Geographical differences in maternal basking behaviour and offspring growth rate in a climatically widespread viviparous reptile.

PubMed

Cadby, Chloé D; Jones, Susan M; Wapstra, Erik

2014-04-01

In reptiles, the thermal environment during embryonic development affects offspring phenotypic traits and potentially offspring fitness. In viviparous species, mothers can potentially manipulate the embryonic thermal environment through their basking behaviour and, thus, may be able to manipulate offspring phenotype and increase offspring fitness. One way in which mothers can maximise offspring phenotype (and thus potentially affect offspring fitness) is by fine-tuning their basking behaviour to the environment in order to buffer the embryo from deleterious developmental temperatures. In widespread species, it is unclear whether populations that have evolved under different climatic conditions will exhibit different maternal behaviours and/or thermal effects on offspring phenotype. To test this, we provided extended or reduced basking opportunity to gravid spotted skinks (Niveoscincus ocellatus) and their offspring from two populations at the climatic extremes of the species' distribution. Gravid females fine-tuned their basking behaviour to the basking opportunity, which allowed them to buffer their embryos from potentially negative thermal effects. This fine-tuning of female basking behaviour appears to have led to the expression of geographical differences in basking behaviour, with females from the cold alpine regions being more opportunistic in their basking behaviour than females from the warmer regions. However, those differences in maternal behaviour did not preclude the evolution of geographic differences in thermal effects: offspring growth varied between populations, potentially suggesting local adaptation to basking conditions. Our results demonstrate that maternal effects and phenotypic plasticity can play a significant role in allowing species to cope in changing environmental conditions, which is particularly relevant in the context of climate change.

Maximizing T2-exchange in Dy3+DOTA-(amide)X chelates: Fine-tuning the water molecule exchange rate for enhanced T2 contrast in MRI

PubMed Central

Soesbe, Todd C.; Ratnakar, S. James; Milne, Mark; Zhang, Shanrong; Do, Quyen N.; Kovacs, Zoltan; Sherry, A. Dean

2014-01-01

Purpose The water molecule exchange rates in a series of DyDOTA-(amide)X chelates were fine-tuned to maximize the effects of T2-exchange line broadening and improve T2 contrast. Methods Four DyDOTA-(amide)X chelates having a variable number of glycinate side-arms were prepared and characterized as T2-exchange agents. The non-exchanging DyTETA chelate was also used to measure the bulk water T2 reduction due solely to T2*. The total transverse relaxivity (r2tot) at 22, 37, and 52 °C for each chelate was measured in vitro at 9.4 T (400 MHz) by fitting plots of total T2−1 versus concentration. The water molecule exchange rates for each complex were measured by fitting 17O line-width versus temperature data taken at 9.4 T (54.3 MHz). Results The measured transverse relaxivities due to water molecule exchange (r2ex) and bound water lifetimes (τM) were in excellent agreement with Swift-Connick theory, with DyDOTA-(gly)3 giving the largest r2ex = 11.8 s−1 mM−1 at 37 °C. Conclusion By fine-tuning the water molecule exchange rate at 37 °C, the transverse relaxivity has been increased by 2 to 30 times compared to previously studied Dy3+-based chelates. Polymerization or dendrimerization of the optimal chelate could yield a highly sensitive, molecule-sized T2 contrast agent for improved molecular imaging applications. PMID:24390729

Lattice quantum gravity and asymptotic safety

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Laiho, J.; Bassler, S.; Coumbe, D.; Du, D.; Neelakanta, J. T.

2017-09-01

We study the nonperturbative formulation of quantum gravity defined via Euclidean dynamical triangulations (EDT) in an attempt to make contact with Weinberg's asymptotic safety scenario. We find that a fine-tuning is necessary in order to recover semiclassical behavior. Such a fine-tuning is generally associated with the breaking of a target symmetry by the lattice regulator; in this case we argue that the target symmetry is the general coordinate invariance of the theory. After introducing and fine-tuning a nontrivial local measure term, we find no barrier to taking a continuum limit, and we find evidence that four-dimensional, semiclassical geometries are recovered at long distance scales in the continuum limit. We also find that the spectral dimension at short distance scales is consistent with 3 /2 , a value that could resolve the tension between asymptotic safety and the holographic entropy scaling of black holes. We argue that the number of relevant couplings in the continuum theory is one, once symmetry breaking by the lattice regulator is accounted for. Such a theory is maximally predictive, with no adjustable parameters. The cosmological constant in Planck units is the only relevant parameter, which serves to set the lattice scale. The cosmological constant in Planck units is of order 1 in the ultraviolet and undergoes renormalization group running to small values in the infrared. If these findings hold up under further scrutiny, the lattice may provide a nonperturbative definition of a renormalizable quantum field theory of general relativity with no adjustable parameters and a cosmological constant that is naturally small in the infrared.

Assessment of the generalization of learned image reconstruction and the potential for transfer learning.

PubMed

Knoll, Florian; Hammernik, Kerstin; Kobler, Erich; Pock, Thomas; Recht, Michael P; Sodickson, Daniel K

2018-05-17

Although deep learning has shown great promise for MR image reconstruction, an open question regarding the success of this approach is the robustness in the case of deviations between training and test data. The goal of this study is to assess the influence of image contrast, SNR, and image content on the generalization of learned image reconstruction, and to demonstrate the potential for transfer learning. Reconstructions were trained from undersampled data using data sets with varying SNR, sampling pattern, image contrast, and synthetic data generated from a public image database. The performance of the trained reconstructions was evaluated on 10 in vivo patient knee MRI acquisitions from 2 different pulse sequences that were not used during training. Transfer learning was evaluated by fine-tuning baseline trainings from synthetic data with a small subset of in vivo MR training data. Deviations in SNR between training and testing led to substantial decreases in reconstruction image quality, whereas image contrast was less relevant. Trainings from heterogeneous training data generalized well toward the test data with a range of acquisition parameters. Trainings from synthetic, non-MR image data showed residual aliasing artifacts, which could be removed by transfer learning-inspired fine-tuning. This study presents insights into the generalization ability of learned image reconstruction with respect to deviations in the acquisition settings between training and testing. It also provides an outlook for the potential of transfer learning to fine-tune trainings to a particular target application using only a small number of training cases. © 2018 International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine.

Energy consumption optimization of the total-FETI solver by changing the CPU frequency

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Horak, David; Riha, Lubomir; Sojka, Radim; Kruzik, Jakub; Beseda, Martin; Cermak, Martin; Schuchart, Joseph

2017-07-01

The energy consumption of supercomputers is one of the critical problems for the upcoming Exascale supercomputing era. The awareness of power and energy consumption is required on both software and hardware side. This paper deals with the energy consumption evaluation of the Finite Element Tearing and Interconnect (FETI) based solvers of linear systems, which is an established method for solving real-world engineering problems. We have evaluated the effect of the CPU frequency on the energy consumption of the FETI solver using a linear elasticity 3D cube synthetic benchmark. In this problem, we have evaluated the effect of frequency tuning on the energy consumption of the essential processing kernels of the FETI method. The paper provides results for two types of frequency tuning: (1) static tuning and (2) dynamic tuning. For static tuning experiments, the frequency is set before execution and kept constant during the runtime. For dynamic tuning, the frequency is changed during the program execution to adapt the system to the actual needs of the application. The paper shows that static tuning brings up 12% energy savings when compared to default CPU settings (the highest clock rate). The dynamic tuning improves this further by up to 3%.

Fine-tuning gene networks using simple sequence repeats

PubMed Central

Egbert, Robert G.; Klavins, Eric

2012-01-01

The parameters in a complex synthetic gene network must be extensively tuned before the network functions as designed. Here, we introduce a simple and general approach to rapidly tune gene networks in Escherichia coli using hypermutable simple sequence repeats embedded in the spacer region of the ribosome binding site. By varying repeat length, we generated expression libraries that incrementally and predictably sample gene expression levels over a 1,000-fold range. We demonstrate the utility of the approach by creating a bistable switch library that programmatically samples the expression space to balance the two states of the switch, and we illustrate the need for tuning by showing that the switch’s behavior is sensitive to host context. Further, we show that mutation rates of the repeats are controllable in vivo for stability or for targeted mutagenesis—suggesting a new approach to optimizing gene networks via directed evolution. This tuning methodology should accelerate the process of engineering functionally complex gene networks. PMID:22927382

Damping-tunable energy-harvesting vehicle damper with multiple controlled generators: Design, modeling and experiments

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Xie, Longhan; Li, Jiehong; Li, Xiaodong; Huang, Ledeng; Cai, Siqi

2018-01-01

Hydraulic dampers are used to decrease the vibration of a vehicle, where vibration energy is dissipated as heat. In addition to resulting in energy waste, the damping coefficient in hydraulic dampers cannot be changed during operation. In this paper, an energy-harvesting vehicle damper was proposed to replace traditional hydraulic dampers. The goal is not only to recover kinetic energy from suspension vibration but also to change the damping coefficient during operation according to road conditions. The energy-harvesting damper consists of multiple generators that are independently controlled by switches. One of these generators connects to a tunable resistor for fine tuning the damping coefficient, while the other generators are connected to a control and rectifying circuit, each of which both regenerates electricity and provides a constant damping coefficient. A mathematical model was built to investigate the performance of the energy-harvesting damper. By controlling the number of switched-on generators and adjusting the value of the external tunable resistor, the damping can be fine tuned according to the requirement. In addition to the capability of damping tuning, the multiple controlled generators can output a significant amount of electricity. A prototype was built to test the energy-harvesting damper design. Experiments on an MTS testing system were conducted, with results that validated the theoretical analysis. Experiments show that changing the number of switched-on generators can obviously tune the damping coefficient of the damper and simultaneously produce considerable electricity.

Neuroelectric Tuning of Cortical Oscillations by Apical Dendrites in Loop Circuits

PubMed Central

LaBerge, David; Kasevich, Ray S.

2017-01-01

Bundles of relatively long apical dendrites dominate the neurons that make up the thickness of the cerebral cortex. It is proposed that a major function of the apical dendrite is to produce sustained oscillations at a specific frequency that can serve as a common timing unit for the processing of information in circuits connected to that apical dendrite. Many layer 5 and 6 pyramidal neurons are connected to thalamic neurons in loop circuits. A model of the apical dendrites of these pyramidal neurons has been used to simulate the electric activity of the apical dendrite. The results of that simulation demonstrated that subthreshold electric pulses in these apical dendrites can be tuned to specific frequencies and also can be fine-tuned to narrow bandwidths of less than one Hertz (1 Hz). Synchronous pulse outputs from the circuit loops containing apical dendrites can tune subthreshold membrane oscillations of neurons they contact. When the pulse outputs are finely tuned, they function as a local “clock,” which enables the contacted neurons to synchronously communicate with each other. Thus, a shared tuning frequency can select neurons for membership in a circuit. Unlike layer 6 apical dendrites, layer 5 apical dendrites can produce burst firing in many of their neurons, which increases the amplitude of signals in the neurons they contact. This difference in amplitude of signals serves as basis of selecting a sub-circuit for specialized processing (e.g., sustained attention) within the typically larger layer 6-based circuit. After examining the sustaining of oscillations in loop circuits and the processing of spikes in network circuits, we propose that cortical functioning can be globally viewed as two systems: a loop system and a network system. The loop system oscillations influence the network system’s timing and amplitude of pulse signals, both of which can select circuits that are momentarily dominant in cortical activity. PMID:28659768

Neuroelectric Tuning of Cortical Oscillations by Apical Dendrites in Loop Circuits.

PubMed

LaBerge, David; Kasevich, Ray S

2017-01-01

Bundles of relatively long apical dendrites dominate the neurons that make up the thickness of the cerebral cortex. It is proposed that a major function of the apical dendrite is to produce sustained oscillations at a specific frequency that can serve as a common timing unit for the processing of information in circuits connected to that apical dendrite. Many layer 5 and 6 pyramidal neurons are connected to thalamic neurons in loop circuits. A model of the apical dendrites of these pyramidal neurons has been used to simulate the electric activity of the apical dendrite. The results of that simulation demonstrated that subthreshold electric pulses in these apical dendrites can be tuned to specific frequencies and also can be fine-tuned to narrow bandwidths of less than one Hertz (1 Hz). Synchronous pulse outputs from the circuit loops containing apical dendrites can tune subthreshold membrane oscillations of neurons they contact. When the pulse outputs are finely tuned, they function as a local "clock," which enables the contacted neurons to synchronously communicate with each other. Thus, a shared tuning frequency can select neurons for membership in a circuit. Unlike layer 6 apical dendrites, layer 5 apical dendrites can produce burst firing in many of their neurons, which increases the amplitude of signals in the neurons they contact. This difference in amplitude of signals serves as basis of selecting a sub-circuit for specialized processing (e.g., sustained attention) within the typically larger layer 6-based circuit. After examining the sustaining of oscillations in loop circuits and the processing of spikes in network circuits, we propose that cortical functioning can be globally viewed as two systems: a loop system and a network system. The loop system oscillations influence the network system's timing and amplitude of pulse signals, both of which can select circuits that are momentarily dominant in cortical activity.

Auto-tuning for NMR probe using LabVIEW

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Quen, Carmen; Pham, Stephanie; Bernal, Oscar

2014-03-01

Typical manual NMR-tuning method is not suitable for broadband spectra spanning several megahertz linewidths. Among the main problems encountered during manual tuning are pulse-power reproducibility, baselines, and transmission line reflections, to name a few. We present a design of an auto-tuning system using graphic programming language, LabVIEW, to minimize these problems. The program uses a simplified model of the NMR probe conditions near perfect tuning to mimic the tuning process and predict the position of the capacitor shafts needed to achieve the desirable impedance. The tuning capacitors of the probe are controlled by stepper motors through a LabVIEW/computer interface. Our program calculates the effective capacitance needed to tune the probe and provides controlling parameters to advance the motors in the right direction. The impedance reading of a network analyzer can be used to correct the model parameters in real time for feedback control.

Dynamical Upheaval in Ice Giant Formation: A Solution to the Fine-tuning Problem in the Formation Story

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Frelikh, Renata; Murray-Clay, Ruth

2018-04-01

We report on our recent theoretical work, where we suggest that a protoplanetary disk dynamical instability may have played a crucial role in determining the atmospheric size of the solar system’s ice giants. In contrast to the gas giants, the intermediate-size ice giants never underwent runaway gas accretion in a full gas disk. However, as their substantial core masses are comparable to those of the gas giants, they would have gone runaway, given enough time. In the standard scenario, the ice giants stay at roughly their current size for most of the disk lifetime, undergoing period of slow gas accretion onto ~full-sized cores that formed early-on. The gas disk dissipates before the ice giants accumulate too much gas, but we believe this is fine tuned. A considerable amount of solids is observed in outer disks in mm-to-cm sized particles (pebbles). Assisted by gas drag, these pebbles rapidly accrete onto cores. This would cause the growing ice giants to exceed their current core masses, and quickly turn into gas giants. To resolve this problem, we propose that Uranus and Neptune stayed small for the bulk of the disk lifetime. They only finished their core and atmospheric growth in a short timeframe just as the disk gas dissipated, accreting most of their gas from a disk depleted to ~1% of its original mass. The ice giants have atmospheric mass fractions comparable to the disk gas-to-solid ratio of this depleted disk. This coincides with a disk dynamical upheaval onset by the depletion of gas. We propose that the cores started growing closer-in, where they were kept small by proximity to Jupiter and Saturn. As the gas cleared, the cores were kicked out by the gas giants. Then, they finished their core growth and accreted their atmospheres from the remaining, sparse gas at their current locations. We predict that the gas giants may play a key role in forming intermediate-size atmospheres in the outer disk.

Effects of dopaminergic and subthalamic stimulation on musical performance.

PubMed

van Vugt, Floris T; Schüpbach, Michael; Altenmüller, Eckart; Bardinet, Eric; Yelnik, Jérôme; Hälbig, Thomas D

2013-05-01

Although subthalamic-deep brain stimulation (STN-DBS) is an efficient treatment for Parkinson's disease (PD), its effects on fine motor functions are not clear. We present the case of a professional violinist with PD treated with STN-DBS. DBS improved musical articulation, intonation and emotional expression and worsened timing relative to a timekeeper (metronome). The same effects were found for dopaminergic treatment. These results suggest that STN-DBS, mimicking the effects of dopaminergic stimulation, improves fine-tuned motor behaviour whilst impairing timing precision.

Extendable nickel complex tapes that reach NIR absorptions.

PubMed

Audi, Hassib; Chen, Zhongrui; Charaf-Eddin, Azzam; D'Aléo, Anthony; Canard, Gabriel; Jacquemin, Denis; Siri, Olivier

2014-12-14

Stepwise synthesis of linear nickel complex oligomer tapes with no need for solid-phase support has been achieved. The control of the length in flat arrays allows a fine-tuning of the absorption properties from the UV to the NIR region.

Plantings, Number Four, April 1983.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Davis, Jacqueline D., Ed.; Young, Robert E., Ed.

1983-01-01

Faculty development through peer observation, faculty revitalization through curricular change, and interdisciplinary work are addressed in this newsletter issue. The peer observation process is primarily directed toward fine-tuning or adjusting existing competencies, and usually focuses on factors such as questioning, clarity, organization,…

Tuning the band gap in hybrid tin iodide perovskite semiconductors using structural templating.

PubMed

Knutson, Jeremy L; Martin, James D; Mitzi, David B

2005-06-27

Structural distortions within the extensive family of organic/inorganic hybrid tin iodide perovskite semiconductors are correlated with their experimental exciton energies and calculated band gaps. The extent of the in- and out-of-plane angular distortion of the SnI4(2-) perovskite sheets is largely determined by the relative charge density and steric requirements of the organic cations. Variation of the in-plane Sn-I-Sn bond angle was demonstrated to have the greatest impact on the tuning of the band gap, and the equatorial Sn-I bond distances have a significant secondary influence. Extended Hückel tight-binding band calculations are employed to decipher the crystal orbital origins of the structural effects that fine-tune the band structure. The calculations suggest that it may be possible to tune the band gap by as much as 1 eV using the templating influence of the organic cation.

Scalable high-precision tuning of photonic resonators by resonant cavity-enhanced photoelectrochemical etching

PubMed Central

Gil-Santos, Eduardo; Baker, Christopher; Lemaître, Aristide; Gomez, Carmen; Leo, Giuseppe; Favero, Ivan

2017-01-01

Photonic lattices of mutually interacting indistinguishable cavities represent a cornerstone of collective phenomena in optics and could become important in advanced sensing or communication devices. The disorder induced by fabrication technologies has so far hindered the development of such resonant cavity architectures, while post-fabrication tuning methods have been limited by complexity and poor scalability. Here we present a new simple and scalable tuning method for ensembles of microphotonic and nanophotonic resonators, which enables their permanent collective spectral alignment. The method introduces an approach of cavity-enhanced photoelectrochemical etching in a fluid, a resonant process triggered by sub-bandgap light that allows for high selectivity and precision. The technique is presented on a gallium arsenide nanophotonic platform and illustrated by finely tuning one, two and up to five resonators. It opens the way to applications requiring large networks of identical resonators and their spectral referencing to external etalons. PMID:28117394

Dancing to a Different Tune: Adaptive Evolution Fine-Tunes Protein Dynamics

DTIC Science & Technology

2015-09-01

homotropic regulator of E. coli PK1. The kcat of the PEP titrations are similar both with (266 ± 3 s-1) and without (243 ± 4 s-1) FBP in solution...affinity; 3 ) P70Q, P70T and A301S (five populations), which have similar PEP affinity to the wild-type, but now have PEP cooperativity in the presence...PROGRAM ELEMENT NUMBER 5b. GRANT NUMBER 5a. CONTRACT NUMBER Form Approved OMB NO. 0704-0188 3 . DATES COVERED (From - To) - UU UU UU UU 19-12-2015

A facetless regrowth-free single mode laser based on MMI couplers

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Caro, Ludovic; Kelly, Niall P.; Dernaika, Mohamad; Shayesteh, Maryam; Morrissey, Padraic E.; Alexander, Justin K.; Peters, Frank H.

2017-09-01

This paper presents a facetless, tunable laser operating near 1575 nm, as well as a theoretical model predicting spectral features of the laser. The lasers were fabricated without regrowth or advanced lithography techniques, and are based on MMI couplers and etched facets. Coarse vernier tuning was achieved over a range of 25 nm, while fine, thermal tuning was also demonstrated over a range of 1.5 nm. SMSR values of 25 dB and higher were observed, with a measured laser linewidth of 600 kHz.

Boron Nitride Nanoporous Membranes with High Surface Charge by Atomic Layer Deposition.

PubMed

Weber, Matthieu; Koonkaew, Boonprakrong; Balme, Sebastien; Utke, Ivo; Picaud, Fabien; Iatsunskyi, Igor; Coy, Emerson; Miele, Philippe; Bechelany, Mikhael

2017-05-17

In this work, we report the design and the fine-tuning of boron nitride single nanopore and nanoporous membranes by atomic layer deposition (ALD). First, we developed an ALD process based on the use of BBr 3 and NH 3 as precursors in order to synthesize BN thin films. The deposited films were characterized in terms of thickness, composition, and microstructure. Next, we used the newly developed process to grow BN films on anodic aluminum oxide nanoporous templates, demonstrating the conformality benefit of BN prepared by ALD, and its scalability for the manufacturing of membranes. For the first time, the ALD process was then used to tune the diameter of fabricated single transmembrane nanopores by adjusting the BN thickness and to enable studies of the fundamental aspects of ionic transport on a single nanopore. At pH = 7, we estimated a surface charge density of 0.16 C·m -2 without slip and 0.07 C·m -2 considering a reasonable slip length of 3 nm. Molecular dynamics simulations performed with experimental conditions confirmed the conductivities and the sign of surface charges measured. The high ion transport results obtained and the ability to fine-tune nanoporous membranes by such a scalable method pave the way toward applications such as ionic separation, energy harvesting, and ultrafiltration devices.

Additional asphalt to increase the durability of Virginia's superpave surface mixes.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2003-01-01

Although Superpave has been successful in preventing rutting, many believe that the design asphalt content needs fine-tuning to produce durable mixes. This investigation used various laboratory tests to test samples of field surface mixes (12.5 mm an...

Caught on the Web

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Isakson, Carol

2005-01-01

In this article, the author presents several Web sites supporting electronic presentation skills. The sites featured here will help fine-tune one's skills in modeling effective presentations and provide suggestions for managing student presentations meeting National Educational Technology Standards (NETS). Most use PowerPoint, the current industry…

The scale invariant power spectrum of the primordial curvature perturbations from the coupled scalar tachyon bounce cosmos

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

Li, Changhong; Cheung, Yeuk-Kwan E., E-mail: chellifegood@gmail.com, E-mail: cheung@nju.edu.cn

2014-07-01

We investigate the spectrum of cosmological perturbations in a bounce cosmos modeled by a scalar field coupled to the string tachyon field (CSTB cosmos). By explicit computation of its primordial spectral index we show the power spectrum of curvature perturbations, generated during the tachyon matter dominated contraction phase, to be nearly scale invariant. We propose a unified parameter space for a systematic study of inflationary and bounce cosmologies. The CSTB cosmos is dual-in Wands's sense-to slow-roll inflation as can be visualized with the aid of this parameter space. Guaranteed by the dynamical attractor behavior of the CSTB Cosmos, the scalemore » invariance of its power spectrum is free of the fine-tuning problem, in contrast to the slow-roll inflation model.« less

Topological Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev model

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, Pengfei; Zhai, Hui

2018-05-01

In this Rapid Communication, we construct a large-N exactly solvable model to study the interplay between interaction and topology, by connecting the Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev (SYK) model with constant hopping. The hopping forms a band structure that can exhibit both topologically trivial and nontrivial phases. Starting from a topologically trivial insulator with zero Hall conductance, we show that the interaction can drive a phase transition to a topologically nontrivial insulator with quantized nonzero Hall conductance, and a single gapless Dirac fermion emerges when the interaction is fine tuned to the critical point. The finite temperature effect is also considered, and we show that the topological phase with a stronger interaction is less stable against temperature. Our model provides a concrete example to illustrate the interacting topological phases and phase transitions, and can shed light on similar problems in physical systems.

Clustering of color map pixels: an interactive approach

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Moon, Yiu Sang; Luk, Franklin T.; Yuen, K. N.; Yeung, Hoi Wo

2003-12-01

The demand for digital maps continues to arise as mobile electronic devices become more popular nowadays. Instead of creating the entire map from void, we may convert a scanned paper map into a digital one. Color clustering is the very first step of the conversion process. Currently, most of the existing clustering algorithms are fully automatic. They are fast and efficient but may not work well in map conversion because of the numerous ambiguous issues associated with printed maps. Here we introduce two interactive approaches for color clustering on the map: color clustering with pre-calculated index colors (PCIC) and color clustering with pre-calculated color ranges (PCCR). We also introduce a memory model that could enhance and integrate different image processing techniques for fine-tuning the clustering results. Problems and examples of the algorithms are discussed in the paper.

Optimal placement of tuning masses on truss structures by genetic algorithms

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ponslet, Eric; Haftka, Raphael T.; Cudney, Harley H.

1993-01-01

Optimal placement of tuning masses, actuators and other peripherals on large space structures is a combinatorial optimization problem. This paper surveys several techniques for solving this problem. The genetic algorithm approach to the solution of the placement problem is described in detail. An example of minimizing the difference between the two lowest frequencies of a laboratory truss by adding tuning masses is used for demonstrating some of the advantages of genetic algorithms. The relative efficiencies of different codings are compared using the results of a large number of optimization runs.

Aircraft interior noise reduction by alternate resonance tuning

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Gottwald, James A.; Bliss, Donald B.

1990-01-01

The focus is on a noise control method which considers aircraft fuselages lined with panels alternately tuned to frequencies above and below the frequency that must be attenuated. An interior noise reduction called alternate resonance tuning (ART) is described both theoretically and experimentally. Problems dealing with tuning single paneled wall structures for optimum noise reduction using the ART methodology are presented, and three theoretical problems are analyzed. The first analysis is a three dimensional, full acoustic solution for tuning a panel wall composed of repeating sections with four different panel tunings within that section, where the panels are modeled as idealized spring-mass-damper systems. The second analysis is a two dimensional, full acoustic solution for a panel geometry influenced by the effect of a propagating external pressure field such as that which might be associated with propeller passage by a fuselage. To reduce the analysis complexity, idealized spring-mass-damper panels are again employed. The final theoretical analysis presents the general four panel problem with real panel sections, where the effect of higher structural modes is discussed. Results from an experimental program highlight real applications of the ART concept and show the effectiveness of the tuning on real structures.

Auto-tuning system for NMR probe with LabView

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Quen, Carmen; Mateo, Olivia; Bernal, Oscar

2013-03-01

Typical manual NMR-tuning method is not suitable for broadband spectra spanning several megahertz linewidths. Among the main problems encountered during manual tuning are pulse-power reproducibility, baselines, and transmission line reflections, to name a few. We present a design of an auto-tuning system using graphic programming language, LabVIEW, to minimize these problems. The program is designed to analyze the detected power signal of an antenna near the NMR probe and use this analysis to automatically tune the sample coil to match the impedance of the spectrometer (50 Ω). The tuning capacitors of the probe are controlled by a stepper motor through a LabVIEW/computer interface. Our program calculates the area of the power signal as an indicator to control the motor so disconnecting the coil to tune it through a network analyzer is unnecessary. Work supported by NSF-DMR 1105380

Heisenberg Uncertainty and the Allowable Masses of the Up Quark and Down Quark

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Orr, Brian

2004-05-01

A possible explanation for the inability to attain deterministic measurements of an elementary particle's energy, as given by the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle, manifests itself in an interesting anthropic consequent of Andrei Linde's Self-reproducing Inflationary Multiverse model. In Linde's model, the physical laws and constants that govern our universe adopt other values in other universes, due to variable Higgs fields. While the physics in our universe allow for the advent of life and consciousness, the physics necessary for life are not likely to exist in other universes -- Linde demonstrates this through a kind of Darwinism for universes. Our universe, then, is unique. But what are the physical laws and constants that make our universe what it is? Craig Hogan identifies five physical constants that are not bound by symmetry. Fine-tuning these constants gives rise to the basic behavior and structures of the universe. Three of the non-symmetric constants are fermion masses: the up quark mass, the down quark mass, and the electron mass. I will explore Linde's and Hogan's works by comparing the amount of uncertainty in quark masses, as calculated from the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle, to the range of quark mass values consistent with our observed universe. Should the fine-tuning of the up quark and down quark masses be greater than the range of Heisenberg uncertainties in their respective masses (as I predict, due to quantum tunneling), then perhaps there is a correlation between the measured Heisenberg uncertainty in quark masses and the fine-tuning of masses required for our universe to be as it is. Hogan; "Why the Universe is Just So;" Reviews of Modern Physics; Issue 4; Vol. 72; pg. 1149-1161; Oct. 2000 Linde, "The Self-Reproducing Inflationary Universe;" Scientific American; No. 5; Vol. 271; pg. 48-55; Nov. 1994

Correlation between DNA ploidy, metaphase high-resolution comparative genomic hybridization results and clinical outcome of synovial sarcoma

PubMed Central

2011-01-01

Background Although synovial sarcoma is the 3rd most commonly occurring mesenchymal tumor in young adults, usually with a highly aggressive clinical course; remarkable differences can be seen regarding the clinical outcome. According to comparative genomic hybridization (CGH) data published in the literature, the simple and complex karyotypes show a correlation between the prognosis and clinical outcome. In addition, the connection between DNA ploidy and clinical course is controversial. The aim of this study was using a fine-tuning interpretation of our DNA ploidy results and to compare these with metaphase high-resolution CGH (HR-CGH) results. Methods DNA ploidy was determined on Feulgen-stained smears in 56 synovial sarcoma cases by image cytometry; follow up was available in 46 cases (average: 78 months). In 9 cases HR-CGH analysis was also available. Results 10 cases were found DNA-aneuploid, 46 were DNA-diploid by image cytometry. With fine-tuning of the diploid cases according to the 5c exceeding events (single cell aneuploidy), 33 cases were so called "simple-diploid" (without 5c exceeding events) and 13 cases were "complex-diploid"; containing 5c exceeding events (any number). Aneuploid tumors contained large numbers of genetic alterations with the sum gain of at least 2 chromosomes (A-, B- or C-group) detected by HR-CGH. In the "simple-diploid" cases no or few genetic alterations could be detected, whereas the "complex-diploid" samples numerous aberrations (equal or more than 3) could be found. Conclusions Our results show a correlation between the DNA-ploidy, a fine-tuned DNA-ploidy and the HR-CGH results. Furthermore, we found significant correlation between the different ploidy groups and the clinical outcome (p < 0.05). PMID:22053830

Extraction of Built-Up Areas Using Convolutional Neural Networks and Transfer Learning from SENTINEL-2 Satellite Images

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bramhe, V. S.; Ghosh, S. K.; Garg, P. K.

2018-04-01

With rapid globalization, the extent of built-up areas is continuously increasing. Extraction of features for classifying built-up areas that are more robust and abstract is a leading research topic from past many years. Although, various studies have been carried out where spatial information along with spectral features has been utilized to enhance the accuracy of classification. Still, these feature extraction techniques require a large number of user-specific parameters and generally application specific. On the other hand, recently introduced Deep Learning (DL) techniques requires less number of parameters to represent more abstract aspects of the data without any manual effort. Since, it is difficult to acquire high-resolution datasets for applications that require large scale monitoring of areas. Therefore, in this study Sentinel-2 image has been used for built-up areas extraction. In this work, pre-trained Convolutional Neural Networks (ConvNets) i.e. Inception v3 and VGGNet are employed for transfer learning. Since these networks are trained on generic images of ImageNet dataset which are having very different characteristics from satellite images. Therefore, weights of networks are fine-tuned using data derived from Sentinel-2 images. To compare the accuracies with existing shallow networks, two state of art classifiers i.e. Gaussian Support Vector Machine (SVM) and Back-Propagation Neural Network (BP-NN) are also implemented. Both SVM and BP-NN gives 84.31 % and 82.86 % overall accuracies respectively. Inception-v3 and VGGNet gives 89.43 % of overall accuracy using fine-tuned VGGNet and 92.10 % when using Inception-v3. The results indicate high accuracy of proposed fine-tuned ConvNets on a 4-channel Sentinel-2 dataset for built-up area extraction.

Early social deprivation negatively affects social skill acquisition in chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes).

PubMed

van Leeuwen, Edwin J C; Mulenga, Innocent Chitalu; Chidester, Diana Lisensky

2014-03-01

In a highly social species like chimpanzees, the process by which individuals become attuned to their social environment may be of vital importance to their chances of survival. Typically, this socialization process, defined by all acquisition experiences and fine-tuning efforts of social interaction patterns during ontogeny, occurs in large part through parental investment. In this study, we investigated whether maternal presence enhances the socialization process in chimpanzees by comparing the social interactions of orphaned and mother-reared individuals at the Chimfunshi Wildlife Orphanage Trust in Zambia. As response variables, we selected social interactions during which an elaborate level of fine-tuning is assumed to be necessary for sustaining the interaction and preventing escalation: social play. Comparing orphaned (n = 8) to sex- and age-matched mother-reared juvenile chimpanzees (n = 9), we hypothesized that the orphaned juveniles would play less frequently than the mother-reared and would be less equipped for fine-tuning social play (which we assayed by rates of aggression) because of the lack of a safe and facilitating social environment provided by the mother. First, contrary to our hypothesis, results showed that the orphaned juveniles engaged in social play more frequently than the mother-reared juveniles, although for significantly shorter amounts of time. Second, in support of our hypothesis, results showed that social play of the orphaned juveniles more often resulted in aggression than social play of the mother-reared juveniles. In conjunction, these results may indicate that, just like in humans, chimpanzee mothers provide their offspring with adequate social skills that might be of pivotal importance for future challenges like successful group-living and securing competitive fitness advantages.

Critical gravitational collapse with angular momentum. II. Soft equations of state

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gundlach, Carsten; Baumgarte, Thomas W.

2018-03-01

We study critical phenomena in the collapse of rotating ultrarelativistic perfect fluids, in which the pressure P is related to the total energy density ρ by P =κ ρ , where κ is a constant. We generalize earlier results for radiation fluids with κ =1 /3 to other values of κ , focusing on κ <1 /9 . For 1 /9 <κ ≲0.49 , the critical solution has only one unstable, growing mode, which is spherically symmetric. For supercritical data it controls the black-hole mass, while for subcritical data it controls the maximum density. For κ <1 /9 , an additional axial l =1 mode becomes unstable. This controls either the black-hole angular momentum, or the maximum angular velocity. In theory, the additional unstable l =1 mode changes the nature of the black-hole threshold completely: at sufficiently large initial rotation rates Ω and sufficient fine-tuning of the initial data to the black-hole threshold we expect to observe nontrivial universal scaling functions (familiar from critical phase transitions in thermodynamics) governing the black-hole mass and angular momentum, and, with further fine-tuning, eventually a finite black-hole mass almost everywhere on the threshold. In practice, however, the second unstable mode grows so slowly that we do not observe this breakdown of scaling at the level of fine-tuning we can achieve, nor systematic deviations from the leading-order power-law scalings of the black-hole mass. We do see systematic effects in the black-hole angular momentum, but it is not clear yet if these are due to the predicted nontrivial scaling functions, or to nonlinear effects at sufficiently large initial angular momentum (which we do not account for in our theoretical model).

A phosphate-regulated promoter for fine-tuned and reversible overexpression in Ostreococcus: application to circadian clock functional analysis.

PubMed

Djouani-Tahri, El Batoul; Sanchez, Frédéric; Lozano, Jean-Claude; Bouget, François-Yves

2011-01-01

The green picoalga Ostreococcus tauri (Prasinophyceae), which has been described as the smallest free-living eukaryotic organism, has minimal cellular ultra-structure and a very small genome. In recent years, O. tauri has emerged as a novel model organism for systems biology approaches that combine functional genomics and mathematical modeling, with a strong emphasis on light regulated processes and circadian clock. These approaches were made possible through the implementation of a minimal molecular toolbox for gene functional analysis including overexpression and knockdown strategies. We have previously shown that the promoter of the High Affinity Phosphate Transporter (HAPT) gene drives the expression of a luciferase reporter at high and constitutive levels under constant light. Here we report, using a luciferase reporter construct, that the HAPT promoter can be finely and reversibly tuned by modulating the level and nature of phosphate in culture medium. This HAPT regulation was additionally used to analyze the circadian clock gene Time of Cab expression 1 (TOC1). The phenotype of a TOC1ox/CCA1:Luc line was reverted from arrhythmic to rhythmic simply by adding phosphate to the culture medium. Furthermore, since the time of phosphate injection had no effect on the phase of CCA1:Luc expression, this study suggests further that TOC1 is a central clock gene in Ostreococcus. We have developed a phosphate-regulated expression system that allows fine gene function analysis in Ostreococcus. Recently, there has been a growing interest in microalgae as cell factories. This non-toxic phosphate-regulated system may prove useful in tuning protein expression levels quantitatively and temporally for biotechnological applications.

Fine-tuning the onset of myogenesis by homeobox proteins that interact with the Myf5 limb enhancer

PubMed Central

Daubas, Philippe; Duval, Nathalie; Bajard, Lola; Langa Vives, Francina; Robert, Benoît; Mankoo, Baljinder S.; Buckingham, Margaret

2015-01-01

ABSTRACT Skeletal myogenesis in vertebrates is initiated at different sites of skeletal muscle formation during development, by activation of specific control elements of the myogenic regulatory genes. In the mouse embryo, Myf5 is the first myogenic determination gene to be expressed and its spatiotemporal regulation requires multiple enhancer sequences, extending over 120 kb upstream of the Mrf4-Myf5 locus. An enhancer, located at −57/−58 kb from Myf5, is responsible for its activation in myogenic cells derived from the hypaxial domain of the somite, that will form limb muscles. Pax3 and Six1/4 transcription factors are essential activators of this enhancer, acting on a 145-bp core element. Myogenic progenitor cells that will form the future muscle masses of the limbs express the factors necessary for Myf5 activation when they delaminate from the hypaxial dermomyotome and migrate into the forelimb bud, however they do not activate Myf5 and the myogenic programme until they have populated the prospective muscle masses. We show that Msx1 and Meox2 homeodomain-containing transcription factors bind in vitro and in vivo to specific sites in the 145-bp element, and are implicated in fine-tuning activation of Myf5 in the forelimb. Msx1, when bound between Pax and Six sites, prevents the binding of these key activators, thus inhibiting transcription of Myf5 and consequent premature myogenic differentiation. Meox2 is required for Myf5 activation at the onset of myogenesis via direct binding to other homeodomain sites in this sequence. Thus, these homeodomain factors, acting in addition to Pax3 and Six1/4, fine-tune the entry of progenitor cells into myogenesis at early stages of forelimb development. PMID:26538636

Correlated randomness and switching phenomena

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Stanley, H. E.; Buldyrev, S. V.; Franzese, G.; Havlin, S.; Mallamace, F.; Kumar, P.; Plerou, V.; Preis, T.

2010-08-01

One challenge of biology, medicine, and economics is that the systems treated by these serious scientific disciplines have no perfect metronome in time and no perfect spatial architecture-crystalline or otherwise. Nonetheless, as if by magic, out of nothing but randomness one finds remarkably fine-tuned processes in time and remarkably fine-tuned structures in space. Further, many of these processes and structures have the remarkable feature of “switching” from one behavior to another as if by magic. The past century has, philosophically, been concerned with placing aside the human tendency to see the universe as a fine-tuned machine. Here we will address the challenge of uncovering how, through randomness (albeit, as we shall see, strongly correlated randomness), one can arrive at some of the many spatial and temporal patterns in biology, medicine, and economics and even begin to characterize the switching phenomena that enables a system to pass from one state to another. Inspired by principles developed by A. Nihat Berker and scores of other statistical physicists in recent years, we discuss some applications of correlated randomness to understand switching phenomena in various fields. Specifically, we present evidence from experiments and from computer simulations supporting the hypothesis that water’s anomalies are related to a switching point (which is not unlike the “tipping point” immortalized by Malcolm Gladwell), and that the bubbles in economic phenomena that occur on all scales are not “outliers” (another Gladwell immortalization). Though more speculative, we support the idea of disease as arising from some kind of yet-to-be-understood complex switching phenomenon, by discussing data on selected examples, including heart disease and Alzheimer disease.

Synthetic Core Promoters as Universal Parts for Fine-Tuning Expression in Different Yeast Species

PubMed Central

2016-01-01

Synthetic biology and metabolic engineering experiments frequently require the fine-tuning of gene expression to balance and optimize protein levels of regulators or metabolic enzymes. A key concept of synthetic biology is the development of modular parts that can be used in different contexts. Here, we have applied a computational multifactor design approach to generate de novo synthetic core promoters and 5′ untranslated regions (UTRs) for yeast cells. In contrast to upstream cis-regulatory modules (CRMs), core promoters are typically not subject to specific regulation, making them ideal engineering targets for gene expression fine-tuning. 112 synthetic core promoter sequences were designed on the basis of the sequence/function relationship of natural core promoters, nucleosome occupancy and the presence of short motifs. The synthetic core promoters were fused to the Pichia pastoris AOX1 CRM, and the resulting activity spanned more than a 200-fold range (0.3% to 70.6% of the wild type AOX1 level). The top-ten synthetic core promoters with highest activity were fused to six additional CRMs (three in P. pastoris and three in Saccharomyces cerevisiae). Inducible CRM constructs showed significantly higher activity than constitutive CRMs, reaching up to 176% of natural core promoters. Comparing the activity of the same synthetic core promoters fused to different CRMs revealed high correlations only for CRMs within the same organism. These data suggest that modularity is maintained to some extent but only within the same organism. Due to the conserved role of eukaryotic core promoters, this rational design concept may be transferred to other organisms as a generic engineering tool. PMID:27973777

Deep learning in breast cancer risk assessment: evaluation of fine-tuned convolutional neural networks on a clinical dataset of FFDMs

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Li, Hui; Mendel, Kayla R.; Lee, John H.; Lan, Li; Giger, Maryellen L.

2018-02-01

We evaluated the potential of deep learning in the assessment of breast cancer risk using convolutional neural networks (CNNs) fine-tuned on full-field digital mammographic (FFDM) images. This study included 456 clinical FFDM cases from two high-risk datasets: BRCA1/2 gene-mutation carriers (53 cases) and unilateral cancer patients (75 cases), and a low-risk dataset as the control group (328 cases). All FFDM images (12-bit quantization and 100 micron pixel) were acquired with a GE Senographe 2000D system and were retrospectively collected under an IRB-approved, HIPAA-compliant protocol. Regions of interest of 256x256 pixels were selected from the central breast region behind the nipple in the craniocaudal projection. VGG19 pre-trained on the ImageNet dataset was used to classify the images either as high-risk or as low-risk subjects. The last fully-connected layer of pre-trained VGG19 was fine-tuned on FFDM images for breast cancer risk assessment. Performance was evaluated using the area under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve (AUC) in the task of distinguishing between high-risk and low-risk subjects. AUC values of 0.84 (SE=0.05) and 0.72 (SE=0.06) were obtained in the task of distinguishing between the BRCA1/2 gene-mutation carriers and low-risk women and between unilateral cancer patients and low-risk women, respectively. Deep learning with CNNs appears to be able to extract parenchymal characteristics directly from FFDMs which are relevant to the task of distinguishing between cancer risk populations, and therefore has potential to aid clinicians in assessing mammographic parenchymal patterns for cancer risk assessment.

WND-CHARM: Multi-purpose image classification using compound image transforms

PubMed Central

Orlov, Nikita; Shamir, Lior; Macura, Tomasz; Johnston, Josiah; Eckley, D. Mark; Goldberg, Ilya G.

2008-01-01

We describe a multi-purpose image classifier that can be applied to a wide variety of image classification tasks without modifications or fine-tuning, and yet provide classification accuracy comparable to state-of-the-art task-specific image classifiers. The proposed image classifier first extracts a large set of 1025 image features including polynomial decompositions, high contrast features, pixel statistics, and textures. These features are computed on the raw image, transforms of the image, and transforms of transforms of the image. The feature values are then used to classify test images into a set of pre-defined image classes. This classifier was tested on several different problems including biological image classification and face recognition. Although we cannot make a claim of universality, our experimental results show that this classifier performs as well or better than classifiers developed specifically for these image classification tasks. Our classifier’s high performance on a variety of classification problems is attributed to (i) a large set of features extracted from images; and (ii) an effective feature selection and weighting algorithm sensitive to specific image classification problems. The algorithms are available for free download from openmicroscopy.org. PMID:18958301

Individual differences in attention strategies during detection, fine discrimination, and coarse discrimination

PubMed Central

Hecker, Elizabeth A.; Serences, John T.; Srinivasan, Ramesh

2013-01-01

Interacting with the environment requires the ability to flexibly direct attention to relevant features. We examined the degree to which individuals attend to visual features within and across Detection, Fine Discrimination, and Coarse Discrimination tasks. Electroencephalographic (EEG) responses were measured to an unattended peripheral flickering (4 or 6 Hz) grating while individuals (n = 33) attended to orientations that were offset by 0°, 10°, 20°, 30°, 40°, and 90° from the orientation of the unattended flicker. These unattended responses may be sensitive to attentional gain at the attended spatial location, since attention to features enhances early visual responses throughout the visual field. We found no significant differences in tuning curves across the three tasks in part due to individual differences in strategies. We sought to characterize individual attention strategies using hierarchical Bayesian modeling, which grouped individuals into families of curves that reflect attention to the physical target orientation (“on-channel”) or away from the target orientation (“off-channel”) or a uniform distribution of attention. The different curves were related to behavioral performance; individuals with “on-channel” curves had lower thresholds than individuals with uniform curves. Individuals with “off-channel” curves during Fine Discrimination additionally had lower thresholds than those assigned to uniform curves, highlighting the perceptual benefits of attending away from the physical target orientation during fine discriminations. Finally, we showed that a subset of individuals with optimal curves (“on-channel”) during Detection also demonstrated optimal curves (“off-channel”) during Fine Discrimination, indicating that a subset of individuals can modulate tuning optimally for detection and discrimination. PMID:23678013

Nanotechnology Characterization Laboratory Unveils New Technical Services for Drug Developers | Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research

Cancer.gov

FREDERICK, Md. -- Drug developers now have access to a shared analytical technology, developed and provided by the Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research, that helps fine-tune nanomedicine formulations and overcomes a key hurdle on the pat

The anatomy of a launch vehicle : quarterly report topic

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2001-01-01

Conceptually, a rocket is a simple machine. Following Newton's law that every force has an equal and opposite reaction, a rocket pushes mass in one direction and moves in the other. However, a modern space launch vehicle is a finely tuned and very co...

Burrowing mayflies (Hexagenia) as indicators of aquatic ecosystem health at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, Michigan

USGS Publications Warehouse

Edsall, T.A.; Phillips, W.E.

2004-01-01

With concern running high for the ecological effects of nutrient introductions in waters near the park, researchers document baseline conditions of aquatic park resources, applying a method that can be fine-tuned for future trend monitoring.

Fine-Tuning ADAS Algorithm Parameters for Optimizing Traffic Safety and Mobility in Connected Vehicle Environment

EPA Science Inventory

With the development of Connected Vehicle Technology that facilitates wireless communication among vehicles and road-side infrastructure, the Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) can be adopted as an effective tool for accelerating traffic safety and mobility optimization at...

Seam tracking with adaptive image capture for fine-tuning of a high power laser welding process

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lahdenoja, Olli; Säntti, Tero; Laiho, Mika; Paasio, Ari; Poikonen, Jonne K.

2015-02-01

This paper presents the development of methods for real-time fine-tuning of a high power laser welding process of thick steel by using a compact smart camera system. When performing welding in butt-joint configuration, the laser beam's location needs to be adjusted exactly according to the seam line in order to allow the injected energy to be absorbed uniformly into both steel sheets. In this paper, on-line extraction of seam parameters is targeted by taking advantage of a combination of dynamic image intensity compression, image segmentation with a focal-plane processor ASIC, and Hough transform on an associated FPGA. Additional filtering of Hough line candidates based on temporal windowing is further applied to reduce unrealistic frame-to-frame tracking variations. The proposed methods are implemented in Matlab by using image data captured with adaptive integration time. The simulations are performed in a hardware oriented way to allow real-time implementation of the algorithms on the smart camera system.

The BBX subfamily IV: additional cogs and sprockets to fine-tune light-dependent development.

PubMed

Sarmiento, Felipe

2013-04-01

Plants depend on light during all phases of its life cycle, and have evolved a complex signaling network to constantly monitor its surroundings. Photomorphogenesis, a process during which the plant reprograms itself in order to dwell life in presence of light is one of the most studied phenomena in plants. Recent mutant analyses using model plant Arabidopsis thaliana and protein interaction assays have unraveled a new set of players, an 8-member subfamily of B-box proteins, known as BBX subfamily IV. For the members of this subfamily, positive (BBX21, BBX22) as well as negative (BBX24) functions have been described for its members, showing a strong association to two major players of the photomorphogenic cascade, HY5 and COP1. The roles of these new BBX regulators are not restricted to photomorphogenesis, but also have functions in other facets of light-dependent development. Therefore this newly identified set of regulators has opened up new insights into the understanding of the fine-tuning of this complex process.

Synthesizing a novel genetic sequential logic circuit: a push-on push-off switch

PubMed Central

Lou, Chunbo; Liu, Xili; Ni, Ming; Huang, Yiqi; Huang, Qiushi; Huang, Longwen; Jiang, Lingli; Lu, Dan; Wang, Mingcong; Liu, Chang; Chen, Daizhuo; Chen, Chongyi; Chen, Xiaoyue; Yang, Le; Ma, Haisu; Chen, Jianguo; Ouyang, Qi

2010-01-01

Design and synthesis of basic functional circuits are the fundamental tasks of synthetic biologists. Before it is possible to engineer higher-order genetic networks that can perform complex functions, a toolkit of basic devices must be developed. Among those devices, sequential logic circuits are expected to be the foundation of the genetic information-processing systems. In this study, we report the design and construction of a genetic sequential logic circuit in Escherichia coli. It can generate different outputs in response to the same input signal on the basis of its internal state, and ‘memorize' the output. The circuit is composed of two parts: (1) a bistable switch memory module and (2) a double-repressed promoter NOR gate module. The two modules were individually rationally designed, and they were coupled together by fine-tuning the interconnecting parts through directed evolution. After fine-tuning, the circuit could be repeatedly, alternatively triggered by the same input signal; it functions as a push-on push-off switch. PMID:20212522

Synthesizing a novel genetic sequential logic circuit: a push-on push-off switch.

PubMed

Lou, Chunbo; Liu, Xili; Ni, Ming; Huang, Yiqi; Huang, Qiushi; Huang, Longwen; Jiang, Lingli; Lu, Dan; Wang, Mingcong; Liu, Chang; Chen, Daizhuo; Chen, Chongyi; Chen, Xiaoyue; Yang, Le; Ma, Haisu; Chen, Jianguo; Ouyang, Qi

2010-01-01

Design and synthesis of basic functional circuits are the fundamental tasks of synthetic biologists. Before it is possible to engineer higher-order genetic networks that can perform complex functions, a toolkit of basic devices must be developed. Among those devices, sequential logic circuits are expected to be the foundation of the genetic information-processing systems. In this study, we report the design and construction of a genetic sequential logic circuit in Escherichia coli. It can generate different outputs in response to the same input signal on the basis of its internal state, and 'memorize' the output. The circuit is composed of two parts: (1) a bistable switch memory module and (2) a double-repressed promoter NOR gate module. The two modules were individually rationally designed, and they were coupled together by fine-tuning the interconnecting parts through directed evolution. After fine-tuning, the circuit could be repeatedly, alternatively triggered by the same input signal; it functions as a push-on push-off switch.

Fine-Tuning the Quasi-3D Geometry: Enabling Efficient Nonfullerene Organic Solar Cells Based on Perylene Diimides.

PubMed

Liu, Zhitian; Zhang, Linhua; Shao, Ming; Wu, Yao; Zeng, Di; Cai, Xiang; Duan, Jiashun; Zhang, Xiaolu; Gao, Xiang

2018-01-10

The geometries of acceptors based on perylene diimides (PDIs) are important for improving the phase separation and charge transport in organic solar cells. To fine-tune the geometry, biphenyl, spiro-bifluorene, and benzene were used as the core moiety to construct quasi-three-dimensional nonfullerene acceptors based on PDI building blocks. The molecular geometries, energy levels, optical properties, photovoltaic properties, and exciton kinetics were systematically studied. The structure-performance relationship was discussed as well. Owing to the finest phase separation, the highest charge mobility and smallest nongeminate recombination, the power conversion efficiency of nonfullerene solar cells using PDI derivatives with biphenyl core (BP-PDI 4 ) as acceptor reached 7.3% when high-performance wide band gap donor material poly[(2,6-(4,8-bis(5-(2-ethylhexyl)thiophen-2-yl)-benzo[1,2-b:4,5-b']dithiophene))-alt-(5,5-(1',3'-di-2-thienyl-5',7'-bis(2-ethylhexyl)benzo[1',2'-c:4',5'-c']dithiophene-4,8-dione))] was blended.

Sox2 in the dermal papilla niche controls hair growth by fine-tuning Bmp signaling in differentiating hair shaft progenitors

PubMed Central

Clavel, Carlos; Grisanti, Laura; Zemla, Roland; Rezza, Amelie; Barros, Rita; Sennett, Rachel; Mazloom, Amin; Chung, Chi-Yeh; Cai, Xiaoqiang; Cai, Chen-Leng; Pevny, Larysa; Nicolis, Silvia; Ma’ayan, Avi; Rendl, Michael

2012-01-01

SUMMARY How dermal papilla (DP) niche cells regulate hair follicle progenitors to control hair growth remains unclear. Using Tbx18Cre to target embryonic DP precursors, we ablate the transcription factor Sox2 early and efficiently, resulting in diminished hair shaft outgrowth. We find that DP niche expression of Sox2 controls the migration rate of differentiating hair shaft progenitors. Transcriptional profiling of Sox2 null DPs reveals increased Bmp6 and decreased Bmp inhibitor Sostdc1, a direct Sox2 transcriptional target. Subsequently, we identify upregulated Bmp signaling in knockout hair shaft progenitors and demonstrate that Bmps inhibit cell migration, an effect that can be attenuated by Sostdc1. A shorter and Sox2-negative hair type lacks Sostdc1 in the DP and shows reduced migration and increased Bmp activity of hair shaft progenitors. Collectively, our data identify Sox2 as a key regulator of hair growth that controls progenitor migration by fine-tuning Bmp-mediated mesenchymal-epithelial crosstalk. PMID:23153495

Functional Role of PPARs in Ruminants: Potential Targets for Fine-Tuning Metabolism during Growth and Lactation

PubMed Central

Chen, Shuowen; Khan, Muhammad J.; Loor, Juan J.

2013-01-01

Characterization and biological roles of the peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor (PPAR) isotypes are well known in monogastrics, but not in ruminants. However, a wealth of information has accumulated in little more than a decade on ruminant PPARs including isotype tissue distribution, response to synthetic and natural agonists, gene targets, and factors affecting their expression. Functional characterization demonstrated that, as in monogastrics, the PPAR isotypes control expression of genes involved in lipid metabolism, anti-inflammatory response, development, and growth. Contrary to mouse, however, the PPARγ gene network appears to controls milk fat synthesis in lactating ruminants. As in monogastrics, PPAR isotypes in ruminants are activated by long-chain fatty acids, therefore, making them ideal candidates for fine-tuning metabolism in this species via nutrients. In this regard, using information accumulated in ruminants and monogastrics, we propose a model of PPAR isotype-driven biological functions encompassing key tissues during the peripartal period in dairy cattle. PMID:23737762

Design and engineering of intracellular-metabolite-sensing/regulation gene circuits in Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

PubMed

Wang, Meng; Li, Sijin; Zhao, Huimin

2016-01-01

The development of high-throughput phenotyping tools is lagging far behind the rapid advances of genotype generation methods. To bridge this gap, we report a new strategy for design, construction, and fine-tuning of intracellular-metabolite-sensing/regulation gene circuits by repurposing bacterial transcription factors and eukaryotic promoters. As proof of concept, we systematically investigated the design and engineering of bacterial repressor-based xylose-sensing/regulation gene circuits in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. We demonstrated that numerous properties, such as induction ratio and dose-response curve, can be fine-tuned at three different nodes, including repressor expression level, operator position, and operator sequence. By applying these gene circuits, we developed a cell sorting based, rapid and robust high-throughput screening method for xylose transporter engineering and obtained a sugar transporter HXT14 mutant with 6.5-fold improvement in xylose transportation capacity. This strategy should be generally applicable and highly useful for evolutionary engineering of proteins, pathways, and genomes in S. cerevisiae. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Cornering natural SUSY at LHC Run II and beyond

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

Buckley, Matthew R.; Feld, David; Macaluso, Sebastian

We derive the latest constraints on various simplified models of natural SUSY with light higgsinos, stops and gluinos, using a detailed and comprehensive reinterpretation of the most recent 13 TeV ATLAS and CMS searches with ~ 15 fb -1 of data. We discuss the implications of these constraints for fine-tuning of the electroweak scale. While the most “vanilla” version of SUSY (the MSSM with R-parity and flavor-degenerate sfermions) with 10% fine-tuning is ruled out by the current constraints, models with decoupled valence squarks or reduced missing energy can still be fully natural. However, in all of these models, the mediationmore » scale must be extremely low (<100 TeV). We conclude by considering the prospects for the high-luminosity LHC era, where we expect the current limits on particle masses to improve by up to ~ 1 TeV, and discuss further model-building directions for natural SUSY that are motivated by this work.« less

Is electroweak baryogenesis dead?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cline, James M.

2018-01-01

Electroweak baryogenesis is severely challenged in its traditional settings: the minimal supersymmetric standard model, and in more general two Higgs doublet models. Fine tuning of parameters is required, or large couplings leading to a Landau pole at scales just above the new physics introduced. The situation is somewhat better in models with a singlet scalar coupling to the Higgs so as to give a strongly first-order phase transition due to a tree-level barrier, but even in this case no UV complete models had been demonstrated to give successful baryogenesis. Here, we point out some directions that overcome this limitation, by introducing a new source of particle-antiparticle (CP) violation in the couplings of the singlet field. A model of electroweak baryogenesis requiring no fine tuning and consistent to scales far above 1 TeV is demonstrated, in which dark matter plays the leading role in creating a CP asymmetry that is the source of the baryon asymmetry. This article is part of the Theo Murphy meeting issue `Higgs cosmology'.

Unsupervised Transfer Learning via Multi-Scale Convolutional Sparse Coding for Biomedical Applications

PubMed Central

Chang, Hang; Han, Ju; Zhong, Cheng; Snijders, Antoine M.; Mao, Jian-Hua

2017-01-01

The capabilities of (I) learning transferable knowledge across domains; and (II) fine-tuning the pre-learned base knowledge towards tasks with considerably smaller data scale are extremely important. Many of the existing transfer learning techniques are supervised approaches, among which deep learning has the demonstrated power of learning domain transferrable knowledge with large scale network trained on massive amounts of labeled data. However, in many biomedical tasks, both the data and the corresponding label can be very limited, where the unsupervised transfer learning capability is urgently needed. In this paper, we proposed a novel multi-scale convolutional sparse coding (MSCSC) method, that (I) automatically learns filter banks at different scales in a joint fashion with enforced scale-specificity of learned patterns; and (II) provides an unsupervised solution for learning transferable base knowledge and fine-tuning it towards target tasks. Extensive experimental evaluation of MSCSC demonstrates the effectiveness of the proposed MSCSC in both regular and transfer learning tasks in various biomedical domains. PMID:28129148

Cornering natural SUSY at LHC Run II and beyond

DOE PAGES

Buckley, Matthew R.; Feld, David; Macaluso, Sebastian; ...

2017-08-25

We derive the latest constraints on various simplified models of natural SUSY with light higgsinos, stops and gluinos, using a detailed and comprehensive reinterpretation of the most recent 13 TeV ATLAS and CMS searches with ~ 15 fb -1 of data. We discuss the implications of these constraints for fine-tuning of the electroweak scale. While the most “vanilla” version of SUSY (the MSSM with R-parity and flavor-degenerate sfermions) with 10% fine-tuning is ruled out by the current constraints, models with decoupled valence squarks or reduced missing energy can still be fully natural. However, in all of these models, the mediationmore » scale must be extremely low (<100 TeV). We conclude by considering the prospects for the high-luminosity LHC era, where we expect the current limits on particle masses to improve by up to ~ 1 TeV, and discuss further model-building directions for natural SUSY that are motivated by this work.« less

Fine-tuned PEGylation of chitosan to maintain optimal siRNA-nanoplex bioactivity.

PubMed

Guţoaia, Andra; Schuster, Liane; Margutti, Simona; Laufer, Stefan; Schlosshauer, Burkhard; Krastev, Rumen; Stoll, Dieter; Hartmann, Hanna

2016-06-05

Polyethylene glycol (PEG) is a widely used modification for drug delivery systems. It reduces undesired interaction with biological components, aggregation of complexes and serves as a hydrophilic linker of ligands for targeted drug delivery. However, PEGylation can also lead to undesired changes in physicochemical characteristics of chitosan/siRNA nanoplexes and hamper gene silencing. To address this conflicting issue, PEG-chitosan copolymers were synthesized with stepwise increasing degrees of PEG substitution (1.5% to 8.0%). Subsequently formed PEG-chitosan/siRNA nanoplexes were characterized physicochemically and biologically. The results showed that small ratios of chitosan PEGylation did not affect nanoplex stability and density. However, higher PEGylation ratios reduced nanoplex size and charge, as well as cell uptake and final siRNA knockdown efficiency. Therefore, we recommend fine-tuning of PEGylation ratios to generate PEG-chitosan/siRNA delivery systems with maximum bioactivity. The degree of PEGylation for chitosan/siRNA nanoplexes should be kept low in order to maintain optimal nanoplex efficiency. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Proton-Coupled Electron Transfer and Substituent Effects in Catechol-Based Deep Eutectic Solvents: Gross and Fine Tuning of Redox Activity.

PubMed

Smith, Parker J; Goeltz, John C

2017-12-07

The 1,2-diol moiety in a variety of substituted catechols allows formation of room temperature ionic melts in a 2:1 ratio with choline chloride or choline dihydrogen citrate. These deep eutectic solvents were 4.3-6.6 M in redox active catechols. Substituents on 3- and 4-substituted catechols shift both E° and pK a such that Hammett parameters predict the observed E p for oxidation in square wave voltammetry. The proton acceptor for the proton-coupled oxidation shifts the observed E p more strongly than the substituents within the substituents and acceptors reported here. The shift is predicted well by the pK a of the conjugate acid of the proton acceptor, i.e., water in aqueous solutions or chloride or dihydrogen citrate in the DESs in this study. Together, the substituent and the proton acceptor allow gross and fine-tuning of the oxidation potential for catechol over 750 mV, the first demonstration of control of the thermodynamics of proton-coupled electron transfer in deep eutectic solvents. Changing the substituents on the HBD affords fine control in tens of millivolts, while changing the base strength of the anion of the organic salt affords gross control across hundreds of millivolts.

“Rapid Estrogen Signaling in the Brain: Implications for the Fine-Tuning of Neuronal Circuitry”

PubMed Central

Srivastava, Deepak P.; Waters, Elizabeth M.; Mermelstein, Paul G.; Kramár, Enikö A.; Shors, Tracey J.; Liu, Feng

2011-01-01

Rapid actions of estrogens were first described over 40 years ago. However, the importance of rapid estrogen-mediated actions in the central nervous system (CNS) has only now becoming apparent. Several lines of evidence demonstrate that rapid estrogen-mediated signaling elicits potent effects on molecular and cellular events, resulting in the fine-tuning of neuronal circuitry. At an ultrastructural level, the details of estrogen receptor localization and how these are regulated by the circulating hormone and age, are now becoming evident. Furthermore, the mechanisms that allow membrane-associated estrogen receptors to couple with intracellular signaling pathways are also now being revealed. Elucidation of complex actions of rapid estrogen-mediated signaling on synaptic proteins, connectivity and synaptic function in pyramidal neurons has demonstrated that this neurosteroid engage specific mechanisms in different areas of the brain. The regulation of synaptic properties most likely underlies the ‘fine-tuning’ of neuronal circuitry. This in turn may influence how learned behaviors are encoded by different circuitry in male and female subjects. Importantly, as estrogens have been suggested as potential treatments of a number of disorders of the CNS, advancements in our understanding of rapid estrogen signaling in the brain will serve to aid in the development of potential novel estrogen-based treatments. PMID:22072656

Bilingualism and National Development.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jones, Gary M., Ed.; Ozog, A. Conrad K., Ed.

1993-01-01

The subject of bilingualism is especially important in Bruni, a country with a multilingual population and a bilingual education policy, and it was felt that an international conference which examined bilingualism and bilingual education in a variety of 'development' contexts would be useful in reviewing and fine tuning of Bruneis' already…

Interdependence of endomembrane trafficking and actin dynamics during polarized growth of Arabidopsis pollen tubes

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

During polarized growth of pollen tubes, endomembrane trafficking and actin polymerization are two critical processes that establish membrane/wall homeostasis and maintain growth polarity. Fine-tuned interactions between these two processes are therefore necessary but poorly understood. To better un...

Beyond Cool

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Westerling, Tyler

2010-01-01

Roofs always have been a major focus for building energy-conservation measures. The emphasis traditionally has been on beefing up insulation. More recently, advances in roofing materials technology and analytical techniques have found new ways to fine-tune the energy performance of roofing to reduce not only operating costs, but also environmental…

Art for the Brain's Sake.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sylwester, Robert

1998-01-01

From fine-tuning muscular systems to integrating emotion and logic, the arts have important biological value. Motion and emotion are central to the arts and life itself. It is counterproductive to promote high performance standards while displacing skill development with computer technologies and reducing arts programs that move students from…

Science Learning: Processes and Applications.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Santa, Carol Minnick, Ed.; Alvermann, Donna E., Ed.

Reflecting a collaboration in terms of content areas, levels, and audience, this volume represents the efforts of science teachers and reading teachers to understand and help one another fine tune their craft. Chapters in the volume include: (1) "Metacognition, Reading and Science Education" (Linda Baker); (2) "Science and Reading:…

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

Vorogushin, M.F.

Principle and experimental analysis of RF power feed system, based on 3 db directional couplers, for undesirable modes eliminating, divided power coupling with the RFQ accelerating structure, endotron type RF power source matching, are presented. The structure fine tuning and the system adjustment results and high-speed RF autocontrol system design are considered also.

An Investigation of Spontaneous Lorentz Violation and Cosmic Inflation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tam, Heywood

2010-12-01

In this thesis we re-examine two established ideas in theoretical physics: Lorentz invariance and cosmic inflation. In the first four chapters, we (i) propose a way to hide large extra dimensions by coupling standard model fields with Lorentz-violating tensor fields with expectation values along the extra dimensions; (ii) examine the stability of theories in which Lorentz invariance is spontaneously broken by fixed-norm 'aether' fields; (iii) investigate the phenomenological properties of the sigma-model aether theory; and (iv) explore the implications of an alternative theory of gravity in which the graviton arises from the Goldstone modes of a two-index symmetric aether field. In the final chapter, we examine the horizon and flatness problems using the canonical measure (developed by Gibbons, Hawking, and Stewart) on the space of solutions to Einstein's equations. We find that the flatness problem does not exist, while the homogeneity of our universe does represent a substantial fine-tuning. Based on the assumption of unitary evolution (Liouville's theorem), we further dispute the widely accepted claim that inflation makes our universe more natural.

Quark mass variations of nuclear forces, BBN, and all that

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Meissner, Ulf-G.

2014-03-01

In this talk, I discuss the modifications of the nuclear forces due to variations of the light quark masses and of the fine structure constant. This is based on the chiral nuclear effective field theory, that successfully describes a large body of data. The generation of the light elements in the Big Bang Nucleosynthesis provides important constraints on these modifications. In addition, I discuss the role of the anthropic principle in the triple-alpha process that underlies carbon and oxygen generation in hot stars. It appears that a fine-tuning of the quark masses and the fine structure constant within 2 to 3 per cent is required to make life on Earth viable. Supported in part by DFG, HGF and the BMBF.

Temperature Dependent Photoluminescence of CuInS2 with ZnS Capping

DTIC Science & Technology

2014-05-11

cadmium or zinc like cadmium selenide. The optical properties of core-type nanocrystals can be fine-tuned by changing the quantum dot size. Core...Physics Department To August 2011 University of Notre Dame, South Bend, Indiana - Computational work involving the half-life of Fe60 - Data

Probiotic Bovamine fine-tunes the ruminal microbiome for enhanced fermentation and immunity

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

We evaluated the effect of Bovamine, Lactobacillus acidophilus strain NP51 and Propionibacterium freudenreichii strain strain NP24, feeding on the microbial composition of the digestive system microbiota of dairy cattle during late lactation (average DIM = 202 days on time 0). To examine the underly...

Mathematics Capital in the Educational Field: Bourdieu and Beyond

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Williams, Julian; Choudry, Sophina

2016-01-01

Mathematics education needs a better appreciation of the dominant power structures in the educational field: Bourdieu's theory of capital provides a good starting point. We argue from Bourdieu's perspective that school mathematics provides capital that is finely tuned to generationally reproduce the social structures that serve to keep the…

Maintaining Investment Success: The Importance of Asset Suballocation.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Morrell, Louis R.

1997-01-01

To meet demand for increased funding, in a period of probable declining investment returns, colleges and universities must fine-tune their asset suballocations to enhance returns. While the institution should adhere to major asset allocation classes, there can be much flexibility, and enhanced return, in shifting suballocations within the major…

Drug companies monitor prescriptions and sales to fine-tune their marketing strategies.

PubMed

2010-06-01

Market research companies analyse drug prescriptions and sales in community and hospital pharmacies, thus enabling drug companies to refine their marketing strategies. Some information of interest to drug companies is provided directly by healthcare professionals, sometimes unwittingly, and sometimes in return for small "favours".

Application of population sequencing (POPSEQ) for ordering and inputting genotyping-by-sequencing markers in hexaploid wheat

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

The advancement of next-generation sequencing technologies in conjunction with new bioinformatics tools enabled fine-tuning of sequence-based high resolution mapping strategies for complex genomes. Although genotyping-by-sequencing (GBS) provides a large number of markers, its application for assoc...

Sequential Pointing in Children and Adults.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Badan, Maryse; Hauert, Claude-Alain; Mounoud, Pierre

2000-01-01

Four experiments investigated the development of visuomotor control in sequential pointing in tasks varying in difficulty among 6- to 10-year-olds and adults. Comparisons across difficulty levels and ages suggest that motor development is not a uniform fine-tuning of stable strategies. Findings raise argument for stage characteristics of…

The Ubiquitin-Proteasome Pathway and Synaptic Plasticity

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hegde, Ashok N.

2010-01-01

Proteolysis by the ubiquitin-proteasome pathway (UPP) has emerged as a new molecular mechanism that controls wide-ranging functions in the nervous system, including fine-tuning of synaptic connections during development and synaptic plasticity in the adult organism. In the UPP, attachment of a small protein, ubiquitin, tags the substrates for…

ESP Needs Washback and the Fine Tuning of Driving Instruction

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Freiermuth, Mark R.

2007-01-01

Workplace needs are often difficult for English for Specific Purposes (ESP) teachers to assess due to a variety of obstacles that can restrict opportunities to analyze the existing needs. Nevertheless, the workers' needs may be recognized by employing techniques aimed at extracting information from the workers themselves. Japanese university…

Managing Lost and Missing Books

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sewell, Bethany Badgett; Miller, Andrew Jonathan

2008-01-01

The University of Denver's Penrose Library's Stacks Maintenance unit is a separately managed unit that works in collaboration with all library departments to ensure complete access to the library's print collections. This unit takes advantage of a variety of techniques and tools to fulfill its mission, including a fine-tuned tracer system for…

Facebook: The New Classroom Commons?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Schwartz, Harriet L.

2010-01-01

There has been much discussion about the issue of boundaries on Facebook. Some suggest faculty members can resolve potential dilemmas in relation to students by making sensible decisions about what to post and by fine-tuning privacy settings. But the challenges and opportunities run deeper. For those who want to be appropriately accessible to…

Anteriorly located zonular fibres as a tool for fine regulation in accommodation

PubMed Central

Flügel-Koch, Cassandra; Croft, Mary Ann; Kaufman, Paul L.; Lütjen-Drecoll, Elke

2015-01-01

Purpose To describe an anteriorly located system of zonular fibres that could be involved in fine-tuning of accommodation Methods Forty six human and 28 rhesus monkey eyes were dissected and special preparations were processed for scanning electron microscopy and reflected-light microscopy. Additional series of frontal and sagittal histological and ultrathin sections were analysed in respect to the origin and insertion of anteriorly located zonules. The presence of sensory terminals at the site of the originating zonules within the connective tissue of the ciliary body was studied by immunohistochemistry. For in-vivo visualization ultrasound biomicroscopy (UBM) was performed on 12 human subjects. Results Fine zonular fibres originated from the valleys and lateral walls of the most anterior pars plicata that covers the anterior and inner circular ciliary muscle portion. These most anterior zonules (MAZ) showed attachments either to the anterior or posterior tines or they inserted directly onto the surface of the lens. At the site of origin, the course of the MAZ merged into the connective tissue fibres connecting the adjacent pigmented epithelium to the ciliary muscle. Numerous afferent terminals directly at the site of this MAZ-origin were connected to the intrinsic nervous network of the ciliary muscle. Conclusions A newly described set of zonular fibres features the capabilities to register the tensions of the zonular fork and lens capsule. The close location and neural connection towards the circular ciliary muscle portion could provide the basis for stabilization and readjustment of focusing that serves fast and fine-tuned accommodation and disaccommodation. PMID:26490669

Crystal Structural Effect of AuCu Alloy Nanoparticles on Catalytic CO Oxidation

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

Zhan, Wangcheng; Wang, Jinglin; Wang, Haifeng

2017-06-07

Controlling the physical and chemical properties of alloy nanoparticles (NPs) is an important approach to optimize NP catalysis. Unlike other tuning knobs, such as size, shape, and composition, crystal structure has received limited attention and not been well understood for its role in catalysis. This deficiency is mainly due to the difficulty in synthesis and fine-tuning of the NPs’ crystal structure. Here, Exemplifying by AuCu alloy NPs with face centered cubic (fcc) and face centered tetragonal (fct) structure, we demonstrate a remarkable difference in phase segregation and catalytic performance depending on the crystal structure. During the thermal treatment in air,more » the Cu component in fcc-AuCu alloy NPs segregates more easily onto the alloy surface as compared to that in fct-AuCu alloy NPs. As a result, after annealing at 250 °C in air for 1 h, the fcc- and fct-AuCu alloy NPs are phase transferred into Au/CuO and AuCu/CuO core/shell structures, respectively. More importantly, this variation in heterostructures introduces a significant difference in CO adsorption on two catalysts, leading to a largely enhanced catalytic activity of AuCu/CuO NP catalyst for CO oxidation. Furthermore, the same concept can be extended to other alloy NPs, making it possible to fine-tune NP catalysis for many different chemical reactions.« less

On the flavor structure of natural composite Higgs models & top flavor violation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Azatov, Aleksandr; Panico, Giuliano; Perez, Gilad; Soreq, Yotam

2014-12-01

We explore the up flavor structure of composite pseudo Nambu-Goldstone-boson Higgs models, where we focus on the flavor anarchic minimal SO(5) case. We identify the different sources of flavor violation in this framework and emphasise the differences from the anarchic Randall-Sundrum scenario. In particular, the fact that the flavor symmetry does not commute with the symmetries that stabilize the Higgs potential may constrain the flavor structure of the theory. In addition, we consider the interplay between the fine tuning of the model and flavor violation. We find that generically the tuning of this class of models is worsen in the anarchic case due to the contributions from the additional fermion resonances. We show that, even in the presence of custodial symmetry, large top flavor violating rate are naturally expected. In particular, t → cZ branching ratio of order of 10-5 is generic for this class of models. Thus, this framework can be tested in the next run of the LHC as well as in other future colliders. We also find that the top flavor violation is weakly correlated with the increase amount of fine tuning. Finally, other related flavor violation effects, such as t → ch and in the D system, are found to be too small to be observed by the current and near future colliders.

A single-layer platform for Boolean logic and arithmetic through DNA excision in mammalian cells

PubMed Central

Weinberg, Benjamin H.; Hang Pham, N. T.; Caraballo, Leidy D.; Lozanoski, Thomas; Engel, Adrien; Bhatia, Swapnil; Wong, Wilson W.

2017-01-01

Genetic circuits engineered for mammalian cells often require extensive fine-tuning to perform their intended functions. To overcome this problem, we present a generalizable biocomputing platform that can engineer genetic circuits which function in human cells with minimal optimization. We used our Boolean Logic and Arithmetic through DNA Excision (BLADE) platform to build more than 100 multi-input-multi-output circuits. We devised a quantitative metric to evaluate the performance of the circuits in human embryonic kidney and Jurkat T cells. Of 113 circuits analysed, 109 functioned (96.5%) with the correct specified behavior without any optimization. We used our platform to build a three-input, two-output Full Adder and six-input, one-output Boolean Logic Look Up Table. We also used BLADE to design circuits with temporal small molecule-mediated inducible control and circuits that incorporate CRISPR/Cas9 to regulate endogenous mammalian genes. PMID:28346402

Asymmetric Higgsino dark matter.

PubMed

Blum, Kfir; Efrati, Aielet; Grossman, Yuval; Nir, Yosef; Riotto, Antonio

2012-08-03

In the supersymmetric framework, prior to the electroweak phase transition, the existence of a baryon asymmetry implies the existence of a Higgsino asymmetry. We investigate whether the Higgsino could be a viable asymmetric dark matter candidate. We find that this is indeed possible. Thus, supersymmetry can provide the observed dark matter abundance and, furthermore, relate it with the baryon asymmetry, in which case the puzzle of why the baryonic and dark matter mass densities are similar would be explained. To accomplish this task, two conditions are required. First, the gauginos, squarks, and sleptons must all be very heavy, such that the only electroweak-scale superpartners are the Higgsinos. With this spectrum, supersymmetry does not solve the fine-tuning problem. Second, the temperature of the electroweak phase transition must be low, in the (1-10) GeV range. This condition requires an extension of the minimal supersymmetric standard model.

Unification of gauge, family, and flavor symmetries illustrated in gauged SU(12) models

DOE PAGES

Albright, Carl H.; Feger, Robert P.; Kephart, Thomas W.

2016-04-25

In this study, to explain quark and lepton masses and mixing angles, one has to extend the standard model, and the usual practice is to put the quarks and leptons into irreducible representations of discrete groups. We argue that discrete flavor symmetries (and their concomitant problems) can be avoided if we extend the gauge group. In the framework of SU(12) we give explicit examples of models having varying degrees of predictability obtained by scanning over groups and representations and identifying cases with operators contributing to mass and mixing matrices that need little fine- tuning of prefactors. Fitting with quark andmore » lepton masses run to the GUT scale and known mixing angles allows us to make predictions for the neutrino masses and hierarchy, the octant of the atmospheric mixing angle, leptonic CP violation, Majorana phases, and the effective mass observed in neutrinoless double beta decay.« less

Conditions for entangled photon emission from (111)B site-controlled pyramidal quantum dots

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

Juska, G., E-mail: gediminas.juska@tyndall.ie; Murray, E.; Dimastrodonato, V.

A study of highly symmetric site-controlled pyramidal In{sub 0.25}Ga{sub 0.75}As quantum dots (QDs) is presented. It is discussed that polarization-entangled photons can be also obtained from pyramidal QDs of different designs from the one already reported in Juska et al. [Nat. Photonics 7, 527 (2013)]. Moreover, some of the limitations for a higher density of entangled photon emitters are addressed. Among these issues are (1) a remaining small fine-structure splitting and (2) an effective QD charging under non-resonant excitation conditions, which strongly reduce the number of useful biexciton-exciton recombination events. A possible solution of the charging problem is investigated exploitingmore » a dual-wavelength excitation technique, which allows a gradual QD charge tuning from strongly negative to positive and, eventually, efficient detection of entangled photons from QDs, which would be otherwise ineffective under a single-wavelength (non-resonant) excitation.« less

Dynamics near the threshold for blowup in the one-dimensional focusing nonlinear Klein-Gordon equation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bizoń, Piotr; Chmaj, Tadeusz; Szpak, Nikodem

2011-10-01

We study dynamics near the threshold for blowup in the focusing nonlinear Klein-Gordon equation utt - uxx + u - |u|2αu = 0 on the line. Using mixed numerical and analytical methods we find that solutions starting from even initial data, fine-tuned to the threshold, are trapped by the static solution S for intermediate times. The details of trapping are shown to depend on the power α, namely, we observe fast convergence to S for α > 1, slow convergence for α = 1, and very slow (if any) convergence for 0 < α < 1. Our findings are complementary with respect to the recent rigorous analysis of the same problem (for α > 2) by Krieger, Nakanishi, and Schlag ["Global dynamics above from the ground state energy for the one-dimensional NLKG equation," preprint arXiv:1011.1776 [math.AP

Tunable volatile release from organogel-emulsions based on the self-assembly of β-sitosterol and γ-oryzanol.

PubMed

Chen, Xiao-Wei; Chen, Ya-Jun; Wang, Jin-Mei; Guo, Jian; Yin, Shou-Wei; Yang, Xiao-Quan

2017-04-15

A current challenge in the area of food emulsion is the design of microstructure that provides controlled release of volatile compounds during storage and consumption. Here, a new strategy addressed this problem at the fundamental level by describing the design of organogel-based emulsion from the self-assembly of β-sitosterol and γ-oryzanol that are capable of tuning volatile release. The results showed that the release rate (v 0 ), maximum headspace concentrations (C max ) and partition coefficients (k a / e ) above structured emulsions were significantly lower than unstructured emulsions and controlled release doing undergo tunable though the self-assembled interface and core fine microstructure from internal phase under dynamic and static condition. This result provides an understanding of how emulsions can behave as delivery system to better design novel food products with enhanced sensorial and nutritional attributes. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Active semi-supervised learning method with hybrid deep belief networks.

PubMed

Zhou, Shusen; Chen, Qingcai; Wang, Xiaolong

2014-01-01

In this paper, we develop a novel semi-supervised learning algorithm called active hybrid deep belief networks (AHD), to address the semi-supervised sentiment classification problem with deep learning. First, we construct the previous several hidden layers using restricted Boltzmann machines (RBM), which can reduce the dimension and abstract the information of the reviews quickly. Second, we construct the following hidden layers using convolutional restricted Boltzmann machines (CRBM), which can abstract the information of reviews effectively. Third, the constructed deep architecture is fine-tuned by gradient-descent based supervised learning with an exponential loss function. Finally, active learning method is combined based on the proposed deep architecture. We did several experiments on five sentiment classification datasets, and show that AHD is competitive with previous semi-supervised learning algorithm. Experiments are also conducted to verify the effectiveness of our proposed method with different number of labeled reviews and unlabeled reviews respectively.

Temporal properties of responses to sound in the ventral nucleus of the lateral lemniscus.

PubMed

Recio-Spinoso, Alberto; Joris, Philip X

2014-02-01

Besides the rapid fluctuations in pressure that constitute the "fine structure" of a sound stimulus, slower fluctuations in the sound's envelope represent an important temporal feature. At various stages in the auditory system, neurons exhibit tuning to envelope frequency and have been described as modulation filters. We examine such tuning in the ventral nucleus of the lateral lemniscus (VNLL) of the pentobarbital-anesthetized cat. The VNLL is a large but poorly accessible auditory structure that provides a massive inhibitory input to the inferior colliculus. We test whether envelope filtering effectively applies to the envelope spectrum when multiple envelope components are simultaneously present. We find two broad classes of response with often complementary properties. The firing rate of onset neurons is tuned to a band of modulation frequencies, over which they also synchronize strongly to the envelope waveform. Although most sustained neurons show little firing rate dependence on modulation frequency, some of them are weakly tuned. The latter neurons are usually band-pass or low-pass tuned in synchronization, and a reverse-correlation approach demonstrates that their modulation tuning is preserved to nonperiodic, noisy envelope modulations of a tonal carrier. Modulation tuning to this type of stimulus is weaker for onset neurons. In response to broadband noise, sustained and onset neurons tend to filter out envelope components over a frequency range consistent with their modulation tuning to periodically modulated tones. The results support a role for VNLL in providing temporal reference signals to the auditory midbrain.

Balancing accuracy, efficiency, and flexibility in a radiative transfer parameterization for dynamical models

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pincus, R.; Mlawer, E. J.

2017-12-01

Radiation is key process in numerical models of the atmosphere. The problem is well-understood and the parameterization of radiation has seen relatively few conceptual advances in the past 15 years. It is nonthelss often the single most expensive component of all physical parameterizations despite being computed less frequently than other terms. This combination of cost and maturity suggests value in a single radiation parameterization that could be shared across models; devoting effort to a single parameterization might allow for fine tuning for efficiency. The challenge lies in the coupling of this parameterization to many disparate representations of clouds and aerosols. This talk will describe RRTMGP, a new radiation parameterization that seeks to balance efficiency and flexibility. This balance is struck by isolating computational tasks in "kernels" that expose as much fine-grained parallelism as possible. These have simple interfaces and are interoperable across programming languages so that they might be repalced by alternative implementations in domain-specific langauges. Coupling to the host model makes use of object-oriented features of Fortran 2003, minimizing branching within the kernels and the amount of data that must be transferred. We will show accuracy and efficiency results for a globally-representative set of atmospheric profiles using a relatively high-resolution spectral discretization.

Self-tuning bistable parametric feedback oscillator: Near-optimal amplitude maximization without model information

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Braun, David J.; Sutas, Andrius; Vijayakumar, Sethu

2017-01-01

Theory predicts that parametrically excited oscillators, tuned to operate under resonant condition, are capable of large-amplitude oscillation useful in diverse applications, such as signal amplification, communication, and analog computation. However, due to amplitude saturation caused by nonlinearity, lack of robustness to model uncertainty, and limited sensitivity to parameter modulation, these oscillators require fine-tuning and strong modulation to generate robust large-amplitude oscillation. Here we present a principle of self-tuning parametric feedback excitation that alleviates the above-mentioned limitations. This is achieved using a minimalistic control implementation that performs (i) self-tuning (slow parameter adaptation) and (ii) feedback pumping (fast parameter modulation), without sophisticated signal processing past observations. The proposed approach provides near-optimal amplitude maximization without requiring model-based control computation, previously perceived inevitable to implement optimal control principles in practical application. Experimental implementation of the theory shows that the oscillator self-tunes itself near to the onset of dynamic bifurcation to achieve extreme sensitivity to small resonant parametric perturbations. As a result, it achieves large-amplitude oscillations by capitalizing on the effect of nonlinearity, despite substantial model uncertainties and strong unforeseen external perturbations. We envision the present finding to provide an effective and robust approach to parametric excitation when it comes to real-world application.

Representation of pitch chroma by multi-peak spectral tuning in human auditory cortex

PubMed Central

Moerel, Michelle; De Martino, Federico; Santoro, Roberta; Yacoub, Essa; Formisano, Elia

2015-01-01

Musical notes played at octave intervals (i.e., having the same pitch chroma) are perceived as similar. This well-known perceptual phenomenon lays at the foundation of melody recognition and music perception, yet its neural underpinnings remain largely unknown to date. Using fMRI with high sensitivity and spatial resolution, we examined the contribution of multi-peak spectral tuning to the neural representation of pitch chroma in human auditory cortex in two experiments. In experiment 1, our estimation of population spectral tuning curves from the responses to natural sounds confirmed—with new data—our recent results on the existence of cortical ensemble responses finely tuned to multiple frequencies at one octave distance (Moerel et al., 2013). In experiment 2, we fitted a mathematical model consisting of a pitch chroma and height component to explain the measured fMRI responses to piano notes. This analysis revealed that the octave-tuned populations—but not other cortical populations—harbored a neural representation of musical notes according to their pitch chroma. These results indicate that responses of auditory cortical populations selectively tuned to multiple frequencies at one octave distance predict well the perceptual similarity of musical notes with the same chroma, beyond the physical (frequency) distance of notes. PMID:25479020

Representation of pitch chroma by multi-peak spectral tuning in human auditory cortex.

PubMed

Moerel, Michelle; De Martino, Federico; Santoro, Roberta; Yacoub, Essa; Formisano, Elia

2015-02-01

Musical notes played at octave intervals (i.e., having the same pitch chroma) are perceived as similar. This well-known perceptual phenomenon lays at the foundation of melody recognition and music perception, yet its neural underpinnings remain largely unknown to date. Using fMRI with high sensitivity and spatial resolution, we examined the contribution of multi-peak spectral tuning to the neural representation of pitch chroma in human auditory cortex in two experiments. In experiment 1, our estimation of population spectral tuning curves from the responses to natural sounds confirmed--with new data--our recent results on the existence of cortical ensemble responses finely tuned to multiple frequencies at one octave distance (Moerel et al., 2013). In experiment 2, we fitted a mathematical model consisting of a pitch chroma and height component to explain the measured fMRI responses to piano notes. This analysis revealed that the octave-tuned populations-but not other cortical populations-harbored a neural representation of musical notes according to their pitch chroma. These results indicate that responses of auditory cortical populations selectively tuned to multiple frequencies at one octave distance predict well the perceptual similarity of musical notes with the same chroma, beyond the physical (frequency) distance of notes. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Supernatural supersymmetry and its classic example: M-theory inspired NMSSM

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Li, Tianjun; Raza, Shabbar; Wang, Xiao-Chuan

2016-06-01

We briefly review the supernatural supersymmetry (SUSY), which provides a most promising solution to the SUSY electroweak fine-tuning problem. In particular, we address its subtle issues as well. Unlike the minimal supersymmetric standard model (MSSM), the next to MSSM (NMSSM) can be scale invariant and has no mass parameter in its Lagrangian before SUSY and gauge symmetry breakings. Therefore, the NMSSM is a perfect framework for supernatural SUSY. To give the SUSY breaking soft mass to the singlet, we consider the moduli and dilaton dominant SUSY breaking scenarios in M-theory on S1/Z2. In these scenarios, SUSY is broken by one and only one F term of moduli or dilaton, and the SUSY breaking soft terms can be determined via the Kähler potential and superpotential from Calabi-Yau compactification of M-theory on S1/Z2. Thus, as predicted by supernatural SUSY, the SUSY electroweak fine-tuning measure is of unity order. In the moduli dominant SUSY breaking scenario, the right-handed sleptons are relatively light around 1 TeV, stau can even be as light as 580 GeV and degenerate with the lightest neutralino, chargino masses are larger than 1 TeV, the light stop masses are around 2 TeV or larger, the first two-generation squark masses are about 3 TeV or larger, and gluinos are heavier tha.n squarks. In the dilaton dominant SUSY breaking scenario, the qualitative picture remains the same but we have heavier spectra as compared to the moduli dominant SUSY breaking scenario. In addition to it, we have Higgs H2/A1-resonance solutions for dark matter (DM). In both scenarios, the minimal value of DM relic density is about 0.2. To obtain the observed DM relic density, we can consider the dilution effect from supercritical string cosmology or introduce the axino as the lightest supersymmetric particle.

Universality class of the two-dimensional polymer collapse transition

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nahum, Adam

2016-05-01

The nature of the θ point for a polymer in two dimensions has long been debated, with a variety of candidates put forward for the critical exponents. This includes those derived by Duplantier and Saleur for an exactly solvable model. We use a representation of the problem via the CPN -1σ model in the limit N →1 to determine the stability of this critical point. First we prove that the Duplantier-Saleur (DS) critical exponents are robust, so long as the polymer does not cross itself: They can arise in a generic lattice model and do not require fine-tuning. This resolves a longstanding theoretical question. We also address an apparent paradox: Two different lattice models, apparently both in the DS universality class, show different numbers of relevant perturbations, apparently leading to contradictory conclusions about the stability of the DS exponents. We explain this in terms of subtle differences between the two models, one of which is fine-tuned (and not strictly in the DS universality class). Next we allow the polymer to cross itself, as appropriate, e.g., to the quasi-two-dimensional case. This introduces an additional independent relevant perturbation, so we do not expect the DS exponents to apply. The exponents in the case with crossings will be those of the generic tricritical O (n ) model at n =0 and different from the case without crossings. We also discuss interesting features of the operator content of the CPN -1 model. Simple geometrical arguments show that two operators in this field theory, with very different symmetry properties, have the same scaling dimension for any value of N (or, equivalently, any value of the loop fugacity). Also we argue that for any value of N the CPN -1 model has a marginal odd-parity operator that is related to the winding angle.

Remote monitoring of left ventricular assist device parameters after HeartAssist-5 implantation.

PubMed

Pektok, Erman; Demirozu, Zumrut Tuba; Arat, Nurcan; Yildiz, Omer; Oklu, Emine; Eker, Deniz; Ece, Ferah; Ciftci, Cavlan; Yazicioglu, Nuran; Bayindir, Osman; Kucukaksu, Deniz Suha

2013-09-01

Although several left ventricular assist devices (LVADs) have been used widely, remote monitoring of LVAD parameters has been available only recently. We present our remote monitoring experience with an axial-flow LVAD (HeartAssist-5, MicroMed Cardiovascular, Inc., Houston, TX, USA). Five consecutive patients who were implanted a HeartAssist-5 LVAD because of end-stage heart failure due to ischemic (n=4) or idiopathic (n=1) cardiomyopathy, and discharged from hospital between December 2011 and January 2013 were analyzed. The data (pump speed, pump flow, power consumption) obtained from clinical visits and remote monitoring were studied. During a median follow-up of 253 (range: 80-394) days, fine tuning of LVADs was performed at clinical visits. All patients are doing well and are in New York Heart Association Class-I/II. A total of 39 alarms were received from three patients. One patient was hospitalized for suspected thrombosis and was subjected to physical examinations as well as laboratory and echocardiographic evaluations; however, no evidence of thrombus washout or pump thrombus was found. The patient was treated conservatively. Remaining alarms were due to insufficient water intake and were resolved by increased water consumption at night and summer times, and fine tuning of pump speed. No alarms were received from the remaining two patients. We believe that remote monitoring is a useful technology for early detection and treatment of serious problems occurring out of hospital thereby improving patient care. Future developments may ease troubleshooting, provide more data from the patient and the pump, and eventually increase physician and patient satisfaction. Despite all potential clinical benefits, remote monitoring should be taken as a supplement to rather than a substitute for routine clinical visits for patient follow-up. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. and International Center for Artificial Organs and Transplantation.

Improvement of mechanical behaviors of a superlight Mg-Li base alloy by duplex phases and fine precipitates

DOE PAGES

Zou, Yun; Zhang, Lehao; Li, Yang; ...

2017-12-06

Limitations of strength and formability are the major obstacles to the industrial application of magnesium alloys. Here, we demonstrate, by producing the duplex phases and fine intermetallic particles in composition-optimized superlight Mg-Li-Al alloys, a unique approach to simultaneously improve the comprehensive mechanical properties (a strength-ductility balance). In conclusion, the phase components and microstructures, including the size, morphology, and distribution of precipitated-intermetallic particles can be optimized by tuning the Li content, which strongly influences the work-hardening behavior and tension-compression yield asymmetry.

Cavity-assisted emission of polarization-entangled photons from biexcitons in quantum dots with fine-structure splitting.

PubMed

Schumacher, Stefan; Förstner, Jens; Zrenner, Artur; Florian, Matthias; Gies, Christopher; Gartner, Paul; Jahnke, Frank

2012-02-27

We study the quantum properties and statistics of photons emitted by a quantum-dot biexciton inside a cavity. In the biexciton-exciton cascade, fine-structure splitting between exciton levels degrades polarization-entanglement for the emitted pair of photons. However, here we show that the polarization-entanglement can be preserved in such a system through simultaneous emission of two degenerate photons into cavity modes tuned to half the biexciton energy. Based on detailed theoretical calculations for realistic quantum-dot and cavity parameters, we quantify the degree of achievable entanglement.

Design of an iterative auto-tuning algorithm for a fuzzy PID controller

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Saeed, Bakhtiar I.; Mehrdadi, B.

2012-05-01

Since the first application of fuzzy logic in the field of control engineering, it has been extensively employed in controlling a wide range of applications. The human knowledge on controlling complex and non-linear processes can be incorporated into a controller in the form of linguistic terms. However, with the lack of analytical design study it is becoming more difficult to auto-tune controller parameters. Fuzzy logic controller has several parameters that can be adjusted, such as: membership functions, rule-base and scaling gains. Furthermore, it is not always easy to find the relation between the type of membership functions or rule-base and the controller performance. This study proposes a new systematic auto-tuning algorithm to fine tune fuzzy logic controller gains. A fuzzy PID controller is proposed and applied to several second order systems. The relationship between the closed-loop response and the controller parameters is analysed to devise an auto-tuning method. The results show that the proposed method is highly effective and produces zero overshoot with enhanced transient response. In addition, the robustness of the controller is investigated in the case of parameter changes and the results show a satisfactory performance.

[Barriers upon providing assistance with making arrangements for discharging and changing from hospitals while a patient is undergoing cancer therapy].

PubMed

Takayanagi, Hideo

2011-12-01

There has been an increase in cancer patient referrals to our palliative care team during a cancer treatment. In order to help an end-of-life stage homecare cancer patient who becomes being depressed and the family being felt restlessness, a fine-tuned response, an early stage of revelation of the disease and treatment are essential to have a long lasting homecare environment. Based on the Basic Plan to Promote Cancer Control Programs, our hospital established a cancer consulting support center and a palliative cancer care team in June 2009, and staffed them with multidisciplinary personnel. With medical staffs involved as a team, we considered a shared decision making repeatedly in compliance with in-patient's wishes for home care. One of the problems we have experienced was that a patient would take a long time for a decision making due to the state of mental depression, even if the patient had an ability to think and evaluate oneself. For a medicinal treatment of cancer patient with the state of depression, steroid, interferon, hypertension drug, female hormone pill, anti-histamine medicine and anti-fungus agent will cause frequent side effects, but they are easy to get rid of the symptoms. It appears that 5-percent of the patients who had steroid administered 10 days ago have a tendency to have a high manifested risk in 40mg/day PURRE- DONIZORO/Japan calculated. In case of medication related depression, the symptom can be rather controlled quickly by a decrease in the amount of medication. On the other hand, there is a possibility that side effects may appear before anti-depression comes to effects in case of an ordinary depression case. And it takes 2-4 weeks for the medicine to be effective. Therefore, amid the cancer patient is being in the state of depression, a decision to transfer the patient for home care environment should be delayed. This is why we ought to investigate it as one of the problems in palliative care. In conclusion, due to a patient's inability to make own decision, or for a home care period to be not shortened, or we fail to make a right timing to for sending the patient to home, a careful daily observation and a fine-tuned response are desired for a sign of depression with the cancer patient.

Prescribed fire as an alternative measure in European grassland conservation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Valkó, Orsolya; Deák, Balázs; Török, Péter; Tóthmérész, Béla

2015-04-01

There are contrasting opinions on the perspectives of prescribed burning management in European grasslands. One hand, prescribed burning can be effectively used with relatively low implementation costs for the management of open landscapes, the reduction of accumulated litter or for decreasing the chance of wildfires. On the other hand burning can also have serious detrimental impacts on grassland ecosystems by promoting the dominance of some problem species (e.g. some competitors or invasive species) and by threatening endangered plant and animal species, especially invertebrates, thus, inappropriate burning can result in a loss of biodiversity in the long run. Our goal was to review the publications on the application of prescribed burning in European grasslands considering general (e.g. timing, frequency and duration) and specific (e.g. types of grasslands, effects on endangered species) circumstances. Even prescribed burning forms an integral part of the North-American grassland management practice, it is rarely applied in Europe, despite the fact that uncontrolled burning occurs frequently in some regions. According to the North-American experiences prescribed burning can be a viable solution for biodiversity conservation and can be a feasible solution for several nature conservation problems. We reviewed prescribed burning studies from Europe and North-America to identify findings which might be adapted to the European grassland conservation strategy. We found that not only the application of fire management is scarce in Europe but there is also a lack of published studies on this topic. European studies - contrary to the North-American practice - usually used yearly dormant-season burning, and concluded that this burning type solely is not feasible to preserve and maintain species-rich grasslands. In North-American grasslands, application of burning has a stronger historical, practical and scientific background; it is fine-tuned in terms of timing, frequency and generally combined with other measures, such as grazing, seed sowing or herbicide application. By this complex approach several nature conservation goals can be fulfilled like increasing landscape-scale heterogeneity and invasion control. We emphasize that for establishing a fine-tuned prescribed burning management plan for the European grasslands the general findings of carefully designed case studies should be combined with the practical knowledge of conservation managers concerning the local application circumstances to reach specific management objectives.

Ethylene contributes to mir1-mediated maize defense against the phloem-sap sucking insect Rhopalosiphum maidis.

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Signaling networks among multiple phytohormones fine-tune plant defense responses to insect herbivore attack. Previously, it was reported that the synergistic combination of ethylene (ET) and jasmonic acid (JA) was required for providing maize insect resistance1 (mir1), a key endogenous defense sign...

Tracking Learners' Progress: Adopting a Dual "Corpus cum Experimental Data" Approach

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Meunier, Fanny; Littre, Damien

2013-01-01

The article discusses the potential of combining learner corpus research with experimental studies in order to fine-tune the understanding of learner language development. It illustrates the complementarity of the two methodological approaches with data from an ongoing study of the acquisition of the English tense and aspect system by French…

Fine-Tuning Dropout Prediction through Discriminant Analysis: The Ethnic Factor.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wilkinson, L. David; Frazer, Linda H.

In the 1988-89 school year, the Austin (Texas) Independent School District's Office of Research and Evaluation undertook a new dropout research project. Part of this initiative, termed Project GRAD, attempted to develop a statistical equation by which one could predict which students were likely to drop out. If reliable predictive information…

Nitrate loss in subsurface drainage and corn yield as affected by timing of sidedress nitrogen

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Using chlorophyll meters, crop sensors, or aerial photography to fine-tune sidedress N application rates have been proposed for optimizing and perhaps reducing overall N fertilizer use on corn (Zea mays L.) and thereby improving water quality by reducing NO3 losses to surface and ground waters. Howe...

The regulatory properties of rubisco activase differ among species and affect photosynthetic induction during light transitions

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Rubisco’s catalytic chaperone, Rubisco activase (Rca), uses the energy from ATP hydrolysis to restore catalytic competence to Rubisco. In Arabidopsis, inhibition of Rca activity by ADP is fine-tuned by redox regulation of the a-isoform. To elucidate the mechanism for Rca regulation in species contai...

Stabilizing oscillating universes against quantum decay

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

Mithani, Audrey T.; Vilenkin, Alexander, E-mail: audrey.todhunter@tufts.edu, E-mail: vilenkin@cosmos.phy.tufts.edu

2015-07-01

We investigate the effect of vacuum corrections, due to the trace anomaly and Casimir effect, on the stability of an oscillating universe with respect to decay by tunneling to the singularity. We find that these corrections do not generally stabilize an oscillating universe. However, stability may be achieved for some specially fine-tuned non-vacuum states.

Improving Foundational Number Representations through Simple Arithmetical Training

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kallai, Arava Y.; Schunn, Christian D.; Ponting, Andrea L.; Fiez, Julie A.

2011-01-01

The aim of this study was to test a training program intended to fine-tune the mental representations of double-digit numbers, thus increasing the discriminability of such numbers. The authors' assumption was that increased fluency in math could be achieved by improving the analogic representations of numbers. The study was completed in the…

Observing and Analyzing Children's Mathematical Development, Based on Action Theory

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bunck, M. J. A.; Terlien, E.; van Groenestijn, M.; Toll, S. W. M.; Van Luit, J. E. H.

2017-01-01

Children who experience difficulties with learning mathematics should be taught by teachers who focus on the child's best way of learning. Analyses of the mathematical difficulties are necessary for fine-tuning mathematics education to the needs of these children. For this reason, an instrument for Observing and Analyzing children's Mathematical…

Imaging Implicit Morphological Processing: Evidence from Hebrew

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bick, Atira S.; Frost, Ram; Goelman, Gadi

2010-01-01

Is morphology a discrete and independent element of lexical structure or does it simply reflect a fine-tuning of the system to the statistical correlation that exists among orthographic and semantic properties of words? Hebrew provides a unique opportunity to examine morphological processing in the brain because of its rich morphological system.…

Fine-Tuning Cross-Battery Assessment Procedures: After Follow-Up Testing, Use All Valid Scores, Cohesive or Not

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Schneider, W. Joel; Roman, Zachary

2018-01-01

We used data simulations to test whether composites consisting of cohesive subtest scores are more accurate than composites consisting of divergent subtest scores. We demonstrate that when multivariate normality holds, divergent and cohesive scores are equally accurate. Furthermore, excluding divergent scores results in biased estimates of…

Teaching Special Relativity to Lay Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Egdall, Ira Mark

2014-01-01

In this paper, I describe a lay course in special relativity (SR) given at the Osher Lifelong Learning Institutes (OLLI's) at Florida International University and the University of Miami. Courses are also offered in general relativity quantum theory cosmology the nature of time, and the fine-tuned universe. Each course is presented in six…

Resolving Task Rule Incongruence during Task Switching by Competitor Rule Suppression

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Meiran, Nachshon; Hsieh, Shulan; Dimov, Eduard

2010-01-01

Task switching requires maintaining readiness to execute any task of a given set of tasks. However, when tasks switch, the readiness to execute the now-irrelevant task generates interference, as seen in the task rule incongruence effect. Overcoming such interference requires fine-tuned inhibition that impairs task readiness only minimally. In an…

Get Your First-Time Singers to Sing Well

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Packwood, Gary

2005-01-01

First-time singers present excellent opportunities for choral directors to fine-tune their teaching by truly working with beginners. In this article, the author discusses how beginning singers learn to sing well. Despite the unique challenges and various musical backgrounds of these students, if choral directors can teach them the basics of…

Preference uncertainty, preference learning, and paired comparison experiments

Treesearch

David C. Kingsley; Thomas C. Brown

2010-01-01

Results from paired comparison experiments suggest that as respondents progress through a sequence of binary choices they become more consistent, apparently fine-tuning their preferences. Consistency may be indicated by the variance of the estimated valuation distribution measured by the error term in the random utility model. A significant reduction in the variance is...

Beyond a Terabyte File System

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Powers, Alan K.

1994-01-01

The Numerical Aerodynamics Simulation Facility's (NAS) CRAY C916/1024 accesses a "virtual" on-line file system, which is expanding beyond a terabyte of information. This paper will present some options to fine tuning Data Migration Facility (DMF) to stretch the online disk capacity and explore the transitions to newer devices (STK 4490, ER90, RAID).

Fine tuning the ionic liquid-vacuum outer atomic surface using ion mixtures.

PubMed

Villar-Garcia, Ignacio J; Fearn, Sarah; Ismail, Nur L; McIntosh, Alastair J S; Lovelock, Kevin R J

2015-03-28

Ionic liquid-vacuum outer atomic surfaces can be created that are remarkably different from the bulk composition. In this communication we demonstrate, using low-energy ion scattering (LEIS), that for ionic liquid mixtures the outer atomic surface shows significantly more atoms from anions with weaker cation-anion interactions (and vice versa).

Stabilizing oscillating universes against quantum decay

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

Mithani, Audrey T.; Vilenkin, Alexander

We investigate the effect of vacuum corrections, due to the trace anomaly and Casimir effect, on the stability of an oscillating universe with respect to decay by tunneling to the singularity. We find that these corrections do not generally stabilize an oscillating universe. However, stability may be achieved for some specially fine-tuned non-vacuum states.

The Fine-Tuning of Linguistic Expectations over the Course of L2 Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Leal, Tania; Slabakova, Roumyana; Farmer, Thomas A.

2017-01-01

This study investigates the degree to which native-English-speaking learners of Spanish can generate expectations for information likely to occur in upcoming portions of an unfolding linguistic signal. We examine Spanish clitic left dislocation, a long-distance dependency between a topicalized object and an agreeing clitic, whose felicity depends…

Culturally Competent Leadership through Empowering Relationships: A Case Study of Two Assistant Principals

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Clayton, Jennifer K.; Goodwin, Melissa

2015-01-01

The student population in the United States is growing in diversity (Frankenburg & Lee, 2002; Orfield & Lee, 2004; Tefara, Frankenberg, Siegel-Hawley, & Chirichigno, 2011), challenging school leaders to develop or fine-tune their cultural competence in order to meet the needs of the changing student population (Bustamante, Nelson,…

Fine-Tuned: Phonology and Semantics Affect First- to Second-Language Zooming In

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Elston-Guttler, Kerrie E.; Gunter, Thomas C.

2009-01-01

We investigate how L1 phonology and semantics affect processing of interlingual homographs by manipulating language context before, and auditory input during, a visual experiment in the L2. Three experiments contained German-English homograph primes ("gift" = German "poison") in English sentences and was performed by German (L1) learners of…

The Federal Approach to Education: What Happens After the November Elections?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Frohlicher, Jean S.; Jennings, John F.

1976-01-01

In the absence of any new Presidential initiatives, no new federal intervention looms for education. The congressional mood is concerned with fine-tuning programs already on the books--making them work better for schools and students. It is certainly not with dreaming up expansive (and expensive) new programs. (Author/IRT)

Fine-Tuning Summer Research Programs to Promote Underrepresented Students' Persistence in the STEM Pathway

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ghee, Medeva; Keels, Micere; Collins, Deborah; Neal-Spence, Cynthia; Baker, Earnestine

2016-01-01

Although the importance of undergraduate research experiences in preparing students for graduate study and research careers is well documented, specific examination of program components is needed to assess the impact of these programs on underrepresented (UR) students. The Leadership Alliance, a consortium of leading PhD-granting and…

Auto-Regulatory RNA Editing Fine-Tunes mRNA Re-Coding and Complex Behaviour in Drosophila

PubMed Central

Savva, Yiannis A.; Jepson, James E.C; Sahin, Asli; Sugden, Arthur U.; Dorsky, Jacquelyn S.; Alpert, Lauren; Lawrence, Charles; Reenan, Robert A.

2014-01-01

Auto-regulatory feedback loops are a common molecular strategy used to optimize protein function. In Drosophila many mRNAs involved in neuro-transmission are re-coded at the RNA level by the RNA editing enzyme dADAR, leading to the incorporation of amino acids that are not directly encoded by the genome. dADAR also re-codes its own transcript, but the consequences of this auto-regulation in vivo are unclear. Here we show that hard-wiring or abolishing endogenous dADAR auto-regulation dramatically remodels the landscape of re-coding events in a site-specific manner. These molecular phenotypes correlate with altered localization of dADAR within the nuclear compartment. Furthermore, auto-editing exhibits sexually dimorphic patterns of spatial regulation and can be modified by abiotic environmental factors. Finally, we demonstrate that modifying dAdar auto-editing affects adaptive complex behaviors. Our results reveal the in vivo relevance of auto-regulatory control over post-transcriptional mRNA re-coding events in fine-tuning brain function and organismal behavior. PMID:22531175

Fine-tuning of Notch signaling sets the boundary of the organ of Corti and establishes sensory cell fates

PubMed Central

Basch, Martin L; Brown, Rogers M; Jen, Hsin-I; Semerci, Fatih; Depreux, Frederic; Edlund, Renée K; Zhang, Hongyuan; Norton, Christine R; Gridley, Thomas; Cole, Susan E; Doetzlhofer, Angelika; Maletic-Savatic, Mirjana; Segil, Neil; Groves, Andrew K

2016-01-01

The signals that induce the organ of Corti and define its boundaries in the cochlea are poorly understood. We show that two Notch modifiers, Lfng and Mfng, are transiently expressed precisely at the neural boundary of the organ of Corti. Cre-Lox fate mapping shows this region gives rise to inner hair cells and their associated inner phalangeal cells. Mutation of Lfng and Mfng disrupts this boundary, producing unexpected duplications of inner hair cells and inner phalangeal cells. This phenotype is mimicked by other mouse mutants or pharmacological treatments that lower but not abolish Notch signaling. However, strong disruption of Notch signaling causes a very different result, generating many ectopic hair cells at the expense of inner phalangeal cells. Our results show that Notch signaling is finely calibrated in the cochlea to produce precisely tuned levels of signaling that first set the boundary of the organ of Corti and later regulate hair cell development. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.19921.001 PMID:27966429

The CCR4 Deadenylase Acts with Nanos and Pumilio in the Fine-Tuning of Mei-P26 Expression to Promote Germline Stem Cell Self-Renewal

PubMed Central

Joly, Willy; Chartier, Aymeric; Rojas-Rios, Patricia; Busseau, Isabelle; Simonelig, Martine

2013-01-01

Summary Translational regulation plays an essential role in Drosophila ovarian germline stem cell (GSC) biology. GSC self-renewal requires two translational repressors, Nanos (Nos) and Pumilio (Pum), which repress the expression of differentiation factors in the stem cells. The molecular mechanisms underlying this translational repression remain unknown. Here, we show that the CCR4 deadenylase is required for GSC self-renewal and that Nos and Pum act through its recruitment onto specific mRNAs. We identify mei-P26 mRNA as a direct and major target of Nos/Pum/CCR4 translational repression in the GSCs. mei-P26 encodes a protein of the Trim-NHL tumor suppressor family that has conserved functions in stem cell lineages. We show that fine-tuning Mei-P26 expression by CCR4 plays a key role in GSC self-renewal. These results identify the molecular mechanism of Nos/Pum function in GSC self-renewal and reveal the role of CCR4-NOT-mediated deadenylation in regulating the balance between GSC self-renewal and differentiation. PMID:24286029

Neuronal Target Identification Requires AHA-1-Mediated Fine-Tuning of Wnt Signaling in C. elegans

PubMed Central

Zhang, Jingyan; Li, Xia; Jevince, Angela R.; Guan, Liying; Wang, Jiaming; Hall, David H.; Huang, Xun; Ding, Mei

2013-01-01

Electrical synaptic transmission through gap junctions is a vital mode of intercellular communication in the nervous system. The mechanism by which reciprocal target cells find each other during the formation of gap junctions, however, is poorly understood. Here we show that gap junctions are formed between BDU interneurons and PLM mechanoreceptors in C. elegans and the connectivity of BDU with PLM is influenced by Wnt signaling. We further identified two PAS-bHLH family transcription factors, AHA-1 and AHR-1, which function cell-autonomously within BDU and PLM to facilitate the target identification process. aha-1 and ahr-1 act genetically upstream of cam-1. CAM-1, a membrane-bound receptor tyrosine kinase, is present on both BDU and PLM cells and likely serves as a Wnt antagonist. By binding to a cis-regulatory element in the cam-1 promoter, AHA-1 enhances cam-1 transcription. Our study reveals a Wnt-dependent fine-tuning mechanism that is crucial for mutual target cell identification during the formation of gap junction connections. PMID:23825972

Engineering Promoter Architecture in Oleaginous Yeast Yarrowia lipolytica.

PubMed

Shabbir Hussain, Murtaza; Gambill, Lauren; Smith, Spencer; Blenner, Mark A

2016-03-18

Eukaryotic promoters have a complex architecture to control both the strength and timing of gene transcription spanning up to thousands of bases from the initiation site. This complexity makes rational fine-tuning of promoters in fungi difficult to predict; however, this very same complexity enables multiple possible strategies for engineering promoter strength. Here, we studied promoter architecture in the oleaginous yeast, Yarrowia lipolytica. While recent studies have focused on upstream activating sequences, we systematically examined various components common in fungal promoters. Here, we examine several promoter components including upstream activating sequences, proximal promoter sequences, core promoters, and the TATA box in autonomously replicating expression plasmids and integrated into the genome. Our findings show that promoter strength can be fine-tuned through the engineering of the TATA box sequence, core promoter, and upstream activating sequences. Additionally, we identified a previously unreported oleic acid responsive transcription enhancement in the XPR2 upstream activating sequences, which illustrates the complexity of fungal promoters. The promoters engineered here provide new genetic tools for metabolic engineering in Y. lipolytica and provide promoter engineering strategies that may be useful in engineering other non-model fungal systems.

Technical design and commissioning of the KATRIN large-volume air coil system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Erhard, M.; Behrens, J.; Bauer, S.; Beglarian, A.; Berendes, R.; Drexlin, G.; Glück, F.; Gumbsheimer, R.; Hergenhan, J.; Leiber, B.; Mertens, S.; Osipowicz, A.; Plischke, P.; Reich, J.; Thümmler, T.; Wandkowsky, N.; Weinheimer, C.; Wüstling, S.

2018-02-01

The KATRIN experiment is a next-generation direct neutrino mass experiment with a sensitivity of 0.2 eV (90% C.L.) to the effective mass of the electron neutrino. It measures the tritium β-decay spectrum close to its endpoint with a spectrometer based on the MAC-E filter technique. The β-decay electrons are guided by a magnetic field that operates in the mT range in the central spectrometer volume; it is fine-tuned by a large-volume air coil system surrounding the spectrometer vessel. The purpose of the system is to provide optimal transmission properties for signal electrons and to achieve efficient magnetic shielding against background. In this paper we describe the technical design of the air coil system, including its mechanical and electrical properties. We outline the importance of its versatile operation modes in background investigation and suppression techniques. We compare magnetic field measurements in the inner spectrometer volume during system commissioning with corresponding simulations, which allows to verify the system's functionality in fine-tuning the magnetic field configuration. This is of major importance for a successful neutrino mass measurement at KATRIN.

The CCR4 deadenylase acts with Nanos and Pumilio in the fine-tuning of Mei-P26 expression to promote germline stem cell self-renewal.

PubMed

Joly, Willy; Chartier, Aymeric; Rojas-Rios, Patricia; Busseau, Isabelle; Simonelig, Martine

2013-01-01

Translational regulation plays an essential role in Drosophila ovarian germline stem cell (GSC) biology. GSC self-renewal requires two translational repressors, Nanos (Nos) and Pumilio (Pum), which repress the expression of differentiation factors in the stem cells. The molecular mechanisms underlying this translational repression remain unknown. Here, we show that the CCR4 deadenylase is required for GSC self-renewal and that Nos and Pum act through its recruitment onto specific mRNAs. We identify mei-P26 mRNA as a direct and major target of Nos/Pum/CCR4 translational repression in the GSCs. mei-P26 encodes a protein of the Trim-NHL tumor suppressor family that has conserved functions in stem cell lineages. We show that fine-tuning Mei-P26 expression by CCR4 plays a key role in GSC self-renewal. These results identify the molecular mechanism of Nos/Pum function in GSC self-renewal and reveal the role of CCR4-NOT-mediated deadenylation in regulating the balance between GSC self-renewal and differentiation.

Precise precursor rebalancing for isoprenoids production by fine control of gapA expression in Escherichia coli.

PubMed

Jung, Juyoung; Lim, Jae Hyung; Kim, Se Yeon; Im, Dae-Kyun; Seok, Joo Yeon; Lee, Seung-Jae V; Oh, Min-Kyu; Jung, Gyoo Yeol

2016-11-01

Biosynthesis of isoprenoids via the 1-deoxy-D-xylulose-5-phosphate (DXP) pathway requires equimolar glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate and pyruvate to divert carbon flux toward the products of interest. Here, we demonstrate that precursor balancing is one of the critical steps for the production of isoprenoids in Escherichia coli. First, the implementation of the synthetic lycopene production pathway as a model system and the amplification of the native DXP pathway were accomplished using synthetic constitutive promoters and redesigned 5'-untranslated regions (5'-UTRs). Next, fine-controlled precursor balancing was investigated by tuning phosphoenolpyruvate synthase (PpsA) or glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH). The results showed that tuning-down of gapA improved the specific lycopene content by 45% compared to the overexpression of ppsA. The specific lycopene content in the strains with down-regulated gapA increased by 97% compared to that in the parental strain. Our results indicate that gapA is the best target for precursor balancing to increase biosynthesis of isoprenoids. Copyright © 2016 International Metabolic Engineering Society. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Multifunctional Organic-Semiconductor Interfacial Layers for Solution-Processed Oxide-Semiconductor Thin-Film Transistor.

PubMed

Kwon, Guhyun; Kim, Keetae; Choi, Byung Doo; Roh, Jeongkyun; Lee, Changhee; Noh, Yong-Young; Seo, SungYong; Kim, Myung-Gil; Kim, Choongik

2017-06-01

The stabilization and control of the electrical properties in solution-processed amorphous-oxide semiconductors (AOSs) is crucial for the realization of cost-effective, high-performance, large-area electronics. In particular, impurity diffusion, electrical instability, and the lack of a general substitutional doping strategy for the active layer hinder the industrial implementation of copper electrodes and the fine tuning of the electrical parameters of AOS-based thin-film transistors (TFTs). In this study, the authors employ a multifunctional organic-semiconductor (OSC) interlayer as a solution-processed thin-film passivation layer and a charge-transfer dopant. As an electrically active impurity blocking layer, the OSC interlayer enhances the electrical stability of AOS TFTs by suppressing the adsorption of environmental gas species and copper-ion diffusion. Moreover, charge transfer between the organic interlayer and the AOS allows the fine tuning of the electrical properties and the passivation of the electrical defects in the AOS TFTs. The development of a multifunctional solution-processed organic interlayer enables the production of low-cost, high-performance oxide semiconductor-based circuits. © 2017 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

Tuning Piezo ion channels to detect molecular-scale movements relevant for fine touch

PubMed Central

Poole, Kate; Herget, Regina; Lapatsina, Liudmila; Ngo, Ha-Duong; Lewin, Gary R.

2014-01-01

In sensory neurons, mechanotransduction is sensitive, fast and requires mechanosensitive ion channels. Here we develop a new method to directly monitor mechanotransduction at defined regions of the cell-substrate interface. We show that molecular-scale (~13 nm) displacements are sufficient to gate mechanosensitive currents in mouse touch receptors. Using neurons from knockout mice, we show that displacement thresholds increase by one order of magnitude in the absence of stomatin-like protein 3 (STOML3). Piezo1 is the founding member of a class of mammalian stretch-activated ion channels, and we show that STOML3, but not other stomatin-domain proteins, brings the activation threshold for Piezo1 and Piezo2 currents down to ~10 nm. Structure–function experiments localize the Piezo modulatory activity of STOML3 to the stomatin domain, and higher-order scaffolds are a prerequisite for function. STOML3 is the first potent modulator of Piezo channels that tunes the sensitivity of mechanically gated channels to detect molecular-scale stimuli relevant for fine touch. PMID:24662763

What hadron collider is required to discover or falsify natural supersymmetry?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Baer, Howard; Barger, Vernon; Gainer, James S.; Huang, Peisi; Savoy, Michael; Serce, Hasan; Tata, Xerxes

2017-11-01

Weak scale supersymmetry (SUSY) remains a compelling extension of the Standard Model because it stabilizes the quantum corrections to the Higgs and W , Z boson masses. In natural SUSY models these corrections are, by definition, never much larger than the corresponding masses. Natural SUSY models all have an upper limit on the gluino mass, too high to lead to observable signals even at the high luminosity LHC. However, in models with gaugino mass unification, the wino is sufficiently light that supersymmetry discovery is possible in other channels over the entire natural SUSY parameter space with no worse than 3% fine-tuning. Here, we examine the SUSY reach in more general models with and without gaugino mass unification (specifically, natural generalized mirage mediation), and show that the high energy LHC (HE-LHC), a pp collider with √{ s } = 33 TeV, will be able to detect the SUSY signal over the entire allowed mass range. Thus, HE-LHC would either discover or conclusively falsify natural SUSY with better than 3% fine-tuning using a conservative measure that allows for correlations among the model parameters.

Deep greedy learning under thermal variability in full diurnal cycles

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rauss, Patrick; Rosario, Dalton

2017-08-01

We study the generalization and scalability behavior of a deep belief network (DBN) applied to a challenging long-wave infrared hyperspectral dataset, consisting of radiance from several manmade and natural materials within a fixed site located 500 m from an observation tower. The collections cover multiple full diurnal cycles and include different atmospheric conditions. Using complementary priors, a DBN uses a greedy algorithm that can learn deep, directed belief networks one layer at a time and has two layers form to provide undirected associative memory. The greedy algorithm initializes a slower learning procedure, which fine-tunes the weights, using a contrastive version of the wake-sleep algorithm. After fine-tuning, a network with three hidden layers forms a very good generative model of the joint distribution of spectral data and their labels, despite significant data variability between and within classes due to environmental and temperature variation occurring within and between full diurnal cycles. We argue, however, that more questions than answers are raised regarding the generalization capacity of these deep nets through experiments aimed at investigating their training and augmented learning behavior.

Switching Phenomena

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Stanley, H. E.; Buldyrev, S. V.; Franzese, G.; Havlin, S.; Mallamace, F.; Mazza, M. G.; Kumar, P.; Plerou, V.; Preis, T.; Stokely, K.; Xu, L.

One challenge of biology, medicine, and economics is that the systems treated by these serious scientific disciplines can suddenly "switch" from one behavior to another, even though they possess no perfect metronome in time. As if by magic, out of nothing but randomness one finds remarkably fine-tuned processes in time. The past century has, philosophically, been concerned with placing aside the human tendency to see the universe as a fine-tuned machine. Here we will address the challenge of uncovering how, through randomness (albeit, as we shall see, strongly correlated randomness), one can arrive at some of the many temporal patterns in physics, economics, and medicine and even begin to characterize the switching phenomena that enable a system to pass from one state to another. We discuss some applications of correlated randomness to understanding switching phenomena in various fields. Specifically, we present evidence from experiments and from computer simulations supporting the hypothesis that water's anomalies are related to a switching point (which is not unlike the "tipping point" immortalized by Malcolm Gladwell), and that the bubbles in economic phenomena that occur on all scales are not "outliers" (another Gladwell immortalization).

Bacterial hybrid histidine kinases in plant-bacteria interactions.

PubMed

Borland, Stéphanie; Prigent-Combaret, Claire; Wisniewski-Dyé, Florence

2016-10-01

Two-component signal transduction systems are essential for many bacteria to maintain homeostasis and adapt to environmental changes. Two-component signal transduction systems typically involve a membrane-bound histidine kinase that senses stimuli, autophosphorylates in the transmitter region and then transfers the phosphoryl group to the receiver domain of a cytoplasmic response regulator that mediates appropriate changes in bacterial physiology. Although usually found on distinct proteins, the transmitter and receiver modules are sometimes fused into a so-called hybrid histidine kinase (HyHK). Such structure results in multiple phosphate transfers that are believed to provide extra-fine-tuning mechanisms and more regulatory checkpoints than classical phosphotransfers. HyHK-based regulation may be crucial for finely tuning gene expression in a heterogeneous environment such as the rhizosphere, where intricate plant-bacteria interactions occur. In this review, we focus on roles fulfilled by bacterial HyHKs in plant-associated bacteria, providing recent findings on the mechanistic of their signalling properties. Recent insights into understanding additive regulatory properties fulfilled by the tethered receiver domain of HyHKs are also addressed.

Summary of the ATLAS experiment’s sensitivity to supersymmetry after LHC Run 1 -- interpreted in the phenomenological MSSM

DOE PAGES

Aad, G.; Abbott, B.; Abdallah, J.; ...

2015-10-21

A summary of the constraints from the ATLAS experiment on R -parity-conserving supersymmetry is presented. Results from 22 separate ATLAS searches are considered, each based on analysis of up to 20.3 fb –1 of proton-proton collision data at centre-of-mass energies of √s =7 and 8 TeV at the Large Hadron Collider. The results are interpreted in the context of the 19-parameter phenomenological minimal supersymmetric standard model, in which the lightest supersymmetric particle is a neutralino, taking into account constraints from previous precision electroweak and flavour measurements as well as from dark matter related measurements. The results are presented in termsmore » of constraints on supersymmetric particle masses and are compared to limits from simplified models. The impact of ATLAS searches on parameters such as the dark matter relic density, the couplings of the observed Higgs boson, and the degree of electroweak fine-tuning is also shown. As a result, spectra for surviving supersymmetry model points with low fine-tunings are presented.« less

Perspective. Extremely fine tuning of doping enabled by combinatorial molecular-beam epitaxy

DOE PAGES

Wu, J.; Bozovic, I.

2015-04-06

Chemical doping provides an effective method to control the electric properties of complex oxides. However, the state-of-art accuracy in controlling doping is limited to about 1%. This hampers elucidation of the precise doping dependences of physical properties and phenomena of interest, such as quantum phase transitions. Using the combinatorial molecular beam epitaxy, we improve the accuracy in tuning the doping level by two orders of magnitude. We illustrate this novel method by two examples: a systematic investigation of the doping dependence of interface superconductivity, and a study of the competing ground states in the vicinity of the insulator-to-superconductor transition.

Tuning the cosmological constant, broken scale invariance, unitarity

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

Förste, Stefan; Manz, Paul; Physikalisches Institut der Universität Bonn,Nussallee 12, 53115 Bonn

2016-06-10

We study gravity coupled to a cosmological constant and a scale but not conformally invariant sector. In Minkowski vacuum, scale invariance is spontaneously broken. We consider small fluctuations around the Minkowski vacuum. At the linearised level we find that the trace of metric perturbations receives a positive or negative mass squared contribution. However, only for the Fierz-Pauli combination the theory is free of ghosts. The mass term for the trace of metric perturbations can be cancelled by explicitly breaking scale invariance. This reintroduces fine-tuning. Models based on four form field strength show similarities with explicit scale symmetry breaking due tomore » quantisation conditions.« less

Bifunctional Organic Polymeric Catalysts with a Tunable Acid-Base Distance and Framework Flexibility

PubMed Central

Chen, Huanhui; Wang, Yanan; Wang, Qunlong; Li, Junhui; Yang, Shiqi; Zhu, Zhirong

2014-01-01

Acid-base bifunctional organic polymeric catalysts were synthesized with tunable structures. we demonstrated two synthesis approaches for structural fine-tune. In the first case, the framework flexibility was tuned by changing the ratio of rigid blocks to flexible blocks within the polymer framework. In the second case, we precisely adjusted the acid-base distance by distributing basic monomers to be adjacent to acidic monomers, and by changing the chain length of acidic monomers. In a standard test reaction for the aldol condensation of 4-nitrobenzaldehyde with acetone, the catalysts showed good reusability upon recycling and maintained relatively high conversion percentage. PMID:25267260

Brane inflation and cosmic string tension in superstring theory

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Firouzjahi, Hassan; Tye, S.-H. Henry

2005-03-01

In a simple reanalysis of the KKLMMT scenario, we argue that the slow roll condition in the D3-overline {D}3 -brane inflationary scenario in superstring theory requires no more than a moderate tuning. The cosmic string tension is very sensitive to the conformal coupling: with less fine-tuning, the cosmic string tension (as well as the ratio of tensor to scalar perturbation mode) increases rapidly and can easily saturate the present observational bound. In a multi-throat brane inflationary scenario, this feature substantially improves the chance of detecting and measuring the properties of the cosmic strings as a window to the superstring theory and our pre-inflationary universe.

CO 2 hydrogenation over oxide-supported PtCo catalysts: The role of the oxide support in determining the product selectivity

DOE PAGES

Kattel, Shyam; Yu, Weiting; Yang, Xiaofang; ...

2016-05-09

By simply changing the oxide support, the selectivity of a metal–oxide catalysts can be tuned. For the CO 2 hydrogenation over PtCo bimetallic catalysts supported on different reducible oxides (CeO 2, ZrO 2, and TiO 2), replacing a TiO 2 support by CeO 2 or ZrO 2 selectively strengthens the binding of C,O-bound and O-bound species at the PtCo–oxide interface, leading to a different product selectivity. Lastly, these results reveal mechanistic insights into how the catalytic performance of metal–oxide catalysts can be fine-tuned.

Supervised guiding long-short term memory for image caption generation based on object classes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, Jian; Cao, Zhiguo; Xiao, Yang; Qi, Xinyuan

2018-03-01

The present models of image caption generation have the problems of image visual semantic information attenuation and errors in guidance information. In order to solve these problems, we propose a supervised guiding Long Short Term Memory model based on object classes, named S-gLSTM for short. It uses the object detection results from R-FCN as supervisory information with high confidence, and updates the guidance word set by judging whether the last output matches the supervisory information. S-gLSTM learns how to extract the current interested information from the image visual se-mantic information based on guidance word set. The interested information is fed into the S-gLSTM at each iteration as guidance information, to guide the caption generation. To acquire the text-related visual semantic information, the S-gLSTM fine-tunes the weights of the network through the back-propagation of the guiding loss. Complementing guidance information at each iteration solves the problem of visual semantic information attenuation in the traditional LSTM model. Besides, the supervised guidance information in our model can reduce the impact of the mismatched words on the caption generation. We test our model on MSCOCO2014 dataset, and obtain better performance than the state-of-the- art models.

Relaxion: A landscape without anthropics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nelson, Ann; Prescod-Weinstein, Chanda

2017-12-01

The relaxion mechanism provides a potentially elegant solution to the hierarchy problem without resorting to anthropic or other fine-tuning arguments. This mechanism introduces an axion-like field, dubbed the relaxion, whose expectation value determines the electroweak hierarchy as well as the QCD strong C P -violating θ ¯ parameter. During an inflationary period, the Higgs mass squared is selected to be negative and hierarchically small in a theory which is consistent with 't Hooft's technical naturalness criteria. However, in the original model proposed by Graham, Kaplan, and Rajendran [Phys. Rev. Lett. 115, 221801 (2015), 10.1103/PhysRevLett.115.221801], the relaxion does not solve the strong C P problem, and in fact contributes to it, as the coupling of the relaxion to the Higgs field and the introduction of a linear potential for the relaxion produces large strong C P violation. We resolve this tension by considering inflation with a Hubble scale which is above the QCD scale but below the weak scale, and estimating the Hubble temperature dependence of the axion mass. The relaxion potential is thus very different during inflation than it is today. We find that provided the inflationary Hubble scale is between the weak scale and about 3 GeV, the relaxion resolves the hierarchy, strong C P , and dark matter problems in a way that is technically natural.

Nonlinear rescaling of control values simplifies fuzzy control

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Vanlangingham, H.; Tsoukkas, A.; Kreinovich, V.; Quintana, C.

1993-01-01

Traditional control theory is well-developed mainly for linear control situations. In non-linear cases there is no general method of generating a good control, so we have to rely on the ability of the experts (operators) to control them. If we want to automate their control, we must acquire their knowledge and translate it into a precise control strategy. The experts' knowledge is usually represented in non-numeric terms, namely, in terms of uncertain statements of the type 'if the obstacle is straight ahead, the distance to it is small, and the velocity of the car is medium, press the brakes hard'. Fuzzy control is a methodology that translates such statements into precise formulas for control. The necessary first step of this strategy consists of assigning membership functions to all the terms that the expert uses in his rules (in our sample phrase these words are 'small', 'medium', and 'hard'). The appropriate choice of a membership function can drastically improve the quality of a fuzzy control. In the simplest cases, we can take the functions whose domains have equally spaced endpoints. Because of that, many software packages for fuzzy control are based on this choice of membership functions. This choice is not very efficient in more complicated cases. Therefore, methods have been developed that use neural networks or generic algorithms to 'tune' membership functions. But this tuning takes lots of time (for example, several thousands iterations are typical for neural networks). In some cases there are evident physical reasons why equally space domains do not work: e.g., if the control variable u is always positive (i.e., if we control temperature in a reactor), then negative values (that are generated by equal spacing) simply make no sense. In this case it sounds reasonable to choose another scale u' = f(u) to represent u, so that equal spacing will work fine for u'. In the present paper we formulate the problem of finding the best rescaling function, solve this problem, and show (on a real-life example) that after an optimal rescaling, the un-tuned fuzzy control can be as good as the best state-of-art traditional non-linear controls.

Deep Convolutional Neural Networks for breast cancer screening.

PubMed

Chougrad, Hiba; Zouaki, Hamid; Alheyane, Omar

2018-04-01

Radiologists often have a hard time classifying mammography mass lesions which leads to unnecessary breast biopsies to remove suspicions and this ends up adding exorbitant expenses to an already burdened patient and health care system. In this paper we developed a Computer-aided Diagnosis (CAD) system based on deep Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN) that aims to help the radiologist classify mammography mass lesions. Deep learning usually requires large datasets to train networks of a certain depth from scratch. Transfer learning is an effective method to deal with relatively small datasets as in the case of medical images, although it can be tricky as we can easily start overfitting. In this work, we explore the importance of transfer learning and we experimentally determine the best fine-tuning strategy to adopt when training a CNN model. We were able to successfully fine-tune some of the recent, most powerful CNNs and achieved better results compared to other state-of-the-art methods which classified the same public datasets. For instance we achieved 97.35% accuracy and 0.98 AUC on the DDSM database, 95.50% accuracy and 0.97 AUC on the INbreast database and 96.67% accuracy and 0.96 AUC on the BCDR database. Furthermore, after pre-processing and normalizing all the extracted Regions of Interest (ROIs) from the full mammograms, we merged all the datasets to build one large set of images and used it to fine-tune our CNNs. The CNN model which achieved the best results, a 98.94% accuracy, was used as a baseline to build the Breast Cancer Screening Framework. To evaluate the proposed CAD system and its efficiency to classify new images, we tested it on an independent database (MIAS) and got 98.23% accuracy and 0.99 AUC. The results obtained demonstrate that the proposed framework is performant and can indeed be used to predict if the mass lesions are benign or malignant. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Quantitative Evaluation of Musical Scale Tunings

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hall, Donald E.

1974-01-01

The acoustical and mathematical basis of the problem of tuning the twelve-tone chromatic scale is reviewed. A quantitative measurement showing how well any tuning succeeds in providing just intonation for any specific piece of music is explained and applied to musical examples using a simple computer program. (DT)

Simulation of Dual-Electrode Capacitively Coupled Plasma Discharges

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lu, Yijia; Ji, Linhong; Cheng, Jia

2016-12-01

Dual-electrode capacitively coupled plasma discharges are investigated here to lower the non-uniformity of plasma density. The dual-electrode structure proposed by Jung splits the electrode region and increases the flexibility of fine tuning non-uniformity. Different RF voltages, frequencies, phase-shifts and electrode areas are simulated and the influences are discussed. RF voltage and electrode area have a non-monotonic effect on non-uniformity, while frequency has a monotonic effect. Phase-shift has a cyclical influence on non-uniformity. A special combination of 224 V voltage and 11% area ratio with 10 MHz lowers the non-uniformity of the original set (200 V voltage and 0% area ratio with 10 MHz) by 46.5%. The position of the plasma density peak at the probe line has been tracked and properly tuning the phase-shift can obtain the same trace as tuning frequency or voltage. supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 51405261)

Multicolor tuning of manganese-doped ZnS colloidal nanocrystals.

PubMed

Quan, Zewei; Yang, Dongmei; Li, Chunxia; Kong, Deyan; Yang, Piaoping; Cheng, Ziyong; Lin, Jun

2009-09-01

In this paper, we report a facile route which is based on tuning doping concentration of Mn(2+) ions in ZnS nanocrystals, to achieve deliberate color modulation from blue to orange-yellow under single-wavelength excitation. X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), as well as photoluminescence (PL) spectra were employed to characterize the obtained samples. In this process, the relative emission intensities of both ZnS host (blue) and Mn(2+) dopant (orange-yellow) are sensitive to the Mn(2+) doping concentration, due to the energy transfer from ZnS host to Mn(2+) dopant. As a result of fine-tuning of these two emission components, white emission can be realized for Mn(2+)-doped ZnS nanocrystals. Furthermore, the as-synthesized doped nanocrystals possess extremely narrow size distribution and can be readily transferred into aqueous solution for the next potential applications.

Angular tuning of the magnetic birefringence in rippled cobalt films

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

Arranz, Miguel A., E-mail: MiguelAngel.Arranz@uclm.es; Colino, José M.

We report the measurement of magnetically induced birefringence in rippled Co films. For this purpose, the magneto-optical properties of ion beam eroded ferromagnetic films were studied using Kerr magnetometry and magnetic birefringence in the transmitted light intensity. Upon sufficient ion sculpting, these ripple surface nanostructures developed a defined uniaxial anisotropy in the in-plane magnetization, finely tuning the magnetic birefringence effect. We have studied its dependence on the relative orientation between the ripple direction and the magnetic field, and found this effect to be dramatically correlated with the capability to neatly distinguish the mechanisms for the in-plane magnetization reversal, i.e., rotationmore » and nucleation. This double refraction corresponds univocally to the two magnetization axes, parallel and perpendicular to the ripples direction. We have also observed that tuned birefringence in stack assemblies of rippled Co films, which enables us to technically manipulate the number and direction of refraction axes.« less

Geostationary Lightning Mapper: Lessons Learned from Post Launch Test

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Edgington, S.; Tillier, C. E.; Demroff, H.; VanBezooijen, R.; Christian, H. J., Jr.; Bitzer, P. M.

2017-12-01

Pre-launch calibration and algorithm design for the GOES Geostationary Lightning Mapper resulted in a successful and trouble-free on-orbit activation and post-launch test sequence. Within minutes of opening the GLM aperture door on January 4th, 2017, lightning was detected across the entire field of view. During the six-month post-launch test period, numerous processing parameters on board the instrument and in the ground processing algorithms were fine-tuned. Demonstrated on-orbit performance exceeded pre-launch predictions. We provide an overview of the ground calibration sequence, on-orbit tuning of the instrument, tuning of the ground processing algorithms (event filtering and navigation). We also touch on new insights obtained from analysis of a large and growing archive of raw GLM data, containing 3e8 flash detections derived from over 1e10 full-disk images of the Earth.

The feasibility of manual parameter tuning for deformable breast MR image registration from a multi-objective optimization perspective.

PubMed

Pirpinia, Kleopatra; Bosman, Peter A N; Loo, Claudette E; Winter-Warnars, Gonneke; Janssen, Natasja N Y; Scholten, Astrid N; Sonke, Jan-Jakob; van Herk, Marcel; Alderliesten, Tanja

2017-06-23

Deformable image registration is typically formulated as an optimization problem involving a linearly weighted combination of terms that correspond to objectives of interest (e.g. similarity, deformation magnitude). The weights, along with multiple other parameters, need to be manually tuned for each application, a task currently addressed mainly via trial-and-error approaches. Such approaches can only be successful if there is a sensible interplay between parameters, objectives, and desired registration outcome. This, however, is not well established. To study this interplay, we use multi-objective optimization, where multiple solutions exist that represent the optimal trade-offs between the objectives, forming a so-called Pareto front. Here, we focus on weight tuning. To study the space a user has to navigate during manual weight tuning, we randomly sample multiple linear combinations. To understand how these combinations relate to desirability of registration outcome, we associate with each outcome a mean target registration error (TRE) based on expert-defined anatomical landmarks. Further, we employ a multi-objective evolutionary algorithm that optimizes the weight combinations, yielding a Pareto front of solutions, which can be directly navigated by the user. To study how the complexity of manual weight tuning changes depending on the registration problem, we consider an easy problem, prone-to-prone breast MR image registration, and a hard problem, prone-to-supine breast MR image registration. Lastly, we investigate how guidance information as an additional objective influences the prone-to-supine registration outcome. Results show that the interplay between weights, objectives, and registration outcome makes manual weight tuning feasible for the prone-to-prone problem, but very challenging for the harder prone-to-supine problem. Here, patient-specific, multi-objective weight optimization is needed, obtaining a mean TRE of 13.6 mm without guidance information reduced to 7.3 mm with guidance information, but also providing a Pareto front that exhibits an intuitively sensible interplay between weights, objectives, and registration outcome, allowing outcome selection.

The feasibility of manual parameter tuning for deformable breast MR image registration from a multi-objective optimization perspective

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pirpinia, Kleopatra; Bosman, Peter A. N.; E Loo, Claudette; Winter-Warnars, Gonneke; Y Janssen, Natasja N.; Scholten, Astrid N.; Sonke, Jan-Jakob; van Herk, Marcel; Alderliesten, Tanja

2017-07-01

Deformable image registration is typically formulated as an optimization problem involving a linearly weighted combination of terms that correspond to objectives of interest (e.g. similarity, deformation magnitude). The weights, along with multiple other parameters, need to be manually tuned for each application, a task currently addressed mainly via trial-and-error approaches. Such approaches can only be successful if there is a sensible interplay between parameters, objectives, and desired registration outcome. This, however, is not well established. To study this interplay, we use multi-objective optimization, where multiple solutions exist that represent the optimal trade-offs between the objectives, forming a so-called Pareto front. Here, we focus on weight tuning. To study the space a user has to navigate during manual weight tuning, we randomly sample multiple linear combinations. To understand how these combinations relate to desirability of registration outcome, we associate with each outcome a mean target registration error (TRE) based on expert-defined anatomical landmarks. Further, we employ a multi-objective evolutionary algorithm that optimizes the weight combinations, yielding a Pareto front of solutions, which can be directly navigated by the user. To study how the complexity of manual weight tuning changes depending on the registration problem, we consider an easy problem, prone-to-prone breast MR image registration, and a hard problem, prone-to-supine breast MR image registration. Lastly, we investigate how guidance information as an additional objective influences the prone-to-supine registration outcome. Results show that the interplay between weights, objectives, and registration outcome makes manual weight tuning feasible for the prone-to-prone problem, but very challenging for the harder prone-to-supine problem. Here, patient-specific, multi-objective weight optimization is needed, obtaining a mean TRE of 13.6 mm without guidance information reduced to 7.3 mm with guidance information, but also providing a Pareto front that exhibits an intuitively sensible interplay between weights, objectives, and registration outcome, allowing outcome selection.

Efficiency analysis of using tailored individual doses of radioiodine and fine tuning using a low-dose antithyroid drug in the treatment of Graves' disease.

PubMed

Liu, Chang-Jiang; Dong, Yan-Yu; Wang, Yi-Wei; Wang, Kai-Hua; Zeng, Qun-Yan

2011-03-01

To evaluate the effect of using tailored individual doses of radioiodine (¹³¹I) and fine tuning using low-dose antithyroid drug (ATD) in the treatment of Graves' disease, and an attempt to establish a therapeutic strategy that can keep both high rate of euthyroidism and low incidence of hypothyroidism. The dose of radioiodine was calculated using the calculated dose formula, and low-dose ATD was used as a way of fine tuning during follow-up. The intended dose of radioiodine was modified according to the patient's age at radioiodine therapy, thyroid size, and duration of hyperthyroidism before radioiodine therapy in the study group; it was set as 2.96 MBq/g of thyroid in the control group. Twenty patients with Graves' disease were nonrandomly assigned to the control group and 98 patients with Graves' disease to the study group. The outcomes, which included euthyroidism, hypothyroidism, and persistent hyperthyroidism, were determined according to the patients' states at the end of follow-up. In the study group, 74 patients (75.5%) achieved the euthyroid state, six patients (6.1%) became hypothyroid, and 18 patients (18.4%) remained hyperthyroid. The rate of euthyroidism was statistically different between the study group and the control group (75.5 vs. 50%, P=0.03). Of 98 patients with Graves' disease in the study group, 19 patients were additionally treated with ATD during follow-up, and 12 patients achieved euthyroidism. In different age groups or duration of hyperthyroidism groups, the rate of euthyroidism was not statistically different among subgroups of goiter grade 1, grade 2, and grade 3 (P>0.05). Similarly, in different age groups or duration of hyperthyroidism groups, the incidence of hypothyroidism was not statistically different among subgroups of goiter grade 1, grade 2, and grade 3 (P>0.05). However, binary logistic regression analysis showed that thyroid size was associated with overtreatment and undertreatment in our study. Individual doses of radioiodine, adjusted according to the patient's age, thyroid size, and duration of hyperthyroidism, combined with low-dose ATD for some patients, 1 month or more after radioiodine therapy, was an effective method for treating Graves' disease. Our data showed that using tailored individual doses of radioiodine and fine tuning using low-dose ATD may well be a way to keep both high rate of euthyroidism and low incidence of hypothyroidism. The dose of radioiodine should be decreased a little for small goiter and increased a little for large goiter on the basis of our treatment protocol in future study.

Structures vibration control via Tuned Mass Dampers using a co-evolution Coral Reefs Optimization algorithm

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Salcedo-Sanz, S.; Camacho-Gómez, C.; Magdaleno, A.; Pereira, E.; Lorenzana, A.

2017-04-01

In this paper we tackle a problem of optimal design and location of Tuned Mass Dampers (TMDs) for structures subjected to earthquake ground motions, using a novel meta-heuristic algorithm. Specifically, the Coral Reefs Optimization (CRO) with Substrate Layer (CRO-SL) is proposed as a competitive co-evolution algorithm with different exploration procedures within a single population of solutions. The proposed approach is able to solve the TMD design and location problem, by exploiting the combination of different types of searching mechanisms. This promotes a powerful evolutionary-like algorithm for optimization problems, which is shown to be very effective in this particular problem of TMDs tuning. The proposed algorithm's performance has been evaluated and compared with several reference algorithms in two building models with two and four floors, respectively.

High-volume image quality assessment systems: tuning performance with an interactive data visualization tool

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bresnahan, Patricia A.; Pukinskis, Madeleine; Wiggins, Michael

1999-03-01

Image quality assessment systems differ greatly with respect to the number and types of mags they need to evaluate, and their overall architectures. Managers of these systems, however, all need to be able to tune and evaluate system performance, requirements often overlooked or under-designed during project planning. Performance tuning tools allow users to define acceptable quality standards for image features and attributes by adjusting parameter settings. Performance analysis tools allow users to evaluate and/or predict how well a system performs in a given parameter state. While image assessment algorithms are becoming quite sophisticated, duplicating or surpassing the human decision making process in their speed and reliability, they often require a greater investment in 'training' or fine tuning of parameters in order to achieve optimum performance. This process may involve the analysis of hundreds or thousands of images, generating a large database of files and statistics that can be difficult to sort through and interpret. Compounding the difficulty is the fact that personnel charged with tuning and maintaining the production system may not have the statistical or analytical background required for the task. Meanwhile, hardware innovations have greatly increased the volume of images that can be handled in a given time frame, magnifying the consequences of running a production site with an inadequately tuned system. In this paper, some general requirements for a performance evaluation and tuning data visualization system are discussed. A custom engineered solution to the tuning and evaluation problem is then presented, developed within the context of a high volume image quality assessment, data entry, OCR, and image archival system. A key factor influencing the design of the system was the context-dependent definition of image quality, as perceived by a human interpreter. This led to the development of a five-level, hierarchical approach to image quality evaluation. Lower-level pass-fail conditions and decision rules were coded into the system. Higher-level image quality states were defined by allowing the users to interactively adjust the system's sensitivity to various image attributes by manipulating graphical controls. Results were presented in easily interpreted bar graphs. These graphs were mouse- sensitive, allowing the user to more fully explore the subsets of data indicated by various color blocks. In order to simplify the performance evaluation and tuning process, users could choose to view the results of (1) the existing system parameter state, (2) the results of any arbitrary parameter values they chose, or (3) the results of a quasi-optimum parameter state, derived by applying a decision rule to a large set of possible parameter states. Giving managers easy- to-use tools for defining the more subjective aspects of quality resulted in a system that responded to contextual cues that are difficult to hard-code. It had the additional advantage of allowing the definition of quality to evolve over time, as users became more knowledgeable as to the strengths and limitations of an automated quality inspection system.

GTSnext: towards a next generation of the geological time scale over the last 100 millions years. (Invited)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kuiper, K.; Condon, D.; Hilgen, F.; Laskar, J.; Mezger, K.; Pälike, H.; Quidelleur, X.; Schaltegger, U.; Sprovieri, M.; Storey, M.; Wijbrans, J. R.

2009-12-01

The principal scientific objective of the Marie Curie Initial Trainings Network GTSnext is to establish the next generation standard Geological Time Scale with unprecedented accuracy, precision and resolution through integration and intercalibration of state-of-the-art numerical dating techniques. Such time scales underlie all fields in the Earth Sciences and their application will significantly contribute to a much enhanced understanding of Earth System evolution. During the last decade deep marine successions were successfully employed to establish an astronomical tuning for the entire Neogene, as incorporated in the standard Geological Time Scale (ATNTS2004). In GTSnext we aim to fine-tune this Neogene time scale, before it can reliably be used to accurately determine phase relations between astronomical forcing and climate response in the Neogene and possibly also the Oligocene. Radio-isotopic dating of late Neogene ash layers offers excellent opportunities for gaining insight into isotope systematics via their independent dating by astronomical tuning. An example of this synergy is the development of astronomically calibrated standards for 40Ar/39Ar geochronology. The cross-calibration between the different methods might also yield information on the fundamental problem of potential residence times in U/Pb dating. Extension of the astronomical time scale into the Paleogene seems limited to ~40 Ma due to the accuracy of the current astronomical solution. However, the 405 kyr eccentricity component is very stable permitting its use in time scale calibrations back to 250 Ma using only this frequency. This cycle is strong and well developed in Oligocene and even Eocene records. Phase relations between cyclic paleo-climate records and the 405 kyr eccentricity cycle are typically straightforward and unambiguous. Therefore, a first-order tuning to ~405 kyr eccentricity can only be revised by shifting the tuning with (multiples of) ~405 kyr. Isotopic age constraints of both U/Pb and 40Ar/39Ar will be used to anchor floating astronomical tunings, but absolute uncertainties in isotopic ages should be less than ± 200 kyr. The Cretaceous is famous for its remarkable cyclic successions of marine pelagic sediments which bear the unmistakable imprint of astronomical climate forcing. As a consequence floating astrochronologies which are based on number of cycles have been developed for significant portions of the Cretaceous, covering a number of geological stages. Unfortunately, such floating time scales provide us only with the duration of stages but not with their age. However, due to significant improvements in numerical astronomical solutions for the Solar System and in the accuracy of radio-isotopic dating we will try to establish a tuned time scale for the Late Cretaceous. Classical cyclic sections in Europe (e.g. Sopelana, Spain) will be used for the tuning, but lack ash beds. Therefore, radio-isotopic age constraints necessary for the tuning will come from ash beds in the Western Interior Basin in North America. Here we will present the first results of the GTSnext project.

PID controller tuning using metaheuristic optimization algorithms for benchmark problems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gholap, Vishal; Naik Dessai, Chaitali; Bagyaveereswaran, V.

2017-11-01

This paper contributes to find the optimal PID controller parameters using particle swarm optimization (PSO), Genetic Algorithm (GA) and Simulated Annealing (SA) algorithm. The algorithms were developed through simulation of chemical process and electrical system and the PID controller is tuned. Here, two different fitness functions such as Integral Time Absolute Error and Time domain Specifications were chosen and applied on PSO, GA and SA while tuning the controller. The proposed Algorithms are implemented on two benchmark problems of coupled tank system and DC motor. Finally, comparative study has been done with different algorithms based on best cost, number of iterations and different objective functions. The closed loop process response for each set of tuned parameters is plotted for each system with each fitness function.

Model-independent particle accelerator tuning

DOE PAGES

Scheinker, Alexander; Pang, Xiaoying; Rybarcyk, Larry

2013-10-21

We present a new model-independent dynamic feedback technique, rotation rate tuning, for automatically and simultaneously tuning coupled components of uncertain, complex systems. The main advantages of the method are: 1) It has the ability to handle unknown, time-varying systems, 2) It gives known bounds on parameter update rates, 3) We give an analytic proof of its convergence and its stability, and 4) It has a simple digital implementation through a control system such as the Experimental Physics and Industrial Control System (EPICS). Because this technique is model independent it may be useful as a real-time, in-hardware, feedback-based optimization scheme formore » uncertain and time-varying systems. In particular, it is robust enough to handle uncertainty due to coupling, thermal cycling, misalignments, and manufacturing imperfections. As a result, it may be used as a fine-tuning supplement for existing accelerator tuning/control schemes. We present multi-particle simulation results demonstrating the scheme’s ability to simultaneously adaptively adjust the set points of twenty two quadrupole magnets and two RF buncher cavities in the Los Alamos Neutron Science Center Linear Accelerator’s transport region, while the beam properties and RF phase shift are continuously varying. The tuning is based only on beam current readings, without knowledge of particle dynamics. We also present an outline of how to implement this general scheme in software for optimization, and in hardware for feedback-based control/tuning, for a wide range of systems.« less

Polymer-Based Protein Engineering: Synthesis and Characterization of Armored, High Graft Density Polymer-Protein Conjugates.

PubMed

Carmali, Sheiliza; Murata, Hironobu; Cummings, Chad; Matyjaszewski, Krzysztof; Russell, Alan J

2017-01-01

Atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) from the surface of a protein can generate remarkably dense polymer shells that serve as armor and rationally tune protein function. Using straightforward chemistry, it is possible to covalently couple or display multiple small molecule initiators onto a protein surface. The chemistry is fine-tuned to be sequence specific (if one desires a single targeted site) at controlled density. Once the initiator is anchored on the protein surface, ATRP is used to grow polymers on protein surface, in situ. The technique is so powerful that a single-protein polymer conjugate molecule can contain more than 90% polymer coating by weight. If desired, stimuli-responsive polymers can be "grown" from the initiated sites to prepare enzyme conjugates that respond to external triggers such as temperature or pH, while still maintaining enzyme activity and stability. Herein, we focus mainly on the synthesis of chymotrypsin-polymer conjugates. Control of the number of covalently coupled initiator sites by changing the stoichiometric ratio between enzyme and the initiator during the synthesis of protein-initiator complexes allowed fine-tuning of the grafting density. For example, very high grafting density chymotrypsin conjugates were prepared from protein-initiator complexes to grow the temperature-responsive polymers, poly(N-isopropylacrylamide), and poly[N,N'-dimethyl(methacryloyloxyethyl) ammonium propane sulfonate]. Controlled growth of polymers from protein surfaces enables one to predictably manipulate enzyme kinetics and stability without the need for molecular biology-dependent mutagenesis. © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Distortion-product otoacoustic emission reflection-component delays and cochlear tuning: estimates from across the human lifespan.

PubMed

Abdala, Carolina; Guérit, François; Luo, Ping; Shera, Christopher A

2014-04-01

A consistent relationship between reflection-emission delay and cochlear tuning has been demonstrated in a variety of mammalian species, as predicted by filter theory and models of otoacoustic emission (OAE) generation. As a step toward the goal of studying cochlear tuning throughout the human lifespan, this paper exploits the relationship and explores two strategies for estimating delay trends-energy weighting and peak picking-both of which emphasize data at the peaks of the magnitude fine structure. Distortion product otoacoustic emissions (DPOAEs) at 2f1-f2 were recorded, and their reflection components were extracted in 184 subjects ranging in age from prematurely born neonates to elderly adults. DPOAEs were measured from 0.5-4 kHz in all age groups and extended to 8 kHz in young adults. Delay trends were effectively estimated using either energy weighting or peak picking, with the former method yielding slightly shorter delays and the latter somewhat smaller confidence intervals. Delay and tuning estimates from young adults roughly match those obtained from SFOAEs. Although the match is imperfect, reflection-component delays showed the expected bend (apical-basal transition) near 1 kHz, consistent with a break in cochlear scaling. Consistent with other measures of tuning, the term newborn group showed the longest delays and sharpest tuning over much of the frequency range.

"Tuning into Kids": Reducing Young Children's Behavior Problems Using an Emotion Coaching Parenting Program

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Havighurst, Sophie S.; Wilson, Katherine R.; Harley, Ann E.; Kehoe, Christiane; Efron, Daryl; Prior, Margot R.

2013-01-01

This study evaluated a 6-session group parenting program, "Tuning into Kids" (TIK), as treatment for young children (aged 4.0-5.11 years) with behavior problems. TIK targets parent emotion socialization (parent emotion awareness, regulation and emotion coaching skills). Fifty-four parents, recruited via a child behavior clinic, were randomized…

A Fine-Tuned Look at White Space Variation in Desktop Publishing.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Knupfer, Nancy Nelson; McIsaac, Marina Stock

This investigation of the use of white space in print-based, computer-generated text focused on the point at which the white space interferes with reading speed and comprehension. It was hypothesized that reading speed and comprehension would be significantly greater when text was wrapped tightly around the graphic than when it had one-half inch…

Fine Tuned Modulation of the Motor System by Adjectives Expressing Positive and Negative Properties

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gough, P. M.; Campione, G. C.; Buccino, G.

2013-01-01

Using transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), motor evoked potentials (MEPs) were recorded from two antagonistic muscles, the first dorsal interosseus (FDI) of the hand and the extensor communis digitorum (EC) of the forearm. FDI is involved in grasping actions and EC in releasing. TMS pulses were delivered while participants were reading…

A survey of synthetic nicotinamide cofactors in enzymatic processes.

PubMed

Paul, Caroline E; Hollmann, Frank

2016-06-01

Synthetic nicotinamide cofactors are analogues of the natural cofactors used by oxidoreductases as redox intermediates. Their ability to be fine-tuned makes these biomimetics an attractive alternative to the natural cofactors in terms of stability, reactivity, and cost. The following mini-review focuses on the current state of the art of those biomimetics in enzymatic processes.

Integrated Prevention of Social Dependencies in Adolescents through the Scenario Method

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Maznichenko, Marina A.; Neskoromnykh, Nataliya I.

2015-01-01

This article provides a rationale for the need to take an integrated approach to prevention of social dependencies in adolescents. Through this approach, the authors fine-tune the determination of the phenomenon of prevention of social dependencies. The authors bring to light the potential of the scenario method in resolving the above objective.…

Photosynthesis: ancient, essential, complex, diverse ... and in need of improvement in a changing world

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

A challenge to crop improvement is the fact that the photosynthetic process has been fine tuned by billions of years of natural selection, and is subject to deeply rooted genetic controls shaped in the native environments of the crop ancestors. These may be difficult to change and may not be optima...

NREL Reveals Potential for Capturing Waste Heat via Nanotubes | News | NREL

Science.gov Websites

Reveals Potential for Capturing Waste Heat via Nanotubes News Release: NREL Reveals Potential for Capturing Waste Heat via Nanotubes April 4, 2016 A finely tuned carbon nanotube thin film has the potential to act as a thermoelectric power generator that captures and uses waste heat, according to

Multi-functional micromotor: microfluidic fabrication and water treatment application.

PubMed

Chen, Anqi; Ge, Xue-Hui; Chen, Jian; Zhang, Liyuan; Xu, Jian-Hong

2017-12-05

Micromotors are important for a wide variety of applications. Here, we develop a microfluidic approach for one-step fabrication of a Janus self-propelled micromotor with multiple functions. By fine tuning the fabrication parameters and loading functional nanoparticles, our micromotor reaches a high speed and achieves an oriented function to promote the water purification efficiency and recycling process.

Partnering Peanuts and Word Processors for Research Writing in the Middle Grades

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

LaBonty, Jan; Williams, Sandra

2008-01-01

For six weeks, middle school students gathered information about peanuts from a variety of text and media sources to create an original informative book, thereby combining goals in both technology and language arts. By conducting authentic research about one topic for a concentrated period of time, students were able to develop and fine tune their…

Potassium Homeostasis: The Knowns, the Unknowns, and the Health Benefits

PubMed Central

Youn, Jang H.

2017-01-01

Potassium homeostasis has a very high priority because of its importance for membrane potential. Although extracellular K+ is only 2% of total body K+, our physiology was evolutionarily tuned for a high-K+, low-Na+ diet. We review how multiple systems interface to accomplish fine K+ balance and the consequences for health and disease. PMID:28202621

"Aid Like a Paycheck: Engaging with Policymakers and Practitioners to Evaluate and Improve Financial Aid"

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Weissman, Evan; O'Connell, Jesse

2016-01-01

"Aid Like A Paycheck" is a large-scale pilot evaluation of whether an innovative approach to disbursing financial aid can improve academic and financial outcomes for low-income community college students. Lessons from the pilot evaluation were used to create and fine-tune a logic model depicting activities, outputs, mediators, and…

Ranking and the Multiplication of Reputation: Reflections from the Frontier of Globalizing Higher Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Collins, Francis L.; Park, Gil-Sung

2016-01-01

Over the last two decades, enumeration has become a critical force in crafting the governmentalities of globalizing higher education. Whether in the glossy Web sites and documentation of the world's "top universities" or in more fine-tuned regional and subject guides, accreditation schemes, journal metrics or h-indexes, technologies for…

Raising Money and Cultivating Donors through Special Events.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Harris, April L.

This book provides "how to" information for those who have never managed a fund-raising event for a college or university, and gives advice to help the experienced professional fund-raiser fine-tune traditional or new events. It covers the essential steps in event planning such as developing a realistic budget, and includes a budget planning…

Multichannel X-Band Dielectric-Resonator Oscillator

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Mysoor, Narayan; Dennis, Matthew; Cook, Brian

2006-01-01

A multichannel dielectric-resonator oscillator (DRO), built as a prototype of a local oscillator for an X-band transmitter or receiver, is capable of being electrically tuned among and within 26 adjacent frequency channels, each 1.16 MHz wide, in a band ranging from 7,040 to 7,070 GHz. The tunability of this oscillator is what sets it apart from other DROs, making it possible to use mass-produced oscillator units of identical design in diverse X-band applications in which there are requirements to use different fixed frequencies or to switch among frequency channels. The oscillator (see figure) includes a custom-designed voltage-controlled-oscillator (VCO) monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC), a dielectric resonator disk (puck), and two varactor-coupling circuits, all laid out on a 25-mil (0.635-mm)-thick alumina substrate having a length and width of 17.8 mm. The resonator disk has a diameter of 8.89 mm and a thickness of 4.01 mm. The oscillator is mounted in an 8.9-mm-deep cavity in a metal housing. The VCO MMIC incorporates a negative- resistance oscillator amplifier along with a buffer amplifier. The resonator disk is coupled to a microstrip transmission line connected to the negative-resistance port of the VCO MMIC. The two varactor-coupling circuits include microstrip lines, laid out orthogonally to each other, for coupling with the resonator disk. Each varactor microstrip line is DC-coupled to an external port via a microwave choke. One varactor is used for coarse tuning to select a channel; the other varactor is used (1) for fine tuning across the 1.16-MHz width of each channel and (2) as a feedback port for a phase-lock loop. The resonator disk is positioned to obtain (1) the most desirable bandwidth, (2) relatively tight coupling with the microstrip connected to the coarse-tuning varactor, and (3) relatively loose coupling with the microstrip connected to the fine-tuning varactor. Measurements of performance showed that the oscillator can be switched among any of the 26 channels and can be phase-locked to a nominal frequency in any channel. The degree of nonlinearity of tuning was found not to exceed 2.5 percent. The tuning sensitivity was found to be 6.15 MHz/V at a bias offset of -2 V on the phase-lock-loop varactor. The phase noise of the oscillator in free-running operation was found to be -107 dBc/Hz (where dBc signifies decibels relative to the carrier signal) at 100 kHz away from the carrier frequency.

LS-APC v1.0: a tuning-free method for the linear inverse problem and its application to source-term determination

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tichý, Ondřej; Šmídl, Václav; Hofman, Radek; Stohl, Andreas

2016-11-01

Estimation of pollutant releases into the atmosphere is an important problem in the environmental sciences. It is typically formalized as an inverse problem using a linear model that can explain observable quantities (e.g., concentrations or deposition values) as a product of the source-receptor sensitivity (SRS) matrix obtained from an atmospheric transport model multiplied by the unknown source-term vector. Since this problem is typically ill-posed, current state-of-the-art methods are based on regularization of the problem and solution of a formulated optimization problem. This procedure depends on manual settings of uncertainties that are often very poorly quantified, effectively making them tuning parameters. We formulate a probabilistic model, that has the same maximum likelihood solution as the conventional method using pre-specified uncertainties. Replacement of the maximum likelihood solution by full Bayesian estimation also allows estimation of all tuning parameters from the measurements. The estimation procedure is based on the variational Bayes approximation which is evaluated by an iterative algorithm. The resulting method is thus very similar to the conventional approach, but with the possibility to also estimate all tuning parameters from the observations. The proposed algorithm is tested and compared with the standard methods on data from the European Tracer Experiment (ETEX) where advantages of the new method are demonstrated. A MATLAB implementation of the proposed algorithm is available for download.

The minimal GUT with inflaton and dark matter unification

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chen, Heng-Yu; Gogoladze, Ilia; Hu, Shan; Li, Tianjun; Wu, Lina

2018-01-01

Giving up the solutions to the fine-tuning problems, we propose the non-supersymmetric flipped SU(5)× U(1)_X model based on the minimal particle content principle, which can be constructed from the four-dimensional SO(10) models, five-dimensional orbifold SO(10) models, and local F-theory SO(10) models. To achieve gauge coupling unification, we introduce one pair of vector-like fermions, which form a complete SU(5)× U(1)_X representation. The proton lifetime is around 5× 10^{35} years, neutrino masses and mixing can be explained via the seesaw mechanism, baryon asymmetry can be generated via leptogenesis, and the vacuum stability problem can be solved as well. In particular, we propose that inflaton and dark matter particles can be unified to a real scalar field with Z_2 symmetry, which is not an axion and does not have the non-minimal coupling to gravity. Such a kind of scenarios can be applied to the generic scalar dark matter models. Also, we find that the vector-like particle corrections to the B_s^0 masses might be about 6.6%, while their corrections to the K^0 and B_d^0 masses are negligible.

Sourcing dark matter and dark energy from α-attractors

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

Mishra, Swagat S.; Sahni, Varun; Shtanov, Yuri, E-mail: swagat@iucaa.in, E-mail: varun@iucaa.in, E-mail: shtanov@bitp.kiev.ua

In [1], Kallosh and Linde drew attention to a new family of superconformal inflationary potentials, subsequently called α-attractors [2]. The α-attractor family can interpolate between a large class of inflationary models. It also has an important theoretical underpinning within the framework of supergravity. We demonstrate that the α-attractors have an even wider appeal since they may describe dark matter and perhaps even dark energy. The dark matter associated with the α-attractors, which we call α-dark matter (αDM), shares many of the attractive features of fuzzy dark matter, with V (φ) = ½ m {sup 2}φ{sup 2}, while having none ofmore » its drawbacks. Like fuzzy dark matter, αDM can have a large Jeans length which could resolve the cusp-core and substructure problems faced by standard cold dark matter. αDM also has an appealing tracker property which enables it to converge to the late-time dark matter asymptote, ( w ) ≅ 0, from a wide range of initial conditions. It thus avoids the enormous fine-tuning problems faced by the m {sup 2}φ{sup 2} potential in describing dark matter.« less

Fine tuning of optical signals in nanoporous anodic alumina photonic crystals by apodized sinusoidal pulse anodisation.

PubMed

Santos, Abel; Law, Cheryl Suwen; Chin Lei, Dominique Wong; Pereira, Taj; Losic, Dusan

2016-11-03

In this study, we present an advanced nanofabrication approach to produce gradient-index photonic crystal structures based on nanoporous anodic alumina. An apodization strategy is for the first time applied to a sinusoidal pulse anodisation process in order to engineer the photonic stop band of nanoporous anodic alumina (NAA) in depth. Four apodization functions are explored, including linear positive, linear negative, logarithmic positive and logarithmic negative, with the aim of finely tuning the characteristic photonic stop band of these photonic crystal structures. We systematically analyse the effect of the amplitude difference (from 0.105 to 0.840 mA cm -2 ), the pore widening time (from 0 to 6 min), the anodisation period (from 650 to 950 s) and the anodisation time (from 15 to 30 h) on the quality and the position of the characteristic photonic stop band and the interferometric colour of these photonic crystal structures using the aforementioned apodization functions. Our results reveal that a logarithmic negative apodisation function is the most optimal approach to obtain unprecedented well-resolved and narrow photonic stop bands across the UV-visible-NIR spectrum of NAA-based gradient-index photonic crystals. Our study establishes a fully comprehensive rationale towards the development of unique NAA-based photonic crystal structures with finely engineered optical properties for advanced photonic devices such as ultra-sensitive optical sensors, selective optical filters and all-optical platforms for quantum computing.

Self-assembled nanostructures of linear arylacetylenes and their aza-substituted analogues

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

Xu, Jia-Ju; Department of Physics and Materials Science and Centre of Super Diamond and Advanced Films; Yang, Xiong-Bo

2016-06-15

A series of linear phenylene ethynylene molecules have been synthesized, and aza-substitution has been used as a strategy to fine-tune the properties of the molecules. All the compounds exhibited pure blue emission both in solution and solid state, and fluorescence quantum yields as high as 0.66, 0.63 and 0.82 were found in chloroform solutions. The well-defined nanostructures such as quasi-cubes, cubes and rods were fabricated by self-assembly method from these compounds. The photophysical properties and aggregation behavior of self-assembled structures were analyzed in detail. The morphology as well as photophysical properties of these nanostructures have been tuned with selective requirements.

Making a Good Sound on the Trumpet

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dust, Thomas

2007-01-01

If trumpet players are having difficulty playing in tune, the problem may be related to tone. A properly resonant tone is important for developing the concept of intonation--in-tune playing--and for the student's aesthetic satisfaction. A poor tone must be remedied so that students can play in tune and progress satisfactorily with all aspects of…

Specialization of the auditory system for the processing of bio-sonar information in the frequency domain: Mustached bats.

PubMed

Suga, Nobuo

2018-04-01

For echolocation, mustached bats emit velocity-sensitive orientation sounds (pulses) containing a constant-frequency component consisting of four harmonics (CF 1-4 ). They show unique behavior called Doppler-shift compensation for Doppler-shifted echoes and hunting behavior for frequency and amplitude modulated echoes from fluttering insects. Their peripheral auditory system is highly specialized for fine frequency analysis of CF 2 (∼61.0 kHz) and detecting echo CF 2 from fluttering insects. In their central auditory system, lateral inhibition occurring at multiple levels sharpens V-shaped frequency-tuning curves at the periphery and creates sharp spindle-shaped tuning curves and amplitude tuning. The large CF 2 -tuned area of the auditory cortex systematically represents the frequency and amplitude of CF 2 in a frequency-versus-amplitude map. "CF/CF" neurons are tuned to a specific combination of pulse CF 1 and Doppler-shifted echo CF 2 or 3 . They are tuned to specific velocities. CF/CF neurons cluster in the CC ("C" stands for CF) and DIF (dorsal intrafossa) areas of the auditory cortex. The CC area has the velocity map for Doppler imaging. The DIF area is particularly for Dopper imaging of other bats approaching in cruising flight. To optimize the processing of behaviorally relevant sounds, cortico-cortical interactions and corticofugal feedback modulate the frequency tuning of cortical and sub-cortical auditory neurons and cochlear hair cells through a neural net consisting of positive feedback associated with lateral inhibition. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

PI controller design of a wind turbine: evaluation of the pole-placement method and tuning using constrained optimization

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mirzaei, Mahmood; Tibaldi, Carlo; Hansen, Morten H.

2016-09-01

PI/PID controllers are the most common wind turbine controllers. Normally a first tuning is obtained using methods such as pole-placement or Ziegler-Nichols and then extensive aeroelastic simulations are used to obtain the best tuning in terms of regulation of the outputs and reduction of the loads. In the traditional tuning approaches, the properties of different open loop and closed loop transfer functions of the system are not normally considered. In this paper, an assessment of the pole-placement tuning method is presented based on robustness measures. Then a constrained optimization setup is suggested to automatically tune the wind turbine controller subject to robustness constraints. The properties of the system such as the maximum sensitivity and complementary sensitivity functions (Ms and Mt ), along with some of the responses of the system, are used to investigate the controller performance and formulate the optimization problem. The cost function is the integral absolute error (IAE) of the rotational speed from a disturbance modeled as a step in wind speed. Linearized model of the DTU 10-MW reference wind turbine is obtained using HAWCStab2. Thereafter, the model is reduced with model order reduction. The trade-off curves are given to assess the tunings of the poles- placement method and a constrained optimization problem is solved to find the best tuning.

Potential responses to climate change in organisms with complex life histories: evolution and plasticity in Pacific salmon

Treesearch

L.G. Crozier; A.P. Hendry; P.W. Lawson; T.P. Quinn; N.J. Mantua; J. Battin; R.G. Shaw; R.B. Huey

2008-01-01

Salmon life histories are finely tuned to local environmental conditions, which are intimately linked to climate. We summarize the likely impacts of climate change on the physical environment of salmon in the Pacific Northwest and discuss the potential evolutionary consequences of these changes, with particular reference to Columbia River Basin spring/summer Chinook (...

USSR Report, Electronics and Electrical Engineering, No. 102

DTIC Science & Technology

1983-04-29

S. IAbstract] The laser probing method is applied to measurement of absorption , transmission, and reflection coefficients, also insertion losses...electronic clock. The method of measurements is based on absorption of monochromatic radiation from the lasers, the latter being tuned to the fine...Acoustic-Wave Transducer by Laser Probing Method (A. B. Voroshnin, G. S. Felinskiy; IZVESTIYA VYSSHIKH UCHEBNYKH ZAVEDENIY: RADIOELEKTRONIKA, Dec 82

Event-Related Potential Evidence in Chinese Children: Type of Literacy Training Modulates Neural Orthographic Sensitivity

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zhao, Pei; Zhao, Jing; Weng, Xuchu; Li, Su

2018-01-01

Visual word N170 is an index of perceptual expertise for visual words across different writing systems. Recent developmental studies have shown the early emergence of visual word N170 and its close association with individual's reading ability. In the current study, we investigated whether fine-tuning N170 for Chinese characters could emerge after…

CSR-1 Slices a Balance.

PubMed

Yu, Ruby; Moazed, Danesh

2016-04-07

CSR-1 is a germline-expressed C. elegans Argonaute protein essential for viability. In this issue of Cell, Gerson-Gurwitz et al. now demonstrate a role for CSR-1 and its slicer activity in downregulating the levels of maternally deposited mRNAs to fine-tune the expression of proteins with critical roles in embryonic cell divisions. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

NREL Helps Utilities Develop Next Generation Plug-in Hybrid Electric Trucks

Science.gov Websites

operation, and fine-tune the design of such vehicles before expanding their use in the PG&E or other Vehicle Performance Data Based on Real-World Operation "NREL has been working with PG&E to accessories function in real-world operation." To date, NREL has captured and is currently analyzing four

Semi-active compressor valve

DOEpatents

Brun, Klaus; Gernentz, Ryan S.

2010-07-27

A method and system for fine-tuning the motion of suction or discharge valves associated with cylinders of a reciprocating gas compressor, such as the large compressors used for natural gas transmission. The valve's primary driving force is conventional, but the valve also uses an electromagnetic coil to sense position of the plate (or other plugging element) and to provide an opposing force prior to impact.

Creating a Successful Training Program for Frontline Staff: The University of Minnesota's Integrated Student Services Model

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Peterson, Heather L.; Otto, Carrie L.

2011-01-01

Successfully preparing frontline counseling staff in an integrated student services model is a challenge--one that management staff in One Stop Student Services at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities (UMTC) have been fine-tuning for almost ten years. The effort has required collaboration across units in a series of trial and error attempts…

Single organic microtwist with tunable pitch.

PubMed

Chen, Hai-Bo; Zhou, Yan; Yin, Jie; Yan, Jing; Ma, Yuguo; Wang, Lei; Cao, Yong; Wang, Jian; Pei, Jian

2009-05-19

A facile synthesis of previously unknown, well-separated, uniform chiral microstructures from achiral pi-conjugated organic molecules was developed by simple solution process. Detailed characterization and formation mechanism were presented. By simple structure modification or temperature change, the pitch of the chiral structure can be fine tuned. Our result opens new possibilities for novel materials in which structure chirality is coupled to device performance.

Educating the design stance: issues of coherence and transgression.

PubMed

Freeman, Norman H; Allen, Melissa L

2013-04-01

Bullot & Reber (B&R) put forth a design stance to fuse psychological and art historical accounts of visual thinking into a single theory. We argue that this aspect of their proposal needs further fine-tuning. Issues of transgression and coherence are necessary to provide stability to the design stance. We advocate looking to Art Education for such fundamentals of picture understanding.

Reliability of individual valuations of public and private goods: Choice consistency, response time, and preference refinement

Treesearch

Thomas C. Brown; David Kingsley; George L. Peterson; Nicholas E. Flores; Andrea Clarke; Andrej Birjulin

2008-01-01

We examined the reliability of a large set of paired comparison value judgments involving public goods, private goods, and sums of money. As respondents progressed through a random sequence of paired choices they were each given, their response time decreased and they became more consistent, apparently fine-tuning their responses, suggesting that respondents tend to...

THE EFFECT OF WATER CHEMISTRY AND IRON PARTICLE PROPERTIES ON THE REMOVAL OF ARSENIC FOLLOWING THE OXIDATION OF FERROUS IRON

EPA Science Inventory

The current MCL for arsenic is being revised to a lower level by the USEPA. Many new utilities, particularly small utilities, will be forced to add an arsenic removal process or fine tune their curent water treatment process to meet the new MCL. Many arsenic removal processes rel...

Simulation of recreational use in backcountry settings: an aid to management planning

Treesearch

David N. Cole

2002-01-01

Simulation models of recreation use patterns can be a valuable tool to managers of backcountry areas, such as wilderness areas and national parks. They can help fine-tune existing management programs, particularly in places that ration recreation use or that require the use of designated campsites. They can assist managers in evaluating the likely effects of increasing...

Wind turbine extraction from high spatial resolution remote sensing images based on saliency detection

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chen, Jingbo; Yue, Anzhi; Wang, Chengyi; Huang, Qingqing; Chen, Jiansheng; Meng, Yu; He, Dongxu

2018-01-01

The wind turbine is a device that converts the wind's kinetic energy into electrical power. Accurate and automatic extraction of wind turbine is instructive for government departments to plan wind power plant projects. A hybrid and practical framework based on saliency detection for wind turbine extraction, using Google Earth image at spatial resolution of 1 m, is proposed. It can be viewed as a two-phase procedure: coarsely detection and fine extraction. In the first stage, we introduced a frequency-tuned saliency detection approach for initially detecting the area of interest of the wind turbines. This method exploited features of color and luminance, was simple to implement, and was computationally efficient. Taking into account the complexity of remote sensing images, in the second stage, we proposed a fast method for fine-tuning results in frequency domain and then extracted wind turbines from these salient objects by removing the irrelevant salient areas according to the special properties of the wind turbines. Experiments demonstrated that our approach consistently obtains higher precision and better recall rates. Our method was also compared with other techniques from the literature and proves that it is more applicable and robust.

Synthetic and natural Peroxisome Proliferator-Activated Receptor (PPAR) agonists as candidates for the therapy of the metabolic syndrome.

PubMed

Tan, Chek Kun; Zhuang, Yan; Wahli, Walter

2017-03-01

Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptors (PPARs) are the molecular targets of hypolipidemic and insulin-sensitizing drugs and implicated in a multitude of processes that fine-tune the functions of all organs in vertebrates. As transcription factors they sense endogenous and exogenous lipid signaling molecules and convert these signals into intricate gene responses that impact health and disease. The PPARs act as modulators of cellular, organ, and systemic processes, such as lipid and carbohydrate metabolism, making them valuable for understanding body homeostasis influenced by nutrition and exercise. Areas covered: This review concentrates on synthetic and natural PPAR ligands and how they have helped reveal many aspects of the transcriptional control of complex processes important in health. Expert opinion: The three PPARs have complementary roles in the fine-tuning of most fundamental body functions, especially energy metabolism. Understanding their inter-relatedness using ligands that simultaneously modulate the activity of more than one of these receptors is a major goal. This approach may provide essential knowledge for the development of dual or pan-PPAR agonists or antagonists as potential new health-promoting agents and for nutritional approaches to prevent metabolic diseases.

Full phosphorescent white-light organic light-emitting diodes with improved color stability and efficiency by fine tuning primary emission contributions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hua, Wang; Du, Xiaogang; Su, Wenming; Lin, Wenjing; Zhang, Dongyu

2014-02-01

In this paper, a novel type of white-light organic light emitting diode (OLED) with high color stability was reported, in which the yellow-light emission layer of (4,4'-N,N'-dicarbazole)biphenyl (CBP) : tris(2-phenylquinoline-C2,N')iridium(III) (Ir(2-phq)3) was sandwiched by double blue-light emission layers of 1,1-bis-[(di-4-tolylamino)pheny1]cyclohexane (TAPC) : bis[4,6-(di-fluorophenyl)-pyridinato-N,C2']picolinate (FIrpic) and tris[3-(3-pyridyl)mesityl]borane (3TPYMB):FIrpic. And, it exhibited the maximum current efficiency of 33.1 cd/A, the turn-on voltage at about 3 V and the maximum luminance in excess of 20000 cd/m2. More important, it realized very stable white-light emission, and its CIE(x, y) coordinates only shift from (0.34, 0.37) to (0.33, 0.37) as applied voltage increased from 5 V to 12 V. It is believed that the new scheme in emission layer of white-light OLED can fine tune the contribution of primary emission with applied voltage changed, resulting in high quality white-light OLED.

Stable exponential cosmological solutions with 3- and l-dimensional factor spaces in the Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet model with a Λ -term

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ivashchuk, V. D.; Kobtsev, A. A.

2018-02-01

A D-dimensional gravitational model with a Gauss-Bonnet term and the cosmological term Λ is studied. We assume the metrics to be diagonal cosmological ones. For certain fine-tuned Λ , we find a class of solutions with exponential time dependence of two scale factors, governed by two Hubble-like parameters H >0 and h, corresponding to factor spaces of dimensions 3 and l > 2, respectively and D = 1 + 3 + l. The fine-tuned Λ = Λ (x, l, α ) depends upon the ratio h/H = x, l and the ratio α = α _2/α _1 of two constants (α _2 and α _1) of the model. For fixed Λ , α and l > 2 the equation Λ (x,l,α ) = Λ is equivalent to a polynomial equation of either fourth or third order and may be solved in radicals (the example l =3 is presented). For certain restrictions on x we prove the stability of the solutions in a class of cosmological solutions with diagonal metrics. A subclass of solutions with small enough variation of the effective gravitational constant G is considered. It is shown that all solutions from this subclass are stable.

Intervertebral disc detection in X-ray images using faster R-CNN.

PubMed

Ruhan Sa; Owens, William; Wiegand, Raymond; Studin, Mark; Capoferri, Donald; Barooha, Kenneth; Greaux, Alexander; Rattray, Robert; Hutton, Adam; Cintineo, John; Chaudhary, Vipin

2017-07-01

Automatic identification of specific osseous landmarks on the spinal radiograph can be used to automate calculations for correcting ligament instability and injury, which affect 75% of patients injured in motor vehicle accidents. In this work, we propose to use deep learning based object detection method as the first step towards identifying landmark points in lateral lumbar X-ray images. The significant breakthrough of deep learning technology has made it a prevailing choice for perception based applications, however, the lack of large annotated training dataset has brought challenges to utilizing the technology in medical image processing field. In this work, we propose to fine tune a deep network, Faster-RCNN, a state-of-the-art deep detection network in natural image domain, using small annotated clinical datasets. In the experiment we show that, by using only 81 lateral lumbar X-Ray training images, one can achieve much better performance compared to traditional sliding window detection method on hand crafted features. Furthermore, we fine-tuned the network using 974 training images and tested on 108 images, which achieved average precision of 0.905 with average computation time of 3 second per image, which greatly outperformed traditional methods in terms of accuracy and efficiency.

Plasma Membrane CRPK1-Mediated Phosphorylation of 14-3-3 Proteins Induces Their Nuclear Import to Fine-Tune CBF Signaling during Cold Response.

PubMed

Liu, Ziyan; Jia, Yuxin; Ding, Yanglin; Shi, Yiting; Li, Zhen; Guo, Yan; Gong, Zhizhong; Yang, Shuhua

2017-04-06

In plant cells, changes in fluidity of the plasma membrane may serve as the primary sensor of cold stress; however, the precise mechanism and how the cell transduces and fine-tunes cold signals remain elusive. Here we show that the cold-activated plasma membrane protein cold-responsive protein kinase 1 (CRPK1) phosphorylates 14-3-3 proteins. The phosphorylated 14-3-3 proteins shuttle from the cytosol to the nucleus, where they interact with and destabilize the key cold-responsive C-repeat-binding factor (CBF) proteins. Consistent with this, the crpk1 and 14-3-3κλ mutants show enhanced freezing tolerance, and transgenic plants overexpressing 14-3-3λ show reduced freezing tolerance. Further study shows that CRPK1 is essential for the nuclear translocation of 14-3-3 proteins and for 14-3-3 function in freezing tolerance. Thus, our study reveals that the CRPK1-14-3-3 module transduces the cold signal from the plasma membrane to the nucleus to modulate CBF stability, which ensures a faithfully adjusted response to cold stress of plants. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

How do arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi handle phosphate? New insight into fine-tuning of phosphate metabolism.

PubMed

Ezawa, Tatsuhiro; Saito, Katsuharu

2018-04-27

Contents Summary I. Introduction II. Foraging for phosphate III. Fine-tuning of phosphate homeostasis IV. The frontiers: phosphate translocation and export V. Conclusions and outlook Acknowledgements References SUMMARY: Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi form symbiotic associations with most land plants and deliver mineral nutrients, in particular phosphate, to the host. Therefore, understanding the mechanisms of phosphate acquisition and delivery in the fungi is critical for full appreciation of the mutualism in this association. Here, we provide updates on physical, chemical, and biological strategies of the fungi for phosphate acquisition, including interactions with phosphate-solubilizing bacteria, and those on the regulatory mechanisms of phosphate homeostasis based on resurveys of published genome sequences and a transcriptome with reference to the latest findings in a model fungus. For the mechanisms underlying phosphate translocation and export to the host, which are major research frontiers in this field, not only recent advances but also testable hypotheses are proposed. Lastly, we briefly discuss applicability of the latest tools to gene silencing in the fungi, which will be breakthrough techniques for comprehensive understanding of the molecular basis of fungal phosphate metabolism. © 2018 The Authors. New Phytologist © 2018 New Phytologist Trust.

Fine tuning the color-transition temperature of thermoreversible polydiacetylene/zinc oxide nanocomposites: The effect of photopolymerization time.

PubMed

Traiphol, Nisanart; Faisadcha, Kunruethai; Potai, Ruttayapon; Traiphol, Rakchart

2015-02-01

An ability to control the thermochromic behaviors of polydiacetylene (PDA)-based materials is very important for their utilization. Recently, our group has developed the PDA/zinc oxide (ZnO) nanocomposites, which exhibit reversible thermochromism (Traiphol et al., 2011). In this study, we present our continuation work demonstrating a rather simple method for fine tuning their color-transition temperature. The PDA/ZnO nanocomposites are prepared by varying photopolymerization time, which in turn affects the length of PDA conjugated backbone. We have found that the increase of photopolymerization time from 1 to 120min results in systematically decrease of the color-transition temperature from about 85 to 40°C. These PDA/ZnO nanocomposites still exhibit reversible thermochromism. The PDA/ZnO nanocomposites embedded in polyvinyl alcohol films show two-step color-transition processes, the reversible blue to purple and then irreversible purple to orange. Interestingly, the increase of photopolymerization time causes an increase of the irreversible color-transition temperature. Our method is quite simple and cheap, which can provide a library of PDA-based materials with controllable color-transition temperature. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Mode Tracker for Mode-Hop-Free Operation of a Laser

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Wysocki, Gerard; Tittel, Frank K.; Curl, Robert F.

2010-01-01

A mode-tracking system that includes a mode-controlling subsystem has been incorporated into an external-cavity (EC) quantum cascade laser that operates in a mid-infrared wavelength range. The mode-tracking system makes it possible to perform mode-hop-free wavelength scans, as needed for high-resolution spectroscopy and detection of trace gases. The laser includes a gain chip, a beam-collimating lens, and a diffraction grating. The grating is mounted on a platform, the position of which can be varied to effect independent control of the EC length and the grating angle. The position actuators include a piezoelectric stage for translation control and a motorized stage for coarse rotation control equipped with a piezoelectric actuator for fine rotation control. Together, these actuators enable control of the EC length over a range of about 90 m with a resolution of 0.9 nm, and control of the grating angle over a coarse-tuning range of +/-6.3deg and a fine-tuning range of +/-520 microrad with a resolution of 10 nrad. A mirror mounted on the platform with the grating assures always the same direction of the output laser beam.

Dendrites are dispensable for basic motoneuron function but essential for fine tuning of behavior.

PubMed

Ryglewski, Stefanie; Kadas, Dimitrios; Hutchinson, Katie; Schuetzler, Natalie; Vonhoff, Fernando; Duch, Carsten

2014-12-16

Dendrites are highly complex 3D structures that define neuronal morphology and connectivity and are the predominant sites for synaptic input. Defects in dendritic structure are highly consistent correlates of brain diseases. However, the precise consequences of dendritic structure defects for neuronal function and behavioral performance remain unknown. Here we probe dendritic function by using genetic tools to selectively abolish dendrites in identified Drosophila wing motoneurons without affecting other neuronal properties. We find that these motoneuron dendrites are unexpectedly dispensable for synaptic targeting, qualitatively normal neuronal activity patterns during behavior, and basic behavioral performance. However, significant performance deficits in sophisticated motor behaviors, such as flight altitude control and switching between discrete courtship song elements, scale with the degree of dendritic defect. To our knowledge, our observations provide the first direct evidence that complex dendrite architecture is critically required for fine-tuning and adaptability within robust, evolutionarily constrained behavioral programs that are vital for mating success and survival. We speculate that the observed scaling of performance deficits with the degree of structural defect is consistent with gradual increases in intellectual disability during continuously advancing structural deficiencies in progressive neurological disorders.

Frequency-tuning input-shaped manifold-based switching control for underactuated space robot equipped with flexible appendages

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kojima, Hirohisa; Ieda, Shoko; Kasai, Shinya

2014-08-01

Underactuated control problems, such as the control of a space robot without actuators on the main body, have been widely investigated. However, few studies have examined attitude control problems of underactuated space robots equipped with a flexible appendage, such as solar panels. In order to suppress vibration in flexible appendages, a zero-vibration input-shaping technique was applied to the link motion of an underactuated planar space robot. However, because the vibrational frequency depends on the link angles, simple input-shaping control methods cannot sufficiently suppress the vibration. In this paper, the dependency of the vibrational frequency on the link angles is measured experimentally, and the time-delay interval of the input shaper is then tuned based on the frequency estimated from the link angles. The proposed control method is referred to as frequency-tuning input-shaped manifold-based switching control (frequency-tuning IS-MBSC). The experimental results reveal that frequency-tuning IS-MBSC is capable of controlling the link angles and the main body attitude to maintain the target angles and that the vibration suppression performance of the proposed frequency-tuning IS-MBSC is better than that of a non-tuning IS-MBSC, which does not take the frequency variation into consideration.

Object Segmentation and Ground Truth in 3D Embryonic Imaging.

PubMed

Rajasekaran, Bhavna; Uriu, Koichiro; Valentin, Guillaume; Tinevez, Jean-Yves; Oates, Andrew C

2016-01-01

Many questions in developmental biology depend on measuring the position and movement of individual cells within developing embryos. Yet, tools that provide this data are often challenged by high cell density and their accuracy is difficult to measure. Here, we present a three-step procedure to address this problem. Step one is a novel segmentation algorithm based on image derivatives that, in combination with selective post-processing, reliably and automatically segments cell nuclei from images of densely packed tissue. Step two is a quantitative validation using synthetic images to ascertain the efficiency of the algorithm with respect to signal-to-noise ratio and object density. Finally, we propose an original method to generate reliable and experimentally faithful ground truth datasets: Sparse-dense dual-labeled embryo chimeras are used to unambiguously measure segmentation errors within experimental data. Together, the three steps outlined here establish a robust, iterative procedure to fine-tune image analysis algorithms and microscopy settings associated with embryonic 3D image data sets.

Object Segmentation and Ground Truth in 3D Embryonic Imaging

PubMed Central

Rajasekaran, Bhavna; Uriu, Koichiro; Valentin, Guillaume; Tinevez, Jean-Yves; Oates, Andrew C.

2016-01-01

Many questions in developmental biology depend on measuring the position and movement of individual cells within developing embryos. Yet, tools that provide this data are often challenged by high cell density and their accuracy is difficult to measure. Here, we present a three-step procedure to address this problem. Step one is a novel segmentation algorithm based on image derivatives that, in combination with selective post-processing, reliably and automatically segments cell nuclei from images of densely packed tissue. Step two is a quantitative validation using synthetic images to ascertain the efficiency of the algorithm with respect to signal-to-noise ratio and object density. Finally, we propose an original method to generate reliable and experimentally faithful ground truth datasets: Sparse-dense dual-labeled embryo chimeras are used to unambiguously measure segmentation errors within experimental data. Together, the three steps outlined here establish a robust, iterative procedure to fine-tune image analysis algorithms and microscopy settings associated with embryonic 3D image data sets. PMID:27332860

Optimal regulatory strategies for metabolic pathways in Escherichia coli depending on protein costs

PubMed Central

Wessely, Frank; Bartl, Martin; Guthke, Reinhard; Li, Pu; Schuster, Stefan; Kaleta, Christoph

2011-01-01

While previous studies have shed light on the link between the structure of metabolism and its transcriptional regulation, the extent to which transcriptional regulation controls metabolism has not yet been fully explored. In this work, we address this problem by integrating a large number of experimental data sets with a model of the metabolism of Escherichia coli. Using a combination of computational tools including the concept of elementary flux patterns, methods from network inference and dynamic optimization, we find that transcriptional regulation of pathways reflects the protein investment into these pathways. While pathways that are associated to a high protein cost are controlled by fine-tuned transcriptional programs, pathways that only require a small protein cost are transcriptionally controlled in a few key reactions. As a reason for the occurrence of these different regulatory strategies, we identify an evolutionary trade-off between the conflicting requirements to reduce protein investment and the requirement to be able to respond rapidly to changes in environmental conditions. PMID:21772263

Cross-Modal Retrieval With CNN Visual Features: A New Baseline.

PubMed

Wei, Yunchao; Zhao, Yao; Lu, Canyi; Wei, Shikui; Liu, Luoqi; Zhu, Zhenfeng; Yan, Shuicheng

2017-02-01

Recently, convolutional neural network (CNN) visual features have demonstrated their powerful ability as a universal representation for various recognition tasks. In this paper, cross-modal retrieval with CNN visual features is implemented with several classic methods. Specifically, off-the-shelf CNN visual features are extracted from the CNN model, which is pretrained on ImageNet with more than one million images from 1000 object categories, as a generic image representation to tackle cross-modal retrieval. To further enhance the representational ability of CNN visual features, based on the pretrained CNN model on ImageNet, a fine-tuning step is performed by using the open source Caffe CNN library for each target data set. Besides, we propose a deep semantic matching method to address the cross-modal retrieval problem with respect to samples which are annotated with one or multiple labels. Extensive experiments on five popular publicly available data sets well demonstrate the superiority of CNN visual features for cross-modal retrieval.

Modified Baryonic Dynamics: two-component cosmological simulations with light sterile neutrinos

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

Angus, G.W.; Gentile, G.; Diaferio, A.

2014-10-01

In this article we continue to test cosmological models centred on Modified Newtonian Dynamics (MOND) with light sterile neutrinos, which could in principle be a way to solve the fine-tuning problems of the standard model on galaxy scales while preserving successful predictions on larger scales. Due to previous failures of the simple MOND cosmological model, here we test a speculative model where the modified gravitational field is produced only by the baryons and the sterile neutrinos produce a purely Newtonian field (hence Modified Baryonic Dynamics). We use two-component cosmological simulations to separate the baryonic N-body particles from the sterile neutrinomore » ones. The premise is to attenuate the over-production of massive galaxy cluster halos which were prevalent in the original MOND plus light sterile neutrinos scenario. Theoretical issues with such a formulation notwithstanding, the Modified Baryonic Dynamics model fails to produce the correct amplitude for the galaxy cluster mass function for any reasonable value of the primordial power spectrum normalisation.« less

Neural net controller for inlet pressure control of rocket engine testing

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Trevino, Luis C.

1994-01-01

Many dynamic systems operate in select operating regions, each exhibiting characteristic modes of behavior. It is traditional to employ standard adjustable gain proportional-integral-derivative (PID) loops in such systems where no apriori model information is available. However, for controlling inlet pressure for rocket engine testing, problems in fine tuning, disturbance accommodation, and control gains for new profile operating regions (for research and development) are typically encountered. Because of the capability of capturing I/O peculiarities, using NETS, a back propagation trained neural network is specified. For select operating regions, the neural network controller is simulated to be as robust as the PID controller. For a comparative analysis, the higher order moment neural array (HOMNA) method is used to specify a second neural controller by extracting critical exemplars from the I/O data set. Furthermore, using the critical exemplars from the HOMNA method, a third neural controller is developed using NETS back propagation algorithm. All controllers are benchmarked against each other.

Enhancing Multimedia Imbalanced Concept Detection Using VIMP in Random Forests.

PubMed

Sadiq, Saad; Yan, Yilin; Shyu, Mei-Ling; Chen, Shu-Ching; Ishwaran, Hemant

2016-07-01

Recent developments in social media and cloud storage lead to an exponential growth in the amount of multimedia data, which increases the complexity of managing, storing, indexing, and retrieving information from such big data. Many current content-based concept detection approaches lag from successfully bridging the semantic gap. To solve this problem, a multi-stage random forest framework is proposed to generate predictor variables based on multivariate regressions using variable importance (VIMP). By fine tuning the forests and significantly reducing the predictor variables, the concept detection scores are evaluated when the concept of interest is rare and imbalanced, i.e., having little collaboration with other high level concepts. Using classical multivariate statistics, estimating the value of one coordinate using other coordinates standardizes the covariates and it depends upon the variance of the correlations instead of the mean. Thus, conditional dependence on the data being normally distributed is eliminated. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed framework outperforms those approaches in the comparison in terms of the Mean Average Precision (MAP) values.

Quintessential inflation with α-attractors

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

Dimopoulos, Konstantinos; Owen, Charlotte, E-mail: k.dimopoulos1@lancaster.ac.uk, E-mail: c.owen@lancaster.ac.uk

2017-06-01

A novel approach to quintessential inflation model building is studied, within the framework of α-attractors, motivated by supergravity theories. Inflationary observables are in excellent agreement with the latest CMB observations, while quintessence explains the dark energy observations without any fine-tuning. The model is kept intentionally minimal, avoiding the introduction of many degrees of freedom, couplings and mass scales. In stark contrast to ΛCDM, for natural values of the parameters, the model attains transient accelerated expansion, which avoids the future horizon problem, while it maintains the field displacement mildly sub-Planckian such that the flatness of the quintessential tail is not liftedmore » by radiative corrections and violations of the equivalence principle (fifth force) are under control. In particular, the required value of the cosmological constant is near the eletroweak scale. Attention is paid to the reheating of the Universe, which avoids gravitino overproduction and respects nucleosynthesis constraints. Kination is treated in a model independent way. A spike in gravitational waves, due to kination, is found not to disturb nucleosynthesis as well.« less

Elimination of a ligand gating site generates a supersensitive olfactory receptor.

PubMed

Sharma, Kanika; Ahuja, Gaurav; Hussain, Ashiq; Balfanz, Sabine; Baumann, Arnd; Korsching, Sigrun I

2016-06-21

Olfaction poses one of the most complex ligand-receptor matching problems in biology due to the unparalleled multitude of odor molecules facing a large number of cognate olfactory receptors. We have recently deorphanized an olfactory receptor, TAAR13c, as a specific receptor for the death-associated odor cadaverine. Here we have modeled the cadaverine/TAAR13c interaction, exchanged predicted binding residues by site-directed mutagenesis, and measured the activity of the mutant receptors. Unexpectedly we observed a binding site for cadaverine at the external surface of the receptor, in addition to an internal binding site, whose mutation resulted in complete loss of activity. In stark contrast, elimination of the external binding site generated supersensitive receptors. Modeling suggests this site to act as a gate, limiting access of the ligand to the internal binding site and thereby downregulating the affinity of the native receptor. This constitutes a novel mechanism to fine-tune physiological sensitivity to socially relevant odors.

Elimination of a ligand gating site generates a supersensitive olfactory receptor

PubMed Central

Sharma, Kanika; Ahuja, Gaurav; Hussain, Ashiq; Balfanz, Sabine; Baumann, Arnd; Korsching, Sigrun I.

2016-01-01

Olfaction poses one of the most complex ligand-receptor matching problems in biology due to the unparalleled multitude of odor molecules facing a large number of cognate olfactory receptors. We have recently deorphanized an olfactory receptor, TAAR13c, as a specific receptor for the death-associated odor cadaverine. Here we have modeled the cadaverine/TAAR13c interaction, exchanged predicted binding residues by site-directed mutagenesis, and measured the activity of the mutant receptors. Unexpectedly we observed a binding site for cadaverine at the external surface of the receptor, in addition to an internal binding site, whose mutation resulted in complete loss of activity. In stark contrast, elimination of the external binding site generated supersensitive receptors. Modeling suggests this site to act as a gate, limiting access of the ligand to the internal binding site and thereby downregulating the affinity of the native receptor. This constitutes a novel mechanism to fine-tune physiological sensitivity to socially relevant odors. PMID:27323929

Quintessential inflation with α-attractors

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dimopoulos, Konstantinos; Owen, Charlotte

2017-06-01

A novel approach to quintessential inflation model building is studied, within the framework of α-attractors, motivated by supergravity theories. Inflationary observables are in excellent agreement with the latest CMB observations, while quintessence explains the dark energy observations without any fine-tuning. The model is kept intentionally minimal, avoiding the introduction of many degrees of freedom, couplings and mass scales. In stark contrast to ΛCDM, for natural values of the parameters, the model attains transient accelerated expansion, which avoids the future horizon problem, while it maintains the field displacement mildly sub-Planckian such that the flatness of the quintessential tail is not lifted by radiative corrections and violations of the equivalence principle (fifth force) are under control. In particular, the required value of the cosmological constant is near the eletroweak scale. Attention is paid to the reheating of the Universe, which avoids gravitino overproduction and respects nucleosynthesis constraints. Kination is treated in a model independent way. A spike in gravitational waves, due to kination, is found not to disturb nucleosynthesis as well.

Competitive Deep-Belief Networks for Underwater Acoustic Target Recognition

PubMed Central

Shen, Sheng; Yao, Xiaohui; Sheng, Meiping; Wang, Chen

2018-01-01

Underwater acoustic target recognition based on ship-radiated noise belongs to the small-sample-size recognition problems. A competitive deep-belief network is proposed to learn features with more discriminative information from labeled and unlabeled samples. The proposed model consists of four stages: (1) A standard restricted Boltzmann machine is pretrained using a large number of unlabeled data to initialize its parameters; (2) the hidden units are grouped according to categories, which provides an initial clustering model for competitive learning; (3) competitive training and back-propagation algorithms are used to update the parameters to accomplish the task of clustering; (4) by applying layer-wise training and supervised fine-tuning, a deep neural network is built to obtain features. Experimental results show that the proposed method can achieve classification accuracy of 90.89%, which is 8.95% higher than the accuracy obtained by the compared methods. In addition, the highest accuracy of our method is obtained with fewer features than other methods. PMID:29570642

Emergent cosmology revisited

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

Bag, Satadru; Sahni, Varun; Shtanov, Yuri

We explore the possibility of emergent cosmology using the effective potential formalism. We discover new models of emergent cosmology which satisfy the constraints posed by the cosmic microwave background (CMB). We demonstrate that, within the framework of modified gravity, the emergent scenario can arise in a universe which is spatially open/closed. By contrast, in general relativity (GR) emergent cosmology arises from a spatially closed past-eternal Einstein Static Universe (ESU). In GR the ESU is unstable, which creates fine tuning problems for emergent cosmology. However, modified gravity models including Braneworld models, Loop Quantum Cosmology (LQC) and Asymptotically Free Gravity result inmore » a stable ESU. Consequently, in these models emergent cosmology arises from a larger class of initial conditions including those in which the universe eternally oscillates about the ESU fixed point. We demonstrate that such an oscillating universe is necessarily accompanied by graviton production. For a large region in parameter space graviton production is enhanced through a parametric resonance, casting serious doubts as to whether this emergent scenario can be past-eternal.« less

Aid in a city at war: the case of Mogadishu, Somalia.

PubMed

Grünewald, François

2012-07-01

Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia, has been central to life, war, and peace in the country for almost two decades. Its urban characteristics, though, have been put to one side for the most part. In recent years, Mogadishu-related issues have been merged mostly into a global agenda for South and Central Somalia, resulting in the technical and coordination approaches employed in the city largely being reproductions of solutions utilised in refugee camps and rural areas. Unfortunately, urban problems require urban solutions. The aid system is just starting to discover how specific aid in cities at war should be, both from an organisational and a technical standpoint. The enhancement of aid practices in an urban setting implies, among other things, a more strategic approach to the specific spatial characteristics of the city, a more fine-tuned analysis of the technical requirements of the urban service delivery systems, and a better understanding of the role of urban institutions. © 2012 The Author(s). Journal compilation © Overseas Development Institute, 2012.

Simulations of anti-parallel reconnection using a nonlocal heat flux closure

DOE PAGES

Ng, Jonathan; Hakim, Ammar; Bhattacharjee, A.; ...

2017-08-08

The integration of kinetic effects in fluid models is important for global simulations of the Earth's magnetosphere. In particular, it has been shown that ion kinetics play a crucial role in the dynamics of large reconnecting systems, and that higher-order fluid moment models can account for some of these effects. Here, we use a ten-moment model for electrons and ions, which includes the off diagonal elements of the pressure tensor that are important for magnetic reconnection. Kinetic effects are recovered by using a nonlocal heat flux closure, which approximates linear Landau damping in the fluid framework. Moreover, the closure ismore » tested using the island coalescence problem, which is sensitive to ion dynamics. We also demonstrate that the nonlocal closure is able to self-consistently reproduce the structure of the ion diffusion region, pressure tensor, and ion velocity without the need for fine-tuning of relaxation coefficients present in earlier models.« less

Optimal Frequency-Domain System Realization with Weighting

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Juang, Jer-Nan; Maghami, Peiman G.

1999-01-01

Several approaches are presented to identify an experimental system model directly from frequency response data. The formulation uses a matrix-fraction description as the model structure. Frequency weighting such as exponential weighting is introduced to solve a weighted least-squares problem to obtain the coefficient matrices for the matrix-fraction description. A multi-variable state-space model can then be formed using the coefficient matrices of the matrix-fraction description. Three different approaches are introduced to fine-tune the model using nonlinear programming methods to minimize the desired cost function. The first method uses an eigenvalue assignment technique to reassign a subset of system poles to improve the identified model. The second method deals with the model in the real Schur or modal form, reassigns a subset of system poles, and adjusts the columns (rows) of the input (output) influence matrix using a nonlinear optimizer. The third method also optimizes a subset of poles, but the input and output influence matrices are refined at every optimization step through least-squares procedures.

The quest for restoring hearing: Understanding ear development more completely.

PubMed

Jahan, Israt; Pan, Ning; Elliott, Karen L; Fritzsch, Bernd

2015-09-01

Neurosensory hearing loss is a growing problem of super-aged societies. Cochlear implants can restore some hearing, but rebuilding a lost hearing organ would be superior. Research has discovered many cellular and molecular steps to develop a hearing organ but translating those insights into hearing organ restoration remains unclear. For example, we cannot make various hair cell types and arrange them into their specific patterns surrounded by the right type of supporting cells in the right numbers. Our overview of the topologically highly organized and functionally diversified cellular mosaic of the mammalian hearing organ highlights what is known and unknown about its development. Following this analysis, we suggest critical steps to guide future attempts toward restoration of a functional organ of Corti. We argue that generating mutant mouse lines that mimic human pathology to fine-tune attempts toward long-term functional restoration are needed to go beyond the hope generated by restoring single hair cells in postnatal sensory epithelia. © 2015 WILEY Periodicals, Inc.

Slicing of silicon into sheet material: Silicon sheet growth development for the large area silicon sheet task of the Low Cost Silicon Solar Array project

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Fleming, J. R.

1978-01-01

The limits of blade tolerance were defined. The standard blades are T-2 thickness tolerance. Good results were obtained by using a slurry fluid consisting of mineral oil and a lubricity additive. Adjustments of the formulation and fine tuning of the cutting process with the new fluid are necessary. Test results and consultation indicate that the blade breakage encountered with water based slurries is unavoidable. Two full capacity (974 wafer) runs were made on the large prototype saw. Both runs resulted in extremely low yield. However, the reasons for the low yield were lack of proper technique rather than problems with machine function. The test on the effect of amount of material etched off of an as-sawn wafer on solar cell efficiency were completed. The results agree with previous work at JPL in that the minimum material removed per side that gives maximum efficiency is on the order of 10 microns.

Quantitative Simulations of MST Visual Receptive Field Properties Using a Template Model of Heading Estimation

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Stone, Leland S.; Perrone, J. A.

1997-01-01

We previously developed a template model of primate visual self-motion processing that proposes a specific set of projections from MT-like local motion sensors onto output units to estimate heading and relative depth from optic flow. At the time, we showed that that the model output units have emergent properties similar to those of MSTd neurons, although there was little physiological evidence to test the model more directly. We have now systematically examined the properties of the model using stimulus paradigms used by others in recent single-unit studies of MST: 1) 2-D bell-shaped heading tuning. Most MSTd neurons and model output units show bell-shaped heading tuning. Furthermore, we found that most model output units and the finely-sampled example neuron in the Duffy-Wurtz study are well fit by a 2D gaussian (sigma approx. 35deg, r approx. 0.9). The bandwidth of model and real units can explain why Lappe et al. found apparent sigmoidal tuning using a restricted range of stimuli (+/-40deg). 2) Spiral Tuning and Invariance. Graziano et al. found that many MST neurons appear tuned to a specific combination of rotation and expansion (spiral flow) and that this tuning changes little for approx. 10deg shifts in stimulus placement. Simulations of model output units under the same conditions quantitatively replicate this result. We conclude that a template architecture may underlie MT inputs to MST.

Getting along with reporters, environmentalists, and regulators: How to get your company`s message on the air

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

Pearson, A.

1994-12-31

Oil and gas companies continue to get clobbered with expensive and punishing environmental regulations and drilling bans because they have done a poor job of convincing the public, the press, and the government that their operating practices are environmentally safe. The oil industry also continues to be perceived of as arrogant and secretive, which only aggravates its problems. Smart operators must learn to balance profitable development with earth-friendliness. They also must learn to tell their story more effectively and openly, not just through big trade groups like the API and IPAA, but as individual small businessmen working to improve themore » economies and job bases of their local communities. That means being more forthcoming with next-door neighbors and environmental groups, befriending local and national reporters who cover their companies, and fine-tuning messages and communications skills. Companies also can improve their images and, ideally, lighten their regulatory burdens by thinking of creative, win-win solutions to environmental problems their projects create. One company, for example, solved the problem of where to dump offshore channel dredging waste by creating a new island off South Texas with a carefully planted habitat that last year attracted a pair of endangered whooping cranes. State regulators loved it, it cost very little, and the press coverage was extremely positive.« less

Getting along with reporters, environmentalists, and regulators: how to get your company`s message on the air

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

Pearson, A.

1994-09-01

Oil and gas companies continue to get clobbered with expensive and punishing environmental regulations and drilling bans because they have done a poor job of convincing the public, the press, and the government that their operating practices are environmentally safe. The oil industry also continues to be perceived as arrogant and secretive, which only aggravates its problems. Smart operators must learn to balance profitable development with earth-friendliness. They also must learn to tell their story more effectively and openly, not just through big trade groups like the API and IPAA, but as individual small businessmen working to improve the economiesmore » and job bases of their local communities. That means being more forthcoming with next-door neighbors and environmental groups, befriending local and national reporters who cover their companies, and fine-tuning messages and communications skills. Companies also can improve their image and hopefully lighten their regulatory burden by thinking up creative, win-win solutions to environmental problems their projects create. One company solved the problem of where to dump offshore channel dredging waste, for example, by creating a new island off south Texas with a carefully planted habitat that last year attracted a pair of endangered whooping cranes. State regulators loved it, it cost very little, and the press coverage was extremely positive.« less

Ordinal optimization and its application to complex deterministic problems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yang, Mike Shang-Yu

1998-10-01

We present in this thesis a new perspective to approach a general class of optimization problems characterized by large deterministic complexities. Many problems of real-world concerns today lack analyzable structures and almost always involve high level of difficulties and complexities in the evaluation process. Advances in computer technology allow us to build computer models to simulate the evaluation process through numerical means, but the burden of high complexities remains to tax the simulation with an exorbitant computing cost for each evaluation. Such a resource requirement makes local fine-tuning of a known design difficult under most circumstances, let alone global optimization. Kolmogorov equivalence of complexity and randomness in computation theory is introduced to resolve this difficulty by converting the complex deterministic model to a stochastic pseudo-model composed of a simple deterministic component and a white-noise like stochastic term. The resulting randomness is then dealt with by a noise-robust approach called Ordinal Optimization. Ordinal Optimization utilizes Goal Softening and Ordinal Comparison to achieve an efficient and quantifiable selection of designs in the initial search process. The approach is substantiated by a case study in the turbine blade manufacturing process. The problem involves the optimization of the manufacturing process of the integrally bladed rotor in the turbine engines of U.S. Air Force fighter jets. The intertwining interactions among the material, thermomechanical, and geometrical changes makes the current FEM approach prohibitively uneconomical in the optimization process. The generalized OO approach to complex deterministic problems is applied here with great success. Empirical results indicate a saving of nearly 95% in the computing cost.

Neural tuning matches frequency-dependent time differences between the ears

PubMed Central

Benichoux, Victor; Fontaine, Bertrand; Franken, Tom P; Karino, Shotaro; Joris, Philip X; Brette, Romain

2015-01-01

The time it takes a sound to travel from source to ear differs between the ears and creates an interaural delay. It varies systematically with spatial direction and is generally modeled as a pure time delay, independent of frequency. In acoustical recordings, we found that interaural delay varies with frequency at a fine scale. In physiological recordings of midbrain neurons sensitive to interaural delay, we found that preferred delay also varies with sound frequency. Similar observations reported earlier were not incorporated in a functional framework. We find that the frequency dependence of acoustical and physiological interaural delays are matched in key respects. This suggests that binaural neurons are tuned to acoustical features of ecological environments, rather than to fixed interaural delays. Using recordings from the nerve and brainstem we show that this tuning may emerge from neurons detecting coincidences between input fibers that are mistuned in frequency. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.06072.001 PMID:25915620

Topological π Junctions from Crossed Andreev Reflection in the Quantum Hall Regime

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Finocchiaro, F.; Guinea, F.; San-Jose, P.

2018-03-01

We consider a two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) in the quantum Hall regime in the presence of a Zeeman field, with the Fermi level tuned to a filling factor of ν =1 . We show that, in the presence of spin-orbit coupling, contacting the 2DEG with a narrow strip of an s -wave superconductor produces a topological superconducting gap along the contact as a result of crossed Andreev reflection (CAR) processes across the strip. The sign of the topological gap, controlled by the CAR amplitude, depends periodically on the Fermi wavelength and strip width and can be externally tuned. An interface between two halves of a long strip with topological gaps of opposite sign implements a robust π junction, hosting a pair of Majorana zero modes that do not split despite their overlap. We show that such a configuration can be exploited to perform protected non-Abelian tunnel-braid operations without any fine tuning.

NutriNet: A Deep Learning Food and Drink Image Recognition System for Dietary Assessment.

PubMed

Mezgec, Simon; Koroušić Seljak, Barbara

2017-06-27

Automatic food image recognition systems are alleviating the process of food-intake estimation and dietary assessment. However, due to the nature of food images, their recognition is a particularly challenging task, which is why traditional approaches in the field have achieved a low classification accuracy. Deep neural networks have outperformed such solutions, and we present a novel approach to the problem of food and drink image detection and recognition that uses a newly-defined deep convolutional neural network architecture, called NutriNet. This architecture was tuned on a recognition dataset containing 225,953 512 × 512 pixel images of 520 different food and drink items from a broad spectrum of food groups, on which we achieved a classification accuracy of 86 . 72 % , along with an accuracy of 94 . 47 % on a detection dataset containing 130 , 517 images. We also performed a real-world test on a dataset of self-acquired images, combined with images from Parkinson's disease patients, all taken using a smartphone camera, achieving a top-five accuracy of 55 % , which is an encouraging result for real-world images. Additionally, we tested NutriNet on the University of Milano-Bicocca 2016 (UNIMIB2016) food image dataset, on which we improved upon the provided baseline recognition result. An online training component was implemented to continually fine-tune the food and drink recognition model on new images. The model is being used in practice as part of a mobile app for the dietary assessment of Parkinson's disease patients.

3D printing of novel osteochondral scaffolds with graded microstructure

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nowicki, Margaret A.; Castro, Nathan J.; Plesniak, Michael W.; Zhang, Lijie Grace

2016-10-01

Osteochondral tissue has a complex graded structure where biological, physiological, and mechanical properties vary significantly over the full thickness spanning from the subchondral bone region beneath the joint surface to the hyaline cartilage region at the joint surface. This presents a significant challenge for tissue-engineered structures addressing osteochondral defects. Fused deposition modeling (FDM) 3D bioprinters present a unique solution to this problem. The objective of this study is to use FDM-based 3D bioprinting and nanocrystalline hydroxyapatite for improved bone marrow human mesenchymal stem cell (hMSC) adhesion, growth, and osteochondral differentiation. FDM printing parameters can be tuned through computer aided design and computer numerical control software to manipulate scaffold geometries in ways that are beneficial to mechanical performance without hindering cellular behavior. Additionally, the ability to fine-tune 3D printed scaffolds increases further through our investment casting procedure which facilitates the inclusion of nanoparticles with biochemical factors to further elicit desired hMSC differentiation. For this study, FDM was used to print investment-casting molds innovatively designed with varied pore distribution over the full thickness of the scaffold. The mechanical and biological impacts of the varied pore distributions were compared and evaluated to determine the benefits of this physical manipulation. The results indicate that both mechanical properties and cell performance improve in the graded pore structures when compared to homogeneously distributed porous and non-porous structures. Differentiation results indicated successful osteogenic and chondrogenic manipulation in engineered scaffolds.

Self-Tuning of Design Variables for Generalized Predictive Control

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lin, Chaung; Juang, Jer-Nan

2000-01-01

Three techniques are introduced to determine the order and control weighting for the design of a generalized predictive controller. These techniques are based on the application of fuzzy logic, genetic algorithms, and simulated annealing to conduct an optimal search on specific performance indexes or objective functions. Fuzzy logic is found to be feasible for real-time and on-line implementation due to its smooth and quick convergence. On the other hand, genetic algorithms and simulated annealing are applicable for initial estimation of the model order and control weighting, and final fine-tuning within a small region of the solution space, Several numerical simulations for a multiple-input and multiple-output system are given to illustrate the techniques developed in this paper.

Parameter meta-optimization of metaheuristics of solving specific NP-hard facility location problem

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Skakov, E. S.; Malysh, V. N.

2018-03-01

The aim of the work is to create an evolutionary method for optimizing the values of the control parameters of metaheuristics of solving the NP-hard facility location problem. A system analysis of the tuning process of optimization algorithms parameters is carried out. The problem of finding the parameters of a metaheuristic algorithm is formulated as a meta-optimization problem. Evolutionary metaheuristic has been chosen to perform the task of meta-optimization. Thus, the approach proposed in this work can be called “meta-metaheuristic”. Computational experiment proving the effectiveness of the procedure of tuning the control parameters of metaheuristics has been performed.

Thomas Merton Goes to Class: Pedagogy on the Borders of the Short Story

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Callaghan, Michael J.

2011-01-01

Our thesis is more finely tuned to Thomas Merton (1915-68) the writer, more specifically, the poet/artist/writer and thinker. These are the components of the "Merton" voice. Merton senses the quality of innocence as the "sine qua non" of the poet or writer's vocation: "His art depends on an ingrained innocence which he would lose in business, in…

Efficient Charge Transfer and Fine-Tuned Energy Level Alignment in a THF-Processed Fullerene-Free Organic Solar Cell with 11.3% Efficiency.

PubMed

Zheng, Zhong; Awartani, Omar M; Gautam, Bhoj; Liu, Delong; Qin, Yunpeng; Li, Wanning; Bataller, Alexander; Gundogdu, Kenan; Ade, Harald; Hou, Jianhui

2017-02-01

Fullerene-free organic solar cells show over 11% power conversion efficiency, processed by low toxic solvents. The applied donor and acceptor in the bulk heterojunction exhibit almost the same highest occupied molecular orbital level, yet exhibit very efficient charge creation. © 2016 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

Simple Excitation of Standing Waves in Rubber Bands and Membranes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cortel, Adolf

2004-04-01

Many methods to excite standing waves in strings, plates, membranes, rods, tubes, and soap bubbles have been described. Usually a loudspeaker or a vibrating reed is driven by the amplified output of an audio oscillator. A novel and simple method consists of using a tuning fork or a singing rod to excite transversal standing waves in stretched rubber membranes sprinkled with fine sand.

Spectroscopic Investigation of TW Dra: Improved Stellar and System Parameters

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tkachenko, A.; Lehmann, H.; Mkrtichian, D.

2010-12-01

We investigate the Algol-type system TW Dra by means of the new computer program Shellspec07_inverse which is specially designed for the fine-tuning of stellar and system parameters of eclipsing binaries. We derive precise atmospheric and system parameters of TW Dra with an accuracy comparable to that expected from photometric data, and give a short comparison of our results with previous determinations.

Fine-tuning Philippine transactions

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

Vitale, R.

1994-11-01

Expanding the power generation and distribution capability of the Philippines remains a top priority of the Philippine government. It is therefore not surprising that a number of the most significant legislative initiatives approved by the Philippine legislature in the past few years have been designed to encourage these activities in particular. There are several recent, significant statutes that will affect both power and non-power projects undertaken in the Philippines.

Sensei: A Multi-Modal Framework for Assessing Stress Resiliency

DTIC Science & Technology

2013-02-01

Modal Framework for Assessing Stress Resiliency (February 1-28, 2013) From: Ajay Divakaran, Technical Leader Jeffrey Lubin, Senior Research...Progress and Accomplishments for Period 14 (February 2013): Task 3.1: Capture Behavioral Stress Markers in Real-Time in Lab Environment with...each data stream for each subject. In addition to these lab accomplishments, we also fine-tuned the timing of the Stroop /PDT presentations to

All or None Hypothesis: A Global-Default Mode that Characterizes the Brain and Mind

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Diamond, Adele

2009-01-01

It is proposed that the mind and brain often work at a gross level and only with fine tuning or inhibition act in a more differentiated manner, even when one might think the domains being issued the global command should be distinct. This applies to disparate findings in cognitive science and neuroscience in both children and adults. Thus, it is…

Orion Swing Drop 6

NASA Image and Video Library

2017-09-25

Water impact test of an 18,000-pound (8,165 kilogram) test version of the Orion spacecraft at NASA's Langley Research Center. NASA is swing drop testing this Orion capsule mock-up at Langley's Hydro Impact Basin to certify the actual Orion spacecraft for water landings. In a series of tests, Orion is being dropped in a variety of different conditions to help fine-tune NASA's predictions of Orion's landing loads.

Moduli stabilization in stringy ISS models

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

Nakayama, Yu; Nakayama, Yu; Yamazaki, Masahito

2007-09-28

We present a stringy realization of the ISS metastable SUSY breaking model with moduli stabilization. The mass moduli of the ISS model is stabilized by gauging of a U(1) symmetry and its D-term potential. The SUSY is broken both by F-terms and D-terms. It is possible to obtain de Sitter vacua with a vanishingly small cosmological constant by an appropriate fine-tuning of flux parameters.

Complete the Picture: Evaluation Fills In the Missing Pieces That Feedback Can't Provide

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dumas, Chad; Jenkins, Lee

2013-01-01

The workshop is done--How does anyone know that staff learned what they needed to learn? How does anyone know that the content of the workshop day is now common knowledge among the attendees? Two key indicators are feedback and evaluation. Feedback from participants is what the presenter uses to fine-tune his or her professional learning delivery.…

Potassium Homeostasis: The Knowns, the Unknowns, and the Health Benefits.

PubMed

McDonough, Alicia A; Youn, Jang H

2017-03-01

Potassium homeostasis has a very high priority because of its importance for membrane potential. Although extracellular K + is only 2% of total body K + , our physiology was evolutionarily tuned for a high-K + , low-Na + diet. We review how multiple systems interface to accomplish fine K + balance and the consequences for health and disease. ©2017 Int. Union Physiol. Sci./Am. Physiol. Soc.

Electron-Focus Adjustment for Photo-Optical Imagers

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Fowler, Walter B.; Flemming, Keith; Ziegler, Michael M.

1987-01-01

Internal electron focus made independent of optical focus. Procedure enables fine tuning of internal electron-focusing system of photo-optical imager, without complication by imperfections of associated external optics. Applicable to imager in which electrons emitted from photocathode in optical focal plane, then electrostatically and/or magnetically focused to replica of image in second focal plane containing photodiodes, phototransistorss, charge-coupled devices, multiple-anode outputs, or other detectors.

Software for Automated Image-to-Image Co-registration

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Benkelman, Cody A.; Hughes, Heidi

2007-01-01

The project objectives are: a) Develop software to fine-tune image-to-image co-registration, presuming images are orthorectified prior to input; b) Create a reusable software development kit (SDK) to enable incorporation of these tools into other software; d) provide automated testing for quantitative analysis; and e) Develop software that applies multiple techniques to achieve subpixel precision in the co-registration of image pairs.

Power Plan: High School Fine-Tunes Instruction to Build Reading Strength and Stamina

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fisher, Douglas; Frey, Nancy

2016-01-01

The following comment was inspired by an English teacher at Health Sciences High & Middle College in San Diego, California: "There's still a question on the table. How can we get our students to read more and better? They read what they have to, and they're doing OK, but how do we ensure that they are ready for what comes after high…

Fifteen-Years-Old Students of Seven East Asian Cities in PISA 2009: A Secondary Analysis

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Soh, Kay Cheng

2012-01-01

Background: In PISA 2009, seven East Asian countries rank high among the 65 participating countries, but some of the differences among the seven countries are small to be of substantive meaning. Aims: This paper is an attempt to fine tune the comparisons for better understanding of the situation in East Asian. Sample: Data of the seven East Asian…

Neural mechanisms of coarse-to-fine discrimination in the visual cortex.

PubMed

Purushothaman, Gopathy; Chen, Xin; Yampolsky, Dmitry; Casagrande, Vivien A

2014-12-01

Vision is a dynamic process that refines the spatial scale of analysis over time, as evidenced by a progressive improvement in the ability to detect and discriminate finer details. To understand coarse-to-fine discrimination, we studied the dynamics of spatial frequency (SF) response using reverse correlation in the primary visual cortex (V1) of the primate. In a majority of V1 cells studied, preferred SF either increased monotonically with time (group 1) or changed nonmonotonically, with an initial increase followed by a decrease (group 2). Monotonic shift in preferred SF occurred with or without an early suppression at low SFs. Late suppression at high SFs always accompanied nonmonotonic SF dynamics. Bayesian analysis showed that SF discrimination performance and best discriminable SF frequencies changed with time in different ways in the two groups of neurons. In group 1 neurons, SF discrimination performance peaked on both left and right flanks of the SF tuning curve at about the same time. In group 2 neurons, peak discrimination occurred on the right flank (high SFs) later than on the left flank (low SFs). Group 2 neurons were also better discriminators of high SFs. We examined the relationship between the time at which SF discrimination performance peaked on either flank of the SF tuning curve and the corresponding best discriminable SFs in both neuronal groups. This analysis showed that the population best discriminable SF increased with time in V1. These results suggest neural mechanisms for coarse-to-fine discrimination behavior and that this process originates in V1 or earlier. Copyright © 2014 the American Physiological Society.

Axial vs. Equatorial Ligand Rivalry in Controlling the Reactivity of Iron(IV)-Oxo Species: Single-State vs. Two-State Reactivity.

PubMed

Kumar, Ravi; Ansari, Azaj; Rajaraman, Gopalan

2018-05-07

High-valent iron-oxo species are known for their very high reactivity, and this aspect has been studied in detail over the years. The role of axial ligands in fine-tuning the reactivity of the iron(IV)-oxo species has been particularly well studied. The corresponding role of equatorial ligands, however, has rarely been explored, and is of prime importance in the development of non-heme chemistry. Here, we have undertaken detailed DFT calculations on [(L NHC )Fe IV (O)(CH 3 CN)] 2+ (1; L NHC =3,9,14,20-tetraaza1,6,12,17-tetraazoniapenta-cyclohexacosane-1(23),4,6(26),10,12(25),15,17(24),21-octaene) in comparison to compound II of cytochrome P450 [(porphyrin)Fe IV (O)(SH)] - (2) to probe this aspect. The electronic structures of 1 and 2 are found to vary significantly, implying a large variation in their reactivities. In particular, the strong equatorial ligand present in 1 significantly destabilizes the quintet states as compared to species 2. To fully understand the reactivity pattern of these species, we have modelled the hydroxylation of methane by both 1 and 2. Our calculations reveal that 1 reacts via a low-lying S=1 π pathway, and that the generally available S=2 σ pathway is not energetically accessible. In addition to having a significant barrier for C-H bond activation, the -OH rebound step is also computed to have a large barrier height, leading to a marked difference in reactivity between these two species. Of particular relevance here is the observation of pure triplet-state reactivity for 1. We have also attempted to test the role of axial ligands in fine-tuning the reactivity of 1, and our results demonstrate that, in contrast to heme systems, the axial ligands in 1 do not significantly influence the reactivity. This highlights the importance of designing equatorial ligands to fine-tune reactivity of high-valent iron(IV)-oxo species. © 2018 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

Onset of Spin Polarization in Four-Gate Quantum Point Contacts

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jones, Alex

A series of simulations which utilize a Non-equilibrium Green's function (NEGF) formalism is suggested which can provide indirect evidence of the fine and non-local electrostatic tuning of the onset of spin polarization in two closely spaced quantum point contacts (QPCs) that experience a phenomenon known as lateral spin-orbit coupling (LSOC). Each of the QPCs that create the device also has its own pair of side gates (SGs) which are in-plane with the device channel. Numerical simulations of the conductance of the two closely spaced QPCs or four-gate QPC are carried out for different biasing conditions applied to two leftmost and rightmost SGs. Conductance plots are then calculated as a function of the variable, Vsweep, which is the common sweep voltage applied to the QPC. When Vsweep is only applied to two of the four side gates, the plots show several conductance anomalies, i.e., below G0 = 2e2/h, characterized by intrinsic bistability, i.e., hysteresis loops due to a difference in the conductance curves for forward and reverse common voltage sweep simulations. The appearance of hysteresis loops is attributed to the co-existence of multistable spin textures in the narrow channel of the four-gate QPC. The shape, location, and number of hysteresis loops are very sensitive to the biasing conditions on the four SGs. The shape and size of the conductance anomalies and hysteresis loops are shown to change when the biasing conditions on the leftmost and rightmost SGs are swapped, a rectifying behavior providing an additional indirect evidence for the onset of spontaneous spin polarization in nanoscale devices made of QPCs. The results of the simulations reveal that the occurrence and fine tuning of conductance anomalies in QPC structures are highly sensitive to the non-local action of closely spaced SGs. It is therefore imperative to take into account this proximity effect in the design of all electrical spin valves making use of middle gates to fine tune the spin precession between QPC based spin injector and detector contacts.

Co-regulation of Iron Metabolism and Virulence Associated Functions by Iron and XibR, a Novel Iron Binding Transcription Factor, in the Plant Pathogen Xanthomonas

PubMed Central

Pandey, Sheo Shankar; Patnana, Pradeep Kumar; Lomada, Santosh Kumar; Tomar, Archana; Chatterjee, Subhadeep

2016-01-01

Abilities of bacterial pathogens to adapt to the iron limitation present in hosts is critical to their virulence. Bacterial pathogens have evolved diverse strategies to coordinately regulate iron metabolism and virulence associated functions to maintain iron homeostasis in response to changing iron availability in the environment. In many bacteria the ferric uptake regulator (Fur) functions as transcription factor that utilize ferrous form of iron as cofactor to regulate transcription of iron metabolism and many cellular functions. However, mechanisms of fine-tuning and coordinated regulation of virulence associated function beyond iron and Fur-Fe2+ remain undefined. In this study, we show that a novel transcriptional regulator XibR (named X anthomonas iron binding regulator) of the NtrC family, is required for fine-tuning and co-coordinately regulating the expression of several iron regulated genes and virulence associated functions in phytopathogen Xanthomonas campestris pv. campestris (Xcc). Genome wide expression analysis of iron-starvation stimulon and XibR regulon, GUS assays, genetic and functional studies of xibR mutant revealed that XibR positively regulates functions involved in iron storage and uptake, chemotaxis, motility and negatively regulates siderophore production, in response to iron. Furthermore, chromatin immunoprecipitation followed by quantitative real-time PCR indicated that iron promoted binding of the XibR to the upstream regulatory sequence of operon’s involved in chemotaxis and motility. Circular dichroism spectroscopy showed that purified XibR bound ferric form of iron. Electrophoretic mobility shift assay revealed that iron positively affected the binding of XibR to the upstream regulatory sequences of the target virulence genes, an effect that was reversed by ferric iron chelator deferoxamine. Taken together, these data revealed that how XibR coordinately regulates virulence associated and iron metabolism functions in Xanthomonads in response to iron availability. Our results provide insight of the complex regulatory mechanism of fine-tuning of virulence associated functions with iron availability in this important group of phytopathogen. PMID:27902780

Fine Structure in Helium-like Fluorine by Fast-Beam Laser Spectroscopy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Myers, E. G.; Thompson, J. K.; Silver, J. D.

1998-05-01

With the aim of providing an additional precise test of higher-order corrections to high precision calculations of fine structure in helium and helium-like ions(T. Zhang, Z.-C. Yan and G.W.F. Drake, Phys. Rev. Lett. 77), 1715 (1996)., a measurement of the 2^3P_2,F - 2^3P_1,F' fine structure in ^19F^7+ is in progress. The method involves doppler-tuned laser spectroscopy using a CO2 laser on a foil-stripped fluorine ion beam. We aim to achieve a higher precision, compared to an earlier measurement(E.G. Myers, P. Kuske, H.J. Andrae, I.A. Armour, H.A. Klein, J.D. Silver, and E. Traebert, Phys. Rev. Lett. 47), 87 (1981)., by using laser beams parallel and anti-parallel to the ion beam, to obtain partial cancellation of the doppler shift(J.K. Thompson, D.J.H. Howie and E.G. Myers, Phys. Rev. A 57), 180 (1998).. A calculation of the hyperfine structure, allowing for relativistic, QED and nuclear size effects, will be required to obtain the ``hyperfine-free'' fine structure interval from the measurements.

Modified Parameters of Harmony Search Algorithm for Better Searching

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Farraliza Mansor, Nur; Abal Abas, Zuraida; Samad Shibghatullah, Abdul; Rahman, Ahmad Fadzli Nizam Abdul

2017-08-01

The scheduling and rostering problems are deliberated as integrated due to they depend on each other whereby the input of rostering problems is a scheduling problems. In this research, the integrated scheduling and rostering bus driver problems are defined as maximising the balance of the assignment of tasks in term of distribution of shifts and routes. It is essential to achieve is fairer among driver because this can bring to increase in driver levels of satisfaction. The latest approaches still unable to address the fairness problem that has emerged, thus this research proposes a strategy to adopt an amendment of a harmony search algorithm in order to address the fairness issue and thus the level of fairness will be escalate. The harmony search algorithm is classified as a meta-heuristics algorithm that is capable of solving hard and combinatorial or discrete optimisation problems. In this respect, the three main operators in HS, namely the Harmony Memory Consideration Rate (HMCR), Pitch Adjustment Rate (PAR) and Bandwidth (BW) play a vital role in balancing local exploitation and global exploration. These parameters influence the overall performance of the HS algorithm, and therefore it is crucial to fine-tune them. The contributions to this research are the HMCR parameter using step function while the fret spacing concept on guitars that is associated with mathematical formulae is also applied in the BW parameter. The model of constant step function is introduced in the alteration of HMCR parameter. The experimental results revealed that our proposed approach is superior than parameter adaptive harmony search algorithm. In conclusion, this proposed approach managed to generate a fairer roster and was thus capable of maximising the balancing distribution of shifts and routes among drivers, which contributed to the lowering of illness, incidents, absenteeism and accidents.

Tuning rules for robust FOPID controllers based on multi-objective optimization with FOPDT models.

PubMed

Sánchez, Helem Sabina; Padula, Fabrizio; Visioli, Antonio; Vilanova, Ramon

2017-01-01

In this paper a set of optimally balanced tuning rules for fractional-order proportional-integral-derivative controllers is proposed. The control problem of minimizing at once the integrated absolute error for both the set-point and the load disturbance responses is addressed. The control problem is stated as a multi-objective optimization problem where a first-order-plus-dead-time process model subject to a robustness, maximum sensitivity based, constraint has been considered. A set of Pareto optimal solutions is obtained for different normalized dead times and then the optimal balance between the competing objectives is obtained by choosing the Nash solution among the Pareto-optimal ones. A curve fitting procedure has then been applied in order to generate suitable tuning rules. Several simulation results show the effectiveness of the proposed approach. Copyright © 2016. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

HEURISTIC OPTIMIZATION AND ALGORITHM TUNING APPLIED TO SORPTIVE BARRIER DESIGN

EPA Science Inventory

While heuristic optimization is applied in environmental applications, ad-hoc algorithm configuration is typical. We use a multi-layer sorptive barrier design problem as a benchmark for an algorithm-tuning procedure, as applied to three heuristics (genetic algorithms, simulated ...

Feature theory and the two-step hypothesis of Müllerian mimicry evolution.

PubMed

Balogh, Alexandra Catherine Victoria; Gamberale-Stille, Gabriella; Tullberg, Birgitta Sillén; Leimar, Olof

2010-03-01

The two-step hypothesis of Müllerian mimicry evolution states that mimicry starts with a major mutational leap between adaptive peaks, followed by gradual fine-tuning. The hypothesis was suggested to solve the problem of apostatic selection producing a valley between adaptive peaks, and appears reasonable for a one-dimensional phenotype. Extending the hypothesis to the realistic scenario of multidimensional phenotypes controlled by multiple genetic loci can be problematic, because it is unlikely that major mutational leaps occur simultaneously in several traits. Here we consider the implications of predator psychology on the evolutionary process. According to feature theory, single prey traits may be used by predators as features to classify prey into discrete categories. A mutational leap in such a trait could initiate mimicry evolution. We conducted individual-based evolutionary simulations in which virtual predators both categorize prey according to features and generalize over total appearances. We found that an initial mutational leap toward feature similarity in one dimension facilitates mimicry evolution of multidimensional traits. We suggest that feature-based predator categorization together with predator generalization over total appearances solves the problem of applying the two-step hypothesis to complex phenotypes, and provides a basis for a theory of the evolution of mimicry rings.

Attractor scenarios and superluminal signals in k-essence cosmology

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

Kang, Jin U; Arnold Sommerfeld Center, Department of Physics, Ludwig-Maximilians University, Theresienstrasse 37, 80333 Munich; Vanchurin, Vitaly

Cosmological scenarios with k-essence are invoked in order to explain the observed late-time acceleration of the Universe. These scenarios avoid the need for fine-tuned initial conditions (the 'coincidence problem') because of the attractorlike dynamics of the k-essence field {phi}. It was recently shown that all k-essence scenarios with Lagrangians p=L(X){phi}{sup -2}, where X{identical_to}(1/2){phi}{sub ,{mu}}{phi}{sup ,{mu}}, necessarily involve an epoch where perturbations of {phi} propagate faster than light (the 'no-go theorem'). We carry out a comprehensive study of attractorlike cosmological solutions ('trackers') involving a k-essence scalar field {phi} and another matter component. The result of this study is a complete classificationmore » of k-essence Lagrangians that admit asymptotically stable tracking solutions, among all Lagrangians of the form p=K({phi})L(X). Using this classification, we select the class of models that describe the late-time acceleration and avoid the coincidence problem through the tracking mechanism. An analogous 'no-go theorem' still holds for this class of models, indicating the existence of a superluminal epoch. In the context of k-essence cosmology, the superluminal epoch does not lead to causality violations. We discuss the implications of superluminal signal propagation for possible causality violations in Lorentz-invariant field theories.« less

Multisource Transfer Learning With Convolutional Neural Networks for Lung Pattern Analysis.

PubMed

Christodoulidis, Stergios; Anthimopoulos, Marios; Ebner, Lukas; Christe, Andreas; Mougiakakou, Stavroula

2017-01-01

Early diagnosis of interstitial lung diseases is crucial for their treatment, but even experienced physicians find it difficult, as their clinical manifestations are similar. In order to assist with the diagnosis, computer-aided diagnosis systems have been developed. These commonly rely on a fixed scale classifier that scans CT images, recognizes textural lung patterns, and generates a map of pathologies. In a previous study, we proposed a method for classifying lung tissue patterns using a deep convolutional neural network (CNN), with an architecture designed for the specific problem. In this study, we present an improved method for training the proposed network by transferring knowledge from the similar domain of general texture classification. Six publicly available texture databases are used to pretrain networks with the proposed architecture, which are then fine-tuned on the lung tissue data. The resulting CNNs are combined in an ensemble and their fused knowledge is compressed back to a network with the original architecture. The proposed approach resulted in an absolute increase of about 2% in the performance of the proposed CNN. The results demonstrate the potential of transfer learning in the field of medical image analysis, indicate the textural nature of the problem and show that the method used for training a network can be as important as designing its architecture.