Markerless identification of key events in gait cycle using image flow.

PubMed

Vishnoi, Nalini; Duric, Zoran; Gerber, Naomi Lynn

2012-01-01

Gait analysis has been an interesting area of research for several decades. In this paper, we propose image-flow-based methods to compute the motion and velocities of different body segments automatically, using a single inexpensive video camera. We then identify and extract different events of the gait cycle (double-support, mid-swing, toe-off and heel-strike) from video images. Experiments were conducted in which four walking subjects were captured from the sagittal plane. Automatic segmentation was performed to isolate the moving body from the background. The head excursion and the shank motion were then computed to identify the key frames corresponding to different events in the gait cycle. Our approach does not require calibrated cameras or special markers to capture movement. We have also compared our method with the Optotrak 3D motion capture system and found our results in good agreement with the Optotrak results. The development of our method has potential use in the markerless and unencumbered video capture of human locomotion. Monitoring gait in homes and communities provides a useful application for the aged and the disabled. Our method could potentially be used as an assessment tool to determine gait symmetry or to establish the normal gait pattern of an individual.

Artist concept illustrating key events on day by day basis during Apollo 9

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1969-01-01

Artist concept illustrating key events on day by day basis during Apollo 9 mission. First photograph illustrates activities on the first day of the mission, including flight crew preparation, orbital insertion, 103 north mile orbit, separations, docking and docked Service Propulsion System Burn (19792); Second day events include landmark tracking, pitch maneuver, yaw-roll maneuver, and high apogee orbits (19793); Third day events include crew transfer and Lunar Module system evaluation (19794); Fourth day events include use of camera, day-night extravehicular activity, use of golden slippers, and television over Texas and Louisiana (19795); Fifth day events include vehicles undocked, Lunar Module burns for rendezvous, maximum separation, ascent propulsion system burn, formation flying and docking, and Lunar Module jettison ascent burn (19796); Sixth thru ninth day events include service propulsion system burns and landmark sightings, photograph special tests (19797); Tenth day events i

EventThread: Visual Summarization and Stage Analysis of Event Sequence Data.

PubMed

Guo, Shunan; Xu, Ke; Zhao, Rongwen; Gotz, David; Zha, Hongyuan; Cao, Nan

2018-01-01

Event sequence data such as electronic health records, a person's academic records, or car service records, are ordered series of events which have occurred over a period of time. Analyzing collections of event sequences can reveal common or semantically important sequential patterns. For example, event sequence analysis might reveal frequently used care plans for treating a disease, typical publishing patterns of professors, and the patterns of service that result in a well-maintained car. It is challenging, however, to visually explore large numbers of event sequences, or sequences with large numbers of event types. Existing methods focus on extracting explicitly matching patterns of events using statistical analysis to create stages of event progression over time. However, these methods fail to capture latent clusters of similar but not identical evolutions of event sequences. In this paper, we introduce a novel visualization system named EventThread which clusters event sequences into threads based on tensor analysis and visualizes the latent stage categories and evolution patterns by interactively grouping the threads by similarity into time-specific clusters. We demonstrate the effectiveness of EventThread through usage scenarios in three different application domains and via interviews with an expert user.

The Unfolding of LGBT Lives: Key Events Associated With Health and Well-being in Later Life

PubMed Central

Fredriksen-Goldsen, Karen I.; Bryan, Amanda E. B.; Jen, Sarah; Goldsen, Jayn; Kim, Hyun-Jun; Muraco, Anna

2017-01-01

Purpose of the Study: Life events are associated with the health and well-being of older adults. Using the Health Equity Promotion Model, this article explores historical and environmental context as it frames life experiences and adaptation of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) older adults. Design and Methods: This was the largest study to date of LGBT older adults to identify life events related to identity development, work, and kin relationships and their associations with health and quality of life (QOL). Using latent profile analysis (LPA), clusters of life events were identified and associations between life event clusters were tested. Results: On average, LGBT older adults first disclosed their identities in their 20s; many experienced job-related discrimination. More had been in opposite-sex marriage than in same-sex marriage. Four clusters emerged: “Retired Survivors” were the oldest and one of the most prevalent groups; “Midlife Bloomers” first disclosed their LGBT identities in mid-40s, on average; “Beleaguered At-Risk” had high rates of job-related discrimination and few social resources; and “Visibly Resourced” had a high degree of identity visibility and were socially and economically advantaged. Clusters differed significantly in mental and physical health and QOL, with the Visibly Resourced faring best and Beleaguered At-Risk faring worst on most indicators; Retired Survivors and Midlife Bloomers showed similar health and QOL. Implications: Historical and environmental contexts frame normative and non-normative life events. Future research will benefit from the use of longitudinal data and an assessment of timing and sequencing of key life events in the lives of LGBT older adults. PMID:28087792

Web Video Event Recognition by Semantic Analysis From Ubiquitous Documents.

PubMed

Yu, Litao; Yang, Yang; Huang, Zi; Wang, Peng; Song, Jingkuan; Shen, Heng Tao

2016-12-01

In recent years, the task of event recognition from videos has attracted increasing interest in multimedia area. While most of the existing research was mainly focused on exploring visual cues to handle relatively small-granular events, it is difficult to directly analyze video content without any prior knowledge. Therefore, synthesizing both the visual and semantic analysis is a natural way for video event understanding. In this paper, we study the problem of Web video event recognition, where Web videos often describe large-granular events and carry limited textual information. Key challenges include how to accurately represent event semantics from incomplete textual information and how to effectively explore the correlation between visual and textual cues for video event understanding. We propose a novel framework to perform complex event recognition from Web videos. In order to compensate the insufficient expressive power of visual cues, we construct an event knowledge base by deeply mining semantic information from ubiquitous Web documents. This event knowledge base is capable of describing each event with comprehensive semantics. By utilizing this base, the textual cues for a video can be significantly enriched. Furthermore, we introduce a two-view adaptive regression model, which explores the intrinsic correlation between the visual and textual cues of the videos to learn reliable classifiers. Extensive experiments on two real-world video data sets show the effectiveness of our proposed framework and prove that the event knowledge base indeed helps improve the performance of Web video event recognition.

Fine-Scale Event Location and Error Analysis in NET-VISA

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Arora, N. S.; Russell, S.

2016-12-01

NET-VISA is a generative probabilistic model for the occurrence of seismic, hydro, and atmospheric events, and the propagation of energy from these events through various mediums and phases before being detected, or misdetected, by IMS stations. It is built on top of the basic station, and arrival detection processing at the IDC, and is currently being tested in the IDC network processing pipelines. A key distinguishing feature of NET-VISA is that it is easy to incorporate prior scientific knowledge and historical data into the probabilistic model. The model accounts for both detections and mis-detections when forming events, and this allows it to make more accurate event hypothesis. It has been continuously evaluated since 2012, and in each year it makes a roughly 60% reduction in the number of missed events without increasing the false event rate as compared to the existing GA algorithm. More importantly the model finds large numbers of events that have been confirmed by regional seismic bulletins but missed by the IDC analysts using the same data. In this work we focus on enhancements to the model to improve the location accuracy, and error ellipses. We will present a new version of the model that focuses on the fine scale around the event location, and present error ellipses and analysis of recent important events.

Dose and Effect Thresholds for Early Key Events in a Mode of PPARa-Mediated Action

EPA Science Inventory

ABSTRACT Strategies for predicting adverse health outcomes of environmental chemicals are centered on early key events in toxicity pathways. However, quantitative relationships between early molecular changes in a given pathway and later health effects are often poorly defined. T...

Dose and Effect Thresholds for Early Key Events in a Mode of ...

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

ABSTRACT Strategies for predicting adverse health outcomes of environmental chemicals are centered on early key events in toxicity pathways. However, quantitative relationships between early molecular changes in a given pathway and later health effects are often poorly defined. The goal of this study was to evaluate short-term key event indicators using qualitative and quantitative methods in an established pathway of mouse liver tumorigenesis mediated by peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-alpha (PPARα). Male B6C3F1 mice were exposed for 7 days to di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP), di-n-octyl phthalate (DNOP), and n-butyl benzyl phthalate (BBP), which vary in PPARα activity and liver tumorigenicity. Each phthalate increased expression of select PPARα target genes at 7 days, while only DEHP significantly increased liver cell proliferation labeling index (LI). Transcriptional benchmark dose (BMDT) estimates for dose-related genomic markers stratified phthalates according to hypothetical tumorigenic potencies, unlike BMDs for non-genomic endpoints (liver weights or proliferation). The 7-day BMDT values for Acot1 as a surrogate measure for PPARα activation were 29, 370, and 676 mg/kg-d for DEHP, DNOP, and BBP, respectively, distinguishing DEHP (liver tumor BMD of 35 mg/kg-d) from non-tumorigenic DNOP and BBP. Effect thresholds were generated using linear regression of DEHP effects at 7 days and 2-year tumor incidence values to anchor early response molec

The Unfolding of LGBT Lives: Key Events Associated With Health and Well-being in Later Life.

PubMed

Fredriksen-Goldsen, Karen I; Bryan, Amanda E B; Jen, Sarah; Goldsen, Jayn; Kim, Hyun-Jun; Muraco, Anna

2017-02-01

Life events are associated with the health and well-being of older adults. Using the Health Equity Promotion Model, this article explores historical and environmental context as it frames life experiences and adaptation of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) older adults. This was the largest study to date of LGBT older adults to identify life events related to identity development, work, and kin relationships and their associations with health and quality of life (QOL). Using latent profile analysis (LPA), clusters of life events were identified and associations between life event clusters were tested. On average, LGBT older adults first disclosed their identities in their 20s; many experienced job-related discrimination. More had been in opposite-sex marriage than in same-sex marriage. Four clusters emerged: "Retired Survivors" were the oldest and one of the most prevalent groups; "Midlife Bloomers" first disclosed their LGBT identities in mid-40s, on average; "Beleaguered At-Risk" had high rates of job-related discrimination and few social resources; and "Visibly Resourced" had a high degree of identity visibility and were socially and economically advantaged. Clusters differed significantly in mental and physical health and QOL, with the Visibly Resourced faring best and Beleaguered At-Risk faring worst on most indicators; Retired Survivors and Midlife Bloomers showed similar health and QOL. Historical and environmental contexts frame normative and non-normative life events. Future research will benefit from the use of longitudinal data and an assessment of timing and sequencing of key life events in the lives of LGBT older adults. © The Author 2017. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Gerontological Society of America. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Bayesian analysis of rare events

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

Straub, Daniel, E-mail: straub@tum.de; Papaioannou, Iason; Betz, Wolfgang

2016-06-01

In many areas of engineering and science there is an interest in predicting the probability of rare events, in particular in applications related to safety and security. Increasingly, such predictions are made through computer models of physical systems in an uncertainty quantification framework. Additionally, with advances in IT, monitoring and sensor technology, an increasing amount of data on the performance of the systems is collected. This data can be used to reduce uncertainty, improve the probability estimates and consequently enhance the management of rare events and associated risks. Bayesian analysis is the ideal method to include the data into themore » probabilistic model. It ensures a consistent probabilistic treatment of uncertainty, which is central in the prediction of rare events, where extrapolation from the domain of observation is common. We present a framework for performing Bayesian updating of rare event probabilities, termed BUS. It is based on a reinterpretation of the classical rejection-sampling approach to Bayesian analysis, which enables the use of established methods for estimating probabilities of rare events. By drawing upon these methods, the framework makes use of their computational efficiency. These methods include the First-Order Reliability Method (FORM), tailored importance sampling (IS) methods and Subset Simulation (SuS). In this contribution, we briefly review these methods in the context of the BUS framework and investigate their applicability to Bayesian analysis of rare events in different settings. We find that, for some applications, FORM can be highly efficient and is surprisingly accurate, enabling Bayesian analysis of rare events with just a few model evaluations. In a general setting, BUS implemented through IS and SuS is more robust and flexible.« less

Bayesian analysis of rare events

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Straub, Daniel; Papaioannou, Iason; Betz, Wolfgang

2016-06-01

In many areas of engineering and science there is an interest in predicting the probability of rare events, in particular in applications related to safety and security. Increasingly, such predictions are made through computer models of physical systems in an uncertainty quantification framework. Additionally, with advances in IT, monitoring and sensor technology, an increasing amount of data on the performance of the systems is collected. This data can be used to reduce uncertainty, improve the probability estimates and consequently enhance the management of rare events and associated risks. Bayesian analysis is the ideal method to include the data into the probabilistic model. It ensures a consistent probabilistic treatment of uncertainty, which is central in the prediction of rare events, where extrapolation from the domain of observation is common. We present a framework for performing Bayesian updating of rare event probabilities, termed BUS. It is based on a reinterpretation of the classical rejection-sampling approach to Bayesian analysis, which enables the use of established methods for estimating probabilities of rare events. By drawing upon these methods, the framework makes use of their computational efficiency. These methods include the First-Order Reliability Method (FORM), tailored importance sampling (IS) methods and Subset Simulation (SuS). In this contribution, we briefly review these methods in the context of the BUS framework and investigate their applicability to Bayesian analysis of rare events in different settings. We find that, for some applications, FORM can be highly efficient and is surprisingly accurate, enabling Bayesian analysis of rare events with just a few model evaluations. In a general setting, BUS implemented through IS and SuS is more robust and flexible.

14 CFR 437.31 - Verification of operating area containment and key flight-safety event limitations.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

...(a) to contain its reusable suborbital rocket's instantaneous impact point within an operating area... limits on the ability of the reusable suborbital rocket to leave the operating area; or (2) Abort... requirements of § 437.59 to conduct any key flight-safety event so that the reusable suborbital rocket's...

14 CFR 437.31 - Verification of operating area containment and key flight-safety event limitations.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-01-01

...(a) to contain its reusable suborbital rocket's instantaneous impact point within an operating area... limits on the ability of the reusable suborbital rocket to leave the operating area; or (2) Abort... requirements of § 437.59 to conduct any key flight-safety event so that the reusable suborbital rocket's...

14 CFR 437.31 - Verification of operating area containment and key flight-safety event limitations.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-01-01

...(a) to contain its reusable suborbital rocket's instantaneous impact point within an operating area... limits on the ability of the reusable suborbital rocket to leave the operating area; or (2) Abort... requirements of § 437.59 to conduct any key flight-safety event so that the reusable suborbital rocket's...

14 CFR 437.31 - Verification of operating area containment and key flight-safety event limitations.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-01-01

...(a) to contain its reusable suborbital rocket's instantaneous impact point within an operating area... limits on the ability of the reusable suborbital rocket to leave the operating area; or (2) Abort... requirements of § 437.59 to conduct any key flight-safety event so that the reusable suborbital rocket's...

14 CFR 437.31 - Verification of operating area containment and key flight-safety event limitations.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-01-01

...(a) to contain its reusable suborbital rocket's instantaneous impact point within an operating area... limits on the ability of the reusable suborbital rocket to leave the operating area; or (2) Abort... requirements of § 437.59 to conduct any key flight-safety event so that the reusable suborbital rocket's...

Survival analysis: Part I — analysis of time-to-event

PubMed Central

2018-01-01

Length of time is a variable often encountered during data analysis. Survival analysis provides simple, intuitive results concerning time-to-event for events of interest, which are not confined to death. This review introduces methods of analyzing time-to-event. The Kaplan-Meier survival analysis, log-rank test, and Cox proportional hazards regression modeling method are described with examples of hypothetical data. PMID:29768911

Twitter data analysis: temporal and term frequency analysis with real-time event

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yadav, Garima; Joshi, Mansi; Sasikala, R.

2017-11-01

From the past few years, World Wide Web (www) has become a prominent and huge source for user generated content and opinionative data. Among various social media, Twitter gained popularity as it offers a fast and effective way of sharing users’ perspective towards various critical and other issues in different domain. As the data is hugely generated on cloud, it has opened doors for the researchers in the field of data science and analysis. There are various domains such as ‘Political’ domain, ‘Entertainment’ domain and ‘Business’ domain. Also there are various APIs that Twitter provides for developers 1) Search API, focus on the old tweets 2) Rest API, focuses on user details and allow to collect the user profile, friends and followers 3) Streaming API, which collects details like tweets, hashtags, geo locations. In our work we are accessing Streaming API in order to fetch real-time tweets for the dynamic happening event. For this we are focusing on ‘Entertainment’ domain especially ‘Sports’ as IPL-T20 is currently the trending on-going event. We are collecting these numerous amounts of tweets and storing them in MongoDB database where the tweets are stored in JSON document format. On this document we are performing time-series analysis and term frequency analysis using different techniques such as filtering, information extraction for text-mining that fulfils our objective of finding interesting moments for temporal data in the event and finding the ranking among the players or the teams based on popularity which helps people in understanding key influencers on the social media platform.

Event-based analysis of free-living behaviour.

PubMed

Granat, Malcolm H

2012-11-01

The quantification of free-living physical activities is important in understanding how physical activity and sedentary behaviour impact on health and also on how interventions might modify free-living behaviour to enhance health. Quantification, and the terminology used, has in many ways been determined by the choice of measurement technique. The inter-related issues around measurement devices and terminology used are explored. This paper proposes a terminology and a systematic approach for the analysis of free-living activity information using event-based activity data. The event-based approach uses a flexible hierarchical classification of events and, dependent on the research question, analysis can then be undertaken on a selection of these events. The quantification of free-living behaviour is therefore the result of the analysis on the patterns of these chosen events. The application of this approach is illustrated with results from a range of published studies by our group showing how event-based analysis provides a flexible yet robust method of addressing the research question(s) and provides a deeper insight into free-living behaviour. It is proposed that it is through event-based analysis we can more clearly understand how behaviour is related to health and also how we can produce more relevant outcome measures.

Evaluation of key events in the mode of action for a carry-over carcinogen in mice

EPA Science Inventory

Evaluation of key events in the mode of action for a carry-over carcinogen in mice Charles E. Wood, April D. Lake, Greg Olson, Michael H. George, Susan D. Hester, Anthony B. DeAngelo Introduction: Early life environmental exposures are established determinants for adverse health...

Key terms for the assessment of the safety of vaccines in pregnancy: Results of a global consultative process to initiate harmonization of adverse event definitions.

PubMed

Munoz, Flor M; Eckert, Linda O; Katz, Mark A; Lambach, Philipp; Ortiz, Justin R; Bauwens, Jorgen; Bonhoeffer, Jan

2015-11-25

The variability of terms and definitions of Adverse Events Following Immunization (AEFI) represents a missed opportunity for optimal monitoring of safety of immunization in pregnancy. In 2014, the Brighton Collaboration Foundation and the World Health Organization (WHO) collaborated to address this gap. Two Brighton Collaboration interdisciplinary taskforces were formed. A landscape analysis included: (1) a systematic literature review of adverse event definitions used in vaccine studies during pregnancy; (2) a worldwide stakeholder survey of available terms and definitions; (3) and a series of taskforce meetings. Based on available evidence, taskforces proposed key terms and concept definitions to be refined, prioritized, and endorsed by a global expert consultation convened by WHO in Geneva, Switzerland in July 2014. Using pre-specified criteria, 45 maternal and 62 fetal/neonatal events were prioritized, and key terms and concept definitions were endorsed. In addition recommendations to further improve safety monitoring of immunization in pregnancy programs were specified. This includes elaboration of disease concepts into standardized case definitions with sufficient applicability and positive predictive value to be of use for monitoring the safety of immunization in pregnancy globally, as well as the development of guidance, tools, and datasets in support of a globally concerted approach. There is a need to improve the safety monitoring of immunization in pregnancy programs. A consensus list of terms and concept definitions of key events for monitoring immunization in pregnancy is available. Immediate actions to further strengthen monitoring of immunization in pregnancy programs are identified and recommended. Copyright © 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

The Key Events Dose-Response Framework: a cross-disciplinary mode-of-action based approach to examining dose-response and thresholds.

PubMed

Julien, Elizabeth; Boobis, Alan R; Olin, Stephen S

2009-09-01

The ILSI Research Foundation convened a cross-disciplinary working group to examine current approaches for assessing dose-response and identifying safe levels of intake or exposure for four categories of bioactive agents-food allergens, nutrients, pathogenic microorganisms, and environmental chemicals. This effort generated a common analytical framework-the Key Events Dose-Response Framework (KEDRF)-for systematically examining key events that occur between the initial dose of a bioactive agent and the effect of concern. Individual key events are considered with regard to factors that influence the dose-response relationship and factors that underlie variability in that relationship. This approach illuminates the connection between the processes occurring at the level of fundamental biology and the outcomes observed at the individual and population levels. Thus, it promotes an evidence-based approach for using mechanistic data to reduce reliance on default assumptions, to quantify variability, and to better characterize biological thresholds. This paper provides an overview of the KEDRF and introduces a series of four companion papers that illustrate initial application of the approach to a range of bioactive agents.

A formal framework of scenario creation and analysis of extreme hydrological events

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lohmann, D.

2007-12-01

We are presenting a formal framework for a hydrological risk analysis. Different measures of risk will be introduced, such as average annual loss or occurrence exceedance probability. These are important measures for e.g. insurance companies to determine the cost of insurance. One key aspect of investigating the potential consequences of extreme hydrological events (floods and draughts) is the creation of meteorological scenarios that reflect realistic spatial and temporal patterns of precipitation that also have correct local statistics. 100,000 years of these meteorological scenarios are used in a calibrated rainfall-runoff-flood-loss-risk model to produce flood and draught events that have never been observed. The results of this hazard model are statistically analyzed and linked to socio-economic data and vulnerability functions to show the impact of severe flood events. We are showing results from the Risk Management Solutions (RMS) Europe Flood Model to introduce this formal framework.

Research on Visual Analysis Methods of Terrorism Events

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Guo, Wenyue; Liu, Haiyan; Yu, Anzhu; Li, Jing

2016-06-01

Under the situation that terrorism events occur more and more frequency throughout the world, improving the response capability of social security incidents has become an important aspect to test governments govern ability. Visual analysis has become an important method of event analysing for its advantage of intuitive and effective. To analyse events' spatio-temporal distribution characteristics, correlations among event items and the development trend, terrorism event's spatio-temporal characteristics are discussed. Suitable event data table structure based on "5W" theory is designed. Then, six types of visual analysis are purposed, and how to use thematic map and statistical charts to realize visual analysis on terrorism events is studied. Finally, experiments have been carried out by using the data provided by Global Terrorism Database, and the results of experiments proves the availability of the methods.

Joint Attributes and Event Analysis for Multimedia Event Detection.

PubMed

Ma, Zhigang; Chang, Xiaojun; Xu, Zhongwen; Sebe, Nicu; Hauptmann, Alexander G

2017-06-15

Semantic attributes have been increasingly used the past few years for multimedia event detection (MED) with promising results. The motivation is that multimedia events generally consist of lower level components such as objects, scenes, and actions. By characterizing multimedia event videos with semantic attributes, one could exploit more informative cues for improved detection results. Much existing work obtains semantic attributes from images, which may be suboptimal for video analysis since these image-inferred attributes do not carry dynamic information that is essential for videos. To address this issue, we propose to learn semantic attributes from external videos using their semantic labels. We name them video attributes in this paper. In contrast with multimedia event videos, these external videos depict lower level contents such as objects, scenes, and actions. To harness video attributes, we propose an algorithm established on a correlation vector that correlates them to a target event. Consequently, we could incorporate video attributes latently as extra information into the event detector learnt from multimedia event videos in a joint framework. To validate our method, we perform experiments on the real-world large-scale TRECVID MED 2013 and 2014 data sets and compare our method with several state-of-the-art algorithms. The experiments show that our method is advantageous for MED.

Identification of the Key Fields and Their Key Technical Points of Oncology by Patent Analysis.

PubMed

Zhang, Ting; Chen, Juan; Jia, Xiaofeng

2015-01-01

This paper aims to identify the key fields and their key technical points of oncology by patent analysis. Patents of oncology applied from 2006 to 2012 were searched in the Thomson Innovation database. The key fields and their key technical points were determined by analyzing the Derwent Classification (DC) and the International Patent Classification (IPC), respectively. Patent applications in the top ten DC occupied 80% of all the patent applications of oncology, which were the ten fields of oncology to be analyzed. The number of patent applications in these ten fields of oncology was standardized based on patent applications of oncology from 2006 to 2012. For each field, standardization was conducted separately for each of the seven years (2006-2012) and the mean of the seven standardized values was calculated to reflect the relative amount of patent applications in that field; meanwhile, regression analysis using time (year) and the standardized values of patent applications in seven years (2006-2012) was conducted so as to evaluate the trend of patent applications in each field. Two-dimensional quadrant analysis, together with the professional knowledge of oncology, was taken into consideration in determining the key fields of oncology. The fields located in the quadrant with high relative amount or increasing trend of patent applications are identified as key ones. By using the same method, the key technical points in each key field were identified. Altogether 116,820 patents of oncology applied from 2006 to 2012 were retrieved, and four key fields with twenty-nine key technical points were identified, including "natural products and polymers" with nine key technical points, "fermentation industry" with twelve ones, "electrical medical equipment" with four ones, and "diagnosis, surgery" with four ones. The results of this study could provide guidance on the development direction of oncology, and also help researchers broaden innovative ideas and discover new

Crop Damage by Primates: Quantifying the Key Parameters of Crop-Raiding Events

PubMed Central

Wallace, Graham E.; Hill, Catherine M.

2012-01-01

Human-wildlife conflict often arises from crop-raiding, and insights regarding which aspects of raiding events determine crop loss are essential when developing and evaluating deterrents. However, because accounts of crop-raiding behaviour are frequently indirect, these parameters are rarely quantified or explicitly linked to crop damage. Using systematic observations of the behaviour of non-human primates on farms in western Uganda, this research identifies number of individuals raiding and duration of raid as the primary parameters determining crop loss. Secondary factors include distance travelled onto farm, age composition of the raiding group, and whether raids are in series. Regression models accounted for greater proportions of variation in crop loss when increasingly crop and species specific. Parameter values varied across primate species, probably reflecting differences in raiding tactics or perceptions of risk, and thereby providing indices of how comfortable primates are on-farm. Median raiding-group sizes were markedly smaller than the typical sizes of social groups. The research suggests that key parameters of raiding events can be used to measure the behavioural impacts of deterrents to raiding. Furthermore, farmers will benefit most from methods that discourage raiding by multiple individuals, reduce the size of raiding groups, or decrease the amount of time primates are on-farm. This study demonstrates the importance of directly relating crop loss to the parameters of raiding events, using systematic observations of the behaviour of multiple primate species. PMID:23056378

Performance Analysis of Cloud Computing Architectures Using Discrete Event Simulation

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Stocker, John C.; Golomb, Andrew M.

2011-01-01

Cloud computing offers the economic benefit of on-demand resource allocation to meet changing enterprise computing needs. However, the flexibility of cloud computing is disadvantaged when compared to traditional hosting in providing predictable application and service performance. Cloud computing relies on resource scheduling in a virtualized network-centric server environment, which makes static performance analysis infeasible. We developed a discrete event simulation model to evaluate the overall effectiveness of organizations in executing their workflow in traditional and cloud computing architectures. The two part model framework characterizes both the demand using a probability distribution for each type of service request as well as enterprise computing resource constraints. Our simulations provide quantitative analysis to design and provision computing architectures that maximize overall mission effectiveness. We share our analysis of key resource constraints in cloud computing architectures and findings on the appropriateness of cloud computing in various applications.

Key components of financial-analysis education for clinical nurses.

PubMed

Lim, Ji Young; Noh, Wonjung

2015-09-01

In this study, we identified key components of financial-analysis education for clinical nurses. We used a literature review, focus group discussions, and a content validity index survey to develop key components of financial-analysis education. First, a wide range of references were reviewed, and 55 financial-analysis education components were gathered. Second, two focus group discussions were performed; the participants were 11 nurses who had worked for more than 3 years in a hospital, and nine components were agreed upon. Third, 12 professionals, including professors, nurse executive, nurse managers, and an accountant, participated in the content validity index. Finally, six key components of financial-analysis education were selected. These key components were as follows: understanding the need for financial analysis, introduction to financial analysis, reading and implementing balance sheets, reading and implementing income statements, understanding the concepts of financial ratios, and interpretation and practice of financial ratio analysis. The results of this study will be used to develop an education program to increase financial-management competency among clinical nurses. © 2015 Wiley Publishing Asia Pty Ltd.

Gait Event Detection in Real-World Environment for Long-Term Applications: Incorporating Domain Knowledge Into Time-Frequency Analysis.

PubMed

Khandelwal, Siddhartha; Wickstrom, Nicholas

2016-12-01

Detecting gait events is the key to many gait analysis applications that would benefit from continuous monitoring or long-term analysis. Most gait event detection algorithms using wearable sensors that offer a potential for use in daily living have been developed from data collected in controlled indoor experiments. However, for real-word applications, it is essential that the analysis is carried out in humans' natural environment; that involves different gait speeds, changing walking terrains, varying surface inclinations and regular turns among other factors. Existing domain knowledge in the form of principles or underlying fundamental gait relationships can be utilized to drive and support the data analysis in order to develop robust algorithms that can tackle real-world challenges in gait analysis. This paper presents a novel approach that exhibits how domain knowledge about human gait can be incorporated into time-frequency analysis to detect gait events from long-term accelerometer signals. The accuracy and robustness of the proposed algorithm are validated by experiments done in indoor and outdoor environments with approximately 93 600 gait events in total. The proposed algorithm exhibits consistently high performance scores across all datasets in both, indoor and outdoor environments.

Identification of the Key Fields and Their Key Technical Points of Oncology by Patent Analysis

PubMed Central

Zhang, Ting; Chen, Juan; Jia, Xiaofeng

2015-01-01

Background This paper aims to identify the key fields and their key technical points of oncology by patent analysis. Methodology/Principal Findings Patents of oncology applied from 2006 to 2012 were searched in the Thomson Innovation database. The key fields and their key technical points were determined by analyzing the Derwent Classification (DC) and the International Patent Classification (IPC), respectively. Patent applications in the top ten DC occupied 80% of all the patent applications of oncology, which were the ten fields of oncology to be analyzed. The number of patent applications in these ten fields of oncology was standardized based on patent applications of oncology from 2006 to 2012. For each field, standardization was conducted separately for each of the seven years (2006–2012) and the mean of the seven standardized values was calculated to reflect the relative amount of patent applications in that field; meanwhile, regression analysis using time (year) and the standardized values of patent applications in seven years (2006–2012) was conducted so as to evaluate the trend of patent applications in each field. Two-dimensional quadrant analysis, together with the professional knowledge of oncology, was taken into consideration in determining the key fields of oncology. The fields located in the quadrant with high relative amount or increasing trend of patent applications are identified as key ones. By using the same method, the key technical points in each key field were identified. Altogether 116,820 patents of oncology applied from 2006 to 2012 were retrieved, and four key fields with twenty-nine key technical points were identified, including “natural products and polymers” with nine key technical points, “fermentation industry” with twelve ones, “electrical medical equipment” with four ones, and “diagnosis, surgery” with four ones. Conclusions/Significance The results of this study could provide guidance on the development

Protein analysis: key to the future.

PubMed

Boodhun, Nawsheen

2018-05-01

Protein analysis is crucial to elucidating the function of proteins and understanding the impact of their presence, absence and alteration. This is key to advancing knowledge about diseases, providing the opportunity for biomarker discovery and development of therapeutics. In this issue of Tech News, Nawsheen Boodhun explores the various means of protein analysis.

Screening key candidate genes and pathways involved in insulinoma by microarray analysis.

PubMed

Zhou, Wuhua; Gong, Li; Li, Xuefeng; Wan, Yunyan; Wang, Xiangfei; Li, Huili; Jiang, Bin

2018-06-01

Insulinoma is a rare type tumor and its genetic features remain largely unknown. This study aimed to search for potential key genes and relevant enriched pathways of insulinoma.The gene expression data from GSE73338 were downloaded from Gene Expression Omnibus database. Differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified between insulinoma tissues and normal pancreas tissues, followed by pathway enrichment analysis, protein-protein interaction (PPI) network construction, and module analysis. The expressions of candidate key genes were validated by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) in insulinoma tissues.A total of 1632 DEGs were obtained, including 1117 upregulated genes and 514 downregulated genes. Pathway enrichment results showed that upregulated DEGs were significantly implicated in insulin secretion, and downregulated DEGs were mainly enriched in pancreatic secretion. PPI network analysis revealed 7 hub genes with degrees more than 10, including GCG (glucagon), GCGR (glucagon receptor), PLCB1 (phospholipase C, beta 1), CASR (calcium sensing receptor), F2R (coagulation factor II thrombin receptor), GRM1 (glutamate metabotropic receptor 1), and GRM5 (glutamate metabotropic receptor 5). DEGs involved in the significant modules were enriched in calcium signaling pathway, protein ubiquitination, and platelet degranulation. Quantitative RT-PCR data confirmed that the expression trends of these hub genes were similar to the results of bioinformatic analysis.The present study demonstrated that candidate DEGs and enriched pathways were the potential critical molecule events involved in the development of insulinoma, and these findings were useful for better understanding of insulinoma genesis.

Root cause analysis of critical events in neurosurgery, New South Wales.

PubMed

Perotti, Vanessa; Sheridan, Mark M P

2015-09-01

Adverse events reportedly occur in 5% to 10% of health care episodes. Not all adverse events are the result of error; they may arise from systemic faults in the delivery of health care. Catastrophic events are not only physically devastating to patients, but they also attract medical liability and increase health care costs. Root cause analysis (RCA) has become a key tool for health care services to understand those adverse events. This study is a review of all the RCA case reports involving neurosurgical patients in New South Wales between 2008 and 2013. The case reports and data were obtained from the Clinical Excellence Commission database. The data was then categorized by the root causes identified and the recommendations suggested by the RCA committees. Thirty-two case reports were identified in the RCA database. Breaches in policy account for the majority of root causes identified, for example, delays in transfer of patients or wrong-site surgery, which always involved poor adherence to correct patient and site identification procedures. The RCA committees' recommendations included education for staff, and improvements in rostering and procedural guidelines. RCAs have improved the patient safety profile; however, the RCA committees have no power to enforce any recommendation or ensure compliance. A single RCA may provide little learning beyond the unit and staff involved. However, through aggregation of RCA data and dissemination strategies, health care workers can learn from adverse events and prevent future events from occurring. © 2015 Royal Australasian College of Surgeons.

Textual analysis of tobacco editorials: how are Key media gatekeepers framing the issues?

PubMed

Smith, Katherine Clegg; Wakefield, Melanie

2005-01-01

The news media's potential to promote awareness of health issues is established, and media advocacy is now an important tool in combating tobacco use. This study examines newspaper editors' perspectives of tobacco-related issues. This study presents a textual analysis of tobacco-related editorials. The data consist of editorials on tobacco from a sample of 310 U.S. daily newspapers over the course of 1 year (2001). Data were sampled from a random one-third of the days per month, yielding 162 editorials for analysis. A qualitative textual analysis was conducted. Each editorial was coded for theme, position, and frame. We analyzed the topics gaining editorial attention and the arguments made to support various perspectives. Editorials discussed a variety of both positive and negative news events, largely conveying support for tobacco-control objectives. Various organizing frames were used-supporting policy interventions, condemning the industry, highlighting individual rights, and expressing general cynicism were most prevalent. Editors largely promoted tobacco-control efforts, particularly policy advances. There was, however, little coverage of key issues such as health effects and addiction-perhaps because they are no longer perceived to be contentious. Advocates should seek to address this area and minimize the cynicism of key media gatekeepers to avoid undermining policy and individual change efforts.

Event coincidence analysis for quantifying statistical interrelationships between event time series. On the role of flood events as triggers of epidemic outbreaks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Donges, J. F.; Schleussner, C.-F.; Siegmund, J. F.; Donner, R. V.

2016-05-01

Studying event time series is a powerful approach for analyzing the dynamics of complex dynamical systems in many fields of science. In this paper, we describe the method of event coincidence analysis to provide a framework for quantifying the strength, directionality and time lag of statistical interrelationships between event series. Event coincidence analysis allows to formulate and test null hypotheses on the origin of the observed interrelationships including tests based on Poisson processes or, more generally, stochastic point processes with a prescribed inter-event time distribution and other higher-order properties. Applying the framework to country-level observational data yields evidence that flood events have acted as triggers of epidemic outbreaks globally since the 1950s. Facing projected future changes in the statistics of climatic extreme events, statistical techniques such as event coincidence analysis will be relevant for investigating the impacts of anthropogenic climate change on human societies and ecosystems worldwide.

Event reweighting with the NuWro neutrino interaction generator

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pickering, Luke; Stowell, Patrick; Sobczyk, Jan

2017-09-01

Event reweighting has been implemented in the NuWro neutrino event generator for a number of free theory parameters in the interaction model. Event reweighting is a key analysis technique, used to efficiently study the effect of neutrino interaction model uncertainties. This opens up the possibility for NuWro to be used as a primary event generator by experimental analysis groups. A preliminary model tuning to ANL and BNL data of quasi-elastic and single pion production events was performed to validate the reweighting engine.

Interpretation Analysis as a Competitive Event.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nading, Robert M.

Interpretation analysis is a new and interesting event on the forensics horizon which appears to be attracting an ever larger number of supporters. This event, developed by Larry Lambert of Ball State University in 1989, requires a student to perform all three disciplines of forensic competition (interpretation, public speaking, and limited…

76 FR 68314 - Special Local Regulations; Key West World Championship, Atlantic Ocean; Key West, FL

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-11-04

...-AA08 Special Local Regulations; Key West World Championship, Atlantic Ocean; Key West, FL AGENCY: Coast... World Championship, a series of high-speed boat races. The event is scheduled to take place on Wednesday... Key West World Championship, a series of high-speed boat races. The event will be held on the waters...

Event-scale power law recession analysis: quantifying methodological uncertainty

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dralle, David N.; Karst, Nathaniel J.; Charalampous, Kyriakos; Veenstra, Andrew; Thompson, Sally E.

2017-01-01

The study of single streamflow recession events is receiving increasing attention following the presentation of novel theoretical explanations for the emergence of power law forms of the recession relationship, and drivers of its variability. Individually characterizing streamflow recessions often involves describing the similarities and differences between model parameters fitted to each recession time series. Significant methodological sensitivity has been identified in the fitting and parameterization of models that describe populations of many recessions, but the dependence of estimated model parameters on methodological choices has not been evaluated for event-by-event forms of analysis. Here, we use daily streamflow data from 16 catchments in northern California and southern Oregon to investigate how combinations of commonly used streamflow recession definitions and fitting techniques impact parameter estimates of a widely used power law recession model. Results are relevant to watersheds that are relatively steep, forested, and rain-dominated. The highly seasonal mediterranean climate of northern California and southern Oregon ensures study catchments explore a wide range of recession behaviors and wetness states, ideal for a sensitivity analysis. In such catchments, we show the following: (i) methodological decisions, including ones that have received little attention in the literature, can impact parameter value estimates and model goodness of fit; (ii) the central tendencies of event-scale recession parameter probability distributions are largely robust to methodological choices, in the sense that differing methods rank catchments similarly according to the medians of these distributions; (iii) recession parameter distributions are method-dependent, but roughly catchment-independent, such that changing the choices made about a particular method affects a given parameter in similar ways across most catchments; and (iv) the observed correlative relationship

Second-Order Analysis of Semiparametric Recurrent Event Processes

PubMed Central

Guan, Yongtao

2011-01-01

Summary A typical recurrent event dataset consists of an often large number of recurrent event processes, each of which contains multiple event times observed from an individual during a followup period. Such data have become increasingly available in medical and epidemiological studies. In this paper, we introduce novel procedures to conduct second-order analysis for a flexible class of semiparametric recurrent event processes. Such an analysis can provide useful information regarding the dependence structure within each recurrent event process. Specifically, we will use the proposed procedures to test whether the individual recurrent event processes are all Poisson processes and to suggest sensible alternative models for them if they are not. We apply these procedures to a well-known recurrent event dataset on chronic granulomatous disease and an epidemiological dataset on Meningococcal disease cases in Merseyside, UK to illustrate their practical value. PMID:21361885

Physical and Chemical Analytical Analysis: A key component of Bioforensics

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

Velsko, S P

The anthrax letters event of 2001 has raised our awareness of the potential importance of non-biological measurements on samples of biological agents used in a terrorism incident. Such measurements include a variety of mass spectral, spectroscopic, and other instrumental techniques that are part of the current armamentarium of the modern materials analysis or analytical chemistry laboratory. They can provide morphological, trace element, isotopic, and other molecular ''fingerprints'' of the agent that may be key pieces of evidence, supplementing that obtained from genetic analysis or other biological properties. The generation and interpretation of such data represents a new domain of forensicmore » science, closely aligned with other areas of ''microbial forensics''. This paper describes some major elements of the R&D agenda that will define this sub-field in the immediate future and provide the foundations for a coherent national capability. Data from chemical and physical analysis of BW materials can be useful to an investigation of a bio-terror event in two ways. First, it can be used to compare evidence samples collected at different locations where such incidents have occurred (e.g. between the powders in the New York and Washington letters in the Amerithrax investigation) or between the attack samples and those seized during the investigation of sites where it is suspected the material was manufactured (if such samples exist). Matching of sample properties can help establish the relatedness of disparate incidents, and mis-matches might exclude certain scenarios, or signify a more complex etiology of the events under investigation. Chemical and morphological analysis for sample matching has a long history in forensics, and is likely to be acceptable in principle in court, assuming that match criteria are well defined and derived from known limits of precision of the measurement techniques in question. Thus, apart from certain operational issues (such as how

Surface Management System Departure Event Data Analysis

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Monroe, Gilena A.

2010-01-01

This paper presents a data analysis of the Surface Management System (SMS) performance of departure events, including push-back and runway departure events.The paper focuses on the detection performance, or the ability to detect departure events, as well as the prediction performance of SMS. The results detail a modest overall detection performance of push-back events and a significantly high overall detection performance of runway departure events. The overall detection performance of SMS for push-back events is approximately 55%.The overall detection performance of SMS for runway departure events nears 100%. This paper also presents the overall SMS prediction performance for runway departure events as well as the timeliness of the Aircraft Situation Display for Industry data source for SMS predictions.

Time-to-first-event versus recurrent-event analysis: points to consider for selecting a meaningful analysis strategy in clinical trials with composite endpoints.

PubMed

Rauch, Geraldine; Kieser, Meinhard; Binder, Harald; Bayes-Genis, Antoni; Jahn-Eimermacher, Antje

2018-05-01

Composite endpoints combining several event types of clinical interest often define the primary efficacy outcome in cardiologic trials. They are commonly evaluated as time-to-first-event, thereby following the recommendations of regulatory agencies. However, to assess the patient's full disease burden and to identify preventive factors or interventions, subsequent events following the first one should be considered as well. This is especially important in cohort studies and RCTs with a long follow-up leading to a higher number of observed events per patients. So far, there exist no recommendations which approach should be preferred. Recently, the Cardiovascular Round Table of the European Society of Cardiology indicated the need to investigate "how to interpret results if recurrent-event analysis results differ […] from time-to-first-event analysis" (Anker et al., Eur J Heart Fail 18:482-489, 2016). This work addresses this topic by means of a systematic simulation study. This paper compares two common analysis strategies for composite endpoints differing with respect to the incorporation of recurrent events for typical data scenarios motivated by a clinical trial. We show that the treatment effects estimated from a time-to-first-event analysis (Cox model) and a recurrent-event analysis (Andersen-Gill model) can systematically differ, particularly in cardiovascular trials. Moreover, we provide guidance on how to interpret these results and recommend points to consider for the choice of a meaningful analysis strategy. When planning trials with a composite endpoint, researchers, and regulatory agencies should be aware that the model choice affects the estimated treatment effect and its interpretation.

Second-order analysis of semiparametric recurrent event processes.

PubMed

Guan, Yongtao

2011-09-01

A typical recurrent event dataset consists of an often large number of recurrent event processes, each of which contains multiple event times observed from an individual during a follow-up period. Such data have become increasingly available in medical and epidemiological studies. In this article, we introduce novel procedures to conduct second-order analysis for a flexible class of semiparametric recurrent event processes. Such an analysis can provide useful information regarding the dependence structure within each recurrent event process. Specifically, we will use the proposed procedures to test whether the individual recurrent event processes are all Poisson processes and to suggest sensible alternative models for them if they are not. We apply these procedures to a well-known recurrent event dataset on chronic granulomatous disease and an epidemiological dataset on meningococcal disease cases in Merseyside, United Kingdom to illustrate their practical value. © 2011, The International Biometric Society.

A Content-Adaptive Analysis and Representation Framework for Audio Event Discovery from "Unscripted" Multimedia

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Radhakrishnan, Regunathan; Divakaran, Ajay; Xiong, Ziyou; Otsuka, Isao

2006-12-01

We propose a content-adaptive analysis and representation framework to discover events using audio features from "unscripted" multimedia such as sports and surveillance for summarization. The proposed analysis framework performs an inlier/outlier-based temporal segmentation of the content. It is motivated by the observation that "interesting" events in unscripted multimedia occur sparsely in a background of usual or "uninteresting" events. We treat the sequence of low/mid-level features extracted from the audio as a time series and identify subsequences that are outliers. The outlier detection is based on eigenvector analysis of the affinity matrix constructed from statistical models estimated from the subsequences of the time series. We define the confidence measure on each of the detected outliers as the probability that it is an outlier. Then, we establish a relationship between the parameters of the proposed framework and the confidence measure. Furthermore, we use the confidence measure to rank the detected outliers in terms of their departures from the background process. Our experimental results with sequences of low- and mid-level audio features extracted from sports video show that "highlight" events can be extracted effectively as outliers from a background process using the proposed framework. We proceed to show the effectiveness of the proposed framework in bringing out suspicious events from surveillance videos without any a priori knowledge. We show that such temporal segmentation into background and outliers, along with the ranking based on the departure from the background, can be used to generate content summaries of any desired length. Finally, we also show that the proposed framework can be used to systematically select "key audio classes" that are indicative of events of interest in the chosen domain.

Event Reports Promoting Root Cause Analysis.

PubMed

Pandit, Swananda; Gong, Yang

2016-01-01

Improving health is the sole objective of medical care. Unfortunately, mishaps or patient safety events happen during the care. If the safety events were collected effectively, they would help identify patterns, underlying causes, and ultimately generate proactive and remedial solutions for prevention of recurrence. Based on the AHRQ Common Formats, we examine the quality of patient safety incident reports and describe the initial data requirement that can support and accelerate effective root cause analysis. The ultimate goal is to develop a knowledge base of patient safety events and their common solutions which can be readily available for sharing and learning.

Spacecraft-to-Earth Communications for Juno and Mars Science Laboratory Critical Events

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Soriano, Melissa; Finley, Susan; Jongeling, Andre; Fort, David; Goodhart, Charles; Rogstad, David; Navarro, Robert

2012-01-01

Deep Space communications typically utilize closed loop receivers and Binary Phase Shift Keying (BPSK) or Quadrature Phase Shift Keying (QPSK). Critical spacecraft events include orbit insertion and entry, descent, and landing.---Low gain antennas--> low signal -to-noise-ratio.---High dynamics such as parachute deployment or spin --> Doppler shift. During critical events, open loop receivers and Multiple Frequency Shift Keying (MFSK) used. Entry, Descent, Landing (EDL) Data Analysis (EDA) system detects tones in real-time.

Synopsis of key persons, events, and associations in the history of Latino psychology.

PubMed

Padilla, Amado M; Olmedo, Esteban

2009-10-01

In this article, we present a brief synopsis of six early Latino psychologists, several key conferences, the establishment of research centers, and early efforts to create an association for Latino psychologists. Our chronology runs from approximately 1930 to 2000. This history is a firsthand account of how these early leaders, conferences, and efforts to bring Latinos and Latinas together served as a backdrop to current research and practice in Latino psychology. This history of individuals and events is also intertwined with the American Psychological Association and the National Institute of Mental Health and efforts by Latino psychologists to obtain the professional support necessary to lay down the roots of a Latino presence in psychology. Copyright 2009 APA, all rights reserved.

Continuous variable quantum key distribution: finite-key analysis of composable security against coherent attacks.

PubMed

Furrer, F; Franz, T; Berta, M; Leverrier, A; Scholz, V B; Tomamichel, M; Werner, R F

2012-09-07

We provide a security analysis for continuous variable quantum key distribution protocols based on the transmission of two-mode squeezed vacuum states measured via homodyne detection. We employ a version of the entropic uncertainty relation for smooth entropies to give a lower bound on the number of secret bits which can be extracted from a finite number of runs of the protocol. This bound is valid under general coherent attacks, and gives rise to keys which are composably secure. For comparison, we also give a lower bound valid under the assumption of collective attacks. For both scenarios, we find positive key rates using experimental parameters reachable today.

An application of different dioids in public key cryptography

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

Durcheva, Mariana I., E-mail: mdurcheva66@gmail.com

2014-11-18

Dioids provide a natural framework for analyzing a broad class of discrete event dynamical systems such as the design and analysis of bus and railway timetables, scheduling of high-throughput industrial processes, solution of combinatorial optimization problems, the analysis and improvement of flow systems in communication networks. They have appeared in several branches of mathematics such as functional analysis, optimization, stochastic systems and dynamic programming, tropical geometry, fuzzy logic. In this paper we show how to involve dioids in public key cryptography. The main goal is to create key – exchange protocols based on dioids. Additionally the digital signature scheme ismore » presented.« less

Finite-key security analysis of quantum key distribution with imperfect light sources

DOE PAGES

Mizutani, Akihiro; Curty, Marcos; Lim, Charles Ci Wen; ...

2015-09-09

In recent years, the gap between theory and practice in quantum key distribution (QKD) has been significantly narrowed, particularly for QKD systems with arbitrarily flawed optical receivers. The status for QKD systems with imperfect light sources is however less satisfactory, in the sense that the resulting secure key rates are often overly dependent on the quality of state preparation. This is especially the case when the channel loss is high. Very recently, to overcome this limitation, Tamaki et al proposed a QKD protocol based on the so-called 'rejected data analysis', and showed that its security in the limit of infinitelymore » long keys is almost independent of any encoding flaw in the qubit space, being this protocol compatible with the decoy state method. Here, as a step towards practical QKD, we show that a similar conclusion is reached in the finite-key regime, even when the intensity of the light source is unstable. More concretely, we derive security bounds for a wide class of realistic light sources and show that the bounds are also efficient in the presence of high channel loss. Our results strongly suggest the feasibility of long distance provably secure communication with imperfect light sources.« less

Parallel Event Analysis Under Unix

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Looney, S.; Nilsson, B. S.; Oest, T.; Pettersson, T.; Ranjard, F.; Thibonnier, J.-P.

The ALEPH experiment at LEP, the CERN CN division and Digital Equipment Corp. have, in a joint project, developed a parallel event analysis system. The parallel physics code is identical to ALEPH's standard analysis code, ALPHA, only the organisation of input/output is changed. The user may switch between sequential and parallel processing by simply changing one input "card". The initial implementation runs on an 8-node DEC 3000/400 farm, using the PVM software, and exhibits a near-perfect speed-up linearity, reducing the turn-around time by a factor of 8.

The comparison and analysis of extracting video key frame

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ouyang, S. Z.; Zhong, L.; Luo, R. Q.

2018-05-01

Video key frame extraction is an important part of the large data processing. Based on the previous work in key frame extraction, we summarized four important key frame extraction algorithms, and these methods are largely developed by comparing the differences between each of two frames. If the difference exceeds a threshold value, take the corresponding frame as two different keyframes. After the research, the key frame extraction based on the amount of mutual trust is proposed, the introduction of information entropy, by selecting the appropriate threshold values into the initial class, and finally take a similar mean mutual information as a candidate key frame. On this paper, several algorithms is used to extract the key frame of tunnel traffic videos. Then, with the analysis to the experimental results and comparisons between the pros and cons of these algorithms, the basis of practical applications is well provided.

Hydrometeorological Analysis of Flooding Events in San Antonio, TX

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chintalapudi, S.; Sharif, H.; Elhassan, A.

2008-12-01

South Central Texas is particularly vulnerable to floods due to: proximity to a moist air source (the Gulf of Mexico); the Balcones Escarpment, which concentrates rainfall runoff; a tendency for synoptic scale features to become cut-off and stall over the area; and decaying tropical cyclones stalling over the area. The San Antonio Metropolitan Area is the 7th largest city in the nation, one of the most flash-flood prone regions in North America, and has experienced a number of flooding events in the last decade (1998, 2002, 2004, and 2007). Research is being conducted to characterize the meteorological conditions that lead to these events and apply the rainfall and watershed characteristics data to recreate the runoff events using a two- dimensional, physically-based, distributed-parameter hydrologic model. The physically based, distributed-parameter Gridded Surface Subsurface Hydrologic Analysis (GSSHA) hydrological model was used for simulating the watershed response to these storm events. Finally observed discharges were compared to GSSHA model discharges for these storm events. Analysis of the some of these events will be presented.

Glaucoma progression detection: agreement, sensitivity, and specificity of expert visual field evaluation, event analysis, and trend analysis.

PubMed

Antón, Alfonso; Pazos, Marta; Martín, Belén; Navero, José Manuel; Ayala, Miriam Eleonora; Castany, Marta; Martínez, Patricia; Bardavío, Javier

2013-01-01

To assess sensitivity, specificity, and agreement among automated event analysis, automated trend analysis, and expert evaluation to detect glaucoma progression. This was a prospective study that included 37 eyes with a follow-up of 36 months. All had glaucomatous disks and fields and performed reliable visual fields every 6 months. Each series of fields was assessed with 3 different methods: subjective assessment by 2 independent teams of glaucoma experts, glaucoma/guided progression analysis (GPA) event analysis, and GPA (visual field index-based) trend analysis. Kappa agreement coefficient between methods and sensitivity and specificity for each method using expert opinion as gold standard were calculated. The incidence of glaucoma progression was 16% to 18% in 3 years but only 3 cases showed progression with all 3 methods. Kappa agreement coefficient was high (k=0.82) between subjective expert assessment and GPA event analysis, and only moderate between these two and GPA trend analysis (k=0.57). Sensitivity and specificity for GPA event and GPA trend analysis were 71% and 96%, and 57% and 93%, respectively. The 3 methods detected similar numbers of progressing cases. The GPA event analysis and expert subjective assessment showed high agreement between them and moderate agreement with GPA trend analysis. In a period of 3 years, both methods of GPA analysis offered high specificity, event analysis showed 83% sensitivity, and trend analysis had a 66% sensitivity.

Transcriptomic dose-and-time-course indicators of early key events in a cytotoxicity-mediated mode of action for rodent urinary bladder tumorigenesis

EPA Science Inventory

TRANSCRIPTOMIC DOSE- AND TIME-COURSE INDICATORS OF EARLY KEY EVENTS IN A CYTOTOXICITY-MEDIATED MODE OF ACTION FOR RODENT URINARY BLADDER TUMORIGENESISDiuron is a substituted urea compound used globally as an herbicide. Urinary bladder tumors were induced in rats after chronic die...

Extreme Space Weather Events: From Cradle to Grave

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Riley, Pete; Baker, Dan; Liu, Ying D.; Verronen, Pekka; Singer, Howard; Güdel, Manuel

2018-02-01

Extreme space weather events, while rare, can have a substantial impact on our technologically-dependent society. And, although such events have only occasionally been observed, through careful analysis of a wealth of space-based and ground-based observations, historical records, and extrapolations from more moderate events, we have developed a basic picture of the components required to produce them. Several key issues, however, remain unresolved. For example, what limits are imposed on the maximum size of such events? What are the likely societal consequences of a so-called "100-year" solar storm? In this review, we summarize our current scientific understanding about extreme space weather events as we follow several examples from the Sun, through the solar corona and inner heliosphere, across the magnetospheric boundary, into the ionosphere and atmosphere, into the Earth's lithosphere, and, finally, its impact on man-made structures and activities, such as spacecraft, GPS signals, radio communication, and the electric power grid. We describe preliminary attempts to provide probabilistic forecasts of extreme space weather phenomena, and we conclude by identifying several key areas that must be addressed if we are better able to understand, and, ultimately, predict extreme space weather events.

Event shape analysis of deep inelastic scattering events with a large rapidity gap at HERA

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

ZEUS Collaboration; Breitweg, J.; Derrick, M.; Krakauer, D.; Magill, S.; Mikunas, D.; Musgrave, B.; Repond, J.; Stanek, R.; Talaga, R. L.; Yoshida, R.; Zhang, H.; Mattingly, M. C. K.; Anselmo, F.; Antonioli, P.; Bari, G.; Basile, M.; Bellagamba, L.; Boscherini, D.; Bruni, A.; Bruni, G.; Cara Romeo, G.; Castellini, G.; Cifarelli, L.; Cindolo, F.; Contin, A.; Corradi, M.; de Pasquale, S.; Gialas, I.; Giusti, P.; Iacobucci, G.; Laurenti, G.; Levi, G.; Margotti, A.; Massam, T.; Nania, R.; Palmonari, F.; Pesci, A.; Polini, A.; Ricci, F.; Sartorelli, G.; Zamora Garcia, Y.; Zichichi, A.; Amelung, C.; Bornheim, A.; Brock, I.; Coböken, K.; Crittenden, J.; Deffner, R.; Eckert, M.; Grothe, M.; Hartmann, H.; Heinloth, K.; Heinz, L.; Hilger, E.; Jakob, H.-P.; Katz, U. F.; Kerger, R.; Paul, E.; Pfeiffer, M.; Rembser, Ch.; Stamm, J.; Wedemeyer, R.; Wieber, H.; Bailey, D. S.; Campbell-Robson, S.; Cottingham, W. N.; Foster, B.; Hall-Wilton, R.; Hayes, M. E.; Heath, G. P.; Heath, H. F.; McFall, J. D.; Piccioni, D.; Roff, D. G.; Tapper, R. J.; Arneodo, M.; Ayad, R.; Capua, M.; Garfagnini, A.; Iannotti, L.; Schioppa, M.; Susinno, G.; Kim, J. Y.; Lee, J. H.; Lim, I. T.; Pac, M. Y.; Caldwell, A.; Cartiglia, N.; Jing, Z.; Liu, W.; Mellado, B.; Parsons, J. A.; Ritz, S.; Sampson, S.; Sciulli, F.; Straub, P. B.; Zhu, Q.; Borzemski, P.; Chwastowski, J.; Eskreys, A.; Figiel, J.; Klimek, K.; Przybycień , M. B.; Zawiejski, L.; Adamczyk, L.; Bednarek, B.; Bukowy, M.; Jeleń , K.; Kisielewska, D.; Kowalski, T.; Przybycień , M.; Rulikowska-Zarȩ Bska, E.; Suszycki, L.; Zaja C, J.; Duliń Ski, Z.; Kotań Ski, A.; Abbiendi, G.; Bauerdick, L. A. T.; Behrens, U.; Beier, H.; Bienlein, J. K.; Cases, G.; Deppe, O.; Desler, K.; Drews, G.; Fricke, U.; Gilkinson, D. J.; Glasman, C.; Göttlicher, P.; Haas, T.; Hain, W.; Hasell, D.; Johnson, K. F.; Kasemann, M.; Koch, W.; Kötz, U.; Kowalski, H.; Labs, J.; Lindemann, L.; Löhr, B.; Löwe, M.; Mań Czak, O.; Milewski, J.; Monteiro, T.; Ng, J. S. T.; Notz, D.; Ohrenberg, K.; Park, I. H.; Pellegrino, A.; Pelucchi, F.; Piotrzkowski, K.; Roco, M.; Rohde, M.; Roldán, J.; Ryan, J. J.; Savin, A. A.; Schneekloth, U.; Selonke, F.; Surrow, B.; Tassi, E.; Voß, T.; Westphal, D.; Wolf, G.; Wollmer, U.; Youngman, C.; Zsolararnecki, A. F.; Zeuner, W.; Burow, B. D.; Grabosch, H. J.; Meyer, A.; Schlenstedt, S.; Barbagli, G.; Gallo, E.; Pelfer, P.; Maccarrone, G.; Votano, L.; Bamberger, A.; Eisenhardt, S.; Markun, P.; Trefzger, T.; Wölfle, S.; Bromley, J. T.; Brook, N. H.; Bussey, P. J.; Doyle, A. T.; MacDonald, N.; Saxon, D. H.; Sinclair, L. E.; Strickland, E.; Waugh, R.; Bohnet, I.; Gendner, N.; Holm, U.; Meyer-Larsen, A.; Salehi, H.; Wick, K.; Gladilin, L. K.; Horstmann, D.; Kçira, D.; Klanner, R.; Lohrmann, E.; Poelz, G.; Schott, W.; Zetsche, F.; Bacon, T. C.; Butterworth, I.; Cole, J. E.; Howell, G.; Hung, B. H. Y.; Lamberti, L.; Long, K. R.; Miller, D. B.; Pavel, N.; Prinias, A.; Sedgbeer, J. K.; Sideris, D.; Walker, R.; Mallik, U.; Wang, S. M.; Wu, J. T.; Cloth, P.; Filges, D.; Fleck, J. I.; Ishii, T.; Kuze, M.; Suzuki, I.; Tokushuku, K.; Yamada, S.; Yamauchi, K.; Yamazaki, Y.; Hong, S. J.; Lee, S. B.; Nam, S. W.; Park, S. K.; Barreiro, F.; Fernández, J. P.; García, G.; Graciani, R.; Hernández, J. M.; Hervás, L.; Labarga, L.; Martínez, M.; del Peso, J.; Puga, J.; Terrón, J.; de Trocóniz, J. F.; Corriveau, F.; Hanna, D. S.; Hartmann, J.; Hung, L. W.; Murray, W. N.; Ochs, A.; Riveline, M.; Stairs, D. G.; St-Laurent, M.; Ullmann, R.; Tsurugai, T.; Bashkirov, V.; Dolgoshein, B. A.; Stifutkin, A.; Bashindzhagyan, G. L.; Ermolov, P. F.; Golubkov, Yu. A.; Khein, L. A.; Korotkova, N. A.; Korzhavina, I. A.; Kuzmin, V. A.; Lukina, O. Yu.; Proskuryakov, A. S.; Shcheglova, L. M.; Solomin, A. N.; Zotkin, S. A.; Bokel, C.; Botje, M.; Brümmer, N.; Chlebana, F.; Engelen, J.; Koffeman, E.; Kooijman, P.; van Sighem, A.; Tiecke, H.; Tuning, N.; Verkerke, W.; Vossebeld, J.; Vreeswijk, M.; Wiggers, L.; de Wolf, E.; Acosta, D.; Bylsma, B.; Durkin, L. S.; Gilmore, J.; Ginsburg, C. M.; Kim, C. L.; Ling, T. Y.; Nylander, P.; Romanowski, T. A.; Blaikley, H. E.; Cashmore, R. J.; Cooper-Sarkar, A. M.; Devenish, R. C. E.; Edmonds, J. K.; Große-Knetter, J.; Harnew, N.; Nath, C.; Noyes, V. A.; Quadt, A.; Ruske, O.; Tickner, J. R.; Uijterwaal, H.; Walczak, R.; Waters, D. S.; Bertolin, A.; Brugnera, R.; Carlin, R.; dal Corso, F.; Dosselli, U.; Limentani, S.; Morandin, M.; Posocco, M.; Stanco, L.; Stroili, R.; Voci, C.; Bulmahn, J.; Oh, B. Y.; Okrasiń Ski, J. R.; Toothacker, W. S.; Whitmore, J. J.; Iga, Y.; D'Agostini, G.; Marini, G.; Nigro, A.; Raso, M.; Hart, J. C.; McCubbin, N. A.; Shah, T. P.; Epperson, D.; Heusch, C.; Rahn, J. T.; Sadrozinski, H. F.-W.; Seiden, A.; Wichmann, R.; Williams, D. C.; Schwarzer, O.; Walenta, A. H.; Abramowicz, H.; Briskin, G.; Dagan, S.; Kananov, S.; Levy, A.; Abe, T.; Fusayasu, T.; Inuzuka, M.; Nagano, K.; Umemori, K.; Yamashita, T.; Hamatsu, R.; Hirose, T.; Homma, K.; Kitamura, S.; Matsushita, T.; Cirio, R.; Costa, M.; Ferrero, M. I.; Maselli, S.; Monaco, V.; Peroni, C.; Petrucci, M. C.; Ruspa, M.; Sacchi, R.; Solano, A.; Staiano, A.; Dardo, M.; Bailey, D. C.; Fagerstroem, C.-P.; Galea, R.; Hartner, G. F.; Joo, K. K.; Levman, G. M.; Martin, J. F.; Orr, R. S.; Polenz, S.; Sabetfakhri, A.; Simmons, D.; Teuscher, R. J.; Butterworth, J. M.; Catterall, C. D.; Jones, T. W.; Lane, J. B.; Saunders, R. L.; Sutton, M. R.; Wing, M.; Ciborowski, J.; Grzelak, G.; Kasprzak, M.; Muchorowski, K.; Nowak, R. J.; Pawlak, J. M.; Pawlak, R.; Tymieniecka, T.; Wróblewski, A. K.; Zakrzewski, J. A.; Adamus, M.; Coldewey, C.; Eisenberg, Y.; Hochman, D.; Karshon, U.; Badgett, W. F.; Chapin, D.; Cross, R.; Dasu, S.; Foudas, C.; Loveless, R. J.; Mattingly, S.; Reeder, D. D.; Smith, W. H.; Vaiciulis, A.; Wodarczyk, M.; Deshpande, A.; Dhawan, S.; Hughes, V. W.; Bhadra, S.; Frisken, W. R.; Khakzad, M.; Schmidke, W. B.

1998-03-01

A global event shape analysis of the multihadronic final states observed in neutral current deep inelastic scattering events with a large rapidity gap with respect to the proton direction is presented. The analysis is performed in the range 5<=Q2<=185 GeV2 and 160<=W<=250 GeV, where Q2 is the virtuality of the photon and W is the virtual-photon proton centre of mass energy. Particular emphasis is placed on the dependence of the shape variables, measured in the γ*-pomeron rest frame, on the mass of the hadronic final state, MX. With increasing MX the multihadronic final state becomes more collimated and planar. The experimental results are compared with several models which attempt to describe diffractive events. The broadening effects exhibited by the data require in these models a significant gluon component of the pomeron.

Finite-key analysis for the 1-decoy state QKD protocol

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rusca, Davide; Boaron, Alberto; Grünenfelder, Fadri; Martin, Anthony; Zbinden, Hugo

2018-04-01

It has been shown that in the asymptotic case of infinite-key length, the 2-decoy state Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) protocol outperforms the 1-decoy state protocol. Here, we present a finite-key analysis of the 1-decoy method. Interestingly, we find that for practical block sizes of up to 108 bits, the 1-decoy protocol achieves for almost all experimental settings higher secret key rates than the 2-decoy protocol. Since using only one decoy is also easier to implement, we conclude that it is the best choice for QKD, in most common practical scenarios.

Materials Analysis: A Key to Unlocking the Mystery of the Columbia Tragedy

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Mayeaux, Brian M.; Collins, Thomas E.; Piascik, Robert S.; Russel, Richard W.; Jerman, Gregory A.; Shah, Sandeep R.; McDanels, Steven J.

2004-01-01

Materials analyses of key forensic evidence helped unlock the mystery of the loss of space shuttle Columbia that disintegrated February 1, 2003 while returning from a 16-day research mission. Following an intensive four-month recovery effort by federal, state, and local emergency management and law officials, Columbia debris was collected, catalogued, and reassembled at the Kennedy Space Center. Engineers and scientists from the Materials and Processes (M&P) team formed by NASA supported Columbia reconstruction efforts, provided factual data through analysis, and conducted experiments to validate the root cause of the accident. Fracture surfaces and thermal effects of selected airframe debris were assessed, and process flows for both nondestructive and destructive sampling and evaluation of debris were developed. The team also assessed left hand (LH) airframe components that were believed to be associated with a structural breach of Columbia. Analytical data collected by the M&P team showed that a significant thermal event occurred at the left wing leading edge in the proximity of LH reinforced carbon carbon (RCC) panels 8 and 9. The analysis also showed exposure to temperatures in excess of 1,649 C, which would severely degrade the support structure, tiles, and RCC panel materials. The integrated failure analysis of wing leading edge debris and deposits strongly supported the hypothesis that a breach occurred at LH RCC panel 8.

Combining conversation analysis and event sequencing to study health communication.

PubMed

Pecanac, Kristen E

2018-06-01

Good communication is essential in patient-centered care. The purpose of this paper is to describe conversation analysis and event sequencing and explain how integrating these methods strengthened the analysis in a study of communication between clinicians and surrogate decision makers in an intensive care unit. Conversation analysis was first used to determine how clinicians introduced the need for decision-making regarding life-sustaining treatment and how surrogate decision makers responded. Event sequence analysis then was used to determine the transitional probability (probability of one event leading to another in the interaction) that a given type of clinician introduction would lead to surrogate resistance or alignment. Conversation analysis provides a detailed analysis of the interaction between participants in a conversation. When combined with a quantitative analysis of the patterns of communication in an interaction, these data add information on the communication strategies that produce positive outcomes. Researchers can apply this mixed-methods approach to identify beneficial conversational practices and design interventions to improve health communication. © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Fumonisin exposure in women linked to inhibition of an enzyme that is a key event in farm and laboratory animal diseases.

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Fumonisin B1 (FB1) is a toxic chemical produced by molds. The molds that produce fumonisin are common in corn. Consumption of contaminated corn by farm animals has been shown to be the cause of animal disease. The proximate cause (key event) in the induction of diseases in animals is inhibition of t...

Passage Key Inlet, Florida; CMS Modeling and Borrow Site Impact Analysis

DTIC Science & Technology

2016-06-01

Impact Analysis by Kelly R. Legault and Sirisha Rayaprolu PURPOSE: This Coastal and Hydraulics Engineering Technical Note (CHETN) describes the...use of a nested Coastal Modeling System (CMS) model for Passage Key Inlet, which is one of the connections between the Gulf of Mexico and Tampa Bay...driven sediment transport at Passage Key Inlet. This analysis resulted in issuing a new Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) permit to

Video analysis of motor events in REM sleep behavior disorder.

PubMed

Frauscher, Birgit; Gschliesser, Viola; Brandauer, Elisabeth; Ulmer, Hanno; Peralta, Cecilia M; Müller, Jörg; Poewe, Werner; Högl, Birgit

2007-07-30

In REM sleep behavior disorder (RBD), several studies focused on electromyographic characterization of motor activity, whereas video analysis has remained more general. The aim of this study was to undertake a detailed and systematic video analysis. Nine polysomnographic records from 5 Parkinson patients with RBD were analyzed and compared with sex- and age-matched controls. Each motor event in the video during REM sleep was classified according to duration, type of movement, and topographical distribution. In RBD, a mean of 54 +/- 23.2 events/10 minutes of REM sleep (total 1392) were identified and visually analyzed. Seventy-five percent of all motor events lasted <2 seconds. Of these events, 1,155 (83.0%) were classified as elementary, 188 (13.5%) as complex behaviors, 50 (3.6%) as violent, and 146 (10.5%) as vocalizations. In the control group, 3.6 +/- 2.3 events/10 minutes (total 264) of predominantly elementary simple character (n = 240, 90.9%) were identified. Number and types of motor events differed significantly between patients and controls (P < 0.05). This study shows a very high number and great variety of motor events during REM sleep in symptomatic RBD. However, most motor events are minor, and violent episodes represent only a small fraction. Copyright 2007 Movement Disorder Society

Using the DOE Knowledge Base for Special Event Analysis

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

Armstrong, H.M.; Harris, J.M.; Young, C.J.

1998-10-20

The DOE Knowledge Base is a library of detailed information whose purpose is to support the United States National Data Center (USNDC) in its mission to monitor compliance with the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT). One of the important tasks which the USNDC must accomplish is to periodically perform detailed analysis of events of high interest, so-called "Special Events", to provide the national authority with information needed to make policy decisions. In this paper we investigate some possible uses of the Knowledge Base for Special Event Analysis (SEA), and make recommendations for improving Knowledge Base support for SEA. To analyzemore » an event in detail, there are two basic types of data which must be used sensor-derived data (wave- forms, arrivals, events, etc.) and regiohalized contextual data (known sources, geological characteristics, etc.). Cur- rently there is no single package which can provide full access to both types of data, so for our study we use a separate package for each MatSeis, the Sandia Labs-developed MATLAB-based seismic analysis package, for wave- form data analysis, and ArcView, an ESRI product, for contextual data analysis. Both packages are well-suited to pro- totyping because they provide a rich set of currently available functionality and yet are also flexible and easily extensible, . Using these tools and Phase I Knowledge Base data sets, we show how the Knowledge Base can improve both the speed and the quality of SEA. Empirically-derived interpolated correction information can be accessed to improve both location estimates and associated error estimates. This information can in turn be used to identi~ any known nearby sources (e.g. mines, volcanos), which may then trigger specialized processing of the sensor data. Based on the location estimate, preferred magnitude formulas and discriminants can be retrieved, and any known blockages can be identified to prevent miscalculations. Relevant historic events can be identilled

Florbetaben PET in the Early Diagnosis of Alzheimer's Disease: A Discrete Event Simulation to Explore Its Potential Value and Key Data Gaps

PubMed Central

Guo, Shien; Getsios, Denis; Hernandez, Luis; Cho, Kelly; Lawler, Elizabeth; Altincatal, Arman; Lanes, Stephan; Blankenburg, Michael

2012-01-01

The growing understanding of the use of biomarkers in Alzheimer's disease (AD) may enable physicians to make more accurate and timely diagnoses. Florbetaben, a beta-amyloid tracer used with positron emission tomography (PET), is one of these diagnostic biomarkers. This analysis was undertaken to explore the potential value of florbetaben PET in the diagnosis of AD among patients with suspected dementia and to identify key data that are needed to further substantiate its value. A discrete event simulation was developed to conduct exploratory analyses from both US payer and societal perspectives. The model simulates the lifetime course of disease progression for individuals, evaluating the impact of their patient management from initial diagnostic work-up to final diagnosis. Model inputs were obtained from specific analyses of a large longitudinal dataset from the New England Veterans Healthcare System and supplemented with data from public data sources and assumptions. The analyses indicate that florbetaben PET has the potential to improve patient outcomes and reduce costs under certain scenarios. Key data on the use of florbetaben PET, such as its influence on time to confirmation of final diagnosis, treatment uptake, and treatment persistency, are unavailable and would be required to confirm its value. PMID:23326754

Climate Central World Weather Attribution (WWA) project: Real-time extreme weather event attribution analysis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Haustein, Karsten; Otto, Friederike; Uhe, Peter; Allen, Myles; Cullen, Heidi

2015-04-01

Extreme weather detection and attribution analysis has emerged as a core theme in climate science over the last decade or so. By using a combination of observational data and climate models it is possible to identify the role of climate change in certain types of extreme weather events such as sea level rise and its contribution to storm surges, extreme heat events and droughts or heavy rainfall and flood events. These analyses are usually carried out after an extreme event has occurred when reanalysis and observational data become available. The Climate Central WWA project will exploit the increasing forecast skill of seasonal forecast prediction systems such as the UK MetOffice GloSea5 (Global seasonal forecasting system) ensemble forecasting method. This way, the current weather can be fed into climate models to simulate large ensembles of possible weather scenarios before an event has fully emerged yet. This effort runs along parallel and intersecting tracks of science and communications that involve research, message development and testing, staged socialization of attribution science with key audiences, and dissemination. The method we employ uses a very large ensemble of simulations of regional climate models to run two different analyses: one to represent the current climate as it was observed, and one to represent the same events in the world that might have been without human-induced climate change. For the weather "as observed" experiment, the atmospheric model uses observed sea surface temperature (SST) data from GloSea5 (currently) and present-day atmospheric gas concentrations to simulate weather events that are possible given the observed climate conditions. The weather in the "world that might have been" experiments is obtained by removing the anthropogenic forcing from the observed SSTs, thereby simulating a counterfactual world without human activity. The anthropogenic forcing is obtained by comparing the CMIP5 historical and natural simulations

Finite-key analysis for measurement-device-independent quantum key distribution.

PubMed

Curty, Marcos; Xu, Feihu; Cui, Wei; Lim, Charles Ci Wen; Tamaki, Kiyoshi; Lo, Hoi-Kwong

2014-04-29

Quantum key distribution promises unconditionally secure communications. However, as practical devices tend to deviate from their specifications, the security of some practical systems is no longer valid. In particular, an adversary can exploit imperfect detectors to learn a large part of the secret key, even though the security proof claims otherwise. Recently, a practical approach--measurement-device-independent quantum key distribution--has been proposed to solve this problem. However, so far its security has only been fully proven under the assumption that the legitimate users of the system have unlimited resources. Here we fill this gap and provide a rigorous security proof against general attacks in the finite-key regime. This is obtained by applying large deviation theory, specifically the Chernoff bound, to perform parameter estimation. For the first time we demonstrate the feasibility of long-distance implementations of measurement-device-independent quantum key distribution within a reasonable time frame of signal transmission.

ANALYSIS OF INPATIENT HOSPITAL STAFF MENTAL WORKLOAD BY MEANS OF DISCRETE-EVENT SIMULATION

DTIC Science & Technology

2016-03-24

ANALYSIS OF INPATIENT HOSPITAL STAFF MENTAL WORKLOAD BY MEANS OF DISCRETE -EVENT SIMULATION...in the United States. AFIT-ENV-MS-16-M-166 ANALYSIS OF INPATIENT HOSPITAL STAFF MENTAL WORKLOAD BY MEANS OF DISCRETE -EVENT SIMULATION...UNLIMITED. AFIT-ENV-MS-16-M-166 ANALYSIS OF INPATIENT HOSPITAL STAFF MENTAL WORKLOAD BY MEANS OF DISCRETE -EVENT SIMULATION Erich W

Finite key analysis for symmetric attacks in quantum key distribution

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

Meyer, Tim; Kampermann, Hermann; Kleinmann, Matthias

2006-10-15

We introduce a constructive method to calculate the achievable secret key rate for a generic class of quantum key distribution protocols, when only a finite number n of signals is given. Our approach is applicable to all scenarios in which the quantum state shared by Alice and Bob is known. In particular, we consider the six state protocol with symmetric eavesdropping attacks, and show that for a small number of signals, i.e., below n{approx}10{sup 4}, the finite key rate differs significantly from the asymptotic value for n{yields}{infinity}. However, for larger n, a good approximation of the asymptotic value is found.more » We also study secret key rates for protocols using higher-dimensional quantum systems.« less

Regression analysis of mixed recurrent-event and panel-count data

PubMed Central

Zhu, Liang; Tong, Xinwei; Sun, Jianguo; Chen, Manhua; Srivastava, Deo Kumar; Leisenring, Wendy; Robison, Leslie L.

2014-01-01

In event history studies concerning recurrent events, two types of data have been extensively discussed. One is recurrent-event data (Cook and Lawless, 2007. The Analysis of Recurrent Event Data. New York: Springer), and the other is panel-count data (Zhao and others, 2010. Nonparametric inference based on panel-count data. Test 20, 1–42). In the former case, all study subjects are monitored continuously; thus, complete information is available for the underlying recurrent-event processes of interest. In the latter case, study subjects are monitored periodically; thus, only incomplete information is available for the processes of interest. In reality, however, a third type of data could occur in which some study subjects are monitored continuously, but others are monitored periodically. When this occurs, we have mixed recurrent-event and panel-count data. This paper discusses regression analysis of such mixed data and presents two estimation procedures for the problem. One is a maximum likelihood estimation procedure, and the other is an estimating equation procedure. The asymptotic properties of both resulting estimators of regression parameters are established. Also, the methods are applied to a set of mixed recurrent-event and panel-count data that arose from a Childhood Cancer Survivor Study and motivated this investigation. PMID:24648408

Event time analysis of longitudinal neuroimage data.

PubMed

Sabuncu, Mert R; Bernal-Rusiel, Jorge L; Reuter, Martin; Greve, Douglas N; Fischl, Bruce

2014-08-15

This paper presents a method for the statistical analysis of the associations between longitudinal neuroimaging measurements, e.g., of cortical thickness, and the timing of a clinical event of interest, e.g., disease onset. The proposed approach consists of two steps, the first of which employs a linear mixed effects (LME) model to capture temporal variation in serial imaging data. The second step utilizes the extended Cox regression model to examine the relationship between time-dependent imaging measurements and the timing of the event of interest. We demonstrate the proposed method both for the univariate analysis of image-derived biomarkers, e.g., the volume of a structure of interest, and the exploratory mass-univariate analysis of measurements contained in maps, such as cortical thickness and gray matter density. The mass-univariate method employs a recently developed spatial extension of the LME model. We applied our method to analyze structural measurements computed using FreeSurfer, a widely used brain Magnetic Resonance Image (MRI) analysis software package. We provide a quantitative and objective empirical evaluation of the statistical performance of the proposed method on longitudinal data from subjects suffering from Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) at baseline. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Reaching Out: A Break from Traditional Forensic Events. "On Interpretation Analysis."

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Seney, Ronald J.

In recent years a new event called "Interpretation Analysis" has appeared at certain forensic events. The objective is for the student, through analysis and performance, to study a piece of literature and to communicate his or her understanding of that literature to a specific audience. Perhaps there is room within the established…

An analysis of the 2016 Hitomi breakup event

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Flegel, Sven; Bennett, James; Lachut, Michael; Möckel, Marek; Smith, Craig

2017-04-01

The breakup of Hitomi (ASTRO-H) on 26 March 2016 is analysed. Debris from the fragmentation is used to estimate the time of the event by propagating backwards and estimating the close approach with the parent object. Based on this method, the breakup event is predicted to have occurred at approximately 01:42 UTC on 26 March 2016. The Gaussian variation of parameters equations based on the instantaneous orbits at the predicted time of the event are solved to gain additional insight into the on-orbit position of Hitomi at the time of the event and to test an alternate approach of determining the event epoch and location. A conjunction analysis is carried out between Hitomi and all catalogued objects which were in orbit around the estimated time of the anomaly. Several debris objects have close approaches with Hitomi; however, there is no evidence to support the breakup was caused by a catalogued object. Debris from both of the largest fragmentation events—the Iridium 33-Cosmos 2251 conjunction in 2009 and the intentional destruction of Fengyun 1C in 2007—is involved in close approaches with Hitomi indicating the persistent threat these events have caused in subsequent space missions. To quantify the magnitude of a potential conjunction, the fragmentation resulting from a collision with the debris is modelled using the EVOLVE-4 breakup model. The debris characteristics are estimated from two-line element data. This analysis is indicative of the threat to space assets that mission planners face due to the growing debris population. The impact of the actual event to the environment is investigated based on the debris associated with Hitomi which is currently contained in the United States Strategic Command's catalogue. A look at the active missions in the orbital vicinity of Hitomi reveals that the Hubble Space Telescope is among the spacecraft which may be immediately affected by the new debris.[Figure not available: see fulltext.

Civil protection and Damaging Hydrogeological Events: comparative analysis of the 2000 and 2015 events in Calabria (southern Italy)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Petrucci, Olga; Caloiero, Tommaso; Aurora Pasqua, Angela; Perrotta, Piero; Russo, Luigi; Tansi, Carlo

2017-11-01

Calabria (southern Italy) is a flood prone region, due to both its rough orography and fast hydrologic response of most watersheds. During the rainy season, intense rain affects the region, triggering floods and mass movements that cause economic damage and fatalities. This work presents a methodological approach to perform the comparative analysis of two events affecting the same area at a distance of 15 years, by collecting all the qualitative and quantitative features useful to describe both rain and damage. The aim is to understand if similar meteorological events affecting the same area can have different outcomes in terms of damage. The first event occurred between 8 and 10 September 2000, damaged 109 out of 409 municipalities of the region and killed 13 people in a campsite due to a flood. The second event, which occurred between 30 October and 1 November 2015, damaged 79 municipalities, and killed a man due to a flood. The comparative analysis highlights that, despite the exceptionality of triggering daily rain was higher in the 2015 event, the damage caused by the 2000 event to both infrastructures and belongings was higher, and it was strongly increased due to the 13 flood victims. We concluded that, in the 2015 event, the management of pre-event phases, with the issuing of meteorological alert, and the emergency management, with the preventive evacuation of people in hazardous situations due to landslides or floods, contributed to reduce the number of victims.

Regression analysis of mixed recurrent-event and panel-count data.

PubMed

Zhu, Liang; Tong, Xinwei; Sun, Jianguo; Chen, Manhua; Srivastava, Deo Kumar; Leisenring, Wendy; Robison, Leslie L

2014-07-01

In event history studies concerning recurrent events, two types of data have been extensively discussed. One is recurrent-event data (Cook and Lawless, 2007. The Analysis of Recurrent Event Data. New York: Springer), and the other is panel-count data (Zhao and others, 2010. Nonparametric inference based on panel-count data. Test 20: , 1-42). In the former case, all study subjects are monitored continuously; thus, complete information is available for the underlying recurrent-event processes of interest. In the latter case, study subjects are monitored periodically; thus, only incomplete information is available for the processes of interest. In reality, however, a third type of data could occur in which some study subjects are monitored continuously, but others are monitored periodically. When this occurs, we have mixed recurrent-event and panel-count data. This paper discusses regression analysis of such mixed data and presents two estimation procedures for the problem. One is a maximum likelihood estimation procedure, and the other is an estimating equation procedure. The asymptotic properties of both resulting estimators of regression parameters are established. Also, the methods are applied to a set of mixed recurrent-event and panel-count data that arose from a Childhood Cancer Survivor Study and motivated this investigation. © The Author 2014. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Root Cause Analysis: Learning from Adverse Safety Events.

PubMed

Brook, Olga R; Kruskal, Jonathan B; Eisenberg, Ronald L; Larson, David B

2015-10-01

Serious adverse events continue to occur in clinical practice, despite our best preventive efforts. It is essential that radiologists, both as individuals and as a part of organizations, learn from such events and make appropriate changes to decrease the likelihood that such events will recur. Root cause analysis (RCA) is a process to (a) identify factors that underlie variation in performance or that predispose an event toward undesired outcomes and (b) allow for development of effective strategies to decrease the likelihood of similar adverse events occurring in the future. An RCA process should be performed within the environment of a culture of safety, focusing on underlying system contributors and, in a confidential manner, taking into account the emotional effects on the staff involved. The Joint Commission now requires that a credible RCA be performed within 45 days for all sentinel or major adverse events, emphasizing the need for all radiologists to understand the processes with which an effective RCA can be performed. Several RCA-related tools that have been found to be useful in the radiology setting include the "five whys" approach to determine causation; cause-and-effect, or Ishikawa, diagrams; causal tree mapping; affinity diagrams; and Pareto charts. © RSNA, 2015.

14 CFR 437.59 - Key flight-safety event limitations.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-01-01

... suborbital rocket's instantaneous impact point, including its expected dispersion, is over an unpopulated or... rocket engine, (2) Any staging event, or (3) Any envelope expansion. (b) A permittee must conduct each reusable suborbital rocket flight so that the reentry impact point does not loiter over a populated area. ...

14 CFR 437.59 - Key flight-safety event limitations.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-01-01

... suborbital rocket's instantaneous impact point, including its expected dispersion, is over an unpopulated or... rocket engine, (2) Any staging event, or (3) Any envelope expansion. (b) A permittee must conduct each reusable suborbital rocket flight so that the reentry impact point does not loiter over a populated area. ...

14 CFR 437.59 - Key flight-safety event limitations.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-01-01

... suborbital rocket's instantaneous impact point, including its expected dispersion, is over an unpopulated or... rocket engine, (2) Any staging event, or (3) Any envelope expansion. (b) A permittee must conduct each reusable suborbital rocket flight so that the reentry impact point does not loiter over a populated area. ...

14 CFR 437.59 - Key flight-safety event limitations.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-01-01

... suborbital rocket's instantaneous impact point, including its expected dispersion, is over an unpopulated or... rocket engine, (2) Any staging event, or (3) Any envelope expansion. (b) A permittee must conduct each reusable suborbital rocket flight so that the reentry impact point does not loiter over a populated area. ...

14 CFR 437.59 - Key flight-safety event limitations.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

... suborbital rocket's instantaneous impact point, including its expected dispersion, is over an unpopulated or... rocket engine, (2) Any staging event, or (3) Any envelope expansion. (b) A permittee must conduct each reusable suborbital rocket flight so that the reentry impact point does not loiter over a populated area. ...

Meta-analysis: Association between hypoglycaemia and serious adverse events in older patients.

PubMed

Mattishent, Katharina; Loke, Yoon Kong

2016-07-01

We aimed to conduct a meta-analysis of serious adverse events (macro- and microvascular events, falls and fractures, death) associated with hypoglycaemia in older patients. We searched MEDLINE and EMBASE spanning a ten-year period up to March 2015 (with automated PubMed updates to October 2015). We selected observational studies reporting on hypoglycaemia and associated serious adverse events, and conducted a meta-analysis. We assessed study validity based on ascertainment of hypoglycaemia, adverse events and adjustment for confounders. We included 17 studies involving 1.86 million participants. Meta-analysis of eight studies demonstrated that hypoglycemic episodes were associated with macrovascular complications, odds ratio (OR) 1.83 (95% confidence interval [CI] 1.64, 2.05), and microvascular complications in two studies OR 1.77 (95% CI 1.49, 2.10). Meta-analysis of four studies demonstrated an association between hypoglycaemia and falls or fractures, OR 1.89 (95% CI 1.54, 2.32) and 1.92 (95% CI 1.56, 2.38) respectively. Hypoglycaemia was associated with increased likelihood of death in a meta-analysis of eight studies, OR 2.04 (95% Confidence Interval 1.68, 2.47). Our meta-analysis raises major concerns about a range of serious adverse events associated with hypoglycaemia. Clinicians should prioritize individualized therapy and closer monitoring strategies to avoid hypoglycaemia in susceptible older patients. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Performance Analysis: Work Control Events Identified January - August 2010

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

De Grange, C E; Freeman, J W; Kerr, C E

2011-01-14

This performance analysis evaluated 24 events that occurred at LLNL from January through August 2010. The analysis identified areas of potential work control process and/or implementation weaknesses and several common underlying causes. Human performance improvement and safety culture factors were part of the causal analysis of each event and were analyzed. The collective significance of all events in 2010, as measured by the occurrence reporting significance category and by the proportion of events that have been reported to the DOE ORPS under the ''management concerns'' reporting criteria, does not appear to have increased in 2010. The frequency of reporting inmore » each of the significance categories has not changed in 2010 compared to the previous four years. There is no change indicating a trend in the significance category and there has been no increase in the proportion of occurrences reported in the higher significance category. Also, the frequency of events, 42 events reported through August 2010, is not greater than in previous years and is below the average of 63 occurrences per year at LLNL since 2006. Over the previous four years, an average of 43% of the LLNL's reported occurrences have been reported as either ''management concerns'' or ''near misses.'' In 2010, 29% of the occurrences have been reported as ''management concerns'' or ''near misses.'' This rate indicates that LLNL is now reporting fewer ''management concern'' and ''near miss'' occurrences compared to the previous four years. From 2008 to the present, LLNL senior management has undertaken a series of initiatives to strengthen the work planning and control system with the primary objective to improve worker safety. In 2008, the LLNL Deputy Director established the Work Control Integrated Project Team to develop the core requirements and graded elements of an institutional work planning and control system. By the end of that year this system was documented and implementation had begun

An analysis of post-event processing in social anxiety disorder.

PubMed

Brozovich, Faith; Heimberg, Richard G

2008-07-01

Research has demonstrated that self-focused thoughts and negative affect have a reciprocal relationship [Mor, N., Winquist, J. (2002). Self-focused attention and negative affect: A meta-analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 128, 638-662]. In the anxiety disorder literature, post-event processing has emerged as a specific construction of repetitive self-focused thoughts that pertain to social anxiety disorder. Post-event processing can be defined as an individual's repeated consideration and potential reconstruction of his performance following a social situation. Post-event processing can also occur when an individual anticipates a social or performance event and begins to brood about other, past social experiences. The present review examined the post-event processing literature in an attempt to organize and highlight the significant results. The methodologies employed to study post-event processing have included self-report measures, daily diaries, social or performance situations created in the laboratory, and experimental manipulations of post-event processing or anticipation of an upcoming event. Directions for future research on post-event processing are discussed.

Empirical Analysis of Optical Attenuator Performance in Quantum Key Distribution Systems Using a Particle Model

DTIC Science & Technology

2012-03-01

EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS OF OPTICAL ATTENUATOR PERFORMANCE IN QUANTUM KEY DISTRIBUTION SYSTEMS USING A...DISTRIBUTION IS UNLIMITED AFIT/GCS/ENG/12-01 EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS OF OPTICAL ATTENUATOR PERFORMANCE IN QUANTUM KEY DISTRIBUTION SYSTEMS USING ...challenging as the complexity of actual implementation specifics are considered. Two components common to most quantum key distribution

Identification of key regulators of pancreatic cancer progression through multidimensional systems-level analysis.

PubMed

Rajamani, Deepa; Bhasin, Manoj K

2016-05-03

Pancreatic cancer is an aggressive cancer with dismal prognosis, urgently necessitating better biomarkers to improve therapeutic options and early diagnosis. Traditional approaches of biomarker detection that consider only one aspect of the biological continuum like gene expression alone are limited in their scope and lack robustness in identifying the key regulators of the disease. We have adopted a multidimensional approach involving the cross-talk between the omics spaces to identify key regulators of disease progression. Multidimensional domain-specific disease signatures were obtained using rank-based meta-analysis of individual omics profiles (mRNA, miRNA, DNA methylation) related to pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC). These domain-specific PDAC signatures were integrated to identify genes that were affected across multiple dimensions of omics space in PDAC (genes under multiple regulatory controls, GMCs). To further pin down the regulators of PDAC pathophysiology, a systems-level network was generated from knowledge-based interaction information applied to the above identified GMCs. Key regulators were identified from the GMC network based on network statistics and their functional importance was validated using gene set enrichment analysis and survival analysis. Rank-based meta-analysis identified 5391 genes, 109 miRNAs and 2081 methylation-sites significantly differentially expressed in PDAC (false discovery rate ≤ 0.05). Bimodal integration of meta-analysis signatures revealed 1150 and 715 genes regulated by miRNAs and methylation, respectively. Further analysis identified 189 altered genes that are commonly regulated by miRNA and methylation, hence considered GMCs. Systems-level analysis of the scale-free GMCs network identified eight potential key regulator hubs, namely E2F3, HMGA2, RASA1, IRS1, NUAK1, ACTN1, SKI and DLL1, associated with important pathways driving cancer progression. Survival analysis on individual key regulators revealed

Integrating natural language processing expertise with patient safety event review committees to improve the analysis of medication events.

PubMed

Fong, Allan; Harriott, Nicole; Walters, Donna M; Foley, Hanan; Morrissey, Richard; Ratwani, Raj R

2017-08-01

Many healthcare providers have implemented patient safety event reporting systems to better understand and improve patient safety. Reviewing and analyzing these reports is often time consuming and resource intensive because of both the quantity of reports and length of free-text descriptions in the reports. Natural language processing (NLP) experts collaborated with clinical experts on a patient safety committee to assist in the identification and analysis of medication related patient safety events. Different NLP algorithmic approaches were developed to identify four types of medication related patient safety events and the models were compared. Well performing NLP models were generated to categorize medication related events into pharmacy delivery delays, dispensing errors, Pyxis discrepancies, and prescriber errors with receiver operating characteristic areas under the curve of 0.96, 0.87, 0.96, and 0.81 respectively. We also found that modeling the brief without the resolution text generally improved model performance. These models were integrated into a dashboard visualization to support the patient safety committee review process. We demonstrate the capabilities of various NLP models and the use of two text inclusion strategies at categorizing medication related patient safety events. The NLP models and visualization could be used to improve the efficiency of patient safety event data review and analysis. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Radionuclide data analysis in connection of DPRK event in May 2009

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nikkinen, Mika; Becker, Andreas; Zähringer, Matthias; Polphong, Pornsri; Pires, Carla; Assef, Thierry; Han, Dongmei

2010-05-01

The seismic event detected in DPRK on 25.5.2009 was triggering a series of actions within CTBTO/PTS to ensure its preparedness to detect any radionuclide emissions possibly linked with the event. Despite meticulous work to detect and verify, traces linked to the DPRK event were not found. After three weeks of high alert the PTS resumed back to normal operational routine. This case illuminates the importance of objectivity and procedural approach in the data evaluation. All the data coming from particulate and noble gas stations were evaluated daily, some of the samples even outside of office hours and during the weekends. Standard procedures were used to determine the network detection thresholds of the key (CTBT relevant) radionuclides achieved across the DPRK event area and for the assessment of radionuclides typically occurring at IMS stations (background history). Noble gas system has sometimes detections that are typical for the sites due to legitimate non-nuclear test related activities. Therefore, set of hypothesis were used to see if the detection is consistent with event time and location through atmospheric transport modelling. Also the consistency of event timing and isotopic ratios was used in the evaluation work. As a result it was concluded that if even 1/1000 of noble gasses from a nuclear detonation would had leaked, the IMS system would not had problems to detect it. This case also showed the importance of on-site inspections to verify the nuclear traces of possible tests.

Regression Analysis of Mixed Panel Count Data with Dependent Terminal Events

PubMed Central

Yu, Guanglei; Zhu, Liang; Li, Yang; Sun, Jianguo; Robison, Leslie L.

2017-01-01

Event history studies are commonly conducted in many fields and a great deal of literature has been established for the analysis of the two types of data commonly arising from these studies: recurrent event data and panel count data. The former arises if all study subjects are followed continuously, while the latter means that each study subject is observed only at discrete time points. In reality, a third type of data, a mixture of the two types of the data above, may occur and furthermore, as with the first two types of the data, there may exist a dependent terminal event, which may preclude the occurrences of recurrent events of interest. This paper discusses regression analysis of mixed recurrent event and panel count data in the presence of a terminal event and an estimating equation-based approach is proposed for estimation of regression parameters of interest. In addition, the asymptotic properties of the proposed estimator are established and a simulation study conducted to assess the finite-sample performance of the proposed method suggests that it works well in practical situations. Finally the methodology is applied to a childhood cancer study that motivated this study. PMID:28098397

Re-Evaluation of Event Correlations in Virtual California Using Statistical Analysis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Glasscoe, M. T.; Heflin, M. B.; Granat, R. A.; Yikilmaz, M. B.; Heien, E.; Rundle, J.; Donnellan, A.

2010-12-01

Fusing the results of simulation tools with statistical analysis methods has contributed to our better understanding of the earthquake process. In a previous study, we used a statistical method to investigate emergent phenomena in data produced by the Virtual California earthquake simulator. The analysis indicated that there were some interesting fault interactions and possible triggering and quiescence relationships between events. We have converted the original code from Matlab to python/C++ and are now evaluating data from the most recent version of Virtual California in order to analyze and compare any new behavior exhibited by the model. The Virtual California earthquake simulator can be used to study fault and stress interaction scenarios for realistic California earthquakes. The simulation generates a synthetic earthquake catalog of events with a minimum size of ~M 5.8 that can be evaluated using statistical analysis methods. Virtual California utilizes realistic fault geometries and a simple Amontons - Coulomb stick and slip friction law in order to drive the earthquake process by means of a back-slip model where loading of each segment occurs due to the accumulation of a slip deficit at the prescribed slip rate of the segment. Like any complex system, Virtual California may generate emergent phenomena unexpected even by its designers. In order to investigate this, we have developed a statistical method that analyzes the interaction between Virtual California fault elements and thereby determine whether events on any given fault elements show correlated behavior. Our method examines events on one fault element and then determines whether there is an associated event within a specified time window on a second fault element. Note that an event in our analysis is defined as any time an element slips, rather than any particular “earthquake” along the entire fault length. Results are then tabulated and then differenced with an expected correlation

Biological event composition

PubMed Central

2012-01-01

Background In recent years, biological event extraction has emerged as a key natural language processing task, aiming to address the information overload problem in accessing the molecular biology literature. The BioNLP shared task competitions have contributed to this recent interest considerably. The first competition (BioNLP'09) focused on extracting biological events from Medline abstracts from a narrow domain, while the theme of the latest competition (BioNLP-ST'11) was generalization and a wider range of text types, event types, and subject domains were considered. We view event extraction as a building block in larger discourse interpretation and propose a two-phase, linguistically-grounded, rule-based methodology. In the first phase, a general, underspecified semantic interpretation is composed from syntactic dependency relations in a bottom-up manner. The notion of embedding underpins this phase and it is informed by a trigger dictionary and argument identification rules. Coreference resolution is also performed at this step, allowing extraction of inter-sentential relations. The second phase is concerned with constraining the resulting semantic interpretation by shared task specifications. We evaluated our general methodology on core biological event extraction and speculation/negation tasks in three main tracks of BioNLP-ST'11 (GENIA, EPI, and ID). Results We achieved competitive results in GENIA and ID tracks, while our results in the EPI track leave room for improvement. One notable feature of our system is that its performance across abstracts and articles bodies is stable. Coreference resolution results in minor improvement in system performance. Due to our interest in discourse-level elements, such as speculation/negation and coreference, we provide a more detailed analysis of our system performance in these subtasks. Conclusions The results demonstrate the viability of a robust, linguistically-oriented methodology, which clearly distinguishes

Finite-size analysis of a continuous-variable quantum key distribution

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

Leverrier, Anthony; Grosshans, Frederic; Grangier, Philippe

2010-06-15

The goal of this paper is to extend the framework of finite-size analysis recently developed for quantum key distribution to continuous-variable protocols. We do not solve this problem completely here, and we mainly consider the finite-size effects on the parameter estimation procedure. Despite the fact that some questions are left open, we are able to give an estimation of the secret key rate for protocols which do not contain a postselection procedure. As expected, these results are significantly more pessimistic than those obtained in the asymptotic regime. However, we show that recent continuous-variable protocols are able to provide fully securemore » secret keys in the finite-size scenario, over distances larger than 50 km.« less

Detection and analysis of microseismic events using a Matched Filtering Algorithm (MFA)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Caffagni, Enrico; Eaton, David W.; Jones, Joshua P.; van der Baan, Mirko

2016-07-01

A new Matched Filtering Algorithm (MFA) is proposed for detecting and analysing microseismic events recorded by downhole monitoring of hydraulic fracturing. This method requires a set of well-located template (`parent') events, which are obtained using conventional microseismic processing and selected on the basis of high signal-to-noise (S/N) ratio and representative spatial distribution of the recorded microseismicity. Detection and extraction of `child' events are based on stacked, multichannel cross-correlation of the continuous waveform data, using the parent events as reference signals. The location of a child event relative to its parent is determined using an automated process, by rotation of the multicomponent waveforms into the ray-centred co-ordinates of the parent and maximizing the energy of the stacked amplitude envelope within a search volume around the parent's hypocentre. After correction for geometrical spreading and attenuation, the relative magnitude of the child event is obtained automatically using the ratio of stacked envelope peak with respect to its parent. Since only a small number of parent events require interactive analysis such as picking P- and S-wave arrivals, the MFA approach offers the potential for significant reduction in effort for downhole microseismic processing. Our algorithm also facilitates the analysis of single-phase child events, that is, microseismic events for which only one of the S- or P-wave arrivals is evident due to unfavourable S/N conditions. A real-data example using microseismic monitoring data from four stages of an open-hole slickwater hydraulic fracture treatment in western Canada demonstrates that a sparse set of parents (in this case, 4.6 per cent of the originally located events) yields a significant (more than fourfold increase) in the number of located events compared with the original catalogue. Moreover, analysis of the new MFA catalogue suggests that this approach leads to more robust interpretation

Analysis of counterfactual quantum key distribution using error-correcting theory

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Li, Yan-Bing

2014-10-01

Counterfactual quantum key distribution is an interesting direction in quantum cryptography and has been realized by some researchers. However, it has been pointed that its insecure in information theory when it is used over a high lossy channel. In this paper, we retry its security from a error-correcting theory point of view. The analysis indicates that the security flaw comes from the reason that the error rate in the users' raw key pair is as high as that under the Eve's attack when the loss rate exceeds 50 %.

External events analysis for the Savannah River Site K reactor

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

Brandyberry, M.D.; Wingo, H.E.

1990-01-01

The probabilistic external events analysis performed for the Savannah River Site K-reactor PRA considered many different events which are generally perceived to be external'' to the reactor and its systems, such as fires, floods, seismic events, and transportation accidents (as well as many others). Events which have been shown to be significant contributors to risk include seismic events, tornados, a crane failure scenario, fires and dam failures. The total contribution to the core melt frequency from external initiators has been found to be 2.2 {times} 10{sup {minus}4} per year, from which seismic events are the major contributor (1.2 {times} 10{supmore » {minus}4} per year). Fire initiated events contribute 1.4 {times} 10{sup {minus}7} per year, tornados 5.8 {times} 10{sup {minus}7} per year, dam failures 1.5 {times} 10{sup {minus}6} per year and the crane failure scenario less than 10{sup {minus}4} per year to the core melt frequency. 8 refs., 3 figs., 5 tabs.« less

Regression analysis of mixed panel count data with dependent terminal events.

PubMed

Yu, Guanglei; Zhu, Liang; Li, Yang; Sun, Jianguo; Robison, Leslie L

2017-05-10

Event history studies are commonly conducted in many fields, and a great deal of literature has been established for the analysis of the two types of data commonly arising from these studies: recurrent event data and panel count data. The former arises if all study subjects are followed continuously, while the latter means that each study subject is observed only at discrete time points. In reality, a third type of data, a mixture of the two types of the data earlier, may occur and furthermore, as with the first two types of the data, there may exist a dependent terminal event, which may preclude the occurrences of recurrent events of interest. This paper discusses regression analysis of mixed recurrent event and panel count data in the presence of a terminal event and an estimating equation-based approach is proposed for estimation of regression parameters of interest. In addition, the asymptotic properties of the proposed estimator are established, and a simulation study conducted to assess the finite-sample performance of the proposed method suggests that it works well in practical situations. Finally, the methodology is applied to a childhood cancer study that motivated this study. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

SLAR image interpretation keys for geographic analysis

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Coiner, J. C.

1972-01-01

A means for side-looking airborne radar (SLAR) imagery to become a more widely used data source in geoscience and agriculture is suggested by providing interpretation keys as an easily implemented interpretation model. Interpretation problems faced by the researcher wishing to employ SLAR are specifically described, and the use of various types of image interpretation keys to overcome these problems is suggested. With examples drawn from agriculture and vegetation mapping, direct and associate dichotomous image interpretation keys are discussed and methods of constructing keys are outlined. Initial testing of the keys, key-based automated decision rules, and the role of the keys in an information system for agriculture are developed.

Experimental quantum key distribution with finite-key security analysis for noisy channels.

PubMed

Bacco, Davide; Canale, Matteo; Laurenti, Nicola; Vallone, Giuseppe; Villoresi, Paolo

2013-01-01

In quantum key distribution implementations, each session is typically chosen long enough so that the secret key rate approaches its asymptotic limit. However, this choice may be constrained by the physical scenario, as in the perspective use with satellites, where the passage of one terminal over the other is restricted to a few minutes. Here we demonstrate experimentally the extraction of secure keys leveraging an optimal design of the prepare-and-measure scheme, according to recent finite-key theoretical tight bounds. The experiment is performed in different channel conditions, and assuming two distinct attack models: individual attacks or general quantum attacks. The request on the number of exchanged qubits is then obtained as a function of the key size and of the ambient quantum bit error rate. The results indicate that viable conditions for effective symmetric, and even one-time-pad, cryptography are achievable.

Arenal-type pyroclastic flows: A probabilistic event tree risk analysis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Meloy, Anthony F.

2006-09-01

A quantitative hazard-specific scenario-modelling risk analysis is performed at Arenal volcano, Costa Rica for the newly recognised Arenal-type pyroclastic flow (ATPF) phenomenon using an event tree framework. These flows are generated by the sudden depressurisation and fragmentation of an active basaltic andesite lava pool as a result of a partial collapse of the crater wall. The deposits of this type of flow include angular blocks and juvenile clasts, which are rarely found in other types of pyroclastic flow. An event tree analysis (ETA) is a useful tool and framework in which to analyse and graphically present the probabilities of the occurrence of many possible events in a complex system. Four event trees are created in the analysis, three of which are extended to investigate the varying individual risk faced by three generic representatives of the surrounding community: a resident, a worker, and a tourist. The raw numerical risk estimates determined by the ETA are converted into a set of linguistic expressions (i.e. VERY HIGH, HIGH, MODERATE etc.) using an established risk classification scale. Three individually tailored semi-quantitative risk maps are then created from a set of risk conversion tables to show how the risk varies for each individual in different areas around the volcano. In some cases, by relocating from the north to the south, the level of risk can be reduced by up to three classes. While the individual risk maps may be broadly applicable, and therefore of interest to the general community, the risk maps and associated probability values generated in the ETA are intended to be used by trained professionals and government agencies to evaluate the risk and effectively manage the long-term development of infrastructure and habitation. With the addition of fresh monitoring data, the combination of both long- and short-term event trees would provide a comprehensive and consistent method of risk analysis (both during and pre-crisis), and as such

An Event Restriction Interval Theory of Tense

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Beamer, Brandon Robert

2012-01-01

This dissertation presents a novel theory of tense and tense-like constructions. It is named after a key theoretical component of the theory, the event restriction interval. In Event Restriction Interval (ERI) Theory, sentences are semantically evaluated relative to an index which contains two key intervals, the evaluation interval and the event…

Markov chains and semi-Markov models in time-to-event analysis.

PubMed

Abner, Erin L; Charnigo, Richard J; Kryscio, Richard J

2013-10-25

A variety of statistical methods are available to investigators for analysis of time-to-event data, often referred to as survival analysis. Kaplan-Meier estimation and Cox proportional hazards regression are commonly employed tools but are not appropriate for all studies, particularly in the presence of competing risks and when multiple or recurrent outcomes are of interest. Markov chain models can accommodate censored data, competing risks (informative censoring), multiple outcomes, recurrent outcomes, frailty, and non-constant survival probabilities. Markov chain models, though often overlooked by investigators in time-to-event analysis, have long been used in clinical studies and have widespread application in other fields.

Markov chains and semi-Markov models in time-to-event analysis

PubMed Central

Abner, Erin L.; Charnigo, Richard J.; Kryscio, Richard J.

2014-01-01

A variety of statistical methods are available to investigators for analysis of time-to-event data, often referred to as survival analysis. Kaplan-Meier estimation and Cox proportional hazards regression are commonly employed tools but are not appropriate for all studies, particularly in the presence of competing risks and when multiple or recurrent outcomes are of interest. Markov chain models can accommodate censored data, competing risks (informative censoring), multiple outcomes, recurrent outcomes, frailty, and non-constant survival probabilities. Markov chain models, though often overlooked by investigators in time-to-event analysis, have long been used in clinical studies and have widespread application in other fields. PMID:24818062

Fault and event tree analyses for process systems risk analysis: uncertainty handling formulations.

PubMed

Ferdous, Refaul; Khan, Faisal; Sadiq, Rehan; Amyotte, Paul; Veitch, Brian

2011-01-01

Quantitative risk analysis (QRA) is a systematic approach for evaluating likelihood, consequences, and risk of adverse events. QRA based on event (ETA) and fault tree analyses (FTA) employs two basic assumptions. The first assumption is related to likelihood values of input events, and the second assumption is regarding interdependence among the events (for ETA) or basic events (for FTA). Traditionally, FTA and ETA both use crisp probabilities; however, to deal with uncertainties, the probability distributions of input event likelihoods are assumed. These probability distributions are often hard to come by and even if available, they are subject to incompleteness (partial ignorance) and imprecision. Furthermore, both FTA and ETA assume that events (or basic events) are independent. In practice, these two assumptions are often unrealistic. This article focuses on handling uncertainty in a QRA framework of a process system. Fuzzy set theory and evidence theory are used to describe the uncertainties in the input event likelihoods. A method based on a dependency coefficient is used to express interdependencies of events (or basic events) in ETA and FTA. To demonstrate the approach, two case studies are discussed. © 2010 Society for Risk Analysis.

Links between Characteristics of Collaborative Peer Video Analysis Events and Literacy Teachers' Outcomes

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Arya, Poonam; Christ, Tanya; Chiu, Ming

2015-01-01

This study examined how characteristics of Collaborative Peer Video Analysis (CPVA) events are related to teachers' pedagogical outcomes. Data included 39 transcribed literacy video events, in which 14 in-service teachers engaged in discussions of their video clips. Emergent coding and Statistical Discourse Analysis were used to analyze the data.…

Drought Events and Their Impacts on Food Production in New Zealand: Historical Analysis and Outlook Model Development

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Li, Y.; Yin, C.; Urich, P.; Hill, R.

2012-12-01

Given the importance of the primary production sector, climatic conditions have always been a significant driver of food production in New Zealand. The country has experienced a number of severe droughts throughout its history, where a number of extended periods of low rainfall have severely impacted primary production. The characteristics of historical drought and their impacts on the primary production sector are analysed, including the economic losses in the 1998-1999 and 2007-2009 events. We include the analysis of a set of national standardised drought monitoring indices: Standardised Precipitation Index (SPI), Standardised Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI), Soil moisture Index (SMI), and Standardised Pasture Growth Index (SPGI). Since the drought events in New Zealand are clearly linked with ENSO, the SST anomalies in the key regions can be good predictors of drought events. Artificial Neural Network (ANN) information processing technics have been applied to build local drought outlook models, the predictors are the SST anomaly of eight key regions that impact New Zealand climate produced by the Climate Forecasting System v2(CFSv2) of NCEP, and the local NIWA derived observed precipitation and soil moisture data. SST is a variable that CFSv2 can forecast with high skill and after bias correction, can be applied as a climate predictor for New Zealand. Inclusion of local data and the persistent nature of drought leads to good predictors therefore one to three month ensemble drought outlooks can be produced for New Zealand. The potential changes of drought intensity and frequency over the medium to long term future are investigated using downscaled data from 12 GCMs and multiple scenarios. The results indicate that New Zealand may experience more severe drought in many areas, therefore adaptation should be planned and implemented.

Analysis and visualization of single-trial event-related potentials

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Jung, T. P.; Makeig, S.; Westerfield, M.; Townsend, J.; Courchesne, E.; Sejnowski, T. J.

2001-01-01

In this study, a linear decomposition technique, independent component analysis (ICA), is applied to single-trial multichannel EEG data from event-related potential (ERP) experiments. Spatial filters derived by ICA blindly separate the input data into a sum of temporally independent and spatially fixed components arising from distinct or overlapping brain or extra-brain sources. Both the data and their decomposition are displayed using a new visualization tool, the "ERP image," that can clearly characterize single-trial variations in the amplitudes and latencies of evoked responses, particularly when sorted by a relevant behavioral or physiological variable. These tools were used to analyze data from a visual selective attention experiment on 28 control subjects plus 22 neurological patients whose EEG records were heavily contaminated with blink and other eye-movement artifacts. Results show that ICA can separate artifactual, stimulus-locked, response-locked, and non-event-related background EEG activities into separate components, a taxonomy not obtained from conventional signal averaging approaches. This method allows: (1) removal of pervasive artifacts of all types from single-trial EEG records, (2) identification and segregation of stimulus- and response-locked EEG components, (3) examination of differences in single-trial responses, and (4) separation of temporally distinct but spatially overlapping EEG oscillatory activities with distinct relationships to task events. The proposed methods also allow the interaction between ERPs and the ongoing EEG to be investigated directly. We studied the between-subject component stability of ICA decomposition of single-trial EEG epochs by clustering components with similar scalp maps and activation power spectra. Components accounting for blinks, eye movements, temporal muscle activity, event-related potentials, and event-modulated alpha activities were largely replicated across subjects. Applying ICA and ERP image

[Analysis on the adverse events of cupping therapy in the application].

PubMed

Zhou, Xin; Ruan, Jing-wen; Xing, Bing-feng

2014-10-01

The deep analysis has been done on the cases of adverse events and common injury of cupping therapy encountered in recent years in terms of manipulation and patient's constitution. The adverse events of cupping therapy are commonly caused by improper manipulation of medical practitioners, ignoring contraindication and patient's constitution. Clinical practitioners should use cupping therapy cautiously, follow strictly the rules of standard manipulation and medical core system, pay attention to the contraindication and take strict precautions against the occurrence of adverse events.

AOP: An R Package For Sufficient Causal Analysis in Pathway ...

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

Summary: How can I quickly find the key events in a pathway that I need to monitor to predict that a/an beneficial/adverse event/outcome will occur? This is a key question when using signaling pathways for drug/chemical screening in pharma-cology, toxicology and risk assessment. By identifying these sufficient causal key events, we have fewer events to monitor for a pathway, thereby decreasing assay costs and time, while maximizing the value of the information. I have developed the “aop” package which uses backdoor analysis of causal net-works to identify these minimal sets of key events that are suf-ficient for making causal predictions. Availability and Implementation: The source and binary are available online through the Bioconductor project (http://www.bioconductor.org/) as an R package titled “aop”. The R/Bioconductor package runs within the R statistical envi-ronment. The package has functions that can take pathways (as directed graphs) formatted as a Cytoscape JSON file as input, or pathways can be represented as directed graphs us-ing the R/Bioconductor “graph” package. The “aop” package has functions that can perform backdoor analysis to identify the minimal set of key events for making causal predictions.Contact: burgoon.lyle@epa.gov This paper describes an R/Bioconductor package that was developed to facilitate the identification of key events within an AOP that are the minimal set of sufficient key events that need to be tested/monit

ITS risk analysis.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

1996-06-01

Risk analysis plays a key role in the implementation of an architecture. Early definition of the situations, processes, or events that have the potential for impeding the implementation of key elements of the ITS National Architecture is a critical e...

An unjustified benefit: immortal time bias in the analysis of time-dependent events.

PubMed

Gleiss, Andreas; Oberbauer, Rainer; Heinze, Georg

2018-02-01

Immortal time bias is a problem arising from methodologically wrong analyses of time-dependent events in survival analyses. We illustrate the problem by analysis of a kidney transplantation study. Following patients from transplantation to death, groups defined by the occurrence or nonoccurrence of graft failure during follow-up seemingly had equal overall mortality. Such naive analysis assumes that patients were assigned to the two groups at time of transplantation, which actually are a consequence of occurrence of a time-dependent event later during follow-up. We introduce landmark analysis as the method of choice to avoid immortal time bias. Landmark analysis splits the follow-up time at a common, prespecified time point, the so-called landmark. Groups are then defined by time-dependent events having occurred before the landmark, and outcome events are only considered if occurring after the landmark. Landmark analysis can be easily implemented with common statistical software. In our kidney transplantation example, landmark analyses with landmarks set at 30 and 60 months clearly identified graft failure as a risk factor for overall mortality. We give further typical examples from transplantation research and discuss strengths and limitations of landmark analysis and other methods to address immortal time bias such as Cox regression with time-dependent covariables. © 2017 Steunstichting ESOT.

The effect of species and colony size on the bleaching response of reef-building corals in the Florida Keys during the 2005 mass bleaching event

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Brandt, M. E.

2009-12-01

Understanding the variation in coral bleaching response is necessary for making accurate predictions of population changes and the future state of reefs in a climate of increasing thermal stress events. Individual coral colonies, belonging to inshore patch reef communities of the Florida Keys, were followed through the 2005 mass bleaching event. Overall, coral bleaching patterns followed an index of accumulated thermal stress more closely than in situ temperature measurements. Eight coral species ( Colpophyllia natans, Diploria strigosa, Montastraea cavernosa, M. faveolata, Porites astreoides, P. porites, Siderastrea siderea, and Stephanocoenia intersepta), representing >90% of the coral colonies studied, experienced intense levels of bleaching, but responses varied. Bleaching differed significantly among species: Colpophyllia natans and Diploria strigosa were most susceptible to thermal stress, while Stephanocoenia intersepta was the most tolerant. For colonies of C. natans, M. faveolata, and S. siderea, larger colonies experienced more extensive bleaching than smaller colonies. The inshore patch reef communities of the Florida Keys have historically been dominated by large colonies of Montastraea sp. and Colpophyllia natans. These results provide evidence that colony-level differences can affect bleaching susceptibility in this habitat and suggest that the impact of future thermal stress events may be biased toward larger colonies of dominant reef-building species. Predicted increases in the frequency of mass bleaching and subsequent mortality may therefore result in significant structural shifts of these ecologically important communities.

Gunbarrel mafic magmatic event: A key 780 Ma time marker for Rodinia plate reconstructions

USGS Publications Warehouse

Harlan, S.S.; Heaman, L.; LeCheminant, A.N.; Premo, W.R.

2003-01-01

Precise U-Pb baddeleyite dating of mafic igneous rocks provides evidence for a widespread and synchronous magmatic event that extended for >2400 km along the western margin of the Neoproterozoic Laurentian craton. U-Pb baddeleyite analyses for eight intrusions from seven localities ranging from the northern Canadian Shield to northwestern Wyoming-southwestern Montana are statistically indistinguishable and yield a composite U-Pb concordia age for this event of 780.3 ?? 1.4 Ma (95% confidence level). This 780 Ma event is herein termed the Gunbarrel magmatic event. The mafic magmatism of the Gunbarrel event represents the largest mafic dike swarm yet identified along the Neoproterozoic margin of Laurentia. The origin of the mafic magmatism is not clear, but may be related to mantle-plume activity or upwelling asthenosphere leading to crustal extension accompanying initial breakup of the supercontinent Rodinia and development of the proto-Pacific Ocean. The mafic magmatism of the Gunbarrel magmatic event at 780 Ma predates the voluminous magmatism of the 723 Ma Franklin igneous event of the northwestern Canadian Shield by ???60 m.y. The precise dating of the extensive Neoproterozoic Gunbarrel and Franklin magmatic events provides unique time markers that can ultimately be used for robust testing of Neoproterozoic continental reconstructions.

Genome sequence analysis of dengue virus 1 isolated in Key West, Florida.

PubMed

Shin, Dongyoung; Richards, Stephanie L; Alto, Barry W; Bettinardi, David J; Smartt, Chelsea T

2013-01-01

Dengue virus (DENV) is transmitted to humans through the bite of mosquitoes. In November 2010, a dengue outbreak was reported in Monroe County in southern Florida (FL), including greater than 20 confirmed human cases. The virus collected from the human cases was verified as DENV serotype 1 (DENV-1) and one isolate was provided for sequence analysis. RNA was extracted from the DENV-1 isolate and was used in reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) to amplify PCR fragments to sequence. Nucleic acid primers were designed to generate overlapping PCR fragments that covered the entire genome. The DENV-1 isolate found in Key West (KW), FL was sequenced for whole genome characterization. Sequence assembly, Genbank searches, and recombination analyses were performed to verify the identity of the genome sequences and to determine percent similarity to known DENV-1 sequences. We show that the KW DENV-1 strain is 99% identical to Nicaraguan and Mexican DENV-1 strains. Phylogenetic and recombination analyses suggest that the DENV-1 isolated in KW originated from Nicaragua (NI) and the KW strain may circulate in KW. Also, recombination analysis results detected recombination events in the KW strain compared to DENV-1 strains from Puerto Rico. We evaluate the relative growth of KW strain of DENV-1 compared to other dengue viruses to determine whether the underlying genetics of the strain is associated with a replicative advantage, an important consideration since local transmission of DENV may result because domestic tourism can spread DENVs.

Analysis hierarchical model for discrete event systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ciortea, E. M.

2015-11-01

The This paper presents the hierarchical model based on discrete event network for robotic systems. Based on the hierarchical approach, Petri network is analysed as a network of the highest conceptual level and the lowest level of local control. For modelling and control of complex robotic systems using extended Petri nets. Such a system is structured, controlled and analysed in this paper by using Visual Object Net ++ package that is relatively simple and easy to use, and the results are shown as representations easy to interpret. The hierarchical structure of the robotic system is implemented on computers analysed using specialized programs. Implementation of hierarchical model discrete event systems, as a real-time operating system on a computer network connected via a serial bus is possible, where each computer is dedicated to local and Petri model of a subsystem global robotic system. Since Petri models are simplified to apply general computers, analysis, modelling, complex manufacturing systems control can be achieved using Petri nets. Discrete event systems is a pragmatic tool for modelling industrial systems. For system modelling using Petri nets because we have our system where discrete event. To highlight the auxiliary time Petri model using transport stream divided into hierarchical levels and sections are analysed successively. Proposed robotic system simulation using timed Petri, offers the opportunity to view the robotic time. Application of goods or robotic and transmission times obtained by measuring spot is obtained graphics showing the average time for transport activity, using the parameters sets of finished products. individually.

Multi-Sensory Aerosol Data and the NRL NAAPS model for Regulatory Exceptional Event Analysis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Husar, R. B.; Hoijarvi, K.; Westphal, D. L.; Haynes, J.; Omar, A. H.; Frank, N. H.

2013-12-01

Beyond scientific exploration and analysis, multi-sensory observations along with models are finding increasing applications for operational air quality management. EPA's Exceptional Event (EE) Rule allows the exclusion of data strongly influenced by impacts from "exceptional events," such as smoke from wildfires or dust from abnormally high winds. The EE Rule encourages the use of satellite observations and other non-standard data along with models as evidence for formal documentation of EE samples for exclusion. Thus, the implementation of the EE Rule is uniquely suited for the direct application of integrated multi-sensory observations and indirectly through the assimilation into an aerosol simulation model. Here we report the results of a project: NASA and NAAPS Products for Air Quality Decision Making. The project uses of observations from multiple satellite sensors, surface-based aerosol measurements and the NRL Aerosol Analysis and Prediction System (NAAPS) model that assimilates key satellite observations. The satellite sensor data for detecting and documenting smoke and dust events include: MODIS AOD and Images; OMI Aerosol Index, Tropospheric NO2; AIRS, CO. The surface observations include the EPA regulatory PM2.5 network; the IMPROVE/STN aerosol chemical network; AIRNOW PM2.5 mass network, and surface met. data. Within this application, crucial role is assigned to the NAAPS model for estimating the surface concentration of windblown dust and biomass smoke. The operational model assimilates quality-assured daily MODIS data and 2DVAR to adjust the model concentrations and CALIOP-based climatology to adjust the vertical profiles at 6-hour intervals. The assimilation of satellite data from multiple satellites significantly contributes to the usefulness of NAAPS for EE analysis. The NAAPS smoke and dust simulations were evaluated using the IMPROVE/STN chemical data. The multi-sensory observations along with the model simulations are integrated into a web

The Keys to the White House

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lichtman, Allan J.

2012-01-01

The Keys to the White House is a historically-based system for predicting the result of the popular vote in American presidential elections. The Keys system tracks the big picture of how well the party holding the White House has governed and does not shift with events of the campaign. This model gives specificity to the idea that it is…

A high dose mode of action for tetrabromobisphenol A-induced uterine adenocarcinomas in Wistar Han rats: A critical evaluation of key events in an adverse outcome pathway framework.

PubMed

Wikoff, D S; Rager, J E; Haws, L C; Borghoff, S J

2016-06-01

TBBPA is a non-genotoxic flame retardant used to improve fire safety in a wide variety of consumer products. Estimated human exposures to TBBPA are very low (<0.000084 mg/kg-day), relative to the doses (500 and 1000 mg/kg-day of TBBPA) administered in a recent bioassay that resulted in uterine tumors in Wistar Han rats following chronic exposure. As part of an effort to characterize the relevance of the uterine tumors to humans, data and biological knowledge relevant to the progression of events associated with TBBPA-induced uterine tumors in female rats were organized in an adverse outcome pathway (AOP) framework. Based on a review of possible MOAs for chemically induced uterine tumors and available TBBPA data sets, a plausible molecular initiating event (MIE) was the ability of TBBPA to bind to and inhibit estrogen sulfotransferases, the enzymes responsible for sulfation of estradiol. Subsequent key events in the AOP, including increased bioavailability of unconjugated estrogens in uterine tissue, would occur as a result of decreased sulfation, leading to a disruption in estrogen homeostasis, increased expression of estrogen responsive genes, cell proliferation, and hyperplasia. Available data support subsequent key events, including generation of reactive quinones from the metabolism of estrogens, followed by DNA damage that could contribute to the development of uterine tumors. Uncertainties associated with human relevance are highlighted by potential strain/species sensitivities to development of uterine tumors, as well as the characterization of a dose-dependent MIE. For the latter, it was determined that the TBBPA metabolic profile is altered at high doses (such as those used in the cancer bioassay), and thus an MIE that is only operative under repeated high dose, administration. The MIE and subsequent key events for the development of TBBPA-induced uterine tumors are not feasible in humans given differences in the kinetic and dynamic factors associated

Radar rainfall estimation in the context of post-event analysis of flash-flood events

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Delrieu, G.; Bouilloud, L.; Boudevillain, B.; Kirstetter, P.-E.; Borga, M.

2009-09-01

This communication is about a methodology for radar rainfall estimation in the context of post-event analysis of flash-flood events developed within the HYDRATE project. For such extreme events, some raingauge observations (operational, amateur) are available at the event time scale, while few raingauge time series are generally available at the hydrologic time steps. Radar data is therefore the only way to access to the rainfall space-time organization, but the quality of the radar data may be highly variable as a function of (1) the relative locations of the event and the radar(s) and (2) the radar operating protocol(s) and maintenance. A positive point: heavy rainfall is associated with convection implying better visibility and lesser bright band contamination compared with more current situations. In parallel with the development of a regionalized and adaptive radar data processing system (TRADHy; Delrieu et al. 2009), a pragmatic approach is proposed here to make best use of the available radar and raingauge data for a given flash-flood event by: (1) Identifying and removing residual ground clutter, (2) Applying the "hydrologic visibility" concept (Pellarin et al. 2002) to correct for range-dependent errors (screening and VPR effects for non-attenuating wavelengths, (3) Estimating an effective Z-R relationship through a radar-raingauge optimization approach to remove the mean field bias (Dinku et al. 2002) A sensitivity study, based on the high-quality volume radar datasets collected during two intense rainfall events of the Bollène 2002 experiment (Delrieu et al. 2009), is first proposed. Then the method is implemented for two other historical events occurred in France (Avène 1997 and Aude 1999) with datasets of lesser quality. References: Delrieu, G., B. Boudevillain, J. Nicol, B. Chapon, P.-E. Kirstetter, H. Andrieu, and D. Faure, 2009: Bollène 2002 experiment: radar rainfall estimation in the Cévennes-Vivarais region, France. Journal of Applied

Formal analysis of imprecise system requirements with Event-B.

PubMed

Le, Hong Anh; Nakajima, Shin; Truong, Ninh Thuan

2016-01-01

Formal analysis of functional properties of system requirements needs precise descriptions. However, the stakeholders sometimes describe the system with ambiguous, vague or fuzzy terms, hence formal frameworks for modeling and verifying such requirements are desirable. The Fuzzy If-Then rules have been used for imprecise requirements representation, but verifying their functional properties still needs new methods. In this paper, we propose a refinement-based modeling approach for specification and verification of such requirements. First, we introduce a representation of imprecise requirements in the set theory. Then we make use of Event-B refinement providing a set of translation rules from Fuzzy If-Then rules to Event-B notations. After that, we show how to verify both safety and eventuality properties with RODIN/Event-B. Finally, we illustrate the proposed method on the example of Crane Controller.

Necroptosis is a key pathogenic event in human and experimental murine models of non-alcoholic steatohepatitis.

PubMed

Afonso, Marta B; Rodrigues, Pedro M; Carvalho, Tânia; Caridade, Marta; Borralho, Paula; Cortez-Pinto, Helena; Castro, Rui E; Rodrigues, Cecília M P

2015-10-01

Hepatocyte cell death, inflammation and oxidative stress constitute key pathogenic mechanisms underlying non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). We aimed to investigate the role of necroptosis in human and experimental NAFLD and its association with tumour necrosis factor α (TNF-α) and oxidative stress. Serum markers of necrosis, liver receptor-interacting protein 3 (RIP3) and phosphorylated mixed lineage kinase domain-like (MLKL) were evaluated in control individuals and patients with NAFLD. C57BL/6 wild-type (WT) or RIP3-deficient (RIP3(-/-)) mice were fed a high-fat choline-deficient (HFCD) or methionine and choline-deficient (MCD) diet, with subsequent histological and biochemical analysis of hepatic damage. In primary murine hepatocytes, necroptosis and oxidative stress were also assessed after necrostatin-1 (Nec-1) treatment or RIP3 silencing. We show that circulating markers of necrosis and TNF-α, as well as liver RIP3 and MLKL phosphorylation were increased in NAFLD. Likewise, RIP3 and MLKL protein levels and TNF-α expression were increased in the liver of HFCD and MCD diet-fed mice. Moreover, RIP3 and MLKL sequestration in the insoluble protein fraction of NASH (non-alcoholic steatohepatitis) mice liver lysates represented an early event during stetatohepatitis progression. Functional studies in primary murine hepatocytes established the association between TNF-α-induced RIP3 expression, activation of necroptosis and oxidative stress. Strikingly, RIP3 deficiency attenuated MCD diet-induced liver injury, steatosis, inflammation, fibrosis and oxidative stress. In conclusion, necroptosis is increased in the liver of NAFLD patients and in experimental models of NASH. Further, TNF-α triggers RIP3-dependent oxidative stress during hepatocyte necroptosis. As such, targeting necroptosis appears to arrest or at least impair NAFLD progression. © 2015 Authors; published by Portland Press Limited.

Meta-Analysis of Rare Binary Adverse Event Data

PubMed Central

Bhaumik, Dulal K.; Amatya, Anup; Normand, Sharon-Lise; Greenhouse, Joel; Kaizar, Eloise; Neelon, Brian; Gibbons, Robert D.

2013-01-01

We examine the use of fixed-effects and random-effects moment-based meta-analytic methods for analysis of binary adverse event data. Special attention is paid to the case of rare adverse events which are commonly encountered in routine practice. We study estimation of model parameters and between-study heterogeneity. In addition, we examine traditional approaches to hypothesis testing of the average treatment effect and detection of the heterogeneity of treatment effect across studies. We derive three new methods, simple (unweighted) average treatment effect estimator, a new heterogeneity estimator, and a parametric bootstrapping test for heterogeneity. We then study the statistical properties of both the traditional and new methods via simulation. We find that in general, moment-based estimators of combined treatment effects and heterogeneity are biased and the degree of bias is proportional to the rarity of the event under study. The new methods eliminate much, but not all of this bias. The various estimators and hypothesis testing methods are then compared and contrasted using an example dataset on treatment of stable coronary artery disease. PMID:23734068

Regression analysis of mixed recurrent-event and panel-count data with additive rate models.

PubMed

Zhu, Liang; Zhao, Hui; Sun, Jianguo; Leisenring, Wendy; Robison, Leslie L

2015-03-01

Event-history studies of recurrent events are often conducted in fields such as demography, epidemiology, medicine, and social sciences (Cook and Lawless, 2007, The Statistical Analysis of Recurrent Events. New York: Springer-Verlag; Zhao et al., 2011, Test 20, 1-42). For such analysis, two types of data have been extensively investigated: recurrent-event data and panel-count data. However, in practice, one may face a third type of data, mixed recurrent-event and panel-count data or mixed event-history data. Such data occur if some study subjects are monitored or observed continuously and thus provide recurrent-event data, while the others are observed only at discrete times and hence give only panel-count data. A more general situation is that each subject is observed continuously over certain time periods but only at discrete times over other time periods. There exists little literature on the analysis of such mixed data except that published by Zhu et al. (2013, Statistics in Medicine 32, 1954-1963). In this article, we consider the regression analysis of mixed data using the additive rate model and develop some estimating equation-based approaches to estimate the regression parameters of interest. Both finite sample and asymptotic properties of the resulting estimators are established, and the numerical studies suggest that the proposed methodology works well for practical situations. The approach is applied to a Childhood Cancer Survivor Study that motivated this study. © 2014, The International Biometric Society.

Parallel Key Frame Extraction for Surveillance Video Service in a Smart City.

PubMed

Zheng, Ran; Yao, Chuanwei; Jin, Hai; Zhu, Lei; Zhang, Qin; Deng, Wei

2015-01-01

Surveillance video service (SVS) is one of the most important services provided in a smart city. It is very important for the utilization of SVS to provide design efficient surveillance video analysis techniques. Key frame extraction is a simple yet effective technique to achieve this goal. In surveillance video applications, key frames are typically used to summarize important video content. It is very important and essential to extract key frames accurately and efficiently. A novel approach is proposed to extract key frames from traffic surveillance videos based on GPU (graphics processing units) to ensure high efficiency and accuracy. For the determination of key frames, motion is a more salient feature in presenting actions or events, especially in surveillance videos. The motion feature is extracted in GPU to reduce running time. It is also smoothed to reduce noise, and the frames with local maxima of motion information are selected as the final key frames. The experimental results show that this approach can extract key frames more accurately and efficiently compared with several other methods.

Event-based stormwater management pond runoff temperature model

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sabouri, F.; Gharabaghi, B.; Sattar, A. M. A.; Thompson, A. M.

2016-09-01

Stormwater management wet ponds are generally very shallow and hence can significantly increase (about 5.4 °C on average in this study) runoff temperatures in summer months, which adversely affects receiving urban stream ecosystems. This study uses gene expression programming (GEP) and artificial neural networks (ANN) modeling techniques to advance our knowledge of the key factors governing thermal enrichment effects of stormwater ponds. The models developed in this study build upon and compliment the ANN model developed by Sabouri et al. (2013) that predicts the catchment event mean runoff temperature entering the pond as a function of event climatic and catchment characteristic parameters. The key factors that control pond outlet runoff temperature, include: (1) Upland Catchment Parameters (catchment drainage area and event mean runoff temperature inflow to the pond); (2) Climatic Parameters (rainfall depth, event mean air temperature, and pond initial water temperature); and (3) Pond Design Parameters (pond length-to-width ratio, pond surface area, pond average depth, and pond outlet depth). We used monitoring data for three summers from 2009 to 2011 in four stormwater management ponds, located in the cities of Guelph and Kitchener, Ontario, Canada to develop the models. The prediction uncertainties of the developed ANN and GEP models for the case study sites are around 0.4% and 1.7% of the median value. Sensitivity analysis of the trained models indicates that the thermal enrichment of the pond outlet runoff is inversely proportional to pond length-to-width ratio, pond outlet depth, and directly proportional to event runoff volume, event mean pond inflow runoff temperature, and pond initial water temperature.

Application of a temporal reasoning framework tool in analysis of medical device adverse events.

PubMed

Clark, Kimberly K; Sharma, Deepak K; Chute, Christopher G; Tao, Cui

2011-01-01

The Clinical Narrative Temporal Relation Ontology (CNTRO)1 project offers a semantic-web based reasoning framework, which represents temporal events and relationships within clinical narrative texts, and infer new knowledge over them. In this paper, the CNTRO reasoning framework is applied to temporal analysis of medical device adverse event files. One specific adverse event was used as a test case: late stent thrombosis. Adverse event narratives were obtained from the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) Manufacturing and User Facility Device Experience (MAUDE) database2. 15 adverse event files in which late stent thrombosis was confirmed were randomly selected across multiple drug eluting stent devices. From these files, 81 events and 72 temporal relations were annotated. 73 temporal questions were generated, of which 65 were correctly answered by the CNTRO system. This results in an overall accuracy of 89%. This system should be pursued further to continue assessing its potential benefits in temporal analysis of medical device adverse events.

Differential Fault Analysis on CLEFIA with 128, 192, and 256-Bit Keys

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Takahashi, Junko; Fukunaga, Toshinori

This paper describes a differential fault analysis (DFA) attack against CLEFIA. The proposed attack can be applied to CLEFIA with all supported keys: 128, 192, and 256-bit keys. DFA is a type of side-channel attack. This attack enables the recovery of secret keys by injecting faults into a secure device during its computation of the cryptographic algorithm and comparing the correct ciphertext with the faulty one. CLEFIA is a 128-bit blockcipher with 128, 192, and 256-bit keys developed by the Sony Corporation in 2007. CLEFIA employs a generalized Feistel structure with four data lines. We developed a new attack method that uses this characteristic structure of the CLEFIA algorithm. On the basis of the proposed attack, only 2 pairs of correct and faulty ciphertexts are needed to retrieve the 128-bit key, and 10.78 pairs on average are needed to retrieve the 192 and 256-bit keys. The proposed attack is more efficient than any previously reported. In order to verify the proposed attack and estimate the calculation time to recover the secret key, we conducted an attack simulation using a PC. The simulation results show that we can obtain each secret key within three minutes on average. This result shows that we can obtain the entire key within a feasible computational time.

Urbanization and Fertility: An Event-History Analysis of Coastal Ghana

PubMed Central

WHITE, MICHAEL J.; MUHIDIN, SALUT; ANDRZEJEWSKI, CATHERINE; TAGOE, EVA; KNIGHT, RODNEY; REED, HOLLY

2008-01-01

In this article, we undertake an event-history analysis of fertility in Ghana. We exploit detailed life history calendar data to conduct a more refined and definitive analysis of the relationship among personal traits, urban residence, and fertility. Although urbanization is generally associated with lower fertility in developing countries, inferences in most studies have been hampered by a lack of information about the timing of residence in relationship to childbearing. We find that the effect of urbanization itself is strong, evident, and complex, and persists after we control for the effects of age, cohort, union status, and education. Our discrete-time event-history analysis shows that urban women exhibit fertility rates that are, on average, 11% lower than those of rural women, but the effects vary by parity. Differences in urban population traits would augment the effects of urban adaptation itself. Extensions of the analysis point to the operation of a selection effect in rural-to-urban mobility but provide limited evidence for disruption effects. The possibility of further selection of urbanward migrants on unmeasured traits remains. The analysis also demonstrates the utility of an annual life history calendar for collecting such data in the field. PMID:19110898

Study of the peculiarities of multiparticle production via event-by-event analysis in asymmetric nucleus-nucleus interactions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fedosimova, Anastasiya; Gaitinov, Adigam; Grushevskaya, Ekaterina; Lebedev, Igor

2017-06-01

In this work the study on the peculiarities of multiparticle production in interactions of asymmetric nuclei to search for unusual features of such interactions, is performed. A research of long-range and short-range multiparticle correlations in the pseudorapidity distribution of secondary particles on the basis of analysis of individual interactions of nuclei of 197 Au at energy 10.7 AGeV with photoemulsion nuclei, is carried out. Events with long-range multiparticle correlations (LC), short-range multiparticle correlations (SC) and mixed type (MT) in pseudorapidity distribution of secondary particles, are selected by the Hurst method in accordance with Hurst curve behavior. These types have significantly different characteristics. At first, they have different fragmentation parameters. Events of LC type are processes of full destruction of the projectile nucleus, in which multicharge fragments are absent. In events of mixed type several multicharge fragments of projectile nucleus are discovered. Secondly, these two types have significantly different multiplicity distribution. The mean multiplicity of LC type events is significantly more than in mixed type events. On the basis of research of the dependence of multiplicity versus target-nuclei fragments number for events of various types it is revealed, that the most considerable multiparticle correlations are observed in interactions of the mixed type, which correspond to the central collisions of gold nuclei and nuclei of CNO-group, i.e. nuclei with strongly asymmetric volume, nuclear mass, charge, etc. Such events are characterised by full destruction of the target-nucleus and the disintegration of the projectile-nucleus on several multi-charged fragments.

Development and assessment of stressful life events subscales - A preliminary analysis.

PubMed

Buccheri, Teresa; Musaad, Salma; Bost, Kelly K; Fiese, Barbara H

2018-01-15

Stress affects people of all ages, genders, and cultures and is associated with physical and psychological complications. Stressful life events are an important research focus and a psychometrically valid measure could provide useful clinical information. The purpose of the study was to develop a reliable and valid measurement of stressful life events and to assess its reliability and validity using established measures of social support, stress, depression, anxiety and maternal and child health. The authors used an adaptation from the Social Readjustment Rating Scale (SRRS) to describe the prevalence of life events; they developed a 4-factor stressful life events subscales and used Medical Outcomes Social Support Scale, Social Support Scale, Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale and 14 general health items for validity analysis. Analyses were performed with descriptive statistics, Cronbach's alpha, Spearman's rho, Chi-square test or Fisher's exact test and Wilcoxon 2-sample test. The 4-factor stressful life events subscales showed acceptable reliability. The resulting subscale scores were significantly associated with established measures of social support, depression, anxiety, stress, and caregiver health indicators. The study presented a number of limitations in terms of design and recall bias. Despite the presence of a number of limitations, the study provided valuable insight and suggested that further investigation is needed in order to determine the effectiveness of the measures in revealing the family's wellbeing and to develop and strengthen a more detailed analysis of the stressful life events/health association. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Analysis of convection-permitting simulations for capturing heavy rainfall events over Myanmar Region

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Acierto, R. A. E.; Kawasaki, A.

2017-12-01

Perennial flooding due to heavy rainfall events causes strong impacts on the society and economy. With increasing pressures of rapid development and potential for climate change impacts, Myanmar experiences a rapid increase in disaster risk. Heavy rainfall hazard assessment is key on quantifying such disaster risk in both current and future conditions. Downscaling using Regional Climate Models (RCM) such as Weather Research and Forecast model have been used extensively for assessing such heavy rainfall events. However, usage of convective parameterizations can introduce large errors in simulating rainfall. Convective-permitting simulations have been used to deal with this problem by increasing the resolution of RCMs to 4km. This study focuses on the heavy rainfall events during the six-year (2010-2015) wet period season from May to September in Myanmar. The investigation primarily utilizes rain gauge observation for comparing downscaled heavy rainfall events in 4km resolution using ERA-Interim as boundary conditions using 12km-4km one-way nesting method. The study aims to provide basis for production of high-resolution climate projections over Myanmar in order to contribute for flood hazard and risk assessment.

Idaho National Laboratory Quarterly Event Performance Analysis FY 2013 4th Quarter

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

Mitchell, Lisbeth A.

2013-11-01

This report is published quarterly by the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) Performance Assurance Organization. The Department of Energy Occurrence Reporting and Processing System (ORPS) as prescribed in DOE Order 232.2 “Occurrence Reporting and Processing of Operations Information” requires a quarterly analysis of events, both reportable and not reportable for the previous twelve months. This report is the analysis of occurrence reports and deficiency reports (including not reportable events) identified at the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) during the period of October 2012 through September 2013.

Normalization Strategies for Enhancing Spatio-Temporal Analysis of Social Media Responses during Extreme Events: A Case Study based on Analysis of Four Extreme Events using Socio-Environmental Data Explorer (SEDE)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ajayakumar, J.; Shook, E.; Turner, V. K.

2017-10-01

With social media becoming increasingly location-based, there has been a greater push from researchers across various domains including social science, public health, and disaster management, to tap in the spatial, temporal, and textual data available from these sources to analyze public response during extreme events such as an epidemic outbreak or a natural disaster. Studies based on demographics and other socio-economic factors suggests that social media data could be highly skewed based on the variations of population density with respect to place. To capture the spatio-temporal variations in public response during extreme events we have developed the Socio-Environmental Data Explorer (SEDE). SEDE collects and integrates social media, news and environmental data to support exploration and assessment of public response to extreme events. For this study, using SEDE, we conduct spatio-temporal social media response analysis on four major extreme events in the United States including the "North American storm complex" in December 2015, the "snowstorm Jonas" in January 2016, the "West Virginia floods" in June 2016, and the "Hurricane Matthew" in October 2016. Analysis is conducted on geo-tagged social media data from Twitter and warnings from the storm events database provided by National Centers For Environmental Information (NCEI) for analysis. Results demonstrate that, to support complex social media analyses, spatial and population-based normalization and filtering is necessary. The implications of these results suggests that, while developing software solutions to support analysis of non-conventional data sources such as social media, it is quintessential to identify the inherent biases associated with the data sources, and adapt techniques and enhance capabilities to mitigate the bias. The normalization strategies that we have developed and incorporated to SEDE will be helpful in reducing the population bias associated with social media data and will be useful

Analysis of Loss-of-Offsite-Power Events 1997-2015

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

Johnson, Nancy Ellen; Schroeder, John Alton

2016-07-01

Loss of offsite power (LOOP) can have a major negative impact on a power plant’s ability to achieve and maintain safe shutdown conditions. LOOP event frequencies and times required for subsequent restoration of offsite power are important inputs to plant probabilistic risk assessments. This report presents a statistical and engineering analysis of LOOP frequencies and durations at U.S. commercial nuclear power plants. The data used in this study are based on the operating experience during calendar years 1997 through 2015. LOOP events during critical operation that do not result in a reactor trip, are not included. Frequencies and durations weremore » determined for four event categories: plant-centered, switchyard-centered, grid-related, and weather-related. Emergency diesel generator reliability is also considered (failure to start, failure to load and run, and failure to run more than 1 hour). There is an adverse trend in LOOP durations. The previously reported adverse trend in LOOP frequency was not statistically significant for 2006-2015. Grid-related LOOPs happen predominantly in the summer. Switchyard-centered LOOPs happen predominantly in winter and spring. Plant-centered and weather-related LOOPs do not show statistically significant seasonality. The engineering analysis of LOOP data shows that human errors have been much less frequent since 1997 than in the 1986 -1996 time period.« less

Analysis of event data recorder data for vehicle safety improvement

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2008-04-01

The Volpe Center performed a comprehensive engineering analysis of Event Data Recorder (EDR) data supplied by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to assess its accuracy and usefulness in crash reconstruction and improvement of ...

Biometrical issues in the analysis of adverse events within the benefit assessment of drugs.

PubMed

Bender, Ralf; Beckmann, Lars; Lange, Stefan

2016-07-01

The analysis of adverse events plays an important role in the benefit assessment of drugs. Consequently, results on adverse events are an integral part of reimbursement dossiers submitted by pharmaceutical companies to health policy decision-makers. Methods applied in the analysis of adverse events commonly include simple standard methods for contingency tables. However, the results produced may be misleading if observations are censored at the time of discontinuation due to treatment switching or noncompliance, resulting in unequal follow-up periods. In this paper, we present examples to show that the application of inadequate methods for the analysis of adverse events in the reimbursement dossier can lead to a downgrading of the evidence on a drug's benefit in the subsequent assessment, as greater harm from the drug cannot be excluded with sufficient certainty. Legal regulations on the benefit assessment of drugs in Germany are presented, in particular, with regard to the analysis of adverse events. Differences in safety considerations between the drug approval process and the benefit assessment are discussed. We show that the naive application of simple proportions in reimbursement dossiers frequently leads to uninterpretable results if observations are censored and the average follow-up periods differ between treatment groups. Likewise, the application of incidence rates may be misleading in the case of recurrent events and unequal follow-up periods. To allow for an appropriate benefit assessment of drugs, adequate survival time methods accounting for time dependencies and duration of follow-up are required, not only for time-to-event efficacy endpoints but also for adverse events. © 2016 The Authors. Pharmaceutical Statistics published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. © 2016 The Authors. Pharmaceutical Statistics published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Classification and Space-Time Analysis of Precipitation Events in Manizales, Caldas, Colombia.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Suarez Hincapie, J. N.; Vélez, J.; Romo Melo, L.; Chang, P.

2015-12-01

Manizales is a mid-mountain Andean city located near the Nevado del Ruiz volcano in west-central Colombia, this location exposes it to earthquakes, floods, landslides and volcanic eruptions. It is located in the intertropical convergence zone (ITCZ) and presents a climate with a bimodal rainfall regime (Cortés, 2010). Its mean annual rainfall is 2000 mm, one may observe precipitation 70% of the days over a year. This rain which favors the formation of large masses of clouds and the presence of macroclimatic phenomenon as "El Niño South Oscillation", has historically caused great impacts in the region (Vélez et al, 2012). For example the geographical location coupled with rain events results in a high risk of landslides in the city. Manizales has a hydrometeorological network of 40 stations that measure and transmit data of up to eight climate variables. Some of these stations keep 10 years of historical data. However, until now this information has not been used for space-time classification of precipitation events, nor has the meteorological variables that influence them been thoroughly researched. The purpose of this study was to classify historical events of rain in an urban area of Manizales and investigate patterns of atmospheric behavior that influence or trigger such events. Classification of events was performed by calculating the "n" index of the heavy rainfall, describing the behavior of precipitation as a function of time throughout the event (Monjo, 2009). The analysis of meteorological variables was performed using statistical quantification over variable time periods before each event. The proposed classification allowed for an analysis of the evolution of rainfall events. Specially, it helped to look for the influence of different meteorological variables triggering rainfall events in hazardous areas as the city of Manizales.

Random-Effects Meta-Analysis of Time-to-Event Data Using the Expectation-Maximisation Algorithm and Shrinkage Estimators

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Simmonds, Mark C.; Higgins, Julian P. T.; Stewart, Lesley A.

2013-01-01

Meta-analysis of time-to-event data has proved difficult in the past because consistent summary statistics often cannot be extracted from published results. The use of individual patient data allows for the re-analysis of each study in a consistent fashion and thus makes meta-analysis of time-to-event data feasible. Time-to-event data can be…

Service-Learning and Graduation: Evidence from Event History Analysis

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yue, Hongtao; Hart, Steven M.

2017-01-01

This research employed Event History Analysis to understand how service-learning participation is related to students' graduation within six years. The longitudinal dataset includes 31,074 new undergraduate students who enrolled in a large western U.S. public university from Fall 2002 to Fall 2009. The study revealed that service-learning…

Magnesium and the Risk of Cardiovascular Events: A Meta-Analysis of Prospective Cohort Studies

PubMed Central

Hao, Yongqiang; Li, Huiwu; Tang, Tingting; Wang, Hao; Yan, Weili; Dai, Kerong

2013-01-01

Background Prospective studies that have examined the association between dietary magnesium intake and serum magnesium concentrations and the risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) events have reported conflicting findings. We undertook a meta-analysis to evaluate the association between dietary magnesium intake and serum magnesium concentrations and the risk of total CVD events. Methodology/Principal Findings We performed systematic searches on MEDLINE, EMBASE, and OVID up to February 1, 2012 without limits. Categorical, linear, and nonlinear, dose-response, heterogeneity, publication bias, subgroup, and meta-regression analysis were performed. The analysis included 532,979 participants from 19 studies (11 studies on dietary magnesium intake, 6 studies on serum magnesium concentrations, and 2 studies on both) with 19,926 CVD events. The pooled relative risks of total CVD events for the highest vs. lowest category of dietary magnesium intake and serum magnesium concentrations were 0.85 (95% confidence interval 0.78 to 0.92) and 0.77 (0.66 to 0.87), respectively. In linear dose-response analysis, only serum magnesium concentrations ranging from 1.44 to 1.8 mEq/L were significantly associated with total CVD events risk (0.91, 0.85 to 0.97) per 0.1 mEq/L (Pnonlinearity = 0.465). However, significant inverse associations emerged in nonlinear models for dietary magnesium intake (Pnonlinearity = 0.024). The greatest risk reduction occurred when intake increased from 150 to 400 mg/d. There was no evidence of publication bias. Conclusions/Significance There is a statistically significant nonlinear inverse association between dietary magnesium intake and total CVD events risk. Serum magnesium concentrations are linearly and inversely associated with the risk of total CVD events. PMID:23520480

Defining Human Failure Events for Petroleum Risk Analysis

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

Ronald L. Boring; Knut Øien

2014-06-01

In this paper, an identification and description of barriers and human failure events (HFEs) for human reliability analysis (HRA) is performed. The barriers, called target systems, are identified from risk significant accident scenarios represented as defined situations of hazard and accident (DSHAs). This report serves as the foundation for further work to develop petroleum HFEs compatible with the SPAR-H method and intended for reuse in future HRAs.

The January 2001, El Salvador event: a multi-data analysis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Vallee, M.; Bouchon, M.; Schwartz, S. Y.

2001-12-01

On January 13, 2001, a large normal event (Mw=7.6) occured 100 kilometers away from the Salvadorian coast (Central America) with a centroid depth of about 50km. The size of this event is surprising according to the classical idea that such events have to be much weaker than thrust events in subduction zones. We analysed this earthquake with different types of data: because teleseismic waves are the only data which offer a good azimuthal coverage, we first built a kinematic source model with P and SH waves provided by the IRIS-GEOSCOPE networks. The ambiguity between the 30o plane (plunging toward Pacific Ocean) and the 60o degree plane (plunging toward Central America) leaded us to do a parallel analysis of the two possible planes. We used a simple point-source modelling in order to define the main characteristics of the event and then used an extended source to retrieve the kinematic features of the rupture. For the 2 possible planes, this analysis reveals a downdip and northwest rupture propagation but the difference of fit remains subtle even when using the extended source. In a second part we confronted our models for the two planes with other seismological data, which are (1) regional data, (2) surface wave data through an Empirical Green Function given by a similar but much weaker earthquake which occured in July 1996 and lastly (3) nearfield data provided by Universidad Centroamericana (UCA) and Centro de Investigationes Geotecnicas (CIG). Regional data do not allow to discriminate the 2 planes neither but surface waves and especially near field data confirm that the fault plane is the steepest one plunging toward Central America. Moreover, the slight directivity toward North is confirmed by surface waves.

Many multicenter trials had few events per center, requiring analysis via random-effects models or GEEs.

PubMed

Kahan, Brennan C; Harhay, Michael O

2015-12-01

Adjustment for center in multicenter trials is recommended when there are between-center differences or when randomization has been stratified by center. However, common methods of analysis (such as fixed-effects, Mantel-Haenszel, or stratified Cox models) often require a large number of patients or events per center to perform well. We reviewed 206 multicenter randomized trials published in four general medical journals to assess the average number of patients and events per center and determine whether appropriate methods of analysis were used in trials with few patients or events per center. The median number of events per center/treatment arm combination for trials using a binary or survival outcome was 3 (interquartile range, 1-10). Sixteen percent of trials had less than 1 event per center/treatment combination, 50% fewer than 3, and 63% fewer than 5. Of the trials which adjusted for center using a method of analysis which requires a large number of events per center, 6% had less than 1 event per center-treatment combination, 25% fewer than 3, and 50% fewer than 5. Methods of analysis that allow for few events per center, such as random-effects models or generalized estimating equations (GEEs), were rarely used. Many multicenter trials contain few events per center. Adjustment for center using random-effects models or GEE with model-based (non-robust) standard errors may be beneficial in these scenarios. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Detection of Abnormal Events via Optical Flow Feature Analysis

PubMed Central

Wang, Tian; Snoussi, Hichem

2015-01-01

In this paper, a novel algorithm is proposed to detect abnormal events in video streams. The algorithm is based on the histogram of the optical flow orientation descriptor and the classification method. The details of the histogram of the optical flow orientation descriptor are illustrated for describing movement information of the global video frame or foreground frame. By combining one-class support vector machine and kernel principal component analysis methods, the abnormal events in the current frame can be detected after a learning period characterizing normal behaviors. The difference abnormal detection results are analyzed and explained. The proposed detection method is tested on benchmark datasets, then the experimental results show the effectiveness of the algorithm. PMID:25811227

Identifying causes of adverse events detected by an automated trigger tool through in-depth analysis.

PubMed

Muething, S E; Conway, P H; Kloppenborg, E; Lesko, A; Schoettker, P J; Seid, M; Kotagal, U

2010-10-01

To describe how in-depth analysis of adverse events can reveal underlying causes. Triggers for adverse events were developed using the hospital's computerised medical record (naloxone for opiate-related oversedation and administration of a glucose bolus while on insulin for insulin-related hypoglycaemia). Triggers were identified daily. Based on information from the medical record and interviews, a subject expert determined if an adverse drug event had occurred and then conducted a real-time analysis to identify event characteristics. Expert groups, consisting of frontline staff and specialist physicians, examined event characteristics and determined the apparent cause. 30 insulin-related hypoglycaemia events and 34 opiate-related oversedation events were identified by the triggers over 16 and 21 months, respectively. In the opinion of the experts, patients receiving continuous-infusion insulin and those receiving dextrose only via parenteral nutrition were at increased risk for insulin-related hypoglycaemia. Lack of standardisation in insulin-dosing decisions and variation regarding when and how much to adjust insulin doses in response to changing glucose levels were identified as common causes of the adverse events. Opiate-related oversedation events often occurred within 48 h of surgery. Variation in pain management in the operating room and post-anaesthesia care unit was identified by the experts as potential causes. Variations in practice, multiple services writing orders, multidrug regimens and variations in interpretation of patient assessments were also noted as potential contributing causes. Identification of adverse drug events through an automated trigger system, supplemented by in-depth analysis, can help identify targets for intervention and improvement.

Discrete event simulation tool for analysis of qualitative models of continuous processing systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Malin, Jane T. (Inventor); Basham, Bryan D. (Inventor); Harris, Richard A. (Inventor)

1990-01-01

An artificial intelligence design and qualitative modeling tool is disclosed for creating computer models and simulating continuous activities, functions, and/or behavior using developed discrete event techniques. Conveniently, the tool is organized in four modules: library design module, model construction module, simulation module, and experimentation and analysis. The library design module supports the building of library knowledge including component classes and elements pertinent to a particular domain of continuous activities, functions, and behavior being modeled. The continuous behavior is defined discretely with respect to invocation statements, effect statements, and time delays. The functionality of the components is defined in terms of variable cluster instances, independent processes, and modes, further defined in terms of mode transition processes and mode dependent processes. Model construction utilizes the hierarchy of libraries and connects them with appropriate relations. The simulation executes a specialized initialization routine and executes events in a manner that includes selective inherency of characteristics through a time and event schema until the event queue in the simulator is emptied. The experimentation and analysis module supports analysis through the generation of appropriate log files and graphics developments and includes the ability of log file comparisons.

Formal Analysis of Key Integrity in PKCS#11

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Falcone, Andrea; Focardi, Riccardo

PKCS#11 is a standard API to cryptographic devices such as smarcards, hardware security modules and usb crypto-tokens. Though widely adopted, this API has been shown to be prone to attacks in which a malicious user gains access to the sensitive keys stored in the devices. In 2008, Delaune, Kremer and Steel proposed a model to formally reason on this kind of attacks. We extend this model to also describe flaws that are based on integrity violations of the stored keys. In particular, we consider scenarios in which a malicious overwriting of keys might fool honest users into using attacker's own keys, while performing sensitive operations. We further enrich the model with a trusted key mechanism ensuring that only controlled, non-tampered keys are used in cryptographic operations, and we show how this modified API prevents the above mentioned key-replacement attacks.

Alternative splicing and trans-splicing events revealed by analysis of the Bombyx mori transcriptome

PubMed Central

Shao, Wei; Zhao, Qiong-Yi; Wang, Xiu-Ye; Xu, Xin-Yan; Tang, Qing; Li, Muwang; Li, Xuan; Xu, Yong-Zhen

2012-01-01

Alternative splicing and trans-splicing events have not been systematically studied in the silkworm Bombyx mori. Here, the silkworm transcriptome was analyzed by RNA-seq. We identified 320 novel genes, modified 1140 gene models, and found thousands of alternative splicing and 58 trans-splicing events. Studies of three SR proteins show that both their alternative splicing patterns and mRNA products are conserved from insect to human, and one isoform of Srsf6 with a retained intron is expressed sex-specifically in silkworm gonads. Trans-splicing of mod(mdg4) in silkworm was experimentally confirmed. We identified integrations from a common 5′-gene with 46 newly identified alternative 3′-exons that are located on both DNA strands over a 500-kb region. Other trans-splicing events in B. mori were predicted by bioinformatic analysis, in which 12 events were confirmed by RT-PCR, six events were further validated by chimeric SNPs, and two events were confirmed by allele-specific RT-PCR in F1 hybrids from distinct silkworm lines of JS and L10, indicating that trans-splicing is more widespread in insects than previously thought. Analysis of the B. mori transcriptome by RNA-seq provides valuable information of regulatory alternative splicing events. The conservation of splicing events across species and newly identified trans-splicing events suggest that B. mori is a good model for future studies. PMID:22627775

Regression Analysis of Mixed Recurrent-Event and Panel-Count Data with Additive Rate Models

PubMed Central

Zhu, Liang; Zhao, Hui; Sun, Jianguo; Leisenring, Wendy; Robison, Leslie L.

2015-01-01

Summary Event-history studies of recurrent events are often conducted in fields such as demography, epidemiology, medicine, and social sciences (Cook and Lawless, 2007; Zhao et al., 2011). For such analysis, two types of data have been extensively investigated: recurrent-event data and panel-count data. However, in practice, one may face a third type of data, mixed recurrent-event and panel-count data or mixed event-history data. Such data occur if some study subjects are monitored or observed continuously and thus provide recurrent-event data, while the others are observed only at discrete times and hence give only panel-count data. A more general situation is that each subject is observed continuously over certain time periods but only at discrete times over other time periods. There exists little literature on the analysis of such mixed data except that published by Zhu et al. (2013). In this paper, we consider the regression analysis of mixed data using the additive rate model and develop some estimating equation-based approaches to estimate the regression parameters of interest. Both finite sample and asymptotic properties of the resulting estimators are established, and the numerical studies suggest that the proposed methodology works well for practical situations. The approach is applied to a Childhood Cancer Survivor Study that motivated this study. PMID:25345405

Waves associated to COMPLEX EVENTS observed by STEREO

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Siu Tapia, A. L.; Blanco-Cano, X.; Kajdic, P.; Aguilar-Rodriguez, E.; Russell, C. T.; Jian, L. K.; Luhmann, J. G.

2012-12-01

Complex Events are formed by two or more large-scale solar wind structures which interact in space. Typical cases are interactions of: (i) a Magnetic Cloud/Interplanetary Coronal Mass Ejection (MC/ICME) with another MC/ICME transient; and (ii) an ICME followed by a Stream Interaction Region (SIR). Complex Events are of importance for space weather studies and studying them can enhance our understanding of collisionless plasma physics. Some of these structures can produce or enhance southward magnetic fields, a key factor in geomagnetic storm generation. Using data from the STEREO mission during the years 2006-2011, we found 17 Complex Events preceded by a shock wave. We use magnetic field and plasma data to study the micro-scale structure of the shocks, and the waves associated to these shocks and within Complex Events structures. To determine wave characteristics we perform Power Spectra and Minimum Variance Analysis. We also use PLASTIC WAP protons data to study foreshock extensions and the relationship between Complex Regions and particle acceleration to suprathermal energies.

Discovering anomalous events from urban informatics data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jayarajah, Kasthuri; Subbaraju, Vigneshwaran; Weerakoon, Dulanga; Misra, Archan; Tam, La Thanh; Athaide, Noel

2017-05-01

Singapore's "smart city" agenda is driving the government to provide public access to a broader variety of urban informatics sources, such as images from traffic cameras and information about buses servicing different bus stops. Such informatics data serves as probes of evolving conditions at different spatiotemporal scales. This paper explores how such multi-modal informatics data can be used to establish the normal operating conditions at different city locations, and then apply appropriate outlier-based analysis techniques to identify anomalous events at these selected locations. We will introduce the overall architecture of sociophysical analytics, where such infrastructural data sources can be combined with social media analytics to not only detect such anomalous events, but also localize and explain them. Using the annual Formula-1 race as our candidate event, we demonstrate a key difference between the discriminative capabilities of different sensing modes: while social media streams provide discriminative signals during or prior to the occurrence of such an event, urban informatics data can often reveal patterns that have higher persistence, including before and after the event. In particular, we shall demonstrate how combining data from (i) publicly available Tweets, (ii) crowd levels aboard buses, and (iii) traffic cameras can help identify the Formula-1 driven anomalies, across different spatiotemporal boundaries.

Preterm Versus Term Children: Analysis of Sedation/Anesthesia Adverse Events and Longitudinal Risk.

PubMed

Havidich, Jeana E; Beach, Michael; Dierdorf, Stephen F; Onega, Tracy; Suresh, Gautham; Cravero, Joseph P

2016-03-01

Preterm and former preterm children frequently require sedation/anesthesia for diagnostic and therapeutic procedures. Our objective was to determine the age at which children who are born <37 weeks gestational age are no longer at increased risk for sedation/anesthesia adverse events. Our secondary objective was to describe the nature and incidence of adverse events. This is a prospective observational study of children receiving sedation/anesthesia for diagnostic and/or therapeutic procedures outside of the operating room by the Pediatric Sedation Research Consortium. A total of 57,227 patients 0 to 22 years of age were eligible for this study. All adverse events and descriptive terms were predefined. Logistic regression and locally weighted scatterplot regression were used for analysis. Preterm and former preterm children had higher adverse event rates (14.7% vs 8.5%) compared with children born at term. Our analysis revealed a biphasic pattern for the development of adverse sedation/anesthesia events. Airway and respiratory adverse events were most commonly reported. MRI scans were the most commonly performed procedures in both categories of patients. Patients born preterm are nearly twice as likely to develop sedation/anesthesia adverse events, and this risk continues up to 23 years of age. We recommend obtaining birth history during the formulation of an anesthetic/sedation plan, with heightened awareness that preterm and former preterm children may be at increased risk. Further prospective studies focusing on the etiology and prevention of adverse events in former preterm patients are warranted. Copyright © 2016 by the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Re-presentations of space in Hollywood movies: an event-indexing analysis.

PubMed

Cutting, James; Iricinschi, Catalina

2015-03-01

Popular movies present chunk-like events (scenes and subscenes) that promote episodic, serial updating of viewers' representations of the ongoing narrative. Event-indexing theory would suggest that the beginnings of new scenes trigger these updates, which in turn require more cognitive processing. Typically, a new movie event is signaled by an establishing shot, one providing more background information and a longer look than the average shot. Our analysis of 24 films reconfirms this. More important, we show that, when returning to a previously shown location, the re-establishing shot reduces both context and duration while remaining greater than the average shot. In general, location shifts dominate character and time shifts in event segmentation of movies. In addition, over the last 70 years re-establishing shots have become more like the noninitial shots of a scene. Establishing shots have also approached noninitial shot scales, but not their durations. Such results suggest that film form is evolving, perhaps to suit more rapid encoding of narrative events. Copyright © 2014 Cognitive Science Society, Inc.

Data driven analysis of rain events: feature extraction, clustering, microphysical /macro physical relationship

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Djallel Dilmi, Mohamed; Mallet, Cécile; Barthes, Laurent; Chazottes, Aymeric

2017-04-01

The study of rain time series records is mainly carried out using rainfall rate or rain accumulation parameters estimated on a fixed integration time (typically 1 min, 1 hour or 1 day). In this study we used the concept of rain event. In fact, the discrete and intermittent natures of rain processes make the definition of some features inadequate when defined on a fixed duration. Long integration times (hour, day) lead to mix rainy and clear air periods in the same sample. Small integration time (seconds, minutes) will lead to noisy data with a great sensibility to detector characteristics. The analysis on the whole rain event instead of individual short duration samples of a fixed duration allows to clarify relationships between features, in particular between macro physical and microphysical ones. This approach allows suppressing the intra-event variability partly due to measurement uncertainties and allows focusing on physical processes. An algorithm based on Genetic Algorithm (GA) and Self Organising Maps (SOM) is developed to obtain a parsimonious characterisation of rain events using a minimal set of variables. The use of self-organizing map (SOM) is justified by the fact that it allows to map a high dimensional data space in a two-dimensional space while preserving as much as possible the initial space topology in an unsupervised way. The obtained SOM allows providing the dependencies between variables and consequently removing redundant variables leading to a minimal subset of only five features (the event duration, the rain rate peak, the rain event depth, the event rain rate standard deviation and the absolute rain rate variation of order 0.5). To confirm relevance of the five selected features the corresponding SOM is analyzed. This analysis shows clearly the existence of relationships between features. It also shows the independence of the inter-event time (IETp) feature or the weak dependence of the Dry percentage in event (Dd%e) feature. This confirms

Geohazard assessment through the analysis of historical alluvial events in Southern Italy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Esposito, Eliana; Violante, Crescenzo

2015-04-01

The risk associated with extreme water events such as flash floods, results from a combination of overflows and landslides hazards. A multi-hazard approach have been utilized to analyze the 1773 flood that occurred in conjunction with heavy rainfall, causing major damage in terms of lost lives and economic cost over an area of 200 km2, including both the coastal strip between Salerno and Maiori and the Apennine hinterland, Campania region - Southern Italy. This area has been affected by a total of 40 flood events over the last five centuries, 26 of them occurred between 1900 and 2000. Streamflow events have produced severe impacts on Cava de' Tirreni (SA) and its territory and in particular four catastrophic floods in 1581, 1773, 1899 and 1954, caused a pervasive pattern of destruction. In the study area, rainstorm events typically occur in small and medium-sized fluvial system, characterized by small catchment areas and high-elevation drainage basins, causing the detachment of large amount of volcaniclastic and siliciclastic covers from the carbonate bedrock. The mobilization of these deposits (slope debris) mixed with rising floodwaters along the water paths can produce fast-moving streamflows of large proportion with significant hazardous implications (Violante et al., 2009). In this context the study of 1773 historical flood allows the detection and the definition of those areas where catastrophic events repeatedly took place over the time. Moreover, it improves the understanding of the phenomena themselves, including some key elements in the management of risk mitigation, such as the restoration of the damage suffered by the buildings and/or the environmental effects caused by the floods.

Improved key-rate bounds for practical decoy-state quantum-key-distribution systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, Zhen; Zhao, Qi; Razavi, Mohsen; Ma, Xiongfeng

2017-01-01

The decoy-state scheme is the most widely implemented quantum-key-distribution protocol in practice. In order to account for the finite-size key effects on the achievable secret key generation rate, a rigorous statistical fluctuation analysis is required. Originally, a heuristic Gaussian-approximation technique was used for this purpose, which, despite its analytical convenience, was not sufficiently rigorous. The fluctuation analysis has recently been made rigorous by using the Chernoff bound. There is a considerable gap, however, between the key-rate bounds obtained from these techniques and that obtained from the Gaussian assumption. Here we develop a tighter bound for the decoy-state method, which yields a smaller failure probability. This improvement results in a higher key rate and increases the maximum distance over which secure key exchange is possible. By optimizing the system parameters, our simulation results show that our method almost closes the gap between the two previously proposed techniques and achieves a performance similar to that of conventional Gaussian approximations.

Analysis of low-frequency seismic signals generated during a multiple-iceberg calving event at Jakobshavn Isbræ, Greenland

USGS Publications Warehouse

Walter, Fabian; Amundson, Jason M.; O'Neel, Shad; Truffer, Martin; Fahnestock, Mark; Fricker, Helen A.

2012-01-01

We investigated seismic signals generated during a large-scale, multiple iceberg calving event that occurred at Jakobshavn Isbræ, Greenland, on 21 August 2009. The event was recorded by a high-rate time-lapse camera and five broadband seismic stations located within a few hundred kilometers of the terminus. During the event two full-glacier-thickness icebergs calved from the grounded (or nearly grounded) terminus and immediately capsized; the second iceberg to calve was two to three times smaller than the first. The individual calving and capsize events were well-correlated with the radiation of low-frequency seismic signals (<0.1 Hz) dominated by Love and Rayleigh waves. In agreement with regional records from previously published ‘glacial earthquakes’, these low-frequency seismic signals had maximum power and/or signal-to-noise ratios in the 0.05–0.1 Hz band. Similarly, full waveform inversions indicate that these signals were also generated by horizontal single forces acting at the glacier terminus. The signals therefore appear to be local manifestations of glacial earthquakes, although the magnitudes of the signals (twice-time integrated force histories) were considerably smaller than previously reported glacial earthquakes. We thus speculate that such earthquakes may be a common, if not pervasive, feature of all full-glacier-thickness calving events from grounded termini. Finally, a key result from our study is that waveform inversions performed on low-frequency, calving-generated seismic signals may have only limited ability to quantitatively estimate mass losses from calving. In particular, the choice of source time function has little impact on the inversion but dramatically changes the earthquake magnitude. Accordingly, in our analysis, it is unclear whether the smaller or larger of the two calving icebergs generated a larger seismic signal.

Key Design Elements of a Data Utility for National Biosurveillance: Event-driven Architecture, Caching, and Web Service Model

PubMed Central

Tsui, Fu-Chiang; Espino, Jeremy U.; Weng, Yan; Choudary, Arvinder; Su, Hoah-Der; Wagner, Michael M.

2005-01-01

The National Retail Data Monitor (NRDM) has monitored over-the-counter (OTC) medication sales in the United States since December 2002. The NRDM collects data from over 18,600 retail stores and processes over 0.6 million sales records per day. This paper describes key architectural features that we have found necessary for a data utility component in a national biosurveillance system. These elements include event-driven architecture to provide analyses of data in near real time, multiple levels of caching to improve query response time, high availability through the use of clustered servers, scalable data storage through the use of storage area networks and a web-service function for interoperation with affiliated systems. The methods and architectural principles are relevant to the design of any production data utility for public health surveillance—systems that collect data from multiple sources in near real time for use by analytic programs and user interfaces that have substantial requirements for time-series data aggregated in multiple dimensions. PMID:16779138

Key design elements of a data utility for national biosurveillance: event-driven architecture, caching, and Web service model.

PubMed

Tsui, Fu-Chiang; Espino, Jeremy U; Weng, Yan; Choudary, Arvinder; Su, Hoah-Der; Wagner, Michael M

2005-01-01

The National Retail Data Monitor (NRDM) has monitored over-the-counter (OTC) medication sales in the United States since December 2002. The NRDM collects data from over 18,600 retail stores and processes over 0.6 million sales records per day. This paper describes key architectural features that we have found necessary for a data utility component in a national biosurveillance system. These elements include event-driven architecture to provide analyses of data in near real time, multiple levels of caching to improve query response time, high availability through the use of clustered servers, scalable data storage through the use of storage area networks and a web-service function for interoperation with affiliated systems. The methods and architectural principles are relevant to the design of any production data utility for public health surveillance-systems that collect data from multiple sources in near real time for use by analytic programs and user interfaces that have substantial requirements for time-series data aggregated in multiple dimensions.

Predicting analysis time in events-driven clinical trials using accumulating time-to-event surrogate information.

PubMed

Wang, Jianming; Ke, Chunlei; Yu, Zhinuan; Fu, Lei; Dornseif, Bruce

2016-05-01

For clinical trials with time-to-event endpoints, predicting the accrual of the events of interest with precision is critical in determining the timing of interim and final analyses. For example, overall survival (OS) is often chosen as the primary efficacy endpoint in oncology studies, with planned interim and final analyses at a pre-specified number of deaths. Often, correlated surrogate information, such as time-to-progression (TTP) and progression-free survival, are also collected as secondary efficacy endpoints. It would be appealing to borrow strength from the surrogate information to improve the precision of the analysis time prediction. Currently available methods in the literature for predicting analysis timings do not consider utilizing the surrogate information. In this article, using OS and TTP as an example, a general parametric model for OS and TTP is proposed, with the assumption that disease progression could change the course of the overall survival. Progression-free survival, related both to OS and TTP, will be handled separately, as it can be derived from OS and TTP. The authors seek to develop a prediction procedure using a Bayesian method and provide detailed implementation strategies under certain assumptions. Simulations are performed to evaluate the performance of the proposed method. An application to a real study is also provided. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Large-scale Meteorological Patterns Associated with Extreme Precipitation Events over Portland, OR

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Aragon, C.; Loikith, P. C.; Lintner, B. R.; Pike, M.

2017-12-01

Extreme precipitation events can have profound impacts on human life and infrastructure, with broad implications across a range of stakeholders. Changes to extreme precipitation events are a projected outcome of climate change that warrants further study, especially at regional- to local-scales. While global climate models are generally capable of simulating mean climate at global-to-regional scales with reasonable skill, resiliency and adaptation decisions are made at local-scales where most state-of-the-art climate models are limited by coarse resolution. Characterization of large-scale meteorological patterns associated with extreme precipitation events at local-scales can provide climatic information without this scale limitation, thus facilitating stakeholder decision-making. This research will use synoptic climatology as a tool by which to characterize the key large-scale meteorological patterns associated with extreme precipitation events in the Portland, Oregon metro region. Composite analysis of meteorological patterns associated with extreme precipitation days, and associated watershed-specific flooding, is employed to enhance understanding of the climatic drivers behind such events. The self-organizing maps approach is then used to characterize the within-composite variability of the large-scale meteorological patterns associated with extreme precipitation events, allowing us to better understand the different types of meteorological conditions that lead to high-impact precipitation events and associated hydrologic impacts. A more comprehensive understanding of the meteorological drivers of extremes will aid in evaluation of the ability of climate models to capture key patterns associated with extreme precipitation over Portland and to better interpret projections of future climate at impact-relevant scales.

Two Point Autocorrelation Analysis of Auger Highest Energy Events Backtracked in Galactic Magnetic Field

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Petrov, Yevgeniy

2009-10-01

Searches for sources of the highest-energy cosmic rays traditionally have included looking for clusters of event arrival directions on the sky. The smallest cluster is a pair of events falling within some angular window. In contrast to the standard two point (2-pt) autocorrelation analysis, this work takes into account influence of the galactic magnetic field (GMF). The highest energy events, those above 50EeV, collected by the surface detector of the Pierre Auger Observatory between January 1, 2004 and May 31, 2009 are used in the analysis. Having assumed protons as primaries, events are backtracked through BSS/S, BSS/A, ASS/S and ASS/A versions of Harari-Mollerach-Roulet (HMR) model of the GMF. For each version of the model, a 2-pt autocorrelation analysis is applied to the backtracked events and to 105 isotropic Monte Carlo realizations weighted by the Auger exposure. Scans in energy, separation angular window and different model parameters reveal clustering at different angular scales. Small angle clustering at 2-3 deg is particularly interesting and it is compared between different field scenarios. The strength of the autocorrelation signal at those angular scales differs between BSS and ASS versions of the HMR model. The BSS versions of the model tend to defocus protons as they arrive to Earth whereas for the ASS, in contrary, it is more likely to focus them.

Advanced Reactor Passive System Reliability Demonstration Analysis for an External Event

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

Bucknor, Matthew D.; Grabaskas, David; Brunett, Acacia J.

2016-01-01

Many advanced reactor designs rely on passive systems to fulfill safety functions during accident sequences. These systems depend heavily on boundary conditions to induce a motive force, meaning the system can fail to operate as intended due to deviations in boundary conditions, rather than as the result of physical failures. Furthermore, passive systems may operate in intermediate or degraded modes. These factors make passive system operation difficult to characterize within a traditional probabilistic framework that only recognizes discrete operating modes and does not allow for the explicit consideration of time-dependent boundary conditions. Argonne National Laboratory has been examining various methodologiesmore » for assessing passive system reliability within a probabilistic risk assessment for a station blackout event at an advanced small modular reactor. This paper provides an overview of a passive system reliability demonstration analysis for an external event. Centering on an earthquake with the possibility of site flooding, the analysis focuses on the behavior of the passive reactor cavity cooling system following potential physical damage and system flooding. The assessment approach seeks to combine mechanistic and simulation-based methods to leverage the benefits of the simulation-based approach without the need to substantially deviate from conventional probabilistic risk assessment techniques. While this study is presented as only an example analysis, the results appear to demonstrate a high level of reliability for the reactor cavity cooling system (and the reactor system in general) to the postulated transient event.« less

Advanced Reactor Passive System Reliability Demonstration Analysis for an External Event

DOE PAGES

Bucknor, Matthew; Grabaskas, David; Brunett, Acacia J.; ...

2017-01-24

We report that many advanced reactor designs rely on passive systems to fulfill safety functions during accident sequences. These systems depend heavily on boundary conditions to induce a motive force, meaning the system can fail to operate as intended because of deviations in boundary conditions, rather than as the result of physical failures. Furthermore, passive systems may operate in intermediate or degraded modes. These factors make passive system operation difficult to characterize within a traditional probabilistic framework that only recognizes discrete operating modes and does not allow for the explicit consideration of time-dependent boundary conditions. Argonne National Laboratory has beenmore » examining various methodologies for assessing passive system reliability within a probabilistic risk assessment for a station blackout event at an advanced small modular reactor. This paper provides an overview of a passive system reliability demonstration analysis for an external event. Considering an earthquake with the possibility of site flooding, the analysis focuses on the behavior of the passive Reactor Cavity Cooling System following potential physical damage and system flooding. The assessment approach seeks to combine mechanistic and simulation-based methods to leverage the benefits of the simulation-based approach without the need to substantially deviate from conventional probabilistic risk assessment techniques. Lastly, although this study is presented as only an example analysis, the results appear to demonstrate a high level of reliability of the Reactor Cavity Cooling System (and the reactor system in general) for the postulated transient event.« less

Asymmetry of perceived key movement in chorale sequences: converging evidence from a probe-tone analysis.

PubMed

Cuddy, L L; Thompson, W F

1992-01-01

In a probe-tone experiment, two groups of listeners--one trained, the other untrained, in traditional music theory--rated the goodness of fit of each of the 12 notes of the chromatic scale to four-voice harmonic sequences. Sequences were 12 simplified excerpts from Bach chorales, 4 nonmodulating, and 8 modulating. Modulations occurred either one or two steps in either the clockwise or the counterclockwise direction on the cycle of fifths. A consistent pattern of probe-tone ratings was obtained for each sequence, with no significant differences between listener groups. Two methods of analysis (Fourier analysis and regression analysis) revealed a directional asymmetry in the perceived key movement conveyed by modulating sequences. For a given modulation distance, modulations in the counterclockwise direction effected a clearer shift in tonal organization toward the final key than did clockwise modulations. The nature of the directional asymmetry was consistent with results reported for identification and rating of key change in the sequences (Thompson & Cuddy, 1989a). Further, according to the multiple-regression analysis, probe-tone ratings did not merely reflect the distribution of tones in the sequence. Rather, ratings were sensitive to the temporal structure of the tonal organization in the sequence.

What can we learn from the deadly flash floods? Post Event Review Capability (PERC) analysis of the Bavaria and Baden-Wurttemberg flood events in Summer 2016

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Szoenyi, Michael

2017-04-01

In May/June 2016, stationary low pressure systems brought intense rainfall with record-braking intensities of well above 100 mm rain in few hours locally in the southern states of Baden-Wurttemberg and Bavaria, Germany. In steep terrains, small channels and creeks became devastating torrents impacting, among others, the villages of Simbach/Inn, Schwäbisch-Gmünd and Braunsbach. Just few days prior, France had also seen devastating rainfall and flooding. Damage in Germany alone is estimated at 2.8 M USD, of which less than 50% are insured. The loss of life was significant, with 18 fatalities reported across the events. This new forensic event analysis as part of Zurich's Post Event Review Capability (PERC) investigates the flash flood events following these record rainfalls in Southern Germany and tries to answer the following questions holistically, across the five capitals (5C) and the full disaster risk management (DRM) cycle, which are key to understanding how to become more resilient to such flood events: - Why have these intense rainfall events led to such devastating consequences? The EU Floods directive and its implementation in the various member states, as well as the 2002 and 2013 Germany floods, have focused on larger rivers and the main asset concentration. The pathway and mechanism of the 2016 floods are very different and need to be better understood. Flash floods and surface flooding may need to become the new focus and be much better communicated to people at risk, as the awareness for such perils has been identified as low. - How can the prevalence for such flash floods be better identified and mapped? Research indicated that affected people and decision makers alike attribute the occurrence of such flash floods as arbitrary, but we argue that hotspots can and must be identified based on an overlay of rainfall intensity maps, topography leading to flash flood processes, and vulnerable assets. In Germany, there are currently no comprehensive hazard

Fault Tree Analysis: An Operations Research Tool for Identifying and Reducing Undesired Events in Training.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Barker, Bruce O.; Petersen, Paul D.

This paper explores the fault-tree analysis approach to isolating failure modes within a system. Fault tree investigates potentially undesirable events and then looks for failures in sequence that would lead to their occurring. Relationships among these events are symbolized by AND or OR logic gates, AND used when single events must coexist to…

Element analysis: a wavelet-based method for analysing time-localized events in noisy time series.

PubMed

Lilly, Jonathan M

2017-04-01

A method is derived for the quantitative analysis of signals that are composed of superpositions of isolated, time-localized 'events'. Here, these events are taken to be well represented as rescaled and phase-rotated versions of generalized Morse wavelets, a broad family of continuous analytic functions. Analysing a signal composed of replicates of such a function using another Morse wavelet allows one to directly estimate the properties of events from the values of the wavelet transform at its own maxima. The distribution of events in general power-law noise is determined in order to establish significance based on an expected false detection rate. Finally, an expression for an event's 'region of influence' within the wavelet transform permits the formation of a criterion for rejecting spurious maxima due to numerical artefacts or other unsuitable events. Signals can then be reconstructed based on a small number of isolated points on the time/scale plane. This method, termed element analysis , is applied to the identification of long-lived eddy structures in ocean currents as observed by along-track measurements of sea surface elevation from satellite altimetry.

Requirements analysis for a hardware, discrete-event, simulation engine accelerator

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Taylor, Paul J., Jr.

1991-12-01

An analysis of a general Discrete Event Simulation (DES), executing on the distributed architecture of an eight mode Intel PSC/2 hypercube, was performed. The most time consuming portions of the general DES algorithm were determined to be the functions associated with message passing of required simulation data between processing nodes of the hypercube architecture. A behavioral description, using the IEEE standard VHSIC Hardware Description and Design Language (VHDL), for a general DES hardware accelerator is presented. The behavioral description specifies the operational requirements for a DES coprocessor to augment the hypercube's execution of DES simulations. The DES coprocessor design implements the functions necessary to perform distributed discrete event simulations using a conservative time synchronization protocol.

Rule-Based Event Processing and Reaction Rules

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Paschke, Adrian; Kozlenkov, Alexander

Reaction rules and event processing technologies play a key role in making business and IT / Internet infrastructures more agile and active. While event processing is concerned with detecting events from large event clouds or streams in almost real-time, reaction rules are concerned with the invocation of actions in response to events and actionable situations. They state the conditions under which actions must be taken. In the last decades various reaction rule and event processing approaches have been developed, which for the most part have been advanced separately. In this paper we survey reaction rule approaches and rule-based event processing systems and languages.

Multi-spacecraft solar energetic particle analysis of FERMI gamma-ray flare events within the HESPERIA H2020 project

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tziotziou, Kostas; Malandraki, Olga; Valtonen, Eino; Heber, Bernd; Zucca, Pietro; Klein, Karl-Ludwig; Vainio, Rami; Tsiropoula, Georgia; Share, Gerald

2017-04-01

Multi-spacecraft observations of solar energetic particle (SEP) events are important for understanding the acceleration processes and the interplanetary propagation of particles released during eruptive events. In this work, we have carefully studied 25 gamma-ray flare events observed by FERMI and investigated possible associations with SEP-related events observed with STEREO and L1 spacecraft in the heliosphere. A data-driven velocity dispersion analysis (VDA) and Time-Shifting Analysis (TSA) are used for deriving the release times of protons and electrons at the Sun and for comparing them with the respective times stemming from the gamma-ray event analysis and their X-ray signatures, in an attempt to interconnect the SEPs and Fermi events and better understand the physics involved. Acknowledgements: This project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement No 637324.

Modeling time-to-event (survival) data using classification tree analysis.

PubMed

Linden, Ariel; Yarnold, Paul R

2017-12-01

Time to the occurrence of an event is often studied in health research. Survival analysis differs from other designs in that follow-up times for individuals who do not experience the event by the end of the study (called censored) are accounted for in the analysis. Cox regression is the standard method for analysing censored data, but the assumptions required of these models are easily violated. In this paper, we introduce classification tree analysis (CTA) as a flexible alternative for modelling censored data. Classification tree analysis is a "decision-tree"-like classification model that provides parsimonious, transparent (ie, easy to visually display and interpret) decision rules that maximize predictive accuracy, derives exact P values via permutation tests, and evaluates model cross-generalizability. Using empirical data, we identify all statistically valid, reproducible, longitudinally consistent, and cross-generalizable CTA survival models and then compare their predictive accuracy to estimates derived via Cox regression and an unadjusted naïve model. Model performance is assessed using integrated Brier scores and a comparison between estimated survival curves. The Cox regression model best predicts average incidence of the outcome over time, whereas CTA survival models best predict either relatively high, or low, incidence of the outcome over time. Classification tree analysis survival models offer many advantages over Cox regression, such as explicit maximization of predictive accuracy, parsimony, statistical robustness, and transparency. Therefore, researchers interested in accurate prognoses and clear decision rules should consider developing models using the CTA-survival framework. © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Mining key elements for severe convection prediction based on CNN

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Liu, Ming; Pan, Ning; Zhang, Changan; Sha, Hongzhou; Zhang, Bolei; Liu, Liang; Zhang, Meng

2017-04-01

Severe convective weather is a kind of weather disasters accompanied by heavy rainfall, gust wind, hail, etc. Along with recent developments on remote sensing and numerical modeling, there are high-volume and long-term observational and modeling data accumulated to capture massive severe convective events over particular areas and time periods. With those high-volume and high-variety weather data, most of the existing studies and methods carry out the dynamical laws, cause analysis, potential rule study, and prediction enhancement by utilizing the governing equations from fluid dynamics and thermodynamics. In this study, a key-element mining method is proposed for severe convection prediction based on convolution neural network (CNN). It aims to identify the key areas and key elements from huge amounts of historical weather data including conventional measurements, weather radar, satellite, so as numerical modeling and/or reanalysis data. Under this manner, the machine-learning based method could help the human forecasters on their decision-making on operational weather forecasts on severe convective weathers by extracting key information from the real-time and historical weather big data. In this paper, it first utilizes computer vision technology to complete the data preprocessing work of the meteorological variables. Then, it utilizes the information such as radar map and expert knowledge to annotate all images automatically. And finally, by using CNN model, it cloud analyze and evaluate each weather elements (e.g., particular variables, patterns, features, etc.), and identify key areas of those critical weather elements, then help forecasters quickly screen out the key elements from huge amounts of observation data by current weather conditions. Based on the rich weather measurement and model data (up to 10 years) over Fujian province in China, where the severe convective weathers are very active during the summer months, experimental tests are conducted with

Uncovering key patterns in self-harm in adolescents: Sequence analysis using the Card Sort Task for Self-harm (CaTS).

PubMed

Townsend, E; Wadman, R; Sayal, K; Armstrong, M; Harroe, C; Majumder, P; Vostanis, P; Clarke, D

2016-12-01

Self-harm is a significant clinical issue in adolescence. There is little research on the interplay of key factors in the months, weeks, days and hours leading to self-harm. We developed the Card Sort Task for Self-harm (CaTS) to investigate the pattern of thoughts, feelings, events and behaviours leading to self-harm. Forty-five young people (aged 13-21 years) with recent repeated self-harm completed the CaTS to describe their first ever/most recent self-harm episode. Lag sequential analysis determined significant transitions in factors leading to self-harm (presented in state transition diagrams). A significant sequential structure to the card sequences produced was observed demonstrating similarities and important differences in antecedents to first and most recent self-harm. Life-events were distal in the self-harm pathway and more heterogeneous. Of significant clinical concern was that the wish to die and hopelessness emerged as important antecedents in the most recent episode. First ever self-harm was associated with feeling better afterward, but this disappeared for the most recent episode. Larger sample sizes are necessary to examine longer chains of sequences and differences in genders, age and type of self-harm. The sample was self-selected with 53% having experience of living in care. The CaTs offers a systematic approach to understanding the dynamic interplay of factors that lead to self-harm in young people. It offers a method to target key points for intervention in the self-harm pathway. Crucially the factors most proximal to self-harm (negative emotions, impulsivity and access to means) are modifiable with existing clinical interventions. Copyright © 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Finite-key analysis for quantum key distribution with weak coherent pulses based on Bernoulli sampling

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kawakami, Shun; Sasaki, Toshihiko; Koashi, Masato

2017-07-01

An essential step in quantum key distribution is the estimation of parameters related to the leaked amount of information, which is usually done by sampling of the communication data. When the data size is finite, the final key rate depends on how the estimation process handles statistical fluctuations. Many of the present security analyses are based on the method with simple random sampling, where hypergeometric distribution or its known bounds are used for the estimation. Here we propose a concise method based on Bernoulli sampling, which is related to binomial distribution. Our method is suitable for the Bennett-Brassard 1984 (BB84) protocol with weak coherent pulses [C. H. Bennett and G. Brassard, Proceedings of the IEEE Conference on Computers, Systems and Signal Processing (IEEE, New York, 1984), Vol. 175], reducing the number of estimated parameters to achieve a higher key generation rate compared to the method with simple random sampling. We also apply the method to prove the security of the differential-quadrature-phase-shift (DQPS) protocol in the finite-key regime. The result indicates that the advantage of the DQPS protocol over the phase-encoding BB84 protocol in terms of the key rate, which was previously confirmed in the asymptotic regime, persists in the finite-key regime.

Neural network approach in multichannel auditory event-related potential analysis.

PubMed

Wu, F Y; Slater, J D; Ramsay, R E

1994-04-01

Even though there are presently no clearly defined criteria for the assessment of P300 event-related potential (ERP) abnormality, it is strongly indicated through statistical analysis that such criteria exist for classifying control subjects and patients with diseases resulting in neuropsychological impairment such as multiple sclerosis (MS). We have demonstrated the feasibility of artificial neural network (ANN) methods in classifying ERP waveforms measured at a single channel (Cz) from control subjects and MS patients. In this paper, we report the results of multichannel ERP analysis and a modified network analysis methodology to enhance automation of the classification rule extraction process. The proposed methodology significantly reduces the work of statistical analysis. It also helps to standardize the criteria of P300 ERP assessment and facilitate the computer-aided analysis on neuropsychological functions.

Geophysical Hazards and Preventive Disaster Management of Extreme Natural Events

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ismail-Zadeh, A.; Takeuchi, K.

2007-12-01

Geophysical hazard is potentially damaging natural event and/or phenomenon, which may cause the loss of life or injury, property damage, social and economic disruption, or environmental degradation. Extreme natural hazards are a key manifestation of the complex hierarchical nonlinear Earth system. An understanding, accurate modeling and forecasting of the extreme hazards are most important scientific challenges. Several recent extreme natural events (e.g., 2004 Great Indian Ocean Earthquake and Tsunami and the 2005 violent Katrina hurricane) demonstrated strong coupling between solid Earth and ocean, and ocean and atmosphere. These events resulted in great humanitarian tragedies because of a weak preventive disaster management. The less often natural events occur (and the extreme events are rare by definition), the more often the disaster managers postpone the preparedness to the events. The tendency to reduce the funding for preventive disaster management of natural catastrophes is seldom follows the rules of responsible stewardship for future generations neither in developing countries nor in highly developed economies where it must be considered next to malfeasance. Protecting human life and property against earthquake disasters requires an uninterrupted chain of tasks: from (i) understanding of physics of the events, analysis and monitoring, through (ii) interpretation, modeling, hazard assessment, and prediction, to (iii) public awareness, preparedness, and preventive disaster management.

Transcriptome and metabolome of synthetic Solanum autotetraploids reveal key genomic stress events following polyploidization.

PubMed

Fasano, Carlo; Diretto, Gianfranco; Aversano, Riccardo; D'Agostino, Nunzio; Di Matteo, Antonio; Frusciante, Luigi; Giuliano, Giovanni; Carputo, Domenico

2016-06-01

Polyploids are generally classified as autopolyploids, derived from a single species, and allopolyploids, arising from interspecific hybridization. The former represent ideal materials with which to study the consequences of genome doubling and ascertain whether there are molecular and functional rules operating following polyploidization events. To investigate whether the effects of autopolyploidization are common to different species, or if species-specific or stochastic events are prevalent, we performed a comprehensive transcriptomic and metabolomic characterization of diploids and autotetraploids of Solanum commersonii and Solanum bulbocastanum. Autopolyploidization remodelled the transcriptome and the metabolome of both species. In S. commersonii, differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were highly enriched in pericentromeric regions. Most changes were stochastic, suggesting a strong genotypic response. However, a set of robustly regulated transcripts and metabolites was also detected, including purine bases and nucleosides, which are likely to underlie a common response to polyploidization. We hypothesize that autopolyploidization results in nucleotide pool imbalance, which in turn triggers a genomic shock responsible for the stochastic events observed. The more extensive genomic stress and the higher number of stochastic events observed in S. commersonii with respect to S. bulbocastanum could be the result of the higher nucleoside depletion observed in this species. © 2016 The Authors. New Phytologist © 2016 New Phytologist Trust.

Ramadan fasting is not usually associated with the risk of cardiovascular events: A systematic review and meta-analysis

PubMed Central

Turin, Tanvir C.; Ahmed, Salim; Shommu, Nusrat S.; Afzal, Arfan R.; Al Mamun, Mohammad; Qasqas, Mahdi; Rumana, Nahid; Vaska, Marcus; Berka, Noureddine

2016-01-01

Over one billion Muslims worldwide fast during the month of Ramadan. Ramadan fasting brings about some changes in the daily lives of practicing Muslims, especially in their diet and sleep patterns, which are associated with the risk of cardiovascular diseases. Over the years, many original studies have made the effort to identify the possible impact of the Ramadan fast on cardiovascular diseases. This systematic review and meta-analysis is an attempt to present the summary of key findings from those articles and an appraisal of selected literature. A systematic search using keywords of “;Ramadan fasting” and “;cardiovascular diseases” was conducted in primary research article and gray-literature repositories, in combination with hand searching and snow balling. Fifteen studies were finally selected for data extraction on the outcomes of stroke, myocardial infarction, and congestive heart failure. The analysis revealed that the incidence of cardiovascular events during the Ramadan fast was similar to the nonfasting period. Ramadan fast is not associated with any change in incidence of acute cardiovascular disease. PMID:27186152

Impact of including or excluding both-armed zero-event studies on using standard meta-analysis methods for rare event outcome: a simulation study

PubMed Central

Cheng, Ji; Pullenayegum, Eleanor; Marshall, John K; Thabane, Lehana

2016-01-01

Objectives There is no consensus on whether studies with no observed events in the treatment and control arms, the so-called both-armed zero-event studies, should be included in a meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials (RCTs). Current analytic approaches handled them differently depending on the choice of effect measures and authors' discretion. Our objective is to evaluate the impact of including or excluding both-armed zero-event (BA0E) studies in meta-analysis of RCTs with rare outcome events through a simulation study. Method We simulated 2500 data sets for different scenarios varying the parameters of baseline event rate, treatment effect and number of patients in each trial, and between-study variance. We evaluated the performance of commonly used pooling methods in classical meta-analysis—namely, Peto, Mantel-Haenszel with fixed-effects and random-effects models, and inverse variance method with fixed-effects and random-effects models—using bias, root mean square error, length of 95% CI and coverage. Results The overall performance of the approaches of including or excluding BA0E studies in meta-analysis varied according to the magnitude of true treatment effect. Including BA0E studies introduced very little bias, decreased mean square error, narrowed the 95% CI and increased the coverage when no true treatment effect existed. However, when a true treatment effect existed, the estimates from the approach of excluding BA0E studies led to smaller bias than including them. Among all evaluated methods, the Peto method excluding BA0E studies gave the least biased results when a true treatment effect existed. Conclusions We recommend including BA0E studies when treatment effects are unlikely, but excluding them when there is a decisive treatment effect. Providing results of including and excluding BA0E studies to assess the robustness of the pooled estimated effect is a sensible way to communicate the results of a meta-analysis when the treatment

Survey of critical failure events in on-chip interconnect by fault tree analysis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yokogawa, Shinji; Kunii, Kyousuke

2018-07-01

In this paper, a framework based on reliability physics is proposed for adopting fault tree analysis (FTA) to the on-chip interconnect system of a semiconductor. By integrating expert knowledge and experience regarding the possibilities of failure on basic events, critical issues of on-chip interconnect reliability will be evaluated by FTA. In particular, FTA is used to identify the minimal cut sets with high risk priority. Critical events affecting the on-chip interconnect reliability are identified and discussed from the viewpoint of long-term reliability assessment. The moisture impact is evaluated as an external event.

Characterization Of Dissolved Organic Mattter In The Florida Keys Ecosystem

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Adams, D. G.; Shank, G. C.

2009-12-01

Over the past few decades, Scleractinian coral populations in the Florida Keys have increasingly experienced mortality due to bleaching events as well as microbial mediated illnesses such as black band and white band disease. Such pathologies seem to be most correlated with elevated sea surface temperatures, increased UV exposures, and shifts in the microbial community living on the coral itself. Recent studies indicate that corals’ exposure to UV in the Florida Keys is primarily controlled by the concentration of CDOM (Chromophoric Dissolved Organic Matter) in the water column. Further, microbial community alterations may be linked to changes in concentration and chemical composition of the larger DOM (Dissolved Organic Matter) pool. Our research characterized the spatial and temporal properties of DOM in Florida Bay and along the Keys ecosystems using DOC analyses, in-situ water column optical measurements, and spectral analyses including absorbance and fluorescence measurements. We analyzed DOM characteristics along transects running from the mouth of the Shark River at the southwest base of the Everglades, through Florida Bay, and along near-shore Keys coastal waters. Two 12 hour time-series samplings were also performed at the Seven-Mile Bridge, the primary Florida Bay discharge channel to the lower Keys region. Photo-bleaching experiments showed that the chemical characteristics of the DOM pool are altered by exposure to solar radiation. Results also show that DOC (~0.8-5.8 mg C/L) and CDOM (~0.5-16.5 absorbance coefficient at 305nm) concentrations exhibit seasonal fluctuations in our study region. EEM analyses suggest seasonal transitions between primarily marine (summer) and terrestrial (winter) sources along the Keys. We are currently combining EEM-PARAFAC analysis with in-situ optical measurements to model changes in the spectral properties of DOM in the water column. Additionally, we are using stable δ13C isotopic analysis to further characterize DOM

Systematic identification and analysis of frequent gene fusion events in metabolic pathways

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

Henry, Christopher S.; Lerma-Ortiz, Claudia; Gerdes, Svetlana Y.

Here, gene fusions are the most powerful type of in silico-derived functional associations. However, many fusion compilations were made when <100 genomes were available, and algorithms for identifying fusions need updating to handle the current avalanche of sequenced genomes. The availability of a large fusion dataset would help probe functional associations and enable systematic analysis of where and why fusion events occur. As a result, here we present a systematic analysis of fusions in prokaryotes. We manually generated two training sets: (i) 121 fusions in the model organism Escherichia coli; (ii) 131 fusions found in B vitamin metabolism. These setsmore » were used to develop a fusion prediction algorithm that captured the training set fusions with only 7 % false negatives and 50 % false positives, a substantial improvement over existing approaches. This algorithm was then applied to identify 3.8 million potential fusions across 11,473 genomes. The results of the analysis are available in a searchable database. A functional analysis identified 3,000 reactions associated with frequent fusion events and revealed areas of metabolism where fusions are particularly prevalent. In conclusion, customary definitions of fusions were shown to be ambiguous, and a stricter one was proposed. Exploring the genes participating in fusion events showed that they most commonly encode transporters, regulators, and metabolic enzymes. The major rationales for fusions between metabolic genes appear to be overcoming pathway bottlenecks, avoiding toxicity, controlling competing pathways, and facilitating expression and assembly of protein complexes. Finally, our fusion dataset provides powerful clues to decipher the biological activities of domains of unknown function.« less

Systematic identification and analysis of frequent gene fusion events in metabolic pathways

DOE PAGES

Henry, Christopher S.; Lerma-Ortiz, Claudia; Gerdes, Svetlana Y.; ...

2016-06-24

Here, gene fusions are the most powerful type of in silico-derived functional associations. However, many fusion compilations were made when <100 genomes were available, and algorithms for identifying fusions need updating to handle the current avalanche of sequenced genomes. The availability of a large fusion dataset would help probe functional associations and enable systematic analysis of where and why fusion events occur. As a result, here we present a systematic analysis of fusions in prokaryotes. We manually generated two training sets: (i) 121 fusions in the model organism Escherichia coli; (ii) 131 fusions found in B vitamin metabolism. These setsmore » were used to develop a fusion prediction algorithm that captured the training set fusions with only 7 % false negatives and 50 % false positives, a substantial improvement over existing approaches. This algorithm was then applied to identify 3.8 million potential fusions across 11,473 genomes. The results of the analysis are available in a searchable database. A functional analysis identified 3,000 reactions associated with frequent fusion events and revealed areas of metabolism where fusions are particularly prevalent. In conclusion, customary definitions of fusions were shown to be ambiguous, and a stricter one was proposed. Exploring the genes participating in fusion events showed that they most commonly encode transporters, regulators, and metabolic enzymes. The major rationales for fusions between metabolic genes appear to be overcoming pathway bottlenecks, avoiding toxicity, controlling competing pathways, and facilitating expression and assembly of protein complexes. Finally, our fusion dataset provides powerful clues to decipher the biological activities of domains of unknown function.« less

Recognition of maximum flooding events in mixed siliciclastic-carbonate systems: Key to global chronostratigraphic correlation

USGS Publications Warehouse

Mancini, E.A.; Tew, B.H.

1997-01-01

The maximum flooding event within a depositional sequence is an important datum for correlation because it represents a virtually synchronous horizon. This event is typically recognized by a distinctive physical surface and/or a significant change in microfossil assemblages (relative fossil abundance peaks) in siliciclastic deposits from shoreline to continental slope environments in a passive margin setting. Recognition of maximum flooding events in mixed siliciclastic-carbonate sediments is more complicated because the entire section usually represents deposition in continental shelf environments with varying rates of biologic and carbonate productivity versus siliciclastic influx. Hence, this event cannot be consistently identified simply by relative fossil abundance peaks. Factors such as siliciclastic input, carbonate productivity, sediment accumulation rates, and paleoenvironmental conditions dramatically affect the relative abundances of microfossils. Failure to recognize these complications can lead to a sequence stratigraphic interpretation that substantially overestimates the number of depositional sequences of 1 to 10 m.y. duration.

Diagnostic evaluation of distributed physically based model at the REW scale (THREW) using rainfall-runoff event analysis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tian, F.; Sivapalan, M.; Li, H.; Hu, H.

2007-12-01

The importance of diagnostic analysis of hydrological models is increasingly recognized by the scientific community (M. Sivapalan, et al., 2003; H. V. Gupta, et al., 2007). Model diagnosis refers to model structures and parameters being identified not only by statistical comparison of system state variables and outputs but also by process understanding in a specific watershed. Process understanding can be gained by the analysis of observational data and model results at the specific watershed as well as through regionalization. Although remote sensing technology can provide valuable data about the inputs, state variables, and outputs of the hydrological system, observational rainfall-runoff data still constitute the most accurate, reliable, direct, and thus a basic component of hydrology related database. One critical question in model diagnostic analysis is, therefore, what signature characteristic can we extract from rainfall and runoff data. To this date only a few studies have focused on this question, such as Merz et al. (2006) and Lana-Renault et al. (2007), still none of these studies related event analysis with model diagnosis in an explicit, rigorous, and systematic manner. Our work focuses on the identification of the dominant runoff generation mechanisms from event analysis of rainfall-runoff data, including correlation analysis and analysis of timing pattern. The correlation analysis involves the identification of the complex relationship among rainfall depth, intensity, runoff coefficient, and antecedent conditions, and the timing pattern analysis aims to identify the clustering pattern of runoff events in relation to the patterns of rainfall events. Our diagnostic analysis illustrates the changing pattern of runoff generation mechanisms in the DMIP2 test watersheds located in Oklahoma region, which is also well recognized by numerical simulations based on TsingHua Representative Elementary Watershed (THREW) model. The result suggests the usefulness of

Assessing and quantifying changes in precipitation patterns using event-driven analysis

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Studies have claimed that climate change may adversely affect precipitation patterns by increasing the occurrence of extreme events. The effects of climate change on precipitation is expected to take place over a long period of time and will require long-term data to demonstrate. Frequency analysis ...

Sources of Infrasound events listed in IDC Reviewed Event Bulletin

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bittner, Paulina; Polich, Paul; Gore, Jane; Ali, Sherif; Medinskaya, Tatiana; Mialle, Pierrick

2017-04-01

Until 2003 two waveform technologies, i.e. seismic and hydroacoustic were used to detect and locate events included in the International Data Centre (IDC) Reviewed Event Bulletin (REB). The first atmospheric event was published in the REB in 2003, however automatic processing required significant improvements to reduce the number of false events. In the beginning of 2010 the infrasound technology was reintroduced to the IDC operations and has contributed to both automatic and reviewed IDC bulletins. The primary contribution of infrasound technology is to detect atmospheric events. These events may also be observed at seismic stations, which will significantly improve event location. Examples sources of REB events, which were detected by the International Monitoring System (IMS) infrasound network were fireballs (e.g. Bangkok fireball, 2015), volcanic eruptions (e.g. Calbuco, Chile 2015) and large surface explosions (e.g. Tjanjin, China 2015). Query blasts (e.g. Zheleznogorsk) and large earthquakes (e.g. Italy 2016) belong to events primarily recorded at seismic stations of the IMS network but often detected at the infrasound stations. In case of earthquakes analysis of infrasound signals may help to estimate the area affected by ground vibration. Infrasound associations to query blast events may help to obtain better source location. The role of IDC analysts is to verify and improve location of events detected by the automatic system and to add events which were missed in the automatic process. Open source materials may help to identify nature of some events. Well recorded examples may be added to the Reference Infrasound Event Database to help in analysis process. This presentation will provide examples of events generated by different sources which were included in the IDC bulletins.

A Hierarchical Convolutional Neural Network for vesicle fusion event classification.

PubMed

Li, Haohan; Mao, Yunxiang; Yin, Zhaozheng; Xu, Yingke

2017-09-01

Quantitative analysis of vesicle exocytosis and classification of different modes of vesicle fusion from the fluorescence microscopy are of primary importance for biomedical researches. In this paper, we propose a novel Hierarchical Convolutional Neural Network (HCNN) method to automatically identify vesicle fusion events in time-lapse Total Internal Reflection Fluorescence Microscopy (TIRFM) image sequences. Firstly, a detection and tracking method is developed to extract image patch sequences containing potential fusion events. Then, a Gaussian Mixture Model (GMM) is applied on each image patch of the patch sequence with outliers rejected for robust Gaussian fitting. By utilizing the high-level time-series intensity change features introduced by GMM and the visual appearance features embedded in some key moments of the fusion process, the proposed HCNN architecture is able to classify each candidate patch sequence into three classes: full fusion event, partial fusion event and non-fusion event. Finally, we validate the performance of our method on 9 challenging datasets that have been annotated by cell biologists, and our method achieves better performances when comparing with three previous methods. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Life stress events and alcohol misuse: distinguishing contributing stress events from consequential stress events.

PubMed

Hart, Kenneth E; Fazaa, Norman

2004-07-01

This study examined the relationship between life stress events and level of alcohol misuse using two stress indices. The first index consisted of stress events that are not likely to be caused by alcohol misuse (i.e., alcohol uncontaminated stress events). The second stress index consisted of items that were judged as being likely consequences of alcohol misuse (i.e., alcohol contaminated stress events). Results based on a questionnaire study of 378 undergraduates in 2000 showed that level of alcohol misuse was much more strongly related to alcohol contaminated life stress events than alcohol uncontaminated life events. Comparative analysis of the coefficients of determination indicated the effect size of the association to alcohol contaminated life stress events was 240% larger than the corresponding effect size for the association to alcohol uncontaminated life events. Results suggest that studies, which are tests of the tension reduction hypothesis, should employ greater methodological rigor to ensure measures of life stress events are not inadvertently assessing the consequences of alcohol misuse. The results highlight the need to distinguish between stressful life events that contribute to alcohol misuse and stressful life events that are consequential to alcohol misuse.

Incompleteness and limit of security theory of quantum key distribution

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hirota, Osamu; Murakami, Dan; Kato, Kentaro; Futami, Fumio

2012-10-01

It is claimed in the many papers that a trace distance: d guarantees the universal composition security in quantum key distribution (QKD) like BB84 protocol. In this introduction paper, at first, it is explicitly explained what is the main misconception in the claim of the unconditional security for QKD theory. In general terms, the cause of the misunderstanding on the security claim is the Lemma in the paper of Renner. It suggests that the generation of the perfect random key is assured by the probability (1-d), and its failure probability is d. Thus, it concludes that the generated key provides the perfect random key sequence when the protocol is success. So the QKD provides perfect secrecy to the one time pad. This is the reason for the composition claim. However, the quantity of the trace distance (or variational distance) is not the probability for such an event. If d is not small enough, always the generated key sequence is not uniform. Now one needs the reconstruction of the evaluation of the trace distance if one wants to use it. One should first go back to the indistinguishability theory in the computational complexity based, and to clarify the meaning of the value of the variational distance. In addition, the same analysis for the information theoretic case is necessary. The recent serial papers by H.P.Yuen have given the answer on such questions. In this paper, we show more concise description of Yuen's theory, and clarify that the upper bound theories for the trace distance by Tomamichel et al and Hayashi et al are constructed by the wrong reasoning of Renner and it is unsuitable as the security analysis. Finally, we introduce a new macroscopic quantum communication to replace Q-bit QKD.

[Causes of underreporting of occupational injuries and adverse events in Chile].

PubMed

Luengo, Carolina; Paravic, Tatiana; Valenzuela, Sandra

2016-02-01

Objective To describe the causes of underreporting of occupational injuries and adverse events as identified in the international literature and by key informants in the area of health and risk prevention in Chile. Methods The study uses a qualitative descriptive approach. This includes a systematized literature review that follows the SALSA method (Search, Appraisal, Synthesis and Analysis) and is in line with the PRISMA statement (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses). In addition, interviews were conducted with informants in the area of health and risk prevention in Chile. Results The leading causes of underreporting of occupational injuries as described in the literature and by key informants were economic factors and ignorance. With regard to adverse events, the principal causes indicated were fear of sanctions, limited support provided by the authorities, lack of knowledge, and excessive workload. Conclusions It is important to continue working to strengthen the reporting of occupational injuries and adverse events and to implement measures aimed at minimizing factors that appear to be the leading causes of underreporting. In the case of occupational injuries, this means making sure that economic factors are not an impediment but rather an incentive to reporting. With respect to adverse events, steps should be taken to eliminate the fear of sanctions and to develop recommendations, focusing more on systemic improvements than on individuals, to promote joint learning. In both cases it will be necessary to combat ignorance through continuous, systematic training and support.

Traumatic events and depressive symptoms among youth in Southwest Nigeria: a qualitative analysis.

PubMed

Omigbodun, Olayinka; Bakare, Kofoworola; Yusuf, Bidemi

2008-01-01

Traumatic experiences have dire consequences for the mental health of young persons. Despite high rates of traumatic experiences in some African cities, there are no reports for Nigerian youth. To investigate the pattern of traumatic events and their association with depressive symptoms among youth in Southwest Nigeria. This is a descriptive cross-sectional study of randomly selected youth in urban and rural schools in Southwest Nigeria. They completed self-reports on traumatic events and depressive symptoms using the Street Children's Project Questionnaire and the Youth DISC Predictive Scale (DPS). Of the 1,768 responses (88.4% response rate) entered into the analysis, 34% reported experiencing a traumatic situation. Following interpretative phenomenological analysis, 13 themes emerged. Frequently occurring traumatic events were 'road traffic accidents' (33.0%), 'sickness' (17.1%), 'lost or trapped' (11.2%) and 'armed robbery attack' (9.7%). A bad dream was described by 3.7%. Traumatic experiences were commoner in males (36.2%) than in females (31.6%) (x2 = 4.2; p = .041). Experiencing a traumatic event was associated with depressive symptoms (X2 = 37.98; p < .001), especially when the event directly affected the youth as in sexual assault or physical abuse. One-third of youth in Southwest Nigeria have described an experienced traumatic event. Road traffic accidents, armed robbery attacks, and communal disturbances depict the prevailing social environment, whereas 'bad dreams' revealed the influence of cultural beliefs. Policy makers must be aware of the social issues making an impact on the health of youth. Multi-agency interventions to improve the social environment and provide mental health services for traumatized young people are essential.

Efficacy and adverse events of cold vs hot polypectomy: A meta-analysis.

PubMed

Fujiya, Mikihiro; Sato, Hiroki; Ueno, Nobuhiro; Sakatani, Aki; Tanaka, Kazuyuki; Dokoshi, Tatsuya; Fujibayashi, Shugo; Nomura, Yoshiki; Kashima, Shin; Gotoh, Takuma; Sasajima, Junpei; Moriichi, Kentaro; Watari, Jiro; Kohgo, Yutaka

2016-06-21

To compare previously reported randomized controlled studies (RCTs) of cold and hot polypectomy, we systematically reviewed and clarify the utility of cold polypectomy over hot with respect to efficacy and adverse events. A meta-analysis was conducted to evaluate the predominance of cold and hot polypectomy for removing colon polyps. Published articles and abstracts from worldwide conferences were searched using the keywords "cold polypectomy". RCTs that compared either or both the effects or adverse events of cold polypectomy with those of hot polypectomy were collected. The patients' demographics, endoscopic procedures, No. of examined lesions, lesion size, macroscopic and histologic findings, rates of incomplete resection, bleeding amount, perforation, and length of procedure were extracted from each study. A forest plot analysis was used to verify the relative strength of the effects and adverse events of each procedure. A funnel plot was generated to assess the possibility of publication bias. Ultimately, six RCTs were selected. No significant differences were noted in the average lesion size (less than 10 mm) between the cold and hot polypectomy groups in each study. Further, the rates of complete resection and adverse events, including delayed bleeding, did not differ markedly between cold and hot polypectomy. The average procedural time in the cold polypectomy group was significantly shorter than in the hot polypectomy group. Cold polypectomy is a time-saving procedure for removing small polyps with markedly similar curability and safety to hot polypectomy.

Superposed epoch analysis of O+ auroral outflow during sawtooth events and substorms

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nowrouzi, N.; Kistler, L. M.; Lund, E. J.; Cai, X.

2017-12-01

Sawtooth events are repeated injection of energetic particles at geosynchronous orbit. Studies have shown that 94% of sawtooth events occurred during magnetic storm times. The main factor that causes a sawtooth event is still an open question. Simulations have suggested that heavy ions like O+ may play a role in triggering the injections. One of the sources of the O+ in the Earth's magnetosphere is the nightside aurora. O+ ions coming from the nightside auroral region have direct access to the near-earth magnetotail. A model (Brambles et al. 2013) for interplanetary coronal mass ejection driven sawtooth events found that nightside O+ outflow caused the subsequent teeth of the sawtooth event through a feedback mechanism. This work is a superposed epoch analysis to test whether the observed auroral outflow supports this model. Using FAST spacecraft data from 1997-2007, we examine the auroral O+ outflow as a function of time relative to an injection onset. Then we determine whether the profile of outflow flux of O+ during sawtooth events is different from the outflow observed during isolated substorms. The auroral region boundaries are estimated using the method of (Andersson et al. 2004). Subsequently the O+ outflow flux inside these boundaries are calculated and binned as a function of superposed epoch time for substorms and sawtooth "teeth". In this way, we will determine if sawtooth events do in fact have greater O+ outflow, and if that outflow is predominantly from the nightside, as suggested by the model results.

Broadband analysis of landslides seismic signal : example of the Oso-Steelhead landslide and other recent events

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hibert, C.; Stark, C. P.; Ekstrom, G.

2014-12-01

Landslide failures on the scale of mountains are spectacular, dangerous, and spontaneous, making direct observations hard to obtain. Measurement of their dynamic properties during runout is a high research priority, but a logistical and technical challenge. Seismology has begun to help in several important ways. Taking advantage of broadband seismic stations, recent advances now allow: (i) the seismic detection and location of large landslides in near-real-time, even for events in very remote areas that may have remain undetected, such as the 2014 Mt La Perouse supraglacial failure in Alaska; (ii) inversion of long-period waves generated by large landslides to yield an estimate of the forces imparted by the bulk accelerating mass; (iii) inference of the landslide mass, its center-of-mass velocity over time, and its trajectory.Key questions persist, such as: What can the short-period seismic data tell us about the high-frequency impacts taking place within the granular flow and along its boundaries with the underlying bedrock? And how does this seismicity relate to the bulk acceleration of the landslide and the long-period seismicity generated by it?Our recent work on the joint analysis of short- and long-period seismic signals generated by past and recent events, such as the Bingham Canyon Mine and the Oso-Steelhead landslides, provides new insights to tackle these issues. Qualitative comparison between short-period signal features and kinematic parameters inferred from long-period surface wave inversion helps to refine interpretation of the source dynamics and to understand the different mechanisms for the origin of the short-period wave radiation. Our new results also suggest that quantitative relationships can be derived from this joint analysis, in particular between the short-period seismic signal envelope and the inferred momentum of the center-of-mass. In the future, these quantitative relationships may help to constrain and calibrate parameters used in

Framing Extreme Event Attribution from the Bottom up - an Enquiry into the Social Representations of key stakeholders, of the Press and of Climate Scientists.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Vanderlinden, J. P.; Fellmer, M.; Capellini, N.; Meinke, I.; Remvikos, Y.; Bray, D.; Pacteau, C.; Von Storch, H.

2014-12-01

Attribution of extreme weather events has recently generated a lot of interest simultaneously within the general public, the scientific community, and stakeholders affected by meteorological extremes. This interest calls for the need to explore the potential convergence of the current atttribution science with the desire and needs of stakeholders. Such an euiry contributes to the development of climate services aiming at quantifying the human responsibility for particular events. Through interviews with climate scientists, through the analysis of the press coverage of extreme meteorological events, and through stakeholder (private sector, covernment services and local and regional government) focus groups, we analyze how social representations of the concepts associated with extreme event attribution are theorized. From the corpuses generated in the course of this enquiry, we build up a grounded, bottom-up, theorization of extreme weather event attribution. This bottom-up theorization allows for a framing of the potential climate services in a way that is attuned to the needs and expectations of the stakeholders. From apparently simple formulations: "what is an extreme event?", "what makes it extreme?", "what is meant by attribution of extreme weather events?", "what do we want to attribute?", "what is a climate service?", we demonstrate the polysemy of these terms and propose ways to address the challenges associated with the juxtaposition of four highly loaded concepts: extreme - event - attribution - climate services.

Earth Science Data Fusion with Event Building Approach

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lukashin, C.; Bartle, Ar.; Callaway, E.; Gyurjyan, V.; Mancilla, S.; Oyarzun, R.; Vakhnin, A.

2015-01-01

Objectives of the NASA Information And Data System (NAIADS) project are to develop a prototype of a conceptually new middleware framework to modernize and significantly improve efficiency of the Earth Science data fusion, big data processing and analytics. The key components of the NAIADS include: Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) multi-lingual framework, multi-sensor coincident data Predictor, fast into-memory data Staging, multi-sensor data-Event Builder, complete data-Event streaming (a work flow with minimized IO), on-line data processing control and analytics services. The NAIADS project is leveraging CLARA framework, developed in Jefferson Lab, and integrated with the ZeroMQ messaging library. The science services are prototyped and incorporated into the system. Merging the SCIAMACHY Level-1 observations and MODIS/Terra Level-2 (Clouds and Aerosols) data products, and ECMWF re- analysis will be used for NAIADS demonstration and performance tests in compute Cloud and Cluster environments.

Public-key quantum digital signature scheme with one-time pad private-key

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chen, Feng-Lin; Liu, Wan-Fang; Chen, Su-Gen; Wang, Zhi-Hua

2018-01-01

A quantum digital signature scheme is firstly proposed based on public-key quantum cryptosystem. In the scheme, the verification public-key is derived from the signer's identity information (such as e-mail) on the foundation of identity-based encryption, and the signature private-key is generated by one-time pad (OTP) protocol. The public-key and private-key pair belongs to classical bits, but the signature cipher belongs to quantum qubits. After the signer announces the public-key and generates the final quantum signature, each verifier can verify publicly whether the signature is valid or not with the public-key and quantum digital digest. Analysis results show that the proposed scheme satisfies non-repudiation and unforgeability. Information-theoretic security of the scheme is ensured by quantum indistinguishability mechanics and OTP protocol. Based on the public-key cryptosystem, the proposed scheme is easier to be realized compared with other quantum signature schemes under current technical conditions.

An Empirical Analysis of the Cascade Secret Key Reconciliation Protocol for Quantum Key Distribution

DTIC Science & Technology

2011-09-01

performance with the parity checks within each pass increasing and as a result, the processing time is expected to increase as well. A conclusion is drawn... timely manner has driven efforts to develop new key distribution methods. The most promising method is Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) and is...thank the QKD Project Team for all of the insight and support they provided in such a short time period. Thanks are especially in order for my

Low Probability Tail Event Analysis and Mitigation in BPA Control Area: Task 2 Report

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

Lu, Shuai; Makarov, Yuri V.; McKinstry, Craig A.

Task report detailing low probability tail event analysis and mitigation in BPA control area. Tail event refers to the situation in a power system when unfavorable forecast errors of load and wind are superposed onto fast load and wind ramps, or non-wind generators falling short of scheduled output, causing the imbalance between generation and load to become very significant.

Sources of Error and the Statistical Formulation of M S: m b Seismic Event Screening Analysis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Anderson, D. N.; Patton, H. J.; Taylor, S. R.; Bonner, J. L.; Selby, N. D.

2014-03-01

The Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT), a global ban on nuclear explosions, is currently in a ratification phase. Under the CTBT, an International Monitoring System (IMS) of seismic, hydroacoustic, infrasonic and radionuclide sensors is operational, and the data from the IMS is analysed by the International Data Centre (IDC). The IDC provides CTBT signatories basic seismic event parameters and a screening analysis indicating whether an event exhibits explosion characteristics (for example, shallow depth). An important component of the screening analysis is a statistical test of the null hypothesis H 0: explosion characteristics using empirical measurements of seismic energy (magnitudes). The established magnitude used for event size is the body-wave magnitude (denoted m b) computed from the initial segment of a seismic waveform. IDC screening analysis is applied to events with m b greater than 3.5. The Rayleigh wave magnitude (denoted M S) is a measure of later arriving surface wave energy. Magnitudes are measurements of seismic energy that include adjustments (physical correction model) for path and distance effects between event and station. Relative to m b, earthquakes generally have a larger M S magnitude than explosions. This article proposes a hypothesis test (screening analysis) using M S and m b that expressly accounts for physical correction model inadequacy in the standard error of the test statistic. With this hypothesis test formulation, the 2009 Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea announced nuclear weapon test fails to reject the null hypothesis H 0: explosion characteristics.

Climate network analysis of regional precipitation extremes: The true story told by event synchronization

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Odenweller, Adrian; Donner, Reik V.

2017-04-01

Over the last decade, complex network methods have been frequently used for characterizing spatio-temporal patterns of climate variability from a complex systems perspective, yielding new insights into time-dependent teleconnectivity patterns and couplings between different components of the Earth climate. Among the foremost results reported, network analyses of the synchronicity of extreme events as captured by the so-called event synchronization have been proposed to be powerful tools for disentangling the spatio-temporal organization of particularly extreme rainfall events and anticipating the timing of monsoon onsets or extreme floodings. Rooted in the analysis of spike train synchrony analysis in the neurosciences, event synchronization has the great advantage of automatically classifying pairs of events arising at two distinct spatial locations as temporally close (and, thus, possibly statistically - or even dynamically - interrelated) or not without the necessity of selecting an additional parameter in terms of a maximally tolerable delay between these events. This consideration is conceptually justified in case of the original application to spike trains in electroencephalogram (EEG) recordings, where the inter-spike intervals show relatively narrow distributions at high temporal sampling rates. However, in case of climate studies, precipitation extremes defined by daily precipitation sums exceeding a certain empirical percentile of their local distribution exhibit a distinctively different type of distribution of waiting times between subsequent events. This raises conceptual concerns if event synchronization is still appropriate for detecting interlinkages between spatially distributed precipitation extremes. In order to study this problem in more detail, we employ event synchronization together with an alternative similarity measure for event sequences, event coincidence rates, which requires a manual setting of the tolerable maximum delay between two

Testing key predictions of the associative account of mirror neurons in humans using multivariate pattern analysis.

PubMed

Oosterhof, Nikolaas N; Wiggett, Alison J; Cross, Emily S

2014-04-01

Cook et al. overstate the evidence supporting their associative account of mirror neurons in humans: most studies do not address a key property, action-specificity that generalizes across the visual and motor domains. Multivariate pattern analysis (MVPA) of neuroimaging data can address this concern, and we illustrate how MVPA can be used to test key predictions of their account.

Time to tenure in Spanish universities: an event history analysis.

PubMed

Sanz-Menéndez, Luis; Cruz-Castro, Laura; Alva, Kenedy

2013-01-01

Understanding how institutional incentives and mechanisms for assigning recognition shape access to a permanent job is important. This study, based on data from questionnaire survey responses and publications of 1,257 university science, biomedical and engineering faculty in Spain, attempts to understand the timing of getting a permanent position and the relevant factors that account for this transition, in the context of dilemmas between mobility and permanence faced by organizations. Using event history analysis, the paper looks at the time to promotion and the effects of some relevant covariates associated to academic performance, social embeddedness and mobility. We find that research productivity contributes to career acceleration, but that other variables are also significantly associated to a faster transition. Factors associated to the social elements of academic life also play a role in reducing the time from PhD graduation to tenure. However, mobility significantly increases the duration of the non-tenure stage. In contrast with previous findings, the role of sex is minor. The variations in the length of time to promotion across different scientific domains is confirmed, with faster career advancement for those in the Engineering and Technological Sciences compared with academics in the Biological and Biomedical Sciences. Results show clear effects of seniority, and rewards to loyalty, in addition to some measurements of performance and quality of the university granting the PhD, as key elements speeding up career advancement. Findings suggest the existence of a system based on granting early permanent jobs to those that combine social embeddedness and team integration with some good credentials regarding past and potential future performance, rather than high levels of mobility.

Time to Tenure in Spanish Universities: An Event History Analysis

PubMed Central

Sanz-Menéndez, Luis; Cruz-Castro, Laura; Alva, Kenedy

2013-01-01

Understanding how institutional incentives and mechanisms for assigning recognition shape access to a permanent job is important. This study, based on data from questionnaire survey responses and publications of 1,257 university science, biomedical and engineering faculty in Spain, attempts to understand the timing of getting a permanent position and the relevant factors that account for this transition, in the context of dilemmas between mobility and permanence faced by organizations. Using event history analysis, the paper looks at the time to promotion and the effects of some relevant covariates associated to academic performance, social embeddedness and mobility. We find that research productivity contributes to career acceleration, but that other variables are also significantly associated to a faster transition. Factors associated to the social elements of academic life also play a role in reducing the time from PhD graduation to tenure. However, mobility significantly increases the duration of the non-tenure stage. In contrast with previous findings, the role of sex is minor. The variations in the length of time to promotion across different scientific domains is confirmed, with faster career advancement for those in the Engineering and Technological Sciences compared with academics in the Biological and Biomedical Sciences. Results show clear effects of seniority, and rewards to loyalty, in addition to some measurements of performance and quality of the university granting the PhD, as key elements speeding up career advancement. Findings suggest the existence of a system based on granting early permanent jobs to those that combine social embeddedness and team integration with some good credentials regarding past and potential future performance, rather than high levels of mobility. PMID:24116199

Implementing recovery: an analysis of the key technologies in Scotland

PubMed Central

2011-01-01

Background Over the past ten years the promotion of recovery has become a stated aim of mental health policies within a number of English speaking countries, including Scotland. Implementation of a recovery approach involves a significant reorientation of mental health services and practices, which often poses significant challenges for reformers. This article examines how four key technologies of recovery have assisted in the move towards the creation of a recovery-oriented mental health system in Scotland. Methods Drawing on documentary analysis and a series of interviews we examine the construction and implementation of four key recovery 'technologies' as they have been put to use in Scotland: recovery narratives, the Scottish Recovery Indicator (SRI), Wellness Recovery Action Planning (WRAP) and peer support. Results Our findings illuminate how each of these technologies works to instantiate, exemplify and disseminate a 'recovery orientation' at different sites within the mental health system in order to bring about a 'recovery oriented' mental health system. They also enable us to identify some of the factors that facilitate or hinder the effectiveness of those technologies in bringing about a change in how mental health services are delivered in Scotland. These finding provide a basis for some general reflections on the utility of 'recovery technologies' to implement a shift towards recovery in mental health services in Scotland and elsewhere. Conclusions Our analysis of this process within the Scottish context will be valuable for policy makers and service coordinators wishing to implement recovery values within their own national mental health systems. PMID:21569633

Sparganothis fruitworm degree-day benchmarks provide key treatmen timings for cranberry IPM

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Degree-day benchmarks indicate discrete biological events in the development of insect pests. For the Sparganothis fruitworm, we have isolated all key development events and linked them to degree-day accumulations. These degree-day accumulations can greatly improve treatment timings for cranberry ...

Tipping the Balance: Hepatotoxicity and the Four Apical Key Events of Hepatic Steatosis

EPA Science Inventory

Adverse outcome pathways (AOPs) are descriptive biological sequences that start from a molecular initiating event (MIE) and end with an adverse health outcome. AOPs provide biological context for high throughput chemical testing and further prioritize environmental health risk r...

Measurement-device-independent quantum key distribution for Scarani-Acin-Ribordy-Gisin 04 protocol

PubMed Central

Mizutani, Akihiro; Tamaki, Kiyoshi; Ikuta, Rikizo; Yamamoto, Takashi; Imoto, Nobuyuki

2014-01-01

The measurement-device-independent quantum key distribution (MDI QKD) was proposed to make BB84 completely free from any side-channel in detectors. Like in prepare & measure QKD, the use of other protocols in MDI setting would be advantageous in some practical situations. In this paper, we consider SARG04 protocol in MDI setting. The prepare & measure SARG04 is proven to be able to generate a key up to two-photon emission events. In MDI setting we show that the key generation is possible from the event with single or two-photon emission by a party and single-photon emission by the other party, but the two-photon emission event by both parties cannot contribute to the key generation. On the contrary to prepare & measure SARG04 protocol where the experimental setup is exactly the same as BB84, the measurement setup for SARG04 in MDI setting cannot be the same as that for BB84 since the measurement setup for BB84 in MDI setting induces too many bit errors. To overcome this problem, we propose two alternative experimental setups, and we simulate the resulting key rate. Our study highlights the requirements that MDI QKD poses on us regarding with the implementation of a variety of QKD protocols. PMID:24913431

A case-crossover analysis of forest fire haze events and mortality in Malaysia

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sahani, Mazrura; Zainon, Nurul Ashikin; Wan Mahiyuddin, Wan Rozita; Latif, Mohd Talib; Hod, Rozita; Khan, Md Firoz; Tahir, Norhayati Mohd; Chan, Chang-Chuan

2014-10-01

The Southeast Asian (SEA) haze events due to forest fires are recurrent and affect Malaysia, particularly the Klang Valley region. The aim of this study is to examine the risk of haze days due to biomass burning in Southeast Asia on daily mortality in the Klang Valley region between 2000 and 2007. We used a case-crossover study design to model the effect of haze based on PM10 concentration to the daily mortality. The time-stratified control sampling approach was used, adjusted for particulate matter (PM10) concentrations, time trends and meteorological influences. Based on time series analysis of PM10 and backward trajectory analysis, haze days were defined when daily PM10 concentration exceeded 100 μg/m3. The results showed a total of 88 haze days were identified in the Klang Valley region during the study period. A total of 126,822 cases of death were recorded for natural mortality where respiratory mortality represented 8.56% (N = 10,854). Haze events were found to be significantly associated with natural and respiratory mortality at various lags. For natural mortality, haze events at lagged 2 showed significant association with children less than 14 years old (Odd Ratio (OR) = 1.41; 95% Confidence Interval (CI) = 1.01-1.99). Respiratory mortality was significantly associated with haze events for all ages at lagged 0 (OR = 1.19; 95% CI = 1.02-1.40). Age-and-gender-specific analysis showed an incremental risk of respiratory mortality among all males and elderly males above 60 years old at lagged 0 (OR = 1.34; 95% CI = 1.09-1.64 and OR = 1.41; 95% CI = 1.09-1.84 respectively). Adult females aged 15-59 years old were found to be at highest risk of respiratory mortality at lagged 5 (OR = 1.66; 95% CI = 1.03-1.99). This study clearly indicates that exposure to haze events showed immediate and delayed effects on mortality.

Using Pattern Recognition and Discriminance Analysis to Predict Critical Events in Large Signal Databases

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Feller, Jens; Feller, Sebastian; Mauersberg, Bernhard; Mergenthaler, Wolfgang

2009-09-01

Many applications in plant management require close monitoring of equipment performance, in particular with the objective to prevent certain critical events. At each point in time, the information available to classify the criticality of the process, is represented through the historic signal database as well as the actual measurement. This paper presents an approach to detect and predict critical events, based on pattern recognition and discriminance analysis.

Reverse translation of adverse event reports paves the way for de-risking preclinical off-targets.

PubMed

Maciejewski, Mateusz; Lounkine, Eugen; Whitebread, Steven; Farmer, Pierre; DuMouchel, William; Shoichet, Brian K; Urban, Laszlo

2017-08-08

The Food and Drug Administration Adverse Event Reporting System (FAERS) remains the primary source for post-marketing pharmacovigilance. The system is largely un-curated, unstandardized, and lacks a method for linking drugs to the chemical structures of their active ingredients, increasing noise and artefactual trends. To address these problems, we mapped drugs to their ingredients and used natural language processing to classify and correlate drug events. Our analysis exposed key idiosyncrasies in FAERS, for example reports of thalidomide causing a deadly ADR when used against myeloma, a likely result of the disease itself; multiplications of the same report, unjustifiably increasing its importance; correlation of reported ADRs with public events, regulatory announcements, and with publications. Comparing the pharmacological, pharmacokinetic, and clinical ADR profiles of methylphenidate, aripiprazole, and risperidone, and of kinase drugs targeting the VEGF receptor, demonstrates how underlying molecular mechanisms can emerge from ADR co-analysis. The precautions and methods we describe may enable investigators to avoid confounding chemistry-based associations and reporting biases in FAERS, and illustrate how comparative analysis of ADRs can reveal underlying mechanisms.

Dynamic event tree analysis with the SAS4A/SASSYS-1 safety analysis code

DOE PAGES

Jankovsky, Zachary K.; Denman, Matthew R.; Aldemir, Tunc

2018-02-02

The consequences of a transient in an advanced sodium-cooled fast reactor are difficult to capture with the traditional approach to probabilistic risk assessment (PRA). Numerous safety-relevant systems are passive and may have operational states that cannot be represented by binary success or failure. In addition, the specific order and timing of events may be crucial which necessitates the use of dynamic PRA tools such as ADAPT. The modifications to the SAS4A/SASSYS-1 sodium-cooled fast reactor safety analysis code for linking it to ADAPT to perform a dynamic PRA are described. A test case is used to demonstrate the linking process andmore » to illustrate the type of insights that may be gained with this process. Finally, newly-developed dynamic importance measures are used to assess the significance of reactor parameters/constituents on calculated consequences of initiating events.« less

Dynamic event tree analysis with the SAS4A/SASSYS-1 safety analysis code

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

Jankovsky, Zachary K.; Denman, Matthew R.; Aldemir, Tunc

The consequences of a transient in an advanced sodium-cooled fast reactor are difficult to capture with the traditional approach to probabilistic risk assessment (PRA). Numerous safety-relevant systems are passive and may have operational states that cannot be represented by binary success or failure. In addition, the specific order and timing of events may be crucial which necessitates the use of dynamic PRA tools such as ADAPT. The modifications to the SAS4A/SASSYS-1 sodium-cooled fast reactor safety analysis code for linking it to ADAPT to perform a dynamic PRA are described. A test case is used to demonstrate the linking process andmore » to illustrate the type of insights that may be gained with this process. Finally, newly-developed dynamic importance measures are used to assess the significance of reactor parameters/constituents on calculated consequences of initiating events.« less

Video Traffic Analysis for Abnormal Event Detection

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2010-01-01

We propose the use of video imaging sensors for the detection and classification of abnormal events to be used primarily for mitigation of traffic congestion. Successful detection of such events will allow for new road guidelines; for rapid deploymen...

Video traffic analysis for abnormal event detection.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2010-01-01

We propose the use of video imaging sensors for the detection and classification of abnormal events to : be used primarily for mitigation of traffic congestion. Successful detection of such events will allow for : new road guidelines; for rapid deplo...

The Collaborative Heliophysics Events Knowledgebase

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hurlburt, N. E.; Schuler, D.; Cheung, C.

2010-12-01

The Collaborative Heliophysics Events Knowledgebase (CHEK) leverages and integrates the existing resources developed by HEK for SDO (Hurlburt et al. 2010) to provide a collaborative framework for heliophysics researchers. This framework will enable an environment were researches can not only identify and locate relevant data, but can deploy a social network for sharing and expanding knowledge about heliophysical events. CHEK will expand the HEK and key HEK clients into the heliosphere and geospace, and create a heliophysics social network. We describe our design and goals of the CHEK project and discuss its relation to Citizen Science in the heliosphere. Hurlburt, N et al. 2010, “A Heliophysics Event Knowledgebase for Solar Dynamics Observatory,” Sol Phys., in press

Carbon Isotopes in Pinus elliotti from Big Pine Key, Florida: Indicators of Seasonal Precipitation, ENSO and Disturbance Events

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rebenack, C.; Willoughby, H. E.; Anderson, W. T.; Cherubini, P.

2013-12-01

, and disturbance events. Because slash pine growth is dependent on water availability, a chronology developed using carbon isotopes may provide greater insight into plant stress over time and ultimately may lead to better correlations with climate oscillations. The work presented here is the result of a carbon-isotope study of four slash pine trees from Big Pine Key, Florida. The δ13C data show seasonal stomatal activity in the trees that can be linked to regional precipitation and, to a larger extent, to the ENSO cycles. In addition, there are several anomalies in the carbon isotope record that may indicate the timing of disturbance events.

Effects of Interventions on Relapse to Narcotics Addiction: An Event-History Analysis.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hser, Yih-Ing; And Others

1995-01-01

Event-history analysis was applied to the life history data of 581 male narcotics addicts to specify the concurrent, postintervention, and durational effects of social interventions on relapse to narcotics use. Results indicate the advisability of supporting methadone maintenance with other prevention strategies. (SLD)

Characterization of Strombolian events by using independent component analysis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ciaramella, A.; de Lauro, E.; de Martino, S.; di Lieto, B.; Falanga, M.; Tagliaferri, R.

2004-10-01

We apply Independent Component Analysis (ICA) to seismic signals recorded at Stromboli volcano. Firstly, we show how ICA works considering synthetic signals, which are generated by dynamical systems. We prove that Strombolian signals, both tremor and explosions, in the high frequency band (>0.5 Hz), are similar in time domain. This seems to give some insights to the organ pipe model generation for the source of these events. Moreover, we are able to recognize in the tremor signals a low frequency component (<0.5 Hz), with a well defined peak corresponding to 30s.

ANCA: Anharmonic Conformational Analysis of Biomolecular Simulations.

PubMed

Parvatikar, Akash; Vacaliuc, Gabriel S; Ramanathan, Arvind; Chennubhotla, S Chakra

2018-05-08

Anharmonicity in time-dependent conformational fluctuations is noted to be a key feature of functional dynamics of biomolecules. Although anharmonic events are rare, long-timescale (μs-ms and beyond) simulations facilitate probing of such events. We have previously developed quasi-anharmonic analysis to resolve higher-order spatial correlations and characterize anharmonicity in biomolecular simulations. In this article, we have extended this toolbox to resolve higher-order temporal correlations and built a scalable Python package called anharmonic conformational analysis (ANCA). ANCA has modules to: 1) measure anharmonicity in the form of higher-order statistics and its variation as a function of time, 2) output a storyboard representation of the simulations to identify key anharmonic conformational events, and 3) identify putative anharmonic conformational substates and visualization of transitions between these substates. Copyright © 2018 Biophysical Society. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Impact of a Single Unusually Large Rainfall Event on the Level of Risk Used for Infrastructure Design

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dhakal, N.; Jain, S.

2013-12-01

Rare and unusually large events (such as hurricanes and floods) can create unusual and interesting trends in statistics. Generalized Extreme Value (GEV) distribution is usually used to statistically describe extreme rainfall events. A number of the recent studies have shown that the frequency of extreme rainfall events has increased over the last century and as a result, there has been change in parameters of GEV distribution with the time (non-stationary). But what impact does a single unusually large rainfall event (e.g., hurricane Irene) have on the GEV parameters and consequently on the level of risks or the return periods used in designing the civil infrastructures? In other words, if such a large event occurs today, how will it influence the level of risks (estimated based on past rainfall records) for the civil infrastructures? To answer these questions, we performed sensitivity analysis of the distribution parameters of GEV as well as the return periods to unusually large outlier events. The long-term precipitation records over the period of 1981-2010 from 12 USHCN stations across the state of Maine were used for analysis. For most of the stations, addition of each outlier event caused an increase in the shape parameter with a huge decrease on the corresponding return period. This is a key consideration for time-varying engineering design. These isolated extreme weather events should simultaneously be considered with traditional statistical methodology related to extreme events while designing civil infrastructures (such as dams, bridges, and culverts). Such analysis is also useful in understanding the statistical uncertainty of projecting extreme events into future.

A tandem regression-outlier analysis of a ligand cellular system for key structural modifications around ligand binding.

PubMed

Lin, Ying-Ting

2013-04-30

A tandem technique of hard equipment is often used for the chemical analysis of a single cell to first isolate and then detect the wanted identities. The first part is the separation of wanted chemicals from the bulk of a cell; the second part is the actual detection of the important identities. To identify the key structural modifications around ligand binding, the present study aims to develop a counterpart of tandem technique for cheminformatics. A statistical regression and its outliers act as a computational technique for separation. A PPARγ (peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma) agonist cellular system was subjected to such an investigation. Results show that this tandem regression-outlier analysis, or the prioritization of the context equations tagged with features of the outliers, is an effective regression technique of cheminformatics to detect key structural modifications, as well as their tendency of impact to ligand binding. The key structural modifications around ligand binding are effectively extracted or characterized out of cellular reactions. This is because molecular binding is the paramount factor in such ligand cellular system and key structural modifications around ligand binding are expected to create outliers. Therefore, such outliers can be captured by this tandem regression-outlier analysis.

Investigating cardiorespiratory interaction by cross-spectral analysis of event series

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Schäfer, Carsten; Rosenblum, Michael G.; Pikovsky, Arkady S.; Kurths, Jürgen

2000-02-01

The human cardiovascular and respiratory systems interact with each other and show effects of modulation and synchronization. Here we present a cross-spectral technique that specifically considers the event-like character of the heartbeat and avoids typical restrictions of other spectral methods. Using models as well as experimental data, we demonstrate how modulation and synchronization can be distinguished. Finally, we compare the method to traditional techniques and to the analysis of instantaneous phases.

Analysis of warm convective rain events in Catalonia

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ballart, D.; Figuerola, F.; Aran, M.; Rigo, T.

2009-09-01

Between the end of September and November, events with high amounts of rainfall are quite common in Catalonia. The high sea surface temperature of the Mediterranean Sea near to the Catalan Coast is one of the most important factors that help to the development of this type of storms. Some of these events have particular characteristics: elevated rain rate during short time periods, not very deep convection and low lightning activity. Consequently, the use of remote sensing tools for the surveillance is quite useless or limited. With reference to the high rain efficiency, this is caused by internal mechanisms of the clouds, and also by the air mass where the precipitation structure is developed. As aforementioned, the contribution of the sea to the air mass is very relevant, not only by the increase of the big condensation nuclei, but also by high temperature of the low layers of the atmosphere, where are allowed clouds with 5 or 6 km of particles in liquid phase. In fact, the freezing level into these clouds can be detected by -15ºC. Due to these characteristics, this type of rainy structures can produce high quantities of rainfall in a relatively brief period of time, and, in the case to be quasi-stationary, precipitation values at surface could be very important. From the point of view of remote sensing tools, the cloud nature implies that the different tools and methodologies commonly used for the analysis of heavy rain events are not useful. This is caused by the following features: lightning are rarely observed, the top temperatures of clouds are not cold enough to be enhanced in the satellite imagery, and, finally, reflectivity radar values are lower than other heavy rain cases. The third point to take into account is the vulnerability of the affected areas. An elevated percentage of the Catalan population lives in the coastal region. In the central coast of Catalonia, the urban areas are surrounded by a not very high mountain range with small basins and

Analysis of extreme rainfall events using attributes control charts in temporal rainfall processes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Villeta, María; Valencia, Jose Luis; Saá-Requejo, Antonio; María Tarquis, Ana

2015-04-01

The impacts of most intense rainfall events on agriculture and insurance industry can be very severe. This research focuses in the analysis of extreme rainfall events throughout the use of attributes control charts, which constitutes a usual tool in Statistical Process Control (SPC) but unusual in climate studios. Here, series of daily precipitations for the years 1931-2009 within a Spanish region are analyzed, based on a new type of attributes control chart that takes into account the autocorrelation between the extreme rainfall events. The aim is to conclude if there exist or not evidence of a change in the extreme rainfall model of the considered series. After adjusting seasonally the precipitation series and considering the data of the first 30 years, a frequency-based criterion allowed fixing specification limits in order to discriminate between extreme observed rainfall days and normal observed rainfall days. The autocorrelation amongst maximum precipitation is taken into account by a New Binomial Markov Extended Process obtained for each rainfall series. These modelling of the extreme rainfall processes provide a way to generate the attributes control charts for the annual fraction of rainfall extreme days. The extreme rainfall processes along the rest of the years under study can then be monitored by such attributes control charts. The results of the application of this methodology show evidence of change in the model of extreme rainfall events in some of the analyzed precipitation series. This suggests that the attributes control charts proposed for the analysis of the most intense precipitation events will be of practical interest to agriculture and insurance sectors in next future.

Analysis of the Impact of Climate Change on Extreme Hydrological Events in California

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ashraf Vaghefi, Saeid; Abbaspour, Karim C.

2016-04-01

Estimating magnitude and occurrence frequency of extreme hydrological events is required for taking preventive remedial actions against the impact of climate change on the management of water resources. Examples include: characterization of extreme rainfall events to predict urban runoff, determination of river flows, and the likely severity of drought events during the design life of a water project. In recent years California has experienced its most severe drought in recorded history, causing water stress, economic loss, and an increase in wildfires. In this paper we describe development of a Climate Change Toolkit (CCT) and demonstrate its use in the analysis of dry and wet periods in California for the years 2020-2050 and compare the results with the historic period 1975-2005. CCT provides four modules to: i) manage big databases such as those of Global Climate Models (GCMs), ii) make bias correction using observed local climate data , iii) interpolate gridded climate data to finer resolution, and iv) calculate continuous dry- and wet-day periods based on rainfall, temperature, and soil moisture for analysis of drought and flooding risks. We used bias-corrected meteorological data of five GCMs for extreme CO2 emission scenario rcp8.5 for California to analyze the trend of extreme hydrological events. The findings indicate that frequency of dry period will increase in center and southern parts of California. The assessment of the number of wet days and the frequency of wet periods suggests an increased risk of flooding in north and north-western part of California, especially in the coastal strip. Keywords: Climate Change Toolkit (CCT), Extreme Hydrological Events, California

Video Analysis Verification of Head Impact Events Measured by Wearable Sensors.

PubMed

Cortes, Nelson; Lincoln, Andrew E; Myer, Gregory D; Hepburn, Lisa; Higgins, Michael; Putukian, Margot; Caswell, Shane V

2017-08-01

Wearable sensors are increasingly used to quantify the frequency and magnitude of head impact events in multiple sports. There is a paucity of evidence that verifies head impact events recorded by wearable sensors. To utilize video analysis to verify head impact events recorded by wearable sensors and describe the respective frequency and magnitude. Cohort study (diagnosis); Level of evidence, 2. Thirty male (mean age, 16.6 ± 1.2 years; mean height, 1.77 ± 0.06 m; mean weight, 73.4 ± 12.2 kg) and 35 female (mean age, 16.2 ± 1.3 years; mean height, 1.66 ± 0.05 m; mean weight, 61.2 ± 6.4 kg) players volunteered to participate in this study during the 2014 and 2015 lacrosse seasons. Participants were instrumented with GForceTracker (GFT; boys) and X-Patch sensors (girls). Simultaneous game video was recorded by a trained videographer using a single camera located at the highest midfield location. One-third of the field was framed and panned to follow the ball during games. Videographic and accelerometer data were time synchronized. Head impact counts were compared with video recordings and were deemed valid if (1) the linear acceleration was ≥20 g, (2) the player was identified on the field, (3) the player was in camera view, and (4) the head impact mechanism could be clearly identified. Descriptive statistics of peak linear acceleration (PLA) and peak rotational velocity (PRV) for all verified head impacts ≥20 g were calculated. For the boys, a total recorded 1063 impacts (2014: n = 545; 2015: n = 518) were logged by the GFT between game start and end times (mean PLA, 46 ± 31 g; mean PRV, 1093 ± 661 deg/s) during 368 player-games. Of these impacts, 690 were verified via video analysis (65%; mean PLA, 48 ± 34 g; mean PRV, 1242 ± 617 deg/s). The X-Patch sensors, worn by the girls, recorded a total 180 impacts during the course of the games, and 58 (2014: n = 33; 2015: n = 25) were verified via video analysis (32%; mean PLA, 39 ± 21 g; mean PRV, 1664 �

Statistical analysis of mixed recurrent event data with application to cancer survivor study

PubMed Central

Zhu, Liang; Tong, Xingwei; Zhao, Hui; Sun, Jianguo; Srivastava, Deo Kumar; Leisenring, Wendy; Robison, Leslie L.

2014-01-01

Event history studies occur in many fields including economics, medical studies and social science. In such studies concerning some recurrent events, two types of data have been extensively discussed in the literature. One is recurrent event data that arise if study subjects are monitored or observed continuously. In this case, the observed information provides the times of all occurrences of the recurrent events of interest. The other is panel count data, which occur if the subjects are monitored or observed only periodically. This can happen if the continuous observation is too expensive or not practical and in this case, only the numbers of occurrences of the events between subsequent observation times are available. In this paper, we discuss a third type of data, which is a mixture of recurrent event and panel count data and for which there exists little literature. For regression analysis of such data, a marginal mean model is presented and we propose an estimating equation-based approach for estimation of regression parameters. A simulation study is conducted to assess the finite sample performance of the proposed methodology and indicates that it works well for practical situations. Finally it is applied to a motivating study on childhood cancer survivors. PMID:23139023

Identification of homogeneous regions for rainfall regional frequency analysis considering typhoon event in South Korea

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Heo, J. H.; Ahn, H.; Kjeldsen, T. R.

2017-12-01

South Korea is prone to large, and often disastrous, rainfall events caused by a mixture of monsoon and typhoon rainfall phenomena. However, traditionally, regional frequency analysis models did not consider this mixture of phenomena when fitting probability distributions, potentially underestimating the risk posed by the more extreme typhoon events. Using long-term observed records of extreme rainfall from 56 sites combined with detailed information on the timing and spatial impact of past typhoons from the Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA), this study developed and tested a new mixture model for frequency analysis of two different phenomena; events occurring regularly every year (monsoon) and events only occurring in some years (typhoon). The available annual maximum 24 hour rainfall data were divided into two sub-samples corresponding to years where the annual maximum is from either (1) a typhoon event, or (2) a non-typhoon event. Then, three-parameter GEV distribution was fitted to each sub-sample along with a weighting parameter characterizing the proportion of historical events associated with typhoon events. Spatial patterns of model parameters were analyzed and showed that typhoon events are less commonly associated with annual maximum rainfall in the North-West part of the country (Seoul area), and more prevalent in the southern and eastern parts of the country, leading to the formation of two distinct typhoon regions: (1) North-West; and (2) Southern and Eastern. Using a leave-one-out procedure, a new regional frequency model was tested and compared to a more traditional index flood method. The results showed that the impact of typhoon on design events might previously have been underestimated in the Seoul area. This suggests that the use of the mixture model should be preferred where the typhoon phenomena is less frequent, and thus can have a significant effect on the rainfall-frequency curve. This research was supported by a grant(2017-MPSS31

Uncertainty analysis in fault tree models with dependent basic events.

PubMed

Pedroni, Nicola; Zio, Enrico

2013-06-01

In general, two types of dependence need to be considered when estimating the probability of the top event (TE) of a fault tree (FT): "objective" dependence between the (random) occurrences of different basic events (BEs) in the FT and "state-of-knowledge" (epistemic) dependence between estimates of the epistemically uncertain probabilities of some BEs of the FT model. In this article, we study the effects on the TE probability of objective and epistemic dependences. The well-known Frèchet bounds and the distribution envelope determination (DEnv) method are used to model all kinds of (possibly unknown) objective and epistemic dependences, respectively. For exemplification, the analyses are carried out on a FT with six BEs. Results show that both types of dependence significantly affect the TE probability; however, the effects of epistemic dependence are likely to be overwhelmed by those of objective dependence (if present). © 2012 Society for Risk Analysis.

An Unsupervised Anomalous Event Detection and Interactive Analysis Framework for Large-scale Satellite Data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

LIU, Q.; Lv, Q.; Klucik, R.; Chen, C.; Gallaher, D. W.; Grant, G.; Shang, L.

2016-12-01

Due to the high volume and complexity of satellite data, computer-aided tools for fast quality assessments and scientific discovery are indispensable for scientists in the era of Big Data. In this work, we have developed a framework for automated anomalous event detection in massive satellite data. The framework consists of a clustering-based anomaly detection algorithm and a cloud-based tool for interactive analysis of detected anomalies. The algorithm is unsupervised and requires no prior knowledge of the data (e.g., expected normal pattern or known anomalies). As such, it works for diverse data sets, and performs well even in the presence of missing and noisy data. The cloud-based tool provides an intuitive mapping interface that allows users to interactively analyze anomalies using multiple features. As a whole, our framework can (1) identify outliers in a spatio-temporal context, (2) recognize and distinguish meaningful anomalous events from individual outliers, (3) rank those events based on "interestingness" (e.g., rareness or total number of outliers) defined by users, and (4) enable interactively query, exploration, and analysis of those anomalous events. In this presentation, we will demonstrate the effectiveness and efficiency of our framework in the application of detecting data quality issues and unusual natural events using two satellite datasets. The techniques and tools developed in this project are applicable for a diverse set of satellite data and will be made publicly available for scientists in early 2017.

An analysis of high-impact, low-predictive skill severe weather events in the northeast U.S

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Vaughan, Matthew T.

An objective evaluation of Storm Prediction Center slight risk convective outlooks, as well as a method to identify high-impact severe weather events with poor-predictive skill are presented in this study. The objectives are to assess severe weather forecast skill over the northeast U.S. relative to the continental U.S., build a climatology of high-impact, low-predictive skill events between 1980--2013, and investigate the dynamic and thermodynamic differences between severe weather events with low-predictive skill and high-predictive skill over the northeast U.S. Severe storm reports of hail, wind, and tornadoes are used to calculate skill scores including probability of detection (POD), false alarm ratio (FAR) and threat scores (TS) for each convective outlook. Low predictive skill events are binned into low POD (type 1) and high FAR (type 2) categories to assess temporal variability of low-predictive skill events. Type 1 events were found to occur in every year of the dataset with an average of 6 events per year. Type 2 events occur less frequently and are more common in the earlier half of the study period. An event-centered composite analysis is performed on the low-predictive skill database using the National Centers for Environmental Prediction Climate Forecast System Reanalysis 0.5° gridded dataset to analyze the dynamic and thermodynamic conditions prior to high-impact severe weather events with varying predictive skill. Deep-layer vertical shear between 1000--500 hPa is found to be a significant discriminator in slight risk forecast skill where high-impact events with less than 31-kt shear have lower threat scores than high-impact events with higher shear values. Case study analysis of type 1 events suggests the environment over which severe weather occurs is characterized by high downdraft convective available potential energy, steep low-level lapse rates, and high lifting condensation level heights that contribute to an elevated risk of severe wind.

"That in your hands". A comprehensive process analysis of a significant event in psychotherapy.

PubMed

Elliott, R

1983-05-01

This article illustrates a new approach to the study of change processes in psychotherapy. The approach involves selecting significant change events and analyzing them according to the Comprehensive Process Model. In this model, client and therapist behaviors are analyzed for content, interpersonal action, style and response quality by using information derived from Interpersonal Process Recall, client and therapist objective process ratings and qualitative analyses. The event selected for analysis in this paper was rated by client and therapist as significantly helpful. The focal therapist response was a reflective-interpretive intervention in which the therapist collaboratively and evocatively expanded the client's implicit meanings. The event involved working through an earlier insight and realization of progress by the client. The event suggests an association between subjective "felt shifts" and public "process shifts" in client in-therapy behaviors. A model, consistent with Gendlin's experiential psychotherapy (1970), is offered to describe the change process which occurred in this event.

Formal Analysis of BPMN Models Using Event-B

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bryans, Jeremy W.; Wei, Wei

The use of business process models has gone far beyond documentation purposes. In the development of business applications, they can play the role of an artifact on which high level properties can be verified and design errors can be revealed in an effort to reduce overhead at later software development and diagnosis stages. This paper demonstrates how formal verification may add value to the specification, design and development of business process models in an industrial setting. The analysis of these models is achieved via an algorithmic translation from the de-facto standard business process modeling language BPMN to Event-B, a widely used formal language supported by the Rodin platform which offers a range of simulation and verification technologies.

Modeling, Simulation and Analysis of Public Key Infrastructure

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Liu, Yuan-Kwei; Tuey, Richard; Ma, Paul (Technical Monitor)

1998-01-01

Security is an essential part of network communication. The advances in cryptography have provided solutions to many of the network security requirements. Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) is the foundation of the cryptography applications. The main objective of this research is to design a model to simulate a reliable, scalable, manageable, and high-performance public key infrastructure. We build a model to simulate the NASA public key infrastructure by using SimProcess and MatLab Software. The simulation is from top level all the way down to the computation needed for encryption, decryption, digital signature, and secure web server. The application of secure web server could be utilized in wireless communications. The results of the simulation are analyzed and confirmed by using queueing theory.

The role of dose rate in radiation cancer risk: evaluating the effect of dose rate at the molecular, cellular and tissue levels using key events in critical pathways following exposure to low LET radiation

PubMed Central

Brooks, Antone L.; Hoel, David G.; Preston, R. Julian

2016-01-01

Abstract Purpose: This review evaluates the role of dose rate on cell and molecular responses. It focuses on the influence of dose rate on key events in critical pathways in the development of cancer. This approach is similar to that used by the U.S. EPA and others to evaluate risk from chemicals. It provides a mechanistic method to account for the influence of the dose rate from low-LET radiation, especially in the low-dose region on cancer risk assessment. Molecular, cellular, and tissues changes are observed in many key events and change as a function of dose rate. The magnitude and direction of change can be used to help establish an appropriate dose rate effectiveness factor (DREF). Conclusions: Extensive data on key events suggest that exposure to low dose-rates are less effective in producing changes than high dose rates. Most of these data at the molecular and cellular level support a large (2–30) DREF. In addition, some evidence suggests that doses delivered at a low dose rate decrease damage to levels below that observed in the controls. However, there are some data human and mechanistic data that support a dose-rate effectiveness factor of 1. In summary, a review of the available molecular, cellular and tissue data indicates that not only is dose rate an important variable in understanding radiation risk but it also supports the selection of a DREF greater than one as currently recommended by ICRP (2007) and BEIR VII (NRC/NAS 2006). PMID:27266588

Vulnerability of global food production to extreme climatic events.

PubMed

Yeni, F; Alpas, H

2017-06-01

It is known that the frequency, intensity or duration of the extreme climatic events have been changing substantially. The ultimate goal of this study was to identify current vulnerabilities of global primary food production against extreme climatic events, and to discuss potential entry points for adaptation planning by means of an explorative vulnerability analysis. Outcomes of this analysis were demonstrated as a composite index where 118 country performances in maintaining safety of food production were compared and ranked against climate change. In order to better interpret the results, cluster analysis technique was used as a tool to group the countries based on their vulnerability index (VI) scores. Results suggested that one sixth of the countries analyzed were subject to high level of exposure (0.45-1), one third to high to very high level of sensitivity (0.41-1) and low to moderate level of adaptive capacity (0-0.59). Proper adaptation strategies for reducing the microbial and chemical contamination of food products, soil and waters on the field were proposed. Finally, availability of data on food safety management systems and occurrence of foodborne outbreaks with global coverage were proposed as key factors for improving the robustness of future vulnerability assessments. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Observations on Rupture Behaviour of Fluid Induced Events at the Basel EGS Based on Empirical Green's Function Analysis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Folesky, J.; Kummerow, J.; Shapiro, S. A.; Asanuma, H.; Häring, M. O.

2015-12-01

The Emprirical Green's Function (EGF) method uses pairs of events of high wave form similarity and adjacent hypocenters to decompose the influences of source time function, ray path, instrument site, and instrument response. The seismogram of the smaller event is considered as the Green's Function which then can be deconvolved from the other seismogram. The result provides a reconstructed relative source time function (RSTF) of the larger event of that event pair. The comparison of the RSTFs at different stations of the observation systems produces information on the rupture process of the larger event based on the observation of the directivity effect and on changing RSTFs complexities.The Basel EGS dataset of 2006-2007 consists of about 2800 localized events of magnitudes between 0.0event pairs of adequate magnitude difference for EGF analysis. The data has sufficient quality to analyse events with magnitudes down to ML=0.5 for an apparent directivity effect although the approximate rupture duration for those events is of only a few milliseconds. The dataset shows a number of multiplets and repeating earthquakes known from earlier studies. The larger events seem to appear close to the rim of the microseismic cloud. We are interested in their rupture behaviour. Using the EGF method we compute rupture orientations for about 190 event pairs and relate them to the event location, the known fault system, and stress regime. For the majority of events we observe a similar rupture direction which seems to correlate with the over all shape of the microseismic cloud. The large events, however, point back to the injection source. Additionally the rupture direction fitting yields estimates for projections of the rupture velocity on the horizontal plane. They seem to vary between the multiplets in the reservoir from 0.3 to 0.7 times the S-wave velocity.To our knowledge source characterization by EGF analysis has not yet been introduced to microseismic reservoirs

Social Network Analysis Identifies Key Participants in Conservation Development.

PubMed

Farr, Cooper M; Reed, Sarah E; Pejchar, Liba

2018-05-01

Understanding patterns of participation in private lands conservation, which is often implemented voluntarily by individual citizens and private organizations, could improve its effectiveness at combating biodiversity loss. We used social network analysis (SNA) to examine participation in conservation development (CD), a private land conservation strategy that clusters houses in a small portion of a property while preserving the remaining land as protected open space. Using data from public records for six counties in Colorado, USA, we compared CD participation patterns among counties and identified actors that most often work with others to implement CDs. We found that social network characteristics differed among counties. The network density, or proportion of connections in the network, varied from fewer than 2 to nearly 15%, and was higher in counties with smaller populations and fewer CDs. Centralization, or the degree to which connections are held disproportionately by a few key actors, was not correlated strongly with any county characteristics. Network characteristics were not correlated with the prevalence of wildlife-friendly design features in CDs. The most highly connected actors were biological and geological consultants, surveyors, and engineers. Our work demonstrates a new application of SNA to land-use planning, in which CD network patterns are examined and key actors are identified. For better conservation outcomes of CD, we recommend using network patterns to guide strategies for outreach and information dissemination, and engaging with highly connected actor types to encourage widespread adoption of best practices for CD design and stewardship.

Fundamental finite key limits for one-way information reconciliation in quantum key distribution

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tomamichel, Marco; Martinez-Mateo, Jesus; Pacher, Christoph; Elkouss, David

2017-11-01

The security of quantum key distribution protocols is guaranteed by the laws of quantum mechanics. However, a precise analysis of the security properties requires tools from both classical cryptography and information theory. Here, we employ recent results in non-asymptotic classical information theory to show that one-way information reconciliation imposes fundamental limitations on the amount of secret key that can be extracted in the finite key regime. In particular, we find that an often used approximation for the information leakage during information reconciliation is not generally valid. We propose an improved approximation that takes into account finite key effects and numerically test it against codes for two probability distributions, that we call binary-binary and binary-Gaussian, that typically appear in quantum key distribution protocols.

Improved statistical fluctuation analysis for measurement-device-independent quantum key distribution with four-intensity decoy-state method.

PubMed

Mao, Chen-Chen; Zhou, Xing-Yu; Zhu, Jian-Rong; Zhang, Chun-Hui; Zhang, Chun-Mei; Wang, Qin

2018-05-14

Recently Zhang et al [ Phys. Rev. A95, 012333 (2017)] developed a new approach to estimate the failure probability for the decoy-state BB84 QKD system when taking finite-size key effect into account, which offers security comparable to Chernoff bound, while results in an improved key rate and transmission distance. Based on Zhang et al's work, now we extend this approach to the case of the measurement-device-independent quantum key distribution (MDI-QKD), and for the first time implement it onto the four-intensity decoy-state MDI-QKD system. Moreover, through utilizing joint constraints and collective error-estimation techniques, we can obviously increase the performance of practical MDI-QKD systems compared with either three- or four-intensity decoy-state MDI-QKD using Chernoff bound analysis, and achieve much higher level security compared with those applying Gaussian approximation analysis.

Device-independent secret-key-rate analysis for quantum repeaters

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Holz, Timo; Kampermann, Hermann; Bruß, Dagmar

2018-01-01

The device-independent approach to quantum key distribution (QKD) aims to establish a secret key between two or more parties with untrusted devices, potentially under full control of a quantum adversary. The performance of a QKD protocol can be quantified by the secret key rate, which can be lower bounded via the violation of an appropriate Bell inequality in a setup with untrusted devices. We study secret key rates in the device-independent scenario for different quantum repeater setups and compare them to their device-dependent analogon. The quantum repeater setups under consideration are the original protocol by Briegel et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 81, 5932 (1998), 10.1103/PhysRevLett.81.5932] and the hybrid quantum repeater protocol by van Loock et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 96, 240501 (2006), 10.1103/PhysRevLett.96.240501]. For a given repeater scheme and a given QKD protocol, the secret key rate depends on a variety of parameters, such as the gate quality or the detector efficiency. We systematically analyze the impact of these parameters and suggest optimized strategies.

FASEA: A FPGA Acquisition System and Software Event Analysis for liquid scintillation counting

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Steele, T.; Mo, L.; Bignell, L.; Smith, M.; Alexiev, D.

2009-10-01

The FASEA (FPGA based Acquisition and Software Event Analysis) system has been developed to replace the MAC3 for coincidence pulse processing. The system uses a National Instruments Virtex 5 FPGA card (PXI-7842R) for data acquisition and a purpose developed data analysis software for data analysis. Initial comparisons to the MAC3 unit are included based on measurements of 89Sr and 3H, confirming that the system is able to accurately emulate the behaviour of the MAC3 unit.

The Frasnian-Famennian mass killing event(s), methods of identification and evaluation

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Geldsetzer, H. H. J.

1988-01-01

The absence of an abnormally high number of earlier Devonian taxa from Famennian sediments was repeatedly documented and can hardly be questioned. Primary recognition of the event(s) was based on paleontological data, especially common macrofossils. Most paleontologists place the disappearance of these common forms at the gigas/triangularis contact and this boundary was recently proposed as the Frasnian-Famennian (F-F) boundary. Not unexpectedly, alternate F-F positions were suggested caused by temporary Frasnian survivors or sudden post-event radiations of new forms. Secondary supporting evidence for mass killing event(s) is supplied by trace element and stable isotope geochemistry but not with the same success as for the K/T boundary, probably due to additional 300 ma of tectonic and diagenetic overprinting. Another tool is microfacies analysis which is surprisingly rarely used even though it can explain geochemical anomalies or paleontological overlap not detectable by conventional macrofacies analysis. The combination of microfacies analysis and geochemistry was applied at two F-F sections in western Canada and showed how interdependent the two methods are. Additional F-F sections from western Canada, western United States, France, Germany and Australia were sampled or re-sampled and await geochemical/microfacies evaluation.

Adverse events with bismuth salts for Helicobacter pylori eradication: Systematic review and meta-analysis

PubMed Central

Ford, Alexander C; Malfertheiner, Peter; Giguère, Monique; Santana, José; Khan, Mostafizur; Moayyedi, Paul

2008-01-01

AIM: To assess the safety of bismuth used in Helicobacter pylori (H pylori) eradication therapy regimens. METHODS: We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis. MEDLINE and EMBASE were searched (up to October 2007) to identify randomised controlled trials comparing bismuth with placebo or no treatment, or bismuth salts in combination with antibiotics as part of eradication therapy with the same dose and duration of antibiotics alone or, in combination, with acid suppression. Total numbers of adverse events were recorded. Data were pooled and expressed as relative risks with 95% confidence intervals (CI). RESULTS: We identified 35 randomised controlled trials containing 4763 patients. There were no serious adverse events occurring with bismuth therapy. There was no statistically significant difference detected in total adverse events with bismuth [relative risk (RR) = 1.01; 95% CI: 0.87-1.16], specific individual adverse events, with the exception of dark stools (RR = 5.06; 95% CI: 1.59-16.12), or adverse events leading to withdrawal of therapy (RR = 0.86; 95% CI: 0.54-1.37). CONCLUSION: Bismuth for the treatment of H pylori is safe and well-tolerated. The only adverse event occurring significantly more commonly was dark stools. PMID:19109870

Bayesian analysis of caustic-crossing microlensing events

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cassan, A.; Horne, K.; Kains, N.; Tsapras, Y.; Browne, P.

2010-06-01

Aims: Caustic-crossing binary-lens microlensing events are important anomalous events because they are capable of detecting an extrasolar planet companion orbiting the lens star. Fast and robust modelling methods are thus of prime interest in helping to decide whether a planet is detected by an event. Cassan introduced a new set of parameters to model binary-lens events, which are closely related to properties of the light curve. In this work, we explain how Bayesian priors can be added to this framework, and investigate on interesting options. Methods: We develop a mathematical formulation that allows us to compute analytically the priors on the new parameters, given some previous knowledge about other physical quantities. We explicitly compute the priors for a number of interesting cases, and show how this can be implemented in a fully Bayesian, Markov chain Monte Carlo algorithm. Results: Using Bayesian priors can accelerate microlens fitting codes by reducing the time spent considering physically implausible models, and helps us to discriminate between alternative models based on the physical plausibility of their parameters.

Element analysis: a wavelet-based method for analysing time-localized events in noisy time series

PubMed Central

2017-01-01

A method is derived for the quantitative analysis of signals that are composed of superpositions of isolated, time-localized ‘events’. Here, these events are taken to be well represented as rescaled and phase-rotated versions of generalized Morse wavelets, a broad family of continuous analytic functions. Analysing a signal composed of replicates of such a function using another Morse wavelet allows one to directly estimate the properties of events from the values of the wavelet transform at its own maxima. The distribution of events in general power-law noise is determined in order to establish significance based on an expected false detection rate. Finally, an expression for an event’s ‘region of influence’ within the wavelet transform permits the formation of a criterion for rejecting spurious maxima due to numerical artefacts or other unsuitable events. Signals can then be reconstructed based on a small number of isolated points on the time/scale plane. This method, termed element analysis, is applied to the identification of long-lived eddy structures in ocean currents as observed by along-track measurements of sea surface elevation from satellite altimetry. PMID:28484325

Low Probability Tail Event Analysis and Mitigation in BPA Control Area: Task One Report

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

Lu, Shuai; Makarov, Yuri V.

This is a report for task one of the tail event analysis project for BPA. Tail event refers to the situation in a power system when unfavorable forecast errors of load and wind are superposed onto fast load and wind ramps, or non-wind generators falling short of scheduled output, the imbalance between generation and load becomes very significant. This type of events occurs infrequently and appears on the tails of the distribution of system power imbalance; therefore, is referred to as tail events. This report analyzes what happened during the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) reliability event on Februarymore » 26, 2008, which was widely reported because of the involvement of wind generation. The objective is to identify sources of the problem, solutions to it and potential improvements that can be made to the system. Lessons learned from the analysis include the following: (1) Large mismatch between generation and load can be caused by load forecast error, wind forecast error and generation scheduling control error on traditional generators, or a combination of all of the above; (2) The capability of system balancing resources should be evaluated both in capacity (MW) and in ramp rate (MW/min), and be procured accordingly to meet both requirements. The resources need to be able to cover a range corresponding to the variability of load and wind in the system, additional to other uncertainties; (3) Unexpected ramps caused by load and wind can both become the cause leading to serious issues; (4) A look-ahead tool evaluating system balancing requirement during real-time operations and comparing that with available system resources should be very helpful to system operators in predicting the forthcoming of similar events and planning ahead; and (5) Demand response (only load reduction in ERCOT event) can effectively reduce load-generation mismatch and terminate frequency deviation in an emergency situation.« less

A PDA-based system for online recording and analysis of concurrent events in complex behavioral processes.

PubMed

Held, Jürgen; Manser, Tanja

2005-02-01

This article outlines how a Palm- or Newton-based PDA (personal digital assistant) system for online event recording was used to record and analyze concurrent events. We describe the features of this PDA-based system, called the FIT-System (flexible interface technique), and its application to the analysis of concurrent events in complex behavioral processes--in this case, anesthesia work processes. The patented FIT-System has a unique user interface design allowing the user to design an interface template with a pencil and paper or using a transparency film. The template usually consists of a drawing or sketch that includes icons or symbols that depict the observer's representation of the situation to be observed. In this study, the FIT-System allowed us to create a design for fast, intuitive online recording of concurrent events using a set of 41 observation codes. An analysis of concurrent events leads to a description of action density, and our results revealed a characteristic distribution of action density during the administration of anesthesia in the operating room. This distribution indicated the central role of the overlapping operations in the action sequences of medical professionals as they deal with the varying requirements of this complex task. We believe that the FIT-System for online recording of concurrent events in complex behavioral processes has the potential to be useful across a broad spectrum of research areas.

Key forecasts shaping nursing's perfect storm.

PubMed

Yoder-Wise, Patricia S

2007-01-01

Perfect storms abound in nursing and healthcare. How we plan for them and how we forecast effectively which ones will have tremendous impact on how we lead the profession is a challenge to anyone who is or will be a leader. This article focuses on key forecasts that contribute to creating perfect storms of the future. The "perfect storm" is a term found in multiple disciplines. The phrase denotes the condition that exists when events occur simultaneously with the result that this confluence has a greater impact than what could have resulted from a chance combination. Although perfect storms are rare, they have enormous impact when they occur, and if an alteration in any of the events occurs, the overall impact is lessened.

Propensity for Violence among Homeless and Runaway Adolescents: An Event History Analysis

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Crawford, Devan M.; Whitbeck, Les B.; Hoyt, Dan R.

2011-01-01

Little is known about the prevalence of violent behaviors among homeless and runaway adolescents or the specific behavioral factors that influence violent behaviors across time. In this longitudinal study of 300 homeless and runaway adolescents aged 16 to 19 at baseline, the authors use event history analysis to assess the factors associated with…

Identification of Key Odorants in Withering-Flavored Green Tea by Aroma Extract Dilution Analysis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mizukami, Yuzo; Yamaguchi, Yuichi

This research aims to identify key odorants in withering-flavored green tea. Application of the aroma extract dilution analysis using the volatile fraction of green tea and withering-flavored green tea revealed 25 and 35 odor-active peaks with the flavor dilution factors of≥4, respectively. 4-mercapto-4-methylpentan-2-one, (E)-2-nonenal, linalool, (E,Z)-2,6-nonadienal and 3-methylnonane-2,4-dione were key odorants in green tea with the flavor dilution factor of≥16. As well as these 5 odorants, 1-octen-3-one, β-damascenone, geraniol, β-ionone, (Z)-methyljasmonate, indole and coumarine contributed to the withering flavor of green tea.

Discrepant Events: A Challenge to Students' Intuition

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

González-Espada, Wilson J.; Birriel, Jennifer; Birriel, Ignacio

2010-11-01

Studies on cognitive aspects of science education, especially how students achieve conceptual change, have been a focus of interest for many years. Researchers of student learning and conceptual change have developed several easily applicable teaching strategies. One of these strategies is known as discrepant events. Discrepant events are very powerful ways to stimulate interest, motivate students to challenge their covert science misconceptions, and promote higher-order thinking skills. The key point is that directly challenging students' naive ideas will lead to more quality science learning going on in the classroom. In this paper, we summarize the research-based role of discrepant events in conceptual change and we share several highly successful discrepant events we use in our own classes.

Tight finite-key analysis for quantum cryptography

PubMed Central

Tomamichel, Marco; Lim, Charles Ci Wen; Gisin, Nicolas; Renner, Renato

2012-01-01

Despite enormous theoretical and experimental progress in quantum cryptography, the security of most current implementations of quantum key distribution is still not rigorously established. One significant problem is that the security of the final key strongly depends on the number, M, of signals exchanged between the legitimate parties. Yet, existing security proofs are often only valid asymptotically, for unrealistically large values of M. Another challenge is that most security proofs are very sensitive to small differences between the physical devices used by the protocol and the theoretical model used to describe them. Here we show that these gaps between theory and experiment can be simultaneously overcome by using a recently developed proof technique based on the uncertainty relation for smooth entropies. PMID:22252558

Tight finite-key analysis for quantum cryptography.

PubMed

Tomamichel, Marco; Lim, Charles Ci Wen; Gisin, Nicolas; Renner, Renato

2012-01-17

Despite enormous theoretical and experimental progress in quantum cryptography, the security of most current implementations of quantum key distribution is still not rigorously established. One significant problem is that the security of the final key strongly depends on the number, M, of signals exchanged between the legitimate parties. Yet, existing security proofs are often only valid asymptotically, for unrealistically large values of M. Another challenge is that most security proofs are very sensitive to small differences between the physical devices used by the protocol and the theoretical model used to describe them. Here we show that these gaps between theory and experiment can be simultaneously overcome by using a recently developed proof technique based on the uncertainty relation for smooth entropies.

Analysis of key technologies for virtual instruments metrology

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Liu, Guixiong; Xu, Qingui; Gao, Furong; Guan, Qiuju; Fang, Qiang

2008-12-01

Virtual instruments (VIs) require metrological verification when applied as measuring instruments. Owing to the software-centered architecture, metrological evaluation of VIs includes two aspects: measurement functions and software characteristics. Complexity of software imposes difficulties on metrological testing of VIs. Key approaches and technologies for metrology evaluation of virtual instruments are investigated and analyzed in this paper. The principal issue is evaluation of measurement uncertainty. The nature and regularity of measurement uncertainty caused by software and algorithms can be evaluated by modeling, simulation, analysis, testing and statistics with support of powerful computing capability of PC. Another concern is evaluation of software features like correctness, reliability, stability, security and real-time of VIs. Technologies from software engineering, software testing and computer security domain can be used for these purposes. For example, a variety of black-box testing, white-box testing and modeling approaches can be used to evaluate the reliability of modules, components, applications and the whole VI software. The security of a VI can be assessed by methods like vulnerability scanning and penetration analysis. In order to facilitate metrology institutions to perform metrological verification of VIs efficiently, an automatic metrological tool for the above validation is essential. Based on technologies of numerical simulation, software testing and system benchmarking, a framework for the automatic tool is proposed in this paper. Investigation on implementation of existing automatic tools that perform calculation of measurement uncertainty, software testing and security assessment demonstrates the feasibility of the automatic framework advanced.

Composite Analysis of Cold Season Atmospheric River Events: Extreme Precipitation and Flooding over the Western United States

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Eldardiry, H.; Hossain, F.

2017-12-01

Atmospheric Rivers (ARs) are narrow elongated corridors with horizontal water vapor transport located within the warm sector of extratropical cyclones. While it is widely known that most of heavy rainfall events across the western United States (US) are driven by ARs, the connection between atmospheric conditions and precipitation during an AR event has not been fully documented. In this study, we present a statistical analysis of the connection between precipitation, temperature, wind, and snowpack during the cold season AR events hitting the coastal regions of the western US. For each AR event, the precipitation and other atmospheric variables are retrieved through the dynamic downscaling of NCEP/NCAR Reanalysis product using the Advanced Research Weather Research and Forecasting Model (ARW-WRF). The results show a low frequency of precipitation (below 0.3) during AR events that reflects the connection of AR with extreme precipitation. Examining the horizontal wind speed during AR events indicates a high correlation (above 0.7) with precipitation. In addition, high levels of snow water equivalence (SWE) are also noticed along the mountainous regions, e.g., Cascade Range and Sierra-Nevada mountain range, during most of AR events. Addressing the impact of duration on the frequency of precipitation, we develop Intensity-Duration-Frequency (IDF) curves during AR events that can potentially describe the future predictability of precipitation along the north and south coast. To complement our analysis, we further investigate the flooding events recorded in the National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) storm events database. While some flooding events are attributed to heavy rainfall associated with an AR event, other flooding events are significantly connected to the increase in the snowmelt before the flooding date. Thus, we introduce an index that describes the contribution of rainfall vs snowmelt and categorizes the flooding events during an AR event

Prehospital Interventions During Mass-Casualty Events in Afghanistan: A Case Analysis.

PubMed

Schauer, Steven G; April, Michael D; Simon, Erica; Maddry, Joseph K; Carter, Robert; Delorenzo, Robert A

2017-08-01

Mass-casualty (MASCAL) events are known to occur in the combat setting. There are very limited data at this time from the Joint Theater (Iraq and Afghanistan) wars specific to MASCAL events. The purpose of this report was to provide preliminary data for the development of prehospital planning and guidelines. Cases were identified using the Department of Defense (DoD; Virginia USA) Trauma Registry (DoDTR) and the Prehospital Trauma Registry (PHTR). These cases were identified as part of a research study evaluating Tactical Combat Casualty Care (TCCC) guidelines. Cases that were designated as or associated with denoted MASCAL events were included. Data Fifty subjects were identified during the course of this project. Explosives were the most common cause of injuries. There was a wide range of vital signs. Tourniquet placement and pressure dressings were the most common interventions, followed by analgesia administration. Oral transmucosal fentanyl citrate (OTFC) was the most common parenteral analgesic drug administered. Most were evacuated as "routine." Follow-up data were available for 36 of the subjects and 97% were discharged alive. The most common prehospital interventions were tourniquet and pressure dressing hemorrhage control, along with pain medication administration. Larger data sets are needed to guide development of MASCAL in-theater clinical practice guidelines. Schauer SG , April MD , Simon E , Maddry JK , Carter R III , Delorenzo RA . Prehospital interventions during mass-casualty events in Afghanistan: a case analysis. Prehosp Disaster Med. 2017;32(4):465-468.

The added predictive value of biphasic events in ST analysis of the fetal electrocardiogram for intrapartum fetal monitoring.

PubMed

Becker, Jeroen H; Krikhaar, Anniek; Schuit, Ewoud; Mårtendal, Annika; Maršál, Karel; Kwee, Anneke; Visser, Gerard H A; Amer-Wåhlin, Isis

2015-02-01

To study the predictive value of biphasic ST-events for interventions for suspected fetal distress and adverse neonatal outcome, when using ST-analysis of the fetal electrocardiogram (FECG) for intrapartum fetal monitoring. Prospective cohort study. Three academic hospitals in Sweden. Women in labor with a high-risk singleton fetus in cephalic position beyond 36 weeks of gestation. In women in labor who were monitored with conventional cardiotocography, ST-waveform analysis was recorded and concealed. Traces with biphasic ST-events of the FECG (index) were compared with traces without biphasic events of the FECG. The ability of biphasic events to predict interventions for suspected fetal distress and adverse outcome was assessed using univariable and multivariable logistic regression analyses. Interventions for suspected fetal distress and adverse outcome (defined as presence of metabolic acidosis (i.e. umbilical cord pH <7.05 and base deficit in extracellular fluid >12 mmol), umbilical cord pH <7.00, 5-min Apgar score <7, admittance to neonatal intensive care unit or perinatal death). Although the presence of biphasic events of the FECG was associated with more interventions for fetal distress and an increased risk of adverse outcome compared with cases with no biphasic events, the presence of significant (i.e. intervention advised according to cardiotocography interpretation) biphasic events showed no independent association with interventions for fetal distress [odds ratio (OR) 1.71, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.65-4.50] or adverse outcome (OR 1.96, 95% CI 0.74-5.24). The presence of significant biphasic events did not discriminate in the prediction of interventions for fetal distress or adverse outcome. Therefore, biphasic events in relation to ST-analysis monitoring during birth should be omitted if future studies confirm our findings. © 2014 Nordic Federation of Societies of Obstetrics and Gynecology.

How do blockings relate to heavy precipitation events in Europe?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lenggenhager, Sina; Romppainen, Olivia; Brönnimann, Stefan; Croci-Maspoli, Mischa

2017-04-01

Atmospheric blockings are quasi-stationary high pressure systems that persist for several days. Due to their longevity, blockings can be key features for extreme weather events. While several studies have shown their relevant role for temperatures extremes, the link between blockings and extreme precipitation and floods is still poorly understood. A case study of a Swiss lake flood event in the year 2000 reveals how different processes connected to blockings can favour the development of a flood. First upstream blocks helped to form strongly elongated troughs that are known to be associated with heavy precipitation events south of the Alps. Second recurrent precipitation events upstream of a block led to a moistening of the catchment and an increase of the lake level. Third the progression of the upstream weather systems was slowed and thereby the precipitation period over a catchment prolonged. Additionally, cloud diabatic processes in the flood region contributed to the establishment and maintenance of blocking anticyclones. Based on this case study we extend our analysis to all of Europe. Focusing on flood relevant precipitation events, i.e. extreme precipitation events that last for several days and affect larger areas, we show that different regions in Europe have very distinct seasonal precipitation patterns. Hence there is a strong seasonality in the occurrence of extreme events, depending on the geographical region. We further suggest that for different precipitation regimes, the preferred location of blockings varies strongly. Heavy precipitation events in southern France, for example, are often observed during Scandinavian blockings, while heavy precipitation events in south-eastern Europe coincide more often with eastern North-Atlantic blockings.

The time course of symbolic number adaptation: oscillatory EEG activity and event-related potential analysis.

PubMed

Hsu, Yi-Fang; Szűcs, Dénes

2012-02-15

Several functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies have used neural adaptation paradigms to detect anatomical locations of brain activity related to number processing. However, currently not much is known about the temporal structure of number adaptation. In the present study, we used electroencephalography (EEG) to elucidate the time course of neural events in symbolic number adaptation. The numerical distance of deviants relative to standards was manipulated. In order to avoid perceptual confounds, all levels of deviants consisted of perceptually identical stimuli. Multiple successive numerical distance effects were detected in event-related potentials (ERPs). Analysis of oscillatory activity further showed at least two distinct stages of neural processes involved in the automatic analysis of numerical magnitude, with the earlier effect emerging at around 200ms and the later effect appearing at around 400ms. The findings support for the hypothesis that numerical magnitude processing involves a succession of cognitive events. Crown Copyright © 2011. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

A cross-sectional analysis of pharmaceutical industry-funded events for health professionals in Australia

PubMed Central

Fabbri, Alice; Grundy, Quinn; Mintzes, Barbara; Swandari, Swestika; Moynihan, Ray; Walkom, Emily; Bero, Lisa A

2017-01-01

Objectives To analyse patterns and characteristics of pharmaceutical industry sponsorship of events for Australian health professionals and to understand the implications of recent changes in transparency provisions that no longer require reporting of payments for food and beverages. Design Cross-sectional analysis. Participants and setting 301 publicly available company transparency reports downloaded from the website of Medicines Australia, the pharmaceutical industry trade association, covering the period from October 2011 to September 2015. Results Forty-two companies sponsored 116 845 events for health professionals, on average 608 per week with 30 attendees per event. Events typically included a broad range of health professionals: 82.0% included medical doctors, including specialists and primary care doctors, and 38.3% trainees. Oncology, surgery and endocrinology were the most frequent clinical areas of focus. Most events (64.2%) were held in a clinical setting. The median cost per event was $A263 (IQR $A153–1195) and over 90% included food and beverages. Conclusions Over this 4-year period, industry-sponsored events were widespread and pharmaceutical companies maintained a high frequency of contact with health professionals. Most events were held in clinical settings, suggesting a pervasive commercial presence in everyday clinical practice. Food and beverages, known to be associated with changes to prescribing practice, were almost always provided. New Australian transparency provisions explicitly exclude meals from the reporting requirements; thus, a large proportion of potentially influential payments from pharmaceutical companies to health professionals will disappear from public view. PMID:28667226

Time compression of soil erosion by the effect of largest daily event. A regional analysis of USLE database.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gonzalez-Hidalgo, J. C.; Batalla, R.; Cerda, A.; de Luis, M.

2009-04-01

When Thornes and Brunsden wrote in 1977 "How often one hears the researcher (and no less the undergraduate) complain that after weeks of observation "nothing happened" only to learn that, the day after his departure, a flood caused unprecedent erosion and channel changes!" (Thornes and Brunsden, 1977, p. 57), they focussed on two different problems in geomorphological research: the effects of extreme events and the temporal compression of geomorphological processes. The time compression is one of the main characteristic of erosion processes. It means that an important amount of the total soil eroded is produced in very short temporal intervals, i.e. few events mostly related to extreme events. From magnitude-frequency analysis we know that few events, not necessarily extreme by magnitude, produce high amount of geomorphological work. Last but not least, extreme isolated events are a classical issue in geomorphology by their specific effects, and they are receiving permanent attention, increased at present because of scenarios of global change. Notwithstanding, the time compression of geomorphological processes could be focused not only on the analysis of extreme events and the traditional magnitude-frequency approach, but on new complementary approach based on the effects of largest events. The classical approach define extreme event as a rare event (identified by its magnitude and quantified by some deviation from central value), while we define largest events by the rank, whatever their magnitude. In a previous research on time compression of soil erosion, using USLE soil erosion database (Gonzalez-Hidalgo et al., EGU 2007), we described a relationship between the total amount of daily erosive events recorded by plot and the percentage contribution to total soil erosion of n-largest aggregated daily events. Now we offer a further refined analysis comparing different agricultural regions in USA. To do that we have analyzed data from 594 erosion plots from USLE

Statistical Analysis of Solar Events Associated with SSC over Year of Solar Maximum during Cycle 23: 1. Identification of Related Sun-Earth Events

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Grison, B.; Bocchialini, K.; Menvielle, M.; Chambodut, A.; Cornilleau-Wehrlin, N.; Fontaine, D.; Marchaudon, A.; Pick, M.; Pitout, F.; Schmieder, B.; Regnier, S.; Zouganelis, Y.

2017-12-01

Taking the 32 sudden storm commencements (SSC) listed by the observatory de l'Ebre / ISGI over the year 2002 (maximal solar activity) as a starting point, we performed a statistical analysis of the related solar sources, solar wind signatures, and terrestrial responses. For each event, we characterized and identified, as far as possible, (i) the sources on the Sun (Coronal Mass Ejections -CME-), with the help of a series of herafter detailed criteria (velocities, drag coefficient, radio waves, polarity), as well as (ii) the structure and properties in the interplanetary medium, at L1, of the event associated to the SSC: magnetic clouds -MC-, non-MC interplanetary coronal mass ejections -ICME-, co-rotating/stream interaction regions -SIR/CIR-, shocks only and unclear events that we call "miscellaneous" events. The categorization of the events at L1 is made on published catalogues. For each potential CME/L1 event association we compare the velocity observed at L1 with the one observed at the Sun and the estimated balistic velocity. Observations of radio emissions (Type II, Type IV detected from the ground and /or by WIND) associated to the CMEs make the solar source more probable. We also compare the polarity of the magnetic clouds with the hemisphere of the solar source. The drag coefficient (estimated with the drag-based model) is calculated for each potential association and it is compared to the expected range values. We identified a solar source for 26 SSC related events. 12 of these 26 associations match all criteria. We finally discuss the difficulty to perform such associations.

Microarray analysis identifies candidate genes for key roles in coral development

PubMed Central

Grasso, Lauretta C; Maindonald, John; Rudd, Stephen; Hayward, David C; Saint, Robert; Miller, David J; Ball, Eldon E

2008-01-01

Background Anthozoan cnidarians are amongst the simplest animals at the tissue level of organization, but are surprisingly complex and vertebrate-like in terms of gene repertoire. As major components of tropical reef ecosystems, the stony corals are anthozoans of particular ecological significance. To better understand the molecular bases of both cnidarian development in general and coral-specific processes such as skeletogenesis and symbiont acquisition, microarray analysis was carried out through the period of early development – when skeletogenesis is initiated, and symbionts are first acquired. Results Of 5081 unique peptide coding genes, 1084 were differentially expressed (P ≤ 0.05) in comparisons between four different stages of coral development, spanning key developmental transitions. Genes of likely relevance to the processes of settlement, metamorphosis, calcification and interaction with symbionts were characterised further and their spatial expression patterns investigated using whole-mount in situ hybridization. Conclusion This study is the first large-scale investigation of developmental gene expression for any cnidarian, and has provided candidate genes for key roles in many aspects of coral biology, including calcification, metamorphosis and symbiont uptake. One surprising finding is that some of these genes have clear counterparts in higher animals but are not present in the closely-related sea anemone Nematostella. Secondly, coral-specific processes (i.e. traits which distinguish corals from their close relatives) may be analogous to similar processes in distantly related organisms. This first large-scale application of microarray analysis demonstrates the potential of this approach for investigating many aspects of coral biology, including the effects of stress and disease. PMID:19014561

Reverse translation of adverse event reports paves the way for de-risking preclinical off-targets

PubMed Central

Maciejewski, Mateusz; Lounkine, Eugen; Whitebread, Steven; Farmer, Pierre; DuMouchel, William; Shoichet, Brian K; Urban, Laszlo

2017-01-01

The Food and Drug Administration Adverse Event Reporting System (FAERS) remains the primary source for post-marketing pharmacovigilance. The system is largely un-curated, unstandardized, and lacks a method for linking drugs to the chemical structures of their active ingredients, increasing noise and artefactual trends. To address these problems, we mapped drugs to their ingredients and used natural language processing to classify and correlate drug events. Our analysis exposed key idiosyncrasies in FAERS, for example reports of thalidomide causing a deadly ADR when used against myeloma, a likely result of the disease itself; multiplications of the same report, unjustifiably increasing its importance; correlation of reported ADRs with public events, regulatory announcements, and with publications. Comparing the pharmacological, pharmacokinetic, and clinical ADR profiles of methylphenidate, aripiprazole, and risperidone, and of kinase drugs targeting the VEGF receptor, demonstrates how underlying molecular mechanisms can emerge from ADR co-analysis. The precautions and methods we describe may enable investigators to avoid confounding chemistry-based associations and reporting biases in FAERS, and illustrate how comparative analysis of ADRs can reveal underlying mechanisms. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.25818.001 PMID:28786378

Asthma exacerbations in children immediately following stressful life events: a Cox's hierarchical regression.

PubMed

Sandberg, S; Järvenpää, S; Penttinen, A; Paton, J Y; McCann, D C

2004-12-01

A recent prospective study of children with asthma employing a within subject, over time analysis using dynamic logistic regression showed that severely negative life events significantly increased the risk of an acute exacerbation during the subsequent 6 week period. The timing of the maximum risk depended on the degree of chronic psychosocial stress also present. A hierarchical Cox regression analysis was undertaken to examine whether there were any immediate effects of negative life events in children without a background of high chronic stress. Sixty children with verified chronic asthma were followed prospectively for 18 months with continuous monitoring of asthma by daily symptom diaries and peak flow measurements, accompanied by repeated interview assessments of life events. The key outcome measures were asthma exacerbations and severely negative life events. An immediate effect evident within the first 2 days following a severely negative life event increased the risk of a new asthma attack by a factor of 4.69, 95% confidence interval 2.33 to 9.44 (p<0.001) [corrected] In the period 3-10 days after a severe event there was no increased risk of an asthma attack (p = 0.5). In addition to the immediate effect, an increased risk of 1.81 (95% confidence interval 1.24 to 2.65) [corrected] was found 5-7 weeks after a severe event (p = 0.002). This is consistent with earlier findings. There was a statistically significant variation due to unobserved factors in the incidence of asthma attacks between the children. The use of statistical methods capable of investigating short time lags showed that stressful life events significantly increase the risk of a new asthma attack immediately after the event; a more delayed increase in risk was also evident 5-7 weeks later.

Whole Genome Sequence Analysis of Mutations Accumulated in rad27Δ Yeast Strains with Defects in the Processing of Okazaki Fragments Indicates Template-Switching Events

PubMed Central

Omer, Sumita; Lavi, Bar; Mieczkowski, Piotr A.; Covo, Shay; Hazkani-Covo, Einat

2017-01-01

Okazaki fragments that are formed during lagging strand DNA synthesis include an initiating primer consisting of both RNA and DNA. The RNA fragment must be removed before the fragments are joined. In Saccharomyces cerevisiae, a key player in this process is the structure-specific flap endonuclease, Rad27p (human homolog FEN1). To obtain a genomic view of the mutational consequence of loss of RAD27, a S. cerevisiae rad27Δ strain was subcultured for 25 generations and sequenced using Illumina paired-end sequencing. Out of the 455 changes observed in 10 colonies isolated the two most common types of events were insertions or deletions (INDELs) in simple sequence repeats (SSRs) and INDELs mediated by short direct repeats. Surprisingly, we also detected a previously neglected class of 21 template-switching events. These events were presumably generated by quasi-palindrome to palindrome correction, as well as palindrome elongation. The formation of these events is best explained by folding back of the stalled nascent strand and resumption of DNA synthesis using the same nascent strand as a template. Evidence of quasi-palindrome to palindrome correction that could be generated by template switching appears also in yeast genome evolution. Out of the 455 events, 55 events appeared in multiple isolates; further analysis indicates that these loci are mutational hotspots. Since Rad27 acts on the lagging strand when the leading strand should not contain any gaps, we propose a mechanism favoring intramolecular strand switching over an intermolecular mechanism. We note that our results open new ways of understanding template switching that occurs during genome instability and evolution. PMID:28974572

Surrogate marker analysis in cancer clinical trials through time-to-event mediation techniques.

PubMed

Vandenberghe, Sjouke; Duchateau, Luc; Slaets, Leen; Bogaerts, Jan; Vansteelandt, Stijn

2017-01-01

The meta-analytic approach is the gold standard for validation of surrogate markers, but has the drawback of requiring data from several trials. We refine modern mediation analysis techniques for time-to-event endpoints and apply them to investigate whether pathological complete response can be used as a surrogate marker for disease-free survival in the EORTC 10994/BIG 1-00 randomised phase 3 trial in which locally advanced breast cancer patients were randomised to either taxane or anthracycline based neoadjuvant chemotherapy. In the mediation analysis, the treatment effect is decomposed into an indirect effect via pathological complete response and the remaining direct effect. It shows that only 4.2% of the treatment effect on disease-free survival after five years is mediated by the treatment effect on pathological complete response. There is thus no evidence from our analysis that pathological complete response is a valuable surrogate marker to evaluate the effect of taxane versus anthracycline based chemotherapies on progression free survival of locally advanced breast cancer patients. The proposed analysis strategy is broadly applicable to mediation analyses of time-to-event endpoints, is easy to apply and outperforms existing strategies in terms of precision as well as robustness against model misspecification.

Key Parameters Evaluation for Hip Prosthesis with Finite Element Analysis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Guo, Hongqiang; Li, Dichen; Lian, Qin; Li, Xiang; Jin, Zhongmin

2007-09-01

Stem length and cross section are two key parameters that influence the stability and longevity of metallic hip prosthesis in the total hip arthroplasty (THA). In order to assess their influence to the stress and fatigue behavior of hip prosthesis, a series model of hip prosthesis with round-shaped or drum-shaped cross section, and with different stem lengths were created. These models were analyzed under both static and dynamic loading conditions with finite element analysis, and dynamic loading represents normal walking was used in the dynamic analysis. The stress on the metallic stem, cement, and adjacent bone were got, micromotion on the cement-metal interface were got too. Safety factors for fatigue life of the hip prothesis were calculated based on data obtained from dynamic analysis. Static analysis shows that drum-shaped cross section can decrease the displacement of the stem, that stress on drum-shaped stem focus on the corner of the femoral neck and the distal part of hip prosthesis, whereas the stress on the round-shaped stem distributes evenly over most part of the stem, and maximum stress on stem prosthesis fluctuates with stem length bottoming out at stem length range from 80 mm to 110 mm, that drum-shaped stems with drum height 8 mm generate more stress at the distal part of stem than drum-shaped stems with drum height 10 mm and round stems do. Dynamic and fatigue analysis shows that drum-shaped stem with drum height 10 mm and stem length 90 mm has the greatest safety factor therefore long fatigue life.

Ontology-Based Combinatorial Comparative Analysis of Adverse Events Associated with Killed and Live Influenza Vaccines

PubMed Central

Sarntivijai, Sirarat; Xiang, Zuoshuang; Shedden, Kerby A.; Markel, Howard; Omenn, Gilbert S.; Athey, Brian D.; He, Yongqun

2012-01-01

Vaccine adverse events (VAEs) are adverse bodily changes occurring after vaccination. Understanding the adverse event (AE) profiles is a crucial step to identify serious AEs. Two different types of seasonal influenza vaccines have been used on the market: trivalent (killed) inactivated influenza vaccine (TIV) and trivalent live attenuated influenza vaccine (LAIV). Different adverse event profiles induced by these two groups of seasonal influenza vaccines were studied based on the data drawn from the CDC Vaccine Adverse Event Report System (VAERS). Extracted from VAERS were 37,621 AE reports for four TIVs (Afluria, Fluarix, Fluvirin, and Fluzone) and 3,707 AE reports for the only LAIV (FluMist). The AE report data were analyzed by a novel combinatorial, ontology-based detection of AE method (CODAE). CODAE detects AEs using Proportional Reporting Ratio (PRR), Chi-square significance test, and base level filtration, and groups identified AEs by ontology-based hierarchical classification. In total, 48 TIV-enriched and 68 LAIV-enriched AEs were identified (PRR>2, Chi-square score >4, and the number of cases >0.2% of total reports). These AE terms were classified using the Ontology of Adverse Events (OAE), MedDRA, and SNOMED-CT. The OAE method provided better classification results than the two other methods. Thirteen out of 48 TIV-enriched AEs were related to neurological and muscular processing such as paralysis, movement disorders, and muscular weakness. In contrast, 15 out of 68 LAIV-enriched AEs were associated with inflammatory response and respiratory system disorders. There were evidences of two severe adverse events (Guillain-Barre Syndrome and paralysis) present in TIV. Although these severe adverse events were at low incidence rate, they were found to be more significantly enriched in TIV-vaccinated patients than LAIV-vaccinated patients. Therefore, our novel combinatorial bioinformatics analysis discovered that LAIV had lower chance of inducing these two

Reduced-Order Modeling and Wavelet Analysis of Turbofan Engine Structural Response Due to Foreign Object Damage (FOD) Events

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Turso, James; Lawrence, Charles; Litt, Jonathan

2004-01-01

The development of a wavelet-based feature extraction technique specifically targeting FOD-event induced vibration signal changes in gas turbine engines is described. The technique performs wavelet analysis of accelerometer signals from specified locations on the engine and is shown to be robust in the presence of significant process and sensor noise. It is envisioned that the technique will be combined with Kalman filter thermal/health parameter estimation for FOD-event detection via information fusion from these (and perhaps other) sources. Due to the lack of high-frequency FOD-event test data in the open literature, a reduced-order turbofan structural model (ROM) was synthesized from a finite element model modal analysis to support the investigation. In addition to providing test data for algorithm development, the ROM is used to determine the optimal sensor location for FOD-event detection. In the presence of significant noise, precise location of the FOD event in time was obtained using the developed wavelet-based feature.

Reduced-Order Modeling and Wavelet Analysis of Turbofan Engine Structural Response Due to Foreign Object Damage "FOD" Events

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Turso, James A.; Lawrence, Charles; Litt, Jonathan S.

2007-01-01

The development of a wavelet-based feature extraction technique specifically targeting FOD-event induced vibration signal changes in gas turbine engines is described. The technique performs wavelet analysis of accelerometer signals from specified locations on the engine and is shown to be robust in the presence of significant process and sensor noise. It is envisioned that the technique will be combined with Kalman filter thermal/ health parameter estimation for FOD-event detection via information fusion from these (and perhaps other) sources. Due to the lack of high-frequency FOD-event test data in the open literature, a reduced-order turbofan structural model (ROM) was synthesized from a finite-element model modal analysis to support the investigation. In addition to providing test data for algorithm development, the ROM is used to determine the optimal sensor location for FOD-event detection. In the presence of significant noise, precise location of the FOD event in time was obtained using the developed wavelet-based feature.

Analysis of electrical penetration graph data: what to do with artificially terminated events?

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Observing the durations of hemipteran feeding behaviors via Electrical Penetration Graph (EPG) results in situations where the duration of the last behavior is not ended by the insect under observation, but by the experimenter. These are artificially terminated events. In data analysis, one must ch...

Using Real-time Event Tracking Sensitivity Analysis to Overcome Sensor Measurement Uncertainties of Geo-Information Management in Drilling Disasters

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tavakoli, S.; Poslad, S.; Fruhwirth, R.; Winter, M.

2012-04-01

This paper introduces an application of a novel EventTracker platform for instantaneous Sensitivity Analysis (SA) of large scale real-time geo-information. Earth disaster management systems demand high quality information to aid a quick and timely response to their evolving environments. The idea behind the proposed EventTracker platform is the assumption that modern information management systems are able to capture data in real-time and have the technological flexibility to adjust their services to work with specific sources of data/information. However, to assure this adaptation in real time, the online data should be collected, interpreted, and translated into corrective actions in a concise and timely manner. This can hardly be handled by existing sensitivity analysis methods because they rely on historical data and lazy processing algorithms. In event-driven systems, the effect of system inputs on its state is of value, as events could cause this state to change. This 'event triggering' situation underpins the logic of the proposed approach. Event tracking sensitivity analysis method describes the system variables and states as a collection of events. The higher the occurrence of an input variable during the trigger of event, the greater its potential impact will be on the final analysis of the system state. Experiments were designed to compare the proposed event tracking sensitivity analysis with existing Entropy-based sensitivity analysis methods. The results have shown a 10% improvement in a computational efficiency with no compromise for accuracy. It has also shown that the computational time to perform the sensitivity analysis is 0.5% of the time required compared to using the Entropy-based method. The proposed method has been applied to real world data in the context of preventing emerging crises at drilling rigs. One of the major purposes of such rigs is to drill boreholes to explore oil or gas reservoirs with the final scope of recovering the content

Total Thrombus-formation Analysis System Predicts Periprocedural Bleeding Events in Patients With Coronary Artery Disease Undergoing Percutaneous Coronary Intervention.

PubMed

Oimatsu, Yu; Kaikita, Koichi; Ishii, Masanobu; Mitsuse, Tatsuro; Ito, Miwa; Arima, Yuichiro; Sueta, Daisuke; Takahashi, Aya; Iwashita, Satomi; Yamamoto, Eiichiro; Kojima, Sunao; Hokimoto, Seiji; Tsujita, Kenichi

2017-04-24

Periprocedural bleeding events are common after percutaneous coronary intervention. We evaluated the association of periprocedural bleeding events with thrombogenicity, which was measured quantitatively by the Total Thrombus-formation Analysis System equipped with microchips and thrombogenic surfaces (collagen, platelet chip [PL]; collagen plus tissue factor, atheroma chip [AR]). Between August 2013 and March 2016, 313 consecutive patients with coronary artery disease undergoing elective percutaneous coronary intervention were enrolled. They were divided into those with or without periprocedural bleeding events. We determined the bleeding events as composites of major bleeding events defined by the International Society on Thrombosis and Hemostasis and minor bleeding events (eg, minor hematoma, arteriovenous shunt and pseudoaneurysm). Blood samples obtained at percutaneous coronary intervention were analyzed for thrombus formation area under the curve (PL 24 -AUC 10 for PL chip; AR 10 -AUC 30 for AR chip) by the Total Thrombus-formation Analysis System and P2Y12 reaction unit by the VerifyNow system. Periprocedural bleeding events occurred in 37 patients. PL 24 -AUC 10 levels were significantly lower in patients with such events than those without ( P =0.002). Multiple logistic regression analyses showed association between low PL 24 -AUC 10 levels and periprocedural bleeding events (odds ratio, 2.71 [1.22-5.99]; P =0.01) and association between PL 24 -AUC 10 and periprocedural bleeding events in 176 patients of the femoral approach group (odds ratio, 2.88 [1.11-7.49]; P =0.03). However, PL 24 -AUC 10 levels in 127 patients of the radial approach group were not significantly different in patients with or without periprocedural bleeding events. PL 24 -AUC 10 measured by the Total Thrombus-formation Analysis System is a potentially useful predictor of periprocedural bleeding events in coronary artery disease patients undergoing elective percutaneous coronary

Automatic Single Event Effects Sensitivity Analysis of a 13-Bit Successive Approximation ADC

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Márquez, F.; Muñoz, F.; Palomo, F. R.; Sanz, L.; López-Morillo, E.; Aguirre, M. A.; Jiménez, A.

2015-08-01

This paper presents Analog Fault Tolerant University of Seville Debugging System (AFTU), a tool to evaluate the Single-Event Effect (SEE) sensitivity of analog/mixed signal microelectronic circuits at transistor level. As analog cells can behave in an unpredictable way when critical areas interact with the particle hitting, there is a need for designers to have a software tool that allows an automatic and exhaustive analysis of Single-Event Effects influence. AFTU takes the test-bench SPECTRE design, emulates radiation conditions and automatically evaluates vulnerabilities using user-defined heuristics. To illustrate the utility of the tool, the SEE sensitivity of a 13-bits Successive Approximation Analog-to-Digital Converter (ADC) has been analysed. This circuit was selected not only because it was designed for space applications, but also due to the fact that a manual SEE sensitivity analysis would be too time-consuming. After a user-defined test campaign, it was detected that some voltage transients were propagated to a node where a parasitic diode was activated, affecting the offset cancelation, and therefore the whole resolution of the ADC. A simple modification of the scheme solved the problem, as it was verified with another automatic SEE sensitivity analysis.

Extreme flood event analysis in Indonesia based on rainfall intensity and recharge capacity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Narulita, Ida; Ningrum, Widya

2018-02-01

Indonesia is very vulnerable to flood disaster because it has high rainfall events throughout the year. Flood is categorized as the most important hazard disaster because it is causing social, economic and human losses. The purpose of this study is to analyze extreme flood event based on satellite rainfall dataset to understand the rainfall characteristic (rainfall intensity, rainfall pattern, etc.) that happened before flood disaster in the area for monsoonal, equatorial and local rainfall types. Recharge capacity will be analyzed using land cover and soil distribution. The data used in this study are CHIRPS rainfall satellite data on 0.05 ° spatial resolution and daily temporal resolution, and GSMap satellite rainfall dataset operated by JAXA on 1-hour temporal resolution and 0.1 ° spatial resolution, land use and soil distribution map for recharge capacity analysis. The rainfall characteristic before flooding, and recharge capacity analysis are expected to become the important information for flood mitigation in Indonesia.

Mines Systems Safety Improvement Using an Integrated Event Tree and Fault Tree Analysis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kumar, Ranjan; Ghosh, Achyuta Krishna

2017-04-01

Mines systems such as ventilation system, strata support system, flame proof safety equipment, are exposed to dynamic operational conditions such as stress, humidity, dust, temperature, etc., and safety improvement of such systems can be done preferably during planning and design stage. However, the existing safety analysis methods do not handle the accident initiation and progression of mine systems explicitly. To bridge this gap, this paper presents an integrated Event Tree (ET) and Fault Tree (FT) approach for safety analysis and improvement of mine systems design. This approach includes ET and FT modeling coupled with redundancy allocation technique. In this method, a concept of top hazard probability is introduced for identifying system failure probability and redundancy is allocated to the system either at component or system level. A case study on mine methane explosion safety with two initiating events is performed. The results demonstrate that the presented method can reveal the accident scenarios and improve the safety of complex mine systems simultaneously.

Final Report for Dynamic Models for Causal Analysis of Panel Data. Approaches to the Censoring Problem in Analysis of Event Histories. Part III, Chapter 2.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tuma, Nancy Brandon; Hannan, Michael T.

The document, part of a series of chapters described in SO 011 759, considers the problem of censoring in the analysis of event-histories (data on dated events, including dates of change from one qualitative state to another). Censoring refers to the lack of information on events that occur before or after the period for which data are available.…

A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis of Thrombotic Events Following Endovenous Thermal Ablation of the Great Saphenous Vein.

PubMed

Healy, Donagh A; Kimura, Shiori; Power, David; Elhaj, Abubaker; Abdeldaim, Yasser; Cross, Keith S; McGreal, Gerard T; Burke, Paul E; Moloney, Tony; Manning, Brian J; Kavanagh, Eamon G

2018-06-09

A systematic review and meta-analysis was performed to determine the incidence of thrombotic events following great saphenous vein (GSV) endovenous thermal ablation (EVTA). MEDLINE, Embase and conference abstracts were searched. Eligible studies were randomised controlled trials and case series that included at least 100 patients who underwent GSV EVTA (laser ablation or radiofrequency ablation [RFA]) with duplex ultrasound (DUS) within 30 days. The systematic review focused on the complications of endovenous heat induced thrombosis (EHIT), deep venous thrombosis (DVT), and pulmonary embolism (PE). The primary outcome for the meta-analysis was deep venous thrombotic events which were defined as DVT or EHIT Type 2, 3, or 4. Secondary outcomes for the meta-analysis were EHIT Type 2, 3, or 4, DVT and PE. Subgroup analyses were performed for both the RFA and EVLA groups. Pooled proportions were calculated using random effects modelling. Fifty-two studies (16,398 patients) were included. Thrombotic complications occurred infrequently. Deep venous thrombotic events occurred in 1.7% of cases (95% CI 0.9-2.7%) (25 studies; 10,012 patients; 274 events). EHIT Type 2, 3, or 4 occurred in 1.4% of cases (95% CI 0.8-2.3%) (26 studies; 10,225 patients; 249 events). DVT occurred in 0.3% of cases (95% CI = 0.2%-0.5%) (49 studies; 15,676 patients; 48 events). PE occurred in 0.1% of cases (95% CI = 0.1-0.2%) (29 studies; 8223 patients; 3 events). Similar results were found when the RFA and EVLA groups were analysed separately. Thrombotic events occur infrequently following GSV EVTA. Given the large numbers of procedures worldwide and the potential for serious consequences, further research is needed on the burden of these complications and their management. Copyright © 2018 European Society for Vascular Surgery. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Incidence and risk factors of intraoperative adverse events during donor lobectomy for living-donor liver transplantation: a retrospective analysis.

PubMed

Araz, Coskun; Pirat, Arash; Unlukaplan, Aytekin; Torgay, Adnan; Karakayali, Hamdi; Arslan, Gulnaz; Moray, Gokhan; Haberal, Mehmet

2012-04-01

To evaluate the frequency, type, and predictors of intraoperative adverse events during donor hepatectomy for living-donor liver transplant. Retrospective analyses of the data from 182 consecutive living-donor liver transplant donors between May 2002 and September 2008. Ninety-one patients (50%) had at least 1 intraoperative adverse event including hypothermia (39%), hypotension (26%), need for transfusions (17%), and hypertension (7%). Patients with an adverse event were older (P = .001), had a larger graft weight (P = .023), more frequently underwent a right hepatectomy (P = .019), and were more frequently classified as American Society of Anesthesiologists physical status class II (P = .027) than those who did not have these adverse events. Logistic regression analysis revealed that only age (95% confidence interval 1.018-1.099; P = .001) was a risk factor for intraoperative adverse events. Patients with these adverse events more frequently required admission to the intensive care unit and were hospitalized longer postoperatively. A before and after analysis showed that after introduction of in-line fluid warmers and more frequent use of acute normovolemic hemodilution, the frequency of intraoperative adverse events was significantly lower (80% vs 29%; P < .001). Intraoperative adverse events such as hypothermia and hypotension were common in living-donor liver transplant donors, and older age was associated with an increased risk of these adverse events. However, the effect of these adverse events on postoperative recovery is not clear.

Event selection services in ATLAS

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cranshaw, J.; Cuhadar-Donszelmann, T.; Gallas, E.; Hrivnac, J.; Kenyon, M.; McGlone, H.; Malon, D.; Mambelli, M.; Nowak, M.; Viegas, F.; Vinek, E.; Zhang, Q.

2010-04-01

ATLAS has developed and deployed event-level selection services based upon event metadata records ("TAGS") and supporting file and database technology. These services allow physicists to extract events that satisfy their selection predicates from any stage of data processing and use them as input to later analyses. One component of these services is a web-based Event-Level Selection Service Interface (ELSSI). ELSSI supports event selection by integrating run-level metadata, luminosity-block-level metadata (e.g., detector status and quality information), and event-by-event information (e.g., triggers passed and physics content). The list of events that survive after some selection criterion is returned in a form that can be used directly as input to local or distributed analysis; indeed, it is possible to submit a skimming job directly from the ELSSI interface using grid proxy credential delegation. ELSSI allows physicists to explore ATLAS event metadata as a means to understand, qualitatively and quantitatively, the distributional characteristics of ATLAS data. In fact, the ELSSI service provides an easy interface to see the highest missing ET events or the events with the most leptons, to count how many events passed a given set of triggers, or to find events that failed a given trigger but nonetheless look relevant to an analysis based upon the results of offline reconstruction, and more. This work provides an overview of ATLAS event-level selection services, with an emphasis upon the interactive Event-Level Selection Service Interface.

Low frequency events on Montserrat

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Visser, K.; Neuberg, J.

2003-04-01

Earthquake swarms observed on volcanoes consist generally of low frequency events. The low frequency content of these events indicates the presence of interface waves at the boundary of the magma filled conduit and the surrounding country rock. The observed seismic signal at the surface shows therefore a complicated interference pattern of waves originating at various parts of the magma filled conduit, interacting with the free surface and interfaces in the volcanic edifice. This research investigates the applicability of conventional seismic tools on these low frequency events, focusing on hypocenter location analysis using arrival times and particle motion analysis for the Soufrière Hills Volcano on Montserrat. Both single low frequency events and swarms are observed on this volcano. Synthetic low frequency events are used for comparison. Results show that reliable hypocenter locations and particle motions can only be obtained if the low frequency events are single events with an identifiable P wave onset, for example the single events preceding swarms on Montserrat or the first low frequency event of a swarm. Consecutive events of the same swarm are dominated by interface waves which are converted at the top of the conduit into weak secondary P waves and surface waves. Conventional seismic tools fail to correctly analyse these events.

Superposed ruptile deformational events revealed by field and VOM structural analysis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kumaira, Sissa; Guadagnin, Felipe; Keller Lautert, Maiara

2017-04-01

Virtual outcrop models (VOM) is becoming an important application in the analysis of geological structures due to the possibility of obtaining the geometry and in some cases kinematic aspects of analyzed structures in a tridimensional photorealistic space. These data are used to gain quantitative information on the deformational features which coupled with numeric models can assist in understands deformational processes. Old basement units commonly register superposed deformational events either ductile or ruptile along its evolution. The Porongos Belt, located at southern Brazil, have a complex deformational history registering at least five ductile and ruptile deformational events. In this study, we presents a structural analysis of a quarry in the Porongos Belt, coupling field and VOM structural information to understand process involved in the last two deformational events. Field information was acquired using traditional structural methods for analysis of ruptile structures, such as the descriptions, drawings, acquisition of orientation vectors and kinematic analysis. VOM was created from the image-based modeling method through photogrammetric data acquisition and orthorectification. Photogrammetric data acquisition was acquired using Sony a3500 camera and a total of 128 photographs were taken from ca. 10-20 m from the outcrop in different orientations. Thirty two control point coordinates were acquired using a combination of RTK dGPS surveying and total station work, providing a precision of few millimeters for x, y and z. Photographs were imported into the Photo Scan software to create a 3D dense point cloud from structure from-motion algorithm, which were triangulated and textured to generate the VOM. VOM was georreferenced (oriented and scaled) using the ground control points, and later analyzed in OpenPlot software to extract structural information. Data was imported in Wintensor software to obtain tensor orientations, and Move software to process and

Using Key Part-of-Speech Analysis to Examine Spoken Discourse by Taiwanese EFL Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lin, Yen-Liang

2015-01-01

This study reports on a corpus analysis of samples of spoken discourse between a group of British and Taiwanese adolescents, with the aim of exploring the statistically significant differences in the use of grammatical categories between the two groups of participants. The key word method extended to a part-of-speech level using the web-based…

Reinvestigation and analysis a landslide dam event in 2012 using UAV

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, Kuo-Lung; Huang, Zji-Jie; Lin, Jun-Tin

2015-04-01

Geological condition of Taiwan is fracture with locating on Pacific Rim seismic area. Typhoons usually attack during summer and steep mountains are highly weathered, which induces landslide in mountain area. The situation happens more frequently recent years due to weather change effect. Most landslides are very far away from residence area. Field investigation is time consuming, high budget, limited data collected and dangerous. Investigation with satellite images has disadvantages such as less of the actual situation and poor resolution. Thus the possibility for slope investigation with UAV will be proposed and discussed in this research. Hazard investigation and monitoring is adopted UAV in recent years. UAV has advantages such as light weight, small volume, high mobility, safe, easy maintenance and low cost. Investigation can be executed in high risk area. Use the mature aero photogrammetry , combines aero photos with control point. Digital surface model (DSM) and Ortho photos can be produced with control points aligned. The resolution can be less than 5cm thus can be used as temporal creeping monitoring before landslide happens. A large landslide site at 75k of road No. 14 was investigated in this research. Landslide happened in June, 2012 with heavy rainfall and landslide dam was formed quickly after that. Analysis of this landslide failure and mechanism were discussed in this research using DEMs produced prior this event with aero photos and after this event with UAV. Residual slope stability analysis is thus carried out after strength parameters obtain from analysis described above. Thus advice for following potential landslide conditions can be provided.

Psychiatric adverse events during treatment with brodalumab: Analysis of psoriasis clinical trials.

PubMed

Lebwohl, Mark G; Papp, Kim A; Marangell, Lauren B; Koo, John; Blauvelt, Andrew; Gooderham, Melinda; Wu, Jashin J; Rastogi, Shipra; Harris, Susan; Pillai, Radhakrishnan; Israel, Robert J

2018-01-01

Individuals with psoriasis are at increased risk for psychiatric comorbidities, including suicidal ideation and behavior (SIB). To distinguish between the underlying risk and potential for treatment-induced psychiatric adverse events in patients with psoriasis being treated with brodalumab, a fully human anti-interleukin 17 receptor A monoclonal antibody. Data were evaluated from a placebo-controlled, phase 2 clinical trial; the open-label, long-term extension of the phase 2 clinical trial; and three phase 3, randomized, double-blind, controlled clinical trials (AMAGINE-1, AMAGINE-2, and AMAGINE-3) and their open-label, long-term extensions of patients with moderate-to-severe psoriasis. The analysis included 4464 patients with 9161.8 patient-years of brodalumab exposure. The follow-up time-adjusted incidence rates of SIB events were comparable between the brodalumab and ustekinumab groups throughout the 52-week controlled phases (0.20 vs 0.60 per 100 patient-years). In the brodalumab group, 4 completed suicides were reported, 1 of which was later adjudicated as indeterminate; all patients had underlying psychiatric disorders or stressors. There was no comparator arm past week 52. Controlled study periods were not powered to detect differences in rare events such as suicide. Comparison with controls and the timing of events do not indicate a causal relationship between SIB and brodalumab treatment. Copyright © 2017 American Academy of Dermatology, Inc. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Grieving experiences amongst adolescents orphaned by AIDS: Analysis from event history calendars.

PubMed

Thupayagale-Tshweneagae, Gloria

2012-09-07

Mental health is an essential component of adolescent health and wellbeing. Mental health practitioners assess adolescents' mental health status to identify possible issues that may lead to mental health problems. However, very few of the tools used to assess the mental health status of adolescents include assessment for grieving and coping patterns. The current tools used for assessing an individual's mental health are lengthy and not comprehensive. The purpose of this study was to assess grieving patterns of adolescents orphaned by AIDS and to appraise the usefulness of an event history calendar as an assessment tool for identifying grieving experiences, in order to guide and support these adolescents through the grieving process. One hundred and two adolescents aged 14-18 years, who had been orphaned by AIDS, completed an event history calendar, reviewed it with the researcher and reported their perceptions of it. Thematic analysis of the event history calendar content revealed that it is an effective, time-efficient, adolescent-friendly tool that facilitated identification and discussion of the orphaned adolescents' grieving patterns. Crying, isolation, silence and violent outbursts were the main grieving patterns reported by adolescents orphaned by AIDS. The researcher recommends use of the event history calendar for identification of orphaned adolescents' grieving experiences. Early identification would enable mental health practitioners to support them in order to prevent the occurrence of mental illness due to maladaptive grieving.

Combining geomorphic and documentary flood evidence to reconstruct extreme events in Mediterranean basins

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Thorndycraft, V. R.; Benito, G.; Barriendos, M.; Rico, M.; Sánchez-Moya, Y.; Sopeña, A.; Casas, A.

2009-09-01

Palaeoflood hydrology is the reconstruction of flood magnitude and frequency using geomorphological flood evidence and is particularly valuable for extending the record of extreme floods prior to the availability of instrumental data series. This paper will provide a review of recent developments in palaeoflood hydrology and will be presented in three parts: 1) an overview of the key methodological approaches used in palaeoflood hydrology and the use of historical documentary evidence for reconstructing extreme events; 2) a summary of the Llobregat River palaeoflood case study (Catalonia, NE Spain); and 3) analysis of the AD 1617 flood and its impacts across Catalonia (including the rivers Llobregat, Ter and Segre). The key findings of the Llobregat case study were that at least eight floods occurred with discharges significantly larger than events recorded in the instrumental record, for example at the Pont de Vilomara study reach the palaeodischarges of these events were 3700-4300 m3/s compared to the 1971 flood, the largest on record, of 2300 m3/s. Five of these floods were dated to the last 3000 years and the three events directly dated by radiocarbon all occurred during cold phases of global climate. Comparison of the palaeoflood record with documentary evidence indicated that one flood, radiocarbon dated to cal. AD 1540-1670, was likely to be the AD 1617 event, the largest flood of the last 700 years. Historical records indicate that this event was caused by rainfall occurring from the 2nd to 6th November and the resultant flooding caused widespread socio-economic impacts including the destruction of at least 389 houses, 22 bridges and 17 water mills. Discharges estimated from palaeoflood records and historical flood marks indicate that the Llobregat (4680 m3/s) and Ter (2700-4500 m3/s) rivers witnessed extreme discharges in comparison to observed floods in the instrumental record (2300 and 2350 m3/s, respectively); whilst further east in the Segre River

Key drivers of precipitation isotopes in Windhoek, Namibia (2012-2016)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kaseke, K. F.; Wang, L.; Wanke, H.

2017-12-01

Southern African climate is characterized by large variability with precipitation model estimates varying by as much as 70% during summer. This difference between model estimates is partly because most models associate precipitation over Southern Africa with moisture inputs from the Indian Ocean while excluding inputs from the Atlantic Ocean. However, growing evidence suggests that the Atlantic Ocean may also contribute significant amounts of moisture to the region. This four-year (2012-2016) study investigates the isotopic composition (δ18O, δ2H and δ17O) of event-scale precipitation events, the key drivers of isotope variations and the origins of precipitation experienced in Windhoek, Namibia. Results indicate large storm-to-storm isotopic variability δ18O (25‰), δ2H (180‰) and δ17O (13‰) over the study period. Univariate analysis showed significant correlations between event precipitation isotopes and local meteorological parameters; lifted condensation level, relative humidity (RH), precipitation amount, average wind speed, surface and air temperature (p < 0.05). The number of significant correlations between local meteorological parameters and monthly isotopes was much lower suggesting loss of information through data aggregation. Nonetheless, the most significant isotope driver at both event and monthly scales was RH, consistent with the semi-arid classification of the site. Multiple linear regression analysis suggested RH, precipitation amount and air temperature were the most significant local drivers of precipitation isotopes accounting for about 50% of the variation implying that about 50% could be attributed to source origins. HYSLPIT trajectories indicated that 78% of precipitation originated from the Indian Ocean while 21% originated from the Atlantic Ocean. Given that three of the four study years were droughts while two of the three drought years were El Niño related, our data also suggests that δ'17O-δ'18O could be a useful tool to

Identifying Key Hospital Service Quality Factors in Online Health Communities

PubMed Central

Jung, Yuchul; Hur, Cinyoung; Jung, Dain

2015-01-01

78% on average. Extraction and classification performance still has room for improvement, but the extraction results are applicable to more detailed analysis. Further analysis of the extracted information reveals that there are differences in the details of social media–based key quality factors for hospitals according to the regions in Korea, and the patterns of change seem to accurately reflect social events (eg, influenza epidemics). Conclusions These findings could be used to provide timely information to caregivers, hospital officials, and medical officials for health care policies. PMID:25855612

Identifying key hospital service quality factors in online health communities.

PubMed

Jung, Yuchul; Hur, Cinyoung; Jung, Dain; Kim, Minki

2015-04-07

classification performance still has room for improvement, but the extraction results are applicable to more detailed analysis. Further analysis of the extracted information reveals that there are differences in the details of social media-based key quality factors for hospitals according to the regions in Korea, and the patterns of change seem to accurately reflect social events (eg, influenza epidemics). These findings could be used to provide timely information to caregivers, hospital officials, and medical officials for health care policies.

Key Informant Interviews with Coordinators of Special Events Conducted to Increase Cancer Screening in the United States

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Escoffery, Cam; Rodgers, Kirsten; Kegler, Michelle C.; Haardörfer, Regine; Howard, David; Roland, Katherine B.; Wilson, Katherine M.; Castro, Georgina; Rodriguez, Juan

2014-01-01

Special events such as health fairs, cultural festivals and charity runs are commonly employed in the community to increase cancer screening; however, little is known about their effectiveness. The purpose of this study is to assess the activities, screening outcomes, barriers and recommendations of special events to increase breast, cervical and…

Accounting for unintended binding events in the analysis of quartz crystal microbalance kinetic data.

PubMed

Heller, Gabriella T; Zwang, Theodore J; Sarapata, Elizabeth A; Haber, Michael A; Sazinsky, Matthew H; Radunskaya, Ami E; Johal, Malkiat S

2014-05-01

Previous methods for analyzing protein-ligand binding events using the quartz crystal microbalance with dissipation monitoring (QCM-D) fail to account for unintended binding that inevitably occurs during surface measurements and obscure kinetic information. In this article, we present a system of differential equations that accounts for both reversible and irreversible unintended interactions. This model is tested on three protein-ligand systems, each of which has different features, to establish the feasibility of using the QCM-D for protein binding analysis. Based on this analysis, we were able to obtain kinetic information for the intended interaction that is consistent with those obtained in literature via bulk-phase methods. In the appendix, we include a method for decoupling these from the intended binding events and extracting relevant affinity information. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Genome Alignment Spanning Major Poaceae Lineages Reveals Heterogeneous Evolutionary Rates and Alters Inferred Dates for Key Evolutionary Events.

PubMed

Wang, Xiyin; Wang, Jingpeng; Jin, Dianchuan; Guo, Hui; Lee, Tae-Ho; Liu, Tao; Paterson, Andrew H

2015-06-01

Multiple comparisons among genomes can clarify their evolution, speciation, and functional innovations. To date, the genome sequences of eight grasses representing the most economically important Poaceae (grass) clades have been published, and their genomic-level comparison is an essential foundation for evolutionary, functional, and translational research. Using a formal and conservative approach, we aligned these genomes. Direct comparison of paralogous gene pairs all duplicated simultaneously reveal striking variation in evolutionary rates among whole genomes, with nucleotide substitution slowest in rice and up to 48% faster in other grasses, adding a new dimension to the value of rice as a grass model. We reconstructed ancestral genome contents for major evolutionary nodes, potentially contributing to understanding the divergence and speciation of grasses. Recent fossil evidence suggests revisions of the estimated dates of key evolutionary events, implying that the pan-grass polyploidization occurred ∼96 million years ago and could not be related to the Cretaceous-Tertiary mass extinction as previously inferred. Adjusted dating to reflect both updated fossil evidence and lineage-specific evolutionary rates suggested that maize subgenome divergence and maize-sorghum divergence were virtually simultaneous, a coincidence that would be explained if polyploidization directly contributed to speciation. This work lays a solid foundation for Poaceae translational genomics. Copyright © 2015 The Author. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Projecting Event-Based Analysis Dates in Clinical Trials: An Illustration Based on the International Duration Evaluation of Adjuvant Chemotherapy (IDEA) Collaboration. Projecting analysis dates for the IDEA collaboration.

PubMed

Renfro, Lindsay A; Grothey, Axel M; Paul, James; Floriani, Irene; Bonnetain, Franck; Niedzwiecki, Donna; Yamanaka, Takeharu; Souglakos, Ioannis; Yothers, Greg; Sargent, Daniel J

2014-12-01

Clinical trials are expensive and lengthy, where success of a given trial depends on observing a prospectively defined number of patient events required to answer the clinical question. The point at which this analysis time occurs depends on both patient accrual and primary event rates, which typically vary throughout the trial's duration. We demonstrate real-time analysis date projections using data from a collection of six clinical trials that are part of the IDEA collaboration, an international preplanned pooling of data from six trials testing the duration of adjuvant chemotherapy in stage III colon cancer, and we additionally consider the hypothetical impact of one trial's early termination of follow-up. In the absence of outcome data from IDEA, monthly accrual rates for each of the six IDEA trials were used to project subsequent trial-specific accrual, while historical data from similar Adjuvant Colon Cancer Endpoints (ACCENT) Group trials were used to construct a parametric model for IDEA's primary endpoint, disease-free survival, under the same treatment regimen. With this information and using the planned total accrual from each IDEA trial protocol, individual patient accrual and event dates were simulated and the overall IDEA interim and final analysis times projected. Projections were then compared with actual (previously undisclosed) trial-specific event totals at a recent census time for validation. The change in projected final analysis date assuming early termination of follow-up for one IDEA trial was also calculated. Trial-specific predicted event totals were close to the actual number of events per trial for the recent census date at which the number of events per trial was known, with the overall IDEA projected number of events only off by eight patients. Potential early termination of follow-up by one IDEA trial was estimated to postpone the overall IDEA final analysis date by 9 months. Real-time projection of the final analysis time during a

Projecting Event-Based Analysis Dates in Clinical Trials: An Illustration Based on the International Duration Evaluation of Adjuvant Chemotherapy (IDEA) Collaboration. Projecting analysis dates for the IDEA collaboration

PubMed Central

Renfro, Lindsay A.; Grothey, Axel M.; Paul, James; Floriani, Irene; Bonnetain, Franck; Niedzwiecki, Donna; Yamanaka, Takeharu; Souglakos, Ioannis; Yothers, Greg; Sargent, Daniel J.

2015-01-01

Purpose Clinical trials are expensive and lengthy, where success of a given trial depends on observing a prospectively defined number of patient events required to answer the clinical question. The point at which this analysis time occurs depends on both patient accrual and primary event rates, which typically vary throughout the trial's duration. We demonstrate real-time analysis date projections using data from a collection of six clinical trials that are part of the IDEA collaboration, an international preplanned pooling of data from six trials testing the duration of adjuvant chemotherapy in stage III colon cancer, and we additionally consider the hypothetical impact of one trial's early termination of follow-up. Patients and Methods In the absence of outcome data from IDEA, monthly accrual rates for each of the six IDEA trials were used to project subsequent trial-specific accrual, while historical data from similar Adjuvant Colon Cancer Endpoints (ACCENT) Group trials were used to construct a parametric model for IDEA's primary endpoint, disease-free survival, under the same treatment regimen. With this information and using the planned total accrual from each IDEA trial protocol, individual patient accrual and event dates were simulated and the overall IDEA interim and final analysis times projected. Projections were then compared with actual (previously undisclosed) trial-specific event totals at a recent census time for validation. The change in projected final analysis date assuming early termination of follow-up for one IDEA trial was also calculated. Results Trial-specific predicted event totals were close to the actual number of events per trial for the recent census date at which the number of events per trial was known, with the overall IDEA projected number of events only off by eight patients. Potential early termination of follow-up by one IDEA trial was estimated to postpone the overall IDEA final analysis date by 9 months. Conclusions Real

Detection and analysis of high-temperature events in the BIRD mission

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhukov, Boris; Briess, Klaus; Lorenz, Eckehard; Oertel, Dieter; Skrbek, Wolfgang

2005-01-01

The primary mission objective of a new small Bi-spectral InfraRed Detection (BIRD) satellite is detection and quantitative analysis of high-temperature events like fires and volcanoes. An absence of saturation in the BIRD infrared channels makes it possible to improve false alarm rejection as well as to retrieve quantitative characteristics of hot targets, including their effective fire temperature, area and the radiative energy release. Examples are given of detection and analysis of wild and coal seam fires, of volcanic activity as well as of oil fires in Iraq. The smallest fires detected by BIRD, which were verified on ground, had an area of 12m2 at daytime and 4m2 at night.

Timing Processes Are Correlated when Tasks Share a Salient Event

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zelaznik, Howard N.; Rosenbaum, David A.

2010-01-01

Event timing is manifested when participants make discrete movements such as repeatedly tapping a key. Emergent timing is manifested when participants make continuous movements such as repeatedly drawing a circle. Here we pursued the possibility that providing salient perceptual events to mark the completion of time intervals could allow circle…

Automated Detection of Surgical Adverse Events from Retrospective Clinical Data

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hu, Zhen

2017-01-01

The Detection of surgical adverse events has become increasingly important with the growing demand for quality improvement and public health surveillance with surgery. Event reporting is one of the key steps in determining the impact of postoperative complications from a variety of perspectives and is an integral component of improving…

Inner core rotation from event-pair analysis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Song, Xiaodong; Poupinet, Georges

2007-09-01

The last decade has witnessed an animated debate on whether the inner core rotation is a fact or an artifact. Here we examine the temporal change of inner core waves using a technique that compares differential travel times at the same station but between two events. The method does not require precise knowledge of earthquake locations and earth models. The pairing of the events creates a large data set for the application of statistical tools. Using measurements from 87 events in the South Sandwich Islands recorded at College, Alaska station, we conclude the temporal change is robust. The estimates of the temporal change range from about 0.07 to 0.10 s/decade over the past 50 yr. If we used only pairs with small inter-event distances, which reduce the influence of mantle heterogeneity, the rates range from 0.084 to 0.098 s/decade, nearly identical to the rate inferred by Zhang et al. [Zhang, J., Song, X.D., Li, Y.C., Richards, P.G., Sun, X.L., Waldhauser, F., Inner core differential motion confirmed by earthquake waveform doublets, Science 309 (5739) (2005) 1357-1360.] from waveform doublets. The rate of the DF change seems to change with time, which may be explained by lateral variation of the inner core structure or the change in rotation rate on decadal time scale.

Application of Key Events and Analysis to Chemical Carcinogens and Noncarcinogens

EPA Science Inventory

The existence of thresholds for toxicants is a matter of debate in chemical rsk assessment and regulation. Current risk assessment methods are based on the assumption that, in the basense of sufficient data, carcinogenesis does not have a threshold, while non-carcinogenic endpoi...

78 FR 70901 - Safety Zone; Bone Island Triathlon, Atlantic Ocean; Key West, FL

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-11-27

... 1625-AA00 Safety Zone; Bone Island Triathlon, Atlantic Ocean; Key West, FL AGENCY: Coast Guard, DHS... zone on the waters of the Atlantic Ocean in Key West, Florida, during the Bone Island Triathlon on... event. C. Discussion of Proposed Rule On January 25, 2014, Questor Multisport, LLC. is hosting the Bone...

77 FR 75853 - Safety Zone; Bone Island Triathlon, Atlantic Ocean; Key West, FL

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-12-26

...-AA00 Safety Zone; Bone Island Triathlon, Atlantic Ocean; Key West, FL AGENCY: Coast Guard, DHS. ACTION... Atlantic Ocean in Key West, Florida, during the Bone Island Triathlon on Saturday, January 12, 2013. The..., Questor Multisport, LLC is hosting the Bone Island Triathlon. The event will be held on the waters of the...

Wheat domestication: Key to agricultural revolutions past and future

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

The domestication of wheat was instrumental in the transition of human behavior from hunter-gatherers to farmers. It was a key event in the agricultural revolution that occurred about 10,000 years ago in the Fertile Crescent of the Middle East. Transitions of forms with natural seed dispersal mechan...

Early blood pressure lowering treatment in acute stroke. Ordinal analysis of vascular events in the Scandinavian Candesartan Acute Stroke Trial (SCAST).

PubMed

Jusufovic, Mirza; Sandset, Else Charlotte; Bath, Philip M; Berge, Eivind

2016-08-01

Early blood pressure-lowering treatment appears to be beneficial in patients with acute intracerebral haemorrhage and potentially in ischaemic stroke. We used a new method for analysis of vascular events in the Scandinavian Candesartan Acute Stroke Trial to see if the effect was dependent on the timing of treatment. Scandinavian Candesartan Acute Stroke Trial was a randomized controlled and placebo-controlled trial of candesartan within 30 h of ischaemic or haemorrhagic stroke. Of 2029 patients, 231 (11.4%) had a vascular event (vascular death, nonfatal stroke or nonfatal myocardial infarction) during the first 6 months. The modified Rankin Scale (mRS) score following a vascular event was used to categorize vascular events in order of severity: no event (n = 1798), minor (mRS 0-2, n = 59), moderately severe (mRS 3-4, n = 57) and major event (mRS 5-6, n = 115). We used ordinal logistic regression for analysis and adjusted for predefined prognostic variables. Candesartan had no overall effect on vascular events (adjusted common odds ratio 1.11, 95% confidence interval 0.84-1.47, P = 0.48), and the effects were the same in ischaemic and haemorrhagic stroke. Among the patients treated within 6 h, the adjusted common odds ratio for vascular events was 0.37, 95% confidence interval 0.16-0.84, P = 0.02, and there was no heterogeneity of effect between ischaemic and haemorrhagic strokes. Ordinal analysis of vascular events showed no overall effect of candesartan in the subacute phase of stroke. The effect of treatment given within 6 h of stroke onset appears promising, and will be addressed in ongoing trials. Ordinal analysis of vascular events is feasible and can be used in future trials.

Stock market returns and clinical trial results of investigational compounds: an event study analysis of large biopharmaceutical companies.

PubMed

Hwang, Thomas J

2013-01-01

For biopharmaceutical companies, investments in research and development are risky, and the results from clinical trials are key inflection points in the process. Few studies have explored how and to what extent the public equity market values clinical trial results. Our study dataset matched announcements of clinical trial results for investigational compounds from January 2011 to May 2013 with daily stock market returns of large United States-listed pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. Event study methodology was used to examine the relationship between clinical research events and changes in stock returns. We identified public announcements for clinical trials of 24 investigational compounds, including 16 (67%) positive and 8 (33%) negative events. The majority of announcements were for Phase 3 clinical trials (N = 13, 54%), and for oncologic (N = 7, 29%) and neurologic (N = 6, 24%) indications. The median cumulative abnormal returns on the day of the announcement were 0.8% (95% confidence interval [CI]: -2.3, 13.4%; P = 0.02) for positive events and -2.0% (95% CI: -9.1, 0.7%; P = 0.04) for negative events, with statistically significant differences from zero. In the day immediately following the announcement, firms with positive events were associated with stock price corrections, with median cumulative abnormal returns falling to 0.4% (95% CI: -3.8, 12.3%; P = 0.33). For firms with negative announcements, the median cumulative abnormal returns were -1.7% (95% CI: -9.5, 1.0%; P = 0.03), and remained significantly negative over the two day event window. The magnitude of abnormal returns did not differ statistically by indication, by trial phase, or between biotechnology and pharmaceutical firms. The release of clinical trial results is an economically significant event and has meaningful effects on market value for large biopharmaceutical companies. Stock return underperformance due to negative events is greater in magnitude and persists longer than

Stock Market Returns and Clinical Trial Results of Investigational Compounds: An Event Study Analysis of Large Biopharmaceutical Companies

PubMed Central

Hwang, Thomas J.

2013-01-01

Background For biopharmaceutical companies, investments in research and development are risky, and the results from clinical trials are key inflection points in the process. Few studies have explored how and to what extent the public equity market values clinical trial results. Methods Our study dataset matched announcements of clinical trial results for investigational compounds from January 2011 to May 2013 with daily stock market returns of large United States-listed pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. Event study methodology was used to examine the relationship between clinical research events and changes in stock returns. Results We identified public announcements for clinical trials of 24 investigational compounds, including 16 (67%) positive and 8 (33%) negative events. The majority of announcements were for Phase 3 clinical trials (N = 13, 54%), and for oncologic (N = 7, 29%) and neurologic (N = 6, 24%) indications. The median cumulative abnormal returns on the day of the announcement were 0.8% (95% confidence interval [CI]: –2.3, 13.4%; P = 0.02) for positive events and –2.0% (95% CI: –9.1, 0.7%; P = 0.04) for negative events, with statistically significant differences from zero. In the day immediately following the announcement, firms with positive events were associated with stock price corrections, with median cumulative abnormal returns falling to 0.4% (95% CI: –3.8, 12.3%; P = 0.33). For firms with negative announcements, the median cumulative abnormal returns were –1.7% (95% CI: –9.5, 1.0%; P = 0.03), and remained significantly negative over the two day event window. The magnitude of abnormal returns did not differ statistically by indication, by trial phase, or between biotechnology and pharmaceutical firms. Conclusions The release of clinical trial results is an economically significant event and has meaningful effects on market value for large biopharmaceutical companies. Stock return

A matter of definition--key elements identified in a discourse analysis of definitions of palliative care.

PubMed

Pastrana, T; Jünger, S; Ostgathe, C; Elsner, F; Radbruch, L

2008-04-01

For more than 30 years, the term "palliative care" has been used. From the outset, the term has undergone a series of transformations in its definitions and consequently in its tasks and goals. There remains a lack of consensus on a definition. The aim of this article is to analyse the definitions of palliative care in the specialist literature and to identify the key elements of palliative care using discourse analysis: a qualitative methodology. The literature search focused on definitions of the term 'palliative medicine' and 'palliative care' in the World Wide Web and medical reference books in English and German. A total of 37 English and 26 German definitions were identified and analysed. Our study confirmed the lack of a consistent meaning concerning the investigated terms, reflecting on-going discussion about the nature of the field among palliative care practitioners. Several common key elements were identified. Four main categories emerged from the discourse analysis of the definition of palliative care: target groups, structure, tasks and expertise. In addition, the theoretical principles and goals of palliative care were discussed and found to be key elements, with relief and prevention of suffering and improvement of quality of life as main goals. The identified key elements can contribute to the definition of the concept 'palliative care'. Our study confirms the importance of semantic and ethical influences on palliative care that should be considered in future research on semantics in different languages.

Making adjustments to event annotations for improved biological event extraction.

PubMed

Baek, Seung-Cheol; Park, Jong C

2016-09-16

Current state-of-the-art approaches to biological event extraction train statistical models in a supervised manner on corpora annotated with event triggers and event-argument relations. Inspecting such corpora, we observe that there is ambiguity in the span of event triggers (e.g., "transcriptional activity" vs. 'transcriptional'), leading to inconsistencies across event trigger annotations. Such inconsistencies make it quite likely that similar phrases are annotated with different spans of event triggers, suggesting the possibility that a statistical learning algorithm misses an opportunity for generalizing from such event triggers. We anticipate that adjustments to the span of event triggers to reduce these inconsistencies would meaningfully improve the present performance of event extraction systems. In this study, we look into this possibility with the corpora provided by the 2009 BioNLP shared task as a proof of concept. We propose an Informed Expectation-Maximization (EM) algorithm, which trains models using the EM algorithm with a posterior regularization technique, which consults the gold-standard event trigger annotations in a form of constraints. We further propose four constraints on the possible event trigger annotations to be explored by the EM algorithm. The algorithm is shown to outperform the state-of-the-art algorithm on the development corpus in a statistically significant manner and on the test corpus by a narrow margin. The analysis of the annotations generated by the algorithm shows that there are various types of ambiguity in event annotations, even though they could be small in number.

Recollection-dependent memory for event duration in large-scale spatial navigation

PubMed Central

Barense, Morgan D.

2017-01-01

Time and space represent two key aspects of episodic memories, forming the spatiotemporal context of events in a sequence. Little is known, however, about how temporal information, such as the duration and the order of particular events, are encoded into memory, and if it matters whether the memory representation is based on recollection or familiarity. To investigate this issue, we used a real world virtual reality navigation paradigm where periods of navigation were interspersed with pauses of different durations. Crucially, participants were able to reliably distinguish the durations of events that were subjectively “reexperienced” (i.e., recollected), but not of those that were familiar. This effect was not found in temporal order (ordinal) judgments. We also show that the active experience of the passage of time (holding down a key while waiting) moderately enhanced duration memory accuracy. Memory for event duration, therefore, appears to rely on the hippocampally supported ability to recollect or reexperience an event enabling the reinstatement of both its duration and its spatial context, to distinguish it from other events in a sequence. In contrast, ordinal memory appears to rely on familiarity and recollection to a similar extent. PMID:28202714

Cardiovascular Events Following Smoke-Free Legislations: An Updated Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

PubMed Central

Jones, Miranda R.; Barnoya, Joaquin; Stranges, Saverio; Losonczy, Lia; Navas-Acien, Ana

2014-01-01

Background Legislations banning smoking in indoor public places and workplaces are being implemented worldwide to protect the population from secondhand smoke exposure. Several studies have reported reductions in hospitalizations for acute coronary events following the enactment of smoke-free laws. Objective We set out to conduct a systematic review and meta-analysis of epidemiologic studies examining how legislations that ban smoking in indoor public places impact the risk of acute coronary events. Methods We searched MEDLINE, EMBASE, and relevant bibliographies including previous systematic reviews for studies that evaluated changes in acute coronary events, following implementation of smoke-free legislations. Studies were identified through December 2013. We pooled relative risk (RR) estimates for acute coronary events comparing post- vs. pre-legislation using inverse-variance weighted random-effects models. Results Thirty-one studies providing estimates for 47 locations were included. The legislations were implemented between 1991 and 2010. Following the enactment of smoke-free legislations, there was a 12 % reduction in hospitalizations for acute coronary events (pooled RR: 0.88, 95 % CI: 0.85–0.90). Reductions were 14 % in locations that implemented comprehensive legislations compared to an 8 % reduction in locations that only had partial restrictions. In locations with reductions in smoking prevalence post-legislation above the mean (2.1 % reduction) there was a 14 % reduction in events compared to 10 % in locations below the mean. The RRs for acute coronary events associated with enacting smoke-free legislation were 0.87 vs. 0.89 in locations with smoking prevalence pre-legislation above and below the mean (23.1 %), and 0.87 vs. 0.89 in studies from the Americas vs. other regions. Conclusion The implementation of smoke-free legislations was related to reductions in acute coronary event hospitalizations in most populations evaluated. Benefits are greater

Issues in Researching Self-Regulated Learning as Patterns of Events

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Winne, Philip H.

2014-01-01

New methods for gathering and analyzing data about events that comprise self-regulated learning (SRL) support discoveries about patterns among events and tests of hypotheses about roles patterns play in learning. Five such methodologies are discussed in the context of four key questions that shape investigations into patterns in SRL. A framework…

A lengthy look at the daily grind: time series analysis of events, mood, stress, and satisfaction.

PubMed

Fuller, Julie A; Stanton, Jeffrey M; Fisher, Gwenith G; Spitzmuller, Christiane; Russell, Steven S; Smith, Patricia C

2003-12-01

The present study investigated processes by which job stress and satisfaction unfold over time by examining the relations between daily stressful events, mood, and these variables. Using a Web-based daily survey of stressor events, perceived strain, mood, and job satisfaction completed by 14 university workers, 1,060 occasions of data were collected. Transfer function analysis, a multivariate version of time series analysis, was used to examine the data for relationships among the measured variables after factoring out the contaminating influences of serial dependency. Results revealed a contrast effect in which a stressful event associated positively with higher strain on the same day and associated negatively with strain on the following day. Perceived strain increased over the course of a semester for a majority of participants, suggesting that effects of stress build over time. Finally, the data were consistent with the notion that job satisfaction is a distal outcome that is mediated by perceived strain. ((c) 2003 APA, all rights reserved)

Interaction between the serotonin transporter gene (5-HTTLPR), stressful life events, and risk of depression: a meta-analysis.

PubMed

Risch, Neil; Herrell, Richard; Lehner, Thomas; Liang, Kung-Yee; Eaves, Lindon; Hoh, Josephine; Griem, Andrea; Kovacs, Maria; Ott, Jurg; Merikangas, Kathleen Ries

2009-06-17

Substantial resources are being devoted to identify candidate genes for complex mental and behavioral disorders through inclusion of environmental exposures following the report of an interaction between the serotonin transporter linked polymorphic region (5-HTTLPR) and stressful life events on an increased risk of major depression. To conduct a meta-analysis of the interaction between the serotonin transporter gene and stressful life events on depression using both published data and individual-level original data. Search of PubMed, EMBASE, and PsycINFO databases through March 2009 yielded 26 studies of which 14 met criteria for the meta-analysis. Criteria for studies for the meta-analyses included published data on the association between 5-HTTLPR genotype (SS, SL, or LL), number of stressful life events (0, 1, 2, > or = 3) or equivalent, and a categorical measure of depression defined by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (Fourth Edition) or the International Statistical Classification of Diseases, 10th Revision (ICD-10) or use of a cut point to define depression from standardized rating scales. To maximize our ability to use a common framework for variable definition, we also requested original data from all studies published prior to 2008 that met inclusion criteria. Of the 14 studies included in the meta-analysis, 10 were also included in a second sex-specific meta-analysis of original individual-level data. Logistic regression was used to estimate the effects of the number of short alleles at 5-HTTLPR, the number of stressful life events, and their interaction on depression. Odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated separately for each study and then weighted averages of the individual estimates were obtained using random-effects meta-analysis. Both sex-combined and sex-specific meta-analyses were conducted. Of a total of 14,250 participants, 1769 were classified as having depression; 12,481 as not having

Impacts of Extreme Events on Human Health. Chapter 4

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bell, Jesse E.; Herring, Stephanie C.; Jantarasami, Lesley; Adrianopoli, Carl; Benedict, Kaitlin; Conlon, Kathryn; Escobar, Vanessa; Hess, Jeremy; Luvall, Jeffrey; Garcia-Pando, Carlos Perez;

Multivariate hydrological frequency analysis for extreme events using Archimedean copula. Case study: Lower Tunjuelo River basin (Colombia)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gómez, Wilmar

2017-04-01

By analyzing the spatial and temporal variability of extreme precipitation events we can prevent or reduce the threat and risk. Many water resources projects require joint probability distributions of random variables such as precipitation intensity and duration, which can not be independent with each other. The problem of defining a probability model for observations of several dependent variables is greatly simplified by the joint distribution in terms of their marginal by taking copulas. This document presents a general framework set frequency analysis bivariate and multivariate using Archimedean copulas for extreme events of hydroclimatological nature such as severe storms. This analysis was conducted in the lower Tunjuelo River basin in Colombia for precipitation events. The results obtained show that for a joint study of the intensity-duration-frequency, IDF curves can be obtained through copulas and thus establish more accurate and reliable information from design storms and associated risks. It shows how the use of copulas greatly simplifies the study of multivariate distributions that introduce the concept of joint return period used to represent the needs of hydrological designs properly in frequency analysis.

Community Response and Engagement During Extreme Water Events in Saskatchewan, Canada and Queensland, Australia

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

McMartin, Dena W.; Sammel, Alison J.; Arbuthnott, Katherine

2018-01-01

Technology alone cannot address the challenges of how societies, communities, and individuals understand water accessibility, water management, and water consumption, particularly under extreme conditions like floods and droughts. At the community level, people are increasingly aware challenges related to responses to and impacts of extreme water events. This research begins with an assessment of social and political capacities of communities in two Commonwealth jurisdictions, Queensland, Australia and Saskatchewan, Canada, in response to major flooding events. The research further reviews how such capacities impact community engagement to address and mitigate risks associated with extreme water events and provides evidence of key gaps in skills, understanding, and agency for addressing impacts at the community level. Secondary data were collected using template analysis to elucidate challenges associated with education (formal and informal), social and political capacity, community ability to respond appropriately, and formal government responses to extreme water events in these two jurisdictions. The results indicate that enhanced community engagement alongside elements of an empowerment model can provide avenues for identifying and addressing community vulnerability to negative impacts of flood and drought.

Toward Joint Hypothesis-Tests Seismic Event Screening Analysis: Ms|mb and Event Depth

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

Anderson, Dale; Selby, Neil

2012-08-14

Well established theory can be used to combine single-phenomenology hypothesis tests into a multi-phenomenology event screening hypothesis test (Fisher's and Tippett's tests). Commonly used standard error in Ms:mb event screening hypothesis test is not fully consistent with physical basis. Improved standard error - Better agreement with physical basis, and correctly partitions error to include Model Error as a component of variance, correctly reduces station noise variance through network averaging. For 2009 DPRK test - Commonly used standard error 'rejects' H0 even with better scaling slope ({beta} = 1, Selby et al.), improved standard error 'fails to rejects' H0.

Analysis and modeling of a hail event consequences on a building portfolio

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nicolet, Pierrick; Voumard, Jérémie; Choffet, Marc; Demierre, Jonathan; Imhof, Markus; Jaboyedoff, Michel

2014-05-01

North-West Switzerland has been affected by a severe Hail Storm in July 2011, which was especially intense in the Canton of Aargau. The damage cost of this event is around EUR 105 Million only for the Canton of Aargau, which corresponds to half of the mean annual consolidated damage cost of the last 20 years for the 19 Cantons (over 26) with a public insurance. The aim of this project is to benefit from the collected insurance data to better understand and estimate the risk of such event. In a first step, a simple hail event simulator, which has been developed for a previous hail episode, is modified. The geometric properties of the storm is derived from the maximum intensity radar image by means of a set of 2D Gaussians instead of using 1D Gaussians on profiles, as it was the case in the previous version. The tool is then tested on this new event in order to establish its ability to give a fast damage estimation based on the radar image and buildings value and location. The geometrical properties are used in a further step to generate random outcomes with similar characteristics, which are combined with a vulnerability curve and an event frequency to estimate the risk. The vulnerability curve comes from a 2009 event and is improved with data from this event, whereas the frequency for the Canton is estimated from insurance records. In addition to this regional risk analysis, this contribution aims at studying the relation of the buildings orientation with the damage rate. Indeed, it is expected that the orientation of the roof influences the aging of the material by controlling the frequency and amplitude of thaw-freeze cycles, changing then the vulnerability over time. This part is established by calculating the hours of sunshine, which are used to derive the material temperatures. This information is then compared with insurance claims. A last part proposes a model to study the hail impact on a building, by modeling the different equipment on each facade of the

Wide coverage biomedical event extraction using multiple partially overlapping corpora

PubMed Central

2013-01-01

Background Biomedical events are key to understanding physiological processes and disease, and wide coverage extraction is required for comprehensive automatic analysis of statements describing biomedical systems in the literature. In turn, the training and evaluation of extraction methods requires manually annotated corpora. However, as manual annotation is time-consuming and expensive, any single event-annotated corpus can only cover a limited number of semantic types. Although combined use of several such corpora could potentially allow an extraction system to achieve broad semantic coverage, there has been little research into learning from multiple corpora with partially overlapping semantic annotation scopes. Results We propose a method for learning from multiple corpora with partial semantic annotation overlap, and implement this method to improve our existing event extraction system, EventMine. An evaluation using seven event annotated corpora, including 65 event types in total, shows that learning from overlapping corpora can produce a single, corpus-independent, wide coverage extraction system that outperforms systems trained on single corpora and exceeds previously reported results on two established event extraction tasks from the BioNLP Shared Task 2011. Conclusions The proposed method allows the training of a wide-coverage, state-of-the-art event extraction system from multiple corpora with partial semantic annotation overlap. The resulting single model makes broad-coverage extraction straightforward in practice by removing the need to either select a subset of compatible corpora or semantic types, or to merge results from several models trained on different individual corpora. Multi-corpus learning also allows annotation efforts to focus on covering additional semantic types, rather than aiming for exhaustive coverage in any single annotation effort, or extending the coverage of semantic types annotated in existing corpora. PMID:23731785

Microbial-based evaluation of foaming events in full-scale wastewater treatment plants by microscopy survey and quantitative image analysis.

PubMed

Leal, Cristiano; Amaral, António Luís; Costa, Maria de Lourdes

2016-08-01

Activated sludge systems are prone to be affected by foaming occurrences causing the sludge to rise in the reactor and affecting the wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) performance. Nonetheless, there is currently a knowledge gap hindering the development of foaming events prediction tools that may be fulfilled by the quantitative monitoring of AS systems biota and sludge characteristics. As such, the present study focuses on the assessment of foaming events in full-scale WWTPs, by quantitative protozoa, metazoa, filamentous bacteria, and sludge characteristics analysis, further used to enlighten the inner relationships between these parameters. In the current study, a conventional activated sludge system (CAS) and an oxidation ditch (OD) were surveyed throughout a period of 2 and 3 months, respectively, regarding their biota and sludge characteristics. The biota community was monitored by microscopic observation, and a new filamentous bacteria index was developed to quantify their occurrence. Sludge characteristics (aggregated and filamentous biomass contents and aggregate size) were determined by quantitative image analysis (QIA). The obtained data was then processed by principal components analysis (PCA), cross-correlation analysis, and decision trees to assess the foaming occurrences, and enlighten the inner relationships. It was found that such events were best assessed by the combined use of the relative abundance of testate amoeba and nocardioform filamentous index, presenting a 92.9 % success rate for overall foaming events, and 87.5 and 100 %, respectively, for persistent and mild events.

Two damaging hydrogeological events in Calabria, September 2000 and November 2015. Comparative analysis of causes and effects

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Petrucci, Olga; Caloiero, Tommaso; Aurora Pasqua, Angela

2016-04-01

Each year, especially during winter season, some episode of intense rain affects Calabria, the southernmost Italian peninsular region, triggering flash floods and mass movements that cause damage and fatalities. This work presents a comparative analysis between two events that affected the southeast sector of the region, in 2000 and 2014, respectively. The event occurred between 9th and 10th of September 2000 is known in Italy as Soverato event, after the name of the municipality where it reached the highest damage severity. In the Soverato area, more than 200 mm of rain that fell in 24 hours caused a disastrous flood that swept away a campsite at about 4 a.m., killing 13 people and hurting 45. Besides, the rain affected a larger area, causing damage in 89 (out of 409) municipalities of the region. Flooding was the most common process, which damaged housing and trading. Landslide mostly affected the road network, housing and cultivations. The most recent event affected the same regional sector between 30th October and 2nd November 2015. The daily rain recorded at some of the rain gauges of the area almost reached 400 mm. Out of the 409 municipalities of Calabria, 109 suffered damage. The most frequent types of processes were both flash floods and landslides. The most heavily damaged element was the road network: the representative picture of the event is a railway bridge destroyed by the river flow. Housing was damaged too, and 486 people were temporarily evacuated from home. The event also caused a victim killed by a flood. The event-centred study approach aims to highlight differences and similarities in both the causes and the effects of the two events that occurred at a temporal distance of 14 years. The comparative analysis focus on three main aspects: the intensity of triggering rain, the modifications of urbanised areas, and the evolution of emergency management. The comparative analysis of rain is made by comparing the return period of both daily and

Do climate extreme events foster violent civil conflicts? A coincidence analysis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Schleussner, Carl-Friedrich; Donges, Jonathan F.; Donner, Reik V.

2014-05-01

Civil conflicts promoted by adverse environmental conditions represent one of the most important potential feedbacks in the global socio-environmental nexus. While the role of climate extremes as a triggering factor is often discussed, no consensus is yet reached about the cause-and-effect relation in the observed data record. Here we present results of a rigorous statistical coincidence analysis based on the Munich Re Inc. extreme events database and the Uppsala conflict data program. We report evidence for statistically significant synchronicity between climate extremes with high economic impact and violent conflicts for various regions, although no coherent global signal emerges from our analysis. Our results indicate the importance of regional vulnerability and might aid to identify hot-spot regions for potential climate-triggered violent social conflicts.

OAE: The Ontology of Adverse Events.

PubMed

He, Yongqun; Sarntivijai, Sirarat; Lin, Yu; Xiang, Zuoshuang; Guo, Abra; Zhang, Shelley; Jagannathan, Desikan; Toldo, Luca; Tao, Cui; Smith, Barry

2014-01-01

A medical intervention is a medical procedure or application intended to relieve or prevent illness or injury. Examples of medical interventions include vaccination and drug administration. After a medical intervention, adverse events (AEs) may occur which lie outside the intended consequences of the intervention. The representation and analysis of AEs are critical to the improvement of public health. The Ontology of Adverse Events (OAE), previously named Adverse Event Ontology (AEO), is a community-driven ontology developed to standardize and integrate data relating to AEs arising subsequent to medical interventions, as well as to support computer-assisted reasoning. OAE has over 3,000 terms with unique identifiers, including terms imported from existing ontologies and more than 1,800 OAE-specific terms. In OAE, the term 'adverse event' denotes a pathological bodily process in a patient that occurs after a medical intervention. Causal adverse events are defined by OAE as those events that are causal consequences of a medical intervention. OAE represents various adverse events based on patient anatomic regions and clinical outcomes, including symptoms, signs, and abnormal processes. OAE has been used in the analysis of several different sorts of vaccine and drug adverse event data. For example, using the data extracted from the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS), OAE was used to analyse vaccine adverse events associated with the administrations of different types of influenza vaccines. OAE has also been used to represent and classify the vaccine adverse events cited in package inserts of FDA-licensed human vaccines in the USA. OAE is a biomedical ontology that logically defines and classifies various adverse events occurring after medical interventions. OAE has successfully been applied in several adverse event studies. The OAE ontological framework provides a platform for systematic representation and analysis of adverse events and of the factors (e

Forensic hydro-meteorological analysis of an extreme flash flood: The 2016-05-29 event in Braunsbach, SW Germany.

PubMed

Bronstert, Axel; Agarwal, Ankit; Boessenkool, Berry; Crisologo, Irene; Fischer, Madlen; Heistermann, Maik; Köhn-Reich, Lisei; López-Tarazón, José Andrés; Moran, Thomas; Ozturk, Ugur; Reinhardt-Imjela, Christian; Wendi, Dadiyorto

2018-07-15

The flash-flood in Braunsbach in the north-eastern part of Baden-Wuerttemberg/Germany was a particularly strong and concise event which took place during the floods in southern Germany at the end of May/early June 2016. This article presents a detailed analysis of the hydro-meteorological forcing and the hydrological consequences of this event. A specific approach, the "forensic hydrological analysis" was followed in order to include and combine retrospectively a variety of data from different disciplines. Such an approach investigates the origins, mechanisms and course of such natural events if possible in a "near real time" mode, in order to follow the most recent traces of the event. The results show that it was a very rare rainfall event with extreme intensities which, in combination with catchment properties, led to extreme runoff plus severe geomorphological hazards, i.e. great debris flows, which together resulted in immense damage in this small rural town Braunsbach. It was definitely a record-breaking event and greatly exceeded existing design guidelines for extreme flood discharge for this region, i.e. by a factor of about 10. Being such a rare or even unique event, it is not reliably feasible to put it into a crisp probabilistic context. However, one can conclude that a return period clearly above 100years can be assigned for all event components: rainfall, peak discharge and sediment transport. Due to the complex and interacting processes, no single flood cause or reason for the very high damage can be identified, since only the interplay and the cascading characteristics of those led to such an event. The roles of different human activities on the origin and/or intensification of such an extreme event are finally discussed. Copyright © 2018. Published by Elsevier B.V.

Do event horizons exist?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Baccetti, Valentina; Mann, Robert B.; Terno, Daniel R.

Event horizons are the defining feature of classical black holes. They are the key ingredient of the information loss paradox which, as paradoxes in quantum foundations, is built on a combination of predictions of quantum theory and counterfactual classical features: neither horizon formation nor its crossing by a test body can be detected by a distant observer. Furthermore, horizons are unnecessary for the production of Hawking-like radiation. We demonstrate that when this radiation is taken into account, it can prevent horizon crossing/formation in a large class of models. We conjecture that horizon avoidance is a general feature of collapse. The nonexistence of event horizons dispels the paradox, but opens up important questions about thermodynamic properties of the resulting objects and correlations between different degrees of freedom.

A meta-analysis of the risk of total cardiovascular events of isosmolar iodixanol compared with low-osmolar contrast media.

PubMed

Zhang, Bu-Chun; Wu, Qiang; Wang, Cheng; Li, Dong-Ye; Wang, Zhi-Rong

2014-04-01

The iso-osmolar contrast agent iodixanol may be associated with a lower incidence of cardiac events than low-osmolar contrast media (LOCM), but previous trials have yielded mixed results. To compare the risk of total cardiovascular events of the iso-osmolar contrast medium, iodixanol, to LOCM. Medical literature databases were searched to identify comparisons between iodixanol and LOCM with cardiovascular events as a primary endpoint. A random-effects model was used to obtain pooled odds ratio (OR) for within-hospital and 30-day events. A total of 2 prospective cross-sectional studies and 11 randomized controlled trials (RCTs) (covering 6859 subjects) met our criteria. There was no significant difference in the incidence of within-hospital and 30-day cardiovascular events when iodixanol was compared with LOCM, with pooled OR of 0.72 (95%CI 0.49-1.06, p=0.09) and 1.19 (95%CI 0.70-2.02, p=0.53), respectively. Subgroup analysis showed no relative difference when iodixanol was compared with ioxaglate (OR=0.92, 95%CI 0.50-1.70, p=0.80) and iohexol (OR=0.75, 95%CI 0.48-1.17, p=0.21). However, a reduction in the within-hospital cardiovascular events was observed when iodixanol was compared with LOCM in the RCT subgroup (OR=0.65, 95%CI 0.44-0.96, p=0.03). Sensitivity analyses revealed that three studies had a strong impact on the association of within-hospital cardiovascular events between iodixanol and LOCM. Meta-regression analysis failed to account for heterogeneity. No publication bias was detected. This meta-analysis demonstrates that there is no conclusive evidence that iodixanol is superior to LOCM overall with regard to fewer cardiovascular events. Copyright © 2014. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Analysis of Cumulus Solar Irradiance Reflectance (CSIR) Events

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Laird, John L.; Harshvardham

1996-01-01

Clouds are extremely important with regard to the transfer of solar radiation at the earth's surface. This study investigates Cumulus Solar Irradiance Reflection (CSIR) using ground-based pyranometers. CSIR events are short-term increases in solar radiation observed at the surface as a result of reflection off the sides of convective clouds. When sun-cloud observer geometry is favorable, these occurrences produce characteristic spikes in the pyranometer traces and solar irradiance values may exceed expected clear-sky values. Ultraviolet CSIR events were investigated during the summer of 1995 using Yankee Environmental Systems UVA-1 and UVB-1 pyranometers. Observed data were compared to clear-sky curves which were generated using a third degree polynomial best-fit line technique. Periods during which the observed data exceeded this clear-sky curve were identified as CSIR events. The magnitude of a CSIR event was determined by two different quantitative calculations. The MAC (magnitude above clear-sky) is an absolute measure of the difference between the observed and clear-sky irradiances. Maximum MAC values of 3.4 Wm(exp -2) and 0.069 Wm(exp -2) were observed at the UV-A and UV-B wavelengths, respectively. The second calculation determined the percentage above clear-sky (PAC) which indicated the relative magnitude of a CSIR event. Maximum UV-A and UV-B PAC magnitudes of 10.1% and 7.8%, respectively, were observed during the study. Also of interest was the duration of the CSIR events which is a function of sun-cloud-sensor geometry and the speed of cloud propagation over the measuring site. In both the UV-A and UV-B wavelengths, significant CSIR durations of up to 30 minutes were observed.

Statistical analysis of hydrodynamic cavitation events

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gimenez, G.; Sommer, R.

1980-10-01

The frequency (number of events per unit time) of pressure pulses produced by hydrodynamic cavitation bubble collapses is investigated using statistical methods. The results indicate that this frequency is distributed according to a normal law, its parameters not being time-evolving.

Constraining shallow seismic event depth via synthetic modeling for Expert Technical Analysis at the IDC

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Stachnik, J.; Rozhkov, M.; Baker, B.; Bobrov, D.; Friberg, P. A.

2015-12-01

Depth of event is an important criterion of seismic event screening at the International Data Center, CTBTO. However, a thorough determination of the event depth can be conducted mostly through special analysis because the IDC's Event Definition Criteria is based, in particular, on depth estimation uncertainties. This causes a large number of events in the Reviewed Event Bulletin to have depth constrained to the surface. When the true origin depth is greater than that reasonable for a nuclear test (3 km based on existing observations), this may result in a heavier workload to manually distinguish between shallow and deep events. Also, IDC depth criterion is not applicable to the events with the small t(pP-P) travel time difference, which is the case of the nuclear test. Since the shape of the first few seconds of signal of very shallow events is very sensitive to the presence of the depth phase, cross correlation between observed and theoretic seismogram can provide an estimate for the depth of the event, and so provide an expansion to the screening process. We exercised this approach mostly with events at teleseismic and partially regional distances. We found that such approach can be very efficient for the seismic event screening process, with certain caveats related mostly to the poorly defined crustal models at source and receiver which can shift the depth estimate. We used adjustable t* teleseismic attenuation model for synthetics since this characteristic is not determined for most of the rays we studied. We studied a wide set of historical records of nuclear explosions, including so called Peaceful Nuclear Explosions (PNE) with presumably known depths, and recent DPRK nuclear tests. The teleseismic synthetic approach is based on the stationary phase approximation with Robert Herrmann's hudson96 program, and the regional modelling was done with the generalized ray technique by Vlastislav Cerveny modified to the complex source topography.

Multilingual Analysis of Twitter News in Support of Mass Emergency Events

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zielinski, A.; Bügel, U.; Middleton, L.; Middleton, S. E.; Tokarchuk, L.; Watson, K.; Chaves, F.

2012-04-01

Social media are increasingly becoming an additional source of information for event-based early warning systems in the sense that they can help to detect natural crises and support crisis management during or after disasters. Within the European FP7 TRIDEC project we study the problem of analyzing multilingual twitter feeds for emergency events. Specifically, we consider tsunami and earthquakes, as one possible originating cause of tsunami, and propose to analyze twitter messages for capturing testified information at affected points of interest in order to obtain a better picture of the actual situation. For tsunami, these could be the so called Forecast Points, i.e. agreed-upon points chosen by the Regional Tsunami Warning Centers (RTWC) and the potentially affected countries, which must be considered when calculating expected tsunami arrival times. Generally, local civil protection authorities and the population are likely to respond in their native languages. Therefore, the present work focuses on English as "lingua franca" and on under-resourced Mediterranean languages in endangered zones, particularly in Turkey, Greece, and Romania. We investigated ten earthquake events and defined four language-specific classifiers that can be used to detect natural crisis events by filtering out irrelevant messages that do not relate to the event. Preliminary results indicate that such a filter has the potential to support earthquake detection and could be integrated into seismographic sensor networks. One hindrance in our study is the lack of geo-located data for asserting the geographical origin of the tweets and thus to be able to observe correlations of events across languages. One way to overcome this deficit consists in identifying geographic names contained in tweets that correspond to or which are located in the vicinity of specific points-of-interest such as the forecast points of the tsunami scenario. We also intend to use twitter analysis for situation picture

Subjective Well-Being and Adaptation to Life Events: A Meta-Analysis on Differences Between Cognitive and Affective Well-Being

PubMed Central

Luhmann, Maike; Hofmann, Wilhelm; Eid, Michael; Lucas, Richard E.

2012-01-01

Previous research has shown that major life events can have short- and long-term effects on subjective well-being (SWB). The present meta-analysis examines (a) whether life events have different effects on cognitive and affective well-being and (b) how the rate of adaptation varies across different life events. Longitudinal data from 188 publications (313 samples, N = 65,911) were integrated to describe the reaction and adaptation to four family events (marriage, divorce, bereavement, child birth) and four work events (unemployment, reemployment, retirement, relocation/migration). The findings show that life events have very different effects on affective and cognitive well-being, and that for most events the effects of life events on cognitive well-being are stronger and more consistent across samples. Different life events differ in their effects on SWB, but these effects are not a function of the alleged desirability of events. The results are discussed with respect to their theoretical implications, and recommendations for future studies on adaptation are given. PMID:22059843

Replica analysis of overfitting in regression models for time-to-event data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Coolen, A. C. C.; Barrett, J. E.; Paga, P.; Perez-Vicente, C. J.

2017-09-01

Overfitting, which happens when the number of parameters in a model is too large compared to the number of data points available for determining these parameters, is a serious and growing problem in survival analysis. While modern medicine presents us with data of unprecedented dimensionality, these data cannot yet be used effectively for clinical outcome prediction. Standard error measures in maximum likelihood regression, such as p-values and z-scores, are blind to overfitting, and even for Cox’s proportional hazards model (the main tool of medical statisticians), one finds in literature only rules of thumb on the number of samples required to avoid overfitting. In this paper we present a mathematical theory of overfitting in regression models for time-to-event data, which aims to increase our quantitative understanding of the problem and provide practical tools with which to correct regression outcomes for the impact of overfitting. It is based on the replica method, a statistical mechanical technique for the analysis of heterogeneous many-variable systems that has been used successfully for several decades in physics, biology, and computer science, but not yet in medical statistics. We develop the theory initially for arbitrary regression models for time-to-event data, and verify its predictions in detail for the popular Cox model.

Extreme events in total ozone: Spatio-temporal analysis from local to global scale

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rieder, Harald E.; Staehelin, Johannes; Maeder, Jörg A.; Ribatet, Mathieu; di Rocco, Stefania; Jancso, Leonhardt M.; Peter, Thomas; Davison, Anthony C.

2010-05-01

Recently tools from extreme value theory (e.g. Coles, 2001; Ribatet, 2007) have been applied for the first time in the field of stratospheric ozone research, as statistical analysis showed that previously used concepts assuming a Gaussian distribution (e.g. fixed deviations from mean values) of total ozone data do not address the internal data structure concerning extremes adequately (Rieder et al., 2010a,b). A case study the world's longest total ozone record (Arosa, Switzerland - for details see Staehelin et al., 1998a,b) illustrates that tools based on extreme value theory are appropriate to identify ozone extremes and to describe the tails of the total ozone record. Excursions in the frequency of extreme events reveal "fingerprints" of dynamical factors such as ENSO or NAO, and chemical factors, such as cold Arctic vortex ozone losses, as well as major volcanic eruptions of the 20th century (e.g. Gunung Agung, El Chichón, Mt. Pinatubo). Furthermore, atmospheric loading in ozone depleting substances led to a continuous modification of column ozone in the northern hemisphere also with respect to extreme values (partly again in connection with polar vortex contributions). It is shown that application of extreme value theory allows the identification of many more such fingerprints than conventional time series analysis of annual and seasonal mean values. Especially, the extremal analysis shows the strong influence of dynamics, revealing that even moderate ENSO and NAO events have a discernible effect on total ozone (Rieder et al., 2010b). Overall the extremes concept provides new information on time series properties, variability, trends and the influence of dynamics and chemistry, complementing earlier analyses focusing only on monthly (or annual) mean values. Findings described above could be proven also for the total ozone records of 5 other long-term series (Belsk, Hohenpeissenberg, Hradec Kralove, Potsdam, Uccle) showing that strong influence of atmospheric

Using Web Crawler Technology for Text Analysis of Geo-Events: A Case Study of the Huangyan Island Incident

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hu, H.; Ge, Y. J.

2013-11-01

With the social networking and network socialisation have brought more text information and social relationships into our daily lives, the question of whether big data can be fully used to study the phenomenon and discipline of natural sciences has prompted many specialists and scholars to innovate their research. Though politics were integrally involved in the hyperlinked word issues since 1990s, automatic assembly of different geospatial web and distributed geospatial information systems utilizing service chaining have explored and built recently, the information collection and data visualisation of geo-events have always faced the bottleneck of traditional manual analysis because of the sensibility, complexity, relativity, timeliness and unexpected characteristics of political events. Based on the framework of Heritrix and the analysis of web-based text, word frequency, sentiment tendency and dissemination path of the Huangyan Island incident is studied here by combining web crawler technology and the text analysis method. The results indicate that tag cloud, frequency map, attitudes pie, individual mention ratios and dissemination flow graph based on the data collection and processing not only highlight the subject and theme vocabularies of related topics but also certain issues and problems behind it. Being able to express the time-space relationship of text information and to disseminate the information regarding geo-events, the text analysis of network information based on focused web crawler technology can be a tool for understanding the formation and diffusion of web-based public opinions in political events.

Transcriptome Bioinformatical Analysis of Vertebrate Stages of Schistosoma japonicum Reveals Alternative Splicing Events

PubMed Central

Wang, Xinye; Xu, Xindong; Lu, Xingyu; Zhang, Yuanbin; Pan, Weiqing

2015-01-01

Alternative splicing is a molecular process that contributes greatly to the diversification of proteome and to gene functions. Understanding the mechanisms of stage-specific alternative splicing can provide a better understanding of the development of eukaryotes and the functions of different genes. Schistosoma japonicum is an infectious blood-dwelling trematode with a complex lifecycle that causes the tropical disease schistosomiasis. In this study, we analyzed the transcriptome of Schistosoma japonicum to discover alternative splicing events in this parasite, by applying RNA-seq to cDNA library of adults and schistosomula. Results were validated by RT-PCR and sequencing. We found 11,623 alternative splicing events among 7,099 protein encoding genes and average proportion of alternative splicing events per gene was 42.14%. We showed that exon skip is the most common type of alternative splicing events as found in high eukaryotes, whereas intron retention is the least common alternative splicing type. According to intron boundary analysis, the parasite possesses same intron boundaries as other organisms, namely the classic “GT-AG” rule. And in alternative spliced introns or exons, this rule is less strict. And we have attempted to detect alternative splicing events in genes encoding proteins with signal peptides and transmembrane helices, suggesting that alternative splicing could change subcellular locations of specific gene products. Our results indicate that alternative splicing is prevalent in this parasitic worm, and that the worm is close to its hosts. The revealed secretome involved in alternative splicing implies new perspective into understanding interaction between the parasite and its host. PMID:26407301

The Braunsbach Flashflood of May 29, 2016: A forensic analysis of the meteorological origin and the hydrological development an extreme hydro-meteorological event

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bronstert, Axel; Ankit, Agarwal; Berry, Boessenkool; Madlen, Fischer; Maik, Heistermann; Lisei, Köhn-Reich; Thomas, Moran; Dadiyorto, Wendi

2017-04-01

The flash-flood at 29th May 2016 in the vicinity of the village of Braunsbach in Southwestern Germany, State of Baden-Wuerttemberg, has been a particularly concise event of the floods occurring in southern Germany at the end of May / early June 2016. This extreme event was triggered by a convective high intensity rain storm, causing extreme discharge rates and subsequent debris flow in the local creek. This led to severe flooding of the village with immense damages. Besides its extreme nature, the event is characterized by very local and short term scales, i.e. the catchment of the creek covers an area of only six km2 and the whole event lasted only two hours. This contribution presents a retrospective analysis with regard to meteorology and hydrology to obtain a quantitative assessment of the governing processes and their development. We term this a "forensic analysis" because due to the very local and sudden feature of this flashflood event, the processes cannot be directly measured during the event and/or at the site. Instead, they need to be reconstructed and estimated after the event from a variety of rather different information sources and "soft" data. Using these types of post event observations and analysis, we aim at obtaining a rather comprehensive picture of the event and its consequences. Regarding rainfall, both station data from the surroundings of the catchment and radar data from the German Weather Service were analyzed, including the analysis of different errors types and dynamic features of the convective system. The flood hydrograph, including the maximum discharge rate during the event, was estimated by three different approaches, which were compared to obtain an idea of the associated uncertainty. The overall results of this forensic analysis show that it was a very rare rainfall event with extreme rainfall intensities, e.g. return period exceeding 100 years. Catalyzed by catchment properties, this lead to extreme runoff, severe soil erosion

Mediators of the relationship between social anxiety and post-event rumination.

PubMed

Chen, Junwen; Rapee, Ronald M; Abbott, Maree J

2013-01-01

A variety of cognitive and attentional factors are hypothesised to be associated with post-event rumination, a key construct that has been proposed to contribute to the maintenance of social anxiety disorder (SAD). The present study aimed to explore factors contributing to post-event rumination following delivery of a speech in a clinical population. 121 participants with SAD completed measures of trait social anxiety a week before they undertook a speech task. After the speech, participants answered several questionnaires assessing their state anxiety, self-evaluation of performance, perceived focus of attention and probability and cost of expected negative evaluation. One-week later, participants completed measures of negative rumination experienced over the week. Results showed two pathways leading to post-event rumination: (1) a direct path from trait social anxiety to post-event rumination and (2) indirect paths from trait social anxiety to post-event rumination via its relationships with inappropriate attentional focus and self-evaluation of performance. The results suggest that post event rumination is at least partly predicted by the extent to which socially anxious individuals negatively perceive their own performance and their allocation of attentional resources to this negative self-image. Current findings support the key relationships among cognitive processes proposed by cognitive models. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Single Particle Analysis by Combined Chemical Imaging to Study Episodic Air Pollution Events in Vienna

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ofner, Johannes; Eitenberger, Elisabeth; Friedbacher, Gernot; Brenner, Florian; Hutter, Herbert; Schauer, Gerhard; Kistler, Magdalena; Greilinger, Marion; Lohninger, Hans; Lendl, Bernhard; Kasper-Giebl, Anne

2017-04-01

The aerosol composition of a city like Vienna is characterized by a complex interaction of local emissions and atmospheric input on a regional and continental scale. The identification of major aerosol constituents for basic source appointment and air quality issues needs a high analytical effort. Exceptional episodic air pollution events strongly change the typical aerosol composition of a city like Vienna on a time-scale of few hours to several days. Analyzing the chemistry of particulate matter from these events is often hampered by the sampling time and related sample amount necessary to apply the full range of bulk analytical methods needed for chemical characterization. Additionally, morphological and single particle features are hardly accessible. Chemical Imaging evolved to a powerful tool for image-based chemical analysis of complex samples. As a complementary technique to bulk analytical methods, chemical imaging can address a new access to study air pollution events by obtaining major aerosol constituents with single particle features at high temporal resolutions and small sample volumes. The analysis of the chemical imaging datasets is assisted by multivariate statistics with the benefit of image-based chemical structure determination for direct aerosol source appointment. A novel approach in chemical imaging is combined chemical imaging or so-called multisensor hyperspectral imaging, involving elemental imaging (electron microscopy-based energy dispersive X-ray imaging), vibrational imaging (Raman micro-spectroscopy) and mass spectrometric imaging (Time-of-Flight Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry) with subsequent combined multivariate analytics. Combined chemical imaging of precipitated aerosol particles will be demonstrated by the following examples of air pollution events in Vienna: Exceptional episodic events like the transformation of Saharan dust by the impact of the city of Vienna will be discussed and compared to samples obtained at a high alpine

Painful and provocative events scale and fearlessness about death among Veterans: Exploratory factor analysis.

PubMed

Poindexter, Erin K; Nazem, Sarra; Forster, Jeri E

2017-01-15

The interpersonal theory of suicide suggests three proximal risk factors for suicide: perceived burdensomeness, thwarted belongingness, and acquired capability. Previous literature indicates that repetitive exposure to painful and provocative events is related to increased acquired capability for suicide. Despite this, research related to the assessment of painful and provocative events has been insufficient. Research has inconsistently administered the Painful and Provocative Events Scale (PPES; a painful and provocative events assessment), and no study has examined the factor structure of the English PPES. This study explored the factor structure of the PPES and the relation between factors and fearlessness about death. The sample was a cross-sectional, self-report study comprised of 119 Veterans (Mage = 46.5, SD = 13.5). Findings from an exploratory factor analysis indicated a four-factor solution for the PPES; however, no factor from the PPES significantly related to fearlessness about death (measured by the Acquired Capability for Suicide Scale - Fearlessness About Death Scale; all p >.21). Cross-sectional, small Veteran sample. Findings suggest that the PPES lacks the psychometric properties necessary to reliably investigate painful and provocative factors. Consequently, this measure may not reliably capture and explain how painful and provocative events relate to fearlessness about death, which is a barrier to improving suicide risk assessment and prediction. Recommendations for the construction of a new PPES are offered. Published by Elsevier B.V.

MULTI-SPACECRAFT ANALYSIS OF ENERGETIC HEAVY ION AND INTERPLANETARY SHOCK PROPERTIES IN ENERGETIC STORM PARTICLE EVENTS NEAR 1 au

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

Ebert, R. W.; Dayeh, M. A.; Desai, M. I.

2016-11-10

We examine the longitude distribution of and relationship between interplanetary (IP) shock properties and ∼0.1–20 MeV nucleon{sup -1} O and Fe ions during seven multi-spacecraft energetic storm particle (ESP) events at 1 au. These ESP events were observed at two spacecraft and were primarily associated with low Mach number, quasi-perpendicular shocks. Key observations include the following: (i) the Alfvén Mach number increased from east to west of the coronal mass ejection source longitude, while the shock speed, compression ratios, and obliquity showed no clear dependence; (ii) the O and Fe time intensity profiles and peak intensities varied significantly between longitudinallymore » separated spacecraft observing the same event, the peak intensities being larger near the nose and smaller along the flank of the IP shock; (iii) the O and Fe peak intensities had weak to no correlations with the shock parameters; (iv) the Fe/O time profiles showed intra-event variations upstream of the shock that disappeared downstream of the shock, where values plateaued to those comparable to the mean Fe/O of solar cycle 23; (v) the O and Fe spectral index ranged from ∼1.0 to 3.4, the Fe spectra being softer in most events; and (vi) the observed spectral index was softer than the value predicted from the shock compression ratio in most events. We conclude that while the variations in IP shock properties may account for some variations in O and Fe properties within these multi-spacecraft events, detailed examination of the upstream seed population and IP turbulence, along with modeling, are required to fully characterize these observations.« less

Event-driven simulation in SELMON: An overview of EDSE

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Rouquette, Nicolas F.; Chien, Steve A.; Charest, Leonard, Jr.

1992-01-01

EDSE (event-driven simulation engine), a model-based event-driven simulator implemented for SELMON, a tool for sensor selection and anomaly detection in real-time monitoring is described. The simulator is used in conjunction with a causal model to predict future behavior of the model from observed data. The behavior of the causal model is interpreted as equivalent to the behavior of the physical system being modeled. An overview of the functionality of the simulator and the model-based event-driven simulation paradigm on which it is based is provided. Included are high-level descriptions of the following key properties: event consumption and event creation, iterative simulation, synchronization and filtering of monitoring data from the physical system. Finally, how EDSE stands with respect to the relevant open issues of discrete-event and model-based simulation is discussed.

LabKey Server: an open source platform for scientific data integration, analysis and collaboration.

PubMed

Nelson, Elizabeth K; Piehler, Britt; Eckels, Josh; Rauch, Adam; Bellew, Matthew; Hussey, Peter; Ramsay, Sarah; Nathe, Cory; Lum, Karl; Krouse, Kevin; Stearns, David; Connolly, Brian; Skillman, Tom; Igra, Mark

2011-03-09

roughly 27,000 assay runs, 860,000 specimen vials and 1,300,000 vial transfers. Sharing data, analysis tools and infrastructure can speed the efforts of large research consortia by enhancing efficiency and enabling new insights. The Atlas installation of LabKey Server demonstrates the utility of the LabKey platform for collaborative research. Stable, supported builds of LabKey Server are freely available for download at http://www.labkey.org. Documentation and source code are available under the Apache License 2.0.

LabKey Server: An open source platform for scientific data integration, analysis and collaboration

PubMed Central

2011-01-01

organizations. It tracks roughly 27,000 assay runs, 860,000 specimen vials and 1,300,000 vial transfers. Conclusions Sharing data, analysis tools and infrastructure can speed the efforts of large research consortia by enhancing efficiency and enabling new insights. The Atlas installation of LabKey Server demonstrates the utility of the LabKey platform for collaborative research. Stable, supported builds of LabKey Server are freely available for download at http://www.labkey.org. Documentation and source code are available under the Apache License 2.0. PMID:21385461

Rare event computation in deterministic chaotic systems using genealogical particle analysis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wouters, J.; Bouchet, F.

2016-09-01

In this paper we address the use of rare event computation techniques to estimate small over-threshold probabilities of observables in deterministic dynamical systems. We demonstrate that genealogical particle analysis algorithms can be successfully applied to a toy model of atmospheric dynamics, the Lorenz ’96 model. We furthermore use the Ornstein-Uhlenbeck system to illustrate a number of implementation issues. We also show how a time-dependent objective function based on the fluctuation path to a high threshold can greatly improve the performance of the estimator compared to a fixed-in-time objective function.

Deep learning based beat event detection in action movie franchises

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ejaz, N.; Khan, U. A.; Martínez-del-Amor, M. A.; Sparenberg, H.

2018-04-01

Automatic understanding and interpretation of movies can be used in a variety of ways to semantically manage the massive volumes of movies data. "Action Movie Franchises" dataset is a collection of twenty Hollywood action movies from five famous franchises with ground truth annotations at shot and beat level of each movie. In this dataset, the annotations are provided for eleven semantic beat categories. In this work, we propose a deep learning based method to classify shots and beat-events on this dataset. The training dataset for each of the eleven beat categories is developed and then a Convolution Neural Network is trained. After finding the shot boundaries, key frames are extracted for each shot and then three classification labels are assigned to each key frame. The classification labels for each of the key frames in a particular shot are then used to assign a unique label to each shot. A simple sliding window based method is then used to group adjacent shots having the same label in order to find a particular beat event. The results of beat event classification are presented based on criteria of precision, recall, and F-measure. The results are compared with the existing technique and significant improvements are recorded.

Best Practices in Pulic Outreach Events

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cobb, Whitney; Buxner, Sanlyn; Shipp, Stephanie

2015-11-01

IntroductionEach year the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) sponsors public outreach events designed to increase student, educator, and general public engagement in its missions and goals. NASA SMD Education’s review of large-scale events, “Best Practices in Outreach Events,” highlighted planning and implementation best practices, which were used by the Dawn mission to strategize and implement its Ceres arrival celebration event, i C Ceres.BackgroundThe literature review focused on best identifying practices rising from evaluations of large-scale public outreach events. The following criteria guided the study:* Public, science-related events open to adults and children* Events that occurred during the last 5 years* Evaluations that included information on data collected from visitors and/or volunteers* Evaluations that specified the type of data collected, methodology, and associated resultsBest Practices: Planning and ImplementationThe literature review revealed key considerations for planning implement large-scale events. Best practices included can be pertinent for all event organizers and evaluators regardless of event size. A summary of related best practices is presented below.1) Advertise the event2) Use and advertise access to scientists* Attendees who reported an interaction with a science professional were 15% to 19% more likely to report positive learning impacts, (SFA, 2012, p. 24).3) Recruit scientists using findings such as:* High percentages of scientists (85% to 96%) from most events were interested in participating again (SFA, 2012).4) Ensure that the event is group and, particularly, child friendly5) Target specific event outcomesBest Practices Informing Real-world Planning, Implementation and EvaluationDawn mission’s collaborative design of a series of events, i C Ceres, including in-person, interactive events geared to families and live presentations, will be shared, with focus on the family event, and the evidence

Trauma and recent life events in individuals at ultra high risk for psychosis: review and meta-analysis.

PubMed

Kraan, Tamar; Velthorst, Eva; Smit, Filip; de Haan, Lieuwe; van der Gaag, Mark

2015-02-01

Childhood trauma and recent life-events have been related to psychotic disorders. The aim of the present study was to examine whether childhood trauma and recent life-events are significantly more prevalent in patients at Ultra High Risk (UHR) of developing a psychotic disorder compared to healthy controls. A search of PsychInfo and Embase was conducted, relevant papers were reviewed, and three random-effects meta-analyses were performed. One meta-analysis assessed the prevalence rate of childhood trauma in UHR subjects and two meta-analyses were conducted to compare UHR subjects and healthy control subjects on the experience of childhood trauma and recent life-events. We found 12 studies on the prevalence of (childhood) trauma in UHR populations and 4 studies on recent life-events in UHR populations. We performed a meta-analysis on 6 studies (of which trauma prevalence rates were available) on childhood trauma in UHR populations, yielding a mean prevalence rate of 86.8% (95% CI 77%-93%). Childhood trauma was significantly more prevalent in UHR subjects compared to healthy control groups (Random effects Hedges' g=1.09; Z=4.60, p<.001). In contrast to our hypothesis, life-event rates were significantly lower in UHR subjects compared to healthy controls (Random effects Hedges' g=-0.53; Z=-2.36, p<.02). Our meta-analytic results illustrate that childhood trauma is highly prevalent among UHR subjects and that childhood trauma is related to UHR status. These results are in line with studies on childhood trauma in psychotic populations. In contrast to studies on recent life-events in psychotic populations, our results show that recent life-events are not associated with UHR status. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Living with extreme weather events - perspectives from climatology, geomorphological analysis, chronicles and opinion polls

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Auer, I.; Kirchengast, A.; Proske, H.

2009-09-01

The ongoing climate change debate focuses more and more on changing extreme events. Information on past events can be derived from a number of sources, such as instrumental data, residual impacts in the landscape, but also chronicles and people's memories. A project called "A Tale of Two Valleys” within the framework of the research program "proVision” allowed to study past extreme events in two inner-alpine valleys from the sources mentioned before. Instrumental climate time series provided information for the past 200 years, however great attention had to be given to the homogeneity of the series. To derive homogenized time series of selected climate change indices methods like HOCLIS and Vincent have been applied. Trend analyses of climate change indices inform about increase or decrease of extreme events. Traces of major geomorphodynamic processes of the past (e.g. rockfalls, landslides, debris flows) which were triggered or affected by extreme weather events are still apparent in the landscape and could be evaluated by geomorphological analysis using remote sensing and field data. Regional chronicles provided additional knowledge and covered longer periods back in time, however compared to meteorological time series they enclose a high degree of subjectivity and intermittent recordings cannot be obviated. Finally, questionnaires and oral history complemented our picture of past extreme weather events. People were differently affected and have different memories of it. The joint analyses of these four data sources showed agreement to some extent, however also showed some reasonable differences: meteorological data are point measurements only with a sometimes too coarse temporal resolution. Due to land-use changes and improved constructional measures the impact of an extreme meteorological event may be different today compared to earlier times.

Root cause analysis of serious adverse events among older patients in the Veterans Health Administration.

PubMed

Lee, Alexandra; Mills, Peter D; Neily, Julia; Hemphill, Robin R

2014-06-01

Preventable adverse events are more likely to occur among older patients because of the clinical complexity of their care. The Veterans Health Administration (VHA) National Center for Patient Safety (NCPS) stores data about serious adverse events when a root cause analysis (RCA) has been performed. A primary objective of this study was to describe the types of adverse events occurring among older patients (age > or = 65 years) in Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) hospitals. Secondary objectives were to determine the underlying reasons for the occurrence of these events and report on effective action plans that have been implemented in VA hospitals. In a retrospective, cross-sectional review, RCA reports were reviewed and outcomes reported using descriptive statistics for all VA hospitals that conducted an RCA for a serious geriatric adverse event from January 2010 to January 2011 that resulted in sustained injury or death. The search produced 325 RCA reports on VA patients (age > or = 65 years). Falls (34.8%), delays in diagnosis and/or treatment (11.7%), unexpected death (9.9%), and medication errors (9.0%) were the most commonly reported adverse events among older VA patients. Communication was the most common underlying reason for these events, representing 43.9% of reported root causes. Approximately 40% of implemented action plans were judged by local staff to be effective. The RCA process identified falls and communication as important themes in serious adverse events. Concrete actions, such as process standardization and changes to communication, were reported by teams to yield some improvement. However, fewer than half of the action plans were reported to be effective. Further research is needed to guide development and implementation of effective action plans.

Analysis and Prediction of Exon Skipping Events from RNA-Seq with Sequence Information Using Rotation Forest.

PubMed

Du, Xiuquan; Hu, Changlin; Yao, Yu; Sun, Shiwei; Zhang, Yanping

2017-12-12

In bioinformatics, exon skipping (ES) event prediction is an essential part of alternative splicing (AS) event analysis. Although many methods have been developed to predict ES events, a solution has yet to be found. In this study, given the limitations of machine learning algorithms with RNA-Seq data or genome sequences, a new feature, called RS (RNA-seq and sequence) features, was constructed. These features include RNA-Seq features derived from the RNA-Seq data and sequence features derived from genome sequences. We propose a novel Rotation Forest classifier to predict ES events with the RS features (RotaF-RSES). To validate the efficacy of RotaF-RSES, a dataset from two human tissues was used, and RotaF-RSES achieved an accuracy of 98.4%, a specificity of 99.2%, a sensitivity of 94.1%, and an area under the curve (AUC) of 98.6%. When compared to the other available methods, the results indicate that RotaF-RSES is efficient and can predict ES events with RS features.

Prediction of Intensity Change Subsequent to Concentric Eyewall Events

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mauk, Rachel Grant

Concentric eyewall events have been documented numerous times in intense tropical cyclones over the last two decades. During a concentric eyewall event, an outer (secondary) eyewall forms around the inner (primary) eyewall. Improved instrumentation on aircraft and satellites greatly increases the likelihood of detecting an event. Despite the increased ability to detect such events, forecasts of intensity changes during and after these events remain poor. When concentric eyewall events occur near land, accurate intensity change predictions are especially critical to ensure proper emergency preparations and staging of recovery assets. A nineteen-year (1997-2015) database of concentric eyewall events is developed by analyzing microwave satellite imagery, aircraft- and land-based radar, and other published documents. Events are identified in both the North Atlantic and eastern North Pacific basins. TCs are categorized as single (1 event), serial (>= 2 events) and super-serial (>= 3 events). Key findings here include distinct spatial patterns for single and serial Atlantic TCs, a broad seasonal distribution for eastern North Pacific TCs, and apparent ENSO-related variability in both basins. The intensity change subsequent to the concentric eyewall event is calculated from the HURDAT2 database at time points relative to the start and to the end of the event. Intensity change is then categorized as Weaken (≤ -10 kt), Maintain (+/- 5 kt), and Strengthen (≥ 10 kt). Environmental conditions in which each event occurred are analyzed based on the SHIPS diagnostic files. Oceanic, dynamic, thermodynamic, and TC status predictors are selected for testing in a multiple discriminant analysis procedure to determine which variables successfully discriminate the intensity change category and the occurrence of additional concentric eyewall events. Intensity models are created for 12 h, 24 h, 36 h, and 48 h after the concentric eyewall events end. Leave-one-out cross validation is

Preliminary analysis on faint luminous lightning events recorded by multiple high speed cameras

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Alves, J.; Saraiva, A. V.; Pinto, O.; Campos, L. Z.; Antunes, L.; Luz, E. S.; Medeiros, C.; Buzato, T. S.

2013-12-01

The objective of this work is the study of some faint luminous events produced by lightning flashes that were recorded simultaneously by multiple high-speed cameras during the previous RAMMER (Automated Multi-camera Network for Monitoring and Study of Lightning) campaigns. The RAMMER network is composed by three fixed cameras and one mobile color camera separated by, in average, distances of 13 kilometers. They were located in the Paraiba Valley (in the cities of São José dos Campos and Caçapava), SP, Brazil, arranged in a quadrilateral shape, centered in São José dos Campos region. This configuration allowed RAMMER to see a thunderstorm from different angles, registering the same lightning flashes simultaneously by multiple cameras. Each RAMMER sensor is composed by a triggering system and a Phantom high-speed camera version 9.1, which is set to operate at a frame rate of 2,500 frames per second with a lens Nikkor (model AF-S DX 18-55 mm 1:3.5 - 5.6 G in the stationary sensors, and a lens model AF-S ED 24 mm - 1:1.4 in the mobile sensor). All videos were GPS (Global Positioning System) time stamped. For this work we used a data set collected in four RAMMER manual operation days in the campaign of 2012 and 2013. On Feb. 18th the data set is composed by 15 flashes recorded by two cameras and 4 flashes recorded by three cameras. On Feb. 19th a total of 5 flashes was registered by two cameras and 1 flash registered by three cameras. On Feb. 22th we obtained 4 flashes registered by two cameras. Finally, in March 6th two cameras recorded 2 flashes. The analysis in this study proposes an evaluation methodology for faint luminous lightning events, such as continuing current. Problems in the temporal measurement of the continuing current can generate some imprecisions during the optical analysis, therefore this work aim to evaluate the effects of distance in this parameter with this preliminary data set. In the cases that include the color camera we analyzed the RGB

Seasonality and Disturbance Events in the Carbon Isotope Record of Pinus elliottii Tree Rings from Big Pine Key, Florida

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rebenack, C.; Anderson, W. T.; Cherubini, P.

2012-12-01

, and disturbance events, such as tropical cyclone impacts. Because slash pine growth is dependent on water availability, a chronology developed using carbon isotopes may provide greater insight into plant stress over time and ultimately may lead to better correlations with climate oscillations. The work presented here is the result of a carbon-isotope study of four slash pine trees located across a freshwater gradient on Big Pine Key, Florida. A site chronology has been developed by cross-dating the δ13C records for each of the trees. The tree located on the distal edge of the freshwater gradient shows an overall enriched isotopic signature over time compared to the trees growing over a deeper part of the local freshwater lens, indicating that these trees are sensitive to water stress. In addition, the carbon isotope data show seasonal stomatal activity in the trees and indicate the timing of two disturbance events.

A Global Geospatial Database of 5000+ Historic Flood Event Extents

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tellman, B.; Sullivan, J.; Doyle, C.; Kettner, A.; Brakenridge, G. R.; Erickson, T.; Slayback, D. A.

2017-12-01

A key dataset that is missing for global flood model validation and understanding historic spatial flood vulnerability is a global historical geo-database of flood event extents. Decades of earth observing satellites and cloud computing now make it possible to not only detect floods in near real time, but to run these water detection algorithms back in time to capture the spatial extent of large numbers of specific events. This talk will show results from the largest global historical flood database developed to date. We use the Dartmouth Flood Observatory flood catalogue to map over 5000 floods (from 1985-2017) using MODIS, Landsat, and Sentinel-1 Satellites. All events are available for public download via the Earth Engine Catalogue and via a website that allows the user to query floods by area or date, assess population exposure trends over time, and download flood extents in geospatial format.In this talk, we will highlight major trends in global flood exposure per continent, land use type, and eco-region. We will also make suggestions how to use this dataset in conjunction with other global sets to i) validate global flood models, ii) assess the potential role of climatic change in flood exposure iii) understand how urbanization and other land change processes may influence spatial flood exposure iv) assess how innovative flood interventions (e.g. wetland restoration) influence flood patterns v) control for event magnitude to assess the role of social vulnerability and damage assessment vi) aid in rapid probabilistic risk assessment to enable microinsurance markets. Authors on this paper are already using the database for the later three applications and will show examples of wetland intervention analysis in Argentina, social vulnerability analysis in the USA, and micro insurance in India.

Recognising safety critical events: can automatic video processing improve naturalistic data analyses?

PubMed

Dozza, Marco; González, Nieves Pañeda

2013-11-01

New trends in research on traffic accidents include Naturalistic Driving Studies (NDS). NDS are based on large scale data collection of driver, vehicle, and environment information in real world. NDS data sets have proven to be extremely valuable for the analysis of safety critical events such as crashes and near crashes. However, finding safety critical events in NDS data is often difficult and time consuming. Safety critical events are currently identified using kinematic triggers, for instance searching for deceleration below a certain threshold signifying harsh braking. Due to the low sensitivity and specificity of this filtering procedure, manual review of video data is currently necessary to decide whether the events identified by the triggers are actually safety critical. Such reviewing procedure is based on subjective decisions, is expensive and time consuming, and often tedious for the analysts. Furthermore, since NDS data is exponentially growing over time, this reviewing procedure may not be viable anymore in the very near future. This study tested the hypothesis that automatic processing of driver video information could increase the correct classification of safety critical events from kinematic triggers in naturalistic driving data. Review of about 400 video sequences recorded from the events, collected by 100 Volvo cars in the euroFOT project, suggested that drivers' individual reaction may be the key to recognize safety critical events. In fact, whether an event is safety critical or not often depends on the individual driver. A few algorithms, able to automatically classify driver reaction from video data, have been compared. The results presented in this paper show that the state of the art subjective review procedures to identify safety critical events from NDS can benefit from automated objective video processing. In addition, this paper discusses the major challenges in making such video analysis viable for future NDS and new potential

g-PRIME: A Free, Windows Based Data Acquisition and Event Analysis Software Package for Physiology in Classrooms and Research Labs.

PubMed

Lott, Gus K; Johnson, Bruce R; Bonow, Robert H; Land, Bruce R; Hoy, Ronald R

2009-01-01

We present g-PRIME, a software based tool for physiology data acquisition, analysis, and stimulus generation in education and research. This software was developed in an undergraduate neurophysiology course and strongly influenced by instructor and student feedback. g-PRIME is a free, stand-alone, windows application coded and "compiled" in Matlab (does not require a Matlab license). g-PRIME supports many data acquisition interfaces from the PC sound card to expensive high throughput calibrated equipment. The program is designed as a software oscilloscope with standard trigger modes, multi-channel visualization controls, and data logging features. Extensive analysis options allow real time and offline filtering of signals, multi-parameter threshold-and-window based event detection, and two-dimensional display of a variety of parameters including event time, energy density, maximum FFT frequency component, max/min amplitudes, and inter-event rate and intervals. The software also correlates detected events with another simultaneously acquired source (event triggered average) in real time or offline. g-PRIME supports parameter histogram production and a variety of elegant publication quality graphics outputs. A major goal of this software is to merge powerful engineering acquisition and analysis tools with a biological approach to studies of nervous system function.

Recollection-Dependent Memory for Event Duration in Large-Scale Spatial Navigation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brunec, Iva K.; Ozubko, Jason D.; Barense, Morgan D.; Moscovitch, Morris

2017-01-01

Time and space represent two key aspects of episodic memories, forming the spatiotemporal context of events in a sequence. Little is known, however, about how temporal information, such as the duration and the order of particular events, are encoded into memory, and if it matters whether the memory representation is based on recollection or…

Final report on key comparison CCQM-K100: Analysis of copper in ethanol

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhou, Tao; Kakoulides, Elias; Zhu, Yanbei; Jaehrling, Reinhard; Rienitz, Olaf; Saxby, David; Phukphatthanachai, Pranee; Yafa, Charun; Labarraque, Guillaume; Cankur, Oktay; Can, Süleyman Z.; Konopelko, Leonid A.; Kustikov, Yu A.; Caciano de Sena, Rodrigo; Marques Rodrigues, Janaina; Fonseca Sarmanho, Gabriel; Fortunato de Carvalho Rocha, Werickson; dos Reis, Lindomar Augusto

2014-01-01

The increase in renewable sources in the energy matrix of the countries is an effort to reduce dependency on crude oil and the environmental impacts associated with its use. In order to help overcome the lack of widely accepted quality standards for fuel ethanol and to guarantee its competitiveness in the international trade market, the NMIs have been working to develop certified reference materials for bio-fuels and measurement methods. Inorganic impurities such as Cu, Na and Fe may be present in the fuel ethanol and their presence is associated with corrosion and the formation of oxide deposits in some engine parts. The key comparison CCQM-K100 was carried out under the auspices of the Inorganic Analysis Working Group (IAWG) and the coordination of the National Institute of Metrology, Quality and Technology (INMETRO). The objective of this key comparison was to compare the measurement capabilities of the participants for the determination of Cu in fuel ethanol. Ten NMIs participated in this exercise and most of them used the isotopic dilution method for determining the amount of Cu. The median was chosen as key comparison reference value (KCRV). The assigned KCRV for the Cu content was 0.3589 µg/g with a combined standard uncertainty of 0.0014 µg/g. In general, there is a good agreement among the participants' results. Main text. To reach the main text of this paper, click on Final Report. Note that this text is that which appears in Appendix B of the BIPM key comparison database kcdb.bipm.org/. The final report has been peer-reviewed and approved for publication by the CCQM, according to the provisions of the CIPM Mutual Recognition Arrangement (CIPM MRA).

Stressful life events during adolescence and risk for externalizing and internalizing psychopathology: a meta-analysis.

PubMed

March-Llanes, Jaume; Marqués-Feixa, Laia; Mezquita, Laura; Fañanás, Lourdes; Moya-Higueras, Jorge

2017-12-01

The main objective of the present research was to analyze the relations between stressful life events and the externalizing and internalizing spectra of psychopathology using meta-analytical procedures. After removing the duplicates, a total of 373 papers were found in a literature search using several bibliographic databases, such as the PsycINFO, Medline, Scopus, and Web of Science. Twenty-seven studies were selected for the meta-analytical analysis after applying different inclusion and exclusion criteria in different phases. The statistical procedure was performed using a random/mixed-effects model based on the correlations found in the studies. Significant positive correlations were found in cross-sectional and longitudinal studies. A transactional effect was then found in the present study. Stressful life events could be a cause, but also a consequence, of psychopathological spectra. The level of controllability of the life events did not affect the results. Special attention should be given to the usage of stressful life events in gene-environment interaction and correlation studies, and also for clinical purposes.

Evaluation of cool season precipitation event characteristics over the Northeast US in a suite of downscaled climate model hindcasts

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Loikith, Paul C.; Waliser, Duane E.; Kim, Jinwon; Ferraro, Robert

2017-08-01

Cool season precipitation event characteristics are evaluated across a suite of downscaled climate models over the northeastern US. Downscaled hindcast simulations are produced by dynamically downscaling the Modern-Era Retrospective Analysis for Research and Applications version 2 (MERRA2) using the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)-Unified Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) regional climate model (RCM) and the Goddard Earth Observing System Model, Version 5 (GEOS-5) global climate model. NU-WRF RCM simulations are produced at 24, 12, and 4-km horizontal resolutions using a range of spectral nudging schemes while the MERRA2 global downscaled run is provided at 12.5-km. All model runs are evaluated using four metrics designed to capture key features of precipitation events: event frequency, event intensity, even total, and event duration. Overall, the downscaling approaches result in a reasonable representation of many of the key features of precipitation events over the region, however considerable biases exist in the magnitude of each metric. Based on this evaluation there is no clear indication that higher resolution simulations result in more realistic results in general, however many small-scale features such as orographic enhancement of precipitation are only captured at higher resolutions suggesting some added value over coarser resolution. While the differences between simulations produced using nudging and no nudging are small, there is some improvement in model fidelity when nudging is introduced, especially at a cutoff wavelength of 600 km compared to 2000 km. Based on the results of this evaluation, dynamical regional downscaling using NU-WRF results in a more realistic representation of precipitation event climatology than the global downscaling of MERRA2 using GEOS-5.

A new approach to identify, classify and count drugrelated events

PubMed Central

Bürkle, Thomas; Müller, Fabian; Patapovas, Andrius; Sonst, Anja; Pfistermeister, Barbara; Plank-Kiegele, Bettina; Dormann, Harald; Maas, Renke

2013-01-01

Aims The incidence of clinical events related to medication errors and/or adverse drug reactions reported in the literature varies by a degree that cannot solely be explained by the clinical setting, the varying scrutiny of investigators or varying definitions of drug-related events. Our hypothesis was that the individual complexity of many clinical cases may pose relevant limitations for current definitions and algorithms used to identify, classify and count adverse drug-related events. Methods Based on clinical cases derived from an observational study we identified and classified common clinical problems that cannot be adequately characterized by the currently used definitions and algorithms. Results It appears that some key models currently used to describe the relation of medication errors (MEs), adverse drug reactions (ADRs) and adverse drug events (ADEs) can easily be misinterpreted or contain logical inconsistencies that limit their accurate use to all but the simplest clinical cases. A key limitation of current models is the inability to deal with complex interactions such as one drug causing two clinically distinct side effects or multiple drugs contributing to a single clinical event. Using a large set of clinical cases we developed a revised model of the interdependence between MEs, ADEs and ADRs and extended current event definitions when multiple medications cause multiple types of problems. We propose algorithms that may help to improve the identification, classification and counting of drug-related events. Conclusions The new model may help to overcome some of the limitations that complex clinical cases pose to current paper- or software-based drug therapy safety. PMID:24007453

Integrative Analysis of DNA Methylation and Gene Expression Data Identifies EPAS1 as a Key Regulator of COPD

PubMed Central

Yoo, Seungyeul; Takikawa, Sachiko; Geraghty, Patrick; Argmann, Carmen; Campbell, Joshua; Lin, Luan; Huang, Tao; Tu, Zhidong; Feronjy, Robert; Spira, Avrum; Schadt, Eric E.; Powell, Charles A.; Zhu, Jun

2015-01-01

Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) is a complex disease. Genetic, epigenetic, and environmental factors are known to contribute to COPD risk and disease progression. Therefore we developed a systematic approach to identify key regulators of COPD that integrates genome-wide DNA methylation, gene expression, and phenotype data in lung tissue from COPD and control samples. Our integrative analysis identified 126 key regulators of COPD. We identified EPAS1 as the only key regulator whose downstream genes significantly overlapped with multiple genes sets associated with COPD disease severity. EPAS1 is distinct in comparison with other key regulators in terms of methylation profile and downstream target genes. Genes predicted to be regulated by EPAS1 were enriched for biological processes including signaling, cell communications, and system development. We confirmed that EPAS1 protein levels are lower in human COPD lung tissue compared to non-disease controls and that Epas1 gene expression is reduced in mice chronically exposed to cigarette smoke. As EPAS1 downstream genes were significantly enriched for hypoxia responsive genes in endothelial cells, we tested EPAS1 function in human endothelial cells. EPAS1 knockdown by siRNA in endothelial cells impacted genes that significantly overlapped with EPAS1 downstream genes in lung tissue including hypoxia responsive genes, and genes associated with emphysema severity. Our first integrative analysis of genome-wide DNA methylation and gene expression profiles illustrates that not only does DNA methylation play a ‘causal’ role in the molecular pathophysiology of COPD, but it can be leveraged to directly identify novel key mediators of this pathophysiology. PMID:25569234

Integrative analysis of DNA methylation and gene expression data identifies EPAS1 as a key regulator of COPD.

PubMed

Yoo, Seungyeul; Takikawa, Sachiko; Geraghty, Patrick; Argmann, Carmen; Campbell, Joshua; Lin, Luan; Huang, Tao; Tu, Zhidong; Foronjy, Robert F; Feronjy, Robert; Spira, Avrum; Schadt, Eric E; Powell, Charles A; Zhu, Jun

2015-01-01

Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) is a complex disease. Genetic, epigenetic, and environmental factors are known to contribute to COPD risk and disease progression. Therefore we developed a systematic approach to identify key regulators of COPD that integrates genome-wide DNA methylation, gene expression, and phenotype data in lung tissue from COPD and control samples. Our integrative analysis identified 126 key regulators of COPD. We identified EPAS1 as the only key regulator whose downstream genes significantly overlapped with multiple genes sets associated with COPD disease severity. EPAS1 is distinct in comparison with other key regulators in terms of methylation profile and downstream target genes. Genes predicted to be regulated by EPAS1 were enriched for biological processes including signaling, cell communications, and system development. We confirmed that EPAS1 protein levels are lower in human COPD lung tissue compared to non-disease controls and that Epas1 gene expression is reduced in mice chronically exposed to cigarette smoke. As EPAS1 downstream genes were significantly enriched for hypoxia responsive genes in endothelial cells, we tested EPAS1 function in human endothelial cells. EPAS1 knockdown by siRNA in endothelial cells impacted genes that significantly overlapped with EPAS1 downstream genes in lung tissue including hypoxia responsive genes, and genes associated with emphysema severity. Our first integrative analysis of genome-wide DNA methylation and gene expression profiles illustrates that not only does DNA methylation play a 'causal' role in the molecular pathophysiology of COPD, but it can be leveraged to directly identify novel key mediators of this pathophysiology.

Partition of some key regulating services in terrestrial ecosystems: Meta-analysis and review.

PubMed

Viglizzo, E F; Jobbágy, E G; Ricard, M F; Paruelo, J M

2016-08-15

Our knowledge about the functional foundations of ecosystem service (ES) provision is still limited and more research is needed to elucidate key functional mechanisms. Using a simplified eco-hydrological scheme, in this work we analyzed how land-use decisions modify the partition of some essential regulatory ES by altering basic relationships between biomass stocks and water flows. A comprehensive meta-analysis and review was conducted based on global, regional and local data from peer-reviewed publications. We analyzed five datasets comprising 1348 studies and 3948 records on precipitation (PPT), aboveground biomass (AGB), AGB change, evapotranspiration (ET), water yield (WY), WY change, runoff (R) and infiltration (I). The conceptual framework was focused on ES that are associated with the ecological functions (e.g., intermediate ES) of ET, WY, R and I. ES included soil protection, carbon sequestration, local climate regulation, water-flow regulation and water recharge. To address the problem of data normality, the analysis included both parametric and non-parametric regression analysis. Results demonstrate that PPT is a first-order biophysical factor that controls ES release at the broader scales. At decreasing scales, ES are partitioned as result of PPT interactions with other biophysical and anthropogenic factors. At intermediate scales, land-use change interacts with PPT modifying ES partition as it the case of afforestation in dry regions, where ET and climate regulation may be enhanced at the expense of R and water-flow regulation. At smaller scales, site-specific conditions such as topography interact with PPT and AGB displaying different ES partition formats. The probable implications of future land-use and climate change on some key ES production and partition are discussed. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Adverse events following yellow fever immunization: Report and analysis of 67 neurological cases in Brazil.

PubMed

Martins, Reinaldo de Menezes; Pavão, Ana Luiza Braz; de Oliveira, Patrícia Mouta Nunes; dos Santos, Paulo Roberto Gomes; Carvalho, Sandra Maria D; Mohrdieck, Renate; Fernandes, Alexandre Ribeiro; Sato, Helena Keico; de Figueiredo, Patricia Mandali; von Doellinger, Vanessa Dos Reis; Leal, Maria da Luz Fernandes; Homma, Akira; Maia, Maria de Lourdes S

2014-11-20

Neurological adverse events following administration of the 17DD substrain of yellow fever vaccine (YEL-AND) in the Brazilian population are described and analyzed. Based on information obtained from the National Immunization Program through passive surveillance or intensified passive surveillance, from 2007 to 2012, descriptive analysis, national and regional rates of YFV associated neurotropic, neurological autoimmune disease, and reporting rate ratios with their respective 95% confidence intervals were calculated for first time vaccinees stratified on age and year. Sixty-seven neurological cases were found, with the highest rate of neurological adverse events in the age group from 5 to 9 years (2.66 per 100,000 vaccine doses in Rio Grande do Sul state, and 0.83 per 100,000 doses in national analysis). Two cases had a combination of neurotropic and autoimmune features. This is the largest sample of YEL-AND already analyzed. Rates are similar to other recent studies, but on this study the age group from 5 to 9 years of age had the highest risk. As neurological adverse events have in general a good prognosis, they should not contraindicate the use of yellow fever vaccine in face of risk of infection by yellow fever virus. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Flow detection via sparse frame analysis for suspicious event recognition in infrared imagery

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fernandes, Henrique C.; Batista, Marcos A.; Barcelos, Celia A. Z.; Maldague, Xavier P. V.

2013-05-01

It is becoming increasingly evident that intelligent systems are very bene¯cial for society and that the further development of such systems is necessary to continue to improve society's quality of life. One area that has drawn the attention of recent research is the development of automatic surveillance systems. In our work we outline a system capable of monitoring an uncontrolled area (an outside parking lot) using infrared imagery and recognizing suspicious events in this area. The ¯rst step is to identify moving objects and segment them from the scene's background. Our approach is based on a dynamic background-subtraction technique which robustly adapts detection to illumination changes. It is analyzed only regions where movement is occurring, ignoring in°uence of pixels from regions where there is no movement, to segment moving objects. Regions where movement is occurring are identi¯ed using °ow detection via sparse frame analysis. During the tracking process the objects are classi¯ed into two categories: Persons and Vehicles, based on features such as size and velocity. The last step is to recognize suspicious events that may occur in the scene. Since the objects are correctly segmented and classi¯ed it is possible to identify those events using features such as velocity and time spent motionless in one spot. In this paper we recognize the suspicious event suspicion of object(s) theft from inside a parked vehicle at spot X by a person" and results show that the use of °ow detection increases the recognition of this suspicious event from 78:57% to 92:85%.

An Event History Analysis of Teacher Attrition: Salary, Teacher Tracking, and Socially Disadvantaged Schools

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kelly, Sean

2004-01-01

In this event history analysis of the 1990-1991 Schools and Staffing Survey and the 1992 Teacher Follow-up Survey, a retrospective person-year database was constructed to examine teacher attrition over the course of the teaching career. Consistent with prior research, higher teacher salaries reduced attrition, but only slightly so. Teacher…

Visual search of cyclic spatio-temporal events

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gautier, Jacques; Davoine, Paule-Annick; Cunty, Claire

2018-05-01

The analysis of spatio-temporal events, and especially of relationships between their different dimensions (space-time-thematic attributes), can be done with geovisualization interfaces. But few geovisualization tools integrate the cyclic dimension of spatio-temporal event series (natural events or social events). Time Coil and Time Wave diagrams represent both the linear time and the cyclic time. By introducing a cyclic temporal scale, these diagrams may highlight the cyclic characteristics of spatio-temporal events. However, the settable cyclic temporal scales are limited to usual durations like days or months. Because of that, these diagrams cannot be used to visualize cyclic events, which reappear with an unusual period, and don't allow to make a visual search of cyclic events. Also, they don't give the possibility to identify the relationships between the cyclic behavior of the events and their spatial features, and more especially to identify localised cyclic events. The lack of possibilities to represent the cyclic time, outside of the temporal diagram of multi-view geovisualization interfaces, limits the analysis of relationships between the cyclic reappearance of events and their other dimensions. In this paper, we propose a method and a geovisualization tool, based on the extension of Time Coil and Time Wave, to provide a visual search of cyclic events, by allowing to set any possible duration to the diagram's cyclic temporal scale. We also propose a symbology approach to push the representation of the cyclic time into the map, in order to improve the analysis of relationships between space and the cyclic behavior of events.

Seasonality and Disturbance Events in the Carbon Isotope Record of Slash Pine (Pinus elliottii) Tree Rings from Big Pine Key, Florida

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rebenack, C.; Anderson, W. T.; Cherubini, P.

2011-12-01

, and disturbance events. Because slash pine growth is dependent on water availability, a chronology developed using carbon isotopes may provide greater insight into plant stress over time and ultimately may lead to better correlations with climate oscillations. The work presented here is the preliminary result of a carbon-isotope study of four slash pine trees from Big Pine Key, Florida. Initial δ13C data show seasonal stomatal activity in the trees and indicate the timing of possible disturbance events.

Effect of Intravitreal Anti-Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor Therapy on the Risk of Arterial Thromboembolic Events: A Meta-Analysis

PubMed Central

Lu, Guo-Cai; Wei, Rui-Li

2012-01-01

Background Intravitreal anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) monoclonal antibodies are used in ocular neovascular diseases. A consensus has emerged that intravenous anti-VEGF can increase the risk of arterial thromboembolic events. However, the role of intravitreal anti-VEGF in arterial thromboembolism is controversial. Therefore, we did a systematic review and meta-analysis to investigate the effects of intravitreal anti-VEGF on the risk of arterial thromboembolic events. Methods Electronic databases were searched to identify relevant randomized clinical trials comparing intravitreal anti-VEGF with controls. Criteria for inclusion in our meta-analysis included a study duration of no less than 12 months, the use of a randomized control group not receiving any intravitreal active agent, and the availability of outcome data for arterial thromboembolic events, myocardial infarction, cerebrovascular accidents, and vascular death. The risk ratios and 95% CIs were calculated using a fixed-effects or random-effects model, depending on the heterogeneity of the included studies. Results A total of 4942 patients with a variety of ocular neovascular diseases from 13 randomized controlled trials were identified and included for analysis. There was no significant difference between intravitreal anti-VEGF and control in the risk of all events, with risk ratios of 0.87 (95% CI, 0.64 to 1.19) for arterial thromboembolic events, 0.96 (95% CI, 0.55–1.68) for cerebrovascular accidents, 0.69 (95% CI 0.40–1.21) for myocardial infarctions, and 0.68 (95% CI, 0.37–1.27) for vascular death. Conclusions The strength evidence suggests that the intravitreal use of anti-VEGF antibodies is not associated with an increased risk of arterial thromboembolic events. PMID:22829940

Compression Algorithm Analysis of In-Situ (S)TEM Video: Towards Automatic Event Detection and Characterization

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

Teuton, Jeremy R.; Griswold, Richard L.; Mehdi, Beata L.

Precise analysis of both (S)TEM images and video are time and labor intensive processes. As an example, determining when crystal growth and shrinkage occurs during the dynamic process of Li dendrite deposition and stripping involves manually scanning through each frame in the video to extract a specific set of frames/images. For large numbers of images, this process can be very time consuming, so a fast and accurate automated method is desirable. Given this need, we developed software that uses analysis of video compression statistics for detecting and characterizing events in large data sets. This software works by converting the datamore » into a series of images which it compresses into an MPEG-2 video using the open source “avconv” utility [1]. The software does not use the video itself, but rather analyzes the video statistics from the first pass of the video encoding that avconv records in the log file. This file contains statistics for each frame of the video including the frame quality, intra-texture and predicted texture bits, forward and backward motion vector resolution, among others. In all, avconv records 15 statistics for each frame. By combining different statistics, we have been able to detect events in various types of data. We have developed an interactive tool for exploring the data and the statistics that aids the analyst in selecting useful statistics for each analysis. Going forward, an algorithm for detecting and possibly describing events automatically can be written based on statistic(s) for each data type.« less

Point pattern analysis applied to flood and landslide damage events in Switzerland (1972-2009)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Barbería, Laura; Schulte, Lothar; Carvalho, Filipe; Peña, Juan Carlos

2017-04-01

Damage caused by meteorological and hydrological extreme events depends on many factors, not only on hazard, but also on exposure and vulnerability. In order to reach a better understanding of the relation of these complex factors, their spatial pattern and underlying processes, the spatial dependency between values of damage recorded at sites of different distances can be investigated by point pattern analysis. For the Swiss flood and landslide damage database (1972-2009) first steps of point pattern analysis have been carried out. The most severe events have been selected (severe, very severe and catastrophic, according to GEES classification, a total number of 784 damage points) and Ripley's K-test and L-test have been performed, amongst others. For this purpose, R's library spatstat has been used. The results confirm that the damage points present a statistically significant clustered pattern, which could be connected to prevalence of damages near watercourses and also to rainfall distribution of each event, together with other factors. On the other hand, bivariate analysis shows there is no segregated pattern depending on process type: flood/debris flow vs landslide. This close relation points to a coupling between slope and fluvial processes, connectivity between small-size and middle-size catchments and the influence of spatial distribution of precipitation, temperature (snow melt and snow line) and other predisposing factors such as soil moisture, land-cover and environmental conditions. Therefore, further studies will investigate the relationship between the spatial pattern and one or more covariates, such as elevation, distance from watercourse or land use. The final goal will be to perform a regression model to the data, so that the adjusted model predicts the intensity of the point process as a function of the above mentioned covariates.

Dealing With Major Life Events and Transitions: A Systematic Literature Review on and Occupational Analysis of Spirituality.

PubMed

Maley, Christine M; Pagana, Nicole K; Velenger, Christa A; Humbert, Tamera Keiter

2016-01-01

This systematic literature review analyzed the construct of spirituality as perceived by people who have experienced or are experiencing a major life event or transition. The researchers investigated studies that used narrative analysis or a phenomenological methodology related to the topic. Thematic analysis resulted in three major themes: (1) avenues to and through spirituality, (2) the experience of spirituality, and (3) the meaning of spirituality. The results provide insights into the intersection of spirituality, meaning, and occupational engagement as understood by people experiencing a major life event or transition and suggest further research that addresses spirituality in occupational therapy and interdisciplinary intervention. Copyright © 2016 by the American Occupational Therapy Association, Inc.

Adverse drug events related to mood and emotion in paediatric patients treated for ADHD: A meta-analysis.

PubMed

Pozzi, Marco; Carnovale, Carla; Peeters, Gabriëlla G A M; Gentili, Marta; Antoniazzi, Stefania; Radice, Sonia; Clementi, Emilio; Nobile, Maria

2018-05-22

ADHD is frequently comorbid with anxiety and mood disorders, which may increase the severity of inattention and hyperactivity symptoms. Emotional symptoms (anxiety, irritability, mood lability) also affect patients without comorbidity or emerge as adverse drug events. The influence of ADHD drugs on emotional symptoms demands investigation to improve therapies. Systematic review of trials reporting adverse events in patients pharmacologically treated for ADHD. Meta-analysis of the occurrence of irritability, anxiety, apathy, reduced talk, sadness, crying, emotional lability, biting nails, staring, perseveration, euphoria. Meta-regression analysis. Forty-five trials were meta-analysed. The most frequently reported outcomes were irritability, anxiety, sadness, and apathy. Methylphenidates, especially immediate-release formulations, were most studied; amphetamines were half as studied and were predominantly mixed amphetamine salts. Reports on atomoxetine were scant. Meta-analysis showed that methylphenidates reduced the risk of irritability, anxiety, euphoria, whereas they worsened the risk of apathy and reduced talk; amphetamines worsened the risk of emotional lability. Factors influencing risks were study year and design, patients' sex and age, drug dose and release formulation. Possible discrepancy between adverse events as indicated in clinical trials and as summarised herein. Confounding due to the aggregation of drugs into groups; uninvestigated sources of bias; incomplete lists of adverse events; lack of observations on self-injury. Methylphenidates appeared safer than amphetamines, although younger patients and females may incur higher risks, especially with high-dose, immediate-release methylphenidates. Only atomoxetine holds a black-box warning, but amphetamines and methylphenidates also did not show a safe profile regarding mood and emotional symptoms. Copyright © 2018. Published by Elsevier B.V.

Ontology-Based Vaccine Adverse Event Representation and Analysis.

PubMed

Xie, Jiangan; He, Yongqun

2017-01-01

Vaccine is the one of the greatest inventions of modern medicine that has contributed most to the relief of human misery and the exciting increase in life expectancy. In 1796, an English country physician, Edward Jenner, discovered that inoculating mankind with cowpox can protect them from smallpox (Riedel S, Edward Jenner and the history of smallpox and vaccination. Proceedings (Baylor University. Medical Center) 18(1):21, 2005). Based on the vaccination worldwide, we finally succeeded in the eradication of smallpox in 1977 (Henderson, Vaccine 29:D7-D9, 2011). Other disabling and lethal diseases, like poliomyelitis and measles, are targeted for eradication (Bonanni, Vaccine 17:S120-S125, 1999).Although vaccine development and administration are tremendously successful and cost-effective practices to human health, no vaccine is 100% safe for everyone because each person reacts to vaccinations differently given different genetic background and health conditions. Although all licensed vaccines are generally safe for the majority of people, vaccinees may still suffer adverse events (AEs) in reaction to various vaccines, some of which can be serious or even fatal (Haber et al., Drug Saf 32(4):309-323, 2009). Hence, the double-edged sword of vaccination remains a concern.To support integrative AE data collection and analysis, it is critical to adopt an AE normalization strategy. In the past decades, different controlled terminologies, including the Medical Dictionary for Regulatory Activities (MedDRA) (Brown EG, Wood L, Wood S, et al., Drug Saf 20(2):109-117, 1999), the Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events (CTCAE) (NCI, The Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events (CTCAE). Available from: http://evs.nci.nih.gov/ftp1/CTCAE/About.html . Access on 7 Oct 2015), and the World Health Organization (WHO) Adverse Reactions Terminology (WHO-ART) (WHO, The WHO Adverse Reaction Terminology - WHO-ART. Available from: https://www.umc-products.com/graphics/28010.pdf

Analysis of brand personality to involve event involvement and loyalty: A case study of Jakarta Fashion Week 2017

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nasution, A. H.; Rachmawan, Y. A.

2018-04-01

Fashion trend in the world changed extremely fast. Fashion has become the one of people’s lifestyle in the world. Fashion week events in several areas can be a measurement of fahion trend nowadays. There was a fashion week event in Indonesia called Jakarta Fashion Week (JFW) aims to show fashion trend to people who want to improve their fashion style. People will join some events if the event has involvement to them, hence they will come to that event again and again. Annually and continuously event is really important to create loyalty among people who are involved in it, in order to increase positive development towards the organizer in organizing the next event. Saving a huge amount from the marketing budget, and creating a higher quality event. This study aims to know the effect of 5 brand personality dimension to event involvement and loyalty in Jakarta Fashion Week (JFW). This study use quantitative confirmative method with Structural Equation Model (SEM) analysis technique. The sample of this study is 150 respondents who became a participant of Jakarta Fashion Week 2017. Result show that there was significant effect of 5 brand personality dimension to 3 dimension of event involvement and loyalty. Meanwhile, there was one dimension of event involvement called personal self-expression that has not effect to loyalty.

The INTIMATE event stratigraphy of the last glacial period

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Olander Rasmussen, Sune; Svensson, Anders

2015-04-01

The North Atlantic INTIMATE (INtegration of Ice-core, MArine and TErrestrial records) group has previously recommended an Event Stratigraphy approach for the synchronisation of records of the Last Termination using the Greenland ice core records as the regional stratotypes. A key element of these protocols has been the formal definition of numbered Greenland Stadials (GS) and Greenland Interstadials (GI) within the past glacial period as the Greenland expressions of the characteristic Dansgaard-Oeschger events that represent cold and warm phases of the North Atlantic region, respectively. Using a recent synchronization of the NGRIP, GRIP, and GISP2 ice cores that allows the parallel analysis of all three records on a common time scale, we here present an extension of the GS/GI stratigraphic template to the entire glacial period. In addition to the well-known sequence of Dansgaard-Oeschger events that were first defined and numbered in the ice core records more than two decades ago, a number of short-lived climatic oscillations have been identified in the three synchronized records. Some of these events have been observed in other studies, but we here propose a consistent scheme for discriminating and naming all the significant climatic events of the last glacial period that are represented in the Greenland ice cores. In addition to presenting the updated event stratigraphy, we make a series of recommendations on how to refer to these periods in a way that promotes unambiguous comparison and correlation between different proxy records, providing a more secure basis for investigating the dynamics and fundamental causes of these climatic perturbations. The work presented is a part of a newly published paper in an INTIMATE special issue of Quaternary Science Reviews: Rasmussen et al., 'A stratigraphic framework for abrupt climatic changes during the Last Glacial period based on three synchronized Greenland ice-core records: refining and extending the INTIMATE event