liu, H.; Singla, A.; Franzl, R.; Ma, H.; Bhatt, S.; Morris, J.;

Displayed Trees Do Not Determine Distinguishability Under the Network Multispecies Coalescent

PubMed Central

Zhu, Sha; Degnan, James H.

2017-01-01

Abstract Recent work in estimating species relationships from gene trees has included inferring networks assuming that past hybridization has occurred between species. Probabilistic models using the multispecies coalescent can be used in this framework for likelihood-based inference of both network topologies and parameters, including branch lengths and hybridization parameters. A difficulty for such methods is that it is not always clear whether, or to what extent, networks are identifiable—that is whether there could be two distinct networks that lead to the same distribution of gene trees. For cases in which incomplete lineage sorting occurs in addition to hybridization, we demonstrate a new representation of the species network likelihood that expresses the probability distribution of the gene tree topologies as a linear combination of gene tree distributions given a set of species trees. This representation makes it clear that in some cases in which two distinct networks give the same distribution of gene trees when sampling one allele per species, the two networks can be distinguished theoretically when multiple individuals are sampled per species. This result means that network identifiability is not only a function of the trees displayed by the networks but also depends on allele sampling within species. We additionally give an example in which two networks that display exactly the same trees can be distinguished from their gene trees even when there is only one lineage sampled per species. PMID:27780899

Betweenness centrality in a weighted network

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, Huijuan; Hernandez, Javier Martin; van Mieghem, Piet

2008-04-01

When transport in networks follows the shortest paths, the union of all shortest path trees G∪SPT can be regarded as the “transport overlay network.” Overlay networks such as peer-to-peer networks or virtual private networks can be considered as a subgraph of G∪SPT . The traffic through the network is examined by the betweenness Bl of links in the overlay G∪SPT . The strength of disorder can be controlled by, e.g., tuning the extreme value index α of the independent and identically distributed polynomial link weights. In the strong disorder limit (α→0) , all transport flows over a critical backbone, the minimum spanning tree (MST). We investigate the betweenness distributions of wide classes of trees, such as the MST of those well-known network models and of various real-world complex networks. All these trees with different degree distributions (e.g., uniform, exponential, or power law) are found to possess a power law betweenness distribution Pr[Bl=j]˜j-c . The exponent c seems to be positively correlated with the degree variance of the tree and to be insensitive of the size N of a network. In the weak disorder regime, transport in the network traverses many links. We show that a link with smaller link weight tends to carry more traffic. This negative correlation between link weight and betweenness depends on α and the structure of the underlying topology.

Distributed computing methodology for training neural networks in an image-guided diagnostic application.

PubMed

Plagianakos, V P; Magoulas, G D; Vrahatis, M N

2006-03-01

Distributed computing is a process through which a set of computers connected by a network is used collectively to solve a single problem. In this paper, we propose a distributed computing methodology for training neural networks for the detection of lesions in colonoscopy. Our approach is based on partitioning the training set across multiple processors using a parallel virtual machine. In this way, interconnected computers of varied architectures can be used for the distributed evaluation of the error function and gradient values, and, thus, training neural networks utilizing various learning methods. The proposed methodology has large granularity and low synchronization, and has been implemented and tested. Our results indicate that the parallel virtual machine implementation of the training algorithms developed leads to considerable speedup, especially when large network architectures and training sets are used.

Transmural variation in elastin fiber orientation distribution in the arterial wall.

PubMed

Yu, Xunjie; Wang, Yunjie; Zhang, Yanhang

2018-01-01

The complex three-dimensional elastin network is a major load-bearing extracellular matrix (ECM) component of an artery. Despite the reported anisotropic behavior of arterial elastin network, it is usually treated as an isotropic material in constitutive models. Our recent multiphoton microscopy study reported a relatively uniform elastin fiber orientation distribution in porcine thoracic aorta when imaging from the intima side (Chow et al., 2014). However it is questionable whether the fiber orientation distribution obtained from a small depth is representative of the elastin network structure in the arterial wall, especially when developing structure-based constitutive models. To date, the structural basis for the anisotropic mechanical behavior of elastin is still not fully understood. In this study, we examined the transmural variation in elastin fiber orientation distribution in porcine thoracic aorta and its association with elastin anisotropy. Using multi-photon microscopy, we observed that the elastin fibers orientation changes from a relatively uniform distribution in regions close to the luminal surface to a more circumferential distribution in regions that dominate the media, then to a longitudinal distribution in regions close to the outer media. Planar biaxial tensile test was performed to characterize the anisotropic behavior of elastin network. A new structure-based constitutive model of elastin network was developed to incorporate the transmural variation in fiber orientation distribution. The new model well captures the anisotropic mechanical behavior of elastin network under both equi- and nonequi-biaxial loading and showed improvements in both fitting and predicting capabilities when compared to a model that only considers the fiber orientation distribution from the intima side. We submit that the transmural variation in fiber orientation distribution is important in characterizing the anisotropic mechanical behavior of elastin network and should be considered in constitutive modeling of an artery. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A topology visualization early warning distribution algorithm for large-scale network security incidents.

PubMed

He, Hui; Fan, Guotao; Ye, Jianwei; Zhang, Weizhe

2013-01-01

It is of great significance to research the early warning system for large-scale network security incidents. It can improve the network system's emergency response capabilities, alleviate the cyber attacks' damage, and strengthen the system's counterattack ability. A comprehensive early warning system is presented in this paper, which combines active measurement and anomaly detection. The key visualization algorithm and technology of the system are mainly discussed. The large-scale network system's plane visualization is realized based on the divide and conquer thought. First, the topology of the large-scale network is divided into some small-scale networks by the MLkP/CR algorithm. Second, the sub graph plane visualization algorithm is applied to each small-scale network. Finally, the small-scale networks' topologies are combined into a topology based on the automatic distribution algorithm of force analysis. As the algorithm transforms the large-scale network topology plane visualization problem into a series of small-scale network topology plane visualization and distribution problems, it has higher parallelism and is able to handle the display of ultra-large-scale network topology.

Primary Frequency Response with Aggregated DERs: Preprint

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

Guggilam, Swaroop S.; Dhople, Sairaj V.; Zhao, Changhong

2017-03-03

Power networks have to withstand a variety of disturbances that affect system frequency, and the problem is compounded with the increasing integration of intermittent renewable generation. Following a large-signal generation or load disturbance, system frequency is arrested leveraging primary frequency control provided by governor action in synchronous generators. In this work, we propose a framework for distributed energy resources (DERs) deployed in distribution networks to provide (supplemental) primary frequency response. Particularly, we demonstrate how power-frequency droop slopes for individual DERs can be designed so that the distribution feeder presents a guaranteed frequency-regulation characteristic at the feeder head. Furthermore, the droopmore » slopes are engineered such that injections of individual DERs conform to a well-defined fairness objective that does not penalize them for their location on the distribution feeder. Time-domain simulations for an illustrative network composed of a combined transmission network and distribution network with frequency-responsive DERs are provided to validate the approach.« less

Deployment strategy for battery energy storage system in distribution network based on voltage violation regulation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wu, H.; Zhou, L.; Xu, T.; Fang, W. L.; He, W. G.; Liu, H. M.

2017-11-01

In order to improve the situation of voltage violation caused by the grid-connection of photovoltaic (PV) system in a distribution network, a bi-level programming model is proposed for battery energy storage system (BESS) deployment. The objective function of inner level programming is to minimize voltage violation, with the power of PV and BESS as the variables. The objective function of outer level programming is to minimize the comprehensive function originated from inner layer programming and all the BESS operating parameters, with the capacity and rated power of BESS as the variables. The differential evolution (DE) algorithm is applied to solve the model. Based on distribution network operation scenarios with photovoltaic generation under multiple alternative output modes, the simulation results of IEEE 33-bus system prove that the deployment strategy of BESS proposed in this paper is well adapted to voltage violation regulation invariable distribution network operation scenarios. It contributes to regulating voltage violation in distribution network, as well as to improve the utilization of PV systems.