Apparent motion perception in lower limb amputees with phantom sensations: "obstacle shunning" and "obstacle tolerance".

PubMed

Saetta, Gianluca; Grond, Ilva; Brugger, Peter; Lenggenhager, Bigna; Tsay, Anthony J; Giummarra, Melita J

2018-03-21

Phantom limbs are the phenomenal persistence of postural and sensorimotor features of an amputated limb. Although immaterial, their characteristics can be modulated by the presence of physical matter. For instance, the phantom may disappear when its phenomenal space is invaded by objects ("obstacle shunning"). Alternatively, "obstacle tolerance" occurs when the phantom is not limited by the law of impenetrability and co-exists with physical objects. Here we examined the link between this under-investigated aspect of phantom limbs and apparent motion perception. The illusion of apparent motion of human limbs involves the perception that a limb moves through or around an object, depending on the stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA) for the two images. Participants included 12 unilateral lower limb amputees matched for obstacle shunning (n = 6) and obstacle tolerance (n = 6) experiences, and 14 non-amputees. Using multilevel linear models, we replicated robust biases for short perceived trajectories for short SOA (moving through the object), and long trajectories (circumventing the object) for long SOAs in both groups. Importantly, however, amputees with obstacle shunning perceived leg stimuli to predominantly move through the object, whereas amputees with obstacle tolerance perceived leg stimuli to predominantly move around the object. That is, in people who experience obstacle shunning, apparent motion perception of lower limbs was not constrained to the laws of impenetrability (as the phantom disappears when invaded by objects), and legs can therefore move through physical objects. Amputees who experience obstacle tolerance, however, had stronger solidity constraints for lower limb apparent motion, perhaps because they must avoid co-location of the phantom with physical objects. Phantom limb experience does, therefore, appear to be modulated by intuitive physics, but not in the same way for everyone. This may have important implications for limb experience post

Studying de-implementation in health: an analysis of funded research grants.

PubMed

Norton, Wynne E; Kennedy, Amy E; Chambers, David A

2017-12-04

Studying de-implementation-defined herein as reducing or stopping the use of a health service or practice provided to patients by healthcare practitioners and systems-has gained traction in recent years. De-implementing ineffective, unproven, harmful, overused, inappropriate, and/or low-value health services and practices is important for mitigating patient harm, improving processes of care, and reducing healthcare costs. A better understanding of the state-of-the-science is needed to guide future objectives and funding initiatives. To this end, we characterized de-implementation research grants funded by the United States (US) National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). We used systematic methods to search, identify, and describe de-implementation research grants funded across all 27 NIH Institutes and Centers (ICs) and AHRQ from fiscal year 2000 through 2017. Eleven key terms and three funding opportunity announcements were used to search for research grants in the NIH Query, View and Report (QVR) system. Two coders identified eligible grants based on inclusion/exclusion criteria. A codebook was developed, pilot tested, and revised before coding the full grant applications of the final sample. A total of 1277 grants were identified through the QVR system; 542 remained after removing duplicates. After the multistep eligibility assessment and review process, 20 grant applications were coded. Many grants were funded by NIH (n = 15), with fewer funded by AHRQ, and a majority were funded between fiscal years 2015 and 2016 (n = 11). Grant proposals focused on de-implementing a range of health services and practices (e.g., medications, therapies, screening tests) across various health areas (e.g., cancer, cardiovascular disease) and delivery settings (e.g., hospitals, nursing homes, schools). Grants proposed to use a variety of study designs and research methods (e.g., experimental, observational, mixed methods

Successful Information and Communication Technology Implementation Strategies for Rural Communities: An Investigation of Tech-Based Economic Development Programs

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sullivan, Donna Annette

2009-01-01

Many rural communities across America face several obstacles in the implementation of information and communication technologies (ICTs) initiatives and struggle with the best approaches for leveraging these elements into an economic development strategy. These obstacles include: lack of quality local ICTs infrastructure, funding, inability to…

Smokefree implementation in Colombia: Monitoring, outside funding, and business support.

PubMed

Uang, Randy; Crosbie, Eric; Glantz, Stanton A

2017-01-01

To analyze successful national smokefree policy implementation in Colombia, a middle income country. Key informants at the national and local levels were interviewed and news sources and government ministry resolutions were reviewed. Colombia's Ministry of Health coordinated local implementation practices, which were strongest in larger cities with supportive leadership. Nongovernmental organizations provided technical assistance and highlighted noncompliance. Organizations outside Colombia funded some of these efforts. The bar owners' association provided concerted education campaigns. Tobacco interests did not openly challenge implementation. Health organization monitoring, external funding, and hospitality industry support contributed to effective implementation, and could be cultivated in other low and middle income countries.

Smokefree implementation in Colombia: Monitoring, outside funding, and business support

PubMed Central

Uang, Randy; Crosbie, Eric; Glantz, Stanton A

2017-01-01

Objective To analyze successful national smokefree policy implementation in Colombia, a middle income country. Materials and methods Key informants at the national and local levels were interviewed and news sources and government ministry resolutions were reviewed. Results Colombia’s Ministry of Health coordinated local implementation practices, which were strongest in larger cities with supportive leadership. Nongovernmental organizations provided technical assistance and highlighted noncompliance. Organizations outside Colombia funded some of these efforts. The bar owners’ association provided concerted education campaigns. Tobacco interests did not openly challenge implementation. Conclusions Health organization monitoring, external funding, and hospitality industry support contributed to effective implementation, and could be cultivated in other low and middle income countries. PMID:28562713

Qualitative analysis of the dynamics of policy design and implementation in hospital funding reform

PubMed Central

Brown, Adalsteinn D.; Evans, Jenna M.; Marani, Husayn; Russell, Kirstie K.; Martin, Danielle; Ivers, Noah M.

2018-01-01

Background As in many health care systems, some Canadian jurisdictions have begun shifting away from global hospital budgets. Payment for episodes of care has begun to be implemented. Starting in 2012, the Province of Ontario implemented hospital funding reforms comprising three elements: Global Budgets; Health Based Allocation Method (HBAM); and Quality-Based Procedures (QBP). This evaluation focuses on implementation of QBPs, a procedure/diagnosis-specific funding approach involving a pre-set price per episode of care coupled with best practice clinical pathways. We examined whether or not there was consensus in understanding of the program theory underpinning QBPs and how this may have influenced full and effective implementation of this innovative funding model. Methods We undertook a formative evaluation of QBP implementation. We used an embedded case study method and in-depth, one-on-one, semi-structured, telephone interviews with key informants at three levels of the health care system: Designers (those who designed the QBP policy); Adoption Supporters (organizations and individuals supporting adoption of QBPs); and Hospital Implementers (those responsible for QBP implementation in hospitals). Thematic analysis involved an inductive approach, incorporating Framework analysis to generate descriptive and explanatory themes that emerged from the data. Results Five main findings emerged from our research: (1) Unbeknownst to most key informants, there was neither consistency nor clarity over time among QBP designers in their understanding of the original goal(s) for hospital funding reform; (2) Prior to implementation, the intended hospital funding mechanism transitioned from ABF to QBPs, but most key informants were either unaware of the transition or believe it was intentional; (3) Perception of the primary goal(s) of the policy reform continues to vary within and across all levels of key informants; (4) Four years into implementation, the QBP funding mechanism

Qualitative analysis of the dynamics of policy design and implementation in hospital funding reform.

PubMed

Palmer, Karen S; Brown, Adalsteinn D; Evans, Jenna M; Marani, Husayn; Russell, Kirstie K; Martin, Danielle; Ivers, Noah M

2018-01-01

As in many health care systems, some Canadian jurisdictions have begun shifting away from global hospital budgets. Payment for episodes of care has begun to be implemented. Starting in 2012, the Province of Ontario implemented hospital funding reforms comprising three elements: Global Budgets; Health Based Allocation Method (HBAM); and Quality-Based Procedures (QBP). This evaluation focuses on implementation of QBPs, a procedure/diagnosis-specific funding approach involving a pre-set price per episode of care coupled with best practice clinical pathways. We examined whether or not there was consensus in understanding of the program theory underpinning QBPs and how this may have influenced full and effective implementation of this innovative funding model. We undertook a formative evaluation of QBP implementation. We used an embedded case study method and in-depth, one-on-one, semi-structured, telephone interviews with key informants at three levels of the health care system: Designers (those who designed the QBP policy); Adoption Supporters (organizations and individuals supporting adoption of QBPs); and Hospital Implementers (those responsible for QBP implementation in hospitals). Thematic analysis involved an inductive approach, incorporating Framework analysis to generate descriptive and explanatory themes that emerged from the data. Five main findings emerged from our research: (1) Unbeknownst to most key informants, there was neither consistency nor clarity over time among QBP designers in their understanding of the original goal(s) for hospital funding reform; (2) Prior to implementation, the intended hospital funding mechanism transitioned from ABF to QBPs, but most key informants were either unaware of the transition or believe it was intentional; (3) Perception of the primary goal(s) of the policy reform continues to vary within and across all levels of key informants; (4) Four years into implementation, the QBP funding mechanism remains misunderstood; and

Leaders' experiences and perceptions implementing activity-based funding and pay-for-performance hospital funding models: A systematic review.

PubMed

Baxter, Pamela E; Hewko, Sarah J; Pfaff, Kathryn A; Cleghorn, Laura; Cunningham, Barbara J; Elston, Dawn; Cummings, Greta G

2015-08-01

Providing cost-effective, accessible, high quality patient care is a challenge to governments and health care delivery systems across the globe. In response to this challenge, two types of hospital funding models have been widely implemented: (1) activity-based funding (ABF) and (2) pay-for-performance (P4P). Although health care leaders play a critical role in the implementation of these funding models, to date their perspectives have not been systematically examined. The purpose of this systematic review was to gain a better understanding of the experiences of health care leaders implementing hospital funding reforms within Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development countries. We searched literature from 1982 to 2013 using: Medline, EMBASE, CINAHL, Academic Search Complete, Academic Search Elite, and Business Source Complete. Two independent reviewers screened titles, abstracts and full texts using predefined criteria. We included 2 mixed methods and 12 qualitative studies. Thematic analysis was used in synthesizing results. Five common themes and multiple subthemes emerged. Themes include: pre-requisites for success, perceived benefits, barriers/challenges, unintended consequences, and leader recommendations. Irrespective of which type of hospital funding reform was implemented, health care leaders described a complex process requiring the following: organizational commitment; adequate infrastructure; human, financial and information technology resources; change champions and a personal commitment to quality care. Crown Copyright © 2015. Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

A systematic analysis of the Braitenberg vehicle 2b for point-like stimulus sources.

PubMed

Rañó, Iñaki

2012-09-01

Braitenberg vehicles have been used experimentally for decades in robotics with limited empirical understanding. This paper presents the first mathematical model of the vehicle 2b, displaying so-called aggression behaviour, and analyses the possible trajectories for point-like smooth stimulus sources. This sensory-motor steering control mechanism is used to implement biologically grounded target approach, target-seeking or obstacle-avoidance behaviour. However, the analysis of the resulting model reveals that complex and unexpected trajectories can result even for point-like stimuli. We also prove how the implementation of the controller and the vehicle morphology interact to affect the behaviour of the vehicle. This work provides a better understanding of Braitenberg vehicle 2b, explains experimental results and paves the way for a formally grounded application on robotics as well as for a new way of understanding target seeking in biology.

Population Activities Fund Agency (PAFA): the journey so far.

PubMed

1993-01-01

Mechanisms are needed funding Nigerian Federal efforts to implement the National Policy on Population for Development, which was approved by the Armed Forces Ruling Council in February, 1988. Subprojects of the Population Activities Fund Agency (PAFA) which were approves are: the integration of family planning (FP) into maternal and child health (MCH) the promotion of Fp through health education, tertiary centers for reproductive health, public enlightenment on population, population/family life education in primary schools, monitoring of National Population Project impact, and integration of population into planning and budgeting. The last obstacle to implementation of PAFA's activities is the signing into law the decree establishing PAFA as a parastatal. The passage is required for continued operations. The national Population for Development policy is unique in providing for quantitative targets, which has attracted the needed financial support of agencies such as the World Bank. As part of the National Population Policy, the National Population Program (NPP) is developing an effective strategy for securing funding and evaluation of subprojects that are designed and implemented b Collaborating Agencies (CAs), both private and public. NPP aims 1) to provide funds for qualified CAs through the Population Activities Fund (PAF) and Agency (PAFA); 2) to monitor PAFA, which manages PAf with the Department of Population Activities, and 3) to stimulate analysis of sociocultural constraints to fertility reduction and international comparisons, and to design innovative interventions through the Population Research Fund (PRF). PAFA funds implementing agencies at all government and nongovernment levels with approaches to population information and services. The goal of PAFA is to realize NPP objectives. The motto is "Towards an improved quality of life for every Nigerian." The mandate is to provide funding for the PAF and NPP, to monitor CAs, to provide assistance to CAs

Education Stimulus Funds: An Opportunity to Plan Ahead

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shakrani, Sharif

2009-01-01

Designed to stimulate the economy and employment, the "American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009" (ARRA), commonly referred to as the stimulus package or plan, is a crucial step in a massive effort to create and save 3 to 4 million jobs, jump-start the U.S. economy and begin the process of transforming the economy for the 21st…

Implementing Courseware to Support Learning through Real-World Erroneous Examples: Students' Perceptions of Tertiary Courseware and Obstacles to Implementing Effective Delivery through VLE

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Monthienvichienchai, Rachada; Melis, Erica

2006-01-01

This paper presents a study in a UK university that investigated how first-year (freshman) Information Systems undergraduates perceive learning through courseware containing real-world erroneous examples derived from their peers and what obstacles had to be overcome to implement effective e-Learning support for using and creating such courseware.…

Malaria: Obstacles and Opportunities.

DTIC Science & Technology

1991-01-01

SUBTITLE S. FUNDING NUMBERS Malaria: Obstacles and Opportunities 89PP9965 62770A 6. AUTHOR(S) 3MI62770A870 AN DA3 46085 Arthur Dennis Long 7. PERFORMING ...ORGANIZATION NAME(S) AND ADORESS(ES) 8. PERFORMING ORGANIZATION REPORT NUMBER Agency for International Development New State Office Building Washignton...Hygiene and Pub- lic Health, Baltimore. \\Maryland JACQUELINE A. CATTANI. Secretary, Steering Committee of the Scientific Working Group on Applied

Obstacle avoidance locomotor tasks: adaptation, memory and skill transfer.

PubMed

Kloter, Evelyne; Dietz, Volker

2012-05-01

The aim of this study was to explore the neural basis of adaptation, memory and skill transfer during human stepping over obstacles. Whilst walking on a treadmill, subjects had to perform uni- and bilateral obstacle steps. Acoustic feedback information about foot clearance was provided. Non-noxious electrical stimuli were applied to the right tibial nerve during the mid-stance phase of the right leg, i.e. 'prior' to the right or 'during' the left leg swing over the obstacle. The electromyogram (EMG) responses evoked by these stimuli in arm and leg muscles are known to reflect the neural coordination during normal and obstacle steps. The leading and trailing legs rapidly adapted foot clearance during obstacle steps with small further changes when the same obstacle condition was repeated. This adaptation was associated with a corresponding decrease in arm and leg muscle reflex EMG responses. Arm (but not leg) muscle EMG responses were greater when the stimulus was applied 'during' obstacle crossing by the left leg leading compared with stimulation 'prior' to right leg swing over the obstacle. A corresponding difference existed in arm muscle background EMG. The results indicate that, firstly, the somatosensory information gained by the performance and adaptation of uni- and bilateral obstacle stepping becomes transferred to the trailing leg in a context-specific manner. Secondly, EMG activity in arm and leg muscles parallels biomechanical adaptation of foot clearance. Thirdly, a consistently high EMG activity in the arm muscles during swing over the obstacle is required for equilibrium control. Thus, such a precision locomotor task is achieved by a context-specific, coordinated activation of arm and leg muscles for performance and equilibrium control that includes adaptation, memory and skill transfer. © 2012 The Authors. European Journal of Neuroscience © 2012 Federation of European Neuroscience Societies and Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

Obstacle Detection Algorithms for Aircraft Navigation: Performance Characterization of Obstacle Detection Algorithms for Aircraft Navigation

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kasturi, Rangachar; Camps, Octavia; Coraor, Lee

2000-01-01

The research reported here is a part of NASA's Synthetic Vision System (SVS) project for the development of a High Speed Civil Transport Aircraft (HSCT). One of the components of the SVS is a module for detection of potential obstacles in the aircraft's flight path by analyzing the images captured by an on-board camera in real-time. Design of such a module includes the selection and characterization of robust, reliable, and fast techniques and their implementation for execution in real-time. This report describes the results of our research in realizing such a design. It is organized into three parts. Part I. Data modeling and camera characterization; Part II. Algorithms for detecting airborne obstacles; and Part III. Real time implementation of obstacle detection algorithms on the Datacube MaxPCI architecture. A list of publications resulting from this grant as well as a list of relevant publications resulting from prior NASA grants on this topic are presented.

Increased Learning Time under Stimulus-Funded School Improvement Grants: High Hopes, Varied Implementation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McMurrer, Jennifer

2012-01-01

Research has long suggested that significantly increasing quality time in school for teaching and learning can have a positive impact on student achievement. Recognizing this connection, federal guidance requires low-performing schools to increase student learning time if they are implementing two popular reform models using school improvement…

Obstacles to nutrition labeling in restaurants.

PubMed

Almanza, B A; Nelson, D; Chai, S

1997-02-01

This study determined the major obstacles that foodservices face regarding nutrition labeling. Survey questionnaire was conducted in May 1994. In addition to demographic questions, the directors were asked questions addressing willingness, current practices, and perceived obstacles related to nutrition labeling. Sixty-eight research and development directors of the largest foodservice corporations as shown in Restaurants & Institutions magazine's list of the top 400 largest foodservices (July 1993). P tests were used to determine significance within a group for the number of foodservices that were currently using nutrition labeling, perceived impact of nutrition labeling on sales, and perceived responsibility to add nutrition labels. Regression analysis was used to determine the importance of factors on willingness to label. Response rate was 45.3%. Most companies were neutral about their willingness to use nutrition labeling. Two thirds of the respondents were not currently using nutrition labels. Only one third thought that it was the foodservice's responsibility to provide such information. Several companies perceived that nutrition labeling would have a potentially negative effect on annual sales volume. Major obstacles were identified as menu or personnel related, rather than cost related. Menu-related obstacles included too many menu variations, limited space on the menu for labeling, and loss of flexibility in changing the menu. Personnel-related obstacles included difficulty in training employees to implement nutrition labeling, and not enough time for foodservice personnel to implement nutrition labeling. Numerous opportunities will be created for dietetics professionals in helping foodservices overcome these menu- or personnel-related obstacles.

Preparation of students with disabilities to graduate into professions in the South African context of higher learning: Obstacles and opportunities.

PubMed

Ndlovu, Sibonokuhle; Walton, Elizabeth

2016-01-01

Persons with disabilities continue to be excluded from professions in South Africa despite legislation on non-discrimination and equity. We sought to identify both the opportunities and obstacles that students with disabilities face in professional degrees. Selected texts from the South African and international literature were analysed and synthesised. Students with disabilities are afforded opportunities to graduate into professions through the current climate of transformation, inclusion and disability policies, various support structures and funding. These opportunities are mitigated by obstacles at both the higher education site and at the workplace. At university, they may experience difficulties in accessing the curriculum, disability units may be limited in the support they can offer, policies may not be implemented, funding is found to be inadequate and the built environment may be inaccessible. Fieldwork poses additional obstacles in terms of public transport which is not accessible to students with disabilities; a lack of higher education support extended to the field sites, and buildings not designed for access by people with disabilities. At both sites, students are impacted by negative attitudes and continued assumptions that disability results from individual deficit, rather than exclusionary practices and pressures. It is in the uniqueness of professional preparation, with its high demands of both theory and practice that poses particular obstacles for students with disabilities. We argue for the development of self-advocacy for students with disabilities, ongoing institutional and societal transformation and further research into the experiences of students with disabilities studying for professional degrees.

States Hurt as Stimulus Loses Steam

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cavanagh, Sean; Hollingsworth, Heather

2011-01-01

States are finally arriving at the "funding cliff"--the point where about $100 billion in federal economic-stimulus aid for education runs out. The loss seems certain to compound severe budget woes and could mean thousands of school layoffs and the elimination of popular programs and services in districts across the country. The bulk of…

Obstacles to the implementation of the treat-to-target strategy for rheumatoid arthritis in clinical practice in Japan.

PubMed

Kaneko, Yuko; Koike, Takao; Oda, Hiromi; Yamamoto, Kazuhiko; Miyasaka, Nobuyuki; Harigai, Masayoshi; Yamanaka, Hisashi; Ishiguro, Naoki; Tanaka, Yoshiya; Takeuchi, Tsutomu

2015-01-01

To clarify the obstacles preventing the implementation of the treat-to-target (T2T) strategy for rheumatoid arthritis (RA) in clinical practice. A total of 301 rheumatologists in Japan completed a questionnaire. In the first section, participants were indirectly questioned on the implementation of basic components of T2T, and in the second section, participants were directly questioned on their level of agreement and application. Although nearly all participants set treatment targets for the majority of RA patients with moderate to high disease activity, the proportion who set clinical remission as their target was 59%, with only 45% of these using composite measures. The proportion of participants who monitored X-rays and Health Assessment Questionnaires for all their patients was 44% and 14%, respectively. The proportion of participants who did not discuss treatment strategies was 44%, with approximately half of these reasoning that this was due to a proportion of patients having a lack of understanding of the treatment strategy or inability to make decisions. When participants were directly questioned, there was a high level of agreement with the T2T recommendations. Although there was a high level of agreement with the T2T recommendations, major obstacles preventing its full implementation still remain.

Obstacle Characterization in a Geocrowdsourced Accessibility System

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Qin, H.; Aburizaiza, A. O.; Rice, R. M.; Paez, F.; Rice, M. T.

2015-08-01

Transitory obstacles - random, short-lived and unpredictable objects - are difficult to capture in any traditional mapping system, yet they have significant negative impacts on the accessibility of mobility- and visually-impaired individuals. These transitory obstacles include sidewalk obstructions, construction detours, and poor surface conditions. To identify these obstacles and assist the navigation of mobility- and visually- impaired individuals, crowdsourced mapping applications have been developed to harvest and analyze the volunteered obstacles reports from local students, faculty, staff, and residents. In this paper, we introduce a training program designed and implemented for recruiting and motivating contributors to participate in our geocrowdsourced accessibility system, and explore the quality of geocrowdsourced data with a comparative analysis methodology.

Continuous- and discrete-time stimulus sequences for high stimulus rate paradigm in evoked potential studies.

PubMed

Wang, Tao; Huang, Jiang-hua; Lin, Lin; Zhan, Chang'an A

2013-01-01

To obtain reliable transient auditory evoked potentials (AEPs) from EEGs recorded using high stimulus rate (HSR) paradigm, it is critical to design the stimulus sequences of appropriate frequency properties. Traditionally, the individual stimulus events in a stimulus sequence occur only at discrete time points dependent on the sampling frequency of the recording system and the duration of stimulus sequence. This dependency likely causes the implementation of suboptimal stimulus sequences, sacrificing the reliability of resulting AEPs. In this paper, we explicate the use of continuous-time stimulus sequence for HSR paradigm, which is independent of the discrete electroencephalogram (EEG) recording system. We employ simulation studies to examine the applicability of the continuous-time stimulus sequences and the impacts of sampling frequency on AEPs in traditional studies using discrete-time design. Results from these studies show that the continuous-time sequences can offer better frequency properties and improve the reliability of recovered AEPs. Furthermore, we find that the errors in the recovered AEPs depend critically on the sampling frequencies of experimental systems, and their relationship can be fitted using a reciprocal function. As such, our study contributes to the literature by demonstrating the applicability and advantages of continuous-time stimulus sequences for HSR paradigm and by revealing the relationship between the reliability of AEPs and sampling frequencies of the experimental systems when discrete-time stimulus sequences are used in traditional manner for the HSR paradigm.

[Development of child mental health services in Lithuania: achievements and obstacles].

PubMed

Pūras, Dainius

2002-01-01

In 1990, political, economic and social changes in Lithuania introduced the possibility to develop for the first time in nations's history an effective and modern system of child mental health services. During the period between 1990 and 1995 a new model of services was developed in the Department of Social pediatrics and child psychiatry of Vilnius University. The model included development of child and adolescent psychiatric services, as well as early intervention services for infants and preschool children with developmental disabilities. The emphasis, following recommendations of WHO and existing international standards, was made on deinstitutionalization and development of family-oriented and community-based services, which have been ignored by previous system. In the first half of 90's of 20th century, new training programs for professionals were introduced, more than 50 methods of assessment, treatment and rehabilitation, new for Lithuanian clinical practice, were implemented, and a new model of services, including primary, secondary and tertiary level of prevention, was introduced in demonstration sites. However, during next phase of development, in 1997-2001, serious obstacles for replicating new approaches across the country, have been identified, which threatened successful implementation of the new model of services into everyday clinical practice. Analysis of obstacles, which are blocking development of new approaches in the field of child mental health, is presented in the article. The main obstacles, identified during analysis of socioeconomic context, planning and utilization of resources, running of the system of services and evaluation of outcomes, are as follows: lack of intersectorial cooperation between health, education and social welfare systems; strong tradition of discrimination of psychosocial interventions in funding schemes of health services; societal attitudes, which tend to discriminate and stigmatize marginal groups, including

Professional development in statistics, technology, and cognitively demanding tasks: classroom implementation and obstacles

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Foley, Gregory D.; Bakr Khoshaim, Heba; Alsaeed, Maha; Nihan Er, S.

2012-03-01

Attending professional development programmes can support teachers in applying new strategies for teaching mathematics and statistics. This study investigated (a) the extent to which the participants in a professional development programme subsequently used the techniques they had learned when teaching mathematics and statistics and (b) the obstacles they encountered in enacting cognitively demanding instructional tasks in their classrooms. The programme created an intellectual learning community among the participants and helped them gain confidence as teachers of statistics, and the students of participating teachers became actively engaged in deep mathematical thinking. The participants indicated, however, that time, availability of resources and students' prior achievement critically affected the implementation of cognitively demanding instructional activities.

Preparation of students with disabilities to graduate into professions in the South African context of higher learning: Obstacles and opportunities

PubMed Central

Walton, Elizabeth

2016-01-01

Background Persons with disabilities continue to be excluded from professions in South Africa despite legislation on non-discrimination and equity. Objectives We sought to identify both the opportunities and obstacles that students with disabilities face in professional degrees. Method Selected texts from the South African and international literature were analysed and synthesised. Results Students with disabilities are afforded opportunities to graduate into professions through the current climate of transformation, inclusion and disability policies, various support structures and funding. These opportunities are mitigated by obstacles at both the higher education site and at the workplace. At university, they may experience difficulties in accessing the curriculum, disability units may be limited in the support they can offer, policies may not be implemented, funding is found to be inadequate and the built environment may be inaccessible. Fieldwork poses additional obstacles in terms of public transport which is not accessible to students with disabilities; a lack of higher education support extended to the field sites, and buildings not designed for access by people with disabilities. At both sites, students are impacted by negative attitudes and continued assumptions that disability results from individual deficit, rather than exclusionary practices and pressures. Conclusion It is in the uniqueness of professional preparation, with its high demands of both theory and practice that poses particular obstacles for students with disabilities. We argue for the development of self-advocacy for students with disabilities, ongoing institutional and societal transformation and further research into the experiences of students with disabilities studying for professional degrees. PMID:28730040

Obstacles to implementation of an intervention to improve surgical services in an Ethiopian hospital: a qualitative study of an international health partnership project.

PubMed

Aveling, Emma-Louise; Zegeye, Desalegn Tegabu; Silverman, Michael

2016-08-17

Access to safe surgical care represents a critical gap in healthcare delivery and development in many low- and middle-income countries, including Ethiopia. Quality improvement (QI) initiatives at hospital level may contribute to closing this gap. Many such quality improvement initiatives are carried out through international health partnerships. Better understanding of how to optimise quality improvement in low-income settings is needed, including through partnership-based approaches. Drawing on a process evaluation of an intervention to improve surgical services in an Ethiopian hospital, this paper offers lessons to help meet this need. We conducted a qualitative process evaluation of a quality improvement project which aimed to improve access to surgical services in an Ethiopian referral hospital through better management. Data was collected longitudinally and included: 66 in-depth interviews with surgical staff and project team members; observation (135 h) in the surgery department and of project meetings; project-related documentation. Thematic analysis, guided by theoretical constructs, focused on identifying obstacles to implementation. The project largely failed to achieve its goals. Key barriers related to project design, partnership working and the implementation context, and included: confusion over project objectives and project and partner roles and responsibilities; logistical challenges concerning overseas visits; difficulties in communication; gaps between the time and authority team members had and that needed to implement and engage other staff; limited strategies for addressing adaptive-as opposed to technical-challenges; effects of hierarchy and resource scarcity on QI efforts. While many of the obstacles identified are common to diverse settings, our findings highlight ways in which some features of low-income country contexts amplify these common challenges. We identify lessons for optimising the design and planning of quality improvement

Obstacles of Implementing the Science Curricula of the Basic Stage as Perceived by the Teachers in a Jordanian Town

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ayasra, Ahmad

2015-01-01

This study aimed to investigate obstacles that prevent implementation of science curriculum which was developed within the Education Reform for the Knowledge Economy project (ErfKE). To achieve this, a purposeful sample consisted of four teachers of science for the basic stage in the town located in the north of Jordan in the first semester of the…

Biodiversity funds and conservation needs in the EU under climate change

PubMed Central

Lung, Tobias; Meller, Laura; van Teeffelen, Astrid J.A.; Thuiller, Wilfried; Cabeza, Mar

2014-01-01

Despite ambitious biodiversity policy goals, less than a fifth of the European Union’s (EU) legally protected species and habitats show a favorable conservation status. The recent EU biodiversity strategy recognizes that climate change adds to the challenge of halting biodiversity loss, and that an optimal distribution of financial resources is needed. Here, we analyze recent EU biodiversity funding from a climate change perspective. We compare the allocation of funds to the distribution of both current conservation priorities (within and beyond Natura 2000) and future conservation needs at the level of NUTS-2 regions, using modelled bird distributions as indicators of conservation value. We find that funding is reasonably well aligned with current conservation efforts but poorly fit with future needs under climate change, indicating obstacles for implementing adaptation measures. We suggest revising EU biodiversity funding instruments for the 2014-2020 budget period to better account for potential climate change impacts on biodiversity. PMID:25264456

Biodiversity funds and conservation needs in the EU under climate change.

PubMed

Lung, Tobias; Meller, Laura; van Teeffelen, Astrid J A; Thuiller, Wilfried; Cabeza, Mar

2014-07-01

Despite ambitious biodiversity policy goals, less than a fifth of the European Union's (EU) legally protected species and habitats show a favorable conservation status. The recent EU biodiversity strategy recognizes that climate change adds to the challenge of halting biodiversity loss, and that an optimal distribution of financial resources is needed. Here, we analyze recent EU biodiversity funding from a climate change perspective. We compare the allocation of funds to the distribution of both current conservation priorities (within and beyond Natura 2000) and future conservation needs at the level of NUTS-2 regions, using modelled bird distributions as indicators of conservation value. We find that funding is reasonably well aligned with current conservation efforts but poorly fit with future needs under climate change, indicating obstacles for implementing adaptation measures. We suggest revising EU biodiversity funding instruments for the 2014-2020 budget period to better account for potential climate change impacts on biodiversity.

Analysis of agency relationships in the design and implementation process of the equity fund in Madagascar.

PubMed

Honda, Ayako

2015-02-04

There are large gaps in the literature relating to the implementation of user fee policy and fee exemption measures for the poor, particularly on how such schemes are implemented and why many have not produced expected outcomes. In October 2003, Madagascar instituted a user fee exemption policy which established "equity funds" at public health centres, and used medicine sales revenue to subsidise the cost of medicine for the poor. This study examines the policy design and implementation process of the equity fund in Madagascar in an attempt to explore factors influencing the poor equity outcomes of the scheme. This study applied an agency-incentive framework to investigate the equity fund policy design and implementation practices. It analysed agency relationships established during implementation; examined incentive structures given to the agency relationships in the policy design; and considered how incentive structures were shaped and how agents responded in practice. The study employed a case-study approach with in-depth analysis of three equity fund cases in Madagascar's Boeny region. Policy design problems, triggering implementation problems, caused poor equity performance. These problems were compounded by the re-direction of policy objectives by health administrators and strong involvement of the administrators in the implementation of policy. The source of the policy design and implementation failure was identified as a set of principal-agent problems concerning: monitoring mechanisms; facility-based fund management; and the nature and level of community participation. These factors all contributed to the financial performance of the fund receiving greater attention than its ability to financially protect the poor. The ability of exemption policies to protect the poor from user fees can be found in the details of the policy design and implementation; and implications of the policy design and implementation in a specific context determine whether a policy

Implementing a Bayes Filter in a Neural Circuit: The Case of Unknown Stimulus Dynamics.

PubMed

Sokoloski, Sacha

2017-09-01

In order to interact intelligently with objects in the world, animals must first transform neural population responses into estimates of the dynamic, unknown stimuli that caused them. The Bayesian solution to this problem is known as a Bayes filter, which applies Bayes' rule to combine population responses with the predictions of an internal model. The internal model of the Bayes filter is based on the true stimulus dynamics, and in this note, we present a method for training a theoretical neural circuit to approximately implement a Bayes filter when the stimulus dynamics are unknown. To do this we use the inferential properties of linear probabilistic population codes to compute Bayes' rule and train a neural network to compute approximate predictions by the method of maximum likelihood. In particular, we perform stochastic gradient descent on the negative log-likelihood of the neural network parameters with a novel approximation of the gradient. We demonstrate our methods on a finite-state, a linear, and a nonlinear filtering problem and show how the hidden layer of the neural network develops tuning curves consistent with findings in experimental neuroscience.

A stereo vision-based obstacle detection system in vehicles

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Huh, Kunsoo; Park, Jaehak; Hwang, Junyeon; Hong, Daegun

2008-02-01

Obstacle detection is a crucial issue for driver assistance systems as well as for autonomous vehicle guidance function and it has to be performed with high reliability to avoid any potential collision with the front vehicle. The vision-based obstacle detection systems are regarded promising for this purpose because they require little infrastructure on a highway. However, the feasibility of these systems in passenger car requires accurate and robust sensing performance. In this paper, an obstacle detection system using stereo vision sensors is developed. This system utilizes feature matching, epipoplar constraint and feature aggregation in order to robustly detect the initial corresponding pairs. After the initial detection, the system executes the tracking algorithm for the obstacles. The proposed system can detect a front obstacle, a leading vehicle and a vehicle cutting into the lane. Then, the position parameters of the obstacles and leading vehicles can be obtained. The proposed obstacle detection system is implemented on a passenger car and its performance is verified experimentally.

23 CFR 973.206 - Funds for establishment, development, and implementation of the systems.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-04-01

... TRANSPORTATION FEDERAL LANDS HIGHWAYS MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS PERTAINING TO THE BUREAU OF INDIAN AFFAIRS AND THE INDIAN RESERVATION ROADS PROGRAM Bureau of Indian Affairs Management Systems § 973.206 Funds for establishment, development, and implementation of the systems. The IRR program management funds may be used to...

Funding of Geosciences: Coordinating National and International Resources

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bye, B.; Fontaine, K. S.

2012-12-01

Funding is an important element of national as well as international policy for Earth observations. The Group on Earth Observations (GEO) is coordinating efforts to build a Global Earth Observation System of Systems, or GEOSS. The lack of dedicated funding to support specific S&T activities in support of GEOSS is one of the most important obstacles to engaging the S&T communities in its implementation. This problem can be addressed by establishing explicit linkages between research and development programmes funded by GEO Members and Participating Organizations and GEOSS. In appropriate funding programs, these links may take the form of requiring explanations of how projects to be funded will interface with GEOSS and ensuring that demonstrating significant relevance for GEOSS is viewed as an asset of these proposals, requiring registration of Earth observing systems developed in these projects, or stipulating that data and products must adhere to the GEOSS Data Sharing Principles. Examples of Earth observations include: - Measurements from ground-based, in situ monitors; - Observations from Earth satellites; - Products and predictive capabilities from Earth system models, often using the capabilities of high-performance computers; - Scientific knowledge about the Earth system; and, - Data visualization techniques. These examples of Earth observations activities requires different types of resources, R&D top-down, bottom-up funding and programs of various sizes. Where innovation and infrastructure are involved different kind of resources are better suited, for developing countries completely other sources of funding are applicable etc. The European Commission funded Egida project is coordinating the development of a funding mechanism based on current national and international funding instruments such as the European ERANet, the new Joint Programming Initiatives, ESFRI as well as other European and non-European instruments. A general introduction to various

Conflicting Missions and Unclear Results: Lessons from the Education Stimulus Funds

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mead, Sara; Vaishnav, Anand; Porter, William; Rotherham, Andrew J.

2010-01-01

On February 17, 2009, President Barack Obama signed into law the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), commonly known as the "stimulus." Enacted in the midst of a deep recession brought on by global financial collapse, ARRA provided more than $800 billion in federal spending and tax cuts intended to stimulate the economy while…

[Obstacles and perspectives of new antimicrobial concepts within research and development].

PubMed

Kloß, Florian; Gerbach, Sina

2018-05-01

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) has developed into a serious problem for the healthcare sector worldwide. Research on fundamentally novel antibiotics has been insufficient for decades and only a few new compounds have reached the market. Thus, the pressure to implement novel and effective concepts for the reduction of infections through problematic pathogens has dramatically increased. This demand has been recognized by politicians and comprehensive national and international funding programs have been launched. A major role of many funding lines is the investigation and development of therapeutics exerting a novel mechanism of action and/or minimizing the frequency of resistance. In addition to the actual clinical pipeline, this article lists selected examples from research and early development with a special focus on antibiotics. Moreover, alternative approaches like antivirulence and phage therapy as well as immunomodulation are summarized. AMR is no longer solely a healthcare policy, but is of societal significance as a whole. A consolidation of infrastructures and public-private partnerships, a reduction of regulatory obstacles and a continuous pursuit of innovations for antimicrobial therapy are urgently needed.

Awarding Dollars Based on Student Need: A Recommendation to Implement Weighted Student Funding in Georgia

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Education Resource Strategies, 2014

2014-01-01

As the state of Georgia considers revising its K-12 funding formula, Education Resource Strategies (ERS) recommends the state implement a weighted student-funding formula (WSF) system in order to create resource use flexibility for districts and to remove the marginal inequity found in its current funding system. Additionally, such a change would…

Businesses Angle for Share of School Stimulus Aid

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McNeil, Michele

2009-01-01

The prospect of sharing in the $100 billion in federal economic-stimulus aid has companies unleashing their sales pitches. Pittsburgh-based Apangea Learning, which offers online one-on-one tutoring, is offering school districts three years' worth of services for the price of two, to "help schools win new federal funding that is part of the…

Dendrites Enable a Robust Mechanism for Neuronal Stimulus Selectivity.

PubMed

Cazé, Romain D; Jarvis, Sarah; Foust, Amanda J; Schultz, Simon R

2017-09-01

Hearing, vision, touch: underlying all of these senses is stimulus selectivity, a robust information processing operation in which cortical neurons respond more to some stimuli than to others. Previous models assume that these neurons receive the highest weighted input from an ensemble encoding the preferred stimulus, but dendrites enable other possibilities. Nonlinear dendritic processing can produce stimulus selectivity based on the spatial distribution of synapses, even if the total preferred stimulus weight does not exceed that of nonpreferred stimuli. Using a multi-subunit nonlinear model, we demonstrate that stimulus selectivity can arise from the spatial distribution of synapses. We propose this as a general mechanism for information processing by neurons possessing dendritic trees. Moreover, we show that this implementation of stimulus selectivity increases the neuron's robustness to synaptic and dendritic failure. Importantly, our model can maintain stimulus selectivity for a larger range of loss of synapses or dendrites than an equivalent linear model. We then use a layer 2/3 biophysical neuron model to show that our implementation is consistent with two recent experimental observations: (1) one can observe a mixture of selectivities in dendrites that can differ from the somatic selectivity, and (2) hyperpolarization can broaden somatic tuning without affecting dendritic tuning. Our model predicts that an initially nonselective neuron can become selective when depolarized. In addition to motivating new experiments, the model's increased robustness to synapses and dendrites loss provides a starting point for fault-resistant neuromorphic chip development.

[Obstacles perceived by nurses for evidence-based practice: a qualitative study].

PubMed

Sánchez-García, Inmaculada; López-Medina, Isabel M; Pancorbo-Hidalgo, Pedro L

2013-01-01

To examine the obstacles perceived by nurses to implement an evidence-based clinical practice. A qualitative study through semi-structured interviews conducted in 2010-2011 including 11 nurses purposively selected from public hospitals and community centres in Jaén and Córdoba (Spain). A content analysis was performed, using Miles and Huberman as a reference and comprising the following steps: data reduction, data presentation, and data conclusion/verification. Data saturation was reached in these categories (obstacles). The obstacles perceived by nurses to introduce an evidence-based clinical practice (EBCP) were grouped into 3 major categories: obstacles related with professionals (routine-based practice, unwilling and stagnant attitudes, and lack of training in EBCP), obstacles related to the social context (reluctance from other professionals and from patients or families), and obstacles related to the organization (obsolete cultures that do not promote innovation in nursing care). This study highlights the persistence of various factors that hinder the use of research findings in clinical practice. The results underline the need to change the culture of healthcare organizations, to motivate professionals, and to break some of the resistance attitudes that hinder the implementation of evidence-based practice. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier España, S.L. All rights reserved.

Gendered Obstacles Faced by Historical Women in Physics and Astronomy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jones, Kristen M.

2007-12-01

A gender gap still exists in modern science; this is especially evident in the fields of physics and astronomy. The cause of such a gap is the center of debate. Is this discrepancy the result of inherent ability or socialization? Most studies have focused on modern issues and how women are socialized today. The role of historical gender perspectives and social opinions in creating the field of modern science and any discrepancies within it has not yet been explored in depth. This project investigates the obstacles faced by historical women in physics and astronomy that stem from the officialized gender biases that accompanied the establishment of modern science. Such obstacles are both formal and informal. Four women were chosen to span the three hundred year period between the standardization of the field and the modern day: Laura Bassi, Mary Somerville, Lise Meitner, and Jocelyn Bell Burnell. The investigation reveals that formal obstacles significantly decreased over the time period, while informal obstacles eroded more gradually. Obstacles also reflected historical events such as the World Wars and the Enlightenment. Trends in obstacles faced by four prominent women physicists indicate that education, finances, support networks, and social opinion played a large role in determining success in the field. The applicability to modern day physics issues and the gender gap is discussed. Many thanks to the Pathways Scholars Program and the Ronald E. McNair Post-Baccalaureate Achievement Program for funding for this project.

Research on UAV Intelligent Obstacle Avoidance Technology During Inspection of Transmission Line

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wei, Chuanhu; Zhang, Fei; Yin, Chaoyuan; Liu, Yue; Liu, Liang; Li, Zongyu; Wang, Wanguo

Autonomous obstacle avoidance of unmanned aerial vehicle (hereinafter referred to as UAV) in electric power line inspection process has important significance for operation safety and economy for UAV intelligent inspection system of transmission line as main content of UAV intelligent inspection system on transmission line. In the paper, principles of UAV inspection obstacle avoidance technology of transmission line are introduced. UAV inspection obstacle avoidance technology based on particle swarm global optimization algorithm is proposed after common obstacle avoidance technologies are studied. Stimulation comparison is implemented with traditional UAV inspection obstacle avoidance technology which adopts artificial potential field method. Results show that UAV inspection strategy of particle swarm optimization algorithm, adopted in the paper, is prominently better than UAV inspection strategy of artificial potential field method in the aspects of obstacle avoidance effect and the ability of returning to preset inspection track after passing through the obstacle. An effective method is provided for UAV inspection obstacle avoidance of transmission line.

23 CFR 970.206 - Funds for establishment, development, and implementation of the systems.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-04-01

... TRANSPORTATION FEDERAL LANDS HIGHWAYS NATIONAL PARK SERVICE MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS National Park Service Management Systems § 970.206 Funds for establishment, development, and implementation of the systems. The Park Roads...

23 CFR 970.206 - Funds for establishment, development, and implementation of the systems.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-04-01

... TRANSPORTATION FEDERAL LANDS HIGHWAYS NATIONAL PARK SERVICE MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS National Park Service Management Systems § 970.206 Funds for establishment, development, and implementation of the systems. The Park Roads...

23 CFR 970.206 - Funds for establishment, development, and implementation of the systems.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-04-01

... TRANSPORTATION FEDERAL LANDS HIGHWAYS NATIONAL PARK SERVICE MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS National Park Service Management Systems § 970.206 Funds for establishment, development, and implementation of the systems. The Park Roads...

What Impact Did Education Stimulus Funds Have on States and School Districts?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rentner, Diane Stark; Usher, Alexandra

2012-01-01

To blunt the effects of the economic downturn that began in 2008, President Obama called for, and on February 13, 2009 the Congress passed, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). This federal economic stimulus package had three primary goals: to save and create jobs, to cultivate economic activity and long-term growth, and to increase…

The current state of funded NIH grants in implementation science in genomic medicine: a portfolio analysis.

PubMed

Roberts, Megan C; Clyne, Mindy; Kennedy, Amy E; Chambers, David A; Khoury, Muin J

2017-10-26

PurposeImplementation science offers methods to evaluate the translation of genomic medicine research into practice. The extent to which the National Institutes of Health (NIH) human genomics grant portfolio includes implementation science is unknown. This brief report's objective is to describe recently funded implementation science studies in genomic medicine in the NIH grant portfolio, and identify remaining gaps.MethodsWe identified investigator-initiated NIH research grants on implementation science in genomic medicine (funding initiated 2012-2016). A codebook was adapted from the literature, three authors coded grants, and descriptive statistics were calculated for each code.ResultsForty-two grants fit the inclusion criteria (~1.75% of investigator-initiated genomics grants). The majority of included grants proposed qualitative and/or quantitative methods with cross-sectional study designs, and described clinical settings and primarily white, non-Hispanic study populations. Most grants were in oncology and examined genetic testing for risk assessment. Finally, grants lacked the use of implementation science frameworks, and most examined uptake of genomic medicine and/or assessed patient-centeredness.ConclusionWe identified large gaps in implementation science studies in genomic medicine in the funded NIH portfolio over the past 5 years. To move the genomics field forward, investigator-initiated research grants should employ rigorous implementation science methods within diverse settings and populations.Genetics in Medicine advance online publication, 26 October 2017; doi:10.1038/gim.2017.180.

Stimulus factors in motion perception and spatial orientation

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Post, R. B.; Johnson, C. A.

1984-01-01

The Malcolm horizon utilizes a large projected light stimulus Peripheral Vision Horizon Device (PVHD) as an attitude indicator in order to achieve a more compelling sense of roll than is obtained with smaller devices. The basic principle is that the larger stimulus is more similar to visibility of a real horizon during roll, and does not require fixation and attention to the degree that smaller displays do. Successful implementation of such a device requires adjustment of the parameters of the visual stimulus so that its effects on motion perception and spatial orientation are optimized. With this purpose in mind, the effects of relevant image variables on the perception of object motion, self motion and spatial orientation are reviewed.

Stimulus Variables and Interpersonal Attraction: The Stimulus Context.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Griffitt, William

In interpersonal attraction, studies and judgment research evaluation of a stimulus is often a function of the context within which the stimulus appears. The first experiment was designed to examine "contrast effects" (shifts in the rated value of a stimulus away from the contextual values) when all attitudinal information was received from two…

Possibilities-within-Constraints: Implementing the Funds of Knowledge Concept in the People's Republic of China

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Poole, Adam

2016-01-01

This article is designed as the starting point for future research into the implementation of the funds of knowledge concept in the People's Republic of China. Utilizing an exploratory research design, I sketch how the funds of knowledge concept could be used by teachers to empower ethnic minority and city-born migrant children disadvantaged by…

Carving Executive Control at Its Joints: Working Memory Capacity Predicts Stimulus-Stimulus, but Not Stimulus-Response, Conflict

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Meier, Matt E.; Kane, Michael J.

2015-01-01

Three experiments examined the relation between working memory capacity (WMC) and 2 different forms of cognitive conflict: stimulus-stimulus (S-S) and stimulus-response (S-R) interference. Our goal was to test whether WMC's relation to conflict-task performance is mediated by stimulus-identification processes (captured by S-S conflict),…

[Obstacle factors in implementation of integrated schistosomiasis prevention and control strategies with emphasis on infectious source in hilly endemic regions].

PubMed

Xu, Jia; Chen, Lin; Zhang, Yi; Wu, Jian-Jun; Wan, Xue-Xiang; Zhu, Rong; Xu, Hui-Rong; Liu, Qing; Huang, Liang; Wu, Zi-Song; Lu, Long-Ting; Zhong, Bo

2013-12-01

To analyze the main obstacles existing in the implementation of integrated schistosomiasis prevention and control strategies with emphasis on infection source in hilly endemic regions, and to find out the current priority issues in schistosomiasis prevention and control, so as to provide the evidence for further solutions. Two typical hilly schistosomiasis endemic regions in Sichuan Province, including Pujiang County of Chengdu City and Dongpo District of Meishan City, were selected as research areas. A framework of obstacle factors in the implementation of integrated schistosomiasis prevention and control strategies with emphasis on infectious source in hilly endemic regions was built by literature review, and the management and technical personnel who worked on schistosomiasis prevention and control in eight different industries (health, agriculture, forestry and so on) and five levels (provincial, city, county, township and village levels) were investigated by questionnaires in the way of nominal group. One hundred and fifty-three management and technical personnel in different industries and different levels were investigated. The questionnaire recovery rate (experts' positive coefficient) was 100%. The results showed that the first four problems needing to be concerned in the implementation of integrated schistosomiasis prevention and control strategies with emphasis on infection source were eliminating Oncomelania hupensis snails by projects, health education, examination and treatment for schistosomiasis persons, and harmless treatment of night-soil and safe water supply. The focuses of two counties in the implementation of integrated strategy measures were different. The harmless treatment of night-soil and safe water supply was the most important measure in Pujiang County, while the elimination of snails by projects was the most in Dong-po District. As the differences in the situation of epidemic areas and the existed condition of the prevention and

Implementing California's School Funding Formula: Will High-Need Students Benefit? Technical Appendix

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hill, Laura; Ugo, Iwunze

2015-01-01

Intended to accompany "Implementing California's School Funding Formula: Will High-Need Students Benefit?," this appendix examines the extent to which school shares of high-need students vary relative to their district concentrations by grouping approximately 950 school districts by their share of high-need students, arraying them into…

Should uterus transplants be publicly funded?

PubMed

Wilkinson, Stephen; Williams, Nicola Jane

2016-09-01

Since 2000, 11 human uterine transplantation procedures (UTx) have been performed across Europe and Asia. Five of these have, to date, resulted in pregnancy and four live births have now been recorded. The most significant obstacles to the availability of UTx are presently scientific and technical, relating to the safety and efficacy of the procedure itself. However, if and when such obstacles are overcome, the most likely barriers to its availability will be social and financial in nature, relating in particular to the ability and willingness of patients, insurers or the state to pay. Thus, publicly funded healthcare systems such as the UK's National Health Service (NHS) will eventually have to decide whether UTx should be funded. With this in mind, we seek to provide an answer to the question of whether there exist any compelling reasons for the state not to fund UTx. The paper proceeds as follows. It assumes, at least for the sake of argument, that UTx will become sufficiently safe and cost-effective to be a candidate for funding and then asks, given that, what objections to funding there might be. Three main arguments are considered and ultimately rejected as providing insufficient reason to withhold funding for UTx. The first two are broad in their scope and offer an opportunity to reflect on wider issues about funding for infertility treatment in general. The third is narrower in scope and could, in certain forms, apply to UTx but not other assisted reproductive technologies (ARTs). The first argument suggests that UTx should not be publicly funded because doing so would be inconsistent with governments' obligations to prevent climate change and environmental pollution. The second claims that UTx does not treat a disorder and is not medically necessary. Finally, the third asserts that funding for UTx should be denied because of the availability of alternatives such as adoption and surrogacy. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use

Should uterus transplants be publicly funded?

PubMed Central

Wilkinson, Stephen; Williams, Nicola Jane

2016-01-01

Since 2000, 11 human uterine transplantation procedures (UTx) have been performed across Europe and Asia. Five of these have, to date, resulted in pregnancy and four live births have now been recorded. The most significant obstacles to the availability of UTx are presently scientific and technical, relating to the safety and efficacy of the procedure itself. However, if and when such obstacles are overcome, the most likely barriers to its availability will be social and financial in nature, relating in particular to the ability and willingness of patients, insurers or the state to pay. Thus, publicly funded healthcare systems such as the UK's National Health Service (NHS) will eventually have to decide whether UTx should be funded. With this in mind, we seek to provide an answer to the question of whether there exist any compelling reasons for the state not to fund UTx. The paper proceeds as follows. It assumes, at least for the sake of argument, that UTx will become sufficiently safe and cost-effective to be a candidate for funding and then asks, given that, what objections to funding there might be. Three main arguments are considered and ultimately rejected as providing insufficient reason to withhold funding for UTx. The first two are broad in their scope and offer an opportunity to reflect on wider issues about funding for infertility treatment in general. The third is narrower in scope and could, in certain forms, apply to UTx but not other assisted reproductive technologies (ARTs). The first argument suggests that UTx should not be publicly funded because doing so would be inconsistent with governments’ obligations to prevent climate change and environmental pollution. The second claims that UTx does not treat a disorder and is not medically necessary. Finally, the third asserts that funding for UTx should be denied because of the availability of alternatives such as adoption and surrogacy. PMID:26670671

Overcoming obstacles to implementing methadone maintenance therapy for prisoners: Implications for policy and practice

PubMed Central

McKenzie, Michelle; Nunn, Amy; Zaller, Nickolas D.; Bazazi, Alexander R.; Rich, Josiah D.

2010-01-01

More than 2.4 million people are currently incarcerated in the United States, many as a result of drug-related offenses. In addition, more than 200,000 active heroin addicts pass through the correctional system annually. New evidence suggests that both providing prisoners with referrals for community-based methadone programs and providing methadone prior to release reduces recidivism and adverse health and social consequences associated with drug use. This article reports the programmatic challenges associated with initiating methadone treatment in the Rhode Island correctional system. Significant obstacles to implementing methadone treatment include: stigma associated with pharmacological treatment, misconceptions regarding the nature of opioid addiction, logistics of control and storage of methadone, increased work load for nursing staff, and general safety and control concerns. The authors discuss strategies to address these barriers and conclude that providing methadone prior to inmate release is a feasible intervention with the potential to mitigate drug-related health and social harms. PMID:19736902

Functional Assessment of Problem Behavior: Dispelling Myths, Overcoming Implementation Obstacles, and Developing New Lore

PubMed Central

2012-01-01

Hundreds of studies have shown the efficacy of treatments for problem behavior based on an understanding of its function. Assertions regarding the legitimacy of different types of functional assessment vary substantially across published articles, and best practices regarding the functional assessment process are sometimes difficult to cull from the empirical literature or from published discussions of the behavioral assessment process. A number of myths regarding the functional assessment process, which appear to be pervasive within different behavior-analytic research and practice communities, will be reviewed in the context of an attempt to develop new lore regarding the functional assessment process. Frequently described obstacles to implementing a critical aspect of the functional assessment process, the functional analysis, will be reviewed in the context of solutions for overcoming them. Finally, the aspects of the functional assessment process that should be exported to others versus those features that should remain the sole technological property of behavior analysts will be discussed. PMID:23326630

Preparing to Take Advantage of New Programs in the Economic Stimulus Package

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stelow, Shawn

2009-01-01

The proposed federal stimulus package could help to strengthen existing programs with track records of proven performance and strong accountability and administrative systems. This is good news for afterschool programs leaders who can leverage existing relationships and sustainability plans to access new funding opportunities. In these times, a…

Three-dimensional obstacle classification in laser range data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Armbruster, Walter; Bers, Karl-Heinz

1998-10-01

The threat of hostile surveillance and weapon systems require military aircraft to fly under extreme conditions such as low altitude, high speed, poor visibility and incomplete terrain information. The probability of collision with natural and man-made obstacles during such contour missions is high if detection capability is restricted to conventional vision aids. Forward-looking scanning laser rangefinders which are presently being flight tested and evaluated at German proving grounds, provide a possible solution, having a large field of view, high angular and range resolution, a high pulse repetition rate, and sufficient pulse energy to register returns from wires at over 500 m range (depends on the system) with a high hit-and-detect probability. Despite the efficiency of the sensor, acceptance of current obstacle warning systems by test pilots is not very high, mainly due to the systems' inadequacies in obstacle recognition and visualization. This has motivated the development and the testing of more advanced 3d-scene analysis algorithm at FGAN-FIM to replace the obstacle recognition component of current warning systems. The basic ideas are to increase the recognition probability and to reduce the false alarm rate for hard-to-extract obstacles such as wires, by using more readily recognizable objects such as terrain, poles, pylons, trees, etc. by implementing a hierarchical classification procedure to generate a parametric description of the terrain surface as well as the class, position, orientation, size and shape of all objects in the scene. The algorithms can be used for other applications such as terrain following, autonomous obstacle avoidance, and automatic target recognition.

N2pc is modulated by stimulus-stimulus, but not by stimulus-response incompatibilities.

PubMed

Cespón, J; Galdo-Álvarez, S; Díaz, F

2013-04-01

Studies of the N2pc in Simon-type tasks have revealed inconsistent results. That is, N2pc was only modulated when a stimulus-stimulus (S-S) overlap covaries with the stimulus-response (S-R) overlap. The present study aimed to establish whether N2pc is modulated by the S-R or by the S-S overlap. Therefore, we designed a Simon task requiring response to a colour stimulus (an arrow) with two irrelevant dimensions (position and direction). The following conditions were thus generated: compatible direction-compatible position (CDCP); incompatible direction-compatible position (IDCP); compatible direction-incompatible position (CDIP); and incompatible direction-incompatible position (IDIP). In IDCP and CDIP, both irrelevant dimensions conveyed contradictory spatial information (S-S incompatibility), while compatibility between both irrelevant dimensions occurred in CDCP and IDIP (the direction indicated was compatible with stimulus position). The N2pc amplitude was smaller in IDCP and CDIP than in CDCP and IDIP, what suggests that N2pc was modulated by S-S incompatibility and not by S-R incompatibilities. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Inequity in Illinois: How Illogical School Funding Has Eroded Public Education. Special Report

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

People For the American Way, 2004

2004-01-01

While there are many factors that determine the quality of a public school, inequitable and insufficient school funding is a major obstacle to improving public education for all children. When it comes to funding public education, Illinois has a serious problem. Not only does the state limit its commitment to adequately fund public schools, but it…

Collective strategy for obstacle navigation during cooperative transport by ants.

PubMed

McCreery, Helen F; Dix, Zachary A; Breed, Michael D; Nagpal, Radhika

2016-11-01

Group cohesion and consensus have primarily been studied in the context of discrete decisions, but some group tasks require making serial decisions that build on one another. We examine such collective problem solving by studying obstacle navigation during cooperative transport in ants. In cooperative transport, ants work together to move a large object back to their nest. We blocked cooperative transport groups of Paratrechina longicornis with obstacles of varying complexity, analyzing groups' trajectories to infer what kind of strategy the ants employed. Simple strategies require little information, but more challenging, robust strategies succeed with a wider range of obstacles. We found that transport groups use a stochastic strategy that leads to efficient navigation around simple obstacles, and still succeeds at difficult obstacles. While groups navigating obstacles preferentially move directly toward the nest, they change their behavior over time; the longer the ants are obstructed, the more likely they are to move away from the nest. This increases the chance of finding a path around the obstacle. Groups rapidly changed directions and rarely stalled during navigation, indicating that these ants maintain consensus even when the nest direction is blocked. Although some decisions were aided by the arrival of new ants, at many key points, direction changes were initiated within the group, with no apparent external cause. This ant species is highly effective at navigating complex environments, and implements a flexible strategy that works for both simple and more complex obstacles. © 2016. Published by The Company of Biologists Ltd.

Implementing the global plan to stop TB, 2011-2015--optimizing allocations and the Global Fund's contribution: a scenario projections study.

PubMed

Korenromp, Eline L; Glaziou, Philippe; Fitzpatrick, Christopher; Floyd, Katherine; Hosseini, Mehran; Raviglione, Mario; Atun, Rifat; Williams, Brian

2012-01-01

The Global Plan to Stop TB estimates funding required in low- and middle-income countries to achieve TB control targets set by the Stop TB Partnership within the context of the Millennium Development Goals. We estimate the contribution and impact of Global Fund investments under various scenarios of allocations across interventions and regions. Using Global Plan assumptions on expected cases and mortality, we estimate treatment costs and mortality impact for diagnosis and treatment for drug-sensitive and multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB), including antiretroviral treatment (ART) during DOTS for HIV-co-infected patients, for four country groups, overall and for the Global Fund investments. In 2015, China and India account for 24% of funding need, Eastern Europe and Central Asia (EECA) for 33%, sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) for 20%, and other low- and middle-income countries for 24%. Scale-up of MDR-TB treatment, especially in EECA, drives an increasing global TB funding need--an essential investment to contain the mortality burden associated with MDR-TB and future disease costs. Funding needs rise fastest in SSA, reflecting increasing coverage need of improved TB/HIV management, which saves most lives per dollar spent in the short term. The Global Fund is expected to finance 8-12% of Global Plan implementation costs annually. Lives saved through Global Fund TB support within the available funding envelope could increase 37% if allocations shifted from current regional demand patterns to a prioritized scale-up of improved TB/HIV treatment and secondly DOTS, both mainly in Africa--with EECA region, which has disproportionately high per-patient costs, funded from alternative resources. These findings, alongside country funding gaps, domestic funding and implementation capacity and equity considerations, should inform strategies and policies for international donors, national governments and disease control programs to implement a more optimal investment approach focusing on

Argonne Director Eric Isaacs talks about ARRA funding at Argonne

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

Isaacs, Eric

2009-01-01

Argonne is set to receive over $150 million in stimulus funds. Director Eric Isaacs describes how these funds will be put to good use—hiring employees and contractors, cleaning up the nuclear footprint, and investing in technologies for America's future. More info on Argonne and ARRA here: http://www.anl.gov/recovery/index.html

Engaging basic scientists in translational research: identifying opportunities, overcoming obstacles

PubMed Central

2012-01-01

This report is based on the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology’s symposium, “Engaging basic Scientists in Translational Research: Identifying Opportunities, Overcoming Obstacles,” held in Chevy Chase, MD, March 24–25, 2011. Meeting participants examined the benefits of engaging basic scientists in translational research, the challenges to their participation in translational research, and the roles that research institutions, funding organizations, professional societies, and scientific publishers can play to address these challenges. PMID:22500917

Evaluation of implementation viability gap funding (VGF) policy on toll road investment in Indonesia

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mahani, Iris; Tamin, Rizal Z.; Pribadi, Krishna S.; Wibowo, Andreas

2017-11-01

VGF policy for toll road investment in Indonesia must be reviewed. Since 2012 the Government of Indonesia (GOI) has issued viability gap funding (VGF) policy for PPP infrastructure project through ministry of finance decision (PMK) No.223/2012. One of VGF purpose is to improve the financial feasibility. In the toll road investment in Indonesia, the implementation of this policy has some problems. This study aimed to evaluate the policy by seeking implementation constraints so can be given an alternative. This research was conducted qualitatively, included aspects of implementation process VGF policy. The analysis process is based on literature study and in-depth interviews to related parties include business entity, ministry of finance, and the ministry of public works, Indonesia Toll Road Authority (BPJT) and professional societies. The literature review conducted by reviewing existing policies and best practices in countries that already practice VGF. The conclusion of this study are 1) There is a conflict of regulation in viability gap funding (VGF) for toll road investment in Indonesia; 2) If Government of Indonesia (GOI) want implement construction grant as VGF, so the regulation must improve in time limited for submission and clearly define limited given in regulation; 3) If GOI want implement partial construction as VGF, so the regulation must be improve in guideline for submission and given.

Laser radar system for obstacle avoidance

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bers, Karlheinz; Schulz, Karl R.; Armbruster, Walter

2005-09-01

The threat of hostile surveillance and weapon systems require military aircraft to fly under extreme conditions such as low altitude, high speed, poor visibility and incomplete terrain information. The probability of collision with natural and man-made obstacles during such contour missions is high if detection capability is restricted to conventional vision aids. Forward-looking scanning laser radars which are build by the EADS company and presently being flight tested and evaluated at German proving grounds, provide a possible solution, having a large field of view, high angular and range resolution, a high pulse repetition rate, and sufficient pulse energy to register returns from objects at distances of military relevance with a high hit-and-detect probability. The development of advanced 3d-scene analysis algorithms had increased the recognition probability and reduced the false alarm rate by using more readily recognizable objects such as terrain, poles, pylons, trees, etc. to generate a parametric description of the terrain surface as well as the class, position, orientation, size and shape of all objects in the scene. The sensor system and the implemented algorithms can be used for other applications such as terrain following, autonomous obstacle avoidance, and automatic target recognition. This paper describes different 3D-imaging ladar sensors with unique system architecture but different components matched for different military application. Emphasis is laid on an obstacle warning system with a high probability of detection of thin wires, the real time processing of the measured range image data, obstacle classification und visualization.

Understanding ED performance after the implementation of activity-based funding.

PubMed

Toloo, Ghasem-Sam; Burke, John; Crilly, Julia; Williams, Ged; McCann, Bridie; FitzGerald, Gerry; Bell, Anthony

2017-11-29

The aim of this study was to describe emergency department (ED) activities and staffing after the introduction of activity-based funding (ABF) to highlight the challenges of new funding arrangements and their implementation. A retrospective study of public hospital EDs in Queensland, Australia, was undertaken for 2013-2014. The ED and hospital characteristics are described to evaluate the alignment between activity and resourcing levels and their impact on performance. Twenty EDs participated (74% response rate). Weighted activity units (WAUs) and nursing staff varied based on hospital type and size. Larger hospital EDs had on average 9076 WAUs and 13 full time equivalent (FTE) nursing staff per 1000 WAUs; smaller EDs had on average 4587 WAUs and 10.3 FTE nursing staff per 1000 WAUs. Medical staff was relatively consistent (8.1-8.7 FTE per 1000 WAUs). The proportion of patients admitted, discharged, or transferred within 4 hours ranged from 73% to 79%. The ED medical and nursing staffing numbers did not correlate with the 4-hour performance. Substantial variation exists across Queensland EDs when resourcing service delivery in an activity-based funding environment. Historical inequity persists in the staffing profiles for regional and outer metropolitan departments. The lack of association between resourcing and performance metrics provides opportunity for further investigation of efficient models of care. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Argonne Director Eric Isaacs talks about ARRA funding at Argonne

ScienceCinema

Isaacs, Eric

2018-01-01

Argonne is set to receive over $150 million in stimulus funds. Director Eric Isaacs describes how these funds will be put to good use—hiring employees and contractors, cleaning up the nuclear footprint, and investing in technologies for America's future. More info on Argonne and ARRA here: http://www.anl.gov/recovery/index.html

The development of funding policies for hospices: is casemix-based funding an option?

PubMed

Carter, H; MacLeod, R; Hicks, E; Carter, J

1999-06-25

The 1993 health reforms, with their emphasis on the purchasing of defined amounts or units of service, have led to the implementation of casemix-based funding for the acute medical and surgical services of the public hospitals. Despite growing interest in New Zealand in casemix-based funding for non-acute services such as palliative care, the nature of this service and the characteristics of its patient population pose particular difficulties for the development and implementation of casemix. This paper examines the feasibility of implementing casemix-based funding for hospice/palliative care services and discusses the development of casemix classification systems for palliative care. Problems associated with implementing casemix-based funding are considered including: the dual funding of hospices, the multi-agency nature of palliative care service provision and the need for the Health Funding Authority to identify and specify the hospice services it is willing to fund. While it is concluded that these problems will impede the introduction of casemix-based funding of hospice care, they highlight important issues that the hospice movement must address if it is to ensure its future within the new health environment.

Operational and implementation research within Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria grants: a situation analysis in six countries.

PubMed

Kiefer, Sabine; Knoblauch, Astrid M; Steinmann, Peter; Barth-Jaeggi, Tanja; Vahedi, Mahnaz; Maher, Dermot; Utzinger, Jürg; Wyss, Kaspar

2017-03-24

Operational/implementation research (OR/IR) is a key activity to improve disease control programme performance. We assessed the extent to which malaria and tuberculosis (TB) grants from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria ("Global Fund") include support for OR/IR, and discuss the implications of the current Global Fund operating mechanisms for OR/IR support. The situation analysis focussed on malaria and TB, while HIV was excluded. Stakeholder interviews were conducted at the Global Fund secretariat and in six purposefully selected high disease burden countries, namely the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, India, Indonesia, Myanmar and Zimbabwe. Interviewed in-country stakeholders included the relevant disease control programme managers, project implementation partners, representatives from international organisations with a stake in global health, academic and governmental research institutions, and other relevant individuals such as members of the country coordination mechanism. Additionally, documentation of grants and OR/IR obtained from the Global Fund was reviewed. The Global Fund provides substantial resources for malaria and TB surveys, and supports OR/IR if such support is requested and the application is well justified. We observed considerable variations from one country to another and between programmes with regards to need, demand, absorption capacity and funding for OR/IR related to malaria and TB. Important determinants for the extent of such funding are the involvement of national research coordination bodies, established research agendas and priorities, human and technical research capacity, and involvement of relevant stakeholders in concept note development. Efforts to disseminate OR/IR findings were generally weak, and the Global Fund does not maintain a central OR/IR database. When faced with a need to choose between procurement of commodities for disease control and supporting research, countries tend to seek

Object classification for obstacle avoidance

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Regensburger, Uwe; Graefe, Volker

1991-03-01

Object recognition is necessary for any mobile robot operating autonomously in the real world. This paper discusses an object classifier based on a 2-D object model. Obstacle candidates are tracked and analyzed false alarms generated by the object detector are recognized and rejected. The methods have been implemented on a multi-processor system and tested in real-world experiments. They work reliably under favorable conditions but sometimes problems occur e. g. when objects contain many features (edges) or move in front of structured background.

Teachers' Obstacles in Implementing Numbered Head Together in Social Science Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Widyaningtyas, Harini; Winarni, Retno; Murwaningsih, Tri

2018-01-01

This study is aimed at describing teachers' obstacles in applying Numbered Head Together learning model in social science learning. The type of research is qualitative descriptive. The subject of the research is the third-grade teacher of elementary school in Sukoharjo Sub-district. The findings of the research were analyzed using interactive…

Issues in casemix funding for acute inpatient psychiatric services and their relevance to mental health nursing.

PubMed

Fanker, S

1996-09-01

With increased recognition by government, health administrators, and clinicians of the need to simultaneously contain health expenditure, improve the productivity and efficiency of health services and maintain quality of patient care, applications of casemix funding have been advocated as an alternative means of financing acute hospital care. Currently in Australia, the Commonwealth's casemix development program is encouraging the States and Territories to participate in certain casemix initiatives. Acute psychiatric hospital care and treatment have been excluded from the initial stages of the implementation of casemix in recognition of a number of inherent obstacles or challenges affecting the utility and accuracy of casemix in funding the psychiatric sector. Despite anecdotal claims that the reduced length of stay that often occurs under casemix payment systems may negatively impact upon the quality of care and patient outcomes, to date little empirical research has been directed towards measuring the potential impact of psychiatric casemix on the quality of patient care. Psychiatry cannot afford to ignore the casemix debate on account of its current exclusion from the early phases of implementation. To do so is to run the risk of having casemix imposed at some later stage in the absence of consultation. In the meantime it is vital that mental health professionals, including nurses, participate in the development and implementation of casemix, and contribute to research aimed at increasing or maximizing the relevance of casemix to the funding of psychiatric services.

Financing and funding health care: Optimal policy and political implementability.

PubMed

Nuscheler, Robert; Roeder, Kerstin

2015-07-01

Health care financing and funding are usually analyzed in isolation. This paper combines the corresponding strands of the literature and thereby advances our understanding of the important interaction between them. We investigate the impact of three modes of health care financing, namely, optimal income taxation, proportional income taxation, and insurance premiums, on optimal provider payment and on the political implementability of optimal policies under majority voting. Considering a standard multi-task agency framework we show that optimal health care policies will generally differ across financing regimes when the health authority has redistributive concerns. We show that health care financing also has a bearing on the political implementability of optimal health care policies. Our results demonstrate that an isolated analysis of (optimal) provider payment rests on very strong assumptions regarding both the financing of health care and the redistributive preferences of the health authority. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Obstacle Avoidance and Target Acquisition for Robot Navigation Using a Mixed Signal Analog/Digital Neuromorphic Processing System

PubMed Central

Milde, Moritz B.; Blum, Hermann; Dietmüller, Alexander; Sumislawska, Dora; Conradt, Jörg; Indiveri, Giacomo; Sandamirskaya, Yulia

2017-01-01

Neuromorphic hardware emulates dynamics of biological neural networks in electronic circuits offering an alternative to the von Neumann computing architecture that is low-power, inherently parallel, and event-driven. This hardware allows to implement neural-network based robotic controllers in an energy-efficient way with low latency, but requires solving the problem of device variability, characteristic for analog electronic circuits. In this work, we interfaced a mixed-signal analog-digital neuromorphic processor ROLLS to a neuromorphic dynamic vision sensor (DVS) mounted on a robotic vehicle and developed an autonomous neuromorphic agent that is able to perform neurally inspired obstacle-avoidance and target acquisition. We developed a neural network architecture that can cope with device variability and verified its robustness in different environmental situations, e.g., moving obstacles, moving target, clutter, and poor light conditions. We demonstrate how this network, combined with the properties of the DVS, allows the robot to avoid obstacles using a simple biologically-inspired dynamics. We also show how a Dynamic Neural Field for target acquisition can be implemented in spiking neuromorphic hardware. This work demonstrates an implementation of working obstacle avoidance and target acquisition using mixed signal analog/digital neuromorphic hardware. PMID:28747883

Obstacle Avoidance and Target Acquisition for Robot Navigation Using a Mixed Signal Analog/Digital Neuromorphic Processing System.

PubMed

Milde, Moritz B; Blum, Hermann; Dietmüller, Alexander; Sumislawska, Dora; Conradt, Jörg; Indiveri, Giacomo; Sandamirskaya, Yulia

2017-01-01

Neuromorphic hardware emulates dynamics of biological neural networks in electronic circuits offering an alternative to the von Neumann computing architecture that is low-power, inherently parallel, and event-driven. This hardware allows to implement neural-network based robotic controllers in an energy-efficient way with low latency, but requires solving the problem of device variability, characteristic for analog electronic circuits. In this work, we interfaced a mixed-signal analog-digital neuromorphic processor ROLLS to a neuromorphic dynamic vision sensor (DVS) mounted on a robotic vehicle and developed an autonomous neuromorphic agent that is able to perform neurally inspired obstacle-avoidance and target acquisition. We developed a neural network architecture that can cope with device variability and verified its robustness in different environmental situations, e.g., moving obstacles, moving target, clutter, and poor light conditions. We demonstrate how this network, combined with the properties of the DVS, allows the robot to avoid obstacles using a simple biologically-inspired dynamics. We also show how a Dynamic Neural Field for target acquisition can be implemented in spiking neuromorphic hardware. This work demonstrates an implementation of working obstacle avoidance and target acquisition using mixed signal analog/digital neuromorphic hardware.

Dynamic Obstacle Avoidance for Unmanned Underwater Vehicles Based on an Improved Velocity Obstacle Method

PubMed Central

Zhang, Wei; Wei, Shilin; Teng, Yanbin; Zhang, Jianku; Wang, Xiufang; Yan, Zheping

2017-01-01

In view of a dynamic obstacle environment with motion uncertainty, we present a dynamic collision avoidance method based on the collision risk assessment and improved velocity obstacle method. First, through the fusion optimization of forward-looking sonar data, the redundancy of the data is reduced and the position, size and velocity information of the obstacles are obtained, which can provide an accurate decision-making basis for next-step collision avoidance. Second, according to minimum meeting time and the minimum distance between the obstacle and unmanned underwater vehicle (UUV), this paper establishes the collision risk assessment model, and screens key obstacles to avoid collision. Finally, the optimization objective function is established based on the improved velocity obstacle method, and a UUV motion characteristic is used to calculate the reachable velocity sets. The optimal collision speed of UUV is searched in velocity space. The corresponding heading and speed commands are calculated, and outputted to the motion control module. The above is the complete dynamic obstacle avoidance process. The simulation results show that the proposed method can obtain a better collision avoidance effect in the dynamic environment, and has good adaptability to the unknown dynamic environment. PMID:29186878

Ten Reasons Why the "Economic Stimulus" Should Not Include Education Spending. Backgrounder. No. 2233

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lips, Dan

2009-01-01

House Democrats recently unveiled draft legislation for the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. Widely touted as an economic stimulus package, the $825 billion draft legislation included as much as $142 billion for education. This includes the creation of a $79 billion State Fiscal Stabilization Fund to assist state governments in…

Organizational factors in fire prevention: roles, obstacles, and recommendations

Treesearch

John R. Christiansen; William S. Folkman; Keith W. Warner; Michael L. Woolcott

1976-01-01

Problems being encountered in implementing fire prevention programs were explored by studying the organization for fire prevention at the Fish Lake, Uinta, and Wasatch National Forests in Utah. The study focused on role congruency in fire prevention activities and on the social and organizational obstacles to effective programs. The problems identified included lack of...

Educational pathways of Black women physicists: Stories of experiencing and overcoming obstacles in life

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rosa, Katemari; Mensah, Felicia Moore

2016-12-01

[This paper is part of the Focused Collection on Gender in Physics.] This is an empirical study on the underrepresentation of people of color in scientific careers. Grounded in critical race theory, the paper examines the lived experiences of six Black women physicists and addresses obstacles faced in their career paths and strategies used to overcome these obstacles. Data for this study were collected through semistructured interviews and coded for emergent themes. The findings reveal that college recruitment and funding were fundamental for these women to choose physics over other STEM fields. In addition, Black women experience unique challenges of socialization in STEM, particularly by exclusion of study groups. We suggest physics departments provide a more inclusive environment to support Black women in science.

Implementing and using quality measures for children's health care: perspectives on the state of the practice.

PubMed

Shaller, Dale

2004-01-01

The objective of this study was to identify issues, obstacles, and priorities related to implementing and using child health care quality measures from the perspectives of 4 groups: 1) funders of quality-measurement development and implementation; 2) developers of quality measures; 3) users of quality measures (including Medicaid and the State Children's Health Insurance Program, employer coalitions, and consumer groups); and 4) health plans and providers (in their role as both subjects and users of quality measures). A series of semistructured interviews was conducted with approximately 40 opinion leaders drawn from these 4 groups. The interviews were conducted by telephone between September and December of 2001. Major topic areas covered in the interviews were similar across the groups. Topic areas included 1) strategic vision and/or objectives for funding, developing, or using quality measures for children's health care; 2) a brief summary of the specific quality measures funded, developed, or used; 3) issues and challenges facing funders and developers of measures; 4) major successes achieved; 5) obstacles to implementation and use of measures; and 6) priority needs for future funding. Leaders from all 4 groups acknowledge the importance of developing a robust set of quality measures that can serve multiple objectives and multiple audiences. Standardization of measures is viewed as a critical feature related to all objectives. An assessment of specific quality measures funded, developed, or used by strategic objective shows a high correlation between the uses intended by funders and developers and the actual applications of the various users. The most commonly cited measures across all groups are the Consumer Assessment of Health Plans Survey and Health Plan Employer Data and Information Set, followed by the Child and Adolescent Health Measurement Initiative and special topic studies to support quality-improvement applications (eg, asthma, diabetes, etc). The

Guidelines Sketch Out Use of Aid: Federal Stimulus Allocations to Come Soon, with Strings

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Klein, Alyson

2009-01-01

The eagerly awaited federal guidelines on some $100 billion in stimulus funding for public education aim to pump money out quickly, while giving the U.S. Department of Education leverage to demand improvements from states and districts. But those same states and districts are also warned not to expect the hefty sums for K-12 programs in the…

Growing and Funding Experiential Learning Programs: A Recipe for Success

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cowart, Monica R.

2010-01-01

While numerous professors and administrators can agree upon the benefits of infusing the curriculum with experiential learning, a commonly stated obstacle to widespread curricular reform is funding. Specifically, given that external institutional support can be difficult to procure, especially in uncertain economic times, institutions might…

Using Stimulus Fading without Escape Extinction to Increase Compliance with Toothbrushing in Children with Autism

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bishop, Michele R.; Kenzer, Amy L.; Coffman, Christine M.; Tarbox, Courtney M.; Tarbox, Jonathan; Lanagan, Taira M.

2013-01-01

Routine toothbrushing is an essential part of good oral hygiene. This study investigated the use of stimulus fading without escape extinction to increase compliance with toothbrushing with three children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). A 30-step stimulus fading hierarchy was implemented; gradually increasing the proximity of the toothbrush to…

A Mixed Methods Approach to Evaluate Partnerships and Implementation of the Massachusetts Prevention and Wellness Trust Fund.

PubMed

Lee, Rebekka M; Ramanadhan, Shoba; Kruse, Gina R; Deutsch, Charles

2018-01-01

Background: Strong partnerships are critical to integrate evidence-based prevention interventions within clinical and community-based settings, offering multilevel and sustainable solutions to complex health issues. As part of Massachusetts' 2012 health reform, The Prevention and Wellness Trust Fund (PWTF) funded nine local partnerships throughout the state to address hypertension, pediatric asthma, falls among older adults, and tobacco use. The initiative was designed to improve health outcomes through prevention and disease management strategies and reduce healthcare costs. Purpose: Describe the mixed-methods study design for investigating PWTF implementation. Methods: The Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research guided the development of this evaluation. First, the study team conducted semi-structured qualitative interviews with leaders from each of nine partnerships to document partnership development and function, intervention adaptation and delivery, and the influence of contextual factors on implementation. The interview findings were used to develop a quantitative survey to assess the implementation experiences of 172 staff from clinical and community-based settings and a social network analysis to assess changes in the relationships among 72 PWTF partner organizations. The quantitative survey data on ratings of perceived implementation success were used to purposively select 24 staff for interviews to explore the most successful experiences of implementing evidence-based interventions for each of the four conditions. Conclusions: This mixed-methods approach for evaluation of implementation of evidence-based prevention interventions by PWTF partnerships can help decision-makers set future priorities for implementing and assessing clinical-community partnerships focused on prevention.

Effect of obstacle position in the flow of sheep through a narrow door.

PubMed

Zuriguel, Iker; Olivares, Jorge; Pastor, José M; Martín-Gómez, César; Ferrer, Luis M; Ramos, Juan J; Garcimartín, Angel

2016-09-01

In a recent work [Phys. Rev. E 91, 022808 (2015)PLEEE81539-375510.1103/PhysRevE.91.022808] it was reported that placing an obstacle in front of a gate has a beneficial effect in the flow of sheep through it. Here, we extend such results by implementing three different obstacle positions. We have observed that the flow is improved in two cases, while it worsens in the other one; the last instance happens when the obstacle is too close to the door. In this situation, the outcomes suggest that clogging develops between the doorjamb and the obstacle, contrary to the cases when the obstacle is farther, in which case clogging always occurs at the very door. The effectiveness of the obstacle (a strategy put forward to alleviate clogging in emergency exits) is therefore quite sensitive to its location. In addition, the study of the temporal evolution of the flow rate as the test develops makes evident a steady behavior during the entire duration of the entrance. This result is at odds with recent findings in human evacuation tests where the flow rate varies over time, therefore challenging the fairness of straightforward comparisons between pedestrian behavior and animal experimental observations.

Implementation of the Interdisciplinary Generalist Curriculum Project: considerations of structure, funding, and design.

PubMed

Wilson, M; Kahn, N; Wartman, S

2001-04-01

Implementation of the Interdisciplinary Generalist Curriculum (IGC) Project involved complex processes that reflect structural, funding, and intervention design considerations. Among structural considerations, the IGC Project benefited from a national structure above the level of the demonstration schools. Governance by committee was highly effective because it harnessed and balanced power. At the national level, governance by committee was enhanced by strong central coordination, and it had a role-modeling effect for governance at the school level. The IGC experience over the seven-year course of the project suggests that it is important to revisit the role of a national advisory committee over time and to revise that role as warranted. Funding considerations, including the importance of funding evaluation for a period of time long enough to measure intended impacts and the length and amount of funding to demonstration schools, are discussed. Prescription of the IGC intervention and the focus on years one and two of medical education are critical design considerations. The authors conclude that the IGC Project used relatively few federal dollars to demonstrate a highly prescribed intervention in a limited number of medical schools toward a clear and limited goal. IGC lessons apply to programs specifically targeting primary care education, but also to other medical school curricular innovations, and perhaps, to a larger framework of multi-site educational interventions.

Stimulus Equivalence, Generalization, and Contextual Stimulus Control in Verbal Classes

PubMed Central

Sigurðardóttir, Zuilma Gabriela; Mackay, Harry A; Green, Gina

2012-01-01

Stimulus generalization and contextual control affect the development of equivalence classes. Experiment 1 demonstrated primary stimulus generalization from the members of trained equivalence classes. Adults were taught to match six spoken Icelandic nouns and corresponding printed words and pictures to one another in computerized three-choice matching-to-sample tasks. Tests confirmed that six equivalence classes had formed. Without further training, plural forms of the stimuli were presented in tests for all matching performances. All participants demonstrated virtually errorless performances. In Experiment 2, classifications of the nouns used in Experiment 1 were brought under contextual control. Three nouns were feminine and three were masculine. The match-to-sample training taught participants to select a comparison of the same number as the sample (i.e., singular or plural) in the presence of contextual stimulus A regardless of noun gender. Concurrently, in the presence of contextual stimulus B, participants were taught to select a comparison of the same gender as the sample (i.e., feminine or masculine), regardless of number. Generalization was assessed using a card-sorting test. All participants eventually sorted the cards correctly into gender and number stimulus classes. When printed words used in training were replaced by their picture equivalents, participants demonstrated almost errorless performances. PMID:22754102

Relationship between inter-stimulus-intervals and intervals of autonomous activities in a neuronal network.

PubMed

Ito, Hidekatsu; Minoshima, Wataru; Kudoh, Suguru N

2015-08-01

To investigate relationships between neuronal network activity and electrical stimulus, we analyzed autonomous activity before and after electrical stimulus. Recordings of autonomous activity were performed using dissociated culture of rat hippocampal neurons on a multi-electrodes array (MEA) dish. Single stimulus and pared stimuli were applied to a cultured neuronal network. Single stimulus was applied every 1 min, and paired stimuli was performed by two sequential stimuli every 1 min. As a result, the patterns of synchronized activities of a neuronal network were changed after stimulus. Especially, long range synchronous activities were induced by paired stimuli. When 1 s inter-stimulus-intervals (ISI) and 1.5 s ISI paired stimuli are applied to a neuronal network, relatively long range synchronous activities expressed in case of 1.5 s ISI. Temporal synchronous activity of neuronal network is changed according to inter-stimulus-intervals (ISI) of electrical stimulus. In other words, dissociated neuronal network can maintain given information in temporal pattern and a certain type of an information maintenance mechanism was considered to be implemented in a semi-artificial dissociated neuronal network. The result is useful toward manipulation technology of neuronal activity in a brain system.

Temporal and spectral profiles of stimulus-stimulus and stimulus-response conflict processing.

PubMed

Wang, Kai; Li, Qi; Zheng, Ya; Wang, Hongbin; Liu, Xun

2014-04-01

The ability to detect and resolve conflict is an essential function of cognitive control. Laboratory studies often use stimulus-response-compatibility (SRC) tasks to examine conflict processing in order to elucidate the mechanism and modular organization of cognitive control. Inspired by two influential theories regarding cognitive control, the conflict monitoring theory (Botvinick, Braver, Barch, Carter, & Cohen, 2001) and dimensional overlap taxonomy (Kornblum, Hasbroucq, & Osman, 1990), we explored the temporal and spectral similarities and differences between processing of stimulus-stimulus (S-S) and stimulus-response (S-R) conflicts with event related potential (ERP) and time-frequency measures. We predicted that processing of S-S conflict starts earlier than that of S-R conflict and that the two types of conflict may involve different frequency bands. Participants were asked to perform two parallel SRC tasks, both combining the Stroop task (involving S-S conflict) and Simon task (involving S-R conflict). ERP results showed pronounced SRC effects (incongruent vs. congruent) on N2 and P3 components for both S-S and S-R conflicts. In both tasks, SRC effects of S-S conflict took place earlier than those of S-R conflict. Time-frequency analysis revealed that both types of SRC effects modulated theta and alpha bands, while S-R conflict effects additionally modulated power in the beta band. These results indicated that although S-S and S-R conflict processing shared considerable ERP and time-frequency properties, they differed in temporal and spectral dynamics. We suggest that the modular organization of cognitive control should take both commonality and distinction of S-S and S-R conflict processing into consideration. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Robust obstacle detection for unmanned surface vehicles

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Qin, Yueming; Zhang, Xiuzhi

2018-03-01

Obstacle detection is of essential importance for Unmanned Surface Vehicles (USV). Although some obstacles (e.g., ships, islands) can be detected by Radar, there are many other obstacles (e.g., floating pieces of woods, swimmers) which are difficult to be detected via Radar because these obstacles have low radar cross section. Therefore, detecting obstacle from images taken onboard is an effective supplement. In this paper, a robust vision-based obstacle detection method for USVs is developed. The proposed method employs the monocular image sequence captured by the camera on the USVs and detects obstacles on the sea surface from the image sequence. The experiment results show that the proposed scheme is efficient to fulfill the obstacle detection task.

Analyzing Stimulus-Stimulus Pairing Effects on Preferences for Speech Sounds

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Petursdottir, Anna Ingeborg; Carp, Charlotte L.; Matthies, Derek W.; Esch, Barbara E.

2011-01-01

Several studies have demonstrated effects of stimulus-stimulus pairing (SSP) on children's vocalizations, but numerous treatment failures have also been reported. The present study attempted to isolate procedural variables related to failures of SSP to condition speech sounds as reinforcers. Three boys diagnosed with autism-spectrum disorders…

Vision-based obstacle recognition system for automated lawn mower robot development

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mohd Zin, Zalhan; Ibrahim, Ratnawati

2011-06-01

Digital image processing techniques (DIP) have been widely used in various types of application recently. Classification and recognition of a specific object using vision system require some challenging tasks in the field of image processing and artificial intelligence. The ability and efficiency of vision system to capture and process the images is very important for any intelligent system such as autonomous robot. This paper gives attention to the development of a vision system that could contribute to the development of an automated vision based lawn mower robot. The works involve on the implementation of DIP techniques to detect and recognize three different types of obstacles that usually exist on a football field. The focus was given on the study on different types and sizes of obstacles, the development of vision based obstacle recognition system and the evaluation of the system's performance. Image processing techniques such as image filtering, segmentation, enhancement and edge detection have been applied in the system. The results have shown that the developed system is able to detect and recognize various types of obstacles on a football field with recognition rate of more 80%.

Spatio-temporal brain dynamics in a combined stimulus-stimulus and stimulus-response conflict task.

PubMed

Frühholz, Sascha; Godde, Ben; Finke, Mareike; Herrmann, Manfred

2011-01-01

It is yet not well known whether different types of conflicts share common or rely on distinct brain mechanisms of conflict processing. We used a combined Flanker (stimulus-stimulus; S-S) and Simon (stimulus-response; S-R) conflict paradigm both in an fMRI and an EEG study. S-S conflicts induced stronger behavioral interference effects compared to S-R conflicts and the latter decayed with increasing response latencies. Besides some similar medial frontal activity across all conflict trials, which was, however, not statically consistent across trials, we especially found distinct activations depending on the type of conflict. S-S conflicts activated the anterior cingulate cortex and modulated the N2 and early P3 component with underlying source activity in inferior frontal cortex. S-R conflicts produced distinct activations in the posterior cingulate cortex and modulated the late P3b component with underlying source activity in superior parietal cortex. Double conflict trials containing both S-S and S-R conflicts revealed, first, distinct anterior frontal activity representing a meta-processing unit and, second, a sequential modulation of the N2 and the P3b component. The N2 modulation during double conflict trials was accompanied by increased source activity in the medial frontal gyrus (MeFG). In summary, S-S and S-R conflict processing mostly rely on distinct mechanisms of conflict processing and these conflicts differentially modulate the temporal stages of stimulus processing. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Improved obstacle avoidance and navigation for an autonomous ground vehicle

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Giri, Binod; Cho, Hyunsu; Williams, Benjamin C.; Tann, Hokchhay; Shakya, Bicky; Bharam, Vishal; Ahlgren, David J.

2015-01-01

This paper presents improvements made to the intelligence algorithms employed on Q, an autonomous ground vehicle, for the 2014 Intelligent Ground Vehicle Competition (IGVC). In 2012, the IGVC committee combined the formerly separate autonomous and navigation challenges into a single AUT-NAV challenge. In this new challenge, the vehicle is required to navigate through a grassy obstacle course and stay within the course boundaries (a lane of two white painted lines) that guide it toward a given GPS waypoint. Once the vehicle reaches this waypoint, it enters an open course where it is required to navigate to another GPS waypoint while avoiding obstacles. After reaching the final waypoint, the vehicle is required to traverse another obstacle course before completing the run. Q uses modular parallel software architecture in which image processing, navigation, and sensor control algorithms run concurrently. A tuned navigation algorithm allows Q to smoothly maneuver through obstacle fields. For the 2014 competition, most revisions occurred in the vision system, which detects white lines and informs the navigation component. Barrel obstacles of various colors presented a new challenge for image processing: the previous color plane extraction algorithm would not suffice. To overcome this difficulty, laser range sensor data were overlaid on visual data. Q also participates in the Joint Architecture for Unmanned Systems (JAUS) challenge at IGVC. For 2014, significant updates were implemented: the JAUS component accepted a greater variety of messages and showed better compliance to the JAUS technical standard. With these improvements, Q secured second place in the JAUS competition.

Vision Based Obstacle Detection in Uav Imaging

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Badrloo, S.; Varshosaz, M.

2017-08-01

Detecting and preventing incidence with obstacles is crucial in UAV navigation and control. Most of the common obstacle detection techniques are currently sensor-based. Small UAVs are not able to carry obstacle detection sensors such as radar; therefore, vision-based methods are considered, which can be divided into stereo-based and mono-based techniques. Mono-based methods are classified into two groups: Foreground-background separation, and brain-inspired methods. Brain-inspired methods are highly efficient in obstacle detection; hence, this research aims to detect obstacles using brain-inspired techniques, which try to enlarge the obstacle by approaching it. A recent research in this field, has concentrated on matching the SIFT points along with, SIFT size-ratio factor and area-ratio of convex hulls in two consecutive frames to detect obstacles. This method is not able to distinguish between near and far obstacles or the obstacles in complex environment, and is sensitive to wrong matched points. In order to solve the above mentioned problems, this research calculates the dist-ratio of matched points. Then, each and every point is investigated for Distinguishing between far and close obstacles. The results demonstrated the high efficiency of the proposed method in complex environments.

Obstacle avoidance in social groups: new insights from asynchronous models

PubMed Central

Croft, Simon; Budgey, Richard; Pitchford, Jonathan W.; Wood, A. Jamie

2015-01-01

For moving animals, the successful avoidance of hazardous obstacles is an important capability. Despite this, few models of collective motion have addressed the relationship between behavioural and social features and obstacle avoidance. We develop an asynchronous individual-based model for social movement which allows social structure within groups to be included. We assess the dynamics of group navigation and resulting collision risk in the context of information transfer through the system. In agreement with previous work, we find that group size has a nonlinear effect on collision risk. We implement examples of possible network structures to explore the impact social preferences have on collision risk. We show that any social heterogeneity induces greater obstacle avoidance with further improvements corresponding to groups containing fewer influential individuals. The model provides a platform for both further theoretical investigation and practical application. In particular, we argue that the role of social structures within bird flocks may have an important role to play in assessing the risk of collisions with wind turbines, but that new methods of data analysis are needed to identify these social structures. PMID:25833245

Building local human resources to implement SLMTA with limited donor funding: The Ghana experience.

PubMed

Nkrumah, Bernard; van der Puije, Beatrice; Bekoe, Veronica; Adukpo, Rowland; Kotey, Nii A; Yao, Katy; Fonjungo, Peter N; Luman, Elizabeth T; Duh, Samuel; Njukeng, Patrick A; Addo, Nii A; Khan, Fazle N; Woodfill, Celia J I

2014-11-03

In 2009, Ghana adopted the Strengthening Laboratory Management Toward Accreditation (SLMTA) programme in order to improve laboratory quality. The programme was implemented successfully with limited donor funding and local human resources. To demonstrate how Ghana, which received very limited PEPFAR funding, was able to achieve marked quality improvement using local human resources. Local partners led the SLMTA implementation and local mentors were embedded in each laboratory. An in-country training-of-trainers workshop was conducted in order to increase the pool of local SLMTA implementers. Three laboratory cohorts were enrolled in SLMTA in 2011, 2012 and 2013. Participants from each cohort attended in a series of three workshops interspersed with improvement projects and mentorship. Supplemental training on internal audit was provided. Baseline, exit and follow-up audits were conducted using the Stepwise Laboratory Quality Improvement Process Towards Accreditation (SLIPTA) checklist. In November 2013, four laboratories underwent official SLIPTA audits by the African Society for Laboratory Medicine (ASLM). The local SLMTA team successfully implemented three cohorts of SLMTA in 15 laboratories. Seven out of the nine laboratories that underwent follow-up audits have reached at least one star. Three out of the four laboratories that underwent official ASLM audits were awarded four stars. Patient satisfaction increased from 25% to 70% and sample rejection rates decreased from 32% to 10%. On average, $40 000 was spent per laboratory to cover mentors' salaries, SLMTA training and improvement project support. Building in-country capacity through local partners is a sustainable model for improving service quality in resource-constrained countries such as Ghana. Such models promote country ownership, capacity building and the use of local human resources for the expansion of SLMTA.

Do characteristics of a stationary obstacle lead to adjustments in obstacle stepping strategies?

PubMed

Worden, Timothy A; De Jong, Audrey F; Vallis, Lori Ann

2016-01-01

Navigating cluttered and complex environments increases the risk of falling. To decrease this risk, it is important to understand the influence of obstacle visual cues on stepping parameters, however the specific obstacle characteristics that have the greatest influence on avoidance strategies is still under debate. The purpose of the current work is to provide further insight on the relationship between obstacle appearance in the environment and modulation of stepping parameters. Healthy young adults (N=8) first stepped over an obstacle with one visible top edge ("floating"; 8 trials) followed by trials where experimenters randomly altered the location of a ground reference object to one of 7 different positions (8 trials per location), which ranged from 6cm in front of, directly under, or up to 6cm behind the floating obstacle (at 2cm intervals). Mean take-off and landing distance as well as minimum foot clearance values were unchanged across different positions of the ground reference object; a consistent stepping trajectory was observed for all experimental conditions. Contrary to our hypotheses, results of this study indicate that ground based visual cues are not essential for the planning of stepping and clearance strategies. The simultaneous presentation of both floating and ground based objects may have provided critical information that lead to the adoption of a consistent strategy for clearing the top edge of the obstacle. The invariant foot placement observed here may be an appropriate stepping strategy for young adults, however this may not be the case across the lifespan or in special populations. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Implementation of proteomic biomarkers: making it work

PubMed Central

Mischak, Harald; Ioannidis, John PA; Argiles, Angel; Attwood, Teresa K; Bongcam-Rudloff, Erik; Broenstrup, Mark; Charonis, Aristidis; Chrousos, George P; Delles, Christian; Dominiczak, Anna; Dylag, Tomasz; Ehrich, Jochen; Egido, Jesus; Findeisen, Peter; Jankowski, Joachim; Johnson, Robert W; Julien, Bruce A; Lankisch, Tim; Leung, Hing Y; Maahs, David; Magni, Fulvio; Manns, Michael P; Manolis, Efthymios; Mayer, Gert; Navis, Gerjan; Novak, Jan; Ortiz, Alberto; Persson, Frederik; Peter, Karlheinz; Riese, Hans H; Rossing, Peter; Sattar, Naveed; Spasovski, Goce; Thongboonkerd, Visith; Vanholder, Raymond; Schanstra, Joost P; Vlahou, Antonia

2012-01-01

While large numbers of proteomic biomarkers have been described, they are generally not implemented in medical practice. We have investigated the reasons for this shortcoming, focusing on hurdles downstream of biomarker verification, and describe major obstacles and possible solutions to ease valid biomarker implementation. Some of the problems lie in suboptimal biomarker discovery and validation, especially lack of validated platforms with well-described performance characteristics to support biomarker qualification. These issues have been acknowledged and are being addressed, raising the hope that valid biomarkers may start accumulating in the foreseeable future. However, successful biomarker discovery and qualification alone does not suffice for successful implementation. Additional challenges include, among others, limited access to appropriate specimens and insufficient funding, the need to validate new biomarker utility in interventional trials, and large communication gaps between the parties involved in implementation. To address this problem, we propose an implementation roadmap. The implementation effort needs to involve a wide variety of stakeholders (clinicians, statisticians, health economists, and representatives of patient groups, health insurance, pharmaceutical companies, biobanks, and regulatory agencies). Knowledgeable panels with adequate representation of all these stakeholders may facilitate biomarker evaluation and guide implementation for the specific context of use. This approach may avoid unwarranted delays or failure to implement potentially useful biomarkers, and may expedite meaningful contributions of the biomarker community to healthcare. PMID:22519700

Emergent Stimulus Relations Depend on Stimulus Correlation and Not on Reinforcement Contingencies

PubMed Central

Minster, Sara Tepaeru; Elliffe, Douglas; Muthukumaraswamy, Suresh D

2011-01-01

We aimed to investigate whether novel stimulus relations would emerge from stimulus correlations when those relations explicitly conflicted with reinforced relations. In a symbolic matching-to-sample task using kanji characters as stimuli, we arranged class-specific incorrect comparison stimuli in each of three classes. After presenting either Ax or Cx stimuli as samples, choices of Bx were reinforced and choices of Gx or Hx were not. Tests for symmetry, and combined symmetry and transitivity, showed the emergence of three 3-member (AxBxCx) stimulus classes in 5 of 5 human participants. Subsequent tests for all possible emergent relations between Ax, Bx, Cx and the class-specific incorrect comparisons Gx and Hx showed that these relations emerged for 4 of 5 the participants after extended overtraining of the baseline relations. These emergent relations must have been based on stimulus–stimulus correlations, and were not properties of the trained discriminated operants, because they required control by relations explicitly extinguished during training. This result supports theoretical accounts of emergent relations that emphasize stimulus correlation over operant contingencies. PMID:21547070

Automatic guidance and control laws for helicopter obstacle avoidance

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Cheng, Victor H. L.; Lam, T.

1992-01-01

The authors describe the implementation of a full-function guidance and control system for automatic obstacle avoidance in helicopter nap-of-the-earth (NOE) flight. The guidance function assumes that the helicopter is sufficiently responsive so that the flight path can be readily adjusted at NOE speeds. The controller, basically an autopilot for following the derived flight path, was implemented with parameter values to control a generic helicopter model used in the simulation. Evaluation of the guidance and control system with a 3-dimensional graphical helicopter simulation suggests that the guidance has the potential for providing good and meaningful flight trajectories.

Linking Resource Allocation to Student Achievement: A Study of Title 1 and Title 1 Stimulus Utilization

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Krumpe, Kati P.

2012-01-01

With the emphasis on high standards and fiscal accountability, there is a heightened need to inform the research linking student achievement to the allocation of resources. This mixed methods inquiry sought to study how schools utilized Title 1 and Title 1 stimulus funding from 2009-2011 to determine if correlations existed between areas of…

Stimulus Equalization: Temporary Reduction of Stimulus Complexity to Facilitate Discrimination Learning.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hoko, J. Aaron; LeBlanc, Judith M.

1988-01-01

Because disabled learners may profit from procedures using gradual stimulus change, this study utilized a microcomputer to investigate the effectiveness of stimulus equalization, an error reduction procedure involving an abrupt but temporary reduction of dimensional complexity. The procedure was found to be generally effective and implications for…

Women's orgasm obstacles: A qualitative study.

PubMed

Nekoolaltak, Maryam; Keshavarz, Zohreh; Simbar, Masoumeh; Nazari, Ali Mohammad; Baghestani, Ahmad Reza

2017-08-01

Woman's orgasm plays a vital role in sexual compatibility and marital satisfaction. Orgasm in women is a learnable phenomenon that is influenced by several factors. The aim of this study is exploring obstacles to orgasm in Iranian married women. This qualitative study with directed content analysis approach was conducted in 2015-2016, on 20 Iranian married women who were individually interviewed at two medical clinics in Tehran, Iran. Orgasm obstacles were explored in one category, 4 subcategories, and 25 codes. The main category was "Multidimensionality of women's orgasm obstacles". Subcategories and some codes included: Physical obstacles (wife's or husband's boredom, vaginal infection, insufficient vaginal lubrication), psychological obstacles (lack of sexual knowledge, shame, lack of concentration on sex due to household and children problems), relational obstacles (husband's hurry, having a dispute and annoyance with spouse) and contextual obstacles (Irregular sleep hours, lack of privacy and inability to separate children's bedroom from their parents, lack of peace at home). For prevention or treatment of female orgasm disorders, attention to physical factors is not enough. Obtaining a comprehensive history about physical, psychological, relational and contextual dimensions of woman's life is necessary.

Obstacles and challenges following the partial decriminalisation of abortion in Colombia.

PubMed

Amado, Eduardo Díaz; Calderón García, Maria Cristina; Cristancho, Katherine Romero; Salas, Elena Prada; Hauzeur, Eliane Barreto

2010-11-01

During a highly contested process, abortion was partially decriminalised in Colombia in 2006 by the Constitutional Court: when the pregnancy threatens a woman's life or health, in cases of severe fetal malformations incompatible with life, and in cases of rape, incest or unwanted insemination. However, Colombian women still face obstacles to accessing abortion services. This is illustrated by 36 cases of women who in 2006-08 were denied the right to a lawful termination of pregnancy, or had unjustified obstacles put in their path which delayed the termination, which are analysed in this article. We argue that the obstacles resulted from fundamental disagreements about abortion and misunderstandings regarding the ethical, legal and medical requirements arising from the Court's decision. In order to avoid obstacles such as demands for a judge's authorisation, institutional claims of conscientious objection, rejection of a claim of rape, or refusal of health insurance coverage for a legal termination, which constitute discrimination against women, three main strategies are suggested: public ownership of the Court's decision by all Colombian citizens, a professional approach by those involved in the provision of services in line with the law, and monitoring of its implementation by governmental and non-governmental organisations. Copyright © 2010 Reproductive Health Matters. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Highly Reconfigurable Beamformer Stimulus Generator

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Vaviļina, E.; Gaigals, G.

2018-02-01

The present paper proposes a highly reconfigurable beamformer stimulus generator of radar antenna array, which includes three main blocks: settings of antenna array, settings of objects (signal sources) and a beamforming simulator. Following from the configuration of antenna array and object settings, different stimulus can be generated as the input signal for a beamformer. This stimulus generator is developed under a greater concept with two utterly independent paths where one is the stimulus generator and the other is the hardware beamformer. Both paths can be complemented in final and in intermediate steps as well to check and improve system performance. This way the technology development process is promoted by making each of the future hardware steps more substantive. Stimulus generator configuration capabilities and test results are presented proving the application of the stimulus generator for FPGA based beamforming unit development and tuning as an alternative to an actual antenna system.

Building local human resources to implement SLMTA with limited donor funding: The Ghana experience

PubMed Central

van der Puije, Beatrice; Bekoe, Veronica; Adukpo, Rowland; Kotey, Nii A.; Yao, Katy; Fonjungo, Peter N.; Luman, Elizabeth T.; Duh, Samuel; Njukeng, Patrick A.; Addo, Nii A.; Khan, Fazle N.; Woodfill, Celia J.I.

2014-01-01

Background In 2009, Ghana adopted the Strengthening Laboratory Management Toward Accreditation (SLMTA) programme in order to improve laboratory quality. The programme was implemented successfully with limited donor funding and local human resources. Objectives To demonstrate how Ghana, which received very limited PEPFAR funding, was able to achieve marked quality improvement using local human resources. Method Local partners led the SLMTA implementation and local mentors were embedded in each laboratory. An in-country training-of-trainers workshop was conducted in order to increase the pool of local SLMTA implementers. Three laboratory cohorts were enrolled in SLMTA in 2011, 2012 and 2013. Participants from each cohort attended in a series of three workshops interspersed with improvement projects and mentorship. Supplemental training on internal audit was provided. Baseline, exit and follow-up audits were conducted using the Stepwise Laboratory Quality Improvement Process Towards Accreditation (SLIPTA) checklist. In November 2013, four laboratories underwent official SLIPTA audits by the African Society for Laboratory Medicine (ASLM). Results The local SLMTA team successfully implemented three cohorts of SLMTA in 15 laboratories. Seven out of the nine laboratories that underwent follow-up audits have reached at least one star. Three out of the four laboratories that underwent official ASLM audits were awarded four stars. Patient satisfaction increased from 25% to 70% and sample rejection rates decreased from 32% to 10%. On average, $40 000 was spent per laboratory to cover mentors’ salaries, SLMTA training and improvement project support. Conclusion Building in-country capacity through local partners is a sustainable model for improving service quality in resource-constrained countries such as Ghana. Such models promote country ownership, capacity building and the use of local human resources for the expansion of SLMTA. PMID:26937417

Implementation science in cancer prevention and control: a decade of grant funding by the National Cancer Institute and future directions.

PubMed

Neta, Gila; Sanchez, Michael A; Chambers, David A; Phillips, Siobhan M; Leyva, Bryan; Cynkin, Laurie; Farrell, Margaret M; Heurtin-Roberts, Suzanne; Vinson, Cynthia

2015-01-08

The National Cancer Institute (NCI) has supported implementation science for over a decade. We explore the application of implementation science across the cancer control continuum, including prevention, screening, treatment, and survivorship. We reviewed funding trends of implementation science grants funded by the NCI between 2000 and 2012. We assessed study characteristics including cancer topic, position on the T2-T4 translational continuum, intended use of frameworks, study design, settings, methods, and replication and cost considerations. We identified 67 NCI grant awards having an implementation science focus. R01 was the most common mechanism, and the total number of all awards increased from four in 2003 to 15 in 2012. Prevention grants were most frequent (49.3%) and cancer treatment least common (4.5%). Diffusion of Innovations and Reach, Effectiveness, Adoption, Implementation, Maintenance (RE-AIM) were the most widely reported frameworks, but it is unclear how implementation science models informed planned study measures. Most grants (69%) included mixed methods, and half reported replication and cost considerations (49.3%). Implementation science in cancer research is active and diverse but could be enhanced by greater focus on measures development, assessment of how conceptual frameworks and their constructs lead to improved dissemination and implementation outcomes, and harmonization of measures that are valid, reliable, and practical across multiple settings.

The Global Fund Secretariat's suspension of funding to Uganda: how could this have been avoided?

PubMed Central

Kapiriri, Lydia; Martin, Douglas K.

2006-01-01

In August 2005, the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (the Global Fund) Secretariat suspended its five grants to Uganda following a PricewaterhouseCoopers audit report that exposed gross mismanagement in the Project Management Unit. How could this have been avoided? How can other countries avoid a similar pitfall? We argue that if a legitimate and fair decision-making process were used, the suspension of funding to Uganda could have been avoided, and that this lesson should be applied to other countries. The "accountability for reasonableness" framework of relevance, publicity, revisions and enforcement would help in implementing legitimate and fair decision-making processes, which would improve effectiveness, accountability and transparency in the implementation of Global Fund programmes, preventing future suspension of funding to any Global Fund projects. PMID:16878232

Performance-Based Funding Brief

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Washington Higher Education Coordinating Board, 2011

2011-01-01

A number of states have made progress in implementing performance-based funding (PFB) and accountability. This policy brief summarizes main features of performance-based funding systems in three states: Tennessee, Ohio, and Indiana. The brief also identifies key issues that states considering performance-based funding must address, as well as…

Stimulus Reporting Advances

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McNeil, Michele

2009-01-01

Faced with their first reporting deadlines for economic-stimulus aid to education, school districts are toiling over how every stimulus penny has been spent so far and how many jobs have been saved--numbers that will be scrutinized not just by the public, but by government auditors as well. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, passed by…

Carving Executive Control At Its Joints: Working Memory Capacity Predicts Stimulus-Stimulus, But Not Stimulus-Response, Conflict

PubMed Central

Meier, Matt E.; Kane, Michael J.

2015-01-01

Three experiments examined the relation between working memory capacity (WMC) and two different forms of cognitive conflict: stimulus-stimulus (S-S) and stimulus-response (SR) interference. Our goal was to test whether WMC’s relation to conflict-task performance is mediated by stimulus-identification processes (captured by S-S conflict), response-selection processes (captured by S-R conflict), or both. In Experiment 1, subjects completed a single task presenting both S-S and S-R conflict trials, plus trials that combined the two conflict types. We limited ostensible goal-maintenance contributions to performance by requiring the same goal for all trial types and by presenting frequent conflict trials that reinforced the goal. WMC predicted resolution of S-S conflict as expected: Higher-WMC subjects showed reduced response time interference. Although WMC also predicted S-R interference, here, higher-WMC subjects showed increased error interference. Experiment 2A replicated these results in a version of the conflict task without combined S-S/S-R trials. Experiment 2B increased the proportion of congruent (non-conflict) trials to promote reliance on goal-maintenance processes. Here, higher-WMC subjects resolved both S-S and S-R conflict more successfully than did lower-WMC subjects. The results were consistent with Kane and Engle’s (2003) two-factor theory of cognitive control, according to which WMC predicts executive-task performance through goal-maintenance and conflict-resolution processes. However, the present results add specificity to the account by suggesting that higher-WMC subjects better resolve cognitive conflict because they more efficiently select relevant stimulus features against irrelevant, distracting ones. PMID:26120774

Carving executive control at its joints: Working memory capacity predicts stimulus-stimulus, but not stimulus-response, conflict.

PubMed

Meier, Matt E; Kane, Michael J

2015-11-01

Three experiments examined the relation between working memory capacity (WMC) and 2 different forms of cognitive conflict: stimulus-stimulus (S-S) and stimulus-response (S-R) interference. Our goal was to test whether WMC's relation to conflict-task performance is mediated by stimulus-identification processes (captured by S-S conflict), response-selection processes (captured by S-R conflict), or both. In Experiment 1, subjects completed a single task presenting both S-S and S-R conflict trials, plus trials that combined the 2 conflict types. We limited ostensible goal-maintenance contributions to performance by requiring the same goal for all trial types and by presenting frequent conflict trials that reinforced the goal. WMC predicted resolution of S-S conflict as expected: Higher WMC subjects showed reduced response time interference. Although WMC also predicted S-R interference, here, higher WMC subjects showed increased error interference. Experiment 2A replicated these results in a version of the conflict task without combined S-S/S-R trials. Experiment 2B increased the proportion of congruent (nonconflict) trials to promote reliance on goal-maintenance processes. Here, higher WMC subjects resolved both S-S and S-R conflict more successfully than did lower WMC subjects. The results were consistent with Kane and Engle's (2003) 2-factor theory of cognitive control, according to which WMC predicts executive-task performance through goal-maintenance and conflict-resolution processes. However, the present results add specificity to the account by suggesting that higher WMC subjects better resolve cognitive conflict because they more efficiently select relevant stimulus features against irrelevant, distracting ones. (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved).

Obstacle-avoiding navigation system

DOEpatents

Borenstein, Johann; Koren, Yoram; Levine, Simon P.

1991-01-01

A system for guiding an autonomous or semi-autonomous vehicle through a field of operation having obstacles thereon to be avoided employs a memory for containing data which defines an array of grid cells which correspond to respective subfields in the field of operation of the vehicle. Each grid cell in the memory contains a value which is indicative of the likelihood, or probability, that an obstacle is present in the respectively associated subfield. The values in the grid cells are incremented individually in response to each scan of the subfields, and precomputation and use of a look-up table avoids complex trigonometric functions. A further array of grid cells is fixed with respect to the vehicle form a conceptual active window which overlies the incremented grid cells. Thus, when the cells in the active window overly grid cell having values which are indicative of the presence of obstacles, the value therein is used as a multiplier of the precomputed vectorial values. The resulting plurality of vectorial values are summed vectorially in one embodiment of the invention to produce a virtual composite repulsive vector which is then summed vectorially with a target-directed vector for producing a resultant vector for guiding the vehicle. In an alternative embodiment, a plurality of vectors surrounding the vehicle are computed, each having a value corresponding to obstacle density. In such an embodiment, target location information is used to select between alternative directions of travel having low associated obstacle densities.

Negative obstacle detection by thermal signature

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Matthies, Larry; Rankin, A.

2003-01-01

Detecting negative obstacles (ditches, potholes, and other depressions) is one of the most difficult problems in perception for autonomous, off-road navigation. Past work has largely relied on range imagery, because that is based on the geometry of the obstacle, is largely insensitive to illumination variables, and because there have not been other reliable alternatives. However, the visible aspect of negative obstacles shrinks rapidly with range, making them impossible to detect in time to avoid them at high speed. To relive this problem, we show that the interiors of negative obstacles generally remain warmer than the surrounding terrain throughout the night, making thermal signature a stable property for night-time negative obstacle detection. Experimental results to date have achieved detection distances 45% greater by using thermal signature than by using range data alone. Thermal signature is the first known observable with potential to reveal a deep negative obstacle without actually seeing far into it. Modeling solar illumination has potential to extend the usefulness of thermal signature through daylight hours.

Political Obstacles to Regionalization of the SUS: perceptions of Municipal Health Secretaries with seat in the Bipartite Interagency Commissions.

PubMed

Moreira, Marcelo Rasga; Ribeiro, José Mendes; Ouverney, Assis Mafort

2017-04-01

This paper aims to identify and analyze the political obstacles to the implementation of Organizational Contract of Public Action (COAP) based on the perceptions of municipal health secretaries of Bipartite Interagency Commissions (CIB). For this purpose, we interviewed 195 secretaries (92% of the total) from October 2015 to August 2016. Based on the approach of policy analysis, the main hurdles identified were, in short, a traditional obstacle (lack of resources), one that has been gaining strength in recent years (judicialization of politics) and another, perhaps unheard of: the party-political system and the State Executive Branch are the great absentees in the coalitions in support of SUS regionalization policies. We can conclude that such obstacles indicate an extremely negative setting for the implementation of the COAP and other SUS regionalization policies. Thus, it is incumbent upon those involved to reflect, negotiate and build consensus on improving the health of the population and overcome such obstacles if, of course, they embrace the authors' concept that regionalization is fundamental for the SUS.

Online optimal obstacle avoidance for rotary-wing autonomous unmanned aerial vehicles

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kang, Keeryun

This thesis presents an integrated framework for online obstacle avoidance of rotary-wing unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), which can provide UAVs an obstacle field navigation capability in a partially or completely unknown obstacle-rich environment. The framework is composed of a LIDAR interface, a local obstacle grid generation, a receding horizon (RH) trajectory optimizer, a global shortest path search algorithm, and a climb rate limit detection logic. The key feature of the framework is the use of an optimization-based trajectory generation in which the obstacle avoidance problem is formulated as a nonlinear trajectory optimization problem with state and input constraints over the finite range of the sensor. This local trajectory optimization is combined with a global path search algorithm which provides a useful initial guess to the nonlinear optimization solver. Optimization is the natural process of finding the best trajectory that is dynamically feasible, safe within the vehicle's flight envelope, and collision-free at the same time. The optimal trajectory is continuously updated in real time by the numerical optimization solver, Nonlinear Trajectory Generation (NTG), which is a direct solver based on the spline approximation of trajectory for dynamically flat systems. In fact, the overall approach of this thesis to finding the optimal trajectory is similar to the model predictive control (MPC) or the receding horizon control (RHC), except that this thesis followed a two-layer design; thus, the optimal solution works as a guidance command to be followed by the controller of the vehicle. The framework is implemented in a real-time simulation environment, the Georgia Tech UAV Simulation Tool (GUST), and integrated in the onboard software of the rotary-wing UAV test-bed at Georgia Tech. Initially, the 2D vertical avoidance capability of real obstacles was tested in flight. The flight test evaluations were extended to the benchmark tests for 3D avoidance

Stimulus Effects on Local Preference: Stimulus-Response Contingencies, Stimulus-Food Pairing, and Stimulus-Food Correlation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Davison, Michael; Baum, William M.

2010-01-01

Four pigeons were trained in a procedure in which concurrent-schedule food ratios changed unpredictably across seven unsignaled components after 10 food deliveries. Additional green-key stimulus presentations also occurred on the two alternatives, sometimes in the same ratio as the component food ratio, and sometimes in the inverse ratio. In eight…

Exploring performance obstacles of intensive care nurses.

PubMed

Gurses, Ayse P; Carayon, Pascale

2009-05-01

High nursing workload, poor patient safety, and poor nursing quality of working life (QWL) are major issues in intensive care units (ICUs). Characteristics of the ICU and performance obstacles may contribute to these issues. The goal of this study was to comprehensively identify the performance obstacles perceived by ICU nurses. We used a qualitative research design and conducted semi-structured interviews with 15 ICU nurses of a medical-surgical ICU. Based on this qualitative study and a previously reported quantitative study, we identified seven main types of performance obstacles experienced by ICU nurses. Obstacles related to the physical environment (e.g., noise, amount of space), family relations (e.g., distractions caused by family, lack of time to spend with family), and equipment (e.g., unavailability, misplacement) were the most frequently experienced performance obstacles. The qualitative interview data provided rich information regarding the factors contributing to the performance obstacles. Overall, ICU nurses experience a variety of performance obstacles in their work on a daily basis. Future research is needed to understand the impact of performance obstacles on nursing workload, nursing QWL, and quality and safety of care.

Extinction of the soleus H reflex induced by conditioning stimulus given after test stimulus.

PubMed

Hiraoka, Koichi

2002-02-01

To quantify the extinction of the soleus H reflex induced by a conditioning stimulus above the motor threshold to the post-tibial nerve applied 10-12 ms after a test stimulus (S2 method). Ten healthy subjects participated. The sizes of extinction induced by a test stimulus above the motor threshold (conventional method) and by the S2 method were measured. The size of the conditioned H reflex decreased as the intensity of the S2 conditioning stimulus increased. The decrease was less than that induced by the conventional method. The difference between the two methods correlated highly with the amount of orthodromically activated recurrent inhibition. When the S2 conditioning stimulus evoked an M wave that was roughly half of the maximum M wave, the decrease in the size of the conditioned H reflex depended on the size of the unconditioned H reflex. The S2 method allows us to observe extinction without changing the intensity of the test stimulus. The amount of the extinction depends partially on the size of the unconditioned H reflex. The difference in the sizes of extinction between the S2 and conventional methods should relate to recurrent inhibition.

Orthogonal stimulus-response compatibility effects emerge even when the stimulus position is task irrelevant.

PubMed

Nishimura, Akio; Yokosawa, Kazuhiko

2006-06-01

The above-right/below-left mapping advantage with vertical stimuli and horizontal responses is known as the orthogonal stimulus-response compatibility (SRC) effect. We investigated whether the orthogonal SRC effect emerges with irrelevant stimulus dimensions. In Experiment 1, participants responded with a right or left key press to the colour of the stimulus presented above or below the fixation. We observed an above-right/below-left advantage (orthogonal Simon effect). In Experiment 2, we manipulated the polarity in the response dimension by varying the horizontal location of the response set. The orthogonal Simon effect decreased and even reversed as the left response code became more positive. This result provides evidence for the automatic activation of the positive and negative response codes by the corresponding positive and negative stimulus codes. These findings extended the orthogonal SRC effect based on coding asymmetry to an irrelevant stimulus dimension.

Voluntary community service in medical school: a qualitative study on obstacles faced by student leaders and potential solutions

PubMed Central

Loh, Alvona Zi Hui; Tan, Julia Shi Yu; Lee, Jeannette Jen-Mai; Koh, Gerald Choon-Huat

2015-01-01

Purpose In medical school, students may participate in various community involvement projects (CIP), which serve disadvantaged communities. However, several obstacles may arise during these projects. The authors conducted a qualitative study with the primary aim of understanding the obstacles and corresponding potential solutions when medical students in Singapore participate in local CIP (LCIP) and overseas CIP (OCIP). Design The authors recruited medical students from Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore, who were also leaders of a specific community service project done in medical school. Twelve one-to-one interviews were held for the participants from 6 to 8 January 2013. Participants were led in a discussion based on an interview guide. The interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed into free-flow text. Subsequently, content and thematic analyses of the transcripts were performed independently by three researchers. Results The medical students faced many common obstacles during their community service projects. These obstacles include difficulties in recruiting and managing volunteers, attaining recognition or credibility for the project to acquire funding and resources, adjusting to a different culture or language, setting goals, and facing project-specific obstacles. Potential solutions were offered for some obstacles, such as building a strong executive committee for the project, grooming successive batches of leaders, and improving the project's public image, mentorship, reflections, and sustainability plans. Conclusions Mentorship, reflections, and sustainability are potential solutions that have been proposed to tackle the obstacles faced during community service participation in medical school. However, there may still be difficulty in solving some of the problems even after these measures are put into practice. Future research may focus on evaluating the effectiveness of these suggested solutions. PMID:26490690

Voluntary community service in medical school: a qualitative study on obstacles faced by student leaders and potential solutions.

PubMed

Loh, Alvona Zi Hui; Tan, Julia Shi Yu; Lee, Jeannette Jen-Mai; Koh, Gerald Choon-Huat

2015-01-01

In medical school, students may participate in various community involvement projects (CIP), which serve disadvantaged communities. However, several obstacles may arise during these projects. The authors conducted a qualitative study with the primary aim of understanding the obstacles and corresponding potential solutions when medical students in Singapore participate in local CIP (LCIP) and overseas CIP (OCIP). The authors recruited medical students from Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore, who were also leaders of a specific community service project done in medical school. Twelve one-to-one interviews were held for the participants from 6 to 8 January 2013. Participants were led in a discussion based on an interview guide. The interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed into free-flow text. Subsequently, content and thematic analyses of the transcripts were performed independently by three researchers. The medical students faced many common obstacles during their community service projects. These obstacles include difficulties in recruiting and managing volunteers, attaining recognition or credibility for the project to acquire funding and resources, adjusting to a different culture or language, setting goals, and facing project-specific obstacles. Potential solutions were offered for some obstacles, such as building a strong executive committee for the project, grooming successive batches of leaders, and improving the project's public image, mentorship, reflections, and sustainability plans. Mentorship, reflections, and sustainability are potential solutions that have been proposed to tackle the obstacles faced during community service participation in medical school. However, there may still be difficulty in solving some of the problems even after these measures are put into practice. Future research may focus on evaluating the effectiveness of these suggested solutions.

Government funding of health research in New Zealand.

PubMed

Reid, Ian R; Joyce, Peter; Fraser, John; Crampton, Peter

2014-02-14

An analysis of levels of government health research funding carried out in 2008 demonstrated that funding in New Zealand, after adjustment for population size, was less than one-third of that in Australia, less than one-fifth of that in the United Kingdom, and about 10% of that in the United States. This was perceived to be a major obstacle to the recruitment and retention of clinical and academic staff in our hospitals and universities. We have now repeated these analyses to determine the current state of these comparisons. From 2009 to the present funds for direct funding of research through the Health Research Council (HRC) have remained static at $54m. As a result of inflation of research costs (principally salaries) this represents a decrease of approximately one-quarter in the quantum of research funded by the HRC over the last 4 years. Current funding rates in the comparator countries, population-adjusted and converted to NZ$, are 3.4-fold higher in Australia, 4.5-fold higher in the United Kingdom, and 9.7-fold higher in the United States. Urgent and sustained action is needed to correct these major disparities in government health research funding if the quality of academic and clinical staff in our public institutions is to be maintained.

Retelling the educational pathways of Black women physicists: Stories of experiencing and overcoming obstacles in life

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mensah, Felicia

This is an empirical study on the underrepresentation of people of color in scientific careers. Grounded in critical race theory, the paper examines the lived experiences of six Black women physicists and addresses obstacles faced in their career paths and strategies used to overcome these obstacles. Data for this study were collected through semi-structured interviews and coded for emergent themes. The findings reveal that college recruitment and funding were fundamental for these women to choose physics over other STEM fields. In addition, Black women experience unique challenges of socialization in STEM, particularly by exclusion of study groups. We suggest physics departments provide a more inclusive environment to support Black women in science. CAPES, the Fulbright Program, Comissão Fulbright Brasil, and the Office of Diversity at Teachers College, Columbia University.

[Implementation of ethics services. Opportunities and obstacles].

PubMed

Salomon, F

2015-04-01

Medical success in the last century has caused situations, in which the question arises whether therapy is right. In the same time autonomy has become more and more important. Furthermore, human beings want to decide on health, life and dying. Experience of limitations of life and desire of autonomy in healthcare lead to ethical questions. Different ethical services were established to deal with and to solve problems. Ethics committees with multiprofessional members and different qualifications will give guidance in critical decision making. Ethics services do not receive responsibility for the decision, but helps those who are responsible by structured reflection, estimation of values and including all concerned. Implementing ethics services also encounters obstructions and scepticism. Time, responsibility for therapy and criticism of customs and structures must be considered to perpetuate success. Instructions for implementing ethics services are presented.

Interim Analysis of School Facility Funding in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 Including Expenditures through January 5, 2010

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

21st Century School Fund, 2010

2010-01-01

The 21st Century School Fund, through its Building Educational Success Together (BEST) collaborative, is tracking the effect of federal stimulus funding on the condition of PK-12 public school facilities and whether or not the distribution of ARRA funding related to public school facilities is helping reduce the disparity of capital expenditures…

An Evaluation of the Number of Presentations of Target Sounds during Stimulus-Stimulus Pairing Trials

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Miliotis, Adriane; Sidener, Tina M.; Reeve, Kenneth F.; Carbone, Vincent; Sidener, David W.; Rader, Lisa; Delmolino, Lara

2012-01-01

Stimulus-stimulus pairing (SSP) of vocalizations pairs the speech of others with the delivery of highly preferred items. The goal of this procedure is to produce a temporary increase in vocalizations, thus creating a larger variety of sounds that can subsequently be brought under appropriate stimulus control (Esch, Carr, & Grow, 2009). In this…

Stimulus Responsive Nanoparticles

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Sierros, Konstantinos A. (Inventor); Cairns, Darran Robert (Inventor); Huebsch, Wade W. (Inventor); Shafran, Matthew S. (Inventor)

2017-01-01

Disclosed are various embodiments of methods and systems related to stimulus responsive nanoparticles. In one embodiment including a stimulus responsive nanoparticle system, the system includes a first electrode, a second electrode, and a plurality of elongated electro-responsive nanoparticles dispersed between the first and second electrodes, the plurality of electro-responsive nanorods configured to respond to an electric field established between the first and second electrodes.

Stimulus responsive nanoparticles

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Cairns, Darren Robert (Inventor); Shafran, Matthew S. (Inventor); Huebsch, Wade W. (Inventor); Sierros, Konstantinos A. (Inventor)

2013-01-01

Disclosed are various embodiments of methods and systems related to stimulus responsive nanoparticles. In one embodiment includes a stimulus responsive nanoparticle system, the system includes a first electrode, a second electrode, and a plurality of elongated electro-responsive nanoparticles dispersed between the first and second electrodes, the plurality of electro-responsive nanorods configured to respond to an electric field established between the first and second electrodes.

Stimulus Responsive Nanoparticles

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Cairns, Darran Robert (Inventor); Huebsch, Wade W. (Inventor); Sierros, Konstantinos A. (Inventor); Shafran, Matthew S. (Inventor)

2015-01-01

Disclosed are various embodiments of methods and systems related to stimulus responsive nanoparticles. In one embodiment includes a stimulus responsive nanoparticle system, the system includes a first electrode, a second electrode, and a plurality of elongated electro-responsive nanoparticles dispersed between the first and second electrodes, the plurality of electro-responsive nanorods configured to respond to an electric field established between the first and second electrodes.

Dynamics of spiral waves rotating around an obstacle and the existence of a minimal obstacle

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gao, Xiang; Feng, Xia; Li, Teng-Chao; Qu, Shixian; Wang, Xingang; Zhang, Hong

2017-05-01

Pinning of vortices by obstacles plays an important role in various systems. In the heart, anatomical reentry is created when a vortex, also known as the spiral wave, is pinned to an anatomical obstacle, leading to a class of physiologically very important arrhythmias. Previous analyses of its dynamics and instability provide fine estimates in some special circumstances, such as large obstacles or weak excitabilities. Here, to expand theoretical analyses to all circumstances, we propose a general theory whose results quantitatively agree with direct numerical simulations. In particular, when obstacles are small and pinned spiral waves are destabilized, an accurate explanation of the instability in two-dimensional media is provided by the usage of a mapping rule and dimension reduction. The implications of our results are to better understand the mechanism of arrhythmia and thus improve its early prevention.

Radial polar histogram: obstacle avoidance and path planning for robotic cognition and motion control

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, Po-Jen; Keyawa, Nicholas R.; Euler, Craig

2012-01-01

In order to achieve highly accurate motion control and path planning for a mobile robot, an obstacle avoidance algorithm that provided a desired instantaneous turning radius and velocity was generated. This type of obstacle avoidance algorithm, which has been implemented in California State University Northridge's Intelligent Ground Vehicle (IGV), is known as Radial Polar Histogram (RPH). The RPH algorithm utilizes raw data in the form of a polar histogram that is read from a Laser Range Finder (LRF) and a camera. A desired open block is determined from the raw data utilizing a navigational heading and an elliptical approximation. The left and right most radii are determined from the calculated edges of the open block and provide the range of possible radial paths the IGV can travel through. In addition, the calculated obstacle edge positions allow the IGV to recognize complex obstacle arrangements and to slow down accordingly. A radial path optimization function calculates the best radial path between the left and right most radii and is sent to motion control for speed determination. Overall, the RPH algorithm allows the IGV to autonomously travel at average speeds of 3mph while avoiding all obstacles, with a processing time of approximately 10ms.

Motormouth: mere exposure depends on stimulus-specific motor simulations.

PubMed

Topolinski, Sascha; Strack, Fritz

2009-03-01

The authors apply an embodied account to mere exposure, arguing that through the repeated exposure of a particular stimulus, motor responses specifically associated to that stimulus are repeatedly simulated, thus trained, and become increasingly fluent. This increased fluency drives preferences for repeated stimuli. This hypothesis was tested by blocking stimulus-specific motor simulations during repeated exposure. In Experiment 1, chewing gum while evaluating stimuli destroyed mere exposure effects (MEEs) for words but not for visual characters. However, concurrently kneading a ball left both MEEs unaffected. In Experiment 2, concurrently whispering an unrelated word destroyed MEEs for words but not for characters, even when implemented either exclusively during the initial presentation or during the test phase and when the first presentation involved an evaluation or a mere study of the stimuli. In Experiment 3, a double dissociation between 2 classes of stimuli was demonstrated, namely, words (oral) and tunes (vocal). A concurrent oral task (tongue movements) destroyed MEEs for words but not for tone sequences. A concurrent vocal task (humming "mm-hm") destroyed MEEs for tone sequences but not for words. (c) 2009 APA, all rights reserved

Obstacle Avoidance On Roadways Using Range Data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dunlay, R. Terry; Morgenthaler, David G.

1987-02-01

This report describes range data based obstacle avoidance techniques developed for use on an autonomous road-following robot vehicle. The purpose of these techniques is to detect and locate obstacles present in a road environment for navigation of a robot vehicle equipped with an active laser-based range sensor. Techniques are presented for obstacle detection, obstacle location, and coordinate transformations needed in the construction of Scene Models (symbolic structures representing the 3-D obstacle boundaries used by the vehicle's Navigator for path planning). These techniques have been successfully tested on an outdoor robotic vehicle, the Autonomous Land Vehicle (ALV), at speeds up to 3.5 km/hour.

Administrative Aspects of Technology Implementation in Special Education. A Synthesis of Information from Eight Federally-Funded Projects.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (ED), Washington, DC. Div. of Innovation and Development.

This paper reviews and synthesizes information on the administrative aspects of technology implementation in special education, based on the findings of eight federally funded projects sponsored by the Division of Innovation and Development of the Office of Special Education Programs. Three of the projects specifically focused on administrative…

A Multi-Level Examination of Stakeholder Perspectives of Implementation of Evidence-Based Practices in a Large Urban Publicly-Funded Mental Health System

PubMed Central

Beidas, Rinad S.; Stewart, Rebecca E.; Adams, Danielle R.; Fernandez, Tara; Lustbader, Susanna; Powell, Byron J.; Aarons, Gregory; Hoagwood, Kimberly E.; Evans, Arthur C.; Hurford, Matthew O.; Rubin, Ronnie; Hadley, Trevor; Mandell, David; Barg, Frances

2015-01-01

Our goal was to identify barriers and facilitators to the implementation of evidence-based practices from the perspectives of multiple stakeholders in a large publicly funded mental health system. We completed 56 interviews with three stakeholder groups: treatment developers (n = 7), agency administrators (n = 33), and system leadership (n = 16). The three stakeholder groups converged on the importance of inner (e.g., agency competing resources and demands, therapist educational background) and outer context (e.g., funding) factors as barriers to implementation. Potential threats to implementation and sustainability included the fiscal landscape of community mental health clinics and an evolving workforce. Intervention characteristics were rarely endorsed as barriers. Inner context, outer context, and intervention characteristics were all seen as important facilitators. All stakeholders endorsed the importance of coordinated collaboration across stakeholder groups within the system to successfully implement evidence-based practices. PMID:26658692

Surface obstacles in pulsatile flow

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Carr, Ian A.; Plesniak, Michael W.

2017-11-01

Flows past obstacles mounted on flat surfaces have been widely studied due to their ubiquity in nature and engineering. For nearly all of these studies, the freestream flow over the obstacle was steady, i.e., constant velocity, unidirectional flow. Unsteady, pulsatile flows occur frequently in biology, geophysics, biomedical engineering, etc. Our study is aimed at extending the comprehensive knowledge base that exists for steady flows to considerably more complex pulsatile flows. Characterizing the vortex and wake dynamics of flows around surface obstacles embedded in pulsatile flows can provide insights into the underlying physics in all wake and junction flows. In this study, we experimentally investigate the wake of two canonical obstacles: a cube and a circular cylinder with an aspect ratio of unity. Our previous studies of a surface-mounted hemisphere in pulsatile flow are used as a baseline for these two new, more complex geometries. Phase-averaged PIV and hot-wire anemometry are used to characterize the dynamics of coherent structures in the wake and at the windward junction of the obstacles. Complex physics occur during the deceleration phase of the pulsatile inflow. We propose a framework for understanding these physics based on self-induced vortex propagation, similar to the phenomena exhibited by vortex rings.

Funding Mechanisms for Ecosystem Services Projects

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Russell, V.

2014-12-01

Ecosystem services projects ideally should be funded through commoditized markets. Where those markets do not exist financing directly from interested private sector parties can be a direct link between business interested in fulfilling sustainability goals and project implementers. Challenges exist, however in 1) linking those interests; 2) carefully quantifying the services produced, their true costs to implement and meeting protocol standards; 3) measuring the success of projects, especially over lengthy periods of time; and 4) balancing issues related to multiple spatial scales for projects and funding to make a difference. Examples from National Forest Foundation's experience implementing carbon and water projects with multiple private sector funders and the USDA Forest Service will highlight experiences and lessons learned in funding and implementing ecosystem service projects.

The Council of Academic Hospitals of Ontario (CAHO) Adopting Research to Improve Care (ARTIC) Program: Reach, Sustainability, Spread and Lessons Learned from an Implementation Funding Model

PubMed Central

Grouchy, Michelle; Graham, Ian D.; Shandling, Maureen; Doyle, Winnie; Straus, Sharon E.

2016-01-01

Despite evidence on what works in healthcare, there is a significant gap in the time it takes to bring research into practice. The Council of Academic Hospitals of Ontario's Adopting Research to Improve Care program addresses this research-to-practice gap by incorporating the following components into its funding program: strategic selection of evidence for implementation, education and training for implementation, implementation supports, executive champions and governance, and evaluation. Funded projects have been sustained (76% reported full sustainability) and spread to over 200 new sites. Lessons learned include the following: assess readiness, develop tailored implementation materials, consider characteristics of implementation supports, protect champion time and consider evaluation feasibility. PMID:27232234

Aviation obstacle auto-extraction using remote sensing information

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zimmer, N.; Lugsch, W.; Ravenscroft, D.; Schiefele, J.

2008-10-01

An Obstacle, in the aviation context, may be any natural, man-made, fixed or movable object, permanent or temporary. Currently, the most common way to detect relevant aviation obstacles from an aircraft or helicopter for navigation purposes and collision avoidance is the use of merged infrared and synthetic information of obstacle data. Several algorithms have been established to utilize synthetic and infrared images to generate obstacle information. There might be a situation however where the system is error-prone and may not be able to consistently determine the current environment. This situation can be avoided when the system knows the true position of the obstacle. The quality characteristics of the obstacle data strongly depends on the quality of the source data such as maps and official publications. In some countries such as newly industrializing and developing countries, quality and quantity of obstacle information is not available. The aviation world has two specifications - RTCA DO-276A and ICAO ANNEX 15 Ch. 10 - which describe the requirements for aviation obstacles. It is essential to meet these requirements to be compliant with the specifications and to support systems based on these specifications, e.g. 3D obstacle warning systems where accurate coordinates based on WGS-84 is a necessity. Existing aerial and satellite or soon to exist high quality remote sensing data makes it feasible to think about automated aviation obstacle data origination. This paper will describe the feasibility to auto-extract aviation obstacles from remote sensing data considering limitations of image and extraction technologies. Quality parameters and possible resolution of auto-extracted obstacle data will be discussed and presented.

Obstacles for Teachers to Integrate Technology with Instruction

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Alenezi, Abdullah

2017-01-01

This paper covers type one and two educational obstacles in using technology in the classrooms, and considering those obstacles tries to find the answer to the following overarching research question which can help to gauge some obstacles for the educational technology integration for elementary and high school education: What obstacles do…

Fast obstacle detection based on multi-sensor information fusion

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lu, Linli; Ying, Jie

2014-11-01

Obstacle detection is one of the key problems in areas such as driving assistance and mobile robot navigation, which cannot meet the actual demand by using a single sensor. A method is proposed to realize the real-time access to the information of the obstacle in front of the robot and calculating the real size of the obstacle area according to the mechanism of the triangle similarity in process of imaging by fusing datum from a camera and an ultrasonic sensor, which supports the local path planning decision. In the part of image analyzing, the obstacle detection region is limited according to complementary principle. We chose ultrasonic detection range as the region for obstacle detection when the obstacle is relatively near the robot, and the travelling road area in front of the robot is the region for a relatively-long-distance detection. The obstacle detection algorithm is adapted from a powerful background subtraction algorithm ViBe: Visual Background Extractor. We extracted an obstacle free region in front of the robot in the initial frame, this region provided a reference sample set of gray scale value for obstacle detection. Experiments of detecting different obstacles at different distances respectively, give the accuracy of the obstacle detection and the error percentage between the calculated size and the actual size of the detected obstacle. Experimental results show that the detection scheme can effectively detect obstacles in front of the robot and provide size of the obstacle with relatively high dimensional accuracy.

Obstacles to TQM success in health care systems.

PubMed

Mosadeghrad, Ali Mohammad

2013-01-01

Many healthcare organisations have found it difficult to implement total quality management (TQM) successfully. The aim of this paper is to explore the barriers to TQM successful implementation in the healthcare sector. This paper reports a literature review exploring the major reasons for the failure of TQM programmes in healthcare organisations. TQM implementation and its impact depend heavily on the ability of managers to adopt and adapt its values and concepts in professional healthcare organisations. Unsuccessful TQM efforts in healthcare organisations can be attributed to the strongly departmentalised, bureaucratic and hierarchical structure, professional autonomy, tensions between managers and professionals and the difficulties involved in evaluating healthcare processes and outcomes. Other obstacles to TQM success include lack of consistent managers' and employees' commitment to and involvement in TQM implementation, poor leadership and management, lack of a quality-oriented culture, insufficient training, and inadequate resources. The review was limited to empirical articles written in the English language during the past 30 years (1980-2010). The findings of this article provide policy makers and managers with a practical understanding of the factors that are likely to obstruct TQM implementation in the healthcare sector. Understanding the factors that obstruct TQM implementation would enable managers to develop more effective strategies for implementing TQM successfully in healthcare organisations.

Comparison of results of an obstacle resolving microscale model with wind tunnel data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Grawe, David; Schlünzen, K. Heinke; Pascheke, Frauke

2013-11-01

The microscale transport and stream model MITRAS has been improved and a new technique has been implemented to improve numerical stability for complex obstacle configurations. Results of the updated version have been compared with wind tunnel data using an evaluation method that has been established for simple obstacle configurations. MITRAS is a part of the M-SYS model system for the assessment of ambient air quality. A comparison of model results for the flow field against quality ensured wind tunnel data has been carried out for both idealised and realistic test cases. Results of the comparison show a very good agreement of the wind field for most test cases and identify areas of possible improvement of the model. The evaluated MITRAS results can be used as input data for the M-SYS microscale chemistry model MICTM. This paper describes how such a comparison can be carried out for simple as well as realistic obstacle configurations and what difficulties arise.

Implementing a Student-Based Funding Policy: Considerations for School Districts

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shambaugh, Larisa S.; Chambers, Jay G.

2009-01-01

As education budgets continue to tighten, increased attention is focused on how school districts can best distribute existing funds to schools and how schools can best use these funds. Student-based funding (SBF)--sometimes referred to as a weighted student formula--is one approach that school districts have taken during the past decade. SBF…

Tracked robot controllers for climbing obstacles autonomously

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Vincent, Isabelle

2009-05-01

Research in mobile robot navigation has demonstrated some success in navigating flat indoor environments while avoiding obstacles. However, the challenge of analyzing complex environments to climb obstacles autonomously has had very little success due to the complexity of the task. Unmanned ground vehicles currently exhibit simple autonomous behaviours compared to the human ability to move in the world. This paper presents the control algorithms designed for a tracked mobile robot to autonomously climb obstacles by varying its tracks configuration. Two control algorithms are proposed to solve the autonomous locomotion problem for climbing obstacles. First, a reactive controller evaluates the appropriate geometric configuration based on terrain and vehicle geometric considerations. Then, a reinforcement learning algorithm finds alternative solutions when the reactive controller gets stuck while climbing an obstacle. The methodology combines reactivity to learning. The controllers have been demonstrated in box and stair climbing simulations. The experiments illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach for crossing obstacles.

A Multi-Level Examination of Stakeholder Perspectives of Implementation of Evidence-Based Practices in a Large Urban Publicly-Funded Mental Health System.

PubMed

Beidas, Rinad S; Stewart, Rebecca E; Adams, Danielle R; Fernandez, Tara; Lustbader, Susanna; Powell, Byron J; Aarons, Gregory A; Hoagwood, Kimberly E; Evans, Arthur C; Hurford, Matthew O; Rubin, Ronnie; Hadley, Trevor; Mandell, David S; Barg, Frances K

2016-11-01

Our goal was to identify barriers and facilitators to the implementation of evidence-based practices from the perspectives of multiple stakeholders in a large publicly funded mental health system. We completed 56 interviews with three stakeholder groups: treatment developers (n = 7), agency administrators (n = 33), and system leadership (n = 16). The three stakeholder groups converged on the importance of inner (e.g., agency competing resources and demands, therapist educational background) and outer context (e.g., funding) factors as barriers to implementation. Potential threats to implementation and sustainability included the fiscal landscape of community mental health clinics and an evolving workforce. Intervention characteristics were rarely endorsed as barriers. Inner context, outer context, and intervention characteristics were all seen as important facilitators. All stakeholders endorsed the importance of coordinated collaboration across stakeholder groups within the system to successfully implement evidence-based practices.

Planning Process Obstacles and Opportunities.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Doyle, Patricia C.

1997-01-01

Argues that obstacles exist in the Public Library Association (PLA) planning process that can be resolved by developing relationships between materials in the collection and PLA roles. Proposes changes to help reduce conflict in the PLA planning process and discusses process obstacles, relationships as the key providing better service, and…

Surface obstacles in pulsatile flow

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Carr, Ian A.; Plesniak, Michael W.

2016-11-01

Flows past obstacles mounted on flat surfaces have been widely studied due to their ubiquity in nature and engineering. For nearly all of these studies, the freestream flow over the obstacle was steady, i.e. constant velocity unidirectional flow. Unsteady, pulsatile flows occur frequently in biology, geophysics, biomedical engineering, etc. Our study is aimed at extending the comprehensive knowledge base that exists for steady flows to considerably more complex pulsatile flows. Beyond the important practical applications, characterizing the vortex and wake dynamics of flows around surface obstacles embedded in pulsatile flows can provide insights into the underlying physics in all wake and junction flows. In this study, we experimentally investigated the wake of four canonical surface obstacles: hemisphere, cube, and circular cylinders with aspect ratio of 1:1 and 2:1. Phase-averaged PIV and hot-wire anemometry are used to characterize the dynamics of coherent structures in the wake and at the windward junction of the obstacles. Complex physics occur during the deceleration phase of the pulsatile inflow. We propose a framework for understanding these physics based on self-induced vortex propagation, similar to the phenomena exhibited by vortex rings. This material is based in part upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant Number CBET-1236351, and GW Centeor Biomimetics and Bioinspired Engineering (COBRE).

Response properties of ON-OFF retinal ganglion cells to high-order stimulus statistics.

PubMed

Xiao, Lei; Gong, Han-Yan; Gong, Hai-Qing; Liang, Pei-Ji; Zhang, Pu-Ming

2014-10-17

The visual stimulus statistics are the fundamental parameters to provide the reference for studying visual coding rules. In this study, the multi-electrode extracellular recording experiments were designed and implemented on bullfrog retinal ganglion cells to explore the neural response properties to the changes in stimulus statistics. The changes in low-order stimulus statistics, such as intensity and contrast, were clearly reflected in the neuronal firing rate. However, it was difficult to distinguish the changes in high-order statistics, such as skewness and kurtosis, only based on the neuronal firing rate. The neuronal temporal filtering and sensitivity characteristics were further analyzed. We observed that the peak-to-peak amplitude of the temporal filter and the neuronal sensitivity, which were obtained from either neuronal ON spikes or OFF spikes, could exhibit significant changes when the high-order stimulus statistics were changed. These results indicate that in the retina, the neuronal response properties may be reliable and powerful in carrying some complex and subtle visual information. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Effects of visual cue and response assignment on spatial stimulus coding in stimulus-response compatibility.

PubMed

Nishimura, Akio; Yokosawa, Kazuhiko

2012-01-01

Tlauka and McKenna ( 2000 ) reported a reversal of the traditional stimulus-response compatibility (SRC) effect (faster responding to a stimulus presented on the same side than to one on the opposite side) when the stimulus appearing on one side of a display is a member of a superordinate unit that is largely on the opposite side. We investigated the effects of a visual cue that explicitly shows a superordinate unit, and of assignment of multiple stimuli within each superordinate unit to one response, on the SRC effect based on superordinate unit position. Three experiments revealed that stimulus-response assignment is critical, while the visual cue plays a minor role, in eliciting the SRC effect based on the superordinate unit position. Findings suggest bidirectional interaction between perception and action and simultaneous spatial stimulus coding according to multiple frames of reference, with contribution of each coding to the SRC effect flexibly varying with task situations.

Inertial navigation sensor integrated obstacle detection system

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bhanu, Bir (Inventor); Roberts, Barry A. (Inventor)

1992-01-01

A system that incorporates inertial sensor information into optical flow computations to detect obstacles and to provide alternative navigational paths free from obstacles. The system is a maximally passive obstacle detection system that makes selective use of an active sensor. The active detection typically utilizes a laser. Passive sensor suite includes binocular stereo, motion stereo and variable fields-of-view. Optical flow computations involve extraction, derotation and matching of interest points from sequential frames of imagery, for range interpolation of the sensed scene, which in turn provides obstacle information for purposes of safe navigation.

The Council of Academic Hospitals of Ontario (CAHO) Adopting Research to Improve Care (ARTIC) Program: Reach, Sustainability, Spread and Lessons Learned from an Implementation Funding Model.

PubMed

Moore, Julia E; Grouchy, Michelle; Graham, Ian D; Shandling, Maureen; Doyle, Winnie; Straus, Sharon E

2016-05-01

Despite evidence on what works in healthcare, there is a significant gap in the time it takes to bring research into practice. The Council of Academic Hospitals of Ontario's Adopting Research to Improve Care program addresses this research-to-practice gap by incorporating the following components into its funding program: strategic selection of evidence for implementation, education and training for implementation, implementation supports, executive champions and governance, and evaluation. Funded projects have been sustained (76% reported full sustainability) and spread to over 200 new sites. Lessons learned include the following: assess readiness, develop tailored implementation materials, consider characteristics of implementation supports, protect champion time and consider evaluation feasibility. Copyright © 2016 Longwoods Publishing.

75 FR 9244 - Fungibility Plan and Follow-Up Reporting To Implement Section 901 on Voucher Funds for Displaced...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-03-01

...-Up Reporting To Implement Section 901 on Voucher Funds for Displaced Hurricane Katrina and Rita... comments on the subject proposal. Eligible PHAs in areas most heavily impacted by Hurricanes Katrina and... purposes to Aid Formerly Assisted Families Displaced by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. OMB Approval Number...

Obstacle Recognition Based on Machine Learning for On-Chip LiDAR Sensors in a Cyber-Physical System

PubMed Central

Beruvides, Gerardo

2017-01-01

Collision avoidance is an important feature in advanced driver-assistance systems, aimed at providing correct, timely and reliable warnings before an imminent collision (with objects, vehicles, pedestrians, etc.). The obstacle recognition library is designed and implemented to address the design and evaluation of obstacle detection in a transportation cyber-physical system. The library is integrated into a co-simulation framework that is supported on the interaction between SCANeR software and Matlab/Simulink. From the best of the authors’ knowledge, two main contributions are reported in this paper. Firstly, the modelling and simulation of virtual on-chip light detection and ranging sensors in a cyber-physical system, for traffic scenarios, is presented. The cyber-physical system is designed and implemented in SCANeR. Secondly, three specific artificial intelligence-based methods for obstacle recognition libraries are also designed and applied using a sensory information database provided by SCANeR. The computational library has three methods for obstacle detection: a multi-layer perceptron neural network, a self-organization map and a support vector machine. Finally, a comparison among these methods under different weather conditions is presented, with very promising results in terms of accuracy. The best results are achieved using the multi-layer perceptron in sunny and foggy conditions, the support vector machine in rainy conditions and the self-organized map in snowy conditions. PMID:28906450

Obstacle Recognition Based on Machine Learning for On-Chip LiDAR Sensors in a Cyber-Physical System.

PubMed

Castaño, Fernando; Beruvides, Gerardo; Haber, Rodolfo E; Artuñedo, Antonio

2017-09-14

Collision avoidance is an important feature in advanced driver-assistance systems, aimed at providing correct, timely and reliable warnings before an imminent collision (with objects, vehicles, pedestrians, etc.). The obstacle recognition library is designed and implemented to address the design and evaluation of obstacle detection in a transportation cyber-physical system. The library is integrated into a co-simulation framework that is supported on the interaction between SCANeR software and Matlab/Simulink. From the best of the authors' knowledge, two main contributions are reported in this paper. Firstly, the modelling and simulation of virtual on-chip light detection and ranging sensors in a cyber-physical system, for traffic scenarios, is presented. The cyber-physical system is designed and implemented in SCANeR. Secondly, three specific artificial intelligence-based methods for obstacle recognition libraries are also designed and applied using a sensory information database provided by SCANeR. The computational library has three methods for obstacle detection: a multi-layer perceptron neural network, a self-organization map and a support vector machine. Finally, a comparison among these methods under different weather conditions is presented, with very promising results in terms of accuracy. The best results are achieved using the multi-layer perceptron in sunny and foggy conditions, the support vector machine in rainy conditions and the self-organized map in snowy conditions.

Shock interaction behind a pair of cylindrical obstacles

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Liu, Heng; Mazumdar, Raoul; Eliasson, Veronica

2014-11-01

The body of work focuses on two-dimensional numerical simulations of shock interaction with a pair of cylindrical obstacles, varying the obstacle separation and incident shock strength. With the shock waves propagating parallel to the center-line between the two cylindrical obstacles, the shock strengths simulated vary from a Mach of 1.4 to a Mach of 2.4, against a wide range of obstacle separation distance to their diameters. These cases are simulated via a software package called Overture, which is used to solve the inviscid Euler equations of gas dynamics on overlapping grids with adaptive mesh refinement. The goal of these cases is to find a so-called ``safe'' region for obstacle spacing and varying shock Mach numbers, such that the pressure in the ``safe'' region is reduced downstream of the obstacles. The benefits apply to both building and armor design for the purpose of shock wave mitigation to keep humans and equipment safe. The results obtained from the simulations confirm that the length of the ``safe'' region and the degree of shock wave attenuation depend on the ratio of obstacle separation distance to obstacle diameter. The influence of various Mach number is also discussed.

Energy dissipation by submarine obstacles during landslide impact on reservoir - potentially avoiding catastrophic dam collapse

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kafle, Jeevan; Kattel, Parameshwari; Mergili, Martin; Fischer, Jan-Thomas; Tuladhar, Bhadra Man; Pudasaini, Shiva P.

2017-04-01

Dense geophysical mass flows such as landslides, debris flows and debris avalanches may generate super tsunami waves as they impact water bodies such as the sea, hydraulic reservoirs or mountain lakes. Here, we apply a comprehensive and general two-phase, physical-mathematical mass flow model (Pudasaini, 2012) that consists of non-linear and hyperbolic-parabolic partial differential equations for mass and momentum balances, and present novel, high-resolution simulation results for two-phase flows, as a mixture of solid grains and viscous fluid, impacting fluid reservoirs with obstacles. The simulations demonstrate that due to the presence of different obstacles in the water body, the intense flow-obstacle-interaction dramatically reduces the flow momentum resulting in the rapid energy dissipation around the obstacles. With the increase of obstacle height overtopping decreases but, the deflection and capturing (holding) of solid mass increases. In addition, the submarine solid mass is captured by the multiple obstacles and the moving mass decreases both in amount and speed as each obstacle causes the flow to deflect into two streams and also captures a portion of it. This results in distinct tsunami and submarine flow dynamics with multiple surface water and submarine debris waves. This novel approach can be implemented in open source GIS modelling framework r.avaflow, and be applied in hazard mitigation, prevention and relevant engineering or environmental tasks. This might be in particular for process chains, such as debris impacts in lakes and subsequent overtopping. So, as the complex flow-obstacle-interactions strongly and simultaneously dissipate huge energy at impact such installations potentially avoid great threat against the integrity of the dam. References: Pudasaini, S. P. (2012): A general two-phase debris flow model. J. Geophys. Res. 117, F03010, doi: 10.1029/ 2011JF002186.

NEN Division Funding Gap Analysis

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

Esch, Ernst I.; Goettee, Jeffrey D.; Desimone, David J.

The work in NEN Division revolves around proliferation detection. The sponsor funding model seems to have shifted over the last decades. For the past three lustra, sponsors are mainly interested in funding ideas and detection systems that are already at a technical readiness level 6 (TRL 6 -- one step below an industrial prototype) or higher. Once this level is reached, the sponsoring agency is willing to fund the commercialization, implementation, and training for the systems (TRL 8, 9). These sponsors are looking for a fast turnaround (1-2 years) technology development efforts to implement technology. To support the critical nationalmore » and international needs for nonprolifertion solutions, we have to maintain a fluent stream of subject matter expertise from the fundamental principals of radiation detection through prototype development all the way to the implementation and training of others. NEN Division has large funding gaps in the Valley of Death region. In the current competitive climate for nuclear nonproliferation projects, it is imminent to increase our lead in this field.« less

Implementing Global Fund programs: a survey of opinions and experiences of the Principal Recipients across 69 countries.

PubMed

Wafula, Francis; Marwa, Charles; McCoy, David

2014-03-24

Principal Recipients (PRs) receive money from the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (Global Fund) to manage and implement programs. However, little research has gone into understanding their opinions and experiences. This survey set out to describe these, thereby providing a baseline against which changes in PR opinions and experiences can be assessed as the recently introduced new funding model is rolled out. An internet based questionnaire was administered to 315 PRs. A total of 115 responded from 69 countries in Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe and Latin America. The study was conducted between September and December 2012. Three quarters of PRs thought the progress update and disbursement request (PU/DR) system was a useful method of reporting grant progress. However, most felt that the grant negotiation processes were complicated, and that the grant rating system did not reflect performance.While nearly all PRs were happy with the work being done by sub-Recipients (92%) and Fund Portfolio Managers (86%), fewer were happy with the Office of the Inspector General (OIG). Non-government PRs were generally less happy with the OIG's work compared to government PRs.Most PRs thought the Global Fund's Voluntary Pooled Procurement system made procurement easier. However, only 29% said the system should be made compulsory.When asked which aspects of the Global Fund's operations needed improvement, most PRs said that the Fund should re-define and clarify the roles of different actors, minimize staff turnover at its Secretariat, and shorten the grant application and approval processes. All these are currently being addressed, either directly or indirectly, under a new funding model. Vigorous assessments should nonetheless follow the roll-out of the new model to ensure the areas that are most likely to affect PR performance realize sustained improvement. Opinions and experiences with the Global Fund were varied, with PRs having good communication with Fund

Detecting Negative Obstacles by Use of Radar

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Mittskus, Anthony; Lux, James

2006-01-01

Robotic land vehicles would be equipped with small radar systems to detect negative obstacles, according to a proposal. The term "negative obstacles" denotes holes, ditches, and any other terrain features characterized by abrupt steep downslopes that could be hazardous for vehicles. Video cameras and other optically based obstacle-avoidance sensors now installed on some robotic vehicles cannot detect obstacles under adverse lighting conditions. Even under favorable lighting conditions, they cannot detect negative obstacles. A radar system according to the proposal would be of the frequency-modulation/ continuous-wave (FM/CW) type. It would be installed on a vehicle, facing forward, possibly with a downward slant of the main lobe(s) of the radar beam(s) (see figure). It would utilize one or more wavelength(s) of the order of centimeters. Because such wavelengths are comparable to the characteristic dimensions of terrain features associated with negative hazards, a significant amount of diffraction would occur at such features. In effect, the diffraction would afford a limited ability to see corners and to see around corners. Hence, the system might utilize diffraction to detect corners associated with negative obstacles. At the time of reporting the information for this article, preliminary analyses of diffraction at simple negative obstacles had been performed, but an explicit description of how the system would utilize diffraction was not available.

Additive and Interactive Effects of Stimulus Degradation: No Challenge for CDP+

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ziegler, Johannes C.; Perry, Conrad; Zorzi, Marco

2009-01-01

S. O'Malley and D. Besner (2008) showed that additive effects of stimulus degradation and word frequency in reading aloud occur in the presence of nonwords but not in pure word lists. They argued that this dissociation presents a major challenge to interactive computational models of reading aloud and claimed that no currently implemented model is…

Generalization of a tactile stimulus in horses.

PubMed Central

Dougherty, D M; Lewis, P

1993-01-01

Using horses, we investigated the control of operant behavior by a tactile stimulus (the training stimulus) and the generalization of behavior to six other similar test stimuli. In a stall, the experimenters mounted a response panel in the doorway. Located on this panel were a response lever and a grain dispenser. The experimenters secured a tactile-stimulus belt to the horse's back. The stimulus belt was constructed by mounting seven solenoids along a piece of burlap in a manner that allowed each to provide the delivery of a tactile stimulus, a repetitive light tapping, at different locations (spaced 10.0 cm apart) along the horse's back. Two preliminary steps were necessary before generalization testing: training a measurable response (lip pressing) and training on several reinforcement schedules in the presence of a training stimulus (tapping by one of the solenoids). We then gave each horse two generalization test sessions. Results indicated that the horses' behavior was effectively controlled by the training stimulus. Horses made the greatest number of responses to the training stimulus, and the tendency to respond to the other test stimuli diminished as the stimuli became farther away from the training stimulus. These findings are discussed in the context of behavioral principles and their relevance to the training of horses. PMID:8315368

Generalization of a tactile stimulus in horses.

PubMed

Dougherty, D M; Lewis, P

1993-05-01

Using horses, we investigated the control of operant behavior by a tactile stimulus (the training stimulus) and the generalization of behavior to six other similar test stimuli. In a stall, the experimenters mounted a response panel in the doorway. Located on this panel were a response lever and a grain dispenser. The experimenters secured a tactile-stimulus belt to the horse's back. The stimulus belt was constructed by mounting seven solenoids along a piece of burlap in a manner that allowed each to provide the delivery of a tactile stimulus, a repetitive light tapping, at different locations (spaced 10.0 cm apart) along the horse's back. Two preliminary steps were necessary before generalization testing: training a measurable response (lip pressing) and training on several reinforcement schedules in the presence of a training stimulus (tapping by one of the solenoids). We then gave each horse two generalization test sessions. Results indicated that the horses' behavior was effectively controlled by the training stimulus. Horses made the greatest number of responses to the training stimulus, and the tendency to respond to the other test stimuli diminished as the stimuli became farther away from the training stimulus. These findings are discussed in the context of behavioral principles and their relevance to the training of horses.

Strategies for obstacle avoidance during walking in the cat.

PubMed

Chu, Kevin M I; Seto, Sandy H; Beloozerova, Irina N; Marlinski, Vladimir

2017-08-01

Avoiding obstacles is essential for successful navigation through complex environments. This study aimed to clarify what strategies are used by a typical quadruped, the cat, to avoid obstacles during walking. Four cats walked along a corridor 2.5 m long and 25 or 15 cm wide. Obstacles, small round objects 2.5 cm in diameter and 1 cm in height, were placed on the floor in various locations. Movements of the paw were recorded with a motion capture and analysis system (Visualeyez, PTI). During walking in the wide corridor, cats' preferred strategy for avoiding a single obstacle was circumvention, during which the stride direction changed while stride duration and swing-to-stride duration ratio were preserved. Another strategy, stepping over the obstacle, was used during walking in the narrow corridor, when lateral deviations of walking trajectory were restricted. Stepping over the obstacle involved changes in two consecutive strides. The stride preceding the obstacle was shortened, and swing-to-stride ratio was reduced. The obstacle was negotiated in the next stride of increased height and normal duration and swing-to-stride ratio. During walking on a surface with multiple obstacles, both strategies were used. To avoid contact with the obstacle, cats placed the paw away from the object at a distance roughly equal to the diameter of the paw. During obstacle avoidance cats prefer to alter muscle activities without altering the locomotor rhythm. We hypothesize that a choice of the strategy for obstacle avoidance is determined by minimizing the complexity of neuro-motor processes required to achieve the behavioral goal. NEW & NOTEWORTHY In a study of feline locomotor behavior we found that the preferred strategy to avoid a small obstacle is circumvention. During circumvention, stride direction changes but length and temporal structure are preserved. Another strategy, stepping over the obstacle, is used in narrow walkways. During overstepping, two strides adjust. A stride

Speeded Reaching Movements around Invisible Obstacles

PubMed Central

Hudson, Todd E.; Wolfe, Uta; Maloney, Laurence T.

2012-01-01

We analyze the problem of obstacle avoidance from a Bayesian decision-theoretic perspective using an experimental task in which reaches around a virtual obstacle were made toward targets on an upright monitor. Subjects received monetary rewards for touching the target and incurred losses for accidentally touching the intervening obstacle. The locations of target-obstacle pairs within the workspace were varied from trial to trial. We compared human performance to that of a Bayesian ideal movement planner (who chooses motor strategies maximizing expected gain) using the Dominance Test employed in Hudson et al. (2007). The ideal movement planner suffers from the same sources of noise as the human, but selects movement plans that maximize expected gain in the presence of that noise. We find good agreement between the predictions of the model and actual performance in most but not all experimental conditions. PMID:23028276

Self-Tuning Method for Increased Obstacle Detection Reliability Based on Internet of Things LiDAR Sensor Models

PubMed Central

2018-01-01

On-chip LiDAR sensors for vehicle collision avoidance are a rapidly expanding area of research and development. The assessment of reliable obstacle detection using data collected by LiDAR sensors has become a key issue that the scientific community is actively exploring. The design of a self-tuning methodology and its implementation are presented in this paper, to maximize the reliability of LiDAR sensors network for obstacle detection in the ‘Internet of Things’ (IoT) mobility scenarios. The Webots Automobile 3D simulation tool for emulating sensor interaction in complex driving environments is selected in order to achieve that objective. Furthermore, a model-based framework is defined that employs a point-cloud clustering technique, and an error-based prediction model library that is composed of a multilayer perceptron neural network, and k-nearest neighbors and linear regression models. Finally, a reinforcement learning technique, specifically a Q-learning method, is implemented to determine the number of LiDAR sensors that are required to increase sensor reliability for obstacle localization tasks. In addition, a IoT driving assistance user scenario, connecting a five LiDAR sensor network is designed and implemented to validate the accuracy of the computational intelligence-based framework. The results demonstrated that the self-tuning method is an appropriate strategy to increase the reliability of the sensor network while minimizing detection thresholds. PMID:29748521

Self-Tuning Method for Increased Obstacle Detection Reliability Based on Internet of Things LiDAR Sensor Models.

PubMed

Castaño, Fernando; Beruvides, Gerardo; Villalonga, Alberto; Haber, Rodolfo E

2018-05-10

On-chip LiDAR sensors for vehicle collision avoidance are a rapidly expanding area of research and development. The assessment of reliable obstacle detection using data collected by LiDAR sensors has become a key issue that the scientific community is actively exploring. The design of a self-tuning methodology and its implementation are presented in this paper, to maximize the reliability of LiDAR sensors network for obstacle detection in the 'Internet of Things' (IoT) mobility scenarios. The Webots Automobile 3D simulation tool for emulating sensor interaction in complex driving environments is selected in order to achieve that objective. Furthermore, a model-based framework is defined that employs a point-cloud clustering technique, and an error-based prediction model library that is composed of a multilayer perceptron neural network, and k-nearest neighbors and linear regression models. Finally, a reinforcement learning technique, specifically a Q-learning method, is implemented to determine the number of LiDAR sensors that are required to increase sensor reliability for obstacle localization tasks. In addition, a IoT driving assistance user scenario, connecting a five LiDAR sensor network is designed and implemented to validate the accuracy of the computational intelligence-based framework. The results demonstrated that the self-tuning method is an appropriate strategy to increase the reliability of the sensor network while minimizing detection thresholds.

Identifying and Overcoming Obstacles to Point-of-Care Data Collection for Eye Care Professionals

PubMed Central

Lobach, David F.; Silvey, Garry M.; Macri, Jennifer M.; Hunt, Megan; Kacmaz, Roje O.; Lee, Paul P.

2005-01-01

Supporting data entry by clinicians is considered one of the greatest challenges in implementing electronic health records. In this paper we describe a formative evaluation study using three different methodologies through which we identified obstacles to point-of-care data entry for eye care and then used the formative process to develop and test solutions to overcome these obstacles. The greatest obstacles were supporting free text annotation of clinical observations and accommodating the creation of detailed diagrams in multiple colors. To support free text entry, we arrived at an approach that captures an image of a free text note and associates this image with related data elements in an encounter note. The detailed diagrams included a color pallet that allowed changing pen color with a single stroke and also captured the diagrams as an image associated with related data elements. During observed sessions with simulated patients, these approaches satisfied the clinicians’ documentation needs by capturing the full range of clinical complexity that arises in practice. PMID:16779083

Experiences of Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality-funded projects that implemented practices for safer patient care.

PubMed

Taylor, Stephanie L; Ridgely, M Susan; Greenberg, Michael D; Sorbero, Melony E S; Teleki, Stephanie S; Damberg, Cheryl L; Farley, Donna O

2009-04-01

To synthesize lessons learned from the experiences of Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality-funded patient safety projects in implementing safe practices. Self-reported data from individual and group interviews with Original, Challenge, and Partnerships in Implementing Patient Safety (PIPS) grantees, from 2003 to 2006. Interviews with three grantee groups (n=60 total) implementing safe practice projects, with comparisons on factors influencing project implementation and sustainability. Semi-structured protocols contained open-ended questions on lessons learned and more structured questions on factors associated with project implementation and sustainability. The grantees shared common experiences, frequently identifying lessons learned regarding structural components needing to be in place before implementation, components of the implementation process, components of interventions' results needed for sustainability, changes in timelines or activities, unanticipated issues, and staff acceptance/adoption. Also, fewer Original grants had many of the factors related project to implementation/sustainability than the PIPS or Challenge grantees had. Although much of what was reported seemed like common sense, surprisingly few projects actually planned for or expected many of the barriers or facilitators they experienced during their project implementation. Others implementing practice improvements likely will share the experiences and issues identified by these implementation projects and can learn from their lessons.

Sample Stimulus Control Shaping and Restricted Stimulus Control in Capuchin Monkeys: A Methodological Note

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brino, Ana Leda F., Barros, Romariz S., Galvao, Ol; Garotti, M.; Da Cruz, Ilara R. N.; Santos, Jose R.; Dube, William V.; McIlvane, William J.

2011-01-01

This paper reports use of sample stimulus control shaping procedures to teach arbitrary matching-to-sample to 2 capuchin monkeys ("Cebus apella"). The procedures started with identity matching-to-sample. During shaping, stimulus features of the sample were altered gradually, rendering samples and comparisons increasingly physically dissimilar. The…

Obstacle Avoidance for Quadcopter using Ultrasonic Sensor

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fazlur Rahman, Muhammad; Adhy Sasongko, Rianto

2018-04-01

An obstacle avoidance system is being proposed. The system will combine available flight controller with a proposed avoidance method as a proof of concept. Quadcopter as a UAV is integrated with the system which consist of several modes in order to do avoidance. As the previous study, obstacle will be determined using ultrasonic sensor and servo. As result, the quadcopter will move according to its mode and successfully avoid obstacle.

Self-bending elastic waves and obstacle circumventing in wireless power transfer

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tol, S.; Xia, Y.; Ruzzene, M.; Erturk, A.

2017-04-01

We demonstrate self-bending of elastic waves along convex trajectories by means of geometric and phased arrays. Potential applications include ultrasonic imaging and manipulation, wave focusing, and wireless power transfer around obstacles. The basic concept is illustrated through a geometric array, which is designed to implement a phase delay profile among the array elements that leads to self-bending along a specified circular trajectory. Experimental validation is conducted for the lowest asymmetric Lamb wave mode in a thin plate over a range of frequencies to investigate the bandwidth of the approach. Experiments also illustrate the functionality of the array as a transmitter to deliver elastic wave energy to a receiver/harvester located behind a large obstacle for electrical power extraction. It is shown that the trajectory is not distorted by the presence of the obstacle and circumventing is achieved. A linear phased array counterpart of the geometric array is then constructed to illustrate the concept by imposing proper time delays to the array elements, which allows the generation of different trajectories using the same line source. This capability is demonstrated by tailoring the path diameter in the phased array setting, which offers the flexibility and versatility to induce a variety of convex trajectories for self-bending elastic waves.

Regional decision-making and competitive funding : metropolitan planning organizations and the transportation investments generating economic recovery program.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2014-08-01

Transportation benefits and economic stimulus were behind the creation of the Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) program in 2009. New transportation funding programs exist in a landscape of other programs, and in addition ...

Obstacle Course Training Can Improve Mobility and Prevent Falls in People with Intellectual Disabilities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Van Hanegem, E.; Enkelaar, L.; Smulders, E.; Weerdesteyn, V.

2014-01-01

Background: Persons with intellectual disabilities (ID) constitute a special-needs population at high risk of falling. This is the first study to evaluate whether obstacle course training can improve mobility and prevent falls in this population. Methods: The intervention was implemented as part of an institution-wide health care improvement plan…

Transforming School Funding: A Guide to Implementing Student-Based Budgeting (SBB)

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rosenberg, David; Gordon, Jeff; Hsu, Betty

2014-01-01

Student-Based Budgeting (sometimes called Weighted Student Funding, or Fair Student Funding, depending on the district) differs fundamentally from the traditional funding model, which distributes resources to schools in the form of staff and dollars designated for specific purposes. Student-Based Budgeting (SBB) allocates dollars to schools based…

Performance Characterization of Obstacle Detection Algorithms for Aircraft Navigation

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kasturi, Rangachar; Camps, Octavia; Coraor, Lee; Gandhi, Tarak; Hartman, Kerry; Yang, Mau-Tsuen

2000-01-01

The research reported here is a part of NASA's Synthetic Vision System (SVS) project for the development of a High Speed Civil Transport Aircraft (HSCT). One of the components of the SVS is a module for detection of potential obstacles in the aircraft's flight path by analyzing the images captured by an on-board camera in real-time. Design of such a module includes the selection and characterization of robust, reliable, and fast techniques and their implementation for execution in real-time. This report describes the results of our research in realizing such a design.

Women’s orgasm obstacles: A qualitative study

PubMed Central

Nekoolaltak, Maryam; Keshavarz, Zohreh; Simbar, Masoumeh; Nazari, Ali Mohammad; Baghestani, Ahmad Reza

2017-01-01

Background: Woman’s orgasm plays a vital role in sexual compatibility and marital satisfaction. Orgasm in women is a learnable phenomenon that is influenced by several factors. Objective: The aim of this study is exploring obstacles to orgasm in Iranian married women. Materials and Methods: This qualitative study with directed content analysis approach was conducted in 2015-2016, on 20 Iranian married women who were individually interviewed at two medical clinics in Tehran, Iran. Results: Orgasm obstacles were explored in one category, 4 subcategories, and 25 codes. The main category was “Multidimensionality of women’s orgasm obstacles”. Subcategories and some codes included: Physical obstacles (wife’s or husband’s boredom, vaginal infection, insufficient vaginal lubrication), psychological obstacles (lack of sexual knowledge, shame, lack of concentration on sex due to household and children problems), relational obstacles (husband’s hurry, having a dispute and annoyance with spouse) and contextual obstacles (Irregular sleep hours, lack of privacy and inability to separate children’s bedroom from their parents, lack of peace at home). Conclusion: For prevention or treatment of female orgasm disorders, attention to physical factors is not enough. Obtaining a comprehensive history about physical, psychological, relational and contextual dimensions of woman’s life is necessary. PMID:29082366

Parallel and orthogonal stimulus in ultradiluted neural networks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sobral, G. A., Jr.; Vieira, V. M.; Lyra, M. L.; da Silva, C. R.

2006-10-01

Extending a model due to Derrida, Gardner, and Zippelius, we have studied the recognition ability of an extreme and asymmetrically diluted version of the Hopfield model for associative memory by including the effect of a stimulus in the dynamics of the system. We obtain exact results for the dynamic evolution of the average network superposition. The stimulus field was considered as proportional to the overlapping of the state of the system with a particular stimulated pattern. Two situations were analyzed, namely, the external stimulus acting on the initialization pattern (parallel stimulus) and the external stimulus acting on a pattern orthogonal to the initialization one (orthogonal stimulus). In both cases, we obtained the complete phase diagram in the parameter space composed of the stimulus field, thermal noise, and network capacity. Our results show that the system improves its recognition ability for parallel stimulus. For orthogonal stimulus two recognition phases emerge with the system locking at the initialization or stimulated pattern. We confront our analytical results with numerical simulations for the noiseless case T=0 .

Stepping over obstacles: gait patterns of healthy young and old adults.

PubMed

Chen, H C; Ashton-Miller, J A; Alexander, N B; Schultz, A B

1991-11-01

Falls associated with tripping over an obstacle can be devastating to elderly individuals, yet little is known about the strategies used for stepping over obstacles by either old or young adults. The gait of gender-matched groups of 24 young and 24 old healthy adults (mean ages 22 and 71 years) was studied during a 4 m approach to and while stepping over obstacles of 0, 25, 51, or 152 mm height and in level obstacle-free walking. Optoelectronic cameras and recorders were used to record approach and obstacle crossing speeds as well as bilateral lower extremity kinematic parameters that described foot placement and movement trajectories relative to the obstacle. The results showed that age had no effect on minimum swing foot clearance (FC) over an obstacle. For the 25 mm obstacle, mean FC was 64 mm, or approximately three times that used in level gait; FC increased nonlinearly with obstacle height for all subjects. Although no age differences were found in obstacle-free gait, old adults exhibited a significantly more conservative strategy when crossing obstacles, with slower crossing speed, shorter step length, and shorter obstacle-heel strike distance. In addition, the old adults crossed the obstacle so that it was 10% further forward in their obstacle-crossing step. Although all subjects successfully avoided the riskiest form of obstacle contact, tripping, 4/24 healthy old adults stepped on an obstacle, demonstrating an increased risk for obstacle contact with age.

Implementation of new educational methods: how to overcome obstacles?

PubMed

Mimica, Mladen

2010-03-01

A presentation of new educational methods was organized for students and teachers of the Faculty of Medicine in Mostar in 2006. Afterwards, the teachers and the students were given a questionnaire to fill on their attitude towards actual, traditional versus new educational methods. According to the results of the questionnaire, a lot of students and the majority of teachers prefer status quo, and, moreover, only 1/3 of teachers support implementation of the new educational methods. Due to the results of this survey, implementation of new educational methods was postponed for the following two years. Since the management of the Faculty of Medicine in Mostar was well aware of the fact that new educational methods help in teaching students about fundamental principles of critical thinking, life-long learning and constructive intellectual conflicts, it was concluded that implementation of new methods should be a necessity. In this academic year (2008/2009), after discussion at the Faculty Council, a new course "Modern educational methods" has been introduced into the curriculum. As the first phase, a new transitional method named "Contradiction with Evidence Based Solution" has been introduced in the workshop session. The proposed new method is a combination of the old, traditional presentation done by a teacher, and new methods which are student-centred. Realistic expectation is that implementation of other new educational methods would be easier after introduction of this transitional method. This implementation trial should be seen as a pilot project that could be introduced to other faculties, at first to those of the University of Mostar, and afterwards to other universities in the region.

Commercialisation of Biomarker Tests for Mental Illnesses: Advances and Obstacles.

PubMed

Chan, Man K; Cooper, Jason D; Bahn, Sabine

2015-12-01

Substantial strides have been made in the field of biomarker research for mental illnesses over the past few decades. However, no US FDA-cleared blood-based biomarker tests have been translated into routine clinical practice. Here, we review the challenges associated with commercialisation of research findings and discuss how these challenges can impede scientific impact and progress. Overall evidence indicates that a lack of research funding and poor reproducibility of findings were the most important obstacles to commercialization of biomarker tests. Fraud, pre-analytical and analytical limitations, and inappropriate statistical analysis are major contributors to poor reproducibility. Increasingly, these issues are acknowledged and actions are being taken to improve data validity, raising the hope that robust biomarker tests will become available in the foreseeable future. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Standing in line. Hospitals and doctors say rules could put stimulus money out of reach.

PubMed

Evans, Melanie

2010-02-22

One year after the stimulus law was signed, hospitals and doctors have yet to see much of the health IT cash it holds for them. Now they're worried the rules attached to the funds will keep the money out of reach. And states are prepaling to adapt without the Medicaid boost the law gave them. "It's drastic times", says Craig Becker, left, of the Tennessee Hospital Association, who is lobbying for a hospital revenue tax to help fill the gap.

Using stimulus shaping and fading to establish stimulus control in normal and retarded children.

PubMed

Smeets, P M; Lancioni, G E; Hoogeveen, F R

1984-09-01

The present study was an effort to investigate whether, in addition to his IQ level, the child's ability to identify all relevant stimulus components would affect the frequency of overselective responding. Children of different IQ levels (i.e. normal, educably retarded, and trainable retarded children) participated. Subjects were trained to learn the meanings of four sets of fictitious words, i.e. two sets containing words printed in Roman letters (Roman words), and two sets containing words printed in Hebrew letters (Hebrew words). All subjects could identify the words of each set. The normal and educably retarded subjects could read aloud the Roman words, whereas the trainable retarded subjects could not. None of the subjects could read the Hebrew words. Two training procedures were used, one requiring transfer of stimulus control (fading), and one which did not (stimulus shaping). The results indicated that, firstly, the discrimination learning of the normal and educably retarded subjects covaried with the IQ level and their ability to read the words. The learning rate was not affected by the training procedures. Secondly, the trainable retarded subjects learned much better through stimulus shaping than through fading. Their acquisition rates were slow and not affected by the types of letters. Thirdly, the training procedures had no effect on the breadth of stimulus control. Instead, it covaried as a function of the IQ level (all groups) and of the child's ability to read the words (normal and educably retarded subjects). Fourthly, the training procedures had, however, considerable effect on which letters controlled the discriminations. When overselective selective responding was evident, the letters that had been associated with the prompts were more often functional than the other letters, but only for the words trained through stimulus shaping.

Optimal consensus algorithm integrated with obstacle avoidance

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, Jianan; Xin, Ming

2013-01-01

This article proposes a new consensus algorithm for the networked single-integrator systems in an obstacle-laden environment. A novel optimal control approach is utilised to achieve not only multi-agent consensus but also obstacle avoidance capability with minimised control efforts. Three cost functional components are defined to fulfil the respective tasks. In particular, an innovative nonquadratic obstacle avoidance cost function is constructed from an inverse optimal control perspective. The other two components are designed to ensure consensus and constrain the control effort. The asymptotic stability and optimality are proven. In addition, the distributed and analytical optimal control law only requires local information based on the communication topology to guarantee the proposed behaviours, rather than all agents' information. The consensus and obstacle avoidance are validated through simulations.

The stimulus integration area for horizontal vergence.

PubMed

Allison, Robert S; Howard, Ian P; Fang, Xueping

2004-06-01

Over what region of space are horizontal disparities integrated to form the stimulus for vergence? The vergence system might be expected to respond to disparities within a small area of interest to bring them into the range of precise stereoscopic processing. However, the literature suggests that disparities are integrated over a fairly large parafoveal area. We report the results of six experiments designed to explore the spatial characteristics of the stimulus for vergence. Binocular eye movements were recorded using magnetic search coils. Each dichoptic display consisted of a central target stimulus that the subject attempted to fuse, and a competing stimulus with conflicting disparity. In some conditions the target was stationary, providing a fixation stimulus. In other conditions, the disparity of the target changed to provide a vergence-tracking stimulus. The target and competing stimulus were combined in a variety of conditions including those in which (1) a transparent textured-disc target was superimposed on a competing textured background, (2) a textured-disc target filled the centre of a competing annular background, and (3) a small target was presented within the centre of a competing annular background of various inner diameters. In some conditions the target and competing stimulus were separated in stereoscopic depth. The results are consistent with a disparity integration area with a diameter of about 5 degrees. Stimuli beyond this integration area can drive vergence in their own right, but they do not appear to be summed or averaged with a central stimulus to form a combined disparity signal. A competing stimulus had less effect on vergence when separated from the target by a disparity pedestal. As a result, we propose that it may be more useful to think in terms of an integration volume for vergence rather than a two-dimensional retinal integration area.

Improvements in Obstacle Clearance Parameters and Reaction Time Over a Series of Obstacles Revealed After Five Repeated Testing Sessions in Older Adults.

PubMed

Jehu, Deborah A; Lajoie, Yves; Paquet, Nicole

2017-12-21

The purpose of this study was to investigate obstacle clearance and reaction time parameters when crossing a series of six obstacles in older adults. A second aim was to examine the repeated exposure of this testing protocol once per week for 5 weeks. In total, 10 older adults (five females; age: 67.0 ± 6.9 years) walked onto and over six obstacles of varying heights (range: 100-200 mm) while completing no reaction time, simple reaction time, and choice reaction time tasks once per week for 5 weeks. The highest obstacles elicited the lowest toe clearance, and the first three obstacles revealed smaller heel clearance compared with the last three obstacles. Dual tasking negatively impacted obstacle clearance parameters when information processing demands were high. Longer and less consistent time to completion was observed in Session 1 compared with Sessions 2-5. Finally, improvements in simple reaction time were displayed after Session 2, but choice reaction time gradually improved and did not reach a plateau after repeated testing.

Implementing Global Fund programs: a survey of opinions and experiences of the Principal Recipients across 69 countries

PubMed Central

2014-01-01

Background Principal Recipients (PRs) receive money from the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (Global Fund) to manage and implement programs. However, little research has gone into understanding their opinions and experiences. This survey set out to describe these, thereby providing a baseline against which changes in PR opinions and experiences can be assessed as the recently introduced new funding model is rolled out. Methodology An internet based questionnaire was administered to 315 PRs. A total of 115 responded from 69 countries in Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe and Latin America. The study was conducted between September and December 2012. Findings Three quarters of PRs thought the progress update and disbursement request (PU/DR) system was a useful method of reporting grant progress. However, most felt that the grant negotiation processes were complicated, and that the grant rating system did not reflect performance. While nearly all PRs were happy with the work being done by sub-Recipients (92%) and Fund Portfolio Managers (86%), fewer were happy with the Office of the Inspector General (OIG). Non-government PRs were generally less happy with the OIG’s work compared to government PRs. Most PRs thought the Global Fund’s Voluntary Pooled Procurement system made procurement easier. However, only 29% said the system should be made compulsory. When asked which aspects of the Global Fund’s operations needed improvement, most PRs said that the Fund should re-define and clarify the roles of different actors, minimize staff turnover at its Secretariat, and shorten the grant application and approval processes. All these are currently being addressed, either directly or indirectly, under a new funding model. Vigorous assessments should nonetheless follow the roll-out of the new model to ensure the areas that are most likely to affect PR performance realize sustained improvement. Conclusions Opinions and experiences with the Global Fund were

Reward Activates Stimulus-Specific and Task-Dependent Representations in Visual Association Cortices

PubMed Central

Muller, Timothy; Yeung, Nick; Waszak, Florian

2014-01-01

Humans reliably learn which actions lead to rewards. One prominent question is how credit is assigned to environmental stimuli that are acted upon. Recent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies have provided evidence that representations of rewarded stimuli are activated upon reward delivery, providing possible eligibility traces for credit assignment. Our study sought evidence of postreward activation in sensory cortices satisfying two conditions of instrumental learning: postreward activity should reflect the stimulus category that preceded reward (stimulus specificity), and should occur only if the stimulus was acted on to obtain reward (task dependency). Our experiment implemented two tasks in the fMRI scanner. The first was a perceptual decision-making task on degraded face and house stimuli. Stimulus specificity was evident as rewards activated the sensory cortices associated with face versus house perception more strongly after face versus house decisions, respectively, particularly in the fusiform face area. Stimulus specificity was further evident in a psychophysiological interaction analysis wherein face-sensitive areas correlated with nucleus accumbens activity after face-decision rewards, whereas house-sensitive areas correlated with nucleus accumbens activity after house-decision rewards. The second task required participants to make an instructed response. The criterion of task dependency was fulfilled as rewards after face versus house responses activated the respective association cortices to a larger degree when faces and houses were relevant to the performed task. Our study is the first to show that postreward sensory cortex activity meets these two key criteria of credit assignment, and does so independently from bottom-up perceptual processing. PMID:25411489

Statistics of dislocation pinning at localized obstacles

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

Dutta, A.; Bhattacharya, M., E-mail: mishreyee@vecc.gov.in; Barat, P.

2014-10-14

Pinning of dislocations at nanosized obstacles like precipitates, voids, and bubbles is a crucial mechanism in the context of phenomena like hardening and creep. The interaction between such an obstacle and a dislocation is often studied at fundamental level by means of analytical tools, atomistic simulations, and finite element methods. Nevertheless, the information extracted from such studies cannot be utilized to its maximum extent on account of insufficient information about the underlying statistics of this process comprising a large number of dislocations and obstacles in a system. Here, we propose a new statistical approach, where the statistics of pinning ofmore » dislocations by idealized spherical obstacles is explored by taking into account the generalized size-distribution of the obstacles along with the dislocation density within a three-dimensional framework. Starting with a minimal set of material parameters, the framework employs the method of geometrical statistics with a few simple assumptions compatible with the real physical scenario. The application of this approach, in combination with the knowledge of fundamental dislocation-obstacle interactions, has successfully been demonstrated for dislocation pinning at nanovoids in neutron irradiated type 316-stainless steel in regard to the non-conservative motion of dislocations. An interesting phenomenon of transition from rare pinning to multiple pinning regimes with increasing irradiation temperature is revealed.« less

Observing Behavior and Atypically Restricted Stimulus Control

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dube, William V.; Dickson, Chata A.; Balsamo, Lyn M.; O'Donnell, Kristin Lombard; Tomanari, Gerson Y.; Farren, Kevin M.; Wheeler, Emily E.; McIlvane, William J.

2010-01-01

Restricted stimulus control refers to discrimination learning with atypical limitations in the range of controlling stimuli or stimulus features. In the study reported here, 4 normally capable individuals and 10 individuals with intellectual disabilities (ID) performed two-sample delayed matching to sample. Sample-stimulus observing was recorded…

A computational model of amoeboid cell swimming in unbounded medium and through obstacles

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Campbell, Eric; Bagchi, Prosenjit

2017-11-01

Pseudopod-driven motility is commonly observed in eukaryotic cells. Pseudopodia are actin-rich protrusions of the cellular membrane which extend, bifurcate, and retract in cycles resulting in amoeboid locomotion. While actin-myosin interactions are responsible for pseudopod generation, cell deformability is crucial concerning pseudopod dynamics. Because pseudopodia are highly dynamic, cells are capable of deforming into complex shapes over time. Pseudopod-driven motility represents a multiscale and complex process, coupling cell deformation, protein biochemistry, and cytoplasmic and extracellular fluid motion. In this work, we present a 3D computational model of amoeboid cell swimming in an extracellular medium (ECM). The ECM is represented as a fluid medium with or without obstacles. The model integrates full cell deformation, a coarse-grain reaction-diffusion system for protein dynamics, and fluid interaction. Our model generates pseudopodia which bifurcate and retract, showing remarkable similarity to experimental observations. Influence of cell deformation, protein diffusivity and cytoplasmic viscosity on the swimming speed is analyzed in terms of altered pseudopod dynamics. Insights into the role of matrix porosity and obstacle size on cell motility are also provided. Funded by NSF CBET 1438255.

Investing Wisely and Quickly: Use of ARRA Funds in America's Great City Schools

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Naik, Manish; Yorkman, Michell; Casserly, Michael

2010-01-01

President Obama signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (the Recovery Act or ARRA) into law on February 17, 2009. This federal stimulus package provided an unprecedented infusion of new education aid for the nation's schools--more than $100 billion. To determine how the unprecedented federal infusion of education funding was…

Age Trends in Stimulus Overselectivity

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McHugh, Louise; Reed, Phil

2007-01-01

Stimulus overselectivity refers to the phenomenon whereby stimulus control over behavior is exerted only by a limited subset of the total number of stimuli present during discrimination learning. It often is displayed by individuals with autistic spectrum disorders or learning disabilities, but is not exclusive to those groups. The present studies…

National strategy for suicide prevention in Japan: impact of a national fund on progress of developing systems for suicide prevention and implementing initiatives among local authorities.

PubMed

Nakanishi, Miharu; Yamauchi, Takashi; Takeshima, Tadashi

2015-01-01

In Japan, the Cabinet Office released the 'General Principles of Suicide Prevention Policy' in 2007 and suggested nine initiatives. In 2009, a national fund was launched to help prefectures (the administrative divisions of Japan) and local authorities implement five categories of suicide-prevention programs. This paper examines the impact of the national fund on the establishment of the systems for suicide prevention and the implementation of these initiatives among local authorities. The present study included 1385 local authorities (79.5%) from all 47 prefectures that responded to the cross-sectional questionnaire survey. Improved suicide-prevention systems and the implementation of nine initiatives in April 2013 were observed among 265 local authorities (19.1%) that implemented 'Training of community service providers' and 'Public awareness campaigns'; 178 local authorities (12.9%) that implemented 'Face-to-face counseling', 'Training of community service providers' and 'Public awareness campaigns'; and 324 local authorities (23.4%) that implemented 'Trauma-informed policies and practices'. There was no significant difference in suicide-prevention systems and the implementation of nine initiatives between 203 local authorities (14.7%) that implemented only 'Public awareness campaigns' and 231 local authorities (16.7%) that did not implement any suicide-prevention programs. The results of our study suggest that the national fund promoted the establishment of community systems for suicide prevention and helped implement initiatives among local authorities. The national suicide-prevention strategy in Japan should explore a standard package of programs to guide community suicide-prevention efforts with a sustained workforce among local authorities. © 2014 The Authors. Psychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences © 2014 Japanese Society of Psychiatry and Neurology.

Mathematical Models of Smart Obstacles

DTIC Science & Technology

2006-10-01

Matematica “G. Castelnuovo” Università di Roma “La Sapienza”, Piazzale Aldo Moro 2 00185 Roma Italy Ph. N. +39-06-49913282, FAX N. +39-06...Dipartimento di Matematica G. Castelnuovo Università di Roma La Sapienza, Piazzale Aldo Moro 2 00185 Roma Italy 8. PERFORMING ORGANIZATION REPORT NUMBER 9... Matematica G. Castelnuovo Università di Roma “La Sapienza” 00185 Roma, Italy 2 Smart (or active) obstacles are obstacles that when illuminated by an

Imaging objects behind small obstacles using axicon lens

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Perinchery, Sandeep M.; Shinde, Anant; Murukeshan, V. M.

2017-06-01

Axicon lenses are conical prisms, which are known to focus a light source to a line comprising of multiple points along the optical axis. In this study, we analyze the potential of axicon lenses to view, image and record the object behind opaque obstacles in free space. The advantage of an axicon lens over a regular lens is demonstrated experimentally. Parameters such as obstacle size, object and the obstacle position in the context of imaging behind obstacles are tested using Zemax optical simulation. This proposed concept can be easily adapted to most of the optical imaging methods and microscopy modalities.

Implementing California's School Funding Formula: Will High-Need Students Benefit?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hill, Laura; Ugo, Iwunze

2015-01-01

The Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF) reformed California's K-12 school finance system. It replaced a patchwork of formulas and specific (or "categorical") programs with a focus on local control, funding equity, and additional support for the large share of students (63%) who are "high needs"--that is, low-income, English…

Update on the Federal Stimulus Package and Funding to Higher Education. Report 09-19

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jones, Jessika

2009-01-01

On February 17, 2009, President Obama signed into law the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA). The Act commits $100 billion to education, with $8.5 billion allocated to California. Education programs to receive funding through ARRA include Local Education Agency Title I Grants, Educational Technology Grants, IDEA Grants, Federal…

Conditioned [corrected] stimulus informativeness governs conditioned stimulus-unconditioned stimulus associability.

PubMed

Ward, Ryan D; Gallistel, C R; Jensen, Greg; Richards, Vanessa L; Fairhurst, Stephen; Balsam, Peter D

2012-07-01

In a conditioning protocol, the onset of the conditioned stimulus ([CS]) provides information about when to expect reinforcement (unconditioned stimulus [US]). There are two sources of information from the CS in a delay conditioning paradigm in which the CS-US interval is fixed. The first depends on the informativeness, the degree to which CS onset reduces the average expected time to onset of the next US. The second depends only on how precisely a subject can represent a fixed-duration interval (the temporal Weber fraction). In three experiments with mice, we tested the differential impact of these two sources of information on rate of acquisition of conditioned responding (CS-US associability). In Experiment 1, we showed that associability (the inverse of trials to acquisition) increased in proportion to informativeness. In Experiment 2, we showed that fixing the duration of the US-US interval or the CS-US interval or both had no effect on associability. In Experiment 3, we equated the increase in information produced by varying the C/T ratio with the increase produced by fixing the duration of the CS-US interval. Associability increased with increased informativeness, but, as in Experiment 2, fixing the CS-US duration had no effect on associability. These results are consistent with the view that CS-US associability depends on the increased rate of reward signaled by CS onset. The results also provide further evidence that conditioned responding is temporally controlled when it emerges.

Pyff - a pythonic framework for feedback applications and stimulus presentation in neuroscience.

PubMed

Venthur, Bastian; Scholler, Simon; Williamson, John; Dähne, Sven; Treder, Matthias S; Kramarek, Maria T; Müller, Klaus-Robert; Blankertz, Benjamin

2010-01-01

This paper introduces Pyff, the Pythonic feedback framework for feedback applications and stimulus presentation. Pyff provides a platform-independent framework that allows users to develop and run neuroscientific experiments in the programming language Python. Existing solutions have mostly been implemented in C++, which makes for a rather tedious programming task for non-computer-scientists, or in Matlab, which is not well suited for more advanced visual or auditory applications. Pyff was designed to make experimental paradigms (i.e., feedback and stimulus applications) easily programmable. It includes base classes for various types of common feedbacks and stimuli as well as useful libraries for external hardware such as eyetrackers. Pyff is also equipped with a steadily growing set of ready-to-use feedbacks and stimuli. It can be used as a standalone application, for instance providing stimulus presentation in psychophysics experiments, or within a closed loop such as in biofeedback or brain-computer interfacing experiments. Pyff communicates with other systems via a standardized communication protocol and is therefore suitable to be used with any system that may be adapted to send its data in the specified format. Having such a general, open-source framework will help foster a fruitful exchange of experimental paradigms between research groups. In particular, it will decrease the need of reprogramming standard paradigms, ease the reproducibility of published results, and naturally entail some standardization of stimulus presentation.

Implementing case management in New York State's partnerships for publicly funded breast cancer screening.

PubMed

Lillquist, Patricia P

2008-04-01

This research aimed to explore differences in the implementation of case management among local breast cancer screening partnerships in New York State after changes in federal public policy in 1998 and to achieve a better understanding of case management in a new and distinct practice setting. Capacity and willingness to implement change were theorized to explain local differences in implementation. Local breast cancer screening programs that received federal funding through the New York State Department of Health were invited to participate in the study. A mail survey was administered to the directors of New York's 53 local breast cancer screening partnerships in 2003. The survey included questions about willingness and capacity to implement case management and a scale to assess case management program philosophy. Factor analysis and correlations were used to compare willingness and capacity with differences in implementation. Two common factors--task focus and self-identity focus--were identified as factors that differentiated case management programs. Task-focus partnerships undertook a broader range of tasks but were less likely to report autonomy in making program changes. Self-identity partnerships were less likely to report difficulties with other agencies and scored highly on innovation, involvement in work, and interest in client service. Having a nurse as the case manager, being aware of the standards of case management, and providing health education were associated with both task focus and self-identity focus. The study identified distinct styles of implementation. These styles have implications for the breadth of services provided, such as whether client-level services only are offered. Interagency coordination was facilitated in partnerships with comprehensive case management.

Passive detection of subpixel obstacles for flight safety

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nixon, Matthew D.; Loveland, Rohan C.

2001-12-01

Military aircraft fly below 100 ft. above ground level in support of their missions. These aircraft include fixed and rotary wing and may be manned or unmanned. Flying at these low altitudes presents a safety hazard to the aircrew and aircraft, due to the occurrences of obstacles within the aircraft's flight path. The pilot must rely on eyesight and in some cases, infrared sensors to see obstacles. Many conditions can exacerbate visibility creating a situation in which obstacles are essentially invisible, creating a safety hazard, even to an alerted aircrew. Numerous catastrophic accidents have occurred in which aircraft have collided with undetected obstacles. Accidents of this type continue to be a problem for low flying military and commercial aircraft. Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) have the same problem, whether operating autonomously or under control of a ground operator. Boeing-SVS has designed a passive, small, low- cost (under $100k) gimbaled, infrared imaging based system with advanced obstacle detection algorithms. Obstacles are detected in the infrared band, and linear features are analyzed by innovative cellular automata based software. These algorithms perform detection and location of sub-pixel linear features. The detection of the obstacles is performed on a frame by frame basis, in real time. Processed images are presented to the aircrew on their display as color enhanced features. The system has been designed such that the detected obstacles are displayed to the aircrew in sufficient time to react and maneuver the aircraft to safety. A patent for this system is on file with the US patent office, and all material herein should be treated accordingly.

Foot strike patterns after obstacle clearance during running.

PubMed

Scholten, Shane D; Stergiou, Nicholas; Hreljac, Alan; Houser, Jeremy; Blanke, Daniel; Alberts, L Russell

2002-01-01

Running over obstacles of sufficient height requires heel strike (HS) runners to make a transition in landing strategy to a forefoot (FF) strike, resulting in similar ground reaction force patterns to those observed while landing from a jump. Identification of the biomechanical variables that distinguish between the landing strategies may offer some insight into the reasons that the transition occurs. The purpose of this study was to investigate the difference in foot strike patterns and kinetic parameters of heel strike runners between level running and running over obstacles of various heights. Ten heel strike subjects ran at their self-selected pace under seven different conditions: unperturbed running (no obstacle) and over obstacles of six different heights (10%, 12.5%, 15%, 17.5%, 20%, and 22.5% of their standing height). The obstacle was placed directly before a Kistler force platform. Repeated measures ANOVAs were performed on the subject means of selected kinetic parameters. The statistical analysis revealed significant differences (P < 0.004) for all of the parameters analyzed. The evaluation of the center of pressure and the ground reaction forces indicated that the foot strike patterns were affected by the increased obstacle height. Between the 12.5% and 15% obstacle conditions, the group response changed from a heel strike to a forefoot strike pattern. At height > 15%, the pattern was more closely related to the foot strike patterns found in jumping activities. This strategy change may represent a gait transition effected as a mechanism to protect against increased impact forces. Greater involvement of the ankle and the calf muscles could have assisted in attenuating the increased impact forces while maintaining speed after clearing the obstacle.

Stimulus and optode placement effects on functional near-infrared spectroscopy of visual cortex

PubMed Central

Kashou, Nasser H.; Giacherio, Brenna M.

2016-01-01

Abstract. Functional near-infrared spectroscopy has yet to be implemented as a stand-alone technique within an ophthalmology clinical setting, despite its promising advantages. The present study aims to further investigate reliability of visual cortical signals. This was achieved by: (1) assessing the effects of optode placements using the 10–20 International System of Electrode Placement consisting of 28 channels, (2) determining effects of stimulus size on response, and (3) evaluating response variability as a result of cap placement across three sessions. Ten participants with mean age 23.8±4.8 years (five male) and varying types of hair color and thickness were recruited. Visual stimuli of black-and-white checkerboards, reversing at a frequency of 7.5 Hz were presented. Visual angles of individual checker squares included 1 deg, 2 deg, 5 deg, 9 deg, and 18 deg. The number of channels that showed response was analyzed for each participant, stimulus size, and session. 1-deg stimulus showed the greatest activation. One of three data collection sessions for each participant gave different results (p<0.05). Hair color and thickness each had an effect upon the overall HbO (p<0.05), while only color had a significant effect for HbD (p<0.05). A reliable level of robustness and consistency is still required for clinical implementation and assessment of visual dysfunction. PMID:27335887

Integrating obstacle avoidance, global path planning, visual cue detection, and landmark triangulation in a mobile robot

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kortenkamp, David; Huber, Marcus J.; Congdon, Clare B.; Huffman, Scott B.; Bidlack, Clint R.; Cohen, Charles J.; Koss, Frank V.; Raschke, Ulrich; Weymouth, Terry E.

1993-05-01

This paper describes the design and implementation of an integrated system for combining obstacle avoidance, path planning, landmark detection and position triangulation. Such an integrated system allows the robot to move from place to place in an environment, avoiding obstacles and planning its way out of traps, while maintaining its position and orientation using distinctive landmarks. The task the robot performs is to search a 22 m X 22 m arena for 10 distinctive objects, visiting each object in turn. This same task was recently performed by a dozen different robots at a competition in which the robot described in this paper finished first.

Obstacle avoidance for redundant robots using configuration control

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Seraji, Homayoun (Inventor); Colbaugh, Richard D. (Inventor); Glass, Kristin L. (Inventor)

1992-01-01

A redundant robot control scheme is provided for avoiding obstacles in a workspace during the motion of an end effector along a preselected trajectory by stopping motion of the critical point on the robot closest to the obstacle when the distance between is reduced to a predetermined sphere of influence surrounding the obstacle. Algorithms are provided for conveniently determining the critical point and critical distance.

Obstacles to implementing evidence-based practice in Belgium: a context-specific qualitative evidence synthesis including findings from different health care disciplines.

PubMed

Hannes, K; Goedhuys, J; Aertgeerts, B

2012-01-01

A number of barriers to the implementation of evidence-based practice have already been inventoried. However, little attention has been given to their context-specific nature. This qualitative evidence synthesis examines commonalities in the obstacles perceived by different groups of health care practitioners working in the Belgian health care system and sets out to discuss potential strategies to bridge some of these barriers. We actively searched for primary studies addressing our topic of interest in international and national databases (1990 to May 2008), consulted experts and screened references of retrieved studies. We opted for the meta-aggregative approach, developed by the Joanna Briggs Institute, to analyse our findings. The findings indicate that (1) evidence might have a limited role in decision-making processes; (2) aspects other than quality of care steer the evidence-based practice agenda; (3) some health care providers benefit less from evidence-based practice than others and (4) there is a lack of competences to put the evidence-based principles in practice. Belgian policy makers might consider health care system characteristics from and strategies developed or suggested by others to respond to country-specific obstacles. Examples include but are not limited to; (a) providing incentives for patient-centred care coordination and patient communication, (b) supporting practitioners interested in applying research-related activities, (c) considering direct access systems and interprofessional learning to respond to the demand for autonomous decision-making from satellite professional groups, (d) systematically involving allied health professionals in important governmental advisory boards, (e) considering pharmaceutical companies perceived as 'the enemy' an ally in filling in research gaps, (f) embedding the evaluation of evidence-based knowledge and skills in examinations (g) moving from (in)formative learning to transformative learning and (h

The specificity of stimulus-specific adaptation in human auditory cortex increases with repeated exposure to the adapting stimulus.

PubMed

Briley, Paul M; Krumbholz, Katrin

2013-12-01

The neural response to a sensory stimulus tends to be more strongly reduced when the stimulus is preceded by the same, rather than a different, stimulus. This stimulus-specific adaptation (SSA) is ubiquitous across the senses. In hearing, SSA has been suggested to play a role in change detection as indexed by the mismatch negativity. This study sought to test whether SSA, measured in human auditory cortex, is caused by neural fatigue (reduction in neural responsiveness) or by sharpening of neural tuning to the adapting stimulus. For that, we measured event-related cortical potentials to pairs of pure tones with varying frequency separation and stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA). This enabled us to examine the relationship between the degree of specificity of adaptation as a function of frequency separation and the rate of decay of adaptation with increasing SOA. Using simulations of tonotopic neuron populations, we demonstrate that the fatigue model predicts independence of adaptation specificity and decay rate, whereas the sharpening model predicts interdependence. The data showed independence and thus supported the fatigue model. In a second experiment, we measured adaptation specificity after multiple presentations of the adapting stimulus. The multiple adapters produced more adaptation overall, but the effect was more specific to the adapting frequency. Within the context of the fatigue model, the observed increase in adaptation specificity could be explained by assuming a 2.5-fold increase in neural frequency selectivity. We discuss possible bottom-up and top-down mechanisms of this effect.

Virtual Reality-Based Training to Improve Obstacle-Crossing Performance and Dynamic Balance in Patients With Parkinson's Disease.

PubMed

Liao, Ying-Yi; Yang, Yea-Ru; Cheng, Shih-Jung; Wu, Yih-Ru; Fuh, Jong-Ling; Wang, Ray-Yau

2015-08-01

Obstacle crossing is a balance-challenging task and can cause falls in people with Parkinson's disease (PD). However, programs for people with PD that effectively target obstacle crossing and dynamic balance have not been established. To examine the effects of virtual reality-based exercise on obstacle crossing performance and dynamic balance in participants with PD. Thirty-six participants with a diagnosis of PD (Hoehn and Yahr score ranging 1 to 3) were randomly assigned to one of three groups. In the exercise groups, participants received virtual reality-based Wii Fit exercise (VRWii group) or traditional exercise (TE group) for 45 minutes, followed by 15 minutes of treadmill training in each session for a total of 12 sessions over 6 weeks. Participants in the control group received no structured exercise program. Primary outcomes included obstacle crossing performance (crossing velocity, stride length, and vertical toe obstacle clearance) and dynamic balance (maximal excursion, movement velocity, and directional control measured by the limits-of-stability test). Secondary outcomes included sensory organization test (SOT), Parkinson's Disease Questionnaire (PDQ39), fall efficacy scale (FES-I), and timed up and go test (TUG). All outcomes were assessed at baseline, after training, and at 1-month follow-up. The VRWii group showed greater improvement in obstacle crossing velocity, crossing stride length, dynamic balance, SOT, TUG, FES-I, and PDQ39 than the control group. VRWii training also resulted in greater improvement in movement velocity of limits-of-stability test than TE training. VRWii training significantly improved obstacle crossing performance and dynamic balance, supporting implementation of VRWii training in participants with PD. © The Author(s) 2014.

Unpinning of spiral waves from rectangular obstacles by stimulated wave trains

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ponboonjaroenchai, Benjamas; Srithamma, Panatda; Kumchaiseemak, Nakorn; Sutthiopad, Malee; Müller, Stefan C.; Luengviriya, Chaiya; Luengviriya, Jiraporn

2017-09-01

Pinned spiral waves are exhibited in many excitable media. In cardiology, lengthened tachycardia correspond to propagating action potential in forms of spiral waves pinned to anatomical obstacles including veins and scares. Thus, elimination such waves is important particularly in medical treatments. We present study of unpinning of a spiral wave by a wave train initiated by periodic stimuli at a given location. The spiral wave is forced to leave the rectangular obstacle when the period of the wave train is shorter than a threshold Tunpin. For small obstacles, Tunpin decreases when the obstacle size is increased. Furthermore, Tunpin depends on the obstacle orientation with respect to the wave train propagation. For large obstacles, Tunpin is independent to the obstacle size. It implies that the orientation of the obstacle plays an important role in the unpinning of the spiral wave, especially for small rectangular obstacles.

The Socio-Moral Image Database (SMID): A novel stimulus set for the study of social, moral and affective processes

PubMed Central

Bode, Stefan; Murawski, Carsten; Laham, Simon M.

2018-01-01

A major obstacle for the design of rigorous, reproducible studies in moral psychology is the lack of suitable stimulus sets. Here, we present the Socio-Moral Image Database (SMID), the largest standardized moral stimulus set assembled to date, containing 2,941 freely available photographic images, representing a wide range of morally (and affectively) positive, negative and neutral content. The SMID was validated with over 820,525 individual judgments from 2,716 participants, with normative ratings currently available for all images on affective valence and arousal, moral wrongness, and relevance to each of the five moral values posited by Moral Foundations Theory. We present a thorough analysis of the SMID regarding (1) inter-rater consensus, (2) rating precision, and (3) breadth and variability of moral content. Additionally, we provide recommendations for use aimed at efficient study design and reproducibility, and outline planned extensions to the database. We anticipate that the SMID will serve as a useful resource for psychological, neuroscientific and computational (e.g., natural language processing or computer vision) investigations of social, moral and affective processes. The SMID images, along with associated normative data and additional resources are available at https://osf.io/2rqad/. PMID:29364985

The Socio-Moral Image Database (SMID): A novel stimulus set for the study of social, moral and affective processes.

PubMed

Crone, Damien L; Bode, Stefan; Murawski, Carsten; Laham, Simon M

2018-01-01

A major obstacle for the design of rigorous, reproducible studies in moral psychology is the lack of suitable stimulus sets. Here, we present the Socio-Moral Image Database (SMID), the largest standardized moral stimulus set assembled to date, containing 2,941 freely available photographic images, representing a wide range of morally (and affectively) positive, negative and neutral content. The SMID was validated with over 820,525 individual judgments from 2,716 participants, with normative ratings currently available for all images on affective valence and arousal, moral wrongness, and relevance to each of the five moral values posited by Moral Foundations Theory. We present a thorough analysis of the SMID regarding (1) inter-rater consensus, (2) rating precision, and (3) breadth and variability of moral content. Additionally, we provide recommendations for use aimed at efficient study design and reproducibility, and outline planned extensions to the database. We anticipate that the SMID will serve as a useful resource for psychological, neuroscientific and computational (e.g., natural language processing or computer vision) investigations of social, moral and affective processes. The SMID images, along with associated normative data and additional resources are available at https://osf.io/2rqad/.

Range Sensor-Based Efficient Obstacle Avoidance through Selective Decision-Making.

PubMed

Shim, Youngbo; Kim, Gon-Woo

2018-03-29

In this paper, we address a collision avoidance method for mobile robots. Many conventional obstacle avoidance methods have been focused solely on avoiding obstacles. However, this can cause instability when passing through a narrow passage, and can also generate zig-zag motions. We define two strategies for obstacle avoidance, known as Entry mode and Bypass mode. Entry mode is a pattern for passing through the gap between obstacles, while Bypass mode is a pattern for making a detour around obstacles safely. With these two modes, we propose an efficient obstacle avoidance method based on the Expanded Guide Circle (EGC) method with selective decision-making. The simulation and experiment results show the validity of the proposed method.

A Qualitative Study on the Obstacles Preventing the Successful Implementation of Web 2.0 in Corporate Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Estrada, Luis

2012-01-01

The purpose of this study was to identify the obstacles to the adoption of Web 2.0 technologies as part of corporate learning solutions and strategies. The study followed a qualitative inquiry approach. The sample consisted of 20 corporate learning professionals who are members of the American Society for Training and Development (ASTD) social…

Cosine Kuramoto Based Distribution of a Convoy with Limit-Cycle Obstacle Avoidance Through the Use of Simulated Agents

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Howerton, William

This thesis presents a method for the integration of complex network control algorithms with localized agent specific algorithms for maneuvering and obstacle avoidance. This method allows for successful implementation of group and agent specific behaviors. It has proven to be robust and will work for a variety of vehicle platforms. Initially, a review and implementation of two specific algorithms will be detailed. The first, a modified Kuramoto model was developed by Xu [1] which utilizes tools from graph theory to efficiently perform the task of distributing agents. The second algorithm developed by Kim [2] is an effective method for wheeled robots to avoid local obstacles using a limit-cycle navigation method. The results of implementing these methods on a test-bed of wheeled robots will be presented. Control issues related to outside disturbances not anticipated in the original theory are then discussed. A novel method of using simulated agents to separate the task of distributing agents from agent specific velocity and heading commands has been developed and implemented to address these issues. This new method can be used to combine various behaviors and is not limited to a specific control algorithm.

Method for surmounting an obstacle by a robot vehicle

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Wilcox, Brian H. (Inventor); Ohm, Timothy R. (Inventor)

1994-01-01

Surmounting obstacles in the path of a robot vehicle is accomplished by rotating the wheel forks of the vehicle about their transverse axes with respect to the vehicle body so as to shift most of the vehicle weight onto the rear wheels, and then driving the vehicle forward so as to drive the now lightly-loaded front wheels (only) over the obstacle. Then, after the front wheels have either surmounted or completely passed the obstacle (depending upon the length of the obstacle), the forks are again rotated about their transverse axes so as to shift most of the vehicle weight onto the front wheels. Then the vehicle is again driven forward so as to drive the now lightly-loaded rear wheels over the obstacle. Once the obstacle has been completely cleared and the vehicle is again on relatively level terrain, the forks are again rotated so as to uniformly distribute the vehicle weight between the front and rear wheels.

28 CFR 42.734 - Alternative funding.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-07-01

... 28 Judicial Administration 1 2014-07-01 2014-07-01 false Alternative funding. 42.734 Section 42.734 Judicial Administration DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE NONDISCRIMINATION; EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY...; Implementation of the Age Discrimination Act of 1975 Compliance Procedures § 42.734 Alternative funding. When...

28 CFR 42.734 - Alternative funding.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... 28 Judicial Administration 1 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Alternative funding. 42.734 Section 42.734 Judicial Administration DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE NONDISCRIMINATION; EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY...; Implementation of the Age Discrimination Act of 1975 Compliance Procedures § 42.734 Alternative funding. When...

28 CFR 42.734 - Alternative funding.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

... 28 Judicial Administration 1 2011-07-01 2011-07-01 false Alternative funding. 42.734 Section 42.734 Judicial Administration DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE NONDISCRIMINATION; EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY...; Implementation of the Age Discrimination Act of 1975 Compliance Procedures § 42.734 Alternative funding. When...

28 CFR 42.734 - Alternative funding.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-07-01

... 28 Judicial Administration 1 2012-07-01 2012-07-01 false Alternative funding. 42.734 Section 42.734 Judicial Administration DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE NONDISCRIMINATION; EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY...; Implementation of the Age Discrimination Act of 1975 Compliance Procedures § 42.734 Alternative funding. When...

28 CFR 42.734 - Alternative funding.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-07-01

... 28 Judicial Administration 1 2013-07-01 2013-07-01 false Alternative funding. 42.734 Section 42.734 Judicial Administration DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE NONDISCRIMINATION; EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY...; Implementation of the Age Discrimination Act of 1975 Compliance Procedures § 42.734 Alternative funding. When...

Evacuation simulation with consideration of obstacle removal and using game theory

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lin, Guan-Wen; Wong, Sai-Keung

2018-06-01

In this paper, we integrate a cellular automaton model with game theory to simulate crowd evacuation from a room with consideration of obstacle removal. The room has one or more exits, one of which is blocked by obstacles. The obstacles at the exit can be removed by volunteers. We investigate the cooperative and defective behaviors of pedestrians during evacuation. The yielder game and volunteer's dilemma game are employed to resolve interpedestrian conflict. An anticipation floor field is proposed to guide the pedestrians to avoid obstacles that are being removed. We conducted experiments to determine how a variety of conditions affect overall crowd evacuation and volunteer evacuation times. The conditions were the start time of obstacle removal, number of obstacles, placement of obstacles, time spent in obstacle removal, strength of the anticipation floor field, and obstacle visibility distance. We demonstrate how reciprocity can be achieved among pedestrians and increases the efficiency of the entire evacuation process.

An Algorithm for Autonomous Formation Obstacle Avoidance

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cruz, Yunior I.

The level of human interaction with Unmanned Aerial Systems varies greatly from remotely piloted aircraft to fully autonomous systems. In the latter end of the spectrum, the challenge lies in designing effective algorithms to dictate the behavior of the autonomous agents. A swarm of autonomous Unmanned Aerial Vehicles requires collision avoidance and formation flight algorithms to negotiate environmental challenges it may encounter during the execution of its mission, which may include obstacles and chokepoints. In this work, a simple algorithm is developed to allow a formation of autonomous vehicles to perform point to point navigation while avoiding obstacles and navigating through chokepoints. Emphasis is placed on maintaining formation structures. Rather than breaking formation and individually navigating around the obstacle or through the chokepoint, vehicles are required to assemble into appropriately sized/shaped sub-formations, bifurcate around the obstacle or negotiate the chokepoint, and reassemble into the original formation at the far side of the obstruction. The algorithm receives vehicle and environmental properties as inputs and outputs trajectories for each vehicle from start to the desired ending location. Simulation results show that the algorithm safely routes all vehicles past the obstruction while adhering to the aforementioned requirements. The formation adapts and successfully negotiates the obstacles and chokepoints in its path while maintaining proper vehicle separation.

Evaluation of an Enhanced Stimulus-Stimulus Pairing Procedure to Increase Early Vocalizations of Children with Autism

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Esch, Barbara E.; Carr, James E.; Grow, Laura L.

2009-01-01

Evidence to support stimulus-stimulus pairing (SSP) in speech acquisition is less than robust, calling into question the ability of SSP to reliably establish automatically reinforcing properties of speech and limiting the procedure's clinical utility for increasing vocalizations. We evaluated the effects of a modified SSP procedure on…

Educational pathways of Black women physicists: Stories of experiencing and overcoming obstacles in life

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rosa, Katemari

2017-01-01

This talk presents an empirical study on the underrepresentation of people of color in scientific careers. Grounded in Critical Race Theory, the presentation examines the lived experiences of six Black women physicists in the United States, addresses obstacles faced in their career paths, and strategies used to overcome these obstacles. Data for this study were collected through semi-structured interviews and coded for emergent themes, which are invitation to engage in science, communities of science practices, and isolation in the academy. The findings reveal that college recruitment and funding were fundamental for these women to choose Physics over other STEM fields. The analysis shows Physics can be a hostile environment for these women. In addition, Black women experience unique challenges of socialization in Physics, particularly by exclusion of study groups. In this talk, suggestions will be presented to make Physics departments a more inclusive space to support Black women in science. This presentation is based on work supported by the Brazilian government through CAPES (BEX1907-07-7), the Fulbright Program, Comissño Fulbright Brasil, and the Office of Diversity at Teachers College, Columbia University.

Training Staff to Implement Brief Stimulus Preference Assessments

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Weldy, Christina R.; Rapp, John T.; Capocasa, Kelli

2014-01-01

We trained 9 behavioral staff members to conduct 2 brief preference assessments using 30-min video presentations that contained instructions and modeling. After training, we evaluated each staff member's implementation of the assessments in situ. Results indicated that 1 or 2 training sessions for each method were sufficient for teaching each…

Defining the Stimulus - A Memoir

PubMed Central

Terrace, Herbert

2010-01-01

The eminent psychophysicist, S. S. Stevens, once remarked that, “the basic problem of psychology was the definition of the stimulus” (Stevens, 1951, p. 46). By expanding the traditional definition of the stimulus, the study of animal learning has metamorphosed into animal cognition. The main impetus for that change was the recognition that it is often necessary to postulate a representation between the traditional S and R of learning theory. Representations allow a subject to re-present a stimulus it learned previously that is currently absent. Thus, in delayed-matching-to-sample, one has to assume that a subject responds to a representation of the sample during test if it responds correctly. Other examples, to name but a few, include concept formation, spatial memory, serial memory, learning a numerical rule, imitation and metacognition. Whereas a representation used to be regarded as a mentalistic phenomenon that was unworthy of scientific inquiry, it can now be operationally defined. To accommodate representations, the traditional discriminative stimulus has to be expanded to allow for the role of representations. The resulting composite can account for a significantly larger portion of the variance of performance measures than the exteroceptive stimulus could by itself. PMID:19969047

Prefrontal cortex activation during obstacle negotiation: What's the effect size and timing?

PubMed

Maidan, Inbal; Shustak, Shiran; Sharon, Topaz; Bernad-Elazari, Hagar; Geffen, Nimrod; Giladi, Nir; Hausdorff, Jeffrey M; Mirelman, Anat

2018-04-01

Obstacle negotiation is a daily activity that requires the integration of sensorimotor and cognitive information. Recent studies provide evidence for the important role of prefrontal cortex during obstacle negotiation. We aimed to explore the effects of obstacle height and available response time on prefrontal activation. Twenty healthy young adults (age: 30.1 ± 1.0 years; 50% women) walked in an obstacle course while negotiating anticipated and unanticipated obstacles at heights of 50 mm and 100 mm. Prefrontal activation was measured using a functional near-infrared spectroscopy system. Kinect cameras measured the obstacle negotiation strategy. Prefrontal activation was defined based on mean level of HbO 2 before, during and after obstacle negotiation and the HbO 2 slope from gait initiation and throughout the task. Changes between types of obstacles were assessed using linear-mix models and partial correlation analyses evaluated the relationship between prefrontal activation and the distance between the feet as the subjects traversed the obstacles. Different obstacle heights showed similar changes in prefrontal activation measures (p > 0.210). However, during unanticipated obstacles, the slope of the HbO 2 response was steeper (p = 0.048), as compared to anticipated obstacles. These changes in prefrontal activation during negotiation of unanticipated obstacles were correlated with greater distance of the leading foot after the obstacles (r = 0.831, p = 0.041). These findings are the first to show that the pattern of prefrontal activation depends on the nature of the obstacle. More specifically, during unanticipated obstacles the recruitment of the prefrontal cortex is faster and greater than during negotiating anticipated obstacles. These results provide evidence of the important role of the prefrontal cortex and the ability of healthy young adults to tailor the activation pattern to different types of obstacles. Copyright © 2018

Research productivity among faculty members at medical and health schools in Saudi Arabia. Prevalence, obstacles, and associated factors.

PubMed

Alghanim, Saad A; Alhamali, Rashid M

2011-12-01

To identify the prevalence, factors and obstacles affecting research productivity among academic staff at medical and health colleges in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. This cross-sectional survey employed self-administered questionnaires to collect data on faculty members' profile, research activities, and obstacles impeding research productivity. The questionnaires were distributed randomly to 500 faculty members, of which 389 (77.8%) completed the questionnaire at 10 medical and health colleges during January to April 2011. The data were analyzed and presented in a descriptive fashion. Only 150 (38.6%) respondents reported published work in the past 2 years. Of these, 80% indicated sole-authors research and around a quarter (26%) reported co-authors work. Males and young faculty members were more likely to publish research than their counterparts. Faculty members who reported involvement in administrative activities were less likely to publish. Those who reported supervising postgraduate students or had attained training on research methods were more likely to produce research. Respondents perceived that lack of time, lack of research assistants, lack of funds for research, and being busy with teaching load were the most cited obstacles impeding research productivity. Understanding factors and barriers impeding research productivity is a prerequisite for interventions that are directed to promote health services research among faculty members in medical schools.

A method for simultaneously counterbalancing condition order and assignment of stimulus materials to conditions.

PubMed

Zeelenberg, René; Pecher, Diane

2015-03-01

Counterbalanced designs are frequently used in the behavioral sciences. Studies often counterbalance either the order in which conditions are presented in the experiment or the assignment of stimulus materials to conditions. Occasionally, researchers need to simultaneously counterbalance both condition order and stimulus assignment to conditions. Lewis (1989; Behavior Research Methods, Instruments, & Computers 25:414-415, 1993) presented a method for constructing Latin squares that fulfill these requirements. The resulting Latin squares counterbalance immediate sequential effects, but not remote sequential effects. Here, we present a new method for generating Latin squares that simultaneously counterbalance both immediate and remote sequential effects and assignment of stimuli to conditions. An Appendix is provided to facilitate implementation of these Latin square designs.

Pyff – A Pythonic Framework for Feedback Applications and Stimulus Presentation in Neuroscience

PubMed Central

Venthur, Bastian; Scholler, Simon; Williamson, John; Dähne, Sven; Treder, Matthias S.; Kramarek, Maria T.; Müller, Klaus-Robert; Blankertz, Benjamin

2010-01-01

This paper introduces Pyff, the Pythonic feedback framework for feedback applications and stimulus presentation. Pyff provides a platform-independent framework that allows users to develop and run neuroscientific experiments in the programming language Python. Existing solutions have mostly been implemented in C++, which makes for a rather tedious programming task for non-computer-scientists, or in Matlab, which is not well suited for more advanced visual or auditory applications. Pyff was designed to make experimental paradigms (i.e., feedback and stimulus applications) easily programmable. It includes base classes for various types of common feedbacks and stimuli as well as useful libraries for external hardware such as eyetrackers. Pyff is also equipped with a steadily growing set of ready-to-use feedbacks and stimuli. It can be used as a standalone application, for instance providing stimulus presentation in psychophysics experiments, or within a closed loop such as in biofeedback or brain–computer interfacing experiments. Pyff communicates with other systems via a standardized communication protocol and is therefore suitable to be used with any system that may be adapted to send its data in the specified format. Having such a general, open-source framework will help foster a fruitful exchange of experimental paradigms between research groups. In particular, it will decrease the need of reprogramming standard paradigms, ease the reproducibility of published results, and naturally entail some standardization of stimulus presentation. PMID:21160550

Presentation-order effects for aesthetic stimulus preference.

PubMed

Englund, Mats P; Hellström, Åke

2012-10-01

For preference comparisons of paired successive musical excerpts, Koh (American Journal of Psychology, 80, 171-185, 1967) found time-order effects (TOEs) that correlated negatively with stimulus valence-the first (vs. the second) of two unpleasant (vs. two pleasant) excerpts tended to be preferred. We present three experiments designed to investigate whether valence-level-dependent order effects for aesthetic preference (a) can be accounted for using Hellström's (e.g., Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 5, 460-477, 1979) sensation-weighting (SW) model, (b) can be generalized to successive and to simultaneous visual stimuli, and (c) vary, in accordance with the stimulus weighting, with interstimulus interval (ISI; for successive stimuli) or stimulus duration (for simultaneous stimuli). Participants compared paired successive jingles (Exp. 1), successive color patterns (Exp. 2), and simultaneous color patterns (Exp. 3), selecting the preferred stimulus. The results were well described by the SW model, which provided a better fit than did two extended versions of the Bradley-Terry-Luce model. Experiments 1 and 2 revealed higher weights for the second stimulus than for the first, and negatively valence-level-dependent TOEs. In Experiment 3, there was no laterality effect on the stimulus weighting and no valence-level-dependent space-order effects (SOEs). In terms of the SW model, the valence-level-dependent TOEs can be explained as a consequence of differential stimulus weighting in combination with stimulus valence varying from low to high, and the absence of valence-level-dependent SOEs as a consequence of the absence of differential weighting. For successive stimuli, there were no important effects of ISI on weightings and TOEs, and, for simultaneous stimuli, duration had only a small effect on the weighting.

Stimulus generalization, discrimination learning, and peak shift in horses.

PubMed Central

Dougherty, D M; Lewis, P

1991-01-01

Using horses, we investigated three aspects of the stimulus control of lever-pressing behavior: stimulus generalization, discrimination learning, and peak shift. Nine solid black circles, ranging in size from 0.5 in. to 4.5 in. (1.3 cm to 11.4 cm) served as stimuli. Each horse was shaped, using successive approximations, to press a rat lever with its lip in the presence of a positive stimulus, the 2.5-in. (6.4-cm) circle. Shaping proceeded quickly and was comparable to that of other laboratory organisms. After responding was maintained on a variable-interval 30-s schedule, stimulus generalization gradients were collected from 2 horses prior to discrimination training. During discrimination training, grain followed lever presses in the presence of a positive stimulus (a 2.5-in circle) and never followed lever presses in the presence of a negative stimulus (a 1.5-in. [3.8-cm] circle). Three horses met a criterion of zero responses to the negative stimulus in fewer than 15 sessions. Horses given stimulus generalization testing prior to discrimination training produced symmetrical gradients; horses given discrimination training prior to generalization testing produced asymmetrical gradients. The peak of these gradients shifted away from the negative stimulus. These results are consistent with discrimination, stimulus generalization, and peak-shift phenomena observed in other organisms. PMID:1940765

Student with Asperger's Overcomes Obstacles: Devon's Journey to Independence

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Williams, Sarah Blackwelder

2010-01-01

Devon is a bright, engaging 22-year-old with a proud sense of accomplishment. He believes that while people encounter obstacles during their lives, these obstacles can be overcome with motivation and perseverance. Devon says people simply need to identify what they value, set goals and move beyond the obstacles. Devon has been faced with multiple…

Stimulus Probability Effects in Absolute Identification

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kent, Christopher; Lamberts, Koen

2016-01-01

This study investigated the effect of stimulus presentation probability on accuracy and response times in an absolute identification task. Three schedules of presentation were used to investigate the interaction between presentation probability and stimulus position within the set. Data from individual participants indicated strong effects of…

A Cartesian cut cell method for rarefied flow simulations around moving obstacles

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

Dechristé, G., E-mail: Guillaume.Dechriste@math.u-bordeaux1.fr; CNRS, IMB, UMR 5251, F-33400 Talence; Mieussens, L., E-mail: Luc.Mieussens@math.u-bordeaux1.fr

2016-06-01

For accurate simulations of rarefied gas flows around moving obstacles, we propose a cut cell method on Cartesian grids: it allows exact conservation and accurate treatment of boundary conditions. Our approach is designed to treat Cartesian cells and various kinds of cut cells by the same algorithm, with no need to identify the specific shape of each cut cell. This makes the implementation quite simple, and allows a direct extension to 3D problems. Such simulations are also made possible by using an adaptive mesh refinement technique and a hybrid parallel implementation. This is illustrated by several test cases, including amore » 3D unsteady simulation of the Crookes radiometer.« less

Simulation of Molecular Transport in Systems Containing Mobile Obstacles.

PubMed

Polanowski, Piotr; Sikorski, Andrzej

2016-08-04

In this paper, we investigate the movement of molecules in crowded environments with obstacles undergoing Brownian motion by means of extensive Monte Carlo simulations. Our investigations were performed using the dynamic lattice liquid model, which was based on the cooperative movement concept and allowed to mimic systems at high densities where the motion of all elements (obstacles as well as moving particles) were highly correlated. The crowded environments are modeled on a two-dimensional triangular lattice containing obstacles (particles whose mobility was significantly reduced) moving by a Brownian motion. The subdiffusive motion of both elements in the system was analyzed. It was shown that the percolation transition does not exist in such systems in spite of the cooperative character of the particles' motion. The reduction of the obstacle mobility leads to the longer caging of liquid particles by mobile obstacles.

Diffusion amid random overlapping obstacles: Similarities, invariants, approximations

PubMed Central

Novak, Igor L.; Gao, Fei; Kraikivski, Pavel; Slepchenko, Boris M.

2011-01-01

Efficient and accurate numerical techniques are used to examine similarities of effective diffusion in a void between random overlapping obstacles: essential invariance of effective diffusion coefficients (Deff) with respect to obstacle shapes and applicability of a two-parameter power law over nearly entire range of excluded volume fractions (ϕ), except for a small vicinity of a percolation threshold. It is shown that while neither of the properties is exact, deviations from them are remarkably small. This allows for quick estimation of void percolation thresholds and approximate reconstruction of Deff (ϕ) for obstacles of any given shape. In 3D, the similarities of effective diffusion yield a simple multiplication “rule” that provides a fast means of estimating Deff for a mixture of overlapping obstacles of different shapes with comparable sizes. PMID:21513372

Stimulus control: Part II

PubMed Central

Dinsmoor, James A.

1995-01-01

The second part of my tutorial stresses the systematic importance of two parameters of discrimination training: (a) the magnitude of the physical difference between the positive and the negative stimulus (disparity) and (b) the magnitude of the difference between the positive stimulus, in particular, and the background stimulation (salience). It then examines the role these variables play in such complex phenomena as blocking and overshadowing, progressive discrimination training, and the transfer of control by fading. It concludes by considering concept formation and imitation, which are important forms of application, and recent work on equivalence relations. PMID:22478222

Age-associated changes in obstacle negotiation strategies: Does size and timing matter?

PubMed

Maidan, I; Eyal, S; Kurz, I; Geffen, N; Gazit, E; Ravid, L; Giladi, N; Mirelman, A; Hausdorff, J M

2018-01-01

Tripping over an obstacle is one of the most common causes of falls among older adults. However, the effects of aging, obstacle height and anticipation time on negotiation strategies have not been systematically evaluated. Twenty older adults (ages: 77.7±3.4years; 50% women) and twenty young adults (age: 29.3±3.8years; 50% women) walked through an obstacle course while negotiating anticipated and unanticipated obstacles at heights of 25mm and 75mm. Kinect cameras captured the: (1) distance of the subject's trailing foot before the obstacles, (2) distance of the leading foot after the obstacles, (3) clearance of the leading foot above the obstacles, and (4) clearance of the trailing foot above the obstacles. Linear-mix models assessed changes between groups and conditions. Older adults placed their leading foot closer to the obstacle after landing, compared to young adults (p<0.001). This pattern was enhanced in high obstacles (group*height interaction, p=0.033). Older adults had lower clearance over the obstacles, compared to young adults (p=0.007). This was more pronounced during unanticipated obstacles (group*ART interaction, p=0.003). The distance of the leading foot and clearance of the trailing foot after the obstacles were correlated with motor, cognitive, and functional abilities. These findings suggest that there are age-related changes in obstacle crossing strategies that are dependent on the specific characteristics of the obstacle. The results have important implications for clinical practice, suggesting that functional exercise should include obstacle negotiation training with variable practice of height and available response times. Further studies are needed to better understand the effects of motor and cognitive abilities. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Mental health community based funding: Ohio's experience in revising its funding allocation methodology.

PubMed

Seiber, Eric E; Sweeney, Helen Anne; Partridge, Jamie; Dembe, Allard E; Jones, Holly

2012-10-01

Over the past 20 years, states have increasingly moved away from centrally financed, state-operated facilities to financing models built around community-based service delivery mechanisms. This paper identifies four important broad factors to consider when developing a funding formula to allocate state funding for community mental health services to local boards in an equitable manner, based on local community need: (1) funding factors used by other states; (2) state specific legislative requirements; (3) data availability; and (4) local variation of factors in the funding formula. These considerations are illustrated with the recent experience of Ohio using available evidence and data sources to develop a new community-based allocation formula. We discuss opportunities for implementing changes in formula based mental health funding related to Medicaid expansions for low income adults scheduled to go into effect under the new Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

Measuring the motor output of the pontomedullary reticular formation in the monkey: do stimulus-triggered averaging and stimulus trains produce comparable results in the upper limbs?

PubMed

Herbert, Wendy J; Davidson, Adam G; Buford, John A

2010-06-01

The pontomedullary reticular formation (PMRF) of the monkey produces motor outputs to both upper limbs. EMG effects evoked from stimulus-triggered averaging (StimulusTA) were compared with effects from stimulus trains to determine whether both stimulation methods produced comparable results. Flexor and extensor muscles of scapulothoracic, shoulder, elbow, and wrist joints were studied bilaterally in two male M. fascicularis monkeys trained to perform a bilateral reaching task. The frequency of facilitation versus suppression responses evoked in the muscles was compared between methods. Stimulus trains were more efficient (94% of PMRF sites) in producing responses than StimulusTA (55%), and stimulus trains evoked responses from more muscles per site than from StimulusTA. Facilitation (72%) was more common from stimulus trains than StimulusTA (39%). In the overall results, a bilateral reciprocal activation pattern of ipsilateral flexor and contralateral extensor facilitation was evident for StimulusTA and stimulus trains. When the comparison was restricted to cases where both methods produced a response in a given muscle from the same site, agreement was very high, at 80%. For the remaining 20%, discrepancies were accounted for mainly by facilitation from stimulus trains when StimulusTA produced suppression, which was in agreement with the under-representation of suppression in the stimulus train data as a whole. To the extent that the stimulus train method may favor transmission through polysynaptic pathways, these results suggest that polysynaptic pathways from the PMRF more often produce facilitation in muscles that would typically demonstrate suppression with StimulusTA.

Internet Implementation in Brazilian K-12 Schools.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Joia, Luiz Antonio

1997-01-01

Presents a framework for implementing the Internet in Brazilian elementary and secondary schools. Topics include schools as assembly lines in the information society; pedagogical uses of the Internet, including research, educational projects, and video conferences; and obstacles to implementing the Internet, including cost, cultural differences,…

Overcoming obstacles to behavior change in diabetes self-management.

PubMed

Hall, Rosemary F; Joseph, Dayle Hunt; Schwartz-Barcott, Donna

2003-01-01

This study describes how 5 individuals with type 2 diabetes overcame obstacles that interfered with maintaining behavior changes in diet, exercise, and self-monitoring of blood glucose (SMBG). In-depth interviews provided the framework for this descriptive study. During audiotaped, face-to-face, follow-up structured and unstructured interviews, the participants shared their experiences about obstacles encountered and strategies used to overcome them. Each case was examined independently, and all cases were then compared with each other. Obstacles that interfered with maintaining a diet plan were hunger, planned and unplanned meal events, and the desire for new foods. Physical illness and unexpected life events were obstacles to maintaining an exercise and SMBG plan. Health professionals who assist patients who are beginning behavior change or having difficult maintaining changes need to have an understanding of the various obstacles and how patients can maintain behavior changes over time.

Attentional Selection Can Be Predicted by Reinforcement Learning of Task-relevant Stimulus Features Weighted by Value-independent Stickiness.

PubMed

Balcarras, Matthew; Ardid, Salva; Kaping, Daniel; Everling, Stefan; Womelsdorf, Thilo

2016-02-01

Attention includes processes that evaluate stimuli relevance, select the most relevant stimulus against less relevant stimuli, and bias choice behavior toward the selected information. It is not clear how these processes interact. Here, we captured these processes in a reinforcement learning framework applied to a feature-based attention task that required macaques to learn and update the value of stimulus features while ignoring nonrelevant sensory features, locations, and action plans. We found that value-based reinforcement learning mechanisms could account for feature-based attentional selection and choice behavior but required a value-independent stickiness selection process to explain selection errors while at asymptotic behavior. By comparing different reinforcement learning schemes, we found that trial-by-trial selections were best predicted by a model that only represents expected values for the task-relevant feature dimension, with nonrelevant stimulus features and action plans having only a marginal influence on covert selections. These findings show that attentional control subprocesses can be described by (1) the reinforcement learning of feature values within a restricted feature space that excludes irrelevant feature dimensions, (2) a stochastic selection process on feature-specific value representations, and (3) value-independent stickiness toward previous feature selections akin to perseveration in the motor domain. We speculate that these three mechanisms are implemented by distinct but interacting brain circuits and that the proposed formal account of feature-based stimulus selection will be important to understand how attentional subprocesses are implemented in primate brain networks.

Evaluating Stimulus-Stimulus Pairing and Direct Reinforcement in the Establishment of an Echoic Repertoire of Children Diagnosed with Autism

PubMed Central

Esch, Barbara E; Carr, James E; Michael, Jack

2005-01-01

Many children with autism do not imitate adult vocalizations, an important skill in learning to talk. Pairing adult vocalizations with preferred stimuli has been shown to increase free-operant vocalizations but effects are temporary; thus, direct reinforcement may be necessary to establish durable vocal behaviors. In Experiment 1, directly reinforced echoic responses did not increase following stimulus-stimulus pairings in three children with autism. Similarly, pairings did not increase free-operant vocalizations in Experiment 2, a replication of Miguel et al. (2002). Experiment 3 demonstrated that shaping increased vowel frequency for one participant. Results suggest that variables are yet to be delineated that influence effectiveness of a stimulus-stimulus pairing procedure on vocalization frequency and acquisition of a verbal operant following such pairings. PMID:22477313

Obstacle avoidance handling and mixed integer predictive control for space robots

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zong, Lijun; Luo, Jianjun; Wang, Mingming; Yuan, Jianping

2018-04-01

This paper presents a novel obstacle avoidance constraint and a mixed integer predictive control (MIPC) method for space robots avoiding obstacles and satisfying physical limits during performing tasks. Firstly, a novel kind of obstacle avoidance constraint of space robots, which needs the assumption that the manipulator links and the obstacles can be represented by convex bodies, is proposed by limiting the relative velocity between two closest points which are on the manipulator and the obstacle, respectively. Furthermore, the logical variables are introduced into the obstacle avoidance constraint, which have realized the constraint form is automatically changed to satisfy different obstacle avoidance requirements in different distance intervals between the space robot and the obstacle. Afterwards, the obstacle avoidance constraint and other system physical limits, such as joint angle ranges, the amplitude boundaries of joint velocities and joint torques, are described as inequality constraints of a quadratic programming (QP) problem by using the model predictive control (MPC) method. To guarantee the feasibility of the obtained multi-constraint QP problem, the constraints are treated as soft constraints and assigned levels of priority based on the propositional logic theory, which can realize that the constraints with lower priorities are always firstly violated to recover the feasibility of the QP problem. Since the logical variables have been introduced, the optimization problem including obstacle avoidance and system physical limits as prioritized inequality constraints is termed as MIPC method of space robots, and its computational complexity as well as possible strategies for reducing calculation amount are analyzed. Simulations of the space robot unfolding its manipulator and tracking the end-effector's desired trajectories with the existence of obstacles and physical limits are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed obstacle avoidance

An enhanced obstacle avoiding system for AUV`s

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

Conte, G.; Zanoli, S.M.

1994-12-31

This paper concerns the development of a sonar-based navigation and guidance system for underwater, unmanned vehicles. In particular, the authors describe and discuss an obstacle avoidance procedure that is capable of dealing with situations involving several obstacles. The main features of the system are the use of a Kalman filter, both for estimating data and for predicting the evolution of the observed scene, and the possibility of working at different levels of data abstraction. The system has shown satisfactory performances in dealing with moving obstacles in general situations.

FieldSAFE: Dataset for Obstacle Detection in Agriculture.

PubMed

Kragh, Mikkel Fly; Christiansen, Peter; Laursen, Morten Stigaard; Larsen, Morten; Steen, Kim Arild; Green, Ole; Karstoft, Henrik; Jørgensen, Rasmus Nyholm

2017-11-09

In this paper, we present a multi-modal dataset for obstacle detection in agriculture. The dataset comprises approximately 2 h of raw sensor data from a tractor-mounted sensor system in a grass mowing scenario in Denmark, October 2016. Sensing modalities include stereo camera, thermal camera, web camera, 360 ∘ camera, LiDAR and radar, while precise localization is available from fused IMU and GNSS. Both static and moving obstacles are present, including humans, mannequin dolls, rocks, barrels, buildings, vehicles and vegetation. All obstacles have ground truth object labels and geographic coordinates.

FieldSAFE: Dataset for Obstacle Detection in Agriculture

PubMed Central

Christiansen, Peter; Larsen, Morten; Steen, Kim Arild; Green, Ole; Karstoft, Henrik

2017-01-01

In this paper, we present a multi-modal dataset for obstacle detection in agriculture. The dataset comprises approximately 2 h of raw sensor data from a tractor-mounted sensor system in a grass mowing scenario in Denmark, October 2016. Sensing modalities include stereo camera, thermal camera, web camera, 360∘ camera, LiDAR and radar, while precise localization is available from fused IMU and GNSS. Both static and moving obstacles are present, including humans, mannequin dolls, rocks, barrels, buildings, vehicles and vegetation. All obstacles have ground truth object labels and geographic coordinates. PMID:29120383

Motion Among Random Obstacles on a Hyperbolic Space

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Orsingher, Enzo; Ricciuti, Costantino; Sisti, Francesco

2016-02-01

We consider the motion of a particle along the geodesic lines of the Poincaré half-plane. The particle is specularly reflected when it hits randomly-distributed obstacles that are assumed to be motionless. This is the hyperbolic version of the well-known Lorentz Process studied in the Euclidean context. We analyse the limit in which the density of the obstacles increases to infinity and the size of each obstacle vanishes: under a suitable scaling, we prove that our process converges to a Markovian process, namely a random flight on the hyperbolic manifold.

31 CFR 1024.220 - Customer identification programs for mutual funds.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

... mutual funds. 1024.220 Section 1024.220 Money and Finance: Treasury Regulations Relating to Money and... FUNDS Programs § 1024.220 Customer identification programs for mutual funds. (a) Customer identification program: minimum requirements—(1) In general. A mutual fund must implement a written Customer...

Visual stimulus presentation using fiber optics in the MRI scanner.

PubMed

Huang, Ruey-Song; Sereno, Martin I

2008-03-30

Imaging the neural basis of visuomotor actions using fMRI is a topic of increasing interest in the field of cognitive neuroscience. One challenge is to present realistic three-dimensional (3-D) stimuli in the subject's peripersonal space inside the MRI scanner. The stimulus generating apparatus must be compatible with strong magnetic fields and must not interfere with image acquisition. Virtual 3-D stimuli can be generated with a stereo image pair projected onto screens or via binocular goggles. Here, we describe designs and implementations for automatically presenting physical 3-D stimuli (point-light targets) in peripersonal and near-face space using fiber optics in the MRI scanner. The feasibility of fiber-optic based displays was demonstrated in two experiments. The first presented a point-light array along a slanted surface near the body, and the second presented multiple point-light targets around the face. Stimuli were presented using phase-encoded paradigms in both experiments. The results suggest that fiber-optic based displays can be a complementary approach for visual stimulus presentation in the MRI scanner.

A tonic heat test stimulus yields a larger and more reliable conditioned pain modulation effect compared to a phasic heat test stimulus

PubMed Central

Lie, Marie Udnesseter; Matre, Dagfinn; Hansson, Per; Stubhaug, Audun; Zwart, John-Anker; Nilsen, Kristian Bernhard

2017-01-01

Abstract Introduction: The interest in conditioned pain modulation (CPM) as a clinical tool for measuring endogenously induced analgesia is increasing. There is, however, large variation in the CPM methodology, hindering comparison of results across studies. Research comparing different CPM protocols is needed in order to obtain a standardized test paradigm. Objectives: The aim of the study was to assess whether a protocol with phasic heat stimuli as test-stimulus is preferable to a protocol with tonic heat stimulus as test-stimulus. Methods: In this experimental crossover study, we compared 2 CPM protocols with different test-stimulus; one with tonic test-stimulus (constant heat stimulus of 120-second duration) and one with phasic test-stimuli (3 heat stimulations of 5 seconds duration separated by 10 seconds). Conditioning stimulus was a 7°C water bath in parallel with the test-stimulus. Twenty-four healthy volunteers were assessed on 2 occasions with minimum 1 week apart. Differences in the magnitude and test–retest reliability of the CPM effect in the 2 protocols were investigated with repeated-measures analysis of variance and by relative and absolute reliability indices. Results: The protocol with tonic test-stimulus induced a significantly larger CPM effect compared to the protocol with phasic test-stimuli (P < 0.001). Fair and good relative reliability was found with the phasic and tonic test-stimuli, respectively. Absolute reliability indices showed large intraindividual variability from session to session in both protocols. Conclusion: The present study shows that a CPM protocol with a tonic test-stimulus is preferable to a protocol with phasic test-stimuli. However, we emphasize that one should be cautious to use the CPM effect as biomarker or in clinical decision making on an individual level due to large intraindividual variability. PMID:29392240

Plant root and shoot dynamics during subsurface obstacle interaction

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Conn, Nathaniel; Aguilar, Jeffrey; Benfey, Philip; Goldman, Daniel

As roots grow, they must navigate complex underground environments to anchor and retrieve water and nutrients. From gravity sensing at the root tip to pressure sensing along the tip and elongation zone, the complex mechanosensory feedback system of the root allows it to bend towards greater depths and avoid obstacles of high impedance by asymmetrically suppressing cell elongation. Here we investigate the mechanical and physiological responses of roots to rigid obstacles. We grow Maize, Zea mays, plants in quasi-2D glass containers (22cm x 17cm x 1.4cm) filled with photoelastic gel and observe that, regardless of obstacle interaction, smaller roots branch off the primary root when the upward growing shoot (which contains the first leaf) reaches an average length of 40 mm, coinciding with when the first leaf emerges. However, prior to branching, contacts with obstacles result in reduced root growth rates. The growth rate of the root relative to the shoot is sensitive to the angle of the obstacle surface, whereby the relative root growth is greatest for horizontally oriented surfaces. We posit that root growth is prioritized when horizontal obstacles are encountered to ensure anchoring and access to nutrients during later stages of development. NSF Physics of Living Systems.

Connected Vehicle Infrastructure : Deployment and Funding Overview

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2018-01-01

This report reviews existing and proposed legislation relevant to connected vehicle infrastructure (CVI) implementation, identifies existing funding mechanisms for CVI implementation, reviews CVI pilot programs and case studies, and provides an overv...

The didactic situation in geometry learning based on analysis of learning obstacles and learning trajectory

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sulistyowati, Fitria; Budiyono, Slamet, Isnandar

2017-12-01

This study aims to design a didactic situation based on the analysis of learning obstacles and learning trajectory on prism volume. The type of this research is qualitative and quantitative research with steps: analyzing the learning obstacles and learning trajectory, preparing the didactic situation, applying the didactic situation in the classroom, mean difference test of problem solving ability with t-test statistic. The subjects of the study were 8th grade junior high school students in Magelang 2016/2017 selected randomly from eight existing classes. The result of this research is the design of didactic situations that can be implemented in prism volume learning. The effectiveness of didactic situations that have been designed is shown by the mean difference test that is the problem solving ability of the students after the application of the didactic situation better than before the application. The didactic situation that has been generated is expected to be a consideration for teachers to design lessons that match the character of learners, classrooms and teachers themselves, so that the potential thinking of learners can be optimized to avoid the accumulation of learning obstacles.

5 CFR 410.304 - Funding training programs.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-01-01

... 5 Administrative Personnel 1 2011-01-01 2011-01-01 false Funding training programs. 410.304 Section 410.304 Administrative Personnel OFFICE OF PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT CIVIL SERVICE REGULATIONS TRAINING Establishing and Implementing Training Programs § 410.304 Funding training programs. Section 4112 of title 5...

Stepping back to see the big picture: when obstacles elicit global processing.

PubMed

Marguc, Janina; Förster, Jens; Van Kleef, Gerben A

2011-11-01

Can obstacles prompt people to look at the "big picture" and open up their minds? Do the cognitive effects of obstacles extend beyond the tasks with which they interfere? These questions were addressed in 6 studies involving both physical and nonphysical obstacles and different measures of global versus local processing styles. Perceptual scope increased after participants solved anagrams in the presence, rather than the absence, of an auditory obstacle (random words played in the background; Study 1), particularly among individuals low in volatility (i.e., those who are inclined to stay engaged and finish what they do; Study 4). It also increased immediately after participants encountered a physical obstacle while navigating a maze (Study 3A) and when compared with doing nothing (Study 3B). Conceptual scope increased after participants solved anagrams while hearing random numbers framed as an "obstacle to overcome" rather than a "distraction to ignore" (Study 2) and after participants navigated a maze with a physical obstacle, compared with a maze without a physical obstacle, but only when trait (Study 5) or state (Study 6) volatility was low. Results suggest that obstacles trigger an "if obstacle, then start global processing" response, primarily when people are inclined to stay engaged and finish ongoing activities. Implications for dealing with life's obstacles and related research are discussed.

Impact of the pan-Canadian Oncology Drug Review on provincial concordance with respect to cancer drug funding decisions and time to funding.

PubMed

Srikanthan, A; Mai, H; Penner, N; Amir, E; Laupacis, A; Sabharwal, M; Chan, K K W

2017-10-01

The pan-Canadian Oncology Drug Review (pcodr) was implemented in 2011 to address uneven drug coverage and lack of transparency with respect to the various provincial cancer drug review processes in Canada. We evaluated the impact of the pcodr on provincial decision concordance and time from Notice of Compliance (noc) to drug funding. In a retrospective review, Health Canada's Drug Product Database was used to identify new indications for cancer drugs between January 2003 and May 2014, and provincial formulary listings for drug-funding dates and decisions between 1 January 2003 and 31 December 2014 were retrieved. Multiple linear models and quantile regressions were used to evaluate changes in time to decision-making before and after the implementation of the pcodr. Agreement of decisions between provinces was evaluated using kappa statistics. Data were available from 9 provinces (all Canadian provinces except Quebec), identifying 88 indications that represented 51 unique cancer drugs. Two provinces lacked available data for all 88 indications at the time of data collection. Interprovincial concordance in drug funding decisions significantly increased after the pcodr's implementation (Brennan-Prediger coefficient: 0.54 pre-pcodr vs. 0.78 post-pcodr; p = 0.002). Nationwide, the median number of days from Health Canada's noc date to the date of funding significantly declined (to 393 days from 522 days, p < 0.001). Exploratory analyses excluding provinces with incomplete data did not change the results. After the implementation of the pcodr, greater concordance in cancer drug funding decisions between provinces and decreased time to funding decisions were observed.

Using Thermal Radiation in Detection of Negative Obstacles

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Rankin, Arturo L.; Matthies, Larry H.

2009-01-01

A method of automated detection of negative obstacles (potholes, ditches, and the like) ahead of ground vehicles at night involves processing of imagery from thermal-infrared cameras aimed at the terrain ahead of the vehicles. The method is being developed as part of an overall obstacle-avoidance scheme for autonomous and semi-autonomous offroad robotic vehicles. The method could also be applied to help human drivers of cars and trucks avoid negative obstacles -- a development that may entail only modest additional cost inasmuch as some commercially available passenger cars are already equipped with infrared cameras as aids for nighttime operation.

Intranasal Localizability of Odorants: Influence of Stimulus Volume

PubMed Central

Frasnelli, J.; Berg, J.; Huang, G.; Doty, R.L.

2011-01-01

When an odorant is presented to one side of the nose and air to the other, the ability to localize which side received the odorant depends upon trigeminal nerve stimulation. It has been shown that performance on this lateralization task increases as stimulus concentration increases. In this study, we determined the influences of stimulus volume and sex on the ability to localize each of 8 odorants presented at neat concentrations: anethole, geraniol, limonene, linalool, menthol, methyl salicyclate, phenyl ethanol, and vanillin. At a low stimulus volume (11 mL), only menthol was localized at an above-chance level. At a high stimulus volume (21 mL), above-chance localization occurred for all odorants except vanillin. Women were significantly better than men in localizing menthol. Stimuli rated as most intense were those that were most readily localized. The detection performance measures, as well as rated intensity values, significantly correlated with earlier findings of the trigeminal detectability of odorants presented to anosmic and normosmic subjects. This study suggests that differences in stimulus volume may explain some discrepant findings within the trigeminal chemosensory literature and supports the concept that vanillin may be a “relatively pure” olfactory stimulus. PMID:21310764

Intranasal localizability of odorants: influence of stimulus volume.

PubMed

Frasnelli, J; Hummel, T; Berg, J; Huang, G; Doty, R L

2011-05-01

When an odorant is presented to one side of the nose and air to the other, the ability to localize which side received the odorant depends upon trigeminal nerve stimulation. It has been shown that performance on this lateralization task increases as stimulus concentration increases. In this study, we determined the influences of stimulus volume and sex on the ability to localize each of 8 odorants presented at neat concentrations: anethole, geraniol, limonene, linalool, menthol, methyl salicylate, phenyl ethanol, and vanillin. At a low stimulus volume (11 mL), only menthol was localized at an above-chance level. At a high stimulus volume (21 mL), above-chance localization occurred for all odorants except vanillin. Women were significantly better than men in localizing menthol. Stimuli rated as most intense were those that were most readily localized. The detection performance measures, as well as rated intensity values, significantly correlated with earlier findings of the trigeminal detectability of odorants presented to anosmic and normosmic subjects. This study suggests that differences in stimulus volume may explain some discrepant findings within the trigeminal chemosensory literature and supports the concept that vanillin may be a "relatively pure" olfactory stimulus.

77 FR 40459 - Electronic Fund Transfers (Regulation E); Correction

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-07-10

... Electronic Fund Transfers (Regulation E); Correction AGENCY: Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection. ACTION... published the Final Rule (77 FR 6194), which implements the Electronic Fund Transfer Act, and the official... Sec. 1005.3(a) in the interim final rule, Electronic Fund Transfers (Regulation E), published on...

Overcoming the obstacles of implementing infection prevention and control guidelines.

PubMed

Birgand, G; Johansson, A; Szilagyi, E; Lucet, J-C

2015-12-01

Reasons for a successful or unsuccessful implementation of infection prevention and control (IPC) guidelines are often multiple and interconnected. This article reviews key elements from the national to the individual level that contribute to the success of the implementation of IPC measures and gives perspectives for improvement. Governance approaches, modes of communication and formats of guidelines are discussed with a view to improve collaboration and transparency among actors. The culture of IPC influences practices and varies according to countries, specialties and healthcare providers. We describe important contextual aspects, such as relationships between actors and resources and behavioural features including professional background or experience. Behaviour change techniques providing goal-setting, feedback and action planning have proved effective in mobilizing participants and may be key to trigger social movements of implementation. The leadership of international societies in coordinating actions at international, national and institutional levels using multidisciplinary approaches and fostering collaboration among clinical microbiology, infectious diseases and IPC will be essential for success. Copyright © 2015 European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Why Additional Presentations Help Identify a Stimulus

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Guest, Duncan; Kent, Christopher; Adelman, James S.

2010-01-01

Nosofsky (1983) reported that additional stimulus presentations within a trial increase discriminability in absolute identification, suggesting that each presentation creates an independent stimulus representation, but it remains unclear whether exposure duration or the formation of independent representations improves discrimination in such…

Joint Doctrine for Barriers, Obstacles, and Mine Warfare

DTIC Science & Technology

1999-02-24

of explosives. Typical tactical examples are barbed wire obstacles and tank ditches. Operational and strategic barriers and obstacles may also be...total of 10 ocean minesweepers, 9 amphibious ships, 6 fleet tugs, 3 salvage ships, and 19 destroyers. Twenty-four CH-53D Sea Stallions from Marine

Fraud at the Global Fund? A viewpoint.

PubMed

Brown, Jonathan C; Griekspoor, Wilfred

2013-01-01

The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria has contributed to remarkable health improvements in the three diseases since its creation in 2002. However, media reports about "astonishing losses" and fraud in Fund programs in 2011 caused several donors to suspend funding. The Fund's annual round of new financing was canceled, and a substantial reform program is being implemented. Two former senior managers of the Fund contend that fraud was never a major problem; rather than imposing harsh new controls on recipient countries that might impede health outcomes, the Fund should maintain the core elements of its innovative model and make selective rather than sweeping changes in its operations. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

How Obstacles Perturb Population Fronts and Alter Their Genetic Structure.

PubMed

Möbius, Wolfram; Murray, Andrew W; Nelson, David R

2015-12-01

As populations spread into new territory, environmental heterogeneities can shape the population front and genetic composition. We focus here on the effects of an important building block of heterogeneous environments, isolated obstacles. With a combination of experiments, theory, and simulation, we show how isolated obstacles both create long-lived distortions of the front shape and amplify the effect of genetic drift. A system of bacteriophage T7 spreading on a spatially heterogeneous Escherichia coli lawn serves as an experimental model system to study population expansions. Using an inkjet printer, we create well-defined replicates of the lawn and quantitatively study the population expansion of phage T7. The transient perturbations of the population front found in the experiments are well described by a model in which the front moves with constant speed. Independent of the precise details of the expansion, we show that obstacles create a kink in the front that persists over large distances and is insensitive to the details of the obstacle's shape. The small deviations between experimental findings and the predictions of the constant speed model can be understood with a more general reaction-diffusion model, which reduces to the constant speed model when the obstacle size is large compared to the front width. Using this framework, we demonstrate that frontier genotypes just grazing the side of an isolated obstacle increase in abundance, a phenomenon we call 'geometry-enhanced genetic drift', complementary to the founder effect associated with spatial bottlenecks. Bacterial range expansions around nutrient-poor barriers and stochastic simulations confirm this prediction. The effect of the obstacle on the genealogy of individuals at the front is characterized by simulations and rationalized using the constant speed model. Lastly, we consider the effect of two obstacles on front shape and genetic composition of the population illuminating the effects expected from

A parallel implementation of a multisensor feature-based range-estimation method

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Suorsa, Raymond E.; Sridhar, Banavar

1993-01-01

There are many proposed vision based methods to perform obstacle detection and avoidance for autonomous or semi-autonomous vehicles. All methods, however, will require very high processing rates to achieve real time performance. A system capable of supporting autonomous helicopter navigation will need to extract obstacle information from imagery at rates varying from ten frames per second to thirty or more frames per second depending on the vehicle speed. Such a system will need to sustain billions of operations per second. To reach such high processing rates using current technology, a parallel implementation of the obstacle detection/ranging method is required. This paper describes an efficient and flexible parallel implementation of a multisensor feature-based range-estimation algorithm, targeted for helicopter flight, realized on both a distributed-memory and shared-memory parallel computer.

Effect of form of obstacle on speed of crowd evacuation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yano, Ryosuke

2018-03-01

This paper investigates the effect of the form of an obstacle on the time that a crowd takes to evacuate a room, using a toy model. Pedestrians are modeled as active soft matter moving toward a point with intended velocities. An obstacle is placed in front of the exit, and it has one of four shapes: a cylindrical column, a triangular prism, a quadratic prism, or a diamond prism. Numerical results indicate that the evacuation-completion time depends on the shape of the obstacle. Obstacles with a circular cylinder (C.C.) shape yield the shortest evacuation-completion time in the proposed model.

Stimulus-to-matching-stimulus interval influences N1, P2, and P3b in an equiprobable Go/NoGo task.

PubMed

Steiner, Genevieve Z; Barry, Robert J; Gonsalvez, Craig J

2014-10-01

Previous research has shown that as the stimulus-to-matching-stimulus interval (including the target-to-target interval, TTI, and nontarget-to-nontarget interval, NNI) increases, the amplitude of the P300 ERP component increases systematically. Here, we extended previous P300 research and explored TTI and NNI effects on the various ERP components elicited in an auditory equiprobable Go/NoGo task. We also examined whether a similar mechanism was underpinning interval effects in early ERP components (e.g., N1). Thirty participants completed a specially-designed variable-ISI equiprobable task whilst their EEG activity was recorded. Component amplitudes were extracted using temporal PCA with unrestricted Varimax rotation. As expected, N1, P2, and P3b amplitudes increased as TTI and NNI increased, however, Processing Negativity (PN) and Slow Wave (SW) did not show the same systematic change with interval increments. To determine the origin of interval effects in sequential processing, a multiple regression analysis was conducted on each ERP component including stimulus type, interval, and all preceding components as predictors. These analyses showed that matching-stimulus interval predicted N1, P3b, and weakly predicted P2, but not PN or SW; SW was determined by P3b only. These results suggest that N1, P3b, and to some extent, P2, are affected by a similar temporal mechanism. However, the dissimilar pattern of results obtained for sequential ERP components indicates that matching-stimulus intervals are not affecting all aspects of stimulus processing. This argues against a global mechanism, such as a pathway-specific refractory effect, and suggests that stimulus processing is occurring in parallel pathways, some of which are not affected by temporal manipulations of matching-stimulus interval. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Casemix funding in Australia.

PubMed

Braithwaite, J; Hindle, D; Phelan, P D; Hanson, R

1998-06-01

Casemix funding for hospitals with the use of diagnosis-related groups (DRGs), which organise patients' conditions into similar clinical categories with similar costs, was introduced in Australia five years ago. It has been applied in different ways and to a greater or lesser extent in different Australian States. Only Victoria and South Australia have implemented casemix funding across all healthcare services. Attempts have been made to formally evaluate its impact, but they have not met the required scientific standards in controlling for confounding factors. Casemix funding remains a much-discussed issue. In this Debate, Braithwaite and Hindle take a contrary position, largely to stimulate policy debate; Phelan defends the casemix concept and advocates retaining its best features; and Hanson adds a plea for consumer input.

Obstacles to engaging in young driver licensing: Perspectives of parents.

PubMed

Naz, Sehana; Scott-Parker, Bridie

2017-02-01

Young novice drivers remain at greater risk of injury and death despite a wealth of interventions including graduated driver licensing (GDL) programs. The key to implementing safer practices inherent in GDL appears to lie with optimising the role of parents. This qualitative research explored the parent's perspectives of obstacles to engaging in the driver licensing process within a GDL program. Parents also shared advice on what they found helpful, and where relevant, recommended changes in the process to enable safer practices for young drivers. Twenty-three parents (aged 35-60 years, M=49.52, SD=8.01, 11 males) participated in semi-structured interviews regarding licensing experiences with their young driver children. The young drivers included learner (n=11), provisional (restricted/intermediate) (n=9) and open (unrestricted/full) licence drivers (n=3), ranging from 16 to 24 years (M=18.04, SD=2.21, 13 males). Content analysis revealed that most obstacles were encountered at the learner licensing phase, with the parent-reported difficult temperament of the learner driver the most prominent. Unsurprisingly, advice to other parents to be patient and remain calm featured heavily during the same phase. Anxiety from not having control of the vehicle was another obstacle at the learner phase, translating to anxieties for child safety in the early stages of provisional driving. Recommendations for the current GDL included more rigorous road rule testing, with general support for the program, professional driver training at learner and provisional stages facilitated parental engagement through the licensing phases. The findings overwhelmingly suggest a need for parents to be educated regarding their importance in, and of, the driver licensing process, and the efficacy of their instruction, content and practices. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Laser development for optimal helicopter obstacle warning system LADAR performance

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yaniv, A.; Krupkin, V.; Abitbol, A.; Stern, J.; Lurie, E.; German, A.; Solomonovich, S.; Lubashitz, B.; Harel, Y.; Engart, S.; Shimoni, Y.; Hezy, S.; Biltz, S.; Kaminetsky, E.; Goldberg, A.; Chocron, J.; Zuntz, N.; Zajdman, A.

2005-04-01

Low lying obstacles present immediate danger to both military and civilian helicopters performing low-altitude flight missions. A LADAR obstacle detection system is the natural solution for enhancing helicopter safety and improving the pilot situation awareness. Elop is currently developing an advanced Surveillance and Warning Obstacle Ranging and Display (SWORD) system for the Israeli Air Force. Several key factors and new concepts have contributed to system optimization. These include an adaptive FOV, data memorization, autonomous obstacle detection and warning algorithms and the use of an agile laser transmitter. In the present work we describe the laser design and performance and discuss some of the experimental results. Our eye-safe laser is characterized by its pulse energy, repetition rate and pulse length agility. By dynamically controlling these parameters, we are able to locally optimize the system"s obstacle detection range and scan density in accordance with the helicopter instantaneous maneuver.

Influence of obstacles on bubbles rising in water-saturated sand

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Poryles, Raphaël; Varas, Germán; Vidal, Valérie

2017-06-01

This work investigates the dynamics of air rising through a water-saturated sand confined in a Hele- Shaw cell in which a circular obstacle is trapped. The air is injected at constant flow rate through a single nozzle at the bottom center of the cell. Without obstacle, in a similar configuration, previous studies pointed out the existence of a fluidized zone generated by the central upward gas motion which entrains two granular convection rolls on its sides. Here, a circular obstacle which diameter is of the order of the central air channel width is trapped at the vertical of the injection nozzle. We analyze the influence of the obstacle location on the size of the fluidized zone and its impact on the morphology of the central air channel. Finally, we quantify the variations of the granular free surface. Two configurations with multiple obstacles are also considered.

Novel approaches to helicopter obstacle warning

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Seidel, Christian; Samuelis, Christian; Wegner, Matthias; Münsterer, Thomas; Rumpf, Thomas; Schwartz, Ingo

2006-05-01

EADS Germany is the world market leader in commercial Helicopter Laser Radar (HELLAS) Obstacle Warning Systems. The HELLAS-Warning System has been introduced into the market in 2000, is in service at German Border Control (Bundespolizei) and Royal Thai Airforce and is successfully evaluated by the Foreign Comparative Test Program (FCT) of the USSOCOM. Currently the successor system HELLAS-Awareness is in development. It will have extended sensor performance, enhanced realtime data processing capabilities and advanced HMI features. We will give an outline of the new sensor unit concerning detection technology and helicopter integration aspects. The system provides a widespread field of view with additional dynamic line of sight steering and a large detection range in combination with a high frame rate of 3Hz. The workflow of the data processing will be presented with focus on novel filter techniques and obstacle classification methods. As commonly known the former are indispensable due to unavoidable statistical measuring errors and solarisation. The amount of information in the filtered raw data is further reduced by ground segmentation. The remaining raised objects are extracted and classified in several stages into different obstacle classes. We will show the prioritization function which orders the obstacles concerning to their threat potential to the helicopter taking into account the actual flight dynamics. The priority of an object determines the display and provision of warnings to the pilot. Possible HMI representation includes video or FLIR overlay on multifunction displays, audio warnings and visualization of information on helmet mounted displays and digital maps. Different concepts will be presented.

31 CFR 1024.210 - Anti-money laundering programs for mutual funds.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

... mutual funds. 1024.210 Section 1024.210 Money and Finance: Treasury Regulations Relating to Money and... FUNDS Programs § 1024.210 Anti-money laundering programs for mutual funds. (a) Effective July 24, 2002, each mutual fund shall develop and implement a written anti-money laundering program reasonably...

[Microcomputer control of a LED stimulus display device].

PubMed

Ohmoto, S; Kikuchi, T; Kumada, T

1987-02-01

A visual stimulus display system controlled by a microcomputer was constructed at low cost. The system consists of a LED stimulus display device, a microcomputer, two interface boards, a pointing device (a "mouse") and two kinds of software. The first software package is written in BASIC. Its functions are: to construct stimulus patterns using the mouse, to construct letter patterns (alphabet, digit, symbols and Japanese letters--kanji, hiragana, katakana), to modify the patterns, to store the patterns on a floppy disc, to translate the patterns into integer data which are used to display the patterns in the second software. The second software package, written in BASIC and machine language, controls display of a sequence of stimulus patterns in predetermined time schedules in visual experiments.

What are the Facilitators and Obstacles to Participation in Workplace Team Sport? A Qualitative Study

PubMed Central

Brinkley, Andrew; Freeman, Josie; McDermott, Hilary; Munir, Fehmidah

2017-01-01

Working age adults are failing to meet physical activity recommendations. Inactive behaviours are increasing costs for diminished individual and organisational health. The workplace is a priority setting to promote physical activity, however there is a lack of evidence about why some employees choose to participate in novel workplace activities, such as team sport, whilst others do not. The aim of this study was to explore the complexity of facilitators and obstacles associated with participation in workplace team sport. Twenty-nine semi-structured face-to-face and telephone interviews were conducted with office workers (58% female) (36 ± 7.71) from manufacturing, public services, and educational services. Data was analysed through template analysis. Five sub-level (i.e., intrapersonal, interpersonal, organisational, community and societal influences) facilitate participation or create obstacles for participants. Participants were challenged by a lack of competence, self-efficacy, negative sporting ideals and amotivation. Unhealthy competition, an unstable work-life balance and unsupportive colleagues created obstacles to participation. An unsupportive organisation and workplace culture placed demands on workplace champions, funding, facilities and communication. Healthy competitions, high perceptions of competence and self-efficacy, and being motivated autonomously enabled participation. Further, relatedness and social support created a physical activity culture where flexible working was encouraged and team sport was promoted in accessible locations within the organisation. Researchers should consider accounting for complexity of these influences. A participatory approach may tailor interventions to individual organisations and the employees that work within them. Interventions whereby autonomy, competence and relatedness are supported are recommended. This may be achieved by adapting sports and training workplace champions. PMID:29922705

Training methods for horses: habituation to a frightening stimulus.

PubMed

Christensen, J W; Rundgren, M; Olsson, K

2006-09-01

Responses of horses in frightening situations are important for both equine and human safety. Considerable scientific interest has been shown in development of reactivity tests, but little effort has been dedicated to the development of appropriate training methods for reducing fearfulness. To investigate which of 3 different training methods (habituation, desensitisation and counter-conditioning) was most effective in teaching horses to react calmly in a potentially frightening situation. 1) Horses are able to generalise about the test stimulus such that, once familiar with the test stimulus in one situation, it appears less frightening and elicits a reduced response even when the stimulus intensity is increased or the stimulus is presented differently; and 2) alternative methods such as desensitisation and counter-conditioning would be more efficient than a classic habituation approach. Twenty-seven naive 2-year-old Danish Warmblood stallions were trained according to 3 different methods, based on classical learning theory: 1) horses (n = 9) were exposed to the full stimulus (a moving, white nylon bag, 1.2 x 0.75 m) in 5 daily training sessions until they met a predefined habituation criterion (habituation); 2) horses (n = 9) were introduced gradually to the stimulus and habituated to each step before the full stimulus was applied (desensitisation); 3) horses (n = 9) were trained to associate the stimulus with a positive reward before being exposed to the full stimulus (counter-conditioning). Each horse received 5 training sessions of 3 min per day. Heart rate and behavioural responses were recorded. Horses trained with the desensitisation method showed fewer flight responses in total and needed fewer training sessions to learn to react calmly to test stimuli. Variations in heart rate persisted even when behavioural responses had ceased. In addition, all horses on the desensitisation method eventually habituated to the test stimulus whereas some horses on the

Variables influencing stimulus overselectivity and "tunnel vision" in developmentally delayed children.

PubMed

Rincover, A; Ducharme, J M

1987-01-01

Three variables (diagnosis, location of cues, and MA of learners) influencing stimulus control and stimulus overselectivity in autistic children were assessed. Eight autistic and 8 intellectually average children, matched on MA, were trained on two discrimination tasks; one task contained two "within-stimulus" (i.e., physically connected) cues; the other contained the same two cues presented "extra-stimulus" (i.e., physically separate). Generalization gradients were used following training to measure the degree of stimulus control acquired by each cue. Results showed: autistic subjects tended to respond overselectively only in the extra-stimulus condition; MA was positively correlated with breadth of learning; and when autistic children were overselective to one cue, some stimulus control was also acquired by the second cue. The notion of tunnel vision was discussed, as it may represent a "keystone" deficit interfering with stimulus control and learning by autistic children.

Obstacle Detection using Binocular Stereo Vision in Trajectory Planning for Quadcopter Navigation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bugayong, Albert; Ramos, Manuel, Jr.

2018-02-01

Quadcopters are one of the most versatile unmanned aerial vehicles due to its vertical take-off and landing as well as hovering capabilities. This research uses the Sum of Absolute Differences (SAD) block matching algorithm for stereo vision. A complementary filter was used in sensor fusion to combine obtained quadcopter orientation data from the accelerometer and the gyroscope. PID control was implemented for the motor control and VFH+ algorithm was implemented for trajectory planning. Results show that the quadcopter was able to consistently actuate itself in the roll, yaw and z-axis during obstacle avoidance but was however found to be inconsistent in the pitch axis during forward and backward maneuvers due to the significant noise present in the pitch axis angle outputs compared to the roll and yaw axes.

Obstacle avoidance and concealed target detection using the Army Research Lab ultra-wideband synchronous impulse reconstruction (UWB SIRE) forward imaging radar

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nguyen, Lam; Wong, David; Ressler, Marc; Koenig, Francois; Stanton, Brian; Smith, Gregory; Sichina, Jeffrey; Kappra, Karl

2007-04-01

The U.S. Army Research Laboratory (ARL), as part of a mission and customer funded exploratory program, has developed a new low-frequency, ultra-wideband (UWB) synthetic aperture radar (SAR) for forward imaging to support the Army's vision of an autonomous navigation system for robotic ground vehicles. These unmanned vehicles, equipped with an array of imaging sensors, will be tasked to help detect man-made obstacles such as concealed targets, enemy minefields, and booby traps, as well as other natural obstacles such as ditches, and bodies of water. The ability of UWB radar technology to help detect concealed objects has been documented in the past and could provide an important obstacle avoidance capability for autonomous navigation systems, which would improve the speed and maneuverability of these vehicles and consequently increase the survivability of the U. S. forces on the battlefield. One of the primary features of the radar is the ability to collect and process data at combat pace in an affordable, compact, and lightweight package. To achieve this, the radar is based on the synchronous impulse reconstruction (SIRE) technique where several relatively slow and inexpensive analog-to-digital (A/D) converters are used to sample the wide bandwidth of the radar signals. We conducted an experiment this winter at Aberdeen Proving Ground (APG) to support the phenomenological studies of the backscatter from positive and negative obstacles for autonomous robotic vehicle navigation, as well as the detection of concealed targets of interest to the Army. In this paper, we briefly describe the UWB SIRE radar and the test setup in the experiment. We will also describe the signal processing and the forward imaging techniques used in the experiment. Finally, we will present imagery of man-made obstacles such as barriers, concertina wires, and mines.

Performance and three-dimensional kinematics of bipedal lizards during obstacle negotiation.

PubMed

Olberding, Jeffrey P; McBrayer, Lance D; Higham, Timothy E

2012-01-15

Bipedal running is common among lizard species, but although the kinematics and performance of this gait have been well characterized, the advantages in biologically relevant situations are still unclear. Obstacle negotiation is a task that is ecologically relevant to many animals while moving at high speeds, such as during bipedal running, yet little is known about how obstacles impact locomotion and performance. We examined the effects of obstacle negotiation on the kinematics and performance of lizards during bipedal locomotion. We quantified three-dimensional kinematics from high-speed video (500 Hz) of six-lined racerunners (Aspidoscelis sexlineata) running on a 3 m racetrack both with and without an obstacle spanning the width of the track. The lizards did not alter their kinematics prior to contacting the obstacle. Although contact with the obstacle caused changes to the hindlimb kinematics, mean forward speed did not differ between treatments. The deviation of the vertical position of the body center of mass did not differ between treatments, suggesting that in the absence of a cost to overall performance, lizards forgo maintaining normal kinematics while negotiating obstacles in favor of a steady body center of mass height to avoid destabilizing locomotion.

Obstacles to integrated pest management adoption in developing countries

PubMed Central

Parsa, Soroush; Morse, Stephen; Bonifacio, Alejandro; Chancellor, Timothy C. B.; Condori, Bruno; Crespo-Pérez, Verónica; Hobbs, Shaun L. A.; Kroschel, Jürgen; Ba, Malick N.; Rebaudo, François; Sherwood, Stephen G.; Vanek, Steven J.; Faye, Emile; Herrera, Mario A.; Dangles, Olivier

2014-01-01

Despite its theoretical prominence and sound principles, integrated pest management (IPM) continues to suffer from anemic adoption rates in developing countries. To shed light on the reasons, we surveyed the opinions of a large and diverse pool of IPM professionals and practitioners from 96 countries by using structured concept mapping. The first phase of this method elicited 413 open-ended responses on perceived obstacles to IPM. Analysis of responses revealed 51 unique statements on obstacles, the most frequent of which was “insufficient training and technical support to farmers.” Cluster analyses, based on participant opinions, grouped these unique statements into six themes: research weaknesses, outreach weaknesses, IPM weaknesses, farmer weaknesses, pesticide industry interference, and weak adoption incentives. Subsequently, 163 participants rated the obstacles expressed in the 51 unique statements according to importance and remediation difficulty. Respondents from developing countries and high-income countries rated the obstacles differently. As a group, developing-country respondents rated “IPM requires collective action within a farming community” as their top obstacle to IPM adoption. Respondents from high-income countries prioritized instead the “shortage of well-qualified IPM experts and extensionists.” Differential prioritization was also evident among developing-country regions, and when obstacle statements were grouped into themes. Results highlighted the need to improve the participation of stakeholders from developing countries in the IPM adoption debate, and also to situate the debate within specific regional contexts. PMID:24567400

Cognitive versus stimulus-response theories of learning

PubMed Central

Holland, Peter C.

2010-01-01

In his 1948 address to the Division of Theoretical-Experimental Psychology of the American Psychological Association, Kenneth W. Spence discussed six distinctions between cognitive and stimulus-response (S-R) theories of learning. In this article I first review these six distinctions, and then focus on two of them in the context of my own research. This research concerns the specification of stimulus-stimulus associations in associative learning, and the characterization of neural systems underlying those associations. In the course of describing Spence's views and my research, I hope to communicate some of the richness of Spence's S-R psychology, and its currency within modern scientific analyses of behavior. PMID:18683467

Advanced Augmented White Cane with obstacle height and distance feedback.

PubMed

Pyun, Rosali; Kim, Yeongmi; Wespe, Pascal; Gassert, Roger; Schneller, Stefan

2013-06-01

The white cane is a widely used mobility aid that helps visually impaired people navigate the surroundings. While it reliably and intuitively extends the detection range of ground-level obstacles and drop-offs to about 1.2 m, it lacks the ability to detect trunk and head-level obstacles. Electronic Travel Aids (ETAs) have been proposed to overcome these limitations, but have found minimal adoption due to limitations such as low information content and low reliability thereof. Although existing ETAs extend the sensing range beyond that of the conventional white cane, most of them do not detect head-level obstacles and drop-offs, nor can they identify the vertical extent of obstacles. Furthermore, some ETAs work independent of the white cane, and thus reliable detection of surface textures and drop-offs is not provided. This paper introduces a novel ETA, the Advanced Augmented White Cane, which detects obstacles at four vertical levels and provides multi-sensory feedback. We evaluated the device in five blindfolded subjects through reaction time measurements following the detection of an obstacle, as well as through the reliability of dropoff detection. The results showed that our aid could help the user successfully detect an obstacle and identify its height, with an average reaction time of 410 msec. Drop-offs were reliably detected with an intraclass correlation > 0.95. This work is a first step towards a low-cost ETA to complement the functionality of the conventional white cane.

Stimulus Overselectivity: Empirical Basis and Diagnostic Methods

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cipani, Ennio

2012-01-01

This paper presents the empirical basis for the phenomena known as stimulus overselectivity. Stimulus overselectivity involves responding on the basis of a restricted range of elements or features that are discriminative for reinforcement. The manner in which such a response pattern impedes the skill acquisition in children is identified. A…

Stimulus probability effects in absolute identification.

PubMed

Kent, Christopher; Lamberts, Koen

2016-05-01

This study investigated the effect of stimulus presentation probability on accuracy and response times in an absolute identification task. Three schedules of presentation were used to investigate the interaction between presentation probability and stimulus position within the set. Data from individual participants indicated strong effects of presentation probability on both proportion correct and response times. The effects were moderated by the ubiquitous stimulus position effect. The accuracy and response time data were predicted by an exemplar-based model of perceptual cognition (Kent & Lamberts, 2005). The bow in discriminability was also attenuated when presentation probability for middle items was relatively high, an effect that will constrain future model development. The study provides evidence for item-specific learning in absolute identification. Implications for other theories of absolute identification are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

Waveform stimulus subsystem: An advanced technology multifunction subsystem on a card

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pritchard, David J.

The F-15 TISS ATE (automatic test equipment) requires subsystem-on-a-card technology to achieve the required functionality within the space constraints. The waveform stimulus subsystem (WSS), an example of this advanced technology, is considered. The WSS circuit card consists of two 40-MHz pulse generators and an 80-MHz aribtrary waveform generator. Each generator is independently programmed and is available simultaneously to the user. The implementation of this highly integrated malfunction-detection system on a card is described, and the benefits to performance and maintainability are highlighted.

Discriminative stimulus properties of mitragynine (kratom) in rats.

PubMed

Harun, Norsyifa; Hassan, Zurina; Navaratnam, Visweswaran; Mansor, Sharif M; Shoaib, Mohammed

2015-07-01

Mitragynine (MG) is the primary active alkaloid extracted from the leaves of Mitragyna speciosa or kratom and exhibits pharmacological activities mediated by opioid receptors. The plant has been traditionally used for its opium and psychostimulant-like effects to increase work efficiency or as a substitute in the self-treatment of opiate addiction. The present study was performed to investigate the discriminative stimulus effects of MG in rats. The pharmacological mechanism of MG action and its derivative, 7-hydroxymitragynine (7-HMG) with a specific focus on opioid receptor involvement was examined in rats trained to discriminate morphine from vehicle. In order to study the dual actions of MG, the effect of cocaine substitution to the MG discriminative stimulus was also performed in MG-trained rats. Male Sprague Dawley rats were trained to discriminate MG from vehicle in a two-lever drug discrimination procedure under a tandem variable-interval (VI 60') fixed-ratio (FR 10) schedule of food reinforcement. Rats acquired the MG discrimination (15.0 mg/kg, i.p.) which was similar to the acquisition of morphine discrimination (5.0 mg/kg, i.p.) in another group of rats. MG substituted fully to the morphine discriminative stimulus in a dose-dependent manner, suggesting pharmacological similarities between the two drugs. The administration of 7-HMG derivative in 3.0 mg/kg (i.p.) dose engendered full generalisation to the morphine discriminative stimulus. In addition, the MG stimulus also partially generalised to cocaine (10.0 mg/kg, i.p.) stimulus. The present study demonstrates that the discriminative stimulus effect of MG possesses both opioid- and psychostimulant-like subjective effects.

"During early implementation you just muddle through": factors that impacted a statewide arthritis program's implementation.

PubMed

Conte, Kathleen P; Marie Harvey, S; Turner Goins, R

2017-12-01

The need to scale-up effective arthritis self-management programs is pressing as the prevalence of arthritis increases. The CDC Arthritis Program funds state health departments to work with local delivery systems to embed arthritis programs into their day-to-day work. To encourage organizational ownership and sustainability of programs, funding is restricted to offset program start-up costs. The purpose of this study was to identify factors that impacted the success of implementing an evidence-based arthritis self-management program, funded by the CDC Arthritis Program, into the Oregon Extension Service. We interviewed staff and partners involved in implementation who had and had not successfully delivered Walk With Ease (N = 12) to identify barriers and facilitators to scaling-up. Document analysis of administrative records was used to triangulate and expand on findings. Delivery goals defined by the funder were not met in Year 1: only 3 of the expected 28 programs were delivered. Barriers to implementation included insufficient planning for implementation driven by pressure to deliver programs and insufficient resources to support staff time. Facilitators included centralized administration of key implementation activities and staffs' previous experience implementing new programs. The importance of planning and preparing for implementation cannot be overlooked. Funders, however, eager to see deliverables, continue to define implementation goals in terms of program reach, exclusive of capacity-building. Lack of capacity-building can jeopardize staff buy-in, implementation quality, and sustainability. Based on our findings coupled with support from implementation literature, we offer recommendations for future large-scale implementation efforts operating under such funding restrictions.

Stimulus function in simultaneous discrimination1

PubMed Central

Biederman, Gerald B.

1968-01-01

In discrimination learning, the negativity of the stimulus correlated with nonreinforcement (S−) declines after 100 training trials while the stimulus correlated with reinforcement (S+) is paradoxically more positive with lesser amounts of discrimination training. Training subjects on two simultaneous discrimination tasks revealed a within-subjects overlearning reversal effect, where a more-frequently presented discrimination problem was better learned in reversal than was a discrimination problem presented less frequently during training. PMID:5672254

Direct facility funding as a response to user fee reduction: implementation and perceived impact among Kenyan health centres and dispensaries

PubMed Central

Opwora, Antony; Kabare, Margaret; Molyneux, Sassy; Goodman, Catherine

2010-01-01

There is increasing pressure for reduction of user fees, but this can have adverse effects by decreasing facility-level funds. To address this, direct facility funding (DFF) was piloted in Coast Province, Kenya, with health facility committees (HFCs) responsible for managing the funds. We evaluated the implementation and perceived impact 2.5 years after DFF introduction. Quantitative data collection at 30 public health centres and dispensaries included a structured interview with the in-charge, record reviews and exit interviews. In addition, in-depth interviews were conducted with the in-charge and HFC members at 12 facilities, and with district staff and other stakeholders. DFF procedures were well established: HFCs met regularly and accounting procedures were broadly followed. DFF made an important contribution to facility cash income, accounting for 47% in health centres and 62% in dispensaries. The main items of expenditure were wages for support staff (32%), travel (21%), and construction and maintenance (18%). DFF was perceived to have a highly positive impact through funding support staff such as cleaners and patient attendants, outreach activities, renovations, patient referrals and increasing HFC activity. This was perceived to have improved health worker motivation, utilization and quality of care. A number of problems were identified. HFC training was reportedly inadequate, and no DFF documentation was available at facility level, leading to confusion. Charging user fees above those specified in the national policy remained common, and understanding of DFF among the broader community was very limited. Finally, relationships between HFCs and health workers were sometimes characterized by mistrust and resentment. Relatively small increases in funding may significantly affect facility performance when the funds are managed at the periphery. Kenya plans to scale up DFF nationwide. Our findings indicate this is warranted, but should include improved training

Direct facility funding as a response to user fee reduction: implementation and perceived impact among Kenyan health centres and dispensaries.

PubMed

Opwora, Antony; Kabare, Margaret; Molyneux, Sassy; Goodman, Catherine

2010-09-01

There is increasing pressure for reduction of user fees, but this can have adverse effects by decreasing facility-level funds. To address this, direct facility funding (DFF) was piloted in Coast Province, Kenya, with health facility committees (HFCs) responsible for managing the funds. We evaluated the implementation and perceived impact 2.5 years after DFF introduction. Quantitative data collection at 30 public health centres and dispensaries included a structured interview with the in-charge, record reviews and exit interviews. In addition, in-depth interviews were conducted with the in-charge and HFC members at 12 facilities, and with district staff and other stakeholders. DFF procedures were well established: HFCs met regularly and accounting procedures were broadly followed. DFF made an important contribution to facility cash income, accounting for 47% in health centres and 62% in dispensaries. The main items of expenditure were wages for support staff (32%), travel (21%), and construction and maintenance (18%). DFF was perceived to have a highly positive impact through funding support staff such as cleaners and patient attendants, outreach activities, renovations, patient referrals and increasing HFC activity. This was perceived to have improved health worker motivation, utilization and quality of care. A number of problems were identified. HFC training was reportedly inadequate, and no DFF documentation was available at facility level, leading to confusion. Charging user fees above those specified in the national policy remained common, and understanding of DFF among the broader community was very limited. Finally, relationships between HFCs and health workers were sometimes characterized by mistrust and resentment. Relatively small increases in funding may significantly affect facility performance when the funds are managed at the periphery. Kenya plans to scale up DFF nationwide. Our findings indicate this is warranted, but should include improved training

How Obstacles Perturb Population Fronts and Alter Their Genetic Structure

PubMed Central

Möbius, Wolfram; Murray, Andrew W.; Nelson, David R.

2015-01-01

As populations spread into new territory, environmental heterogeneities can shape the population front and genetic composition. We focus here on the effects of an important building block of heterogeneous environments, isolated obstacles. With a combination of experiments, theory, and simulation, we show how isolated obstacles both create long-lived distortions of the front shape and amplify the effect of genetic drift. A system of bacteriophage T7 spreading on a spatially heterogeneous Escherichia coli lawn serves as an experimental model system to study population expansions. Using an inkjet printer, we create well-defined replicates of the lawn and quantitatively study the population expansion of phage T7. The transient perturbations of the population front found in the experiments are well described by a model in which the front moves with constant speed. Independent of the precise details of the expansion, we show that obstacles create a kink in the front that persists over large distances and is insensitive to the details of the obstacle’s shape. The small deviations between experimental findings and the predictions of the constant speed model can be understood with a more general reaction-diffusion model, which reduces to the constant speed model when the obstacle size is large compared to the front width. Using this framework, we demonstrate that frontier genotypes just grazing the side of an isolated obstacle increase in abundance, a phenomenon we call ‘geometry-enhanced genetic drift’, complementary to the founder effect associated with spatial bottlenecks. Bacterial range expansions around nutrient-poor barriers and stochastic simulations confirm this prediction. The effect of the obstacle on the genealogy of individuals at the front is characterized by simulations and rationalized using the constant speed model. Lastly, we consider the effect of two obstacles on front shape and genetic composition of the population illuminating the effects

Sensorimotor Model of Obstacle Avoidance in Echolocating Bats

PubMed Central

Vanderelst, Dieter; Holderied, Marc W.; Peremans, Herbert

2015-01-01

Bat echolocation is an ability consisting of many subtasks such as navigation, prey detection and object recognition. Understanding the echolocation capabilities of bats comes down to isolating the minimal set of acoustic cues needed to complete each task. For some tasks, the minimal cues have already been identified. However, while a number of possible cues have been suggested, little is known about the minimal cues supporting obstacle avoidance in echolocating bats. In this paper, we propose that the Interaural Intensity Difference (IID) and travel time of the first millisecond of the echo train are sufficient cues for obstacle avoidance. We describe a simple control algorithm based on the use of these cues in combination with alternating ear positions modeled after the constant frequency bat Rhinolophus rouxii. Using spatial simulations (2D and 3D), we show that simple phonotaxis can steer a bat clear from obstacles without performing a reconstruction of the 3D layout of the scene. As such, this paper presents the first computationally explicit explanation for obstacle avoidance validated in complex simulated environments. Based on additional simulations modelling the FM bat Phyllostomus discolor, we conjecture that the proposed cues can be exploited by constant frequency (CF) bats and frequency modulated (FM) bats alike. We hypothesize that using a low level yet robust cue for obstacle avoidance allows bats to comply with the hard real-time constraints of this basic behaviour. PMID:26502063

2D transient granular flows over obstacles: experimental and numerical work

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Juez, Carmelo; Caviedes-Voullième, Daniel; Murillo, Javier; García-Navarro, Pilar

2016-04-01

the material is traditionally oriented in a predominant longitudinal direction and the layer of the mass is thin in comparison to the scale of interest, the depth-averaged procedure can be performed in the mass and momentum equations. Regarding the friction theory embedded in the landslide motion, a Coulomb-like basal friction law can be assumed as a first attempt of reproducing the phenomena. On the other hand, the presence of obstacles, involves the study of the development of schock waves imposing the simulation of the granular behavior by means of a schock-tracking numerical scheme. The numerical scheme employed, is based on an approximate solvers based on Roe approaches, devoting especial attention to the frictional source terms. This work was partially funded by the ITN-Programme (Marie Curie Actions) of the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme FP7-PEOPLE-2013-ITN under REA grant agreement n_607394-SEDITRANS. The granular experiments were funded by DGA, Diputación General de Aragón, España.

Stepping over obstacles: anticipatory modifications in children with and without Down syndrome.

PubMed

Virji-Babul, Naznin; Brown, Michelle

2004-12-01

The purpose of this study was to explore the mechanism of anticipatory control of gait in relation to the perception of an obstacle. Typically developing (TD) children (4-7 years of age) and children with Down syndrome (5-6 years of age) walked and stepped over obstacles of two different heights-a "subtle" obstacle that was placed at a very low distance from the floor (1% of total body height) and an "obvious" obstacle that was placed at a much higher distance from the floor (15% of total body height). Spatial and temporal measures of the gait cycle were analyzed. TD children showed increased variability in pre-obstacle step lengths only in response to the higher obstacle. Children with DS showed a decrease in variability in response to the higher obstacle and marked qualitative changes in their gait cycle. Both groups of children were able to scale toe clearance with obstacle height. These results show that TD young children can make task-specific anticipatory adjustments by modulating step length and toe clearance. Children with DS show appropriate scaling of toe clearance and are beginning to show the emergence of anticipatory responses under specific environmental conditions.

Method for six-legged robot stepping on obstacles by indirect force estimation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Xu, Yilin; Gao, Feng; Pan, Yang; Chai, Xun

2016-07-01

Adaptive gaits for legged robots often requires force sensors installed on foot-tips, however impact, temperature or humidity can affect or even damage those sensors. Efforts have been made to realize indirect force estimation on the legged robots using leg structures based on planar mechanisms. Robot Octopus III is a six-legged robot using spatial parallel mechanism(UP-2UPS) legs. This paper proposed a novel method to realize indirect force estimation on walking robot based on a spatial parallel mechanism. The direct kinematics model and the inverse kinematics model are established. The force Jacobian matrix is derived based on the kinematics model. Thus, the indirect force estimation model is established. Then, the relation between the output torques of the three motors installed on one leg to the external force exerted on the foot tip is described. Furthermore, an adaptive tripod static gait is designed. The robot alters its leg trajectory to step on obstacles by using the proposed adaptive gait. Both the indirect force estimation model and the adaptive gait are implemented and optimized in a real time control system. An experiment is carried out to validate the indirect force estimation model. The adaptive gait is tested in another experiment. Experiment results show that the robot can successfully step on a 0.2 m-high obstacle. This paper proposes a novel method to overcome obstacles for the six-legged robot using spatial parallel mechanism legs and to avoid installing the electric force sensors in harsh environment of the robot's foot tips.

A review of health promotion funding for older adults in Europe: a cross-country comparison.

PubMed

Arsenijevic, Jelena; Groot, Wim; Tambor, Marzena; Golinowska, Stanislawa; Sowada, Christoph; Pavlova, Milena

2016-09-05

Health promotion interventions for older adults are important as they can decrease the onset and evolution of diseases and thus can reduce the medical costs related to those diseases. However, there is no comparative evidence on how those interventions are funded in European countries. The aim of this study is to explore the funding of health promotion interventions in general and health promotion interventions for older adults in particular in European countries. We use desk research to identify relevant sources of information such as official national documents, international databases and scientific articles. Fora descriptive overview on how health promotion is funded, we focus on three dimensions: who is funding health promotion, what are the contribution mechanisms and who are the collecting agents. In addition to general information on funding of health promotion, we explore how programs on health promotion for older population groups are funded. There is a great diversity in funding of health promotion in European countries. Although public sources (tax and social health insurance revenues) are still most often used, other mechanisms of funding such as private donations or European funds are also common. Furthermore, there is no clear pattern in the funding of health promotion for different population groups. This is of particular importance for health promotion for older adults where information is limited across European countries. This study provides an overview of funding of health promotion interventions in European countries. The main obstacles for funding health promotion interventions are lack of information and the fragmentation in the funding of health promotion interventions for older adults.

Visual awareness suppression by pre-stimulus brain stimulation; a neural effect.

PubMed

Jacobs, Christianne; Goebel, Rainer; Sack, Alexander T

2012-01-02

Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) has established the functional relevance of early visual cortex (EVC) for visual awareness with great temporal specificity non-invasively in conscious human volunteers. Many studies have found a suppressive effect when TMS was applied over EVC 80-100 ms after the onset of the visual stimulus (post-stimulus TMS time window). Yet, few studies found task performance to also suffer when TMS was applied even before visual stimulus presentation (pre-stimulus TMS time window). This pre-stimulus TMS effect, however, remains controversially debated and its origin had mainly been ascribed to TMS-induced eye-blinking artifacts. Here, we applied chronometric TMS over EVC during the execution of a visual discrimination task, covering an exhaustive range of visual stimulus-locked TMS time windows ranging from -80 pre-stimulus to 300 ms post-stimulus onset. Electrooculographical (EoG) recordings, sham TMS stimulation, and vertex TMS stimulation controlled for different types of non-neural TMS effects. Our findings clearly reveal TMS-induced masking effects for both pre- and post-stimulus time windows, and for both objective visual discrimination performance and subjective visibility. Importantly, all effects proved to be still present after post hoc removal of eye blink trials, suggesting a neural origin for the pre-stimulus TMS suppression effect on visual awareness. We speculate based on our data that TMS exerts its pre-stimulus effect via generation of a neural state which interacts with subsequent visual input. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Stimulus Intensity and the Perception of Duration

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Matthews, William J.; Stewart, Neil; Wearden, John H.

2011-01-01

This article explores the widely reported finding that the subjective duration of a stimulus is positively related to its magnitude. In Experiments 1 and 2 we show that, for both auditory and visual stimuli, the effect of stimulus magnitude on the perception of duration depends upon the background: Against a high intensity background, weak stimuli…

A Monocular Vision Sensor-Based Obstacle Detection Algorithm for Autonomous Robots.

PubMed

Lee, Tae-Jae; Yi, Dong-Hoon; Cho, Dong-Il Dan

2016-03-01

This paper presents a monocular vision sensor-based obstacle detection algorithm for autonomous robots. Each individual image pixel at the bottom region of interest is labeled as belonging either to an obstacle or the floor. While conventional methods depend on point tracking for geometric cues for obstacle detection, the proposed algorithm uses the inverse perspective mapping (IPM) method. This method is much more advantageous when the camera is not high off the floor, which makes point tracking near the floor difficult. Markov random field-based obstacle segmentation is then performed using the IPM results and a floor appearance model. Next, the shortest distance between the robot and the obstacle is calculated. The algorithm is tested by applying it to 70 datasets, 20 of which include nonobstacle images where considerable changes in floor appearance occur. The obstacle segmentation accuracies and the distance estimation error are quantitatively analyzed. For obstacle datasets, the segmentation precision and the average distance estimation error of the proposed method are 81.4% and 1.6 cm, respectively, whereas those for a conventional method are 57.5% and 9.9 cm, respectively. For nonobstacle datasets, the proposed method gives 0.0% false positive rates, while the conventional method gives 17.6%.

A Monocular Vision Sensor-Based Obstacle Detection Algorithm for Autonomous Robots

PubMed Central

Lee, Tae-Jae; Yi, Dong-Hoon; Cho, Dong-Il “Dan”

2016-01-01

This paper presents a monocular vision sensor-based obstacle detection algorithm for autonomous robots. Each individual image pixel at the bottom region of interest is labeled as belonging either to an obstacle or the floor. While conventional methods depend on point tracking for geometric cues for obstacle detection, the proposed algorithm uses the inverse perspective mapping (IPM) method. This method is much more advantageous when the camera is not high off the floor, which makes point tracking near the floor difficult. Markov random field-based obstacle segmentation is then performed using the IPM results and a floor appearance model. Next, the shortest distance between the robot and the obstacle is calculated. The algorithm is tested by applying it to 70 datasets, 20 of which include nonobstacle images where considerable changes in floor appearance occur. The obstacle segmentation accuracies and the distance estimation error are quantitatively analyzed. For obstacle datasets, the segmentation precision and the average distance estimation error of the proposed method are 81.4% and 1.6 cm, respectively, whereas those for a conventional method are 57.5% and 9.9 cm, respectively. For nonobstacle datasets, the proposed method gives 0.0% false positive rates, while the conventional method gives 17.6%. PMID:26938540

Clogging and jamming transitions in periodic obstacle arrays

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

Nguyen, Hong; Reichhardt, Charles; Olson Reichhardt, Cynthia Jane

2017-03-29

We numerically examine clogging transitions for bidisperse disks flowing through a two-dimensional periodic obstacle array. Here, we show that clogging is a probabilistic event that occurs through a transition from a homogeneous flowing state to a heterogeneous or phase-separated jammed state where the disks form dense connected clusters. The probability for clogging to occur during a fixed time increases with increasing particle packing and obstacle number. For driving at different angles with respect to the symmetry direction of the obstacle array, we show that certain directions have a higher clogging susceptibility. It is also possible to have a size-specific cloggingmore » transition in which one disk size becomes completely immobile while the other disk size continues to flow.« less

Individualized Levels System and Systematic Stimulus Pairing to Reduce Multiply Controlled Aggression of a Child With Autism Spectrum Disorder.

PubMed

Randall, Kayla R; Lambert, Joseph M; Matthews, Mary P; Houchins-Juarez, Nealetta J

2018-05-01

Research has shown that physical aggression is common in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Interventions for multiply controlled aggression may be complex and difficult to implement with fidelity. As a result, the probability of treatment efficacy for this class of behavior may suffer. We designed an individualized levels system to reduce the physical aggression of an 11-year-old female with ASD. We then employed a systematic stimulus pairing procedure to facilitate generalization. Results suggest individualized levels systems can suppress multiply controlled aggression and that systematic stimulus pairing is an effective way to transfer treatment effects from trained therapists to caregivers.

Rational-emotive behavior therapy and the formation of stimulus equivalence classes.

PubMed

Plaud, J J; Gaither, G A; Weller, L A; Bigwood, S J; Barth, J; von Duvillard, S P

1998-08-01

Stimulus equivalence is a behavioral approach to analyzing the "meaning" of stimulus sets and has an implication for clinical psychology. The formation of three-member (A --> B --> C) stimulus equivalence classes was used to investigate the effects of three different sets of sample and comparison stimuli on emergent behavior. The three stimulus sets were composed of Rational-Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT)-related words, non-REBT emotionally charged words, and a third category of neutral words composed of flower labels. Sixty-two women and men participated in a modified matching-to-sample experiment. Using a mixed cross-over design, and controlling for serial order effects, participants received conditional training and emergent relationship training in the three stimulus set conditions. Results revealed a significant interaction between the formation of stimulus equivalence classes and stimulus meaning, indicating consistently biased responding in favor of reaching criterion responding more slowly for REBT-related and non-REBT emotionally charged words. Results were examined in the context of an analysis of the importance of stimulus meaning on behavior and the relation of stimulus meaning to behavioral and cognitive theories, with special appraisal given to the influence of fear-related discriminative stimuli on behavior.

Obstacle detection and avoiding of quadcopter

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, Dizhong; Lin, Jiajian

2017-10-01

Recent years, the flight control technology over quadcopter has been boosted vigorously and acquired the comprehensive application in a variety of industries. However, it is prominent for there to be problems existed in the stable and secure flight with the development of its autonomous flight. Through comparing with the characteristics of ultrasonic ranging and laser Time-of-Flight(abbreviated to ToF) distance as well as vision measurement and its related sensors, the obstacle detection and identification sensors need to be installed in order to effectively enhance the safety flying for aircraft, which is essential for avoiding the dangers around the surroundings. That the major sensors applied to objects perception at present are distance measuring instruments which based on the principle and application of non-contact detection technology . Prior to acknowledging the general principles of flight and obstacle avoiding, the aerodynamics modeling of the quadcopter and its object detection means has been initially determined on this paper. Based on such premise, this article emphasized on describing and analyzing the research on obstacle avoiding technology and its application status, and making an expectation for the trend of its development after analyzing the primary existing problems concerning its accuracy object avoidance.

42 CFR 456.725 - Funding of ECM system.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-10-01

... Claims Management System for Outpatient Drug Claims § 456.725 Funding of ECM system. (a) For funds..., and implementation of an on-line, real-time claims management system (that is, the most cost-effective... process that is integrated into a single comprehensive utilization and information reporting system. ...

Alterations to multisensory and unisensory integration by stimulus competition.

PubMed

Pluta, Scott R; Rowland, Benjamin A; Stanford, Terrence R; Stein, Barry E

2011-12-01

In environments containing sensory events at competing locations, selecting a target for orienting requires prioritization of stimulus values. Although the superior colliculus (SC) is causally linked to the stimulus selection process, the manner in which SC multisensory integration operates in a competitive stimulus environment is unknown. Here we examined how the activity of visual-auditory SC neurons is affected by placement of a competing target in the opposite hemifield, a stimulus configuration that would, in principle, promote interhemispheric competition for access to downstream motor circuitry. Competitive interactions between the targets were evident in how they altered unisensory and multisensory responses of individual neurons. Responses elicited by a cross-modal stimulus (multisensory responses) proved to be substantially more resistant to competitor-induced depression than were unisensory responses (evoked by the component modality-specific stimuli). Similarly, when a cross-modal stimulus served as the competitor, it exerted considerably more depression than did its individual component stimuli, in some cases producing more depression than predicted by their linear sum. These findings suggest that multisensory integration can help resolve competition among multiple targets by enhancing orientation to the location of cross-modal events while simultaneously suppressing orientation to events at alternate locations.

Stimulus control in a two-choice discrimination procedure

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Galloway, W. D.

1973-01-01

Experimental investigation upon pigeons of the relation between performance during discriminative training and subsequently obtained stimulus control test results. The results obtained support the proposition that bias generated by training dependencies is a major determiner of stimulus control.

Safe Maritime Navigation with COLREGS Using Velocity Obstacles

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kuwata, Yoshiaki; Wolf, Michael T.; Zarzhitsky, Dimitri; Huntsberger, Terrance L.

2011-01-01

This paper presents a motion planning algorithm for Unmanned Surface Vehicles (USVs) to navigate safely in dynamic, cluttered environments. The proposed algorithm not only addresses Hazard Avoidance (HA) for stationary and moving hazards but also applies the International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea (known as COLREGs). The COLREG rules specify, for example, which vessel is responsible for giving way to the other and to which side of the "stand-on" vessel to maneuver. The three primary COLREG rules were considered in this paper: crossing, overtaking, and head-on situations. For USVs to be safely deployed in environments with other traffic boats, it is imperative that the USV's navigation algorithm obey COLREGs. Note also that if other boats disregard their responsibility under COLREGs, the USV will still apply its HA algorithms to avoid a collision. The proposed approach is based on Velocity Obstacles, which generates a cone-shaped obstacle in the velocity space. Because Velocity Obstacles also specify which side of the obstacle the vehicle will pass during the avoidance maneuver, COLREGs are encoded in the velocity space in a natural way. The algorithm is demonstrated via both simulation and on-water tests.

The effects of multiple obstacles on the locomotor behavior and performance of a terrestrial lizard.

PubMed

Parker, Seth E; McBrayer, Lance D

2016-04-01

Negotiation of variable terrain is important for many small terrestrial vertebrates. Variation in the running surface resulting from obstacles (woody debris, vegetation, rocks) can alter escape paths and running performance. The ability to navigate obstacles likely influences survivorship through predator evasion success and other key ecological tasks (finding mates, acquiring food). Earlier work established that running posture and sprint performance are altered when organisms face an obstacle, and yet studies involving multiple obstacles are limited. Indeed, some habitats are cluttered with obstacles, whereas others are not. For many species, obstacle density may be important in predator escape and/or colonization potential by conspecifics. This study examines how multiple obstacles influence running behavior and locomotor posture in lizards. We predict that an increasing number of obstacles will increase the frequency of pausing and decrease sprint velocity. Furthermore, bipedal running over multiple obstacles is predicted to maintain greater mean sprint velocity compared with quadrupedal running, thereby revealing a potential advantage of bipedalism. Lizards were filmed running through a racetrack with zero, one or two obstacles. Bipedal running posture over one obstacle was significantly faster than quadrupedal posture. Bipedal running trials contained fewer total strides than quadrupedal ones. But on addition of a second obstacle, the number of bipedal strides decreased. Increasing obstacle number led to slower and more intermittent locomotion. Bipedalism provided clear advantages for one obstacle, but was not associated with further benefits for an additional obstacle. Hence, bipedalism helps mitigate obstacle negotiation, but not when numerous obstacles are encountered in succession. © 2016. Published by The Company of Biologists Ltd.

Stochastic performance modeling and evaluation of obstacle detectability with imaging range sensors

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Matthies, Larry; Grandjean, Pierrick

1993-01-01

Statistical modeling and evaluation of the performance of obstacle detection systems for Unmanned Ground Vehicles (UGVs) is essential for the design, evaluation, and comparison of sensor systems. In this report, we address this issue for imaging range sensors by dividing the evaluation problem into two levels: quality of the range data itself and quality of the obstacle detection algorithms applied to the range data. We review existing models of the quality of range data from stereo vision and AM-CW LADAR, then use these to derive a new model for the quality of a simple obstacle detection algorithm. This model predicts the probability of detecting obstacles and the probability of false alarms, as a function of the size and distance of the obstacle, the resolution of the sensor, and the level of noise in the range data. We evaluate these models experimentally using range data from stereo image pairs of a gravel road with known obstacles at several distances. The results show that the approach is a promising tool for predicting and evaluating the performance of obstacle detection with imaging range sensors.

Stimulus size dependence of hue changes induced by chromatic surrounds.

PubMed

Kellner, Christian Johannes; Wachtler, Thomas

2016-03-01

A chromatic surround induces a change in the perceived hue of a stimulus. This shift in hue depends on the chromatic difference between the stimulus and the surround. We investigated how chromatic induction varies with stimulus size and whether the size dependence depends on the surround hue. Subjects performed asymmetric matching of color stimuli with different sizes in surrounds of different chromaticities. Generally, induced hue shifts decreased with increasing stimulus size. This decrease was quantitatively different for different surround hues. However, when size effects were normalized to an overall induction strength, the chromatic specificity was largely reduced. The separability of inducer chromaticity and stimulus size suggests that these effects are mediated by different neural mechanisms.

Obstacle evasion in free-space optical communications utilizing Airy beams.

PubMed

Zhu, Guoxuan; Wen, Yuanhui; Wu, Xiong; Chen, Yujie; Liu, Jie; Yu, Siyuan

2018-03-15

A high speed free-space optical communication system capable of self-bending signal transmission around line-of-sight obstacles is proposed and demonstrated. Airy beams are generated and controlled to achieve different propagating trajectories, and the signal transmission characteristics of these beams around the obstacle are investigated. Our results confirm that, by optimizing their ballistic trajectories, Airy beams are able to bypass obstacles with more signal energy and thus improve the communication performance compared with normal Gaussian beams.

Obstacle evasion in free-space optical communications utilizing Airy beams

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhu, Guoxuan; Wen, Yuanhui; Wu, Xiong; Chen, Yujie; Liu, Jie; Yu, Siyuan

2018-03-01

A high speed free-space optical communication system capable of self-bending signal transmission around line-of-sight obstacles is proposed and demonstrated. Airy beams are generated and controlled to achieve different propagating trajectories, and the signal transmission characteristics of these beams around the obstacle are investigated. Our results confirm that, by optimising their ballistic trajectories, Airy beams are able to bypass obstacles with more signal energy and thus improve the communication performance compared with normal Gaussian beams.

Propagation of spiral waves pinned to circular and rectangular obstacles.

PubMed

Sutthiopad, Malee; Luengviriya, Jiraporn; Porjai, Porramain; Phantu, Metinee; Kanchanawarin, Jarin; Müller, Stefan C; Luengviriya, Chaiya

2015-05-01

We present an investigation of spiral waves pinned to circular and rectangular obstacles with different circumferences in both thin layers of the Belousov-Zhabotinsky reaction and numerical simulations with the Oregonator model. For circular objects, the area always increases with the circumference. In contrast, we varied the circumference of rectangles with equal areas by adjusting their width w and height h. For both obstacle forms, the propagating parameters (i.e., wavelength, wave period, and velocity of pinned spiral waves) increase with the circumference, regardless of the obstacle area. Despite these common features of the parameters, the forms of pinned spiral waves depend on the obstacle shapes. The structures of spiral waves pinned to circles as well as rectangles with the ratio w/h∼1 are similar to Archimedean spirals. When w/h increases, deformations of the spiral shapes are observed. For extremely thin rectangles with w/h≫1, these shapes can be constructed by employing semicircles with different radii which relate to the obstacle width and the core diameter of free spirals.

Virtual reality-based navigation task to reveal obstacle avoidance performance in individuals with visuospatial neglect.

PubMed

Aravind, Gayatri; Darekar, Anuja; Fung, Joyce; Lamontagne, Anouk

2015-03-01

Persons with post-stroke visuospatial neglect (VSN) often collide with moving obstacles while walking. It is not well understood whether the collisions occur as a result of attentional-perceptual deficits caused by VSN or due to post-stroke locomotor deficits. We assessed individuals with VSN on a seated, joystick-driven obstacle avoidance task, thus eliminating the influence of locomotion. Twelve participants with VSN were tested on obstacle detection and obstacle avoidance tasks in a virtual environment that included three obstacles approaching head-on or 30 (°) contralesionally/ipsilesionally. Our results indicate that in the detection task, the contralesional and head-on obstacles were detected at closer proximities compared to the ipsilesional obstacle. For the avoidance task collisions were observed only for the contralesional and head-on obstacle approaches. For the contralesional obstacle approach, participants initiated their avoidance strategies at smaller distances from the obstacle and maintained smaller minimum distances from the obstacles. The distance at detection showed a negative association with the distance at the onset of avoidance strategy for all three obstacle approaches. We conclusion the observation of collisions with contralesional and head-on obstacles, in the absence of locomotor burden, provides evidence that attentional-perceptual deficits due to VSN, independent of post-stroke locomotor deficits, alter obstacle avoidance abilities.

Reciprocal inhibition of inhibition: A circuit motif for flexible categorization in stimulus selection

PubMed Central

Knudsen, Eric I.

2011-01-01

As a precursor to the selection of a stimulus for gaze and attention, a midbrain network categorizes stimuli into “strongest” and “others.” The categorization tracks flexibly, in real-time, the absolute strength of the strongest stimulus. In this study, we take a first principles approach to computations that are essential for such categorization. We demonstrate that classical feedforward lateral inhibition cannot produce flexible categorization. However, circuits in which the strength of lateral inhibition varies with the relative strength of competing stimuli categorize successfully. One particular implementation - reciprocal inhibition of feedforward lateral inhibition – is structurally the simplest, and it outperforms others in flexibly categorizing rapidly and reliably. Strong predictions of this anatomically supported circuit model are validated by neural responses measured in the owl midbrain. The results demonstrate the extraordinary power of a remarkably simple, neurally grounded circuit motif in producing flexible categorization, a computation fundamental to attention, perception, and decision-making. PMID:22243757

Recognition of an obstacle in a flow using artificial neural networks.

PubMed

Carrillo, Mauricio; Que, Ulices; González, José A; López, Carlos

2017-08-01

In this work a series of artificial neural networks (ANNs) has been developed with the capacity to estimate the size and location of an obstacle obstructing the flow in a pipe. The ANNs learn the size and location of the obstacle by reading the profiles of the dynamic pressure q or the x component of the velocity v_{x} of the fluid at a certain distance from the obstacle. Data to train the ANN were generated using numerical simulations with a two-dimensional lattice Boltzmann code. We analyzed various cases varying both the diameter and the position of the obstacle on the y axis, obtaining good estimations using the R^{2} coefficient for the cases under study. Although the ANN showed problems with the classification of very small obstacles, the general results show a very good capacity for prediction.

Assessment of a simple obstacle detection device for the visually impaired.

PubMed

Lee, Cheng-Lung; Chen, Chih-Yung; Sung, Peng-Cheng; Lu, Shih-Yi

2014-07-01

A simple obstacle detection device, based upon an automobile parking sensor, was assessed as a mobility aid for the visually impaired. A questionnaire survey for mobility needs was performed at the start of this study. After the detector was developed, five blindfolded sighted and 15 visually impaired participants were invited to conduct travel experiments under three test conditions: (1) using a white cane only, (2) using the obstacle detector only and (3) using both devices. A post-experiment interview regarding the usefulness of the obstacle detector for the visually impaired participants was performed. The results showed that the obstacle detector could augment mobility performance with the white cane. The obstacle detection device should be used in conjunction with the white cane to achieve the best mobility speed and body protection. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd and The Ergonomics Society. All rights reserved.

Through the eyes of a bird: modelling visually guided obstacle flight

PubMed Central

Lin, Huai-Ti; Ros, Ivo G.; Biewener, Andrew A.

2014-01-01

Various flight navigation strategies for birds have been identified at the large spatial scales of migratory and homing behaviours. However, relatively little is known about close-range obstacle negotiation through cluttered environments. To examine obstacle flight guidance, we tracked pigeons (Columba livia) flying through an artificial forest of vertical poles. Interestingly, pigeons adjusted their flight path only approximately 1.5 m from the forest entry, suggesting a reactive mode of path planning. Combining flight trajectories with obstacle pole positions, we reconstructed the visual experience of the pigeons throughout obstacle flights. Assuming proportional–derivative control with a constant delay, we searched the relevant parameter space of steering gains and visuomotor delays that best explained the observed steering. We found that a pigeon's steering resembles proportional control driven by the error angle between the flight direction and the desired opening, or gap, between obstacles. Using this pigeon steering controller, we simulated obstacle flights and showed that pigeons do not simply steer to the nearest opening in the direction of flight or destination. Pigeons bias their flight direction towards larger visual gaps when making fast steering decisions. The proposed behavioural modelling method converts the obstacle avoidance behaviour into a (piecewise) target-aiming behaviour, which is better defined and understood. This study demonstrates how such an approach decomposes open-loop free-flight behaviours into components that can be independently evaluated. PMID:24812052

Through the eyes of a bird: modelling visually guided obstacle flight.

PubMed

Lin, Huai-Ti; Ros, Ivo G; Biewener, Andrew A

2014-07-06

Various flight navigation strategies for birds have been identified at the large spatial scales of migratory and homing behaviours. However, relatively little is known about close-range obstacle negotiation through cluttered environments. To examine obstacle flight guidance, we tracked pigeons (Columba livia) flying through an artificial forest of vertical poles. Interestingly, pigeons adjusted their flight path only approximately 1.5 m from the forest entry, suggesting a reactive mode of path planning. Combining flight trajectories with obstacle pole positions, we reconstructed the visual experience of the pigeons throughout obstacle flights. Assuming proportional-derivative control with a constant delay, we searched the relevant parameter space of steering gains and visuomotor delays that best explained the observed steering. We found that a pigeon's steering resembles proportional control driven by the error angle between the flight direction and the desired opening, or gap, between obstacles. Using this pigeon steering controller, we simulated obstacle flights and showed that pigeons do not simply steer to the nearest opening in the direction of flight or destination. Pigeons bias their flight direction towards larger visual gaps when making fast steering decisions. The proposed behavioural modelling method converts the obstacle avoidance behaviour into a (piecewise) target-aiming behaviour, which is better defined and understood. This study demonstrates how such an approach decomposes open-loop free-flight behaviours into components that can be independently evaluated.

An assessment of auditory-guided locomotion in an obstacle circumvention task.

PubMed

Kolarik, Andrew J; Scarfe, Amy C; Moore, Brian C J; Pardhan, Shahina

2016-06-01

This study investigated how effectively audition can be used to guide navigation around an obstacle. Ten blindfolded normally sighted participants navigated around a 0.6 × 2 m obstacle while producing self-generated mouth click sounds. Objective movement performance was measured using a Vicon motion capture system. Performance with full vision without generating sound was used as a baseline for comparison. The obstacle's location was varied randomly from trial to trial: it was either straight ahead or 25 cm to the left or right relative to the participant. Although audition provided sufficient information to detect the obstacle and guide participants around it without collision in the majority of trials, buffer space (clearance between the shoulder and obstacle), overall movement times, and number of velocity corrections were significantly (p < 0.05) greater with auditory guidance than visual guidance. Collisions sometime occurred under auditory guidance, suggesting that audition did not always provide an accurate estimate of the space between the participant and obstacle. Unlike visual guidance, participants did not always walk around the side that afforded the most space during auditory guidance. Mean buffer space was 1.8 times higher under auditory than under visual guidance. Results suggest that sound can be used to generate buffer space when vision is unavailable, allowing navigation around an obstacle without collision in the majority of trials.

Stimulus sensitive gel with radioisotope and methods of making

DOEpatents

Weller, Richard E.; Lind, Michael A.; Fisher, Darrell R.; Gutowska, Anna; Campbell, Allison A.

2005-03-22

The present invention is a thermally reversible stimulus-sensitive gel or gelling copolymer radioisotope carrier that is a linear random copolymer of an [meth-]acrylamide derivative and a hydrophilic comonomer, wherein the linear random copolymer is in the form of a plurality of linear chains having a plurality of molecular weights greater than or equal to a minimum gelling molecular weight cutoff. Addition of a biodegradable backbone and/or a therapeutic agent imparts further utility. The method of the present invention for making a thermally reversible stimulus-sensitive gelling copolymer radionuclcide carrier has the steps of: (a) mixing a stimulus-sensitive reversible gelling copolymer with an aqueous solvent as a stimulus-sensitive reversible gelling solution; and (b) mixing a radioisotope with said stimulus-sensitive reversible gelling solution as said radioisotope carrier. The gel is enhanced by either combining it with a biodegradable backbone and/or a therapeutic agent in a gelling solution made by mixing the copolymer with an aqueous solvent.

Stimulus sensitive gel with radioisotope and methods of making

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

Weller, Richard E; Lind, Michael A; Fisher, Darrell R

2001-10-02

The present invention is a thermally reversible stimulus-sensitive gel or gelling copolymer radioisotope carrier that is a linear random copolymer of an [meth]acrylamide derivative and a hydrophilic comonomer, wherein the linear random copolymer is in the form of a plurality of linear chains having a plurality of molecular weights greater than or equal to a minimum gelling molecular weight cutoff. Addition of a biodegradable backbone and/or a therapeutic agent imparts further utility. The method of the present invention for making a thermally reversible stimulus-sensitive gelling copolymer radionuclcide carrier has the steps of: (a) mixing a stimulus-sensitive reversible gelling copolymer withmore » an aqueous solvent as a stimulus-sensitive reversible gelling solution; and (b) mixing a radioisotope with said stimulus-sensitive reversible gelling solution as said radioisotope carrier. The gel is enhanced by either combining it with a biodegradable backbone and/or a therapeutic agent in a gelling solution made by mixing the copolymer with an aqueous solvent.« less

Electrophysiological correlates of preparation and implementation for different types of task shifts.

PubMed

Hsieh, Shulan; Wu, Mengyao

2011-11-14

The ability to flexibly shift between tasks is central to cognitive control, but whether the same brain mechanisms mediate shifting across different tasks is unknown. In this study, we investigated whether variations in stimulus-dimensions or response-mapping might influence task switching in terms of its preparatory processes, as reflected in cue-locked event-related potentials (ERPs), and its implementation processes, as reflected in stimulus-locked ERPs. Participants judged pairs of digits as same or different in one of two conditions. In one condition, the task-relevant stimulus-dimension was either repeated or switched across trials while the response-mapping rule was kept constant. In the other condition, the task-relevant stimulus-dimension was kept constant while the response-mapping rule was repeated or switched across trials. The length of the preparatory interval was manipulated. Data revealed switch-related preparatory ERP components (including N2 and a late slow positivity) that were associated with both types of task shifting and an N400-like negativity that distinguished between the two types. Several switch-related implementation ERP components associated with both types of task shifting were found at posterior sites. Distinct frontal modulations of the N1, P2, and N2 were found to associate with the implementation of the response-mapping shift, whereas a slow positivity was associated with the implementation of the stimulus-dimension shift. Therefore, this study demonstrates that there are shared and distinct processes across different types of task shifting. Finally, because the same transition-cue was used for different task shifts, the distinct processes cannot be explained simply by differences in cue processing. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Real-time obstacle avoidance using harmonic potential functions

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kim, Jin-Oh; Khosla, Pradeep K.

1992-01-01

This paper presents a new formulation of the artificial potential approach to the obstacle avoidance problem for a mobile robot or a manipulator in a known environment. Previous formulations of artificial potentials for obstacle avoidance have exhibited local minima in a cluttered environment. To build an artificial potential field, harmonic functions that completely eliminate local minima even for a cluttered environment are used. The panel method is employed to represent arbitrarily shaped obstacles and to derive the potential over the whole space. Based on this potential function, an elegant control strategy is proposed for the real-time control of a robot. The harmonic potential, the panel method, and the control strategy are tested with a bar-shaped mobile robot and a three-degree-of-freedom planar redundant manipulator.

A Real-Time Reaction Obstacle Avoidance Algorithm for Autonomous Underwater Vehicles in Unknown Environments.

PubMed

Yan, Zheping; Li, Jiyun; Zhang, Gengshi; Wu, Yi

2018-02-02

A novel real-time reaction obstacle avoidance algorithm (RRA) is proposed for autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) that must adapt to unknown complex terrains, based on forward looking sonar (FLS). To accomplish this algorithm, obstacle avoidance rules are planned, and the RRA processes are split into five steps Introduction only lists 4 so AUVs can rapidly respond to various environment obstacles. The largest polar angle algorithm (LPAA) is designed to change detected obstacle's irregular outline into a convex polygon, which simplifies the obstacle avoidance process. A solution is designed to solve the trapping problem existing in U-shape obstacle avoidance by an outline memory algorithm. Finally, simulations in three unknown obstacle scenes are carried out to demonstrate the performance of this algorithm, where the obtained obstacle avoidance trajectories are safety, smooth and near-optimal.

The Board's Role in Fund-Raising. The Fundamentals. Board Basics.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Legon, Richard D.

1997-01-01

Fund-raising is one of the college or university governing board's most basic and important responsibilities: The annual fund is the platform from which all other fund-raising activities flow, and the board plays a key role in planning, implementing, and monitoring comprehensive campaigns, which are major efforts, focused on long-range financial…

Numerical investigation on layout optimization of obstacles in a three-dimensional passive micromixer.

PubMed

Chen, Xueye; Zhao, Zhongyi

2017-04-29

This paper aims at layout optimization design of obstacles in a three-dimensional T-type micromixer. Numerical analysis shows that the direction of flow velocity change constantly due to the obstacles blocking, which produces the chaotic convection and increases species mixing effectively. The orthogonal experiment method was applied for determining the effects of some key parameters on mixing efficiency. The weights in the order are: height of obstacles > geometric shape > symmetry = number of obstacles. Based on the optimized results, a multi-units obstacle micromixer was designed. Compared with T-type micromixer, the multi-units obstacle micromixer is more efficient, and more than 90% mixing efficiency were obtained for a wide range of peclet numbers. It can be demonstrated that the presented optimal design method of obstacles layout in three-dimensional microchannels is a simple and effective technology to improve species mixing in microfluidic devices. The obstacles layout methodology has the potential for applications in chemical engineering and bioengineering. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Impaired preparatory re-mapping of stimulus-response associations and rule-implementation in schizophrenic patients--the role for differences in early processing.

PubMed

Finke, Mareike; Barceló, Francisco; Garolera, Maite; Cortiñas, Miriam; Garrido, Gemma; Pajares, Marta; Escera, Carles

2011-07-01

An accurate representation of task-set information is needed for successful goal directed behavior. Recent studies point to disturbances in the early processing stages as plausible causes for task-switching deficits in schizophrenia. A task-cueing protocol was administered to a group of schizophrenic patients and compared with a sample of age-matched healthy controls. Patients responded slower and less accurate compared with controls in all conditions. The concurrent recording of event-related brain potentials to contextual cues and target events revealed abnormalities in the early processing of both cue-locked and target-locked N1 potentials. Abnormally enhanced target-locked P2 amplitudes were observed in schizophrenic patients for task-switch trials only, suggesting disrupted stimulus evaluation and memory retrieval processes. The endogenous P3 potentials discriminated between task conditions but without further differences between groups. These results suggest that the observed impairments in task-switching behavior were not specifically related to anticipatory set-shifting, but derived from a deficit in the implementation of task-set representations at target onset in the presence of irrelevant and conflicting information. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Exploration of the psychophysics of a motion displacement hyperacuity stimulus.

PubMed

Verdon-Roe, Gay Mary; Westcott, Mark C; Viswanathan, Ananth C; Fitzke, Frederick W; Garway-Heath, David F

2006-11-01

To explore the summation properties of a motion-displacement hyperacuity stimulus with respect to stimulus area and luminance, with the goal of applying the results to the development of a motion-displacement test (MDT) for the detection of early glaucoma. A computer-generated line stimulus was presented with displacements randomized between 0 and 40 minutes of arc (min arc). Displacement thresholds (50% seen) were compared for stimuli of equal area but different edge length (orthogonal to the direction of motion) at four retinal locations. Also, MDT thresholds were recorded at five values of Michelson contrast (25%-84%) for each of five line lengths (11-128 min arc) at a single nasal location (-27,3). Frequency-of-seeing (FOS) curves were generated and displacement thresholds and interquartile ranges (IQR, 25%-75% seen) determined by probit analysis. Equivalent displacement thresholds were found for stimuli of equal area but half the edge length. Elevations of thresholds and IQR were demonstrated as line length and contrast were reduced. Equivalent displacement thresholds were also found for stimuli of equivalent energy (stimulus area x [stimulus luminance - background luminance]), in accordance with Ricco's law. There was a linear relationship (slope -0.5) between log MDT threshold and log stimulus energy. Stimulus area, rather than edge length, determined displacement thresholds within the experimental conditions tested. MDT thresholds are linearly related to the square root of the total energy of the stimulus. A new law, the threshold energy-displacement (TED) law, is proposed to apply to MDT summation properties, giving the relationship T = K logE where, T is the MDT threshold, Kis the constant, and E is the stimulus energy.

Suppression of stimulus artifact contaminating electrically evoked electromyography.

PubMed

Liu, Jie; Li, Sheng; Li, Xiaoyan; Klein, Cliff; Rymer, William Z; Zhou, Ping

2014-01-01

Electrical stimulation of muscle or nerve is a very useful technique for understanding of muscle activity and its pathological changes for both diagnostic and therapeutic purposes. During electrical stimulation of a muscle, the recorded M wave is often contaminated by a stimulus artifact. The stimulus artifact must be removed for appropriate analysis and interpretation of M waves. The objective of this study was to develop a novel software based method to remove stimulus artifacts contaminating or superimposing with electrically evoked surface electromyography (EMG) or M wave signals. The multiple stage method uses a series of signal processing techniques, including highlighting and detection of stimulus artifacts using Savitzky-Golay filtering, estimation of the artifact contaminated region with Otsu thresholding, and reconstruction of such region using signal interpolation and smoothing. The developed method was tested using M wave signals recorded from biceps brachii muscles by a linear surface electrode array. To evaluate the performance, a series of semi-synthetic signals were constructed from clean M wave and stimulus artifact recordings with different degrees of overlap between them. The effectiveness of the developed method was quantified by a significant increase in correlation coefficient and a significant decrease in root mean square error between the clean M wave and the reconstructed M wave, compared with those between the clean M wave and the originally contaminated signal. The validity of the developed method was also demonstrated when tested on each channel's M wave recording using a linear electrode array. The developed method can suppress stimulus artifacts contaminating M wave recordings.

45 CFR 96.102 - Carryover of unobligated funds.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-10-01

... 45 Public Welfare 1 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Carryover of unobligated funds. 96.102 Section 96.102 Public Welfare DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES GENERAL ADMINISTRATION BLOCK GRANTS Primary Care Block Grants § 96.102 Carryover of unobligated funds. In implementing section 1925(a)(2) of the...

Stimulus and response conflict processing during perceptual decision making.

PubMed

Wendelken, Carter; Ditterich, Jochen; Bunge, Silvia A; Carter, Cameron S

2009-12-01

Encoding and dealing with conflicting information is essential for successful decision making in a complex environment. In the present fMRI study, stimulus conflict and response conflict are contrasted in the context of a perceptual decision-making dot-motion discrimination task. Stimulus conflict was manipulated by varying dot-motion coherence along task-relevant and task-irrelevant dimensions. Response conflict was manipulated by varying whether or not competing stimulus dimensions provided evidence for the same or different responses. The right inferior frontal gyrus was involved specifically in the resolution of stimulus conflict, whereas the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex was shown to be sensitive to response conflict. Additionally, two regions that have been linked to perceptual decision making with dot-motion stimuli in monkey physiology studies were differentially engaged by stimulus conflict and response conflict. The middle temporal area, previously linked to processing of motion, was strongly affected by the presence of stimulus conflict. On the other hand, the superior parietal lobe, previously associated with accumulation of evidence for a response, was affected by the presence of response conflict. These results shed light on the neural mechanisms that support decision making in the presence of conflict, a cognitive operation fundamental to both basic survival and high-level cognition.

A New Type of ECT Stimuli: Burst Stimulus ECT.

PubMed

Aksay, S S; Bumb, J M; Janke, C; Kranaster, L; Sartorius, A

2015-11-01

Pulse width in electroconvulsive therapy has significant influence on effectiveness and side effects. While shorter pulses are beneficial for cognitive performance, there is still a debate about a negative impact on ECT efficacy at least for ultra-brief pulse durations. We report a first patient treated with burst stimulus ECT, i. e., with 4 consecutive 250-µs pulses, separated by another 250 µs. Within the same patient we compared 6 classical vs. 6 burst stimulus ECT sessions. In all cases a typical tonic-clonic seizure was observed. Seizure parameters like concordance, coherence and mid-ictal amplitude increased numerically, but not significantly with burst ECT. The time needed to show a reorientation was significantly shortened with burst stimuli (30 min vs. 14 min, p=0.007). In conclusion we present the first case of ECT in a single patient comparing "classical" single stimulus pulses vs. burst stimulus ECT. The new burst stimulus was better tolerated regarding reorientation time after the treatment, while parameters of seizure quality remained basically unchanged. Whether burst stimulus ECT has the potential to improve ECT quality by reducing side effects without losing efficacy has to be investigated in clinical trials. © Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart · New York.

Alterations to multisensory and unisensory integration by stimulus competition

PubMed Central

Rowland, Benjamin A.; Stanford, Terrence R.; Stein, Barry E.

2011-01-01

In environments containing sensory events at competing locations, selecting a target for orienting requires prioritization of stimulus values. Although the superior colliculus (SC) is causally linked to the stimulus selection process, the manner in which SC multisensory integration operates in a competitive stimulus environment is unknown. Here we examined how the activity of visual-auditory SC neurons is affected by placement of a competing target in the opposite hemifield, a stimulus configuration that would, in principle, promote interhemispheric competition for access to downstream motor circuitry. Competitive interactions between the targets were evident in how they altered unisensory and multisensory responses of individual neurons. Responses elicited by a cross-modal stimulus (multisensory responses) proved to be substantially more resistant to competitor-induced depression than were unisensory responses (evoked by the component modality-specific stimuli). Similarly, when a cross-modal stimulus served as the competitor, it exerted considerably more depression than did its individual component stimuli, in some cases producing more depression than predicted by their linear sum. These findings suggest that multisensory integration can help resolve competition among multiple targets by enhancing orientation to the location of cross-modal events while simultaneously suppressing orientation to events at alternate locations. PMID:21957224

Strategic allocation of attention reduces temporally predictable stimulus conflict

PubMed Central

Appelbaum, L. Gregory; Boehler, Carsten N.; Won, Robert; Davis, Lauren; Woldorff, Marty G.

2013-01-01

Humans are able to continuously monitor environmental situations and adjust their behavioral strategies to optimize performance. Here we investigate the behavioral and brain adjustments that occur when conflicting stimulus elements are, or are not, temporally predictable. Event-related potentials (ERPs) were collected while manual-response variants of the Stroop task were performed in which the stimulus onset asynchronies (SOAs) between the relevant-color and irrelevant-word stimulus components were either randomly intermixed, or held constant, within each experimental run. Results indicated that the size of both the neural and behavioral effects of stimulus incongruency varied with the temporal arrangement of the stimulus components, such that the random-SOA arrangements produced the greatest incongruency effects at the earliest irrelevant-first SOA (−200 ms) and the constant-SOA arrangements produced the greatest effects with simultaneous presentation. These differences in conflict processing were accompanied by rapid (~150 ms) modulations of the sensory ERPs to the irrelevant distracter components when they occurred consistently first. These effects suggest that individuals are able to strategically allocate attention in time to mitigate the influence of a temporally predictable distracter. As these adjustments are instantiated by the subjects without instruction, they reveal a form of rapid strategic learning for dealing with temporally predictable stimulus incongruency. PMID:22360623

Obstacles to Successful Implementation of eHealth Applications into Clinical Practice.

PubMed

Voogt, Marianne P; Opmeer, Brent C; Kastelein, Arnoud W; Jaspers, Monique W M; Peute, Linda W

2018-01-01

eHealth can improve healthcare worldwide, and scientific research should provide evidence on the efficacy, safety and added value of such interventions. For successful implementation of eHealth interventions into clinical practice, barriers need to be anticipated. We identified seven barriers by interviewing health professionals in the Dutch healthcare system. These barriers covered three topics: financing, human factors and organizational factors. This paper discusses their potential impact on eHealth uptake. Bridging the gap between studies to assess effective eHealth interventions and their value-based implementation in healthcare is much needed.

A game theory-based obstacle avoidance routing protocol for wireless sensor networks.

PubMed

Guan, Xin; Wu, Huayang; Bi, Shujun

2011-01-01

The obstacle avoidance problem in geographic forwarding is an important issue for location-based routing in wireless sensor networks. The presence of an obstacle leads to several geographic routing problems such as excessive energy consumption and data congestion. Obstacles are hard to avoid in realistic environments. To bypass obstacles, most routing protocols tend to forward packets along the obstacle boundaries. This leads to a situation where the nodes at the boundaries exhaust their energy rapidly and the obstacle area is diffused. In this paper, we introduce a novel routing algorithm to solve the obstacle problem in wireless sensor networks based on a game-theory model. Our algorithm forms a concave region that cannot forward packets to achieve the aim of improving the transmission success rate and decreasing packet transmission delays. We consider the residual energy, out-degree and forwarding angle to determine the forwarding probability and payoff function of forwarding candidates. This achieves the aim of load balance and reduces network energy consumption. Simulation results show that based on the average delivery delay, energy consumption and packet delivery ratio performances our protocol is superior to other traditional schemes.

Obstacle detectors for automated transit vehicles: A technoeconomic and market analysis

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lockerby, C. E.

1979-01-01

A search was conducted to identify the technical and economic characteristics of both NASA and nonNASA obstacle detectors. The findings, along with market information were compiled and analyzed for consideration by DOT and NASA in decisions about any future automated transit vehicle obstacle detector research, development, or applications project. Currently available obstacle detectors and systems under development are identified by type (sonic, capacitance, infrared/optical, guided radar, and probe contact) and compared with the three NASA devices selected as possible improvements or solutions to the problems in existing obstacle detection systems. Cost analyses and market forecasts individually for the AGT and AMTV markets are included.

Research on robot mobile obstacle avoidance control based on visual information

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jin, Jiang

2018-03-01

Robots to detect obstacles and control robots to avoid obstacles has been a key research topic of robot control. In this paper, a scheme of visual information acquisition is proposed. By judging visual information, the visual information is transformed into the information source of path processing. In accordance with the established route, in the process of encountering obstacles, the algorithm real-time adjustment trajectory to meet the purpose of intelligent control of mobile robots. Simulation results show that, through the integration of visual sensing information, the obstacle information is fully obtained, while the real-time and accuracy of the robot movement control is guaranteed.

Stimulus encoding and feature extraction by multiple sensory neurons.

PubMed

Krahe, Rüdiger; Kreiman, Gabriel; Gabbiani, Fabrizio; Koch, Christof; Metzner, Walter

2002-03-15

Neighboring cells in topographical sensory maps may transmit similar information to the next higher level of processing. How information transmission by groups of nearby neurons compares with the performance of single cells is a very important question for understanding the functioning of the nervous system. To tackle this problem, we quantified stimulus-encoding and feature extraction performance by pairs of simultaneously recorded electrosensory pyramidal cells in the hindbrain of weakly electric fish. These cells constitute the output neurons of the first central nervous stage of electrosensory processing. Using random amplitude modulations (RAMs) of a mimic of the fish's own electric field within behaviorally relevant frequency bands, we found that pyramidal cells with overlapping receptive fields exhibit strong stimulus-induced correlations. To quantify the encoding of the RAM time course, we estimated the stimuli from simultaneously recorded spike trains and found significant improvements over single spike trains. The quality of stimulus reconstruction, however, was still inferior to the one measured for single primary sensory afferents. In an analysis of feature extraction, we found that spikes of pyramidal cell pairs coinciding within a time window of a few milliseconds performed significantly better at detecting upstrokes and downstrokes of the stimulus compared with isolated spikes and even spike bursts of single cells. Coincident spikes can thus be considered "distributed bursts." Our results suggest that stimulus encoding by primary sensory afferents is transformed into feature extraction at the next processing stage. There, stimulus-induced coincident activity can improve the extraction of behaviorally relevant features from the stimulus.

Nanoscale theranostics for physical stimulus-responsive cancer therapies.

PubMed

Chen, Qian; Ke, Hengte; Dai, Zhifei; Liu, Zhuang

2015-12-01

Physical stimulus-responsive therapies often employing multifunctional theranostic agents responsive to external physical stimuli such as light, magnetic field, ultra-sound, radiofrequency, X-ray, etc., have been widely explored as novel cancer therapy strategies, showing encouraging results in many pre-clinical animal experiments. Unlike conventional cancer chemotherapy which often accompanies with severe toxic side effects, physical stimulus-responsive agents usually are non-toxic by themselves and would destruct cancer cells only under specific external stimuli, and thus could offer greatly reduced toxicity and enhanced treatment specificity. In addition, physical stimulus-responsive therapies can also be combined with other traditional therapeutics to achieve synergistic anti-tumor effects via a variety of mechanisms. In this review, we will summarize the latest progress in the development of physical stimulus-responsive therapies, and discuss the important roles of nanoscale theranostic agents involved in those non-conventional therapeutic strategies. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Probability effects on stimulus evaluation and response processes

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Gehring, W. J.; Gratton, G.; Coles, M. G.; Donchin, E.

1992-01-01

This study investigated the effects of probability information on response preparation and stimulus evaluation. Eight subjects responded with one hand to the target letter H and with the other to the target letter S. The target letter was surrounded by noise letters that were either the same as or different from the target letter. In 2 conditions, the targets were preceded by a warning stimulus unrelated to the target letter. In 2 other conditions, a warning letter predicted that the same letter or the opposite letter would appear as the imperative stimulus with .80 probability. Correct reaction times were faster and error rates were lower when imperative stimuli confirmed the predictions of the warning stimulus. Probability information affected (a) the preparation of motor responses during the foreperiod, (b) the development of expectancies for a particular target letter, and (c) a process sensitive to the identities of letter stimuli but not to their locations.

Optimal layout design of obstacles for panic evacuation using differential evolution

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhao, Yongxiang; Li, Meifang; Lu, Xin; Tian, Lijun; Yu, Zhiyong; Huang, Kai; Wang, Yana; Li, Ting

2017-01-01

To improve the pedestrian outflow in panic situations by suitably placing an obstacle in front of the exit, it is vital to understand the physical mechanism behind the evacuation efficiency enhancement. In this paper, a robust differential evolution is firstly employed to optimize the geometrical parameters of different shaped obstacles in order to achieve an optimal evacuation efficiency. Moreover, it is found that all the geometrical parameters of obstacles could markedly influence the evacuation efficiency of pedestrians, and the best way for achieving an optimal pedestrian outflow is to slightly shift the obstacle from the center of the exit which is consistent with findings of extant literature. Most importantly, by analyzing the profiles of density, velocity and specific flow, as well as the spatial distribution of crowd pressure, we have proven that placing an obstacle in panic situations does not reduce or absorb the pressure in the region of exit, on the contrary, promotes the pressure to a much higher level, hence the physical mechanism behind the evacuation efficiency enhancement is not a pressure decrease in the region of exit, but a significant reduction of high density region by effective separation in space which finally causes the increasing of escape speed and evacuation outflow. Finally, it is clearly demonstrated that the panel-like obstacle is considerably more robust and stable than the pillar-like obstacle to guarantee the enhancement of evacuation efficiency under different initial pedestrian distributions, different initial crowd densities as well as different desired velocities.

The Stimulus Movement Effect: Allocation of Attention or Artifact?

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Washburn, David A.

1993-01-01

In previous reports, including one by the author, learning has been shown to benefit by having discriminanda move rather than remain stationary. This stimulus movement effect might be attributed to several theoretical mechanisms, including attention, topological memory, and exposure duration. The series of experiments reported in this article was designed to Contrast these potential explanatory factors. Ten rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta) were tested on a variety of computerized tasks in which the stimuli remained stationary, flashed, or moved at systematically varied speeds. Performance was significantly best when the sample stimulus moved quickly and was poorest when the stimulus remained stationary. Further analysis of these data and other previously published data revealed that the distribution of the stimulus movement effect across trials supported an attention allocation interpretation.

The implementation of a global fund grant in Lesotho: applying a framework on knowledge absorptive capacity.

PubMed

Biesma, Regien; Makoa, Elsie; Mpemi, Regina; Tsekoa, Lineo; Odonkor, Philip; Brugha, Ruairi

2012-02-01

One of the biggest challenges in scaling up health interventions in sub-Saharan Africa for government recipients is to effectively manage the rapid influx of aid from different donors, each with its own requirements and conditions. However, there is little empirical evidence on how governments absorb knowledge from new donors in order to satisfy their requirements. This case study applies Cuellar and Gallivan's (2006) framework on knowledge absorptive capacity (AC) to illustrate how recipient government organisations in Lesotho identified, assimilated and utilised knowledge on how to meet the disbursement and reporting requirements of Lesotho's Round 5 grant from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria (Global Fund). In-depth topic guided interviews with 22 respondents and document reviews were conducted between July 2008 and February 2009. Analysis focused on six organisational determinants that affect an organisation's absorptive capacity: prior-related knowledge, combinative capabilities, motivation, organisational structure, cultural match, and communication channels. Absorptive capacity was mostly evident at the level of the Principal Recipient, the Ministry of Finance, who established a new organisational unit to meet the requirements of Global Fund Grants, while the level of AC was less advanced among the Ministry of Health (Sub-Recipient) and district level implementers. Recipient organisations can increase their absorptive capacity, not only through prior knowledge of donor requirements, but also by deliberately changing their organisational form and through combinative capabilities. The study also revealed how vulnerable African governments are to loss of staff capacity. The application of organisational theory to analyse the interactions of donor agencies with public and non-public country stakeholders illustrates the complexity of the environment that aid recipient governments have to manage. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

40 CFR 93.113 - Criteria and procedures: Timely implementation of TCMs.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... funding source(s) needed to fully implement each TCM indicates that TCMs which are eligible for funding... implementation plan which are eligible for funding under title 23 U.S.C. or the Federal Transit Laws, consistent... approvals or funding for TCMs are giving maximum priority to approval or funding of TCMs over other projects...

Efficient funding: a path to improving Aboriginal healthcare in Australia?

PubMed

Lloyd, Jane E; Wise, Marilyn J

2010-11-01

To identify the factors that contribute to the under-resourcing of Aboriginal health and to explore the impact that funding arrangements have on the implementation of Aboriginal health policy. Qualitative study based on 35 in-depth interviews with a purposive sample of frontline health professionals involved in health policy and service provision in the Northern Territory. Participants described three factors that contributed to the under-resourcing of Aboriginal health: inefficient funding arrangements, mainstream programs being inappropriate for Aboriginal Australians, and competing interests determining the allocation of resources. Insufficient capacity within the healthcare system undermines the multilevel implementation process whereby organisations need to have the capacity to recognise new policy ideas, assess their relevance to their existing work and strategic plan and to be able to incorporate the relevant new ideas into day-to-day practice. Insufficient resources for Aboriginal health were found to be a barrier to implementing Aboriginal health policy. Inadequate resources result from the cumbersome allocation of funding rather than simply the amount of funding provided to Aboriginal healthcare. Monitoring government performance and ensuring the efficient allocation of funds would allow us to develop the delivery system for Aboriginal healthcare and therefore provide greater opportunities to capitalise on current interventions and future efforts.

The American College of Surgeons/Association of Program Directors in Surgery National Skills Curriculum: adoption rate, challenges and strategies for effective implementation into surgical residency programs.

PubMed

Korndorffer, James R; Arora, Sonal; Sevdalis, Nick; Paige, John; McClusky, David A; Stefanidis, Dimitris

2013-07-01

The American College of Surgeons/Association of Program Directors in Surgery (ACS/APDS) National Skills Curriculum is a 3-phase program targeting technical and nontechnical skills development. Few data exist regarding the adoption of this curriculum by surgical residencies. This study attempted to determine the rate of uptake and identify implementation enablers/barriers. A web-based survey was developed by an international expert panel of surgical educators (5 surgeons and 1 psychologist). After piloting, the survey was sent to all general surgery program directors via email link. Descriptive statistics were used to determine the residency program characteristics and perceptions of the curriculum. Implementation rates for each phase and module were calculated. Adoption barriers were identified quantitatively and qualitatively using free text responses. Standardized qualitative methodology of emergent theme analysis was used to identify strategies for success and details of support required for implementation. Of the 238 program directors approached, 117 (49%) responded to the survey. Twenty-one percent (25/117) were unaware of the ACS/APDS curriculum. Implementation rates for were 36% for phase I, 19% for phase II, and 16% for phase III. The most common modules adopted were the suturing, knot-tying, and chest tube modules of phase I. Over 50% of respondents identified lack of faculty protected time, limited personnel, significant costs, and resident work-hour restrictions as major obstacles to implementation. Strategies for effective uptake included faculty incentives, adequate funding, administrative support, and dedicated time and resources. Despite the availability of a comprehensive curriculum, its diffusion into general surgery residency programs remains low. Obstacles related to successful implementation include personnel, learner, and administrative issues. Addressing these issues may improve the adoption rate of the curriculum. Copyright © 2013 Mosby, Inc

Bim-Based Indoor Path Planning Considering Obstacles

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Xu, M.; Wei, S.; Zlatanova, S.; Zhang, R.

2017-09-01

At present, 87 % of people's activities are in indoor environment; indoor navigation has become a research issue. As the building structures for people's daily life are more and more complex, many obstacles influence humans' moving. Therefore it is essential to provide an accurate and efficient indoor path planning. Nowadays there are many challenges and problems in indoor navigation. Most existing path planning approaches are based on 2D plans, pay more attention to the geometric configuration of indoor space, often ignore rich semantic information of building components, and mostly consider simple indoor layout without taking into account the furniture. Addressing the above shortcomings, this paper uses BIM (IFC) as the input data and concentrates on indoor navigation considering obstacles in the multi-floor buildings. After geometric and semantic information are extracted, 2D and 3D space subdivision methods are adopted to build the indoor navigation network and to realize a path planning that avoids obstacles. The 3D space subdivision is based on triangular prism. The two approaches are verified by the experiments.

Obstacle avoidance system with sonar sensing and fuzzy logic

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chiang, Wen-chuan; Kelkar, Nikhal; Hall, Ernest L.

1997-09-01

Automated guided vehicles (AGVs) have many potential applications in manufacturing, medicine, space and defense. The purpose of this paper is to describe exploratory research on the design of an obstacle avoidance system using sonar sensors for a modular autonomous mobile robot controller. The advantages of a modular system are related to portability and the fact that any vehicle can become autonomous with minimal modifications. A mobile robot test-bed has been constructed using a golf cart base. The obstacle avoidance system is based on a micro-controller interfaced with multiple ultrasonic transducers. This micro-controller independently handles all timing and distance calculations and sends a distance measurement back to the computer via the serial line. This design yields a portable independent system. Testing of these systems has been done in the lab as well as on an outside test track with positive results that show that at five mph the vehicle can follow a line and at the same time avoid obstacles. This design, in its modularity, creates a portable autonomous obstacle avoidance controller applicable for any mobile vehicle with only minor adaptations.

Automatic Quadcopter Control Avoiding Obstacle Using Camera with Integrated Ultrasonic Sensor

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Anis, Hanafi; Haris Indra Fadhillah, Ahmad; Darma, Surya; Soekirno, Santoso

2018-04-01

Automatic navigation on the drone is being developed these days, a wide variety of types of drones and its automatic functions. Drones used in this study was an aircraft with four propellers or quadcopter. In this experiment, image processing used to recognize the position of an object and ultrasonic sensor used to detect obstacle distance. The method used to trace an obsctacle in image processing was the Lucas-Kanade-Tomasi Tracker, which had been widely used due to its high accuracy. Ultrasonic sensor used to complement the image processing success rate to be fully detected object. The obstacle avoidance system was to observe at the program decisions from some obstacle conditions read by the camera and ultrasonic sensors. Visual feedback control based PID controllers are used as a control of drones movement. The conclusion of the obstacle avoidance system was to observe at the program decisions from some obstacle conditions read by the camera and ultrasonic sensors.

Facilitators and obstacles in pre-hospital medical response to earthquakes: a qualitative study.

PubMed

Djalali, Ahmadreza; Khankeh, Hamidreza; Öhlén, Gunnar; Castrén, Maaret; Kurland, Lisa

2011-05-16

Earthquakes are renowned as being amongst the most dangerous and destructive types of natural disasters. Iran, a developing country in Asia, is prone to earthquakes and is ranked as one of the most vulnerable countries in the world in this respect. The medical response in disasters is accompanied by managerial, logistic, technical, and medical challenges being also the case in the Bam earthquake in Iran. Our objective was to explore the medical response to the Bam earthquake with specific emphasis on pre-hospital medical management during the first days. The study was performed in 2008; an interview based qualitative study using content analysis. We conducted nineteen interviews with experts and managers responsible for responding to the Bam earthquake, including pre-hospital emergency medical services, the Red Crescent, and Universities of Medical Sciences. The selection of participants was determined by using a purposeful sampling method. Sample size was given by data saturation. The pre-hospital medical service was divided into three categories; triage, emergency medical care and transportation, each category in turn was identified into facilitators and obstacles. The obstacles identified were absence of a structured disaster plan, absence of standardized medical teams, and shortage of resources. The army and skilled medical volunteers were identified as facilitators. The most compelling, and at the same time amenable obstacle, was the lack of a disaster management plan. It was evident that implementing a comprehensive plan would not only save lives but decrease suffering and enable an effective praxis of the available resources at pre-hospital and hospital levels.

Facilitators and obstacles in pre-hospital medical response to earthquakes: a qualitative study

PubMed Central

2011-01-01

Background Earthquakes are renowned as being amongst the most dangerous and destructive types of natural disasters. Iran, a developing country in Asia, is prone to earthquakes and is ranked as one of the most vulnerable countries in the world in this respect. The medical response in disasters is accompanied by managerial, logistic, technical, and medical challenges being also the case in the Bam earthquake in Iran. Our objective was to explore the medical response to the Bam earthquake with specific emphasis on pre-hospital medical management during the first days. Methods The study was performed in 2008; an interview based qualitative study using content analysis. We conducted nineteen interviews with experts and managers responsible for responding to the Bam earthquake, including pre-hospital emergency medical services, the Red Crescent, and Universities of Medical Sciences. The selection of participants was determined by using a purposeful sampling method. Sample size was given by data saturation. Results The pre-hospital medical service was divided into three categories; triage, emergency medical care and transportation, each category in turn was identified into facilitators and obstacles. The obstacles identified were absence of a structured disaster plan, absence of standardized medical teams, and shortage of resources. The army and skilled medical volunteers were identified as facilitators. Conclusions The most compelling, and at the same time amenable obstacle, was the lack of a disaster management plan. It was evident that implementing a comprehensive plan would not only save lives but decrease suffering and enable an effective praxis of the available resources at pre-hospital and hospital levels. PMID:21575233

The opportunities for and obstacles against prevention: the example of Germany in the areas of tobacco and alcohol

PubMed Central

2010-01-01

Background Recent years have seen a growing research and policy interest in prevention in many developed countries. However, the actual efforts and resources devoted to prevention appear to have lagged well behind the lip service paid to the topic. Discussion We review the evidence on the considerable existing scope for health gains from prevention as well as for greater prevention policy efforts in Germany. We also discuss the barriers to "more and better" prevention and provide modest suggestions about how some of the obstacles could be overcome. Summary In Germany, there are substantial health gains to be reaped from the implementation of evidence-based, cost-effective preventive interventions and policies. Barriers to more prevention include social, historical, political, legal and economic factors. While there is sufficient evidence to scale up prevention efforts in some public health domains in Germany, in general there is a comparative shortage of research on non-clinical preventive interventions. Some of the existing barriers in Germany are at least in principle amenable to change, provided sufficient political will exists. More research on prevention by itself is no panacea, but could help facilitate more policy action. In particular, there is an economic efficiency-based case for public funding and promotion of research on non-clinical preventive interventions, in Germany and beyond, to confront the peculiar challenges that set this research apart from its clinical counterpart. PMID:20718995

Apparatus for obstacle traversion

DOEpatents

Borenstein, Johann

2004-08-10

An apparatus for traversing obstacles having an elongated, round, flexible body that includes a plurality of drive track assemblies. The plurality of drive track assemblies cooperate to provide forward propulsion wherever a propulsion member is in contact with any feature of the environment, regardless of how many or which ones of the plurality of drive track assemblies make contact with such environmental feature.

StimDuino: an Arduino-based electrophysiological stimulus isolator.

PubMed

Sheinin, Anton; Lavi, Ayal; Michaelevski, Izhak

2015-03-30

Electrical stimulus isolator is a widely used device in electrophysiology. The timing of the stimulus application is usually automated and controlled by the external device or acquisition software; however, the intensity of the stimulus is adjusted manually. Inaccuracy, lack of reproducibility and no automation of the experimental protocol are disadvantages of the manual adjustment. To overcome these shortcomings, we developed StimDuino, an inexpensive Arduino-controlled stimulus isolator allowing highly accurate, reproducible automated setting of the stimulation current. The intensity of the stimulation current delivered by StimDuino is controlled by Arduino, an open-source microcontroller development platform. The automatic stimulation patterns are software-controlled and the parameters are set from Matlab-coded simple, intuitive and user-friendly graphical user interface. The software also allows remote control of the device over the network. Electrical current measurements showed that StimDuino produces the requested current output with high accuracy. In both hippocampal slice and in vivo recordings, the fEPSP measurements obtained with StimDuino and the commercial stimulus isolators showed high correlation. Commercial stimulus isolators are manually managed, while StimDuino generates automatic stimulation patterns with increasing current intensity. The pattern is utilized for the input-output relationship analysis, necessary for assessment of excitability. In contrast to StimuDuino, not all commercial devices are capable for remote control of the parameters and stimulation process. StimDuino-generated automation of the input-output relationship assessment eliminates need for the current intensity manually adjusting, improves stimulation reproducibility, accuracy and allows on-site and remote control of the stimulation parameters. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Suppression of Stimulus Artifact Contaminating Electrically Evoked Electromyography

PubMed Central

Liu, Jie; Li, Sheng; Li, Xiaoyan; Klein, Cliff; Rymer, William Z.; Zhou, Ping

2013-01-01

Background Electrical stimulation of muscle or nerve is a very useful technique for understanding of muscle activity and its pathological changes for both diagnostic and therapeutic purposes. During electrical stimulation of a muscle, the recorded M wave is often contaminated by a stimulus artifact. The stimulus artifact must be removed for appropriate analysis and interpretation of M waves. Objectives The objective of this study was to develop a novel software based method to remove stimulus artifacts contaminating or superimposing with electrically evoked surface electromyography (EMG) or M wave signals. Methods The multiple stage method uses a series of signal processing techniques, including highlighting and detection of stimulus artifacts using the Savitzky-Golay filtering, estimation of the artifact contaminated region with the Otsu thresholding, and reconstruction of such region using signal interpolation and smoothing. The developed method was tested using M wave signals recorded from biceps brachii muscles by a linear surface electrode array. To evaluate the performance, a series of semi-synthetic signals were constructed from clean M wave and stimulus artifact recordings with different degrees of overlap between them. Results The effectiveness of the developed method was quantified by a significant increase in correlation coefficient and a significant decrease in root mean square error between the clean M wave and the reconstructed M wave, compared with those between the clean M wave and the originally contaminated signal. The validity of the developed method was also demonstrated when tested on each channel’s M wave recording using the linear electrode array. Conclusions The developed method can suppress stimulus artifacts contaminating M wave recordings. PMID:24419021

Positive and negative affect produce opposing task-irrelevant stimulus preexposure effects.

PubMed

Lazar, Josef; Kaplan, Oren; Sternberg, Terri; Lubow, R E

2012-06-01

In three experiments, groups were exposed to either positive or negative affect video clips, after which they were presented with a series of task-irrelevant stimuli. In the subsequent test task, subjects were required to learn an association between the previously irrelevant stimulus and a consequence, and between a new stimulus and a consequence. Induced positive affect produced a latent inhibition effect (poorer evidence of learning with the previously irrelevant stimulus than with the novel stimulus). In opposition to this, induced negative affect resulted in better evidence of learning with a previously irrelevant stimulus than with a novel stimulus. In general, the opposing effects also were present in participants scoring high on self-report questionnaires of depression (Experiments 2 and 3). These unique findings were predicted and accounted for on the basis of two principles: (a) positive affect broadens the attentional field and negative affect contracts it; and (b) task-irrelevant stimuli are processed in two successive stages, the first encodes stimulus properties, and the second encodes stimulus relationships. The opposing influences of negative and positive mood on the processing of irrelevant stimuli have implications for the role of emotion in general theories of cognition, and possibly for resolving some of the inconsistent findings in research with schizophrenia patients.

Funding for Library Automation.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Thompson, Ronelle K. H.

This paper provides a brief overview of planning and implementing a project to fund library automation. It is suggested that: (1) proposal budgets should include all costs of a project, such as furniture needed for computer terminals, costs for modifying library procedures, initial supplies, or ongoing maintenance; (2) automation does not save…

78 FR 49365 - Electronic Fund Transfers (Regulation E); Correction

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-08-14

... BUREAU OF CONSUMER FINANCIAL PROTECTION 12 CFR Part 1005 [Docket No. CFPB-2012-0050] RIN 3170-AA33 Electronic Fund Transfers (Regulation E); Correction AGENCY: Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection. ACTION... 2013 Final Rule, which along with three other final rules \\1\\ implements the Electronic Fund Transfer...

Psilocybin-induced stimulus control in the rat.

PubMed

Winter, J C; Rice, K C; Amorosi, D J; Rabin, R A

2007-10-01

Although psilocybin has been trained in the rat as a discriminative stimulus, little is known of the pharmacological receptors essential for stimulus control. In the present investigation rats were trained with psilocybin and tests were then conducted employing a series of other hallucinogens and presumed antagonists. An intermediate degree of antagonism of psilocybin was observed following treatment with the 5-HT(2A) receptor antagonist, M100907. In contrast, no significant antagonism was observed following treatment with the 5-HT(1A/7) receptor antagonist, WAY-100635, or the DA D(2) antagonist, remoxipride. Psilocybin generalized fully to DOM, LSD, psilocin, and, in the presence of WAY-100635, DMT while partial generalization was seen to 2C-T-7 and mescaline. LSD and MDMA partially generalized to psilocybin and these effects were completely blocked by M-100907; no generalization of PCP to psilocybin was seen. The present data suggest that psilocybin induces a compound stimulus in which activity at the 5-HT(2A) receptor plays a prominent but incomplete role. In addition, psilocybin differs from closely related hallucinogens such as 5-MeO-DMT in that agonism at 5-HT(1A) receptors appears to play no role in psilocybin-induced stimulus control.

Psilocybin-induced stimulus control in the rat

PubMed Central

Winter, J.C.; Rice, K.C.; Amorosi, D.J.; Rabin, R.A.

2007-01-01

Although psilocybin has been trained in the rat as a discriminative stimulus, little is known of the pharmacological receptors essential for stimulus control. In the present investigation rats were trained with psilocybin and tests were then conducted employing a series of other hallucinogens and presumed antagonists. An intermediate degree of antagonism of psilocybin was observed following treatment with the 5-HT2A receptor antagonist, M100907. In contrast, no significant antagonism was observed following treatment with the 5-HT1A/7 receptor antagonist, WAY-100635, or the DA D2 antagonist, remoxipride. Psilocybin generalized fully to DOM, LSD, psilocin, and, in the presence of WAY-100635, DMT while partial generalization was seen to 2C-T-7 and mescaline. LSD and MDMA partially generalized to psilocybin and these effects were completely blocked by M-100907; no generalization of PCP to psilocybin was seen. The present data suggest that psilocybin induces a compound stimulus in which activity at the 5-HT2A receptor plays a prominent but incomplete role. In addition, psilocybin differs from closely related hallucinogens such as 5-MeO-DMT in that agonism at 5-HT1A receptors appears to play no role in psilocybin-induced stimulus control. PMID:17688928

Generation of spiral waves pinned to obstacles in a simulated excitable system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Phantu, Metinee; Kumchaiseemak, Nakorn; Porjai, Porramain; Sutthiopad, Malee; Müller, Stefan C.; Luengviriya, Chaiya; Luengviriya, Jiraporn

2017-09-01

Pinning phenomena emerge in many dynamical systems. They are found to stabilize extreme conditions such as superconductivity and super fluidity. The dynamics of pinned spiral waves, whose tips trace the boundary of obstacles, also play an important role in the human health. In heart, such pinned waves cause longer tachycardia. In this article, we present two methods for generating pinned spiral waves in a simulated excitable system. In method A, an obstacle is set in the system prior to an ignition of a spiral wave. This method may be suitable only for the case of large obstacles since it often fails when used for small obstacles. In method B, a spiral wave is generated before an obstacle is placed at the spiral tip. With this method, a pinned spiral wave is always obtained, regardless the obstacle size. We demonstrate that after a transient interval the dynamics of the pinned spiral waves generated by the methods A and B are identical. The initiation of pinned spiral waves in both two- and three-dimensional systems is illustrated.

New spatial clustering-based models for optimal urban facility location considering geographical obstacles

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Javadi, Maryam; Shahrabi, Jamal

2014-03-01

The problems of facility location and the allocation of demand points to facilities are crucial research issues in spatial data analysis and urban planning. It is very important for an organization or governments to best locate its resources and facilities and efficiently manage resources to ensure that all demand points are covered and all the needs are met. Most of the recent studies, which focused on solving facility location problems by performing spatial clustering, have used the Euclidean distance between two points as the dissimilarity function. Natural obstacles, such as mountains and rivers, can have drastic impacts on the distance that needs to be traveled between two geographical locations. While calculating the distance between various supply chain entities (including facilities and demand points), it is necessary to take such obstacles into account to obtain better and more realistic results regarding location-allocation. In this article, new models were presented for location of urban facilities while considering geographical obstacles at the same time. In these models, three new distance functions were proposed. The first function was based on the analysis of shortest path in linear network, which was called SPD function. The other two functions, namely PD and P2D, were based on the algorithms that deal with robot geometry and route-based robot navigation in the presence of obstacles. The models were implemented in ArcGIS Desktop 9.2 software using the visual basic programming language. These models were evaluated using synthetic and real data sets. The overall performance was evaluated based on the sum of distance from demand points to their corresponding facilities. Because of the distance between the demand points and facilities becoming more realistic in the proposed functions, results indicated desired quality of the proposed models in terms of quality of allocating points to centers and logistic cost. Obtained results show promising

TOOLS FOR OVERCOMING OBSTACLES TO REVITALIZATION: SMARTE AND START-UP

EPA Science Inventory

In 2001, the US-German Bilateral Working Group (BWG) identified more than 40 obstacles to site revitalization which occurred in both countries. From 2001-2005, the BWG developed tools and techniques for overcoming these obstacles. Five joint workshops were held on the following r...

Escape from rich-to-lean transitions: Stimulus change and timeout.

PubMed

Retzlaff, Billie J; Parthum, Elizabeth T P; Pitts, Raymond C; Hughes, Christine E

2017-01-01

Extended pausing during discriminable transitions from rich-to-lean conditions can be viewed as escape (i.e., rich-to-lean transitions function aversively). In the current experiments, pigeons' key pecking was maintained by a multiple fixed-ratio fixed-ratio schedule of rich or lean reinforcers. Pigeons then were provided with another, explicit, mechanism of escape by changing the stimulus from the transition-specific stimulus used in the multiple schedule to a mixed-schedule stimulus (Experiment 1) or by producing a period of timeout in which the stimulus was turned off and the schedule was suspended (Experiment 2). Overall, escape was under joint control of past and upcoming reinforcer magnitudes, such that responses on the escape key were most likely during rich-to-lean transitions, and second-most likely during lean-to-lean transitions. Even though pigeons pecked the escape key, they paused before doing so, and the latency to begin the fixed ratio (i.e., the pause) remained extended during rich-to-lean transitions. These findings suggest that although the stimulus associated with rich-to-lean transitions functioned aversively, pausing is more than simply escape responding from the stimulus. © 2017 Society for the Experimental Analysis of Behavior.

Learning to fear a second-order stimulus following vicarious learning.

PubMed

Reynolds, Gemma; Field, Andy P; Askew, Chris

2017-04-01

Vicarious fear learning refers to the acquisition of fear via observation of the fearful responses of others. The present study aims to extend current knowledge by exploring whether second-order vicarious fear learning can be demonstrated in children. That is, whether vicariously learnt fear responses for one stimulus can be elicited in a second stimulus associated with that initial stimulus. Results demonstrated that children's (5-11 years) fear responses for marsupials and caterpillars increased when they were seen with fearful faces compared to no faces. Additionally, the results indicated a second-order effect in which fear-related learning occurred for other animals seen together with the fear-paired animal, even though the animals were never observed with fearful faces themselves. Overall, the findings indicate that for children in this age group vicariously learnt fear-related responses for one stimulus can subsequently be observed for a second stimulus without it being experienced in a fear-related vicarious learning event. These findings may help to explain why some individuals do not recall involvement of a traumatic learning episode in the development of their fear of a specific stimulus.

A Real-Time Reaction Obstacle Avoidance Algorithm for Autonomous Underwater Vehicles in Unknown Environments

PubMed Central

Yan, Zheping; Li, Jiyun; Zhang, Gengshi; Wu, Yi

2018-01-01

A novel real-time reaction obstacle avoidance algorithm (RRA) is proposed for autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) that must adapt to unknown complex terrains, based on forward looking sonar (FLS). To accomplish this algorithm, obstacle avoidance rules are planned, and the RRA processes are split into five steps Introduction only lists 4 so AUVs can rapidly respond to various environment obstacles. The largest polar angle algorithm (LPAA) is designed to change detected obstacle’s irregular outline into a convex polygon, which simplifies the obstacle avoidance process. A solution is designed to solve the trapping problem existing in U-shape obstacle avoidance by an outline memory algorithm. Finally, simulations in three unknown obstacle scenes are carried out to demonstrate the performance of this algorithm, where the obtained obstacle avoidance trajectories are safety, smooth and near-optimal. PMID:29393915

Research on Collection System Optimal Design of Wind Farm with Obstacles

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Huang, W.; Yan, B. Y.; Tan, R. S.; Liu, L. F.

2017-05-01

To the collection system optimal design of offshore wind farm, the factors considered are not only the reasonable configuration of the cable and switch, but also the influence of the obstacles on the topology design of the offshore wind farm. This paper presents a concrete topology optimization algorithm with obstacles. The minimal area rectangle encasing box of the obstacle is obtained by using the method of minimal area encasing box. Then the optimization algorithm combining the advantages of Dijkstra algorithm and Prim algorithm is used to gain the scheme of avoidance obstacle path planning. Finally a fuzzy comprehensive evaluation model based on the analytic hierarchy process is constructed to compare the performance of the different topologies. Case studies demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed algorithm and model.

Tips for School Districts: GASB's New Fund Balance Standards

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mead, Dean Michael

2010-01-01

In March 2009, the Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB) issued Statement No. 54, "Fund Balance Reporting and Governmental Fund Type Definitions." School districts that prepare financial reports based on generally accepted accounting principles are required to implement this standard no later than the first fiscal year that starts after…

PCT funding. Beggars belief.

PubMed

Hacking, John

2003-04-10

At the pace of change set for implementing the new PCT funding formula over the next three years, it will take more than 20 years to achieve equity. If the minimum increases were set lower it would largely be achieved within five years. The current state of affairs perpetuates the north-south health divide.

Health economics in drug development: efficient research to inform healthcare funding decisions.

PubMed

Hall, Peter S; McCabe, Christopher; Brown, Julia M; Cameron, David A

2010-10-01

In order to decide whether a new treatment should be used in patients, a robust estimate of efficacy and toxicity is no longer sufficient. As a result of increasing healthcare costs across the globe healthcare payers and providers now seek estimates of cost-effectiveness as well. Most trials currently being designed still only consider the need for prospective efficacy and toxicity data during the development life-cycle of a new intervention. Hence the cost-effectiveness estimates are inevitably less precise than the clinical data on which they are based. Methods based on decision theory are being developed by health economists that can contribute to the design of clinical trials in such a way that they can more effectively lead to better informed drug funding decisions on the basis of cost-effectiveness in addition to clinical outcomes. There is an opportunity to apply these techniques prospectively in the design of future clinical trials. This article describes the problems encountered by those responsible for drug reimbursement decisions as a consequence of the current drug development pathway. The potential for decision theoretic methods to help overcome these problems is introduced and potential obstacles in implementation are highlighted. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

In Support of a Distinction between Voluntary and Stimulus-Driven Control: A Review of the Literature on Proportion Congruent Effects.

PubMed

Bugg, Julie M; Crump, Matthew J C

2012-01-01

Cognitive control is by now a large umbrella term referring collectively to multiple processes that plan and coordinate actions to meet task goals. A common feature of paradigms that engage cognitive control is the task requirement to select relevant information despite a habitual tendency (or bias) to select goal-irrelevant information. At least since the 1970s, researchers have employed proportion congruent (PC) manipulations to experimentally establish selection biases and evaluate the mechanisms used to control attention. PC manipulations vary the frequency with which irrelevant information conflicts (i.e., is incongruent) with relevant information. The purpose of this review is to summarize the growing body of literature on PC effects across selective attention paradigms, beginning first with Stroop, and then describing parallel effects in flanker and task-switching paradigms. The review chronologically tracks the expansion of the PC manipulation from its initial implementation at the list-wide level, to more recent implementations at the item-specific and context-specific levels. An important theoretical aim is demonstrating that PC effects at different levels (e.g., list-wide vs. item or context-specific) support a distinction between voluntary forms of cognitive control, which operate based on anticipatory information, and relatively automatic or reflexive forms of cognitive control, which are rapidly triggered by the processing of particular stimuli or stimulus features. A further aim is to highlight those PC manipulations that allow researchers to dissociate stimulus-driven control from other stimulus-driven processes (e.g., S-R responding; episodic retrieval). We conclude by discussing the utility of PC manipulations for exploring the distinction between voluntary control and stimulus-driven control in other relevant paradigms.

In Support of a Distinction between Voluntary and Stimulus-Driven Control: A Review of the Literature on Proportion Congruent Effects

PubMed Central

Bugg, Julie M.; Crump, Matthew J. C.

2012-01-01

Cognitive control is by now a large umbrella term referring collectively to multiple processes that plan and coordinate actions to meet task goals. A common feature of paradigms that engage cognitive control is the task requirement to select relevant information despite a habitual tendency (or bias) to select goal-irrelevant information. At least since the 1970s, researchers have employed proportion congruent (PC) manipulations to experimentally establish selection biases and evaluate the mechanisms used to control attention. PC manipulations vary the frequency with which irrelevant information conflicts (i.e., is incongruent) with relevant information. The purpose of this review is to summarize the growing body of literature on PC effects across selective attention paradigms, beginning first with Stroop, and then describing parallel effects in flanker and task-switching paradigms. The review chronologically tracks the expansion of the PC manipulation from its initial implementation at the list-wide level, to more recent implementations at the item-specific and context-specific levels. An important theoretical aim is demonstrating that PC effects at different levels (e.g., list-wide vs. item or context-specific) support a distinction between voluntary forms of cognitive control, which operate based on anticipatory information, and relatively automatic or reflexive forms of cognitive control, which are rapidly triggered by the processing of particular stimuli or stimulus features. A further aim is to highlight those PC manipulations that allow researchers to dissociate stimulus-driven control from other stimulus-driven processes (e.g., S-R responding; episodic retrieval). We conclude by discussing the utility of PC manipulations for exploring the distinction between voluntary control and stimulus-driven control in other relevant paradigms. PMID:23060836

Blur adaptation: contrast sensitivity changes and stimulus extent.

PubMed

Venkataraman, Abinaya Priya; Winter, Simon; Unsbo, Peter; Lundström, Linda

2015-05-01

A prolonged exposure to foveal defocus is well known to affect the visual functions in the fovea. However, the effects of peripheral blur adaptation on foveal vision, or vice versa, are still unclear. In this study, we therefore examined the changes in contrast sensitivity function from baseline, following blur adaptation to small as well as laterally extended stimuli in four subjects. The small field stimulus (7.5° visual field) was a 30min video of forest scenery projected on a screen and the large field stimulus consisted of 7-tiles of the 7.5° stimulus stacked horizontally. Both stimuli were used for adaptation with optical blur (+2.00D trial lens) as well as for clear control conditions. After small field blur adaptation foveal contrast sensitivity improved in the mid spatial frequency region. However, these changes neither spread to the periphery nor occurred for the large field blur adaptation. To conclude, visual performance after adaptation is dependent on the lateral extent of the adaptation stimulus. Copyright © 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

Early State Implementation of Title I School Improvement Grants under the Recovery Act

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McMurrer, Jennifer; Dietz, Shelby; Rentner, Diane Stark

2011-01-01

Over the next three years, states will dedicate an unprecedented amount of federal funding to school improvement efforts at approximately 5,000 of the nation's lowest achieving schools. The $100 billion for education appropriated by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA), also known as the stimulus package, included an…

Counteracting Obstacles with Optimistic Predictions

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zhang, Ying; Fishbach, Ayelet

2010-01-01

This research tested for counteractive optimism: a self-control strategy of generating optimistic predictions of future goal attainment in order to overcome anticipated obstacles in goal pursuit. In support of the counteractive optimism model, participants in 5 studies predicted better performance, more time invested in goal activities, and lower…

Getting to Darwin: Obstacles to Accepting Evolution by Natural Selection

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Thagard, Paul; Findlay, Scott

2010-01-01

Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection is central to modern biology, but is resisted by many people. This paper discusses the major psychological obstacles to accepting Darwin's theory. Cognitive obstacles to adopting evolution by natural selection include conceptual difficulties, methodological issues, and coherence problems that…

Development Administration: Obstacles, Theories and Implications for Planning. IIEP Occasional Papers No. 2.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rodman, Peter W.

In developing countries, public administration is hampered by a number of obstacles foreign to large industrialized nations. Some of these obstacles are shortages of tools and skilled personnel, outmoded organizational structures, political competition, and cultural and attitudinal barriers. The administrative obstacles and their…

Nonlinear water waves generated by impulsive motion of submerged obstacle

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Makarenko, N.; Kostikov, V.

2012-04-01

The fully nonlinear problem on generation of unsteady water waves by impulsively moving obstacle is studied analytically. The method involves the reduction of basic Euler equations to the integral-differential system for the wave elevation together with normal and tangential fluid velocities at the free surface. Exact model equations are derived in explicit form when the isolated obstacle is presented by totally submerged circular- or elliptic cylinder. Small-time asymptotic solution is constructed for the cylinder which starts moving with constant acceleration from rest. It is demonstrated that the leading-order solution terms describe several wave regimes such as the formation of non-stationary splash jets by vertical rising or vertical submersion of the obstacle, as well as the generation of diverging waves by horizontal- and combined motion of the obstacle under free surface. This work was supported by RFBR (grant No 10-01-00447) and by Research Program of the Russian Government (grant No 11.G34.31.0035).

Wide-Baseline Stereo-Based Obstacle Mapping for Unmanned Surface Vehicles

PubMed Central

Mou, Xiaozheng; Wang, Han

2018-01-01

This paper proposes a wide-baseline stereo-based static obstacle mapping approach for unmanned surface vehicles (USVs). The proposed approach eliminates the complicated calibration work and the bulky rig in our previous binocular stereo system, and raises the ranging ability from 500 to 1000 m with a even larger baseline obtained from the motion of USVs. Integrating a monocular camera with GPS and compass information in this proposed system, the world locations of the detected static obstacles are reconstructed while the USV is traveling, and an obstacle map is then built. To achieve more accurate and robust performance, multiple pairs of frames are leveraged to synthesize the final reconstruction results in a weighting model. Experimental results based on our own dataset demonstrate the high efficiency of our system. To the best of our knowledge, we are the first to address the task of wide-baseline stereo-based obstacle mapping in a maritime environment. PMID:29617293

Autonomous dynamic obstacle avoidance for bacteria-powered microrobots (BPMs) with modified vector field histogram.

PubMed

Kim, Hoyeon; Cheang, U Kei; Kim, Min Jun

2017-01-01

In order to broaden the use of microrobots in practical fields, autonomous control algorithms such as obstacle avoidance must be further developed. However, most previous studies of microrobots used manual motion control to navigate past tight spaces and obstacles while very few studies demonstrated the use of autonomous motion. In this paper, we demonstrated a dynamic obstacle avoidance algorithm for bacteria-powered microrobots (BPMs) using electric field in fluidic environments. A BPM consists of an artificial body, which is made of SU-8, and a high dense layer of harnessed bacteria. BPMs can be controlled using externally applied electric fields due to the electrokinetic property of bacteria. For developing dynamic obstacle avoidance for BPMs, a kinematic model of BPMs was utilized to prevent collision and a finite element model was used to characteristic the deformation of an electric field near the obstacle walls. In order to avoid fast moving obstacles, we modified our previously static obstacle avoidance approach using a modified vector field histogram (VFH) method. To validate the advanced algorithm in experiments, magnetically controlled moving obstacles were used to intercept the BPMs as the BPMs move from the initial position to final position. The algorithm was able to successfully guide the BPMs to reach their respective goal positions while avoiding the dynamic obstacles.

Interactive Light Stimulus Generation with High Performance Real-Time Image Processing and Simple Scripting

PubMed Central

Szécsi, László; Kacsó, Ágota; Zeck, Günther; Hantz, Péter

2017-01-01

Light stimulation with precise and complex spatial and temporal modulation is demanded by a series of research fields like visual neuroscience, optogenetics, ophthalmology, and visual psychophysics. We developed a user-friendly and flexible stimulus generating framework (GEARS GPU-based Eye And Retina Stimulation Software), which offers access to GPU computing power, and allows interactive modification of stimulus parameters during experiments. Furthermore, it has built-in support for driving external equipment, as well as for synchronization tasks, via USB ports. The use of GEARS does not require elaborate programming skills. The necessary scripting is visually aided by an intuitive interface, while the details of the underlying software and hardware components remain hidden. Internally, the software is a C++/Python hybrid using OpenGL graphics. Computations are performed on the GPU, and are defined in the GLSL shading language. However, all GPU settings, including the GPU shader programs, are automatically generated by GEARS. This is configured through a method encountered in game programming, which allows high flexibility: stimuli are straightforwardly composed using a broad library of basic components. Stimulus rendering is implemented solely in C++, therefore intermediary libraries for interfacing could be omitted. This enables the program to perform computationally demanding tasks like en-masse random number generation or real-time image processing by local and global operations. PMID:29326579

Interactive Light Stimulus Generation with High Performance Real-Time Image Processing and Simple Scripting.

PubMed

Szécsi, László; Kacsó, Ágota; Zeck, Günther; Hantz, Péter

2017-01-01

Light stimulation with precise and complex spatial and temporal modulation is demanded by a series of research fields like visual neuroscience, optogenetics, ophthalmology, and visual psychophysics. We developed a user-friendly and flexible stimulus generating framework (GEARS GPU-based Eye And Retina Stimulation Software), which offers access to GPU computing power, and allows interactive modification of stimulus parameters during experiments. Furthermore, it has built-in support for driving external equipment, as well as for synchronization tasks, via USB ports. The use of GEARS does not require elaborate programming skills. The necessary scripting is visually aided by an intuitive interface, while the details of the underlying software and hardware components remain hidden. Internally, the software is a C++/Python hybrid using OpenGL graphics. Computations are performed on the GPU, and are defined in the GLSL shading language. However, all GPU settings, including the GPU shader programs, are automatically generated by GEARS. This is configured through a method encountered in game programming, which allows high flexibility: stimuli are straightforwardly composed using a broad library of basic components. Stimulus rendering is implemented solely in C++, therefore intermediary libraries for interfacing could be omitted. This enables the program to perform computationally demanding tasks like en-masse random number generation or real-time image processing by local and global operations.

Workarounds and obstacles: unexpected source of innovation.

PubMed

Lalley, Cathy

2014-01-01

Nurse leaders are aware that nurses are finding ways to adapt health information technology to patient care activities. Previous literature has presented nurses' response to technology obstacles as a work-around, characterized as a negative behavior. Using narrative inquiry, this article examines 9 direct care nurses' interactions on a medical/surgical/telemetry unit. Specifically, nurses' encounters with technology obstacles will be addressed from a complexity science perspective. Four support staff including the clinical nurse manager, pharmacist, quality nurse, and project manager who is also a nurse were interviewed as part of data collection. Complexity science provides nurse leaders' insight into nurses' behavior where outcomes emerge from tensions in the environment through multidirectional and self-organizing interactions. Innovation was found when nurses responded to health information technology obstacles with self-organizing interactions, sensitivity to initial conditions, and multidirectionality. Their actions were also influenced by many sets of rules. Nurses self-organized with coworkers to find better ways to deliver care to patients when using technology. Opportunities exist for nurse leaders to facilitate interactions among nurses and other members of the organization to realize better use of health information technology that improves the patient experience.

Implementation of Parent Child Interaction Therapy Within Foster Care: An Attempt to Translate an Evidence-Based Program Within a Local Child Welfare Agency

PubMed Central

Topitzes, James; Mersky, Joshua P.; McNeil, Cheryl B.

2014-01-01

This paper describes an innovative adaptation of an evidence-based intervention – Parent Child Interaction Therapy or PCIT – to foster parent training services. The authors faced multiple problems that commonly plague translational child welfare research as they developed, implemented and tested their model. The paper discusses how the authors addressed these problems when: 1) specifying the child welfare context in which the intervention model was implemented and tested, choosing an intervention model that responded to child welfare service needs, and tailoring the model for a child welfare context; 2) securing external funding and initiating sustainability plans for model uptake; and 3) forging a university-community partnership to overcome logistical and ethical obstacles. Concluding with a summary of promising preliminary study results, a description of future plans to replicate and spread the model, and a distillation of project lessons, the paper suggests that child welfare translational research with PCIT is very promising. PMID:25729340

Flexible categorization of relative stimulus strength by the optic tectum

PubMed Central

Mysore, Shreesh P.; Knudsen, Eric I.

2011-01-01

Categorization is the process by which the brain segregates continuously variable stimuli into discrete groups. We report that patterns of neural population activity in the owl optic tectum (OT) categorize stimuli based on their relative strengths into “strongest” versus “other”. The category boundary shifts adaptively to track changes in the absolute strength of the strongest stimulus. This population-wide categorization is mediated by the responses of a small subset of neurons. Our data constitute the first direct demonstration of an explicit categorization of stimuli by a neural network based on relative stimulus strength or salience. The finding of categorization by the population code relaxes constraints on the properties of downstream decoders that might read out the location of the strongest stimulus. These results indicate that the ensemble neural code in the OT could mediate bottom-up stimulus selection for gaze and attention, a form of stimulus categorization in which the category boundary often shifts within hundreds of milliseconds. PMID:21613487

Factors Influencing Obstacle Crossing Performance in Patients with Parkinson's Disease

PubMed Central

Liao, Ying-Yi; Yang, Yea-Ru; Wu, Yih-Ru; Wang, Ray-Yau

2014-01-01

Background Tripping over obstacles is the major cause of falls in community-dwelling patients with Parkinson's disease (PD). Understanding the factors associated with the obstacle crossing behavior may help to develop possible training programs for crossing performance. This study aimed to identify the relationships and important factors determining obstacle crossing performance in patients with PD. Methods Forty-two idiopathic patients with PD (Hoehn and Yahr stages I to III) participated in this study. Obstacle crossing performance was recorded by the Liberty system, a three-dimensional motion capture device. Maximal isometric strength of the lower extremity was measured by a handheld dynamometer. Dynamic balance and sensory integration ability were assessed using the Balance Master system. Movement velocity (MV), maximal excursion (ME), and directional control (DC) were obtained during the limits of stability test to quantify dynamic balance. The sum of sensory organization test (SOT) scores was used to quantify sensory organization ability. Results Both crossing stride length and stride velocity correlated significantly with lower extremity muscle strength, dynamic balance control (forward and sideward), and sum of SOT scores. From the regression model, forward DC and ankle dorsiflexor strength were identified as two major determinants for crossing performance (R2 = .37 to.41 for the crossing stride length, R2 = .43 to.44 for the crossing stride velocity). Conclusions Lower extremity muscle strength, dynamic balance control and sensory integration ability significantly influence obstacle crossing performance. We suggest an emphasis on muscle strengthening exercises (especially ankle dorsiflexors), balance training (especially forward DC), and sensory integration training to improve obstacle crossing performance in patients with PD. PMID:24454723

Alberta's Performance-Based Funding Mechanism.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Barnetson, Bob

This paper provides an overview of the performance indicator-based accountability and funding mechanism implemented in the higher education system of Alberta, Canada. The paper defines the terms accountability and regulation, examines the use of performance indicators to demonstrate accountability, and explains how performance indicator-based…

States Trend toward Performance Funding

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hermes, Jim

2012-01-01

As college completion becomes a priority, more state legislatures are challenging community colleges to demonstrate progress by tying funding measures to institutional performance. Tom Harnisch, a policy analyst with the American Association of State Colleges and Universities, reports that 17 states are currently implementing or considering the…

Disentangling the nature of the nicotine stimulus.

PubMed

Bevins, Rick A; Barrett, Scott T; Polewan, Robert J; Pittenger, Steven T; Swalve, Natashia; Charntikov, Sergios

2012-05-01

Learning involving interoceptive stimuli likely plays an important role in many diseases and psychopathologies. Within this area, there has been extensive research investigating the interoceptive stimulus effects of abused drugs. In this pursuit, behavioral pharmacologists have taken advantage of what is known about learning processes and adapted the techniques to investigate the behavioral and receptor mechanisms of drug stimuli. Of particular interest is the nicotine stimulus and the use of the two-lever operant drug discrimination task and the Pavlovian drug discriminated goal-tracking task. There is strong concordance between the two methods when using "standard" testing protocols that minimize learning on test days. For example, ABT-418, nornicotine, and varenicline all fully evoked nicotine-appropriate responding. Notably, research from our laboratory with the discriminated goal-tracking task has used an alternative testing protocol. This protocol assesses stimulus substitution based on how well extinction learning using a non-nicotine ligand transfers back to the nicotine stimulus. These findings challenge conclusions based on more "standard" testing procedures (e.g., ABT-418 is not nicotine-like). As a starting point, we propose Thurstone scaling as a quantitative method for more precisely comparing transfer of extinction across doses, experiments, and investigators. We close with a discussion of future research directions and potential implications of the research for understanding interoceptive stimuli. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

E-library Implementation in Library University of Riau

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yuhelmi; Rismayeti

2017-12-01

This research aims to see how the e-book implementation in Library University of Riau and the obstacle in its implementation. In the Globalization era, digital libraries should be developed or else it will decrease the readers’ interest, with the recent advanced technology, digital libraries are one of the learning tools that can be used to finding an information through the internet access, hence digital libraries or commonly known as E-Library is really helping the students and academic community in finding information. The methods that used in this research is Observation, Interview, and Literature Study. The respondents in this research are the staff who involved in the process of digitization in Library University of Riau. The result of this research shows that implementation of e-library in Library University of Riau is already filled the user needs for now, although there is obstacle faced just like technical problems for example the internet connection speed and the technical problem to convert the format from Microsoft Word .doc to Adobe.pdf

On the debate about teleology in biology: the notion of "teleological obstacle".

PubMed

Ribeiro, Manuel Gustavo Leitão; Larentis, Ariane Leites; Caldas, Lúcio Ayres; Garcia, Tomás Coelho; Terra, Letícia Labati; Herbst, Marcelo Hawrylak; Almeida, Rodrigo Volcan

2015-12-01

Among the epistemological obstacles described by Gaston Bachelard, we contend that unitary and pragmatic knowledge is correlated to the teleological categories of Ernst Mayr and is the basis for prevailing debate on the notion of "function" in biology. Given the proximity of the aspects highlighted by these authors, we propose to associate the role of teleological thinking in biology and the notion of unitary and pragmatic knowledge as an obstacle to scientific knowledge. Thus, teleological thinking persists acting as an epistemological obstacle in biology, according to Bachelardian terminology. Our investigation led us to formulate the "teleological obstacle," which we consider important for the future of biology and possibly other sciences.

Getting to Darwin: Obstacles to Accepting Evolution by Natural Selection

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Thagard, Paul; Findlay, Scott

2010-06-01

Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection is central to modern biology, but is resisted by many people. This paper discusses the major psychological obstacles to accepting Darwin’s theory. Cognitive obstacles to adopting evolution by natural selection include conceptual difficulties, methodological issues, and coherence problems that derive from the intuitiveness of alternative theories. The main emotional obstacles to accepting evolution are its apparent conflict with valued beliefs about God, souls, and morality. We draw on the philosophy of science and on a psychological theory of cognitive and emotional belief revision to make suggestions about what can be done to improve acceptance of Darwinian ideas.

A novel artificial immune algorithm for spatial clustering with obstacle constraint and its applications.

PubMed

Sun, Liping; Luo, Yonglong; Ding, Xintao; Zhang, Ji

2014-01-01

An important component of a spatial clustering algorithm is the distance measure between sample points in object space. In this paper, the traditional Euclidean distance measure is replaced with innovative obstacle distance measure for spatial clustering under obstacle constraints. Firstly, we present a path searching algorithm to approximate the obstacle distance between two points for dealing with obstacles and facilitators. Taking obstacle distance as similarity metric, we subsequently propose the artificial immune clustering with obstacle entity (AICOE) algorithm for clustering spatial point data in the presence of obstacles and facilitators. Finally, the paper presents a comparative analysis of AICOE algorithm and the classical clustering algorithms. Our clustering model based on artificial immune system is also applied to the case of public facility location problem in order to establish the practical applicability of our approach. By using the clone selection principle and updating the cluster centers based on the elite antibodies, the AICOE algorithm is able to achieve the global optimum and better clustering effect.

Obstacle negotiation control for a mobile robot suspended on overhead ground wires by optoelectronic sensors

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zheng, Li; Yi, Ruan

2009-11-01

Power line inspection and maintenance already benefit from developments in mobile robotics. This paper presents mobile robots capable of crossing obstacles on overhead ground wires. A teleoperated robot realizes inspection and maintenance tasks on power transmission line equipment. The inspection robot is driven by 11 motor with two arms, two wheels and two claws. The inspection robot is designed to realize the function of observation, grasp, walk, rolling, turn, rise, and decline. This paper is oriented toward 100% reliable obstacle detection and identification, and sensor fusion to increase the autonomy level. An embedded computer based on PC/104 bus is chosen as the core of control system. Visible light camera and thermal infrared Camera are both installed in a programmable pan-and-tilt camera (PPTC) unit. High-quality visual feedback rapidly becomes crucial for human-in-the-loop control and effective teleoperation. The communication system between the robot and the ground station is based on Mesh wireless networks by 700 MHz bands. An expert system programmed with Visual C++ is developed to implement the automatic control. Optoelectronic laser sensors and laser range scanner were installed in robot for obstacle-navigation control to grasp the overhead ground wires. A novel prototype with careful considerations on mobility was designed to inspect the 500KV power transmission lines. Results of experiments demonstrate that the robot can be applied to execute the navigation and inspection tasks.

Pre-stimulus thalamic theta power predicts human memory formation.

PubMed

Sweeney-Reed, Catherine M; Zaehle, Tino; Voges, Jürgen; Schmitt, Friedhelm C; Buentjen, Lars; Kopitzki, Klaus; Richardson-Klavehn, Alan; Hinrichs, Hermann; Heinze, Hans-Jochen; Knight, Robert T; Rugg, Michael D

2016-09-01

Pre-stimulus theta (4-8Hz) power in the hippocampus and neocortex predicts whether a memory for a subsequent event will be formed. Anatomical studies reveal thalamus-hippocampal connectivity, and lesion, neuroimaging, and electrophysiological studies show that memory processing involves the dorsomedial (DMTN) and anterior thalamic nuclei (ATN). The small size and deep location of these nuclei have limited real-time study of their activity, however, and it is unknown whether pre-stimulus theta power predictive of successful memory formation is also found in these subcortical structures. We recorded human electrophysiological data from the DMTN and ATN of 7 patients receiving deep brain stimulation for refractory epilepsy. We found that greater pre-stimulus theta power in the right DMTN was associated with successful memory encoding, predicting both behavioral outcome and post-stimulus correlates of successful memory formation. In particular, significant correlations were observed between right DMTN theta power and both frontal theta and right ATN gamma (32-50Hz) phase alignment, and frontal-ATN theta-gamma cross-frequency coupling. We draw the following primary conclusions. Our results provide direct electrophysiological evidence in humans of a role for the DMTN as well as the ATN in memory formation. Furthermore, prediction of subsequent memory performance by pre-stimulus thalamic oscillations provides evidence that post-stimulus differences in thalamic activity that index successful and unsuccessful encoding reflect brain processes specifically underpinning memory formation. Finally, the findings broaden the understanding of brain states that facilitate memory encoding to include subcortical as well as cortical structures. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Autonomous dynamic obstacle avoidance for bacteria-powered microrobots (BPMs) with modified vector field histogram

PubMed Central

Kim, Hoyeon; Cheang, U. Kei

2017-01-01

In order to broaden the use of microrobots in practical fields, autonomous control algorithms such as obstacle avoidance must be further developed. However, most previous studies of microrobots used manual motion control to navigate past tight spaces and obstacles while very few studies demonstrated the use of autonomous motion. In this paper, we demonstrated a dynamic obstacle avoidance algorithm for bacteria-powered microrobots (BPMs) using electric field in fluidic environments. A BPM consists of an artificial body, which is made of SU-8, and a high dense layer of harnessed bacteria. BPMs can be controlled using externally applied electric fields due to the electrokinetic property of bacteria. For developing dynamic obstacle avoidance for BPMs, a kinematic model of BPMs was utilized to prevent collision and a finite element model was used to characteristic the deformation of an electric field near the obstacle walls. In order to avoid fast moving obstacles, we modified our previously static obstacle avoidance approach using a modified vector field histogram (VFH) method. To validate the advanced algorithm in experiments, magnetically controlled moving obstacles were used to intercept the BPMs as the BPMs move from the initial position to final position. The algorithm was able to successfully guide the BPMs to reach their respective goal positions while avoiding the dynamic obstacles. PMID:29020016

31 CFR 103.131 - Customer identification programs for mutual funds.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... Finance FINANCIAL RECORDKEEPING AND REPORTING OF CURRENCY AND FOREIGN TRANSACTIONS Anti-Money Laundering Programs Anti-Money Laundering Programs § 103.131 Customer identification programs for mutual funds. (a... mutual fund's anti-money laundering program required under the regulations implementing 31 U.S.C. 5318(h...

Task by stimulus interactions in brain responses during Chinese character processing.

PubMed

Yang, Jianfeng; Wang, Xiaojuan; Shu, Hua; Zevin, Jason D

2012-04-02

In the visual word recognition literature, it is well understood that various stimulus effects interact with behavioral task. For example, effects of word frequency are exaggerated and effects of spelling-to-sound regularity are reduced in the lexical decision task, relative to reading aloud. Neuroimaging studies of reading often examine effects of task and stimulus properties on brain activity independently, but potential interactions between task demands and stimulus effects have not been extensively explored. To address this issue, we conducted lexical decision and symbol detection tasks using stimuli that varied parametrically in their word-likeness, and tested for task by stimulus class interactions. Interactions were found throughout the reading system, such that stimulus selectivity was observed during the lexical decision task, but not during the symbol detection task. Further, the pattern of stimulus selectivity was directly related to task difficulty, so that the strongest brain activity was observed to the most word-like stimuli that required "no" responses, whereas brain activity to words, which elicit rapid and accurate "yes" responses were relatively weak. This is in line with models that argue for task-dependent specialization of brain regions, and contrasts with the notion of task-independent stimulus selectivity in the reading system. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

A method of real-time detection for distant moving obstacles by monocular vision

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jia, Bao-zhi; Zhu, Ming

2013-12-01

In this paper, we propose an approach for detection of distant moving obstacles like cars and bicycles by a monocular camera to cooperate with ultrasonic sensors in low-cost condition. We are aiming at detecting distant obstacles that move toward our autonomous navigation car in order to give alarm and keep away from them. Method of frame differencing is applied to find obstacles after compensation of camera's ego-motion. Meanwhile, each obstacle is separated from others in an independent area and given a confidence level to indicate whether it is coming closer. The results on an open dataset and our own autonomous navigation car have proved that the method is effective for detection of distant moving obstacles in real-time.

Does physical exercise improve obstacle negotiation in the elderly? A systematic review.

PubMed

Guadagnin, Eliane C; da Rocha, Emmanuel S; Duysens, Jacques; Carpes, Felipe P

2016-01-01

Physical exercise improves walking in the elderly but much less is known about its effect on more challenged gait, such as obstacle negotiation. We conducted a systematic review to discuss the effects of regular physical exercise on kinematics and kinetics of obstacle negotiation in the elderly. A comprehensive literature search revealed 859 citations for review, whereof 206 studies entered the full-text analysis. After application of inclusion and exclusion criteria, 13 studies were included in this systematic review. Most of them presented a reasonable quality (average 0.68) but none of them reached the level of a randomized control trial. Interventions were heterogeneous, with training periods lasting from 5 days to 10 months. Studies assessed obstacle negotiation basically considering 3 types of testing paradigm, namely a walkway with either a single obstacle crossing, or with multiple obstacles, or else a treadmill with an obstacle avoidance task under time pressure. In general, longer training programs had better results and very short ones were not effective. A weekly frequency of 2-3 times was the most common among the studies showing positive effects. Regardless of exercises types performed, most of them were effective and so far, there is no consensus about the best exercise for improving obstacle negotiation. A lack of studies on this topic still is evident. Including a record of fall score can further help in deciding which programs are to be preferred. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Impact of stimulus uncanniness on speeded response

PubMed Central

Takahashi, Kohske; Fukuda, Haruaki; Samejima, Kazuyuki; Watanabe, Katsumi; Ueda, Kazuhiro

2015-01-01

In the uncanny valley phenomenon, the causes of the feeling of uncanniness as well as the impact of the uncanniness on behavioral performances still remain open. The present study investigated the behavioral effects of stimulus uncanniness, particularly with respect to speeded response. Pictures of fish were used as visual stimuli. Participants engaged in direction discrimination, spatial cueing, and dot-probe tasks. The results showed that pictures rated as strongly uncanny delayed speeded response in the discrimination of the direction of the fish. In the cueing experiment, where a fish served as a task-irrelevant and unpredictable cue for a peripheral target, we again observed that the detection of a target was slowed when the cue was an uncanny fish. Conversely, the dot-probe task suggested that uncanny fish, unlike threatening stimulus, did not capture visual spatial attention. These results suggested that stimulus uncanniness resulted in the delayed response, and importantly this modulation was not mediated by the feelings of threat. PMID:26052297

On decomposing stimulus and response waveforms in event-related potentials recordings.

PubMed

Yin, Gang; Zhang, Jun

2011-06-01

Event-related potentials (ERPs) reflect the brain activities related to specific behavioral events, and are obtained by averaging across many trial repetitions with individual trials aligned to the onset of a specific event, e.g., the onset of stimulus (s-aligned) or the onset of the behavioral response (r-aligned). However, the s-aligned and r-aligned ERP waveforms do not purely reflect, respectively, underlying stimulus (S-) or response (R-) component waveform, due to their cross-contaminations in the recorded ERP waveforms. Zhang [J. Neurosci. Methods, 80, pp. 49-63, 1998] proposed an algorithm to recover the pure S-component waveform and the pure R-component waveform from the s-aligned and r-aligned ERP average waveforms-however, due to the nature of this inverse problem, a direct solution is sensitive to noise that disproportionally affects low-frequency components, hindering the practical implementation of this algorithm. Here, we apply the Wiener deconvolution technique to deal with noise in input data, and investigate a Tikhonov regularization approach to obtain a stable solution that is robust against variances in the sampling of reaction-time distribution (when number of trials is low). Our method is demonstrated using data from a Go/NoGo experiment about image classification and recognition.

Obstacle Crossing Differences Between Blind and Blindfolded Subjects After Haptic Exploration.

PubMed

Forner-Cordero, Arturo; Garcia, Valéria D; Rodrigues, Sérgio T; Duysens, Jacques

2016-01-01

Little is known about the ability of blind people to cross obstacles after they have explored haptically their size and position. Long-term absence of vision may affect spatial cognition in the blind while their extensive experience with the use of haptic information for guidance may lead to compensation strategies. Seven blind and 7 sighted participants (with vision available and blindfolded) walked along a flat pathway and crossed an obstacle after a haptic exploration. Blind and blindfolded subjects used different strategies to cross the obstacle. After the first 20 trials the blindfolded subjects reduced the distance between the foot and the obstacle at the toe-off instant, while the blind behaved as the subjects with full vision. Blind and blindfolded participants showed larger foot clearance than participants with vision. At foot landing the hip was more behind the foot in the blindfolded condition, while there were no differences between the blind and the vision conditions. For several parameters of the obstacle crossing task, blind people were more similar to subjects with full vision indicating that the blind subjects were able to compensate for the lack of vision.

Assisting the visually impaired: obstacle detection and warning system by acoustic feedback.

PubMed

Rodríguez, Alberto; Yebes, J Javier; Alcantarilla, Pablo F; Bergasa, Luis M; Almazán, Javier; Cela, Andrés

2012-12-17

The aim of this article is focused on the design of an obstacle detection system for assisting visually impaired people. A dense disparity map is computed from the images of a stereo camera carried by the user. By using the dense disparity map, potential obstacles can be detected in 3D in indoor and outdoor scenarios. A ground plane estimation algorithm based on RANSAC plus filtering techniques allows the robust detection of the ground in every frame. A polar grid representation is proposed to account for the potential obstacles in the scene. The design is completed with acoustic feedback to assist visually impaired users while approaching obstacles. Beep sounds with different frequencies and repetitions inform the user about the presence of obstacles. Audio bone conducting technology is employed to play these sounds without interrupting the visually impaired user from hearing other important sounds from its local environment. A user study participated by four visually impaired volunteers supports the proposed system.

Assisting the Visually Impaired: Obstacle Detection and Warning System by Acoustic Feedback

PubMed Central

Rodríguez, Alberto; Yebes, J. Javier; Alcantarilla, Pablo F.; Bergasa, Luis M.; Almazán, Javier; Cela, Andrés

2012-01-01

The aim of this article is focused on the design of an obstacle detection system for assisting visually impaired people. A dense disparity map is computed from the images of a stereo camera carried by the user. By using the dense disparity map, potential obstacles can be detected in 3D in indoor and outdoor scenarios. A ground plane estimation algorithm based on RANSAC plus filtering techniques allows the robust detection of the ground in every frame. A polar grid representation is proposed to account for the potential obstacles in the scene. The design is completed with acoustic feedback to assist visually impaired users while approaching obstacles. Beep sounds with different frequencies and repetitions inform the user about the presence of obstacles. Audio bone conducting technology is employed to play these sounds without interrupting the visually impaired user from hearing other important sounds from its local environment. A user study participated by four visually impaired volunteers supports the proposed system. PMID:23247413

Collective rotations of active particles interacting with obstacles

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mokhtari, Zahra; Aspelmeier, Timo; Zippelius, Annette

2017-10-01

We consider active particles in a heterogeneous medium, modeled by static, random obstacles. In accordance with the known tendency of active particles to cluster, we observe accumulation and crystallization of active particles around the obstacles which serve as nucleation sites. In the limit of high activity, the crystals start to rotate spontaneously, resembling a rotating rigid body. We trace the occurrence of these oscillations to the enhanced attraction of particles whose orientation points along the rotational velocity as compared to those whose orientation points in the opposite direction.

A Novel Stimulus Artifact Removal Technique for High-Rate Electrical Stimulation

PubMed Central

Heffer, Leon F; Fallon, James B

2008-01-01

Electrical stimulus artifact corrupting electrophysiological recordings often make the subsequent analysis of the underlying neural response difficult. This is particularly evident when investigating short-latency neural activity in response to high-rate electrical stimulation. We developed and evaluated an off-line technique for the removal of stimulus artifact from electrophysiological recordings. Pulsatile electrical stimulation was presented at rates of up to 5000 pulses/s during extracellular recordings of guinea pig auditory nerve fibers. Stimulus artifact was removed by replacing the sample points at each stimulus artifact event with values interpolated along a straight line, computed from neighbouring sample points. This technique required only that artifact events be identifiable and that the artifact duration remained less than both the inter-stimulus interval and the time course of the action potential. We have demonstrated that this computationally efficient sample-and-interpolate technique removes the stimulus artifact with minimal distortion of the action potential waveform. We suggest that this technique may have potential applications in a range of electrophysiological recording systems. PMID:18339428

Preattentive binding of auditory and visual stimulus features.

PubMed

Winkler, István; Czigler, István; Sussman, Elyse; Horváth, János; Balázs, Lászlo

2005-02-01

We investigated the role of attention in feature binding in the auditory and the visual modality. One auditory and one visual experiment used the mismatch negativity (MMN and vMMN, respectively) event-related potential to index the memory representations created from stimulus sequences, which were either task-relevant and, therefore, attended or task-irrelevant and ignored. In the latter case, the primary task was a continuous demanding within-modality task. The test sequences were composed of two frequently occurring stimuli, which differed from each other in two stimulus features (standard stimuli) and two infrequently occurring stimuli (deviants), which combined one feature from one standard stimulus with the other feature of the other standard stimulus. Deviant stimuli elicited MMN responses of similar parameters across the different attentional conditions. These results suggest that the memory representations involved in the MMN deviance detection response encoded the frequently occurring feature combinations whether or not the test sequences were attended. A possible alternative to the memory-based interpretation of the visual results, the elicitation of the McCollough color-contingent aftereffect, was ruled out by the results of our third experiment. The current results are compared with those supporting the attentive feature integration theory. We conclude that (1) with comparable stimulus paradigms, similar results have been obtained in the two modalities, (2) there exist preattentive processes of feature binding, however, (3) conjoining features within rich arrays of objects under time pressure and/or longterm retention of the feature-conjoined memory representations may require attentive processes.

Stopping mechanism for capsule endoscope using electrical stimulus.

PubMed

Woo, Sang Hyo; Kim, Tae Wan; Cho, Jin Ho

2010-01-01

An ingestible capsule, which has the ability to stop at certain locations in the small intestine, was designed and implemented to monitor intestinal diseases. The proposed capsule can contract the small intestine by using electrical stimuli; this contraction causes the capsule to stop when the maximum static frictional force (MSFF) is larger than the force of natural peristalsis. In vitro experiments were carried out to verify the feasibility of the capsule, and the results showed that the capsule was successfully stopped in the small intestine. Various electrodes and electrical stimulus parameters were determined on the basis of the MSFF. A moderate increment of the MSFF (12.7 +/- 4.6 gf at 5 V, 10 Hz, and 5 ms) and the maximum increment of the MSFF (56.5 +/- 9.77 gf at 20 V, 10 Hz, and 5 ms) were obtained, and it is sufficient force to stop the capsule.

Awareness and Detection of Traffic and Obstacles Using Synthetic and Enhanced Vision Systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bailey, Randall E.

2012-01-01

Research literature are reviewed and summarized to evaluate the awareness and detection of traffic and obstacles when using Synthetic Vision Systems (SVS) and Enhanced Vision Systems (EVS). The study identifies the critical issues influencing the time required, accuracy, and pilot workload associated with recognizing and reacting to potential collisions or conflicts with other aircraft, vehicles and obstructions during approach, landing, and surface operations. This work considers the effect of head-down display and head-up display implementations of SVS and EVS as well as the influence of single and dual pilot operations. The influences and strategies of adding traffic information and cockpit alerting with SVS and EVS were also included. Based on this review, a knowledge gap assessment was made with recommendations for ground and flight testing to fill these gaps and hence, promote the safe and effective implementation of SVS/EVS technologies for the Next Generation Air Transportation System

[Educational obstacles in the everyday living of the nurse teacher's pedagogical practice].

PubMed

Rodrigues, Malvina Thaís Pacheco; Mendes Sobrinho, José Augusto de Carvalho

2008-01-01

University teaching emerges as a theme frequently discussed in the educational scene. This article aims to investigate the educational obstacles emerging in the everyday living of the pedagogical practice of the nurse teacher from the Nursing Graduation Course at UEPSI, wishing to subsidize the elaboration of proposals for overcoming of these obstacles. It is a study of qualitative approach with data collection, questionnaire and semi-structured interview and data analysis through content analysis. According to the analysis, it is clear that the educational obstacles relate to the teacher person, to the students and to the institution. Thus, an establishment of a continuing education program in the action-reflection-action perspective is proposed as a way of overcoming the obstacles.

3D-Sonification for Obstacle Avoidance in Brownout Conditions

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Godfroy-Cooper, M.; Miller, J. D.; Szoboszlay, Z.; Wenzel, E. M.

2017-01-01

Helicopter brownout is a phenomenon that occurs when making landing approaches in dusty environments, whereby sand or dust particles become swept up in the rotor outwash. Brownout is characterized by partial or total obscuration of the terrain, which degrades visual cues necessary for hovering and safe landing. Furthermore, the motion of the dust cloud produced during brownout can lead to the pilot experiencing motion cue anomalies such as vection illusions. In this context, the stability and guidance control functions can be intermittently or continuously degraded, potentially leading to undetected surface hazards and obstacles as well as unnoticed drift. Safe and controlled landing in brownout can be achieved using an integrated presentation of LADAR and RADAR imagery and aircraft state symbology. However, though detected by the LADAR and displayed on the sensor image, small obstacles can be difficult to discern from the background so that changes in obstacle elevation may go unnoticed. Moreover, pilot workload associated with tracking the displayed symbology is often so high that the pilot cannot give sufficient attention to the LADAR/RADAR image. This paper documents a simulation evaluating the use of 3D auditory cueing for obstacle avoidance in brownout as a replacement for or compliment to LADAR/RADAR imagery.

Left neglect dyslexia and the effect of stimulus duration.

PubMed

Arduino, Lisa S; Vallar, Giuseppe; Burani, Cristina

2006-01-01

The present study investigated the effects of the duration of the stimulus on the reading performance of right-brain-damaged patients with left neglect dyslexia. Three Italian patients read aloud words and nonwords, under conditions of unlimited time of stimulus exposure and of timed presentation. In the untimed condition, the majority of the patients' errors involved the left side of the letter string (i.e., neglect dyslexia errors). Conversely, in the timed condition, although the overall level of performance decreased, errors were more evenly distributed across the whole letter string (i.e., visual - nonlateralized - errors). This reduction of neglect errors with a reduced time of presentation of the stimulus may reflect the read out of elements of the letter string from a preserved visual storage component, such as iconic memory. Conversely, a time-unlimited presentation of the stimulus may bring about the rightward bias that characterizes the performance of neglect patients, possibly by a capture of the patients' attention by the final (rightward) letters of the string.

Virtual obstacle crossing: Reliability and differences in stroke survivors who prospectively experienced falls or no falls.

PubMed

Punt, Michiel; Bruijn, Sjoerd M; Wittink, Harriet; van de Port, Ingrid G; Wubbels, Gijs; van Dieën, Jaap H

2017-10-01

Stroke survivors often fall during walking. To reduce fall risk, gait testing and training with avoidance of virtual obstacles is gaining popularity. However, it is unknown whether and how virtual obstacle crossing is associated with fall risk. The present study assessed whether obstacle crossing characteristics are reliable and assessed differences in stroke survivors who prospectively experienced falls or no falls. We recruited twenty-nine community dwelling chronic stroke survivors. Participants crossed five virtual obstacles with increasing lengths. After a break, the test was repeated to assess test-retest reliability. For each obstacle length and trial, we determined; success rate, leading limb preference, pre and post obstacle distance, margins of stability, toe clearance, and crossing step length and speed. Subsequently, fall incidence was monitored using a fall calendar and monthly phone calls over a six-month period. Test-retest reliability was poor, but improved with increasing obstacle-length. Twelve participants reported at least one fall. No association of fall incidence with any of the obstacle crossing characteristics was found. Given the absence of height of the virtual obstacles, obstacle avoidance may have been relatively easy, allowing participants to cross obstacles in multiple ways, increasing variability of crossing characteristics and reducing the association with fall risk. These finding cast some doubt on current protocols for testing and training of obstacle avoidance in stroke rehabilitation. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The influence of spontaneous activity on stimulus processing in primary visual cortex.

PubMed

Schölvinck, M L; Friston, K J; Rees, G

2012-02-01

Spontaneous activity in the resting human brain has been studied extensively; however, how such activity affects the local processing of a sensory stimulus is relatively unknown. Here, we examined the impact of spontaneous activity in primary visual cortex on neuronal and behavioural responses to a simple visual stimulus, using functional MRI. Stimulus-evoked responses remained essentially unchanged by spontaneous fluctuations, combining with them in a largely linear fashion (i.e., with little evidence for an interaction). However, interactions between spontaneous fluctuations and stimulus-evoked responses were evident behaviourally; high levels of spontaneous activity tended to be associated with increased stimulus detection at perceptual threshold. Our results extend those found in studies of spontaneous fluctuations in motor cortex and higher order visual areas, and suggest a fundamental role for spontaneous activity in stimulus processing. Copyright © 2011. Published by Elsevier Inc.

Perceptual Learning in the Absence of Task or Stimulus Specificity

PubMed Central

Webb, Ben S.; Roach, Neil W.; McGraw, Paul V.

2007-01-01

Performance on most sensory tasks improves with practice. When making particularly challenging sensory judgments, perceptual improvements in performance are tightly coupled to the trained task and stimulus configuration. The form of this specificity is believed to provide a strong indication of which neurons are solving the task or encoding the learned stimulus. Here we systematically decouple task- and stimulus-mediated components of trained improvements in perceptual performance and show that neither provides an adequate description of the learning process. Twenty-four human subjects trained on a unique combination of task (three-element alignment or bisection) and stimulus configuration (vertical or horizontal orientation). Before and after training, we measured subjects' performance on all four task-configuration combinations. What we demonstrate for the first time is that learning does actually transfer across both task and configuration provided there is a common spatial axis to the judgment. The critical factor underlying the transfer of learning effects is not the task or stimulus arrangements themselves, but rather the recruitment of commons sets of neurons most informative for making each perceptual judgment. PMID:18094748

Visual and auditory accessory stimulus offset and the Simon effect.

PubMed

Nishimura, Akio; Yokosawa, Kazuhiko

2010-10-01

We investigated the effect on the right and left responses of the disappearance of a task-irrelevant stimulus located on the right or left side. Participants pressed a right or left response key on the basis of the color of a centrally located visual target. Visual (Experiment 1) or auditory (Experiment 2) task-irrelevant accessory stimuli appeared or disappeared at locations to the right or left of the central target. In Experiment 1, responses were faster when onset or offset of the visual accessory stimulus was spatially congruent with the response. In Experiment 2, responses were again faster when onset of the auditory accessory stimulus and the response were on the same side. However, responses were slightly slower when offset of the auditory accessory stimulus and the response were on the same side than when they were on opposite sides. These findings indicate that transient change information is crucial for a visual Simon effect, whereas sustained stimulation from an ongoing stimulus also contributes to an auditory Simon effect.

Funding alternatives in EHR adoption: beyond HITECH incentives and traditional approaches.

PubMed

Wang, Tiankai; Wang, Yangmei; Biedermann, Sue

2013-05-01

The meaningful use incentives under HITECH may be inadequate to address the financial challenges many hospitals face in implementing electronic health records (EHRs). Hospitals can fill the capital gap between EHR costs and available funds by exploring other potential funding sources. These sources include additional grants, funding permissible under EHR regulations, vendor financing, and tax benefits under IRS Section 179.

Soldier-relevant body borne load impacts minimum foot clearance during obstacle negotiation.

PubMed

Brown, T N; Loverro, K L; Schiffman, J M

2016-07-01

Soldiers often trip and fall on duty, resulting in injury. This study examined ten male soldiers' ability to negotiate an obstacle. Participants had lead and trail foot minimum foot clearance (MFC) parameters quantified while crossing a low (305 mm) and high (457 mm) obstacle with (19.4 kg) and without (6 kg) body borne load. To minimize tripping risk, participants increased lead foot MFC (p = 0.028) and reduced lead (p = 0.044) and trail (p = 0.035) foot variability when negotiating an obstacle with body borne load. While obstacle height had no effect on MFC (p = 0.273 and p = 0.126), placing the trail foot closer to the high obstacle when crossing with body borne load, resulted in greater lead (R = 0.640, b = 0.241, p = 0.046) and trail (R = 0.636, b = 0.287, p = 0.048) MFC. Soldiers, when carrying typical military loads, may be able to minimize their risk of tripping over an obstacle by creating a safety margin via greater foot clearance with reduced variability. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

The Effect of Professional Learning Activities on Implementation of California's Quality Professional Learning Standards in Alignment with the Local Control Funding Formula Priority 2

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pinotti, Sadie

2017-01-01

The purpose of this Delphi study was to identify the professional learning activities that experts perceive are necessary for local education agencies (LEAs) to effectively implement California's Quality Professional Learning Standards (QPLS) in alignment with the Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF) Priority 2. The study also examined the degree…

Stimulus Dependence of Correlated Variability across Cortical Areas

PubMed Central

Cohen, Marlene R.

2016-01-01

The way that correlated trial-to-trial variability between pairs of neurons in the same brain area (termed spike count or noise correlation, rSC) depends on stimulus or task conditions can constrain models of cortical circuits and of the computations performed by networks of neurons (Cohen and Kohn, 2011). In visual cortex, rSC tends not to depend on stimulus properties (Kohn and Smith, 2005; Huang and Lisberger, 2009) but does depend on cognitive factors like visual attention (Cohen and Maunsell, 2009; Mitchell et al., 2009). However, neurons across visual areas respond to any visual stimulus or contribute to any perceptual decision, and the way that information from multiple areas is combined to guide perception is unknown. To gain insight into these issues, we recorded simultaneously from neurons in two areas of visual cortex (primary visual cortex, V1, and the middle temporal area, MT) while rhesus monkeys viewed different visual stimuli in different attention conditions. We found that correlations between neurons in different areas depend on stimulus and attention conditions in very different ways than do correlations within an area. Correlations across, but not within, areas depend on stimulus direction and the presence of a second stimulus, and attention has opposite effects on correlations within and across areas. This observed pattern of cross-area correlations is predicted by a normalization model where MT units sum V1 inputs that are passed through a divisive nonlinearity. Together, our results provide insight into how neurons in different areas interact and constrain models of the neural computations performed across cortical areas. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Correlations in the responses of pairs of neurons within the same cortical area have been a subject of growing interest in systems neuroscience. However, correlated variability between different cortical areas is likely just as important. We recorded simultaneously from neurons in primary visual cortex

Teacher Incentive Fund: First Implementation Report, 2006 and 2007 Grantees

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Humphrey, Daniel C.; Gallagher, H. Alix; Yee, Kaily M.; Goss, G. Kyle; Campbell, Ashley Z.; Cassidy, Lauren J.; Mitchell, Nyema M.

2012-01-01

The Teacher Incentive Fund (TIF) supports projects that are designed to reform teacher and principal compensation. Initially, the Department of Education (the Department) made two rounds of awards, in 2006 and 2007, to a total of 34 grantees. The specific goals of TIF were to reward teachers and principals for improving student achievement,…

Interactions between Energy Efficiency Programs funded under the Recovery Act and Utility Customer-Funded Energy Efficiency Programs

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

Goldman, Charles A.; Stuart, Elizabeth; Hoffman, Ian

2011-02-25

Since the spring of 2009, billions of federal dollars have been allocated to state and local governments as grants for energy efficiency and renewable energy projects and programs. The scale of this American Reinvestment and Recovery Act (ARRA) funding, focused on 'shovel-ready' projects to create and retain jobs, is unprecedented. Thousands of newly funded players - cities, counties, states, and tribes - and thousands of programs and projects are entering the existing landscape of energy efficiency programs for the first time or expanding their reach. The nation's experience base with energy efficiency is growing enormously, fed by federal dollars andmore » driven by broader objectives than saving energy alone. State and local officials made countless choices in developing portfolios of ARRA-funded energy efficiency programs and deciding how their programs would relate to existing efficiency programs funded by utility customers. Those choices are worth examining as bellwethers of a future world where there may be multiple program administrators and funding sources in many states. What are the opportunities and challenges of this new environment? What short- and long-term impacts will this large, infusion of funds have on utility customer-funded programs; for example, on infrastructure for delivering energy efficiency services or on customer willingness to invest in energy efficiency? To what extent has the attribution of energy savings been a critical issue, especially where administrators of utility customer-funded energy efficiency programs have performance or shareholder incentives? Do the new ARRA-funded energy efficiency programs provide insights on roles or activities that are particularly well-suited to state and local program administrators vs. administrators or implementers of utility customer-funded programs? The answers could have important implications for the future of U.S. energy efficiency. This report focuses on a selected set of ARRA-funded

α -Ethyltryptamine (α-ET) As A Discriminative Stimulus in Rats†

PubMed Central

Glennon, Richard A.; Bondareva, Tatiana; Young, Richard

2007-01-01

α-Ethyltryptamine (etryptamine, α-ET) is a drug of abuse that first appeared on the clandestine market in the mid 1980s. Its pharmacological actions are poorly understood. In this investigation, it is reported for the first time that α-ET serves as a training drug in drug discrimination studies. Male Sprague-Dawley rats were trained to discriminate (30-min pretreatment time) 2.5 mg/kg of α-ET (ED50 = 1.3 mg/kg) from saline vehicle using a standard two-lever operant paradigm and a VI-15s schedule of reinforcement for appetitive reward. Once established, the α-ET stimulus was shown to have an onset to action of 30 min and a duration of effect of at least 4 hours. In tests of stimulus generalization (substitution), the α-ET stimulus generalized to S(−)α-ET (ED50 = 1.6 mg/kg) and R(+)α-ET (ED50 = 1.3 mg/kg). Tests of stimulus generalization were also conducted with prototypical phenylisopropylamines: (+)amphetamine, 1-(2,5-dimethoxy-4-methylphenyl)-2-aminopropane (DOM), and N-methyl-1-(4-methoxyphenyl)-2-aminopropane (PMMA). The α-ET stimulus generalized to DOM (ED50 = 0.4 mg/kg) and PMMA (ED50 = 0.7 mg/kg), but only partially generalized (ca. 40% maximal drug-appropriate responding) to (+)amphetamine. The results suggest that α-ET produces a complex stimulus. PMID:17112572

Motormouth: Mere Exposure Depends on Stimulus-Specific Motor Simulations

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Topolinski, Sascha; Strack, Fritz

2009-01-01

The authors apply an embodied account to mere exposure, arguing that through the repeated exposure of a particular stimulus, motor responses specifically associated to that stimulus are repeatedly simulated, thus trained, and become increasingly fluent. This increased fluency drives preferences for repeated stimuli. This hypothesis was tested by…