Objectively-measured outdoor time and physical and psychological function among older adults.

PubMed

Harada, Kazuhiro; Lee, Sangyoon; Lee, Sungchul; Bae, Seongryu; Harada, Kenji; Suzuki, Takao; Shimada, Hiroyuki

2017-10-01

Objective measurements of outdoor time are essential to establishing evidence about the health benefits of going outdoors among older adults. To better understanding the health benefits of going outdoors, clarification of potential mediators to connect going outdoors with health benefits is necessary. The present study aimed to investigate associations of objectively-measured outdoor time with older adults' physical and psychological function, and examine the mediating role of physical activity on these associations. Baseline data from a randomized control trial of physical activity among older adults with global cognitive impairment was used. Data from 192 participants were analyzed. Measures included steps-per-day, objectively-measured outdoor time per day using global positioning systems, physical function (cardiorespiratory fitness, lower-extremity strength), psychological function (depression, well-being) and basic factors. Path analysis showed that outdoor time was significantly associated with steps-per-day (path coefficient = 0.23) and depression (path coefficient = -0.16). Outdoor time was not directly associated with cardiorespiratory fitness, lower-extremity strength and well-being. However, steps-per-day was associated with cardiorespiratory fitness (path coefficient = 0.18), lower-extremity strength (path coefficient = -0.22) and well-being (path coefficient = 0.14). We found that objectively-measured outdoor time was indirectly associated with physical function, and both directly and indirectly with psychological function through physical activity among older adults. This finding indicates that going outdoors influences older adults' health outcomes, and is mainly mediated by physical activity. Geriatr Gerontol Int 2017; 17: 1455-1462. © 2016 Japan Geriatrics Society.

a Heuristic Approach for Multi Objective Distribution Feeder Reconfiguration: Using Fuzzy Sets in Normalization of Objective Functions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Milani, Armin Ebrahimi; Haghifam, Mahmood Reza

2008-10-01

The reconfiguration is an operation process used for optimization with specific objectives by means of changing the status of switches in a distribution network. In this paper each objectives is normalized with inspiration from fuzzy sets-to cause optimization more flexible- and formulized as a unique multi-objective function. The genetic algorithm is used for solving the suggested model, in which there is no risk of non-liner objective functions and constraints. The effectiveness of the proposed method is demonstrated through the examples.

Objective and automated measurement of dynamic vision functions

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Flom, M. C.; Adams, A. J.

1976-01-01

A phoria stimulus array and electro-oculographic (EOG) arrangements for measuring motor and sensory responses of subjects subjected to stress or drug conditions are described, along with experimental procedures. Heterophoria (as oculomotor function) and glare recovery time (time required for photochemical and neural recovery after exposure to a flash stimulus) are measured, in research aimed at developing automated objective measurement of dynamic vision functions. Onset of involuntary optokinetic nystagmus in subjects attempting to track moving stripes (while viewing through head-mounted binocular eyepieces) after exposure to glare serves as an objective measure of glare recovery time.

A suggestion for computing objective function in model calibration

USGS Publications Warehouse

Wu, Yiping; Liu, Shuguang

2014-01-01

A parameter-optimization process (model calibration) is usually required for numerical model applications, which involves the use of an objective function to determine the model cost (model-data errors). The sum of square errors (SSR) has been widely adopted as the objective function in various optimization procedures. However, ‘square error’ calculation was found to be more sensitive to extreme or high values. Thus, we proposed that the sum of absolute errors (SAR) may be a better option than SSR for model calibration. To test this hypothesis, we used two case studies—a hydrological model calibration and a biogeochemical model calibration—to investigate the behavior of a group of potential objective functions: SSR, SAR, sum of squared relative deviation (SSRD), and sum of absolute relative deviation (SARD). Mathematical evaluation of model performance demonstrates that ‘absolute error’ (SAR and SARD) are superior to ‘square error’ (SSR and SSRD) in calculating objective function for model calibration, and SAR behaved the best (with the least error and highest efficiency). This study suggests that SSR might be overly used in real applications, and SAR may be a reasonable choice in common optimization implementations without emphasizing either high or low values (e.g., modeling for supporting resources management).

Optimum sensitivity derivatives of objective functions in nonlinear programming

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Barthelemy, J.-F. M.; Sobieszczanski-Sobieski, J.

1983-01-01

The feasibility of eliminating second derivatives from the input of optimum sensitivity analyses of optimization problems is demonstrated. This elimination restricts the sensitivity analysis to the first-order sensitivity derivatives of the objective function. It is also shown that when a complete first-order sensitivity analysis is performed, second-order sensitivity derivatives of the objective function are available at little additional cost. An expression is derived whose application to linear programming is presented.

Assessment of subjective and objective cognitive function in bipolar disorder: Correlations, predictors and the relation to psychosocial function.

PubMed

Demant, Kirsa M; Vinberg, Maj; Kessing, Lars V; Miskowiak, Kamilla W

2015-09-30

Cognitive dysfunction is prevalent in bipolar disorder (BD). However, the evidence regarding the association between subjective cognitive complaints, objective cognitive performance and psychosocial function is sparse and inconsistent. Seventy seven patients with bipolar disorder who presented cognitive complaints underwent assessment of objective and subjective cognitive function and psychosocial functioning as part of their participation in two clinical trials. We investigated the association between global and domain-specific objective and subjective cognitive function and between global cognitive function and psychosocial function. We also identified clinical variables that predicted objective and subjective cognitive function and psychosocial functioning. There was a correlation between global subjective and objective measures of cognitive dysfunction but not within the individual cognitive domains. However, the correlation was weak, suggesting that cognitive complaints are not an assay of cognition per se. Self-rated psychosocial difficulties were associated with subjective (but not objective) cognitive impairment and both subjective cognitive and psychosocial difficulties were predicted by depressive symptoms. Our findings indicate that adequate assessment of cognition in the clinical treatment of BD and in drug trials targeting cognition requires implementation of not only subjective measures but also of objective neuropsychological tests. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Systems and Methods for Fabricating Objects Including Amorphous Metal Using Techniques Akin to Additive Manufacturing

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hofmann, Douglas (Inventor)

2017-01-01

Systems and methods in accordance with embodiments of the invention fabricate objects including amorphous metals using techniques akin to additive manufacturing. In one embodiment, a method of fabricating an object that includes an amorphous metal includes: applying a first layer of molten metallic alloy to a surface; cooling the first layer of molten metallic alloy such that it solidifies and thereby forms a first layer including amorphous metal; subsequently applying at least one layer of molten metallic alloy onto a layer including amorphous metal; cooling each subsequently applied layer of molten metallic alloy such that it solidifies and thereby forms a layer including amorphous metal prior to the application of any adjacent layer of molten metallic alloy; where the aggregate of the solidified layers including amorphous metal forms a desired shape in the object to be fabricated; and removing at least the first layer including amorphous metal from the surface.

Evolution of the luminosity function of extragalactic objects

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Petrosian, V.

1985-01-01

A nonparametric procedure for determination of the evolution of the luminosity function of extragalactic objects and use of this for prediction of expected redshift and luminosity distribution of objects is described. The relation between this statistical evolution of the population and their physical evolution, such as the variation with cosmological epoch of their luminosity and formation rate is presented. This procedure when applied to a sample of optically selected quasars with redshifts less than two shows that the luminosity function evolves more strongly for higher luminosities, indicating a larger quasar activity at earlier epochs and a more rapid evolution of the objects during their higher luminosity phases. It is also shown that absence of many quasars at redshifts greater than three implies slowing down of this evolution in the conventional cosmological models, perhaps indicating that this is near the epoch of the birth of the quasar (and galaxies).

The Representation of Object-Directed Action and Function Knowledge in the Human Brain

PubMed Central

Chen, Quanjing; Garcea, Frank E.; Mahon, Bradford Z.

2016-01-01

The appropriate use of everyday objects requires the integration of action and function knowledge. Previous research suggests that action knowledge is represented in frontoparietal areas while function knowledge is represented in temporal lobe regions. Here we used multivoxel pattern analysis to investigate the representation of object-directed action and function knowledge while participants executed pantomimes of familiar tool actions. A novel approach for decoding object knowledge was used in which classifiers were trained on one pair of objects and then tested on a distinct pair; this permitted a measurement of classification accuracy over and above object-specific information. Region of interest (ROI) analyses showed that object-directed actions could be decoded in tool-preferring regions of both parietal and temporal cortex, while no independently defined tool-preferring ROI showed successful decoding of object function. However, a whole-brain searchlight analysis revealed that while frontoparietal motor and peri-motor regions are engaged in the representation of object-directed actions, medial temporal lobe areas in the left hemisphere are involved in the representation of function knowledge. These results indicate that both action and function knowledge are represented in a topographically coherent manner that is amenable to study with multivariate approaches, and that the left medial temporal cortex represents knowledge of object function. PMID:25595179

Determinants of Objectively Measured Physical Functional Performance in Early to Mid-stage Parkinson Disease

PubMed Central

Kluger, Benzi M.; Brown, R. Preston; Aerts, Shanae; Schenkman, Margaret

2014-01-01

Background Parkinson disease (PD) may lead to functional limitations through both motor and non-motor symptoms. While patients with advanced disease have well-documented and profound functional limitations, less is known about the determinants of function in early to mid-stage disease where interventions may be more likely to benefit and preserve function. Objective The objective of the current study was to identify motor, cognitive and gait determinants of physical functional performance in patients with early to mid-stage PD. Design Secondary analysis of cross-sectional baseline data from a randomized clinical trial of exercise. Setting Tertiary academic medical center. Participants 121 patients with early to mid-stage PD. Methods Our functional performance outcomes included: 1) the Continuous Scale Functional Performance Test (CS-PFP; primary outcome); 2) the timed up and go (TUG) tests; and Section 2 (Activities of Daily Living) of the Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS). Explanatory variables included measures of disease severity, motor function, cognitive function, balance and gait. Step-wise linear regression models were used to determine correlations between explanatory variables and outcome measures. Results In our regression models the CS-PFP significantly correlated with walking endurance (six minute walk; r2 = 0.12, p < .0001), turning ability (360 degree turn; r2 = .03, p = .002), attention (brief test of attention; r2 = .01, p = .03), overall cognitive status (Mini-mental State Examination; r2 = .01, p = .04) and bradykinesia (timed tapping; r2 = .02, p = .02). The TUG significantly correlated with walking speed (5 meter walk; r2 = 0.33, p <.0001), stride length (r2 = 0.25, p <.0001), turning ability (360 turn r2 = .05, p = .0003) and attention (r2 = .016, p = .03). Section 2 of the UPDRS was significantly correlated with endurance (r2 = .09, p < .0001), turning ability (r2 = .03, p = .001) and attention (r2 = .01, p = .03). Conclusions

Incorporating Objective Function Information Into the Feasibility Rule for Constrained Evolutionary Optimization.

PubMed

Wang, Yong; Wang, Bing-Chuan; Li, Han-Xiong; Yen, Gary G

2016-12-01

When solving constrained optimization problems by evolutionary algorithms, an important issue is how to balance constraints and objective function. This paper presents a new method to address the above issue. In our method, after generating an offspring for each parent in the population by making use of differential evolution (DE), the well-known feasibility rule is used to compare the offspring and its parent. Since the feasibility rule prefers constraints to objective function, the objective function information has been exploited as follows: if the offspring cannot survive into the next generation and if the objective function value of the offspring is better than that of the parent, then the offspring is stored into a predefined archive. Subsequently, the individuals in the archive are used to replace some individuals in the population according to a replacement mechanism. Moreover, a mutation strategy is proposed to help the population jump out of a local optimum in the infeasible region. Note that, in the replacement mechanism and the mutation strategy, the comparison of individuals is based on objective function. In addition, the information of objective function has also been utilized to generate offspring in DE. By the above processes, this paper achieves an effective balance between constraints and objective function in constrained evolutionary optimization. The performance of our method has been tested on two sets of benchmark test functions, namely, 24 test functions at IEEE CEC2006 and 18 test functions with 10-D and 30-D at IEEE CEC2010. The experimental results have demonstrated that our method shows better or at least competitive performance against other state-of-the-art methods. Furthermore, the advantage of our method increases with the increase of the number of decision variables.

An objective measure of physical function of elderly outpatients. The Physical Performance Test.

PubMed

Reuben, D B; Siu, A L

1990-10-01

Direct observation of physical function has the advantage of providing an objective, quantifiable measure of functional capabilities. We have developed the Physical Performance Test (PPT), which assesses multiple domains of physical function using observed performance of tasks that simulate activities of daily living of various degrees of difficulty. Two versions are presented: a nine-item scale that includes writing a sentence, simulated eating, turning 360 degrees, putting on and removing a jacket, lifting a book and putting it on a shelf, picking up a penny from the floor, a 50-foot walk test, and climbing stairs (scored as two items); and a seven-item scale that does not include stairs. The PPT can be completed in less than 10 minutes and requires only a few simple props. We then tested the validity of PPT using 183 subjects (mean age, 79 years) in six settings including four clinical practices (one of Parkinson's disease patients), a board-and-care home, and a senior citizens' apartment. The PPT was reliable (Cronbach's alpha = 0.87 and 0.79, interrater reliability = 0.99 and 0.93 for the nine-item and seven-item tests, respectively) and demonstrated concurrent validity with self-reported measures of physical function. Scores on the PPT for both scales were highly correlated (.50 to .80) with modified Rosow-Breslau, Instrumental and Basic Activities of Daily Living scales, and Tinetti gait score. Scores on the PPT were more moderately correlated with self-reported health status, cognitive status, and mental health (.24 to .47), and negatively with age (-.24 and -.18). Thus, the PPT also demonstrated construct validity. The PPT is a promising objective measurement of physical function, but its clinical and research value for screening, monitoring, and prediction will have to be determined.

Association of subjective memory complaint and depressive symptoms with objective cognitive functions in prodromal Alzheimer's disease including pre-mild cognitive impairment.

PubMed

Seo, Eun Hyun; Kim, Hoowon; Choi, Kyu Yeong; Lee, Kun Ho; Choo, Il Han

2017-08-01

Subjective memory complaints (SMC) and depressive symptoms (SDS) are common in the elderly population. However, the relationship among SMC, SDS, and cognitive function remains unclear. We investigated these associations in the elderly from cognitively normal (CN), pre-mild cognitive impairment (MCI), and amnestic MCI (aMCI) groups. Participants (CN, 299; pre-MCI, 106; aMCI, 267) underwent comprehensive clinical and neuropsychological assessment. and self-report SMC and SDS questionnaires. SMC and SDS were administered in a self-report format. For each neuropsychological test z-score, stepwise multiple linear regressions were performed to assess the relative contribution of SMC, SDS, and their interactions. SMC are associated with lower objective memory, while SDS are associated with lower psychomotor speed. Interactions between SMC and SDS were significant for tests of memory, executive function, psychomotor speed, and global cognition. Additional analyses revealed that SDS moderated the SMC-cognition relationship such that only individuals with higher SDS showed significant SMC-cognition associations. Due to the cross-sectional design, associations among SMC, SDS, and cognitive function was rather weak, albeit significant. Additionally, future biomarker studies, such as those assessing amyloid burden, are needed to explore the mechanisms underlying the relationship among SMC, SDS, and cognitive function. Early identification of individuals at risk for developing abnormal cognitive changes is critical. Our findings from the study involving a large sample of carefully selected participants suggest that SMC and SDS could be used as early detection markers of Alzheimer's disease. Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier B.V.

The Representation of Object-Directed Action and Function Knowledge in the Human Brain.

PubMed

Chen, Quanjing; Garcea, Frank E; Mahon, Bradford Z

2016-04-01

The appropriate use of everyday objects requires the integration of action and function knowledge. Previous research suggests that action knowledge is represented in frontoparietal areas while function knowledge is represented in temporal lobe regions. Here we used multivoxel pattern analysis to investigate the representation of object-directed action and function knowledge while participants executed pantomimes of familiar tool actions. A novel approach for decoding object knowledge was used in which classifiers were trained on one pair of objects and then tested on a distinct pair; this permitted a measurement of classification accuracy over and above object-specific information. Region of interest (ROI) analyses showed that object-directed actions could be decoded in tool-preferring regions of both parietal and temporal cortex, while no independently defined tool-preferring ROI showed successful decoding of object function. However, a whole-brain searchlight analysis revealed that while frontoparietal motor and peri-motor regions are engaged in the representation of object-directed actions, medial temporal lobe areas in the left hemisphere are involved in the representation of function knowledge. These results indicate that both action and function knowledge are represented in a topographically coherent manner that is amenable to study with multivariate approaches, and that the left medial temporal cortex represents knowledge of object function. © The Author 2015. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Multidisciplinary conceptual design optimization of aircraft using a sound-matching-based objective function

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Diez, Matteo; Iemma, Umberto

2012-05-01

The article presents a novel approach to include community noise considerations based on sound quality in the Multidisciplinary Conceptual Design Optimization (MCDO) of civil transportation aircraft. The novelty stems from the use of an unconventional objective function, defined as a measure of the difference between the noise emission of the aircraft under analysis and a reference 'weakly annoying' noise, the target sound. The minimization of such a merit factor yields an aircraft concept with a noise signature as close as possible to the given target. The reference sound is one of the outcomes of the European Research Project SEFA (Sound Engineering For Aircraft, VI Framework Programme, 2004-2007), and used here as an external input. The aim of the present work is to address the definition and the inclusion of the sound-matching-based objective function in the MCDO of aircraft.

Modelling and Order of Acoustic Transfer Functions Due to Reflections from Augmented Objects

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kuster, Martin; de Vries, Diemer

2006-12-01

It is commonly accepted that the sound reflections from real physical objects are much more complicated than what usually is and can be modelled by room acoustics modelling software. The main reason for this limitation is the level of detail inherent in the physical object in terms of its geometrical and acoustic properties. In the present paper, the complexity of the sound reflections from a corridor wall is investigated by modelling the corresponding acoustic transfer functions at several receiver positions in front of the wall. The complexity for different wall configurations has been examined and the changes have been achieved by altering its acoustic image. The results show that for a homogenous flat wall, the complexity is significant and for a wall including various smaller objects, the complexity is highly dependent on the position of the receiver with respect to the objects.

Objective Integrated Assessment of Functional Outcomes in Reduction Mammaplasty

PubMed Central

Passaro, Ilaria; Malovini, Alberto; Faga, Angela; Toffola, Elena Dalla

2013-01-01

Background: The aim of our study was an objective integrated assessment of the functional outcomes of reduction mammaplasty. Methods: The study involved 17 women undergoing reduction mammaplasty from March 2009 to June 2011. Each patient was assessed before surgery and 2 months postoperatively with the original association of 4 subjective and objective assessment methods: a physiatric clinical examination, the Roland Morris Disability Questionnaire, the Berg Balance Scale, and a static force platform analysis. Results: All of the tests proved multiple statistically significant associated outcomes demonstrating a significant improvement in the functional status following reduction mammaplasty. Surgical correction of breast hypertrophy could achieve both spinal pain relief and recovery of performance status in everyday life tasks, owing to a muscular postural functional rearrangement with a consistent antigravity muscle activity sparing. Pain reduction in turn could reduce the antalgic stiffness and improved the spinal range of motion. In our sample, the improvement of the spinal range of motion in flexion matched a similar improvement in extension. Recovery of a more favorable postural pattern with reduction of the anterior imbalance was demonstrated by the static force stabilometry. Therefore, postoperatively, all of our patients narrowed the gap between the actual body barycenter and the ideal one. The static force platform assessment also consistently confirmed the effectiveness of an accurate clinical examination of functional impairment from breast hypertrophy. Conclusions: The static force platform assessment might help the clinician to support the diagnosis of functional impairment from a breast hypertrophy with objectively based data. PMID:25289256

Executive function in fibromyalgia: Comparing subjective and objective measures.

PubMed

Gelonch, Olga; Garolera, Maite; Valls, Joan; Rosselló, Lluís; Pifarré, Josep

2016-04-01

There is evidence to suggest the existence of an executive dysfunction in people diagnosed with fibromyalgia, although there are certain inconsistencies between studies. Here, we aim to compare executive performance between patients with fibromyalgia and a control group by using subjective and objective cognitive tests, analyzing the influence of patient mood on the results obtained, and studying associations between the two measures. 82 patients diagnosed with fibromyalgia and 42 healthy controls, matched by age and years of education, were assessed using the Behavioral Rating Inventory of Executive Function - Adult Version (BRIEF-A) as a subjective measure of executive functioning. A selection of objective cognitive tests were also used to measure a series of executive functions and to identify symptoms of depression and anxiety. Patients with fibromyalgia perceived greater difficulties than the control group on all of the BRIEF-A scales. However, after adjustments were made for depression and anxiety the only differences that remained were those associated with the working memory scale and the Metacognition and Global Executive Composite index. In the case of the objective cognitive tests, a significantly worse overall performance was evidenced for the fibromyalgia patients. However, this also disappeared when adjustments were made for depression and anxiety. After this adjustment, fibromyalgia patients only performed significantly worse for the interference effect in the Stroop Test. Although there were no significant associations between most of the objective cognitive tests and the BRIEF-A scales, depression and anxiety exhibited strong associations with almost all of the BRIEF-A scales and with several of the objective cognitive tests. Patients with fibromyalgia showed executive dysfunction in subjective and objective measures, although most of this impairment was associated with mood disturbances. Exceptions to this general rule were observed in the

Relations of Preschoolers’ Visual Motor and Object Manipulation Skills with Executive Function and Social Behavior

PubMed Central

MacDonald, Megan; Lipscomb, Shannon; McClelland, Megan M.; Duncan, Rob; Becker, Derek; Anderson, Kim; Kile, Molly

2017-01-01

Purpose The purpose was to examine specific linkages between early visual-motor integration skills and executive function, as well as between early object manipulation skills and social behaviors in the classroom over the preschool year. Method 92 children between the ages of 3–5 years old (mean age 4.31 years) were recruited to participate. Comprehensive measures of visual motor integration skills, object manipulation skills, executive function and social behaviors were administered in the fall and spring of the preschool year. Results Our findings indicated that children who had better visual-motor integration skills in the fall had better executive function scores, (B = .47 [.20], p < .05, β = .27) in the spring of the preschool year after controlling for age, gender, Head-Start status, and site location, but not after controlling for children’s baseline levels of executive function. In addition, children who demonstrated better object-manipulation skills in the fall showed significantly stronger social behavior in their classrooms (as rated by teachers) in the spring, including more self-control, (B −.03 [.00], p < .05, β = .40), more cooperation, (B = .02 [.01], p < .05, β = .28), and less externalizing/hyperactivity, (B = −.02 [.01], p < .05, β = −.28) after controlling for social behavior in the fall and other covariates. Conclusion Children’s visual motor integration and object manipulation skills in the fall have modest to moderate relations with executive function and social behaviors later in the preschool year. These findings have implications for early learning initiatives and school readiness. PMID:27732149

Children's use of comparison and function in novel object categorization.

PubMed

Kimura, Katherine; Hunley, Samuel B; Namy, Laura L

2018-06-01

Although young children often rely on salient perceptual cues, such as shape, when categorizing novel objects, children eventually shift towards deeper relational reasoning about category membership. This study investigates what information young children use to classify novel instances of familiar categories. Specifically, we investigated two sources of information that have the potential to facilitate the classification of novel exemplars: (1) comparison of familiar category instances, and (2) attention to function information that might direct children's attention to functionally relevant perceptual features. Across two experiments, we found that comparing two perceptually similar category members-particularly when function information was also highlighted-led children to discover non-obvious relational features that supported their categorization of novel category instances. Together, these findings demonstrate that comparison may aid in novel object categorization by heightening the salience of less obvious, yet functionally relevant, relational structures that support conceptual reasoning. Copyright © 2018. Published by Elsevier Inc.

A parallel approach of COFFEE objective function to multiple sequence alignment

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zafalon, G. F. D.; Visotaky, J. M. V.; Amorim, A. R.; Valêncio, C. R.; Neves, L. A.; de Souza, R. C. G.; Machado, J. M.

2015-09-01

The computational tools to assist genomic analyzes show even more necessary due to fast increasing of data amount available. With high computational costs of deterministic algorithms for sequence alignments, many works concentrate their efforts in the development of heuristic approaches to multiple sequence alignments. However, the selection of an approach, which offers solutions with good biological significance and feasible execution time, is a great challenge. Thus, this work aims to show the parallelization of the processing steps of MSA-GA tool using multithread paradigm in the execution of COFFEE objective function. The standard objective function implemented in the tool is the Weighted Sum of Pairs (WSP), which produces some distortions in the final alignments when sequences sets with low similarity are aligned. Then, in studies previously performed we implemented the COFFEE objective function in the tool to smooth these distortions. Although the nature of COFFEE objective function implies in the increasing of execution time, this approach presents points, which can be executed in parallel. With the improvements implemented in this work, we can verify the execution time of new approach is 24% faster than the sequential approach with COFFEE. Moreover, the COFFEE multithreaded approach is more efficient than WSP, because besides it is slightly fast, its biological results are better.

Reducing uncertainty about objective functions in adaptive management

USGS Publications Warehouse

Williams, B.K.

2012-01-01

This paper extends the uncertainty framework of adaptive management to include uncertainty about the objectives to be used in guiding decisions. Adaptive decision making typically assumes explicit and agreed-upon objectives for management, but allows for uncertainty as to the structure of the decision process that generates change through time. Yet it is not unusual for there to be uncertainty (or disagreement) about objectives, with different stakeholders expressing different views not only about resource responses to management but also about the appropriate management objectives. In this paper I extend the treatment of uncertainty in adaptive management, and describe a stochastic structure for the joint occurrence of uncertainty about objectives as well as models, and show how adaptive decision making and the assessment of post-decision monitoring data can be used to reduce uncertainties of both kinds. Different degrees of association between model and objective uncertainty lead to different patterns of learning about objectives. ?? 2011.

Relations of Preschoolers' Visual-Motor and Object Manipulation Skills With Executive Function and Social Behavior.

PubMed

MacDonald, Megan; Lipscomb, Shannon; McClelland, Megan M; Duncan, Rob; Becker, Derek; Anderson, Kim; Kile, Molly

2016-12-01

The purpose of this article was to examine specific linkages between early visual-motor integration skills and executive function, as well as between early object manipulation skills and social behaviors in the classroom during the preschool year. Ninety-two children aged 3 to 5 years old (M age  = 4.31 years) were recruited to participate. Comprehensive measures of visual-motor integration skills, object manipulation skills, executive function, and social behaviors were administered in the fall and spring of the preschool year. Our findings indicated that children who had better visual-motor integration skills in the fall had better executive function scores (B = 0.47 [0.20], p < .05, β = .27) in the spring of the preschool year after controlling for age, gender, Head Start status, and site location, but not after controlling for children's baseline levels of executive function. In addition, children who demonstrated better object manipulation skills in the fall showed significantly stronger social behavior in their classrooms (as rated by teachers) in the spring, including more self-control (B - 0.03 [0.00], p < .05, β = .40), more cooperation (B = 0.02 [0.01], p < .05, β = .28), and less externalizing/hyperactivity (B = - 0.02 [0.01], p < .05, β = - .28) after controlling for social behavior in the fall and other covariates. Children's visual-motor integration and object manipulation skills in the fall have modest to moderate relations with executive function and social behaviors later in the preschool year. These findings have implications for early learning initiatives and school readiness.

Exploration of Objective Functions for Optimal Placement of Weather Stations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Snyder, A.; Dietterich, T.; Selker, J. S.

2016-12-01

Many regions of Earth lack ground-based sensing of weather variables. For example, most countries in Sub-Saharan Africa do not have reliable weather station networks. This absence of sensor data has many consequences ranging from public safety (poor prediction and detection of severe weather events), to agriculture (lack of crop insurance), to science (reduced quality of world-wide weather forecasts, climate change measurement, etc.). The Trans-African Hydro-Meteorological Observatory (TAHMO.org) project seeks to address these problems by deploying and operating a large network of weather stations throughout Sub-Saharan Africa. To design the TAHMO network, we must determine where to locate each weather station. We can formulate this as the following optimization problem: Determine a set of N sites that jointly optimize the value of an objective function. The purpose of this poster is to propose and assess several objective functions. In addition to standard objectives (e.g., minimizing the summed squared error of interpolated values over the entire region), we consider objectives that minimize the maximum error over the region and objectives that optimize the detection of extreme events. An additional issue is that each station measures more than 10 variables—how should we balance the accuracy of our interpolated maps for each variable? Weather sensors inevitably drift out of calibration or fail altogether. How can we incorporate robustness to failed sensors into our network design? Another important requirement is that the network should make it possible to detect failed sensors by comparing their readings with those of other stations. How can this requirement be met? Finally, we provide an initial assessment of the computational cost of optimizing these various objective functions. We invite everyone to join the discussion at our poster by proposing additional objectives, identifying additional issues to consider, and expanding our bibliography of relevant

Calculation of the twilight visibility function of near-sun objects

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kastner, S. O.

1976-01-01

The visibility function, defined here as the magnitude difference between the excess brightness of a given object and that of the background sky, of near-sun objects during twilight is obtained from a general calculation which considers the twilight sky background, atmospheric extinction, and night glow. Visibility curves are computed for a number of cases in which observations have been recorded, particularly that of comet Kohoutek. For this object, the computed visibility maxima agree well in time with the reported times of observation.

ERPs Differentially Reflect Automatic and Deliberate Processing of the Functional Manipulability of Objects

PubMed Central

Madan, Christopher R.; Chen, Yvonne Y.; Singhal, Anthony

2016-01-01

It is known that the functional properties of an object can interact with perceptual, cognitive, and motor processes. Previously we have found that a between-subjects manipulation of judgment instructions resulted in different manipulability-related memory biases in an incidental memory test. To better understand this effect we recorded electroencephalography (EEG) while participants made judgments about images of objects that were either high or low in functional manipulability (e.g., hammer vs. ladder). Using a between-subjects design, participants judged whether they had seen the object recently (Personal Experience), or could manipulate the object using their hand (Functionality). We focused on the P300 and slow-wave event-related potentials (ERPs) as reflections of attentional allocation. In both groups, we observed higher P300 and slow wave amplitudes for high-manipulability objects at electrodes Pz and C3. As P300 is thought to reflect bottom-up attentional processes, this may suggest that the processing of high-manipulability objects recruited more attentional resources. Additionally, the P300 effect was greater in the Functionality group. A more complex pattern was observed at electrode C3 during slow wave: processing the high-manipulability objects in the Functionality instruction evoked a more positive slow wave than in the other three conditions, likely related to motor simulation processes. These data provide neural evidence that effects of manipulability on stimulus processing are further mediated by automatic vs. deliberate motor-related processing. PMID:27536224

The disturbing function for polar Centaurs and transneptunian objects

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Namouni, F.; Morais, M. H. M.

2017-10-01

The classical disturbing function of the three-body problem is based on an expansion of the gravitational interaction in the vicinity of nearly coplanar orbits. Consequently, it is not suitable for the identification and study of resonances of the Centaurs and transneptunian objects on nearly polar orbits with the Solar system planets. Here, we provide a series expansion algorithm of the gravitational interaction in the vicinity of polar orbits and produce explicitly the disturbing function to fourth order in eccentricity and inclination cosine. The properties of the polar series differ significantly from those of the classical disturbing function: the polar series can model any resonance, as the expansion order is not related to the resonance order. The powers of eccentricity and inclination of the force amplitude of a p:q resonance do not depend on the value of the resonance order |p - q| but only on its parity. Thus, all even resonance order eccentricity amplitudes are ∝e2 and odd ones ∝e to lowest order in eccentricity e. With the new findings on the structure of the polar disturbing function and the possible resonant critical arguments, we illustrate the dynamics of the polar resonances 1:3, 3:1, 2:9 and 7:9 where transneptunian object 471325 could currently be locked.

Distinct functional contributions of primary sensory and association areas to audiovisual integration in object categorization.

PubMed

Werner, Sebastian; Noppeney, Uta

2010-02-17

Multisensory interactions have been demonstrated in a distributed neural system encompassing primary sensory and higher-order association areas. However, their distinct functional roles in multisensory integration remain unclear. This functional magnetic resonance imaging study dissociated the functional contributions of three cortical levels to multisensory integration in object categorization. Subjects actively categorized or passively perceived noisy auditory and visual signals emanating from everyday actions with objects. The experiment included two 2 x 2 factorial designs that manipulated either (1) the presence/absence or (2) the informativeness of the sensory inputs. These experimental manipulations revealed three patterns of audiovisual interactions. (1) In primary auditory cortices (PACs), a concurrent visual input increased the stimulus salience by amplifying the auditory response regardless of task-context. Effective connectivity analyses demonstrated that this automatic response amplification is mediated via both direct and indirect [via superior temporal sulcus (STS)] connectivity to visual cortices. (2) In STS and intraparietal sulcus (IPS), audiovisual interactions sustained the integration of higher-order object features and predicted subjects' audiovisual benefits in object categorization. (3) In the left ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (vlPFC), explicit semantic categorization resulted in suppressive audiovisual interactions as an index for multisensory facilitation of semantic retrieval and response selection. In conclusion, multisensory integration emerges at multiple processing stages within the cortical hierarchy. The distinct profiles of audiovisual interactions dissociate audiovisual salience effects in PACs, formation of object representations in STS/IPS and audiovisual facilitation of semantic categorization in vlPFC. Furthermore, in STS/IPS, the profiles of audiovisual interactions were behaviorally relevant and predicted subjects

Comparative study of popular objective functions for damping power system oscillations in multimachine system.

PubMed

Islam, Naz Niamul; Hannan, M A; Shareef, Hussain; Mohamed, Azah; Salam, M A

2014-01-01

Power oscillation damping controller is designed in linearized model with heuristic optimization techniques. Selection of the objective function is very crucial for damping controller design by optimization algorithms. In this research, comparative analysis has been carried out to evaluate the effectiveness of popular objective functions used in power system oscillation damping. Two-stage lead-lag damping controller by means of power system stabilizers is optimized using differential search algorithm for different objective functions. Linearized model simulations are performed to compare the dominant mode's performance and then the nonlinear model is continued to evaluate the damping performance over power system oscillations. All the simulations are conducted in two-area four-machine power system to bring a detailed analysis. Investigated results proved that multiobjective D-shaped function is an effective objective function in terms of moving unstable and lightly damped electromechanical modes into stable region. Thus, D-shape function ultimately improves overall system damping and concurrently enhances power system reliability.

Response Interference between Functional and Structural Actions Linked to the Same Familiar Object

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jax, Steven A.; Buxbaum, Laurel J.

2010-01-01

Viewing objects with the intention to act upon them may activate task-irrelevant motor responses. Many manufactured objects are associated with two action classes: grasping in accordance with object structure and skillful use consistent with object function. We studied the potential for within-object competition during action selection by…

Infants' Developing Sensitivity to Object Function: Attention to Features and Feature Correlations

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Baumgartner, Heidi A.; Oakes, Lisa M.

2011-01-01

When learning object function, infants must detect relations among features--for example, that squeezing is associated with squeaking or that objects with wheels roll. Previously, Perone and Oakes (2006) found 10-month-old infants were sensitive to relations between object appearances and actions, but not to relations between appearances and…

Comparison of Objective and Subjective Methods on Determination of Differential Item Functioning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sahin, Melek Gülsah

2017-01-01

Research objective is comparing the objective methods often used in literature for determination of differential item functioning (DIF) and the subjective method based on the opinions of the experts which are not used so often in literature. Mantel-Haenszel (MH), Logistic Regression (LR) and SIBTEST are chosen as objective methods. While the data…

The functional neuroanatomy of object agnosia: a case study.

PubMed

Konen, Christina S; Behrmann, Marlene; Nishimura, Mayu; Kastner, Sabine

2011-07-14

Cortical reorganization of visual and object representations following neural injury was examined using fMRI and behavioral investigations. We probed the visual responsivity of the ventral visual cortex of an agnosic patient who was impaired at object recognition following a lesion to the right lateral fusiform gyrus. In both hemispheres, retinotopic mapping revealed typical topographic organization and visual activation of early visual cortex. However, visual responses, object-related, and -selective responses were reduced in regions immediately surrounding the lesion in the right hemisphere, and also, surprisingly, in corresponding locations in the structurally intact left hemisphere. In contrast, hV4 of the right hemisphere showed expanded response properties. These findings indicate that the right lateral fusiform gyrus is critically involved in object recognition and that an impairment to this region has widespread consequences for remote parts of cortex. Finally, functional neural plasticity is possible even when a cortical lesion is sustained in adulthood. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Dissociable intrinsic functional networks support noun-object and verb-action processing.

PubMed

Yang, Huichao; Lin, Qixiang; Han, Zaizhu; Li, Hongyu; Song, Luping; Chen, Lingjuan; He, Yong; Bi, Yanchao

2017-12-01

The processing mechanism of verbs-actions and nouns-objects is a central topic of language research, with robust evidence for behavioral dissociation. The neural basis for these two major word and/or conceptual classes, however, remains controversial. Two experiments were conducted to study this question from the network perspective. Experiment 1 found that nodes of the same class, obtained through task-evoked brain imaging meta-analyses, were more strongly connected with each other than nodes of different classes during resting-state, forming segregated network modules. Experiment 2 examined the behavioral relevance of these intrinsic networks using data from 88 brain-damaged patients, finding that across patients the relative strength of functional connectivity of the two networks significantly correlated with the noun-object vs. verb-action relative behavioral performances. In summary, we found that verbs-actions and nouns-objects are supported by separable intrinsic functional networks and that the integrity of such networks accounts for the relative noun-object- and verb-action-selective deficits. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The Importance of Behavioral Thresholds and Objective Functions in Contaminant Transport Uncertainty Analysis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sykes, J. F.; Kang, M.; Thomson, N. R.

2007-12-01

The TCE release from The Lockformer Company in Lisle Illinois resulted in a plume in a confined aquifer that is more than 4 km long and impacted more than 300 residential wells. Many of the wells are on the fringe of the plume and have concentrations that did not exceed 5 ppb. The settlement for the Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection of Lockformer involved the establishment of a trust fund that compensates individuals with cancers with payments being based on cancer type, estimated TCE concentration in the well and the duration of exposure to TCE. The estimation of early arrival times and hence low likelihood events is critical in the determination of the eligibility of an individual for compensation. Thus, an emphasis must be placed on the accuracy of the leading tail region in the likelihood distribution of possible arrival times at a well. The estimation of TCE arrival time, using a three-dimensional analytical solution, involved parameter estimation and uncertainty analysis. Parameters in the model included TCE source parameters, groundwater velocities, dispersivities and the TCE decay coefficient for both the confining layer and the bedrock aquifer. Numerous objective functions, which include the well-known L2-estimator, robust estimators (L1-estimators and M-estimators), penalty functions, and dead zones, were incorporated in the parameter estimation process to treat insufficiencies in both the model and observational data due to errors, biases, and limitations. The concept of equifinality was adopted and multiple maximum likelihood parameter sets were accepted if pre-defined physical criteria were met. The criteria ensured that a valid solution predicted TCE concentrations for all TCE impacted areas. Monte Carlo samples are found to be inadequate for uncertainty analysis of this case study due to its inability to find parameter sets that meet the predefined physical criteria. Successful results are achieved using a Dynamically-Dimensioned Search sampling

Learning the dynamics of objects by optimal functional interpolation.

PubMed

Ahn, Jong-Hoon; Kim, In Young

2012-09-01

Many areas of science and engineering rely on functional data and their numerical analysis. The need to analyze time-varying functional data raises the general problem of interpolation, that is, how to learn a smooth time evolution from a finite number of observations. Here, we introduce optimal functional interpolation (OFI), a numerical algorithm that interpolates functional data over time. Unlike the usual interpolation or learning algorithms, the OFI algorithm obeys the continuity equation, which describes the transport of some types of conserved quantities, and its implementation shows smooth, continuous flows of quantities. Without the need to take into account equations of motion such as the Navier-Stokes equation or the diffusion equation, OFI is capable of learning the dynamics of objects such as those represented by mass, image intensity, particle concentration, heat, spectral density, and probability density.

From Objects to Landmarks: The Function of Visual Location Information in Spatial Navigation

PubMed Central

Chan, Edgar; Baumann, Oliver; Bellgrove, Mark A.; Mattingley, Jason B.

2012-01-01

Landmarks play an important role in guiding navigational behavior. A host of studies in the last 15 years has demonstrated that environmental objects can act as landmarks for navigation in different ways. In this review, we propose a parsimonious four-part taxonomy for conceptualizing object location information during navigation. We begin by outlining object properties that appear to be important for a landmark to attain salience. We then systematically examine the different functions of objects as navigational landmarks based on previous behavioral and neuroanatomical findings in rodents and humans. Evidence is presented showing that single environmental objects can function as navigational beacons, or act as associative or orientation cues. In addition, we argue that extended surfaces or boundaries can act as landmarks by providing a frame of reference for encoding spatial information. The present review provides a concise taxonomy of the use of visual objects as landmarks in navigation and should serve as a useful reference for future research into landmark-based spatial navigation. PMID:22969737

Does objectively assessed sleep at five years predict sleep and psychological functioning at 14 years? - Hmm, yes and no!

PubMed

Brand, Serge; Hatzinger, Martin; Stadler, Christina; Bolten, Margarete; von Wyl, Agnes; Perren, Sonja; von Klitzing, Kai; Stadelmann, Stephanie; Holsboer-Trachsler, Edith

2015-01-01

We tested the hypothesis that objectively assessed sleep at kindergarten level predicts sleep and psychological functioning in adolescence. Thirty-seven adolescents aged 14 years (SD = 1.3), of 67 participants assessed as preschoolers, took part in a follow-up study nine years later. Participants completed a series of questionnaires related to sleep and psychological functioning. Sleep-EEG clusters of poor, normal and good sleepers assessed as children nine years earlier were used as predictors for subjective sleep and psychological functioning in adolescence. At the age of 14, those who were normal and good sleepers rather than poor sleepers at the age of five had more positive psychological functioning on dimensions including mental toughness, peer relationship, self-esteem, and perceived stress, but did not differ in current sleep patterns. Objectively assessed sleep patterns at the age of five are predictive of aspects of psychological functioning during adolescence. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Appropriate Objective Functions for Quantifying Iris Mechanical Properties Using Inverse Finite Element Modeling.

PubMed

Pant, Anup D; Dorairaj, Syril K; Amini, Rouzbeh

2018-07-01

Quantifying the mechanical properties of the iris is important, as it provides insight into the pathophysiology of glaucoma. Recent ex vivo studies have shown that the mechanical properties of the iris are different in glaucomatous eyes as compared to normal ones. Notwithstanding the importance of the ex vivo studies, such measurements are severely limited for diagnosis and preclude development of treatment strategies. With the advent of detailed imaging modalities, it is possible to determine the in vivo mechanical properties using inverse finite element (FE) modeling. An inverse modeling approach requires an appropriate objective function for reliable estimation of parameters. In the case of the iris, numerous measurements such as iris chord length (CL) and iris concavity (CV) are made routinely in clinical practice. In this study, we have evaluated five different objective functions chosen based on the iris biometrics (in the presence and absence of clinical measurement errors) to determine the appropriate criterion for inverse modeling. Our results showed that in the absence of experimental measurement error, a combination of iris CL and CV can be used as the objective function. However, with the addition of measurement errors, the objective functions that employ a large number of local displacement values provide more reliable outcomes.

Model dielectric function for 2D semiconductors including substrate screening

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Trolle, Mads L.; Pedersen, Thomas G.; Véniard, Valerie

2017-01-01

Dielectric screening of excitons in 2D semiconductors is known to be a highly non-local effect, which in reciprocal space translates to a strong dependence on momentum transfer q. We present an analytical model dielectric function, including the full non-linear q-dependency, which may be used as an alternative to more numerically taxing ab initio screening functions. By verifying the good agreement between excitonic optical properties calculated using our model dielectric function, and those derived from ab initio methods, we demonstrate the versatility of this approach. Our test systems include: Monolayer hBN, monolayer MoS2, and the surface exciton of a 2 × 1 reconstructed Si(111) surface. Additionally, using our model, we easily take substrate screening effects into account. Hence, we include also a systematic study of the effects of substrate media on the excitonic optical properties of MoS2 and hBN.

Learning Distance Functions for Exemplar-Based Object Recognition

DTIC Science & Technology

2007-08-08

requires prior specific permission. Learning Distance Functions for Exemplar-Based Object Recognition by Andrea Lynn Frome B.S. ( Mary Washington...fantastic advisor and advocate when I was at Mary Washington College i and has since become a dear friend. Thank you, Dr. Bass, for continuing to stand...Antonio Torralba. 5 Chapter 1. Introduction 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 70 Number of training examples per class M ea n

Objectively Assessed Physical Activity and its Association with Balance, Physical Function and Dyskinesia in Parkinson's Disease.

PubMed

Nero, Håkan; Benka Wallén, Martin; Franzén, Erika; Conradsson, David; Ståhle, Agneta; Hagströmer, Maria

2016-10-19

The desirable effects of physical activity in individuals with Parkinson's disease are well-known, although according to results from previous studies factors associated with objectively assessed physical activity are not fully investigated. To investigate demographic, disease-related and mobility-related factors that associate with objectively measured physical activity, in a sample of older adults with mild to moderate Parkinson's disease. Demographic, disease-related and mobility-related factors were gathered by interview from a total of 91 older adults with Parkinson's disease, followed by an evaluation of balance control using the Mini-BESTest. After initial testing, participants wore a tri-axial accelerometer during a week of free-living. Correlation analysis and multiple linear regression was used to investigate factors associated with total PA, represented by total activity counts, and time in brisk walking. Motor impairment, physical function, body mass index and dyskinesia contributed to the variance of total physical activity, explaining 34 % of the variance, while physical function and balance control were significant factors associated with brisk walking, explaining 22 %. This study identified factors that have not been shown to associate with objectively measured physical activity previously, such as dyskinesia, balance control and self-rated physical function. The findings also demonstrated that associated factors differ, depending on the activity behavior being investigated. However, other factors than those included in this study may also be of importance.

The Krigifier: A Procedure for Generating Pseudorandom Nonlinear Objective Functions for Computational Experimentation

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Trosset, Michael W.

1999-01-01

Comprehensive computational experiments to assess the performance of algorithms for numerical optimization require (among other things) a practical procedure for generating pseudorandom nonlinear objective functions. We propose a procedure that is based on the convenient fiction that objective functions are realizations of stochastic processes. This report details the calculations necessary to implement our procedure for the case of certain stationary Gaussian processes and presents a specific implementation in the statistical programming language S-PLUS.

On-line node fault injection training algorithm for MLP networks: objective function and convergence analysis.

PubMed

Sum, John Pui-Fai; Leung, Chi-Sing; Ho, Kevin I-J

2012-02-01

Improving fault tolerance of a neural network has been studied for more than two decades. Various training algorithms have been proposed in sequel. The on-line node fault injection-based algorithm is one of these algorithms, in which hidden nodes randomly output zeros during training. While the idea is simple, theoretical analyses on this algorithm are far from complete. This paper presents its objective function and the convergence proof. We consider three cases for multilayer perceptrons (MLPs). They are: (1) MLPs with single linear output node; (2) MLPs with multiple linear output nodes; and (3) MLPs with single sigmoid output node. For the convergence proof, we show that the algorithm converges with probability one. For the objective function, we show that the corresponding objective functions of cases (1) and (2) are of the same form. They both consist of a mean square errors term, a regularizer term, and a weight decay term. For case (3), the objective function is slight different from that of cases (1) and (2). With the objective functions derived, we can compare the similarities and differences among various algorithms and various cases.

Learning Distance Functions for Exemplar-Based Object Recognition

DTIC Science & Technology

2007-01-01

Learning Distance Functions for Exemplar-Based Object Recognition by Andrea Lynn Frome B.S. ( Mary Washington College) 1996 A dissertation submitted...advisor and advocate when I was at Mary Washington College i and has since become a dear friend. Thank you, Dr. Bass, for continuing to stand by my...Torralba. 5 Chapter 1. Introduction 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 70 Number of training examples per class M ea n re co

34 CFR 364.42 - What objectives and information must be included in the State plan?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... 34 Education 2 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false What objectives and information must be included in the State plan? 364.42 Section 364.42 Education Regulations of the Offices of the Department of Education (Continued) OFFICE OF SPECIAL EDUCATION AND REHABILITATIVE SERVICES, DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION STATE...

34 CFR 364.42 - What objectives and information must be included in the State plan?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

... 34 Education 2 2011-07-01 2010-07-01 true What objectives and information must be included in the State plan? 364.42 Section 364.42 Education Regulations of the Offices of the Department of Education (Continued) OFFICE OF SPECIAL EDUCATION AND REHABILITATIVE SERVICES, DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION STATE...

An object model and database for functional genomics.

PubMed

Jones, Andrew; Hunt, Ela; Wastling, Jonathan M; Pizarro, Angel; Stoeckert, Christian J

2004-07-10

Large-scale functional genomics analysis is now feasible and presents significant challenges in data analysis, storage and querying. Data standards are required to enable the development of public data repositories and to improve data sharing. There is an established data format for microarrays (microarray gene expression markup language, MAGE-ML) and a draft standard for proteomics (PEDRo). We believe that all types of functional genomics experiments should be annotated in a consistent manner, and we hope to open up new ways of comparing multiple datasets used in functional genomics. We have created a functional genomics experiment object model (FGE-OM), developed from the microarray model, MAGE-OM and two models for proteomics, PEDRo and our own model (Gla-PSI-Glasgow Proposal for the Proteomics Standards Initiative). FGE-OM comprises three namespaces representing (i) the parts of the model common to all functional genomics experiments; (ii) microarray-specific components; and (iii) proteomics-specific components. We believe that FGE-OM should initiate discussion about the contents and structure of the next version of MAGE and the future of proteomics standards. A prototype database called RNA And Protein Abundance Database (RAPAD), based on FGE-OM, has been implemented and populated with data from microbial pathogenesis. FGE-OM and the RAPAD schema are available from http://www.gusdb.org/fge.html, along with a set of more detailed diagrams. RAPAD can be accessed by registration at the site.

Predicting objective function weights from patient anatomy in prostate IMRT treatment planning

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

Lee, Taewoo, E-mail: taewoo.lee@utoronto.ca; Hammad, Muhannad; Chan, Timothy C. Y.

2013-12-15

Purpose: Intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) treatment planning typically combines multiple criteria into a single objective function by taking a weighted sum. The authors propose a statistical model that predicts objective function weights from patient anatomy for prostate IMRT treatment planning. This study provides a proof of concept for geometry-driven weight determination. Methods: A previously developed inverse optimization method (IOM) was used to generate optimal objective function weights for 24 patients using their historical treatment plans (i.e., dose distributions). These IOM weights were around 1% for each of the femoral heads, while bladder and rectum weights varied greatly between patients. Amore » regression model was developed to predict a patient's rectum weight using the ratio of the overlap volume of the rectum and bladder with the planning target volume at a 1 cm expansion as the independent variable. The femoral head weights were fixed to 1% each and the bladder weight was calculated as one minus the rectum and femoral head weights. The model was validated using leave-one-out cross validation. Objective values and dose distributions generated through inverse planning using the predicted weights were compared to those generated using the original IOM weights, as well as an average of the IOM weights across all patients. Results: The IOM weight vectors were on average six times closer to the predicted weight vectors than to the average weight vector, usingl{sub 2} distance. Likewise, the bladder and rectum objective values achieved by the predicted weights were more similar to the objective values achieved by the IOM weights. The difference in objective value performance between the predicted and average weights was statistically significant according to a one-sided sign test. For all patients, the difference in rectum V54.3 Gy, rectum V70.0 Gy, bladder V54.3 Gy, and bladder V70.0 Gy values between the dose distributions generated by

Predicting objective function weights from patient anatomy in prostate IMRT treatment planning

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

Lee, Taewoo, E-mail: taewoo.lee@utoronto.ca; Hammad, Muhannad; Chan, Timothy C. Y.

Purpose: Intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) treatment planning typically combines multiple criteria into a single objective function by taking a weighted sum. The authors propose a statistical model that predicts objective function weights from patient anatomy for prostate IMRT treatment planning. This study provides a proof of concept for geometry-driven weight determination. Methods: A previously developed inverse optimization method (IOM) was used to generate optimal objective function weights for 24 patients using their historical treatment plans (i.e., dose distributions). These IOM weights were around 1% for each of the femoral heads, while bladder and rectum weights varied greatly between patients. Amore » regression model was developed to predict a patient's rectum weight using the ratio of the overlap volume of the rectum and bladder with the planning target volume at a 1 cm expansion as the independent variable. The femoral head weights were fixed to 1% each and the bladder weight was calculated as one minus the rectum and femoral head weights. The model was validated using leave-one-out cross validation. Objective values and dose distributions generated through inverse planning using the predicted weights were compared to those generated using the original IOM weights, as well as an average of the IOM weights across all patients. Results: The IOM weight vectors were on average six times closer to the predicted weight vectors than to the average weight vector, usingl{sub 2} distance. Likewise, the bladder and rectum objective values achieved by the predicted weights were more similar to the objective values achieved by the IOM weights. The difference in objective value performance between the predicted and average weights was statistically significant according to a one-sided sign test. For all patients, the difference in rectum V54.3 Gy, rectum V70.0 Gy, bladder V54.3 Gy, and bladder V70.0 Gy values between the dose distributions generated by

Iberian Spanish Function Catalog. Method for Determining Language Objectives and Criteria, Volume VI.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Setzler, Hubert H., Jr.; And Others

This Iberian Spanish Function Catalog presents sentences, phrases, and patterns organized by language functions and functional categories. This catalog is part of the communication/language objectives-based system (C/LOBS), which supports the front-end analysis efforts of the Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center. The C/LOBS project,…

Predictors of subjective versus objective cognitive functioning in patients with stable grades II and III glioma

PubMed Central

Gehring, Karin; Taphoorn, Martin J.B.; Sitskoorn, Margriet M.; Aaronson, Neil K.

2015-01-01

Background Studies in cancer and noncancer populations demonstrate lower than expected correlations between subjective cognitive symptoms and cognitive functioning as determined by standardized neuropsychological tests. This paper systematically examines the association between subjective and objective cognitive functioning in patients with low-grade glioma and the associations of these indicators of cognitive function with clusters of sociodemographic, clinical, and self-reported physical and mental health factors. Methods Multiple regression analyses with the subjective and 2 objective indicators of cognitive functioning as dependent variables and 4 clusters of predictor variables were conducted in 169 patients with predominantly low-grade glioma. Results Correlations between the subjective and the 2 objective cognitive indicators were negligible (0.04) to low (0.24). Objective cognitive deficits were predominantly associated with sociodemographic (older age, lower education, male sex) and clinical (left hemisphere tumor) variables, while lower ratings of subjective cognitive function were more closely related to self-reported mental health symptoms (fatigue, lower mental well-being), physical (motor) dysfunction and female sex. Self-reported communication deficits were associated significantly with both subjective and objective dysfunction. Conclusions We recommend that both subjective and objective measures of cognitive functioning, together with a measure of psychological distress, be used for comprehensive neuropsychological assessments of patients with glioma to determine which areas are most affected and which specific intervention strategies are most appropriate. PMID:26034638

Distinct patterns of functional brain connectivity correlate with objective performance and subjective beliefs

PubMed Central

Barttfeld, Pablo; Wicker, Bruno; McAleer, Phil; Belin, Pascal; Cojan, Yann; Graziano, Martín; Leiguarda, Ramón; Sigman, Mariano

2013-01-01

The degree of correspondence between objective performance and subjective beliefs varies widely across individuals. Here we demonstrate that functional brain network connectivity measured before exposure to a perceptual decision task covaries with individual objective (type-I performance) and subjective (type-II performance) accuracy. Increases in connectivity with type-II performance were observed in networks measured while participants directed attention inward (focus on respiration), but not in networks measured during states of neutral (resting state) or exogenous attention. Measures of type-I performance were less sensitive to the subjects’ specific attentional states from which the networks were derived. These results suggest the existence of functional brain networks indexing objective performance and accuracy of subjective beliefs distinctively expressed in a set of stable mental states. PMID:23801762

Relationship between patient-reported and objective measurements of hand function in patients with rheumatoid arthritis.

PubMed

Günay, S M; Tuna, Z; Oskay, D

2016-12-31

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) often results in impairments in upper extremities, especially in the small joints of hand. Involvement of hand brings limitations in activities of daily living. However, it is commonly observed that patient-reported functional status of hand does not always corresponds to their actual physical performance in the clinical setting. The aim of this pilot study is to investigate the relationship between patient self-reported and objectively measured hand functions in patients with RA. Twenty-six patients (51±13 years) with RA diagnosis participated in the study. Hand grip and pinch (lateral, bipod, tripod) strengths were measured and Jebsen Hand Function Test (JHFT) was performed for objective functional performance. Duruöz Hand Index and Beck Depression Inventory - Turkish version were completed by patients. Grip and all three-pinch strength results significantly correlated with Duruöz Hand Index scores (p<0.05). JHFT results except the sentence writing also correlated with the Duruöz scores (p<0.05). Our results showed that self-reported outcome scales might be used for determining functional level of hand in patients with RA in rheumatology practice. Objective quantitative functional tests are the best methods in evaluating functional level of hand, but require valid and reliable equipment with accurate calibration. Therefore, in case of unavailability of objective assessment tools, patient-reported scales may also reflect the real status of hand functions.

Convergence and objective functions of some fault/noise-injection-based online learning algorithms for RBF networks.

PubMed

Ho, Kevin I-J; Leung, Chi-Sing; Sum, John

2010-06-01

In the last two decades, many online fault/noise injection algorithms have been developed to attain a fault tolerant neural network. However, not much theoretical works related to their convergence and objective functions have been reported. This paper studies six common fault/noise-injection-based online learning algorithms for radial basis function (RBF) networks, namely 1) injecting additive input noise, 2) injecting additive/multiplicative weight noise, 3) injecting multiplicative node noise, 4) injecting multiweight fault (random disconnection of weights), 5) injecting multinode fault during training, and 6) weight decay with injecting multinode fault. Based on the Gladyshev theorem, we show that the convergence of these six online algorithms is almost sure. Moreover, their true objective functions being minimized are derived. For injecting additive input noise during training, the objective function is identical to that of the Tikhonov regularizer approach. For injecting additive/multiplicative weight noise during training, the objective function is the simple mean square training error. Thus, injecting additive/multiplicative weight noise during training cannot improve the fault tolerance of an RBF network. Similar to injective additive input noise, the objective functions of other fault/noise-injection-based online algorithms contain a mean square error term and a specialized regularization term.

An objective function exploiting suboptimal solutions in metabolic networks

PubMed Central

2013-01-01

Background Flux Balance Analysis is a theoretically elegant, computationally efficient, genome-scale approach to predicting biochemical reaction fluxes. Yet FBA models exhibit persistent mathematical degeneracy that generally limits their predictive power. Results We propose a novel objective function for cellular metabolism that accounts for and exploits degeneracy in the metabolic network to improve flux predictions. In our model, regulation drives metabolism toward a region of flux space that allows nearly optimal growth. Metabolic mutants deviate minimally from this region, a function represented mathematically as a convex cone. Near-optimal flux configurations within this region are considered equally plausible and not subject to further optimizing regulation. Consistent with relaxed regulation near optimality, we find that the size of the near-optimal region predicts flux variability under experimental perturbation. Conclusion Accounting for suboptimal solutions can improve the predictive power of metabolic FBA models. Because fluctuations of enzyme and metabolite levels are inevitable, tolerance for suboptimality may support a functionally robust metabolic network. PMID:24088221

Physical functioning in patients with ankylosing spondylitis: comparing approaches of experienced ability with self-reported and objectively measured physical activity.

PubMed

van Genderen, Simon; van den Borne, Carlie; Geusens, Piet; van der Linden, Sjef; Boonen, Annelies; Plasqui, Guy

2014-04-01

Physical functioning can be assessed by different approaches that are characterized by increasing levels of individual appraisal. There is insufficient insight into which approach is the most informative in patients with ankylosing spondylitis (AS) compared with control subjects. The objective of this study was to compare patients with AS and control subjects regarding 3 approaches of functioning: experienced ability to perform activities (Bath Ankylosing Spondylitis Functional Index [BASFI]), self-reported amount of physical activity (PA) (Baecke questionnaire), and the objectively measured amount of PA (triaxial accelerometer). This case-control study included 24 AS patients and 24 control subjects (matched for age, gender, and body mass index). Subjects completed the BASFI and Baecke questionnaire and wore a triaxial accelerometer. Subjects also completed other self-reported measures on disease activity (Bath AS Disease Activity Index), fatigue (Multidimensional Fatigue Inventory), and overall health (EuroQol visual analog scale). Both groups included 14 men (58%), and the mean age was 48 years. Patients scored significantly worse on the BASFI (3.9 vs 0.2) than their healthy peers, whereas PA assessed by Baecke and the accelerometer did not differ between groups. Correlations between approaches of physical functioning were low to moderate. Bath Ankylosing Spondylitis Functional Index was associated with disease activity (r = 0.49) and physical fatigue (0.73) and Baecke with physical and activity related fatigue (r = 0.54 and r = 0.54), but total PA assessed by accelerometer was not associated with any of these experience-based health outcomes. Different approaches of the concept physical functioning in patients with AS provide different information. Compared with matched control subjects, patients with AS report more difficulties but report and objectively perform the same amount of PA.

Method for determining the weight of functional objectives on manufacturing system.

PubMed

Zhang, Qingshan; Xu, Wei; Zhang, Jiekun

2014-01-01

We propose a three-dimensional integrated weight determination to solve manufacturing system functional objectives, where consumers are weighted by triangular fuzzy numbers to determine the enterprises. The weights, subjective parts are determined by the expert scoring method, the objective parts are determined by the entropy method with the competitive advantage of determining. Based on the integration of three methods and comprehensive weight, we provide some suggestions for the manufacturing system. This paper provides the numerical example analysis to illustrate the feasibility of this method.

Method for Determining the Weight of Functional Objectives on Manufacturing System

PubMed Central

Zhang, Qingshan; Xu, Wei; Zhang, Jiekun

2014-01-01

We propose a three-dimensional integrated weight determination to solve manufacturing system functional objectives, where consumers are weighted by triangular fuzzy numbers to determine the enterprises. The weights, subjective parts are determined by the expert scoring method, the objective parts are determined by the entropy method with the competitive advantage of determining. Based on the integration of three methods and comprehensive weight, we provide some suggestions for the manufacturing system. This paper provides the numerical example analysis to illustrate the feasibility of this method. PMID:25243203

Objective functional visual outcomes of cataract surgery in patients with good preoperative visual acuity

PubMed Central

Zhu, X; Ye, H; He, W; Yang, J; Dai, J; Lu, Y

2017-01-01

Purpose To explore the objective functional visual outcomes of cataract surgery in patients with good preoperative visual acuity. Methods We enrolled 130 cataract patients whose best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA) was 20/40 or better preoperatively. Objective visual functions were evaluated with a KR-1W analyzer before and at 1 month after cataract surgery. Results The nuclear (N), cortical (C), and N+C groups had very high preoperative ocular and internal total high-order aberrations (HOAs), coma, and abnormal spherical aberrations. At 1 month after cataract surgery, in addition to the remarkable increase of both uncorrected visual acuity and BCVA, both ocular and internal HOAs in the three groups decreased significantly after cataract surgery (all P<0.05). Point spread function and modulation transfer functions were also improved significantly in these patients (all P<0.05). Conclusions The objective functional vision of patients with 20/40 or better preoperative BCVA improved significantly after cataract surgery. This finding shows that the arbitrary threshold of BCVA worse than 20/40 in China cannot always be used to determine who will benefit from cataract surgery. PMID:27858933

Quantifying kinematics of purposeful movements to real, imagined, or absent functional objects: implications for modelling trajectories for robot-assisted ADL tasks.

PubMed

Wisneski, Kimberly J; Johnson, Michelle J

2007-03-23

imagined and absent conditions. Curvature in the XZ plane of movement was greater than curvature in the XY plane for all movements. The implemented minimum jerk trajectory model was not adequate for generating functional trajectories for these ADLs. The deviations caused by object affordance and functional task constraints must be accounted for in order to allow subjects to perform functional task training in robotic therapy environments. The major differences that we have highlighted include trajectory dependence on: object presence, object orientation, and the plane of movement. With the ability to practice ADLs on the ADLER environment we hope to provide patients with a therapy paradigm that will produce optimal results and recovery.

Fuzzy Multi-Objective Transportation Planning with Modified S-Curve Membership Function

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Peidro, D.; Vasant, P.

2009-08-01

In this paper, the S-Curve membership function methodology is used in a transportation planning decision (TPD) problem. An interactive method for solving multi-objective TPD problems with fuzzy goals, available supply and forecast demand is developed. The proposed method attempts simultaneously to minimize the total production and transportation costs and the total delivery time with reference to budget constraints and available supply, machine capacities at each source, as well as forecast demand and warehouse space constraints at each destination. We compare in an industrial case the performance of S-curve membership functions, representing uncertainty goals and constraints in TPD problems, with linear membership functions.

Are Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder Initially Attuned to Object Function Rather than Shape for Word Learning?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Field, Charlotte; Allen, Melissa L.; Lewis, Charlie

2016-01-01

We investigate the function bias--generalising words to objects with the same function--in typically developing (TD) children, children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and children with other developmental disorders. Across four trials, a novel object was named and its function was described and demonstrated. Children then selected the other…

Ankle proprioceptive acuity is associated with objective as well as self-report measures of balance, mobility, and physical function.

PubMed

Deshpande, Nandini; Simonsick, Eleanor; Metter, E Jeffrey; Ko, Seunguk; Ferrucci, Luigi; Studenski, Stephanie

2016-06-01

Ankle proprioceptive information is integrated by the central nervous system to generate and modulate muscle contractions for maintaining standing balance. This study evaluated the association of ankle joint proprioception with objective and self-report measures of balance, mobility, and physical function across the adult life span. Seven hundred and ninety participants (age range 24-97 years, 362 women) who completed ankle proprioception assessment between 2010 and 2014 were included in the present study from the population-based cohort of the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging (BLSA), USA. Outcome measures included ankle joint proprioception measured as threshold for perception of passive movement (TPPM); single leg stance time; perceived difficulty for standing balance; usual, fastest, and narrow-path gait speed; walking index; short physical performance battery score; and self-reported activity restriction due to fear of falling. Descriptive variables included age, sex, body mass index, education, strength, and cognition. Analyses of covariance (ANCOVA) in general linear model (GLM) or multinomial logistic regression analyses were performed, as appropriate, to test the hypothesis that balance, mobility, and physical function were significantly different according to TPPM quintiles even after adjusting for relevant covariates. Those with TPPM >2.2° consistently demonstrated poor balance, mobility, and physical function. However, with increase in challenge (single leg stance, fastest walking speed, and SPPB), TPPM >1.4° was associated with significantly worse performance. In conclusion, ankle proprioceptive acuity has an overall graded relationship with objective and self-report measures of balance, mobility, and physical function. However, the cutoff proprioceptive acuity associated with substantial decline or inability to perform could depend on the challenge induced.

Incidental and context-responsive activation of structure- and function-based action features during object identification

PubMed Central

Lee, Chia-lin; Middleton, Erica; Mirman, Daniel; Kalénine, Solène; Buxbaum, Laurel J.

2012-01-01

Previous studies suggest that action representations are activated during object processing, even when task-irrelevant. In addition, there is evidence that lexical-semantic context may affect such activation during object processing. Finally, prior work from our laboratory and others indicates that function-based (“use”) and structure-based (“move”) action subtypes may differ in their activation characteristics. Most studies assessing such effects, however, have required manual object-relevant motor responses, thereby plausibly influencing the activation of action representations. The present work utilizes eyetracking and a Visual World Paradigm task without object-relevant actions to assess the time course of activation of action representations, as well as their responsiveness to lexical-semantic context. In two experiments, participants heard a target word and selected its referent from an array of four objects. Gaze fixations on non-target objects signal activation of features shared between targets and non-targets. The experiments assessed activation of structure-based (Experiment 1) or function-based (Experiment 2) distractors, using neutral sentences (“S/he saw the …”) or sentences with a relevant action verb (Experiment 1: “S/he picked up the……”; Experiment 2: “S/he used the….”). We observed task-irrelevant activations of action information in both experiments. In neutral contexts, structure-based activation was relatively faster-rising but more transient than function-based activation. Additionally, action verb contexts reliably modified patterns of activation in both Experiments. These data provide fine-grained information about the dynamics of activation of function-based and structure-based actions in neutral and action-relevant contexts, in support of the “Two Action System” model of object and action processing (e.g., Buxbaum & Kalénine, 2010). PMID:22390294

Constraints on the exploitation of the functional properties of objects in expert tool-using chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes).

PubMed

Povinelli, Daniel J; Frey, Scott H

2016-09-01

Many species exploit immediately apparent dimensions of objects during tool use and manufacture and operate over internal perceptual representations of objects (they move and reorient objects in space, have rules of operation to deform or modify objects, etc). Humans, however, actively test for functionally relevant object properties before such operations begin, even when no previous percepts of a particular object's qualities in the domain have been established. We hypothesize that such prospective diagnostic interventions are a human specialization of cognitive function that has been entirely overlooked in the neuropsychological literature. We presented chimpanzees with visually identical rakes: one was functional for retrieving a food reward; the other was non-functional (its base was spring-loaded). Initially, they learned that only the functional tool could retrieve a distant reward. In test 1, we explored if they would manually test for the rakes' rigidity during tool selection, but before using it. We found no evidence of such behavior. In test 2, we obliged the apes to deform the non-functional tool's base before using it, in order to evaluate whether this would cause them to switch rakes. It did not. Tests 3-6 attempted to focus the apes' attention on the functionally relevant property (rigidity). Although one ape eventually learned to abandon the non-functional rake before using it, she still did not attempt to test the rakes for rigidity prior to use. While these results underscore the ability of chimpanzees to use novel tools, at the same time they point toward a fundamental (and heretofore unexplored) difference in causal reasoning between humans and apes. We propose that this behavioral difference reflects a human specialization in how object properties are represented, which could have contributed significantly to the evolution of our technological culture. We discuss developing a new line of evolutionarily motivated neuropsychological research on

Fuzzy Multi-Objective Vendor Selection Problem with Modified S-CURVE Membership Function

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Díaz-Madroñero, Manuel; Peidro, David; Vasant, Pandian

2010-06-01

In this paper, the S-Curve membership function methodology is used in a vendor selection (VS) problem. An interactive method for solving multi-objective VS problems with fuzzy goals is developed. The proposed method attempts simultaneously to minimize the total order costs, the number of rejected items and the number of late delivered items with reference to several constraints such as meeting buyers' demand, vendors' capacity, vendors' quota flexibility, vendors' allocated budget, etc. We compare in an industrial case the performance of S-curve membership functions, representing uncertainty goals and constraints in VS problems, with linear membership functions.

Functional Dissociations within the Ventral Object Processing Pathway: Cognitive Modules or a Hierarchical Continuum?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cowell, Rosemary A.; Bussey, Timothy J.; Saksida, Lisa M.

2010-01-01

We examined the organization and function of the ventral object processing pathway. The prevailing theoretical approach in this field holds that the ventral object processing stream has a modular organization, in which visual perception is carried out in posterior regions and visual memory is carried out, independently, in the anterior temporal…

Associations of objective and subjective sleep disturbance with cognitive function in older men with comorbid depression and insomnia.

PubMed

Biddle, Daniel J; Naismith, Sharon L; Griffiths, Kathleen M; Christensen, Helen; Hickie, Ian B; Glozier, Nicholas S

2017-06-01

To examine whether poor objective and subjective sleep quality are differentially associated with cognitive function. Cross-sectional. Participants were recruited from primary and secondary care, and directly from the community, in Sydney, Australia. The sample consisted of 74 men 50years and older (mean [SD], 58.4 [6.2] years), with comorbid depression and above-threshold insomnia symptoms, participating in a trial of online cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia. Insomnia severity and depression severity were assessed via self-report. Objective sleep efficiency and duration were measured using actigraphy. Objective cognitive function was measured using 3 subtests of a computerized neuropsychological battery. Poor objective sleep efficiency was associated with slower reaction time (r=-0.249, P=.033) and poorer executive functioning (odds ratio, 4.14; 95% confidence interval, 1.35-12.69), but not memory. These associations remained after adjusting for age, education, depression severity, cardiovascular risk, and medication. Subjective sleep quality was not related to cognitive function. Among older men with depression and insomnia, objectively measured poor sleep efficiency may be associated with worse cognitive function, independent of depression severity. Objective poor sleep may be underpinned by neurobiological correlates distinct from those underlying subjective poor sleep and depression, and represent a potentially effective modifiable mechanism in interventions to improve cognitive functioning in this population. This supports the use of objective measures of sleep in diagnostic assessments and care. Copyright © 2017 National Sleep Foundation. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

How Tactile and Function Information Affect Young Children's Ability to Understand the Nature of Food-Appearing, Deceptive Objects

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Krause, Christina Miles

2008-01-01

Preschool children's (N = 64) ability to use tactile information and function cues on less-realistic and more-realistic food-appearing, deceptive objects was examined before and after training on the function of deceptive objects. They also responded to appearance and reality questions about deceptive objects. Half of the children (F-S:…

Digital fabrication of multi-material biomedical objects.

PubMed

Cheung, H H; Choi, S H

2009-12-01

This paper describes a multi-material virtual prototyping (MMVP) system for modelling and digital fabrication of discrete and functionally graded multi-material objects for biomedical applications. The MMVP system consists of a DMMVP module, an FGMVP module and a virtual reality (VR) simulation module. The DMMVP module is used to model discrete multi-material (DMM) objects, while the FGMVP module is for functionally graded multi-material (FGM) objects. The VR simulation module integrates these two modules to perform digital fabrication of multi-material objects, which can be subsequently visualized and analysed in a virtual environment to optimize MMLM processes for fabrication of product prototypes. Using the MMVP system, two biomedical objects, including a DMM human spine and an FGM intervertebral disc spacer are modelled and digitally fabricated for visualization and analysis in a VR environment. These studies show that the MMVP system is a practical tool for modelling, visualization, and subsequent fabrication of biomedical objects of discrete and functionally graded multi-materials for biomedical applications. The system may be adapted to control MMLM machines with appropriate hardware for physical fabrication of biomedical objects.

Landscape object-based analysis of wetland plant functional types: the effects of spatial scale, vegetation classes and classifier methods

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dronova, I.; Gong, P.; Wang, L.; Clinton, N.; Fu, W.; Qi, S.

2011-12-01

Remote sensing-based vegetation classifications representing plant function such as photosynthesis and productivity are challenging in wetlands with complex cover and difficult field access. Recent advances in object-based image analysis (OBIA) and machine-learning algorithms offer new classification tools; however, few comparisons of different algorithms and spatial scales have been discussed to date. We applied OBIA to delineate wetland plant functional types (PFTs) for Poyang Lake, the largest freshwater lake in China and Ramsar wetland conservation site, from 30-m Landsat TM scene at the peak of spring growing season. We targeted major PFTs (C3 grasses, C3 forbs and different types of C4 grasses and aquatic vegetation) that are both key players in system's biogeochemical cycles and critical providers of waterbird habitat. Classification results were compared among: a) several object segmentation scales (with average object sizes 900-9000 m2); b) several families of statistical classifiers (including Bayesian, Logistic, Neural Network, Decision Trees and Support Vector Machines) and c) two hierarchical levels of vegetation classification, a generalized 3-class set and more detailed 6-class set. We found that classification benefited from object-based approach which allowed including object shape, texture and context descriptors in classification. While a number of classifiers achieved high accuracy at the finest pixel-equivalent segmentation scale, the highest accuracies and best agreement among algorithms occurred at coarser object scales. No single classifier was consistently superior across all scales, although selected algorithms of Neural Network, Logistic and K-Nearest Neighbors families frequently provided the best discrimination of classes at different scales. The choice of vegetation categories also affected classification accuracy. The 6-class set allowed for higher individual class accuracies but lower overall accuracies than the 3-class set because

A class of stochastic optimization problems with one quadratic & several linear objective functions and extended portfolio selection model

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Xu, Jiuping; Li, Jun

2002-09-01

In this paper a class of stochastic multiple-objective programming problems with one quadratic, several linear objective functions and linear constraints has been introduced. The former model is transformed into a deterministic multiple-objective nonlinear programming model by means of the introduction of random variables' expectation. The reference direction approach is used to deal with linear objectives and results in a linear parametric optimization formula with a single linear objective function. This objective function is combined with the quadratic function using the weighted sums. The quadratic problem is transformed into a linear (parametric) complementary problem, the basic formula for the proposed approach. The sufficient and necessary conditions for (properly, weakly) efficient solutions and some construction characteristics of (weakly) efficient solution sets are obtained. An interactive algorithm is proposed based on reference direction and weighted sums. Varying the parameter vector on the right-hand side of the model, the DM can freely search the efficient frontier with the model. An extended portfolio selection model is formed when liquidity is considered as another objective to be optimized besides expectation and risk. The interactive approach is illustrated with a practical example.

Clinical history and biologic age predicted falls better than objective functional tests.

PubMed

Gerdhem, Paul; Ringsberg, Karin A M; Akesson, Kristina; Obrant, Karl J

2005-03-01

Fall risk assessment is important because the consequences, such as a fracture, may be devastating. The objective of this study was to find the test or tests that best predicted falls in a population-based sample of elderly women. The fall-predictive ability of a questionnaire, a subjective estimate of biologic age and objective functional tests (gait, balance [Romberg and sway test], thigh muscle strength, and visual acuity) were compared in 984 randomly selected women, all 75 years of age. A recalled fall was the most important predictor for future falls. Only recalled falls and intake of psycho-active drugs independently predicted future falls. Women with at least five of the most important fall predictors (previous falls, conditions affecting the balance, tendency to fall, intake of psychoactive medication, inability to stand on one leg, high biologic age) had an odds ratio of 11.27 (95% confidence interval 4.61-27.60) for a fall (sensitivity 70%, specificity 79%). The more time-consuming objective functional tests were of limited importance for fall prediction. A simple clinical history, the inability to stand on one leg, and a subjective estimate of biologic age were more important as part of the fall risk assessment.

Fuzzy bi-objective linear programming for portfolio selection problem with magnitude ranking function

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kusumawati, Rosita; Subekti, Retno

2017-04-01

Fuzzy bi-objective linear programming (FBOLP) model is bi-objective linear programming model in fuzzy number set where the coefficients of the equations are fuzzy number. This model is proposed to solve portfolio selection problem which generate an asset portfolio with the lowest risk and the highest expected return. FBOLP model with normal fuzzy numbers for risk and expected return of stocks is transformed into linear programming (LP) model using magnitude ranking function.

Determination of the object surface function by structured light: application to the study of spinal deformities

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Buendía, M.; Salvador, R.; Cibrián, R.; Laguia, M.; Sotoca, J. M.

1999-01-01

The projection of structured light is a technique frequently used to determine the surface shape of an object. In this paper, a new procedure is described that efficiently resolves the correspondence between the knots of the projected grid and those obtained on the object when the projection is made. The method is based on the use of three images of the projected grid. In two of them the grid is projected over a flat surface placed, respectively, before and behind the object; both images are used for calibration. In the third image the grid is projected over the object. It is not reliant on accurate determination of the camera and projector pair relative to the grid and object. Once the method is calibrated, we can obtain the surface function by just analysing the projected grid on the object. The procedure is especially suitable for the study of objects without discontinuities or large depth gradients. It can be employed for determining, in a non-invasive way, the patient's back surface function. Symmetry differences permit a quantitative diagnosis of spinal deformities such as scoliosis.

Motor Skills and Exercise Capacity Are Associated with Objective Measures of Cognitive Functions and Academic Performance in Preadolescent Children

PubMed Central

Thomas, Richard; Larsen, Malte Nejst; Dahn, Ida Marie; Andersen, Josefine Needham; Krause-Jensen, Matilde; Korup, Vibeke; Nielsen, Claus Malta; Wienecke, Jacob; Ritz, Christian; Krustrup, Peter; Lundbye-Jensen, Jesper

2016-01-01

Objective To investigate associations between motor skills, exercise capacity and cognitive functions, and evaluate how they correlate to academic performance in mathematics and reading comprehension using standardised, objective tests. Methods This cross-sectional study included 423 Danish children (age: 9.29±0.35 years, 209 girls). Fine and gross motor skills were evaluated in a visuomotor accuracy-tracking task, and a whole-body coordination task, respectively. Exercise capacity was estimated from the Yo-Yo intermittent recovery level 1 children's test (YYIR1C). Selected tests from the Cambridge Neuropsychological Test Automated Battery (CANTAB) were used to assess different domains of cognitive functions, including sustained attention, spatial working memory, episodic and semantic memory, and processing speed. Linear mixed-effects models were used to investigate associations between these measures and the relationship with standard tests of academic performance in mathematics and reading comprehension. Results Both fine and gross motor skills were associated with better performance in all five tested cognitive domains (all P<0.001), whereas exercise capacity was only associated with better sustained attention (P<0.046) and spatial working memory (P<0.038). Fine and gross motor skills (all P<0.001), exercise capacity and cognitive functions such as working memory, episodic memory, sustained attention and processing speed were all associated with better performance in mathematics and reading comprehension. Conclusions The data demonstrate that fine and gross motor skills are positively correlated with several aspects of cognitive functions and with academic performance in both mathematics and reading comprehension. Moreover, exercise capacity was associated with academic performance and performance in some cognitive domains. Future interventions should investigate associations between changes in motor skills, exercise capacity, cognitive functions, and academic

Monitoring fetal maturation—objectives, techniques and indices of autonomic function*

PubMed Central

Hoyer, Dirk; Żebrowski, Jan; Cysarz, Dirk; Gonçalves, Hernâni; Pytlik, Adelina; Amorim-Costa, Célia; Bernardes, João; Ayres-de-Campos, Diogo; Witte, Otto W; Schleußner, Ekkehard; Stroux, Lisa; Redman, Christopher; Georgieva, Antoniya; Payne, Stephen; Clifford, Gari; Signorini, Maria G; Magenes, Giovanni; Andreotti, Fernando; Malberg, Hagen; Zaunseder, Sebastian; Lakhno, Igor; Schneider, Uwe

2017-01-01

Objective Monitoring the fetal behavior does not only have implications for acute care but also for identifying developmental disturbances that burden the entire later life. The concept, of ‘fetal programming’, also known as ‘developmental origins of adult disease hypothesis’, e.g. applies for cardiovascular, metabolic, hyperkinetic, cognitive disorders. Since the autonomic nervous system is involved in all of those systems, cardiac autonomic control may provide relevant functional diagnostic and prognostic information. Approach The fetal heart rate patterns (HRP) are one of the few functional signals in the prenatal period that relate to autonomic control and, therefore, is key to fetal autonomic assessment. The development of sensitive markers of fetal maturation and its disturbances requires the consideration of physiological fundamentals, recording technology and HRP parameters of autonomic control. Main Results Based on the ESGCO2016 special session on monitoring the fetal maturation we herein report the most recent results on: (i) functional fetal autonomic brain age score (fABAS), Recurrence Quantitative Analysis and Binary Symbolic Dynamics of complex HRP resolve specific maturation periods, (ii) magnetocardiography (MCG) based fABAS was validated for cardiotocography (CTG), (iii) 30 min recordings are sufficient for obtaining episodes of high variability, important for intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR) detection in handheld Doppler, (iv) novel parameters from PRSA to identify Intra IUGR fetuses, (v) evaluation of fetal electrocardiographic (ECG) recordings, (vi) correlation between maternal and fetal HRV is disturbed in pre-eclampsia. Significance The reported novel developments significantly extend the possibilities for the established CTG methodology. Novel HRP indices improve the accuracy of assessment due to their more appropriate consideration of complex autonomic processes across the recording technologies (CTG, handheld Doppler, MCG

Incidental and Context-Responsive Activation of Structure- and Function-Based Action Features during Object Identification

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lee, Chia-lin; Middleton, Erica; Mirman, Daniel; Kalenine, Solene; Buxbaum, Laurel J.

2013-01-01

Previous studies suggest that action representations are activated during object processing, even when task-irrelevant. In addition, there is evidence that lexical-semantic context may affect such activation during object processing. Finally, prior work from our laboratory and others indicates that function-based ("use") and structure-based…

A recurrent neural network for nonlinear optimization with a continuously differentiable objective function and bound constraints.

PubMed

Liang, X B; Wang, J

2000-01-01

This paper presents a continuous-time recurrent neural-network model for nonlinear optimization with any continuously differentiable objective function and bound constraints. Quadratic optimization with bound constraints is a special problem which can be solved by the recurrent neural network. The proposed recurrent neural network has the following characteristics. 1) It is regular in the sense that any optimum of the objective function with bound constraints is also an equilibrium point of the neural network. If the objective function to be minimized is convex, then the recurrent neural network is complete in the sense that the set of optima of the function with bound constraints coincides with the set of equilibria of the neural network. 2) The recurrent neural network is primal and quasiconvergent in the sense that its trajectory cannot escape from the feasible region and will converge to the set of equilibria of the neural network for any initial point in the feasible bound region. 3) The recurrent neural network has an attractivity property in the sense that its trajectory will eventually converge to the feasible region for any initial states even at outside of the bounded feasible region. 4) For minimizing any strictly convex quadratic objective function subject to bound constraints, the recurrent neural network is globally exponentially stable for almost any positive network parameters. Simulation results are given to demonstrate the convergence and performance of the proposed recurrent neural network for nonlinear optimization with bound constraints.

Objective function analysis for electric soundings (VES), transient electromagnetic soundings (TEM) and joint inversion VES/TEM

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bortolozo, Cassiano Antonio; Bokhonok, Oleg; Porsani, Jorge Luís; Monteiro dos Santos, Fernando Acácio; Diogo, Liliana Alcazar; Slob, Evert

2017-11-01

Ambiguities in geophysical inversion results are always present. How these ambiguities appear in most cases open to interpretation. It is interesting to investigate ambiguities with regard to the parameters of the models under study. Residual Function Dispersion Map (RFDM) can be used to differentiate between global ambiguities and local minima in the objective function. We apply RFDM to Vertical Electrical Sounding (VES) and TEM Sounding inversion results. Through topographic analysis of the objective function we evaluate the advantages and limitations of electrical sounding data compared with TEM sounding data, and the benefits of joint inversion in comparison with the individual methods. The RFDM analysis proved to be a very interesting tool for understanding the joint inversion method of VES/TEM. Also the advantage of the applicability of the RFDM analyses in real data is explored in this paper to demonstrate not only how the objective function of real data behaves but the applicability of the RFDM approach in real cases. With the analysis of the results, it is possible to understand how the joint inversion can reduce the ambiguity of the methods.

Wave drag as the objective function in transonic fighter wing optimization

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Phillips, P. S.

1984-01-01

The original computational method for determining wave drag in a three dimensional transonic analysis method was replaced by a wave drag formula based on the loss in momentum across an isentropic shock. This formula was used as the objective function in a numerical optimization procedure to reduce the wave drag of a fighter wing at transonic maneuver conditions. The optimization procedure minimized wave drag through modifications to the wing section contours defined by a wing profile shape function. A significant reduction in wave drag was achieved while maintaining a high lift coefficient. Comparisons of the pressure distributions for the initial and optimized wing geometries showed significant reductions in the leading-edge peaks and shock strength across the span.

Second Graders Learn Animal Adaptations through Form and Function Analogy Object Boxes

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rule, Audrey C.; Baldwin, Samantha; Schell, Robert

2008-01-01

This study examined the use of form and function analogy object boxes to teach second graders (n = 21) animal adaptations. The study used a pretest-posttest design to examine animal adaptation content learned through focused analogy activities as compared with reading and Internet searches for information about adaptations of animals followed by…

Multilevel Green's function interpolation method for scattering from composite metallic and dielectric objects.

PubMed

Shi, Yan; Wang, Hao Gang; Li, Long; Chan, Chi Hou

2008-10-01

A multilevel Green's function interpolation method based on two kinds of multilevel partitioning schemes--the quasi-2D and the hybrid partitioning scheme--is proposed for analyzing electromagnetic scattering from objects comprising both conducting and dielectric parts. The problem is formulated using the surface integral equation for homogeneous dielectric and conducting bodies. A quasi-2D multilevel partitioning scheme is devised to improve the efficiency of the Green's function interpolation. In contrast to previous multilevel partitioning schemes, noncubic groups are introduced to discretize the whole EM structure in this quasi-2D multilevel partitioning scheme. Based on the detailed analysis of the dimension of the group in this partitioning scheme, a hybrid quasi-2D/3D multilevel partitioning scheme is proposed to effectively handle objects with fine local structures. Selection criteria for some key parameters relating to the interpolation technique are given. The proposed algorithm is ideal for the solution of problems involving objects such as missiles, microstrip antenna arrays, photonic bandgap structures, etc. Numerical examples are presented to show that CPU time is between O(N) and O(N log N) while the computer memory requirement is O(N).

Determining object orientation with a hierarchical database of binary synthetic discriminant function filters

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Reid, Max B.; Ma, Paul W.; Downie, John D.

1990-01-01

An optical correlation-based system is demonstrated which recognizes an object and determines its angular orientation by traversing a hierarchical data base of binary filters. The data-base architecture is made possible by the development of binary synthetic discriminant function filters.

Six-year trajectory of objective physical function in persons with depressive and anxiety disorders.

PubMed

Lever-van Milligen, Bianca A; Lamers, Femke; Smit, Jan H; Penninx, Brenda W J H

2017-02-01

Depression and anxiety have been related to poorer self-reported physical functioning over time; however, objective measures of physical function are less frequently examined. This study assessed the 6-year trajectory of hand-grip strength and lung function in persons with depressive and/or anxiety disorders. At four waves (baseline, 2, 4, and 6 years) hand-grip strength and lung function were assessed in 2,480 participants, aged 18-65 years, of the Netherlands Study of Depression and Anxiety. Linear mixed models were used to examine the association between baseline psychiatric status (current and remitted depression and anxiety, healthy controls) and physical function during 6-year follow-up, adjusted for sociodemographics, lifestyle, and health indicators. Although there were no differences in the rate of decline over time, women with current, but not remitted, depression and anxiety had poorer hand-grip strength (B = -1.34, P < .001) and poorer lung function (B = -11.91, P =.002) compared to healthy women during the entire 6-year follow-up. Associations with depression and anxiety severity measures confirmed dose-response relationships with objective physical function. In men, stronger 6-year decline of lung function was found in those with current disorders (current diagnosis-by-time: B = -11.72, P = .002) and even in those with remitted disorders (remitted diagnosis by time: B = -10.11, P = .04) compared to healthy men. Depression and anxiety are associated with consistently poorer hand-grip strength in women and poorer lung function in women and men over 6 years of time, implicating their long-lasting impact on physical functioning. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Application of multi-objective nonlinear optimization technique for coordinated ramp-metering

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

Haj Salem, Habib; Farhi, Nadir; Lebacque, Jean Patrick, E-mail: abib.haj-salem@ifsttar.fr, E-mail: nadir.frahi@ifsttar.fr, E-mail: jean-patrick.lebacque@ifsttar.fr

2015-03-10

This paper aims at developing a multi-objective nonlinear optimization algorithm applied to coordinated motorway ramp metering. The multi-objective function includes two components: traffic and safety. Off-line simulation studies were performed on A4 France Motorway including 4 on-ramps.

The significance of the choice of radiobiological (NTCP) models in treatment plan objective functions.

PubMed

Miller, J; Fuller, M; Vinod, S; Suchowerska, N; Holloway, L

2009-06-01

A Clinician's discrimination between radiation therapy treatment plans is traditionally a subjective process, based on experience and existing protocols. A more objective and quantitative approach to distinguish between treatment plans is to use radiobiological or dosimetric objective functions, based on radiobiological or dosimetric models. The efficacy of models is not well understood, nor is the correlation of the rank of plans resulting from the use of models compared to the traditional subjective approach. One such radiobiological model is the Normal Tissue Complication Probability (NTCP). Dosimetric models or indicators are more accepted in clinical practice. In this study, three radiobiological models, Lyman NTCP, critical volume NTCP and relative seriality NTCP, and three dosimetric models, Mean Lung Dose (MLD) and the Lung volumes irradiated at 10Gy (V10) and 20Gy (V20), were used to rank a series of treatment plans using, harm to normal (Lung) tissue as the objective criterion. None of the models considered in this study showed consistent correlation with the Radiation Oncologists plan ranking. If radiobiological or dosimetric models are to be used in objective functions for lung treatments, based on this study it is recommended that the Lyman NTCP model be used because it will provide most consistency with traditional clinician ranking.

Unrewarded Object Combinations in Captive Parrots

PubMed Central

Auersperg, Alice Marie Isabel; Oswald, Natalie; Domanegg, Markus; Gajdon, Gyula Koppany; Bugnyar, Thomas

2015-01-01

In primates, complex object combinations during play are often regarded as precursors of functional behavior. Here we investigate combinatory behaviors during unrewarded object manipulation in seven parrot species, including kea, African grey parrots and Goffin cockatoos, three species previously used as model species for technical problem solving. We further examine a habitually tool using species, the black palm cockatoo. Moreover, we incorporate three neotropical species, the yellow- and the black-billed Amazon and the burrowing parakeet. Paralleling previous studies on primates and corvids, free object-object combinations and complex object-substrate combinations such as inserting objects into tubes/holes or stacking rings onto poles prevailed in the species previously linked to advanced physical cognition and tool use. In addition, free object-object combinations were intrinsically structured in Goffin cockatoos and in kea. PMID:25984564

Simulation and fitting of complex reaction network TPR: The key is the objective function

DOE PAGES

Savara, Aditya Ashi

2016-07-07

In this research, a method has been developed for finding improved fits during simulation and fitting of data from complex reaction network temperature programmed reactions (CRN-TPR). It was found that simulation and fitting of CRN-TPR presents additional challenges relative to simulation and fitting of simpler TPR systems. The method used here can enable checking the plausibility of proposed chemical mechanisms and kinetic models. The most important finding was that when choosing an objective function, use of an objective function that is based on integrated production provides more utility in finding improved fits when compared to an objective function based onmore » the rate of production. The response surface produced by using the integrated production is monotonic, suppresses effects from experimental noise, requires fewer points to capture the response behavior, and can be simulated numerically with smaller errors. For CRN-TPR, there is increased importance (relative to simple reaction network TPR) in resolving of peaks prior to fitting, as well as from weighting of experimental data points. Using an implicit ordinary differential equation solver was found to be inadequate for simulating CRN-TPR. Lastly, the method employed here was capable of attaining improved fits in simulation and fitting of CRN-TPR when starting with a postulated mechanism and physically realistic initial guesses for the kinetic parameters.« less

Combining satellite data and appropriate objective functions for improved spatial pattern performance of a distributed hydrologic model

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Demirel, Mehmet C.; Mai, Juliane; Mendiguren, Gorka; Koch, Julian; Samaniego, Luis; Stisen, Simon

2018-02-01

evolution optimiser. The calibration results reveal a limited trade-off between streamflow dynamics and spatial patterns illustrating the benefit of combining separate observation types and objective functions. At the same time, the simulated spatial patterns of AET significantly improved when an objective function based on observed AET patterns and a novel spatial performance metric compared to traditional streamflow-only calibration were included. Since the overall water balance is usually a crucial goal in hydrologic modelling, spatial-pattern-oriented optimisation should always be accompanied by traditional discharge measurements. In such a multi-objective framework, the current study promotes the use of a novel bias-insensitive spatial pattern metric, which exploits the key information contained in the observed patterns while allowing the water balance to be informed by discharge observations.

Using Form and Function Analogy Object Boxes to Teach Human Body Systems

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rule, Audrey C.; Furletti, Charles

2004-01-01

This study compares the use of form and function analogy object boxes to more traditional lecture and worksheet instruction during a 10th-grade unit on human body systems. The study was conducted with two classes (N = 32) of mixed ability students at a high-needs rural high school in central New York State. The study used a pretest/posttest…

Object-related activity revealed by functional magnetic resonance imaging in human occipital cortex.

PubMed Central

Malach, R; Reppas, J B; Benson, R R; Kwong, K K; Jiang, H; Kennedy, W A; Ledden, P J; Brady, T J; Rosen, B R; Tootell, R B

1995-01-01

The stages of integration leading from local feature analysis to object recognition were explored in human visual cortex by using the technique of functional magnetic resonance imaging. Here we report evidence for object-related activation. Such activation was located at the lateral-posterior aspect of the occipital lobe, just abutting the posterior aspect of the motion-sensitive area MT/V5, in a region termed the lateral occipital complex (LO). LO showed preferential activation to images of objects, compared to a wide range of texture patterns. This activation was not caused by a global difference in the Fourier spatial frequency content of objects versus texture images, since object images produced enhanced LO activation compared to textures matched in power spectra but randomized in phase. The preferential activation to objects also could not be explained by different patterns of eye movements: similar levels of activation were observed when subjects fixated on the objects and when they scanned the objects with their eyes. Additional manipulations such as spatial frequency filtering and a 4-fold change in visual size did not affect LO activation. These results suggest that the enhanced responses to objects were not a manifestation of low-level visual processing. A striking demonstration that activity in LO is uniquely correlated to object detectability was produced by the "Lincoln" illusion, in which blurring of objects digitized into large blocks paradoxically increases their recognizability. Such blurring led to significant enhancement of LO activation. Despite the preferential activation to objects, LO did not seem to be involved in the final, "semantic," stages of the recognition process. Thus, objects varying widely in their recognizability (e.g., famous faces, common objects, and unfamiliar three-dimensional abstract sculptures) activated it to a similar degree. These results are thus evidence for an intermediate link in the chain of processing stages

Conditioning 3D object-based models to dense well data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, Yimin C.; Pyrcz, Michael J.; Catuneanu, Octavian; Boisvert, Jeff B.

2018-06-01

Object-based stochastic simulation models are used to generate categorical variable models with a realistic representation of complicated reservoir heterogeneity. A limitation of object-based modeling is the difficulty of conditioning to dense data. One method to achieve data conditioning is to apply optimization techniques. Optimization algorithms can utilize an objective function measuring the conditioning level of each object while also considering the geological realism of the object. Here, an objective function is optimized with implicit filtering which considers constraints on object parameters. Thousands of objects conditioned to data are generated and stored in a database. A set of objects are selected with linear integer programming to generate the final realization and honor all well data, proportions and other desirable geological features. Although any parameterizable object can be considered, objects from fluvial reservoirs are used to illustrate the ability to simultaneously condition multiple types of geologic features. Channels, levees, crevasse splays and oxbow lakes are parameterized based on location, path, orientation and profile shapes. Functions mimicking natural river sinuosity are used for the centerline model. Channel stacking pattern constraints are also included to enhance the geological realism of object interactions. Spatial layout correlations between different types of objects are modeled. Three case studies demonstrate the flexibility of the proposed optimization-simulation method. These examples include multiple channels with high sinuosity, as well as fragmented channels affected by limited preservation. In all cases the proposed method reproduces input parameters for the object geometries and matches the dense well constraints. The proposed methodology expands the applicability of object-based simulation to complex and heterogeneous geological environments with dense sampling.

Desired Precision in Multi-Objective Optimization: Epsilon Archiving or Rounding Objectives?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Asadzadeh, M.; Sahraei, S.

2016-12-01

Multi-objective optimization (MO) aids in supporting the decision making process in water resources engineering and design problems. One of the main goals of solving a MO problem is to archive a set of solutions that is well-distributed across a wide range of all the design objectives. Modern MO algorithms use the epsilon dominance concept to define a mesh with pre-defined grid-cell size (often called epsilon) in the objective space and archive at most one solution at each grid-cell. Epsilon can be set to the desired precision level of each objective function to make sure that the difference between each pair of archived solutions is meaningful. This epsilon archiving process is computationally expensive in problems that have quick-to-evaluate objective functions. This research explores the applicability of a similar but computationally more efficient approach to respect the desired precision level of all objectives in the solution archiving process. In this alternative approach each objective function is rounded to the desired precision level before comparing any new solution to the set of archived solutions that already have rounded objective function values. This alternative solution archiving approach is compared to the epsilon archiving approach in terms of efficiency and quality of archived solutions for solving mathematical test problems and hydrologic model calibration problems.

Molecular density functional theory of water including density-polarization coupling.

PubMed

Jeanmairet, Guillaume; Levy, Nicolas; Levesque, Maximilien; Borgis, Daniel

2016-06-22

We present a three-dimensional molecular density functional theory of water derived from first-principles that relies on the particle's density and multipolar polarization density and includes the density-polarization coupling. This brings two main benefits: (i) scalar density and vectorial multipolar polarization density fields are much more tractable and give more physical insight than the full position and orientation densities, and (ii) it includes the full density-polarization coupling of water, that is known to be non-vanishing but has never been taken into account. Furthermore, the theory requires only the partial charge distribution of a water molecule and three measurable bulk properties, namely the structure factor and the Fourier components of the longitudinal and transverse dielectric susceptibilities.

Server-Side JavaScript Debugging: Viewing the Contents of an Object

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

Hampton, J.; Simons, R.

1999-04-21

JavaScript allows the definition and use of large, complex objects. Unlike some other object-oriented languages, it also allows run-time modifications not only of the values of object components, but also of the very structure of the object itself. This feature is powerful and sometimes very convenient, but it can be difficult to keep track of the object's structure and values throughout program execution. What's needed is a simple way to view the current state of an object at any point during execution. There is a debug function that is included in the Netscape server-side JavaScript environment. The function outputs themore » value(s) of the expression given as the argument to the function in the JavaScript Application Manager's debug window [SSJS].« less

Reuseable Objects Software Environment (ROSE): Introduction to Air Force Software Reuse Workshop

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Cottrell, William L.

1994-01-01

The Reusable Objects Software Environment (ROSE) is a common, consistent, consolidated implementation of software functionality using modern object oriented software engineering including designed-in reuse and adaptable requirements. ROSE is designed to minimize abstraction and reduce complexity. A planning model for the reverse engineering of selected objects through object oriented analysis is depicted. Dynamic and functional modeling are used to develop a system design, the object design, the language, and a database management system. The return on investment for a ROSE pilot program and timelines are charted.

Academic cheating as a function of defense mechanisms and object relations.

PubMed

Juni, Samuel; Gross, Julie; Sokolowska, Joanna

2006-06-01

This study examined relationships between academic cheating behaviors by using self-reports of past cheating behavior, providing a situational experiment with the opportunity to cheat, and evaluating defense mechanisms and object relations as measured by the Defense Mechanisms Inventory. Subjects included 75 female and 8 male university students ranging in age from 18 to 51 years (M=25.5, SD=6.9). Analysis showed variations in students' self-reported cheating history relative to their measured object relations status and type of defense mechanisms. Actual cheating in the experimental setting was not significantly related to any of these variables. Findings are discussed based on a critique of heterogeneity of the cheating construct.

The interaction between hippocampal GABA-B and cannabinoid receptors upon spatial change and object novelty discrimination memory function.

PubMed

Nasehi, Mohammad; Alaghmandan-Motlagh, Niyousha; Ebrahimi-Ghiri, Mohaddeseh; Nami, Mohammad; Zarrindast, Mohammad-Reza

2017-10-01

Previous studies have postulated functional links between GABA and cannabinoid systems in the hippocampus. The aim of the present study was to investigate any possible interaction between these systems in spatial change and object novelty discrimination memory consolidation in the dorsal hippocampus (CA1 region) of NMRI mice. Assessment of the spatial change and object novelty discrimination memory function was carried out in a non-associative task. The experiment comprised mice exposure to an open field containing five objects followed by the examination of their reactivity to object displacement (spatial change) and object substitution (object novelty) after three sessions of habituation. Our results showed that the post-training intraperitoneal administration of the higher dose of ACPA (0.02 mg/kg) impaired both spatial change and novelty discrimination memory functions. Meanwhile, the higher dose of GABA-B receptor agonist, baclofen, impaired the spatial change memory by itself. Moreover, the post-training intra-CA1 microinjection of a subthreshold dose of baclofen increased the ACPA effect on spatial change and novelty discrimination memory at a lower and higher dose, respectively. On the other hand, the lower and higher but not mid-level doses of GABA-B receptor antagonist, phaclofen, could reverse memory deficits induced by ACPA. However, phaclofen at its mid-level dose impaired the novelty discrimination memory and whereas the higher dose impaired the spatial change memory. Based on our findings, GABA-B receptors in the CA1 region appear to modulate the ACPA-induced cannabinoid CB1 signaling upon spatial change and novelty discrimination memory functions.

A systematic approach for finding the objective function and active constraints for dynamic flux balance analysis.

PubMed

Nikdel, Ali; Braatz, Richard D; Budman, Hector M

2018-05-01

Dynamic flux balance analysis (DFBA) has become an instrumental modeling tool for describing the dynamic behavior of bioprocesses. DFBA involves the maximization of a biologically meaningful objective subject to kinetic constraints on the rate of consumption/production of metabolites. In this paper, we propose a systematic data-based approach for finding both the biological objective function and a minimum set of active constraints necessary for matching the model predictions to the experimental data. The proposed algorithm accounts for the errors in the experiments and eliminates the need for ad hoc choices of objective function and constraints as done in previous studies. The method is illustrated for two cases: (1) for in silico (simulated) data generated by a mathematical model for Escherichia coli and (2) for actual experimental data collected from the batch fermentation of Bordetella Pertussis (whooping cough).

SU-F-BRD-01: A Logistic Regression Model to Predict Objective Function Weights in Prostate Cancer IMRT

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

Boutilier, J; Chan, T; Lee, T

2014-06-15

Purpose: To develop a statistical model that predicts optimization objective function weights from patient geometry for intensity-modulation radiotherapy (IMRT) of prostate cancer. Methods: A previously developed inverse optimization method (IOM) is applied retrospectively to determine optimal weights for 51 treated patients. We use an overlap volume ratio (OVR) of bladder and rectum for different PTV expansions in order to quantify patient geometry in explanatory variables. Using the optimal weights as ground truth, we develop and train a logistic regression (LR) model to predict the rectum weight and thus the bladder weight. Post hoc, we fix the weights of the leftmore » femoral head, right femoral head, and an artificial structure that encourages conformity to the population average while normalizing the bladder and rectum weights accordingly. The population average of objective function weights is used for comparison. Results: The OVR at 0.7cm was found to be the most predictive of the rectum weights. The LR model performance is statistically significant when compared to the population average over a range of clinical metrics including bladder/rectum V53Gy, bladder/rectum V70Gy, and mean voxel dose to the bladder, rectum, CTV, and PTV. On average, the LR model predicted bladder and rectum weights that are both 63% closer to the optimal weights compared to the population average. The treatment plans resulting from the LR weights have, on average, a rectum V70Gy that is 35% closer to the clinical plan and a bladder V70Gy that is 43% closer. Similar results are seen for bladder V54Gy and rectum V54Gy. Conclusion: Statistical modelling from patient anatomy can be used to determine objective function weights in IMRT for prostate cancer. Our method allows the treatment planners to begin the personalization process from an informed starting point, which may lead to more consistent clinical plans and reduce overall planning time.« less

Metamemory function in chemotherapy-treated patients with breast cancer: an explanation for the dissociation between subjective and objective memory measures?

PubMed

Collins, Barbara; Paquet, Lise; Dominelli, Rachelle; White, Amanda; MacKenzie, Joyce

2017-01-01

The purpose of this study was to determine if a deficit in metamemory could account for the disparity between subjective and objective measures of memory function commonly observed in patients with breast cancer (BC). Metamemory refers to the awareness and management of one's own memory function. It is considered an aspect of executive functioning, one of the most common areas of cognitive compromise associated with BC and its treatment. Fifty-four women with early stage BC who had recently completed chemotherapy were compared with 54 healthy women matched on age and education. Cognitive function was objectively assessed with a neuropsychological test battery and subjectively assessed with the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy Cognitive Scale. Metamemory was assessed with a Feeling of Knowing (FOK) paradigm. The patients with BC scored significantly lower than the controls on both the objective and subjective cognitive measures, as well as on free recall and recognition conditions of the FOK, suggesting some decline in primary memory functions such as working memory, encoding, and retrieval. The discrepancy between the objective and subjective measures was larger in the patients with BC than in the controls, but there was no difference between the groups on the FOK metamemory index. Discrepancy in objective and subjective measures of cognition in patients with BC cannot be accounted for in terms of a deficit in meta-cognition. Objective and subjective measures are complementary, and a comprehensive cognitive assessment in patients with BC requires both. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Function Follows Form: Activation of Shape and Function Features during Object Identification

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yee, Eiling; Huffstetler, Stacy; Thompson-Schill, Sharon L.

2011-01-01

Most theories of semantic memory characterize knowledge of a given object as comprising a set of semantic features. But how does conceptual activation of these features proceed during object identification? We present the results of a pair of experiments that demonstrate that object recognition is a dynamically unfolding process in which function…

A long-term controlled follow-up study of objective treatment need on young adults treated with functional appliances.

PubMed

Faxén Sepanian, Varoojan; Paulsson-Björnsson, Liselotte; Kjellberg, Heidrun

2014-01-01

The aims of this study were to 1) evaluate the objective success rate of Class II malocclusion treatment with functional appliances five years after completion of treatment and 2) to compare the remaining objective treatment need with an untreated control group. Records of all listed patients between 18-20 years (n=1054) treated in a general practice were reviewed for the purpose of finding treatments with removable functional appliances. Among all subjects (n=61) who previously had been treated, 58 accepted to participate in the study.The test group was matched with an orthodontically untreated group with no history of objective treatment need. Clinical examination was performed and study casts and photos were taken from both groups.The objective treatment need was evaluated through clinical examination and study cast analysis with weighted Peer Assessment Rating index (wPAR). Twenty patients, (34.5%) (mean wPAR 13.8), succeeded with the functional appliance treatment.The wPAR score (mean 15.0) of the entire test group was significantly higher than the one of the control group (mean 7.3).The group that was treated exclusively with functional appliances had a mean wPAR score of 17.4. Eighteen patients (31.0%) who received retreatment with fixed appliances had a slightly higher mean wPAR (8.6) than the control group. Treatments with functional appliances in a general practice showed a high failure rate and a remaining treatment need. It is the treating dentist's responsibility to motivate the patient to cooperate to the treatment, because as it previously has been shown the treatment with functional appliances is a well-functioning treatment alternative with the cooperation of the patient being sufficient. It is also of importance, already before starting treatment, to estimate the child's cooperation ability and to avoid treatment with removable appliances if the child or parents are reluctant about such a treatment.

[Changes in functional state during occupational activities in workers at objects for chemical weapons destruction].

PubMed

2010-01-01

The authors studied functional state before and after the working shift in workers at objects for chemical weapons destruction, analyzed changes in central and peripheral hemodynamics parameters, vegetative regulation of heart rhythm, stabilographic and psychophysiologic values.

Steady-State Contrast Response Functions Provide a Sensitive and Objective Index of Amblyopic Deficits

PubMed Central

Baker, Daniel H.; Simard, Mathieu; Saint-Amour, Dave; Hess, Robert F.

2015-01-01

Purpose. Visual deficits in amblyopia are neural in origin, yet are difficult to characterize with functional magnetic resonance imagery (fMRI). Our aim was to develop an objective electroencephalography (EEG) paradigm that can be used to provide a clinically useful index of amblyopic deficits. Methods. We used steady-state visual evoked potentials (SSVEPs) to measure full contrast response functions in both amblyopic (n = 10, strabismic or mixed amblyopia, mean age: 44 years) and control (n = 5, mean age: 31 years) observers, both with and without a dichoptic mask. Results. At the highest target contrast, the ratio of amplitudes across the weaker and stronger eyes was highly correlated (r = 0.76) with the acuity ratio between the eyes. We also found that the contrast response function in the amblyopic eye had both a greatly reduced amplitude and a shallower slope, but that surprisingly dichoptic masking was weaker than in controls. The results were compared with the predictions of a computational model of amblyopia and suggest a modification to the model whereby excitatory (but not suppressive) signals are attenuated in the amblyopic eye. Conclusions. We suggest that SSVEPs offer a sensitive and objective measure of the ocular imbalance in amblyopia and could be used to assess the efficacy of amblyopia therapies currently under development. PMID:25634977

Executive Functions in Older Adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder: Objective Performance and Subjective Complaints

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Davids, Roeliena C.; Groen, Yvonne; Berg, Ina J.; Tucha, Oliver M.; van Balkom, Ingrid D.

2016-01-01

Although deficits in Executive Functioning (EF) are reported frequently in young individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD), they remain relatively unexplored later in life (>50 years). We studied objective performance on EF measures (Tower of London, Zoo map, phonetic/semantic fluency) as well as subjective complaints (self- and proxy…

Objective Versus Subjective Measures of Executive Functions: Predictors of Participation and Quality of Life in Parkinson Disease?

PubMed

Vlagsma, Thialda T; Koerts, Janneke; Tucha, Oliver; Dijkstra, Hilde T; Duits, Annelien A; van Laar, Teus; Spikman, Jacoba M

2017-11-01

To determine whether objective (neuropsychological tests) and subjective measures (questionnaires) of executive functions (EFs) are associated in patients with Parkinson disease (PD), and to determine to what extent level of participation and quality of life (QoL) of patients with PD can be predicted by these measures of EFs. Correlational research design (case-control and prediction design). Departments of neuropsychology of 3 medical centers. A sample (N=136) of patients with PD (n=42) and their relatives, and controls without PD (n=94). Not applicable. A test battery measuring EFs. In addition, patients, their relatives, and controls completed the Dysexecutive Questionnaire, Brock Adaptive Functioning Questionnaire, and Barkley Deficits in Executive Functioning Scale - time management questionnaires measuring complaints about EFs. Participation and QoL were measured with the Impact on Participation and Autonomy scale and the Parkinson's Disease Questionnaire-39, respectively. Patients with PD showed impairments in EFs on objective tests and reported significantly more complaints about EFs than did controls without PD. No associations were found between patients' performances on objective and subjective measures of EFs. However, both objective and subjective measures predicted patients' level of participation. In addition, subjective measures of EFs predicted QoL in patients with PD. These findings show that objective and subjective measures of EFs are not interchangeable and that both approaches predict level of participation and QoL in patients with PD. However, within this context, sex needs to be taken into account. Copyright © 2017 American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Russian Function Catalog and Rolebooks. Methods for Determining Language Objectives and Criteria, Volume XIII.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Setzler, Hubert H., Jr.; And Others

A Russian Function Catalog and Instructor and Advisor Rolebooks for Russian are presented. The catalog and rolebooks are part of the communication/language objectives-based system (C/LOBS), which supports the front-end analysis efforts of the Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center. The C/LOBS projects, which is described in 13 volumes…

A Technology Immune Technology Enabled Problem within an Action on Objects Framework: Stamping Functions

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Connell, Michael; Abramovich, Sergei

2017-01-01

This paper illustrates how the notion of Technology Immune Technology Enabled (TITE) problems (Abramovich, 2014), in this case an exploration of variations in surface area we refer to as Stamping Functions, might be incorporated into a K-6 mathematics methods class operating within an Action on Objects framework (Connell, 2001). TITE problems have…

Objects, Numbers, Fingers, Space: Clustering of Ventral and Dorsal Functions in Young Children and Adults

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chinello, Alessandro; Cattani, Veronica; Bonfiglioli, Claudia; Dehaene, Stanislas; Piazza, Manuela

2013-01-01

In the primate brain, sensory information is processed along two partially segregated cortical streams: the ventral stream, mainly coding for objects' shape and identity, and the dorsal stream, mainly coding for objects' quantitative information (including size, number, and spatial position). Neurophysiological measures indicate that such…

Object-processing neural efficiency differentiates object from spatial visualizers.

PubMed

Motes, Michael A; Malach, Rafael; Kozhevnikov, Maria

2008-11-19

The visual system processes object properties and spatial properties in distinct subsystems, and we hypothesized that this distinction might extend to individual differences in visual processing. We conducted a functional MRI study investigating the neural underpinnings of individual differences in object versus spatial visual processing. Nine participants of high object-processing ability ('object' visualizers) and eight participants of high spatial-processing ability ('spatial' visualizers) were scanned, while they performed an object-processing task. Object visualizers showed lower bilateral neural activity in lateral occipital complex and lower right-lateralized neural activity in dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. The data indicate that high object-processing ability is associated with more efficient use of visual-object resources, resulting in less neural activity in the object-processing pathway.

GenASiS Basics: Object-oriented utilitarian functionality for large-scale physics simulations

DOE PAGES

Cardall, Christian Y.; Budiardja, Reuben D.

2015-06-11

Aside from numerical algorithms and problem setup, large-scale physics simulations on distributed-memory supercomputers require more basic utilitarian functionality, such as physical units and constants; display to the screen or standard output device; message passing; I/O to disk; and runtime parameter management and usage statistics. Here we describe and make available Fortran 2003 classes furnishing extensible object-oriented implementations of this sort of rudimentary functionality, along with individual `unit test' programs and larger example problems demonstrating their use. Lastly, these classes compose the Basics division of our developing astrophysics simulation code GenASiS (General Astrophysical Simulation System), but their fundamental nature makes themmore » useful for physics simulations in many fields.« less

Objectively-Measured Physical Activity and Cognitive Functioning in Breast Cancer Survivors

PubMed Central

Marinac, Catherine R.; Godbole, Suneeta; Kerr, Jacqueline; Natarajan, Loki; Patterson, Ruth E.; Hartman, Sheri J.

2015-01-01

Purpose To explore the relationship between objectively measured physical activity and cognitive functioning in breast cancer survivors. Methods Participants were 136 postmenopausal breast cancer survivors. Cognitive functioning was assessed using a comprehensive computerized neuropsychological test. 7-day physical activity was assessed using hip-worn accelerometers. Linear regression models examined associations of minutes per day of physical activity at various intensities on individual cognitive functioning domains. The partially adjusted model controlled for primary confounders (model 1), and subsequent adjustments were made for chemotherapy history (model 2), and BMI (model 3). Interaction and stratified models examined BMI as an effect modifier. Results Moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) was associated with Information Processing Speed. Specifically, ten minutes of MVPA was associated with a 1.35-point higher score (out of 100) on the Information Processing Speed domain in the partially adjusted model, and a 1.29-point higher score when chemotherapy was added to the model (both p<.05). There was a significant BMI x MVPA interaction (p=.051). In models stratified by BMI (<25 vs. ≥25 kg/m2), the favorable association between MVPA and Information Processing Speed was stronger in the subsample of overweight and obese women (p<.05), but not statistically significant in the leaner subsample. Light-intensity physical activity was not significantly associated with any of the measured domains of cognitive function. Conclusions MVPA may have favorable effects on Information Processing Speed in breast cancer survivors, particularly among overweight or obese women. Implications for Cancer Survivors Interventions targeting increased physical activity may enhance aspects of cognitive function among breast cancer survivors. PMID:25304986

Inverse optimization of objective function weights for treatment planning using clinical dose-volume histograms

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Babier, Aaron; Boutilier, Justin J.; Sharpe, Michael B.; McNiven, Andrea L.; Chan, Timothy C. Y.

2018-05-01

We developed and evaluated a novel inverse optimization (IO) model to estimate objective function weights from clinical dose-volume histograms (DVHs). These weights were used to solve a treatment planning problem to generate ‘inverse plans’ that had similar DVHs to the original clinical DVHs. Our methodology was applied to 217 clinical head and neck cancer treatment plans that were previously delivered at Princess Margaret Cancer Centre in Canada. Inverse plan DVHs were compared to the clinical DVHs using objective function values, dose-volume differences, and frequency of clinical planning criteria satisfaction. Median differences between the clinical and inverse DVHs were within 1.1 Gy. For most structures, the difference in clinical planning criteria satisfaction between the clinical and inverse plans was at most 1.4%. For structures where the two plans differed by more than 1.4% in planning criteria satisfaction, the difference in average criterion violation was less than 0.5 Gy. Overall, the inverse plans were very similar to the clinical plans. Compared with a previous inverse optimization method from the literature, our new inverse plans typically satisfied the same or more clinical criteria, and had consistently lower fluence heterogeneity. Overall, this paper demonstrates that DVHs, which are essentially summary statistics, provide sufficient information to estimate objective function weights that result in high quality treatment plans. However, as with any summary statistic that compresses three-dimensional dose information, care must be taken to avoid generating plans with undesirable features such as hotspots; our computational results suggest that such undesirable spatial features were uncommon. Our IO-based approach can be integrated into the current clinical planning paradigm to better initialize the planning process and improve planning efficiency. It could also be embedded in a knowledge-based planning or adaptive radiation therapy framework to

Inverse optimization of objective function weights for treatment planning using clinical dose-volume histograms.

PubMed

Babier, Aaron; Boutilier, Justin J; Sharpe, Michael B; McNiven, Andrea L; Chan, Timothy C Y

2018-05-10

We developed and evaluated a novel inverse optimization (IO) model to estimate objective function weights from clinical dose-volume histograms (DVHs). These weights were used to solve a treatment planning problem to generate 'inverse plans' that had similar DVHs to the original clinical DVHs. Our methodology was applied to 217 clinical head and neck cancer treatment plans that were previously delivered at Princess Margaret Cancer Centre in Canada. Inverse plan DVHs were compared to the clinical DVHs using objective function values, dose-volume differences, and frequency of clinical planning criteria satisfaction. Median differences between the clinical and inverse DVHs were within 1.1 Gy. For most structures, the difference in clinical planning criteria satisfaction between the clinical and inverse plans was at most 1.4%. For structures where the two plans differed by more than 1.4% in planning criteria satisfaction, the difference in average criterion violation was less than 0.5 Gy. Overall, the inverse plans were very similar to the clinical plans. Compared with a previous inverse optimization method from the literature, our new inverse plans typically satisfied the same or more clinical criteria, and had consistently lower fluence heterogeneity. Overall, this paper demonstrates that DVHs, which are essentially summary statistics, provide sufficient information to estimate objective function weights that result in high quality treatment plans. However, as with any summary statistic that compresses three-dimensional dose information, care must be taken to avoid generating plans with undesirable features such as hotspots; our computational results suggest that such undesirable spatial features were uncommon. Our IO-based approach can be integrated into the current clinical planning paradigm to better initialize the planning process and improve planning efficiency. It could also be embedded in a knowledge-based planning or adaptive radiation therapy framework to

Content-based fused off-axis object illumination direct-to-digital holography

DOEpatents

Price, Jeffery R.

2006-05-02

Systems and methods are described for content-based fused off-axis illumination direct-to-digital holography. A method includes calculating an illumination angle with respect to an optical axis defined by a focusing lens as a function of data representing a Fourier analyzed spatially heterodyne hologram; reflecting a reference beam from a reference mirror at a non-normal angle; reflecting an object beam from an object the object beam incident upon the object at the illumination angle; focusing the reference beam and the object beam at a focal plane of a digital recorder to from the content-based off-axis illuminated spatially heterodyne hologram including spatially heterodyne fringes for Fourier analysis; and digitally recording the content based off-axis illuminated spatially heterodyne hologram including spatially heterodyne fringes for Fourier analysis.

[Influence of mental rotation of objects on psychophysiological functions of women].

PubMed

Chikina, L V; Fedorchuk, S V; Trushina, V A; Ianchuk, P I; Makarchuk, M Iu

2012-01-01

An integral part of activity of modern human beings is an involvement to work with the computer systems which, in turn, produces a nervous - emotional tension. Hence, a problem of control of the psychophysiological state of workmen with the purpose of health preservation and success of their activity and the problem of application of rehabilitational actions are actual. At present it is known that the efficiency of rehabilitational procedures rises following application of the complex of regenerative programs. Previously performed by us investigation showed that mental rotation is capable to compensate the consequences of a nervous - emotional tension. Therefore, in the present work we investigated how the complex of spatial tasks developed by us influences psychophysiological performances of tested women for which the psycho-emotional tension with the usage of computer technologies is more essential, and the procedure of mental rotation is more complex task for them, than for men. The complex of spatial tasks applied in the given work included: mental rotation of simple objects (letters and digits), mental rotation of complex objects (geometrical figures) and mental rotation of complex objects with the usage of a short-term memory. Execution of the complex of spatial tasks reduces the time of simple and complex sensomotor response, raises parameters of a short-term memory, brain work capacity and improves nervous processes. Collectively, mental rotation of objects can be recommended as a rehabilitational resource for compensation of consequences of any psycho-emotional strain, both for men, and for women.

How learning might strengthen existing visual object representations in human object-selective cortex.

PubMed

Brants, Marijke; Bulthé, Jessica; Daniels, Nicky; Wagemans, Johan; Op de Beeck, Hans P

2016-02-15

Visual object perception is an important function in primates which can be fine-tuned by experience, even in adults. Which factors determine the regions and the neurons that are modified by learning is still unclear. Recently, it was proposed that the exact cortical focus and distribution of learning effects might depend upon the pre-learning mapping of relevant functional properties and how this mapping determines the informativeness of neural units for the stimuli and the task to be learned. From this hypothesis we would expect that visual experience would strengthen the pre-learning distributed functional map of the relevant distinctive object properties. Here we present a first test of this prediction in twelve human subjects who were trained in object categorization and differentiation, preceded and followed by a functional magnetic resonance imaging session. Specifically, training increased the distributed multi-voxel pattern information for trained object distinctions in object-selective cortex, resulting in a generalization from pre-training multi-voxel activity patterns to after-training activity patterns. Simulations show that the increased selectivity combined with the inter-session generalization is consistent with a training-induced strengthening of a pre-existing selectivity map. No training-related neural changes were detected in other regions. In sum, training to categorize or individuate objects strengthened pre-existing representations in human object-selective cortex, providing a first indication that the neuroanatomical distribution of learning effects depends upon the pre-learning mapping of visual object properties. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Face Memory and Object Recognition in Children with High-Functioning Autism or Asperger Syndrome and in Their Parents

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kuusikko-Gauffin, Sanna; Jansson-Verkasalo, Eira; Carter, Alice; Pollock-Wurman, Rachel; Jussila, Katja; Mattila, Marja-Leena; Rahko, Jukka; Ebeling, Hanna; Pauls, David; Moilanen, Irma

2011-01-01

Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASDs) have reported to have impairments in face, recognition and face memory, but intact object recognition and object memory. Potential abnormalities, in these fields at the family level of high-functioning children with ASD remains understudied despite, the ever-mounting evidence that ASDs are genetic and…

Functional dissociation between action and perception of object shape in developmental visual object agnosia.

PubMed

Freud, Erez; Ganel, Tzvi; Avidan, Galia; Gilaie-Dotan, Sharon

2016-03-01

According to the two visual systems model, the cortical visual system is segregated into a ventral pathway mediating object recognition, and a dorsal pathway mediating visuomotor control. In the present study we examined whether the visual control of action could develop normally even when visual perceptual abilities are compromised from early childhood onward. Using his fingers, LG, an individual with a rare developmental visual object agnosia, manually estimated (perceptual condition) the width of blocks that varied in width and length (but not in overall size), or simply picked them up across their width (grasping condition). LG's perceptual sensitivity to target width was profoundly impaired in the manual estimation task compared to matched controls. In contrast, the sensitivity to object shape during grasping, as measured by maximum grip aperture (MGA), the time to reach the MGA, the reaction time and the total movement time were all normal in LG. Further analysis, however, revealed that LG's sensitivity to object shape during grasping emerged at a later time stage during the movement compared to controls. Taken together, these results demonstrate a dissociation between action and perception of object shape, and also point to a distinction between different stages of the grasping movement, namely planning versus online control. Moreover, the present study implies that visuomotor abilities can develop normally even when perceptual abilities developed in a profoundly impaired fashion. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Objective and subjective psychosocial functioning in bipolar disorder: an investigation of the relative importance of neurocognition, social cognition and emotion regulation.

PubMed

Van Rheenen, Tamsyn E; Rossell, Susan L

2014-06-01

People with bipolar disorder (BD) experience significant psychosocial impairment. Understandings of the nature and causes of such impairment is limited by the lack of research exploring the extent to which subjectively reported functioning should be valued as an indicator of objective dysfunction, or examining the relative influence of neurocognition, social cognition and emotion regulation on these important, but different aspects of psychosocial functioning in the context of mania and depression symptoms. This study aimed to address this paucity of research by conducting a comprehensive investigation of psychosocial functioning in a well characterised group of BD patients. Fifty-one BD patients were compared to 52 healthy controls on objectively and subjectively assessed psychosocial outcomes. Relationships between current mood symptoms, psychosocial function and neurocognitive, social cognitive and emotion regulation measures were also examined in the patient group. Patients had significantly worse scores on the global objective and subjective functioning measures relative to controls. In the patient group, although these scores were correlated, regression analyses showed that variance in each of the measures was explained by different predictors. Depressive symptomatology was the most important predictor of global subjective functioning, and neurocognition had a concurrent and important influence with depressive symptoms on objective psychosocial function. Emotion regulation also had an indirect effect on psychosocial functioning via its influence on depressive symptomatology. As this study was cross-sectional in nature, we are unable to draw precise conclusions regarding contributing pathways involved in psychosocial functioning in BD. These results suggest that patients' own evaluations of their subjective functioning represent important indicators of the extent to which their observable function is impaired. They also highlight the importance of

Can objective measurements of the nasal form and function represent the clinical picture in unilateral cleft lip and palate?

PubMed

Peroz, Roshan; Holmström, Mats; Mani, Maria

2017-05-01

The present study aimed to evaluate the potential correlations between objective measurements of nasal function and self-assessed nasal symptoms or clinical findings at nasal examination among adults treated for unilateral cleft lip and palate (UCLP), respectively. All UCLP patients born between 1960 and 1987 (n = 109) treated at a tertiary referring center were invited. Participation rate was 76% (n = 83) at a mean of 37 years after the initial surgery. All participants completed the same study protocol including acoustic rhinometry (AR), rhinomanometry (RM), anterior rhinoscopy, and questionnaires regarding self-experienced nasal symptoms. A reduced volume of the anterior nasal cavity on the operated side (measured by AR) correlated to an expressed wish by the patient to change the function of the nose. A similar correlation was seen for the minimal cross-sectional area of anterior nasal cavity on the operated side. Furthermore, correlations were found between smaller volume and area of nasal cavity and a greater frequency of nasal obstruction. No further correlations were found. Objective measurements partly correlate to the clinical picture among adults treated for UCLP. However, these need to be combined with findings at clinical examination and patient self-assessment to represent the complete clinical picture. Copyright © 2017 British Association of Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgeons. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Subjective Cognitive Complaints and Objective Cognitive Function in Aging: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Recent Cross-Sectional Findings.

PubMed

Burmester, Bridget; Leathem, Janet; Merrick, Paul

2016-12-01

Research investigating how subjective cognitive complaints (SCCs) might reliably indicate impairments in objective cognitive functioning has produced highly varied findings, and despite attempts to synthesise this literature (e.g., Jonker et al. International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, 15, 983-991, 2000; Reid and MacLullich Dementia and Geriatric Cognitive Disorders, 22(5-6), 471-485, 2006; Crumley et al. Psychology and Aging, 29(2), 250-263, 2014), recent work continues to offer little resolution. This review provides both quantitative and qualitative synthesis of research conducted since the last comprehensive review in 2006, with the aim of identifying reasons for these discrepancies that might provide fruitful avenues for future exploration. Meta-analysis found a small but significant association between SCCs and objective cognitive function, although it was limited by large heterogeneity between studies and evidence of potential publication bias. Often, assessments of SCCs and objective cognitive function were brief or not formally validated. However, studies that employed more comprehensive SCC measures tended to find that SCCs were associated independently with both objective cognitive function and depressive symptoms. Further explicit investigation of how assessment measures relate to reports of SCCs, and the validity of the proposed 'compensation theory' of SCC aetiology, is recommended.

Object-based warping: an illusory distortion of space within objects.

PubMed

Vickery, Timothy J; Chun, Marvin M

2010-12-01

Visual objects are high-level primitives that are fundamental to numerous perceptual functions, such as guidance of attention. We report that objects warp visual perception of space in such a way that spatial distances within objects appear to be larger than spatial distances in ground regions. When two dots were placed inside a rectangular object, they appeared farther apart from one another than two dots with identical spacing outside of the object. To investigate whether this effect was object based, we measured the distortion while manipulating the structure surrounding the dots. Object displays were constructed with a single object, multiple objects, a partially occluded object, and an illusory object. Nonobject displays were constructed to be comparable to object displays in low-level visual attributes. In all cases, the object displays resulted in a more powerful distortion of spatial perception than comparable non-object-based displays. These results suggest that perception of space within objects is warped.

Mandarin Chinese Function Catalog and Rolebook. Method for Determining Language Objectives and Criteria, Volume IX.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Setzler, Hubert H., Jr.; And Others

A Mandarin Chinese Function Catalog and Instructor Rolebook for Mandarin Chinese are presented. The catalog and rolebook are part of the communication/language objectives-based system (C/LOBS), which supports the front-end analysis efforts of the Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center. The C/LOBS project, which is described in 13…

Validity of patient-reported swallowing and speech outcomes in relation to objectively measured oral function among patients treated for oral or oropharyngeal cancer.

PubMed

Rinkel, R N P M; Verdonck-de Leeuw, I M; de Bree, R; Aaronson, N K; Leemans, C R

2015-04-01

The objective of this study was to test the construct validity of the patient-reported outcomes Swallowing Quality of Life Questionnaire (SWAL-QOL) and Speech Handicap Index (SHI) in relation to objectively measured oral function among patients treated for oral or oropharyngeal cancer. The study sample consisted of patients treated for oral or oropharyngeal cancer. Outcome measures were the SWAL-QOL and the SHI, and the Functional Rehabilitation Outcomes Grade (FROG), a test to measure oral and shoulder function. Spearman's rank correlation coefficient was used to test associations between the SHI and SWAL-QOL scales, and the FROG scales. During a study period of 3 months, 38 patients (21 males, 17 females; mean age 54 years) were included who visited the outpatient clinic for follow-up care 6-155 months after surgical treatment (n = 14) or combined surgery and radiotherapy (n = 24) for oral (n = 21) or oropharyngeal cancer (n = 17). Most SWAL-QOL and SHI scales (except the SWAL-QOL Fatigue scale) correlated significantly with one or more FROG oral function scales. None of the SWAL-QOL and SHI scales correlated significantly with the FROG shoulder function scale. These results support the construct validity of the SWAL-QOL and SHI questionnaires for assessing speech and swallowing problems in daily life that are moderately but significantly related to oral function. A multidimensional assessment protocol is recommended for use in clinical practice and for research purposes for measuring oral function and swallowing- and speech-related problems in daily life among head and neck cancer patients.

Motor Skills and Exercise Capacity Are Associated with Objective Measures of Cognitive Functions and Academic Performance in Preadolescent Children.

PubMed

Geertsen, Svend Sparre; Thomas, Richard; Larsen, Malte Nejst; Dahn, Ida Marie; Andersen, Josefine Needham; Krause-Jensen, Matilde; Korup, Vibeke; Nielsen, Claus Malta; Wienecke, Jacob; Ritz, Christian; Krustrup, Peter; Lundbye-Jensen, Jesper

2016-01-01

To investigate associations between motor skills, exercise capacity and cognitive functions, and evaluate how they correlate to academic performance in mathematics and reading comprehension using standardised, objective tests. This cross-sectional study included 423 Danish children (age: 9.29±0.35 years, 209 girls). Fine and gross motor skills were evaluated in a visuomotor accuracy-tracking task, and a whole-body coordination task, respectively. Exercise capacity was estimated from the Yo-Yo intermittent recovery level 1 children's test (YYIR1C). Selected tests from the Cambridge Neuropsychological Test Automated Battery (CANTAB) were used to assess different domains of cognitive functions, including sustained attention, spatial working memory, episodic and semantic memory, and processing speed. Linear mixed-effects models were used to investigate associations between these measures and the relationship with standard tests of academic performance in mathematics and reading comprehension. Both fine and gross motor skills were associated with better performance in all five tested cognitive domains (all P<0.001), whereas exercise capacity was only associated with better sustained attention (P<0.046) and spatial working memory (P<0.038). Fine and gross motor skills (all P<0.001), exercise capacity and cognitive functions such as working memory, episodic memory, sustained attention and processing speed were all associated with better performance in mathematics and reading comprehension. The data demonstrate that fine and gross motor skills are positively correlated with several aspects of cognitive functions and with academic performance in both mathematics and reading comprehension. Moreover, exercise capacity was associated with academic performance and performance in some cognitive domains. Future interventions should investigate associations between changes in motor skills, exercise capacity, cognitive functions, and academic performance to elucidate the causality

The influence of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex on attentional behavior and decision making. A t-DCS study on emotionally vs. functionally designed objects.

PubMed

Colombo, Barbara; Balzarotti, Stefania; Mazzucchelli, Nicla

2016-04-01

Prior research has shown that right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex may be crucial in cognitive control of affective impulses during decision making. The present study examines whether modulation of r-DLPFC with transcranial direct current stimulation influences attentional behavior and decision-making in a purchase task requiring participants to choose either emotional/attractive or functional/useful objects. 30 participants were shown sixteen pairs of emotionally or functionally designed products while their eye-movements were recorded. Participants were asked to judge aesthetics and usefulness of each object, and to decide which object of each pair they would buy. Results revealed that participants decided to buy the functionally designed objects more often regardless of condition; however, participants receiving anodal stimulation were faster in decision making. Although stimulation of r-DLPFC did not affect the actual purchasing choice and had little effect on visual exploration during decision making, it influenced perceived usefulness and attractiveness, with temporary inhibition of r-DLPFC leading to evaluate functional objects as less attractive. Finally, anodal stimulation led to judge the objects as more useful. The implications of these results are discussed. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Cortical Circuit for Binding Object Identity and Location During Multiple-Object Tracking

PubMed Central

Nummenmaa, Lauri; Oksama, Lauri; Glerean, Erico; Hyönä, Jukka

2017-01-01

Abstract Sustained multifocal attention for moving targets requires binding object identities with their locations. The brain mechanisms of identity-location binding during attentive tracking have remained unresolved. In 2 functional magnetic resonance imaging experiments, we measured participants’ hemodynamic activity during attentive tracking of multiple objects with equivalent (multiple-object tracking) versus distinct (multiple identity tracking, MIT) identities. Task load was manipulated parametrically. Both tasks activated large frontoparietal circuits. MIT led to significantly increased activity in frontoparietal and temporal systems subserving object recognition and working memory. These effects were replicated when eye movements were prohibited. MIT was associated with significantly increased functional connectivity between lateral temporal and frontal and parietal regions. We propose that coordinated activity of this network subserves identity-location binding during attentive tracking. PMID:27913430

Cognition in Domestic Dogs: Object Permanence & Social Cueing

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Clotfelter, Ethan D.; Hollis, Karen L.

2008-01-01

Cognition is a general term describing the mental capacities of an animal, and often includes the ability to categorize, remember, and communicate about objects in the environment. Numerous regions of the telencephalon (cerebral cortex and limbic system) are responsible for these cognitive functions. Although many researchers have used traditional…

Corkscrew point spread function for far-field three-dimensional nanoscale localization of pointlike objects

PubMed Central

Lew, Matthew D.; Lee, Steven F.; Badieirostami, Majid; Moerner, W. E.

2011-01-01

We describe the corkscrew point spread function (PSF), which can localize objects in three dimensions throughout a 3.2 µm depth of field with nanometer precision. The corkscrew PSF rotates as a function of the axial (z) position of an emitter. Fisher information calculations show that the corkscrew PSF can achieve nanometer localization precision with limited numbers of photons. We demonstrate three-dimensional super-resolution microscopy with the corkscrew PSF by imaging beads on the surface of a triangular polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) grating. With 99,000 photons detected, the corkscrew PSF achieves a localization precision of 2.7 nm in x, 2.1 nm in y, and 5.7 nm in z. PMID:21263500

Corkscrew point spread function for far-field three-dimensional nanoscale localization of pointlike objects.

PubMed

Lew, Matthew D; Lee, Steven F; Badieirostami, Majid; Moerner, W E

2011-01-15

We describe the corkscrew point spread function (PSF), which can localize objects in three dimensions throughout a 3.2 μm depth of field with nanometer precision. The corkscrew PSF rotates as a function of the axial (z) position of an emitter. Fisher information calculations show that the corkscrew PSF can achieve nanometer localization precision with limited numbers of photons. We demonstrate three-dimensional super-resolution microscopy with the corkscrew PSF by imaging beads on the surface of a triangular polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) grating. With 99,000 photons detected, the corkscrew PSF achieves a localization precision of 2.7 nm in x, 2.1 nm in y, and 5.7 nm in z.

Objects of consciousness

PubMed Central

Hoffman, Donald D.; Prakash, Chetan

2014-01-01

Current models of visual perception typically assume that human vision estimates true properties of physical objects, properties that exist even if unperceived. However, recent studies of perceptual evolution, using evolutionary games and genetic algorithms, reveal that natural selection often drives true perceptions to extinction when they compete with perceptions tuned to fitness rather than truth: Perception guides adaptive behavior; it does not estimate a preexisting physical truth. Moreover, shifting from evolutionary biology to quantum physics, there is reason to disbelieve in preexisting physical truths: Certain interpretations of quantum theory deny that dynamical properties of physical objects have definite values when unobserved. In some of these interpretations the observer is fundamental, and wave functions are compendia of subjective probabilities, not preexisting elements of physical reality. These two considerations, from evolutionary biology and quantum physics, suggest that current models of object perception require fundamental reformulation. Here we begin such a reformulation, starting with a formal model of consciousness that we call a “conscious agent.” We develop the dynamics of interacting conscious agents, and study how the perception of objects and space-time can emerge from such dynamics. We show that one particular object, the quantum free particle, has a wave function that is identical in form to the harmonic functions that characterize the asymptotic dynamics of conscious agents; particles are vibrations not of strings but of interacting conscious agents. This allows us to reinterpret physical properties such as position, momentum, and energy as properties of interacting conscious agents, rather than as preexisting physical truths. We sketch how this approach might extend to the perception of relativistic quantum objects, and to classical objects of macroscopic scale. PMID:24987382

An object oriented extension to CLIPS

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Sobkowicz, Clifford

1990-01-01

A presentation of software sub-system developed to augment C Language Production Systems (CLIPS) with facilities for object oriented Knowledge representation. Functions are provided to define classes, instantiate objects, access attributes, and assert object related facts. This extension is implemented via the CLIPS user function interface and does not require modification of any CLIPS code. It does rely on internal CLIPS functions for memory management and symbol representation.

Estimation of object motion parameters from noisy images.

PubMed

Broida, T J; Chellappa, R

1986-01-01

An approach is presented for the estimation of object motion parameters based on a sequence of noisy images. The problem considered is that of a rigid body undergoing unknown rotational and translational motion. The measurement data consists of a sequence of noisy image coordinates of two or more object correspondence points. By modeling the object dynamics as a function of time, estimates of the model parameters (including motion parameters) can be extracted from the data using recursive and/or batch techniques. This permits a desired degree of smoothing to be achieved through the use of an arbitrarily large number of images. Some assumptions regarding object structure are presently made. Results are presented for a recursive estimation procedure: the case considered here is that of a sequence of one dimensional images of a two dimensional object. Thus, the object moves in one transverse dimension, and in depth, preserving the fundamental ambiguity of the central projection image model (loss of depth information). An iterated extended Kalman filter is used for the recursive solution. Noise levels of 5-10 percent of the object image size are used. Approximate Cramer-Rao lower bounds are derived for the model parameter estimates as a function of object trajectory and noise level. This approach may be of use in situations where it is difficult to resolve large numbers of object match points, but relatively long sequences of images (10 to 20 or more) are available.

Relations of Preschoolers' Visual-Motor and Object Manipulation Skills with Executive Function and Social Behavior

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

MacDonald, Megan; Lipscomb, Shannon; McClelland, Megan M.; Duncan, Rob; Becker, Derek; Anderson, Kim; Kile, Molly

2016-01-01

Purpose: The purpose of this article was to examine specific linkages between early visual-motor integration skills and executive function, as well as between early object manipulation skills and social behaviors in the classroom during the preschool year. Method: Ninety-two children aged 3 to 5 years old (M[subscript age] = 4.31 years) were…

An Introduction to Object-Oriented Programming with a Didactic Microworld: "objectKarel"

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Xinogalos, Stelios; Satratzemi, Maya; Dagdilelis, Vassilios

2006-01-01

The objects-first strategy to teaching programming has prevailed over the imperative-first and functional-first strategies during the last decade. However, the objects-first strategy has created added difficulties to both the teaching and learning of programming. In an attempt to confront these difficulties and support the objects-first strategy…

Algorithms for Learning Preferences for Sets of Objects

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Wagstaff, Kiri L.; desJardins, Marie; Eaton, Eric

2010-01-01

A method is being developed that provides for an artificial-intelligence system to learn a user's preferences for sets of objects and to thereafter automatically select subsets of objects according to those preferences. The method was originally intended to enable automated selection, from among large sets of images acquired by instruments aboard spacecraft, of image subsets considered to be scientifically valuable enough to justify use of limited communication resources for transmission to Earth. The method is also applicable to other sets of objects: examples of sets of objects considered in the development of the method include food menus, radio-station music playlists, and assortments of colored blocks for creating mosaics. The method does not require the user to perform the often-difficult task of quantitatively specifying preferences; instead, the user provides examples of preferred sets of objects. This method goes beyond related prior artificial-intelligence methods for learning which individual items are preferred by the user: this method supports a concept of setbased preferences, which include not only preferences for individual items but also preferences regarding types and degrees of diversity of items in a set. Consideration of diversity in this method involves recognition that members of a set may interact with each other in the sense that when considered together, they may be regarded as being complementary, redundant, or incompatible to various degrees. The effects of such interactions are loosely summarized in the term portfolio effect. The learning method relies on a preference representation language, denoted DD-PREF, to express set-based preferences. In DD-PREF, a preference is represented by a tuple that includes quality (depth) functions to estimate how desired a specific value is, weights for each feature preference, the desired diversity of feature values, and the relative importance of diversity versus depth. The system applies statistical

A Model of Object-Identities and Values

DTIC Science & Technology

1990-02-23

integrity constraints in its construct, which provides the natural integration of the logical database model and the object-oriented database model. 20...portions are integrated by a simple commutative diagram of modeling functions. The formalism includes the expression of integrity constraints in its ...38 .5.2.2 The (Concept Model and Its Semantics .. .. .. .. ... .... ... .. 40 5.2.3 Two K%.inds of Predicates

Study of tonotopic brain changes with functional MRI and FDG-PET in a patient with unilateral objective cochlear tinnitus.

PubMed

Guinchard, A-C; Ghazaleh, Naghmeh; Saenz, M; Fornari, E; Prior, J O; Maeder, P; Adib, S; Maire, R

2016-11-01

We studied possible brain changes with functional MRI (fMRI) and fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (FDG-PET) in a patient with a rare, high-intensity "objective tinnitus" (high-level SOAEs) in the left ear of 10 years duration, with no associated hearing loss. This is the first case of objective cochlear tinnitus to be investigated with functional neuroimaging. The objective cochlear tinnitus was measured by Spontaneous Otoacoustic Emissions (SOAE) equipment (frequency 9689 Hz, intensity 57 dB SPL) and is clearly audible to anyone standing near the patient. Functional modifications in primary auditory areas and other brain regions were evaluated using 3T and 7T fMRI and FDG-PET. In the fMRI evaluations, a saturation of the auditory cortex at the tinnitus frequency was observed, but the global cortical tonotopic organization remained intact when compared to the results of fMRI of healthy subjects. The FDG-PET showed no evidence of an increase or decrease of activity in the auditory cortices or in the limbic system as compared to normal subjects. In this patient with high-intensity objective cochlear tinnitus, fMRI and FDG-PET showed no significant brain reorganization in auditory areas and/or in the limbic system, as reported in the literature in patients with chronic subjective tinnitus. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Multiple utility constrained multi-objective programs using Bayesian theory

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Abbasian, Pooneh; Mahdavi-Amiri, Nezam; Fazlollahtabar, Hamed

2018-03-01

A utility function is an important tool for representing a DM's preference. We adjoin utility functions to multi-objective optimization problems. In current studies, usually one utility function is used for each objective function. Situations may arise for a goal to have multiple utility functions. Here, we consider a constrained multi-objective problem with each objective having multiple utility functions. We induce the probability of the utilities for each objective function using Bayesian theory. Illustrative examples considering dependence and independence of variables are worked through to demonstrate the usefulness of the proposed model.

Application of Multi-Objective Human Learning Optimization Method to Solve AC/DC Multi-Objective Optimal Power Flow Problem

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cao, Jia; Yan, Zheng; He, Guangyu

2016-06-01

This paper introduces an efficient algorithm, multi-objective human learning optimization method (MOHLO), to solve AC/DC multi-objective optimal power flow problem (MOPF). Firstly, the model of AC/DC MOPF including wind farms is constructed, where includes three objective functions, operating cost, power loss, and pollutant emission. Combining the non-dominated sorting technique and the crowding distance index, the MOHLO method can be derived, which involves individual learning operator, social learning operator, random exploration learning operator and adaptive strategies. Both the proposed MOHLO method and non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm II (NSGAII) are tested on an improved IEEE 30-bus AC/DC hybrid system. Simulation results show that MOHLO method has excellent search efficiency and the powerful ability of searching optimal. Above all, MOHLO method can obtain more complete pareto front than that by NSGAII method. However, how to choose the optimal solution from pareto front depends mainly on the decision makers who stand from the economic point of view or from the energy saving and emission reduction point of view.

It's all connected: Pathways in visual object recognition and early noun learning.

PubMed

Smith, Linda B

2013-11-01

A developmental pathway may be defined as the route, or chain of events, through which a new structure or function forms. For many human behaviors, including object name learning and visual object recognition, these pathways are often complex and multicausal and include unexpected dependencies. This article presents three principles of development that suggest the value of a developmental psychology that explicitly seeks to trace these pathways and uses empirical evidence on developmental dependencies among motor development, action on objects, visual object recognition, and object name learning in 12- to 24-month-old infants to make the case. The article concludes with a consideration of the theoretical implications of this approach. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2013 APA, all rights reserved).

Objective Assessment of Bimanual Laparoscopic Surgical Skills via Functional Near Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nemani, Arun

Surgical simulators are effective methods for training and assessing surgical technical skills, particularly those that are bimanual. These simulators are now ubiquitous in surgical training and assessment programs for residents. Simulators are used in programs such as the Fundamentals of Laparoscopic Surgery (FLS) and Fundamentals of Endoscopic Surgery (FES), which are pre-requisites for Board certification in general surgery. Although these surgical simulators have been validated for clinical use, they have significant limitations, such as subjectivity in assessment metrics, poor correlation of transfer from simulation to clinically relevant environments, poor correlation of task performance scores to learning motor skill levels, and ultimately inconsistent reliability of these assessment methods as an indicator of positive patient outcomes. These limitations present an opportunity for more objective and analytical approaches to assess surgical motor skills. To address these surgical skill assessment limitations, we present functional near-infrared spectroscopic (fNIRS), a non-invasive brain imaging method, to objectively differentiate and classify subjects with varying degrees of laparoscopic surgical motor skill levels based on measurements of functional activation changes. In this work, we show that fNIRS based metrics can objectively differentiate and classify surgical motor skill levels with significantly more accuracy than established metrics. Using classification approaches such as multivariate linear discriminant analysis, we show evidence that fNIRS metrics reduce the misclassification error, defined as the probability that a trained subject is misclassified as an untrained subject and vice versa, from 53-61% to 4.2-4.4% compared to conventional metrics for surgical skill assessment. This evidence also translates to surgical skill transfer metrics, where such metrics assess surgical motor skill transfer from simulation to clinically relevant environments

The Functional Architecture of Visual Object Recognition

DTIC Science & Technology

1991-07-01

different forms of agnosia can provide clues to the representations underlying normal object recognition (Farah, 1990). For example, the pair-wise...patterns of deficit and sparing occur. In a review of 99 published cases of agnosia , the observed patterns of co- occurrence implicated two underlying

Cellular automata with object-oriented features for parallel molecular network modeling.

PubMed

Zhu, Hao; Wu, Yinghui; Huang, Sui; Sun, Yan; Dhar, Pawan

2005-06-01

Cellular automata are an important modeling paradigm for studying the dynamics of large, parallel systems composed of multiple, interacting components. However, to model biological systems, cellular automata need to be extended beyond the large-scale parallelism and intensive communication in order to capture two fundamental properties characteristic of complex biological systems: hierarchy and heterogeneity. This paper proposes extensions to a cellular automata language, Cellang, to meet this purpose. The extended language, with object-oriented features, can be used to describe the structure and activity of parallel molecular networks within cells. Capabilities of this new programming language include object structure to define molecular programs within a cell, floating-point data type and mathematical functions to perform quantitative computation, message passing capability to describe molecular interactions, as well as new operators, statements, and built-in functions. We discuss relevant programming issues of these features, including the object-oriented description of molecular interactions with molecule encapsulation, message passing, and the description of heterogeneity and anisotropy at the cell and molecule levels. By enabling the integration of modeling at the molecular level with system behavior at cell, tissue, organ, or even organism levels, the program will help improve our understanding of how complex and dynamic biological activities are generated and controlled by parallel functioning of molecular networks. Index Terms-Cellular automata, modeling, molecular network, object-oriented.

Numerical Analysis Objects

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Henderson, Michael

1997-08-01

The Numerical Analysis Objects project (NAO) is a project in the Mathematics Department of IBM's TJ Watson Research Center. While there are plenty of numerical tools available today, it is not an easy task to combine them into a custom application. NAO is directed at the dual problems of building applications from a set of tools, and creating those tools. There are several "reuse" projects, which focus on the problems of identifying and cataloging tools. NAO is directed at the specific context of scientific computing. Because the type of tools is restricted, problems such as tools with incompatible data structures for input and output, and dissimilar interfaces to tools which solve similar problems can be addressed. The approach we've taken is to define interfaces to those objects used in numerical analysis, such as geometries, functions and operators, and to start collecting (and building) a set of tools which use these interfaces. We have written a class library (a set of abstract classes and implementations) in C++ which demonstrates the approach. Besides the classes, the class library includes "stub" routines which allow the library to be used from C or Fortran, and an interface to a Visual Programming Language. The library has been used to build a simulator for petroleum reservoirs, using a set of tools for discretizing nonlinear differential equations that we have written, and includes "wrapped" versions of packages from the Netlib repository. Documentation can be found on the Web at "http://www.research.ibm.com/nao". I will describe the objects and their interfaces, and give examples ranging from mesh generation to solving differential equations.

Object width modulates object-based attentional selection.

PubMed

Nah, Joseph C; Neppi-Modona, Marco; Strother, Lars; Behrmann, Marlene; Shomstein, Sarah

2018-04-24

Visual input typically includes a myriad of objects, some of which are selected for further processing. While these objects vary in shape and size, most evidence supporting object-based guidance of attention is drawn from paradigms employing two identical objects. Importantly, object size is a readily perceived stimulus dimension, and whether it modulates the distribution of attention remains an open question. Across four experiments, the size of the objects in the display was manipulated in a modified version of the two-rectangle paradigm. In Experiment 1, two identical parallel rectangles of two sizes (thin or thick) were presented. Experiments 2-4 employed identical trapezoids (each having a thin and thick end), inverted in orientation. In the experiments, one end of an object was cued and participants performed either a T/L discrimination or a simple target-detection task. Combined results show that, in addition to the standard object-based attentional advantage, there was a further attentional benefit for processing information contained in the thick versus thin end of objects. Additionally, eye-tracking measures demonstrated increased saccade precision towards thick object ends, suggesting that Fitts's Law may play a role in object-based attentional shifts. Taken together, these results suggest that object-based attentional selection is modulated by object width.

Objectively Measured Physical Activity and Cognitive Function in Older Adults.

PubMed

Zhu, Wenfei; Wadley, Virginia G; Howard, Virginia J; Hutto, Brent; Blair, Steven N; Hooker, Steven P

2017-01-01

Emerging evidence suggests physical activity (PA) is associated with cognitive function. To overcome limitations of self-report PA measures, this study investigated the association of accelerometer-measured PA with incident cognitive impairment and longitudinal cognition among older adults. Participants were recruited from the cohort study Reasons for Geographic and Racial Differences in Stroke in the United States. Accelerometers provided PA measures, including the percentage of total accelerometer wearing time spent in moderate-to-vigorous-intensity PA (MVPA%), light-intensity PA, and sedentary time for four to seven consecutive days at baseline. Cognitive impairment was defined by the Six-Item Screener. Letter fluency, animal fluency, word list learning, and Montreal Cognitive Assessment (orientation and recall) were conducted to assess executive function and memory. Participants (N = 6452, 69.7 ± 8.5 yr, 55.3% women, 30.5% Black) with usable accelerometer and cognition measures spent extremely limited time in MVPA (1.5% ± 1.9% of accelerometer wearing time). During an average of 3 yr of follow-up, 346 cases of incident cognitive impairment were observed. After adjustments, participants in higher MVPA% quartiles had a lower risk of cognitive impairment (i.e., quartile 2: odds ratio = 0.64, 95% confidence interval = 0.48-0.84) and better maintenance in executive function (≥0.03 z-score units) and memory (≥0.12 z-score units) compared with quartile 1 (P < 0.05). Stratified analyses showed the same association among White adults, but higher MVPA% was associated with better maintenance of only memory among Black adults. No significance was found for light-intensity PA or sedentary time. There was a dose-response relationship between MVPA% and cognitive function in older adults, with higher levels associated with a 36% or lower risk of cognitive impairment and better maintenance of memory and executive function over time, particularly in White adults.

Performance in Object-Choice Aesop's Fable Tasks Are Influenced by Object Biases in New Caledonian Crows but not in Human Children.

PubMed

Miller, Rachael; Jelbert, Sarah A; Taylor, Alex H; Cheke, Lucy G; Gray, Russell D; Loissel, Elsa; Clayton, Nicola S

2016-01-01

The ability to reason about causality underlies key aspects of human cognition, but the extent to which non-humans understand causality is still largely unknown. The Aesop's Fable paradigm, where objects are inserted into water-filled tubes to obtain out-of-reach rewards, has been used to test casual reasoning in birds and children. However, success on these tasks may be influenced by other factors, specifically, object preferences present prior to testing or arising during pre-test stone-dropping training. Here, we assessed this 'object-bias' hypothesis by giving New Caledonian crows and 5-10 year old children two object-choice Aesop's Fable experiments: sinking vs. floating objects, and solid vs. hollow objects. Before each test, we assessed subjects' object preferences and/or trained them to prefer the alternative object. Both crows and children showed pre-test object preferences, suggesting that birds in previous Aesop's Fable studies may also have had initial preferences for objects that proved to be functional on test. After training to prefer the non-functional object, crows, but not children, performed more poorly on these two object-choice Aesop's Fable tasks than subjects in previous studies. Crows dropped the non-functional objects into the tube on their first trials, indicating that, unlike many children, they do not appear to have an a priori understanding of water displacement. Alternatively, issues with inhibition could explain their performance. The crows did, however, learn to solve the tasks over time. We tested crows further to determine whether their eventual success was based on learning about the functional properties of the objects, or associating dropping the functional object with reward. Crows inserted significantly more rewarded, non-functional objects than non-rewarded, functional objects. These findings suggest that the ability of New Caledonian crows to produce performances rivaling those of young children on object-choice Aesop

Aesthetic Issues in Spatial Composition: Effects of Vertical Position and Perspective on Framing Single Objects

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sammartino, Jonathan; Palmer, Stephen E.

2012-01-01

Aesthetic preference for the vertical composition of single-object pictures was studied through a series of two-alternative forced-choice experiments. The results reveal the influence of several factors, including spatial asymmetries in the functional properties of the object and the typical position of the object relative to the observer. With…

Lifetime suicide attempt history, quality of life, and objective functioning among HIV/AIDS patients with alcohol and illicit substance use disorders.

PubMed

Walter, Kimberly N; Petry, Nancy M

2016-05-01

This cross-sectional study evaluated lifetime prevalence of suicide attempts in 170 HIV/AIDS patients with substance use disorders and the impact of suicide attempt history on subjective indices of quality of life and objective indices of cognitive and physical functioning. All patients met the diagnostic criteria for past-year cocaine or opioid use disorders and 27% of patients also had co-occurring alcohol use disorders. Compared to their counterparts without a history of a suicide attempt, patients with a history of a suicide attempt (n = 60, 35.3%) had significantly poorer emotional and cognitive quality of life scores (ps < .05), but not physical, social, or functional/global quality-of-life scores. Lifetime suicide attempt status was unrelated to objective indices of cognitive functioning, but there was a non-significant trend (p = .07) toward lower viral loads in those with a lifetime suicide attempt relative to those without. The findings indicate that suicide attempt histories are prevalent among HIV/AIDS patients with substance use disorders and relate to poorer perceived emotional and cognitive quality of life, but not objective functioning. HIV/AIDS patients with substance use disorders should be screened for lifetime histories of suicide attempts and offered assistance to improve perceived emotional and cognitive functioning. © The Author(s) 2016.

Expertise Increases the Functional Overlap between Face and Object Perception

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McKeeff, Thomas J.; McGugin, Rankin W.; Tong, Frank; Gauthier, Isabel

2010-01-01

Recent studies indicate that expertise with objects can interfere with face processing. Although competition occurs between faces and objects of expertise, it remains unclear whether this reflects an expertise-specific bottleneck or the fact that objects of expertise grab attention and thereby consume more central resources. We investigated the…

Integration of the Gene Ontology into an object-oriented architecture.

PubMed

Shegogue, Daniel; Zheng, W Jim

2005-05-10

To standardize gene product descriptions, a formal vocabulary defined as the Gene Ontology (GO) has been developed. GO terms have been categorized into biological processes, molecular functions, and cellular components. However, there is no single representation that integrates all the terms into one cohesive model. Furthermore, GO definitions have little information explaining the underlying architecture that forms these terms, such as the dynamic and static events occurring in a process. In contrast, object-oriented models have been developed to show dynamic and static events. A portion of the TGF-beta signaling pathway, which is involved in numerous cellular events including cancer, differentiation and development, was used to demonstrate the feasibility of integrating the Gene Ontology into an object-oriented model. Using object-oriented models we have captured the static and dynamic events that occur during a representative GO process, "transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-beta) receptor complex assembly" (GO:0007181). We demonstrate that the utility of GO terms can be enhanced by object-oriented technology, and that the GO terms can be integrated into an object-oriented model by serving as a basis for the generation of object functions and attributes.

Integration of the Gene Ontology into an object-oriented architecture

PubMed Central

Shegogue, Daniel; Zheng, W Jim

2005-01-01

Background To standardize gene product descriptions, a formal vocabulary defined as the Gene Ontology (GO) has been developed. GO terms have been categorized into biological processes, molecular functions, and cellular components. However, there is no single representation that integrates all the terms into one cohesive model. Furthermore, GO definitions have little information explaining the underlying architecture that forms these terms, such as the dynamic and static events occurring in a process. In contrast, object-oriented models have been developed to show dynamic and static events. A portion of the TGF-beta signaling pathway, which is involved in numerous cellular events including cancer, differentiation and development, was used to demonstrate the feasibility of integrating the Gene Ontology into an object-oriented model. Results Using object-oriented models we have captured the static and dynamic events that occur during a representative GO process, "transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-beta) receptor complex assembly" (GO:0007181). Conclusion We demonstrate that the utility of GO terms can be enhanced by object-oriented technology, and that the GO terms can be integrated into an object-oriented model by serving as a basis for the generation of object functions and attributes. PMID:15885145

A Linear Programming Model to Optimize Various Objective Functions of a Foundation Type State Support Program.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Matzke, Orville R.

The purpose of this study was to formulate a linear programming model to simulate a foundation type support program and to apply this model to a state support program for the public elementary and secondary school districts in the State of Iowa. The model was successful in producing optimal solutions to five objective functions proposed for…

Neural correlates of the object-recall process in semantic memory.

PubMed

Assaf, Michal; Calhoun, Vince D; Kuzu, Cheedem H; Kraut, Michael A; Rivkin, Paul R; Hart, John; Pearlson, Godfrey D

2006-10-30

The recall of an object from features is a specific operation in semantic memory in which the thalamus and pre-supplementary motor area (pre-SMA) are integrally involved. Other higher-order semantic cortices are also likely to be involved. We used the object-recall-from-features paradigm, with more sensitive scanning techniques and larger sample size, to replicate and extend our previous results. Eighteen right-handed healthy participants performed an object-recall task and an association semantic task, while undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging. During object-recall, subjects determined whether words pairs describing object features combined to recall an object; during the association task they decided if two words were related. Of brain areas specifically involved in object recall, in addition to the thalamus and pre-SMA, other regions included the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, inferior parietal lobule, and middle temporal gyrus, and bilateral rostral anterior cingulate and inferior frontal gyri. These regions are involved in semantic processing, verbal working memory and response-conflict detection and monitoring. The thalamus likely helps to coordinate activity of these different brain areas. Understanding the circuit that normally mediates this process is relevant for schizophrenia, where many regions in this circuit are functionally abnormal and semantic memory is impaired.

NASA TSRV essential flight control system requirements via object oriented analysis

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Duffy, Keith S.; Hoza, Bradley J.

1992-01-01

The objective was to analyze the baseline flight control system of the Transport Systems Research Vehicle (TSRV) and to develop a system specification that offers high visibility of the essential system requirements in order to facilitate the future development of alternate, more advanced software architectures. The flight control system is defined to be the baseline software for the TSRV research flight deck, including all navigation, guidance, and control functions, and primary pilot displays. The Object Oriented Analysis (OOA) methodology developed is used to develop a system requirement definition. The scope of the requirements definition contained herein is limited to a portion of the Flight Management/Flight Control computer functionality. The development of a partial system requirements definition is documented, and includes a discussion of the tasks required to increase the scope of the requirements definition and recommendations for follow-on research.

Performance in Object-Choice Aesop’s Fable Tasks Are Influenced by Object Biases in New Caledonian Crows but not in Human Children

PubMed Central

Taylor, Alex H.; Cheke, Lucy G.; Gray, Russell D.; Loissel, Elsa; Clayton, Nicola S.

2016-01-01

The ability to reason about causality underlies key aspects of human cognition, but the extent to which non-humans understand causality is still largely unknown. The Aesop’s Fable paradigm, where objects are inserted into water-filled tubes to obtain out-of-reach rewards, has been used to test casual reasoning in birds and children. However, success on these tasks may be influenced by other factors, specifically, object preferences present prior to testing or arising during pre-test stone-dropping training. Here, we assessed this ‘object-bias’ hypothesis by giving New Caledonian crows and 5–10 year old children two object-choice Aesop’s Fable experiments: sinking vs. floating objects, and solid vs. hollow objects. Before each test, we assessed subjects’ object preferences and/or trained them to prefer the alternative object. Both crows and children showed pre-test object preferences, suggesting that birds in previous Aesop’s Fable studies may also have had initial preferences for objects that proved to be functional on test. After training to prefer the non-functional object, crows, but not children, performed more poorly on these two object-choice Aesop’s Fable tasks than subjects in previous studies. Crows dropped the non-functional objects into the tube on their first trials, indicating that, unlike many children, they do not appear to have an a priori understanding of water displacement. Alternatively, issues with inhibition could explain their performance. The crows did, however, learn to solve the tasks over time. We tested crows further to determine whether their eventual success was based on learning about the functional properties of the objects, or associating dropping the functional object with reward. Crows inserted significantly more rewarded, non-functional objects than non-rewarded, functional objects. These findings suggest that the ability of New Caledonian crows to produce performances rivaling those of young children on object

Methods, systems and devices for detecting and locating ferromagnetic objects

DOEpatents

Roybal, Lyle Gene [Idaho Falls, ID; Kotter, Dale Kent [Shelley, ID; Rohrbaugh, David Thomas [Idaho Falls, ID; Spencer, David Frazer [Idaho Falls, ID

2010-01-26

Methods for detecting and locating ferromagnetic objects in a security screening system. One method includes a step of acquiring magnetic data that includes magnetic field gradients detected during a period of time. Another step includes representing the magnetic data as a function of the period of time. Another step includes converting the magnetic data to being represented as a function of frequency. Another method includes a step of sensing a magnetic field for a period of time. Another step includes detecting a gradient within the magnetic field during the period of time. Another step includes identifying a peak value of the gradient detected during the period of time. Another step includes identifying a portion of time within the period of time that represents when the peak value occurs. Another step includes configuring the portion of time over the period of time to represent a ratio.

Objective Molecular Dynamics with Self-consistent Charge Density Functional Tight-Binding (SCC-DFTB) Method

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dumitrica, Traian; Hourahine, Ben; Aradi, Balint; Frauenheim, Thomas

We discus the coupling of the objective boundary conditions into the SCC density functional-based tight binding code DFTB+. The implementation is enabled by a generalization to the helical case of the classical Ewald method, specifically by Ewald-like formulas that do not rely on a unit cell with translational symmetry. The robustness of the method in addressing complex hetero-nuclear nano- and bio-fibrous systems is demonstrated with illustrative simulations on a helical boron nitride nanotube, a screw dislocated zinc oxide nanowire, and an ideal double-strand DNA. Work supported by NSF CMMI 1332228.

Systems and methods for producing metal clusters; functionalized surfaces; and droplets including solvated metal ions

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

Cooks, Robert Graham; Li, Anyin; Luo, Qingjie

The invention generally relates to systems and methods for producing metal clusters; functionalized surfaces; and droplets including solvated metal ions. In certain aspects, the invention provides methods that involve providing a metal and a solvent. The methods additionally involve applying voltage to the solvated metal to thereby produce solvent droplets including ions of the metal containing compound, and directing the solvent droplets including the metal ions to a target. In certain embodiments, once at the target, the metal ions can react directly or catalyze reactions.

Systems and methods for producing metal clusters; functionalized surfaces; and droplets including solvated metal ions

DOEpatents

Cooks, Robert Graham; Li, Anyin; Luo, Qingjie

2017-01-24

The invention generally relates to systems and methods for producing metal clusters; functionalized surfaces; and droplets including solvated metal ions. In certain aspects, the invention provides methods that involve providing a metal and a solvent. The methods additionally involve applying voltage to the solvated metal to thereby produce solvent droplets including ions of the metal containing compound, and directing the solvent droplets including the metal ions to a target. In certain embodiments, once at the target, the metal ions can react directly or catalyze reactions.

Sensitivity analysis, calibration, and testing of a distributed hydrological model using error‐based weighting and one objective function

USGS Publications Warehouse

Foglia, L.; Hill, Mary C.; Mehl, Steffen W.; Burlando, P.

2009-01-01

We evaluate the utility of three interrelated means of using data to calibrate the fully distributed rainfall‐runoff model TOPKAPI as applied to the Maggia Valley drainage area in Switzerland. The use of error‐based weighting of observation and prior information data, local sensitivity analysis, and single‐objective function nonlinear regression provides quantitative evaluation of sensitivity of the 35 model parameters to the data, identification of data types most important to the calibration, and identification of correlations among parameters that contribute to nonuniqueness. Sensitivity analysis required only 71 model runs, and regression required about 50 model runs. The approach presented appears to be ideal for evaluation of models with long run times or as a preliminary step to more computationally demanding methods. The statistics used include composite scaled sensitivities, parameter correlation coefficients, leverage, Cook's D, and DFBETAS. Tests suggest predictive ability of the calibrated model typical of hydrologic models.

Parana Basin Structure from Multi-Objective Inversion of Surface Wave and Receiver Function by Competent Genetic Algorithm

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

An, M.; Assumpcao, M.

2003-12-01

The joint inversion of receiver function and surface wave is an effective way to diminish the influences of the strong tradeoff among parameters and the different sensitivity to the model parameters in their respective inversions, but the inversion problem becomes more complex. Multi-objective problems can be much more complicated than single-objective inversion in the model selection and optimization. If objectives are involved and conflicting, models can be ordered only partially. In this case, Pareto-optimal preference should be used to select solutions. On the other hand, the inversion to get only a few optimal solutions can not deal properly with the strong tradeoff between parameters, the uncertainties in the observation, the geophysical complexities and even the incompetency of the inversion technique. The effective way is to retrieve the geophysical information statistically from many acceptable solutions, which requires more competent global algorithms. Competent genetic algorithms recently proposed are far superior to the conventional genetic algorithm and can solve hard problems quickly, reliably and accurately. In this work we used one of competent genetic algorithms, Bayesian Optimization Algorithm as the main inverse procedure. This algorithm uses Bayesian networks to draw out inherited information and can use Pareto-optimal preference in the inversion. With this algorithm, the lithospheric structure of Paran"› basin is inverted to fit both the observations of inter-station surface wave dispersion and receiver function.

A Model for the Design of Puzzle-Based Games Including Virtual and Physical Objects

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Melero, Javier; Hernandez-Leo, Davinia

2014-01-01

Multiple evidences in the Technology-Enhanced Learning domain indicate that Game-Based Learning can lead to positive effects in students' performance and motivation. Educational games can be completely virtual or can combine the use of physical objects or spaces in the real world. However, the potential effectiveness of these approaches…

25 CFR 1000.361 - Will the annual review include a review of the Secretary's residual trust functions?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-04-01

...'s residual trust functions? 1000.361 Section 1000.361 Indians OFFICE OF THE ASSISTANT SECRETARY... AMENDMENTS TO THE INDIAN SELF-DETERMINATION AND EDUCATION ACT Trust Evaluation Review Annual Trust Evaluations § 1000.361 Will the annual review include a review of the Secretary's residual trust functions...

Changes of EEG Spectra and Functional Connectivity during an Object-Location Memory Task in Alzheimer's Disease.

PubMed

Han, Yuliang; Wang, Kai; Jia, Jianjun; Wu, Weiping

2017-01-01

Object-location memory is particularly fragile and specifically impaired in Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients. Electroencephalogram (EEG) was utilized to objectively measure memory impairment for memory formation correlates of EEG oscillatory activities. We aimed to construct an object-location memory paradigm and explore EEG signs of it. Two groups of 20 probable mild AD patients and 19 healthy older adults were included in a cross-sectional analysis. All subjects took an object-location memory task. EEG recordings performed during object-location memory tasks were compared between the two groups in the two EEG parameters (spectral parameters and phase synchronization). The memory performance of AD patients was worse than that of healthy elderly adults The power of object-location memory of the AD group was significantly higher than the NC group (healthy elderly adults) in the alpha band in the encoding session, and alpha and theta bands in the retrieval session. The channels-pairs the phase lag index value of object-location memory in the AD group was clearly higher than the NC group in the delta, theta, and alpha bands in encoding sessions and delta and theta bands in retrieval sessions. The results provide support for the hypothesis that the AD patients may use compensation mechanisms to remember the items and episode.

Activity and function recognition for moving and static objects in urban environments from wide-area persistent surveillance inputs

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Levchuk, Georgiy; Bobick, Aaron; Jones, Eric

2010-04-01

In this paper, we describe results from experimental analysis of a model designed to recognize activities and functions of moving and static objects from low-resolution wide-area video inputs. Our model is based on representing the activities and functions using three variables: (i) time; (ii) space; and (iii) structures. The activity and function recognition is achieved by imposing lexical, syntactic, and semantic constraints on the lower-level event sequences. In the reported research, we have evaluated the utility and sensitivity of several algorithms derived from natural language processing and pattern recognition domains. We achieved high recognition accuracy for a wide range of activity and function types in the experiments using Electro-Optical (EO) imagery collected by Wide Area Airborne Surveillance (WAAS) platform.

Mediating objects: scientific and public functions of models in nineteenth-century biology.

PubMed

Ludwig, David

2013-01-01

The aim of this article is to examine the scientific and public functions of two- and three-dimensional models in the context of three episodes from nineteenth-century biology. I argue that these models incorporate both data and theory by presenting theoretical assumptions in the light of concrete data or organizing data through theoretical assumptions. Despite their diverse roles in scientific practice, they all can be characterized as mediators between data and theory. Furthermore, I argue that these different mediating functions often reflect their different audiences that included specialized scientists, students, and the general public. In this sense, models in nineteenth-century biology can be understood as mediators between theory, data, and their diverse audiences.

Photometric Data from Non-Resolved Objects for Space Object Characterization and Improved Atmospheric Modeling

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Linares, R.; Palmer, D.; Thompson, D.; Koller, J.

2013-09-01

Recent events in space, including the collision of Russia's Cosmos 2251 satellite with Iridium 33 and China's Feng Yun 1C anti-satellite demonstration, have stressed the capabilities of Space Surveillance Network (SSN) and its ability to provide accurate and actionable impact probability estimates. The SSN network has the unique challenge of tracking more than 18,000 resident space objects (RSOs) and providing critical collision avoidance warnings to military, NASA, and commercial systems. However, due to the large number of RSOs and the limited number of sensors available to track them, it is impossible to maintain persistent surveillance. Observation gaps result in large propagation intervals between measurements and close approaches. Coupled with nonlinear RSO dynamics this results in difficulty in modeling the probability distribution functions (pdfs) of the RSO. In particular low-Earth orbiting (LEO) satellites are heavily influenced by atmospheric drag, which is very difficult to model accurately. A number of atmospheric models exist which can be classified as either empirical or physics-based models. The current Air Force standard is the High Accuracy Satellite Drag Model (HASDM), which is an empirical model based on observation of calibration satellites. These satellite observations are used to determine model parameters based on their orbit determination solutions. Atmospheric orbits are perturbed by a number of factors including drag coefficient, attitude, and shape of the space object. The satellites used for the HASDM model calibration process are chosen because of their relatively simple shapes, to minimize errors introduced due to shape miss-modeling. Under this requirement the number of calibration satellites that can be used for calibrating the atmospheric models is limited. Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) has established a research effort, called IMPACT (Integrated Modeling of Perturbations in Atmospheres for Conjunction Tracking), to improve

Parietal and frontal object areas underlie perception of object orientation in depth.

PubMed

Niimi, Ryosuke; Saneyoshi, Ayako; Abe, Reiko; Kaminaga, Tatsuro; Yokosawa, Kazuhiko

2011-05-27

Recent studies have shown that the human parietal and frontal cortices are involved in object image perception. We hypothesized that the parietal/frontal object areas play a role in differentiating the orientations (i.e., views) of an object. By using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we compared brain activations while human observers differentiated between two object images in depth-orientation (orientation task) and activations while they differentiated the images in object identity (identity task). The left intraparietal area, right angular gyrus, and right inferior frontal areas were activated more for the orientation task than for the identity task. The occipitotemporal object areas, however, were activated equally for the two tasks. No region showed greater activation for the identity task. These results suggested that the parietal/frontal object areas encode view-dependent visual features and underlie object orientation perception. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Embedding objects during 3D printing to add new functionalities.

PubMed

Yuen, Po Ki

2016-07-01

A novel method for integrating and embedding objects to add new functionalities during 3D printing based on fused deposition modeling (FDM) (also known as fused filament fabrication or molten polymer deposition) is presented. Unlike typical 3D printing, FDM-based 3D printing could allow objects to be integrated and embedded during 3D printing and the FDM-based 3D printed devices do not typically require any post-processing and finishing. Thus, various fluidic devices with integrated glass cover slips or polystyrene films with and without an embedded porous membrane, and optical devices with embedded Corning(®) Fibrance™ Light-Diffusing Fiber were 3D printed to demonstrate the versatility of the FDM-based 3D printing and embedding method. Fluid perfusion flow experiments with a blue colored food dye solution were used to visually confirm fluid flow and/or fluid perfusion through the embedded porous membrane in the 3D printed fluidic devices. Similar to typical 3D printed devices, FDM-based 3D printed devices are translucent at best unless post-polishing is performed and optical transparency is highly desirable in any fluidic devices; integrated glass cover slips or polystyrene films would provide a perfect optical transparent window for observation and visualization. In addition, they also provide a compatible flat smooth surface for biological or biomolecular applications. The 3D printed fluidic devices with an embedded porous membrane are applicable to biological or chemical applications such as continuous perfusion cell culture or biocatalytic synthesis but without the need for any post-device assembly and finishing. The 3D printed devices with embedded Corning(®) Fibrance™ Light-Diffusing Fiber would have applications in display, illumination, or optical applications. Furthermore, the FDM-based 3D printing and embedding method could also be utilized to print casting molds with an integrated glass bottom for polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) device replication

Embedding objects during 3D printing to add new functionalities

PubMed Central

2016-01-01

A novel method for integrating and embedding objects to add new functionalities during 3D printing based on fused deposition modeling (FDM) (also known as fused filament fabrication or molten polymer deposition) is presented. Unlike typical 3D printing, FDM-based 3D printing could allow objects to be integrated and embedded during 3D printing and the FDM-based 3D printed devices do not typically require any post-processing and finishing. Thus, various fluidic devices with integrated glass cover slips or polystyrene films with and without an embedded porous membrane, and optical devices with embedded Corning® Fibrance™ Light-Diffusing Fiber were 3D printed to demonstrate the versatility of the FDM-based 3D printing and embedding method. Fluid perfusion flow experiments with a blue colored food dye solution were used to visually confirm fluid flow and/or fluid perfusion through the embedded porous membrane in the 3D printed fluidic devices. Similar to typical 3D printed devices, FDM-based 3D printed devices are translucent at best unless post-polishing is performed and optical transparency is highly desirable in any fluidic devices; integrated glass cover slips or polystyrene films would provide a perfect optical transparent window for observation and visualization. In addition, they also provide a compatible flat smooth surface for biological or biomolecular applications. The 3D printed fluidic devices with an embedded porous membrane are applicable to biological or chemical applications such as continuous perfusion cell culture or biocatalytic synthesis but without the need for any post-device assembly and finishing. The 3D printed devices with embedded Corning® Fibrance™ Light-Diffusing Fiber would have applications in display, illumination, or optical applications. Furthermore, the FDM-based 3D printing and embedding method could also be utilized to print casting molds with an integrated glass bottom for polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) device replication. These

Hybrid reflecting objectives for functional multiphoton microscopy in turbid media

PubMed Central

Vučinić, Dejan; Bartol, Thomas M.; Sejnowski, Terrence J.

2010-01-01

Most multiphoton imaging of biological specimens is performed using microscope objectives optimized for high image quality under wide-field illumination. We present a class of objectives designed de novo without regard for these traditional constraints, driven exclusively by the needs of fast multiphoton imaging in turbid media: the delivery of femtosecond pulses without dispersion and the efficient collection of fluorescence. We model the performance of one such design optimized for a typical brain-imaging setup and show that it can greatly outperform objectives commonly used for this task. PMID:16880851

Catalog of Performance Objectives and Performance Guides for Physical Therapy Occupations.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Reneau, Fred; Hahn, Dave

This catalog provides a worker-based description of duties, tasks, performance objectives and guides, and related data for physical therapy occupations. Duties covered include the following: (1) performing administrative/clerical functions; (2) communicating information; (3) providing patient care services; (4) performing support service; (5)…

Brain regions involved in subprocesses of small-space episodic object-location memory: a systematic review of lesion and functional neuroimaging studies.

PubMed

Zimmermann, Kathrin; Eschen, Anne

2017-04-01

Object-location memory (OLM) enables us to keep track of the locations of objects in our environment. The neurocognitive model of OLM (Postma, A., Kessels, R. P. C., & Van Asselen, M. (2004). The neuropsychology of object-location memory. In G. L. Allen (Ed.), Human spatial memory: Remembering where (pp. 143-160). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, Postma, A., Kessels, R. P. C., & Van Asselen, M. (2008). How the brain remembers and forgets where things are: The neurocognition of object-location memory. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 32, 1339-1345. doi: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2008.05.001 ) proposes that distinct brain regions are specialised for different subprocesses of OLM (object processing, location processing, and object-location binding; categorical and coordinate OLM; egocentric and allocentric OLM). It was based mainly on findings from lesion studies. However, recent episodic memory studies point to a contribution of additional or different brain regions to object and location processing within episodic OLM. To evaluate and update the neurocognitive model of OLM, we therefore conducted a systematic literature search for lesion as well as functional neuroimaging studies contrasting small-space episodic OLM with object memory or location memory. We identified 10 relevant lesion studies and 8 relevant functional neuroimaging studies. We could confirm some of the proposals of the neurocognitive model of OLM, but also differing hypotheses from episodic memory research, about which brain regions are involved in the different subprocesses of small-space episodic OLM. In addition, we were able to identify new brain regions as well as important research gaps.

Diagnosis and sensor validation through knowledge of structure and function

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Scarl, Ethan A.; Jamieson, John R.; Delaune, Carl I.

1987-01-01

The liquid oxygen expert system 'LES' is proposed as the first capable of diagnostic reasoning from sensor data, using model-based knowledge of structure and function to find the expected state of all system objects, including sensors. The approach is generally algorithmic rather than heuristic, and represents uncertainties as sets of possibilities. Functional relationships are inverted to determine hypothetical values for potentially faulty objects, and may include conditional functions not normally considered to have inverses.

Functional MRI mapping of category-specific sites associated with naming of famous faces, animals and man-made objects.

PubMed

Bai, Hong-Min; Jiang, Tao; Wang, Wei-Min; Li, Tian-Dong; Liu, Yan; Lu, Yi-Cheng

2011-10-01

Category-specific recognition and naming deficits have been observed in a variety of patient populations. However, the category-specific cortices for naming famous faces, animals and man-made objects remain controversial. The present study aimed to study the specific areas involved in naming pictures of these 3 categories using functional magnetic resonance imaging. Functional images were analyzed using statistical parametric mapping and the 3 different contrasts were evaluated using t statistics by comparing the naming tasks to their baselines. The contrast images were entered into a random-effects group level analysis. The results were reported in Montreal Neurological Institute coordinates, and anatomical regions were identified using an automated anatomical labeling method with XJview 8. Naming famous faces caused more activation in the bilateral head of the hippocampus and amygdala with significant left dominance. Bilateral activation of pars triangularis and pars opercularis in the naming of famous faces was also revealed. Naming animals evoked greater responses in the left supplementary motor area, while naming man-made objects evoked more in the left premotor area, left pars orbitalis and right supplementary motor area. The extent of bilateral fusiform gyri activation by naming man-made objects was much larger than that by naming of famous faces or animals. Even in the overlapping sites of activation, some differences among the categories were found for activation in the fusiform gyri. The cortices involved in the naming process vary with the naming of famous faces, animals and man-made objects. This finding suggests that different categories of pictures should be used during intra-operative language mapping to generate a broader map of language function, in order to minimize the incidence of false-negative stimulation and permanent post-operative deficits.

Distributed Object Oriented Programming

DTIC Science & Technology

1990-02-01

of the object oriented model of computation. Therefore, object oriented programming can provide the programmer with good conceptual tools to divide his...LABOR SALES-COMMISSION). The symbol + refers to the addition function and takes any number of numeric arguments. The third subtype of list forms is the...2) ’(:SEND-DONE) (SEWF (AREF OBJECT-i1-MESSAGES-SENT 2) ’(PROGN (FORMAT T "-s methd completely executed instr-ptr -s-V NAME %INSTR-PTR%) (INCF

Semantic memory in object use.

PubMed

Silveri, Maria Caterina; Ciccarelli, Nicoletta

2009-10-01

We studied five patients with semantic memory disorders, four with semantic dementia and one with herpes simplex virus encephalitis, to investigate the involvement of semantic conceptual knowledge in object use. Comparisons between patients who had semantic deficits of different severity, as well as the follow-up, showed that the ability to use objects was largely preserved when the deficit was mild but progressively decayed as the deficit became more severe. Naming was generally more impaired than object use. Production tasks (pantomime execution and actual object use) and comprehension tasks (pantomime recognition and action recognition) as well as functional knowledge about objects were impaired when the semantic deficit was severe. Semantic and unrelated errors were produced during object use, but actions were always fluent and patients performed normally on a novel tools task in which the semantic demand was minimal. Patients with severe semantic deficits scored borderline on ideational apraxia tasks. Our data indicate that functional semantic knowledge is crucial for using objects in a conventional way and suggest that non-semantic factors, mainly non-declarative components of memory, might compensate to some extent for semantic disorders and guarantee some residual ability to use very common objects independently of semantic knowledge.

Angle restriction enhances synchronization of self-propelled objects.

PubMed

Gao, Jianxi; Havlin, Shlomo; Xu, Xiaoming; Stanley, H Eugene

2011-10-01

Understanding the synchronization process of self-propelled objects is of great interest in science and technology. We propose a synchronization model for a self-propelled objects system in which we restrict the maximal angle change of each object to θ(R). At each time step, each object moves and changes its direction according to the average direction of all of its neighbors (including itself). If the angle change is greater than a cutoff angle θ(R), the change is replaced by θ(R). We find that (i) counterintuitively, the synchronization improves significantly when θ(R) decreases, (ii) there exists a critical restricted angle θ(Rc) at which the synchronization order parameter changes from a large value to a small value, and (iii) for each noise amplitude η, the synchronization as a function of θ(R) shows a maximum value, indicating the existence of an optimal θ(R) that yields the best synchronization for every η.

Management By/Of Objectives at DeKalb Community College.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Scott, W. Wayne

A model is presented to help community college administrators coordinate efforts to achieve institutional objectives. Two kinds of objectives are discussed: (1) functional performance objectives, which entail maintaining predetermined standards of performance for the repetitive systems and functions of the college; and (2) change objectives, which…

Multi-objective vs. single-objective calibration of a hydrologic model using single- and multi-objective screening

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mai, Juliane; Cuntz, Matthias; Shafii, Mahyar; Zink, Matthias; Schäfer, David; Thober, Stephan; Samaniego, Luis; Tolson, Bryan

2016-04-01

Hydrologic models are traditionally calibrated against observed streamflow. Recent studies have shown however, that only a few global model parameters are constrained using this kind of integral signal. They can be identified using prior screening techniques. Since different objectives might constrain different parameters, it is advisable to use multiple information to calibrate those models. One common approach is to combine these multiple objectives (MO) into one single objective (SO) function and allow the use of a SO optimization algorithm. Another strategy is to consider the different objectives separately and apply a MO Pareto optimization algorithm. In this study, two major research questions will be addressed: 1) How do multi-objective calibrations compare with corresponding single-objective calibrations? 2) How much do calibration results deteriorate when the number of calibrated parameters is reduced by a prior screening technique? The hydrologic model employed in this study is a distributed hydrologic model (mHM) with 52 model parameters, i.e. transfer coefficients. The model uses grid cells as a primary hydrologic unit, and accounts for processes like snow accumulation and melting, soil moisture dynamics, infiltration, surface runoff, evapotranspiration, subsurface storage and discharge generation. The model is applied in three distinct catchments over Europe. The SO calibrations are performed using the Dynamically Dimensioned Search (DDS) algorithm with a fixed budget while the MO calibrations are achieved using the Pareto Dynamically Dimensioned Search (PA-DDS) algorithm allowing for the same budget. The two objectives used here are the Nash Sutcliffe Efficiency (NSE) of the simulated streamflow and the NSE of the logarithmic transformation. It is shown that the SO DDS results are located close to the edges of the Pareto fronts of the PA-DDS. The MO calibrations are hence preferable due to their supply of multiple equivalent solutions from which the

Forms Of Memory For Representation Of Visual Objects

DTIC Science & Technology

1991-02-14

description system that functions independently of the episodic memory system that is damaged in amnesia and supports explicit remembering. Miscellaneous...well as semantic and functional information about an object, are preserved in the episodic system. 4. Priming and recognition of depth-cued, 3D objects A...requirement should serve to enhance an object’s distinctiveness in episodic memory . We also predicted robust priming for symmetric objects; this is because

Medial perirhinal cortex disambiguates confusable objects

PubMed Central

Tyler, Lorraine K.; Monsch, Andreas U.; Taylor, Kirsten I.

2012-01-01

Our brain disambiguates the objects in our cluttered visual world seemingly effortlessly, enabling us to understand their significance and to act appropriately. The role of anteromedial temporal structures in this process, particularly the perirhinal cortex, is highly controversial. In some accounts, the perirhinal cortex is necessary for differentiating between perceptually and semantically confusable objects. Other models claim that the perirhinal cortex neither disambiguates perceptually confusable objects nor plays a unique role in semantic processing. One major hurdle to resolving this central debate is the fact that brain damage in human patients typically encompasses large portions of the anteromedial temporal lobe, such that the identification of individual substructures and precise neuroanatomical locus of the functional impairments has been difficult. We tested these competing accounts in patients with Alzheimer’s disease with varying degrees of atrophy in anteromedial structures, including the perirhinal cortex. To assess the functional contribution of each anteromedial temporal region separately, we used a detailed region of interest approach. From each participant, we obtained magnetic resonance imaging scans and behavioural data from a picture naming task that contrasted naming performance with living and non-living things as a way of manipulating perceptual and semantic confusability; living things are more similar to one another than non-living things, which have more distinctive features. We manually traced neuroanatomical regions of interest on native-space cortical surface reconstructions to obtain mean thickness estimates for the lateral and medial perirhinal cortex and entorhinal cortex. Mean cortical thickness in each region of interest, and hippocampal volume, were submitted to regression analyses predicting naming performance. Importantly, atrophy of the medial perirhinal cortex, but not lateral perirhinal cortex, entorhinal cortex or

Cognitive Functioning after Medial Frontal Lobe Damage Including the Anterior Cingulate Cortex: A Preliminary Investigation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Baird, Amee; Dewar, Bonnie-Kate; Critchley, Hugo; Gilbert, Sam J.; Dolan, Raymond J.; Cipolotti, Lisa

2006-01-01

Two patients with medial frontal lobe damage involving the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) performed a range of cognitive tasks, including tests of executive function and anterior attention. Both patients lesions extended beyond the ACC, therefore caution needs to be exerted in ascribing observed deficits to the ACC alone. Patient performance was…

Infants with Down Syndrome and Their Interactions with Objects: Development of Exploratory Actions after Reaching Onset

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

de Campos, Ana Carolina; da Costa, Carolina Souza Neves; Savelsbergh, Geert J. P.; Rocha, Nelci Adriana Cicuto Ferreira

2013-01-01

During infant development, objects and their functions are learned by means of active exploration. Factors that may influence exploration include reaching and grasping ability, object properties and the presence of developmental disorders. We assessed the development of exploratory actions in 16 typically-developing (TD) infants and 9 infants with…

A predator-prey model with a holling type I functional response including a predator mutual interference

USGS Publications Warehouse

Seo, G.; DeAngelis, D.L.

2011-01-01

The most widely used functional response in describing predator-prey relationships is the Holling type II functional response, where per capita predation is a smooth, increasing, and saturating function of prey density. Beddington and DeAngelis modified the Holling type II response to include interference of predators that increases with predator density. Here we introduce a predator-interference term into a Holling type I functional response. We explain the ecological rationale for the response and note that the phase plane configuration of the predator and prey isoclines differs greatly from that of the Beddington-DeAngelis response; for example, in having three possible interior equilibria rather than one. In fact, this new functional response seems to be quite unique. We used analytical and numerical methods to show that the resulting system shows a much richer dynamical behavior than the Beddington-DeAngelis response, or other typically used functional responses. For example, cyclic-fold, saddle-fold, homoclinic saddle connection, and multiple crossing bifurcations can all occur. We then use a smooth approximation to the Holling type I functional response with predator mutual interference to show that these dynamical properties do not result from the lack of smoothness, but rather from subtle differences in the functional responses. ?? 2011 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC.

Perception of faces in schizophrenia: Subjective (self-report) vs. objective (psychophysics) assessments

PubMed Central

Chen, Yue; Ekstrom, Tor

2016-01-01

Objectives Face perception impairment in schizophrenia has been demonstrated, mostly through experimental studies. How this laboratory-defined behavioral impairment is associated with patients’ perceptual experience of various faces in everyday life is however unclear. This question is important because a first-person account of face perception has direct consequences on social functioning of patients. In this study, we adapted and administered a self-reported questionnaire on narrative perceptual experience of faces along with psychophysical assessments of face perception in schizophrenia. Methods The self-reported questionnaire includes six rating items of face-related functioning in everyday life, providing a subjective measure of face perception. The psychophysical assessment determines perceptual threshold for discriminating different facial identities, providing an objective measure of face perception. Results Compared to controls (n=25), patients (n=35) showed significantly lower scores (worse performance) in the subjective assessment and significantly higher thresholds (worse performance) in the objective assessment. The subjective and objective face perception assessments were moderately correlated in controls but not in patients. The subjective face perception assessments were significantly correlated with measurements of a social cognitive ability (Theory of Mind), again in controls but not in patients. Conclusion These results suggest that in schizophrenia the quality of face-related functioning in everyday life is degraded and the role that basic face discrimination capacity plays in face-related everyday functioning is disrupted. PMID:26938027

Sensitivity and Uncertainty Analysis for Streamflow Prediction Using Different Objective Functions and Optimization Algorithms: San Joaquin California

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Paul, M.; Negahban-Azar, M.

2017-12-01

The hydrologic models usually need to be calibrated against observed streamflow at the outlet of a particular drainage area through a careful model calibration. However, a large number of parameters are required to fit in the model due to their unavailability of the field measurement. Therefore, it is difficult to calibrate the model for a large number of potential uncertain model parameters. This even becomes more challenging if the model is for a large watershed with multiple land uses and various geophysical characteristics. Sensitivity analysis (SA) can be used as a tool to identify most sensitive model parameters which affect the calibrated model performance. There are many different calibration and uncertainty analysis algorithms which can be performed with different objective functions. By incorporating sensitive parameters in streamflow simulation, effects of the suitable algorithm in improving model performance can be demonstrated by the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) modeling. In this study, the SWAT was applied in the San Joaquin Watershed in California covering 19704 km2 to calibrate the daily streamflow. Recently, sever water stress escalating due to intensified climate variability, prolonged drought and depleting groundwater for agricultural irrigation in this watershed. Therefore it is important to perform a proper uncertainty analysis given the uncertainties inherent in hydrologic modeling to predict the spatial and temporal variation of the hydrologic process to evaluate the impacts of different hydrologic variables. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the sensitivity and uncertainty of the calibrated parameters for predicting streamflow. To evaluate the sensitivity of the calibrated parameters three different optimization algorithms (Sequential Uncertainty Fitting- SUFI-2, Generalized Likelihood Uncertainty Estimation- GLUE and Parameter Solution- ParaSol) were used with four different objective functions (coefficient of determination

Behavioral Objectives, Science Processes, and Learning from Inquiry-Oriented Instructional Materials.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Anderson, Elaine J.; And Others

Investigated was the effect of systematically combined high and low level cognitive objectives upon the acquisition of science learning. An instructional unit based on a Biological Sciences Curriculum Study (BSCS) Inquiry Slide Set (structure and function, control of blood sugar, a homeostatic mechanism) was chosen because it included stimuli for…

An Objective Method of Measuring Psychological States Associated With Changes in Neural Function: Content Analysis of Verbal Behavior.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gottschalk, Louis A.

This paper examines the use of content analysis of speech in the objective recording and measurement of changes in emotional and cognitive function of humans in whom natural or experimental changes in neural status have occurred. A brief description of the data gathering process, details of numerous physiological effects, an anxiety scale, and a…

A functional analysis of photo-object matching skills of severely retarded adolescents.

PubMed

Dixon, L S

1981-01-01

Matching-to-sample procedures were used to assess picture representation skills of severely retarded, nonverbal adolescents. Identity matching within the classes of objects and life-size, full-color photos of the objects was first used to assess visual discrimination, a necessary condition for picture representation. Picture representation was then assessed through photo-object matching tasks. Five students demonstrated visual discrimination (identity matching) within the two classes of photos and the objects. Only one student demonstrated photo-object matching. The results of the four students who failed to demonstrate photo-object matching suggested that physical properties of photos (flat, rectangular) and depth dimensions of objects may exert more control over matching than the similarities of the objects and images within the photos. An analysis of figure-ground variables was conducted to provide an empirical basis for program development in the use of pictures. In one series of tests, rectangular shape and background were removed by cutting out the figures in the photos. The edge shape of the photo and the edge shape of the image were then identical. The results suggest that photo-object matching may be facilitated by using cut-out figures rather than the complete rectangular photo.

Objectives of Financial Statements. Report of the Study Group on the Objectives of Financial Statements.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

American Inst. of Certified Public Accountants, New York, NY.

This report discusses the objectives of financial statements. Emphasis is placed on the function of objectives; users, their goals, and their information needs; the primary enterprise goal and earning power; accountability and financial statements; financial statements--reporting on the goal attainment of business enterprises; financial…

SODA: Smart Objects, Dumb Archives

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Nelson, Michael L.; Maly, Kurt; Zubair, Mohammad; Shen, Stewart N. T.

2004-01-01

We present the Smart Object, Dumb Archive (SODA) model for digital libraries (DLs). The SODA model transfers functionality traditionally associated with archives to the archived objects themselves. We are exploiting this shift of responsibility to facilitate other DL goals, such as interoperability, object intelligence and mobility, and heterogeneity. Objects in a SODA DL negotiate presentation of content and handle their own terms and conditions. In this paper we present implementations of our smart objects, buckets, and our dumb archive (DA). We discuss the status of buckets and DA and how they are used in a variety of DL projects.

Subjective and objective scales to assess the development of children cerebral palsy.

PubMed

Pietrzak, S; Jóźwiak, M

2001-01-01

Many scoring systems hale been constructed to assess the motor development of cerebral palsy children and to evaluate the effectiveness of treatment. According to the purposes they fulfill, these instruments may be divided into three types: discriminative, evaluative and predictive. The design and measurement methodology are the criteria that determine whether a given scale is quantitative or qualitative in nature, and whether is should be considered to be objective or subjective. The article presents the "reaching, losing and regaining" scale (constructed by the authors to assess functional development and its changes in certain periods of time), the Munich Functional Development Diagnostics, and the Gross Motor Function Measure (GMFM). Special attention is given to the GMFM, its methods, evaluation of results, and application. A comparison of subjective and objective assessment of two cerebral palsy children is included.

29 CFR 102.41 - Objection to conduct of hearing; how made; objections not waived by further participation.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

..., including any objection to the introduction of evidence, may be stated orally or in writing, accompanied by a short statement of the grounds of such objection, and included in the record. No such objection...

Student generated learning objectives: extent of congruence with faculty set objectives and factors influencing their generation.

PubMed

Abdul Ghaffar Al-Shaibani, Tarik A; Sachs-Robertson, Annette; Al Shazali, Hafiz O; Sequeira, Reginald P; Hamdy, Hosam; Al-Roomi, Khaldoon

2003-07-01

A problem-based learning strategy is used for curriculum planning and implementation at the Arabian Gulf University, Bahrain. Problems are constructed in a way that faculty-set objectives are expected to be identified by students during tutorials. Students in small groups, along with a tutor functioning as a facilitator, identify learning issues and define their learning objectives. We compared objectives identified by student groups with faculty-set objectives to determine extent of congruence, and identified factors that influenced students' ability at identifying faculty-set objectives. Male and female students were segregated and randomly grouped. A faculty tutor was allocated for each group. This study was based on 13 problems given to entry-level medical students. Pooled objectives of these problems were classified into four categories: structural, functional, clinical and psychosocial. Univariate analysis of variance was used for comparison, and a p > 0.05 was considered significant. The mean of overall objectives generated by the students was 54.2%, for each problem. Students identified psychosocial learning objectives more readily than structural ones. Female students identified more psychosocial objectives, whereas male students identified more of structural objectives. Tutor characteristics such as medical/non-medical background, and the years of teaching were correlated with categories of learning issues identified. Students identify part of the faculty-set learning objectives during tutorials with a faculty tutor acting as a facilitator. Students' gender influences types of learning issues identified. Content expertise of tutors does not influence identification of learning needs by students.

Investigating multi-objective fluence and beam orientation IMRT optimization

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Potrebko, Peter S.; Fiege, Jason; Biagioli, Matthew; Poleszczuk, Jan

2017-07-01

Radiation Oncology treatment planning requires compromises to be made between clinical objectives that are invariably in conflict. It would be beneficial to have a ‘bird’s-eye-view’ perspective of the full spectrum of treatment plans that represent the possible trade-offs between delivering the intended dose to the planning target volume (PTV) while optimally sparing the organs-at-risk (OARs). In this work, the authors demonstrate Pareto-aware radiotherapy evolutionary treatment optimization (PARETO), a multi-objective tool featuring such bird’s-eye-view functionality, which optimizes fluence patterns and beam angles for intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) treatment planning. The problem of IMRT treatment plan optimization is managed as a combined monolithic problem, where all beam fluence and angle parameters are treated equally during the optimization. To achieve this, PARETO is built around a powerful multi-objective evolutionary algorithm, called Ferret, which simultaneously optimizes multiple fitness functions that encode the attributes of the desired dose distribution for the PTV and OARs. The graphical interfaces within PARETO provide useful information such as: the convergence behavior during optimization, trade-off plots between the competing objectives, and a graphical representation of the optimal solution database allowing for the rapid exploration of treatment plan quality through the evaluation of dose-volume histograms and isodose distributions. PARETO was evaluated for two relatively complex clinical cases, a paranasal sinus and a pancreas case. The end result of each PARETO run was a database of optimal (non-dominated) treatment plans that demonstrated trade-offs between the OAR and PTV fitness functions, which were all equally good in the Pareto-optimal sense (where no one objective can be improved without worsening at least one other). Ferret was able to produce high quality solutions even though a large number of parameters

Generic decoding of seen and imagined objects using hierarchical visual features.

PubMed

Horikawa, Tomoyasu; Kamitani, Yukiyasu

2017-05-22

Object recognition is a key function in both human and machine vision. While brain decoding of seen and imagined objects has been achieved, the prediction is limited to training examples. We present a decoding approach for arbitrary objects using the machine vision principle that an object category is represented by a set of features rendered invariant through hierarchical processing. We show that visual features, including those derived from a deep convolutional neural network, can be predicted from fMRI patterns, and that greater accuracy is achieved for low-/high-level features with lower-/higher-level visual areas, respectively. Predicted features are used to identify seen/imagined object categories (extending beyond decoder training) from a set of computed features for numerous object images. Furthermore, decoding of imagined objects reveals progressive recruitment of higher-to-lower visual representations. Our results demonstrate a homology between human and machine vision and its utility for brain-based information retrieval.

Modifying the Sleep Treatment Education Program for Students to include technology use (STEPS-TECH): Intervention effects on objective and subjective sleep outcomes.

PubMed

Barber, Larissa K; Cucalon, Maria S

2017-12-01

University students often have sleep issues that arise from poor sleep hygiene practices and technology use patterns. Yet, technology-related behaviors are often neglected in sleep hygiene education. This study examined whether the Sleep Treatment Education Program for Students-modified to include information regarding managing technology use (STEPS-TECH)-helps improve both subjective and objective sleep outcomes among university students. Results of an experimental study among 78 university students showed improvements in objective indicators of sleep quantity (total sleep time) and sleep quality (less awakenings) during the subsequent week for students in the STEPS-TECH intervention group compared to a control group. Exploratory analyses indicated that effects were driven by improvements in weekend days immediately following the intervention. There were also no intervention effects on subjective sleep quality or quantity outcomes. In terms of self-reported behavioral responses to educational content in the intervention, there were no group differences in sleep hygiene practices or technology use before bedtime. However, the intervention group reported less technology use during sleep periods than the control group. These preliminary findings suggest that STEPS-TECH may be a useful educational tool to help improve objective sleep and reduce technology use during sleep periods among university students. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Organizing and Typing Persistent Objects Within an Object-Oriented Framework

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Madany, Peter W.; Campbell, Roy H.

1991-01-01

Conventional operating systems provide little or no direct support for the services required for an efficient persistent object system implementation. We have built a persistent object scheme using a customization and extension of an object-oriented operating system called Choices. Choices includes a framework for the storage of persistent data that is suited to the construction of both conventional file system and persistent object system. In this paper we describe three areas in which persistent object support differs from file system support: storage organization, storage management, and typing. Persistent object systems must support various sizes of objects efficiently. Customizable containers, which are themselves persistent objects and can be nested, support a wide range of object sizes in Choices. Collections of persistent objects that are accessed as an aggregate and collections of light-weight persistent objects can be clustered in containers that are nested within containers for larger objects. Automated garbage collection schemes are added to storage management and have a major impact on persistent object applications. The Choices persistent object store provides extensible sets of persistent object types. The store contains not only the data for persistent objects but also the names of the classes to which they belong and the code for the operation of the classes. Besides presenting persistent object storage organization, storage management, and typing, this paper discusses how persistent objects are named and used within the Choices persistent data/file system framework.

Object Perception Impairments Predict Instrumental Activities of Daily Living Dependence in Alzheimer's Disease

PubMed Central

JEFFERSON, ANGELA L.; BARAKAT, LAMIA P.; GIOVANNETTI, TANIA; PAUL, ROBERT H.; GLOSSER, GUILA

2009-01-01

This study examined the contribution of object perception and spatial localization to functional dependence among Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients. Forty patients with probable AD completed measures assessing verbal recognition memory, working memory, object perception, spatial localization, semantic knowledge, and global cognition. Primary caregivers completed a measure of activities of daily living (ADLs) that included instrumental and basic self-care subscales (i.e., IADLs and BADLs, respectively). Stepwise multiple regressions revealed that global cognition accounted for significant portions of variance among the ADL total, IADL, and BADL scores. However, when global cognition was removed from the model, object perception was the only significant cognitive predictor of the ADL total and IADL subscale scores, accounting for 18.5% and 19.3% of the variance, respectively. When considering multiple cognitive components simultaneously, object perception and the integrity of the inferotemporal cortex is important in the completion of functional abilities in general and IADLs in particular among AD patients. PMID:16822730

Object-oriented productivity metrics

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Connell, John L.; Eller, Nancy

1992-01-01

Software productivity metrics are useful for sizing and costing proposed software and for measuring development productivity. Estimating and measuring source lines of code (SLOC) has proven to be a bad idea because it encourages writing more lines of code and using lower level languages. Function Point Analysis is an improved software metric system, but it is not compatible with newer rapid prototyping and object-oriented approaches to software development. A process is presented here for counting object-oriented effort points, based on a preliminary object-oriented analysis. It is proposed that this approach is compatible with object-oriented analysis, design, programming, and rapid prototyping. Statistics gathered on actual projects are presented to validate the approach.

Music Objectives: Second Assessment.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Education Commission of the States, Denver, CO. National Assessment of Educational Progress.

The document describes the development of objectives and presents objectives formulated by music educators, lay individuals, and the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) staff in 1973. Objectives from the first music assessment were reappraised, reviewed, and revised to include greater breadth of application, greater emphasis on the…

Stimulus familiarity modulates functional connectivity of the perirhinal cortex and anterior hippocampus during visual discrimination of faces and objects

PubMed Central

McLelland, Victoria C.; Chan, David; Ferber, Susanne; Barense, Morgan D.

2014-01-01

Recent research suggests that the medial temporal lobe (MTL) is involved in perception as well as in declarative memory. Amnesic patients with focal MTL lesions and semantic dementia patients showed perceptual deficits when discriminating faces and objects. Interestingly, these two patient groups showed different profiles of impairment for familiar and unfamiliar stimuli. For MTL amnesics, the use of familiar relative to unfamiliar stimuli improved discrimination performance. By contrast, patients with semantic dementia—a neurodegenerative condition associated with anterolateral temporal lobe damage—showed no such facilitation from familiar stimuli. Given that the two patient groups had highly overlapping patterns of damage to the perirhinal cortex, hippocampus, and temporal pole, the neuroanatomical substrates underlying their performance discrepancy were unclear. Here, we addressed this question with a multivariate reanalysis of the data presented by Barense et al. (2011), using functional connectivity to examine how stimulus familiarity affected the broader networks with which the perirhinal cortex, hippocampus, and temporal poles interact. In this study, healthy participants were scanned while they performed an odd-one-out perceptual task involving familiar and novel faces or objects. Seed-based analyses revealed that functional connectivity of the right perirhinal cortex and right anterior hippocampus was modulated by the degree of stimulus familiarity. For familiar relative to unfamiliar faces and objects, both right perirhinal cortex and right anterior hippocampus showed enhanced functional correlations with anterior/lateral temporal cortex, temporal pole, and medial/lateral parietal cortex. These findings suggest that in order to benefit from stimulus familiarity, it is necessary to engage not only the perirhinal cortex and hippocampus, but also a network of regions known to represent semantic information. PMID:24624075

Early object relations into new objects.

PubMed

Downey, T W

2001-01-01

Two strands of change are suggested by this review, one maturational, the other therapeutic or developmental (Hartmann and Kris, 1945). By "maturational" I mean to suggest energies that infuse the individual from earliest life in a manner that includes object relations, but for the healthy exercise of which object relations per se need not be of central and crucial importance. Within wide limits such energies may be delayed until growth conditions prevail without significant distortion of certain of the organism's ego functions. Therapeutic change is analogous to developmental change in that both involve the crucial presence of another to release energies. In therapeutic change these are energies that have been repressed beyond the reach of developmental dynamics. In everyday development crisis and synthesis alternate in conjunction with new and emerging objects to add to the psychological structures brought to the fore by maturation. In many instances, as we see with John, over time and in a less focussed manner, developmental changes can approximate therapeutic change and visa versa. Freud-Dann in their "experiment" pursued one line, in which the equipmental delay brought on by extremely adverse living circumstances was redressed by providing an interpersonally enriching, loving, developmentally facilitating milieu. The sketches of individual children and John's subsequent story provide a perspective into what becomes the stuff of growth and what remains the stuff of neurosis. The developmental reserves and ego resilience of these children were impressive but probably not extraordinary. Usual growth ensued as soon as they were provided with the rich soil of Bulldogs Bank instead of the desert sand of the Tereszin concentration camp. However, no one can escape such adverse circumstances without having taken in the stuff of neurosis. Affects and percepts that were not assimilatable or even available to consciousness at the time remain buried in the unconscious

The emerging causal understanding of institutional objects.

PubMed

Noyes, Alexander; Keil, Frank C; Dunham, Yarrow

2018-01-01

Institutional objects, such as money, drivers' licenses, and borders, have functions because of their social roles rather than their immediate physical properties. These objects are causally different than standard artifacts (e.g. hammers, chairs, and cars), sharing more commonality with other social roles. Thus, they inform psychological theories of human-made objects as well as children's emerging understanding of social reality. We examined whether children (N=180, ages 4-9) differentiate institutional objects from standard artifacts. Specifically, we examine whether children understand that mutual intentions (i.e., the intentions of a social collective) underlie the functional affordances of institutional objects in ways that they do not for standard artifacts. We find that young children assimilate institutional objects into their intuitive theories of standard artifacts; children begin to differentiate between the domains in the elementary school years. Published by Elsevier B.V.

Variability in perceived satisfaction of reservoir management objectives

USGS Publications Warehouse

Owen, W.J.; Gates, T.K.; Flug, M.

1997-01-01

Fuzzy set theory provides a useful model to address imprecision in interpreting linguistically described objectives for reservoir management. Fuzzy membership functions can be used to represent degrees of objective satisfaction for different values of management variables. However, lack of background information, differing experiences and qualifications, and complex interactions of influencing factors can contribute to significant variability among membership functions derived from surveys of multiple experts. In the present study, probabilistic membership functions are used to model variability in experts' perceptions of satisfaction of objectives for hydropower generation, fish habitat, kayaking, rafting, and scenery preservation on the Green River through operations of Flaming Gorge Dam. Degree of variability in experts' perceptions differed among objectives but resulted in substantial uncertainty in estimation of optimal reservoir releases.

Ipsilateral renal function preservation after robot-assisted partial nephrectomy (RAPN): an objective analysis using mercapto-acetyltriglycine (MAG3) renal scan data and volumetric assessment.

PubMed

Zargar, Homayoun; Akca, Oktay; Autorino, Riccardo; Brandao, Luis Felipe; Laydner, Humberto; Krishnan, Jayram; Samarasekera, Dinesh; Stein, Robert J; Kaouk, Jihad H

2015-05-01

To objectively assess ipsilateral renal function (IRF) preservation and factors influencing it after robot-assisted partial nephrectomy (RAPN). Our database was queried to identify patients who had undergone RAPN from 2007 to 2013 and had complete pre- and postoperative mercapto-acetyltriglycine (MAG3) renal scan assessment. The estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) for the operated kidney was calculated by multiplying the percentage of contribution from the renal scan by the total eGFR. IRF preservation was defined as a ratio of the postoperative eGFR for the operated kidney to the preoperative eGFR for the operated kidney. The percentage of total eGFR preservation was calculated in the same manner (postoperative eGFR/preoperative eGFR × 100). The amount of healthy rim of renal parenchyma removed was assessed by deducting the volume of tumour from the volume of the PN specimen assessed on pathology. Multivariable linear regression was used for analysis. In all, 99 patients were included in the analysis. The overall median (interquartile range) total eGFR preservation and IRF preservation for the operated kidney was 83.83 (75.2-94.1)% and 72 (60.3-81)%, respectively (P < 0.01). On multivariable analysis, volume of healthy rim of renal parenchyma removed, warm ischaemia time (WIT) > 30 min, body mass index (BMI) and operated kidney preoperative eGFR were predictive of IRF preservation. Using total eGFR tends to overestimate the degree of renal function preservation after RAPN. This is particularly relevant when studying factors affecting functional outcomes after nephron-sparing surgery. IRF may be a more precise assessment method in this setting. Operated kidney baseline renal function, BMI, WIT >30 min, and amount of resected healthy renal parenchyma represent the factors with a significant impact on the IRF preservation. RAPN provides significant preservation of renal function as shown by objective assessment criteria. © 2014 The Authors. BJU

Multiscale moment-based technique for object matching and recognition

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Thio, HweeLi; Chen, Liya; Teoh, Eam-Khwang

2000-03-01

A new method is proposed to extract features from an object for matching and recognition. The features proposed are a combination of local and global characteristics -- local characteristics from the 1-D signature function that is defined to each pixel on the object boundary, global characteristics from the moments that are generated from the signature function. The boundary of the object is first extracted, then the signature function is generated by computing the angle between two lines from every point on the boundary as a function of position along the boundary. This signature function is position, scale and rotation invariant (PSRI). The shape of the signature function is then described quantitatively by using moments. The moments of the signature function are the global characters of a local feature set. Using moments as the eventual features instead of the signature function reduces the time and complexity of an object matching application. Multiscale moments are implemented to produce several sets of moments that will generate more accurate matching. Basically multiscale technique is a coarse to fine procedure and makes the proposed method more robust to noise. This method is proposed to match and recognize objects under simple transformation, such as translation, scale changes, rotation and skewing. A simple logo indexing system is implemented to illustrate the performance of the proposed method.

Compare Human-Made Objects with Natural Objects. Grades 3-5.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rushton, Erik; Ryan, Emily; Swift, Charles

In this activity, students experiment and observe the similarities and differences between human-made objects and nature in small groups. Students compare the function and structure of hollow bones with drinking straws, bird beaks and tool pliers, and bat wings and airplane wings. A classroom discussion can be held to discuss similarities and…

Simultaneous acquisition of corrugator electromyography and functional magnetic resonance imaging: A new method for objectively measuring affect and neural activity concurrently

PubMed Central

Heller, Aaron S.; Greischar, Lawrence L; Honor, Ann; Anderle, Michael J; Davidson, Richard J.

2011-01-01

The development of functional neuroimaging of emotion holds the promise to enhance our understanding of the biological bases of affect and improve our knowledge of psychiatric diseases. However, up to this point, researchers have been unable to objectively, continuously and unobtrusively measure the intensity and dynamics of affect concurrently with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). This has hindered the development and generalizability of our field. Facial electromyography (EMG) is an objective, reliable, valid, sensitive, and unobtrusive measure of emotion. Here, we report the successful development of a method for simultaneously acquiring fMRI and facial EMG. The ability to simultaneously acquire brain activity and facial physiology will allow affective neuroscientists to address theoretical, psychiatric, and individual difference questions in a more rigorous and generalizable way. PMID:21742043

Cyber-Physical Attacks With Control Objectives

DOE PAGES

Chen, Yuan; Kar, Soummya; Moura, Jose M. F.

2017-08-18

This study studies attackers with control objectives against cyber-physical systems (CPSs). The goal of the attacker is to counteract the CPS's controller and move the system to a target state while evading detection. We formulate a cost function that reflects the attacker's goals, and, using dynamic programming, we show that the optimal attack strategy reduces to a linear feedback of the attacker's state estimate. By changing the parameters of the cost function, we show how an attacker can design optimal attacks to balance the control objective and the detection avoidance objective. In conclusion, we provide a numerical illustration based onmore » a remotely controlled helicopter under attack.« less

Cyber-Physical Attacks With Control Objectives

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

Chen, Yuan; Kar, Soummya; Moura, Jose M. F.

This study studies attackers with control objectives against cyber-physical systems (CPSs). The goal of the attacker is to counteract the CPS's controller and move the system to a target state while evading detection. We formulate a cost function that reflects the attacker's goals, and, using dynamic programming, we show that the optimal attack strategy reduces to a linear feedback of the attacker's state estimate. By changing the parameters of the cost function, we show how an attacker can design optimal attacks to balance the control objective and the detection avoidance objective. In conclusion, we provide a numerical illustration based onmore » a remotely controlled helicopter under attack.« less

α7nAchR/NMDAR coupling affects NMDAR function and object recognition.

PubMed

Li, Shupeng; Nai, Qiang; Lipina, Tatiana V; Roder, John C; Liu, Fang

2013-12-20

The α7 nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (nAchR) and NMDA glutamate receptor (NMDAR) are both ligand-gated ion channels permeable to Ca2+ and Na+. Previous studies have demonstrated functional modulation of NMDARs by nAchRs, although the molecular mechanism remains largely unknown. We have previously reported that α7nAchR forms a protein complex with the NMDAR through a protein-protein interaction. We also developed an interfering peptide that is able to disrupt the α7nAchR-NMDAR complex and blocks cue-induced reinstatement of nicotine-seeking in rat models of relapse. In the present study, we investigated whether the α7nAchR-NMDAR interaction is responsible for the functional modulation of NMDAR by α7nAchR using both electrophysiological and behavioral tests. We have found that activation of α7nAchR upregulates NMDAR-mediated whole cell currents and LTP of mEPSC in cultured hippocampal neurons, which can be abolished by the interfering peptide that disrupts the α7nAchR-NMDAR interaction. Moreover, administration of the interfering peptide in mice impairs novel object recognition but not Morris water maze performance. Our results suggest that α7nAchR/NMDAR coupling may selectively affect some aspects of learning and memory.

Project Interface Requirements Process Including Shuttle Lessons Learned

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bauch, Garland T.

2010-01-01

Most failures occur at interfaces between organizations and hardware. Processing interface requirements at the start of a project life cycle will reduce the likelihood of costly interface changes/failures later. This can be done by adding Interface Control Documents (ICDs) to the Project top level drawing tree, providing technical direction to the Projects for interface requirements, and by funding the interface requirements function directly from the Project Manager's office. The interface requirements function within the Project Systems Engineering and Integration (SE&I) Office would work in-line with the project element design engineers early in the life cycle to enhance communications and negotiate technical issues between the elements. This function would work as the technical arm of the Project Manager to help ensure that the Project cost, schedule, and risk objectives can be met during the Life Cycle. Some ICD Lessons Learned during the Space Shuttle Program (SSP) Life Cycle will include the use of hardware interface photos in the ICD, progressive life cycle design certification by analysis, test, & operations experience, assigning interface design engineers to Element Interface (EI) and Project technical panels, and linking interface design drawings with project build drawings

Primary Objective Grating Astronomical Telescope

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ditto, Thomas D.

2007-01-01

It has been 370 years since a seventeenth century French mathematician, Mersenne, presciently sketched out an astronomical telescope based on dual parabolic reflectors. Since that time the concept of the primary objective has been virtually unchanged. Now a new class of astronomical telescope with a primary objective grating (POG) has been studied as an alternative. The POG competes with mirrors, in part, because diffraction gratings provide the very chromatic dispersion that mirrors defeat. The resulting telescope deals effectively with long-standing restrictions on multiple object spectroscopy (MOS). Other potential benefits include unprecedented apertures and collection areas. The new design also favors space deployment as a gossamer membrane. The inventor, Tom Ditto, first discovered that higher-order diffraction images contain hidden depth cues, for which he was granted a seminal range finding patent in 1987. Subsequently, he invented and patented 3D localizers, profilometers and microscopes using POGs. The POG telescope was placed in the public domain to expedite research. The function of a telescopes primary objective is to collect flux and to deliver images. Both functions dictate that size matters, and bigger is better. For that reason, there has been a steady push over the past century to ramp up the size of the primary mirror. However, for every doubling of mirror diameter, the elapsed time between initial effort and first light has also doubled. Meanwhile, costs escalated beyond the mirror alone, because larger instruments required larger enclosures and better pointing mechanisms. One key catalog of observation, spectrographic data, is far more difficult to amass than two-dimensional imagery. While the number of observable objects has increased with mirror size, the capacity to take spectra has not increased proportionately. In the best of circumstances, spectrograms are available for one per cent of the all objects surveyed. Spectroscopy was a

Refocusing-range and image-quality enhanced optical reconstruction of 3-D objects from integral images using a principal periodic δ-function array

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ai, Lingyu; Kim, Eun-Soo

2018-03-01

We propose a method for refocusing-range and image-quality enhanced optical reconstruction of three-dimensional (3-D) objects from integral images only by using a 3 × 3 periodic δ-function array (PDFA), which is called a principal PDFA (P-PDFA). By directly convolving the elemental image array (EIA) captured from 3-D objects with the P-PDFAs whose spatial periods correspond to each object's depth, a set of spatially-filtered EIAs (SF-EIAs) are extracted, and from which 3-D objects can be reconstructed to be refocused on their real depth. convolutional operations are performed directly on each of the minimum 3 × 3 EIs of the picked-up EIA, the capturing and refocused-depth ranges of 3-D objects can be greatly enhanced, as well as 3-D objects much improved in image quality can be reconstructed without any preprocessing operations. Through ray-optical analysis and optical experiments with actual 3-D objects, the feasibility of the proposed method has been confirmed.

7-Hexagon Multifocal Electroretinography for an Objective Functional Assessment of the Macula in 14 Seconds.

PubMed

Schönbach, Etienne M; Chaikitmongkol, Voraporn; Annam, Rachel; McDonnell, Emma C; Wolfson, Yulia; Fletcher, Emily; Scholl, Hendrik P N

2017-01-01

We present the multifocal electroretinogram (mfERG) with a 7-hexagon array as an objective test of macular function that can be recorded in 14 s. We provide normal values and investigate its reproducibility and validity. Healthy participants underwent mfERG testing according to International Society for Clinical Electrophysiology of Vision (ISCEV) standards using the Espion Profile/D310 multifocal ERG system (Diagnosys, LLC, Lowell, MA, USA). One standard recording of a 61-hexagon array and 2 repeated recordings of a custom 7-hexagon array were obtained. A total of 13 subjects (mean age 46.9 years) were included. The median response densities were 12.5 nV/deg2 in the center and 5.2 nV/deg2 in the periphery. Intereye correlations were strong in both the center (ρCenter = 0.821; p < 0.0001) and the periphery (ρPeriphery = 0.862; p < 0.0001). Intraeye correlations were even stronger: ρCenter = 0.904 with p < 0.0001 and ρPeriphery = 0.955 with p < 0.0001. Bland-Altman plots demonstrated an acceptable retest mean difference in both the center and periphery, and narrow limits of agreement. We found strong correlations of the center (ρCenter = 0.826; p < 0.0001) and periphery (ρPeriphery = 0.848; p < 0.0001), with recordings obtained by the 61-hexagon method. The 7-hexagon mfERG provides reproducible results in agreement with results obtained according to the ISCEV standard. © 2017 S. Karger AG, Basel.

Mobile device geo-localization and object visualization in sensor networks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lemaire, Simon; Bodensteiner, Christoph; Arens, Michael

2014-10-01

In this paper we present a method to visualize geo-referenced objects on modern smartphones using a multi- functional application design. The application applies different localization and visualization methods including the smartphone camera image. The presented application copes well with different scenarios. A generic application work flow and augmented reality visualization techniques are described. The feasibility of the approach is experimentally validated using an online desktop selection application in a network with a modern of-the-shelf smartphone. Applications are widespread and include for instance crisis and disaster management or military applications.

Rats' Visual-Spatial Working Memory: New Object Choice Accuracy as a Function of Number of Objects in the Study Array

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cohen, Jerome; Han, Xue; Matei, Anca; Parameswaran, Varakini; Zuniga, Robert; Hlynka, Myron

2010-01-01

When rats had to find new (jackpot) objects for rewards from among previously sampled baited objects, increasing the number of objects in the sample (study) segment of a trial from 3 to 5 and then to 7 (Experiment 1) or from 3 to 6 and 9 (Experiments 2 and 3) or from 6 to 9 and 12 (Experiment 4) did not reduce rats' test segment performance.…

BioBlend.objects: metacomputing with Galaxy.

PubMed

Leo, Simone; Pireddu, Luca; Cuccuru, Gianmauro; Lianas, Luca; Soranzo, Nicola; Afgan, Enis; Zanetti, Gianluigi

2014-10-01

BioBlend.objects is a new component of the BioBlend package, adding an object-oriented interface for the Galaxy REST-based application programming interface. It improves support for metacomputing on Galaxy entities by providing higher-level functionality and allowing users to more easily create programs to explore, query and create Galaxy datasets and workflows. BioBlend.objects is available online at https://github.com/afgane/bioblend. The new object-oriented API is implemented by the galaxy/objects subpackage. © The Author 2014. Published by Oxford University Press.

Context and hand posture modulate the neural dynamics of tool-object perception.

PubMed

Natraj, Nikhilesh; Poole, Victoria; Mizelle, J C; Flumini, Andrea; Borghi, Anna M; Wheaton, Lewis A

2013-02-01

Prior research has linked visual perception of tools with plausible motor strategies. Thus, observing a tool activates the putative action-stream, including the left posterior parietal cortex. Observing a hand functionally grasping a tool involves the inferior frontal cortex. However, tool-use movements are performed in a contextual and grasp specific manner, rather than relative isolation. Our prior behavioral data has demonstrated that the context of tool-use (by pairing the tool with different objects) and varying hand grasp postures of the tool can interact to modulate subjects' reaction times while evaluating tool-object content. Specifically, perceptual judgment was delayed in the evaluation of functional tool-object pairings (Correct context) when the tool was non-functionally (Manipulative) grasped. Here, we hypothesized that this behavioral interference seen with the Manipulative posture would be due to increased and extended left parietofrontal activity possibly underlying motor simulations when resolving action conflict due to this particular grasp at time scales relevant to the behavioral data. Further, we hypothesized that this neural effect will be restricted to the Correct tool-object context wherein action affordances are at a maximum. 64-channel electroencephalography (EEG) was recorded from 16 right-handed subjects while viewing images depicting three classes of tool-object contexts: functionally Correct (e.g. coffee pot-coffee mug), functionally Incorrect (e.g. coffee pot-marker) and Spatial (coffee pot-milk). The Spatial context pairs a tool and object that would not functionally match, but may commonly appear in the same scene. These three contexts were modified by hand interaction: No Hand, Static Hand near the tool, Functional Hand posture and Manipulative Hand posture. The Manipulative posture is convenient for relocating a tool but does not afford a functional engagement of the tool on the target object. Subjects were instructed to visually

Use of Objective Metrics in Dynamic Facial Reanimation: A Systematic Review.

PubMed

Revenaugh, Peter C; Smith, Ryan M; Plitt, Max A; Ishii, Lisa; Boahene, Kofi; Byrne, Patrick J

2018-06-21

Facial nerve deficits cause significant functional and social consequences for those affected. Existing techniques for dynamic restoration of facial nerve function are imperfect and result in a wide variety of outcomes. Currently, there is no standard objective instrument for facial movement as it relates to restorative techniques. To determine what objective instruments of midface movement are used in outcome measurements for patients treated with dynamic methods for facial paralysis. Database searches from January 1970 to June 2017 were performed in PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library, Web of Science, and Scopus. Only English-language articles on studies performed in humans were considered. The search terms used were ("Surgical Flaps"[Mesh] OR "Nerve Transfer"[Mesh] OR "nerve graft" OR "nerve grafts") AND (face [mh] OR facial paralysis [mh]) AND (innervation [sh]) OR ("Face"[Mesh] OR facial paralysis [mh]) AND (reanimation [tiab]). Two independent reviewers evaluated the titles and abstracts of all articles and included those that reported objective outcomes of a surgical technique in at least 2 patients. The presence or absence of an objective instrument for evaluating outcomes of midface reanimation. Additional outcome measures were reproducibility of the test, reporting of symmetry, measurement of multiple variables, and test validity. Of 241 articles describing dynamic facial reanimation techniques, 49 (20.3%) reported objective outcome measures for 1898 patients. Of those articles reporting objective measures, there were 29 different instruments, only 3 of which reported all outcome measures. Although instruments are available to objectively measure facial movement after reanimation techniques, most studies do not report objective outcomes. Of objective facial reanimation instruments, few are reproducible and able to measure symmetry and multiple data points. To accurately compare objective outcomes in facial reanimation, a reproducible, objective, and

Electronics 7-12 [Instructional Objectives Exchange].

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

California Univ., Los Angeles. Center for the Study of Evaluation.

Included are instructional objectives which can be considered for use in a classroom or laboratory. The objectives are followed by measurement items meant to test if a certain objective is accomplished. Means for judging the adequacy of student responses are given. The areas of electronics included in this publication are: Fundamentals, Block…

Objective-function hybridization in adjoint seismic tomography

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yuan, Yanhua O.; Bozdaǧ, Ebru; Simons, Frederik J.; Gao, Fuchun

2017-04-01

Seismic tomography is at the threshold of a new era of massive data sets. Improving the resolution and accuracy of the estimated Earth structure by assimilating as much information as possible from every seismogram, remains a challenge. We propose the use of the "exponentiated phase'', a type of measurement that robustly captures the information contained in the variation of phase with time in the seismogram. We explore its performance in both conventional and double-difference (Yuan, Simons & Tromp, Geophys. J. Intern, 2016) adjoint seismic tomography. We introduce a hybrid approach to combine different objective functions, taking advantage of both conventional and our new measurements. We initially focus on phase measurements in global tomography. Cross-correlation measurements are generally tailored by window selection algorithms, such as FLEXWIN, to balance amplitude differences between seismic phases. However, within selection windows, such measurements still favor the larger-amplitude phases. It is also difficult to select all usable portions of the seismogram in an optimal way, such that much information may be lost, particularly the scattered waves. Time-continuous phase measurements, which associate a time shift with each point in time, have the potential to extract information from every wiggle in the seismogram without cutting it into small pieces. One such type of measurement is the instantaneous phase (Bozdaǧ, Trampert & Tromp, Geophys. J. Intern, 2011), which thus far has not been implemented in realistic seismic-tomography experiments, given how difficult the computation of phase can sometimes be. The exponentiated phase, on the other hand, is computed on the basis of the normalized analytic signal, does not need an explicit measure of phase, and is thus much easier to implement, and more practical for real-world applications. Both types of measurements carry comparable structural information when direct measurements of the phase are not wrapped. To

Embedded object concept with a telepresence robot system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Vallius, Tero; Röning, Juha

2005-10-01

This paper presents the Embedded Object Concept (EOC) and a telepresence robot system which is a test case for the EOC. The EOC utilizes common object-oriented methods used in software by applying them to combined Lego-like software-hardware entities. These entities represent objects in object-oriented design methods, and they are the building blocks of embedded systems. The goal of the EOC is to make the designing of embedded systems faster and easier. This concept enables people without comprehensive knowledge in electronics design to create new embedded systems, and for experts it shortens the design time of new embedded systems. We present the current status of the EOC, including two generations of embedded objects named Atomi objects. The first generation of the Atomi objects has been tested with different applications, and found to be functional, but not optimal. The second generation aims to correct the issues found with the first generation, and it is being tested in a relatively complex test case. The test case is a telepresence robot consisting of a two wheeled human height robot and its computer counter part. The robot has been constructed using incremental device development, which is made possible by the architecture of the EOC. The robot contains video and audio exchange capability, and a controlling and balancing system for driving with two wheels. The robot is built in two versions, the first consisting of a PDA device and Atomi objects, and the second consisting of only Atomi objects. The robot is currently incomplete, but for the most part it has been successfully tested.

Nonseparable exchange–correlation functional for molecules, including homogeneous catalysis involving transition metals

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

Yu, Haoyu S.; Zhang, Wenjing; Verma, Pragya

2015-01-01

The goal of this work is to develop a gradient approximation to the exchange–correlation functional of Kohn–Sham density functional theory for treating molecular problems with a special emphasis on the prediction of quantities important for homogeneous catalysis and other molecular energetics. Our training and validation of exchange–correlation functionals is organized in terms of databases and subdatabases. The key properties required for homogeneous catalysis are main group bond energies (database MGBE137), transition metal bond energies (database TMBE32), reaction barrier heights (database BH76), and molecular structures (database MS10). We also consider 26 other databases, most of which are subdatabases of a newlymore » extended broad database called Database 2015, which is presented in the present article and in its ESI. Based on the mathematical form of a nonseparable gradient approximation (NGA), as first employed in the N12 functional, we design a new functional by using Database 2015 and by adding smoothness constraints to the optimization of the functional. The resulting functional is called the gradient approximation for molecules, or GAM. The GAM functional gives better results for MGBE137, TMBE32, and BH76 than any available generalized gradient approximation (GGA) or than N12. The GAM functional also gives reasonable results for MS10 with an MUE of 0.018 Å. The GAM functional provides good results both within the training sets and outside the training sets. The convergence tests and the smooth curves of exchange–correlation enhancement factor as a function of the reduced density gradient show that the GAM functional is a smooth functional that should not lead to extra expense or instability in optimizations. NGAs, like GGAs, have the advantage over meta-GGAs and hybrid GGAs of respectively smaller grid-size requirements for integrations and lower costs for extended systems. These computational advantages combined with the relatively high

Genetic algorithm approaches for conceptual design of spacecraft systems including multi-objective optimization and design under uncertainty

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hassan, Rania A.

In the design of complex large-scale spacecraft systems that involve a large number of components and subsystems, many specialized state-of-the-art design tools are employed to optimize the performance of various subsystems. However, there is no structured system-level concept-architecting process. Currently, spacecraft design is heavily based on the heritage of the industry. Old spacecraft designs are modified to adapt to new mission requirements, and feasible solutions---rather than optimal ones---are often all that is achieved. During the conceptual phase of the design, the choices available to designers are predominantly discrete variables describing major subsystems' technology options and redundancy levels. The complexity of spacecraft configurations makes the number of the system design variables that need to be traded off in an optimization process prohibitive when manual techniques are used. Such a discrete problem is well suited for solution with a Genetic Algorithm, which is a global search technique that performs optimization-like tasks. This research presents a systems engineering framework that places design requirements at the core of the design activities and transforms the design paradigm for spacecraft systems to a top-down approach rather than the current bottom-up approach. To facilitate decision-making in the early phases of the design process, the population-based search nature of the Genetic Algorithm is exploited to provide computationally inexpensive---compared to the state-of-the-practice---tools for both multi-objective design optimization and design optimization under uncertainty. In terms of computational cost, those tools are nearly on the same order of magnitude as that of standard single-objective deterministic Genetic Algorithm. The use of a multi-objective design approach provides system designers with a clear tradeoff optimization surface that allows them to understand the effect of their decisions on all the design objectives

Objective Measures of Swallowing Function Applied to the Dysphagia Population: A One Year Experience.

PubMed

Kendall, Katherine A; Ellerston, Julia; Heller, Amanda; Houtz, Daniel R; Zhang, Chong; Presson, Angela P

2016-08-01

Quantitative, reliable measures of swallowing physiology can be made from an modified barium swallowing study. These quantitative measures have not been previously employed to study large dysphagic patient populations. The present retrospective study of 139 consecutive patients with dysphagia seen in a university tertiary voice and swallowing clinic sought to use objective measures of swallowing physiology to (1) quantify the most prevalent deficits seen in the patient population, (2) identify commonly associated diagnoses and describe the most prevalent swallowing deficits, and (3) determine any correlation between objective deficits and Eating Assessment Tool (EAT-10) scores and body mass index. Poor pharyngeal constriction (34.5 %) and airway protection deficits (65.5 %) were the most common swallowing abnormalities. Reflux-related dysphagia (36 %), nonspecific pharyngeal dysphagia (24 %), Parkinson disease (16 %), esophageal abnormality (13 %), and brain insult (10 %) were the most common diagnoses. Poor pharyngeal constriction was significantly associated with an esophageal motility abnormality (p < 0.001) and central neurologic insult. In general, dysphagia symptoms as determined by the EAT-10 did not correlate with swallowing function abnormalities. This preliminary study indicates that reflux disease is common in patients with dysphagia and that associated esophageal abnormalities are common in dysphagic populations and may be associated with specific pharyngeal swallowing abnormalities. However, symptom scores from the EAT-10 did not correspond to swallowing pathophysiology.

Secure content objects

DOEpatents

Evans, William D [Cupertino, CA

2009-02-24

A secure content object protects electronic documents from unauthorized use. The secure content object includes an encrypted electronic document, a multi-key encryption table having at least one multi-key component, an encrypted header and a user interface device. The encrypted document is encrypted using a document encryption key associated with a multi-key encryption method. The encrypted header includes an encryption marker formed by a random number followed by a derivable variation of the same random number. The user interface device enables a user to input a user authorization. The user authorization is combined with each of the multi-key components in the multi-key encryption key table and used to try to decrypt the encrypted header. If the encryption marker is successfully decrypted, the electronic document may be decrypted. Multiple electronic documents or a document and annotations may be protected by the secure content object.

Robotic end gripper with a band member to engage object

DOEpatents

Pollard, R.E.; Robinson, S.C.; Thompson, W.F.; Couture, S.A.; Sutton, B.J.

1994-05-10

An end effector for use with robotic arms and like devices is described that utilizes a flexible band to draw an object against an anvil having a concave surface. One typical convex surface is created by a V-block, with an apex of the V being centrally located. If an object to be grasped is fragile, the contour of the concave surface closely matches the surface of the object. Typically the movement of the band is effected by a linear actuator, with the anvil remaining fixed relative to a support base. Several embodiments are described that utilize variations in drawing the band toward the anvil, with one of these embodiments described in detail in the form of a fabricated unit. One embodiment includes a cover element that can be moved over an object after the grasping thereof, with this cover potentially serving various functions. Movement of the cover can be effected with a second linear actuator. 8 figures.

Robotic end gripper with a band member to engage object

DOEpatents

Pollard, Roy E.; Robinson, Samuel C.; Thompson, William F.; Couture, Scott A.; Sutton, Bill J.

1994-01-01

An end effector for use with robotic arms and like devices that utilizes a flexible band to draw an object against an anvil having a concave surface. One typical convex surface is created by a V-block, with an apex of the V being centrally located. If an object to be grasped is fragile, the contour of the concave surface closely matches the surface of the object. Typically the movement of the band is effected by a linear actuator, with the anvil remaining fixed relative to a support base. Several embodiments are described that utilize variations in drawing the band toward the anvil, with one of these embodiments described in detail in the form of a fabricated unit. One embodiment includes a cover element that can be moved over an object after the grasping thereof, with this cover potentially serving various functions. Movement of the cover can be effected with a second linear actuator.

Comparative analysis of imaging configurations and objectives for Fourier microscopy.

PubMed

Kurvits, Jonathan A; Jiang, Mingming; Zia, Rashid

2015-11-01

Fourier microscopy is becoming an increasingly important tool for the analysis of optical nanostructures and quantum emitters. However, achieving quantitative Fourier space measurements requires a thorough understanding of the impact of aberrations introduced by optical microscopes that have been optimized for conventional real-space imaging. Here we present a detailed framework for analyzing the performance of microscope objectives for several common Fourier imaging configurations. To this end, we model objectives from Nikon, Olympus, and Zeiss using parameters that were inferred from patent literature and confirmed, where possible, by physical disassembly. We then examine the aberrations most relevant to Fourier microscopy, including the alignment tolerances of apodization factors for different objective classes, the effect of magnification on the modulation transfer function, and vignetting-induced reductions of the effective numerical aperture for wide-field measurements. Based on this analysis, we identify an optimal objective class and imaging configuration for Fourier microscopy. In addition, the Zemax files for the objectives and setups used in this analysis have been made publicly available as a resource for future studies.

Operator Localization of Virtual Objects

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ellis, Stephen R.; Menges, Brian M.; Null, Cynthia H. (Technical Monitor)

1998-01-01

Errors in the localization of nearby virtual objects presented via see-through, helmet mounted displays are examined as a function of viewing conditions and scene content. Monocular, biocular or stereoscopic presentation of the virtual objects, accommodation (required focus), subjects'age, and the position of physical surfaces are examined. Nearby physical surfaces are found to introduce localization errors that differ depending upon the other experimental factors. The apparent physical size and transparency of the virtual objects and physical surfaces respectively are also influenced by their relative position when superimposed. Design implications are discussed.

COGNITION, ACTION, AND OBJECT MANIPULATION

PubMed Central

Rosenbaum, David A.; Chapman, Kate M.; Weigelt, Matthias; Weiss, Daniel J.; van der Wel, Robrecht

2012-01-01

Although psychology is the science of mental life and behavior, it has paid little attention to the means by which mental life is translated into behavior. One domain where links between cognition and action have been explored is the manipulation of objects. This article reviews psychological research on this topic, with special emphasis on the tendency to grasp objects differently depending on what one plans to do with the objects. Such differential grasping has been demonstrated in a wide range of object manipulation tasks, including grasping an object in a way that reveals anticipation of the object's future orientation, height, and required placement precision. Differential grasping has also been demonstrated in a wide range of behaviors, including one-hand grasps, two-hand grasps, walking, and transferring objects from place to place as well as from person to person. The populations in whom the tendency has been shown are also diverse, including nonhuman primates as well as human adults, children, and babies. Meanwhile, the tendency is compromised in a variety of clinical populations and in children of a surprisingly advanced age. Verbal working memory is compromised as well if words are memorized while object manipulation tasks are performed; the recency portion of the serial position curve is reduced in this circumstance. In general, the research reviewed here points to rich connections between cognition and action as revealed through the study of object manipulation. Other implications concern affordances, Donders' Law, and naturalistic observation and the teaching of psychology. PMID:22448912

Object recognition with severe spatial deficits in Williams syndrome: sparing and breakdown.

PubMed

Landau, Barbara; Hoffman, James E; Kurz, Nicole

2006-07-01

Williams syndrome (WS) is a rare genetic disorder that results in severe visual-spatial cognitive deficits coupled with relative sparing in language, face recognition, and certain aspects of motion processing. Here, we look for evidence for sparing or impairment in another cognitive system-object recognition. Children with WS, normal mental-age (MA) and chronological age-matched (CA) children, and normal adults viewed pictures of a large range of objects briefly presented under various conditions of degradation, including canonical and unusual orientations, and clear or blurred contours. Objects were shown as either full-color views (Experiment 1) or line drawings (Experiment 2). Across both experiments, WS and MA children performed similarly in all conditions while CA children performed better than both WS group and MA groups with unusual views. This advantage, however, was eliminated when images were also blurred. The error types and relative difficulty of different objects were similar across all participant groups. The results indicate selective sparing of basic mechanisms of object recognition in WS, together with developmental delay or arrest in recognition of objects from unusual viewpoints. These findings are consistent with the growing literature on brain abnormalities in WS which points to selective impairment in the parietal areas of the brain. As a whole, the results lend further support to the growing literature on the functional separability of object recognition mechanisms from other spatial functions, and raise intriguing questions about the link between genetic deficits and cognition.

Gamifying Video Object Segmentation.

PubMed

Spampinato, Concetto; Palazzo, Simone; Giordano, Daniela

2017-10-01

Video object segmentation can be considered as one of the most challenging computer vision problems. Indeed, so far, no existing solution is able to effectively deal with the peculiarities of real-world videos, especially in cases of articulated motion and object occlusions; limitations that appear more evident when we compare the performance of automated methods with the human one. However, manually segmenting objects in videos is largely impractical as it requires a lot of time and concentration. To address this problem, in this paper we propose an interactive video object segmentation method, which exploits, on one hand, the capability of humans to identify correctly objects in visual scenes, and on the other hand, the collective human brainpower to solve challenging and large-scale tasks. In particular, our method relies on a game with a purpose to collect human inputs on object locations, followed by an accurate segmentation phase achieved by optimizing an energy function encoding spatial and temporal constraints between object regions as well as human-provided location priors. Performance analysis carried out on complex video benchmarks, and exploiting data provided by over 60 users, demonstrated that our method shows a better trade-off between annotation times and segmentation accuracy than interactive video annotation and automated video object segmentation approaches.

Optimizing Monitoring Designs under Alternative Objectives

DOE PAGES

Gastelum, Jason A.; USA, Richland Washington; Porter, Ellen A.; ...

2014-12-31

This paper describes an approach to identify monitoring designs that optimize detection of CO2 leakage from a carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) reservoir and compares the results generated under two alternative objective functions. The first objective function minimizes the expected time to first detection of CO2 leakage, the second more conservative objective function minimizes the maximum time to leakage detection across the set of realizations. The approach applies a simulated annealing algorithm that searches the solution space by iteratively mutating the incumbent monitoring design. The approach takes into account uncertainty by evaluating the performance of potential monitoring designs across amore » set of simulated leakage realizations. The approach relies on a flexible two-tiered signature to infer that CO2 leakage has occurred. This research is part of the National Risk Assessment Partnership, a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) project tasked with conducting risk and uncertainty analysis in the areas of reservoir performance, natural leakage pathways, wellbore integrity, groundwater protection, monitoring, and systems level modeling.« less

A Survey of Health Management User Objectives Related to Diagnostic and Prognostic Metrics

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Wheeler, Kevin R.; Kurtoglu, Tolga; Poll, Scott D.

2010-01-01

One of the most prominent technical challenges to effective deployment of health management systems is the vast difference in user objectives with respect to engineering development. In this paper, a detailed survey on the objectives of different users of health management systems is presented. These user objectives are then mapped to the metrics typically encountered in the development and testing of two main systems health management functions: diagnosis and prognosis. Using this mapping, the gaps between user goals and the metrics associated with diagnostics and prognostics are identified and presented with a collection of lessons learned from previous studies that include both industrial and military aerospace applications.

Intrinsic viscosity and the electrical polarizability of arbitrarily shaped objects

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mansfield, Marc L.; Douglas, Jack F.; Garboczi, Edward J.

2001-12-01

The problem of calculating the electric polarizability tensor αe of objects of arbitrary shape has been reformulated in terms of path integration and implemented computationally. The method simultaneously yields the electrostatic capacity C and the equilibrium charge density. These functionals of particle shape are important in many materials science applications, including the conductivity and viscosity of filled materials and suspensions. The method has been validated through comparison with exact results (for the sphere, the circular disk, touching spheres, and tori), it has been found that 106 trajectories yield an accuracy of about four and three significant figures for C and αe, respectively. The method is fast: For simple objects, 106 trajectories require about 1 min on a PC. It is also versatile: Switching from one object to another is easy. Predictions have also been made for regular polygons, polyhedra, and right circular cylinders, since these shapes are important in applications and since numerical calculations of high stated accuracy are available. Finally, the path-integration method has been applied to estimate transport properties of both linear flexible polymers (random walk chains of spheres) and lattice model dendrimer molecules. This requires probing of an ensemble of objects. For linear chains, the distribution function of C and of the trace (αe), are found to be universal in a size coordinate reduced by the chain radius of gyration. For dendrimers, these distribution functions become increasingly sharp with generation number. It has been found that C and αe provide important information about the distribution of molecular size and shape and that they are important for estimating the Stokes friction and intrinsic viscosity of macromolecules.

Robot Grasps Rotating Object

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Wilcox, Brian H.; Tso, Kam S.; Litwin, Todd E.; Hayati, Samad A.; Bon, Bruce B.

1991-01-01

Experimental robotic system semiautomatically grasps rotating object, stops rotation, and pulls object to rest in fixture. Based on combination of advanced techniques for sensing and control, constructed to test concepts for robotic recapture of spinning artificial satellites. Potential terrestrial applications for technology developed with help of system includes tracking and grasping of industrial parts on conveyor belts, tracking of vehicles and animals, and soft grasping of moving objects in general.

Fast Object Motion Estimation Based on Dynamic Stixels.

PubMed

Morales, Néstor; Morell, Antonio; Toledo, Jonay; Acosta, Leopoldo

2016-07-28

The stixel world is a simplification of the world in which obstacles are represented as vertical instances, called stixels, standing on a surface assumed to be planar. In this paper, previous approaches for stixel tracking are extended using a two-level scheme. In the first level, stixels are tracked by matching them between frames using a bipartite graph in which edges represent a matching cost function. Then, stixels are clustered into sets representing objects in the environment. These objects are matched based on the number of stixels paired inside them. Furthermore, a faster, but less accurate approach is proposed in which only the second level is used. Several configurations of our method are compared to an existing state-of-the-art approach to show how our methodology outperforms it in several areas, including an improvement in the quality of the depth reconstruction.

A Standard-Compliant Virtual Meeting System with Active Video Object Tracking

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lin, Chia-Wen; Chang, Yao-Jen; Wang, Chih-Ming; Chen, Yung-Chang; Sun, Ming-Ting

2002-12-01

This paper presents an H.323 standard compliant virtual video conferencing system. The proposed system not only serves as a multipoint control unit (MCU) for multipoint connection but also provides a gateway function between the H.323 LAN (local-area network) and the H.324 WAN (wide-area network) users. The proposed virtual video conferencing system provides user-friendly object compositing and manipulation features including 2D video object scaling, repositioning, rotation, and dynamic bit-allocation in a 3D virtual environment. A reliable, and accurate scheme based on background image mosaics is proposed for real-time extracting and tracking foreground video objects from the video captured with an active camera. Chroma-key insertion is used to facilitate video objects extraction and manipulation. We have implemented a prototype of the virtual conference system with an integrated graphical user interface to demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed methods.

A guide to multi-objective optimization for ecological problems with an application to cackling goose management

USGS Publications Warehouse

Williams, Perry J.; Kendall, William L.

2017-01-01

Choices in ecological research and management are the result of balancing multiple, often competing, objectives. Multi-objective optimization (MOO) is a formal decision-theoretic framework for solving multiple objective problems. MOO is used extensively in other fields including engineering, economics, and operations research. However, its application for solving ecological problems has been sparse, perhaps due to a lack of widespread understanding. Thus, our objective was to provide an accessible primer on MOO, including a review of methods common in other fields, a review of their application in ecology, and a demonstration to an applied resource management problem.A large class of methods for solving MOO problems can be separated into two strategies: modelling preferences pre-optimization (the a priori strategy), or modelling preferences post-optimization (the a posteriori strategy). The a priori strategy requires describing preferences among objectives without knowledge of how preferences affect the resulting decision. In the a posteriori strategy, the decision maker simultaneously considers a set of solutions (the Pareto optimal set) and makes a choice based on the trade-offs observed in the set. We describe several methods for modelling preferences pre-optimization, including: the bounded objective function method, the lexicographic method, and the weighted-sum method. We discuss modelling preferences post-optimization through examination of the Pareto optimal set. We applied each MOO strategy to the natural resource management problem of selecting a population target for cackling goose (Branta hutchinsii minima) abundance. Cackling geese provide food security to Native Alaskan subsistence hunters in the goose's nesting area, but depredate crops on private agricultural fields in wintering areas. We developed objective functions to represent the competing objectives related to the cackling goose population target and identified an optimal solution

Space Object Query Tool

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Phillips, Veronica J.

2017-01-01

STI is for a fact sheet on the Space Object Query Tool being created by the MDC. When planning launches, NASA must first factor in the tens of thousands of objects already in orbit around the Earth. The number of human-made objects, including nonfunctional spacecraft, abandoned launch vehicle stages, mission-related debris and fragmentation debris orbiting Earth has grown steadily since Sputnik 1 was launched in 1957. Currently, the U.S. Department of Defenses Joint Space Operations Center, or JSpOC, tracks over 15,000 distinct objects and provides data for more than 40,000 objects via its Space-Track program, found at space-track.org.

Free-standing supramolecular hydrogel objects by reaction-diffusion

PubMed Central

Lovrak, Matija; Hendriksen, Wouter E. J.; Maity, Chandan; Mytnyk, Serhii; van Steijn, Volkert; Eelkema, Rienk; van Esch, Jan H.

2017-01-01

Self-assembly provides access to a variety of molecular materials, yet spatial control over structure formation remains difficult to achieve. Here we show how reaction–diffusion (RD) can be coupled to a molecular self-assembly process to generate macroscopic free-standing objects with control over shape, size, and functionality. In RD, two or more reactants diffuse from different positions to give rise to spatially defined structures on reaction. We demonstrate that RD can be used to locally control formation and self-assembly of hydrazone molecular gelators from their non-assembling precursors, leading to soft, free-standing hydrogel objects with sizes ranging from several hundred micrometres up to centimeters. Different chemical functionalities and gradients can easily be integrated in the hydrogel objects by using different reactants. Our methodology, together with the vast range of organic reactions and self-assembling building blocks, provides a general approach towards the programmed fabrication of soft microscale objects with controlled functionality and shape. PMID:28580948

Finite-time convergent recurrent neural network with a hard-limiting activation function for constrained optimization with piecewise-linear objective functions.

PubMed

Liu, Qingshan; Wang, Jun

2011-04-01

This paper presents a one-layer recurrent neural network for solving a class of constrained nonsmooth optimization problems with piecewise-linear objective functions. The proposed neural network is guaranteed to be globally convergent in finite time to the optimal solutions under a mild condition on a derived lower bound of a single gain parameter in the model. The number of neurons in the neural network is the same as the number of decision variables of the optimization problem. Compared with existing neural networks for optimization, the proposed neural network has a couple of salient features such as finite-time convergence and a low model complexity. Specific models for two important special cases, namely, linear programming and nonsmooth optimization, are also presented. In addition, applications to the shortest path problem and constrained least absolute deviation problem are discussed with simulation results to demonstrate the effectiveness and characteristics of the proposed neural network.

The origins of metamodality in visual object area LO: Bodily topographical biases and increased functional connectivity to S1

PubMed Central

Tal, Zohar; Geva, Ran; Amedi, Amir

2016-01-01

Recent evidence from blind participants suggests that visual areas are task-oriented and sensory modality input independent rather than sensory-specific to vision. Specifically, visual areas are thought to retain their functional selectivity when using non-visual inputs (touch or sound) even without having any visual experience. However, this theory is still controversial since it is not clear whether this also characterizes the sighted brain, and whether the reported results in the sighted reflect basic fundamental a-modal processes or are an epiphenomenon to a large extent. In the current study, we addressed these questions using a series of fMRI experiments aimed to explore visual cortex responses to passive touch on various body parts and the coupling between the parietal and visual cortices as manifested by functional connectivity. We show that passive touch robustly activated the object selective parts of the lateral–occipital (LO) cortex while deactivating almost all other occipital–retinotopic-areas. Furthermore, passive touch responses in the visual cortex were specific to hand and upper trunk stimulations. Psychophysiological interaction (PPI) analysis suggests that LO is functionally connected to the hand area in the primary somatosensory homunculus (S1), during hand and shoulder stimulations but not to any of the other body parts. We suggest that LO is a fundamental hub that serves as a node between visual-object selective areas and S1 hand representation, probably due to the critical evolutionary role of touch in object recognition and manipulation. These results might also point to a more general principle suggesting that recruitment or deactivation of the visual cortex by other sensory input depends on the ecological relevance of the information conveyed by this input to the task/computations carried out by each area or network. This is likely to rely on the unique and differential pattern of connectivity for each visual area with the rest of the

Rational functional representation of flap noise spectra including correction for reflection effects

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Miles, J. H.

1974-01-01

A rational function is presented for the acoustic spectra generated by deflection of engine exhaust jets for under-the-wing and over-the-wing versions of externally blown flaps. The functional representation is intended to provide a means for compact storage of data and for data analysis. The expressions are based on Fourier transform functions for the Strouhal normalized pressure spectral density, and on a correction for reflection effects based on Thomas' (1969) N-independent-source model extended by use of a reflected ray transfer function. Curve fit comparisons are presented for blown-flap data taken from turbofan engine tests and from large-scale cold-flow model tests. Application of the rational function to scrubbing noise theory is also indicated.

Object of desire self-consciousness theory.

PubMed

Bogaert, Anthony F; Brotto, Lori A

2014-01-01

In this article, the authors discuss the construct of object of desire self-consciousness, the perception that one is romantically and sexually desirable in another's eyes. The authors discuss the nature of the construct, variations in its expression, and how it may function as part of a self-schemata or script related to romance and sexuality. The authors suggest that object of desire self-consciousness may be an adaptive, evolved psychological mechanism allowing sexual and romantic tactics suitable to one's mate value. The authors also suggest that it can act as a signal that one has high mate value in the sexual marketplace. The authors then review literature (e.g., on fantasies, on sexual activity preferences, on sexual dysfunctions, on language) suggesting that object of desire self-consciousness plays a particularly important role in heterosexual women's sexual/romantic functioning and desires.

Neural substrates of dynamic object occlusion.

PubMed

Shuwairi, Sarah M; Curtis, Clayton E; Johnson, Scott P

2007-08-01

In everyday environments, objects frequently go out of sight as they move and our view of them becomes obstructed by nearer objects, yet we perceive these objects as continuous and enduring entities. Here, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging with an attentive tracking paradigm to clarify the nature of perceptual and cognitive mechanisms subserving this ability to fill in the gaps in perception of dynamic object occlusion. Imaging data revealed distinct regions of cortex showing increased activity during periods of occlusion relative to full visibility. These regions may support active maintenance of a representation of the target's spatiotemporal properties ensuring that the object is perceived as a persisting entity when occluded. Our findings may shed light on the neural substrates involved in object tracking that give rise to the phenomenon of object permanence.

Quantitative method for measuring heat flux emitted from a cryogenic object

DOEpatents

Duncan, Robert V.

1993-01-01

The present invention is a quantitative method for measuring the total heat flux, and of deriving the total power dissipation, of a heat-fluxing object which includes the steps of placing an electrical noise-emitting heat-fluxing object in a liquid helium bath and measuring the superfluid transition temperature of the bath. The temperature of the liquid helium bath is thereafter reduced until some measurable parameter, such as the electrical noise, exhibited by the heat-fluxing object or a temperature-dependent resistive thin film in intimate contact with the heat-fluxing object, becomes greatly reduced. The temperature of the liquid helum bath is measured at this point. The difference between the superfluid transition temperature of the liquid helium bath surrounding the heat-fluxing object, and the temperature of the liquid helium bath when the electrical noise emitted by the heat-fluxing object becomes greatly reduced, is determined. The total heat flux from the heat-fluxing object is determined as a function of this difference between these temperatures. In certain applications, the technique can be used to optimize thermal design parameters of cryogenic electronics, for example, Josephson junction and infra-red sensing devices.

Quantitative method for measuring heat flux emitted from a cryogenic object

DOEpatents

Duncan, R.V.

1993-03-16

The present invention is a quantitative method for measuring the total heat flux, and of deriving the total power dissipation, of a heat-fluxing object which includes the steps of placing an electrical noise-emitting heat-fluxing object in a liquid helium bath and measuring the superfluid transition temperature of the bath. The temperature of the liquid helium bath is thereafter reduced until some measurable parameter, such as the electrical noise, exhibited by the heat-fluxing object or a temperature-dependent resistive thin film in intimate contact with the heat-fluxing object, becomes greatly reduced. The temperature of the liquid helum bath is measured at this point. The difference between the superfluid transition temperature of the liquid helium bath surrounding the heat-fluxing object, and the temperature of the liquid helium bath when the electrical noise emitted by the heat-fluxing object becomes greatly reduced, is determined. The total heat flux from the heat-fluxing object is determined as a function of this difference between these temperatures. In certain applications, the technique can be used to optimize thermal design parameters of cryogenic electronics, for example, Josephson junction and infrared sensing devices.

Regional Management of an Aquifer for Mining Under Fuzzy Environmental Objectives

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

BogáRdi, IstváN.; BáRdossy, AndráS.; Duckstein, Lucien

1983-12-01

A methodology is developed for the dynamic multiobjective management of a multipurpose regional aquifer. In a case study of bauxite mining in Western Hungary, ore deposits are often under the piezometric level of a karstic aquifer, while this same aquifer also provides recharge flows for thermal springs. N + 1 objectives are to be minimized, the first one being total discounted cost of control by dewatering or grouting; the other N objectives consist of the flow of thermal springs at N control points. However, there is no agreement among experts as to a set of numerical values that would constitute a "sound environment"; for this reason a fuzzy set analysis is used, and the N environmental objectives are combined into a single fuzzy membership function. The constraints include ore availability, various capacities, and the state transition function that describes the behavior of both piezometric head and underground flow. The model is linearized and solved as a biobjective dynamic program by using multiobjective compromise programming. A numerical example with N = 2 appears to lead to realistic control policies. Extension of the model to the nonlinear case is discussed.

BL Lacertae Objects

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Stocke, John T.

1998-01-01

This grant has contributed to one of the original goals of the NAS/LTSA program, the goal of junior faculty development. Below I briefly summarize the following major results on BL Lacertae Objects that we have obtained. An invited talk on BL Lac Objects at IAU 175 "Extragalactic Radio Sources" at Bologna Italy in October 1995 summarized some of these results. A second invited talk in Oct 1998 at Green Bamk, WVA presented other BL Lac results at the conference entitled: "Highly Redshifted Radio Lines". We have used the EMSS sample to measure the X-ray luminosity function and cosmological evolution of BL Lacs. A new large sample of XBLs has been discovered.

Objects as closures - Abstract semantics of object oriented languages

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Reddy, Uday S.

1988-01-01

The denotational semantics of object-oriented languages is discussed using the concept of closure widely used in (semi) functional programming to encapsulate side effects. It is shown that this denotational framework is adequate to explain classes, instantiation, and inheritance in the style of Simula as well as SMALLTALK-80. This framework is then compared with that of Kamin (1988), in his recent denotational definition of SMALLTALK-80, and the implications of the differences between the two approaches are discussed.

Objects as closures: Abstract semantics of object oriented languages

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Reddy, Uday S.

1989-01-01

We discuss denotational semantics of object-oriented languages, using the concept of closure widely used in (semi) functional programming to encapsulate side effects. It is shown that this denotational framework is adequate to explain classes, instantiation, and inheritance in the style of Simula as well as SMALLTALK-80. This framework is then compared with that of Kamin, in his recent denotational definition of SMALLTALK-80, and the implications of the differences between the two approaches are discussed.

Perception of faces in schizophrenia: Subjective (self-report) vs. objective (psychophysics) assessments.

PubMed

Chen, Yue; Ekstrom, Tor

2016-05-01

Face perception impairment in schizophrenia has been demonstrated, mostly through experimental studies. How this laboratory-defined behavioral impairment is associated with patients' perceptual experience of various faces in everyday life is however unclear. This question is important because a first-person account of face perception has direct consequences on social functioning of patients. In this study, we adapted and administered a self-reported questionnaire on narrative perceptual experience of faces along with psychophysical assessments of face perception in schizophrenia. The self-reported questionnaire includes six rating items of face-related functioning in everyday life, providing a subjective measure of face perception. The psychophysical assessment determines perceptual threshold for discriminating different facial identities, providing an objective measure of face perception. Compared to controls (n = 25), patients (n = 35) showed significantly lower scores (worse performance) in the subjective assessment and significantly higher thresholds (worse performance) in the objective assessment. The subjective and objective face perception assessments were moderately correlated in controls but not in patients. The subjective face perception assessments were significantly correlated with measurements of a social cognitive ability (Theory of Mind), again in controls but not in patients. These results suggest that in schizophrenia the quality of face-related functioning in everyday life is degraded and the role that basic face discrimination capacity plays in face-related everyday functioning is disrupted. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Eye movements during object recognition in visual agnosia.

PubMed

Charles Leek, E; Patterson, Candy; Paul, Matthew A; Rafal, Robert; Cristino, Filipe

2012-07-01

This paper reports the first ever detailed study about eye movement patterns during single object recognition in visual agnosia. Eye movements were recorded in a patient with an integrative agnosic deficit during two recognition tasks: common object naming and novel object recognition memory. The patient showed normal directional biases in saccades and fixation dwell times in both tasks and was as likely as controls to fixate within object bounding contour regardless of recognition accuracy. In contrast, following initial saccades of similar amplitude to controls, the patient showed a bias for short saccades. In object naming, but not in recognition memory, the similarity of the spatial distributions of patient and control fixations was modulated by recognition accuracy. The study provides new evidence about how eye movements can be used to elucidate the functional impairments underlying object recognition deficits. We argue that the results reflect a breakdown in normal functional processes involved in the integration of shape information across object structure during the visual perception of shape. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The core legion object model

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

Lewis, M.; Grimshaw, A.

1996-12-31

The Legion project at the University of Virginia is an architecture for designing and building system services that provide the illusion of a single virtual machine to users, a virtual machine that provides secure shared object and shared name spaces, application adjustable fault-tolerance, improved response time, and greater throughput. Legion targets wide area assemblies of workstations, supercomputers, and parallel supercomputers, Legion tackles problems not solved by existing workstation based parallel processing tools; the system will enable fault-tolerance, wide area parallel processing, inter-operability, heterogeneity, a single global name space, protection, security, efficient scheduling, and comprehensive resource management. This paper describes themore » core Legion object model, which specifies the composition and functionality of Legion`s core objects-those objects that cooperate to create, locate, manage, and remove objects in the Legion system. The object model facilitates a flexible extensible implementation, provides a single global name space, grants site autonomy to participating organizations, and scales to millions of sites and trillions of objects.« less

Multiple-Objective Optimal Designs for Studying the Dose Response Function and Interesting Dose Levels

PubMed Central

Hyun, Seung Won; Wong, Weng Kee

2016-01-01

We construct an optimal design to simultaneously estimate three common interesting features in a dose-finding trial with possibly different emphasis on each feature. These features are (1) the shape of the dose-response curve, (2) the median effective dose and (3) the minimum effective dose level. A main difficulty of this task is that an optimal design for a single objective may not perform well for other objectives. There are optimal designs for dual objectives in the literature but we were unable to find optimal designs for 3 or more objectives to date with a concrete application. A reason for this is that the approach for finding a dual-objective optimal design does not work well for a 3 or more multiple-objective design problem. We propose a method for finding multiple-objective optimal designs that estimate the three features with user-specified higher efficiencies for the more important objectives. We use the flexible 4-parameter logistic model to illustrate the methodology but our approach is applicable to find multiple-objective optimal designs for other types of objectives and models. We also investigate robustness properties of multiple-objective optimal designs to mis-specification in the nominal parameter values and to a variation in the optimality criterion. We also provide computer code for generating tailor made multiple-objective optimal designs. PMID:26565557

Multiple-Objective Optimal Designs for Studying the Dose Response Function and Interesting Dose Levels.

PubMed

Hyun, Seung Won; Wong, Weng Kee

2015-11-01

We construct an optimal design to simultaneously estimate three common interesting features in a dose-finding trial with possibly different emphasis on each feature. These features are (1) the shape of the dose-response curve, (2) the median effective dose and (3) the minimum effective dose level. A main difficulty of this task is that an optimal design for a single objective may not perform well for other objectives. There are optimal designs for dual objectives in the literature but we were unable to find optimal designs for 3 or more objectives to date with a concrete application. A reason for this is that the approach for finding a dual-objective optimal design does not work well for a 3 or more multiple-objective design problem. We propose a method for finding multiple-objective optimal designs that estimate the three features with user-specified higher efficiencies for the more important objectives. We use the flexible 4-parameter logistic model to illustrate the methodology but our approach is applicable to find multiple-objective optimal designs for other types of objectives and models. We also investigate robustness properties of multiple-objective optimal designs to mis-specification in the nominal parameter values and to a variation in the optimality criterion. We also provide computer code for generating tailor made multiple-objective optimal designs.

Including robustness in multi-criteria optimization for intensity-modulated proton therapy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chen, Wei; Unkelbach, Jan; Trofimov, Alexei; Madden, Thomas; Kooy, Hanne; Bortfeld, Thomas; Craft, David

2012-02-01

We present a method to include robustness in a multi-criteria optimization (MCO) framework for intensity-modulated proton therapy (IMPT). The approach allows one to simultaneously explore the trade-off between different objectives as well as the trade-off between robustness and nominal plan quality. In MCO, a database of plans each emphasizing different treatment planning objectives, is pre-computed to approximate the Pareto surface. An IMPT treatment plan that strikes the best balance between the different objectives can be selected by navigating on the Pareto surface. In our approach, robustness is integrated into MCO by adding robustified objectives and constraints to the MCO problem. Uncertainties (or errors) of the robust problem are modeled by pre-calculated dose-influence matrices for a nominal scenario and a number of pre-defined error scenarios (shifted patient positions, proton beam undershoot and overshoot). Objectives and constraints can be defined for the nominal scenario, thus characterizing nominal plan quality. A robustified objective represents the worst objective function value that can be realized for any of the error scenarios and thus provides a measure of plan robustness. The optimization method is based on a linear projection solver and is capable of handling large problem sizes resulting from a fine dose grid resolution, many scenarios, and a large number of proton pencil beams. A base-of-skull case is used to demonstrate the robust optimization method. It is demonstrated that the robust optimization method reduces the sensitivity of the treatment plan to setup and range errors to a degree that is not achieved by a safety margin approach. A chordoma case is analyzed in more detail to demonstrate the involved trade-offs between target underdose and brainstem sparing as well as robustness and nominal plan quality. The latter illustrates the advantage of MCO in the context of robust planning. For all cases examined, the robust optimization for

Single- and Multiple-Objective Optimization with Differential Evolution and Neural Networks

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Rai, Man Mohan

2006-01-01

Genetic and evolutionary algorithms have been applied to solve numerous problems in engineering design where they have been used primarily as optimization procedures. These methods have an advantage over conventional gradient-based search procedures became they are capable of finding global optima of multi-modal functions and searching design spaces with disjoint feasible regions. They are also robust in the presence of noisy data. Another desirable feature of these methods is that they can efficiently use distributed and parallel computing resources since multiple function evaluations (flow simulations in aerodynamics design) can be performed simultaneously and independently on ultiple processors. For these reasons genetic and evolutionary algorithms are being used more frequently in design optimization. Examples include airfoil and wing design and compressor and turbine airfoil design. They are also finding increasing use in multiple-objective and multidisciplinary optimization. This lecture will focus on an evolutionary method that is a relatively new member to the general class of evolutionary methods called differential evolution (DE). This method is easy to use and program and it requires relatively few user-specified constants. These constants are easily determined for a wide class of problems. Fine-tuning the constants will off course yield the solution to the optimization problem at hand more rapidly. DE can be efficiently implemented on parallel computers and can be used for continuous, discrete and mixed discrete/continuous optimization problems. It does not require the objective function to be continuous and is noise tolerant. DE and applications to single and multiple-objective optimization will be included in the presentation and lecture notes. A method for aerodynamic design optimization that is based on neural networks will also be included as a part of this lecture. The method offers advantages over traditional optimization methods. It is more

Selective visual attention in object detection processes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Paletta, Lucas; Goyal, Anurag; Greindl, Christian

2003-03-01

Object detection is an enabling technology that plays a key role in many application areas, such as content based media retrieval. Attentive cognitive vision systems are here proposed where the focus of attention is directed towards the most relevant target. The most promising information is interpreted in a sequential process that dynamically makes use of knowledge and that enables spatial reasoning on the local object information. The presented work proposes an innovative application of attention mechanisms for object detection which is most general in its understanding of information and action selection. The attentive detection system uses a cascade of increasingly complex classifiers for the stepwise identification of regions of interest (ROIs) and recursively refined object hypotheses. While the most coarse classifiers are used to determine first approximations on a region of interest in the input image, more complex classifiers are used for more refined ROIs to give more confident estimates. Objects are modelled by local appearance based representations and in terms of posterior distributions of the object samples in eigenspace. The discrimination function to discern between objects is modeled by a radial basis functions (RBF) network that has been compared with alternative networks and been proved consistent and superior to other artifical neural networks for appearance based object recognition. The experiments were led for the automatic detection of brand objects in Formula One broadcasts within the European Commission's cognitive vision project DETECT.

29 CFR 2200.72 - Objections.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... hearing, including any objection to the introduction of evidence or a ruling by the Judge, may be stated orally or in writing, accompanied by a short statement of the grounds for the objection, and shall be...

Equations, Functions, Critical Aspects and Mathematical Communication

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Olteanu, Constanta; Olteanu, Lucian

2012-01-01

The purpose of this paper is to present the mechanism for effective communication when the mathematical objects of learning are equations and functions. The presentation is based on data collected while the same object of learning is presented in two classes, and it includes two teachers and 45 students. Among other things, the data consists of…

Potential objective biomarkers for fatigue among working women

PubMed Central

Ebata, Chie; Tatsuta, Hitomi; Tatemichi, Masayuki

2017-01-01

Objective: The prediction of health impairment due to work overload is subjectively assessed based on recognized symptoms; however, objective evaluation is primarily ideal in the field of occupational health. Recently, some biomarkers of autonomic function and/or oxidative stress were reported to be associated with fatigue. This study aimed to preliminarily investigate whether these biomarkers could be objective indicators for fatigue and stress among working women. Method: Participants included 118 full-time female workers (mean age 37.8 years), including 55 shift workers. Self-administered questionnaires, such as visual analog scale (VAS) for general health, a lifestyle questionnaire, SF-8 for health-related quality of life, and K6 for mental health screening, were used. In addition, biomarkers such as acceleration plethysmogram (APG), reactive oxygen metabolites-derived compounds (d-ROMs), and biological antioxidant potential (BAP) were measured. Results: A significant association was observed between BAP and VAS (r=0.482, p<0.01) among shift workers. However, other biomarkers such as APG and d-ROMs were not significantly associated with symptoms. d-ROMs were significantly correlated with age and body mass index. There was a significant negative correlation between BAP and smoking. Results of the APG (low-frequency (LF) /high-frequency (HF) ratio) were significantly correlated with BAP, but not with d-ROMs. The LF/HF ratio and BAP for shift workers were significantly higher than those for day-time workers. Conclusions: Our results suggest that APG and BAP are potential objective biomarkers for fatigue among working women, although further follow-up studies are needed to clarify the scope of usefulness of the biomarkers for fatigue. PMID:28163282

Basic mathematical function libraries for scientific computation

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Galant, David C.

1989-01-01

Ada packages implementing selected mathematical functions for the support of scientific and engineering applications were written. The packages provide the Ada programmer with the mathematical function support found in the languages Pascal and FORTRAN as well as an extended precision arithmetic and a complete complex arithmetic. The algorithms used are fully described and analyzed. Implementation assumes that the Ada type FLOAT objects fully conform to the IEEE 754-1985 standard for single binary floating-point arithmetic, and that INTEGER objects are 32-bit entities. Codes for the Ada packages are included as appendixes.

Object Oriented Learning Objects

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Morris, Ed

2005-01-01

We apply the object oriented software engineering (OOSE) design methodology for software objects (SOs) to learning objects (LOs). OOSE extends and refines design principles for authoring dynamic reusable LOs. Our learning object class (LOC) is a template from which individualised LOs can be dynamically created for, or by, students. The properties…

Opacity probability distribution functions for electronic systems of CN and C2 molecules including their stellar isotopic forms.

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Querci, F.; Kunde, V. G.; Querci, M.

1971-01-01

The basis and techniques are presented for generating opacity probability distribution functions for the CN molecule (red and violet systems) and the C2 molecule (Swan, Phillips, Ballik-Ramsay systems), two of the more important diatomic molecules in the spectra of carbon stars, with a view to including these distribution functions in equilibrium model atmosphere calculations. Comparisons to the CO molecule are also shown. T he computation of the monochromatic absorption coefficient uses the most recent molecular data with revision of the oscillator strengths for some of the band systems. The total molecular stellar mass absorption coefficient is established through fifteen equations of molecular dissociation equilibrium to relate the distribution functions to each other on a per gram of stellar material basis.

Object recognition with hierarchical discriminant saliency networks.

PubMed

Han, Sunhyoung; Vasconcelos, Nuno

2014-01-01

The benefits of integrating attention and object recognition are investigated. While attention is frequently modeled as a pre-processor for recognition, we investigate the hypothesis that attention is an intrinsic component of recognition and vice-versa. This hypothesis is tested with a recognition model, the hierarchical discriminant saliency network (HDSN), whose layers are top-down saliency detectors, tuned for a visual class according to the principles of discriminant saliency. As a model of neural computation, the HDSN has two possible implementations. In a biologically plausible implementation, all layers comply with the standard neurophysiological model of visual cortex, with sub-layers of simple and complex units that implement a combination of filtering, divisive normalization, pooling, and non-linearities. In a convolutional neural network implementation, all layers are convolutional and implement a combination of filtering, rectification, and pooling. The rectification is performed with a parametric extension of the now popular rectified linear units (ReLUs), whose parameters can be tuned for the detection of target object classes. This enables a number of functional enhancements over neural network models that lack a connection to saliency, including optimal feature denoising mechanisms for recognition, modulation of saliency responses by the discriminant power of the underlying features, and the ability to detect both feature presence and absence. In either implementation, each layer has a precise statistical interpretation, and all parameters are tuned by statistical learning. Each saliency detection layer learns more discriminant saliency templates than its predecessors and higher layers have larger pooling fields. This enables the HDSN to simultaneously achieve high selectivity to target object classes and invariance. The performance of the network in saliency and object recognition tasks is compared to those of models from the biological and

Object tracking with stereo vision

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Huber, Eric

1994-01-01

A real-time active stereo vision system incorporating gaze control and task directed vision is described. Emphasis is placed on object tracking and object size and shape determination. Techniques include motion-centroid tracking, depth tracking, and contour tracking.

The Derivation of Simple Poles in a Transfer Function from Real Frequency Information. Part 3. Object Classification and Identification,

DTIC Science & Technology

1977-01-10

This report is the third in a series of three that evaluate a technique (frequency-domain Prony) for obtaining the poles of a transfer function. The...main objective was to assess the feasibility of classifying or identifying ship-like targets by using pole sets derived from frequency-domain data. A...predictor-correlator procedure for using spectral data and library pole sets for this purpose was developed. Also studied was an iterative method for

Optimal Path Determination for Flying Vehicle to Search an Object

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Heru Tjahjana, R.; Heri Soelistyo U, R.; Ratnasari, L.; Irawanto, B.

2018-01-01

In this paper, a method to determine optimal path for flying vehicle to search an object is proposed. Background of the paper is controlling air vehicle to search an object. Optimal path determination is one of the most popular problem in optimization. This paper describe model of control design for a flying vehicle to search an object, and focus on the optimal path that used to search an object. In this paper, optimal control model is used to control flying vehicle to make the vehicle move in optimal path. If the vehicle move in optimal path, then the path to reach the searched object also optimal. The cost Functional is one of the most important things in optimal control design, in this paper the cost functional make the air vehicle can move as soon as possible to reach the object. The axis reference of flying vehicle uses N-E-D (North-East-Down) coordinate system. The result of this paper are the theorems which say that the cost functional make the control optimal and make the vehicle move in optimal path are proved analytically. The other result of this paper also shows the cost functional which used is convex. The convexity of the cost functional is use for guarantee the existence of optimal control. This paper also expose some simulations to show an optimal path for flying vehicle to search an object. The optimization method which used to find the optimal control and optimal path vehicle in this paper is Pontryagin Minimum Principle.

Functional magnetic resonance imaging of visual object construction and shape discrimination : relations among task, hemispheric lateralization, and gender.

PubMed

Georgopoulos, A P; Whang, K; Georgopoulos, M A; Tagaris, G A; Amirikian, B; Richter, W; Kim, S G; Uğurbil, K

2001-01-01

We studied the brain activation patterns in two visual image processing tasks requiring judgements on object construction (FIT task) or object sameness (SAME task). Eight right-handed healthy human subjects (four women and four men) performed the two tasks in a randomized block design while 5-mm, multislice functional images of the whole brain were acquired using a 4-tesla system using blood oxygenation dependent (BOLD) activation. Pairs of objects were picked randomly from a set of 25 oriented fragments of a square and presented to the subjects approximately every 5 sec. In the FIT task, subjects had to indicate, by pushing one of two buttons, whether the two fragments could match to form a perfect square, whereas in the SAME task they had to decide whether they were the same or not. In a control task, preceding and following each of the two tasks above, a single square was presented at the same rate and subjects pushed any of the two keys at random. Functional activation maps were constructed based on a combination of conservative criteria. The areas with activated pixels were identified using Talairach coordinates and anatomical landmarks, and the number of activated pixels was determined for each area. Altogether, 379 pixels were activated. The counts of activated pixels did not differ significantly between the two tasks or between the two genders. However, there were significantly more activated pixels in the left (n = 218) than the right side of the brain (n = 161). Of the 379 activated pixels, 371 were located in the cerebral cortex. The Talairach coordinates of these pixels were analyzed with respect to their overall distribution in the two tasks. These distributions differed significantly between the two tasks. With respect to individual dimensions, the two tasks differed significantly in the anterior--posterior and superior--inferior distributions but not in the left--right (including mediolateral, within the left or right side) distribution. Specifically

Examining Object Location and Object Recognition Memory in Mice

PubMed Central

Vogel-Ciernia, Annie; Wood, Marcelo A.

2014-01-01

Unit Introduction The ability to store and recall our life experiences defines a person's identity. Consequently, the loss of long-term memory is a particularly devastating part of a variety of cognitive disorders, diseases and injuries. There is a great need to develop therapeutics to treat memory disorders, and thus a variety of animal models and memory paradigms have been developed. Mouse models have been widely used both to study basic disease mechanisms and to evaluate potential drug targets for therapeutic development. The relative ease of genetic manipulation of Mus musculus has led to a wide variety of genetically altered mice that model cognitive disorders ranging from Alzheimer's disease to autism. Rodents, including mice, are particularly adept at encoding and remembering spatial relationships, and these long-term spatial memories are dependent on the medial temporal lobe of the brain. These brain regions are also some of the first and most heavily impacted in disorders of human memory including Alzheimer's disease. Consequently, some of the simplest and most commonly used tests of long-term memory in mice are those that examine memory for objects and spatial relationships. However, many of these tasks, such as Morris water maze and contextual fear conditioning, are dependent upon the encoding and retrieval of emotionally aversive and inherently stressful training events. While these types of memories are important, they do not reflect the typical day-to-day experiences or memories most commonly affected in human disease. In addition, stress hormone release alone can modulate memory and thus obscure or artificially enhance these types of tasks. To avoid these sorts of confounds, we and many others have utilized tasks testing animals’ memory for object location and novel object recognition. These tasks involve exploiting rodents’ innate preference for novelty, and are inherently not stressful. In this protocol we detail how memory for object location

Color-Space Outliers in DPOSS: Quasars and Peculiar Objects

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Djorgovski, S. G.; Gal, R. R.; Mahabal, A.; Brunner, R.; Castro, S. M.; Odewahn, S. C.; de Carvalho, R. R.; DPOSS Team

2000-12-01

The processing of DPOSS, a digital version of the POSS-II sky atlas, is now nearly complete. The resulting Palomar--Norris Sky Catalog (PNSC) is expected to contain > 5 x 107 galaxies and > 109 stars, including large numbers of quasars and other unresolved sources. For objects morphologically classified as stellar (i.e., PSF-like), colors and magnitudes provide the only additional source of discriminating information. We investigate the distribution of objects in the parameter space of (g-r) and (r-i) colors as a function of magnitude. Normal stars form a well-defined (temperature) sequence in this parameter space, and we explore the nature of the objects which deviate significantly from this stellar locus. The causes of the deviations include: non-thermal or peculiar spectra, interagalactic absorption (for high-z quasars), presence of strong emission lines in one or more of the bandpasses, or strong variability (because the plates are taken at widely separated epochs). In addition to minor contamination by misclassified compact galaxies, we find the following: (1) Quasars at z > 4; to date, ~ 100 of these objects have been found, and used for a variety of follow-up studies. They are made publicly available immediately after discovery, through http://astro.caltech.edu/ ~george/z4.qsos. (2) Type-2 quasars in the redshift interval z ~ 0.31 - 0.38. (3) Other quasars, starburst and emission-line galaxies, and emission-line stars. (4) Objects with highly peculiar spectra, some or all of which may be rare subtypes of BAL QSOs. (5) Highly variable stars and optical transients, some of which may be GRB ``orphan afterglows''. To date, systematic searches have been made only for (1) and (2); other types of objects were found serendipitously. However, we plan to explore systematically all of the statistically significant outliers in this parameter space. This illustrates the potential of large digital sky surveys for discovery of rare types of objects, both known (e.g., high

Propelling Extended Objects

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Humbert, Richard

2010-03-01

A force acting on just part of an extended object (either a solid or a volume of a liquid) can cause all of it to move. That motion is due to the transmission of the force through the object by its material. This paper discusses how the force is distributed to all of the object by a gradient of stress or pressure in it, which creates the local force that directly propels each part of the object. Those gradients resemble the ones created in objects by their weights. An example of the latter is the compressive stress in a column of a building increasing steadily toward its lower end. That gradient occurs because each horizontal section through the column supports all of the weight above it, including the load force pushing down on the column's upper end. The gradient resembles the pressure in a container of liquid increasing with depth in it. Likewise, the weight of a vertically hanging cable causes its tension and tensile stress to increase toward its upper end.

Hydrostatic force used to handle outsized, heavy objects

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Craft, G. W.; Starkey, A. W.

1967-01-01

Specially fitted barge is used to load and transport large, heavy objects to a dock side site. There the barge itself can lift, rotate, and position the objects. Typical functions are economically accomplished by water buoyancy.

Examining object recognition and object-in-Place memory in plateau zokors, Eospalax baileyi.

PubMed

Hegab, Ibrahim M; Tan, Yuchen; Wang, Chan; Yao, Baohui; Wang, Haifang; Ji, Weihong; Su, Junhu

2018-01-01

Recognition memory is important for the survival and fitness of subterranean rodents due to the barren underground conditions that require avoiding the burden of higher energy costs or possible conflict with conspecifics. Our study aims to examine the object and object/place recognition memories in plateau zokors (Eospalax baileyi) and test whether their underground life exerts sex-specific differences in memory functions using Novel Object Recognition (NOR) and Object-in-Place (OiP) paradigms. Animals were tested in the NOR with short (10min) and long-term (24h) inter-trial intervals (ITI) and in the OiP for a 30-min ITI between the familiarization and testing sessions. Plateau zokors showed a strong preference for novel objects manifested by a longer exploration time for the novel object after 10min ITI but failed to remember the familiar object when tested after 24h, suggesting a lack of long-term memory. In the OiP test, zokors effectively formed an association between the objects and the place where they were formerly encountered, resulting in a higher duration of exploration to the switched objects. However, both sexes showed equivalent results in exploration time during the NOR and OiP tests, which eliminates the possibility of discovering sex-specific variations in memory performance. Taken together, our study illustrates robust novelty preference and an effective short-term recognition memory without marked sex-specific differences, which might elucidate the dynamics of recognition memory formation and retrieval in plateau zokors. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Inhibition by fenoterol of human eosinophil functions including beta2-adrenoceptor-independent actions.

PubMed

Tachibana, A; Kato, M; Kimura, H; Fujiu, T; Suzuki, M; Morikawa, A

2002-12-01

Agonists at beta2 adrenoceptors are used widely as bronchodilators in treating bronchial asthma. These agents also may have important anti-inflammatory effects on eosinophils in asthma. We examined whether widely prescribed beta2-adrenoceptor agonists differ in ability to suppress stimulus-induced eosinophil effector functions such as superoxide anion (O2-) generation and degranulation. To examine involvement of cellular adhesion in such responses, we also investigated effects of beta2 agonists on cellular adhesion and on CD11b expression by human eosinophils. O2- was measured using chemiluminescence. Eosinophil degranulation and adhesion were assessed by a radioimmunoassay for eosinophil protein X (EPX). CD11b expression was measured by flow cytometry. Fenoterol inhibited platelet-activating factor (PAF)-induced O2- generation by eosinophils significantly more than salbutamol or procaterol. Fenoterol partially inhibited PAF-induced degranulation by eosinophils similarly to salbutamol or procaterol. Fenoterol inhibited phorbol myristate acetate (PMA)-induced O2- generation and degranulation by eosinophils, while salbutamol or procaterol did not. Fenoterol inhibition of PMA-induced O2- generation was not reversed by ICI-118551, a selective beta2-adrenoceptor antagonist. Fenoterol, but not salbutamol or procaterol, significantly inhibited PAF-induced eosinophil adhesion. Fenoterol inhibited O2- generation and degranulation more effectively than salbutamol or procaterol; these effects may include a component involving cellular adhesion. Inhibition also might include a component not mediated via beta2 adrenoceptors.

Object-oriented approach for gas turbine engine simulation

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Curlett, Brian P.; Felder, James L.

1995-01-01

An object-oriented gas turbine engine simulation program was developed. This program is a prototype for a more complete, commercial grade engine performance program now being proposed as part of the Numerical Propulsion System Simulator (NPSS). This report discusses architectural issues of this complex software system and the lessons learned from developing the prototype code. The prototype code is a fully functional, general purpose engine simulation program, however, only the component models necessary to model a transient compressor test rig have been written. The production system will be capable of steady state and transient modeling of almost any turbine engine configuration. Chief among the architectural considerations for this code was the framework in which the various software modules will interact. These modules include the equation solver, simulation code, data model, event handler, and user interface. Also documented in this report is the component based design of the simulation module and the inter-component communication paradigm. Object class hierarchies for some of the code modules are given.

Marine Engine Mechanics. Performance Objectives. Basic Course.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jones, Marion

Several intermediate performance objectives and corresponding criterion measures are presented for each of six terminal objectives for a two-semester course (2 hours daily) which provides training in the terminology, construction, and function of both two- and four-cycle fuel-air mixture internal combustion engines with emphasis on outboard marine…

Multiple-3D-object secure information system based on phase shifting method and single interference.

PubMed

Li, Wei-Na; Shi, Chen-Xiao; Piao, Mei-Lan; Kim, Nam

2016-05-20

We propose a multiple-3D-object secure information system for encrypting multiple three-dimensional (3D) objects based on the three-step phase shifting method. During the decryption procedure, five phase functions (PFs) are decreased to three PFs, in comparison with our previous method, which implies that one cross beam splitter is utilized to implement the single decryption interference. Moreover, the advantages of the proposed scheme also include: each 3D object can be decrypted discretionarily without decrypting a series of other objects earlier; the quality of the decrypted slice image of each object is high according to the correlation coefficient values, none of which is lower than 0.95; no iterative algorithm is involved. The feasibility of the proposed scheme is demonstrated by computer simulation results.

Fuzzy connected object definition in images with respect to co-objects

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Udupa, Jayaram K.; Saha, Punam K.; Lotufo, Roberto A.

1999-05-01

Tangible solutions to practical image segmentation are vital to ensure progress in many applications of medical imaging. Toward this goal, we previously proposed a theory and algorithms for fuzzy connected object definition in n- dimensional images. Their effectiveness has been demonstrated in several applications including multiple sclerosis lesion detection/delineation, MR Angiography, and craniofacial imaging. The purpose of this work is to extend the earlier theory and algorithms to fuzzy connected object definition that considers all relevant objects in the image simultaneously. In the previous theory, delineation of the final object from the fuzzy connectivity scene required the selection of a threshold that specifies the weakest `hanging-togetherness' of image elements relative to each other in the object. Selection of such a threshold was not trivial and has been an active research area. In the proposed method of relative fuzzy connectivity, instead of defining an object on its own based on the strength of connectedness, all co-objects of importance that are present in the image are also considered and the objects are let to compete among themselves in having image elements as their members. In this competition, every pair of elements in the image will have a strength of connectedness in each object. The object in which this strength is highest will claim membership of the elements. This approach to fuzzy object definition using a relative strength of connectedness eliminates the need for a threshold of strength of connectedness that was part of the previous definition. It seems to be more natural since it relies on the fact that an object gets defined in an image by the presence of other objects that coexist in the image. All specified objects are defined simultaneously in this approach. The concept of iterative relative fuzzy connectivity has also been introduced. Robustness of relative fuzzy objects with respect to selection of reference image elements

Object similarity affects the perceptual strategy underlying invariant visual object recognition in rats

PubMed Central

Rosselli, Federica B.; Alemi, Alireza; Ansuini, Alessio; Zoccolan, Davide

2015-01-01

In recent years, a number of studies have explored the possible use of rats as models of high-level visual functions. One central question at the root of such an investigation is to understand whether rat object vision relies on the processing of visual shape features or, rather, on lower-order image properties (e.g., overall brightness). In a recent study, we have shown that rats are capable of extracting multiple features of an object that are diagnostic of its identity, at least when those features are, structure-wise, distinct enough to be parsed by the rat visual system. In the present study, we have assessed the impact of object structure on rat perceptual strategy. We trained rats to discriminate between two structurally similar objects, and compared their recognition strategies with those reported in our previous study. We found that, under conditions of lower stimulus discriminability, rat visual discrimination strategy becomes more view-dependent and subject-dependent. Rats were still able to recognize the target objects, in a way that was largely tolerant (i.e., invariant) to object transformation; however, the larger structural and pixel-wise similarity affected the way objects were processed. Compared to the findings of our previous study, the patterns of diagnostic features were: (i) smaller and more scattered; (ii) only partially preserved across object views; and (iii) only partially reproducible across rats. On the other hand, rats were still found to adopt a multi-featural processing strategy and to make use of part of the optimal discriminatory information afforded by the two objects. Our findings suggest that, as in humans, rat invariant recognition can flexibly rely on either view-invariant representations of distinctive object features or view-specific object representations, acquired through learning. PMID:25814936

Objective assessment of olfactory function using functional magnetic resonance imaging.

PubMed

Toledano, Adolfo; Borromeo, Susana; Luna, Guillermo; Molina, Elena; Solana, Ana Beatriz; García-Polo, Pablo; Hernández, Juan Antonio; Álvarez-linera, Juan

2012-01-01

To show the results of a device that generates automated olfactory stimuli suitable for functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) experiments. Ten normal volunteers, 5 women and 5 men, were studied. The system allows the programming of several sequences, providing the capability to synchronise the onset of odour presentation with acquisition by a trigger signal of the MRI scanner. The olfactometer is a device that allows selection of the odour, the event paradigm, the time of stimuli and the odour concentration. The paradigm used during fMRI scanning consisted of 15-s blocks. The odorant event took 2s with butanol, mint and coffee. We observed olfactory activity in the olfactory bulb, entorhinal cortex (4%), amygdala (2.5%) and temporo-parietal cortex, especially in the areas related to emotional integration. The device has demonstrated its effectiveness in stimulating olfactory areas and its capacity to adapt to fMRI equipment. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier España, S.L. All rights reserved.

Through Efficient Use of LORs: Prospective Teachers' Views on Operational Aspects of Learning Object Repositories

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yalcinalp, Serpil; Emiroglu, Bulent

2012-01-01

Although many developments have been made in the design and development of learning object repositories (LORs), the efficient use of such systems is still questionable. Without realising the functional use of such systems or considering the involvement of their dynamic users, these systems would probably become obsolete. This study includes both…

[Functional assessment of patients with vertigo and dizziness in occupational medicine].

PubMed

Zamysłowska-Szmytke, Ewa; Szostek-Rogula, Sylwia; Śliwińska-Kowalska, Mariola

2018-03-09

Balance assessment relies on symptoms, clinical examination and functional assessment and their verification in objective tests. Our study was aimed at calculating the assessment compatibility between questionnaires, functional scales and objective vestibular and balance examinations. A group of 131 patients (including 101 women; mean age: 59±14 years) of the audiology outpatient clinic was examined. Benign paroxysmal positional vertigo, phobic vertigo and central dizziness were the most common diseases observed in the study group. Patients' symptoms were tested using the questionnaire on Cawthworne-Cooksey exercises (CC), Dizziness Handicap Inventory (DHI) and Duke Anxiety-Depression Scale. Berg Balance Scale (BBS), Dynamic Gait Index (DGI), the Tinetti test, Timed Up and Go test (TUG), and Dynamic Visual Acuity (DVA) were used for the functional balance assessment. Objective evaluation included: videonystagmography caloric test and static posturography. The study results revealed statistically significant but moderate compatibility between functional tests BBS, DGI, TUG, DVA and caloric results (Kendall's W = 0.29) and higher for posturography (W = 0.33). The agreement between questionnaires and objective tests were very low (W = 0.08-0.11).The positive predictive values of BBS were 42% for caloric and 62% for posturography tests, of DGI - 46% and 57%, respectively. The results of functional tests (BBS, DGI, TUG, DVA) revealed statistically significant correlations with objective balance tests but low predictive values did not allow to use these tests in vestibular damage screening. Only half of the patients with functional disturbances revealed abnormal caloric or posturography tests. The qualification to work based on objective tests ignore functional state of the worker, which may influence the ability to work. Med Pr 2018;69(2):179-189. This work is available in Open Access model and licensed under a CC BY-NC 3.0 PL license.

Manipulator for hollow objects

DOEpatents

Cawley, William E.; Frantz, Charles E.

1977-01-01

A device for gripping the interior of a tubular object to pull it out of a body in which it has become stuck includes an expandable rubber tube having a plurality of metal cables lodged in the exterior of the rubber tube so as to protrude slightly therefrom, means for inflating the tube and means for pulling the tube longitudinally of the tubular object.

Localization of Virtual Objects in the Near Visual Field (Operator Interaction with Simple Virtual Objects)

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ellis, Stephen R.; Menges, Brian M.

1998-01-01

Errors in the localization of nearby virtual objects presented via see-through, helmet mounted displays are examined as a function of viewing conditions and scene content in four experiments using a total of 38 subjects. Monocular, biocular or stereoscopic presentation of the virtual objects, accommodation (required focus), subjects' age, and the position of physical surfaces are examined. Nearby physical surfaces are found to introduce localization errors that differ depending upon the other experimental factors. These errors apparently arise from the occlusion of the physical background by the optically superimposed virtual objects. But they are modified by subjects' accommodative competence and specific viewing conditions. The apparent physical size and transparency of the virtual objects and physical surfaces respectively are influenced by their relative position when superimposed. The design implications of the findings are discussed in a concluding section.

Objective assessment of image quality. IV. Application to adaptive optics

PubMed Central

Barrett, Harrison H.; Myers, Kyle J.; Devaney, Nicholas; Dainty, Christopher

2008-01-01

The methodology of objective assessment, which defines image quality in terms of the performance of specific observers on specific tasks of interest, is extended to temporal sequences of images with random point spread functions and applied to adaptive imaging in astronomy. The tasks considered include both detection and estimation, and the observers are the optimal linear discriminant (Hotelling observer) and the optimal linear estimator (Wiener). A general theory of first- and second-order spatiotemporal statistics in adaptive optics is developed. It is shown that the covariance matrix can be rigorously decomposed into three terms representing the effect of measurement noise, random point spread function, and random nature of the astronomical scene. Figures of merit are developed, and computational methods are discussed. PMID:17106464

SU-F-R-46: Predicting Distant Failure in Lung SBRT Using Multi-Objective Radiomics Model

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

Zhou, Z; Folkert, M; Iyengar, P

2016-06-15

Purpose: To predict distant failure in lung stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) in early stage non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) by using a new multi-objective radiomics model. Methods: Currently, most available radiomics models use the overall accuracy as the objective function. However, due to data imbalance, a single object may not reflect the performance of a predictive model. Therefore, we developed a multi-objective radiomics model which considers both sensitivity and specificity as the objective functions simultaneously. The new model is used to predict distant failure in lung SBRT using 52 patients treated at our institute. Quantitative imaging features of PETmore » and CT as well as clinical parameters are utilized to build the predictive model. Image features include intensity features (9), textural features (12) and geometric features (8). Clinical parameters for each patient include demographic parameters (4), tumor characteristics (8), treatment faction schemes (4) and pretreatment medicines (6). The modelling procedure consists of two steps: extracting features from segmented tumors in PET and CT; and selecting features and training model parameters based on multi-objective. Support Vector Machine (SVM) is used as the predictive model, while a nondominated sorting-based multi-objective evolutionary computation algorithm II (NSGA-II) is used for solving the multi-objective optimization. Results: The accuracy for PET, clinical, CT, PET+clinical, PET+CT, CT+clinical, PET+CT+clinical are 71.15%, 84.62%, 84.62%, 85.54%, 82.69%, 84.62%, 86.54%, respectively. The sensitivities for the above seven combinations are 41.76%, 58.33%, 50.00%, 50.00%, 41.67%, 41.67%, 58.33%, while the specificities are 80.00%, 92.50%, 90.00%, 97.50%, 92.50%, 97.50%, 97.50%. Conclusion: A new multi-objective radiomics model for predicting distant failure in NSCLC treated with SBRT was developed. The experimental results show that the best performance can be obtained by

Unaware Processing of Tools in the Neural System for Object-Directed Action Representation.

PubMed

Tettamanti, Marco; Conca, Francesca; Falini, Andrea; Perani, Daniela

2017-11-01

programming of actions that could be accomplished congruently with the objects' functions? In this fMRI study, we instantiated unaware visual perception conditions, by dynamically suppressing the visibility of manipulable object pictures with mondrian masks. Despite escaping conscious perception, manipulable objects activated an object-directed action representation system that includes left-hemispheric premotor, parietal, and posterior temporal cortices. This demonstrates that visuomotor encoding occurs independently of conscious object perception. Copyright © 2017 the authors 0270-6474/17/3710712-13$15.00/0.

Industrial Electronics. Performance Objectives. Basic Course.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tiffany, Earl

Several intermediate performance objectives and corresponding criterion measures are listed for each of 30 terminal objectives for a two-semester (2 hours daily) high school course in basic industrial electronics. The objectives cover instruction in basic electricity including AC-DC theory, magnetism, electrical safety, care and use of hand tools,…

Parts, Cavities, and Object Representation in Infancy

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hayden, Angela; Bhatt, Ramesh S.; Kangas, Ashley; Zieber, Nicole

2011-01-01

Part representation is not only critical to object perception but also plays a key role in a number of basic visual cognition functions, such as figure-ground segregation, allocation of attention, and memory for shapes. Yet, virtually nothing is known about the development of part representation. If parts are fundamental components of object shape…

Object memory and change detection: dissociation as a function of visual and conceptual similarity.

PubMed

Yeh, Yei-Yu; Yang, Cheng-Ta

2008-01-01

People often fail to detect a change between two visual scenes, a phenomenon referred to as change blindness. This study investigates how a post-change object's similarity to the pre-change object influences memory of the pre-change object and affects change detection. The results of Experiment 1 showed that similarity lowered detection sensitivity but did not affect the speed of identifying the pre-change object, suggesting that similarity between the pre- and post-change objects does not degrade the pre-change representation. Identification speed for the pre-change object was faster than naming the new object regardless of detection accuracy. Similarity also decreased detection sensitivity in Experiment 2 but improved the recognition of the pre-change object under both correct detection and detection failure. The similarity effect on recognition was greatly reduced when 20% of each pre-change stimulus was masked by random dots in Experiment 3. Together the results suggest that the level of pre-change representation under detection failure is equivalent to the level under correct detection and that the pre-change representation is almost complete. Similarity lowers detection sensitivity but improves explicit access in recognition. Dissociation arises between recognition and change detection as the two judgments rely on the match-to-mismatch signal and mismatch-to-match signal, respectively.

Potential objective biomarkers for fatigue among working women.

PubMed

Ebata, Chie; Tatsuta, Hitomi; Tatemichi, Masayuki

2017-05-25

The prediction of health impairment due to work overload is subjectively assessed based on recognized symptoms; however, objective evaluation is primarily ideal in the field of occupational health. Recently, some biomarkers of autonomic function and/or oxidative stress were reported to be associated with fatigue. This study aimed to preliminarily investigate whether these biomarkers could be objective indicators for fatigue and stress among working women. Participants included 118 full-time female workers (mean age 37.8 years), including 55 shift workers. Self-administered questionnaires, such as visual analog scale (VAS) for general health, a lifestyle questionnaire, SF-8 for health-related quality of life, and K6 for mental health screening, were used. In addition, biomarkers such as acceleration plethysmogram (APG), reactive oxygen metabolites-derived compounds (d-ROMs), and biological antioxidant potential (BAP) were measured. A significant association was observed between BAP and VAS (r=0.482, p<0.01) among shift workers. However, other biomarkers such as APG and d-ROMs were not significantly associated with symptoms. d-ROMs were significantly correlated with age and body mass index. There was a significant negative correlation between BAP and smoking. Results of the APG (low-frequency (LF) /high-frequency (HF) ratio) were significantly correlated with BAP, but not with d-ROMs. The LF/HF ratio and BAP for shift workers were significantly higher than those for day-time workers. Our results suggest that APG and BAP are potential objective biomarkers for fatigue among working women, although further follow-up studies are needed to clarify the scope of usefulness of the biomarkers for fatigue.

Cosmic Ray Mantle Visibility on Kuiper Belt Objects

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Cooper, John F.; Hill, Matt E.; Richardson, J. D.; Sturner, S. J.

2006-01-01

Optically red objects constitute the dynamically cold, old component of the Classical Kuiper Belt (40 - 47 AU) with heliocentric orbits of low eccentricity and inclination. The red colors likely arise from primordial mixed ices processed by irradiation to meters in surface depth over the past four billion years, since the time of giant planet migration and Kuiper Belt stirring, at relatively moderate dosages of 60 gigarads provided by galactic cosmic ray protons and heavier ions. The red cosmic ray mantle is uniformly visible on the cold classical objects beneath a minimally thin eroded layer of more neutrally colored material arising from cumulative effects of heliospheric particle irradiation. The radiation fluxes are lowest in the middle heliospheric region containing the Classical Kuiper Belt and increase from there both towards and away from the Sun. Despite increasing irradiation at various times of solar system history from increases in solar and interstellar ion fluxes, the red object region has apparently never reached sufficiently high dosage levels to neutralize in color the red mantle material. Erosion processes, including plasma sputtering and micrometeroid impacts, act continuously to reduce thickness of the upper neutral crust and expose the cosmic ray mantle. A deeper layer at tens of meters and more may consist of relatively unprocessed ices that can erupt to the surface by larger impacts or cryovolcanism and account for brighter surfaces of larger objects such as 2003 UB313. Surface colors among the Kuiper Belt and other icy objects of the outer solar system are then a function, assuming uniform primordial composition, of relative thickness for the three layers and of the resurfacing age dependent on the orbital and impact history of each object.

Inhibition by fenoterol of human eosinophil functions including β2-adrenoceptor-independent actions

PubMed Central

TACHIBANA, A; KATO, M; KIMURA, H; FUJIU, T; SUZUKI, M; MORIKAWA, A

2002-01-01

Agonists at β2 adrenoceptors are used widely as bronchodilators in treating bronchial asthma. These agents also may have important anti-inflammatory effects on eosinophils in asthma. We examined whether widely prescribed β2-adrenoceptor agonists differ in ability to suppress stimulus-induced eosinophil effector functions such as superoxide anion (O2−) generation and degranulation. To examine involvement of cellular adhesion in such responses, we also investigated effects of β2 agonists on cellular adhesion and on CD11b expression by human eosinophils. O2− was measured using chemiluminescence. Eosinophil degranulation and adhesion were assessed by a radioimmunoassay for eosinophil protein X (EPX). CD11b expression was measured by flow cytometry. Fenoterol inhibited platelet-activating factor (PAF)-induced O2− generation by eosinophils significantly more than salbutamol or procaterol. Fenoterol partially inhibited PAF-induced degranulation by eosinophils similarly to salbutamol or procaterol. Fenoterol inhibited phorbol myristate acetate (PMA)-induced O2− generation and degranulation by eosinophils, while salbutamol or procaterol did not. Fenoterol inhibition of PMA-induced O2− generation was not reversed by ICI-118551, a selective β2-adrenoceptor antagonist. Fenoterol, but not salbutamol or procaterol, significantly inhibited PAF-induced eosinophil adhesion. Fenoterol inhibited O2− generation and degranulation more effectively than salbutamol or procaterol; these effects may include a component involving cellular adhesion. Inhibition also might include a component not mediated via β2 adrenoceptors. PMID:12452831

Objective measurement of the optical image quality in the human eye

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Navarro, Rafael M.

2001-05-01

This communication reviews some recent studies on the optical performance of the human eye. Although the retinal image cannot be recorded directly, different objective methods have been developed, which permit to determine optical quality parameters, such as the Point Spread Function (PSF), the Modulation Transfer Function (MTF), the geometrical ray aberrations or the wavefront distortions, in the living human eye. These methods have been applied in both basic and applied research. This includes the measurement of the optical performance of the eye across visual field, the optical quality of eyes with intraocular lens implants, the aberrations induced by LASIK refractive surgery, or the manufacture of customized phase plates to compensate the wavefront aberration in the eye.

Optimization of forest wildlife objectives

Treesearch

John Hof; Robert Haight

2007-01-01

This chapter presents an overview of methods for optimizing wildlife-related objectives. These objectives hinge on landscape pattern, so we refer to these methods as "spatial optimization." It is currently possible to directly capture deterministic characterizations of the most basic spatial relationships: proximity relationships (including those that lead to...

Defining the breeding goal for a sheep breed including production and functional traits using market data.

PubMed

Theodoridis, A; Ragkos, A; Rose, G; Roustemis, D; Arsenos, G

2017-11-16

In this study, the economic values for production and functional traits of dairy sheep are estimated through the application of a profit function model using farm-level technical and economic data. The traits incorporated in the model were milk production, prolificacy, fertility, milking speed, longevity and mastitis occurrence. The economic values for these traits were derived as the approximate partial derivative of the specified profit function. A sensitivity analysis was also conducted in order to examine how potential changes in input and output prices would affect the breeding goal. The estimated economic values of the traits revealed their economic impact on the definition of the breeding goal for the specified production system. Milk production and fertility had the highest economic values (€40.30 and €20.28 per standard genetic deviation (SDa)), while, mastitis only had a low negative value of -0.57 €/SDa. Therefore, breeding for clinical mastitis will have a minor impact on farm profitability because it affects a small proportion of the flock and has low additive variance. The production traits, which include milk production, prolificacy and milking speed, contributed most to the breeding goal (70.0%), but functional traits still had a considerable share (30.0%). The results of this study highlight the importance of the knowledge of economic values of traits in the design of a breeding program. It is also suggested that the production and functional traits under consideration can be categorized as those which can be efficiently treated through genetic improvement (e.g. milk production and fertility) while others would be better dealt with through managerial interventions (e.g. mastitis occurrence). Also, sub-clinical mastitis that affects a higher proportion of flocks could have a higher contribution to breeding goals.

Teaching Object Permanence: An Action Research Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bruce, Susan M.; Vargas, Claudia

2013-01-01

"Object permanence," also known as "object concept" in the field of visual impairment, is one of the most important early developmental milestones. The achievement of object permanence is associated with the onset of representational thought and language. Object permanence is important to orientation, including the recognition of landmarks.…

Buried Object Detection

DTIC Science & Technology

1988-01-22

Final Report 19 January 1987 Army Research OfficeM Contract No. DAAL03..87-K-0052 National Center for Physical Acoustics D T ! C " Naioal P. 0. Box 847...black . umberJ FIELO I GROUP I SU9GROU-p Acoustic , Seismic, Acoustic seismic coupling, porefluid, pulse echo, propagation, soils, sound speed...seismic transfer function. /’An acoustic scheme for buried object detection is thought to involve a sound source above the ground and a microphone as a

Motor Responses to Objects: Priming and Hand Shaping

DTIC Science & Technology

1988-09-20

actual manual responses to objects indicates that interactions involving different hand shapes have a common timecourse during reaching and preshaping...objects could be used with different hand shapes, given different functional contexts (e.g., picking up a stapler with a clench or stapling with the palm...research focused on the utility of these representations. We propose that when manual interactions with objects are represented cognitively, for example

Sex and spatial position effects on object location memory following intentional learning of object identities.

PubMed

Alexander, Gerianne M; Packard, Mark G; Peterson, Bradley S

2002-01-01

Memory for object location relative both to veridical center (left versus right visual hemispace) and to eccentricity (central versus peripheral objects) was measured in 26 males and 25 females using the Silverman and Eals Location Memory Task. A subset of participants (17 males and 13 females) also completed a measure of implicit learning, the mirror-tracing task. No sex differences were observed in memory for object identities. Further, in both sexes, memory for object locations was better for peripherally located objects than for centrally located objects. In contrast to these similarities in female and male task performance, females but not males showed better recovery of object locations in the right compared to the left visual hemispace. Moreover, memory for object locations in the right hemispace was associated with mirror-tracing performance in women but not in men. Together, these data suggest that the processing of object features and object identification in the left cerebral hemisphere may include processing of spatial information that may contribute to superior object location memory in females relative to males.

`Old-New' Mining Towns - Examples of the Renovation and Adaptation of Post-Industrial Objects

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Langer, Piotr

2016-06-01

Poland's economic transformation has proved to be a critical phase in the contemporary development of its industrial cities, initiating profound spatial and functional changes. In researching the basics of the development of `post-industrial' cities, it can be seen that the work undertaken is focused on reusing post-industrial buildings and objects. This results not only in functional changes in the appearance and condition of the transformed structures, but also preserves or destroys their authenticity and historical identity. This problem is linked with several phenomena, including `aware inactivity', `destructive adaptation', and `false revitalization'.

Visual object agnosia is associated with a breakdown of object-selective responses in the lateral occipital cortex.

PubMed

Ptak, Radek; Lazeyras, François; Di Pietro, Marie; Schnider, Armin; Simon, Stéphane R

2014-07-01

Patients with visual object agnosia fail to recognize the identity of visually presented objects despite preserved semantic knowledge. Object agnosia may result from damage to visual cortex lying close to or overlapping with the lateral occipital complex (LOC), a brain region that exhibits selectivity to the shape of visually presented objects. Despite this anatomical overlap the relationship between shape processing in the LOC and shape representations in object agnosia is unknown. We studied a patient with object agnosia following isolated damage to the left occipito-temporal cortex overlapping with the LOC. The patient showed intact processing of object structure, yet often made identification errors that were mainly based on the global visual similarity between objects. Using functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) we found that the damaged as well as the contralateral, structurally intact right LOC failed to show any object-selective fMRI activity, though the latter retained selectivity for faces. Thus, unilateral damage to the left LOC led to a bilateral breakdown of neural responses to a specific stimulus class (objects and artefacts) while preserving the response to a different stimulus class (faces). These findings indicate that representations of structure necessary for the identification of objects crucially rely on bilateral, distributed coding of shape features. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A Conceptual Foundation for Measures of Physical Function and Behavioral Health Function for Social Security Work Disability Evaluation

PubMed Central

Marfeo, Elizabeth E.; Haley, Stephen M.; Jette, Alan M.; Eisen, Susan V.; Ni, Pengsheng; Bogusz, Kara; Meterko, Mark; McDonough, Christine M.; Chan, Leighton; Brandt, Diane E.; Rasch, Elizabeth K.

2014-01-01

Physical and mental impairments represent the two largest health condition categories for which workers receive Social Security disability benefits. Comprehensive assessment of physical and mental impairments should include aspects beyond medical conditions such as a person’s underlying capabilities as well as activity demands relevant to the context of work. The objective of this paper is to describe the initial conceptual stages of developing new measurement instruments of behavioral health and physical functioning relevant for Social Security work disability evaluation purposes. To outline a clear conceptualization of the constructs to be measured, two content models were developed using structured and informal qualitative approaches. We performed a structured literature review focusing on work disability and incorporating aspects of the International Classification of Functioning, Disability, and Health (ICF) as a unifying taxonomy for framework development. Expert interviews provided advice and consultation to enhance face validity of the resulting content models. The content model for work-related behavioral health function identifies five major domains (1) Behavior Control, (2) Basic Interactions, (3) Temperament and Personality, (4) Adaptability, and (5) Workplace Behaviors. The content model describing physical functioning includes three domains (1) Changing and Maintaining Body Position, (2) Whole Body Mobility, and (3) Carrying, Moving and Handling Objects. These content models informed subsequent measurement properties including item development, measurement scale construction, and provided conceptual coherence guiding future empirical inquiry. The proposed measurement approaches show promise to comprehensively and systematically assess physical and behavioral health functioning relevant to work. PMID:23548543

One Hand, Two Objects: Emergence of Affordance in Contexts

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Borghi, Anna M.; Flumini, Andrea; Natraj, Nikhilesh; Wheaton, Lewis A.

2012-01-01

Studies on affordances typically focus on single objects. We investigated whether affordances are modulated by the context, defined by the relation between two objects and a hand. Participants were presented with pictures displaying two manipulable objects linked by a functional (knife-butter), a spatial (knife-coffee mug), or by no relation. They…

Getting the most out of additional guidance information in deformable image registration by leveraging multi-objective optimization

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Alderliesten, Tanja; Bosman, Peter A. N.; Bel, Arjan

2015-03-01

Incorporating additional guidance information, e.g., landmark/contour correspondence, in deformable image registration is often desirable and is typically done by adding constraints or cost terms to the optimization function. Commonly, deciding between a "hard" constraint and a "soft" additional cost term as well as the weighting of cost terms in the optimization function is done on a trial-and-error basis. The aim of this study is to investigate the advantages of exploiting guidance information by taking a multi-objective optimization perspective. Hereto, next to objectives related to match quality and amount of deformation, we define a third objective related to guidance information. Multi-objective optimization eliminates the need to a-priori tune a weighting of objectives in a single optimization function or the strict requirement of fulfilling hard guidance constraints. Instead, Pareto-efficient trade-offs between all objectives are found, effectively making the introduction of guidance information straightforward, independent of its type or scale. Further, since complete Pareto fronts also contain less interesting parts (i.e., solutions with near-zero deformation effort), we study how adaptive steering mechanisms can be incorporated to automatically focus more on solutions of interest. We performed experiments on artificial and real clinical data with large differences, including disappearing structures. Results show the substantial benefit of using additional guidance information. Moreover, compared to the 2-objective case, additional computational cost is negligible. Finally, with the same computational budget, use of the adaptive steering mechanism provides superior solutions in the area of interest.

Towards smart environments using smart objects.

PubMed

Sedlmayr, Martin; Prokosch, Hans-Ulrich; Münch, Ulli

2011-01-01

Barcodes, RFID, WLAN, Bluetooth and many more technologies are used in hospitals. They are the technological bases for different applications such as patient monitoring, asset management and facility management. However, most of these applications exist side by side with hardly any integration and even interoperability is not guaranteed. Introducing the concept of smart objects inspired by the Internet of Things can improve the situation by separating the capabilities and functions of an object from the implementing technology such as RFID or WLAN. By aligning technological and business developments smart objects have the power to transform a hospital from an agglomeration of technologies into a smart environment.

Modulation of the pupil function of microscope objective lens for multifocal multi-photon microscopy using a spatial light modulator

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Matsumoto, Naoya; Okazaki, Shigetoshi; Takamoto, Hisayoshi; Inoue, Takashi; Terakawa, Susumu

2014-02-01

We propose a method for high precision modulation of the pupil function of a microscope objective lens to improve the performance of multifocal multi-photon microscopy (MMM). To modulate the pupil function, we adopt a spatial light modulator (SLM) and place it at the conjugate position of the objective lens. The SLM can generate an arbitrary number of spots to excite the multiple fluorescence spots (MFS) at the desired positions and intensities by applying an appropriate computer-generated hologram (CGH). This flexibility allows us to control the MFS according to the photobleaching level of a fluorescent protein and phototoxicity of a specimen. However, when a large number of excitation spots are generated, the intensity distribution of the MFS is significantly different from the one originally designed due to misalignment of the optical setup and characteristics of the SLM. As a result, the image of a specimen obtained using laser scanning for the MFS has block noise segments because the SLM could not generate a uniform MFS. To improve the intensity distribution of the MFS, we adaptively redesigned the CGH based on the observed MFS. We experimentally demonstrate an improvement in the uniformity of a 10 × 10 MFS grid using a dye solution. The simplicity of the proposed method will allow it to be applied for calibration of MMM before observing living tissue. After the MMM calibration, we performed laser scanning with two-photon excitation to observe a real specimen without detecting block noise segments.

Symbolic Play Connects to Language through Visual Object Recognition

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Smith, Linda B.; Jones, Susan S.

2011-01-01

Object substitutions in play (e.g. using a box as a car) are strongly linked to language learning and their absence is a diagnostic marker of language delay. Classic accounts posit a symbolic function that underlies both words and object substitutions. Here we show that object substitutions depend on developmental changes in visual object…

Multi-Objective Programming for Lot-Sizing with Quantity Discount

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kang, He-Yau; Lee, Amy H. I.; Lai, Chun-Mei; Kang, Mei-Sung

2011-11-01

Multi-objective programming (MOP) is one of the popular methods for decision making in a complex environment. In a MOP, decision makers try to optimize two or more objectives simultaneously under various constraints. A complete optimal solution seldom exists, and a Pareto-optimal solution is usually used. Some methods, such as the weighting method which assigns priorities to the objectives and sets aspiration levels for the objectives, are used to derive a compromise solution. The ɛ-constraint method is a modified weight method. One of the objective functions is optimized while the other objective functions are treated as constraints and are incorporated in the constraint part of the model. This research considers a stochastic lot-sizing problem with multi-suppliers and quantity discounts. The model is transformed into a mixed integer programming (MIP) model next based on the ɛ-constraint method. An illustrative example is used to illustrate the practicality of the proposed model. The results demonstrate that the model is an effective and accurate tool for determining the replenishment of a manufacturer from multiple suppliers for multi-periods.

It Takes Two–Skilled Recognition of Objects Engages Lateral Areas in Both Hemispheres

PubMed Central

Bilalić, Merim; Kiesel, Andrea; Pohl, Carsten; Erb, Michael; Grodd, Wolfgang

2011-01-01

Our object recognition abilities, a direct product of our experience with objects, are fine-tuned to perfection. Left temporal and lateral areas along the dorsal, action related stream, as well as left infero-temporal areas along the ventral, object related stream are engaged in object recognition. Here we show that expertise modulates the activity of dorsal areas in the recognition of man-made objects with clearly specified functions. Expert chess players were faster than chess novices in identifying chess objects and their functional relations. Experts' advantage was domain-specific as there were no differences between groups in a control task featuring geometrical shapes. The pattern of eye movements supported the notion that experts' extensive knowledge about domain objects and their functions enabled superior recognition even when experts were not directly fixating the objects of interest. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) related exclusively the areas along the dorsal stream to chess specific object recognition. Besides the commonly involved left temporal and parietal lateral brain areas, we found that only in experts homologous areas on the right hemisphere were also engaged in chess specific object recognition. Based on these results, we discuss whether skilled object recognition does not only involve a more efficient version of the processes found in non-skilled recognition, but also qualitatively different cognitive processes which engage additional brain areas. PMID:21283683

21 CFR 1316.60 - Objections; offer of proof.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-04-01

... 21 Food and Drugs 9 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Objections; offer of proof. 1316.60 Section 1316.60 Food and Drugs DRUG ENFORCEMENT ADMINISTRATION, DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE ADMINISTRATIVE FUNCTIONS, PRACTICES, AND PROCEDURES Administrative Hearings § 1316.60 Objections; offer of proof. If any party in the...

Biokinetic model-based multi-objective optimization of Dunaliella tertiolecta cultivation using elitist non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm with inheritance.

PubMed

Sinha, Snehal K; Kumar, Mithilesh; Guria, Chandan; Kumar, Anup; Banerjee, Chiranjib

2017-10-01

Algal model based multi-objective optimization using elitist non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm with inheritance was carried out for batch cultivation of Dunaliella tertiolecta using NPK-fertilizer. Optimization problems involving two- and three-objective functions were solved simultaneously. The objective functions are: maximization of algae-biomass and lipid productivity with minimization of cultivation time and cost. Time variant light intensity and temperature including NPK-fertilizer, NaCl and NaHCO 3 loadings are the important decision variables. Algal model involving Monod/Andrews adsorption kinetics and Droop model with internal nutrient cell quota was used for optimization studies. Sets of non-dominated (equally good) Pareto optimal solutions were obtained for the problems studied. It was observed that time variant optimal light intensity and temperature trajectories, including optimum NPK fertilizer, NaCl and NaHCO 3 concentration has significant influence to improve biomass and lipid productivity under minimum cultivation time and cost. Proposed optimization studies may be helpful to implement the control strategy in scale-up operation. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The Objective Assessment of Cough Frequency in Bronchiectasis.

PubMed

Spinou, Arietta; Lee, Kai K; Sinha, Aish; Elston, Caroline; Loebinger, Michael R; Wilson, Robert; Chung, Kian Fan; Yousaf, Nadia; Pavord, Ian D; Matos, Sergio; Garrod, Rachel; Birring, Surinder S

2017-10-01

Cough in bronchiectasis is associated with significant impairment in health status. This study aimed to quantify cough frequency objectively with a cough monitor and investigate its relationship with health status. A secondary aim was to identify clinical predictors of cough frequency. Fifty-four patients with bronchiectasis were compared with thirty-five healthy controls. Objective 24-h cough, health status (cough-specific: Leicester Cough Questionnaire LCQ and bronchiectasis specific: Bronchiectasis Health Questionnaire BHQ), cough severity and lung function were measured. The clinical predictors of cough frequency in bronchiectasis were determined in a multivariate analysis. Objective cough frequency was significantly raised in patients with bronchiectasis compared to healthy controls [geometric mean (standard deviation)] 184.5 (4.0) vs. 20.6 (3.2) coughs/24-h; mean fold-difference (95% confidence interval) 8.9 (5.2, 15.2); p < 0.001 and they had impaired health status. There was a significant correlation between objective cough frequency and subjective measures; LCQ r = -0.52 and BHQ r = -0.62, both p < 0.001. Sputum production, exacerbations (between past 2 weeks to 12 months) and age were significantly associated with objective cough frequency in multivariate analysis, explaining 52% of the variance (p < 0.001). There was no statistically significant association between cough frequency and lung function. Cough is a common and significant symptom in patients with bronchiectasis. Sputum production, exacerbations and age, but not lung function, were independent predictors of cough frequency. Ambulatory objective cough monitoring provides novel insights and should be further investigated as an outcome measure in bronchiectasis.

Conceptual foundation for measures of physical function and behavioral health function for Social Security work disability evaluation.

PubMed

Marfeo, Elizabeth E; Haley, Stephen M; Jette, Alan M; Eisen, Susan V; Ni, Pengsheng; Bogusz, Kara; Meterko, Mark; McDonough, Christine M; Chan, Leighton; Brandt, Diane E; Rasch, Elizabeth K

2013-09-01

Physical and mental impairments represent the 2 largest health condition categories for which workers receive Social Security disability benefits. Comprehensive assessment of physical and mental impairments should include aspects beyond medical conditions such as a person's underlying capabilities as well as activity demands relevant to the context of work. The objective of this article is to describe the initial conceptual stages of developing new measurement instruments of behavioral health and physical functioning relevant for Social Security work disability evaluation purposes. To outline a clear conceptualization of the constructs to be measured, 2 content models were developed using structured and informal qualitative approaches. We performed a structured literature review focusing on work disability and incorporating aspects of the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health as a unifying taxonomy for framework development. Expert interviews provided advice and consultation to enhance face validity of the resulting content models. The content model for work-related behavioral health function identifies 5 major domains: (1) behavior control, (2) basic interactions, (3) temperament and personality, (4) adaptability, and (5) workplace behaviors. The content model describing physical functioning includes 3 domains: (1) changing and maintaining body position, (2) whole-body mobility, and (3) carrying, moving, and handling objects. These content models informed subsequent measurement properties including item development and measurement scale construction, and provided conceptual coherence guiding future empirical inquiry. The proposed measurement approaches show promise to comprehensively and systematically assess physical and behavioral health functioning relevant to work. Copyright © 2013 American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Object-oriented Persistent Homology

PubMed Central

Wang, Bao; Wei, Guo-Wei

2015-01-01

Persistent homology provides a new approach for the topological simplification of big data via measuring the life time of intrinsic topological features in a filtration process and has found its success in scientific and engineering applications. However, such a success is essentially limited to qualitative data classification and analysis. Indeed, persistent homology has rarely been employed for quantitative modeling and prediction. Additionally, the present persistent homology is a passive tool, rather than a proactive technique, for classification and analysis. In this work, we outline a general protocol to construct object-oriented persistent homology methods. By means of differential geometry theory of surfaces, we construct an objective functional, namely, a surface free energy defined on the data of interest. The minimization of the objective functional leads to a Laplace-Beltrami operator which generates a multiscale representation of the initial data and offers an objective oriented filtration process. The resulting differential geometry based object-oriented persistent homology is able to preserve desirable geometric features in the evolutionary filtration and enhances the corresponding topological persistence. The cubical complex based homology algorithm is employed in the present work to be compatible with the Cartesian representation of the Laplace-Beltrami flow. The proposed Laplace-Beltrami flow based persistent homology method is extensively validated. The consistence between Laplace-Beltrami flow based filtration and Euclidean distance based filtration is confirmed on the Vietoris-Rips complex for a large amount of numerical tests. The convergence and reliability of the present Laplace-Beltrami flow based cubical complex filtration approach are analyzed over various spatial and temporal mesh sizes. The Laplace-Beltrami flow based persistent homology approach is utilized to study the intrinsic topology of proteins and fullerene molecules. Based on a

Relation between hand function and gross motor function in full term infants aged 4 to 8 months

PubMed Central

Nogueira, Solange F.; Figueiredo, Elyonara M.; Gonçalves, Rejane V.; Mancini, Marisa C.

2015-01-01

Background: In children, reaching emerges around four months of age, which is followed by rapid changes in hand function and concomitant changes in gross motor function, including the acquisition of independent sitting. Although there is a close functional relationship between these domains, to date they have been investigated separately. Objective: To investigate the longitudinal profile of changes and the relationship between the development of hand function (i.e. reaching for and manipulating an object) and gross motor function in 13 normally developing children born at term who were evaluated every 15 days from 4 to 8 months of age. Method: The number of reaches and the period (i.e. time) of manipulation to an object were extracted from video synchronized with the Qualisys(r) movement analysis system. Gross motor function was measured using the Alberta Infant Motor Scale. ANOVA for repeated measures was used to test the effect of age on the number of reaches, the time of manipulation and gross motor function. Hierarchical regression models were used to test the associations of reaching and manipulation with gross motor function. Results: Results revealed a significant increase in the number of reaches (p<0.001), the time of manipulation (p<0.001) and gross motor function (p<0.001) over time, as well as associations between reaching and gross motor function (R2=0.84; p<0.001) and manipulation and gross motor function (R2=0.13; p=0.02) from 4 to 6 months of age. Associations from 6 to 8 months of age were not significant. Conclusion: The relationship between hand function and gross motor function was not constant, and the age span from 4 to 6 months was a critical period of interdependency of hand function and gross motor function development. PMID:25714437

Adaptive Morphological Feature-Based Object Classifier for a Color Imaging System

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

McDowell, Mark; Gray, Elizabeth

2009-01-01

Utilizing a Compact Color Microscope Imaging System (CCMIS), a unique algorithm has been developed that combines human intelligence along with machine vision techniques to produce an autonomous microscope tool for biomedical, industrial, and space applications. This technique is based on an adaptive, morphological, feature-based mapping function comprising 24 mutually inclusive feature metrics that are used to determine the metrics for complex cell/objects derived from color image analysis. Some of the features include: Area (total numbers of non-background pixels inside and including the perimeter), Bounding Box (smallest rectangle that bounds and object), centerX (x-coordinate of intensity-weighted, center-of-mass of an entire object or multi-object blob), centerY (y-coordinate of intensity-weighted, center-of-mass, of an entire object or multi-object blob), Circumference (a measure of circumference that takes into account whether neighboring pixels are diagonal, which is a longer distance than horizontally or vertically joined pixels), . Elongation (measure of particle elongation given as a number between 0 and 1. If equal to 1, the particle bounding box is square. As the elongation decreases from 1, the particle becomes more elongated), . Ext_vector (extremal vector), . Major Axis (the length of a major axis of a smallest ellipse encompassing an object), . Minor Axis (the length of a minor axis of a smallest ellipse encompassing an object), . Partial (indicates if the particle extends beyond the field of view), . Perimeter Points (points that make up a particle perimeter), . Roundness [(4(pi) x area)/perimeter(squared)) the result is a measure of object roundness, or compactness, given as a value between 0 and 1. The greater the ratio, the rounder the object.], . Thin in center (determines if an object becomes thin in the center, (figure-eight-shaped), . Theta (orientation of the major axis), . Smoothness and color metrics for each component (red, green, blue

Cantera and Cantera Electrolyte Thermodynamics Objects

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

John Hewson, Harry Moffat

Cantera is a suite of object-oriented software tools for problems involving chemical kinetics, thermodynamics, and/or transport processes. It is a multi-organizational effort to create and formulate high quality 0D and 1D constitutive modeling tools for reactive transport codes.Institutions involved with the effort include Sandia, MIT, Colorado School of Mines, U. Texas, NASA, and Oak Ridge National Labs. Specific to Sandia's contributions, the Cantera Electrolyte Thermo Objects (CETO) packages is comprised of add-on routines for Cantera that handle electrolyte thermochemistry and reactions within the overall Cantera package. Cantera is a C++ Cal Tech code that handles gas phase species transport, reaction,more » and thermodynamics. With this addition, Cantera can be extended to handle problems involving liquid phase reactions and transport in electrolyte systems, and phase equilibrium problemsinvolving concentrated electrolytes and gas/solid phases. A full treatment of molten salt thermodynamics and transport has also been implemented in CETO. The routines themselves consist of .cpp and .h files containing C++ objects that are derived from parent Cantera objects representing thermodynamic functions. They are linked unto the main Cantera libraries when requested by the user. As an addendum to the main thermodynamics objects, several utility applications are provided. The first is multiphase Gibbs free energy minimizer based on the vcs algorithm, called vcs_cantera. This code allows for the calculation of thermodynamic equilibrium in multiple phases at constant temperature and pressure. Note, a similar code capability exists already in Cantera. This version follows the same algorithm, but gas a different code-base starting point, and is used as a research tool for algorithm development. The second program, cttables, prints out tables of thermodynamic and kinetic information for thermodynamic and kinetic objects within Cantera. This program serves as a "Get the

'The newspaper reader': on the meaning of concrete objects in a psychoanalytic treatment.

PubMed

Selow, Elvira

2006-12-01

The author investigates the meaning of concrete objects in the psychoanalytic treatment of a severely disturbed patient for the development of his inner world and the analytic process. She includes a survey of relevant theoretical concepts with an emphasis on Winnicott and Bion. It is shown that the objects served basic defensive functions both within the analytic relationship and for the precarious intrapsychic state of the patient. The author describes the technical dealing that led to a structural change. From the comparison of the initial dream and a later dream, Mr N's inner development from total inclusion in the object to triadic reality of separated, repaired objects becomes discernible. The author shows how this progress was facilitated by his use of concrete objects as links between his psychotic and non-psychotic parts, as well as by the specific way the analyst handled the paradoxical transference- countertransference. She also illustrates the thesis that the developmental steps described are crucial for the capability to digest psychic pain by symbolization instead of discharging it in a destructive-violent way.

An integrated optimum design approach for high speed prop-rotors including acoustic constraints

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Chattopadhyay, Aditi; Wells, Valana; Mccarthy, Thomas; Han, Arris

1993-01-01

The objective of this research is to develop optimization procedures to provide design trends in high speed prop-rotors. The necessary disciplinary couplings are all considered within a closed loop multilevel decomposition optimization process. The procedures involve the consideration of blade-aeroelastic aerodynamic performance, structural-dynamic design requirements, and acoustics. Further, since the design involves consideration of several different objective functions, multiobjective function formulation techniques are developed.

MSTor: A program for calculating partition functions, free energies, enthalpies, entropies, and heat capacities of complex molecules including torsional anharmonicity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zheng, Jingjing; Mielke, Steven L.; Clarkson, Kenneth L.; Truhlar, Donald G.

2012-08-01

We present a Fortran program package, MSTor, which calculates partition functions and thermodynamic functions of complex molecules involving multiple torsional motions by the recently proposed MS-T method. This method interpolates between the local harmonic approximation in the low-temperature limit, and the limit of free internal rotation of all torsions at high temperature. The program can also carry out calculations in the multiple-structure local harmonic approximation. The program package also includes six utility codes that can be used as stand-alone programs to calculate reduced moment of inertia matrices by the method of Kilpatrick and Pitzer, to generate conformational structures, to calculate, either analytically or by Monte Carlo sampling, volumes for torsional subdomains defined by Voronoi tessellation of the conformational subspace, to generate template input files, and to calculate one-dimensional torsional partition functions using the torsional eigenvalue summation method. Catalogue identifier: AEMF_v1_0 Program summary URL:http://cpc.cs.qub.ac.uk/summaries/AEMF_v1_0.html Program obtainable from: CPC Program Library, Queen's University, Belfast, N. Ireland Licensing provisions: Standard CPC licence, http://cpc.cs.qub.ac.uk/licence/licence.html No. of lines in distributed program, including test data, etc.: 77 434 No. of bytes in distributed program, including test data, etc.: 3 264 737 Distribution format: tar.gz Programming language: Fortran 90, C, and Perl Computer: Itasca (HP Linux cluster, each node has two-socket, quad-core 2.8 GHz Intel Xeon X5560 “Nehalem EP” processors), Calhoun (SGI Altix XE 1300 cluster, each node containing two quad-core 2.66 GHz Intel Xeon “Clovertown”-class processors sharing 16 GB of main memory), Koronis (Altix UV 1000 server with 190 6-core Intel Xeon X7542 “Westmere” processors at 2.66 GHz), Elmo (Sun Fire X4600 Linux cluster with AMD Opteron cores), and Mac Pro (two 2.8 GHz Quad-core Intel Xeon

The Dynamic Multisensory Engram: Neural Circuitry Underlying Crossmodal Object Recognition in Rats Changes with the Nature of Object Experience.

PubMed

Jacklin, Derek L; Cloke, Jacob M; Potvin, Alphonse; Garrett, Inara; Winters, Boyer D

2016-01-27

Rats, humans, and monkeys demonstrate robust crossmodal object recognition (CMOR), identifying objects across sensory modalities. We have shown that rats' performance of a spontaneous tactile-to-visual CMOR task requires functional integration of perirhinal (PRh) and posterior parietal (PPC) cortices, which seemingly provide visual and tactile object feature processing, respectively. However, research with primates has suggested that PRh is sufficient for multisensory object representation. We tested this hypothesis in rats using a modification of the CMOR task in which multimodal preexposure to the to-be-remembered objects significantly facilitates performance. In the original CMOR task, with no preexposure, reversible lesions of PRh or PPC produced patterns of impairment consistent with modality-specific contributions. Conversely, in the CMOR task with preexposure, PPC lesions had no effect, whereas PRh involvement was robust, proving necessary for phases of the task that did not require PRh activity when rats did not have preexposure; this pattern was supported by results from c-fos imaging. We suggest that multimodal preexposure alters the circuitry responsible for object recognition, in this case obviating the need for PPC contributions and expanding PRh involvement, consistent with the polymodal nature of PRh connections and results from primates indicating a key role for PRh in multisensory object representation. These findings have significant implications for our understanding of multisensory information processing, suggesting that the nature of an individual's past experience with an object strongly determines the brain circuitry involved in representing that object's multisensory features in memory. The ability to integrate information from multiple sensory modalities is crucial to the survival of organisms living in complex environments. Appropriate responses to behaviorally relevant objects are informed by integration of multisensory object features

Target-object integration, attention distribution, and object orientation interactively modulate object-based selection.

PubMed

Al-Janabi, Shahd; Greenberg, Adam S

2016-10-01

The representational basis of attentional selection can be object-based. Various studies have suggested, however, that object-based selection is less robust than spatial selection across experimental paradigms. We sought to examine the manner by which the following factors might explain this variation: Target-Object Integration (targets 'on' vs. part 'of' an object), Attention Distribution (narrow vs. wide), and Object Orientation (horizontal vs. vertical). In Experiment 1, participants discriminated between two targets presented 'on' an object in one session, or presented as a change 'of' an object in another session. There was no spatial cue-thus, attention was initially focused widely-and the objects were horizontal or vertical. We found evidence of object-based selection only when targets constituted a change 'of' an object. Additionally, object orientation modulated the sign of object-based selection: We observed a same-object advantage for horizontal objects, but a same-object cost for vertical objects. In Experiment 2, an informative cue preceded a single target presented 'on' an object or as a change 'of' an object (thus, attention was initially focused narrowly). Unlike in Experiment 1, we found evidence of object-based selection independent of target-object integration. We again found that the sign of selection was modulated by the objects' orientation. This result may reflect a meridian effect, which emerged due to anisotropies in the cortical representations when attention is oriented endogenously. Experiment 3 revealed that object orientation did not modulate object-based selection when attention was oriented exogenously. Our findings suggest that target-object integration, attention distribution, and object orientation modulate object-based selection, but only in combination.

42 CFR 410.100 - Included services.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-10-01

... function or dysfunction of the neuromuscular, musculoskeletal, cardiovascular and respiratory systems; and... create difficulties in communication. (e) Respiratory therapy services. (1) Respiratory therapy services... cardiopulmonary function. (2) Respiratory therapy services include the following: (i) Application of techniques...

42 CFR 410.100 - Included services.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-10-01

... function or dysfunction of the neuromuscular, musculoskeletal, cardiovascular and respiratory systems; and... create difficulties in communication. (e) Respiratory therapy services. (1) Respiratory therapy services... cardiopulmonary function. (2) Respiratory therapy services include the following: (i) Application of techniques...

42 CFR 410.100 - Included services.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-10-01

... function or dysfunction of the neuromuscular, musculoskeletal, cardiovascular and respiratory systems; and... create difficulties in communication. (e) Respiratory therapy services. (1) Respiratory therapy services... cardiopulmonary function. (2) Respiratory therapy services include the following: (i) Application of techniques...

Components of executive functioning in metamemory.

PubMed

Mäntylä, Timo; Rönnlund, Michael; Kliegel, Matthias

2010-10-01

This study examined metamemory in relation to three basic executive functions (set shifting, working memory updating, and response inhibition) measured as latent variables. Young adults (Experiment 1) and middle-aged adults (Experiment 2) completed a set of executive functioning tasks and the Prospective and Retrospective Memory Questionnaire (PRMQ). In Experiment 1, source recall and face recognition tasks were included as indicators of objective memory performance. In both experiments, analyses of the executive functioning data yielded a two-factor solution, with the updating and inhibition tasks constituting a common factor and the shifting tasks a separate factor. Self-reported memory problems showed low predictive validity, but subjective and objective memory performance were related to different components of executive functioning. In both experiments, set shifting, but not updating and inhibition, was related to PRMQ, whereas source recall showed the opposite pattern of correlations in Experiment 1. These findings suggest that metamemorial judgments reflect selective effects of executive functioning and that individual differences in mental flexibility contribute to self-beliefs of efficacy.

Objective visual assessment of antiangiogenic treatment for wet age-related macular degeneration.

PubMed

Baseler, Heidi A; Gouws, André; Crossland, Michael D; Leung, Carmen; Tufail, Adnan; Rubin, Gary S; Morland, Antony B

2011-10-01

To assess cortical responses in patients undergoing antiangiogenic treatment for wet age-related macular degeneration (AMD) using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) as an objective, fixation-independent measure of topographic visual function. A patient with bilateral neovascular AMD was scanned using fMRI before and at regular intervals while undergoing treatment with intravitreal antiangiogenic injections (ranibizumab). Blood oxygenation level-dependent signals were measured in the brain while the patient viewed a stimulus consisting of a full-field flickering (6 Hz) white light alternating with a uniform gray background (18 s on and 18 s off). Topographic distribution and magnitude of activation in visual cortex were compared longitudinally throughout the treatment period (<1 year) and with control patients not currently undergoing treatment. Clinical behavioral tests were also administered, including visual acuity, microperimetry, and reading skills. The area of visual cortex activated increased significantly after the first treatment to include more posterior cortex that normally receives inputs from lesioned parts of the retina. Subsequent treatments yielded no significant further increase in activation area. Behavioral measures all generally showed an improvement with treatment but did not always parallel one another. The untreated control patient showed a consistent lack of significant response in the cortex representing retinal lesions. Retinal treatments may not only improve vision but also result in a concomitant improvement in fixation stability. Current clinical behavioral measures (e.g., acuity and perimetry) are largely dependent on fixation stability and therefore cannot separate improvements of visual function from fixation improvements. fMRI, which provides an objective and sensitive measure of visual function independent of fixation, reveals a significant increase in visual cortical responses in patients with wet AMD after treatment with

OB3D, a new set of 3D objects available for research: a web-based study

PubMed Central

Buffat, Stéphane; Chastres, Véronique; Bichot, Alain; Rider, Delphine; Benmussa, Frédéric; Lorenceau, Jean

2014-01-01

Studying object recognition is central to fundamental and clinical research on cognitive functions but suffers from the limitations of the available sets that cannot always be modified and adapted to meet the specific goals of each study. We here present a new set of 3D scans of real objects available on-line as ASCII files, OB3D. These files are lists of dots, each defined by a triplet of spatial coordinates and their normal that allow simple and highly versatile transformations and adaptations. We performed a web-based experiment to evaluate the minimal number of dots required for the denomination and categorization of these objects, thus providing a reference threshold. We further analyze several other variables derived from this data set, such as the correlations with object complexity. This new stimulus set, which was found to activate the Lower Occipital Complex (LOC) in another study, may be of interest for studies of cognitive functions in healthy participants and patients with cognitive impairments, including visual perception, language, memory, etc. PMID:25339920

Words Are Not Merely Features: Only Consistently Applied Nouns Guide 4-Year-Olds' Inferences about Object Categories

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Graham, Susan A.; Booth, Amy E.; Waxman, Sandra R.

2012-01-01

Although there is considerable evidence that nouns highlight category-based commonalities, including both those that are perceptually available and those that reflect underlying conceptual similarity, some have claimed that words function merely as features of objects. Here, we directly test these alternative accounts. Four-year-olds (n = 140)…

Identification of handheld objects for electro-optic/FLIR applications

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Moyer, Steve K.; Flug, Eric; Edwards, Timothy C.; Krapels, Keith A.; Scarbrough, John

2004-08-01

This paper describes research on the determination of the fifty-percent probability of identification cycle criterion (N50) for two sets of handheld objects. The first set consists of 12 objects which are commonly held in a single hand. The second set consists of 10 objects commonly held in both hands. These sets consist of not only typical civilian handheld objects but also objects that are potentially lethal. A pistol, a cell phone, a rocket propelled grenade (RPG) launcher, and a broom are examples of the objects in these sets. The discrimination of these objects is an inherent part of homeland security, force protection, and also general population security. Objects were imaged from each set in the visible and mid-wave infrared (MWIR) spectrum. Various levels of blur are then applied to these images. These blurred images were then used in a forced choice perception experiment. Results were analyzed as a function of blur level and target size to give identification probability as a function of resolvable cycles on target. These results are applicable to handheld object target acquisition estimates for visible imaging systems and MWIR systems. This research provides guidance in the design and analysis of electro-optical systems and forward-looking infrared (FLIR) systems for use in homeland security, force protection, and also general population security.

Direct manipulation of virtual objects

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nguyen, Long K.

Interacting with a Virtual Environment (VE) generally requires the user to correctly perceive the relative position and orientation of virtual objects. For applications requiring interaction in personal space, the user may also need to accurately judge the position of the virtual object relative to that of a real object, for example, a virtual button and the user's real hand. This is difficult since VEs generally only provide a subset of the cues experienced in the real world. Complicating matters further, VEs presented by currently available visual displays may be inaccurate or distorted due to technological limitations. Fundamental physiological and psychological aspects of vision as they pertain to the task of object manipulation were thoroughly reviewed. Other sensory modalities -- proprioception, haptics, and audition -- and their cross-interactions with each other and with vision are briefly discussed. Visual display technologies, the primary component of any VE, were canvassed and compared. Current applications and research were gathered and categorized by different VE types and object interaction techniques. While object interaction research abounds in the literature, pockets of research gaps remain. Direct, dexterous, manual interaction with virtual objects in Mixed Reality (MR), where the real, seen hand accurately and effectively interacts with virtual objects, has not yet been fully quantified. An experimental test bed was designed to provide the highest accuracy attainable for salient visual cues in personal space. Optical alignment and user calibration were carefully performed. The test bed accommodated the full continuum of VE types and sensory modalities for comprehensive comparison studies. Experimental designs included two sets, each measuring depth perception and object interaction. The first set addressed the extreme end points of the Reality-Virtuality (R-V) continuum -- Immersive Virtual Environment (IVE) and Reality Environment (RE). This

Ethical objections against including life-extension costs in cost-effectiveness analysis: a consistent approach.

PubMed

Gandjour, Afschin; Müller, Dirk

2014-10-01

One of the major ethical concerns regarding cost-effectiveness analysis in health care has been the inclusion of life-extension costs ("it is cheaper to let people die"). For this reason, many analysts have opted to rule out life-extension costs from the analysis. However, surprisingly little has been written in the health economics literature regarding this ethical concern and the resulting practice. The purpose of this work was to present a framework and potential solution for ethical objections against life-extension costs. This work found three levels of ethical concern: (i) with respect to all life-extension costs (disease-related and -unrelated); (ii) with respect to disease-unrelated costs only; and (iii) regarding disease-unrelated costs plus disease-related costs not influenced by the intervention. Excluding all life-extension costs for ethical reasons would require-for reasons of consistency-a simultaneous exclusion of savings from reducing morbidity. At the other extreme, excluding only disease-unrelated life-extension costs for ethical reasons would require-again for reasons of consistency-the exclusion of health gains due to treatment of unrelated diseases. Therefore, addressing ethical concerns regarding the inclusion of life-extension costs necessitates fundamental changes in the calculation of cost effectiveness.

Toward an objective measure of functional disability in dysferlinopathy.

PubMed

Woudt, Lisanne; Di Capua, Gabriella A; Krahn, Martin; Castiglioni, Claudia; Hughes, Ricardo; Campero, Mario; Trangulao, Alejandra; González-Hormazábal, Patricio; Godoy-Herrera, Raúl; Lévy, Nicolas; Urtizberea, Jon Andoni; Jara, Lilian; Bevilacqua, Jorge A

2016-01-01

Understanding the natural history of dysferlinopathy is essential to design and quantify novel therapeutic protocols. Our aim in this study was to assess, clinically and functionally, a cohort of patients with dysferlinopathy, using validated scales. Thirty-one patients with genetically confirmed dysferlinopathy were assessed using the motor function measure (MFM), Modified Rankin Scale (MRS), Muscle Research Council (MRC) scale, serum creatine kinase (CK) assessment, baseline spirometry data, and echocardiographic and electrophysiologic studies. MFM and MRC scores showed a significant negative correlation with disease duration and inverse correlation with MRS, but not with onset age, clinical phenotype, or CK levels. Percent forced vital capacity (%FVC) correlated negatively with disease duration and onset age. Eight known pathogenic mutations were identified recurrently, 4 of which accounted for 79% of the total. The results suggest that MFM is a reliable outcome measure that may be useful for longitudinal follow-up in dysferlinopathy. Recurrent mutations suggest a founder effect in the Chilean population. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Direct and indirect pathways for choosing objects and actions.

PubMed

Hikosaka, Okihide; Kim, Hyoung F; Amita, Hidetoshi; Yasuda, Masaharu; Isoda, Masaki; Tachibana, Yoshihisa; Yoshida, Atsushi

2018-02-23

A prominent target of the basal ganglia is the superior colliculus (SC) which controls gaze orientation (saccadic eye movement in primates) to an important object. This 'object choice' is crucial for choosing an action on the object. SC is innervated by the substantia nigra pars reticulata (SNr) which is controlled mainly by the caudate nucleus (CD). This CD-SNr-SC circuit is sensitive to the values of individual objects and facilitates saccades to good objects. The object values are processed differently in two parallel circuits: flexibly by the caudate head (CDh) and stably by the caudate tail (CDt). To choose good objects, we need to reject bad objects. In fact, these contrasting functions are accomplished by the circuit originating from CDt: The direct pathway focuses on good objects and facilitates saccades to them; the indirect pathway focuses on bad objects and suppresses saccades to them. Inactivation of CDt deteriorated the object choice, because saccades to bad objects were no longer suppressed. This suggests that the indirect pathway is important for object choice. However, the direct and indirect pathways for 'object choice', which aim at the same action (i.e., saccade), may not work for 'action choice'. One possibility is that circuits controlling different actions are connected through the indirect pathway. Additional connections of the indirect pathway with brain areas outside the basal ganglia may also provide a wider range of behavioral choice. In conclusion, basal ganglia circuits are composed of the basic direct/indirect pathways and additional connections and thus have acquired multiple functions. © 2018 Federation of European Neuroscience Societies and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

The Functional Task Test (FTT): An Interdisciplinary Testing Protocol to Investigate the Factors Underlying Changes in Astronaut Functional Performance

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bloomberg, J. J.; Lawrence, E. L.; Arzeno, N. M.; Buxton, R. E.; Feiveson, A. H.; Kofman, I. S.; Lee, S. M. C.; Mulavara, A. P.; Peters, B. T.; Platts. S. H.;

Algorithm for pose estimation based on objective function with uncertainty-weighted measuring error of feature point cling to the curved surface.

PubMed

Huo, Ju; Zhang, Guiyang; Yang, Ming

2018-04-20

This paper is concerned with the anisotropic and non-identical gray distribution of feature points clinging to the curved surface, upon which a high precision and uncertainty-resistance algorithm for pose estimation is proposed. Weighted contribution of uncertainty to the objective function of feature points measuring error is analyzed. Then a novel error objective function based on the spatial collinear error is constructed by transforming the uncertainty into a covariance-weighted matrix, which is suitable for the practical applications. Further, the optimized generalized orthogonal iterative (GOI) algorithm is utilized for iterative solutions such that it avoids the poor convergence and significantly resists the uncertainty. Hence, the optimized GOI algorithm extends the field-of-view applications and improves the accuracy and robustness of the measuring results by the redundant information. Finally, simulation and practical experiments show that the maximum error of re-projection image coordinates of the target is less than 0.110 pixels. Within the space 3000  mm×3000  mm×4000  mm, the maximum estimation errors of static and dynamic measurement for rocket nozzle motion are superior to 0.065° and 0.128°, respectively. Results verify the high accuracy and uncertainty attenuation performance of the proposed approach and should therefore have potential for engineering applications.

Objectives of the Airline Firm: Theory

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kneafsey, J. T.

1972-01-01

Theoretical models are formulated for airline firm operations that revolve around alternative formulations of managerial goals which these firms are persuing in practice. Consideration is given to the different objective functions which the companies are following in lieu of profit maximization.

Flexible Method for Inter-object Communication in C++

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Curlett, Brian P.; Gould, Jack J.

1994-01-01

A method has been developed for organizing and sharing large amounts of information between objects in C++ code. This method uses a set of object classes to define variables and group them into tables. The variable tables presented here provide a convenient way of defining and cataloging data, as well as a user-friendly input/output system, a standardized set of access functions, mechanisms for ensuring data integrity, methods for interprocessor data transfer, and an interpretive language for programming relationships between parameters. The object-oriented nature of these variable tables enables the use of multiple data types, each with unique attributes and behavior. Because each variable provides its own access methods, redundant table lookup functions can be bypassed, thus decreasing access times while maintaining data integrity. In addition, a method for automatic reference counting was developed to manage memory safely.

Glucose improves object-location binding in visual-spatial working memory.

PubMed

Stollery, Brian; Christian, Leonie

2016-02-01

There is evidence that glucose temporarily enhances cognition and that processes dependent on the hippocampus may be particularly sensitive. As the hippocampus plays a key role in binding processes, we examined the influence of glucose on memory for object-location bindings. This study aims to study how glucose modifies performance on an object-location memory task, a task that draws heavily on hippocampal function. Thirty-one participants received 30 g glucose or placebo in a single 1-h session. After seeing between 3 and 10 objects (words or shapes) at different locations in a 9 × 9 matrix, participants attempted to immediately reproduce the display on a blank 9 × 9 matrix. Blood glucose was measured before drink ingestion, mid-way through the session, and at the end of the session. Glucose significantly improves object-location binding (d = 1.08) and location memory (d = 0.83), but not object memory (d = 0.51). Increasing working memory load impairs object memory and object-location binding, and word-location binding is more successful than shape-location binding, but the glucose improvement is robust across all difficulty manipulations. Within the glucose group, higher levels of circulating glucose are correlated with better binding memory and remembering the locations of successfully recalled objects. The glucose improvements identified are consistent with a facilitative impact on hippocampal function. The findings are discussed in the context of the relationship between cognitive processes, hippocampal function, and the implications for glucose's mode of action.

Quality and Content of Individualized Habilitation Plan Objectives in Residential Settings.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stancliffe, Roger J.; Hayden, Mary F.; Lakin, K. Charlie

2000-01-01

The quality, number, and content of residential Individualized Habilitation Plans (IHP) objectives were evaluated for 155 adult institution and community residents. Over 90 percent of objectives were functional and age appropriate. Community residents had significantly more IHP objectives and also had objectives from a wider variety of content…

Embedded object concept: case balancing two-wheeled robot

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Vallius, Tero; Röning, Juha

2007-09-01

This paper presents the Embedded Object Concept (EOC) and a telepresence robot system which is a test case for the EOC. The EOC utilizes common object-oriented methods used in software by applying them to combined Lego-like software-hardware entities. These entities represent objects in object-oriented design methods, and they are the building blocks of embedded systems. The goal of the EOC is to make the designing of embedded systems faster and easier. This concept enables people without comprehensive knowledge in electronics design to create new embedded systems, and for experts it shortens the design time of new embedded systems. We present the current status of a telepresence robot created with Atomi-objects, which is the name for our implementation of the embedded objects. The telepresence robot is a relatively complex test case for the EOC. The robot has been constructed using incremental device development, which is made possible by the architecture of the EOC. The robot contains video and audio exchange capability and a controlling system for driving with two wheels. The robot consists of Atomi-objects, demonstrating the suitability of the EOC for prototyping and easy modifications, and proving the capabilities of the EOC by realizing a function that normally requires a computer. The computer counterpart is a regular PC with audio and video capabilities running with a robot control application. The robot is functional and successfully tested.

Neural substrates of perceptual integration during bistable object perception

PubMed Central

Flevaris, Anastasia V.; Martínez, Antigona; Hillyard, Steven A.

2013-01-01

The way we perceive an object depends both on feedforward, bottom-up processing of its physical stimulus properties and on top-down factors such as attention, context, expectation, and task relevance. Here we compared neural activity elicited by varying perceptions of the same physical image—a bistable moving image in which perception spontaneously alternates between dissociated fragments and a single, unified object. A time-frequency analysis of EEG changes associated with the perceptual switch from object to fragment and vice versa revealed a greater decrease in alpha (8–12 Hz) accompanying the switch to object percept than to fragment percept. Recordings of event-related potentials elicited by irrelevant probes superimposed on the moving image revealed an enhanced positivity between 184 and 212 ms when the probes were contained within the boundaries of the perceived unitary object. The topography of the positivity (P2) in this latency range elicited by probes during object perception was distinct from the topography elicited by probes during fragment perception, suggesting that the neural processing of probes differed as a function of perceptual state. Two source localization algorithms estimated the neural generator of this object-related difference to lie in the lateral occipital cortex, a region long associated with object perception. These data suggest that perceived objects attract attention, incorporate visual elements occurring within their boundaries into unified object representations, and enhance the visual processing of elements occurring within their boundaries. Importantly, the perceived object in this case emerged as a function of the fluctuating perceptual state of the viewer. PMID:24246467

Precedent approach to the formation of programs for cyclic objects control

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kulakov, S. M.; Trofimov, V. B.; Dobrynin, A. S.; Taraborina, E. N.

2018-05-01

The idea and procedure for formalizing the precedent method of formation of complex control solutions (complex control programs) is discussed with respect to technological or organizational objects, the operation of which is organized cyclically. A typical functional structure of the system of precedent control by complex technological unit is developed, including a subsystem of retrospective optimization of actually implemented control programs. As an example, the problem of constructing replaceable planograms for the operation of the link of a heading-and-winning machine on the basis of precedents is considered.

[An object-based information extraction technology for dominant tree species group types].

PubMed

Tian, Tian; Fan, Wen-yi; Lu, Wei; Xiao, Xiang

2015-06-01

Information extraction for dominant tree group types is difficult in remote sensing image classification, howevers, the object-oriented classification method using high spatial resolution remote sensing data is a new method to realize the accurate type information extraction. In this paper, taking the Jiangle Forest Farm in Fujian Province as the research area, based on the Quickbird image data in 2013, the object-oriented method was adopted to identify the farmland, shrub-herbaceous plant, young afforested land, Pinus massoniana, Cunninghamia lanceolata and broad-leave tree types. Three types of classification factors including spectral, texture, and different vegetation indices were used to establish a class hierarchy. According to the different levels, membership functions and the decision tree classification rules were adopted. The results showed that the method based on the object-oriented method by using texture, spectrum and the vegetation indices achieved the classification accuracy of 91.3%, which was increased by 5.7% compared with that by only using the texture and spectrum.

Causal functional contributions and interactions in the attention network of the brain: an objective multi-perturbation analysis.

PubMed

Zavaglia, Melissa; Hilgetag, Claus C

2016-06-01

Spatial attention is a prime example for the distributed network functions of the brain. Lesion studies in animal models have been used to investigate intact attentional mechanisms as well as perspectives for rehabilitation in the injured brain. Here, we systematically analyzed behavioral data from cooling deactivation and permanent lesion experiments in the cat, where unilateral deactivation of the posterior parietal cortex (in the vicinity of the posterior middle suprasylvian cortex, pMS) or the superior colliculus (SC) cause a severe neglect in the contralateral hemifield. Counterintuitively, additional deactivation of structures in the opposite hemisphere reverses the deficit. Using such lesion data, we employed a game-theoretical approach, multi-perturbation Shapley value analysis (MSA), for inferring functional contributions and network interactions of bilateral pMS and SC from behavioral performance in visual attention studies. The approach provides an objective theoretical strategy for lesion inferences and allows a unique quantitative characterization of regional functional contributions and interactions on the basis of multi-perturbations. The quantitative analysis demonstrated that right posterior parietal cortex and superior colliculus made the strongest positive contributions to left-field orienting, while left brain regions had negative contributions, implying that their perturbation may reverse the effects of contralateral lesions or improve normal function. An analysis of functional modulations and interactions among the regions revealed redundant interactions (implying functional overlap) between regions within each hemisphere, and synergistic interactions between bilateral regions. To assess the reliability of the MSA method in the face of variable and incomplete input data, we performed a sensitivity analysis, investigating how much the contribution values of the four regions depended on the performance of specific configurations and on the

The effects of aging on the neural correlates of subjective and objective recollection.

PubMed

Duarte, Audrey; Henson, Richard N; Graham, Kim S

2008-09-01

High-functioning older adults can exhibit normal recollection when measured subjectively, via "remember" judgments, but not when measured objectively, via source judgments, whereas low-functioning older adults exhibit impairments for both measures. A potential explanation for this is that typical subjective and objective tests of recollection necessitate different processing demands, supported by distinct brain regions, and that deficits in these tests are observed according to the degree of age-related changes in these regions. Here, we used event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging to measure the effects of aging on neural correlates of subjective and objective measures of recollection, in young, high-functioning (Old-High) and low-functioning (Old-Low) older adults. Behaviorally, the Old-High group showed intact subjective ("remember" judgments) but impaired objective recollection (for 1 of 2 spatial or temporal sources), whereas the Old-Low group was impaired on both measures. Imaging data showed changes in parietal subjective recollection effects in the Old-Low group and in lateral frontal objective recollection effects in both older adult groups. Our results highlight the importance of examining performance variability in older adults and suggest that differential effects of aging on brain regions are associated with different patterns of performance on tests of subjective and objective recollection.

Neural Correlates of the Perception for Novel Objects

PubMed Central

Zhang, Hao; Liu, Jia; Zhang, Qinglin

2013-01-01

Perception of novel objects is of enormous importance in our lives. People have to perceive or understand novel objects when seeing an original painting, admiring an unconventional construction, and using an inventive device. However, very little is known about neural mechanisms underlying the perception for novel objects. Perception of novel objects relies on the integration of unusual features of novel objects in order to identify what such objects are. In the present study, functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) was employed to investigate neural correlates of perception of novel objects. The neuroimaging data on participants engaged in novel object viewing versus ordinary object viewing revealed that perception of novel objects involves significant activation in the left precuneus (Brodmann area 7) and the right visual cortex. The results suggest that the left precuneus is associated with the integration of unusual features of novel objects, while the right visual cortex is sensitive to the detection of such features. Our findings highlight the left precuneus as a crucial component of the neural circuitry underlying perception of novel objects. PMID:23646167

To what extent do joint attention, imitation, and object play behaviors in infancy predict later communication and intellectual functioning in ASD?

PubMed

Poon, Kenneth K; Watson, Linda R; Baranek, Grace T; Poe, Michele D

2012-06-01

The extent to which early social communication behaviors predict later communication and intellectual outcomes was investigated via retrospective video analysis. Joint attention, imitation, and complex object play behaviors were coded from edited home videos featuring scenes of 29 children with ASD at 9-12 and/or 15-18 months. A quantitative interval recording of behavior and a qualitative rating of the developmental level were applied. Social communication behaviors increased between 9-12 and 15-18 months. Their mean level during infancy, but not the rate of change, predicted both Vineland Communication scores and intellectual functioning at 3-7 years. The two methods of measurement yielded similar results. Thus, early social communicative behaviors may play pivotal roles in the development of subsequent communication and intellectual functioning.

Object-based benefits without object-based representations.

PubMed

Fougnie, Daryl; Cormiea, Sarah M; Alvarez, George A

2013-08-01

Influential theories of visual working memory have proposed that the basic units of memory are integrated object representations. Key support for this proposal is provided by the same object benefit: It is easier to remember multiple features of a single object than the same set of features distributed across multiple objects. Here, we replicate the object benefit but demonstrate that features are not stored as single, integrated representations. Specifically, participants could remember 10 features better when arranged in 5 objects compared to 10 objects, yet memory for one object feature was largely independent of memory for the other object feature. These results rule out the possibility that integrated representations drive the object benefit and require a revision of the concept of object-based memory representations. We propose that working memory is object-based in regard to the factors that enhance performance but feature based in regard to the level of representational failure. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2013 APA, all rights reserved.

Optimizing Placement of Weather Stations: Exploring Objective Functions of Meaningful Combinations of Multiple Weather Variables

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Snyder, A.; Dietterich, T.; Selker, J. S.

2017-12-01

Many regions of the world lack ground-based weather data due to inadequate or unreliable weather station networks. For example, most countries in Sub-Saharan Africa have unreliable, sparse networks of weather stations. The absence of these data can have consequences on weather forecasting, prediction of severe weather events, agricultural planning, and climate change monitoring. The Trans-African Hydro-Meteorological Observatory (TAHMO.org) project seeks to address these problems by deploying and operating a large network of weather stations throughout Sub-Saharan Africa. To design the TAHMO network, we must determine where to place weather stations within each country. We should consider how we can create accurate spatio-temporal maps of weather data and how to balance the desired accuracy of each weather variable of interest (precipitation, temperature, relative humidity, etc.). We can express this problem as a joint optimization of multiple weather variables, given a fixed number of weather stations. We use reanalysis data as the best representation of the "true" weather patterns that occur in the region of interest. For each possible combination of sites, we interpolate the reanalysis data between selected locations and calculate the mean average error between the reanalysis ("true") data and the interpolated data. In order to formulate our multi-variate optimization problem, we explore different methods of weighting each weather variable in our objective function. These methods include systematic variation of weights to determine which weather variables have the strongest influence on the network design, as well as combinations targeted for specific purposes. For example, we can use computed evapotranspiration as a metric that combines many weather variables in a way that is meaningful for agricultural and hydrological applications. We compare the errors of the weather station networks produced by each optimization problem formulation. We also compare these

Multi-objective optimization for model predictive control.

PubMed

Wojsznis, Willy; Mehta, Ashish; Wojsznis, Peter; Thiele, Dirk; Blevins, Terry

2007-06-01

This paper presents a technique of multi-objective optimization for Model Predictive Control (MPC) where the optimization has three levels of the objective function, in order of priority: handling constraints, maximizing economics, and maintaining control. The greatest weights are assigned dynamically to control or constraint variables that are predicted to be out of their limits. The weights assigned for economics have to out-weigh those assigned for control objectives. Control variables (CV) can be controlled at fixed targets or within one- or two-sided ranges around the targets. Manipulated Variables (MV) can have assigned targets too, which may be predefined values or current actual values. This MV functionality is extremely useful when economic objectives are not defined for some or all the MVs. To achieve this complex operation, handle process outputs predicted to go out of limits, and have a guaranteed solution for any condition, the technique makes use of the priority structure, penalties on slack variables, and redefinition of the constraint and control model. An engineering implementation of this approach is shown in the MPC embedded in an industrial control system. The optimization and control of a distillation column, the standard Shell heavy oil fractionator (HOF) problem, is adequately achieved with this MPC.

Method for imaging a concealed object

DOEpatents

Davidson, James R [Idaho Falls, ID; Partin, Judy K [Idaho Falls, ID; Sawyers, Robert J [Idaho Falls, ID

2007-07-03

A method for imaging a concealed object is described and which includes a step of providing a heat radiating body, and wherein an object to be detected is concealed on the heat radiating body; imaging the heat radiating body to provide a visibly discernible infrared image of the heat radiating body; and determining if the visibly discernible infrared image of the heat radiating body is masked by the presence of the concealed object.

Overlap between functional GI disorders and other functional syndromes: what are the underlying mechanisms?

PubMed Central

KIM, S. E.; CHANG, L.

2013-01-01

Background Irritable bowel syndrome and other gastrointestinal (GI) and non-GI disorders such as functional dyspepsia, fibromyalgia, temporomandibular joint disorder, interstitial cystitis/painful bladder syndrome, and chronic fatigue syndrome are known as functional pain syndromes. They commonly coexist within the same individual. The pathophysiologic mechanisms of these disorders are not well understood, but it has been hypothesized that they share a common pathogenesis. Purpose The objective of this review is to discuss the proposed pathophysiologic mechanisms, which have been similarly studied in these conditions. These mechanisms include enhanced pain perception, altered regional brain activation, infectious etiologies, dysregulations in immune and neuroendocrine function, and genetic susceptibility. Studies suggest that these functional disorders are multifactorial, but factors which increase the vulnerability of developing these conditions are shared. PMID:22863120

Reduction of Subjective and Objective System Complexity

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Watson, Michael D.

2015-01-01

Occam's razor is often used in science to define the minimum criteria to establish a physical or philosophical idea or relationship. Albert Einstein is attributed the saying "everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler". These heuristic ideas are based on a belief that there is a minimum state or set of states for a given system or phenomena. In looking at system complexity, these heuristics point us to an idea that complexity can be reduced to a minimum. How then, do we approach a reduction in complexity? Complexity has been described as a subjective concept and an objective measure of a system. Subjective complexity is based on human cognitive comprehension of the functions and inter relationships of a system. Subjective complexity is defined by the ability to fully comprehend the system. Simplifying complexity, in a subjective sense, is thus gaining a deeper understanding of the system. As Apple's Jonathon Ive has stated," It's not just minimalism or the absence of clutter. It involves digging through the depth of complexity. To be truly simple, you have to go really deep". Simplicity is not the absence of complexity but a deeper understanding of complexity. Subjective complexity, based on this human comprehension, cannot then be discerned from the sociological concept of ignorance. The inability to comprehend a system can be either a lack of knowledge, an inability to understand the intricacies of a system, or both. Reduction in this sense is based purely on a cognitive ability to understand the system and no system then may be truly complex. From this view, education and experience seem to be the keys to reduction or eliminating complexity. Objective complexity, is the measure of the systems functions and interrelationships which exist independent of human comprehension. Jonathon Ive's statement does not say that complexity is removed, only that the complexity is understood. From this standpoint, reduction of complexity can be approached

Clustering environments of BL Lac objects

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Wurtz, Ronald; Ellingson, Erica; Stocke, John T.; Yee, H. K. C.

1993-01-01

We report measurements of the amplitude of the BL Lac galaxy spatial covariance function, B(gb), for the fields of five BL Lacertae objects. We present evidence for rich clusters around MS 1207+39 and MS 1407+59, and confirm high richness for the cluster containing H0414+009. We discuss the ease of 3C 66 A and find evidence for a poor cluster based on an uncertain redshift of z = 0.444. These data suggest that at least some BL Lac objects are consistent with being FR 1 radio galaxies in rich clusters.

Lost Near-Earth Object Candidates

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Veres, Peter; Farnocchia, Davide; Williams, Gareth; Keys, Sonia; Boardman, Ian; Holman, Matthew J.; Payne, Matthew J.

2017-10-01

been followed up, the number of discovered NEOs would have been larger by 685+/-30 in 2013-2016. The measures to decrease the number of lost NEO candidates include improved uncertainty maps and uncertainties as function of time on the NEOCP.

Influencing Attitudes Toward Near and Distant Objects

PubMed Central

Fujita, Kentaro; Eyal, Tal; Chaiken, Shelly; Trope, Yaacov; Liberman, Nira

2008-01-01

It is argued that the temporal distance of attitude objects systematically changes how the object is mentally represented, and thus influences the strength of particular persuasive appeals. Three experiments tested the hypothesis that people preferentially attend to arguments that highlight primary, abstract (high-level) vs. incidental, concrete (low-level) features when attitude objects are temporally distant vs. near. Results suggested that when attitude objects are temporally distant vs. near, arguments emphasizing primary vs. secondary features (Study 1), desirability vs. feasibility features (Study 2), and general classes vs. specific cases are more persuasive (Study 3). The relation of construal theory to dual process theories of persuasion and persuasion phenomena, such as personal relevance effects and functional matching effects, are discussed. PMID:19884971

Objects of attention, objects of perception.

PubMed

Avrahami, J

1999-11-01

Four experiments were conducted, to explore the notion of objects in perception. Taking as a starting point the effects of display content on rapid attention transfer and manipulating curvature, closure, and processing time, a link between objects of attention and objects of perception is proposed. In Experiment 1, a number of parallel, equally spaced, straight lines facilitated attention transfer along the lines, relative to transfer across the lines. In Experiment 2, with curved, closed-contour shapes, no "same-object" facilitation was observed. However, when a longer time interval was provided, in Experiment 3, a same-object advantage started to emerge. In Experiment 4, using the same curved shapes but in a non-speeded distance estimation task, a strong effect of objects was observed. It is argued that attention transfer is facilitated by line tracing but that line tracing is encouraged by objects.

Electronics Technology. Performance Objectives. Basic Course.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Campbell, Guy

Several intermediate performance objectives and corresponding criterion measures are listed for each of 20 terminal objectives for a basic electronics technology course. The materials were developed for a two-semester course (2 hours daily) designed to include instruction in basic electricity and electronic fundamentals, and to develop skills and…

Rorschach assessment of cognitive impairment from an object relations perspective.

PubMed

Lerner, P M

1996-01-01

In 1986, H. Lerner and P. Lerner proposed an object relations model of thinking that integrated Piaget's theory of early cognitive development with Mahler's theory of separation-individuation. They identified three distinct, interdigitated stages, outlined the cognitive task for each stage, detailed the necessary role and function of the stage-specific caregiving object, and suggested potential cognitive impairments associated with the object not fulfilling its function. Herein, this conceptual model is extended to the Rorschach. Rorschach indices of cognitive impairments associated with each stage were developed. The indices are then applied to the Rorschach records of children who were selected as prototypical of specific developmental disorders.

Exotic objects of atomic physics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Eletskii, A. V.

2017-11-01

There has been presented a short survey of physical properties, methods of production and exploration as well as directions of practical usage of the objects of atomic physics which are not yet described in detail in modern textbooks and manuals intended for students of technical universities. The family of these objects includes negative and multicharged ions, Rydberg atoms, excimer molecules, clusters. Besides of that, in recent decades this family was supplemented with new nanocarbon structures such as fullerenes, carbon nanotubes and graphene. The textbook “Exotic objects of atomic physics” [1] edited recently contains some information on the above-listed objects of the atomic physics. This textbook can be considered as a supplement to classic courses of atomic physics teaching in technical universities.

Functional Requirements: 2014 No Child Left Behind--Annual Measurable Achievement Objectives

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Minnesota Department of Education, 2014

2014-01-01

This document describes the Minnesota No Child Left Behind (NCLB) calculation as it relates to measuring Title III districts for Annual Measurable Achievement Objectives (AMAO). In 2012, a new assessment was used to measure language proficiency skills for English Learners. New AMAO targets were created, and new values for determining individual…

D Imaging for Museum Artefacts: a Portable Test Object for Heritage and Museum Documentation of Small Objects

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hess, M.; Robson, S.

2012-07-01

3D colour image data generated for the recording of small museum objects and archaeological finds are highly variable in quality and fitness for purpose. Whilst current technology is capable of extremely high quality outputs, there are currently no common standards or applicable guidelines in either the museum or engineering domain suited to scientific evaluation, understanding and tendering for 3D colour digital data. This paper firstly explains the rationale towards and requirements for 3D digital documentation in museums. Secondly it describes the design process, development and use of a new portable test object suited to sensor evaluation and the provision of user acceptance metrics. The test object is specifically designed for museums and heritage institutions and includes known surface and geometric properties which support quantitative and comparative imaging on different systems. The development for a supporting protocol will allow object reference data to be included in the data processing workflow with specific reference to conservation and curation.

Management by Objectives for Colleges and Universities.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Schroeder, Roger G.

Management by Objectives (MBO) has been used by many businesses as a means of improving performance by managers. MBO involves setting agreed performance objectives in writing and includes a periodic review of the degree of achievement of those objectives. This document argues that MBO principles should be used by colleges and universities, and it…

Verbal definitions of familiar objects in blind children reflect their peculiar perceptual experience.

PubMed

Vinter, A; Fernandes, V; Orlandi, O; Morgan, P

2013-11-01

The aim of the present study was to examine to what extent the verbal definitions of familiar objects produced by blind children reflect their peculiar perceptual experience and, in consequence, differ from those produced by sighted children. Ninety-six visually impaired children, aged between 6 and 14 years, and 32 age-matched sighted children had to define 10 words denoting concrete animate or inanimate familiar objects. The blind children evoked the tactile and auditory characteristics of objects and expressed personal perceptual experiences in their definitions. The sighted children relied on visual perception, and produced more visually oriented verbalism. In contrast, no differences were observed between children in their propensity to include functional attributes in their verbal definitions. The results are discussed in line with embodied views of cognition that postulate mandatory perceptuomotor processing of words during access to their meaning. © 2012 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Multi-Objective Community Detection Based on Memetic Algorithm

PubMed Central

2015-01-01

Community detection has drawn a lot of attention as it can provide invaluable help in understanding the function and visualizing the structure of networks. Since single objective optimization methods have intrinsic drawbacks to identifying multiple significant community structures, some methods formulate the community detection as multi-objective problems and adopt population-based evolutionary algorithms to obtain multiple community structures. Evolutionary algorithms have strong global search ability, but have difficulty in locating local optima efficiently. In this study, in order to identify multiple significant community structures more effectively, a multi-objective memetic algorithm for community detection is proposed by combining multi-objective evolutionary algorithm with a local search procedure. The local search procedure is designed by addressing three issues. Firstly, nondominated solutions generated by evolutionary operations and solutions in dominant population are set as initial individuals for local search procedure. Then, a new direction vector named as pseudonormal vector is proposed to integrate two objective functions together to form a fitness function. Finally, a network specific local search strategy based on label propagation rule is expanded to search the local optimal solutions efficiently. The extensive experiments on both artificial and real-world networks evaluate the proposed method from three aspects. Firstly, experiments on influence of local search procedure demonstrate that the local search procedure can speed up the convergence to better partitions and make the algorithm more stable. Secondly, comparisons with a set of classic community detection methods illustrate the proposed method can find single partitions effectively. Finally, the method is applied to identify hierarchical structures of networks which are beneficial for analyzing networks in multi-resolution levels. PMID:25932646

Multi-objective community detection based on memetic algorithm.

PubMed

Wu, Peng; Pan, Li

2015-01-01

Community detection has drawn a lot of attention as it can provide invaluable help in understanding the function and visualizing the structure of networks. Since single objective optimization methods have intrinsic drawbacks to identifying multiple significant community structures, some methods formulate the community detection as multi-objective problems and adopt population-based evolutionary algorithms to obtain multiple community structures. Evolutionary algorithms have strong global search ability, but have difficulty in locating local optima efficiently. In this study, in order to identify multiple significant community structures more effectively, a multi-objective memetic algorithm for community detection is proposed by combining multi-objective evolutionary algorithm with a local search procedure. The local search procedure is designed by addressing three issues. Firstly, nondominated solutions generated by evolutionary operations and solutions in dominant population are set as initial individuals for local search procedure. Then, a new direction vector named as pseudonormal vector is proposed to integrate two objective functions together to form a fitness function. Finally, a network specific local search strategy based on label propagation rule is expanded to search the local optimal solutions efficiently. The extensive experiments on both artificial and real-world networks evaluate the proposed method from three aspects. Firstly, experiments on influence of local search procedure demonstrate that the local search procedure can speed up the convergence to better partitions and make the algorithm more stable. Secondly, comparisons with a set of classic community detection methods illustrate the proposed method can find single partitions effectively. Finally, the method is applied to identify hierarchical structures of networks which are beneficial for analyzing networks in multi-resolution levels.

Functional Evaluation of Hidden Figures Object Analysis in Children with Autistic Disorder

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Malisza, Krisztina L.; Clancy, Christine; Shiloff, Deborah; Foreman, Derek; Holden, Jeanette; Jones, Cheryl; Paulson, K.; Summers, Randy; Yu, C. T.; Chudley, Albert E.

2011-01-01

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) during performance of a hidden figures task (HFT) was used to compare differences in brain function in children diagnosed with autism disorder (AD) compared to children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and typical controls (TC). Overall greater functional MRI activity was observed in…

Towards a general object-oriented software development methodology

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Seidewitz, ED; Stark, Mike

1986-01-01

Object diagrams were used to design a 5000 statement team training exercise and to design the entire dynamics simulator. The object diagrams are also being used to design another 50,000 statement Ada system and a personal computer based system that will be written in Modula II. The design methodology evolves out of these experiences as well as the limitations of other methods that were studied. Object diagrams, abstraction analysis, and associated principles provide a unified framework which encompasses concepts from Yourdin, Booch, and Cherry. This general object-oriented approach handles high level system design, possibly with concurrency, through object-oriented decomposition down to a completely functional level. How object-oriented concepts can be used in other phases of the software life-cycle, such as specification and testing is being studied concurrently.

22 CFR 1423.21 - Objection to conduct of hearing.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-04-01

... the conduct of the hearing, including any objection to the introduction of evidence, may be stated orally or in writing accompanied by a short statement of the grounds for such objection, and included in...

Auto Mechanics. Performance Objectives. Basic Course.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Carter, Thomas G., Sr.

Several intermediate performance objectives and corresponding criterion measures are listed for each of 14 terminal objectives for a basic automotive mechanics course. The materials were developed for a two-semester course (2 hours daily) designed to provide training in the basic fundamentals in diagnosis and repair including cooling system and…

Woods. Industrial Arts. Performance Objectives. Junior High School.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bunch, Edwood; And Others

Several intermediate performance objectives and corresponding criterion measures are listed for a woodworking course for seventh, eighth, and ninth grade students. The seventh grade section includes seven terminal objectives for a 9-week basic hand woodworking course which includes planning and layout, skill in the use of hand tools, construction…

Infants' Recognition of Objects Using Canonical Color

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kimura, Atsushi; Wada, Yuji; Yang, Jiale; Otsuka, Yumiko; Dan, Ippeita; Masuda, Tomohiro; Kanazawa, So; Yamaguchi, Masami K.

2010-01-01

We explored infants' ability to recognize the canonical colors of daily objects, including two color-specific objects (human face and fruit) and a non-color-specific object (flower), by using a preferential looking technique. A total of 58 infants between 5 and 8 months of age were tested with a stimulus composed of two color pictures of an object…

Multivariate fMRI and Eye Tracking Reveal Differential Effects of Visual Interference on Recognition Memory Judgments for Objects and Scenes.

PubMed

O'Neil, Edward B; Watson, Hilary C; Dhillon, Sonya; Lobaugh, Nancy J; Lee, Andy C H

2015-09-01

Recent work has demonstrated that the perirhinal cortex (PRC) supports conjunctive object representations that aid object recognition memory following visual object interference. It is unclear, however, how these representations interact with other brain regions implicated in mnemonic retrieval and how congruent and incongruent interference influences the processing of targets and foils during object recognition. To address this, multivariate partial least squares was applied to fMRI data acquired during an interference match-to-sample task, in which participants made object or scene recognition judgments after object or scene interference. This revealed a pattern of activity sensitive to object recognition following congruent (i.e., object) interference that included PRC, prefrontal, and parietal regions. Moreover, functional connectivity analysis revealed a common pattern of PRC connectivity across interference and recognition conditions. Examination of eye movements during the same task in a separate study revealed that participants gazed more at targets than foils during correct object recognition decisions, regardless of interference congruency. By contrast, participants viewed foils more than targets for incorrect object memory judgments, but only after congruent interference. Our findings suggest that congruent interference makes object foils appear familiar and that a network of regions, including PRC, is recruited to overcome the effects of interference.

Object-oriented biomedical system modelling--the language.

PubMed