Regularization and Approximation of a Class of Evolution Problems in Applied Mathematics

DTIC Science & Technology

1991-01-01

8217 DT)IG AD-A242 223 FINAL REPORT Nov61991:ti -ll IN IImI 1OV1 Ml99 1 REGULARIZATION AND APPROXIMATION OF A-CLASS OF EVOLUTION -PROBLEMS IN APPLIED...The University of Texas at Austin Austin, TX 78712 91 10 30 050 FINAL REPORT "Regularization and Approximation of a Class of Evolution Problems in...micro-structured parabolic system. A mathematical analysis of the regularized equations-has been developed to support our approach. Supporting

Using Tablet and iTunesU as Individualized Instruction Tools

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Klubal, Libor; Kostolanyova, Katerina; Gybas, Vojtech

2017-01-01

The paper is aimed at the possibilities of the implementation of individualized instruction in a regular classroom using a tablet and the iTunesU tool. It compares the course of collective frontal instruction and individualized instruction. The results show that the tools make instruction more effective and help increase the students' motivation.…

Impact of Supplemental Instruction in Entry-Level Chemistry Courses at a Midsized Public University

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rath, Kenneth A.; Peterfreund, Alan; Bayliss, Frank; Runquist, Elizabeth; Simonis, Ursula

2012-01-01

This paper examines the impact of supplemental instruction (SI)--nonremedial workshops that support regularly scheduled courses--on four different chemistry courses: General Chemistry I and II, and Organic Chemistry I and II. Differences in how SI impacts student performance in these courses are discussed, particularly in terms of whether students…

Computation of repetitions and regularities of biologically weighted sequences.

PubMed

Christodoulakis, M; Iliopoulos, C; Mouchard, L; Perdikuri, K; Tsakalidis, A; Tsichlas, K

2006-01-01

Biological weighted sequences are used extensively in molecular biology as profiles for protein families, in the representation of binding sites and often for the representation of sequences produced by a shotgun sequencing strategy. In this paper, we address three fundamental problems in the area of biologically weighted sequences: (i) computation of repetitions, (ii) pattern matching, and (iii) computation of regularities. Our algorithms can be used as basic building blocks for more sophisticated algorithms applied on weighted sequences.

FOREWORD: Tackling inverse problems in a Banach space environment: from theory to applications Tackling inverse problems in a Banach space environment: from theory to applications

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Schuster, Thomas; Hofmann, Bernd; Kaltenbacher, Barbara

2012-10-01

Inverse problems can usually be modelled as operator equations in infinite-dimensional spaces with a forward operator acting between Hilbert or Banach spaces—a formulation which quite often also serves as the basis for defining and analyzing solution methods. The additional amount of structure and geometric interpretability provided by the concept of an inner product has rendered these methods amenable to a convergence analysis, a fact which has led to a rigorous and comprehensive study of regularization methods in Hilbert spaces over the last three decades. However, for numerous problems such as x-ray diffractometry, certain inverse scattering problems and a number of parameter identification problems in PDEs, the reasons for using a Hilbert space setting seem to be based on conventions rather than an appropriate and realistic model choice, so often a Banach space setting would be closer to reality. Furthermore, non-Hilbertian regularization and data fidelity terms incorporating a priori information on solution and noise, such as general Lp-norms, TV-type norms, or the Kullback-Leibler divergence, have recently become very popular. These facts have motivated intensive investigations on regularization methods in Banach spaces, a topic which has emerged as a highly active research field within the area of inverse problems. Meanwhile some of the most well-known regularization approaches, such as Tikhonov-type methods requiring the solution of extremal problems, and iterative ones like the Landweber method, the Gauss-Newton method, as well as the approximate inverse method, have been investigated for linear and nonlinear operator equations in Banach spaces. Convergence with rates has been proven and conditions on the solution smoothness and on the structure of nonlinearity have been formulated. Still, beyond the existing results a large number of challenging open questions have arisen, due to the more involved handling of general Banach spaces and the larger variety of concrete instances with special properties. The aim of this special section is to provide a forum for highly topical ongoing work in the area of regularization in Banach spaces, its numerics and its applications. Indeed, we have been lucky enough to obtain a number of excellent papers both from colleagues who have previously been contributing to this topic and from researchers entering the field due to its relevance in practical inverse problems. We would like to thank all contributers for enabling us to present a high quality collection of papers on topics ranging from various aspects of regularization via efficient numerical solution to applications in PDE models. We give a brief overview of the contributions included in this issue (here ordered alphabetically by first author). In their paper, Iterative regularization with general penalty term—theory and application to L1 and TV regularization, Radu Bot and Torsten Hein provide an extension of the Landweber iteration for linear operator equations in Banach space to general operators in place of the inverse duality mapping, which corresponds to the use of general regularization functionals in variational regularization. The L∞ topology in data space corresponds to the frequently occuring situation of uniformly distributed data noise. A numerically efficient solution of the resulting Tikhonov regularization problem via a Moreau-Yosida appriximation and a semismooth Newton method, along with a δ-free regularization parameter choice rule, is the topic of the paper L∞ fitting for inverse problems with uniform noise by Christian Clason. Extension of convergence rates results from classical source conditions to their generalization via variational inequalities with a priori and a posteriori stopping rules is the main contribution of the paper Regularization of linear ill-posed problems by the augmented Lagrangian method and variational inequalities by Klaus Frick and Markus Grasmair, again in the context of some iterative method. A powerful tool for proving convergence rates of Tikhonov type but also other regularization methods in Banach spaces are assumptions of the type of variational inequalities that combine conditions on solution smoothness (i.e., source conditions in the Hilbert space case) and nonlinearity of the forward operator. In Parameter choice in Banach space regularization under variational inequalities, Bernd Hofmann and Peter Mathé provide results with general error measures and especially study the question of regularization parameter choice. Daijun Jiang, Hui Feng, and Jun Zou consider an application of Banach space ideas in the context of an application problem in their paper Convergence rates of Tikhonov regularizations for parameter identifiation in a parabolic-elliptic system, namely the identification of a distributed diffusion coefficient in a coupled elliptic-parabolic system. In particular, they show convergence rates of Lp-H1 (variational) regularization for the application under consideration via the use and verification of certain source and nonlinearity conditions. In computational practice, the Lp norm with p close to one is often used as a substitute for the actually sparsity promoting L1 norm. In Norm sensitivity of sparsity regularization with respect to p, Kamil S Kazimierski, Peter Maass and Robin Strehlow consider the question of how sensitive the Tikhonov regularized solution is with respect to p. They do so by computing the derivative via the implicit function theorem, particularly at the crucial value, p=1. Another iterative regularization method in Banach space is considered by Qinian Jin and Linda Stals in Nonstationary iterated Tikhonov regularization for ill-posed problems in Banach spaces. Using a variational formulation and under some smoothness and convexity assumption on the preimage space, they extend the convergence analysis of the well-known iterative Tikhonov method for linear problems in Hilbert space to a more general Banach space framework. Systems of linear or nonlinear operators can be efficiently treated by cyclic iterations, thus several variants of gradient and Newton-type Kaczmarz methods have already been studied in the Hilbert space setting. Antonio Leitão and M Marques Alves in their paper On Landweber---Kaczmarz methods for regularizing systems of ill-posed equations in Banach spaces carry out an extension to Banach spaces for the fundamental Landweber version. The impact of perturbations in the evaluation of the forward operator and its derivative on the convergence behaviour of regularization methods is a practically and highly relevant issue. It is treated in the paper Convergence rates analysis of Tikhonov regularization for nonlinear ill-posed problems with noisy operators by Shuai Lu and Jens Flemming for variational regularization of nonlinear problems in Banach spaces. In The approximate inverse in action: IV. Semi-discrete equations in a Banach space setting, Thomas Schuster, Andreas Rieder and Frank Schöpfer extend the concept of approximate inverse to the practically and highly relevant situation of finitely many measurements and a general smooth and convex Banach space as preimage space. They devise two approaches for computing the reconstruction kernels required in the method and provide convergence and regularization results. Frank Werner and Thorsten Hohage in Convergence rates in expectation for Tikhonov-type regularization of inverse problems with Poisson data prove convergence rates results for variational regularization with general convex regularization term and the Kullback-Leibler distance as data fidelity term by combining a new result on Poisson distributed data with a deterministic rates analysis. Finally, we would like to thank the Inverse Problems team, especially Joanna Evangelides and Chris Wileman, for their extraordinary smooth and productive cooperation, as well as Alfred K Louis for his kind support of our initiative.

Statistical regularities in the rank-citation profile of scientists

PubMed Central

Petersen, Alexander M.; Stanley, H. Eugene; Succi, Sauro

2011-01-01

Recent science of science research shows that scientific impact measures for journals and individual articles have quantifiable regularities across both time and discipline. However, little is known about the scientific impact distribution at the scale of an individual scientist. We analyze the aggregate production and impact using the rank-citation profile ci(r) of 200 distinguished professors and 100 assistant professors. For the entire range of paper rank r, we fit each ci(r) to a common distribution function. Since two scientists with equivalent Hirsch h-index can have significantly different ci(r) profiles, our results demonstrate the utility of the βi scaling parameter in conjunction with hi for quantifying individual publication impact. We show that the total number of citations Ci tallied from a scientist's Ni papers scales as . Such statistical regularities in the input-output patterns of scientists can be used as benchmarks for theoretical models of career progress. PMID:22355696

The generative power of weighted one-sided and regular sticker systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Siang, Gan Yee; Heng, Fong Wan; Sarmin, Nor Haniza; Turaev, Sherzod

2014-06-01

Sticker systems were introduced in 1998 as one of the DNA computing models by using the recombination behavior of DNA molecules. The Watson-Crick complementary principle of DNA molecules is abstractly used in the sticker systems to perform the computation of sticker systems. In this paper, the generative power of weighted one-sided sticker systems and weighted regular sticker systems are investigated. Moreover, the relationship of the families of languages generated by these two variants of sticker systems to the Chomsky hierarchy is also presented.

Orbital Maneuvers for Spacecrafts Travelling to/from the Lagrangian Points

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bertachini, A.

The well-known Lagrangian points that appear in the planar restricted three-body problem (Szebehely, 1967) are very important for astronautical applications. They are five points of equilibrium in the equations of motion, what means that a particle located at one of those points with zero velocity will remain there indefinitely. The collinear points (L1, L2 and L3) are always unstable and the triangular points (L4 and L5) are stable in the present case studied (Sun-Earth system). They are all very good points to locate a space-station, since they require a small amount of V (and fuel), the control to be used for station-keeping. The triangular points are specially good for this purpose, since they are stable equilibrium points. In this paper, the planar restricted three-body problem is regularized (using Lemaître regularization) and combined with numerical integration and gradient methods to solve the two point boundary value problem (the Lambert's three-body problem). This combination is applied to the search of families of transfer orbits between the Lagrangian points and the Earth, in the Sun-Earth system, with the minimum possible cost of the control used. So, the final goal of this paper is to find the magnitude and direction of the two impulses to be applied in the spacecraft to complete the transfer: the first one when leaving/arriving at the Lagrangian point and the second one when arriving/living at the Earth. This paper is a continuation of two previous papers that studied transfers in the Earth-Moon system: Broucke (1979), that studied transfer orbits between the Lagrangian points and the Moon and Prado (1996), that studied transfer orbits between the Lagrangian points and the Earth. So, the equations of motion are: whereis the pseudo-potential given by: To solve the TPBVP in the regularized variables the following steps are used: i) Guess a initial velocity Vi, so together with the initial prescribed position ri the complete initial state is known; ii) Guess a final regularized time f and integrate the regularized equations of motion from 0 = 0 until f; iii) Check the final position rf obtained from the numerical integration with the prescribed final position and the final real time with the specified time of flight. If there is an agreement (difference less than a specified error allowed) the solution is found and the process can stop here. If there is no agreement, an increment in the initial guessed velocity Vi and in the guessed final regularized time is made and the process goes back to step i). The method used to find the increment in the guessed variables is the standard gradient method, as described in Press et. al., 1989. The routines available in this reference are also used in this research with minor modifications. After that this algorithm is implemented, the Lambert's three-body problem between the Earth and the Lagrangian points is solved for several values of the time of flight. Since the regularized system is used to solve this problem, there is no need to specify the final position of M3 as lying in an primary's parking orbit (to avoid the singularity). Then, to make a comparison with previous papers (Broucke, 1979 and Prado, 1996) the centre of the primary is used as the final position for M3. The results are organized in plots of the energy and the initial flight path angle (the control to be used) in the rotating frame against the time of flight. The definition of the angle is such that the zero is in the "x" axis, (pointing to the positive direction) and it increases in the counter-clock-wise sense. This problem, as well as the Lambert's original version, has two solutions for a given transfer time: one in the counter-clock-wise direction and one in the clock-wise direction in the inertial frame. In this paper, emphasis is given in finding the families with the smallest possible energy (and velocity), although many other families do exist. Broucke, R., (1979) Travelling Between the Lagrange Points and the Moon, Journal of Guidance and Control, Vol. 2, Prado, A.F.B.A., (1969) Travelling Between the Lagrangian Points and the Earth, Acta Astronautica, Vol. 39, No. 7, pp. Press, W. H.; B. P. Flannery; S. A. Teukolsky and W. T. Vetterling (1989), Numerical Recipes, Cambridge University Szebehely, V., (1967), Theory of Orbits, Academic Press, New York.

Regular transport dynamics produce chaotic travel times.

PubMed

Villalobos, Jorge; Muñoz, Víctor; Rogan, José; Zarama, Roberto; Johnson, Neil F; Toledo, Benjamín; Valdivia, Juan Alejandro

2014-06-01

In the hope of making passenger travel times shorter and more reliable, many cities are introducing dedicated bus lanes (e.g., Bogota, London, Miami). Here we show that chaotic travel times are actually a natural consequence of individual bus function, and hence of public transport systems more generally, i.e., chaotic dynamics emerge even when the route is empty and straight, stops and lights are equidistant and regular, and loading times are negligible. More generally, our findings provide a novel example of chaotic dynamics emerging from a single object following Newton's laws of motion in a regularized one-dimensional system.

Regular transport dynamics produce chaotic travel times

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Villalobos, Jorge; Muñoz, Víctor; Rogan, José; Zarama, Roberto; Johnson, Neil F.; Toledo, Benjamín; Valdivia, Juan Alejandro

2014-06-01

In the hope of making passenger travel times shorter and more reliable, many cities are introducing dedicated bus lanes (e.g., Bogota, London, Miami). Here we show that chaotic travel times are actually a natural consequence of individual bus function, and hence of public transport systems more generally, i.e., chaotic dynamics emerge even when the route is empty and straight, stops and lights are equidistant and regular, and loading times are negligible. More generally, our findings provide a novel example of chaotic dynamics emerging from a single object following Newton's laws of motion in a regularized one-dimensional system.

EDITORIAL: The 19th MicroMechanics Europe Workshop (MME 2008) The 19th MicroMechanics Europe Workshop (MME 2008)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Schnakenberg, Uwe

2009-07-01

This special issue of Journal of Micromechanics and Microengineering is devoted to the 19th MicroMechanics Europe Workshop (MME 08), which took place at the RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany, from 28-30 September, 2008. The workshop is a well recognized and established European event in the field of micro system technology using thin-film technologies for creating micro components, micro sensors, micro actuators, and micro systems. The first MME Workshop was held 1989 in Enschede (The Netherlands) and continued 1990 in Berlin (Germany), 1992 in Leuven (Belgium), and then was held annually in Neuchâtel (Switzerland), Pisa (Italy), Copenhagen (Denmark), Barcelona (Spain), Southampton (UK), Ulvik in Hardanger (Norway), Gif-sur-Yvette (France), Uppsala (Sweden), Cork (Ireland), Sinaia (Romania), Delft (The Netherlands), Leuven (Belgium), Göteborg (Sweden), Southampton (UK), and in Guimarães (Portugal). The two day workshop was attended by 180 delegates from 26 countries all over Europe and from Armenia, Austria, Bulgaria, Canada, China, Cuba, Iran, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Taiwan, Turkey, and the United States of America. A total of 97 papers were accepted for presentation and there were a further five keynote presentations. I am proud to present 22 high-quality papers from MME 2008 selected for their novelty and relevance to Journal of Micromechanics and Microengineering. All the papers went through the regular reviewing procedure of IOP Publishing. I am eternally grateful to all the referees for their excellent work. I would also like to extend my thanks to the members of the Programme Committee of MME 2008, Dr Reinoud Wolffenbuttel, Professor José Higino Correia, and Dr Patrick Pons for pre-selection of the papers as well as to Professor Robert Puers for advice on the final selection of papers. My thanks also go to Dr Ian Forbes of IOP Publishing for managing the entire process and to the editorial staff of Journal of Micromechanics and Microengineering. I trust that this special issue will provide new trends of the emerging field of micro system technology and I hope you enjoy reading it.

Approximate isotropic cloak for the Maxwell equations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ghosh, Tuhin; Tarikere, Ashwin

2018-05-01

We construct a regular isotropic approximate cloak for the Maxwell system of equations. The method of transformation optics has enabled the design of electromagnetic parameters that cloak a region from external observation. However, these constructions are singular and anisotropic, making practical implementation difficult. Thus, regular approximations to these cloaks have been constructed that cloak a given region to any desired degree of accuracy. In this paper, we show how to construct isotropic approximations to these regularized cloaks using homogenization techniques so that one obtains cloaking of arbitrary accuracy with regular and isotropic parameters.

Recent advances in metabolic engineering of Saccharomyces cerevisiae: New tools and their applications

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

Lian, Jiazhang; Mishra, Shekhar; Zhao, Huimin

Metabolic engineering aims to develop efficient cell factories by rewiring cellular metabolism. As one of the most commonly used cell factories, Saccharomyces cerevisiae has been extensively engineered to produce a wide variety of products at high levels from various feedstocks. In this paper, we summarize the recent development of metabolic engineering approaches to modulate yeast metabolism with representative examples. Particularly, we highlight new tools for biosynthetic pathway optimization (i.e. combinatorial transcriptional engineering and dynamic metabolic flux control) and genome engineering (i.e. clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)/CRISPR associated (Cas) system based genome engineering and RNA interference assisted genome evolution)more » to advance metabolic engineering in yeast. Lastly, we also discuss the challenges and perspectives for high throughput metabolic engineering.« less

Recent advances in metabolic engineering of Saccharomyces cerevisiae: New tools and their applications

DOE PAGES

Lian, Jiazhang; Mishra, Shekhar; Zhao, Huimin

2018-04-25

Metabolic engineering aims to develop efficient cell factories by rewiring cellular metabolism. As one of the most commonly used cell factories, Saccharomyces cerevisiae has been extensively engineered to produce a wide variety of products at high levels from various feedstocks. In this paper, we summarize the recent development of metabolic engineering approaches to modulate yeast metabolism with representative examples. Particularly, we highlight new tools for biosynthetic pathway optimization (i.e. combinatorial transcriptional engineering and dynamic metabolic flux control) and genome engineering (i.e. clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)/CRISPR associated (Cas) system based genome engineering and RNA interference assisted genome evolution)more » to advance metabolic engineering in yeast. Lastly, we also discuss the challenges and perspectives for high throughput metabolic engineering.« less

Automated discovery systems and the inductivist controversy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Giza, Piotr

2017-09-01

The paper explores possible influences that some developments in the field of branches of AI, called automated discovery and machine learning systems, might have upon some aspects of the old debate between Francis Bacon's inductivism and Karl Popper's falsificationism. Donald Gillies facetiously calls this controversy 'the duel of two English knights', and claims, after some analysis of historical cases of discovery, that Baconian induction had been used in science very rarely, or not at all, although he argues that the situation has changed with the advent of machine learning systems. (Some clarification of terms machine learning and automated discovery is required here. The key idea of machine learning is that, given data with associated outcomes, software can be trained to make those associations in future cases which typically amounts to inducing some rules from individual cases classified by the experts. Automated discovery (also called machine discovery) deals with uncovering new knowledge that is valuable for human beings, and its key idea is that discovery is like other intellectual tasks and that the general idea of heuristic search in problem spaces applies also to discovery tasks. However, since machine learning systems discover (very low-level) regularities in data, throughout this paper I use the generic term automated discovery for both kinds of systems. I will elaborate on this later on). Gillies's line of argument can be generalised: thanks to automated discovery systems, philosophers of science have at their disposal a new tool for empirically testing their philosophical hypotheses. Accordingly, in the paper, I will address the question, which of the two philosophical conceptions of scientific method is better vindicated in view of the successes and failures of systems developed within three major research programmes in the field: machine learning systems in the Turing tradition, normative theory of scientific discovery formulated by Herbert Simon's group and the programme called HHNT, proposed by J. Holland, K. Holyoak, R. Nisbett and P. Thagard.

Comprehensive Approach to Pupil Planning: Stage I - Classroom Support (Includes Classroom Support Procedures). Experimental Edition.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mabry, Ann; Kaufman, Martin J.

Presented is Stage I of the Comprehensive Approach to Pupil Planning (CAPP) System, a three-stage model for planning educational interventions in the regular and special education classrooms and for guiding placement decisions. The guide consists of the following: an overview of the CAPP System; an introduction to Stage I on classroom support…

Modeling Business Processes in Public Administration

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Repa, Vaclav

During more than 10 years of its existence business process modeling became a regular part of organization management practice. It is mostly regarded. as a part of information system development or even as a way to implement some supporting technology (for instance workflow system). Although I do not agree with such reduction of the real meaning of a business process, it is necessary to admit that information technologies play an essential role in business processes (see [1] for more information), Consequently, an information system is inseparable from a business process itself because it is a cornerstone of the general basic infrastructure of a business. This fact impacts on all dimensions of business process management. One of these dimensions is the methodology that postulates that the information systems development provide the business process management with exact methods and tools for modeling business processes. Also the methodology underlying the approach presented in this paper has its roots in the information systems development methodology.

Exploiting Lexical Regularities in Designing Natural Language Systems.

DTIC Science & Technology

1988-04-01

ELEMENT. PROJECT. TASKN Artificial Inteligence Laboratory A1A4WR NTumet 0) 545 Technology Square Cambridge, MA 02139 Ln *t- CONTROLLING OFFICE NAME AND...RO-RI95 922 EXPLOITING LEXICAL REGULARITIES IN DESIGNING NATURAL 1/1 LANGUAGE SYSTENS(U) MASSACHUSETTS INST OF TECH CAMBRIDGE ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE...oes.ary and ftdou.Ip hr Nl wow" L,2This paper presents the lexical component of the START Question Answering system developed at the MIT Artificial

On the Global Regularity for the 3D Magnetohydrodynamics Equations Involving Partial Components

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Qian, Chenyin

2018-03-01

In this paper, we study the regularity criteria of the three-dimensional magnetohydrodynamics system in terms of some components of the velocity field and the magnetic field. With a decomposition of the four nonlinear terms of the system, this result gives an improvement of some corresponding previous works (Yamazaki in J Math Fluid Mech 16: 551-570, 2014; Jia and Zhou in Nonlinear Anal Real World Appl 13: 410-418, 2012).

Class of regular bouncing cosmologies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Vasilić, Milovan

2017-06-01

In this paper, I construct a class of everywhere regular geometric sigma models that possess bouncing solutions. Precisely, I show that every bouncing metric can be made a solution of such a model. My previous attempt to do so by employing one scalar field has failed due to the appearance of harmful singularities near the bounce. In this work, I use four scalar fields to construct a class of geometric sigma models which are free of singularities. The models within the class are parametrized by their background geometries. I prove that, whatever background is chosen, the dynamics of its small perturbations is classically stable on the whole time axis. Contrary to what one expects from the structure of the initial Lagrangian, the physics of background fluctuations is found to carry two tensor, two vector, and two scalar degrees of freedom. The graviton mass, which naturally appears in these models, is shown to be several orders of magnitude smaller than its experimental bound. I provide three simple examples to demonstrate how this is done in practice. In particular, I show that graviton mass can be made arbitrarily small.

Design and protocol of the weight loss lottery- a cluster randomized trial.

PubMed

van der Swaluw, Koen; Lambooij, Mattijs S; Mathijssen, Jolanda J P; Schipper, Maarten; Zeelenberg, Marcel; Polder, Johan J; Prast, Henriëtte M

2016-07-01

People often intend to exercise but find it difficult to attend their gyms on a regular basis. At times, people seek and accept deadlines with consequences to realize their own goals (i.e. commitment devices). The aim of our cluster randomized controlled trial is to test whether a lottery-based commitment device can promote regular gym attendance. The winners of the lottery always get feedback on the outcome but can only claim their prize if they attended their gyms on a regular basis. In this paper we present the design and baseline characteristics of a three-arm trial which is performed with 163 overweight participants in six in-company fitness centers in the Netherlands. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The Cauchy Problem in Local Spaces for the Complex Ginzburg-Landau EquationII. Contraction Methods

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ginibre, J.; Velo, G.

We continue the study of the initial value problem for the complex Ginzburg-Landau equation (with a > 0, b > 0, g>= 0) in initiated in a previous paper [I]. We treat the case where the initial data and the solutions belong to local uniform spaces, more precisely to spaces of functions satisfying local regularity conditions and uniform bounds in local norms, but no decay conditions (or arbitrarily weak decay conditions) at infinity in . In [I] we used compactness methods and an extended version of recent local estimates [3] and proved in particular the existence of solutions globally defined in time with local regularity of the initial data corresponding to the spaces Lr for r>= 2 or H1. Here we treat the same problem by contraction methods. This allows us in particular to prove that the solutions obtained in [I] are unique under suitable subcriticality conditions, and to obtain for them additional regularity properties and uniform bounds. The method extends some of those previously applied to the nonlinear heat equation in global spaces to the framework of local uniform spaces.

Bianchi type-I magnetized cosmological models for the Einstein-Boltzmann equation with the cosmological constant

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

Ayissi, Raoul Domingo, E-mail: raoulayissi@yahoo.fr; Noutchegueme, Norbert, E-mail: nnoutch@yahoo.fr

Global solutions regular for the Einstein-Boltzmann equation on a magnetized Bianchi type-I cosmological model with the cosmological constant are investigated. We suppose that the metric is locally rotationally symmetric. The Einstein-Boltzmann equation has been already considered by some authors. But, in general Bancel and Choquet-Bruhat [Ann. Henri Poincaré XVIII(3), 263 (1973); Commun. Math. Phys. 33, 83 (1973)], they proved only the local existence, and in the case of the nonrelativistic Boltzmann equation. Mucha [Global existence of solutions of the Einstein-Boltzmann equation in the spatially homogeneous case. Evolution equation, existence, regularity and singularities (Banach Center Publications, Institute of Mathematics, Polish Academymore » of Science, 2000), Vol. 52] obtained a global existence result, for the relativistic Boltzmann equation coupled with the Einstein equations and using the Yosida operator, but confusing unfortunately with the nonrelativistic case. Noutchegueme and Dongho [Classical Quantum Gravity 23, 2979 (2006)] and Noutchegueme, Dongho, and Takou [Gen. Relativ. Gravitation 37, 2047 (2005)], have obtained a global solution in time, but still using the Yosida operator and considering only the uncharged case. Noutchegueme and Ayissi [Adv. Stud. Theor. Phys. 4, 855 (2010)] also proved a global existence of solutions to the Maxwell-Boltzmann system using the characteristic method. In this paper, we obtain using a method totally different from those used in the works of Noutchegueme and Dongho [Classical Quantum Gravity 23, 2979 (2006)], Noutchegueme, Dongho, and Takou [Gen. Relativ. Gravitation 37, 2047 (2005)], Noutchegueme and Ayissi [Adv. Stud. Theor. Phys. 4, 855 (2010)], and Mucha [Global existence of solutions of the Einstein-Boltzmann equation in the spatially homogeneous case. Evolution equation, existence, regularity and singularities (Banach Center Publications, Institute of Mathematics, Polish Academy of Science, 2000), Vol. 52] the global in time existence and uniqueness of a regular solution to the Einstein-Maxwell-Boltzmann system with the cosmological constant. We define and we use the weighted Sobolev separable spaces for the Boltzmann equation; some special spaces for the Einstein equations, then we clearly display all the proofs leading to the global existence theorems.« less

Bianchi type-I magnetized cosmological models for the Einstein-Boltzmann equation with the cosmological constant

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ayissi, Raoul Domingo; Noutchegueme, Norbert

2015-01-01

Global solutions regular for the Einstein-Boltzmann equation on a magnetized Bianchi type-I cosmological model with the cosmological constant are investigated. We suppose that the metric is locally rotationally symmetric. The Einstein-Boltzmann equation has been already considered by some authors. But, in general Bancel and Choquet-Bruhat [Ann. Henri Poincaré XVIII(3), 263 (1973); Commun. Math. Phys. 33, 83 (1973)], they proved only the local existence, and in the case of the nonrelativistic Boltzmann equation. Mucha [Global existence of solutions of the Einstein-Boltzmann equation in the spatially homogeneous case. Evolution equation, existence, regularity and singularities (Banach Center Publications, Institute of Mathematics, Polish Academy of Science, 2000), Vol. 52] obtained a global existence result, for the relativistic Boltzmann equation coupled with the Einstein equations and using the Yosida operator, but confusing unfortunately with the nonrelativistic case. Noutchegueme and Dongho [Classical Quantum Gravity 23, 2979 (2006)] and Noutchegueme, Dongho, and Takou [Gen. Relativ. Gravitation 37, 2047 (2005)], have obtained a global solution in time, but still using the Yosida operator and considering only the uncharged case. Noutchegueme and Ayissi [Adv. Stud. Theor. Phys. 4, 855 (2010)] also proved a global existence of solutions to the Maxwell-Boltzmann system using the characteristic method. In this paper, we obtain using a method totally different from those used in the works of Noutchegueme and Dongho [Classical Quantum Gravity 23, 2979 (2006)], Noutchegueme, Dongho, and Takou [Gen. Relativ. Gravitation 37, 2047 (2005)], Noutchegueme and Ayissi [Adv. Stud. Theor. Phys. 4, 855 (2010)], and Mucha [Global existence of solutions of the Einstein-Boltzmann equation in the spatially homogeneous case. Evolution equation, existence, regularity and singularities (Banach Center Publications, Institute of Mathematics, Polish Academy of Science, 2000), Vol. 52] the global in time existence and uniqueness of a regular solution to the Einstein-Maxwell-Boltzmann system with the cosmological constant. We define and we use the weighted Sobolev separable spaces for the Boltzmann equation; some special spaces for the Einstein equations, then we clearly display all the proofs leading to the global existence theorems.

Efficient multidimensional regularization for Volterra series estimation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Birpoutsoukis, Georgios; Csurcsia, Péter Zoltán; Schoukens, Johan

2018-05-01

This paper presents an efficient nonparametric time domain nonlinear system identification method. It is shown how truncated Volterra series models can be efficiently estimated without the need of long, transient-free measurements. The method is a novel extension of the regularization methods that have been developed for impulse response estimates of linear time invariant systems. To avoid the excessive memory needs in case of long measurements or large number of estimated parameters, a practical gradient-based estimation method is also provided, leading to the same numerical results as the proposed Volterra estimation method. Moreover, the transient effects in the simulated output are removed by a special regularization method based on the novel ideas of transient removal for Linear Time-Varying (LTV) systems. Combining the proposed methodologies, the nonparametric Volterra models of the cascaded water tanks benchmark are presented in this paper. The results for different scenarios varying from a simple Finite Impulse Response (FIR) model to a 3rd degree Volterra series with and without transient removal are compared and studied. It is clear that the obtained models capture the system dynamics when tested on a validation dataset, and their performance is comparable with the white-box (physical) models.

What secondary science teachers pay attention to in the classroom: Situating teaching in institutional and social systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Levin, Daniel Matthew

This study concerns the issue of secondary science teachers' attention. In particular, I consider if, how, and when science teachers attend to the substance of student thinking, which is called for by science education reform (NRC, 2007). Using a case study approach, and drawing on ethnographic data sources, I explore what novice and experienced secondary science teachers regularly attend to while teaching, what shapes teachers' attention, and how teachers' attention is consequential for students' science learning. I find that both novice and experienced teachers can attend to the substance of student thinking, although the institutional and social systems of school draw teachers' attention to other foci---particularly to correctness of conceptual knowledge and the vocabulary that signals correctness and "misconceptions." Furthermore, I argue that when teachers regularly attend to the substance of student thinking, they can contribute to a classroom culture that supports student inquiry. I discuss implications of this work for understanding teaching and for teacher education and professional development, and I suggest areas for future research that are motivated by these findings.

Entanglement entropy production in gravitational collapse: covariant regularization and solvable models

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bianchi, Eugenio; De Lorenzo, Tommaso; Smerlak, Matteo

2015-06-01

We study the dynamics of vacuum entanglement in the process of gravitational collapse and subsequent black hole evaporation. In the first part of the paper, we introduce a covariant regularization of entanglement entropy tailored to curved spacetimes; this regularization allows us to propose precise definitions for the concepts of black hole "exterior entropy" and "radiation entropy." For a Vaidya model of collapse we find results consistent with the standard thermodynamic properties of Hawking radiation. In the second part of the paper, we compute the vacuum entanglement entropy of various spherically-symmetric spacetimes of interest, including the nonsingular black hole model of Bardeen, Hayward, Frolov and Rovelli-Vidotto and the "black hole fireworks" model of Haggard-Rovelli. We discuss specifically the role of event and trapping horizons in connection with the behavior of the radiation entropy at future null infinity. We observe in particular that ( i) in the presence of an event horizon the radiation entropy diverges at the end of the evaporation process, ( ii) in models of nonsingular evaporation (with a trapped region but no event horizon) the generalized second law holds only at early times and is violated in the "purifying" phase, ( iii) at late times the radiation entropy can become negative (i.e. the radiation can be less correlated than the vacuum) before going back to zero leading to an up-down-up behavior for the Page curve of a unitarily evaporating black hole.

Comment on "Construction of regular black holes in general relativity"

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bronnikov, Kirill A.

2017-12-01

We claim that the paper by Zhong-Ying Fan and Xiaobao Wang on nonlinear electrodynamics coupled to general relativity [Phys. Rev. D 94,124027 (2016)], although correct in general, in some respects repeats previously obtained results without giving proper references. There is also an important point missing in this paper, which is necessary for understanding the physics of the system: in solutions with an electric charge, a regular center requires a non-Maxwell behavior of Lagrangian function L (f ) , (f =Fμ νFμ ν) at small f . Therefore, in all electric regular black hole solutions with a Reissner-Nordström asymptotic, the Lagrangian L (f ) is different in different parts of space, and the electromagnetic field behaves in a singular way at surfaces where L (f ) suffers branching.

Deficits on irregular verbal morphology in Italian-speaking Alzheimer's disease patients

PubMed Central

Walenski, Matthew; Sosta, Katiuscia; Cappa, Stefano; Ullman, Michael T.

2010-01-01

Studies of English have shown that temporal-lobe patients, including those with Alzheimer's disease, are spared at processing real and novel regular inflected forms (e.g., blick → blicked; walk → walked), but impaired at real and novel irregular forms (e.g., spling → splang; dig → dug). Here we extend the investigation cross-linguistically to the more complex system of Italian verbal morphology, allowing us to probe the generality of the previous findings in English, as well as to test different explanatory accounts of inflectional morphology. We examined the production of real and novel regular and irregular past-participle and present-tense forms by native Italian-speaking healthy control subjects and patients with probable Alzheimer's disease. Compared to the controls, the patients were impaired at inflecting real irregular verbs but not real regular verbs both for past-participle and present-tense forms, but were not impaired at real regular verbs either for past-participle or present-tense forms. For novel past participles, the patients exhibited this same pattern of impaired production of class II (irregular) forms but spared class I (regular) production. In the present tense, patients were impaired at the production of class II forms (which are regular in the present tense), but spared at production of class I (regular) forms. Contrary to the pattern observed in English, the errors made by the patients on irregulars did not reveal a predominance of regularization errors (e.g., dig → digged). The findings thus partly replicate prior findings from English, but also reveal new patterns from a language with a more complex morphological system that includes verb classes (which are not possible to test in English). The demonstration of an irregular deficit following temporal-lobe damage in a language other than English reveals the cross-linguistic generality of the basic effect, while also elucidating important language-specific differences in the neuro-cognitive basis of regular and irregular morphological forms. PMID:19428387

Implementing Response to Intervention: Results of a Survey of School Principals

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Swindlehurst, Kelly; Shepherd, Katharine; Salembier, George; Hurley, Sean

2015-01-01

Response to Intervention (RtI) is a framework schools can use to organize curriculum, instruction, and assessment so all students are screened on a regular basis and those who are at-risk for not meeting standards are provided with appropriate interventions (Batsche, Kavale, & Kovaleski, 2006). This paper explored the quantitative findings…

They're Why I'm Dead.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cross, William C.

This tongue-in-cheek paper represents that ideal and fictitious being, "Joe Personnel", as envisioned by critics of regularly-organized student personnel services. They contend that, since people have, for centuries, handled their own problems, they should be capable of doing so today, and that any assistance needed can be provided by a single…

What influences availability of medicines for the community management of childhood illnesses in central Uganda? Implications for scaling up the integrated community case management programme.

PubMed

Bagonza, James; Rutebemberwa, Elizeus; Eckmanns, Tim; Ekirapa-Kiracho, Elizabeth

2015-11-25

The integrated Community Case Management (iCCM) of childhood illnesses strategy has been adopted world over to reduce child related ill health and mortality. Community Health workers (CHWs) who implement this strategy need a regular supply of drugs to effectively treat children under 5 years with malaria, pneumonia and diarrhea. In this paper, we report the prevalence and factors influencing availability of medicines for managing malaria, pneumonia and diarrhea in communities in central Uganda. A cross sectional study was conducted among 303 CHWs in Wakiso district in central Uganda. Eligible CHWs from two randomly selected Health Sub Districts (HSDs) were interviewed. Questionnaires, check lists, record reviews were used to collect information on CHW background characteristics, CHW's prescription behaviors, health system support factors and availability of iCCM drugs. Multivariable logistic regression analysis was done to assess factors associated with availability of iCCM drugs. Out of 300 CHWs, 239 (79.9%) were females and mean age was 42.1 (standard deviation =11.1 years). The prevalence of iCCM drug availability was 8.3% and 33 respondents (11%) had no drugs at all. Factors associated with iCCM drug availability were; being supervised within the last month (adjusted OR = 3.70, 95% CI 1.22-11.24), appropriate drug prescriptions (adjusted OR = 3.71, 95% CI 1.38-9.96), regular submission of drug reports (adjusted OR = 4.02, 95% CI 1.62-10.10) and having a respiratory timer as a diagnostic tool (adjusted OR =3.11, 95% CI 1.08-9.00). The low medicine stocks for the community management of childhood illnesses calls for strengthening of CHW supervision, medicine prescription and reporting, and increasing availability of functional diagnostic tools.

Dynamical analysis of an orbiting three-rigid-body system

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

Pagnozzi, Daniele, E-mail: daniele.pagnozzi@strath.ac.uk, E-mail: james.biggs@strath.ac.uk; Biggs, James D., E-mail: daniele.pagnozzi@strath.ac.uk, E-mail: james.biggs@strath.ac.uk

2014-12-10

The development of multi-joint-spacecraft mission concepts calls for a deeper understanding of their nonlinear dynamics to inform and enhance system design. This paper presents a study of a three-finite-shape rigid-body system under the action of an ideal central gravitational field. The aim of this paper is to gain an insight into the natural dynamics of this system. The Hamiltonian dynamics is derived and used to identify relative attitude equilibria of the system with respect to the orbital reference frame. Then a numerical investigation of the behaviour far from the equilibria is provided using tools from modern dynamical systems theory suchmore » as energy methods, phase portraits and Poincarè maps. Results reveal a complex structure of the dynamics as well as the existence of connections between some of the equilibria. Stable equilibrium configurations appear to be surrounded by very narrow regions of regular and quasi-regular motions. Trajectories evolve on chaotic motions in the rest of the domain.« less

On a boundary-localized Higgs boson in 5D theories.

PubMed

Barceló, Roberto; Mitra, Subhadip; Moreau, Grégory

In the context of a simple five-dimensional (5D) model with bulk matter coupled to a brane-localized Higgs boson, we point out a non-commutativity in the 4D calculation of the mass spectrum for excited fermion towers: the obtained expression depends on the choice in ordering the limits, [Formula: see text] (infinite Kaluza-Klein tower) and [Formula: see text] ([Formula: see text] being the parameter introduced for regularizing the Higgs Dirac peak). This introduces the question of which one is the correct order; we then show that the two possible orders of regularization (called I and II) are experimentally equivalent, as both can typically reproduce the measured observables, but that the one with less degrees of freedom (I) could be uniquely excluded by future experimental constraints. This conclusion is based on the exact matching between the 4D and 5D analytical calculations of the mass spectrum - via regularizations of type I and II. Beyond a deeper insight into the Higgs peak regularizations, this matching brings another confirmation of the validity of the 5D mixed formalism. All the conclusions, deduced from regularizing the Higgs peak through a brane shift or a smoothed square profile, are expected to remain similar in realistic models with a warped extra-dimension. The complementary result of the study is that the non-commutativity disappears, both in the 4D and the 5D calculations, in the presence of higher order derivative operators. For clarity, the 4D and 5D analytical calculations, matching with each other, are presented in the first part of the paper, while the second part is devoted to the interpretation of the results.

Regularized GRACE monthly solutions by constraining the difference between the longitudinal and latitudinal gravity variations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chen, Qiujie; Chen, Wu; Shen, Yunzhong; Zhang, Xingfu; Hsu, Houze

2016-04-01

The existing unconstrained Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) monthly solutions i.e. CSR RL05 from Center for Space Research (CSR), GFZ RL05a from GeoForschungsZentrum (GFZ), JPL RL05 from Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), DMT-1 from Delft Institute of Earth Observation and Space Systems (DEOS), AIUB from Bern University, and Tongji-GRACE01 as well as Tongji-GRACE02 from Tongji University, are dominated by correlated noise (such as north-south stripe errors) in high degree coefficients. To suppress the correlated noise of the unconstrained GRACE solutions, one typical option is to use post-processing filters such as decorrelation filtering and Gaussian smoothing , which are quite effective to reduce the noise and convenient to be implemented. Unlike these post-processing methods, the CNES/GRGS monthly GRACE solutions from Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales (CNES) were developed by using regularization with Kaula rule, whose correlated noise are reduced to such a great extent that no decorrelation filtering is required. Actually, the previous studies demonstrated that the north-south stripes in the GRACE solutions are due to the poor sensitivity of gravity variation in east-west direction. In other words, the longitudinal sampling of GRACE mission is very sparse but the latitudinal sampling of GRACE mission is quite dense, indicating that the recoverability of the longitudinal gravity variation is poor or unstable, leading to the ill-conditioned monthly GRACE solutions. To stabilize the monthly solutions, we constructed the regularization matrices by minimizing the difference between the longitudinal and latitudinal gravity variations and applied them to derive a time series of regularized GRACE monthly solutions named RegTongji RL01 for the period Jan. 2003 to Aug. 2011 in this paper. The signal powers and noise level of RegTongji RL01 were analyzed in this paper, which shows that: (1) No smoothing or decorrelation filtering is required for RegTongji RL01 anymore. (2) The signal powers of RegTongji RL01 are obviously stronger than those of the filtered solutions but the noise levels of the regularized and filtered solutions are consistent, suggesting that RegTongji RL01 has the higher signal-to-noise ratio.

Stability of the human respiratory control system. I. Analysis of a two-dimensional delay state-space model.

PubMed

Batzel, J J; Tran, H T

2000-07-01

A number of mathematical models of the human respiratory control system have been developed since 1940 to study a wide range of features of this complex system. Among them, periodic breathing (including Cheyne-Stokes respiration and apneustic breathing) is a collection of regular but involuntary breathing patterns that have important medical implications. The hypothesis that periodic breathing is the result of delay in the feedback signals to the respiratory control system has been studied since the work of Grodins et al. in the early 1950's [12]. The purpose of this paper is to study the stability characteristics of a feedback control system of five differential equations with delays in both the state and control variables presented by Khoo et al. [17] in 1991 for modeling human respiration. The paper is divided in two parts. Part I studies a simplified mathematical model of two nonlinear state equations modeling arterial partial pressures of O2 and CO2 and a peripheral controller. Analysis was done on this model to illuminate the effect of delay on the stability. It shows that delay dependent stability is affected by the controller gain, compartmental volumes and the manner in which changes in the ventilation rate is produced (i.e., by deeper breathing or faster breathing). In addition, numerical simulations were performed to validate analytical results. Part II extends the model in Part I to include both peripheral and central controllers. This, however, necessitates the introduction of a third state equation modeling CO2 levels in the brain. In addition to analytical studies on delay dependent stability, it shows that the decreased cardiac output (and hence increased delay) resulting from the congestive heart condition can induce instability at certain control gain levels. These analytical results were also confirmed by numerical simulations.

Region VI Inservice Training for Vocational-Technical Personnel (Arlington, Texas, October 7-10, 1975). Conference Report.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

EPD Consortium D, Richardson, TX.

This conference report contains a collection of thirteen papers delivered at the Region VI (New Mexico, Texas, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Oklahoma) inservice training conference, which focused on special needs groups (i.e., those with academic, socioeconomic, or physical handicaps that prevent them from succeeding in regular vocational programs).…

Resolving the paradigm crisis in intravenous iron and erythropoietin management.

PubMed

Besarab, A

2006-05-01

Despite the proven benefits of intravenous (i.v.) iron therapy in anemia management, it remains underutilized in the hemodialysis population. Although overall i.v. iron usage continues to increase slowly, monthly usage statistics compiled by the US Renal Data System suggest that clinicians are not implementing continued dosing regimens following repletion of iron stores. Continued therapy with i.v. iron represents a key opportunity to improve patient outcomes and increase the efficiency of anemia treatment. Regular administration of low doses of i.v. iron prevents the recurrence of iron deficiency, enhances response to recombinant human erythropoietin therapy, minimizes fluctuation of hemoglobin levels, hematocrit levels, and iron stores, and may reduce overall costs of care. This article reviews the importance of i.v. iron dosing on a regular basis in the hemodialysis patient with iron-deficiency anemia and explores reasons why some clinicians may still be reluctant to employ these protocols in the hemodialysis setting.

Kernel Recursive Least-Squares Temporal Difference Algorithms with Sparsification and Regularization

PubMed Central

Zhu, Qingxin; Niu, Xinzheng

2016-01-01

By combining with sparse kernel methods, least-squares temporal difference (LSTD) algorithms can construct the feature dictionary automatically and obtain a better generalization ability. However, the previous kernel-based LSTD algorithms do not consider regularization and their sparsification processes are batch or offline, which hinder their widespread applications in online learning problems. In this paper, we combine the following five techniques and propose two novel kernel recursive LSTD algorithms: (i) online sparsification, which can cope with unknown state regions and be used for online learning, (ii) L 2 and L 1 regularization, which can avoid overfitting and eliminate the influence of noise, (iii) recursive least squares, which can eliminate matrix-inversion operations and reduce computational complexity, (iv) a sliding-window approach, which can avoid caching all history samples and reduce the computational cost, and (v) the fixed-point subiteration and online pruning, which can make L 1 regularization easy to implement. Finally, simulation results on two 50-state chain problems demonstrate the effectiveness of our algorithms. PMID:27436996

Kernel Recursive Least-Squares Temporal Difference Algorithms with Sparsification and Regularization.

PubMed

Zhang, Chunyuan; Zhu, Qingxin; Niu, Xinzheng

2016-01-01

By combining with sparse kernel methods, least-squares temporal difference (LSTD) algorithms can construct the feature dictionary automatically and obtain a better generalization ability. However, the previous kernel-based LSTD algorithms do not consider regularization and their sparsification processes are batch or offline, which hinder their widespread applications in online learning problems. In this paper, we combine the following five techniques and propose two novel kernel recursive LSTD algorithms: (i) online sparsification, which can cope with unknown state regions and be used for online learning, (ii) L 2 and L 1 regularization, which can avoid overfitting and eliminate the influence of noise, (iii) recursive least squares, which can eliminate matrix-inversion operations and reduce computational complexity, (iv) a sliding-window approach, which can avoid caching all history samples and reduce the computational cost, and (v) the fixed-point subiteration and online pruning, which can make L 1 regularization easy to implement. Finally, simulation results on two 50-state chain problems demonstrate the effectiveness of our algorithms.

Closure properties of Watson-Crick grammars

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zulkufli, Nurul Liyana binti Mohamad; Turaev, Sherzod; Tamrin, Mohd Izzuddin Mohd; Azeddine, Messikh

2015-12-01

In this paper, we define Watson-Crick context-free grammars, as an extension of Watson-Crick regular grammars and Watson-Crick linear grammars with context-free grammar rules. We show the relation of Watson-Crick (regular and linear) grammars to the sticker systems, and study some of the important closure properties of the Watson-Crick grammars. We establish that the Watson-Crick regular grammars are closed under almost all of the main closure operations, while the differences between other Watson-Crick grammars with their corresponding Chomsky grammars depend on the computational power of the Watson-Crick grammars which still need to be studied.

Dynamics of coherent states in regular and chaotic regimes of the non-integrable Dicke model

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lerma-Hernández, S.; Chávez-Carlos, J.; Bastarrachea-Magnani, M. A.; López-del-Carpio, B.; Hirsch, J. G.

2018-04-01

The quantum dynamics of initial coherent states is studied in the Dicke model and correlated with the dynamics, regular or chaotic, of their classical limit. Analytical expressions for the survival probability, i.e. the probability of finding the system in its initial state at time t, are provided in the regular regions of the model. The results for regular regimes are compared with those of the chaotic ones. It is found that initial coherent states in regular regions have a much longer equilibration time than those located in chaotic regions. The properties of the distributions for the initial coherent states in the Hamiltonian eigenbasis are also studied. It is found that for regular states the components with no negligible contribution are organized in sequences of energy levels distributed according to Gaussian functions. In the case of chaotic coherent states, the energy components do not have a simple structure and the number of participating energy levels is larger than in the regular cases.

Formation of Planetary Satellites and Prospects for Exomoons

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Barr, A.

2014-04-01

The formation of planetary satellites is thought to be a natural by-product of terrestrial and giant planet formation. I will discuss the proposed methods of satellite formation including fission, co-accretion, giant impact, and capture and where these modes of formation might operate in extrasolar planetary systems. Giant impacts like the event that formed Earth's Moon are thought to be common during the late stages of terrestrial planet formation; it is currently thought that Mercury, Mars, and the Earth were hit by objects of planetary size during their early history. I will discuss the effects that large impacts may have on rocky exoplanets, including moon formation and compositional changes, which can affect prospects for habitability on these worlds. The giant planets in our solar system harbor dozens of planet-size rocky and icy moons, some of which have habitats that may be dissimilar to Earth but could still be suitable for life. Because the accretion of regular satellites is thought to be a by-product of gas inflow to growing gas giants, it seems likely that many extrasolar planets may have created regular satellite systems as well. I will discuss the types of satellite systems we have in our solar system and whether those are likely to occur elsewhere. I will also discuss the conditions on the "front-runners" for habitable giant planet moons in our solar system including Europa, Enceladus, and Titan.

Progress in Genome Editing Technology and Its Application in Plants

PubMed Central

Zhang, Kai; Raboanatahiry, Nadia; Zhu, Bin; Li, Maoteng

2017-01-01

Genome editing technology (GET) is a versatile approach that has progressed rapidly as a mechanism to alter the genotype and phenotype of organisms. However, conventional genome modification using GET cannot satisfy current demand for high-efficiency and site-directed mutagenesis, retrofitting of artificial nucleases has developed into a new avenue within this field. Based on mechanisms to recognize target genes, newly-developed GETs can generally be subdivided into three cleavage systems, protein-dependent DNA cleavage systems (i.e., zinc-finger nucleases, ZFN, and transcription activator-like effector nucleases, TALEN), RNA-dependent DNA cleavage systems (i.e., clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats-CRISPR associated proteins, CRISPR-Cas9, CRISPR-Cpf1, and CRISPR-C2c1), and RNA-dependent RNA cleavage systems (i.e., RNA interference, RNAi, and CRISPR-C2c2). All these techniques can lead to double-stranded (DSB) or single-stranded breaks (SSB), and result in either random mutations via non-homologous end-joining (NHEJ) or targeted mutation via homologous recombination (HR). Thus, site-directed mutagenesis can be induced via targeted gene knock-out, knock-in, or replacement to modify specific characteristics including morphology-modification, resistance-enhancement, and physiological mechanism-improvement along with plant growth and development. In this paper, an non-comprehensive review on the development of different GETs as applied to plants is presented. PMID:28261237

Chemical interactions and thermodynamic studies in aluminum alloy/molten salt systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Narayanan, Ramesh

The recycling of aluminum and aluminum alloys such as Used Beverage Container (UBC) is done under a cover of molten salt flux based on (NaCl-KCl+fluorides). The reactions of aluminum alloys with molten salt fluxes have been investigated. Thermodynamic calculations are performed in the alloy/salt flux systems which allow quantitative predictions of the equilibrium compositions. There is preferential reaction of Mg in Al-Mg alloy with molten salt fluxes, especially those containing fluorides like NaF. An exchange reaction between Al-Mg alloy and molten salt flux has been demonstrated. Mg from the Al-Mg alloy transfers into the salt flux while Na from the salt flux transfers into the metal. Thermodynamic calculations indicated that the amount of Na in metal increases as the Mg content in alloy and/or NaF content in the reacting flux increases. This is an important point because small amounts of Na have a detrimental effect on the mechanical properties of the Al-Mg alloy. The reactions of Al alloys with molten salt fluxes result in the formation of bluish purple colored "streamers". It was established that the streamer is liquid alkali metal (Na and K in the case of NaCl-KCl-NaF systems) dissipating into the melt. The melts in which such streamers were observed are identified. The metal losses occurring due to reactions have been quantified, both by thermodynamic calculations and experimentally. A computer program has been developed to calculate ternary phase diagrams in molten salt systems from the constituting binary phase diagrams, based on a regular solution model. The extent of deviation of the binary systems from regular solution has been quantified. The systems investigated in which good agreement was found between the calculated and experimental phase diagrams included NaF-KF-LiF, NaCl-NaF-NaI and KNOsb3-TINOsb3-LiNOsb3. Furthermore, an insight has been provided on the interrelationship between the regular solution parameters and the topology of the phase diagram. The isotherms are flat (i.e. no skewness) when the regular solution parameters are zero. When the regular solution parameters are non-zero, the isotherms are skewed. A regular solution model is not adequate to accurately model the molten salt systems used in recycling like NaCl-KCl-LiF and NaCl-KCl-NaF.

On the global Casimir effect in the Schwarzschild spacetime

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Muniz, C. R.; Tahim, M. O.; Cunha, M. S.; Vieira, H. S.

2018-01-01

In this paper we study the vacuum quantum fluctuations of the stationary modes of an uncharged scalar field with mass m around a Schwarzschild black hole with mass M, at zero and non-zero temperatures. The procedure consists of calculating the energy eigenvalues starting from the exact solutions found for the dynamics of the scalar field, considering a frequency cutoff in which the particle is not absorbed by the black hole. From this result, we obtain the exterior contributions for the vacuum energy associated to the stationary states of the scalar field, by considering the half-summing of the levels of energy and taking into account the respective degeneracies, in order to better capture the nontrivial topology of the black hole spacetime. Then we use the Riemann's zeta function to regularize the vacuum energy thus found. Such a regularized quantity is the Casimir energy, whose analytic computation we show to yield a convergent series. The Casimir energy obtained does not take into account any boundaries artificially imposed on the system, just the nontrivial spacetime topology associated to the source and its singularity. We suggest that this latter manifests itself through the vacuum tension calculated on the event horizon. We also investigate the problem by considering the thermal corrections via Helmholtz free energy calculation, computing the Casimir internal energy, the corresponding tension on the event horizon, the Casimir entropy, and the thermal capacity of the regularized quantum vacuum, analyzing their behavior at low and high temperatures, pointing out the thermodynamic instability of the system in the considered regime, i.e. mMll 1.

A hybrid inventory management system respondingto regular demand and surge demand

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

Mohammad S. Roni; Mingzhou Jin; Sandra D. Eksioglu

2014-06-01

This paper proposes a hybrid policy for a stochastic inventory system facing regular demand and surge demand. The combination of two different demand patterns can be observed in many areas, such as healthcare inventory and humanitarian supply chain management. The surge demand has a lower arrival rate but higher demand volume per arrival. The solution approach proposed in this paper incorporates the level crossing method and mixed integer programming technique to optimize the hybrid inventory policy with both regular orders and emergency orders. The level crossing method is applied to obtain the equilibrium distributions of inventory levels under a givenmore » policy. The model is further transformed into a mixed integer program to identify an optimal hybrid policy. A sensitivity analysis is conducted to investigate the impact of parameters on the optimal inventory policy and minimum cost. Numerical results clearly show the benefit of using the proposed hybrid inventory model. The model and solution approach could help healthcare providers or humanitarian logistics providers in managing their emergency supplies in responding to surge demands.« less

Variational discretization of the nonequilibrium thermodynamics of simple systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gay-Balmaz, François; Yoshimura, Hiroaki

2018-04-01

In this paper, we develop variational integrators for the nonequilibrium thermodynamics of simple closed systems. These integrators are obtained by a discretization of the Lagrangian variational formulation of nonequilibrium thermodynamics developed in (Gay-Balmaz and Yoshimura 2017a J. Geom. Phys. part I 111 169–93 Gay-Balmaz and Yoshimura 2017b J. Geom. Phys. part II 111 194–212) and thus extend the variational integrators of Lagrangian mechanics, to include irreversible processes. In the continuous setting, we derive the structure preserving property of the flow of such systems. This property is an extension of the symplectic property of the flow of the Euler–Lagrange equations. In the discrete setting, we show that the discrete flow solution of our numerical scheme verifies a discrete version of this property. We also present the regularity conditions which ensure the existence of the discrete flow. We finally illustrate our discrete variational schemes with the implementation of an example of a simple and closed system.

PRT Impact Study - The Phase 1 PRT Impact on Morgantown Travel Traffic and Associated Activities

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

1979-07-01

A new and revolutionary public transportation system, the Morgantown Personal Rapid Transit (PRT) System began regular passenger service operation in Morgantown, West Virginia, in October 1975. This is a study of the impact of Phase I Morgantown PRT,...

Verbal Inflectional Morphology in L1 and L2 Spanish: A Frequency Effects Study Examining Storage versus Composition

PubMed Central

Bowden, Harriet Wood; Gelfand, Matthew P.; Sanz, Cristina; Ullman, Michael T.

2009-01-01

This study examines the storage vs. composition of Spanish inflected verbal forms in L1 and L2 speakers of Spanish. L2 participants were selected to have mid-to-advanced proficiency, high classroom experience, and low immersion experience, typical of medium-to-advanced foreign language learners. Participants were shown the infinitival forms of verbs from either Class I (the default class, which takes new verbs) or Classes II and III (non-default classes), and were asked to produce either first-person singular present-tense or imperfect forms, in separate tasks. In the present tense, the L1 speakers showed inflected-form frequency effects (i.e., higher frequency forms were produced faster, which is taken as a reflection of storage) for stem-changing (irregular) verb-forms from both Class I (e.g., pensar-pienso) and Classes II and III (e.g., perder-pierdo), as well as for non-stem-changing (regular) forms in Classes II/III (e.g., vender-vendo), in which the regular transformation does not appear to constitute a default. In contrast, Class I regulars (e.g., pescar-pesco), whose non-stem-changing transformation constitutes a default (e.g., it is applied to new verbs), showed no frequency effects. L2 speakers showed frequency effects for all four conditions (Classes I and II/III, regulars and irregulars). In the imperfect tense, the L1 speakers showed frequency effects for Class II/III (-ía-suffixed) but not Class I (-aba-suffixed) forms, even though both involve non-stem-change (regular) default transformations. The L2 speakers showed frequency effects for both types of forms. The pattern of results was not explained by a wide range of potentially confounding experimental and statistical factors, and does not appear to be compatible with single-mechanism models, which argue that all linguistic forms are learned and processed in associative memory. The findings are consistent with a dual-system view in which both verb class and regularity influence the storage vs. composition of inflected forms. Specifically, the data suggest that in L1, inflected verbal forms are stored (as evidenced by frequency effects) unless they are both from Class I and undergo non-stem-changing default transformations. In contrast the findings suggest that at least these L2 participants may store all inflected verb-forms. Taken together, the results support dual-system models of L1 and L2 processing in which, at least at mid-to-advanced L2 proficiency and lower levels of immersion experience, the processing of rule-governed forms may depend not on L1 combinatorial processes, but instead on memorized representations. PMID:20419083

Cosmological coherent state expectation values in loop quantum gravity I. Isotropic kinematics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dapor, Andrea; Liegener, Klaus

2018-07-01

This is the first paper of a series dedicated to loop quantum gravity (LQG) coherent states and cosmology. The concept is based on the effective dynamics program of Loop Quantum Cosmology, where the classical dynamics generated by the expectation value of the Hamiltonian on semiclassical states is found to be in agreement with the quantum evolution of such states. We ask the question of whether this expectation value agrees with the one obtained in the full theory. The answer is in the negative, Dapor and Liegener (2017 arXiv:1706.09833). This series of papers is dedicated to detailing the computations that lead to that surprising result. In the current paper, we construct the family of coherent states in LQG which represent flat (k  =  0) Robertson–Walker spacetimes, and present the tools needed to compute expectation values of polynomial operators in holonomy and flux on such states. These tools will be applied to the LQG Hamiltonian operator (in Thiemann regularization) in the second paper of the series. The third paper will present an extension to cosmologies and a comparison with alternative regularizations of the Hamiltonian.

Topological nearly entropy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gulamsarwar, Syazwani; Salleh, Zabidin

2017-08-01

The purpose of this paper is to generalize the notions of Adler's topological entropy along with their several fundamental properties. A function f : X → Y is said to be R-map if f-1 (V) is regular open in X for every regular open set V in Y. Thus, we initiated a notion of topological nearly entropy for topological R-dynamical systems which is based on nearly compact relative to the space by using R-map.

40 CFR 60.695 - Monitoring of operations.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... device outlet gas stream or inlet and outlet gas stream shall be used. (i) For a carbon adsorption system... adsorption system that does not regenerate the carbon bed directly onsite in the control device (e.g., a... carbon adsorption system shall be monitored on a regular schedule, and the existing carbon shall be...

40 CFR 60.695 - Monitoring of operations.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

... device outlet gas stream or inlet and outlet gas stream shall be used. (i) For a carbon adsorption system... adsorption system that does not regenerate the carbon bed directly onsite in the control device (e.g., a... carbon adsorption system shall be monitored on a regular schedule, and the existing carbon shall be...

MM&T: Precision Machining of Optical Components.

DTIC Science & Technology

1981-02-01

Center, Naval Weapons Center, Naval Research Laboratory, Naval Air Systems Command, Office of Naval Research, E/O & Night Vision Labs , MICOM, AVRADCOM...Air Force/RDQT lI), Air Force Systens Command, Wright Patterson Mat’l Lab ., I)APPA, TARCOM, ARRADCOM, TSARCOM, Fort Monmouth. 1-- form A-541 I II II I I...sinfle tecnnical iin is ire 1)iill Mulractcrl light Kn njhc r orde us and spatial Oral : reuvtics )etween regularly spaced toot rnaiarks and t-nc rat

System Engineering on the Use for Ares I,V - the Simpler, the Better

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kelly, William; Greene, William D.; Greasley, Paul; Ackerman, Peter C.

2008-01-01

The Ares I and Ares V Vehicles will utilize the J-2X rocket engine developed for NASA by the Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne Company. The J-2X is an improved higher power version of the original J-2 engine used during the Apollo program. With higher power and updated requirements for safety and performance, the J-2X becomes a new engine using state-of-the-art design methodology, materials and manufacturing processes. The implementation of Systems Engineering (SE) principles enables the rapid J-2X development program to remain aligned with the ARES I and V vehicle programs, Meeting the aggressive development schedule is a challenge. Coordinating the best expertise thai NASA and PWR have to offer requires effectively utilizing resources at multiple sites. This presents formidable communication challenges. SE allows honest and open discussions of issues and problems. This simple idea is often overlooked in large and complex SE programs. Regular and effective meetings linking SE objectives to component designs are used to voice differences of opinions with customer and contractor in attendance so that the best mutual decisions can be made on the shortest possible schedule. Regular technical interchange meetings on secure program wide computer networks and CM processes are effective,in the "Controlled Change" process that exemplifies good SE. Good communication is a key effective SE implementation. The System of Systems approach is the vision of the Orion program which facilitates the establishment of dynamic SE processes at all levels including the engine. SE enables requirements evolution by facilitating organizational and process agility. Flow down and distribution of requirements is controlled by Allocation Reports which breakdown numerical design objectives (weight, reliability, etc.) into quanta goals for each component area. Linked databases of design and verification requirements helps eliminate redundancy and potential mistakes inherent m separated systems. Another tool, the Architecture Design Description, is being used to control J-2X system architecture and effectively communicate configuration changes to those involved in the design process. But the proof is in successful program accomplishment. The SE is the methodology being used to meet the challenge of completing J-2X engine certification 2 years ahead of any engine program ever developed at PWR. The Ares I SE system of systems has delivered according to expectations thus far. All major design reviews (SRR. PDR, CDR) have been successfully conducted to satisfy overall program objectives using SE as the basis for accomplishment. The paper describes SE tools and techniques utilized to achieve this success.

Deploying Server-side File System Monitoring at NERSC

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

Uselton, Andrew

2009-05-01

The Franklin Cray XT4 at the NERSC center was equipped with the server-side I/O monitoring infrastructure Cerebro/LMT, which is described here in detail. Insights gained from the data produced include a better understanding of instantaneous data rates during file system testing, file system behavior during regular production time, and long-term average behaviors. Information and insights gleaned from this monitoring support efforts to proactively manage the I/O infrastructure on Franklin. A simple model for I/O transactions is introduced and compared with the 250 million observations sent to the LMT database from August 2008 to February 2009.

Automatic detection of protected health information from clinic narratives.

PubMed

Yang, Hui; Garibaldi, Jonathan M

2015-12-01

This paper presents a natural language processing (NLP) system that was designed to participate in the 2014 i2b2 de-identification challenge. The challenge task aims to identify and classify seven main Protected Health Information (PHI) categories and 25 associated sub-categories. A hybrid model was proposed which combines machine learning techniques with keyword-based and rule-based approaches to deal with the complexity inherent in PHI categories. Our proposed approaches exploit a rich set of linguistic features, both syntactic and word surface-oriented, which are further enriched by task-specific features and regular expression template patterns to characterize the semantics of various PHI categories. Our system achieved promising accuracy on the challenge test data with an overall micro-averaged F-measure of 93.6%, which was the winner of this de-identification challenge. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

glideinWMS—a generic pilot-based workload management system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sfiligoi, I.

2008-07-01

The Grid resources are distributed among hundreds of independent Grid sites, requiring a higher level Workload Management System (WMS) to be used efficiently. Pilot jobs have been used for this purpose by many communities, bringing increased reliability, global fair share and just in time resource matching. glideinWMS is a WMS based on the Condor glidein concept, i.e. a regular Condor pool, with the Condor daemons (startds) being started by pilot jobs, and real jobs being vanilla, standard or MPI universe jobs. The glideinWMS is composed of a set of Glidein Factories, handling the submission of pilot jobs to a set of Grid sites, and a set of VO Frontends, requesting pilot submission based on the status of user jobs. This paper contains the structural overview of glideinWMS as well as a detailed description of the current implementation and the current scalability limits.

glideinWMS - A generic pilot-based Workload Management System

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

Sfiligoi, Igor; /Fermilab

The Grid resources are distributed among hundreds of independent Grid sites, requiring a higher level Workload Management System (WMS) to be used efficiently. Pilot jobs have been used for this purpose by many communities, bringing increased reliability, global fair share and just in time resource matching. GlideinWMS is a WMS based on the Condor glidein concept, i.e. a regular Condor pool, with the Condor daemons (startds) being started by pilot jobs, and real jobs being vanilla, standard or MPI universe jobs. The glideinWMS is composed of a set of Glidein Factories, handling the submission of pilot jobs to a setmore » of Grid sites, and a set of VO Frontends, requesting pilot submission based on the status of user jobs. This paper contains the structural overview of glideinWMS as well as a detailed description of the current implementation and the current scalability limits.« less

GABAB-receptor activation alters the firing pattern of dopamine neurons in the rat substantia nigra.

PubMed

Engberg, G; Kling-Petersen, T; Nissbrandt, H

1993-11-01

Previous electrophysiological experiments have emphasized the importance of the firing pattern for the functioning of midbrain dopamine (DA) neurons. In this regard, excitatory amino acid receptors appear to constitute an important modulatory control mechanism. In the present study, extracellular recording techniques were used to investigate the significance of GABAB-receptor activation for the firing properties of DA neurons in the substantia nigra (SN) in the rat. Intravenous administration of the GABAB-receptor agonist baclofen (1-16 mg/kg) was associated with a dose-dependent regularization of the firing pattern, concomitant with a reduction in burst firing. At higher doses (16-32 mg/kg), the firing rate of the DA neurons was dose-dependently decreased. Also, microiontophoretic application of baclofen regularized the firing pattern of nigral DA neurons, including a reduction of burst firing. Both the regularization of the firing pattern and inhibition of firing rate produced by systemic baclofen administration was antagonized by the GABAB-receptor antagonist CGP 35348 (200 mg/kg, i.v.). The GABAA-receptor agonist muscimol produced effects on the firing properties of DA neurons that were opposite to those observed following baclofen, i.e., an increase in firing rate accompanied by a decreased regularity. The NMDA receptor antagonist MK 801 (0.4-3.2 mg/kg, i.v.) produced a moderate, dose-dependent increase in the firing rate of the nigral DA neurons as well as a slightly regularized firing pattern. Pretreatment with MK 801 (3.2 mg/kg, i.v., 3-10 min) did neither promote nor prevent the regularization of the firing pattern or inhibition of firing rate on the nigral DA neurons produced by baclofen. The present results clearly show that GABAB-receptors can alter the firing pattern of nigral DA neurons, hereby counterbalancing the previously described ability of glutamate to induce burst firing activity on these neurons.

Physics-driven Spatiotemporal Regularization for High-dimensional Predictive Modeling: A Novel Approach to Solve the Inverse ECG Problem

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yao, Bing; Yang, Hui

2016-12-01

This paper presents a novel physics-driven spatiotemporal regularization (STRE) method for high-dimensional predictive modeling in complex healthcare systems. This model not only captures the physics-based interrelationship between time-varying explanatory and response variables that are distributed in the space, but also addresses the spatial and temporal regularizations to improve the prediction performance. The STRE model is implemented to predict the time-varying distribution of electric potentials on the heart surface based on the electrocardiogram (ECG) data from the distributed sensor network placed on the body surface. The model performance is evaluated and validated in both a simulated two-sphere geometry and a realistic torso-heart geometry. Experimental results show that the STRE model significantly outperforms other regularization models that are widely used in current practice such as Tikhonov zero-order, Tikhonov first-order and L1 first-order regularization methods.

Exploring Regularities and Dynamic Systems in L2 Development

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lenzing, Anke

2015-01-01

This article focuses on a theoretical and empirical exploration of developmental trajectories and individual learner variation in second language (L2) acquisition. Taking a processability perspective, I view learner language as a dynamic system that includes predictable universal developmental trajectories as well as individual learner variation,…

The Regular Education Initiative: A Blueprint for Success. A Description of a Statewide Implementation Project in Illinois.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Whitworth, Jerry

This paper defines the Regular Education Initiative (REI) as encouraging both regular and special education personnel to work together more effectively to provide the best education possible for all children, by adapting the regular education environment to better accommodate the student's needs. The paper discusses the results of a statewide…

Social activity method (SAM): A fractal language for mathematics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dowling, Paul

2013-09-01

In this paper I shall present and develop my organisational language, social activity method (SAM), and illustrate some of its applications. I shall introduce a new scheme for modes of recontextualisation that enables the analysis of the ways in which one activity - which might be school mathematics or social research or any empirically observed regularity of practice - recontextualises the practice of another and I shall also present, deploy, and develop an existing scheme - domains of action - in an analysis of school mathematics examination papers and in the structuring of what I refer to as the esoteric domain. This domain is here conceived as a hybrid domain of, first, linguistic and extralinguistic resources that are unambiguously mathematical in terms of both expression and content and, second, pedagogic theory - often tacit - that enables the mathematical gaze onto other practices and so recontextualises them. A second and more general theme that runs through the paper is the claim that there is nothing that is beyond semiosis, that there is nothing to which we have direct access, unmediated by interpretation. This state of affairs has implications for mathematics education. Specifically, insofar as an individual's mathematical semiotic system is under continuous development - the curriculum never being graspable all at once - understanding - as a stable semiotic moment - of any aspect or object of mathematics is always localised to the individual and is at best transient, and the sequencing of such moments may well also be more individualised than consistent in some correspondence with the sequencing of the curriculum. This being the case, a concentration on understanding as a goal may well serve to inhibit the pragmatic acquisition and deployment of mathematical technologies, which should be the principal aim of mathematics teaching and learning. The paper is primarily concerned with mathematics education. SAM, however, is a language that is available for recruiting and deploying in potentially any context as I have attempted to illustrate with some of the secondary illustrations in the text.

On the Solutions of a 2+1-Dimensional Model for Epitaxial Growth with Axial Symmetry

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lu, Xin Yang

2018-04-01

In this paper, we study the evolution equation derived by Xu and Xiang (SIAM J Appl Math 69(5):1393-1414, 2009) to describe heteroepitaxial growth in 2+1 dimensions with elastic forces on vicinal surfaces is in the radial case and uniform mobility. This equation is strongly nonlinear and contains two elliptic integrals and defined via Cauchy principal value. We will first derive a formally equivalent parabolic evolution equation (i.e., full equivalence when sufficient regularity is assumed), and the main aim is to prove existence, uniqueness and regularity of strong solutions. We will extensively use techniques from the theory of evolution equations governed by maximal monotone operators in Banach spaces.

Intelligently Controllable Walker with Magnetorheological Fluid Brake

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kikuchi, Takehito; Tanida, Sosuke; Tanaka, Toshimasa; Kobayashi, Keigo; Mitobe, Kazuhisa

Caster walkers are supporting frames with casters and wheels. These tools are regularly utilized as life support tools or walking rehabilitation tools in hospitals, nursing homes and individual residences. Users of the walkers can easily move it thanks to its wheels and casters. However falling accidents often happen when it moves without users. The falling accident is very serious problem and one of leading causes of secondary injuries. In the other case, it is hard to move to desired directions if users have imbalance in their motor functions or sensory functions, e.g., hemiplegic patients. To improve safeness and operability of the walkers, we installed compact MR fluid brakes on the wheels and controlled walking speed and direction of the walker. We named this intelligently controllable walker, “i-Walker” and discussed on the control methods and experimental results in this paper. Preliminary trials for direction control of the first-generation of the i-Walker (i-Walker1) are presented. On the basis of the results, we improved the control method and hardware of the i-Walker1, and developed the second-generation (i-Walker2). System description and experimental results of the i-Walker2 are also described. The i-Walker2 has better operability and lower energy consumption than that of the i-Walker1. The line-tracing controller of the i-Walker2 well controls human motions during walking experiments on the target straight line.

From mixed to separate collection of solid waste: benefits for the town of Zavidovići (Bosnia and Herzegovina).

PubMed

Vaccari, Mentore; Di Bella, Veronica; Vitali, Francesco; Collivignarelli, Carlo

2013-02-01

In Bosnia and Herzegovina only 50% of the municipalities have a well-organized service for (mixed) waste collection and disposal. Illegal dumping is very common, in particular in rural areas, which are not regularly served by any service of collection. This situation leads to serious risks for public health and has dangerous environmental impacts. In Zavidovići the municipality is trying to meet high standards in the delivery of services of waste collection, but is constrained by scarce financial and technical resources. Different scenarios for the implementation of a system of separate collection in Zavidovići were elaborated in order to provide a useful tool for decision making by comparing costs and environmental & economic benefits of each scenario. Six scenarios were considered, based on different recovery rates for plastic, paper & cardboard, and metals. Benefits resulting from the implementation of each of the proposed scenarios are compared in terms of savings of landfill volume and costs. The study concludes that the adoption of a system of separate collection could generate positive impacts on all the stakeholders involved in the solid waste management sector in Zavidovići and could contribute to the compliance of European standards in many Central and Eastern European countries as established by a number of national environmental protection strategies. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Stability of the human respiratory control system. II. Analysis of a three-dimensional delay state-space model.

PubMed

Batzel, J J; Tran, H T

2000-07-01

A number of mathematical models of the human respiratory control system have been developed since 1940 to study a wide range of features of this complex system. Among them, periodic breathing (including Cheyne-Stokes respiration and apneustic breathing) is a collection of regular but involuntary breathing patterns that have important medical implications. The hypothesis that periodic breathing is the result of delay in the feedback signals to the respiratory control system has been studied since the work of Grodins et al. in the early 1950's [1]. The purpose of this paper is to study the stability characteristics of a feedback control system of five differential equations with delays in both the state and control variables presented by Khoo et al. [4] in 1991 for modeling human respiration. The paper is divided in two parts. Part I studies a simplified mathematical model of two nonlinear state equations modeling arterial partial pressures of O2 and CO2 and a peripheral controller. Analysis was done on this model to illuminate the effect of delay on the stability. It shows that delay dependent stability is affected by the controller gain, compartmental volumes and the manner in which changes in the ventilation rate is produced (i.e., by deeper breathing or faster breathing). In addition, numerical simulations were performed to validate analytical results. Part II extends the model in Part I to include both peripheral and central controllers. This, however, necessitates the introduction of a third state equation modeling CO2 levels in the brain. In addition to analytical studies on delay dependent stability, it shows that the decreased cardiac output (and hence increased delay) resulting from the congestive heart condition can induce instability at certain control gain levels. These analytical results were also confirmed by numerical simulations.

Symmetry-plane model of 3D Euler flows: Mapping to regular systems and numerical solutions of blowup

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mulungye, Rachel M.; Lucas, Dan; Bustamante, Miguel D.

2014-11-01

We introduce a family of 2D models describing the dynamics on the so-called symmetry plane of the full 3D Euler fluid equations. These models depend on a free real parameter and can be solved analytically. For selected representative values of the free parameter, we apply the method introduced in [M.D. Bustamante, Physica D: Nonlinear Phenom. 240, 1092 (2011)] to map the fluid equations bijectively to globally regular systems. By comparing the analytical solutions with the results of numerical simulations, we establish that the numerical simulations of the mapped regular systems are far more accurate than the numerical simulations of the original systems, at the same spatial resolution and CPU time. In particular, the numerical integrations of the mapped regular systems produce robust estimates for the growth exponent and singularity time of the main blowup quantity (vorticity stretching rate), converging well to the analytically-predicted values even beyond the time at which the flow becomes under-resolved (i.e. the reliability time). In contrast, direct numerical integrations of the original systems develop unstable oscillations near the reliability time. We discuss the reasons for this improvement in accuracy, and explain how to extend the analysis to the full 3D case. Supported under the programme for Research in Third Level Institutions (PRTLI) Cycle 5 and co-funded by the European Regional Development Fund.

Design of Distributed Controllers Seeking Optimal Power Flow Solutions Under Communication Constraints

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

Dall'Anese, Emiliano; Simonetto, Andrea; Dhople, Sairaj

This paper focuses on power distribution networks featuring inverter-interfaced distributed energy resources (DERs), and develops feedback controllers that drive the DER output powers to solutions of time-varying AC optimal power flow (OPF) problems. Control synthesis is grounded on primal-dual-type methods for regularized Lagrangian functions, as well as linear approximations of the AC power-flow equations. Convergence and OPF-solution-tracking capabilities are established while acknowledging: i) communication-packet losses, and ii) partial updates of control signals. The latter case is particularly relevant since it enables asynchronous operation of the controllers where DER setpoints are updated at a fast time scale based on local voltagemore » measurements, and information on the network state is utilized if and when available, based on communication constraints. As an application, the paper considers distribution systems with high photovoltaic integration, and demonstrates that the proposed framework provides fast voltage-regulation capabilities, while enabling the near real-time pursuit of solutions of AC OPF problems.« less

Design of Distributed Controllers Seeking Optimal Power Flow Solutions under Communication Constraints: Preprint

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

Dall'Anese, Emiliano; Simonetto, Andrea; Dhople, Sairaj

This paper focuses on power distribution networks featuring inverter-interfaced distributed energy resources (DERs), and develops feedback controllers that drive the DER output powers to solutions of time-varying AC optimal power flow (OPF) problems. Control synthesis is grounded on primal-dual-type methods for regularized Lagrangian functions, as well as linear approximations of the AC power-flow equations. Convergence and OPF-solution-tracking capabilities are established while acknowledging: i) communication-packet losses, and ii) partial updates of control signals. The latter case is particularly relevant since it enables asynchronous operation of the controllers where DER setpoints are updated at a fast time scale based on local voltagemore » measurements, and information on the network state is utilized if and when available, based on communication constraints. As an application, the paper considers distribution systems with high photovoltaic integration, and demonstrates that the proposed framework provides fast voltage-regulation capabilities, while enabling the near real-time pursuit of solutions of AC OPF problems.« less

Real Time Assessment of Potable Water Quality in Distribution Network based on Low Cost Multi-Sensor Array

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bhardwaj, Jyotirmoy; Gupta, Karunesh K.; Khatri, Punit

2018-03-01

New concepts and techniques are replacing traditional methods of water quality parameters measurement systems. This paper proposed a new way of potable water quality assessment in distribution network using Multi Sensor Array (MSA). Extensive research suggests that following parameters i.e. pH, Dissolved Oxygen (D.O.), Conductivity, Oxygen Reduction Potential (ORP), Temperature and Salinity are most suitable to detect overall quality of potable water. Commonly MSA is not an integrated sensor array on some substrate, but rather comprises a set of individual sensors measuring simultaneously different water parameters all together. Based on research, a MSA has been developed followed by signal conditioning unit and finally, an algorithm for easy user interfacing. A dedicated part of this paper also discusses the platform design and significant results. The Objective of this proposed research is to provide simple, efficient, cost effective and socially acceptable means to detect and analyse water bodies regularly and automatically.

Domain walls in single-chain magnets

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pianet, Vivien; Urdampilleta, Matias; Colin, Thierry; Clérac, Rodolphe; Coulon, Claude

2017-12-01

The topology and creation energy of domain walls in different magnetic chains (called Single-Chain Magnets or SCMs) are discussed. As these domain walls, that can be seen as "defects", are known to control both static and dynamic properties of these one-dimensional systems, their study and understanding are necessary first steps before a deeper discussion of the SCM properties at finite temperature. The starting point of the paper is the simple regular ferromagnetic chain for which the characteristics of the domain walls are well known. Then two cases will be discussed (i) the "mixed chains" in which isotropic and anisotropic classical spins alternate, and (ii) the so-called "canted chains" where two different easy axis directions are present. In particular, we show that "strictly narrow" domain walls no longer exist in these more complex cases, while a cascade of phase transitions is found for canted chains as the canting angle approaches 45∘. The consequence for thermodynamic properties is briefly discussed in the last part of the paper.

Principles of blood transfusion service audit.

PubMed

Dosunmu, A O; Dada, M O

2005-12-01

Blood transfusion is still an important procedure in modern medical practice despite efforts to avoid it. This is due to it's association with infections especially HIV. It is therefore necessary to have proper quality control of its production, storage and usage [1]. A way of controlling usage is to do regular clinical audit. To effect this, there has to be an agreed standard for appropriate use of blood. The aim of this paper is to briefly highlight the importance of audit, audit procedures and tools i.e. required records, development of audit criteria and audit parameters. Every hospital/blood transfusion center is expected to develop a system of audit that is appropriate to its needs. The suggestions are mainly based on the experience at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital and the Lagos State Blood Transfusion Service.

Proceedings: 1995 SO{sub 2} control symposium. Volume 1, Sessions 1, 2, 3

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

NONE

1995-06-01

Cosponsored by EPRI, DOE, and EPA, this conference provided a forum for the exchange of economic, technical, and regulatory information on sulfur dioxide control technology. From March 28--31, 1995, participants presented 100 technical papers to an audience of 525 people from around the world. Given in thirteen technical sessions, the papers included regulatory and economic issues, wet and dry SO{sub 2} control processes, emerging technologies, and experience with Clean Air Act Amendments (CAAA) Phase I startups. The fifteenth in a series of symposia over the past two decades, the conference included these key points: the domestic flue gas desulfurization (FGD)more » market is likely to be modest over the next ten years, with most activity overseas; FGD awards could reach over $4 billion a year from 1996--2003, with more than half going to Eastern Europe and Asia; worldwide, at the start of 1994, FGD systems were installed on 609 coal-fired power plants; the average capital cost for Phase I retrofits has been $233/kW; and, trends point to simpler designs, such as towers that operate at higher gas velocities with fewer internals. Published proceedings from these regularly scheduled symposia are valuable resources for engineers and utility planners who need up-to-date information to comply with clean air legislation. Selected papers have been processed separately for inclusion in the Energy Science and Technology database.« less

Proceedings: 1995 SO{sub 2} control symposium. Volume 4, Sessions Ba, 8b

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

NONE

1995-06-01

Cosponsored by EPRI, DOE, and EPA, this conference provided a forum for the exchange of economic, technical, and regulatory information on sulfur dioxide control technology. From March 28--31, 1995, participants presented 100 technical papers to an audience of 525 people from around the world. Given in thirteen technical sessions, the papers included regulatory and economic issues, wet and dry SO{sub 2} control processes, emerging technologies, and experience with Clean Air Act Amendments (CAAA) Phase I startups. The fifteenth in a series of symposia over the past two decades, the conference included these key points: the domestic flue gas desulfurization (FGD)more » market is likely to be modest over the next ten years, with most activity overseas; FGD awards could reach over $4 billion a year from 1996--2003, with more than half going to Eastern Europe and Asia; worldwide, at the start of 1994, FGD systems were installed on 609 coal-fired power plants; the average capital cost for Phase I retrofits has been $233/kW; and, trends point to simpler designs, such as towers that operate at higher gas velocities with fewer internals. Published proceedings from these regularly scheduled symposia are valuable resources for engineers and utility planners who need up-to-date information to comply with clean air legislation. Selected papers have been processed separately for inclusion in the Energy Science and Technology database.« less

Krylov subspace iterative methods for boundary element method based near-field acoustic holography.

PubMed

Valdivia, Nicolas; Williams, Earl G

2005-02-01

The reconstruction of the acoustic field for general surfaces is obtained from the solution of a matrix system that results from a boundary integral equation discretized using boundary element methods. The solution to the resultant matrix system is obtained using iterative regularization methods that counteract the effect of noise on the measurements. These methods will not require the calculation of the singular value decomposition, which can be expensive when the matrix system is considerably large. Krylov subspace methods are iterative methods that have the phenomena known as "semi-convergence," i.e., the optimal regularization solution is obtained after a few iterations. If the iteration is not stopped, the method converges to a solution that generally is totally corrupted by errors on the measurements. For these methods the number of iterations play the role of the regularization parameter. We will focus our attention to the study of the regularizing properties from the Krylov subspace methods like conjugate gradients, least squares QR and the recently proposed Hybrid method. A discussion and comparison of the available stopping rules will be included. A vibrating plate is considered as an example to validate our results.

Coming of Age

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Morgan, Ray

2004-01-01

One of the great perks I looked forward to when I turned sixteen was being able to give up my paper route and get a regular job. Paper routes are okay, but for a young, timid kid who was afraid to ask for money, it often proved to be a non-profit operation. At age sixteen, I could get a social security number, which meant that I could go get myself a real job. In my early days of running a division and having my own employees, I m sad to say that I emulated that behavior more than once. At the time, I rationalized it. Now, I know how wrong I was, and how I may have ruined the morale of employees who only wanted to do good work. I recognize that almost every time I didn't get what I wanted from an employee, it was because they didn't understand what I really expected from them, they didn't understand how to provide it, or there were constraints placed on them that stopped them from doing a good job. I'am sure OJ. is long dead and gone. He wasn't young when I worked for him. I think he would have been amazed to learn what a long-lasting effect his behavior that week in 1963 had on me.

OR State Profile. Oregon: Oregon State Assessment System (OSAS)

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Center on Education Policy, 2010

2010-01-01

This paper provides information about Oregon State Assessment System. Its purpose is to assess proficiency in the Essential Skills for the purpose of earning a regular or modified high school diploma. Oregon Assessment of Knowledge and Skills is also used for federal accountability purposes under No Child Left Behind. [For the main report,…

The Working Status of Students and Time to Degree at German Universities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Theune, Katja

2015-01-01

This paper analyzes time to first degree at German universities. The database is the "Absolventenpanel" 2001, a panel study conducted by the "Hochschul-Informations-System." The German university system is characterized by a long duration of study; the regular time is often exceeded. One potential reason might be the high…

Cross-hierarchy systems principles.

PubMed

Goentoro, Lea

2017-02-01

One driving motivation of systems biology is the search for general principles that govern the design of biological systems. But questions often arise as to what kind of general principles biology could have. Concepts from engineering such as robustness and modularity are indeed becoming a regular way of describing biological systems. Another source of potential general principles is the emerging similarities found in processes across biological hierarchies. In this piece, I describe several emerging cross-hierarchy similarities. Identification of more cross-hierarchy principles, and understanding the implications these convergence have on the construction of biological systems, I believe, present exciting challenges for systems biology in the decades to come.

Irregular Wave Energy Extraction Analysis for a Slider Crank WEC Power Take-Off System

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

Sang, Yuanrui; Karayaka, H. Bora; Yan, Yanjun

2015-09-02

Slider crank Wave Energy Converter (WEC) is a novel energy conversion device. It converts wave energy into electricity at a relatively high efficiency, and it features a simple structure. Past analysis on this WEC has been done under regular sinusoidal wave conditions, and a suboptimal energy could be achieved. This paper presents the analysis of the system under irregular wave conditions; a time-domain hydrodynamics model is adopted and the control methodology is modified to better serve the irregular wave conditions. Results from the simulations show that the performance of the system under irregular wave conditions is different from that undermore » regular sinusoidal wave conditions, but still a reasonable amount of energy can be extracted.« less

Joint Adaptive Mean-Variance Regularization and Variance Stabilization of High Dimensional Data.

PubMed

Dazard, Jean-Eudes; Rao, J Sunil

2012-07-01

The paper addresses a common problem in the analysis of high-dimensional high-throughput "omics" data, which is parameter estimation across multiple variables in a set of data where the number of variables is much larger than the sample size. Among the problems posed by this type of data are that variable-specific estimators of variances are not reliable and variable-wise tests statistics have low power, both due to a lack of degrees of freedom. In addition, it has been observed in this type of data that the variance increases as a function of the mean. We introduce a non-parametric adaptive regularization procedure that is innovative in that : (i) it employs a novel "similarity statistic"-based clustering technique to generate local-pooled or regularized shrinkage estimators of population parameters, (ii) the regularization is done jointly on population moments, benefiting from C. Stein's result on inadmissibility, which implies that usual sample variance estimator is improved by a shrinkage estimator using information contained in the sample mean. From these joint regularized shrinkage estimators, we derived regularized t-like statistics and show in simulation studies that they offer more statistical power in hypothesis testing than their standard sample counterparts, or regular common value-shrinkage estimators, or when the information contained in the sample mean is simply ignored. Finally, we show that these estimators feature interesting properties of variance stabilization and normalization that can be used for preprocessing high-dimensional multivariate data. The method is available as an R package, called 'MVR' ('Mean-Variance Regularization'), downloadable from the CRAN website.

Research of generalized wavelet transformations of Haar correctness in remote sensing of the Earth

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kazaryan, Maretta; Shakhramanyan, Mihail; Nedkov, Roumen; Richter, Andrey; Borisova, Denitsa; Stankova, Nataliya; Ivanova, Iva; Zaharinova, Mariana

2017-10-01

In this paper, Haar's generalized wavelet functions are applied to the problem of ecological monitoring by the method of remote sensing of the Earth. We study generalized Haar wavelet series and suggest the use of Tikhonov's regularization method for investigating them for correctness. In the solution of this problem, an important role is played by classes of functions that were introduced and described in detail by I.M. Sobol for studying multidimensional quadrature formulas and it contains functions with rapidly convergent series of wavelet Haar. A theorem on the stability and uniform convergence of the regularized summation function of the generalized wavelet-Haar series of a function from this class with approximate coefficients is proved. The article also examines the problem of using orthogonal transformations in Earth remote sensing technologies for environmental monitoring. Remote sensing of the Earth allows to receive from spacecrafts information of medium, high spatial resolution and to conduct hyperspectral measurements. Spacecrafts have tens or hundreds of spectral channels. To process the images, the device of discrete orthogonal transforms, and namely, wavelet transforms, was used. The aim of the work is to apply the regularization method in one of the problems associated with remote sensing of the Earth and subsequently to process the satellite images through discrete orthogonal transformations, in particular, generalized Haar wavelet transforms. General methods of research. In this paper, Tikhonov's regularization method, the elements of mathematical analysis, the theory of discrete orthogonal transformations, and methods for decoding of satellite images are used. Scientific novelty. The task of processing of archival satellite snapshots (images), in particular, signal filtering, was investigated from the point of view of an incorrectly posed problem. The regularization parameters for discrete orthogonal transformations were determined.

Reasons (Not) to Spend a Few Billions More on EHRs: How Human Factors Research Can Help

PubMed Central

Aimé, X.

2014-01-01

Summary Objectives To select best medical informatics research works published in 2013 on electronic health record (EHR) adoption, design, and impact, from the perspective of human factors and organizational issues (HFOI). Methods We selected 2,764 papers by querying PubMed (Mesh and TIAB) as well as using a manual search. Papers were evaluated based on pre-defined exclusion and inclusion criteria from their title, keywords, and abstract to select 15 candidate best papers, finally reviewed by 4 external reviewers using a standard evaluation grid. Results Five papers were selected as best papers to illustrate how human factors approaches can improve EHR adoption and design. Among other contributions, these works: (i) make use of the observational and analysis methodologies of social and cognitive sciences to understand clinicians’ attitudes towards EHRs, EHR use patterns, and impact on care processes, workflows, information exchange, and coordination of care; (ii) take into account macro- (environmental) and meso- (organizational) level factors to analyze EHR adoption or lack thereof; (iii) highlight the need for qualitative studies to analyze the unexpected side effects of EHRs on cognitive and work processes as well as the persistent use of paper. Conclusion Selected papers tend to demonstrate that HFOI approaches and methodologies are essential to bridge the gap between EHR systems and end users, and to reduce regularly reported adoption failures and unexpected consequences. PMID:25123727

Reasons (not) to Spend a Few Billions More on EHRs: How Human Factors Research Can Help.

PubMed

Declerck, G; Aimé, X

2014-08-15

To select best medical informatics research works published in 2013 on electronic health record (EHR) adoption, design, and impact, from the perspective of human factors and organizational issues (HFOI). We selected 2,764 papers by querying PubMed (Mesh and TIAB) as well as using a manual search. Papers were evaluated based on pre-defined exclusion and inclusion criteria from their title, keywords, and abstract to select 15 candidate best papers, finally reviewed by 4 external reviewers using a standard evaluation grid. Five papers were selected as best papers to illustrate how human factors approaches can improve EHR adoption and design. Among other contributions, these works: (i) make use of the observational and analysis methodologies of social and cognitive sciences to understand clinicians' attitudes towards EHRs, EHR use patterns, and impact on care processes, workflows, information exchange, and coordination of care; (ii) take into account macro- (environmental) and meso- (organizational) level factors to analyze EHR adoption or lack thereof; (iii) highlight the need for qualitative studies to analyze the unexpected side effects of EHRs on cognitive and work processes as well as the persistent use of paper. Selected papers tend to demonstrate that HFOI approaches and methodologies are essential to bridge the gap between EHR systems and end users, and to reduce regularly reported adoption failures and unexpected consequences.

Turing instability in reaction-diffusion models on complex networks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ide, Yusuke; Izuhara, Hirofumi; Machida, Takuya

2016-09-01

In this paper, the Turing instability in reaction-diffusion models defined on complex networks is studied. Here, we focus on three types of models which generate complex networks, i.e. the Erdős-Rényi, the Watts-Strogatz, and the threshold network models. From analysis of the Laplacian matrices of graphs generated by these models, we numerically reveal that stable and unstable regions of a homogeneous steady state on the parameter space of two diffusion coefficients completely differ, depending on the network architecture. In addition, we theoretically discuss the stable and unstable regions in the cases of regular enhanced ring lattices which include regular circles, and networks generated by the threshold network model when the number of vertices is large enough.

A practical application of the geometrical theory on fibered manifolds to an autonomous bicycle motion in mechanical system with nonholonomic constraints

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Haddout, Soufiane

2018-01-01

The equations of motion of a bicycle are highly nonlinear and rolling of wheels without slipping can only be expressed by nonholonomic constraint equations. A geometrical theory of general nonholonomic constrained systems on fibered manifolds and their jet prolongations, based on so-called Chetaev-type constraint forces, was proposed and developed in the last decade by O. Krupková (Rossi) in 1990's. Her approach is suitable for study of all kinds of mechanical systems-without restricting to Lagrangian, time-independent, or regular ones, and is applicable to arbitrary constraints (holonomic, semiholonomic, linear, nonlinear or general nonholonomic). The goal of this paper is to apply Krupková's geometric theory of nonholonomic mechanical systems to study a concrete problem in nonlinear nonholonomic dynamics, i.e., autonomous bicycle. The dynamical model is preserved in simulations in its original nonlinear form without any simplifying. The results of numerical solutions of constrained equations of motion, derived within the theory, are in good agreement with measurements and thus they open the possibility of direct application of the theory to practical situations.

Breakdown between bare electrodes with an oil-paper interface

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kelley, E. F.; Hebner, R. E., Jr.

1980-06-01

Measurements of the location of electrical breakdown in a composite insulating system were made. For these measurements a paper sample was mounted so that it connected the two electrodes. Electrode structures ranging from plane-plane to sphere-sphere were used. The electrode paper system was tested in oil in an attempt to determine the properties of an oil paper interface. The data indicated that in a carefully prepared system the breakdown will not necessarily occur at the interface. In addition, it was found that the breakdown voltages were not significantly lower for those breakdowns which occurred at the interface than for those which did not. It was noted that if the paper interface was not dried or if many gaseous voids were left in or on the paper, the breakdown will regularly occur at the interface and at a lower voltage.

Global Regularity for Several Incompressible Fluid Models with Partial Dissipation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wu, Jiahong; Xu, Xiaojing; Ye, Zhuan

2017-09-01

This paper examines the global regularity problem on several 2D incompressible fluid models with partial dissipation. They are the surface quasi-geostrophic (SQG) equation, the 2D Euler equation and the 2D Boussinesq equations. These are well-known models in fluid mechanics and geophysics. The fundamental issue of whether or not they are globally well-posed has attracted enormous attention. The corresponding models with partial dissipation may arise in physical circumstances when the dissipation varies in different directions. We show that the SQG equation with either horizontal or vertical dissipation always has global solutions. This is in sharp contrast with the inviscid SQG equation for which the global regularity problem remains outstandingly open. Although the 2D Euler is globally well-posed for sufficiently smooth data, the associated equations with partial dissipation no longer conserve the vorticity and the global regularity is not trivial. We are able to prove the global regularity for two partially dissipated Euler equations. Several global bounds are also obtained for a partially dissipated Boussinesq system.

Managing Endings in a Longitudinal Study: Respect for Persons

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Reiss, Michael J.

2005-03-01

In this paper I describe and discuss the way that a book I had written on a five-year longitudinal study of school science teaching was received by the pupils and teachers it featured. By and large the pupils' reception was positive. However, one group of teachers was deeply hurt by the book. I trace this mainly to my failure to consider adequately their fears of the consequences of the book's publication and possibly to my failure to consider with them the psychological significance of my withdrawing from the school after five years of regular study. I hope that there are lessons not only for myself but also for others considering longitudinal and ethnographic research in science education and more broadly.

Analysis on preemptive priority retrial queue with two types of customers, balking, optional re-service, single vacation and service interruption

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yuvarani, S.; Saravanarajan, M. C.

2017-11-01

This paper concerned with performance analysis of single server preemptive priority retrial queue with a single vacation where two types of customers are considered and they are called priority customers and ordinary customers. The ordinary customers arrive in batch into the system. The priority customers do not form any queue. After the completion of regular service, the customers may demand re-service for the previous service without joining the orbit or may leave the system. As soon as the system is empty, the server goes for vacation and the regular busy server can be subjected to breakdown. By using the supplementary variable technique, we obtain the steady-state probability generating functions for the system/orbit size. Some important system performance measures and the stochastic decomposition are discussed. Finally, numerical examples are presented to visualize the effect of parameters on system performance measures.

[Chloroplast ultrastructure and photosynthetic characteristics of five kinds of dandelion (Taraxacum) leaves in northeast China].

PubMed

Ning, Wei; Wu, Jie; Zhao, Ting; Zhao, Xin; Li, Tianlai

2012-05-01

The paper adopted the JEM-100CX II transmission electron microscope to observe chloroplast ultrastructure of five kinds of dandelion (Taraxacum) leaves in northeast, and the LI-6400 portable photosynthesis system was used to compare the chlorophyll fluorescence and the photosynthesis characteristics of five kinds of dandelions in Northeast China. Chloroplast ultrastructure showed: in the five kinds of dandelion, larger chloroplast, grana with more layers, regular thylakoid, without starch grains and so on, these chloroplasts characteristics decided to bigger photosynthetic rate. The five kinds of dandelion P(n) exhibited a "double peak" diurnal curve: stomatal limitation is the main adjustment factors for the midday depression phenomenon. The P(n),G(s),C(i) content of T. mongolicum are the highest, and T. asiaticum are the lowest among them. The relation between P(n) and G(s),C(i) is direct ratio, P(n) and T(r) is in an inverse proportion among the five kinds of dandelion. In addition, P(n) is positively correlated with Chla, Chlb, and the relationship with Chlb is bigger. The paper demonstrates the Mongolian dandelion photosynthetic efficiency is the highest, it is an higher photosynthetic efficiency dandelion,it provide theoretical basis for assessment and use of the resource of dandelion.

On The Dynamics and Design of a Two-body Wave Energy Converter

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Liang, Changwei; Zuo, Lei

2016-09-01

A two-body wave energy converter oscillating in heave is studied in this paper. The energy is extracted through the relative motion between the floating and submerged bodies. A linearized model in the frequency domain is adopted to study the dynamics of such a two-body system with consideration of both the viscous damping and the hydrodynamic damping. The closed form solution of the maximum absorption power and corresponding power take-off parameters are obtained. The suboptimal and optimal designs for a two-body system are proposed based on the closed form solution. The physical insight of the optimal design is to have one of the damped natural frequencies of the two body system the same as, or as close as possible to, the excitation frequency. A case study is conducted to investigate the influence of the submerged body on the absorption power of a two-body system subjected to suboptimal and optimal design under regular and irregular wave excitations. It is found that the absorption power of the two-body system can be significantly higher than that of the single body system with the same floating buoy in both regular and irregular waves. In regular waves, it is found that the mass of the submerged body should be designed with an optimal value in order to achieve the maximum absorption power for the given floating buoy. The viscous damping on the submerged body should be as small as possible for a given mass in both regular and irregular waves.

The effects of articulatory suppression on word recognition in Serbian.

PubMed

Tenjović, Lazar; Lalović, Dejan

2005-11-01

The relatedness of phonological coding to the articulatory mechanisms in visual word recognition vary in different writing systems. While articulatory suppression (i.e., continuous verbalising during a visual word processing task) has a detrimental effect on the processing of Japanese words printed in regular syllabic Khana script, it has no such effect on the processing of irregular alphabetic English words. Besner (1990) proposed an experiment in the Serbian language, written in Cyrillic and Roman regular but alphabetic scripts, to disentangle the importance of script regularity vs. the syllabic-alphabetic dimension for the effects observed. Articulatory suppression had an equally detrimental effect in a lexical decision task for both alphabetically regular and distorted (by a mixture of the two alphabets) Serbian words, but comparisons of articulatory suppression effect size obtained in Serbian to those obtained in English and Japanese suggest "alphabeticity-syllabicity" to be the more critical dimension in determining the relatedness of phonological coding and articulatory activity.

On the Relationships between Generative Encodings, Regularity, and Learning Abilities when Evolving Plastic Artificial Neural Networks

PubMed Central

Tonelli, Paul; Mouret, Jean-Baptiste

2013-01-01

A major goal of bio-inspired artificial intelligence is to design artificial neural networks with abilities that resemble those of animal nervous systems. It is commonly believed that two keys for evolving nature-like artificial neural networks are (1) the developmental process that links genes to nervous systems, which enables the evolution of large, regular neural networks, and (2) synaptic plasticity, which allows neural networks to change during their lifetime. So far, these two topics have been mainly studied separately. The present paper shows that they are actually deeply connected. Using a simple operant conditioning task and a classic evolutionary algorithm, we compare three ways to encode plastic neural networks: a direct encoding, a developmental encoding inspired by computational neuroscience models, and a developmental encoding inspired by morphogen gradients (similar to HyperNEAT). Our results suggest that using a developmental encoding could improve the learning abilities of evolved, plastic neural networks. Complementary experiments reveal that this result is likely the consequence of the bias of developmental encodings towards regular structures: (1) in our experimental setup, encodings that tend to produce more regular networks yield networks with better general learning abilities; (2) whatever the encoding is, networks that are the more regular are statistically those that have the best learning abilities. PMID:24236099

Green operators for low regularity spacetimes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sanchez Sanchez, Yafet; Vickers, James

2018-02-01

In this paper we define and construct advanced and retarded Green operators for the wave operator on spacetimes with low regularity. In order to do so we require that the spacetime satisfies the condition of generalised hyperbolicity which is equivalent to well-posedness of the classical inhomogeneous problem with zero initial data where weak solutions are properly supported. Moreover, we provide an explicit formula for the kernel of the Green operators in terms of an arbitrary eigenbasis of H 1 and a suitable Green matrix that solves a system of second order ODEs.

Accelerated Reader.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Education Commission of the States, Denver, CO.

This paper provides an overview of Accelerated Reader, a system of computerized testing and record-keeping that supplements the regular classroom reading program. Accelerated Reader's primary goal is to increase literature-based reading practice. The program offers a computer-aided reading comprehension and management program intended to motivate…

The Study on Network Examinational Database based on ASP Technology

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, Yanfu; Han, Yuexiao; Zhou, Yanshuang

This article introduces the structure of the general test base system based on .NET technology, discussing the design of the function modules and its implementation methods. It focuses on key technology of the system, proposing utilizing the WEB online editor control to solve the input problem and regular expression to solve the problem HTML code, making use of genetic algorithm to optimize test paper and the automated tools of WORD to solve the problem of exporting papers and others. Practical effective design and implementation technology can be used as reference for the development of similar systems.

Targeting overall equipment efficiency for small medium enterprises with irregular production system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Prasetyawan, Y.; Suef, M.; Claudia, L.; Handayani, F. D.

2018-04-01

Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) is widely used to measure the maturity of a production system. The company will be considered as World Class Manufacturing if it reaches more than 85% value, with near perfect value for availability, performance and quality factor. This assessment is usually taken on industries with regular production times named shift system. A typical 8 hours shift system is used in OEE measurement and performance monitoring. There are few Small to Medium Enterprise (SME) perform regular production times with shift systems, others using irregular production systems. The irregular production time in the SME production system is used because of demand fluctuations. This paper shows a quantitative analysis as a part of manufacturing system design to achieve a specific value of OEE for SME with irregular production systems, for individual businesses as well as collective business systems (some companies use the same production facilities for several processes). The results of experiments on several companies are presented, as a basis for determining the technical strategy of achieving OEE values.

Termination Proofs for String Rewriting Systems via Inverse Match-Bounds

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Butler, Ricky (Technical Monitor); Geser, Alfons; Hofbauer, Dieter; Waldmann, Johannes

2004-01-01

Annotating a letter by a number, one can record information about its history during a reduction. A string rewriting system is called match-bounded if there is a global upper bound to these numbers. In earlier papers we established match-boundedness as a strong sufficient criterion for both termination and preservation of regular languages. We show now that the string rewriting system whose inverse (left and right hand sides exchanged) is match-bounded, also have exceptional properties, but slightly different ones. Inverse match-bounded systems effectively preserve context-free languages; their sets of normalized strings and their sets of immortal strings are effectively regular. These sets of strings can be used to decide the normalization, the termination and the uniform termination problems of inverse match-bounded systems. We also show that the termination problem is decidable in linear time, and that a certain strong reachability problem is deciable, thus solving two open problems of McNaughton's.

Design of on line detection system for static evaporation rate of LNG vehicle cylinders

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tang, P.; Wang, M.; Tan, W. H.; Ling, Z. W.; Li, F.

2017-06-01

In order to solve the problems existing in the regular inspection of LNG vehicle cylinders, the static evaporation rate on line detection system of LNG cylinders is discussed in this paper. A non-disassembling, short-term and high-efficiency on line detection system for LNG vehicle cylinders is proposed, which can meet the requirement of evaporation rate test under different media and different test pressures. And then test methods under the experimental conditions, atmospheric pressure and pressure are given respectively. This online detection system designed in this paper can effectively solve the technical problems during the inspection of the cylinder.

Joint Adaptive Mean-Variance Regularization and Variance Stabilization of High Dimensional Data

PubMed Central

Dazard, Jean-Eudes; Rao, J. Sunil

2012-01-01

The paper addresses a common problem in the analysis of high-dimensional high-throughput “omics” data, which is parameter estimation across multiple variables in a set of data where the number of variables is much larger than the sample size. Among the problems posed by this type of data are that variable-specific estimators of variances are not reliable and variable-wise tests statistics have low power, both due to a lack of degrees of freedom. In addition, it has been observed in this type of data that the variance increases as a function of the mean. We introduce a non-parametric adaptive regularization procedure that is innovative in that : (i) it employs a novel “similarity statistic”-based clustering technique to generate local-pooled or regularized shrinkage estimators of population parameters, (ii) the regularization is done jointly on population moments, benefiting from C. Stein's result on inadmissibility, which implies that usual sample variance estimator is improved by a shrinkage estimator using information contained in the sample mean. From these joint regularized shrinkage estimators, we derived regularized t-like statistics and show in simulation studies that they offer more statistical power in hypothesis testing than their standard sample counterparts, or regular common value-shrinkage estimators, or when the information contained in the sample mean is simply ignored. Finally, we show that these estimators feature interesting properties of variance stabilization and normalization that can be used for preprocessing high-dimensional multivariate data. The method is available as an R package, called ‘MVR’ (‘Mean-Variance Regularization’), downloadable from the CRAN website. PMID:22711950

Some special sub-systems for stratospheric balloon flights in India

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Damle, S. V.; Gokhale, G. S.; Kundapurkar, R. U.

During last few years several new sub-systems for balloon were developed and are being regularly used in the balloon flights. Some of these sub-systems are i) positive monitor for magnetic ballast release using an opto-electronic device ii) one-way pressure switch to terminate flight for runaway balloon iii) in-flight payload reel down system for atmospheric science experiment. The design, usage and performance of these and other sub-systems will be presented.

Intraventricular vector flow mapping—a Doppler-based regularized problem with automatic model selection

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Assi, Kondo Claude; Gay, Etienne; Chnafa, Christophe; Mendez, Simon; Nicoud, Franck; Abascal, Juan F. P. J.; Lantelme, Pierre; Tournoux, François; Garcia, Damien

2017-09-01

We propose a regularized least-squares method for reconstructing 2D velocity vector fields within the left ventricular cavity from single-view color Doppler echocardiographic images. Vector flow mapping is formulated as a quadratic optimization problem based on an {{\\ell }2} -norm minimization of a cost function composed of a Doppler data-fidelity term and a regularizer. The latter contains three physically interpretable expressions related to 2D mass conservation, Dirichlet boundary conditions, and smoothness. A finite difference discretization of the continuous problem was adopted in a polar coordinate system, leading to a sparse symmetric positive-definite system. The three regularization parameters were determined automatically by analyzing the L-hypersurface, a generalization of the L-curve. The performance of the proposed method was numerically evaluated using (1) a synthetic flow composed of a mixture of divergence-free and curl-free flow fields and (2) simulated flow data from a patient-specific CFD (computational fluid dynamics) model of a human left heart. The numerical evaluations showed that the vector flow fields reconstructed from the Doppler components were in good agreement with the original velocities, with a relative error less than 20%. It was also demonstrated that a perturbation of the domain contour has little effect on the rebuilt velocity fields. The capability of our intraventricular vector flow mapping (iVFM) algorithm was finally illustrated on in vivo echocardiographic color Doppler data acquired in patients. The vortex that forms during the rapid filling was clearly deciphered. This improved iVFM algorithm is expected to have a significant clinical impact in the assessment of diastolic function.

Proceedings: 1995 SO{sub 2} control symposium. Volume 3, Sessions 6a, 6b, 7a, 7b

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

NONE

1995-06-01

Cosponsored by EPRI, DOE, and EPA, this conference provided a forum for the exchange of economic, technical, and regulatory information on sulfur dioxide control technology. From March 28--31, 1995, participants presented 100 technical papers to an audience of 525 people from around the world. Given in thirteen technical sessions, the papers included regulatory and economic issues, wet and dry SO{sub 2} control processes, emerging technologies, and experience with Clean Air Act Amendments (CAAA) Phase I startups. The fifteenth in a series of symposia over the past two decades, the conference included these key points: the domestic flue gas desulfurization (FGD)more » market is likely to be modest over the next ten years, with most activity overseas; FGD awards could reach over $4 billion a year from 1996--2003, with more than half going to Eastern Europe and Asia; worldwide, at the start of 1994, FGD systems were installed on 609 coal-fired power plants; the average capital cost for Phase I retrofits has been $233/kW; and, trends point to simpler designs, such as towers that operate at higher gas velocities with fewer internals. Published proceedings from these regularly scheduled symposia are valuable resources for engineers and utility planners who need up-to-date information to comply with clean air legislation. Selected papers have been processed separately for inclusion in the Energy Science and Technology database.« less

Proceedings: 1995 SO{sub 2} control symposium. Volume 2, Sessions 4a, 4b, 5a, 5b

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

NONE

1995-06-01

Cosponsored by EPRI, DOE, and EPA, this conference provided a forum for the exchange of economic, technical, and regulatory information on sulfur dioxide control technology. From March 28--31, 1995, participants presented 100 technical papers to an audience of 525 people from around the world. Given in thirteen technical sessions, the papers included regulatory and economic issues, wet and dry SO{sub 2} control processes, emerging technologies, and experience with Clean Air Act Amendments (CAAA) Phase I startups. The fifteenth in a series of symposia over the past two decades, the conference included these key points: the domestic flue gas desulfurization (FGD)more » market is likely to be modest over the next ten years, with most activity overseas; FGD awards could reach over $4 billion a year from 1996--2003, with more than half going to Eastern Europe and Asia; worldwide, at the start of 1994, FGD systems were installed on 609 coal-fired power plants; the average capital cost for Phase I retrofits has been $233/kW; and, trends point to simpler designs, such as towers that operate at higher gas velocities with fewer internals. Published proceedings from these regularly scheduled symposia are valuable resources for engineers and utility planners who need up-to-date information to comply with clean air legislation. Selected papers have been processed separately for inclusion in the Energy Science and Technology database.« less

Image degradation characteristics and restoration based on regularization for diffractive imaging

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhi, Xiyang; Jiang, Shikai; Zhang, Wei; Wang, Dawei; Li, Yun

2017-11-01

The diffractive membrane optical imaging system is an important development trend of ultra large aperture and lightweight space camera. However, related investigations on physics-based diffractive imaging degradation characteristics and corresponding image restoration methods are less studied. In this paper, the model of image quality degradation for the diffraction imaging system is first deduced mathematically based on diffraction theory and then the degradation characteristics are analyzed. On this basis, a novel regularization model of image restoration that contains multiple prior constraints is established. After that, the solving approach of the equation with the multi-norm coexistence and multi-regularization parameters (prior's parameters) is presented. Subsequently, the space-variant PSF image restoration method for large aperture diffractive imaging system is proposed combined with block idea of isoplanatic region. Experimentally, the proposed algorithm demonstrates its capacity to achieve multi-objective improvement including MTF enhancing, dispersion correcting, noise and artifact suppressing as well as image's detail preserving, and produce satisfactory visual quality. This can provide scientific basis for applications and possesses potential application prospects on future space applications of diffractive membrane imaging technology.

A Projection free method for Generalized Eigenvalue Problem with a nonsmooth Regularizer.

PubMed

Hwang, Seong Jae; Collins, Maxwell D; Ravi, Sathya N; Ithapu, Vamsi K; Adluru, Nagesh; Johnson, Sterling C; Singh, Vikas

2015-12-01

Eigenvalue problems are ubiquitous in computer vision, covering a very broad spectrum of applications ranging from estimation problems in multi-view geometry to image segmentation. Few other linear algebra problems have a more mature set of numerical routines available and many computer vision libraries leverage such tools extensively. However, the ability to call the underlying solver only as a "black box" can often become restrictive. Many 'human in the loop' settings in vision frequently exploit supervision from an expert, to the extent that the user can be considered a subroutine in the overall system. In other cases, there is additional domain knowledge, side or even partial information that one may want to incorporate within the formulation. In general, regularizing a (generalized) eigenvalue problem with such side information remains difficult. Motivated by these needs, this paper presents an optimization scheme to solve generalized eigenvalue problems (GEP) involving a (nonsmooth) regularizer. We start from an alternative formulation of GEP where the feasibility set of the model involves the Stiefel manifold. The core of this paper presents an end to end stochastic optimization scheme for the resultant problem. We show how this general algorithm enables improved statistical analysis of brain imaging data where the regularizer is derived from other 'views' of the disease pathology, involving clinical measurements and other image-derived representations.

Chandrasekhar equations for infinite dimensional systems. Part 2: Unbounded input and output case

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ito, Kazufumi; Powers, Robert K.

1987-01-01

A set of equations known as Chandrasekhar equations arising in the linear quadratic optimal control problem is considered. In this paper, we consider the linear time-invariant system defined in Hilbert spaces involving unbounded input and output operators. For a general class of such systems, the Chandrasekhar equations are derived and the existence, uniqueness, and regularity of the results of their solutions established.

Efficient Analysis of Systems Biology Markup Language Models of Cellular Populations Using Arrays.

PubMed

Watanabe, Leandro; Myers, Chris J

2016-08-19

The Systems Biology Markup Language (SBML) has been widely used for modeling biological systems. Although SBML has been successful in representing a wide variety of biochemical models, the core standard lacks the structure for representing large complex regular systems in a standard way, such as whole-cell and cellular population models. These models require a large number of variables to represent certain aspects of these types of models, such as the chromosome in the whole-cell model and the many identical cell models in a cellular population. While SBML core is not designed to handle these types of models efficiently, the proposed SBML arrays package can represent such regular structures more easily. However, in order to take full advantage of the package, analysis needs to be aware of the arrays structure. When expanding the array constructs within a model, some of the advantages of using arrays are lost. This paper describes a more efficient way to simulate arrayed models. To illustrate the proposed method, this paper uses a population of repressilator and genetic toggle switch circuits as examples. Results show that there are memory benefits using this approach with a modest cost in runtime.

Labour Market Characteristics and International Mobility of Doctorate Holders: Results for Seven Countries. OECD Science, Technology and Industry Working Papers, 2007/2

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Auriol, Laudeline

2007-01-01

This paper presents the first results of a project initiated in 2004 by the OECD in collaboration with Eurostat and the UNESCO Institute for Statistics, and aimed at developing a regular and internationally comparable production system of indicators on the careers and mobility of doctorate holders. A first data collection was launched in September…

Parallelization strategies for continuum-generalized method of moments on the multi-thread systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bustamam, A.; Handhika, T.; Ernastuti, Kerami, D.

2017-07-01

Continuum-Generalized Method of Moments (C-GMM) covers the Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) shortfall which is not as efficient as Maximum Likelihood estimator by using the continuum set of moment conditions in a GMM framework. However, this computation would take a very long time since optimizing regularization parameter. Unfortunately, these calculations are processed sequentially whereas in fact all modern computers are now supported by hierarchical memory systems and hyperthreading technology, which allowing for parallel computing. This paper aims to speed up the calculation process of C-GMM by designing a parallel algorithm for C-GMM on the multi-thread systems. First, parallel regions are detected for the original C-GMM algorithm. There are two parallel regions in the original C-GMM algorithm, that are contributed significantly to the reduction of computational time: the outer-loop and the inner-loop. Furthermore, this parallel algorithm will be implemented with standard shared-memory application programming interface, i.e. Open Multi-Processing (OpenMP). The experiment shows that the outer-loop parallelization is the best strategy for any number of observations.

Queue theory for triangular and weibull arrival distribution models (case study of Banyumanik toll)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sugito; Rahmawati, Rita; Kusuma Wardhani, Jenesia

2018-05-01

Queuing is one of the most common phenomena in daily life. Queued also happens on highway during busy time. The Electronic Toll Collection (ETC) was the new system of the Banyumanik toll gate which operates in 2014. Before ETC, Banyumanik toll gate users got regular service (regular toll gate) by paying in cash only. The ETC benefits more than regular service, but automatic toll gate (ETC) users are still few compared to regular toll gate users. To know the effectiveness of substance service, this paper used analysis of queuing system. The research was conducted at Toll Gate Banyumanik with the implementation time on 26-28 December 2016 for Ungaran-Semarang direction, and 29-31 December 2016 for Semarang- Ungaran direction. In one day, observation was done for 11 hours. That was at 07.00 a.m. until 06.00 p.m. There are 4 models of queues at Banyumanik toll gate. Here the four models will be used on the number of arrival and service time. Based on the simulation with Arena, the result showed that queue model regular toll gate in Ugaran-Semarang direction is (Tria/G/3):(GD/∞/∞) and the queue model for automatic toll gate is (G/G/3):(GD/∞/∞). While the queue model for the direction of Semarang-Ungaran regular toll gate is (G/G/3):(GD/∞/∞) and the queue model of automatic toll gate is (Weib/G/3):(GD/∞/∞).

Global Regularity and Time Decay for the 2D Magnetohydrodynamic Equations with Fractional Dissipation and Partial Magnetic Diffusion

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dong, Bo-Qing; Jia, Yan; Li, Jingna; Wu, Jiahong

2018-05-01

This paper focuses on a system of the 2D magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) equations with the kinematic dissipation given by the fractional operator (-Δ )^α and the magnetic diffusion by partial Laplacian. We are able to show that this system with any α >0 always possesses a unique global smooth solution when the initial data is sufficiently smooth. In addition, we make a detailed study on the large-time behavior of these smooth solutions and obtain optimal large-time decay rates. Since the magnetic diffusion is only partial here, some classical tools such as the maximal regularity property for the 2D heat operator can no longer be applied. A key observation on the structure of the MHD equations allows us to get around the difficulties due to the lack of full Laplacian magnetic diffusion. The results presented here are the sharpest on the global regularity problem for the 2D MHD equations with only partial magnetic diffusion.

Generation of an ICF syndrome model by efficient genome editing of human induced pluripotent stem cells using the CRISPR system.

PubMed

Horii, Takuro; Tamura, Daiki; Morita, Sumiyo; Kimura, Mika; Hatada, Izuho

2013-09-30

Genome manipulation of human induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells is essential to achieve their full potential as tools for regenerative medicine. To date, however, gene targeting in human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) has proven to be extremely difficult. Recently, an efficient genome manipulation technology using the RNA-guided DNase Cas9, the clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR) system, has been developed. Here we report the efficient generation of an iPS cell model for immunodeficiency, centromeric region instability, facial anomalies syndrome (ICF) syndrome using the CRISPR system. We obtained iPS cells with mutations in both alleles of DNA methyltransferase 3B (DNMT3B) in 63% of transfected clones. Our data suggest that the CRISPR system is highly efficient and useful for genome engineering of human iPS cells.

Statistical investigation of avalanches of three-dimensional small-world networks and their boundary and bulk cross-sections

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Najafi, M. N.; Dashti-Naserabadi, H.

2018-03-01

In many situations we are interested in the propagation of energy in some portions of a three-dimensional system with dilute long-range links. In this paper, a sandpile model is defined on the three-dimensional small-world network with real dissipative boundaries and the energy propagation is studied in three dimensions as well as the two-dimensional cross-sections. Two types of cross-sections are defined in the system, one in the bulk and another in the system boundary. The motivation of this is to make clear how the statistics of the avalanches in the bulk cross-section tend to the statistics of the dissipative avalanches, defined in the boundaries as the concentration of long-range links (α ) increases. This trend is numerically shown to be a power law in a manner described in the paper. Two regimes of α are considered in this work. For sufficiently small α s the dominant behavior of the system is just like that of the regular BTW, whereas for the intermediate values the behavior is nontrivial with some exponents that are reported in the paper. It is shown that the spatial extent up to which the statistics is similar to the regular BTW model scales with α just like the dissipative BTW model with the dissipation factor (mass in the corresponding ghost model) m2˜α for the three-dimensional system as well as its two-dimensional cross-sections.

Modeling Regular Replacement for String Constraint Solving

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Fu, Xiang; Li, Chung-Chih

2010-01-01

Bugs in user input sanitation of software systems often lead to vulnerabilities. Among them many are caused by improper use of regular replacement. This paper presents a precise modeling of various semantics of regular substitution, such as the declarative, finite, greedy, and reluctant, using finite state transducers (FST). By projecting an FST to its input/output tapes, we are able to solve atomic string constraints, which can be applied to both the forward and backward image computation in model checking and symbolic execution of text processing programs. We report several interesting discoveries, e.g., certain fragments of the general problem can be handled using less expressive deterministic FST. A compact representation of FST is implemented in SUSHI, a string constraint solver. It is applied to detecting vulnerabilities in web applications

Relevance of deterministic chaos theory to studies in functioning of dynamical systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Glagolev, S. N.; Bukhonova, S. M.; Chikina, E. D.

2018-03-01

The paper considers chaotic behavior of dynamical systems typical for social and economic processes. Approaches to analysis and evaluation of system development processes are studies from the point of view of controllability and determinateness. Explanations are given for necessity to apply non-standard mathematical tools to explain states of dynamical social and economic systems on the basis of fractal theory. Features of fractal structures, such as non-regularity, self-similarity, dimensionality and fractionality are considered.

Dancing with Black Holes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Aarseth, S. J.

2008-05-01

We describe efforts over the last six years to implement regularization methods suitable for studying one or more interacting black holes by direct N-body simulations. Three different methods have been adapted to large-N systems: (i) Time-Transformed Leapfrog, (ii) Wheel-Spoke, and (iii) Algorithmic Regularization. These methods have been tried out with some success on GRAPE-type computers. Special emphasis has also been devoted to including post-Newtonian terms, with application to moderately massive black holes in stellar clusters. Some examples of simulations leading to coalescence by gravitational radiation will be presented to illustrate the practical usefulness of such methods.

On the control of the crystallographic texture in cladding tubes from Zr-based alloys for nuclear reactor

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Isaenkova, M.; Perlovich, Yu.; Fesenko, V.

2016-10-01

This paper summarizes researches of authors, directed to the development of the methodological basis of X-ray studies as applied to zirconium alloys and on the systematization of new experimental results obtained using developed methods. The paper describes regularities of crystallographic texture formation in cladding tubes from zirconium alloys and their substructure inhomogeneity at various stages of manufacture, i.e. at hot and cold deformation, recrystallization, phase transformations and interaction of the above processes. The special attention is payed to possibilities of control the crystallographic texture of tubes at successive stages of their technological treatment.

INTERDISCIPLINARY PHYSICS AND RELATED AREAS OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY: Consensus of Multi-Agent Systems with Prestissimo Scale-Free Networks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yang, Hong-Yong; Lu, Lan; Cao, Ke-Cai; Zhang, Si-Ying

2010-04-01

In this paper, the relations of the network topology and the moving consensus of multi-agent systems are studied. A consensus-prestissimo scale-free network model with the static preferential-consensus attachment is presented on the rewired link of the regular network. The effects of the static preferential-consensus BA network on the algebraic connectivity of the topology graph are compared with the regular network. The robustness gain to delay is analyzed for variable network topology with the same scale. The time to reach the consensus is studied for the dynamic network with and without communication delays. By applying the computer simulations, it is validated that the speed of the convergence of multi-agent systems can be greatly improved in the preferential-consensus BA network model with different configuration.

Fabrication and structural studies of opal-III nitride nanocomposites

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Davydov, V. Yu; Golubev, V. G.; Kartenko, N. F.; Kurdyukov, D. A.; Pevtsov, A. B.; Sharenkova, N. V.; Brogueira, P.; Schwarz, R.

2000-12-01

In this paper, regular three-dimensional systems of GaN, InN and InGaN nanoclusters have been fabricated for the first time in a void sublattice of artificial opal. The opal consisted of 220 nm diameter close packed amorphous silica spheres and had a regular sublattice of voids accessible to filling by other substances. GaN, InN and InGaN were synthesized directly in the opal voids from precursors such as metal salts and nitrogen hydrides. The composites' structures have been characterized using x-ray diffraction, Raman spectroscopy, atomic force microscopy and optical measurements.

Relativistic calculation of nuclear magnetic shielding using normalized elimination of the small component

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kudo, K.; Maeda, H.; Kawakubo, T.; Ootani, Y.; Funaki, M.; Fukui, H.

2006-06-01

The normalized elimination of the small component (NESC) theory, recently proposed by Filatov and Cremer [J. Chem. Phys. 122, 064104 (2005)], is extended to include magnetic interactions and applied to the calculation of the nuclear magnetic shielding in HX (X =F,Cl,Br,I) systems. The NESC calculations are performed at the levels of the zeroth-order regular approximation (ZORA) and the second-order regular approximation (SORA). The calculations show that the NESC-ZORA results are very close to the NESC-SORA results, except for the shielding of the I nucleus. Both the NESC-ZORA and NESC-SORA calculations yield very similar results to the previously reported values obtained using the relativistic infinite-order two-component coupled Hartree-Fock method. The difference between NESC-ZORA and NESC-SORA results is significant for the shieldings of iodine.

Project for Integration of Pupils with Special Needs in Spain.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Marchesi, Alvaro

1986-01-01

This paper analyzes a project approved by the Spanish government in 1985 to integrate special needs children into regular education. Outlined are characteristics of the Spanish educational system, parameters of practice in the integration project, and plans for the systematic evaluation of the integration project. (Author/JDD)

Does Exercise Alter Immune Function and Respiratory Infections?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nieman, David C.

2001-01-01

This paper examines whether physical activity influences immune function as a consequence risk of infection from the common cold and other upper respiratory tract infections (URTI) and whether the immune system responds differently to moderate versus intense physical exertion. Research indicates that people who participate in regular moderate…

Including Students with Severe Disabilities in General Education Settings.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wisniewski, Lech; Alper, Sandra

1994-01-01

This paper presents five systematic phases for bringing about successful regular education inclusion of students with severe disabilities. Phases include develop networks within the community, assess school and community resources, review strategies for integration, install strategies that lead to integration, and develop a system of feedback and…

Sparse matrix-vector multiplication on network-on-chip

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sun, C.-C.; Götze, J.; Jheng, H.-Y.; Ruan, S.-J.

2010-12-01

In this paper, we present an idea for performing matrix-vector multiplication by using Network-on-Chip (NoC) architecture. In traditional IC design on-chip communications have been designed with dedicated point-to-point interconnections. Therefore, regular local data transfer is the major concept of many parallel implementations. However, when dealing with the parallel implementation of sparse matrix-vector multiplication (SMVM), which is the main step of all iterative algorithms for solving systems of linear equation, the required data transfers depend on the sparsity structure of the matrix and can be extremely irregular. Using the NoC architecture makes it possible to deal with arbitrary structure of the data transfers; i.e. with the irregular structure of the sparse matrices. So far, we have already implemented the proposed SMVM-NoC architecture with the size 4×4 and 5×5 in IEEE 754 single float point precision using FPGA.

Dissipative structure and global existence in critical space for Timoshenko system of memory type

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mori, Naofumi

2018-08-01

In this paper, we consider the initial value problem for the Timoshenko system with a memory term in one dimensional whole space. In the first place, we consider the linearized system: applying the energy method in the Fourier space, we derive the pointwise estimate of the solution in the Fourier space, which first gives the optimal decay estimate of the solution. Next, we give a characterization of the dissipative structure of the system by using the spectral analysis, which confirms our pointwise estimate is optimal. In the second place, we consider the nonlinear system: we show that the global-in-time existence and uniqueness result could be proved in the minimal regularity assumption in the critical Sobolev space H2. In the proof we don't need any time-weighted norm as recent works; we use just an energy method, which is improved to overcome the difficulties caused by regularity-loss property of Timoshenko system.

Effects of scanning and eliminating paper-based medical records on hospital physicians' clinical work practice.

PubMed

Laerum, Hallvard; Karlsen, Tom H; Faxvaag, Arild

2003-01-01

It is not automatically given that the paper-based medical record can be eliminated after the introduction of an electronic medical record (EMR) in a hospital. Many keep and update the paper-based counterpart, and this limits the use of the EMR system. The authors have evaluated the physicians' clinical work practices and attitudes toward a system in a hospital that has eliminated the paper-based counterpart using scanning technology. Combined open-ended interviews (8 physicians) and cross-sectional survey (70 physicians) were conducted and compared with reference data from a previous national survey (69 physicians from six hospitals). The hospitals in the reference group were using the same EMR system without the scanning module. The questionnaire (English translation available as an online data supplement at ) covered frequency of use of the EMR system for 19 defined tasks, ease of performing them, and user satisfaction. The interviews were open-ended. The physicians routinely used the system for nine of 11 tasks regarding retrieval of patient data, which the majority of the physicians found more easily performed than before. However, 22% to 25% of the physicians found retrieval of patient data more difficult, particularly among internists (33%). Overall, the physicians were equally satisfied with the part of the system handling the regular electronic data as that of the physicians in the reference group. They were, however, much less satisfied with the use of scanned document images than that of regular electronic data, using the former less frequently than the latter. Scanning and elimination of the paper-based medical record is feasible, but the scanned document images should be considered an intermediate stage toward fully electronic medical records. To our knowledge, this is the first assessment from a hospital in the process of completing such a scanning project.

Doping-Induced Type-II to Type-I Transition and Interband Optical Gain in InAs/AlSb Quantum Wells

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kolokolov, K. I.; Ning, C. Z.

2003-01-01

We show that proper doping of the barrier regions can convert the well-known type-II InAs/AlSb QWs to type I, producing strong interband transitions comparable to regular type-I QWs. The interband gain for TM mode is as high as 4000 l/cm, thus providing an important alternative material system in the mid-infrared wavelength range. We also study the TE and TM gain as functions of doping level and intrinsic electron-hole density.

Intrinsic Variability in Multiple Systems and Clusters: Open Questions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lampens, P.

2006-04-01

It is most interesting and rewarding to probe the stellar structure of stars which belong to a system originating from the same parent cloud as this provides additional and more accurate constraints for the models. New results on pulsating components in multiple systems and clusters are beginning to emerge regularly. Based on concrete studies, I will present still unsolved problems and discuss some of the issues which may affect our understanding of the pulsation physics in such systems but also in general.

Optimal behaviour can violate the principle of regularity.

PubMed

Trimmer, Pete C

2013-07-22

Understanding decisions is a fundamental aim of behavioural ecology, psychology and economics. The regularity axiom of utility theory holds that a preference between options should be maintained when other options are made available. Empirical studies have shown that animals violate regularity but this has not been understood from a theoretical perspective, such decisions have therefore been labelled as irrational. Here, I use models of state-dependent behaviour to demonstrate that choices can violate regularity even when behavioural strategies are optimal. I also show that the range of conditions over which regularity should be violated can be larger when options do not always persist into the future. Consequently, utility theory--based on axioms, including transitivity, regularity and the independence of irrelevant alternatives--is undermined, because even alternatives that are never chosen by an animal (in its current state) can be relevant to a decision.

Regularized minimum I-divergence methods for the inverse blackbody radiation problem

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Choi, Kerkil; Lanterman, Aaron D.; Shin, Jaemin

2006-08-01

This paper proposes iterative methods for estimating the area temperature distribution of a blackbody from its total radiated power spectrum measurements. This is called the inverse blackbody radiation problem. This problem is inherently ill-posed due to the characteristics of the kernel in the underlying integral equation given by Planck's law. The functions involved in the problem are all non-negative. Csiszár's I-divergence is an information-theoretic discrepancy measure between two non-negative functions. We derive iterative methods for minimizing Csiszár's I-divergence between the measured power spectrum and the power spectrum arising from the estimate according to the integral equation. Due to the ill-posedness of the problem, unconstrained algorithms often produce poor estimates, especially when the measurements are corrupted by noise. To alleviate this difficulty, we apply regularization methods to our algorithms. Penalties based on Shannon's entropy, the L1-norm and Good's roughness are chosen to suppress the undesirable artefacts. When a penalty is applied, the pertinent optimization that needs to be performed at each iteration is no longer trivial. In particular, Good's roughness causes couplings between estimate components. To handle this issue, we adapt Green's one-step-late method. This choice is based on the important fact that our minimum I-divergence algorithms can be interpreted as asymptotic forms of certain expectation-maximization algorithms. The effectiveness of our methods is illustrated via various numerical experiments.

'Sticking to a healthy diet is easier for me when I exercise regularly': cognitive transfer between physical exercise and healthy nutrition.

PubMed

Fleig, Lena; Kerschreiter, Rudolf; Schwarzer, Ralf; Pomp, Sarah; Lippke, Sonia

2014-01-01

Long-term rehabilitation success depends on regular exercise and healthy nutrition. The present study introduces a new framework to explain this association on a psychosocial level. The exercise-nutrition relationship was investigated by exploring the sequential mediation of habit strength and transfer cognitions. Analyses were performed at two measurement points in time (at 12 and 18 months after rehabilitation), involving 470 medical rehabilitation patients who participated in an exercise intervention. Patients filled in paper-pencil questionnaires assessing exercise (t1) and habit strength, transfer cognitions and healthy nutrition at follow-up (t2). Habit strength and transfer cognitions mediated the relationship between exercise and nutrition. Findings suggest that habit strength and transfer cognitions are important factors underlying the relationship between exercise and nutrition.

[Various aspects of public health system development under market economy].

PubMed

Polyakov, I V; Uvarov, S A

1995-01-01

Transfer from administrative methods of management to economic relationships in the public health system leads to reevaluation of the regularities in the development of the system of population health protection under conditions of marketing relations. The paper presents the logistic aspects of public health management under new conditions: positive and negative features in the development of medical insurance and offers a concept of introduction of a system of synchronous regulation of material, financial, and information streams in public health.

Bisimulation equivalence of differential-algebraic systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Megawati, Noorma Yulia; Schaft, Arjan van der

2018-01-01

In this paper, the notion of bisimulation relation for linear input-state-output systems is extended to general linear differential-algebraic (DAE) systems. Geometric control theory is used to derive a linear-algebraic characterisation of bisimulation relations, and an algorithm for computing the maximal bisimulation relation between two linear DAE systems. The general definition is specialised to the case where the matrix pencil sE - A is regular. Furthermore, by developing a one-sided version of bisimulation, characterisations of simulation and abstraction are obtained.

Group-sparse representation with dictionary learning for medical image denoising and fusion.

PubMed

Li, Shutao; Yin, Haitao; Fang, Leyuan

2012-12-01

Recently, sparse representation has attracted a lot of interest in various areas. However, the standard sparse representation does not consider the intrinsic structure, i.e., the nonzero elements occur in clusters, called group sparsity. Furthermore, there is no dictionary learning method for group sparse representation considering the geometrical structure of space spanned by atoms. In this paper, we propose a novel dictionary learning method, called Dictionary Learning with Group Sparsity and Graph Regularization (DL-GSGR). First, the geometrical structure of atoms is modeled as the graph regularization. Then, combining group sparsity and graph regularization, the DL-GSGR is presented, which is solved by alternating the group sparse coding and dictionary updating. In this way, the group coherence of learned dictionary can be enforced small enough such that any signal can be group sparse coded effectively. Finally, group sparse representation with DL-GSGR is applied to 3-D medical image denoising and image fusion. Specifically, in 3-D medical image denoising, a 3-D processing mechanism (using the similarity among nearby slices) and temporal regularization (to perverse the correlations across nearby slices) are exploited. The experimental results on 3-D image denoising and image fusion demonstrate the superiority of our proposed denoising and fusion approaches.

Apodized coupled resonator waveguides.

PubMed

Capmany, J; Muñoz, P; Domenech, J D; Muriel, M A

2007-08-06

In this paper we propose analyse the apodisation or windowing of the coupling coefficients in the unit cells of coupled resonator waveguide devices (CROWs) as a means to reduce the level of secondary sidelobes in the bandpass characteristic of their transfer functions. This technique is regularly employed in the design of digital filters and has been applied as well in the design of other photonic devices such as corrugated waveguide filters and fiber Bragg gratings. The apodisation of both Type-I and Type-II structures is discussed for several windowing functions.

A subtraction scheme for computing QCD jet cross sections at NNLO: integrating the subtraction terms I

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Somogyi, Gábor; Trócsányi, Zoltán

2008-08-01

In previous articles we outlined a subtraction scheme for regularizing doubly-real emission and real-virtual emission in next-to-next-to-leading order (NNLO) calculations of jet cross sections in electron-positron annihilation. In order to find the NNLO correction these subtraction terms have to be integrated over the factorized unresolved phase space and combined with the two-loop corrections. In this paper we perform the integration of all one-parton unresolved subtraction terms.

Three regularities of recognition memory: the role of bias.

PubMed

Hilford, Andrew; Maloney, Laurence T; Glanzer, Murray; Kim, Kisok

2015-12-01

A basic assumption of Signal Detection Theory is that decisions are made on the basis of likelihood ratios. In a preceding paper, Glanzer, Hilford, and Maloney (Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 16, 431-455, 2009) showed that the likelihood ratio assumption implies that three regularities will occur in recognition memory: (1) the Mirror Effect, (2) the Variance Effect, (3) the normalized Receiver Operating Characteristic (z-ROC) Length Effect. The paper offered formal proofs and computational demonstrations that decisions based on likelihood ratios produce the three regularities. A survey of data based on group ROCs from 36 studies validated the likelihood ratio assumption by showing that its three implied regularities are ubiquitous. The study noted, however, that bias, another basic factor in Signal Detection Theory, can obscure the Mirror Effect. In this paper we examine how bias affects the regularities at the theoretical level. The theoretical analysis shows: (1) how bias obscures the Mirror Effect, not the other two regularities, and (2) four ways to counter that obscuring. We then report the results of five experiments that support the theoretical analysis. The analyses and the experimental results also demonstrate: (1) that the three regularities govern individual, as well as group, performance, (2) alternative explanations of the regularities are ruled out, and (3) that Signal Detection Theory, correctly applied, gives a simple and unified explanation of recognition memory data.

Challenges of agricultural monitoring: integration of the Open Farm Management Information System into GEOSS and Digital Earth

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Řezník, T.; Kepka, M.; Charvát, K.; Charvát, K., Jr.; Horáková, S.; Lukas, V.

2016-04-01

From a global perspective, agriculture is the single largest user of freshwater resources, each country using an average of 70% of all its surface water supplies. An essential proportion of agricultural water is recycled back to surface water and/or groundwater. Agriculture and water pollution is therefore the subject of (inter)national legislation, such as the Clean Water Act in the United States of America, the European Water Framework Directive, and the Law of the People's Republic of China on the Prevention and Control of Water Pollution. Regular monitoring by means of sensor networks is needed in order to provide evidence of water pollution in agriculture. This paper describes the benefits of, and open issues stemming from, regular sensor monitoring provided by an Open Farm Management Information System. Emphasis is placed on descriptions of the processes and functionalities available to users, the underlying open data model, and definitions of open and lightweight application programming interfaces for the efficient management of collected (spatial) data. The presented Open Farm Management Information System has already been successfully registered under Phase 8 of the Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS) Architecture Implementation Pilot in order to support the wide variety of demands that are primarily aimed at agriculture pollution monitoring. The final part of the paper deals with the integration of the Open Farm Management Information System into the Digital Earth framework.

Energy Extraction from a Slider-Crank Wave Energy under Irregular Wave Conditions: Preprint

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

Sang, Yuanrui; Karayaka, H. Bora; Yan, Yanjun

2015-08-24

A slider-crank wave energy converter (WEC) is a novel energy conversion device. It converts wave energy into electricity at a relatively high efficiency, and it features a simple structure. Past analysis on this particular WEC has been done under regular sinusoidal wave conditions, and suboptimal energy could be achieved. This paper presents the analysis of the system under irregular wave conditions; a time-domain hydrodynamics model is adopted and a rule-based control methodology is introduced to better serve the irregular wave conditions. Results from the simulations show that the performance of the system under irregular wave conditions is different from thatmore » under regular sinusoidal wave conditions, but a reasonable amount of energy can still be extracted.« less

Energy Extraction from a Slider-Crank Wave Energy Converter under Irregular Wave Conditions

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

Sang, Yuanrui; Karayaka, H. Bora; Yan, Yanjun

2015-10-19

A slider-crank wave energy converter (WEC) is a novel energy conversion device. It converts wave energy into electricity at a relatively high efficiency, and it features a simple structure. Past analysis on this particular WEC has been done under regular sinusoidal wave conditions, and suboptimal energy could be achieved. This paper presents the analysis of the system under irregular wave conditions; a time-domain hydrodynamics model is adopted and a rule-based control methodology is introduced to better serve the irregular wave conditions. Results from the simulations show that the performance of the system under irregular wave conditions is different from thatmore » under regular sinusoidal wave conditions, but a reasonable amount of energy can still be extracted.« less

40 CFR 112.6 - Qualified Facilities Plan Requirements.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

... Self-Certification of the Plan. If you are an owner or operator of a facility that meets the Tier I... unloading equipment, tank overflow, rupture, or leakage, or any other equipment known to be a source of... the system or procedure in the SPCC Plan and regularly test to ensure proper operation or efficacy. (b...

40 CFR 112.6 - Qualified Facilities Plan Requirements.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-07-01

... Self-Certification of the Plan. If you are an owner or operator of a facility that meets the Tier I... unloading equipment, tank overflow, rupture, or leakage, or any other equipment known to be a source of... the system or procedure in the SPCC Plan and regularly test to ensure proper operation or efficacy. (b...

40 CFR 112.6 - Qualified Facilities Plan Requirements.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... Self-Certification of the Plan. If you are an owner or operator of a facility that meets the Tier I... unloading equipment, tank overflow, rupture, or leakage, or any other equipment known to be a source of... the system or procedure in the SPCC Plan and regularly test to ensure proper operation or efficacy. (b...

40 CFR 112.6 - Qualified Facilities Plan Requirements.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-07-01

... Self-Certification of the Plan. If you are an owner or operator of a facility that meets the Tier I... unloading equipment, tank overflow, rupture, or leakage, or any other equipment known to be a source of... the system or procedure in the SPCC Plan and regularly test to ensure proper operation or efficacy. (b...

40 CFR 112.6 - Qualified Facilities Plan Requirements.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-07-01

... Self-Certification of the Plan. If you are an owner or operator of a facility that meets the Tier I... unloading equipment, tank overflow, rupture, or leakage, or any other equipment known to be a source of... the system or procedure in the SPCC Plan and regularly test to ensure proper operation or efficacy. (b...

Persistence border collisions in a vibrating system excited by an unbalanced motor with a relay control

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhusubaliyev, Zhanybai T.; Avrutin, Viktor; Rubanov, Vasily G.; Bushuev, Dmitry A.; Titov, Dmitry V.; Yanochkina, Olga O.

2018-05-01

The paper describes a new scenario for the transition to complex dynamics in a vibrating system with an unbalanced rotor and a relay feedback control. We show that the transition from a regular dynamics without switching events in the relay element to an irregular dynamics which takes place completely in the hysteresis region occurs via a cascade of persistence border collisions.

Assessment of diffuser pressure loss on WWTPs in Baden-Württemberg.

PubMed

Krampe, J

2011-01-01

Aeration of activated sludge is a critical treatment step for the operation of activated sludge plants. To achieve a cost effective treatment process, assessing and benchmarking of aeration system performance are important measures. A simple means of gauging the relative condition of a fine bubble diffused aeration system is to evaluate the pressure loss of the diffusers as oxygen transfer tests are rarely applied during the lifetime of an aeration system. This paper shows an assessment of fine bubble diffuser systems in Baden-Württemberg, Germany, based on the results of a questionnaire sent to 941 WWTPs. Apart from the results with regards to the diffuser pressure loss, this paper also presents information on the current state of diffuser technology such as types and materials as well as the diffuser cleaning methods used in Baden-Württemberg. The majority of the WWTPs were equipped with tube diffusers (71%) with 50% of all plants having EPDM membranes installed. Regular mechanical cleaning is the most common cleaning method followed by regular pressure release/air-bumping programs during operations. With regard to the diffuser pressure loss it was found that 50% of the evaluated plants had a diffuser pressure loss that was twice as high as measured for new diffusers.

The Chemical Evolution of the Bootes I Ultra-faint Dwarf Galaxy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Frebel, Anna; Norris, John E.; Gilmore, Gerard; Wyse, Rosemary F. G.

2016-08-01

We present chemical abundance measurements of two metal-poor red giant stars in the ultra-faint dwarf galaxy Boötes I, based on Magellan/MIKE high-resolution spectra. For Boo-980, with {{[Fe/H]}}=-3.1, we present the first elemental abundance measurements, while Boo-127, with {{[Fe/H]}}=-2.0, shows abundances in good agreement with previous measurements. Light and iron-peak element abundance ratios in the two Boötes I stars, as well as those of most other Boötes I members, collected from the literature, closely resemble those of regular metal-poor halo stars. Neutron-capture element abundances Sr and Ba are systematically lower than the main halo trend and also show a significant abundance spread. Overall, this is similar to what has been found for other ultra-faint dwarf galaxies. We apply corrections to the carbon abundances (commensurate with stellar evolutionary status) of the entire sample and find 21% of stars to be carbon-enhanced metal-poor (CEMP) stars, compared to 13% without using the carbon correction. We reassess the metallicity distribution functions for the CEMP stars and non-CEMP stars, and confirm earlier claims that CEMP stars might belong to a different, earlier population. Applying a set of abundance criteria to test to what extent Boötes I could be a surviving first galaxy suggests that it is one of the earliest assembled systems that perhaps received gas from accretion from other clouds in the system, or from swallowing a first galaxy or building block type object. This resulted in the two stellar populations observable today. This paper includes data gathered with the 6.5 m Magellan Telescopes located at Las Campanas Observatory, Chile.

Pulse reflectometry as an acoustical inverse problem: Regularization of the bore reconstruction

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Forbes, Barbara J.; Sharp, David B.; Kemp, Jonathan A.

2002-11-01

The theoretical basis of acoustic pulse reflectometry, a noninvasive method for the reconstruction of an acoustical duct from the reflections measured in response to an input pulse, is reviewed in terms of the inversion of the central Fredholm equation. It is known that this is an ill-posed problem in the context of finite-bandwidth experimental signals. Recent work by the authors has proposed the truncated singular value decomposition (TSVD) in the regularization of the transient input impulse response, a non-measurable quantity from which the spatial bore reconstruction is derived. In the present paper we further emphasize the relevance of the singular system framework to reflectometry applications, examining for the first time the transient bases of the system. In particular, by varying the truncation point for increasing condition numbers of the system matrix, it is found that the effects of out-of-bandwidth singular functions on the bore reconstruction can be systematically studied.

Personalised physical exercise regime for chronic patients through a wearable ICT platform.

PubMed

Angelidis, Pantelis A

2010-01-01

Today's state of the art in exercise physiology, professional athletics and sports practice in general clearly shows that the best results depend on the personalisation and continuous update of the recommendations provided to an athlete training, a sports lover or a person whose medical condition demands regular physical exercise. The vital signs information gathered in telemonitoring systems can be better evaluated and exploited if processed along with data from the subject's electronic health records, training history and performance statistics. In this context, the current paper intends to exploit modern smart miniaturised systems and advanced information systems towards the development of an infrastructure for continuous, non-invasive acquisition and advanced processing of vital signs information. In particular, it will look into wearable electronics embedded in textile capable of performing regular or exceptional measurements of vital physiological parameters and communicating them to an application server for further processing.

EDITORIAL: Selected papers from the 20th Micromechanics Europe Workshop (MME 09) (Toulouse, France, 20-22 September 2009) Selected papers from the 20th Micromechanics Europe Workshop (MME 09) (Toulouse, France, 20-22 September 2009)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pons, Patrick

2010-06-01

This special section of the Journal of Micromechanics and Microengineering is devoted to the 20th European Workshop on Micromechanics (MME 2009), which was held in Toulouse, France, 20-22 September 2009. The MME workshop series started in 1989 in Twente and was the first European event created in the field of micro machining technology for developing micro components, micro sensors, micro actuators, and micro systems. Over the last two decades the MEMS community has grown considerably, and the MME workshops have sustained this progress through annual meetings all around Europe: Twente (The Netherlands, 1989), Berlin (Germany, 1990), Leuven (Belgium, 1992), Neuchatel (Switzerland, 1993), Pisa (Italy, 1994), Copenhagen (Denmark, 1995), Barcelona (Spain, 1996), Southampton (United Kingdom, 1997), Ulvik (Norway, 1998), Gif-sur-Yvette (France, 1999), Uppsala (Sweden, 2000), Cork (Ireland, 2001), Sinaia (Romania, 2002), Delft (The Netherlands, 2003), Leuven (Belgium, 2004), Goteborg (Sweden, 2005), Southampton (United Kingdom, 2006), Guimaraes (Portugal, 2007) and Aachen (Germany, 2008). For twenty years, MME conferences have provided an excellent opportunity to bring together many, predominantly European, scientists and engineers to present and discuss the latest developments in this field. For the 20th anniversary of the MicroMechanics Europe Workshop, 115 papers from 23 countries were submitted. Selected contributions were presented during four poster sessions, including short oral presentations. A very interesting feature of the MME workshops is their ability to promote young researchers. Six invited speakers from research centres and industry also gave an overview on advanced technological, characterization and simulation tools. The two day workshop was attended by 185 delegates from 22 countries all over Europe, and from Japan, Taiwan, USA and Mexico. On behalf of the MME 2009 Program Committee, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to all authors of submitted papers. Their high levels of quality and considerable quantity serve as the foundation of this workshop's success. I'm also grateful to all the Program Committee members (Professor Miko Elwenspoek, Dr Martin Hill and Dr Uwe Schnakenberg) who gave their valuable time to review these numerous papers. I am proud to present 20 high-quality papers from MME 2009, selected through the regular review procedure of IOP Publishing, for their novelty and relevance to Journal of Micromechanics and Microengineering. These papers give a good overview of the topics presented during the workshop (microtechnology, characterization, sensors and actuators). I would also like to express my gratitude to Professor Robert Puers for advising on paper selection and to Dr Ian Forbes for coordinating this special section with the IOP Publishing office. I hope you enjoy reading this selection of papers.

20 CFR 226.14 - Employee regular annuity rate.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-04-01

... 20 Employees' Benefits 1 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Employee regular annuity rate. 226.14 Section... COMPUTING EMPLOYEE, SPOUSE, AND DIVORCED SPOUSE ANNUITIES Computing an Employee Annuity § 226.14 Employee regular annuity rate. The regular annuity rate payable to the employee is the total of the employee tier I...

Optimal behaviour can violate the principle of regularity

PubMed Central

Trimmer, Pete C.

2013-01-01

Understanding decisions is a fundamental aim of behavioural ecology, psychology and economics. The regularity axiom of utility theory holds that a preference between options should be maintained when other options are made available. Empirical studies have shown that animals violate regularity but this has not been understood from a theoretical perspective, such decisions have therefore been labelled as irrational. Here, I use models of state-dependent behaviour to demonstrate that choices can violate regularity even when behavioural strategies are optimal. I also show that the range of conditions over which regularity should be violated can be larger when options do not always persist into the future. Consequently, utility theory—based on axioms, including transitivity, regularity and the independence of irrelevant alternatives—is undermined, because even alternatives that are never chosen by an animal (in its current state) can be relevant to a decision. PMID:23740781

The Munro Review of Child Protection: An Appraisal

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Parton, Nigel

2012-01-01

Over the last 40 years child protection systems in all Advanced Western Societies have been subject to high profile criticisms and regular major reviews. In many respects the Munro Review of Child Protection (2011) in England, is very different to those which have gone before. This paper summarises the main findings and recommendations of The…

AWE-Based Corrective Feedback on Developing EFL Learners' Writing Skill

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lu, Zhihong; Li, Xiaowei; Li, Zhenxiao

2015-01-01

The effective design and use of Automated Writing Evaluation (AWE) tools in developing English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners' writing skill and learner autonomy have remained great challenges for system designers, developers, and EFL instructors compared with that of the pencil-paper writing in the context of regular teacher-fronted…

From Particular to Popular: Facilitating EFL Mobile-Supported Cooperative Reading

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lan, Yu-Ju; Sung, Yao-Ting; Chang, Kuo-En

2013-01-01

This paper reports the results of an action research-based study that adapted a mobile-supported cooperative reading system into regular English as a foreign language (EFL) classes at one Taiwanese elementary school. The current study was comprised of two stages: adaptation and evaluation. During the adaptation stage, a mobile-supported…

Impact of the introduction of fetal central monitoring on hospital expenses with cardiotocographic paper.

PubMed

Amorim-Costa, C; Ayres-de-Campos, D; Costa-Santos, C; Bernardes, J

2014-01-01

Digital storage of cardiotocographic (CTG) tracings by fetal central monitoring systems (fCMS) obviates the need for printing, or alternatively, the tracings can be printed in regular paper instead of CTG thermal paper. We aimed at evaluating the impact of the introduction of the Omniview-SisPorto(®) system on CTG paper costs in a large university hospital. After introduction of the fCMS, there was an 87% reduction in median annual expenses with CTG paper in the labour ward (p = 0.011) and a 78% decrease in the prenatal clinic (p = 0.017), despite a more than 40% increase in the median number of observed women. Routine use of fCMS may provide an important reduction in hospital expenses associated with the use of thermal CTG paper, thus reducing the investment made in their acquisition and maintenance.

Bayesian Recurrent Neural Network for Language Modeling.

PubMed

Chien, Jen-Tzung; Ku, Yuan-Chu

2016-02-01

A language model (LM) is calculated as the probability of a word sequence that provides the solution to word prediction for a variety of information systems. A recurrent neural network (RNN) is powerful to learn the large-span dynamics of a word sequence in the continuous space. However, the training of the RNN-LM is an ill-posed problem because of too many parameters from a large dictionary size and a high-dimensional hidden layer. This paper presents a Bayesian approach to regularize the RNN-LM and apply it for continuous speech recognition. We aim to penalize the too complicated RNN-LM by compensating for the uncertainty of the estimated model parameters, which is represented by a Gaussian prior. The objective function in a Bayesian classification network is formed as the regularized cross-entropy error function. The regularized model is constructed not only by calculating the regularized parameters according to the maximum a posteriori criterion but also by estimating the Gaussian hyperparameter by maximizing the marginal likelihood. A rapid approximation to a Hessian matrix is developed to implement the Bayesian RNN-LM (BRNN-LM) by selecting a small set of salient outer-products. The proposed BRNN-LM achieves a sparser model than the RNN-LM. Experiments on different corpora show the robustness of system performance by applying the rapid BRNN-LM under different conditions.

Regularized Semiparametric Estimation for Ordinary Differential Equations

PubMed Central

Li, Yun; Zhu, Ji; Wang, Naisyin

2015-01-01

Ordinary differential equations (ODEs) are widely used in modeling dynamic systems and have ample applications in the fields of physics, engineering, economics and biological sciences. The ODE parameters often possess physiological meanings and can help scientists gain better understanding of the system. One key interest is thus to well estimate these parameters. Ideally, constant parameters are preferred due to their easy interpretation. In reality, however, constant parameters can be too restrictive such that even after incorporating error terms, there could still be unknown sources of disturbance that lead to poor agreement between observed data and the estimated ODE system. In this paper, we address this issue and accommodate short-term interferences by allowing parameters to vary with time. We propose a new regularized estimation procedure on the time-varying parameters of an ODE system so that these parameters could change with time during transitions but remain constants within stable stages. We found, through simulation studies, that the proposed method performs well and tends to have less variation in comparison to the non-regularized approach. On the theoretical front, we derive finite-sample estimation error bounds for the proposed method. Applications of the proposed method to modeling the hare-lynx relationship and the measles incidence dynamic in Ontario, Canada lead to satisfactory and meaningful results. PMID:26392639

A cardiac electrical activity model based on a cellular automata system in comparison with neural network model.

PubMed

Khan, Muhammad Sadiq Ali; Yousuf, Sidrah

2016-03-01

Cardiac Electrical Activity is commonly distributed into three dimensions of Cardiac Tissue (Myocardium) and evolves with duration of time. The indicator of heart diseases can occur randomly at any time of a day. Heart rate, conduction and each electrical activity during cardiac cycle should be monitor non-invasively for the assessment of "Action Potential" (regular) and "Arrhythmia" (irregular) rhythms. Many heart diseases can easily be examined through Automata model like Cellular Automata concepts. This paper deals with the different states of cardiac rhythms using cellular automata with the comparison of neural network also provides fast and highly effective stimulation for the contraction of cardiac muscles on the Atria in the result of genesis of electrical spark or wave. The specific formulated model named as "States of automaton Proposed Model for CEA (Cardiac Electrical Activity)" by using Cellular Automata Methodology is commonly shows the three states of cardiac tissues conduction phenomena (i) Resting (Relax and Excitable state), (ii) ARP (Excited but Absolutely refractory Phase i.e. Excited but not able to excite neighboring cells) (iii) RRP (Excited but Relatively Refractory Phase i.e. Excited and able to excite neighboring cells). The result indicates most efficient modeling with few burden of computation and it is Action Potential during the pumping of blood in cardiac cycle.

Efficient engineering of a bacteriophage genome using the type I-E CRISPR-Cas system.

PubMed

Kiro, Ruth; Shitrit, Dror; Qimron, Udi

2014-01-01

The clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)-CRISPR-associated (Cas) system has recently been used to engineer genomes of various organisms, but surprisingly, not those of bacteriophages (phages). Here we present a method to genetically engineer the Escherichia coli phage T7 using the type I-E CRISPR-Cas system. T7 phage genome is edited by homologous recombination with a DNA sequence flanked by sequences homologous to the desired location. Non-edited genomes are targeted by the CRISPR-Cas system, thus enabling isolation of the desired recombinant phages. This method broadens CRISPR Cas-based editing to phages and uses a CRISPR-Cas type other than type II. The method may be adjusted to genetically engineer any bacteriophage genome.

Strong solutions and instability for the fitness gradient system in evolutionary games between two populations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Xu, Qiuju; Belmonte, Andrew; deForest, Russ; Liu, Chun; Tan, Zhong

2017-04-01

In this paper, we study a fitness gradient system for two populations interacting via a symmetric game. The population dynamics are governed by a conservation law, with a spatial migration flux determined by the fitness. By applying the Galerkin method, we establish the existence, regularity and uniqueness of global solutions to an approximate system, which retains most of the interesting mathematical properties of the original fitness gradient system. Furthermore, we show that a Turing instability occurs for equilibrium states of the fitness gradient system, and its approximations.

City public service learns to speed read. [Computerized routing system for meter reading

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

Aitken, E.L.

1994-02-01

City Public Service (CPS) of San Antonio, TX is a municipally owned utility that serves a densely populated 1,566 square miles in and around San Antonio. CPS's service area is divided into 21 meter reading districts, each of which is broken down into no more than 99 regular routes. Every day, a CPS employee reads one of the districts, following one or more routes. In 1991, CPS began using handheld computers to record reads for regular routes, which are stored on the devices themselves. In contrast, rereads and final reads occur at random throughout the service area. Because they changemore » every day, the process of creating routes that can be loaded onto a handheld device is difficult. Until recently, rereads and final reads were printed on paper orders, and route schedulers would spend close to two hours sorting the paper orders into routes. Meter readers would then hand-sequence the orders on their routes, often using a city map, before taking them into the field in stacks. When the meter readers returned, their completed orders had to be separated by type of reread, and then keyed into the mainframe computer before bill processing could begin. CPS's data processing department developed a computerized routing system of its own that saves time and labor, as well as paper. The system eliminates paper orders entirely, enabling schedulers to create reread and final read routes graphically on a PC. Information no longer needs to be keyed from hard copy, reducing the margin of error and streamlining bill processing by incorporating automated data transfer between systems.« less

A fractional-order accumulative regularization filter for force reconstruction

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wensong, Jiang; Zhongyu, Wang; Jing, Lv

2018-02-01

The ill-posed inverse problem of the force reconstruction comes from the influence of noise to measured responses and results in an inaccurate or non-unique solution. To overcome this ill-posedness, in this paper, the transfer function of the reconstruction model is redefined by a Fractional order Accumulative Regularization Filter (FARF). First, the measured responses with noise are refined by a fractional-order accumulation filter based on a dynamic data refresh strategy. Second, a transfer function, generated by the filtering results of the measured responses, is manipulated by an iterative Tikhonov regularization with a serious of iterative Landweber filter factors. Third, the regularization parameter is optimized by the Generalized Cross-Validation (GCV) to improve the ill-posedness of the force reconstruction model. A Dynamic Force Measurement System (DFMS) for the force reconstruction is designed to illustrate the application advantages of our suggested FARF method. The experimental result shows that the FARF method with r = 0.1 and α = 20, has a PRE of 0.36% and an RE of 2.45%, is superior to other cases of the FARF method and the traditional regularization methods when it comes to the dynamic force reconstruction.

Extensive regularization of the coupled cluster methods based on the generating functional formalism: application to gas-phase benchmarks and to the S(N)2 reaction of CHCl3 and OH- in water

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

Kowalski, Karol; Valiev, Marat

2009-12-21

The recently introduced energy expansion based on the use of generating functional (GF) [K. Kowalski, P.D. Fan, J. Chem. Phys. 130, 084112 (2009)] provides a way of constructing size-consistent non-iterative coupled-cluster (CC) corrections in terms of moments of the CC equations. To take advantage of this expansion in a strongly interacting regime, the regularization of the cluster amplitudes is required in order to counteract the effect of excessive growth of the norm of the CC wavefunction. Although proven to be effcient, the previously discussed form of the regularization does not lead to rigorously size-consistent corrections. In this paper we addressmore » the issue of size-consistent regularization of the GF expansion by redefning the equations for the cluster amplitudes. The performance and basic features of proposed methodology is illustrated on several gas-phase benchmark systems. Moreover, the regularized GF approaches are combined with QM/MM module and applied to describe the SN2 reaction of CHCl3 and OH- in aqueous solution.« less

An Active Immune Defense with a Minimal CRISPR (Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats) RNA and without the Cas6 Protein*

PubMed Central

Maier, Lisa-Katharina; Stachler, Aris-Edda; Saunders, Sita J.; Backofen, Rolf; Marchfelder, Anita

2015-01-01

The prokaryotic immune system CRISPR-Cas (clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats-CRISPR-associated) is a defense system that protects prokaryotes against foreign DNA. The short CRISPR RNAs (crRNAs) are central components of this immune system. In CRISPR-Cas systems type I and III, crRNAs are generated by the endonuclease Cas6. We developed a Cas6b-independent crRNA maturation pathway for the Haloferax type I-B system in vivo that expresses a functional crRNA, which we termed independently generated crRNA (icrRNA). The icrRNA is effective in triggering degradation of an invader plasmid carrying the matching protospacer sequence. The Cas6b-independent maturation of the icrRNA allowed mutation of the repeat sequence without interfering with signals important for Cas6b processing. We generated 23 variants of the icrRNA and analyzed them for activity in the interference reaction. icrRNAs with deletions or mutations of the 3′ handle are still active in triggering an interference reaction. The complete 3′ handle could be removed without loss of activity. However, manipulations of the 5′ handle mostly led to loss of interference activity. Furthermore, we could show that in the presence of an icrRNA a strain without Cas6b (Δcas6b) is still active in interference. PMID:25512373

Two-Point Resistance of a Non-Regular Cylindrical Network with a Zero Resistor Axis and Two Arbitrary Boundaries

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tan, Zhi-Zhong

2017-03-01

We study a problem of two-point resistance in a non-regular m × n cylindrical network with a zero resistor axis and two arbitrary boundaries by means of the Recursion-Transform method. This is a new problem never solved before, the Green’s function technique and the Laplacian matrix approach are invalid in this case. A disordered network with arbitrary boundaries is a basic model in many physical systems or real world systems, however looking for the exact calculation of the resistance of a binary resistor network is important but difficult in the case of the arbitrary boundaries, the boundary is like a wall or trap which affects the behavior of finite network. In this paper we obtain a general resistance formula of a non-regular m × n cylindrical network, which is composed of a single summation. Further, the current distribution is given explicitly as a byproduct of the method. As applications, several interesting results are derived by making special cases from the general formula. Supported by the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province under Grant No. BK20161278

An efficient method for model refinement in diffuse optical tomography

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zirak, A. R.; Khademi, M.

2007-11-01

Diffuse optical tomography (DOT) is a non-linear, ill-posed, boundary value and optimization problem which necessitates regularization. Also, Bayesian methods are suitable owing to measurements data are sparse and correlated. In such problems which are solved with iterative methods, for stabilization and better convergence, the solution space must be small. These constraints subject to extensive and overdetermined system of equations which model retrieving criteria specially total least squares (TLS) must to refine model error. Using TLS is limited to linear systems which is not achievable when applying traditional Bayesian methods. This paper presents an efficient method for model refinement using regularized total least squares (RTLS) for treating on linearized DOT problem, having maximum a posteriori (MAP) estimator and Tikhonov regulator. This is done with combination Bayesian and regularization tools as preconditioner matrices, applying them to equations and then using RTLS to the resulting linear equations. The preconditioning matrixes are guided by patient specific information as well as a priori knowledge gained from the training set. Simulation results illustrate that proposed method improves the image reconstruction performance and localize the abnormally well.

The Regularity of Optimal Irrigation Patterns

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Morel, Jean-Michel; Santambrogio, Filippo

2010-02-01

A branched structure is observable in draining and irrigation systems, in electric power supply systems, and in natural objects like blood vessels, the river basins or the trees. Recent approaches of these networks derive their branched structure from an energy functional whose essential feature is to favor wide routes. Given a flow s in a river, a road, a tube or a wire, the transportation cost per unit length is supposed in these models to be proportional to s α with 0 < α < 1. The aim of this paper is to prove the regularity of paths (rivers, branches,...) when the irrigated measure is the Lebesgue density on a smooth open set and the irrigating measure is a single source. In that case we prove that all branches of optimal irrigation trees satisfy an elliptic equation and that their curvature is a bounded measure. In consequence all branching points in the network have a tangent cone made of a finite number of segments, and all other points have a tangent. An explicit counterexample disproves these regularity properties for non-Lebesgue irrigated measures.

How evolution learns to generalise: Using the principles of learning theory to understand the evolution of developmental organisation.

PubMed

Kouvaris, Kostas; Clune, Jeff; Kounios, Loizos; Brede, Markus; Watson, Richard A

2017-04-01

One of the most intriguing questions in evolution is how organisms exhibit suitable phenotypic variation to rapidly adapt in novel selective environments. Such variability is crucial for evolvability, but poorly understood. In particular, how can natural selection favour developmental organisations that facilitate adaptive evolution in previously unseen environments? Such a capacity suggests foresight that is incompatible with the short-sighted concept of natural selection. A potential resolution is provided by the idea that evolution may discover and exploit information not only about the particular phenotypes selected in the past, but their underlying structural regularities: new phenotypes, with the same underlying regularities, but novel particulars, may then be useful in new environments. If true, we still need to understand the conditions in which natural selection will discover such deep regularities rather than exploiting 'quick fixes' (i.e., fixes that provide adaptive phenotypes in the short term, but limit future evolvability). Here we argue that the ability of evolution to discover such regularities is formally analogous to learning principles, familiar in humans and machines, that enable generalisation from past experience. Conversely, natural selection that fails to enhance evolvability is directly analogous to the learning problem of over-fitting and the subsequent failure to generalise. We support the conclusion that evolving systems and learning systems are different instantiations of the same algorithmic principles by showing that existing results from the learning domain can be transferred to the evolution domain. Specifically, we show that conditions that alleviate over-fitting in learning systems successfully predict which biological conditions (e.g., environmental variation, regularity, noise or a pressure for developmental simplicity) enhance evolvability. This equivalence provides access to a well-developed theoretical framework from learning theory that enables a characterisation of the general conditions for the evolution of evolvability.

EXTENDED NEUTRAL HYDROGEN IN THE ALIGNED SHELL GALAXIES Arp 230 AND MCG -5-7-1: FORMATION OF DISKS IN MERGING GALAXIES?

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

Schiminovich, David; Van Gorkom, J. H.; Van der Hulst, J. M.

2013-02-01

As part of an ongoing study of the neutral hydrogen (H I) morphology and kinematics of 'shell' elliptical galaxies, we present Very Large Array observations of two shell galaxies with aligned shells, Arp 230 and MCG -5-7-1. Our data provide the first H I images of Arp 230 and deeper images of MCG -5-7-1 than previously reported. Optical images of Arp 230 reveal a bright, aligned, interleaved shell system, making it an ideal candidate for 'phase-wrapped' shell formation following a radial encounter with a smaller companion. The fainter, non-interleaved shells of MCG -5-7-1 do not clearly favor a particular formationmore » scenario. The H I we detect in both galaxies extends to nearly the same projected distance as the optical shells. In Arp 230 this gas appears to be anti-correlated with the aligned shells, consistent with our expectations for phase-wrapped shells produced in a radial encounter. In MCG -5-7-1, we observe gas associated with the shells making a 'spatial wrapping' or looping scenario more plausible. Although the extended gas component in both galaxies is unevenly distributed, the gas kinematics are surprisingly regular, looking almost like complete disks in rotation. We use the H I kinematics and optical data to determine mass-to-light ratios M/L{sub B} of 2.4{sup +3.0}{sub -0.5} (at 13.5 kpc, 4.5 R{sub e} ) for Arp 230 and M/L{sub B} of 30 {+-} 7 (at 40 kpc, 7 R{sub e} ) in MCG -5-7-1. In both systems we find that this ratio changes as a function of radius, indicating the presence of a dark halo. By comparing orbital and precession timescales, we conclude that the potentials are slightly flattened. We infer a 5%-10% flattening for Arp 230 and less flattening in the case of MCG -5-7-1. Finally, we present images of the H I associated with the inner disk or (polar) ring of each galaxy and discuss possible explanations for their different present-day star formation rates. We detect total H I masses of 1.1 Multiplication-Sign 10{sup 9} M{sub Sun} in Arp 230 and 3.7 Multiplication-Sign 10{sup 9} M{sub Sun} in MCG -5-7-1. Both systems have H I masses, scale sizes, and regular kinematics similar to those of non-aligned shell galaxies we have previously studied (Cen A and NGC 2865). Furthermore, we (re-)emphasize in this paper that shell galaxies such as MCG -5-7-1, along with previously studied galaxies NGC 5128 (Cen A) and NGC 2865, are unique in that they provide evidence of recent accretion with gas and collisionless stars showing clear association, though the displacement suggests the presence of significant gas-dynamical interaction.« less

Efficient integration method for fictitious domain approaches

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Duczek, Sascha; Gabbert, Ulrich

2015-10-01

In the current article, we present an efficient and accurate numerical method for the integration of the system matrices in fictitious domain approaches such as the finite cell method (FCM). In the framework of the FCM, the physical domain is embedded in a geometrically larger domain of simple shape which is discretized using a regular Cartesian grid of cells. Therefore, a spacetree-based adaptive quadrature technique is normally deployed to resolve the geometry of the structure. Depending on the complexity of the structure under investigation this method accounts for most of the computational effort. To reduce the computational costs for computing the system matrices an efficient quadrature scheme based on the divergence theorem (Gauß-Ostrogradsky theorem) is proposed. Using this theorem the dimension of the integral is reduced by one, i.e. instead of solving the integral for the whole domain only its contour needs to be considered. In the current paper, we present the general principles of the integration method and its implementation. The results to several two-dimensional benchmark problems highlight its properties. The efficiency of the proposed method is compared to conventional spacetree-based integration techniques.

The Vlasov-Navier-Stokes System in a 2D Pipe: Existence and Stability of Regular Equilibria

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Glass, Olivier; Han-Kwan, Daniel; Moussa, Ayman

2018-05-01

In this paper, we study the Vlasov-Navier-Stokes system in a 2D pipe with partially absorbing boundary conditions. We show the existence of stationary states for this system near small Poiseuille flows for the fluid phase, for which the kinetic phase is not trivial. We prove the asymptotic stability of these states with respect to appropriately compactly supported perturbations. The analysis relies on geometric control conditions which help to avoid any concentration phenomenon for the kinetic phase.

Boundary Korn Inequality and Neumann Problems in Homogenization of Systems of Elasticity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Geng, Jun; Shen, Zhongwei; Song, Liang

2017-06-01

This paper is concerned with a family of elliptic systems of linear elasticity with rapidly oscillating periodic coefficients, arising in the theory of homogenization. We establish uniform optimal regularity estimates for solutions of Neumann problems in a bounded Lipschitz domain with L 2 boundary data. The proof relies on a boundary Korn inequality for solutions of systems of linear elasticity and uses a large-scale Rellich estimate obtained in Shen (Anal PDE, arXiv:1505.00694v2).

Department of Defense Civilian Personnel Manual

DTIC Science & Technology

1996-12-01

Q Fri . Q 22. Date Mo. Day Yr. notice received U 114 I 95 I 23. Date Mo. Day Yr. stopped «-I *-m- work I 1...DSun. (jp Mon. £] Tues. ©Wed. ElThurs. K2 Fri . DSat. . Name and address of physician first providing medical care (include city, state...Regular ^ hours From: 7 :0OLJ Pm- • a.m. To: 3 :3GQp-m. 22. Regular work schedule (ZlSun. Mon. ]Tues. fJWed. ^Thurs. 13 Fri . Qs

Poisson-Nernst-Planck equations for simulating biomolecular diffusion-reaction processes I: Finite element solutions

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

Lu Benzhuo; Holst, Michael J.; Center for Theoretical Biological Physics, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093

2010-09-20

In this paper we developed accurate finite element methods for solving 3-D Poisson-Nernst-Planck (PNP) equations with singular permanent charges for simulating electrodiffusion in solvated biomolecular systems. The electrostatic Poisson equation was defined in the biomolecules and in the solvent, while the Nernst-Planck equation was defined only in the solvent. We applied a stable regularization scheme to remove the singular component of the electrostatic potential induced by the permanent charges inside biomolecules, and formulated regular, well-posed PNP equations. An inexact-Newton method was used to solve the coupled nonlinear elliptic equations for the steady problems; while an Adams-Bashforth-Crank-Nicolson method was devised formore » time integration for the unsteady electrodiffusion. We numerically investigated the conditioning of the stiffness matrices for the finite element approximations of the two formulations of the Nernst-Planck equation, and theoretically proved that the transformed formulation is always associated with an ill-conditioned stiffness matrix. We also studied the electroneutrality of the solution and its relation with the boundary conditions on the molecular surface, and concluded that a large net charge concentration is always present near the molecular surface due to the presence of multiple species of charged particles in the solution. The numerical methods are shown to be accurate and stable by various test problems, and are applicable to real large-scale biophysical electrodiffusion problems.« less

Poisson-Nernst-Planck Equations for Simulating Biomolecular Diffusion-Reaction Processes I: Finite Element Solutions

PubMed Central

Lu, Benzhuo; Holst, Michael J.; McCammon, J. Andrew; Zhou, Y. C.

2010-01-01

In this paper we developed accurate finite element methods for solving 3-D Poisson-Nernst-Planck (PNP) equations with singular permanent charges for electrodiffusion in solvated biomolecular systems. The electrostatic Poisson equation was defined in the biomolecules and in the solvent, while the Nernst-Planck equation was defined only in the solvent. We applied a stable regularization scheme to remove the singular component of the electrostatic potential induced by the permanent charges inside biomolecules, and formulated regular, well-posed PNP equations. An inexact-Newton method was used to solve the coupled nonlinear elliptic equations for the steady problems; while an Adams-Bashforth-Crank-Nicolson method was devised for time integration for the unsteady electrodiffusion. We numerically investigated the conditioning of the stiffness matrices for the finite element approximations of the two formulations of the Nernst-Planck equation, and theoretically proved that the transformed formulation is always associated with an ill-conditioned stiffness matrix. We also studied the electroneutrality of the solution and its relation with the boundary conditions on the molecular surface, and concluded that a large net charge concentration is always present near the molecular surface due to the presence of multiple species of charged particles in the solution. The numerical methods are shown to be accurate and stable by various test problems, and are applicable to real large-scale biophysical electrodiffusion problems. PMID:21709855

Poisson-Nernst-Planck Equations for Simulating Biomolecular Diffusion-Reaction Processes I: Finite Element Solutions.

PubMed

Lu, Benzhuo; Holst, Michael J; McCammon, J Andrew; Zhou, Y C

2010-09-20

In this paper we developed accurate finite element methods for solving 3-D Poisson-Nernst-Planck (PNP) equations with singular permanent charges for electrodiffusion in solvated biomolecular systems. The electrostatic Poisson equation was defined in the biomolecules and in the solvent, while the Nernst-Planck equation was defined only in the solvent. We applied a stable regularization scheme to remove the singular component of the electrostatic potential induced by the permanent charges inside biomolecules, and formulated regular, well-posed PNP equations. An inexact-Newton method was used to solve the coupled nonlinear elliptic equations for the steady problems; while an Adams-Bashforth-Crank-Nicolson method was devised for time integration for the unsteady electrodiffusion. We numerically investigated the conditioning of the stiffness matrices for the finite element approximations of the two formulations of the Nernst-Planck equation, and theoretically proved that the transformed formulation is always associated with an ill-conditioned stiffness matrix. We also studied the electroneutrality of the solution and its relation with the boundary conditions on the molecular surface, and concluded that a large net charge concentration is always present near the molecular surface due to the presence of multiple species of charged particles in the solution. The numerical methods are shown to be accurate and stable by various test problems, and are applicable to real large-scale biophysical electrodiffusion problems.

How do biological systems discriminate among physically similar ions?

PubMed

Diamond, J M

1975-10-01

This paper reviews the history of understanding how biological systems can discriminate so strikingly among physically similar ions, especially alkali cations. Appreciation of qualitative regularities ("permitted sequences") and quantitative regularities ("selectivity isotherms") in ion selectivity grew first from studies of ion exchangers and glass electrodes, then of biological systems such as enzymes and cell membranes, and most recently of lipid bilayers doped with model pores and carriers. Discrimination of ions depends on both electrostatic and steric forces. "Black-box" studies on intact biological membranes have in some cases yielded molecular clues to the structure of the actual biological pores and carriers. Major current problems involve the extraction of these molecules; how to do it, what to do when it is achieved, and how (and if) it is relevant to the central problems of membrane function. Further advances are expected soon from studies of rate barriers within membranes, of voltage-dependent ("excitable") conducting channels, and of increasingly complex model systems and biological membranes.

Influence of the optimization methods on neural state estimation quality of the drive system with elasticity.

PubMed

Orlowska-Kowalska, Teresa; Kaminski, Marcin

2014-01-01

The paper deals with the implementation of optimized neural networks (NNs) for state variable estimation of the drive system with an elastic joint. The signals estimated by NNs are used in the control structure with a state-space controller and additional feedbacks from the shaft torque and the load speed. High estimation quality is very important for the correct operation of a closed-loop system. The precision of state variables estimation depends on the generalization properties of NNs. A short review of optimization methods of the NN is presented. Two techniques typical for regularization and pruning methods are described and tested in detail: the Bayesian regularization and the Optimal Brain Damage methods. Simulation results show good precision of both optimized neural estimators for a wide range of changes of the load speed and the load torque, not only for nominal but also changed parameters of the drive system. The simulation results are verified in a laboratory setup.

Modified Denavit-Hartenberg parameters for better location of joint axis systems in robot arms

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Barker, L. K.

1986-01-01

The Denavit-Hartenberg parameters define the relative location of successive joint axis systems in a robot arm. A recent justifiable criticism is that one of these parameters becomes extremely large when two successive joints have near-parallel rotational axes. Geometrically, this parameter then locates a joint axis system at an excessive distance from the robot arm and, computationally, leads to an ill-conditioned transformation matrix. In this paper, a simple modification (which results from constraining a transverse vector between successive joint rotational axes to be normal to one of the rotational axes, instead of both) overcomes this criticism and favorably locates the joint axis system. An example is given for near-parallel rotational axes of the elbow and shoulder joints in a robot arm. The regular and modified parameters are extracted by an algebraic method with simulated measurement data. Unlike the modified parameters, extracted values of the regular parameters are very sensitive to measurement accuracy.

Real-Time Gait Cycle Parameter Recognition Using a Wearable Accelerometry System

PubMed Central

Yang, Che-Chang; Hsu, Yeh-Liang; Shih, Kao-Shang; Lu, Jun-Ming

2011-01-01

This paper presents the development of a wearable accelerometry system for real-time gait cycle parameter recognition. Using a tri-axial accelerometer, the wearable motion detector is a single waist-mounted device to measure trunk accelerations during walking. Several gait cycle parameters, including cadence, step regularity, stride regularity and step symmetry can be estimated in real-time by using autocorrelation procedure. For validation purposes, five Parkinson’s disease (PD) patients and five young healthy adults were recruited in an experiment. The gait cycle parameters among the two subject groups of different mobility can be quantified and distinguished by the system. Practical considerations and limitations for implementing the autocorrelation procedure in such a real-time system are also discussed. This study can be extended to the future attempts in real-time detection of disabling gaits, such as festinating or freezing of gait in PD patients. Ambulatory rehabilitation, gait assessment and personal telecare for people with gait disorders are also possible applications. PMID:22164019

Relatedness in spatially structured populations with empty sites: An approach based on spatial moment equations.

PubMed

Lion, Sébastien

2009-09-07

Taking into account the interplay between spatial ecological dynamics and selection is a major challenge in evolutionary ecology. Although inclusive fitness theory has proven to be a very useful tool to unravel the interactions between spatial genetic structuring and selection, applications of the theory usually rely on simplifying demographic assumptions. In this paper, I attempt to bridge the gap between spatial demographic models and kin selection models by providing a method to compute approximations for relatedness coefficients in a spatial model with empty sites. Using spatial moment equations, I provide an approximation of nearest-neighbour relatedness on random regular networks, and show that this approximation performs much better than the ordinary pair approximation. I discuss the connection between the relatedness coefficients I define and those used in population genetics, and sketch some potential extensions of the theory.

Semi-supervised learning via regularized boosting working on multiple semi-supervised assumptions.

PubMed

Chen, Ke; Wang, Shihai

2011-01-01

Semi-supervised learning concerns the problem of learning in the presence of labeled and unlabeled data. Several boosting algorithms have been extended to semi-supervised learning with various strategies. To our knowledge, however, none of them takes all three semi-supervised assumptions, i.e., smoothness, cluster, and manifold assumptions, together into account during boosting learning. In this paper, we propose a novel cost functional consisting of the margin cost on labeled data and the regularization penalty on unlabeled data based on three fundamental semi-supervised assumptions. Thus, minimizing our proposed cost functional with a greedy yet stagewise functional optimization procedure leads to a generic boosting framework for semi-supervised learning. Extensive experiments demonstrate that our algorithm yields favorite results for benchmark and real-world classification tasks in comparison to state-of-the-art semi-supervised learning algorithms, including newly developed boosting algorithms. Finally, we discuss relevant issues and relate our algorithm to the previous work.

Existence and energy decay of a nonuniform Timoshenko system with second sound

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hamadouche, Taklit; Messaoudi, Salim A.

2018-02-01

In this paper, we consider a linear thermoelastic Timoshenko system with variable physical parameters, where the heat conduction is given by Cattaneo's law and the coupling is via the displacement equation. We discuss the well-posedness and the regularity of solution using the semigroup theory. Moreover, we establish the exponential decay result provided that the stability function χ r(x)=0. Otherwise, we show that the solution decays polynomially.

Optimality approaches to describe characteristic fluvial patterns on landscapes

PubMed Central

Paik, Kyungrock; Kumar, Praveen

2010-01-01

Mother Nature has left amazingly regular geomorphic patterns on the Earth's surface. These patterns are often explained as having arisen as a result of some optimal behaviour of natural processes. However, there is little agreement on what is being optimized. As a result, a number of alternatives have been proposed, often with little a priori justification with the argument that successful predictions will lend a posteriori support to the hypothesized optimality principle. Given that maximum entropy production is an optimality principle attempting to predict the microscopic behaviour from a macroscopic characterization, this paper provides a review of similar approaches with the goal of providing a comparison and contrast between them to enable synthesis. While assumptions of optimal behaviour approach a system from a macroscopic viewpoint, process-based formulations attempt to resolve the mechanistic details whose interactions lead to the system level functions. Using observed optimality trends may help simplify problem formulation at appropriate levels of scale of interest. However, for such an approach to be successful, we suggest that optimality approaches should be formulated at a broader level of environmental systems' viewpoint, i.e. incorporating the dynamic nature of environmental variables and complex feedback mechanisms between fluvial and non-fluvial processes. PMID:20368257

Optimization of Sinter Plant Operating Conditions Using Advanced Multivariate Statistics: Intelligent Data Processing

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fernández-González, Daniel; Martín-Duarte, Ramón; Ruiz-Bustinza, Íñigo; Mochón, Javier; González-Gasca, Carmen; Verdeja, Luis Felipe

2016-08-01

Blast furnace operators expect to get sinter with homogenous and regular properties (chemical and mechanical), necessary to ensure regular blast furnace operation. Blends for sintering also include several iron by-products and other wastes that are obtained in different processes inside the steelworks. Due to their source, the availability of such materials is not always consistent, but their total production should be consumed in the sintering process, to both save money and recycle wastes. The main scope of this paper is to obtain the least expensive iron ore blend for the sintering process, which will provide suitable chemical and mechanical features for the homogeneous and regular operation of the blast furnace. The systematic use of statistical tools was employed to analyze historical data, including linear and partial correlations applied to the data and fuzzy clustering based on the Sugeno Fuzzy Inference System to establish relationships among the available variables.

Least square regularized regression in sum space.

PubMed

Xu, Yong-Li; Chen, Di-Rong; Li, Han-Xiong; Liu, Lu

2013-04-01

This paper proposes a least square regularized regression algorithm in sum space of reproducing kernel Hilbert spaces (RKHSs) for nonflat function approximation, and obtains the solution of the algorithm by solving a system of linear equations. This algorithm can approximate the low- and high-frequency component of the target function with large and small scale kernels, respectively. The convergence and learning rate are analyzed. We measure the complexity of the sum space by its covering number and demonstrate that the covering number can be bounded by the product of the covering numbers of basic RKHSs. For sum space of RKHSs with Gaussian kernels, by choosing appropriate parameters, we tradeoff the sample error and regularization error, and obtain a polynomial learning rate, which is better than that in any single RKHS. The utility of this method is illustrated with two simulated data sets and five real-life databases.

On split regular BiHom-Lie superalgebras

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, Jian; Chen, Liangyun; Zhang, Chiping

2018-06-01

We introduce the class of split regular BiHom-Lie superalgebras as the natural extension of the one of split Hom-Lie superalgebras and the one of split Lie superalgebras. By developing techniques of connections of roots for this kind of algebras, we show that such a split regular BiHom-Lie superalgebra L is of the form L = U +∑ [ α ] ∈ Λ / ∼I[α] with U a subspace of the Abelian (graded) subalgebra H and any I[α], a well described (graded) ideal of L, satisfying [I[α] ,I[β] ] = 0 if [ α ] ≠ [ β ] . Under certain conditions, in the case of L being of maximal length, the simplicity of the algebra is characterized and it is shown that L is the direct sum of the family of its simple (graded) ideals.

Regularity estimates up to the boundary for elliptic systems of difference equations

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Strikwerda, J. C.; Wade, B. A.; Bube, K. P.

1986-01-01

Regularity estimates up to the boundary for solutions of elliptic systems of finite difference equations were proved. The regularity estimates, obtained for boundary fitted coordinate systems on domains with smooth boundary, involve discrete Sobolev norms and are proved using pseudo-difference operators to treat systems with variable coefficients. The elliptic systems of difference equations and the boundary conditions which are considered are very general in form. The regularity of a regular elliptic system of difference equations was proved equivalent to the nonexistence of eigensolutions. The regularity estimates obtained are analogous to those in the theory of elliptic systems of partial differential equations, and to the results of Gustafsson, Kreiss, and Sundstrom (1972) and others for hyperbolic difference equations.

Modeling of electromagnetic brakes for enhanced braking capabilities

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kachroo, Pushkin; Ming, Qian

1998-01-01

In automatic highway systems, automatic brake actuation is a very important part of the overall control of the vehicle. Hence, a faster response and a robust braking system are crucial. This paper describes electromagnetic brakes as a supplementary system for regular friction brakes. This system provides better response time for emergency situations, and in general keeps the friction brake working longer and safer. A new mathematical model for electromagnetic brakes is proposed to describe their static characteristics. The performance of the new mathematical model is better than the other three models available in the literature.

The Scoring of Matching Questions Tests: A Closer Look

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jancarík, Antonín; Kostelecká, Yvona

2015-01-01

Electronic testing has become a regular part of online courses. Most learning management systems offer a wide range of tools that can be used in electronic tests. With respect to time demands, the most efficient tools are those that allow automatic assessment. The presented paper focuses on one of these tools: matching questions in which one…

Using the Staff Sharing Scheme to Support School Staff in Managing Challenging Behaviour More Effectively

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jones, Daniel; Monsen, Jeremy; Franey, John

2013-01-01

This paper explores how educational psychologists working in a training/consultative way can enable teachers to manage challenging pupil behaviour more effectively. It sets out a rationale which encourages schools to embrace a group based teacher peer-support system as part of regular school development. It then explores the usefulness of the…

Inclusive Values in the Planning of Mathematical Issues at an Early Age

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Micanovic, Veselin; Novovic, Tatjana; Maslovaric, Biljana

2017-01-01

In accordance with the general principles of the present inclusion in advanced education systems, which are based on the support of children with special educational needs and their inclusion in regular teaching process along with their peers, inclusive values are gradually becoming a reality in the Montenegrin educational process. The paper aims…

Decay of the compressible magneto-micropolar fluids

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, Peixin

2018-02-01

This paper considers the large-time behavior of solutions to the Cauchy problem on the compressible magneto-micropolar fluid system under small perturbation in regular Sobolev space. Based on the time-weighted energy estimate, the asymptotic stability of the steady state with the strictly positive constant density, vanishing velocity, micro-rotational velocity, and magnetic field is established.

29 CFR 779.419 - Dependence of the section 7(i) overtime pay exemption upon the level of the employee's “regular...

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... 29 Labor 3 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Dependence of the section 7(i) overtime pay exemption upon the level of the employee's âregular rateâ of pay. 779.419 Section 779.419 Labor Regulations Relating... Compensated Principally by Commissions § 779.419 Dependence of the section 7(i) overtime pay exemption upon...

Further investigation on "A multiplicative regularization for force reconstruction"

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Aucejo, M.; De Smet, O.

2018-05-01

We have recently proposed a multiplicative regularization to reconstruct mechanical forces acting on a structure from vibration measurements. This method does not require any selection procedure for choosing the regularization parameter, since the amount of regularization is automatically adjusted throughout an iterative resolution process. The proposed iterative algorithm has been developed with performance and efficiency in mind, but it is actually a simplified version of a full iterative procedure not described in the original paper. The present paper aims at introducing the full resolution algorithm and comparing it with its simplified version in terms of computational efficiency and solution accuracy. In particular, it is shown that both algorithms lead to very similar identified solutions.

Improving medical records filing in a municipal hospital in Ghana.

PubMed

Teviu, E A A; Aikins, M; Abdulai, T I; Sackey, S; Boni, P; Afari, E; Wurapa, F

2012-09-01

Medical records are kept in the interest of both the patient and clinician. Proper filing of patient's medical records ensures easy retrieval and contributes to decreased patient waiting time at the hospital and continuity of care. This paper reports on an intervention study to address the issue of misfiling and multiple patient folders in a health facility. Intervention study. Municipal Hospital, Goaso, Asunafo North District, Brong Ahafo Region, Ghana. Methods employed for data collection were records review, direct observation and tracking of folders. Interventions instituted were staff durbars, advocacy and communication, consultations, in-service trainings, procurement and monitoring. Factors contributing to issuance of multiple folders and misfiling were determined. Proportion of multiple folders was estimated. Results revealed direct and indirect factors contributing to issuance of multiple patient folders and misfiling. Interventions and monitoring reduce acquisition of numerous medical folders per patient and misfiling. After the intervention, there was significant reduction in the use of multiple folders (i.e., overall 97% reduction) and a high usage of single patient medical folders (i.e., 99%). In conclusion, a defined medical records filing system with adequate training, logistics and regular monitoring and supervision minimises issuance of multiple folders and misfiling.

Explicit error bounds for the α-quasi-periodic Helmholtz problem.

PubMed

Lord, Natacha H; Mulholland, Anthony J

2013-10-01

This paper considers a finite element approach to modeling electromagnetic waves in a periodic diffraction grating. In particular, an a priori error estimate associated with the α-quasi-periodic transformation is derived. This involves the solution of the associated Helmholtz problem being written as a product of e(iαx) and an unknown function called the α-quasi-periodic solution. To begin with, the well-posedness of the continuous problem is examined using a variational formulation. The problem is then discretized, and a rigorous a priori error estimate, which guarantees the uniqueness of this approximate solution, is derived. In previous studies, the continuity of the Dirichlet-to-Neumann map has simply been assumed and the dependency of the regularity constant on the system parameters, such as the wavenumber, has not been shown. To address this deficiency, in this paper an explicit dependence on the wavenumber and the degree of the polynomial basis in the a priori error estimate is obtained. Since the finite element method is well known for dealing with any geometries, comparison of numerical results obtained using the α-quasi-periodic transformation with a lattice sum technique is then presented.

Superabsorbent biphasic system based on poly(lactic acid) and poly(acrylic acid)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sartore, Luciana; Pandini, Stefano; Baldi, Francesco; Bignotti, Fabio

2016-05-01

In this research work, biocomposites based on crosslinked particles of poly(acrylic acid), commonly used as superabsorbent polymer (SAP), and poly-L-lactic acid (PLLA) were developed to elucidate the role of the filler (i.e., polymeric crosslinked particles) on the overall physico-mechanical behavior and to obtain superabsorbent thermoplastic products. Samples prepared by melt-blending of components in different ratios showed a biphasic system with a regular distribution of particles, with diameter ranging from 5 to 10 μm, within the PLLA polymeric matrix. The polymeric biphasic system, coded PLASA i.e. superabsorbent poly(lactic acid), showed excellent swelling properties, demonstrating that cross-linked particles retain their superabsorbent ability, as in their free counterparts, even if distributed in a thermoplastic polymeric matrix. The thermal characteristics of the biocomposites evidence enhanced thermal stability in comparison with neat PLLA and also mechanical properties are markedly modified by addition of crosslinked particles which induce regular stiffening effect. Furthermore, in aqueous environments the particles swell and are leached from PLLA matrix generating very high porosity. These new open-pore PLLA foams, produced in absence of organic solvents and chemical foaming agents, with good physico-mechanical properties appear very promising for several applications, for instance in tissue engineering for scaffold production.

Evaluation of a Smoking Cessation Program in the U.S. Navy: Implications for Long Term Success and Failure

DTIC Science & Technology

1989-05-03

attempted. In addition, the program participants indicated the brand of cigarette smoked and whether the brand was light or regular, menthol or...light cigarettes than any other group. Preference for non- menthol (versus menthol ) cigarettes was clear for all the groups and most pronounced for Navy...Regular 1220 73.8 30 55.6 I 78 78.8 69 61.6 1298 75.1 99 59.6I II Menthol I 48 16.2 26 25.7 I 26 25.7 31 27.9 74 18.6 57 26.9.I I °I Non- Menthol 1248

Iterative image reconstruction that includes a total variation regularization for radial MRI.

PubMed

Kojima, Shinya; Shinohara, Hiroyuki; Hashimoto, Takeyuki; Hirata, Masami; Ueno, Eiko

2015-07-01

This paper presents an iterative image reconstruction method for radial encodings in MRI based on a total variation (TV) regularization. The algebraic reconstruction method combined with total variation regularization (ART_TV) is implemented with a regularization parameter specifying the weight of the TV term in the optimization process. We used numerical simulations of a Shepp-Logan phantom, as well as experimental imaging of a phantom that included a rectangular-wave chart, to evaluate the performance of ART_TV, and to compare it with that of the Fourier transform (FT) method. The trade-off between spatial resolution and signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) was investigated for different values of the regularization parameter by experiments on a phantom and a commercially available MRI system. ART_TV was inferior to the FT with respect to the evaluation of the modulation transfer function (MTF), especially at high frequencies; however, it outperformed the FT with regard to the SNR. In accordance with the results of SNR measurement, visual impression suggested that the image quality of ART_TV was better than that of the FT for reconstruction of a noisy image of a kiwi fruit. In conclusion, ART_TV provides radial MRI with improved image quality for low-SNR data; however, the regularization parameter in ART_TV is a critical factor for obtaining improvement over the FT.

A cognitive evaluation of four online search engines for answering definitional questions posed by physicians.

PubMed

Yu, Hong; Kaufman, David

2007-01-01

The Internet is having a profound impact on physicians' medical decision making. One recent survey of 277 physicians showed that 72% of physicians regularly used the Internet to research medical information and 51% admitted that information from web sites influenced their clinical decisions. This paper describes the first cognitive evaluation of four state-of-the-art Internet search engines: Google (i.e., Google and Scholar.Google), MedQA, Onelook, and PubMed for answering definitional questions (i.e., questions with the format of "What is X?") posed by physicians. Onelook is a portal for online definitions, and MedQA is a question answering system that automatically generates short texts to answer specific biomedical questions. Our evaluation criteria include quality of answer, ease of use, time spent, and number of actions taken. Our results show that MedQA outperforms Onelook and PubMed in most of the criteria, and that MedQA surpasses Google in time spent and number of actions, two important efficiency criteria. Our results show that Google is the best system for quality of answer and ease of use. We conclude that Google is an effective search engine for medical definitions, and that MedQA exceeds the other search engines in that it provides users direct answers to their questions; while the users of the other search engines have to visit several sites before finding all of the pertinent information.

Gaia I: the Mission - the adventure begins

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Altmann, M.

2015-10-01

The ESA Gaia satellite mission, launched on Dec. 19, 2013, will undoubtedly leave a profound impact on Galactic dynamics, revolutionising many aspects of the trade. Nine months later, with the commissioning phase over and the regular five year measuring phase of Gaia starting, it is time to give an overview of the mission, what to expect after the potential of the spacecraft has been fully assessed in situ. Moreover this paper will give a brief description of the mission as a whole, to be followed by a second contribution by Figueras (2015) focussing on Gaia science.

Single machine scheduling with slack due dates assignment

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Liu, Weiguo; Hu, Xiangpei; Wang, Xuyin

2017-04-01

This paper considers a single machine scheduling problem in which each job is assigned an individual due date based on a common flow allowance (i.e. all jobs have slack due date). The goal is to find a sequence for jobs, together with a due date assignment, that minimizes a non-regular criterion comprising the total weighted absolute lateness value and common flow allowance cost, where the weight is a position-dependent weight. In order to solve this problem, an ? time algorithm is proposed. Some extensions of the problem are also shown.

47 CFR 76.614 - Cable television system regular monitoring.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-10-01

... 47 Telecommunication 4 2013-10-01 2013-10-01 false Cable television system regular monitoring. 76... system regular monitoring. Cable television operators transmitting carriers in the frequency bands 108-137 and 225-400 MHz shall provide for a program of regular monitoring for signal leakage by...

47 CFR 76.614 - Cable television system regular monitoring.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-10-01

... 47 Telecommunication 4 2012-10-01 2012-10-01 false Cable television system regular monitoring. 76... system regular monitoring. Cable television operators transmitting carriers in the frequency bands 108-137 and 225-400 MHz shall provide for a program of regular monitoring for signal leakage by...

47 CFR 76.614 - Cable television system regular monitoring.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-10-01

... 47 Telecommunication 4 2014-10-01 2014-10-01 false Cable television system regular monitoring. 76... system regular monitoring. Cable television operators transmitting carriers in the frequency bands 108-137 and 225-400 MHz shall provide for a program of regular monitoring for signal leakage by...

Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeat (CRISPR) RNAs in the Porphyromonas gingivalis CRISPR-Cas I-C System.

PubMed

Burmistrz, Michal; Rodriguez Martinez, Jose Ignacio; Krochmal, Daniel; Staniec, Dominika; Pyrc, Krzysztof

2017-12-01

The CRISPR-Cas (clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeat-CRISPR-associated protein) system is unique to prokaryotes and provides the majority of bacteria and archaea with immunity against nucleic acids of foreign origin. CRISPR RNAs (crRNAs) are the key element of this system, since they are responsible for its selectivity and effectiveness. Typical crRNAs consist of a spacer sequence flanked with 5' and 3' handles originating from repeat sequences that are important for recognition of these small RNAs by the Cas machinery. In this investigation, we studied the type I-C CRISPR-Cas system in Porphyromonas gingivalis , a human pathogen associated with periodontitis, rheumatoid arthritis, cardiovascular disease, and aspiration pneumonia. We demonstrated the importance of the 5' handle for crRNA recognition by the effector complex and consequently activity, as well as secondary trimming of the 3' handle, which was not affected by modifications of the repeat sequence. IMPORTANCE Porphyromonas gingivalis , a clinically relevant Gram-negative, anaerobic bacterium, is one of the major etiologic agents of periodontitis and has been linked with the development of other clinical conditions, including rheumatoid arthritis, cardiovascular disease, and aspiration pneumonia. The presented results on the biogenesis and functions of crRNAs expand our understanding of CRISPR-Cas cellular defenses in P. gingivalis and of horizontal gene transfer in bacteria. Copyright © 2017 American Society for Microbiology.

Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeat (CRISPR) RNAs in the Porphyromonas gingivalis CRISPR-Cas I-C System

PubMed Central

Burmistrz, Michal; Rodriguez Martinez, Jose Ignacio; Krochmal, Daniel; Staniec, Dominika

2017-01-01

ABSTRACT The CRISPR-Cas (clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeat–CRISPR-associated protein) system is unique to prokaryotes and provides the majority of bacteria and archaea with immunity against nucleic acids of foreign origin. CRISPR RNAs (crRNAs) are the key element of this system, since they are responsible for its selectivity and effectiveness. Typical crRNAs consist of a spacer sequence flanked with 5′ and 3′ handles originating from repeat sequences that are important for recognition of these small RNAs by the Cas machinery. In this investigation, we studied the type I-C CRISPR-Cas system in Porphyromonas gingivalis, a human pathogen associated with periodontitis, rheumatoid arthritis, cardiovascular disease, and aspiration pneumonia. We demonstrated the importance of the 5′ handle for crRNA recognition by the effector complex and consequently activity, as well as secondary trimming of the 3′ handle, which was not affected by modifications of the repeat sequence. IMPORTANCE Porphyromonas gingivalis, a clinically relevant Gram-negative, anaerobic bacterium, is one of the major etiologic agents of periodontitis and has been linked with the development of other clinical conditions, including rheumatoid arthritis, cardiovascular disease, and aspiration pneumonia. The presented results on the biogenesis and functions of crRNAs expand our understanding of CRISPR-Cas cellular defenses in P. gingivalis and of horizontal gene transfer in bacteria. PMID:28893837

Efficient generalized cross-validation with applications to parametric image restoration and resolution enhancement.

PubMed

Nguyen, N; Milanfar, P; Golub, G

2001-01-01

In many image restoration/resolution enhancement applications, the blurring process, i.e., point spread function (PSF) of the imaging system, is not known or is known only to within a set of parameters. We estimate these PSF parameters for this ill-posed class of inverse problem from raw data, along with the regularization parameters required to stabilize the solution, using the generalized cross-validation method (GCV). We propose efficient approximation techniques based on the Lanczos algorithm and Gauss quadrature theory, reducing the computational complexity of the GCV. Data-driven PSF and regularization parameter estimation experiments with synthetic and real image sequences are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness and robustness of our method.

Operations and maintenance in the glass container industry

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

Barbieri, D.; Jacobson, D.

1999-07-01

Compressed air is a significant electrical end-use at most manufacturing facilities, and few industries utilize compressed air to the extent of the glass container industry. Unfortunately, compressed air is often a significant source of wasted energy because many customers view it as a low-maintenance system. In the case of the glass container industry, compressed air is a mission-critical system used for driving production machinery, blowing glass, cooling plungers and product, and packaging. Leakage totaling 10% of total compressed air capacity is not uncommon, and leakage rates upwards of 40% have been observed. Even though energy savings from repairing compressed airmore » leaks can be substantial, regular maintenance procedures are often not in place for compressed air systems. In order to achieve future savings in the compressed air end-use, O and M programs must make a special effort to educate customers on the significant energy impacts of regular compressed air system maintenance. This paper will focus on the glass industry, its reliability on compressed air, and the unique savings potential in the glass container industry. Through a technical review of the glass production process, this paper will identify compressed air as a highly significant electrical consumer in these facilities and present ideas on how to produce and deliver compressed air in a more efficient manner. It will also examine a glass container manufacturer with extremely high savings potential in compressed air systems, but little initiative to establish and perform compressed air maintenance due to an if it works, don't mess with it maintenance philosophy. Finally, this paper will address the economic benefit of compressed air maintenance in this and other manufacturing industries.« less

The Regular Education Initiative (REI): Where Do Students with Learning Disabilities Fit?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ralabate, Patti

The paper defines the Regular Education Initiative (REI) and outlines its fundamental assumptions. The paper then discusses the responses of three organizations to the assumptions, as delineated in the joint policy statement of the National Education Association, the Council for Exceptional Children, and the American Association of School…

EDITORIAL: Incoming Editor-in-Chief Incoming Editor-in-Chief

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Birch, David

2012-01-01

It is a pleasure and an honour for me to be taking over as Editor-in-Chief of Measurement Science and Technology. MST is well known across research communities worldwide as a leading journal in which to publish new techniques and instrumentation. It has gained this enviable position largely because of the excellent guidance of its Editorial Board and dedicated staff at Institute of Physics Publishing over many years. I want to highlight in particular the contribution of the outgoing Editor Peter Hauptmann, and other Editors before him, in making the journal truly international. We thank Peter immensely for all his hard work in leading the journal, having exceptionally served two terms, each of five years. I come into the post of Editor at a very interesting and challenging time for research. The global recession is leading to cuts in research funding in many countries, researchers and their outputs are coming under closer scrutiny than ever before, and more is being expected of them. Journals play a critical role in monitoring and maintaining research standards, but we should be careful not to assume that journal Impact Factor is the sole measure of research quality. Although expediency may sometimes demand it, Impact Factor, as practitioners know, is subject dependent. One of the great things about science and technology for me is its level playing field. The key point is still innovation no matter where the work is done or where it is published. MST has a long pedigree of being the natural home of the highest quality papers from leading researchers wishing to report novel instrumentation and techniques. 2013 will mark the 90th anniversary of MST and we look forward to celebrating in style its sustained success. I recall with pride the first paper I published in Journal of Physics E: Scientific Instruments (as MST was previously titled) back in 1977. The paper reported the design and application of an early fluorescence lifetime spectrometer that I had constructed for my PhD in the Department of Physics at the University of Manchester. Since that time I have witnessed many changes in instrumentation and techniques. I believe that I have been fortunate in not spending all of my time in a university. Having worked in or with industry throughout my career I have been able to see the trends from the perspective of both sectors. In my area of fluorescence spectroscopy I have seen the cost of systems fall in real terms, the performance rise, an increased need for user-friendly software and less emphasis on performance specification when customers decide which instrument to purchase. Such trends, no doubt replicated in other areas, reflect the migration of system instrumentation away from being the preserve of the specialist to much wider use and customization across the disciplines and skill-set. MST has embraced this change through its multidisciplinary remit in Special Features, Topical Reviews, Rapid Communications, Perspectives and regular Papers. These days there is much more of a partnership between industry and academia in research and this is to be applauded in these challenging times. I want to encourage contributions to MST from industry as well as academia, as MST is the ideal place to showcase the latest innovation from inception to commercial exploitation. Backed by one of the premier learned societies, the Institute of Physics, I have no doubt that MST will continue in its success and I look forward to helping to advance its high standing to even greater heights.

Specifications of Standards in Systems and Synthetic Biology: Status and Developments in 2017.

PubMed

Schreiber, Falk; Bader, Gary D; Gleeson, Padraig; Golebiewski, Martin; Hucka, Michael; Keating, Sarah M; Novère, Nicolas Le; Myers, Chris; Nickerson, David; Sommer, Björn; Waltemath, Dagmar

2018-03-29

Standards are essential to the advancement of Systems and Synthetic Biology. COMBINE provides a formal body and a centralised platform to help develop and disseminate relevant standards and related resources. The regular special issue of the Journal of Integrative Bioinformatics aims to support the exchange, distribution and archiving of these standards by providing unified, easily citable access. This paper provides an overview of existing COMBINE standards and presents developments of the last year.

Magnet-Retained Two-Mini-Implant Overdenture: Clinical and Mechanical Consideration.

PubMed

Ishida, Yuichi; Kumar, H S Kiran; Goto, Takaharu; Watanabe, Megumi; Wigianto, Rudi; Ichikawa, Tetsuo

2016-10-10

Two-implant overdentures have become the accepted treatment for restoring mandibular edentulism. The dimensions of regular implants sometimes limit their use, such as in the case of narrow ridges. Mini-implants with reduced diameters (less than 3.0 mm) enable insertion into narrow ridges. A magnet-retained two-mini-implant overdenture system was developed and is described in this paper. Additionally, we describe a clinical mandibular procedure using the system and evaluate its biomechanical performance.

Magnet-Retained Two-Mini-Implant Overdenture: Clinical and Mechanical Consideration

PubMed Central

Ishida, Yuichi; Kumar, H. S. Kiran; Goto, Takaharu; Watanabe, Megumi; Wigianto, Rudi; Ichikawa, Tetsuo

2016-01-01

Two-implant overdentures have become the accepted treatment for restoring mandibular edentulism. The dimensions of regular implants sometimes limit their use, such as in the case of narrow ridges. Mini-implants with reduced diameters (less than 3.0 mm) enable insertion into narrow ridges. A magnet-retained two-mini-implant overdenture system was developed and is described in this paper. Additionally, we describe a clinical mandibular procedure using the system and evaluate its biomechanical performance. PMID:29563477

Global Well-Posedness of the NLS System for Infinitely Many Fermions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chen, Thomas; Hong, Younghun; Pavlović, Nataša

2017-04-01

In this paper, we study the mean field quantum fluctuation dynamics for a system of infinitely many fermions with delta pair interactions in the vicinity of an equilibrium solution (the Fermi sea) at zero temperature, in dimensions d = 2, 3, and prove global well-posedness of the corresponding Cauchy problem. Our work extends some of the recent important results obtained by Lewin and Sabin in [33,34], who addressed this problem for more regular pair interactions.

Ultrasonically Absorptive Coatings for Hypersonic Laminar Flow Control

DTIC Science & Technology

2007-12-01

integratt JAC and TPS functions. To aid in the design of UAC with regular microstructure to be tested the CUBRC LENS I tunnel, parametric studies of th...solid foundation for large-scale demonstration of the UAC-LFC performance the CUBRC LENS I -tnel as wel as fabrication of ceramic UAC samples...with regular microstructure to be tested the CUBRC LENS I tunnel, extensive parametric studies of the UAC laminar flow control performance were conducted

Electroweak vacuum instability and renormalized Higgs field vacuum fluctuations in the inflationary universe

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kohri, Kazunori; Matsui, Hiroki

2017-08-01

In this work, we investigated the electroweak vacuum instability during or after inflation. In the inflationary Universe, i.e., de Sitter space, the vacuum field fluctuations < δ phi 2 > enlarge in proportion to the Hubble scale H2. Therefore, the large inflationary vacuum fluctuations of the Higgs field < δ phi 2 > are potentially catastrophic to trigger the vacuum transition to the negative-energy Planck-scale vacuum state and cause an immediate collapse of the Universe. However, the vacuum field fluctuations < δ phi 2 >, i.e., the vacuum expectation values have an ultraviolet divergence, and therefore a renormalization is necessary to estimate the physical effects of the vacuum transition. Thus, in this paper, we revisit the electroweak vacuum instability from the perspective of quantum field theory (QFT) in curved space-time, and discuss the dynamical behavior of the homogeneous Higgs field phi determined by the effective potential V eff( phi ) in curved space-time and the renormalized vacuum fluctuations < δ phi 2 >ren via adiabatic regularization and point-splitting regularization. We simply suppose that the Higgs field only couples the gravity via the non-minimal Higgs-gravity coupling ξ(μ). In this scenario, the electroweak vacuum stability is inevitably threatened by the dynamical behavior of the homogeneous Higgs field phi, or the formations of AdS domains or bubbles unless the Hubble scale is small enough H< ΛI .

Neuronal synchrony: Peculiarity and generality

PubMed Central

Nowotny, Thomas; Huerta, Ramon; Rabinovich, Mikhail I.

2008-01-01

Synchronization in neuronal systems is a new and intriguing application of dynamical systems theory. Why are neuronal systems different as a subject for synchronization? (1) Neurons in themselves are multidimensional nonlinear systems that are able to exhibit a wide variety of different activity patterns. Their “dynamical repertoire” includes regular or chaotic spiking, regular or chaotic bursting, multistability, and complex transient regimes. (2) Usually, neuronal oscillations are the result of the cooperative activity of many synaptically connected neurons (a neuronal circuit). Thus, it is necessary to consider synchronization between different neuronal circuits as well. (3) The synapses that implement the coupling between neurons are also dynamical elements and their intrinsic dynamics influences the process of synchronization or entrainment significantly. In this review we will focus on four new problems: (i) the synchronization in minimal neuronal networks with plastic synapses (synchronization with activity dependent coupling), (ii) synchronization of bursts that are generated by a group of nonsymmetrically coupled inhibitory neurons (heteroclinic synchronization), (iii) the coordination of activities of two coupled neuronal networks (partial synchronization of small composite structures), and (iv) coarse grained synchronization in larger systems (synchronization on a mesoscopic scale). PMID:19045493

A Regularized Linear Dynamical System Framework for Multivariate Time Series Analysis.

PubMed

Liu, Zitao; Hauskrecht, Milos

2015-01-01

Linear Dynamical System (LDS) is an elegant mathematical framework for modeling and learning Multivariate Time Series (MTS). However, in general, it is difficult to set the dimension of an LDS's hidden state space. A small number of hidden states may not be able to model the complexities of a MTS, while a large number of hidden states can lead to overfitting. In this paper, we study learning methods that impose various regularization penalties on the transition matrix of the LDS model and propose a regularized LDS learning framework (rLDS) which aims to (1) automatically shut down LDSs' spurious and unnecessary dimensions, and consequently, address the problem of choosing the optimal number of hidden states; (2) prevent the overfitting problem given a small amount of MTS data; and (3) support accurate MTS forecasting. To learn the regularized LDS from data we incorporate a second order cone program and a generalized gradient descent method into the Maximum a Posteriori framework and use Expectation Maximization to obtain a low-rank transition matrix of the LDS model. We propose two priors for modeling the matrix which lead to two instances of our rLDS. We show that our rLDS is able to recover well the intrinsic dimensionality of the time series dynamics and it improves the predictive performance when compared to baselines on both synthetic and real-world MTS datasets.

Application of growing nested Petri nets for modeling robotic systems operating under risk

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sorokin, E. V.; Senkov, A. V.

2017-10-01

The paper studies the peculiarities of modeling robotic systems engaged in mining. Existing modeling mechanisms are considered, which are based on nested Petri nets, and a new formalism of growing Petri nets is presented that allows modeling robotic systems operating under risk. Modeling is provided both for the regular operation mode and for non-standard modes in which individual elements of the system can perform uncharacteristic functions. The example shows growing Petri nets that are used for modeling extraction of flat coal seams by a robotic system consisting of several different-type autonomous robots.

On the regularity criterion of weak solutions for the 3D MHD equations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gala, Sadek; Ragusa, Maria Alessandra

2017-12-01

The paper deals with the 3D incompressible MHD equations and aims at improving a regularity criterion in terms of the horizontal gradient of velocity and magnetic field. It is proved that the weak solution ( u, b) becomes regular provided that ( \

Does Commuting Affect Health?

PubMed

Künn-Nelen, Annemarie

2016-08-01

This paper analyzes the relation between commuting time and health in the UK. I focus on four different types of health outcomes: subjective health measures, objective health measures, health behavior, and healthcare utilization. Fixed effect models are estimated with British Household Panel Survey data. I find that whereas objective health and health behavior are barely affected by commuting time, subjective health measures are clearly lower for people who commute longer. A longer commuting time is, moreover, related to more visits to the general practitioner. Effects turn out to be more pronounced for women and for commuters driving a car. For women, commuting time is also negatively related to regular exercise and positively to calling in sick. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The full Keller-Segel model is well-posed on nonsmooth domains

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Horstmann, D.; Meinlschmidt, H.; Rehberg, J.

2018-04-01

In this paper we prove that the full Keller-Segel system, a quasilinear strongly coupled reaction-crossdiffusion system of four parabolic equations, is well-posed in the sense that it always admits an unique local-in-time solution in an adequate function space, provided that the initial values are suitably regular. The proof is done via an abstract solution theorem for nonlocal quasilinear equations by Amann and is carried out for general source terms. It is fundamentally based on recent nontrivial elliptic and parabolic regularity results which hold true even on rather general nonsmooth spatial domains. For space dimensions 2 and 3, this enables us to work in a nonsmooth setting which is not available in classical parabolic systems theory. Apparently, there exists no comparable existence result for the full Keller-Segel system up to now. Due to the large class of possibly nonsmooth domains admitted, we also obtain new results for the ‘standard’ Keller-Segel system consisting of only two equations as a special case. This work is dedicated to Prof Willi Jäger.

Interactive telemedicine solution based on a secure mHealth application.

PubMed

Eldeib, Ayman M

2014-01-01

In dynamic healthcare environments, caregivers and patients are constantly moving. To increase the healthcare quality when it is necessary, caregivers need the ability to reach each other and securely access medical information and services from wherever they happened to be. This paper presents an Interactive Telemedicine Solution (ITS) to facilitate and automate the communication within a healthcare facility via Voice over Internet Protocol (VOIP), regular mobile phones, and Wi-Fi connectivity. Our system has the capability to exchange/provide securely healthcare information/services across geographic barriers through 3G/4G wireless communication network. Our system assumes the availability of an Electronic Health Record (EHR) system locally in the healthcare organization and/or on the cloud network such as a nation-wide EHR system. This paper demonstrate the potential of our system to provide effectively and securely remote healthcare solution.

Exploring the Universe with TV Remotes: Cooperative Quizzes via the Classroom Performance System (CPS) in AY101

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Byrd, G.; Coleman, S.; Werneth, C.

2003-12-01

Our AY101 course has large enrollments. There are the usual attendance problems with students putting off studying until just before major exams, with predictable consequences. We (myself, faculty, Werneth, grad student, and Coleman, undergrad) describe our experience with one strategy to actively involve students: cooperatively answering quiz questions. We tried a solution during our May 2002 Interim term. Classes of three hours/day over three weeks make mid-class breaks essential! Before breaks, we presented a short multiple choice, open book/note quiz answered after break. Quizzes could increase grades, e.g. A- to an A, without excessively diluting importance of closed-book major exams. Comparing Interim 2002 final exams to Interim 2001, the average was 80%, much better than the 2001 class's 57%. The 2002 students interacted with one another more. Attendance was over 90%. During a regular semester, handing out and taking up papers would take up much time during the more frequent and larger classes. It's more interesting if students vote for different answers together then revealing the correct answer. Toward these ends, I obtained a grant for a "Classroom Performance System," a computer receiver unit, 128 ``TV remote" response pads and software for creating quizzes. Spring 2003, three teachers tried out the system in a trial fashion. To compare, we used the system during Interim 2003. Ease of giving quizzes and grading permitted a shorter 5 question quiz during break with another at class end totaling of 27 quizzes (almost one/day for a regular semester's Tuesday/Thursday class). Improvement was maintained with a slight 3 % increase. We used the CPS for events such as the recent Mars close approach. Kids of all ages like to check their understanding with a few questions. We created a web site where the students can interactively review questions and other materials, http://ay101.garnetsigma.com/index.html

Study on a Cavitating Hydrofoil having a Practical Blade Profile Shape.

DTIC Science & Technology

1980-10-31

and punched on regular IBM cards. These cards were conveniently used as input data for data reduction. The data acquisition system also has an...FIGURE 3.4 FLOW CONFIGURATION OF DOUBLE WAKE MODEL FOR PARTIALLY CAVITATING FOIL W =+ itp B C F T w St (pI FIGURE 3.5 POTENTIAL PLANE ia W T B C F W

20 CFR 220.171 - The reentitlement period.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-04-01

... DETERMINING DISABILITY Trial Work Period and Reentitlement Period for Annuitants Disabled for Any Regular..., child, or widow(er) who is disabled for any regular employment will not be paid for— (i) Any month... Retirement Act (see § 220.160). (3) The disability annuity of an employee who is disabled for any regular...

20 CFR 220.171 - The reentitlement period.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-04-01

... DETERMINING DISABILITY Trial Work Period and Reentitlement Period for Annuitants Disabled for Any Regular..., child, or widow(er) who is disabled for any regular employment will not be paid for— (i) Any month... Retirement Act (see § 220.160). (3) The disability annuity of an employee who is disabled for any regular...

Modelling of internal architecture of kinesin nanomotor as a machine language.

PubMed

Khataee, H R; Ibrahim, M Y

2012-09-01

Kinesin is a protein-based natural nanomotor that transports molecular cargoes within cells by walking along microtubules. Kinesin nanomotor is considered as a bio-nanoagent which is able to sense the cell through its sensors (i.e. its heads and tail), make the decision internally and perform actions on the cell through its actuator (i.e. its motor domain). The study maps the agent-based architectural model of internal decision-making process of kinesin nanomotor to a machine language using an automata algorithm. The applied automata algorithm receives the internal agent-based architectural model of kinesin nanomotor as a deterministic finite automaton (DFA) model and generates a regular machine language. The generated regular machine language was acceptable by the architectural DFA model of the nanomotor and also in good agreement with its natural behaviour. The internal agent-based architectural model of kinesin nanomotor indicates the degree of autonomy and intelligence of the nanomotor interactions with its cell. Thus, our developed regular machine language can model the degree of autonomy and intelligence of kinesin nanomotor interactions with its cell as a language. Modelling of internal architectures of autonomous and intelligent bio-nanosystems as machine languages can lay the foundation towards the concept of bio-nanoswarms and next phases of the bio-nanorobotic systems development.

Brazil: Implications of Technological Change for Skills Training in Sao Paulo Industries. Training Discussion Paper No. 47.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

de Assis, Marisa

The Brazilian economy is led by the industrial sector, which accounts for 34 percent of production and employs 25 percent of the economically active population. The labor force formally employed in industry consists mainly of relatively young males with little schooling. A large number of institutions both in the regular education system and…

An active immune defense with a minimal CRISPR (clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats) RNA and without the Cas6 protein.

PubMed

Maier, Lisa-Katharina; Stachler, Aris-Edda; Saunders, Sita J; Backofen, Rolf; Marchfelder, Anita

2015-02-13

The prokaryotic immune system CRISPR-Cas (clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats-CRISPR-associated) is a defense system that protects prokaryotes against foreign DNA. The short CRISPR RNAs (crRNAs) are central components of this immune system. In CRISPR-Cas systems type I and III, crRNAs are generated by the endonuclease Cas6. We developed a Cas6b-independent crRNA maturation pathway for the Haloferax type I-B system in vivo that expresses a functional crRNA, which we termed independently generated crRNA (icrRNA). The icrRNA is effective in triggering degradation of an invader plasmid carrying the matching protospacer sequence. The Cas6b-independent maturation of the icrRNA allowed mutation of the repeat sequence without interfering with signals important for Cas6b processing. We generated 23 variants of the icrRNA and analyzed them for activity in the interference reaction. icrRNAs with deletions or mutations of the 3' handle are still active in triggering an interference reaction. The complete 3' handle could be removed without loss of activity. However, manipulations of the 5' handle mostly led to loss of interference activity. Furthermore, we could show that in the presence of an icrRNA a strain without Cas6b (Δcas6b) is still active in interference. © 2015 by The American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Inc.

Acoustic and Linguistic Interdependencies of Irregular Phonation

DTIC Science & Technology

2010-05-01

duration in the word ’year’ for a specific TIMIT case. ’ axl " refers to the phonated portion of the ’ I" in ’year’ and ’q’ refers to the inegularly phonated...and trans glottal pressure. Different configurations of the 19 system can lead not only to modal voiced speech and 1I11~oiced speech (the "regular...irregular phonation, despite the fact that they have much more divergent ranges during modal phonation. Males Females Group Range ofIrregular Region 7 -78

Karst show caves - how DTN technology as used in space assists automatic environmental monitoring and tourist protection - experiment in Postojna cave

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gabrovšek, F.; Grašič, B.; Božnar, M. Z.; Mlakar, P.; Udén, M.; Davies, E.

2013-10-01

The paper presents an experiment demonstrating a novel and successful application of Delay- and Disruption-Tolerant Networking (DTN) technology for automatic data transfer in a karst cave Early Warning and Measuring System. The experiment took place inside the Postojna Cave in Slovenia, which is open to tourists. Several automatic meteorological measuring stations are set up inside the cave, as an adjunct to the surveillance infrastructure; the regular data transfer provided by the DTN technology allows the surveillance system to take on the role of an Early Warning System (EWS). One of the stations is set up alongside the railway tracks, which allows the tourist to travel inside the cave by train. The experiment was carried out by placing a DTN "data mule" (a DTN-enabled computer with WiFi connection) on the train and by upgrading the meteorological station with a DTN-enabled WiFi transmission system. When the data mule is in the wireless drive-by mode, it collects measurement data from the station over a period of several seconds as the train passes the stationary equipment, and delivers data at the final train station by the cave entrance. This paper describes an overview of the experimental equipment and organisation allowing the use of a DTN system for data collection and an EWS inside karst caves where there is a regular traffic of tourists and researchers.

Karst show caves - how DTN technology as used in space assists automatic environmental monitoring and tourist protection - experiment in Postojna Cave

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gabrovšek, F.; Grašič, B.; Božnar, M. Z.; Mlakar, P.; Udén, M.; Davies, E.

2014-02-01

The paper presents an experiment demonstrating a novel and successful application of delay- and disruption-tolerant networking (DTN) technology for automatic data transfer in a karst cave early warning and measuring system. The experiment took place inside the Postojna Cave in Slovenia, which is open to tourists. Several automatic meteorological measuring stations are set up inside the cave, as an adjunct to the surveillance infrastructure; the regular data transfer provided by the DTN technology allows the surveillance system to take on the role of an early warning system (EWS). One of the stations is set up alongside the railway tracks, which allows the tourist to travel inside the cave by train. The experiment was carried out by placing a DTN "data mule" (a DTN-enabled computer with WiFi connection) on the train and by upgrading the meteorological station with a DTN-enabled WiFi transmission system. When the data mule is in the wireless drive-by mode, it collects measurement data from the station over a period of several seconds as the train without stopping passes the stationary equipment, and delivers data at the final train station by the cave entrance. This paper describes an overview of the experimental equipment and organization allowing the use of a DTN system for data collection and an EWS inside karst caves where there is regular traffic of tourists and researchers.

Research on Nonlinear Time Series Forecasting of Time-Delay NN Embedded with Bayesian Regularization

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jiang, Weijin; Xu, Yusheng; Xu, Yuhui; Wang, Jianmin

Based on the idea of nonlinear prediction of phase space reconstruction, this paper presented a time delay BP neural network model, whose generalization capability was improved by Bayesian regularization. Furthermore, the model is applied to forecast the imp&exp trades in one industry. The results showed that the improved model has excellent generalization capabilities, which not only learned the historical curve, but efficiently predicted the trend of business. Comparing with common evaluation of forecasts, we put on a conclusion that nonlinear forecast can not only focus on data combination and precision improvement, it also can vividly reflect the nonlinear characteristic of the forecasting system. While analyzing the forecasting precision of the model, we give a model judgment by calculating the nonlinear characteristic value of the combined serial and original serial, proved that the forecasting model can reasonably 'catch' the dynamic characteristic of the nonlinear system which produced the origin serial.

Efficient Trajectory Propagation for Orbit Determination Problems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Roa, Javier; Pelaez, Jesus

2015-01-01

Regularized formulations of orbital motion apply a series of techniques to improve the numerical integration of the orbit. Despite their advantages and potential applications little attention has been paid to the propagation of the partial derivatives of the corresponding set of elements or coordinates, required in many orbit-determination scenarios and optimization problems. This paper fills this gap by presenting the general procedure for integrating the state-transition matrix of the system together with the nominal trajectory using regularized formulations and different sets of elements. The main difficulty comes from introducing an independent variable different from time, because the solution needs to be synchronized. The correction of the time delay is treated from a generic perspective not focused on any particular formulation. The synchronization using time-elements is also discussed. Numerical examples include strongly-perturbed orbits in the Pluto system, motivated by the recent flyby of the New Horizons spacecraft, together with a geocentric flyby of the NEAR spacecraft.

Integrating and Managing Bim in GIS, Software Review

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

El Meouche, R.; Rezoug, M.; Hijazi, I.

2013-08-01

Since the advent of Computer-Aided Design (CAD) and Geographical Information System (GIS) tools, project participants have been increasingly leveraging these tools throughout the different phases of a civil infrastructure project. In recent years the number of GIS software that provides tools to enable the integration of Building information in geo context has risen sharply. More and more GIS software are added tools for this purposes and other software projects are regularly extending these tools. However, each software has its different strength and weakness and its purpose of use. This paper provides a thorough review to investigate the software capabilities and clarify its purpose. For this study, Autodesk Revit 2012 i.e. BIM editor software was used to create BIMs. In the first step, three building models were created, the resulted models were converted to BIM format and then the software was used to integrate it. For the evaluation of the software, general characteristics was studied such as the user interface, what formats are supported (import/export), and the way building information are imported.

Obtaining sparse distributions in 2D inverse problems.

PubMed

Reci, A; Sederman, A J; Gladden, L F

2017-08-01

The mathematics of inverse problems has relevance across numerous estimation problems in science and engineering. L 1 regularization has attracted recent attention in reconstructing the system properties in the case of sparse inverse problems; i.e., when the true property sought is not adequately described by a continuous distribution, in particular in Compressed Sensing image reconstruction. In this work, we focus on the application of L 1 regularization to a class of inverse problems; relaxation-relaxation, T 1 -T 2 , and diffusion-relaxation, D-T 2 , correlation experiments in NMR, which have found widespread applications in a number of areas including probing surface interactions in catalysis and characterizing fluid composition and pore structures in rocks. We introduce a robust algorithm for solving the L 1 regularization problem and provide a guide to implementing it, including the choice of the amount of regularization used and the assignment of error estimates. We then show experimentally that L 1 regularization has significant advantages over both the Non-Negative Least Squares (NNLS) algorithm and Tikhonov regularization. It is shown that the L 1 regularization algorithm stably recovers a distribution at a signal to noise ratio<20 and that it resolves relaxation time constants and diffusion coefficients differing by as little as 10%. The enhanced resolving capability is used to measure the inter and intra particle concentrations of a mixture of hexane and dodecane present within porous silica beads immersed within a bulk liquid phase; neither NNLS nor Tikhonov regularization are able to provide this resolution. This experimental study shows that the approach enables discrimination between different chemical species when direct spectroscopic discrimination is impossible, and hence measurement of chemical composition within porous media, such as catalysts or rocks, is possible while still being stable to high levels of noise. Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier Inc.

Obtaining sparse distributions in 2D inverse problems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Reci, A.; Sederman, A. J.; Gladden, L. F.

2017-08-01

The mathematics of inverse problems has relevance across numerous estimation problems in science and engineering. L1 regularization has attracted recent attention in reconstructing the system properties in the case of sparse inverse problems; i.e., when the true property sought is not adequately described by a continuous distribution, in particular in Compressed Sensing image reconstruction. In this work, we focus on the application of L1 regularization to a class of inverse problems; relaxation-relaxation, T1-T2, and diffusion-relaxation, D-T2, correlation experiments in NMR, which have found widespread applications in a number of areas including probing surface interactions in catalysis and characterizing fluid composition and pore structures in rocks. We introduce a robust algorithm for solving the L1 regularization problem and provide a guide to implementing it, including the choice of the amount of regularization used and the assignment of error estimates. We then show experimentally that L1 regularization has significant advantages over both the Non-Negative Least Squares (NNLS) algorithm and Tikhonov regularization. It is shown that the L1 regularization algorithm stably recovers a distribution at a signal to noise ratio < 20 and that it resolves relaxation time constants and diffusion coefficients differing by as little as 10%. The enhanced resolving capability is used to measure the inter and intra particle concentrations of a mixture of hexane and dodecane present within porous silica beads immersed within a bulk liquid phase; neither NNLS nor Tikhonov regularization are able to provide this resolution. This experimental study shows that the approach enables discrimination between different chemical species when direct spectroscopic discrimination is impossible, and hence measurement of chemical composition within porous media, such as catalysts or rocks, is possible while still being stable to high levels of noise.

Presence of Type I-F CRISPR/Cas systems is associated with antimicrobial susceptibility in Escherichia coli.

PubMed

Aydin, Seyid; Personne, Yoann; Newire, Enas; Laverick, Rebecca; Russell, Oliver; Roberts, Adam P; Enne, Virve I

2017-08-01

Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats (CRISPR) and their associated cas genes are sequence-specific DNA nuclease systems found in bacteria and archaea. CRISPR/Cas systems use RNA transcripts of previously acquired DNA (spacers) to target invading genetic elements with the same sequence, including plasmids. In this research we studied the relationship between CRISPR/Cas systems and multidrug resistance in Escherichia coli . The presence of Type I-E and Type I-F CRISPR systems was investigated among 82 antimicrobial-susceptible and 96 MDR clinical E. coli isolates by PCR and DNA sequencing. Phylogrouping and MLST were performed to determine relatedness of isolates. RT-PCR was performed to ascertain the expression of associated cas genes. Type I-F CRISPR was associated with the B2 phylogroup and was significantly overrepresented in the susceptible group (22.0%) compared with the MDR group (2.1%). The majority of CRISPR I-F-containing isolates had spacer sequences that matched IncF and IncI plasmids. RT-PCR demonstrated that Type I-F cas genes were expressed and therefore potentially functional. The CRISPR I-F system is more likely to be found in antimicrobial-susceptible E. coli . Given that the Type I-F system is expressed in WT isolates, we suggest that this difference could be due to the CRISPR system potentially interfering with the acquisition of antimicrobial resistance plasmids, maintaining susceptibility in these isolates. © The Author 2017. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the British Society for Antimicrobial Chemotherapy. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Simulation of a compact analyzer-based imaging system with a regular x-ray source

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Caudevilla, Oriol; Zhou, Wei; Stoupin, Stanislav; Verman, Boris; Brankov, J. G.

2017-03-01

Analyzer-based Imaging (ABI) belongs to a broader family of phase-contrast (PC) X-ray techniques. PC measures X-ray deflection phenomena when interacting with a sample, which is known to provide higher contrast images of soft tissue than other X-ray methods. This is of high interest in the medical field, in particular for mammogram applications. This paper presents a simulation tool for table-top ABI systems using a conventional polychromatic X-ray source.

Easy regulation of metabolic flux in Escherichia coli using an endogenous type I-E CRISPR-Cas system.

PubMed

Chang, Yizhao; Su, Tianyuan; Qi, Qingsheng; Liang, Quanfeng

2016-11-15

Clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats interference (CRISPRi) is a recently developed powerful tool for gene regulation. In Escherichia coli, the type I CRISPR system expressed endogenously shall be easy for internal regulation without causing metabolic burden in compared with the widely used type II system, which expressed dCas9 as an additional plasmid. By knocking out cas3 and activating the expression of CRISPR-associated complex for antiviral defense (Cascade), we constructed a native CRISPRi system in E. coli. Downregulation of the target gene from 6 to 82% was demonstrated using green fluorescent protein. Regulation of the citrate synthase gene (gltA) in the TCA cycle affected host metabolism. The effect of metabolic flux regulation was demonstrated by the poly-3-hydroxbutyrate (PHB) accumulation in vivo. By regulating native gltA in E. coli using an engineered endogenous type I-E CRISPR system, we redirected metabolic flux from the central metabolic pathway to the PHB synthesis pathway. This study demonstrated that the endogenous type I-E CRISPR-Cas system is an easy and effective method for regulating internal metabolic pathways, which is useful for product synthesis.

Multisensor Super Resolution Using Directionally-Adaptive Regularization for UAV Images

PubMed Central

Kang, Wonseok; Yu, Soohwan; Ko, Seungyong; Paik, Joonki

2015-01-01

In various unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) imaging applications, the multisensor super-resolution (SR) technique has become a chronic problem and attracted increasing attention. Multisensor SR algorithms utilize multispectral low-resolution (LR) images to make a higher resolution (HR) image to improve the performance of the UAV imaging system. The primary objective of the paper is to develop a multisensor SR method based on the existing multispectral imaging framework instead of using additional sensors. In order to restore image details without noise amplification or unnatural post-processing artifacts, this paper presents an improved regularized SR algorithm by combining the directionally-adaptive constraints and multiscale non-local means (NLM) filter. As a result, the proposed method can overcome the physical limitation of multispectral sensors by estimating the color HR image from a set of multispectral LR images using intensity-hue-saturation (IHS) image fusion. Experimental results show that the proposed method provides better SR results than existing state-of-the-art SR methods in the sense of objective measures. PMID:26007744

Multisensor Super Resolution Using Directionally-Adaptive Regularization for UAV Images.

PubMed

Kang, Wonseok; Yu, Soohwan; Ko, Seungyong; Paik, Joonki

2015-05-22

In various unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) imaging applications, the multisensor super-resolution (SR) technique has become a chronic problem and attracted increasing attention. Multisensor SR algorithms utilize multispectral low-resolution (LR) images to make a higher resolution (HR) image to improve the performance of the UAV imaging system. The primary objective of the paper is to develop a multisensor SR method based on the existing multispectral imaging framework instead of using additional sensors. In order to restore image details without noise amplification or unnatural post-processing artifacts, this paper presents an improved regularized SR algorithm by combining the directionally-adaptive constraints and multiscale non-local means (NLM) filter. As a result, the proposed method can overcome the physical limitation of multispectral sensors by estimating the color HR image from a set of multispectral LR images using intensity-hue-saturation (IHS) image fusion. Experimental results show that the proposed method provides better SR results than existing state-of-the-art SR methods in the sense of objective measures.

Analysis of the incomplete Galerkin method for modelling of smoothly-irregular transition between planar waveguides

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Divakov, D.; Sevastianov, L.; Nikolaev, N.

2017-01-01

The paper deals with a numerical solution of the problem of waveguide propagation of polarized light in smoothly-irregular transition between closed regular waveguides using the incomplete Galerkin method. This method consists in replacement of variables in the problem of reduction of the Helmholtz equation to the system of differential equations by the Kantorovich method and in formulation of the boundary conditions for the resulting system. The formulation of the boundary problem for the ODE system is realized in computer algebra system Maple. The stated boundary problem is solved using Maples libraries of numerical methods.

Disabling a Type I-E CRISPR-Cas Nuclease with a Bacteriophage-Encoded Anti-CRISPR Protein

PubMed Central

Shah, Megha; Mejdani, Marios; Calmettes, Charles; Moraes, Trevor F.

2017-01-01

ABSTRACT CRISPR (clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeat)-Cas adaptive immune systems are prevalent defense mechanisms in bacteria and archaea. They provide sequence-specific detection and neutralization of foreign nucleic acids such as bacteriophages and plasmids. One mechanism by which phages and other mobile genetic elements are able to overcome the CRISPR-Cas system is through the expression of anti-CRISPR proteins. Over 20 different families of anti-CRISPR proteins have been described, each of which inhibits a particular type of CRISPR-Cas system. In this work, we determined the structure of type I-E anti-CRISPR protein AcrE1 by X-ray crystallography. We show that AcrE1 binds to the CRISPR-associated helicase/nuclease Cas3 and that the C-terminal region of the anti-CRISPR protein is important for its inhibitory activity. We further show that AcrE1 can convert the endogenous type I-E CRISPR system into a programmable transcriptional repressor. PMID:29233895

Evaluation of Expert Systems in Decisionmaking Organizations

DTIC Science & Technology

1988-07-01

Abacus Press, Tunbridge Wells. Levis, A. H., 1984. "Information Processing and Decisionmaking Organizations: A Mathematical Description." I Large Scale Systems , Vol. 7, pp. 151-163. hI2 II I, Ie ... intelligence and especially expert systems. This paper presents a procedure for assessing to what extent the measures of performance of an organization are...aids that is receiving attention in the development community is based on artificial intelligence and especially expert systems. This paper presents a

Four Data Based Objections to the Regular Education Initiative.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Anderegg, M. L.; Vergason, Glenn A.

One of the changes advocated by the Regular Education Initiative (REI) is the placement of all students with disabilities in regular education classes. This paper analyzes this REI proposal and discusses four objections, with citations to relevant literature: (1) restriction of the continuum of services, which may result in students being put…

On convergence and convergence rates for Ivanov and Morozov regularization and application to some parameter identification problems in elliptic PDEs

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kaltenbacher, Barbara; Klassen, Andrej

2018-05-01

In this paper we provide a convergence analysis of some variational methods alternative to the classical Tikhonov regularization, namely Ivanov regularization (also called the method of quasi solutions) with some versions of the discrepancy principle for choosing the regularization parameter, and Morozov regularization (also called the method of the residuals). After motivating nonequivalence with Tikhonov regularization by means of an example, we prove well-definedness of the Ivanov and the Morozov method, convergence in the sense of regularization, as well as convergence rates under variational source conditions. Finally, we apply these results to some linear and nonlinear parameter identification problems in elliptic boundary value problems.

CRISPRCasFinder, an update of CRISRFinder, includes a portable version, enhanced performance and integrates search for Cas proteins.

PubMed

Couvin, David; Bernheim, Aude; Toffano-Nioche, Claire; Touchon, Marie; Michalik, Juraj; Néron, Bertrand; C Rocha, Eduardo P; Vergnaud, Gilles; Gautheret, Daniel; Pourcel, Christine

2018-05-22

CRISPR (clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats) arrays and their associated (Cas) proteins confer bacteria and archaea adaptive immunity against exogenous mobile genetic elements, such as phages or plasmids. CRISPRCasFinder allows the identification of both CRISPR arrays and Cas proteins. The program includes: (i) an improved CRISPR array detection tool facilitating expert validation based on a rating system, (ii) prediction of CRISPR orientation and (iii) a Cas protein detection and typing tool updated to match the latest classification scheme of these systems. CRISPRCasFinder can either be used online or as a standalone tool compatible with Linux operating system. All third-party software packages employed by the program are freely available. CRISPRCasFinder is available at https://crisprcas.i2bc.paris-saclay.fr.

Quasi-periodic dynamics in system with multilevel pulse modulated control

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gol'tsov, Yu A.; Kizhuk, A. S.; Rubanov, V. G.

2018-03-01

In this paper, the authors describe the transitions from the regular periodic mode to quasiperiodicity that can be observed in a multilevel pulse-width modulated control system for a high-power heating unit. The behavior of such system can be described by a set of two coupled non-autonomous differential equations with discontinuous right-hand sides. The authors reduce the investigation of this system to the studying of a two-dimensional piecewise-smooth map. The authors demonstrate how a closed invariant curve associated with quasiperiodic dynamics can arise from a stable periodic motion through a border-collision bifurcation. The paper also considers a variety of interesting nonlinear phenomena, including phase-locking modes, the coexistence of several stable closed invariant curves, embedded one into the other and with their basins of attraction separated by intervening repelling closed curves.

Aspects of hysteresis in unsaturated porous media flow

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

van Duijn, Hans

2016-04-01

About 20 years ago, Peter Raats and I wrote a technical note related to the horizontal redistribution in unsaturated porous media with hysteresis in the capillary pressure (P.A.C. Raats & C.J. van Duijn, A note on horizontal redistribution with capillary hysteresis, WWR 31, p. 231-232, 1995). In the first part of my presentation, I will revisit the results of that paper. In particular the cases of unconventional flow, where the water flows from the dry region to the wet region. A comparison will be made with results obtained with the current interface area models as introduced by Gray & Hassanizadeh. I will explain and outline the differences. In the second part, travelling wave solutions of Richards equation with gravity and with hysteresis in both the capillary pressure and relative permeability will be discussed. It will be explained why such solutions oscillate in space-time and how they behave as the hysteresis regularization vanishes.

Optimal boundary regularity for a singular Monge-Ampère equation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jian, Huaiyu; Li, You

2018-06-01

In this paper we study the optimal global regularity for a singular Monge-Ampère type equation which arises from a few geometric problems. We find that the global regularity does not depend on the smoothness of domain, but it does depend on the convexity of the domain. We introduce (a , η) type to describe the convexity. As a result, we show that the more convex is the domain, the better is the regularity of the solution. In particular, the regularity is the best near angular points.

Using Tikhonov Regularization for Spatial Projections from CSR Regularized Spherical Harmonic GRACE Solutions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Save, H.; Bettadpur, S. V.

2013-12-01

It has been demonstrated before that using Tikhonov regularization produces spherical harmonic solutions from GRACE that have very little residual stripes while capturing all the signal observed by GRACE within the noise level. This paper demonstrates a two-step process and uses Tikhonov regularization to remove the residual stripes in the CSR regularized spherical harmonic coefficients when computing the spatial projections. We discuss methods to produce mass anomaly grids that have no stripe features while satisfying the necessary condition of capturing all observed signal within the GRACE noise level.

[A survey on the dietary and health habits according to action styles for unbalanced diets among female university students].

PubMed

Nagashima, Kumiko; Sakaguchi, Sanae; Sakaguchi, Takehiro

2002-05-01

A survey of woman's students, who had grown up in a time of change-over of Japanese customs regarding food, was conducted to investigate dietary habits, a focus on actions in response to with set needs, The aim was to obtain to measure prospective health maintenance and promotion. The authors carried out a questionnaire for woman's students in 6 universities of Kanto area (a junior college and graduate courses were included) in years 1999 and 2000. In actions regarding the diet, 19.1% of the 815 students responded "I eat everything without fail", 17.7% "I eat almost everything irrespective of likes and dislikes", 24.5% "I strive to eat everything", 19.8% "I leave almost everything I dislike", and 18.5% "I don't eat what I dislike". The students who responded "I leave almost everything I dislike" and "I don't eat what I dislike" had low scores in the questionnaire for dietary and health habits, and they tended to like noodles and popular snacks, and also made frequent use of fast food restaurants. There was not a problem with the majority, but about 30% of the students were judged as confirming an unbalanced diet by this questionnaire. It was found that there were "gaps" and "bad habits" in the regular diet. Moreover, we recognized a tendency to prefer convenience and taste to nutritional balance. This simple questionnaire is suitable for rapid identification of unbalanced distory habits, and both "gaps" and "bad habits" in the regular system diet. It is the most important that we induce students who leave or don't eat what they dislike, to strive to eat everything, irrespective of likes and dislikes.

Some Investigations Relating to the Elastostatics of a Tapered Tube

DTIC Science & Technology

1978-03-01

regularity of the solution on the Z axis. Indeed the assumption of such’regularity is stated explicitly by Heins (p. 789) and the problems solved (e.g. a... assumptions , becomes where t h e integrand is evaluated a t ( + i ,O). This i s a form P a of t he i n t e g r a l representa t ion of t h e...solut ion. Now l e t us look a t t h e assumptions on Q. F i r s t of a l l , i n order t o be sure t h a t our operations a r e l eg i

Second-order relativistic corrections for the S(L=0) states in one- and two-electron atomic systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Frolov, A. M.; Mitelut, C. C.; Zhong, Z.

2005-01-01

An analytical approach is developed to compute the first- (similar to alpha(2)) and second-order (similar to alpha(4)) relativistic corrections in one- and two-electron atomic systems. The approach is based on the reduction of all operators to divergent (singular) and nondivergent (regular) parts. Then, we show that all the divergent parts from the differentmatrix elements cancel each other. The remaining expression contains only regular operators and its expectation value can be easily computed. Analysis of the S(L = 0) states in such systems is of specific interest since the corresponding operators for these states contain a large number of singularities. For one-electron systems the computed relativistic corrections coincide exactly with the appropriate result that follows from the Taylor expansion of the relativistic (i.e., Dirac) energy. We also discuss an alternative approach that allows one to cancel all singularities by using the so-called operator-compensation technique. This second approach is found to be very effective in applications of more complex systems, such as helium-like atoms and ions, H-2(+)-like ions, and some exotic three-body systems.

Getting it right by getting it wrong: When learners change languages

PubMed Central

Hudson Kam, Carla L.; Newport, Elissa L.

2009-01-01

When natural language input contains grammatical forms that are used probabilistically and inconsistently, learners will sometimes reproduce the inconsistencies; but sometimes they will instead regularize the use of these forms, introducing consistency in the language that was not present in the input. In this paper we ask what produces such regularization. We conducted three artificial language experiments, varying the use of determiners in the types of inconsistency with which they are used, and also comparing adult and child learners. In Experiment 1 we presented adult learners with scattered inconsistency – the use of multiple determiners varying in frequency in the same context – and found that adults will reproduce these inconsistencies at low levels of scatter, but at very high levels of scatter will regularize the determiner system, producing the most frequent determiner form almost all the time. In Experiment 2 we showed that this is not merely the result of frequency: when determiners are used with low frequencies but in consistent contexts, adults will learn all of the determiners veridically. In Experiment 3 we compared adult and child learners, finding that children will almost always regularize inconsistent forms, whereas adult learners will only regularize the most complex inconsistencies. Taken together, these results suggest that regularization processes in natural language learning, such as those seen in the acquisition of language from non-native speakers or in the formation of young languages, may depend crucially on the nature of language learning by young children. PMID:19324332

Assessing the impact of a medical image access system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

McNeill, Kevin M.; Maloney, Kris; Parra, Miguel V.; Ovitt, Theron W.; Dallas, William J.

1994-05-01

We have developed and installed a Medical Image Access System in an intensive care unit. Images are acquired and transmitted automatically to this system, thus expanding on the previous results of Shile et. al. It is our goal to determine what effect regular, sustained availability of image data in the clinic has on the Intensive Care Unit and the Department of Radiology. Our system is installed and has been in regular use in the hospital since late August of 1993. Since the time of installation we have been collecting usage information from both the manual and automated systems. From this data we are performing the standard measures established by DeSimone et. al. Our initial results support the original findings that image availability in the clinic leads to earlier patient care decision based on the image data. However, our findings do not seem to indicate that there is a breakdown of communication between the clinician and the radiologist as a result of the use of the clinical display system. In addition to the established measure we are investigating other criteria to measure time saved by both the clinician and radiologist. The results are reported in this paper.

Network structure exploration in networks with node attributes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chen, Yi; Wang, Xiaolong; Bu, Junzhao; Tang, Buzhou; Xiang, Xin

2016-05-01

Complex networks provide a powerful way to represent complex systems and have been widely studied during the past several years. One of the most important tasks of network analysis is to detect structures (also called structural regularities) embedded in networks by determining group number and group partition. Most of network structure exploration models only consider network links. However, in real world networks, nodes may have attributes that are useful for network structure exploration. In this paper, we propose a novel Bayesian nonparametric (BNP) model to explore structural regularities in networks with node attributes, called Bayesian nonparametric attribute (BNPA) model. This model does not only take full advantage of both links between nodes and node attributes for group partition via shared hidden variables, but also determine group number automatically via the Bayesian nonparametric theory. Experiments conducted on a number of real and synthetic networks show that our BNPA model is able to automatically explore structural regularities in networks with node attributes and is competitive with other state-of-the-art models.

Stark widths regularities within spectral series of sodium isoelectronic sequence

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Trklja, Nora; Tapalaga, Irinel; Dojčinović, Ivan P.; Purić, Jagoš

2018-02-01

Stark widths within spectral series of sodium isoelectronic sequence have been studied. This is a unique approach that includes both neutrals and ions. Two levels of problem are considered: if the required atomic parameters are known, Stark widths can be calculated by some of the known methods (in present paper modified semiempirical formula has been used), but if there is a lack of parameters, regularities enable determination of Stark broadening data. In the framework of regularity research, Stark broadening dependence on environmental conditions and certain atomic parameters has been investigated. The aim of this work is to give a simple model, with minimum of required parameters, which can be used for calculation of Stark broadening data for any chosen transitions within sodium like emitters. Obtained relations were used for predictions of Stark widths for transitions that have not been measured or calculated yet. This system enables fast data processing by using of proposed theoretical model and it provides quality control and verification of obtained results.

Entropy of mixing calculations for compound forming liquid alloys in the hard sphere system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Singh, P.; Khanna, K. N.

1984-06-01

It is shown that the semi-empirical model proposed in a previous paper for the evaluation of the entropy of mixing of simple liquid metals alloys leads to accurate results for compound forming liquid alloys. The procedure is similar to that described for a regular solution. Numerical applications are made to NaGa, KPb and KT1 alloys.

Cascade of convolutional neural networks for lung texture classification: overcoming ontological overlapping

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tarando, Sebastian Roberto; Fetita, Catalin; Brillet, Pierre-Yves

2017-03-01

The infiltrative lung diseases are a class of irreversible, non-neoplastic lung pathologies requiring regular follow-up with CT imaging. Quantifying the evolution of the patient status imposes the development of automated classification tools for lung texture. Traditionally, such classification relies on a two-dimensional analysis of axial CT images. This paper proposes a cascade of the existing CNN based CAD system, specifically tuned-up. The advantage of using a deep learning approach is a better regularization of the classification output. In a preliminary evaluation, the combined approach was tested on a 13 patient database of various lung pathologies, showing an increase of 10% in True Positive Rate (TPR) with respect to the best suited state of the art CNN for this task.

A magneto-rheological fluid-based torque sensor for smart torque wrench application

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ahmadkhanlou, Farzad; Washington, Gregory N.

2013-04-01

In this paper, the authors have developed a new application where MR fluid is being used as a sensor. An MR-fluid based torque wrench has been developed with a rotary MR fluid-based damper. The desired set torque ranges from 1 to 6 N.m. Having continuously controllable yield strength, the MR fluid-based torque wrench presents a great advantage over the regular available torque wrenches in the market. This design is capable of providing continuous set toque from the lower limit to the upper limit while regular torque wrenches provide discrete set torques only at some limited points. This feature will be especially important in high fidelity systems where tightening torque is very critical and the tolerances are low.

Impedance computed tomography using an adaptive smoothing coefficient algorithm.

PubMed

Suzuki, A; Uchiyama, A

2001-01-01

In impedance computed tomography, a fixed coefficient regularization algorithm has been frequently used to improve the ill-conditioning problem of the Newton-Raphson algorithm. However, a lot of experimental data and a long period of computation time are needed to determine a good smoothing coefficient because a good smoothing coefficient has to be manually chosen from a number of coefficients and is a constant for each iteration calculation. Thus, sometimes the fixed coefficient regularization algorithm distorts the information or fails to obtain any effect. In this paper, a new adaptive smoothing coefficient algorithm is proposed. This algorithm automatically calculates the smoothing coefficient from the eigenvalue of the ill-conditioned matrix. Therefore, the effective images can be obtained within a short computation time. Also the smoothing coefficient is automatically adjusted by the information related to the real resistivity distribution and the data collection method. In our impedance system, we have reconstructed the resistivity distributions of two phantoms using this algorithm. As a result, this algorithm only needs one-fifth the computation time compared to the fixed coefficient regularization algorithm. When compared to the fixed coefficient regularization algorithm, it shows that the image is obtained more rapidly and applicable in real-time monitoring of the blood vessel.

Three-dimensional ionospheric tomography reconstruction using the model function approach in Tikhonov regularization

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, Sicheng; Huang, Sixun; Xiang, Jie; Fang, Hanxian; Feng, Jian; Wang, Yu

2016-12-01

Ionospheric tomography is based on the observed slant total electron content (sTEC) along different satellite-receiver rays to reconstruct the three-dimensional electron density distributions. Due to incomplete measurements provided by the satellite-receiver geometry, it is a typical ill-posed problem, and how to overcome the ill-posedness is still a crucial content of research. In this paper, Tikhonov regularization method is used and the model function approach is applied to determine the optimal regularization parameter. This algorithm not only balances the weights between sTEC observations and background electron density field but also converges globally and rapidly. The background error covariance is given by multiplying background model variance and location-dependent spatial correlation, and the correlation model is developed by using sample statistics from an ensemble of the International Reference Ionosphere 2012 (IRI2012) model outputs. The Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) observations in China are used to present the reconstruction results, and measurements from two ionosondes are used to make independent validations. Both the test cases using artificial sTEC observations and actual GNSS sTEC measurements show that the regularization method can effectively improve the background model outputs.

Manifold Regularized Multitask Feature Learning for Multimodality Disease Classification

PubMed Central

Jie, Biao; Zhang, Daoqiang; Cheng, Bo; Shen, Dinggang

2015-01-01

Multimodality based methods have shown great advantages in classification of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and its prodromal stage, that is, mild cognitive impairment (MCI). Recently, multitask feature selection methods are typically used for joint selection of common features across multiple modalities. However, one disadvantage of existing multimodality based methods is that they ignore the useful data distribution information in each modality, which is essential for subsequent classification. Accordingly, in this paper we propose a manifold regularized multitask feature learning method to preserve both the intrinsic relatedness among multiple modalities of data and the data distribution information in each modality. Specifically, we denote the feature learning on each modality as a single task, and use group-sparsity regularizer to capture the intrinsic relatedness among multiple tasks (i.e., modalities) and jointly select the common features from multiple tasks. Furthermore, we introduce a new manifold-based Laplacian regularizer to preserve the data distribution information from each task. Finally, we use the multikernel support vector machine method to fuse multimodality data for eventual classification. Conversely, we also extend our method to the semisupervised setting, where only partial data are labeled. We evaluate our method using the baseline magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (FDG-PET), and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) data of subjects from AD neuroimaging initiative database. The experimental results demonstrate that our proposed method can not only achieve improved classification performance, but also help to discover the disease-related brain regions useful for disease diagnosis. PMID:25277605

20 CFR 226.33 - Spouse regular annuity rate.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-04-01

... 20 Employees' Benefits 1 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Spouse regular annuity rate. 226.33 Section... COMPUTING EMPLOYEE, SPOUSE, AND DIVORCED SPOUSE ANNUITIES Computing a Spouse or Divorced Spouse Annuity § 226.33 Spouse regular annuity rate. The final tier I and tier II rates, from §§ 226.30 and 226.32, are...

21 CFR 1313.15 - Waiver of 15-day advance notice for regular importers.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-04-01

... 21 Food and Drugs 9 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Waiver of 15-day advance notice for regular... IMPORTATION AND EXPORTATION OF LIST I AND LIST II CHEMICALS Importation of Listed Chemicals § 1313.15 Waiver of 15-day advance notice for regular importers. (a) Each regulated person seeking designation as a...

34 CFR 300.102 - Limitation-exception to FAPE for certain ages.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-07-01

... from high school with a regular high school diploma. (ii) The exception in paragraph (a)(3)(i) of this section does not apply to children who have graduated from high school but have not been awarded a regular high school diploma. (iii) Graduation from high school with a regular high school diploma constitutes a...

34 CFR 300.102 - Limitation-exception to FAPE for certain ages.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-07-01

... from high school with a regular high school diploma. (ii) The exception in paragraph (a)(3)(i) of this section does not apply to children who have graduated from high school but have not been awarded a regular high school diploma. (iii) Graduation from high school with a regular high school diploma constitutes a...

34 CFR 300.102 - Limitation-exception to FAPE for certain ages.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

... from high school with a regular high school diploma. (ii) The exception in paragraph (a)(3)(i) of this section does not apply to children who have graduated from high school but have not been awarded a regular high school diploma. (iii) Graduation from high school with a regular high school diploma constitutes a...

34 CFR 300.102 - Limitation-exception to FAPE for certain ages.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-07-01

... from high school with a regular high school diploma. (ii) The exception in paragraph (a)(3)(i) of this section does not apply to children who have graduated from high school but have not been awarded a regular high school diploma. (iii) Graduation from high school with a regular high school diploma constitutes a...

Gene Repression in Haloarchaea Using the CRISPR (Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats)-Cas I-B System.

PubMed

Stachler, Aris-Edda; Marchfelder, Anita

2016-07-15

The clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)-Cas system is used by bacteria and archaea to fend off foreign genetic elements. Since its discovery it has been developed into numerous applications like genome editing and regulation of transcription in eukaryotes and bacteria. For archaea currently no tools for transcriptional repression exist. Because molecular biology analyses in archaea become more and more widespread such a tool is vital for investigating the biological function of essential genes in archaea. Here we use the model archaeon Haloferax volcanii to demonstrate that its endogenous CRISPR-Cas system I-B can be harnessed to repress gene expression in archaea. Deletion of cas3 and cas6b genes results in efficient repression of transcription. crRNAs targeting the promoter region reduced transcript levels down to 8%. crRNAs targeting the reading frame have only slight impact on transcription. crRNAs that target the coding strand repress expression only down to 88%, whereas crRNAs targeting the template strand repress expression down to 8%. Repression of an essential gene results in reduction of transcription levels down to 22%. Targeting efficiencies can be enhanced by expressing a catalytically inactive Cas3 mutant. Genes can be targeted on plasmids or on the chromosome, they can be monocistronic or part of a polycistronic operon. © 2016 by The American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Inc.

Gene Repression in Haloarchaea Using the CRISPR (Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats)-Cas I-B System*

PubMed Central

Stachler, Aris-Edda; Marchfelder, Anita

2016-01-01

The clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)-Cas system is used by bacteria and archaea to fend off foreign genetic elements. Since its discovery it has been developed into numerous applications like genome editing and regulation of transcription in eukaryotes and bacteria. For archaea currently no tools for transcriptional repression exist. Because molecular biology analyses in archaea become more and more widespread such a tool is vital for investigating the biological function of essential genes in archaea. Here we use the model archaeon Haloferax volcanii to demonstrate that its endogenous CRISPR-Cas system I-B can be harnessed to repress gene expression in archaea. Deletion of cas3 and cas6b genes results in efficient repression of transcription. crRNAs targeting the promoter region reduced transcript levels down to 8%. crRNAs targeting the reading frame have only slight impact on transcription. crRNAs that target the coding strand repress expression only down to 88%, whereas crRNAs targeting the template strand repress expression down to 8%. Repression of an essential gene results in reduction of transcription levels down to 22%. Targeting efficiencies can be enhanced by expressing a catalytically inactive Cas3 mutant. Genes can be targeted on plasmids or on the chromosome, they can be monocistronic or part of a polycistronic operon. PMID:27226589

Drivers' safety needs, behavioural adaptations and acceptance of new driving support systems.

PubMed

Saad, Farida; Van Elslande, Pierre

2012-01-01

The aim of this paper is to discuss the contribution of two complementary approaches for designing and evaluating new driver support systems likely to improve the operation and safety of the road traffic system. The first approach is based on detailed analyses of traffic crashes so as to estimate drivers' needs for assistance and the situational constraints that safety functions should address to be efficient. The second approach is based on in depth-analyses of behavioral adaptations induced by the usage of new driver support systems in regular driving situations and on drivers' acceptance of the assistance provided by the systems.

Digital Signal Processing Methods for Ultrasonic Echoes.

PubMed

Sinding, Kyle; Drapaca, Corina; Tittmann, Bernhard

2016-04-28

Digital signal processing has become an important component of data analysis needed in industrial applications. In particular, for ultrasonic thickness measurements the signal to noise ratio plays a major role in the accurate calculation of the arrival time. For this application a band pass filter is not sufficient since the noise level cannot be significantly decreased such that a reliable thickness measurement can be performed. This paper demonstrates the abilities of two regularization methods - total variation and Tikhonov - to filter acoustic and ultrasonic signals. Both of these methods are compared to a frequency based filtering for digitally produced signals as well as signals produced by ultrasonic transducers. This paper demonstrates the ability of the total variation and Tikhonov filters to accurately recover signals from noisy acoustic signals faster than a band pass filter. Furthermore, the total variation filter has been shown to reduce the noise of a signal significantly for signals with clear ultrasonic echoes. Signal to noise ratios have been increased over 400% by using a simple parameter optimization. While frequency based filtering is efficient for specific applications, this paper shows that the reduction of noise in ultrasonic systems can be much more efficient with regularization methods.

Automated Assume-Guarantee Reasoning for Omega-Regular Systems and Specifications

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Chaki, Sagar; Gurfinkel, Arie

2010-01-01

We develop a learning-based automated Assume-Guarantee (AG) reasoning framework for verifying omega-regular properties of concurrent systems. We study the applicability of non-circular (AGNC) and circular (AG-C) AG proof rules in the context of systems with infinite behaviors. In particular, we show that AG-NC is incomplete when assumptions are restricted to strictly infinite behaviors, while AG-C remains complete. We present a general formalization, called LAG, of the learning based automated AG paradigm. We show how existing approaches for automated AG reasoning are special instances of LAG.We develop two learning algorithms for a class of systems, called infinite regular systems, that combine finite and infinite behaviors. We show that for infinity-regular systems, both AG-NC and AG-C are sound and complete. Finally, we show how to instantiate LAG to do automated AG reasoning for infinite regular, and omega-regular, systems using both AG-NC and AG-C as proof rules

Analysis of Implicit Uncertain Systems. Part 1: Theoretical Framework

DTIC Science & Technology

1994-12-07

Analysis of Implicit Uncertain Systems Part I: Theoretical Framework Fernando Paganini * John Doyle 1 December 7, 1994 Abst rac t This paper...Analysis of Implicit Uncertain Systems Part I: Theoretical Framework 5a. CONTRACT NUMBER 5b. GRANT NUMBER 5c. PROGRAM ELEMENT NUMBER 6. AUTHOR(S...model and a number of constraints relevant to the analysis problem under consideration. In Part I of this paper we propose a theoretical framework which

Acceleration control system for semi-active in-car crib with joint application of regular and inverted pendulum mechanisms

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kawashima, T.

2016-09-01

To reduce the risk of injury to an infant in an in-car crib (or in a child safety bed) collision shock during a car crash, it is necessary to maintain a constant force acting on the crib below a certain allowable value. To realize this objective, we propose a semi-active in-car crib system with the joint application of regular and inverted pendulum mechanisms. The arms of the proposed crib system support the crib like a pendulum while the pendulum system itself is supported like an inverted pendulum by the arms. In addition, the friction torque of each arm is controlled using a brake mechanism that enables the proposed in-car crib to decrease the acceleration of the crib gradually and maintain it around the target value. This system not only reduces the impulsive force but also transfers the force to the infant's back using a spin control system, i.e., the impulse force acts is made to act perpendicularly on the crib. The spin control system was developed in our previous work. This work focuses on the acceleration control system. A semi-active control law with acceleration feedback is introduced, and the effectiveness of the system is demonstrated using numerical simulation and model experiment.

Spatial resolution properties of motion-compensated tomographic image reconstruction methods.

PubMed

Chun, Se Young; Fessler, Jeffrey A

2012-07-01

Many motion-compensated image reconstruction (MCIR) methods have been proposed to correct for subject motion in medical imaging. MCIR methods incorporate motion models to improve image quality by reducing motion artifacts and noise. This paper analyzes the spatial resolution properties of MCIR methods and shows that nonrigid local motion can lead to nonuniform and anisotropic spatial resolution for conventional quadratic regularizers. This undesirable property is akin to the known effects of interactions between heteroscedastic log-likelihoods (e.g., Poisson likelihood) and quadratic regularizers. This effect may lead to quantification errors in small or narrow structures (such as small lesions or rings) of reconstructed images. This paper proposes novel spatial regularization design methods for three different MCIR methods that account for known nonrigid motion. We develop MCIR regularization designs that provide approximately uniform and isotropic spatial resolution and that match a user-specified target spatial resolution. Two-dimensional PET simulations demonstrate the performance and benefits of the proposed spatial regularization design methods.

New regularization scheme for blind color image deconvolution

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chen, Li; He, Yu; Yap, Kim-Hui

2011-01-01

This paper proposes a new regularization scheme to address blind color image deconvolution. Color images generally have a significant correlation among the red, green, and blue channels. Conventional blind monochromatic deconvolution algorithms handle each color image channels independently, thereby ignoring the interchannel correlation present in the color images. In view of this, a unified regularization scheme for image is developed to recover edges of color images and reduce color artifacts. In addition, by using the color image properties, a spectral-based regularization operator is adopted to impose constraints on the blurs. Further, this paper proposes a reinforcement regularization framework that integrates a soft parametric learning term in addressing blind color image deconvolution. A blur modeling scheme is developed to evaluate the relevance of manifold parametric blur structures, and the information is integrated into the deconvolution scheme. An optimization procedure called alternating minimization is then employed to iteratively minimize the image- and blur-domain cost functions. Experimental results show that the method is able to achieve satisfactory restored color images under different blurring conditions.

Abundant and Diverse Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeat Spacers in Clostridium difficile Strains and Prophages Target Multiple Phage Types within This Pathogen

PubMed Central

Hargreaves, Katherine R.; Flores, Cesar O.; Lawley, Trevor D.

2014-01-01

ABSTRACT Clostridium difficile is an important human-pathogenic bacterium causing antibiotic-associated nosocomial infections worldwide. Mobile genetic elements and bacteriophages have helped shape C. difficile genome evolution. In many bacteria, phage infection may be controlled by a form of bacterial immunity called the clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats/CRISPR-associated (CRISPR/Cas) system. This uses acquired short nucleotide sequences (spacers) to target homologous sequences (protospacers) in phage genomes. C. difficile carries multiple CRISPR arrays, and in this paper we examine the relationships between the host- and phage-carried elements of the system. We detected multiple matches between spacers and regions in 31 C. difficile phage and prophage genomes. A subset of the spacers was located in prophage-carried CRISPR arrays. The CRISPR spacer profiles generated suggest that related phages would have similar host ranges. Furthermore, we show that C. difficile strains of the same ribotype could either have similar or divergent CRISPR contents. Both synonymous and nonsynonymous mutations in the protospacer sequences were identified, as well as differences in the protospacer adjacent motif (PAM), which could explain how phages escape this system. This paper illustrates how the distribution and diversity of CRISPR spacers in C. difficile, and its prophages, could modulate phage predation for this pathogen and impact upon its evolution and pathogenicity. PMID:25161187

The nature of albedo features on Mercury, with maps for the telescopic observer. Part I: Mercury, the enigmatic planet

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Graham, D. L.

1995-02-01

Bright and dark markings have been regularly recorded by visual observers of Mercury since the nineteenth century. Following the Mariner 10 mission, topographic maps of the hemisphere imaged by the spacecraft were produced. Part One of this paper reviews the classical telescopic observations of albedo markings on Mercury and the definitive albedo map is reproduced to assist visual observers of the planet. In Part Two, an investigation into the relationship between albedo and physiography is conducted and the significance of the historical observations is discussed.

Implications of the Regular Education Initiative Debate for School Psychologists.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Davis, William E.

The paper examines critical issues involved in the debate over the Regular Education Initiative (REI) to merge special and regular education, with emphasis on implications for school psychologists. The arguments of proponents and opponents of the REI are summarized and the lack of involvement by school psychologists is noted. The REI is seen to…

Bifurcation and Fractal of the Coupled Logistic Map

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, Xingyuan; Luo, Chao

The nature of the fixed points of the coupled Logistic map is researched, and the boundary equation of the first bifurcation of the coupled Logistic map in the parameter space is given out. Using the quantitative criterion and rule of system chaos, i.e., phase graph, bifurcation graph, power spectra, the computation of the fractal dimension, and the Lyapunov exponent, the paper reveals the general characteristics of the coupled Logistic map transforming from regularity to chaos, the following conclusions are shown: (1) chaotic patterns of the coupled Logistic map may emerge out of double-periodic bifurcation and Hopf bifurcation, respectively; (2) during the process of double-period bifurcation, the system exhibits self-similarity and scale transform invariability in both the parameter space and the phase space. From the research of the attraction basin and Mandelbrot-Julia set of the coupled Logistic map, the following conclusions are indicated: (1) the boundary between periodic and quasiperiodic regions is fractal, and that indicates the impossibility to predict the moving result of the points in the phase plane; (2) the structures of the Mandelbrot-Julia sets are determined by the control parameters, and their boundaries have the fractal characteristic.

A Genetic Algorithm Tool (splicer) for Complex Scheduling Problems and the Space Station Freedom Resupply Problem

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Wang, Lui; Valenzuela-Rendon, Manuel

1993-01-01

The Space Station Freedom will require the supply of items in a regular fashion. A schedule for the delivery of these items is not easy to design due to the large span of time involved and the possibility of cancellations and changes in shuttle flights. This paper presents the basic concepts of a genetic algorithm model, and also presents the results of an effort to apply genetic algorithms to the design of propellant resupply schedules. As part of this effort, a simple simulator and an encoding by which a genetic algorithm can find near optimal schedules have been developed. Additionally, this paper proposes ways in which robust schedules, i.e., schedules that can tolerate small changes, can be found using genetic algorithms.

Blind calibration of radio interferometric arrays using sparsity constraints and its implications for self-calibration

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chiarucci, Simone; Wijnholds, Stefan J.

2018-02-01

Blind calibration, i.e. calibration without a priori knowledge of the source model, is robust to the presence of unknown sources such as transient phenomena or (low-power) broad-band radio frequency interference that escaped detection. In this paper, we present a novel method for blind calibration of a radio interferometric array assuming that the observed field only contains a small number of discrete point sources. We show the huge computational advantage over previous blind calibration methods and we assess its statistical efficiency and robustness to noise and the quality of the initial estimate. We demonstrate the method on actual data from a Low-Frequency Array low-band antenna station showing that our blind calibration is able to recover the same gain solutions as the regular calibration approach, as expected from theory and simulations. We also discuss the implications of our findings for the robustness of regular self-calibration to poor starting models.

A regularized auxiliary particle filtering approach for system state estimation and battery life prediction

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Liu, Jie; Wang, Wilson; Ma, Fai

2011-07-01

System current state estimation (or condition monitoring) and future state prediction (or failure prognostics) constitute the core elements of condition-based maintenance programs. For complex systems whose internal state variables are either inaccessible to sensors or hard to measure under normal operational conditions, inference has to be made from indirect measurements using approaches such as Bayesian learning. In recent years, the auxiliary particle filter (APF) has gained popularity in Bayesian state estimation; the APF technique, however, has some potential limitations in real-world applications. For example, the diversity of the particles may deteriorate when the process noise is small, and the variance of the importance weights could become extremely large when the likelihood varies dramatically over the prior. To tackle these problems, a regularized auxiliary particle filter (RAPF) is developed in this paper for system state estimation and forecasting. This RAPF aims to improve the performance of the APF through two innovative steps: (1) regularize the approximating empirical density and redraw samples from a continuous distribution so as to diversify the particles; and (2) smooth out the rather diffused proposals by a rejection/resampling approach so as to improve the robustness of particle filtering. The effectiveness of the proposed RAPF technique is evaluated through simulations of a nonlinear/non-Gaussian benchmark model for state estimation. It is also implemented for a real application in the remaining useful life (RUL) prediction of lithium-ion batteries.

A multiplicative regularization for force reconstruction

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Aucejo, M.; De Smet, O.

2017-02-01

Additive regularizations, such as Tikhonov-like approaches, are certainly the most popular methods for reconstructing forces acting on a structure. These approaches require, however, the knowledge of a regularization parameter, that can be numerically computed using specific procedures. Unfortunately, these procedures are generally computationally intensive. For this particular reason, it could be of primary interest to propose a method able to proceed without defining any regularization parameter beforehand. In this paper, a multiplicative regularization is introduced for this purpose. By construction, the regularized solution has to be calculated in an iterative manner. In doing so, the amount of regularization is automatically adjusted throughout the resolution process. Validations using synthetic and experimental data highlight the ability of the proposed approach in providing consistent reconstructions.

Constrained Perturbation Regularization Approach for Signal Estimation Using Random Matrix Theory

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Suliman, Mohamed; Ballal, Tarig; Kammoun, Abla; Al-Naffouri, Tareq Y.

2016-12-01

In this supplementary appendix we provide proofs and additional extensive simulations that complement the analysis of the main paper (constrained perturbation regularization approach for signal estimation using random matrix theory).

Image volume analysis of omnidirectional parallax regular-polyhedron three-dimensional displays.

PubMed

Kim, Hwi; Hahn, Joonku; Lee, Byoungho

2009-04-13

Three-dimensional (3D) displays having regular-polyhedron structures are proposed and their imaging characteristics are analyzed. Four types of conceptual regular-polyhedron 3D displays, i.e., hexahedron, octahedron, dodecahedron, and icosahedrons, are considered. In principle, regular-polyhedron 3D display can present omnidirectional full parallax 3D images. Design conditions of structural factors such as viewing angle of facet panel and observation distance for 3D display with omnidirectional full parallax are studied. As a main issue, image volumes containing virtual 3D objects represented by the four types of regular-polyhedron displays are comparatively analyzed.

Transforming Social Regularities in a Multicomponent Community-Based Intervention: A Case Study of Professionals' Adaptability to Better Support Parents to Meet Their Children's Needs.

PubMed

Quiroz Saavedra, Rodrigo; Brunson, Liesette; Bigras, Nathalie

2017-06-01

This paper presents an in-depth case study of the dynamic processes of mutual adjustment that occurred between two professional teams participating in a multicomponent community-based intervention (CBI). Drawing on the concept of social regularities, we focus on patterns of social interaction within and across the two microsystems involved in delivering the intervention. Two research strategies, narrative analysis and structural network analysis, were used to reveal the social regularities linking the two microsystems. Results document strategies and actions undertaken by the professionals responsible for the intervention to modify intersetting social regularities to deal with a problem situation that arose during the course of one intervention cycle. The results illustrate how key social regularities were modified in order to resolve the problem situation and allow the intervention to continue to function smoothly. We propose that these changes represent a transition to a new state of the ecological intervention system. This transformation appeared to be the result of certain key intervening mechanisms: changing key role relationships, boundary spanning, and synergy. The transformation also appeared to be linked to positive setting-level and individual-level outcomes: confidence of key team members, joint planning, decision-making and intervention activities, and the achievement of desired intervention objectives. © Society for Community Research and Action 2017.

Ideal regularization for learning kernels from labels.

PubMed

Pan, Binbin; Lai, Jianhuang; Shen, Lixin

2014-08-01

In this paper, we propose a new form of regularization that is able to utilize the label information of a data set for learning kernels. The proposed regularization, referred to as ideal regularization, is a linear function of the kernel matrix to be learned. The ideal regularization allows us to develop efficient algorithms to exploit labels. Three applications of the ideal regularization are considered. Firstly, we use the ideal regularization to incorporate the labels into a standard kernel, making the resulting kernel more appropriate for learning tasks. Next, we employ the ideal regularization to learn a data-dependent kernel matrix from an initial kernel matrix (which contains prior similarity information, geometric structures, and labels of the data). Finally, we incorporate the ideal regularization to some state-of-the-art kernel learning problems. With this regularization, these learning problems can be formulated as simpler ones which permit more efficient solvers. Empirical results show that the ideal regularization exploits the labels effectively and efficiently. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Electroweak vacuum instability and renormalized Higgs field vacuum fluctuations in the inflationary universe

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

Kohri, Kazunori; Matsui, Hiroki, E-mail: kohri@post.kek.jp, E-mail: matshiro@post.kek.jp

In this work, we investigated the electroweak vacuum instability during or after inflation. In the inflationary Universe, i.e., de Sitter space, the vacuum field fluctuations < δ φ {sup 2} > enlarge in proportion to the Hubble scale H {sup 2}. Therefore, the large inflationary vacuum fluctuations of the Higgs field < δ φ {sup 2} > are potentially catastrophic to trigger the vacuum transition to the negative-energy Planck-scale vacuum state and cause an immediate collapse of the Universe. However, the vacuum field fluctuations < δ φ {sup 2} >, i.e., the vacuum expectation values have an ultraviolet divergence, andmore » therefore a renormalization is necessary to estimate the physical effects of the vacuum transition. Thus, in this paper, we revisit the electroweak vacuum instability from the perspective of quantum field theory (QFT) in curved space-time, and discuss the dynamical behavior of the homogeneous Higgs field φ determined by the effective potential V {sub eff}( φ ) in curved space-time and the renormalized vacuum fluctuations < δ φ {sup 2} >{sub ren} via adiabatic regularization and point-splitting regularization. We simply suppose that the Higgs field only couples the gravity via the non-minimal Higgs-gravity coupling ξ(μ). In this scenario, the electroweak vacuum stability is inevitably threatened by the dynamical behavior of the homogeneous Higgs field φ, or the formations of AdS domains or bubbles unless the Hubble scale is small enough H < Λ {sub I} .« less

What is Aspect-Oriented Programming, Revisited

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Filman, Robert E.; Norvig, Peter (Technical Monitor)

2001-01-01

For the Advanced Separation of Concerns workshop at OOPSLA 2000 in Minneapolis, Dan Friedman and I wrote a paper that argued that the distinguishing characteristic of Aspect-Oriented Programming systems (qua programming systems) is that they provide quantification and obliviousness. In this paper, I expand on the themes of our Minneapolis workshop paper, respond to some of the comments we've received on that paper, and provide a computational formalization of the notion of quantification.

Uncertainty modelling and analysis of volume calculations based on a regular grid digital elevation model (DEM)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Li, Chang; Wang, Qing; Shi, Wenzhong; Zhao, Sisi

2018-05-01

The accuracy of earthwork calculations that compute terrain volume is critical to digital terrain analysis (DTA). The uncertainties in volume calculations (VCs) based on a DEM are primarily related to three factors: 1) model error (ME), which is caused by an adopted algorithm for a VC model, 2) discrete error (DE), which is usually caused by DEM resolution and terrain complexity, and 3) propagation error (PE), which is caused by the variables' error. Based on these factors, the uncertainty modelling and analysis of VCs based on a regular grid DEM are investigated in this paper. Especially, how to quantify the uncertainty of VCs is proposed by a confidence interval based on truncation error (TE). In the experiments, the trapezoidal double rule (TDR) and Simpson's double rule (SDR) were used to calculate volume, where the TE is the major ME, and six simulated regular grid DEMs with different terrain complexity and resolution (i.e. DE) were generated by a Gauss synthetic surface to easily obtain the theoretical true value and eliminate the interference of data errors. For PE, Monte-Carlo simulation techniques and spatial autocorrelation were used to represent DEM uncertainty. This study can enrich uncertainty modelling and analysis-related theories of geographic information science.

Fem Simulation of Triple Diffusive Natural Convection Along Inclined Plate in Porous Medium: Prescribed Surface Heat, Solute and Nanoparticles Flux

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Goyal, M.; Goyal, R.; Bhargava, R.

2017-12-01

In this paper, triple diffusive natural convection under Darcy flow over an inclined plate embedded in a porous medium saturated with a binary base fluid containing nanoparticles and two salts is studied. The model used for the nanofluid is the one which incorporates the effects of Brownian motion and thermophoresis. In addition, the thermal energy equations include regular diffusion and cross-diffusion terms. The vertical surface has the heat, mass and nanoparticle fluxes each prescribed as a power law function of the distance along the wall. The boundary layer equations are transformed into a set of ordinary differential equations with the help of group theory transformations. A wide range of parameter values are chosen to bring out the effect of buoyancy ratio, regular Lewis number and modified Dufour parameters of both salts and nanofluid parameters with varying angle of inclinations. The effects of parameters on the velocity, temperature, solutal and nanoparticles volume fraction profiles, as well as on the important parameters of heat and mass transfer, i.e., the reduced Nusselt, regular and nanofluid Sherwood numbers, are discussed. Such problems find application in extrusion of metals, polymers and ceramics, production of plastic films, insulation of wires and liquid packaging.

Safety-I, Safety-II and Resilience Engineering.

PubMed

Patterson, Mary; Deutsch, Ellen S

2015-12-01

In the quest to continually improve the health care delivered to patients, it is important to understand "what went wrong," also known as Safety-I, when there are undesired outcomes, but it is also important to understand, and optimize "what went right," also known as Safety-II. The difference between Safety-I and Safety-II are philosophical as well as pragmatic. Improving health care delivery involves understanding that health care delivery is a complex adaptive system; components of that system impact, and are impacted by, the actions of other components of the system. Challenges to optimal care include regular, irregular and unexampled threats. This article addresses the dangers of brittleness and miscalibration, as well as the value of adaptive capacity and margin. These qualities can, respectively, detract from or contribute to the emergence of organizational resilience. Resilience is characterized by the ability to monitor, react, anticipate, and learn. Finally, this article celebrates the importance of humans, who make use of system capabilities and proactively mitigate the effects of system limitations to contribute to successful outcomes. Copyright © 2015 Mosby, Inc. All rights reserved.

How to COAAD Images. II. A Coaddition Image that is Optimal for Any Purpose in the Background-dominated Noise Limit

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

Zackay, Barak; Ofek, Eran O.

Image coaddition is one of the most basic operations that astronomers perform. In Paper I, we presented the optimal ways to coadd images in order to detect faint sources and to perform flux measurements under the assumption that the noise is approximately Gaussian. Here, we build on these results and derive from first principles a coaddition technique that is optimal for any hypothesis testing and measurement (e.g., source detection, flux or shape measurements, and star/galaxy separation), in the background-noise-dominated case. This method has several important properties. The pixels of the resulting coadded image are uncorrelated. This image preserves all themore » information (from the original individual images) on all spatial frequencies. Any hypothesis testing or measurement that can be done on all the individual images simultaneously, can be done on the coadded image without any loss of information. The PSF of this image is typically as narrow, or narrower than the PSF of the best image in the ensemble. Moreover, this image is practically indistinguishable from a regular single image, meaning that any code that measures any property on a regular astronomical image can be applied to it unchanged. In particular, the optimal source detection statistic derived in Paper I is reproduced by matched filtering this image with its own PSF. This coaddition process, which we call proper coaddition, can be understood as the maximum signal-to-noise ratio measurement of the Fourier transform of the image, weighted in such a way that the noise in the entire Fourier domain is of equal variance. This method has important implications for multi-epoch seeing-limited deep surveys, weak lensing galaxy shape measurements, and diffraction-limited imaging via speckle observations. The last topic will be covered in depth in future papers. We provide an implementation of this algorithm in MATLAB.« less

[Main interspecific competition and land productivity of fruit-crop intercropping in Loess Region of West Shauxi].

PubMed

Yun, Lei; Bi, Hua-Xing; Tian, Xiao-Ling; Cui, Zhe-Wei; Zhou, Hui-Zi; Gao, Lu-Bo; Liu, Li-Xia

2011-05-01

Taking the four typical fruit-crop intercropping models, i.e., walnut-peanut, walnut-soybean, apple-peanut, and apple-soybean, in the Loess Region of western Shanxi Province as the objects, this paper analyzed the crop (peanut and soybean) photosynthetic active radiation (PAR), net photosynthetic rate (P(n)), yield, and soil moisture content. Comparing with crop monoculture, fruit-crop intercropping decreased the crop PAR and P(n). The smaller the distance from tree rows, the smaller the crop PAR and P(n). There was a significantly positive correlation between the P(n) and crop yield, suggesting that illumination was one of the key factors affecting crop yield. From the whole trend, the 0-100 cm soil moisture content had no significant differences between walnut-crop intercropping systems and corresponding monoculture cropping systems, but had significant differences between apple-crop intercropping systems and corresponding monoculture cropping systems, indicating that the competition for soil moisture was more intense in apple-crop intercropping systems than in walnut-crop intercropping systems. Comparing with monoculture, fruit-crop intercropping increased the land use efficiency and economic benefit averagely by 70% and 14%, respectively, and walnut-crop intercropping was much better than apple-crop intercropping. To increase the crop yield in fruit-crop intercropping systems, the following strategies should be taken: strengthening the management of irrigation and fertilization, increasing the distances or setting root barriers between crop and tree rows, regularly and properly pruning, and planting shade-tolerant crops in intercropping.

Determinants and Outcomes of Teachers' Professional Identity and Organizational Identification: A Comparative Analysis in Charter and Regular Public Schools

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bogrek, Muhammed Fatih

2017-01-01

This empirical study compared the organizational identification and professional identity of teachers in charter and regular public schools. The purpose of study was three-fold; the first was to investigate whether charter school teachers differ from their regular public school peers in the study variables (i.e. self-efficacy, perceived…

Designing a stable feedback control system for blind image deconvolution.

PubMed

Cheng, Shichao; Liu, Risheng; Fan, Xin; Luo, Zhongxuan

2018-05-01

Blind image deconvolution is one of the main low-level vision problems with wide applications. Many previous works manually design regularization to simultaneously estimate the latent sharp image and the blur kernel under maximum a posterior framework. However, it has been demonstrated that such joint estimation strategies may lead to the undesired trivial solution. In this paper, we present a novel perspective, using a stable feedback control system, to simulate the latent sharp image propagation. The controller of our system consists of regularization and guidance, which decide the sparsity and sharp features of latent image, respectively. Furthermore, the formational model of blind image is introduced into the feedback process to avoid the image restoration deviating from the stable point. The stability analysis of the system indicates the latent image propagation in blind deconvolution task can be efficiently estimated and controlled by cues and priors. Thus the kernel estimation used for image restoration becomes more precision. Experimental results show that our system is effective on image propagation, and can perform favorably against the state-of-the-art blind image deconvolution methods on different benchmark image sets and special blurred images. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The use of Whatman-31ET paper for an efficient method for radiochemical purity test of 131I-Hippuran

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rezka Putra, Amal; Maskur; Sugiharto, Yono; Chairuman; Hardi Gunawan, Adang; Awaludin, Rohadi

2018-01-01

Current chromatography methods used for radiochemical purity test of 131I-Hippuran is time consuming. Therefore, in this study we explored several static and mobile phases in order to have a chromatography method which is accurate and efficient or less time consuming. In this study, stationary phases (Whatman-1, 31ET, and 3MM papers) and several mobile phases were explored to separate 131I-Hippuran from its impurity (131I iodide ion). The results of this study showed that the most efficient chromatography system for measurement of radiochemical purity of 131I-Hippuran was by using Whatman-31ET paper and n-butanol: acetic acid: water (4:1:1) as a static phase and mobile phase respectively. Developing time for this method was of approximately 75.7 ± 2.7 minutes. The result of radiochemical purity (%RCP) of 131I-Hippuran measured with this chromatography system either using Whatman-1 or Whatman-31ET paper strips was 98.7%. The short size of Whatman-31ET paper strip (1 x 8 cm) was found to have shorter developing time compared to that of long size paper. This system showed a good separation of 131I-Hippuran from its impurities and gave %RCP of 98.1% ± 0.04% with developing time approximately 44.3 ± 9.4 minutes. The short size of Whatman-31ET paper strips was found to be more efficient compared to that of Whatman-1 and Whatman-3MM paper strips in term of developing time.

PATRAM '80. Proceedings. Volume 1

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

Huebner, H.W.

Volume 1 contains papers from the following sessions: Plenary Session; Regulations, Licensing and Standards; LMFBR Systems Concepts; Risk/Safety Assessment I; Systems and Package Design; US Institutional Issues; Risk/Safety Assessment II; Leakage, Leak Rate and Seals; Poster Session A; Operations and Systems Experience I; Manufacturing Processes and Materials; and Quality Assurance and Maintenance. Individual papers were processed. (LM)

PATRAM '80. Proceedings. Volume 2

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

Huebner, H.W.

1980-01-01

Volume 2 contains papers from the following sessions: Safeguards-Related Problems; Neutronics and Criticality; Operations and Systems Experience II; Plutonium Systems; Intermediate Storage in Casks; Operations and Systems Planning; Institutional Issues; Structural and Thermal Evaluation I; Poster Session B; Extended Testing I; Structural and Thermal Evaluation II; Extended Testing II; and Emergency Preparedness and Response. Individual papers were processed. (LM)

Nonlinear stability of Gardner breathers

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Alejo, Miguel A.

2018-01-01

We show that breather solutions of the Gardner equation, a natural generalization of the KdV and mKdV equations, are H2 (R) stable. Through a variational approach, we characterize Gardner breathers as minimizers of a new Lyapunov functional and we study the associated spectral problem, through (i) the analysis of the spectrum of explicit linear systems (spectral stability), and (ii) controlling degenerated directions by using low regularity conservation laws.

Timing of transients: quantifying reaching times and transient behavior in complex systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kittel, Tim; Heitzig, Jobst; Webster, Kevin; Kurths, Jürgen

2017-08-01

In dynamical systems, one may ask how long it takes for a trajectory to reach the attractor, i.e. how long it spends in the transient phase. Although for a single trajectory the mathematically precise answer may be infinity, it still makes sense to compare different trajectories and quantify which of them approaches the attractor earlier. In this article, we categorize several problems of quantifying such transient times. To treat them, we propose two metrics, area under distance curve and regularized reaching time, that capture two complementary aspects of transient dynamics. The first, area under distance curve, is the distance of the trajectory to the attractor integrated over time. It measures which trajectories are ‘reluctant’, i.e. stay distant from the attractor for long, or ‘eager’ to approach it right away. Regularized reaching time, on the other hand, quantifies the additional time (positive or negative) that a trajectory starting at a chosen initial condition needs to approach the attractor as compared to some reference trajectory. A positive or negative value means that it approaches the attractor by this much ‘earlier’ or ‘later’ than the reference, respectively. We demonstrated their substantial potential for application with multiple paradigmatic examples uncovering new features.

Cosmology and astrophysics from relaxed galaxy clusters - III. Thermodynamic profiles and scaling relations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mantz, A. B.; Allen, S. W.; Morris, R. G.; Schmidt, R. W.

2016-03-01

This is the third in a series of papers studying the astrophysics and cosmology of massive, dynamically relaxed galaxy clusters. Our sample comprises 40 clusters identified as being dynamically relaxed and hot (I.e. massive) in Papers I and II of this series. Here we consider the thermodynamics of the intracluster medium, in particular the profiles of density, temperature and related quantities, as well as integrated measurements of gas mass, average temperature, total luminosity and centre-excluded luminosity. We fit power-law scaling relations of each of these quantities as a function of redshift and cluster mass, which can be measured precisely and with minimal bias for these relaxed clusters using hydrostatic arguments. For the thermodynamic profiles, we jointly model the density and temperature and their intrinsic scatter as a function of radius, thus also capturing the behaviour of the gas pressure and entropy. For the integrated quantities, we also jointly fit a multidimensional intrinsic covariance. Our results reinforce the view that simple hydrodynamical models provide a good description of relaxed clusters outside their centres, but that additional heating and cooling processes are important in the inner regions (radii r ≲ 0.5 r2500 ≈ 0.15 r500). The thermodynamic profiles remain regular, with small intrinsic scatter, down to the smallest radii where deprojection is straightforward (˜20 kpc); within this radius, even the most relaxed systems show clear departures from spherical symmetry. Our results suggest that heating and cooling are continuously regulated in a tight feedback loop, allowing the cluster atmosphere to remain stratified on these scales.

English Teaching and Learning in Brazilian Regular Schools and Language Schools: A Study on Teachers' Beliefs

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fragozo, Carina Silva; Monawar, Mônica Deitos Stedile

2012-01-01

This paper aims to diagnose, through a qualitative comparative study, the main differences concerning the teaching of English in Brazilian regular schools when compared to language schools. There has been a growing tendency of students to attend language schools while still having English classes at their regular schools, and this has led to a lot…

Regularity for Fully Nonlinear Elliptic Equations with Oblique Boundary Conditions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Li, Dongsheng; Zhang, Kai

2018-06-01

In this paper, we obtain a series of regularity results for viscosity solutions of fully nonlinear elliptic equations with oblique derivative boundary conditions. In particular, we derive the pointwise C α, C 1,α and C 2,α regularity. As byproducts, we also prove the A-B-P maximum principle, Harnack inequality, uniqueness and solvability of the equations.

75 FR 53966 - Regular Meeting

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-09-02

... FARM CREDIT SYSTEM INSURANCE CORPORATION Regular Meeting AGENCY: Farm Credit System Insurance Corporation Board. SUMMARY: Notice is hereby given of the regular meeting of the Farm Credit System Insurance Corporation Board (Board). DATE AND TIME: The meeting of the Board will be held at the offices of the Farm...

Development of a Fully Automated, Web-Based, Tailored Intervention Promoting Regular Physical Activity Among Insufficiently Active Adults With Type 2 Diabetes: Integrating the I-Change Model, Self-Determination Theory, and Motivational Interviewing Components

PubMed Central

Moreau, Michel; Gagnon, Marie-Pierre

2015-01-01

Background Type 2 diabetes is a major challenge for Canadian public health authorities, and regular physical activity is a key factor in the management of this disease. Given that fewer than half of people with type 2 diabetes in Canada are sufficiently active to meet the recommendations, effective programs targeting the adoption of regular physical activity (PA) are in demand for this population. Many researchers argue that Web-based, tailored interventions targeting PA are a promising and effective avenue for sedentary populations like Canadians with type 2 diabetes, but few have described the detailed development of this kind of intervention. Objective This paper aims to describe the systematic development of the Web-based, tailored intervention, Diabète en Forme, promoting regular aerobic PA among adult Canadian francophones with type 2 diabetes. This paper can be used as a reference for health professionals interested in developing similar interventions. We also explored the integration of theoretical components derived from the I-Change Model, Self-Determination Theory, and Motivational Interviewing, which is a potential path for enhancing the effectiveness of tailored interventions on PA adoption and maintenance. Methods The intervention development was based on the program-planning model for tailored interventions of Kreuter et al. An additional step was added to the model to evaluate the intervention’s usability prior to the implementation phase. An 8-week intervention was developed. The key components of the intervention include a self-monitoring tool for PA behavior, a weekly action planning tool, and eight tailored motivational sessions based on attitude, self-efficacy, intention, type of motivation, PA behavior, and other constructs and techniques. Usability evaluation, a step added to the program-planning model, helped to make several improvements to the intervention prior to the implementation phase. Results The intervention development cost was about CDN $59,700 and took approximately 54 full-time weeks. The intervention officially started on September 29, 2014. Out of 2300 potential participants targeted for the tailored intervention, approximately 530 people visited the website, 170 people completed the registration process, and 83 corresponded to the selection criteria and were enrolled in the intervention. Conclusions Usability evaluation is an essential step in the development of a Web-based tailored intervention in order to make pre-implementation improvements. The effectiveness and relevance of the theoretical framework used for the intervention will be analyzed following the process and impact evaluation. Implications for future research are discussed. PMID:25691346

Development of a fully automated, web-based, tailored intervention promoting regular physical activity among insufficiently active adults with type 2 diabetes: integrating the I-change model, self-determination theory, and motivational interviewing components.

PubMed

Moreau, Michel; Gagnon, Marie-Pierre; Boudreau, François

2015-02-17

Type 2 diabetes is a major challenge for Canadian public health authorities, and regular physical activity is a key factor in the management of this disease. Given that fewer than half of people with type 2 diabetes in Canada are sufficiently active to meet the recommendations, effective programs targeting the adoption of regular physical activity (PA) are in demand for this population. Many researchers argue that Web-based, tailored interventions targeting PA are a promising and effective avenue for sedentary populations like Canadians with type 2 diabetes, but few have described the detailed development of this kind of intervention. This paper aims to describe the systematic development of the Web-based, tailored intervention, Diabète en Forme, promoting regular aerobic PA among adult Canadian francophones with type 2 diabetes. This paper can be used as a reference for health professionals interested in developing similar interventions. We also explored the integration of theoretical components derived from the I-Change Model, Self-Determination Theory, and Motivational Interviewing, which is a potential path for enhancing the effectiveness of tailored interventions on PA adoption and maintenance. The intervention development was based on the program-planning model for tailored interventions of Kreuter et al. An additional step was added to the model to evaluate the intervention's usability prior to the implementation phase. An 8-week intervention was developed. The key components of the intervention include a self-monitoring tool for PA behavior, a weekly action planning tool, and eight tailored motivational sessions based on attitude, self-efficacy, intention, type of motivation, PA behavior, and other constructs and techniques. Usability evaluation, a step added to the program-planning model, helped to make several improvements to the intervention prior to the implementation phase. The intervention development cost was about CDN $59,700 and took approximately 54 full-time weeks. The intervention officially started on September 29, 2014. Out of 2300 potential participants targeted for the tailored intervention, approximately 530 people visited the website, 170 people completed the registration process, and 83 corresponded to the selection criteria and were enrolled in the intervention. Usability evaluation is an essential step in the development of a Web-based tailored intervention in order to make pre-implementation improvements. The effectiveness and relevance of the theoretical framework used for the intervention will be analyzed following the process and impact evaluation. Implications for future research are discussed.

The BaBar Data Reconstruction Control System

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

Ceseracciu, A

2005-04-20

The BaBar experiment is characterized by extremely high luminosity and very large volume of data produced and stored, with increasing computing requirements each year. To fulfill these requirements a Control System has been designed and developed for the offline distributed data reconstruction system. The control system described in this paper provides the performance and flexibility needed to manage a large number of small computing farms, and takes full benefit of OO design. The infrastructure is well isolated from the processing layer, it is generic and flexible, based on a light framework providing message passing and cooperative multitasking. The system ismore » distributed in a hierarchical way: the top-level system is organized in farms, farms in services, and services in subservices or code modules. It provides a powerful Finite State Machine framework to describe custom processing models in a simple regular language. This paper describes the design and evolution of this control system, currently in use at SLAC and Padova on {approx}450 CPUs organized in 9 farms.« less

The BaBar Data Reconstruction Control System

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ceseracciu, A.; Piemontese, M.; Tehrani, F. S.; Pulliam, T. M.; Galeazzi, F.

2005-08-01

The BaBar experiment is characterized by extremely high luminosity and very large volume of data produced and stored, with increasing computing requirements each year. To fulfill these requirements a control system has been designed and developed for the offline distributed data reconstruction system. The control system described in this paper provides the performance and flexibility needed to manage a large number of small computing farms, and takes full benefit of object oriented (OO) design. The infrastructure is well isolated from the processing layer, it is generic and flexible, based on a light framework providing message passing and cooperative multitasking. The system is distributed in a hierarchical way: the top-level system is organized in farms, farms in services, and services in subservices or code modules. It provides a powerful finite state machine framework to describe custom processing models in a simple regular language. This paper describes the design and evolution of this control system, currently in use at SLAC and Padova on /spl sim/450 CPUs organized in nine farms.

Regular theta-firing neurons in the nucleus incertus during sustained hippocampal activation.

PubMed

Martínez-Bellver, Sergio; Cervera-Ferri, Ana; Martínez-Ricós, Joana; Ruiz-Torner, Amparo; Luque-Garcia, Aina; Luque-Martinez, Aina; Blasco-Serra, Arantxa; Guerrero-Martínez, Juan; Bataller-Mompeán, Manuel; Teruel-Martí, Vicent

2015-04-01

This paper describes the existence of theta-coupled neuronal activity in the nucleus incertus (NI). Theta rhythm is relevant for cognitive processes such as spatial navigation and memory processing, and can be recorded in a number of structures related to the hippocampal activation including the NI. Strong evidence supports the role of this tegmental nucleus in neural circuits integrating behavioural activation with the hippocampal theta rhythm. Theta oscillations have been recorded in the local field potential of the NI, highly coupled to the hippocampal waves, although no rhythmical activity has been reported in neurons of this nucleus. The present work analyses the neuronal activity in the NI in conditions leading to sustained hippocampal theta in the urethane-anaesthetised rat, in order to test whether such activation elicits a differential firing pattern. Wavelet analysis has been used to better define the neuronal activity already described in the nucleus, i.e., non-rhythmical neurons firing at theta frequency (type I neurons) and fast-firing rhythmical neurons (type II). However, the most remarkable finding was that sustained stimulation activated regular-theta neurons (type III), which were almost silent in baseline conditions and have not previously been reported. Thus, we describe the electrophysiological properties of type III neurons, focusing on their coupling to the hippocampal theta. Their spike rate, regularity and phase locking to the oscillations increased at the beginning of the stimulation, suggesting a role in the activation or reset of the oscillation. Further research is needed to address the specific contribution of these neurons to the entire circuit. © 2015 Federation of European Neuroscience Societies and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Multimodal manifold-regularized transfer learning for MCI conversion prediction.

PubMed

Cheng, Bo; Liu, Mingxia; Suk, Heung-Il; Shen, Dinggang; Zhang, Daoqiang

2015-12-01

As the early stage of Alzheimer's disease (AD), mild cognitive impairment (MCI) has high chance to convert to AD. Effective prediction of such conversion from MCI to AD is of great importance for early diagnosis of AD and also for evaluating AD risk pre-symptomatically. Unlike most previous methods that used only the samples from a target domain to train a classifier, in this paper, we propose a novel multimodal manifold-regularized transfer learning (M2TL) method that jointly utilizes samples from another domain (e.g., AD vs. normal controls (NC)) as well as unlabeled samples to boost the performance of the MCI conversion prediction. Specifically, the proposed M2TL method includes two key components. The first one is a kernel-based maximum mean discrepancy criterion, which helps eliminate the potential negative effect induced by the distributional difference between the auxiliary domain (i.e., AD and NC) and the target domain (i.e., MCI converters (MCI-C) and MCI non-converters (MCI-NC)). The second one is a semi-supervised multimodal manifold-regularized least squares classification method, where the target-domain samples, the auxiliary-domain samples, and the unlabeled samples can be jointly used for training our classifier. Furthermore, with the integration of a group sparsity constraint into our objective function, the proposed M2TL has a capability of selecting the informative samples to build a robust classifier. Experimental results on the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI) database validate the effectiveness of the proposed method by significantly improving the classification accuracy of 80.1 % for MCI conversion prediction, and also outperforming the state-of-the-art methods.

Mythscapes: memory, mythology, and national identity.

PubMed

Bell, Duncan

2003-03-01

In this paper I seek to challenge the dominant modes of conceiving the relationship between memory and national identity, and in so doing offer analysts of nationalism an improved understanding of the dynamics of national identity formation. The concept of collective memory is invoked regularly in attempts to explain the pervasiveness and power of nationalism. I argue that the concept is misused routinely in this context, and instead I employ a 'social agency' approach to theorizing, whereby memory is conceived in a more limited and cogent manner. I argue that it is important to distinguish clearly between memory and mythology, both of which are essential to understanding national identity, for not only are the two concepts distinct, they can also act in opposition to each other. Following from this I introduce the notion of a 'mythscape', the temporally and spatially extended discursive realm in which the myths of the nation are forged, transmitted, negotiated, and reconstructed constantly. Through employing the idea of a mythscape we can relate memory and mythology to each other in a theoretically profitable way.

Faculty development: if you build it, they will come.

PubMed

Steinert, Yvonne; Macdonald, Mary Ellen; Boillat, Miriam; Elizov, Michelle; Meterissian, Sarkis; Razack, Saleem; Ouellet, Marie-Noel; McLeod, Peter J

2010-09-01

The goals of this study were three-fold: to explore the reasons why some clinical teachers regularly attend centralised faculty development activities; to compare their responses with those of colleagues who do not attend, and to learn how we can make faculty development programmes more pertinent to teachers' needs. In 2008-2009, we conducted focus groups with 23 clinical teachers who had participated in faculty development activities on a regular basis in order to ascertain their perceptions of faculty development, reasons for participation, and perceived barriers against involvement. Thematic analysis and research team consensus guided the data interpretation. Reasons for regular participation included the perceptions that: faculty development enables personal and professional growth; learning and self-improvement are valued; workshop topics are viewed as relevant to teachers' needs; the opportunity to network with colleagues is appreciated, and initial positive experiences promote ongoing involvement. Barriers against participation mirrored those cited by non-attendees in an earlier study (e.g. volume of work, lack of time, logistical factors), but did not prevent participation. Suggestions for increasing participation included introducing a 'buddy system' for junior faculty members, an orientation workshop for new staff, and increased role-modelling and mentorship. The conceptualisation of faculty development as a means to achieve specific objectives and the desire for relevant programming that addresses current needs (i.e., expectancies), together with an appreciation of learning, self-improvement and networking with colleagues (i.e., values), were highlighted as reasons for participation by regular attendees. Medical educators should consider these 'lessons learned' in the design and delivery of faculty development offerings. They should also continue to explore the notion of faculty development as a social practice and the application of motivational theories that include expectancy-value constructs to personal and professional development.

A virtual laboratory for the simulation of sustainable energy systems in a low energy building: A case study

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Breen, M.; O'Donovan, A.; Murphy, M. D.; Delaney, F.; Hill, M.; Sullivan, P. D. O.

2016-03-01

The aim of this paper was to develop a virtual laboratory simulation platform of the National Building Retrofit Test-bed at the Cork Institute of Technology, Ireland. The building in question is a low-energy retrofit which is provided with electricity by renewable systems including photovoltaics and wind. It can be thought of as a living laboratory, as a number of internal and external building factors are recorded at regular intervals during human occupation. The analysis carried out in this paper demonstrated that, for the period from April to September 2015, the electricity provided by the renewable systems did not consistently match the building’s electricity requirements due to differing load profiles. It was concluded that the use of load shifting techniques may help to increase the percentage of renewable energy utilisation.

Optimal control of underactuated mechanical systems: A geometric approach

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Colombo, Leonardo; Martín De Diego, David; Zuccalli, Marcela

2010-08-01

In this paper, we consider a geometric formalism for optimal control of underactuated mechanical systems. Our techniques are an adaptation of the classical Skinner and Rusk approach for the case of Lagrangian dynamics with higher-order constraints. We study a regular case where it is possible to establish a symplectic framework and, as a consequence, to obtain a unique vector field determining the dynamics of the optimal control problem. These developments will allow us to develop a new class of geometric integrators based on discrete variational calculus.

Design of overload vehicle monitoring and response system based on DSP

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yu, Yan; Liu, Yiheng; Zhao, Xuefeng

2014-03-01

The overload vehicles are making much more damage to the road surface than the regular ones. Many roads and bridges are equipped with structural health monitoring system (SHM) to provide early-warning to these damage and evaluate the safety of road and bridge. However, because of the complex nature of SHM system, it's expensive to manufacture, difficult to install and not well-suited for the regular bridges and roads. Based on this application background, this paper designs a compact structural health monitoring system based on DSP, which is highly integrated, low-power, easy to install and inexpensive to manufacture. The designed system is made up of sensor arrays, the charge amplifier module, the DSP processing unit, the alarm system for overload, and the estimate for damage of the road and bridge structure. The signals coming from sensor arrays go through the charge amplifier. DSP processing unit will receive the amplified signals, estimate whether it is an overload signal or not, and convert analog variables into digital ones so that they are compatible with the back-end digital circuit for further processing. The system will also restrict certain vehicles that are overweight, by taking image of the car brand, sending the alarm, and transferring the collected pressure data to remote data center for further monitoring analysis by rain-flow counting method.

Air quality in passenger cars of the ground railway transit system in Beijing, China.

PubMed

Li, Tian-Tian; Bai, Yu-Hua; Liu, Zhao-Rong; Liu, Jin-Feng; Zhang, Guang-Shan; Li, Jin-Long

2006-08-15

This study examined the concentrations of carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, TVOC, TSP, PM(10), PM(2.5), PM(1), benzene, toluene and xylene in passenger cars of the Beijing Ground Railway Transit System (Line No. 13). This system connects the northern suburb and downtown, and is equipped with air-conditioned passenger cars. In-train air quality monitoring was performed in both summer (July and August) and winter (December). To obtain representative data, the sampling design considered both rush and regular hours, urban and suburban areas, as well as the number of passengers. Meanwhile, questionnaires were distributed to the passengers. The monitoring results indicated that, overall, the air quality in the passenger cars was acceptable with a few exceptions, which is consistent with the passengers' perception. Concentrations of some air pollutants showed significant seasonal variations and had the significant difference between rush hour and regular hour. Furthermore, the in-train air quality was greatly influenced by the number of passengers. This paper describes the experimental design, and presents the preliminary results.

34 CFR 674.35 - Deferment of repayment-Federal Perkins loans made before July 1, 1993.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-07-01

... borrower is at least a half-time regular student at— (i) An institution of higher education; or (ii) A... to qualify for a deferment. (3) If a borrower is attending as at least a half-time regular student for a full academic year and intends to enroll as at least a half-time regular student in the next...

34 CFR 674.35 - Deferment of repayment-Federal Perkins loans made before July 1, 1993.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-07-01

... borrower is at least a half-time regular student at— (i) An institution of higher education; or (ii) A... to qualify for a deferment. (3) If a borrower is attending as at least a half-time regular student for a full academic year and intends to enroll as at least a half-time regular student in the next...

34 CFR 674.37 - Deferment of repayment-NDSLs made before October 1, 1980 and Defense loans.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-07-01

... loan, when the borrower is at least a half-time regular student at— (i) An institution of higher... regular student for a full academic year and intends to enroll as at least half-time regular student in..., Marines or Coast Guard (see § 674.59); (2) A Peace Corps volunteer (see § 674.60); or (3) A volunteer...

34 CFR 674.37 - Deferment of repayment-NDSLs made before October 1, 1980 and Defense loans.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-07-01

... loan, when the borrower is at least a half-time regular student at— (i) An institution of higher... regular student for a full academic year and intends to enroll as at least half-time regular student in..., Marines or Coast Guard (see § 674.59); (2) A Peace Corps volunteer (see § 674.60); or (3) A volunteer...

34 CFR 674.37 - Deferment of repayment-NDSLs made before October 1, 1980 and Defense loans.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-07-01

... loan, when the borrower is at least a half-time regular student at— (i) An institution of higher... regular student for a full academic year and intends to enroll as at least half-time regular student in..., Marines or Coast Guard (see § 674.59); (2) A Peace Corps volunteer (see § 674.60); or (3) A volunteer...

34 CFR 674.35 - Deferment of repayment-Federal Perkins loans made before July 1, 1993.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-07-01

... borrower is at least a half-time regular student at— (i) An institution of higher education; or (ii) A... to qualify for a deferment. (3) If a borrower is attending as at least a half-time regular student for a full academic year and intends to enroll as at least a half-time regular student in the next...

Detection of small surface vessels in near, medium, and far infrared spectral bands

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dulski, R.; Milewski, S.; Kastek, M.; Trzaskawka, P.; Szustakowski, M.; Ciurapinski, W.; Zyczkowski, M.

2011-11-01

Protection of naval bases and harbors requires close co-operation between security and access control systems covering land areas and those monitoring sea approach routes. The typical location of naval bases and harbors - usually next to a large city - makes it difficult to detect and identify a threat in the dense regular traffic of various sea vessels (i.e. merchant ships, fishing boats, tourist ships). Due to the properties of vessel control systems, such as AIS (Automatic Identification System), and the effectiveness of radar and optoelectronic systems against different targets it seems that fast motor boats called RIB (Rigid Inflatable Boat) could be the most serious threat to ships and harbor infrastructure. In the paper the process and conditions for the detection and identification of high-speed boats in the areas of ports and naval bases in the near, medium and far infrared is presented. Based on the results of measurements and recorded thermal images the actual temperature contrast delta T (RIB / sea) will be determined, which will further allow to specify the theoretical ranges of detection and identification of the RIB-type targets for an operating security system. The data will also help to determine the possible advantages of image fusion where the component images are taken in different spectral ranges. This will increase the probability of identifying the object by the multi-sensor security system equipped additionally with the appropriate algorithms for detecting, tracking and performing the fusion of images from the visible and infrared cameras.

An approach for the regularization of a power flow solution around the maximum loading point

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

Kataoka, Y.

1992-08-01

In the conventional power flow solution, the boundary conditions are directly specified by active power and reactive power at each node, so that the singular point coincided with the maximum loading point. For this reason, the computations are often disturbed by ill-condition. This paper proposes a new method for getting the wide-range regularity by giving some modifications to the conventional power flow solution method, thereby eliminating the singular point or shifting it to the region with the voltage lower than that of the maximum loading point. Then, the continuous execution of V-P curves including maximum loading point is realized. Themore » efficiency and effectiveness of the method are tested in practical 598-nodes system in comparison with the conventional method.« less

Contemporary sample stacking in analytical electrophoresis.

PubMed

Malá, Zdena; Gebauer, Petr; Boček, Petr

2011-01-01

Sample stacking is of vital importance for analytical CE since it may bring the required sensitivity of analyses. A lot of new relevant papers are published every year and regular surveys seem to be very helpful for experts and practitioners. The contribution presented here is a continuation of a series of regularly published reviews on the topic and covers the last two years. It brings a survey of related literature organized, in accord with the main principle used in the procedure published, in the following mainstream sections: Kohlrausch adjustment of concentrations, pH step, micellar systems and combined techniques. Each part covers literature sorted according to the field of application as, e.g. clinical, pharmaceutical, food, environmental, etc. Copyright © 2011 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

Phylogenetic Distribution of CRISPR-Cas Systems in Antibiotic-Resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa

PubMed Central

van Belkum, Alex; Soriaga, Leah B.; LaFave, Matthew C.; Akella, Srividya; Veyrieras, Jean-Baptiste; Barbu, E. Magda; Shortridge, Dee; Blanc, Bernadette; Hannum, Gregory; Zambardi, Gilles; Miller, Kristofer; Enright, Mark C.; Mugnier, Nathalie; Brami, Daniel; Schicklin, Stéphane; Felderman, Martina; Schwartz, Ariel S.; Richardson, Toby H.; Peterson, Todd C.; Hubby, Bolyn

2015-01-01

ABSTRACT Pseudomonas aeruginosa is an antibiotic-refractory pathogen with a large genome and extensive genotypic diversity. Historically, P. aeruginosa has been a major model system for understanding the molecular mechanisms underlying type I clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeat (CRISPR) and CRISPR-associated protein (CRISPR-Cas)-based bacterial immune system function. However, little information on the phylogenetic distribution and potential role of these CRISPR-Cas systems in molding the P. aeruginosa accessory genome and antibiotic resistance elements is known. Computational approaches were used to identify and characterize CRISPR-Cas systems within 672 genomes, and in the process, we identified a previously unreported and putatively mobile type I-C P. aeruginosa CRISPR-Cas system. Furthermore, genomes harboring noninhibited type I-F and I-E CRISPR-Cas systems were on average ~300 kb smaller than those without a CRISPR-Cas system. In silico analysis demonstrated that the accessory genome (n = 22,036 genes) harbored the majority of identified CRISPR-Cas targets. We also assembled a global spacer library that aided the identification of difficult-to-characterize mobile genetic elements within next-generation sequencing (NGS) data and allowed CRISPR typing of a majority of P. aeruginosa strains. In summary, our analysis demonstrated that CRISPR-Cas systems play an important role in shaping the accessory genomes of globally distributed P. aeruginosa isolates. PMID:26604259

Ultrasonically Absorptive Coatings for Hypersonic

DTIC Science & Technology

2008-05-13

UAC and TPS functions. To aid in the design of UAC with regular microstructure to be tested the CUBRC LENS I tunnel, parametric studies of the UAC-LFC...approaching the large-scale demonstration stage in the CUBRC LENS tunnel as well as fabrication of ceramic UAC samples integrated into TPS. Summary...integrate UAC and TPS functions. To aid in the design of UAC with regular microstructure to be tested the CUBRC LENS I tunnel, parametric studies of

Primacy and ranking of UEFA soccer teams from biasing organization rules

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ausloos, Marcel; Gadomski, Adam; Vitanov, Nikolay K.

2014-10-01

A question is raised on whether some implied regularity or structure, as found in the soccer team ranking by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA), is due to an implicit game result value or score competition conditions. The analysis is based on considerations of complex systems, i.e. finding whether power or other simple law fits are appropriate to describe some internal dynamics. It is observed that the ranking is specifically organized: a major class comprising a few teams emerges after each season. Other classes, which apparently have regular sizes, occur subsequently. Thus, the notion of the Sheppard primacy index is envisaged to describe the findings. Additional primacy indices are discussed for enhancing the features. These measures can be used to sort out peer classes in more general terms. A very simplified toy model containing components of the UEFA ranking rules suggests that such peer classes are an extrinsic property of the ranking, as obtained in many nonlinear systems under boundary condition constraints.

Evaluation of Computer Based Testing in lieu of Regular Examinations in Computer Literacy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Murayama, Koichi

Because computer based testing (CBT) has many advantages compared with the conventional paper and pencil testing (PPT) examination method, CBT has begun to be used in various situations in Japan, such as in qualifying examinations and in the TOEFL. This paper describes the usefulness and the problems of CBT applied to a regular college examination. The regular computer literacy examinations for first year students were held using CBT, and the results were analyzed. Responses to a questionnaire indicated many students accepted CBT with no unpleasantness and considered CBT a positive factor, improving their motivation to study. CBT also decreased the work of faculty in terms of marking tests and reducing data.

The history of science as the progress of the human spirit: The historiography of astronomy in the eighteenth century.

PubMed

Špelda, Daniel

2017-06-01

In the eighteenth century, the historiography of astronomy was part of a wider discussion concerning the history of the human spirit. The concept of the human spirit was very popular among Enlightenment authors because it gave the history of human knowledge continuity, unity and meaning. Using this concept, scientists and historians of science such as Montucla, Lalande, Bailly and Laplace could present the history of astronomy in terms of a progress towards contemporary science that was slow and could be interrupted at times, but was still constant, regular, and necessary. In my paper I intend to explain how the originally philosophical concept of the human spirit was transferred to the history of astronomy. I also introduce the basic principles to which the development of the spirit is subject in astronomy, according to historians of astronomy. The third part of the paper describes how historians of astronomy took into account the effect of social and natural factors on the history of astronomy. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

E-cigarette Use Related to Demographic Factors in Hawai'i.

PubMed

Seto, Jason C; Davis, James W; Taira, Deborah A

2016-10-01

E-cigarette use is rapidly expanding in the United States and is projected to be a $3 billion industry by the end of this year. E-cigarette use in Hawai'i is significantly higher than national averages. The goal of this study was to examine the relationship in Hawai'i between demographic characteristics and several aspects of e-cigarette use including percentage of residents trying e-cigarettes, reasons for use, and perceived effects on health. Survey data were collected from a random sample of Hawai'i residents via the telephone in the summer of 2015, using methodology similar to that of the Hawai'i Health Survey. Chi-squared tests found e-cigarette use to be significantly associated with age ( P =.001), gender ( P =.03), ethnicity ( P <.001), and education ( P <.001). Among e-cigarette users, 12% said they started smoking regular cigarettes after starting e-cigarettes, 21% said their use of regular cigarettes did not change, 6% said they reduced use of regular cigarettes, and 20% said they completely stopped smoking regular cigarettes. Multivariable logistic regression results suggest Native Hawaiians (OR=29.1, P =.01) and Filipinos (OR=24.3, P =.01) were significantly more likely to report perceived improved health due to e-cigarette use compared to Caucasians. Given existing health disparities for Native Hawaiians and Filipinos, the fact that these groups are significantly more likely than other ethnic/racial groups to report that e-cigarettes improved their health bears notice and highlights the need for additional research in this area.

The New BaBar Data Reconstruction Control System

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

Ceseracciu, Antonio

2003-06-02

The BaBar experiment is characterized by extremely high luminosity, a complex detector, and a huge data volume, with increasing requirements each year. To fulfill these requirements a new control system has been designed and developed for the offline data reconstruction system. The new control system described in this paper provides the performance and flexibility needed to manage a large number of small computing farms, and takes full benefit of OO design. The infrastructure is well isolated from the processing layer, it is generic and flexible, based on a light framework providing message passing and cooperative multitasking. The system is activelymore » distributed, enforces the separation between different processing tiers by using different naming domains, and glues them together by dedicated brokers. It provides a powerful Finite State Machine framework to describe custom processing models in a simple regular language. This paper describes this new control system, currently in use at SLAC and Padova on {approx}450 CPUs organized in 12 farms.« less

Automatic screening and classification of diabetic retinopathy and maculopathy using fuzzy image processing.

PubMed

Rahim, Sarni Suhaila; Palade, Vasile; Shuttleworth, James; Jayne, Chrisina

2016-12-01

Digital retinal imaging is a challenging screening method for which effective, robust and cost-effective approaches are still to be developed. Regular screening for diabetic retinopathy and diabetic maculopathy diseases is necessary in order to identify the group at risk of visual impairment. This paper presents a novel automatic detection of diabetic retinopathy and maculopathy in eye fundus images by employing fuzzy image processing techniques. The paper first introduces the existing systems for diabetic retinopathy screening, with an emphasis on the maculopathy detection methods. The proposed medical decision support system consists of four parts, namely: image acquisition, image preprocessing including four retinal structures localisation, feature extraction and the classification of diabetic retinopathy and maculopathy. A combination of fuzzy image processing techniques, the Circular Hough Transform and several feature extraction methods are implemented in the proposed system. The paper also presents a novel technique for the macula region localisation in order to detect the maculopathy. In addition to the proposed detection system, the paper highlights a novel online dataset and it presents the dataset collection, the expert diagnosis process and the advantages of our online database compared to other public eye fundus image databases for diabetic retinopathy purposes.

The MAJORANA DEMONSTRATOR calibration system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Abgrall, N.; Arnquist, I. J.; Avignone, F. T., III; Barabash, A. S.; Bertrand, F. E.; Boswell, M.; Bradley, A. W.; Brudanin, V.; Busch, M.; Buuck, M.; Caldwell, T. S.; Christofferson, C. D.; Chu, P.-H.; Cuesta, C.; Detwiler, J. A.; Dunagan, C.; Efremenko, Yu.; Ejiri, H.; Elliott, S. R.; Fu, Z.; Gehman, V. M.; Gilliss, T.; Giovanetti, G. K.; Goett, J.; Green, M. P.; Gruszko, J.; Guinn, I. S.; Guiseppe, V. E.; Haufe, C. R.; Henning, R.; Hoppe, E. W.; Howe, M. A.; Jasinski, B. R.; Keeter, K. J.; Kidd, M. F.; Konovalov, S. I.; Kouzes, R. T.; Lopez, A. M.; MacMullin, J.; Martin, R. D.; Massarczyk, R.; Meijer, S. J.; Mertens, S.; Orrell, J. L.; O'Shaughnessy, C.; Poon, A. W. P.; Radford, D. C.; Rager, J.; Reine, A. L.; Rielage, K.; Robertson, R. G. H.; Shanks, B.; Shirchenko, M.; Suriano, A. M.; Tedeschi, D.; Trimble, J. E.; Varner, R. L.; Vasilyev, S.; Vetter, K.; Vorren, K.; White, B. R.; Wilkerson, J. F.; Wiseman, C.; Xu, W.; Yu, C.-H.; Yumatov, V.; Zhitnikov, I.; Zhu, B. X.

2017-11-01

The MAJORANA Collaboration is searching for the neutrinoless double-beta decay of the nucleus 76Ge. The MAJORANA DEMONSTRATOR is an array of germanium detectors deployed with the aim of implementing background reduction techniques suitable for a 1-ton 76Ge-based search. The ultra low-background conditions require regular calibrations to verify proper function of the detectors. Radioactive line sources can be deployed around the cryostats containing the detectors for regular energy calibrations. When measuring in low-background mode, these line sources have to be stored outside the shielding so they do not contribute to the background. The deployment and the retraction of the source are designed to be controlled by the data acquisition system and do not require any direct human interaction. In this paper, we detail the design requirements and implementation of the calibration apparatus, which provides the event rates needed to define the pulse-shape cuts and energy calibration used in the final analysis as well as data that can be compared to simulations.

Microscopic and macroscopic models for the onset and progression of Alzheimer's disease

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bertsch, Michiel; Franchi, Bruno; Carla Tesi, Maria; Tosin, Andrea

2017-10-01

In the first part of this paper we review a mathematical model for the onset and progression of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) that was developed in subsequent steps over several years. The model is meant to describe the evolution of AD in vivo. In Achdou et al (2013 J. Math. Biol. 67 1369-92) we treated the problem at a microscopic scale, where the typical length scale is a multiple of the size of the soma of a single neuron. Subsequently, in Bertsch et al (2017 Math. Med. Biol. 34 193-214) we concentrated on the macroscopic scale, where brain neurons are regarded as a continuous medium, structured by their degree of malfunctioning. In the second part of the paper we consider the relation between the microscopic and the macroscopic models. In particular we show under which assumptions the kinetic transport equation, which in the macroscopic model governs the evolution of the probability measure for the degree of malfunctioning of neurons, can be derived from a particle-based setting. The models are based on aggregation and diffusion equations for β-Amyloid (Aβ from now on), a protein fragment that healthy brains regularly produce and eliminate. In case of dementia Aβ monomers are no longer properly washed out and begin to coalesce forming eventually plaques. Two different mechanisms are assumed to be relevant for the temporal evolution of the disease: (i) diffusion and agglomeration of soluble polymers of amyloid, produced by damaged neurons; (ii) neuron-to-neuron prion-like transmission. In the microscopic model we consider mechanism (i), modelling it by a system of Smoluchowski equations for the amyloid concentration (describing the agglomeration phenomenon), with the addition of a diffusion term as well as of a source term on the neuronal membrane. At the macroscopic level instead we model processes (i) and (ii) by a system of Smoluchowski equations for the amyloid concentration, coupled to a kinetic-type transport equation for the distribution function of the degree of malfunctioning of the neurons. The transport equation contains an integral term describing the random onset of the disease as a jump process localized in particularly sensitive areas of the brain.

Regularities in travel demand : an international perspective

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2000-12-01

The major mobility variables from about 30 travel surveys in more than 10 countries are compared in this paper. The analysis of cross-sectional and longitudinal data broadly confirms some earlier findings of regularities in time and money expenditure...

Stimulated Deep Neural Network for Speech Recognition

DTIC Science & Technology

2016-09-08

making network regularization and robust adaptation challenging. Stimulated training has recently been proposed to address this problem by encouraging...potential to improve regularization and adaptation. This paper investigates stimulated training of DNNs for both of these options. These schemes take

Cross-cultural comparison of lack of regular physical activity among college students: Universal versus transversal.

PubMed

Seo, Dong-Chul; Torabi, Mohammad R; Jiang, Nan; Fernandez-Rojas, Xinia; Park, Bock-Hee

2009-01-01

This study examined cultural influence on personal and behavioral correlates of lack of regular physical activity (PA) among college students in four countries, i.e., the United States, Costa Rica, India, and South Korea. Public universities were randomly chosen among the four countries. A total of 4,685 students participated in the study during the 2006-2007 academic year with a response rate of 90.1%. The vast majority of the questions on the instrument were adopted from the Youth Risk Behavior Survey and the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System questionnaires. The instrument was translated into Spanish and Korean and then back-translated into English to check accuracy of the translation. Low fruit consumption was a culture-universal predictor of lack of regular PA. Gender, perceived body weight, vegetable consumption, and cigarette smoking were culture-specific predictors, indicating PA might be a transversal value. Body mass index, binge drinking, and TV/video watching were not associated with lack of regular PA in any of the four countries. While PA is valued across different segments of many cultures, given the several culture-specific predictors, PA appears to be more transversal than universal. Therefore, culturally sensitive interventions are necessary to promote PA among young adults.

Robust design optimization using the price of robustness, robust least squares and regularization methods

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bukhari, Hassan J.

2017-12-01

In this paper a framework for robust optimization of mechanical design problems and process systems that have parametric uncertainty is presented using three different approaches. Robust optimization problems are formulated so that the optimal solution is robust which means it is minimally sensitive to any perturbations in parameters. The first method uses the price of robustness approach which assumes the uncertain parameters to be symmetric and bounded. The robustness for the design can be controlled by limiting the parameters that can perturb.The second method uses the robust least squares method to determine the optimal parameters when data itself is subjected to perturbations instead of the parameters. The last method manages uncertainty by restricting the perturbation on parameters to improve sensitivity similar to Tikhonov regularization. The methods are implemented on two sets of problems; one linear and the other non-linear. This methodology will be compared with a prior method using multiple Monte Carlo simulation runs which shows that the approach being presented in this paper results in better performance.

ICT-based system to predict and prevent falls (iStoppFalls): study protocol for an international multicenter randomized controlled trial.

PubMed

Gschwind, Yves J; Eichberg, Sabine; Marston, Hannah R; Ejupi, Andreas; Rosario, Helios de; Kroll, Michael; Drobics, Mario; Annegarn, Janneke; Wieching, Rainer; Lord, Stephen R; Aal, Konstantin; Delbaere, Kim

2014-08-20

Falls are very common, especially in adults aged 65 years and older. Within the current international European Commission's Seventh Framework Program (FP7) project 'iStoppFalls' an Information and Communication Technology (ICT) based system has been developed to regularly assess a person's risk of falling in their own home and to deliver an individual and tailored home-based exercise and education program for fall prevention. The primary aims of iStoppFalls are to assess the feasibility and acceptability of the intervention program, and its effectiveness to improve balance, muscle strength and quality of life in older people. This international, multicenter study is designed as a single-blinded, two-group randomized controlled trial. A total of 160 community-dwelling older people aged 65 years and older will be recruited in Germany (n = 60), Spain (n = 40), and Australia (n = 60) between November 2013 and May 2014. Participants in the intervention group will conduct a 16-week exercise program using the iStoppFalls system through their television set at home. Participants are encouraged to exercise for a total duration of 180 minutes per week. The training program consists of a variety of balance and strength exercises in the form of video games using exergame technology. Educational material about a healthy lifestyle will be provided to each participant. Final reassessments will be conducted after 16 weeks. The assessments include physical and cognitive tests as well as questionnaires assessing health, fear of falling, quality of life and psychosocial determinants. Falls will be followed up for six months by monthly falls calendars. We hypothesize that the regular use of this newly developed ICT-based system for fall prevention at home is feasible for older people. By using the iStoppFalls sensor-based exercise program, older people are expected to improve in balance and strength outcomes. In addition, the exercise training may have a positive impact on quality of life by reducing the risk of falls. Taken together with expected cognitive improvements, the individual approach of the iStoppFalls program may provide an effective model for fall prevention in older people who prefer to exercise at home. Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry Trial ID: ACTRN12614000096651.International Standard Randomised Controlled Trial Number: ISRCTN15932647.

ICT-based system to predict and prevent falls (iStoppFalls): study protocol for an international multicenter randomized controlled trial

PubMed Central

2014-01-01

Background Falls are very common, especially in adults aged 65 years and older. Within the current international European Commission’s Seventh Framework Program (FP7) project ‘iStoppFalls’ an Information and Communication Technology (ICT) based system has been developed to regularly assess a person’s risk of falling in their own home and to deliver an individual and tailored home-based exercise and education program for fall prevention. The primary aims of iStoppFalls are to assess the feasibility and acceptability of the intervention program, and its effectiveness to improve balance, muscle strength and quality of life in older people. Methods/Design This international, multicenter study is designed as a single-blinded, two-group randomized controlled trial. A total of 160 community-dwelling older people aged 65 years and older will be recruited in Germany (n = 60), Spain (n = 40), and Australia (n = 60) between November 2013 and May 2014. Participants in the intervention group will conduct a 16-week exercise program using the iStoppFalls system through their television set at home. Participants are encouraged to exercise for a total duration of 180 minutes per week. The training program consists of a variety of balance and strength exercises in the form of video games using exergame technology. Educational material about a healthy lifestyle will be provided to each participant. Final reassessments will be conducted after 16 weeks. The assessments include physical and cognitive tests as well as questionnaires assessing health, fear of falling, quality of life and psychosocial determinants. Falls will be followed up for six months by monthly falls calendars. Discussion We hypothesize that the regular use of this newly developed ICT-based system for fall prevention at home is feasible for older people. By using the iStoppFalls sensor-based exercise program, older people are expected to improve in balance and strength outcomes. In addition, the exercise training may have a positive impact on quality of life by reducing the risk of falls. Taken together with expected cognitive improvements, the individual approach of the iStoppFalls program may provide an effective model for fall prevention in older people who prefer to exercise at home. Trial registration Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry Trial ID: ACTRN12614000096651. International Standard Randomised Controlled Trial Number: ISRCTN15932647. PMID:25141850

The link between dopamine function and apathy in cannabis users: an [18F]-DOPA PET imaging study.

PubMed

Bloomfield, Michael A P; Morgan, Celia J A; Kapur, Shitij; Curran, H Valerie; Howes, Oliver D

2014-06-01

Cannabis is the most widely used illicit drug in the world, and regular use has been associated with reduced motivation, i.e. apathy. Regular long-term cannabis use has been associated with reduced dopamine synthesis capacity. The mesolimbic dopaminergic system mediates the processing of incentive stimuli by modifying their motivational value, which in turn is modulated by endocannabinoid signalling. Thus, it has been proposed that dopaminergic dysfunction underlies the apathy associated with chronic cannabis use. The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between dopaminergic function and subjective apathy in cannabis users. We measured dopamine synthesis capacity (indexed as the influx rate constant K i(cer)) via 3,4-dihydroxy-6-[(18)F]-fluoro-l-phenylalanine positron emission tomography and subjective apathy using the self-rated Apathy Evaluation Scale (AES-S) in 14 regular cannabis users. All subjects scored in excess of 34 points on the AES-S (median [interquartile range] 59.5 [7.5]), indicative of significant apathy based on normative data. K i (cer) was inversely correlated to AES-S score in the whole striatum and its associative functional subdivision (Spearman's rho = -0.64, p = 0.015 [whole striatum]; rho = -0.69, p = 0.006 [associative]) but not in the limbic or sensorimotor striatal subdivisions. There were no significant relationships between AES-S and current cannabis consumption (rho = 0.28, p = 0.34) or age of first cannabis use (rho = 0.25, p = 0.40). These findings indicate that the reduction in striatal dopamine synthesis capacity associated with chronic cannabis use may underlie reduced reward sensitivity and a motivation associated with chronic cannabis use.

Working in small-scale, homelike dementia care: effects on staff burnout symptoms and job characteristics. A quasi-experimental, longitudinal study.

PubMed

Zwakhalen, Sandra Mg; Hamers, Jan Ph; van Rossum, Erik; Ambergen, Ton; Kempen, Gertrudis Ijm; Verbeek, Hilde

2018-05-01

This paper reports on a quasi-experimental, longitudinal study on the effects of working in a new type of dementia care facility (i.e. small-scale living facilities) on staff burnout symptoms and job characteristics (job autonomy, social support, physical demands and workload). It is hypothesised that nursing staff working in small-scale facilities experience fewer burnout symptoms, more autonomy and social support, and fewer symptoms of physical demands and workload compared with staff in regular wards. Two types of long-term institutional nursing care settings were included: 28 houses in small-scale living facilities and 21 regular psychogeriatric wards in nursing homes. At baseline and at follow-ups after 6 and 12 months nursing staff were assessed by means of self-report questionnaires. In total, 305 nursing staff members were included in the study, 114 working in small-scale living facilities (intervention group) and 191 in regular wards (control group). No overall effects on burnout symptoms were detected. Significantly fewer physical demands and lower workload were experienced by staff working in small-scale living facilities compared with staff in regular wards. They also experienced more job autonomy. No significant effect was found for overall social support in the total group. This study suggests positive effects of the work environment on several work characteristics. Organisational climate differs in the two conditions, which might account for our results. This may influence nursing staff well-being and has important implications for nursing home managers and policy makers. Future studies should enhance our understanding of the influence of job characteristics on outcomes.

Incorrect Citations Give Unfair Credit to Review Authors in Ecology Journals

PubMed Central

Teixeira, Mariana C.; Thomaz, Sidinei M.; Michelan, Thaisa S.; Mormul, Roger P.; Meurer, Thamis; Fasolli, José Vitor B.; Silveira, Márcio J.

2013-01-01

The number of citations that papers receive has become significant in measuring researchers' scientific productivity, and such measurements are important when one seeks career opportunities and research funding. Skewed citation practices can thus have profound effects on academic careers. We investigated (i) how frequently authors misinterpret original information and (ii) how frequently authors inappropriately cite reviews instead of the articles upon which the reviews are based. To reach this aim, we carried a survey of ecology journals indexed in the Web of Science and assessed the appropriateness of citations of review papers. Reviews were significantly more often cited than regular articles. In addition, 22% of citations were inaccurate, and another 15% unfairly gave credit to the review authors for other scientists' ideas. These practices should be stopped, mainly through more open discussion among mentors, researchers and students. PMID:24349143

Incorrect citations give unfair credit to review authors in ecology journals.

PubMed

Teixeira, Mariana C; Thomaz, Sidinei M; Michelan, Thaisa S; Mormul, Roger P; Meurer, Thamis; Fasolli, José Vitor B; Silveira, Márcio J

2013-01-01

The number of citations that papers receive has become significant in measuring researchers' scientific productivity, and such measurements are important when one seeks career opportunities and research funding. Skewed citation practices can thus have profound effects on academic careers. We investigated (i) how frequently authors misinterpret original information and (ii) how frequently authors inappropriately cite reviews instead of the articles upon which the reviews are based. To reach this aim, we carried a survey of ecology journals indexed in the Web of Science and assessed the appropriateness of citations of review papers. Reviews were significantly more often cited than regular articles. In addition, 22% of citations were inaccurate, and another 15% unfairly gave credit to the review authors for other scientists' ideas. These practices should be stopped, mainly through more open discussion among mentors, researchers and students.

New Generation Power System for Space Applications

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Jones, Loren; Carr, Greg; Deligiannis, Frank; Lam, Barbara; Nelson, Ron; Pantaleon, Jose; Ruiz, Ian; Treicler, John; Wester, Gene; Sauers, Jim;

The Regimental System in the United States Army: Its Evolution and Future

DTIC Science & Technology

1976-06-11

capability for a higher level of esprit -e corps and morale than other Army organ- izations. The regiments were the custodians of Army history and...subjects of controversy that would last until the Army finally cast the regiments aside. Even though regimental and higher commanders tried many...Regular Army, the militia, and volunteers, and by developing a peacetime organization which focused higher than the traditional regiments. I On February 2

Message Prioritization for Routing in a DTN Environment

DTIC Science & Technology

2011-03-01

goal was to effectively connect a remote village with a connected area, in this case a city, by using android phones given to people who regularly... Android phone or iPhone would involve developing or recoding the entire system in a language that is compatible with the phones. While certainly a...due to the fact it currently runs on an Android platform as an application. This showed promise initially; however, we discovered that the actual

Convex blind image deconvolution with inverse filtering

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lv, Xiao-Guang; Li, Fang; Zeng, Tieyong

2018-03-01

Blind image deconvolution is the process of estimating both the original image and the blur kernel from the degraded image with only partial or no information about degradation and the imaging system. It is a bilinear ill-posed inverse problem corresponding to the direct problem of convolution. Regularization methods are used to handle the ill-posedness of blind deconvolution and get meaningful solutions. In this paper, we investigate a convex regularized inverse filtering method for blind deconvolution of images. We assume that the support region of the blur object is known, as has been done in a few existing works. By studying the inverse filters of signal and image restoration problems, we observe the oscillation structure of the inverse filters. Inspired by the oscillation structure of the inverse filters, we propose to use the star norm to regularize the inverse filter. Meanwhile, we use the total variation to regularize the resulting image obtained by convolving the inverse filter with the degraded image. The proposed minimization model is shown to be convex. We employ the first-order primal-dual method for the solution of the proposed minimization model. Numerical examples for blind image restoration are given to show that the proposed method outperforms some existing methods in terms of peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR), structural similarity (SSIM), visual quality and time consumption.

Remote Operations of Laser Guide Star Systems: Gemini Observatory.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Oram, Richard J.; Fesquet, Vincent; Wyman, Robert; D'Orgeville, Celine

2011-03-01

The Gemini North telescope, equipped with a 14W laser, has been providing Laser Guide Star Adaptive Optics (LGS AO) regular science queue observations for worldwide astronomers since February 2007. The new 55W laser system for MCAO was installed on the Gemini South telescope in May 2010. In this paper, we comment on how Gemini Observatory developed regular remote operation of the Laser Guide Star Facility and high-power solid-state laser as routine normal operations. Fully remote operation of the LGSF from the Hilo base facility HBF was initially trialed and then optimized and became the standard operating procedure (SOP) for LGS operation in December 2008. From an engineering perspective remote operation demands stable, well characterized and base-lined equipment sets. In the effort to produce consistent, stable and controlled laser parameters (power, wavelength and beam quality) we completed a failure mode effect analysis of the laser system and sub systems that initiated a campaign of hardware upgrades and procedural improvements to the routine maintenance operations. Finally, we provide an overview of normal operation procedures during LGS runs and present a snapshot of data accumulated over several years that describes the overall LGS AO observing efficiency at the Gemini North telescope.

A rule-based phase control methodology for a slider-crank wave energy converter power take-off system

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

Sang, Yuanrui; Karayaka, H. Bora; Yan, Yanjun

The slider crank is a proven mechanical linkage system with a long history of successful applications, and the slider-crank ocean wave energy converter (WEC) is a type of WEC that converts linear motion into rotation. This paper presents a control algorithm for a slider-crank WEC. In this study, a time-domain hydrodynamic analysis is adopted, and an AC synchronous machine is used in the power take-off system to achieve relatively high system performance. Also, a rule-based phase control strategy is applied to maximize energy extraction, making the system suitable for not only regular sinusoidal waves but also irregular waves. Simulations aremore » carried out under regular sinusoidal wave and synthetically produced irregular wave conditions; performance validations are also presented with high-precision, real ocean wave surface elevation data. The influences of significant wave height, and peak period upon energy extraction of the system are studied. Energy extraction results using the proposed method are compared to those of the passive loading and complex conjugate control strategies; results show that the level of energy extraction is between those of the passive loading and complex conjugate control strategies, and the suboptimal nature of this control strategy is verified.« less

PROGRESS IN DESIGN OF THE INSTRUMENTATION AND CONTROL OF THE TOKAMAK COOLING WATER SYSTEM

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

Korsah, Kofi; DeVan, Bill; Ashburn, David

This paper discusses progress in the design of the control, interlock and safety systems of the Tokamak Cooling Water System (TCWS) for the ITER fusion reactor. The TCWS instrumentation and control (I&C) is one of approximately 200 separate plant I&C systems (e.g., vacuum system I&C, magnets system I&C) that interface to a common central I&C system through standardized networks. Several aspects of the I&C are similar to the I&C of fission-based power plants. However, some of the unique features of the ITER fusion reactor and the TCWS (e.g., high quasi-static magnetic field, need for baking and drying as well asmore » cooling operations), also demand some unique safety and qualification considerations. The paper compares the design strategy/guidelines of the TCWS I&C and the I&C of conventional nuclear power plants. Issues such as safety classifications, independence between control and safety systems, sensor sharing, redundancy, voting schemes, and qualification methodologies are discussed. It is concluded that independence and separation requirements are similar in both designs. However, the voting schemes for safety systems in nuclear power plants typically use 2oo4 (i.e., 4 divisions of safety I&C, any 2 of which is sufficient to trigger a safety action), while 2oo3 voting logic - within each of 2 independent trains - is used in the TCWS I&C. It is also noted that 2oo3 voting is also acceptable in nuclear power plants if adequate risk assessment and reliability is demonstrated. Finally, while qualification requirements provide similar guidance [e.g., both IEC 60780 (invoked in ITER-space), and IEEE 323 (invoked in fission power plant space) provide similar guidance], an important qualification consideration is the susceptibility of I&C to the magnetic fields of ITER. Also, the radiation environments are different. In the case of magnetic fields the paper discusses some options that are being considered.« less

[Investigation of the Safety of and Patient Satisfaction with iEat®, the Support Food for the Recovery of Eating Function in Patients with Carcinomatosis - Related Gastrointestinal Passage Disorder].

PubMed

Matsuoka, Mio; Shinoki, Keiji; Makari, Yoichi; Iijima, Shohei

2015-12-01

iEat®, a support food for the recovery of eating function, is food that can be easily masticated with little power and has suitable fluidity for enzyme processing, regardless of its normal appearance. We provided iEat® to 5 patients with carcinomatosis-related gastrointestinal passage disorder who could take fluid foods and investigated the stability of iEat® and patient satisfaction with the food. We provided regular diets for lunch on the first and 7th day, and provided iEat® from the 2nd to the 6th day. The stability of iEat(R) was evaluated based on the presence and grade of abdominal pain, diarrhea, sense of abdominal distension, nausea, and vomiting, according to the Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events (CTCAE v4.0, JCOG). The patients assessed their satisfaction by using 6 grades of taste, appearance, amount, difficulty of intake, and overall valuation. One patient could not continue the study because of vomiting from overeating of iEat(R). In the other patients, iEat(R) induced approximately the same adverse events as did the regular diets. All of the patients expressed better satisfaction with iEat® than with the regular diets. Although patient management for overeating is necessary, iEat® might provide good quality of life in terms of eating satisfaction to the patients with carcinomatosis-related gastrointestinal passage disorder.

Insulin-like growth factor-I, physical activity, and control of cellular anabolism.

PubMed

Nindl, Bradley C

2010-01-01

The underlying mechanisms responsible for mediating the beneficial outcomes of exercise undoubtedly are many, but the insulin-like growth factor-I (IGF-I) system is emerging as an important and central hormonal axis that plays a significant role concerning cellular anabolism. This introductory article summarizes the intent and the content for papers presented as part of a 2008 American College of Sports Medicine national symposium entitled "Insulin-like Growth Factor-I, Physical Activity, and Control of Cellular Anabolism." The individual authors and their papers are as follows: Jan Frystyk authoring "The relationship between exercise and the growth hormone/insulin-like growth factor-I axis," Greg Adams authoring "IGF-I signaling in skeletal muscle and the potential for cytokine interactions," and Brad Nindl authoring "Insulin-like growth factor-I as a biomarker of health, fitness, and training status." These papers focus on 1) different assay methodologies for IGF-I within the paradigm of exercise studies, 2) research demonstrating that intracellular signaling components associated with several proinflammatory cytokines have the potential to interact with anabolic signaling processes in skeletal muscle, and 3) an overview of IGF-I as a biomarker related to exercise training, muscle and bone remodeling, body composition, cognition, and cancer. When summed in total, the contribution that these papers will make will undoubtedly involve bringing attention to the vast regulatory complexity of the IGF-I system and will hopefully convince the reader that the IGF-I system warrants further detailed scientific inquiry to resolve many unanswered questions and paradoxical experimental findings. The IGF-I system remains one of the most intriguing and captivating marvels of human physiology that seems central in mediating numerous adaptations from physical activity.

Accessible Universe: Making Astronomy Accessible to All in the Regular Elementary Classroom

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Grady, C. A.; Farley, N.; Avery, F.; Zamboni, E.; Clark, B.; Geiger, N.; de Angelis, M.; Woodgate, B.

2002-05-01

Astronomy is one of the most publicly accessible of the sciences, with a steady stream of new discoveries, and wide public interest. The study of exo-planetary systems is a natural extension of studies of the Solar System at the elementary and middle-school level. Such space-related topics are some of the most popular science curriculum areas at the elementary level and can serve as a springboard to other sciences, mathematics, and technology for typical student learners. Not all students are typical: 10 percent of American students are identified as having disabilities which impact their education sufficiently that they receive special education services; various estimates suggest that an additional 10 percent may have milder impairments. Most frequently these students are placed in comprehensive (mixed-ability) classrooms. Budgetary limitations for most school systems have meant that for the bulk of these children, usually those with comparatively mild learning impairments affecting their ability to access text materials and in some cases to make effective use of visual materials, individualized accommodations in the science curriculum have not been readily available. Our team, consisting of an astronomer, regular education teachers, and special educators has been piloting a suite of curriculum materials, modified activities, including use of assistive technology, age- appropriate astronomy web resources, and instructional strategies which can more effectively teach astronomy to children with disabilities in the regular education grade 3-5 classroom. This study was supported by a grant HST-EO-8474 from the STScI and funded by NASA.

Reconfigurable Computing for Computational Science: A New Focus in High Performance Computing

DTIC Science & Technology

2006-11-01

in the past decade. Researchers are regularly employing the power of large computing systems and parallel processing to tackle larger and more...complex problems in all of the physical sciences. For the past decade or so, most of this growth in computing power has been “free” with increased...the scientific computing community as a means to continued growth in computing capability. This paper offers a glimpse of the hardware and

New Nonlinear Multigrid Analysis

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Xie, Dexuan

1996-01-01

The nonlinear multigrid is an efficient algorithm for solving the system of nonlinear equations arising from the numerical discretization of nonlinear elliptic boundary problems. In this paper, we present a new nonlinear multigrid analysis as an extension of the linear multigrid theory presented by Bramble. In particular, we prove the convergence of the nonlinear V-cycle method for a class of mildly nonlinear second order elliptic boundary value problems which do not have full elliptic regularity.

Intergenerational transmission of family meal patterns from adolescence to parenthood: longitudinal associations with parents' dietary intake, weight-related behaviours and psychosocial well-being.

PubMed

Berge, Jerica M; Miller, Jonathan; Watts, Allison; Larson, Nicole; Loth, Katie A; Neumark-Sztainer, Dianne

2018-02-01

The present study examined longitudinal associations between four family meal patterns (i.e. never had regular family meals, started having regular family meals, stopped having regular family meals, maintained having regular family meals) and young adult parents' dietary intake, weight-related behaviours and psychosocial well-being. In addition, family meal patterns of parents were compared with those of non-parents. Analysis of data from the longitudinal Project EAT (Eating and Activity in Adolescents and Young Adults) study. Linear and logistic regressions were used to examine the associations between family meal patterns and parents' dietary intake, weight-related behaviours and psychosocial well-being. School and in-home settings. At baseline (1998; EAT-I), adolescents (n 4746) from socio-economically and racially/ethnically diverse households completed a survey and anthropometric measurements at school. At follow-up (2015; EAT-IV), participants who were parents (n 726) and who were non-parents with significant others (n 618) completed an online survey. Young adult parents who reported having regular family meals as an adolescent and as a parent ('maintainers'), or who started having regular family meals with their own families ('starters'), reported more healthful dietary, weight-related and psychosocial outcomes compared with young adults who never reported having regular family meals ('nevers'; P<0·05). In addition, parents were more likely to be family meal starters than non-parents. Results suggest that mental and physical health benefits of having regular family meals may be realized as a parent whether the routine of regular family meals is carried forward from adolescence into parenthood, or if the routine is started in parenthood.

Automatic Aircraft Collision Avoidance System and Method

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Skoog, Mark (Inventor); Hook, Loyd (Inventor); McWherter, Shaun (Inventor); Willhite, Jaimie (Inventor)

2014-01-01

The invention is a system and method of compressing a DTM to be used in an Auto-GCAS system using a semi-regular geometric compression algorithm. In general, the invention operates by first selecting the boundaries of the three dimensional map to be compressed and dividing the three dimensional map data into regular areas. Next, a type of free-edged, flat geometric surface is selected which will be used to approximate terrain data of the three dimensional map data. The flat geometric surface is used to approximate terrain data for each regular area. The approximations are checked to determine if they fall within selected tolerances. If the approximation for a specific regular area is within specified tolerance, the data is saved for that specific regular area. If the approximation for a specific area falls outside the specified tolerances, the regular area is divided and a flat geometric surface approximation is made for each of the divided areas. This process is recursively repeated until all of the regular areas are approximated by flat geometric surfaces. Finally, the compressed three dimensional map data is provided to the automatic ground collision system for an aircraft.

EDITORIAL: The 18th European Workshop on Micromechanics (MME 07)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Correia, J. H.

2008-06-01

This special issue of Journal of Micromechanics and Microengineering is devoted to the 18th European Workshop on Micromechanics (MME 07), which took place at the University of Minho, Guimarães, Portugal from 16-18 September 2007. Since the first workshop at the University of Twente in 1989 the field of micromechanics has grown substantially and new fields have been added: optics, RF, biomedical, chemistry, and in recent years the emergence of nanotechnology. This year an extensive programme was scheduled with contributions from new materials research to new manufacturing techniques. In addition, the invited speakers presented a review of the state-of-the-art in several main trends in current research, with the focus on micro/nanosystems in the ICT Work Programme in EC FP7. As ever, the two day workshop was attended by delegates from all over Europe, the USA, Brazil, Egypt, Japan and Canada. A total of 96 papers were accepted for presentation and there were a further five keynote presentations. The workshop provides a forum for young researchers to learn about new experimental methods and to enhance their knowledge of the field. This special issue presents a selection of 17 of the best papers from the workshop. The papers highlight fluidic and optical devices, energy scavenging microsystems, neural probe arrays and microtechnology fabrication techniques. All the papers went through the regular reviewing procedure of IOP Publishing, and I am grateful to all the referees for their excellent work. I would also like to extend my thanks to Professor Robert Puers for advice on the final selection of papers and to Ian Forbes of IOP Publishing for managing the entire process. My thanks also go to the editorial staff of Journal of Micromechanics and Microengineering. I believe that this special issue will provide a good overview of the topics presented at the workshop and I hope you enjoy reading it.

Astronomy Courses which Emphasize Communication Skills

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dinerstein, H. L.

1998-12-01

The ability to communicate effectively, both in oral and written form, is crucial for success in almost any career path. Furthermore, being able to effectively communicate information requires a high level of conceptual mastery of the material. For these reasons, I have incorporated practice in communication into courses at a variety of levels, ranging from non-science-major undergraduate courses to graduate courses. I briefly describe the content of these courses, particularly the communication-related component. The first, Ast 309N, ``Astronomy Bizarre: Stars and Stellar Evolution," is an elective which follows one semester of general introductory astronomy for non-majors. Instead of homework problems, the students complete a sequence of writing assignments of graduated complexity, beginning with simple tasks such as writing abstracts and critiques of assigned readings, and moving on to writing term papers which require literature research and a short science fiction story incorporating accurate depictions of relativistic effects. In Ast 175/275, a ``Journal Club" course for upper-division astronomy majors, students read articles in the professional literature and give short oral presentations to the rest of the class. To build up their understanding of a topic, we work through the ``paper trail" of key papers on topics with exciting recent developments, such as extrasolar planets, gravitational lenses, or gamma-ray bursts. Finally, in a seminar course for first-semester astronomy graduate students (Ast 185C) that broadly addresses professional development issues, I include a practice AAS oral session, with the students giving 5-minute presentations on a journal paper of their choice. This seminar course also examines career paths and employment trends, the peer review process for papers and proposals, professional norms and ethics, and other topics. Syllabi for these and other courses I teach regularly can be found from my home page (http://www.as.utexas.edu/astronomy/people/dinerstein).

Homogeneity and EPR metrics for assessment of regular grids used in CW EPR powder simulations.

PubMed

Crăciun, Cora

2014-08-01

CW EPR powder spectra may be approximated numerically using a spherical grid and a Voronoi tessellation-based cubature. For a given spin system, the quality of simulated EPR spectra depends on the grid type, size, and orientation in the molecular frame. In previous work, the grids used in CW EPR powder simulations have been compared mainly from geometric perspective. However, some grids with similar homogeneity degree generate different quality simulated spectra. This paper evaluates the grids from EPR perspective, by defining two metrics depending on the spin system characteristics and the grid Voronoi tessellation. The first metric determines if the grid points are EPR-centred in their Voronoi cells, based on the resonance magnetic field variations inside these cells. The second metric verifies if the adjacent Voronoi cells of the tessellation are EPR-overlapping, by computing the common range of their resonance magnetic field intervals. Beside a series of well known regular grids, the paper investigates a modified ZCW grid and a Fibonacci spherical code, which are new in the context of EPR simulations. For the investigated grids, the EPR metrics bring more information than the homogeneity quantities and are better related to the grids' EPR behaviour, for different spin system symmetries. The metrics' efficiency and limits are finally verified for grids generated from the initial ones, by using the original or magnetic field-constraint variants of the Spherical Centroidal Voronoi Tessellation method. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

A Behavioral Study of Regularity, Irregularity and Rules in the English Past Tense

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Magen, Harriet S.

2014-01-01

Opposing views of storage and processing of morphologically complex words (e.g., past tense) have been suggested: the dual system, whereby regular forms are not in the lexicon but are generated by rule, while irregular forms are explicitly represented; the single system, whereby regular and irregular forms are computed by a single system, using…

Scalar field coupling to Einstein tensor in regular black hole spacetime

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, Chi; Wu, Chen

2018-02-01

In this paper, we study the perturbation property of a scalar field coupling to Einstein's tensor in the background of the regular black hole spacetimes. Our calculations show that the the coupling constant η imprints in the wave equation of a scalar perturbation. We calculated the quasinormal modes of scalar field coupling to Einstein's tensor in the regular black hole spacetimes by the 3rd order WKB method.

Mistrust of physicians in China: society, institution, and interaction as root causes.

PubMed

Chan, Cheris Shun-Ching

2018-03-01

Based on two years' ethnographic research on doctor-patient relations in urban China, this paper examines the causes of patients' mistrust of physicians. I identify the major factors at the societal, institutional, and interpersonal levels that lead to patients' mistrust of physicians. First, I set the context by describing the extent of mistrust at the societal level. Then, I investigate the institutional sources of mistrust. I argue that the financing mechanism of public hospitals and physicians' income structures are the most crucial factors in inducing patients' mistrust. Hospitals' heavy reliance on self-finance has basically caused public hospitals to run like private hospitals, resulting in blatant conflicts of interest between hospitals and patients. Related to this is physicians' reliance on bonuses and commissions as part of their regular incomes, which has inevitably resulted in overtreatment and, hence, mistrust from the patients. At the interpersonal level, I describe how individual physicians' attitudes toward and interaction with patients may also affect patients' sense of trust or mistrust in physicians. In conclusion, I discuss the ethical implications of the mistrust problem, and suggest changes at the institutional and interpersonal levels to mitigate the problem. © 2017 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Managing a closed-loop supply chain inventory system with learning effects

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jauhari, Wakhid Ahmad; Dwicahyani, Anindya Rachma; Hendaryani, Oktiviandri; Kurdhi, Nughthoh Arfawi

2018-02-01

In this paper, we propose a closed-loop supply chain model consisting of a retailer and a manufacturer. We intend to investigate the impact of learning in regular production, remanufacturing and reworking. The customer demand is assumed deterministic and will be satisfied from both regular production and remanufacturing process. The return rate of used items depends on quality. We propose a mathematical model with the objective is to maximize the joint total profit by simultaneously determining the length of ordering cycle for the retailer and the number of regular production and remanufacturing cycle. The algorithm is suggested for finding the optimal solution. A numerical example is presented to illustrate the application of using a proposed model. The results show that the integrated model performs better in reducing total cost compared to the independent model. The total cost is most affected by the changes in the values of unit production cost and acceptable quality level. In addition, the changes in the defective items proportion and the fraction of holding costs significantly influence the retailer's ordering period.

A Potential Proxy of the Second Integral of Motion (I2) in a Rotating Barred Potential

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shen, Juntai; Qin, Yujing

2017-06-01

The only analytically known integral of motion in a 2-D rotating barred potential is the Jacobi constant (EJ). In addition to EJ, regular orbits also obey a second integral of motion (I2) whose analytical form is unknown. We show that the time-averaged characteristics of angular momentum in a rotating bar potential resemble the behavior of the analytically-unknown I2. For a given EJ, regular orbits of various families follow a continuous sequence in the space of net angular momentum and its dispersion ("angular momentum space"). In the limiting case where regular orbits of the well-known x1/x4 orbital families dominate the phase space, the orbital sequence can be monotonically traced by a single parameter, namely the ratio of mean angular momentum to its dispersion. This ratio behaves well even in the 3-D case, and thus may be used as a proxy of I2. The potential proxy of I2 may be used as an efficient way to probe the phase space structure, and a convenient new scheme of orbit classification in addition to the frequency mapping technique.

The Thomsonian movement, the regular profession, and the state in antebellum Connecticut: a case study of the repeal of early medical licensing laws.

PubMed

Appel, Toby A

2010-04-01

The Thomsonian movement, founded by Samuel Thomson, was the first major challenge to the therapies and the social and economic standing of the orthodox medical profession in the United States. In the late-eighteenth or early-nineteenth century, many states chartered a state medical society with power to administer a licensing law that placed at least a nominal penalty on practicing without a license. However, in the 1830s and 1840s, under pressure by proponents of the Thomsonian system, almost all legislatures reversed themselves and removed all restrictions on medical practice. This paper reexamines the rise and fall of medical licensing using Connecticut as a case study. Antebellum legislative controversies over licensing have never been described in detail at the state level--where the drama took place--integrating the perspectives of both the medical regulars and Thomsonian botanical physicians, and state politics. Connecticut is a particularly useful case study because, except for New York, its seven-year battle from 1836 to 1842 over the medical society's charter was the most protracted in the country. How was the campaign structured? To what extent did the licensing restrictions matter? What role did the state-level Democratic party play? Thomsonianism in Connecticut, I suggest, was more professionalized and conservative than historians have often portrayed this movement. This account shows that the state's Thomsonian physicians were not anti-professional or opposed to education, but rather used the politics of the antebellum era to challenge the medical law and legitimize themselves as an alternative form of practice.

Constipation - what to ask your doctor

MedlinePlus

What to ask your doctor about constipation ... during the day? How long should I wait? What else can I do to train my body ... more regular bowel movements? How should I change what I eat to help with my constipation? What ...

Self-organization leads to supraoptimal performance in public transportation systems.

PubMed

Gershenson, Carlos

2011-01-01

The performance of public transportation systems affects a large part of the population. Current theory assumes that passengers are served optimally when vehicles arrive at stations with regular intervals. In this paper, it is shown that self-organization can improve the performance of public transportation systems beyond the theoretical optimum by responding adaptively to local conditions. This is possible because of a "slower-is-faster" effect, where passengers wait more time at stations but total travel times are reduced. The proposed self-organizing method uses "antipheromones" to regulate headways, which are inspired by the stigmergy (communication via environment) of some ant colonies.

GIS based solid waste management information system for Nagpur, India.

PubMed

Vijay, Ritesh; Jain, Preeti; Sharma, N; Bhattacharyya, J K; Vaidya, A N; Sohony, R A

2013-01-01

Solid waste management is one of the major problems of today's world and needs to be addressed by proper utilization of technologies and design of effective, flexible and structured information system. Therefore, the objective of this paper was to design and develop a GIS based solid waste management information system as a decision making and planning tool for regularities and municipal authorities. The system integrates geo-spatial features of the city and database of existing solid waste management. GIS based information system facilitates modules of visualization, query interface, statistical analysis, report generation and database modification. It also provides modules like solid waste estimation, collection, transportation and disposal details. The information system is user-friendly, standalone and platform independent.

Highly efficient biallelic genome editing of human ES/iPS cells using a CRISPR/Cas9 or TALEN system.

PubMed

Takayama, Kazuo; Igai, Keisuke; Hagihara, Yasuko; Hashimoto, Rina; Hanawa, Morifumi; Sakuma, Tetsushi; Tachibana, Masashi; Sakurai, Fuminori; Yamamoto, Takashi; Mizuguchi, Hiroyuki

2017-05-19

Genome editing research of human ES/iPS cells has been accelerated by clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats/CRISPR-associated 9 (CRISPR/Cas9) and transcription activator-like effector nucleases (TALEN) technologies. However, the efficiency of biallelic genetic engineering in transcriptionally inactive genes is still low, unlike that in transcriptionally active genes. To enhance the biallelic homologous recombination efficiency in human ES/iPS cells, we performed screenings of accessorial genes and compounds. We found that RAD51 overexpression and valproic acid treatment enhanced biallelic-targeting efficiency in human ES/iPS cells regardless of the transcriptional activity of the targeted locus. Importantly, RAD51 overexpression and valproic acid treatment synergistically increased the biallelic homologous recombination efficiency. Our findings would facilitate genome editing study using human ES/iPS cells. © The Author(s) 2017. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Nucleic Acids Research.

5 CFR 532.221 - Industries included in regular nonappropriated fund surveys.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-01-01

... 5 Administrative Personnel 1 2014-01-01 2014-01-01 false Industries included in regular... CIVIL SERVICE REGULATIONS PREVAILING RATE SYSTEMS Prevailing Rate Determinations § 532.221 Industries... American Industry Classification System (NAICS) codes in all regular nonappropriated fund wage surveys...

Topology of the distribution of zeros of the Husimi function in the LiNC/LiCN molecular system.

PubMed

Arranz, F J; Benito, R M; Borondo, F

2004-04-08

Phase space representations of quantum mechanics constitute useful tools to study vibrations in molecular systems. Among all possibilities, the Husimi function or coherent state representation is very widely used, its maxima indicating which regions of phase space are relevant in the dynamics of the system. The corresponding zeros are also a good indicator to investigate the characteristics of the eigenstates, and it has been shown how the corresponding distributions can discriminate between regular, irregular, and scarred wave functions. In this paper, we discuss how this result can be understood in terms of the overlap between coherent states and system eigenfunctions. (c) 2004 American Institute of Physics

Quasi-brittle damage modeling based on incremental energy relaxation combined with a viscous-type regularization

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Langenfeld, K.; Junker, P.; Mosler, J.

2018-05-01

This paper deals with a constitutive model suitable for the analysis of quasi-brittle damage in structures. The model is based on incremental energy relaxation combined with a viscous-type regularization. A similar approach—which also represents the inspiration for the improved model presented in this paper—was recently proposed in Junker et al. (Contin Mech Thermodyn 29(1):291-310, 2017). Within this work, the model introduced in Junker et al. (2017) is critically analyzed first. This analysis leads to an improved model which shows the same features as that in Junker et al. (2017), but which (i) eliminates unnecessary model parameters, (ii) can be better interpreted from a physics point of view, (iii) can capture a fully softened state (zero stresses), and (iv) is characterized by a very simple evolution equation. In contrast to the cited work, this evolution equation is (v) integrated fully implicitly and (vi) the resulting time-discrete evolution equation can be solved analytically providing a numerically efficient closed-form solution. It is shown that the final model is indeed well-posed (i.e., its tangent is positive definite). Explicit conditions guaranteeing this well-posedness are derived. Furthermore, by additively decomposing the stress rate into deformation- and purely time-dependent terms, the functionality of the model is explained. Illustrative numerical examples confirm the theoretical findings.

Coordinated and uncoordinated optimization of networks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Brede, Markus

2010-06-01

In this paper, we consider spatial networks that realize a balance between an infrastructure cost (the cost of wire needed to connect the network in space) and communication efficiency, measured by average shortest path length. A global optimization procedure yields network topologies in which this balance is optimized. These are compared with network topologies generated by a competitive process in which each node strives to optimize its own cost-communication balance. Three phases are observed in globally optimal configurations for different cost-communication trade offs: (i) regular small worlds, (ii) starlike networks, and (iii) trees with a center of interconnected hubs. In the latter regime, i.e., for very expensive wire, power laws in the link length distributions P(w)∝w-α are found, which can be explained by a hierarchical organization of the networks. In contrast, in the local optimization process the presence of sharp transitions between different network regimes depends on the dimension of the underlying space. Whereas for d=∞ sharp transitions between fully connected networks, regular small worlds, and highly cliquish periphery-core networks are found, for d=1 sharp transitions are absent and the power law behavior in the link length distribution persists over a much wider range of link cost parameters. The measured power law exponents are in agreement with the hypothesis that the locally optimized networks consist of multiple overlapping suboptimal hierarchical trees.

UTC Dissemination to the Real-Time User: The Role of USNO

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Miranian, Mihran

1996-01-01

Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) is available worldwide via the Global Positioning System (GPS). The UTC disseminated by GPS is referenced to the US Naval Observatory Master Clock UTC(USNO) which is regularly steered and maintained as close as possible to UTC Bureau International des Poids et Mesures (BIPM), the international time scale. This paper will describe the role of the USNO in monitoring the time disseminated by the GPS and the steps involved to ensure its accuracy to the user. The paper will also discuss the other sources of UTC(USNO) and the process by which UTC(USNO) is steered to UTC(BIPM).

Correction of Hirschsprung-Associated Mutations in Human Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells Via Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats/Cas9, Restores Neural Crest Cell Function.

PubMed

Lai, Frank Pui-Ling; Lau, Sin-Ting; Wong, John Kwong-Leong; Gui, Hongsheng; Wang, Reeson Xu; Zhou, Tingwen; Lai, Wing Hon; Tse, Hung-Fat; Tam, Paul Kwong-Hang; Garcia-Barcelo, Maria-Mercedes; Ngan, Elly Sau-Wai

2017-07-01

Hirschsprung disease is caused by failure of enteric neural crest cells (ENCCs) to fully colonize the bowel, leading to bowel obstruction and megacolon. Heterozygous mutations in the coding region of the RET gene cause a severe form of Hirschsprung disease (total colonic aganglionosis). However, 80% of HSCR patients have short-segment Hirschsprung disease (S-HSCR), which has not been associated with genetic factors. We sought to identify mutations associated with S-HSCR, and used the clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)/Cas9 gene editing system to determine how mutations affect ENCC function. We created induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) lines from 1 patient with total colonic aganglionosis (with the G731del mutation in RET) and from 2 patients with S-HSCR (without a RET mutation), as well as RET +/- and RET -/- iPSCs. IMR90-iPSC cells were used as the control cell line. Migration and differentiation capacities of iPSC-derived ENCCs were analyzed in differentiation and migration assays. We searched for mutation(s) associated with S-HSCR by combining genetic and transcriptome data from patient blood- and iPSC-derived ENCCs, respectively. Mutations in the iPSCs were corrected using the CRISPR/Cas9 system. ENCCs derived from all iPSC lines, but not control iPSCs, had defects in migration and neuronal lineage differentiation. RET mutations were associated with differentiation and migration defects of ENCCs in vitro. Genetic and transcriptome analyses associated a mutation in the vinculin gene (VCL M209L) with S-HSCR. CRISPR/Cas9 correction of the RET G731del and VCL M209L mutations in iPSCs restored the differentiation and migration capacities of ENCCs. We identified mutations in VCL associated with S-HSCR. Correction of this mutation in iPSC using CRISPR/Cas9 editing, as well as the RET G731del mutation that causes Hirschsprung disease with total colonic aganglionosis, restored ENCC function. Our study demonstrates how human iPSCs can be used to identify disease-associated mutations and determine how they affect cell functions and contribute to pathogenesis. Copyright © 2017 AGA Institute. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Regularity of center-of-pressure trajectories depends on the amount of attention invested in postural control

PubMed Central

Donker, Stella F.; Roerdink, Melvyn; Greven, An J.

2007-01-01

The influence of attention on the dynamical structure of postural sway was examined in 30 healthy young adults by manipulating the focus of attention. In line with the proposed direct relation between the amount of attention invested in postural control and regularity of center-of-pressure (COP) time series, we hypothesized that: (1) increasing cognitive involvement in postural control (i.e., creating an internal focus by increasing task difficulty through visual deprivation) increases COP regularity, and (2) withdrawing attention from postural control (i.e., creating an external focus by performing a cognitive dual task) decreases COP regularity. We quantified COP dynamics in terms of sample entropy (regularity), standard deviation (variability), sway-path length of the normalized posturogram (curviness), largest Lyapunov exponent (local stability), correlation dimension (dimensionality) and scaling exponent (scaling behavior). Consistent with hypothesis 1, standing with eyes closed significantly increased COP regularity. Furthermore, variability increased and local stability decreased, implying ineffective postural control. Conversely, and in line with hypothesis 2, performing a cognitive dual task while standing with eyes closed led to greater irregularity and smaller variability, suggesting an increase in the “efficiency, or “automaticity” of postural control”. In conclusion, these findings not only indicate that regularity of COP trajectories is positively related to the amount of attention invested in postural control, but also substantiate that in certain situations an increased internal focus may in fact be detrimental to postural control. PMID:17401553

A recurrence network approach to analyzing forced synchronization in hydrodynamic systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Murugesan, Meenatchidevi; Zhu, Yuanhang; Li, Larry K. B.

2016-11-01

Hydrodynamically self-excited systems can lock into external forcing, but their lock-in boundaries and the specific bifurcations through which they lock in can be difficult to detect. We propose using recurrence networks to analyze forced synchronization in a hydrodynamic system: a low-density jet. We find that as the jet bifurcates from periodicity (unforced) to quasiperiodicity (weak forcing) and then to lock-in (strong forcing), its recurrence network changes from a regular distribution of links between nodes (unforced) to a disordered topology (weak forcing) and then to a regular distribution again at lock-in (strong forcing). The emergence of order at lock-in can be either smooth or abrupt depending on the specific lock-in route taken. Furthermore, we find that before lock-in, the probability distribution of links in the network is a function of the characteristic scales of the system, which can be quantified with network measures and used to estimate the proximity to the lock-in boundaries. This study shows that recurrence networks can be used (i) to detect lock-in, (ii) to distinguish between different routes to lock-in, and (iii) as an early warning indicator of the proximity of a system to its lock-in boundaries. This work was supported by the Research Grants Council of Hong Kong (Project No. 16235716 and 26202815).

Tool development in threat assessment: syntax regularization and correlative analysis. Final report Task I and Task II, November 21, 1977-May 21, 1978. [Linguistic analysis

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

Miron, M.S.; Christopher, C.; Hirshfield, S.

1978-05-01

Psycholinguistics provides crisis managers in nuclear threat incidents with a quantitative methodology which can aid in the determination of threat credibility, authorship identification and perpetrator apprehension. The objective of this contract is to improve and enhance present psycholinguistic software systems by means of newly-developed, computer-automated techniques which significantly extend the technology of automated content and stylistic analysis of nuclear threat. In accordance with this overall objective, the first two contract Tasks have been completed and are reported on in this document. The first Task specifies the development of software support for the purpose of syntax regularization of vocabulary to rootmore » form. The second calls for the exploration and development of alternative approaches to correlative analysis of vocabulary usage.« less

Optical gyroscope with controllable dispersion in four wave mixing regime.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mikhailov, Eugeniy; Wolfe, Owen; Du, Shuangli; Rochester, Simon; Budker, Dmitry; Novikova, Irina

2016-05-01

We present our work towards realization of the fast-light gyroscope prototype, in which the sensitivity enhancement (compared to a regular laser gyroscopes) is achieved by adjusting the intra-cavity dispersion. We discuss schematics and underlying nonlinear effects leading to the negative dispersion in Rb vapor: level structure, optically addressed transitions, and configuration of the resonant cavity. We investigate dependence of the pulling factor (i.e., the ratio of the lasing frequency shift with the change of the cavity length to the equivalent resonance frequency shift in the empty cavity) on pump lasers detunings, power, and density of the atomic vapor. The observation of the pulling factor exceeding unity implies the gyroscope sensitivity improvement over the regular system This work is supported by Naval Air Warfare Center STTR program N68335-11-C-0428.

Range-Separated Brueckner Coupled Cluster Doubles Theory

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shepherd, James J.; Henderson, Thomas M.; Scuseria, Gustavo E.

2014-04-01

We introduce a range-separation approximation to coupled cluster doubles (CCD) theory that successfully overcomes limitations of regular CCD when applied to the uniform electron gas. We combine the short-range ladder channel with the long-range ring channel in the presence of a Bruckner renormalized one-body interaction and obtain ground-state energies with an accuracy of 0.001 a.u./electron across a wide range of density regimes. Our scheme is particularly useful in the low-density and strongly correlated regimes, where regular CCD has serious drawbacks. Moreover, we cure the infamous overcorrelation of approaches based on ring diagrams (i.e., the particle-hole random phase approximation). Our energies are further shown to have appropriate basis set and thermodynamic limit convergence, and overall this scheme promises energetic properties for realistic periodic and extended systems which existing methods do not possess.

Sugar-sweetened beverage consumption among adults -- 18 states, 2012.

PubMed

Kumar, Gayathri S; Pan, Liping; Park, Sohyun; Lee-Kwan, Seung Hee; Onufrak, Stephen; Blanck, Heidi M

2014-08-15

Reducing consumption of calories from added sugars is a recommendation of the 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans and an objective of Healthy People 2020. Sugar-sweetened beverages (SSB) are major sources of added sugars in the diets of U.S. residents. Daily SSB consumption is associated with obesity and other chronic health conditions, including diabetes and cardiovascular disease. U.S. adults consumed an estimated average of 151 kcal/day of SSB during 2009-2010, with regular (i.e., nondiet) soda and fruit drinks representing the leading sources of SSB energy intake. However, there is limited information on state-specific prevalence of SSB consumption. To assess regular soda and fruit drink consumption among adults in 18 states, CDC analyzed data from the 2012 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS). Among the 18 states surveyed, 26.3% of adults consumed regular soda or fruit drinks or both ≥1 times daily. By state, the prevalence ranged from 20.4% to 41.4%. Overall, consumption of regular soda or fruit drinks was most common among persons aged 18‒34 years (24.5% for regular soda and 16.6% for fruit drinks), men (21.0% and 12.3%), non-Hispanic blacks (20.9% and 21.9%), and Hispanics (22.6% and 18.5%). Persons who want to reduce added sugars in their diets can decrease their consumption of foods high in added sugars such as candy, certain dairy and grain desserts, sweetened cereals, regular soda, fruit drinks, sweetened tea and coffee drinks, and other SSBs. States and health departments can collaborate with worksites and other community venues to increase access to water and other healthful beverages.

Towards pervasive computing in health care - a literature review.

PubMed

Orwat, Carsten; Graefe, Andreas; Faulwasser, Timm

2008-06-19

The evolving concepts of pervasive computing, ubiquitous computing and ambient intelligence are increasingly influencing health care and medicine. Summarizing published research, this literature review provides an overview of recent developments and implementations of pervasive computing systems in health care. It also highlights some of the experiences reported in deployment processes. There is no clear definition of pervasive computing in the current literature. Thus specific inclusion criteria for selecting articles about relevant systems were developed. Searches were conducted in four scientific databases alongside manual journal searches for the period of 2002 to 2006. Articles included present prototypes, case studies and pilot studies, clinical trials and systems that are already in routine use. The searches identified 69 articles describing 67 different systems. In a quantitative analysis, these systems were categorized into project status, health care settings, user groups, improvement aims, and systems features (i.e., component types, data gathering, data transmission, systems functions). The focus is on the types of systems implemented, their frequency of occurrence and their characteristics. Qualitative analyses were performed of deployment issues, such as organizational and personnel issues, privacy and security issues, and financial issues. This paper provides a comprehensive access to the literature of the emerging field by addressing specific topics of application settings, systems features, and deployment experiences. Both an overview and an analysis of the literature on a broad and heterogeneous range of systems are provided. Most systems are described in their prototype stages. Deployment issues, such as implications on organization or personnel, privacy concerns, or financial issues are mentioned rarely, though their solution is regarded as decisive in transferring promising systems to a stage of regular operation. There is a need for further research on the deployment of pervasive computing systems, including clinical studies, economic and social analyses, user studies, etc.

A Complex of Cas Proteins 5, 6, and 7 Is Required for the Biogenesis and Stability of Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats (CRISPR)-derived RNAs (crRNAs) in Haloferax volcanii*

PubMed Central

Brendel, Jutta; Stoll, Britta; Lange, Sita J.; Sharma, Kundan; Lenz, Christof; Stachler, Aris-Edda; Maier, Lisa-Katharina; Richter, Hagen; Nickel, Lisa; Schmitz, Ruth A.; Randau, Lennart; Allers, Thorsten; Urlaub, Henning; Backofen, Rolf; Marchfelder, Anita

2014-01-01

The clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats/CRISPR-associated (CRISPR-Cas) system is a prokaryotic defense mechanism against foreign genetic elements. A plethora of CRISPR-Cas versions exist, with more than 40 different Cas protein families and several different molecular approaches to fight the invading DNA. One of the key players in the system is the CRISPR-derived RNA (crRNA), which directs the invader-degrading Cas protein complex to the invader. The CRISPR-Cas types I and III use the Cas6 protein to generate mature crRNAs. Here, we show that the Cas6 protein is necessary for crRNA production but that additional Cas proteins that form a CRISPR-associated complex for antiviral defense (Cascade)-like complex are needed for crRNA stability in the CRISPR-Cas type I-B system in Haloferax volcanii in vivo. Deletion of the cas6 gene results in the loss of mature crRNAs and interference. However, cells that have the complete cas gene cluster (cas1–8b) removed and are transformed with the cas6 gene are not able to produce and stably maintain mature crRNAs. crRNA production and stability is rescued only if cas5, -6, and -7 are present. Mutational analysis of the cas6 gene reveals three amino acids (His-41, Gly-256, and Gly-258) that are essential for pre-crRNA cleavage, whereas the mutation of two amino acids (Ser-115 and Ser-224) leads to an increase of crRNA amounts. This is the first systematic in vivo analysis of Cas6 protein variants. In addition, we show that the H. volcanii I-B system contains a Cascade-like complex with a Cas7, Cas5, and Cas6 core that protects the crRNA. PMID:24459147

A complex of Cas proteins 5, 6, and 7 is required for the biogenesis and stability of clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (crispr)-derived rnas (crrnas) in Haloferax volcanii.

PubMed

Brendel, Jutta; Stoll, Britta; Lange, Sita J; Sharma, Kundan; Lenz, Christof; Stachler, Aris-Edda; Maier, Lisa-Katharina; Richter, Hagen; Nickel, Lisa; Schmitz, Ruth A; Randau, Lennart; Allers, Thorsten; Urlaub, Henning; Backofen, Rolf; Marchfelder, Anita

2014-03-07

The clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats/CRISPR-associated (CRISPR-Cas) system is a prokaryotic defense mechanism against foreign genetic elements. A plethora of CRISPR-Cas versions exist, with more than 40 different Cas protein families and several different molecular approaches to fight the invading DNA. One of the key players in the system is the CRISPR-derived RNA (crRNA), which directs the invader-degrading Cas protein complex to the invader. The CRISPR-Cas types I and III use the Cas6 protein to generate mature crRNAs. Here, we show that the Cas6 protein is necessary for crRNA production but that additional Cas proteins that form a CRISPR-associated complex for antiviral defense (Cascade)-like complex are needed for crRNA stability in the CRISPR-Cas type I-B system in Haloferax volcanii in vivo. Deletion of the cas6 gene results in the loss of mature crRNAs and interference. However, cells that have the complete cas gene cluster (cas1-8b) removed and are transformed with the cas6 gene are not able to produce and stably maintain mature crRNAs. crRNA production and stability is rescued only if cas5, -6, and -7 are present. Mutational analysis of the cas6 gene reveals three amino acids (His-41, Gly-256, and Gly-258) that are essential for pre-crRNA cleavage, whereas the mutation of two amino acids (Ser-115 and Ser-224) leads to an increase of crRNA amounts. This is the first systematic in vivo analysis of Cas6 protein variants. In addition, we show that the H. volcanii I-B system contains a Cascade-like complex with a Cas7, Cas5, and Cas6 core that protects the crRNA.

Pruning-Based, Energy-Optimal, Deterministic I/O Device Scheduling for Hard Real-Time Systems

DTIC Science & Technology

2005-02-01

However, DPM via I/O device scheduling for hard real - time systems has received relatively little attention. In this paper,we present an offline I/O...polynomial time. We present experimental results to show that EDS and MDO reduce the energy consumption of I/O devices significantly for hard real - time systems .

Design and Implementation of C-iLearning: A Cloud-Based Intelligent Learning System

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Xiao, Jun; Wang, Minjuan; Wang, Lamei; Zhu, Xiaoxiao

2013-01-01

The gradual development of intelligent learning (iLearning) systems has prompted the changes of teaching and learning. This paper presents the architecture of an intelligent learning (iLearning) system built upon the recursive iLearning model and the key technologies associated with this model. Based on this model and the technical structure of a…

Chaotic and regular instantons in helical shell models of turbulence

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

De Pietro, Massimo; Mailybaev, Alexei A.; Biferale, Luca

2017-03-01

Shell models of turbulence have a finite-time blowup in the inviscid limit, i.e., the enstrophy diverges while the single-shell velocities stay finite. The signature of this blowup is represented by self-similar instantonic structures traveling coherently through the inertial range. These solutions might influence the energy transfer and the anomalous scaling properties empirically observed for the forced and viscous models. In this paper we present a study of the instantonic solutions for a set of four shell models of turbulence based on the exact decomposition of the Navier-Stokes equations in helical eigenstates. We find that depending on the helical structure of each model, instantons are chaotic or regular. Some instantonic solutions tend to recover mirror symmetry for scales small enough. Models that have anomalous scaling develop regular nonchaotic instantons. Conversely, models that have nonanomalous scaling in the stationary regime are those that have chaotic instantons. The direction of the energy carried by each single instanton tends to coincide with the direction of the energy cascade in the stationary regime. Finally, we find that whenever the small-scale stationary statistics is intermittent, the instanton is less steep than the dimensional Kolmogorov scaling, independently of whether or not it is chaotic. Our findings further support the idea that instantons might be crucial to describe some aspects of the multiscale anomalous statistics of shell models.

Solving the hypersingular boundary integral equation for the Burton and Miller formulation.

PubMed

Langrenne, Christophe; Garcia, Alexandre; Bonnet, Marc

2015-11-01

This paper presents an easy numerical implementation of the Burton and Miller (BM) formulation, where the hypersingular Helmholtz integral is regularized by identities from the associated Laplace equation and thus needing only the evaluation of weakly singular integrals. The Helmholtz equation and its normal derivative are combined directly with combinations at edge or corner collocation nodes not used when the surface is not smooth. The hypersingular operators arising in this process are regularized and then evaluated by an indirect procedure based on discretized versions of the Calderón identities linking the integral operators for associated Laplace problems. The method is valid for acoustic radiation and scattering problems involving arbitrarily shaped three-dimensional bodies. Unlike other approaches using direct evaluation of hypersingular integrals, collocation points still coincide with mesh nodes, as is usual when using conforming elements. Using higher-order shape functions (with the boundary element method model size kept fixed) reduces the overall numerical integration effort while increasing the solution accuracy. To reduce the condition number of the resulting BM formulation at low frequencies, a regularized version α = ik/(k(2 )+ λ) of the classical BM coupling factor α = i/k is proposed. Comparisons with the combined Helmholtz integral equation Formulation method of Schenck are made for four example configurations, two of them featuring non-smooth surfaces.

Application of laser-induced autofluorescence spectra detection in human colorectal cancer screening

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fu, Sheng; Chia, Teck-Chee; Kwek, Leong Chuan; Diong, Cheong Hoong; Tang, Choong Leong; Choen, Francis S.; Krishnan, S. M.

2003-10-01

We investigated 48 normal patients and 25 diseased patients using our laser-induced autofluorescence spectra detection system during their regular colonoscopy. The colon and rectum mucosa autofluorescence were excited by 405 nm continue wavelength laser. We observed that cancer or diseased colorectal mucosa, their autofluorescence spectra are significantly different from normal area. The autofluorescence spectra intensity at about 500 nm was been used for our intensity ratio characteristics intensity for our diagnostic algorithm. The intensity ratios of RI-680/I-500 and RI-630/I-500 were performed to identify the detection area. From experimental result we concluded that both intensity ratios of RI-680/I-500 and RI-630/I-500 as guidelines can detect cancerous and polyps disease completely. Our investigation provided some useful insight for laser induced autofluorescence spectra as a diagnosis technique for clinical application.

Quantum supergravity, supergravity anomalies and string phenomenology

DOE PAGES

Gaillard, Mary K.

2016-03-15

I discuss the role of quantum effects in the phenomenology of effective supergravity theories from compactification of the weakly coupled heterotic string. An accurate incorporation of these effects requires a regularization procedure that respects local supersymmetry and BRST invariance and that retains information associated with the cut-off scale, which has physical meaning in an effective theory. I briefly outline the Pauli–Villars regularization procedure, describe some applications, and comment on what remains to be done to fully define the effective quantum field theory.

Increasing CAD system efficacy for lung texture analysis using a convolutional network

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tarando, Sebastian Roberto; Fetita, Catalin; Faccinetto, Alex; Brillet, Pierre-Yves

2016-03-01

The infiltrative lung diseases are a class of irreversible, non-neoplastic lung pathologies requiring regular follow-up with CT imaging. Quantifying the evolution of the patient status imposes the development of automated classification tools for lung texture. For the large majority of CAD systems, such classification relies on a two-dimensional analysis of axial CT images. In a previously developed CAD system, we proposed a fully-3D approach exploiting a multi-scale morphological analysis which showed good performance in detecting diseased areas, but with a major drawback consisting of sometimes overestimating the pathological areas and mixing different type of lung patterns. This paper proposes a combination of the existing CAD system with the classification outcome provided by a convolutional network, specifically tuned-up, in order to increase the specificity of the classification and the confidence to diagnosis. The advantage of using a deep learning approach is a better regularization of the classification output (because of a deeper insight into a given pathological class over a large series of samples) where the previous system is extra-sensitive due to the multi-scale response on patient-specific, localized patterns. In a preliminary evaluation, the combined approach was tested on a 10 patient database of various lung pathologies, showing a sharp increase of true detections.

The effect of regularization in motion compensated PET image reconstruction: a realistic numerical 4D simulation study.

PubMed

Tsoumpas, C; Polycarpou, I; Thielemans, K; Buerger, C; King, A P; Schaeffter, T; Marsden, P K

2013-03-21

Following continuous improvement in PET spatial resolution, respiratory motion correction has become an important task. Two of the most common approaches that utilize all detected PET events to motion-correct PET data are the reconstruct-transform-average method (RTA) and motion-compensated image reconstruction (MCIR). In RTA, separate images are reconstructed for each respiratory frame, subsequently transformed to one reference frame and finally averaged to produce a motion-corrected image. In MCIR, the projection data from all frames are reconstructed by including motion information in the system matrix so that a motion-corrected image is reconstructed directly. Previous theoretical analyses have explained why MCIR is expected to outperform RTA. It has been suggested that MCIR creates less noise than RTA because the images for each separate respiratory frame will be severely affected by noise. However, recent investigations have shown that in the unregularized case RTA images can have fewer noise artefacts, while MCIR images are more quantitatively accurate but have the common salt-and-pepper noise. In this paper, we perform a realistic numerical 4D simulation study to compare the advantages gained by including regularization within reconstruction for RTA and MCIR, in particular using the median-root-prior incorporated in the ordered subsets maximum a posteriori one-step-late algorithm. In this investigation we have demonstrated that MCIR with proper regularization parameters reconstructs lesions with less bias and root mean square error and similar CNR and standard deviation to regularized RTA. This finding is reproducible for a variety of noise levels (25, 50, 100 million counts), lesion sizes (8 mm, 14 mm diameter) and iterations. Nevertheless, regularized RTA can also be a practical solution for motion compensation as a proper level of regularization reduces both bias and mean square error.

20 CFR 216.16 - What is regular non-railroad employment.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-04-01

... 20 Employees' Benefits 1 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false What is regular non-railroad employment. 216.16 Section 216.16 Employees' Benefits RAILROAD RETIREMENT BOARD REGULATIONS UNDER THE RAILROAD... the United States Government: (i) Department of Transportation; (ii) Interstate Commerce Commission...

Existence, regularity, and concentration phenomenon of nontrivial solitary waves for a class of generalized variable coefficient Kadomtsev-Petviashvili equation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Alves, Claudianor O.; Miyagaki, Olímpio H.

2017-08-01

In this paper, we establish some results concerning the existence, regularity, and concentration phenomenon of nontrivial solitary waves for a class of generalized variable coefficient Kadomtsev-Petviashvili equation. Variational methods are used to get an existence result, as well as, to study the concentration phenomenon, while the regularity is more delicate because we are leading with functions in an anisotropic Sobolev space.

Iterative Nonlocal Total Variation Regularization Method for Image Restoration

PubMed Central

Xu, Huanyu; Sun, Quansen; Luo, Nan; Cao, Guo; Xia, Deshen

2013-01-01

In this paper, a Bregman iteration based total variation image restoration algorithm is proposed. Based on the Bregman iteration, the algorithm splits the original total variation problem into sub-problems that are easy to solve. Moreover, non-local regularization is introduced into the proposed algorithm, and a method to choose the non-local filter parameter locally and adaptively is proposed. Experiment results show that the proposed algorithms outperform some other regularization methods. PMID:23776560

Disabling a Type I-E CRISPR-Cas Nuclease with a Bacteriophage-Encoded Anti-CRISPR Protein.

PubMed

Pawluk, April; Shah, Megha; Mejdani, Marios; Calmettes, Charles; Moraes, Trevor F; Davidson, Alan R; Maxwell, Karen L

2017-12-12

CRISPR (clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeat)-Cas adaptive immune systems are prevalent defense mechanisms in bacteria and archaea. They provide sequence-specific detection and neutralization of foreign nucleic acids such as bacteriophages and plasmids. One mechanism by which phages and other mobile genetic elements are able to overcome the CRISPR-Cas system is through the expression of anti-CRISPR proteins. Over 20 different families of anti-CRISPR proteins have been described, each of which inhibits a particular type of CRISPR-Cas system. In this work, we determined the structure of type I-E anti-CRISPR protein AcrE1 by X-ray crystallography. We show that AcrE1 binds to the CRISPR-associated helicase/nuclease Cas3 and that the C-terminal region of the anti-CRISPR protein is important for its inhibitory activity. We further show that AcrE1 can convert the endogenous type I-E CRISPR system into a programmable transcriptional repressor. IMPORTANCE The CRISPR-Cas immune system provides bacteria with resistance to invasion by potentially harmful viruses, plasmids, and other foreign mobile genetic elements. This study presents the first structural and mechanistic insight into a phage-encoded protein that inactivates the type I-E CRISPR-Cas system in Pseudomonas aeruginosa The interaction of this anti-CRISPR protein with the CRISPR-associated helicase/nuclease proteins Cas3 shuts down the CRISPR-Cas system and protects phages carrying this gene from destruction. This interaction also allows the repurposing of the endogenous type I-E CRISPR system into a programmable transcriptional repressor, providing a new biotechnological tool for genetic studies of bacteria encoding this type I-E CRISPR-Cas system. Copyright © 2017 Pawluk et al.

Quantifying non-linear dynamics of mass-springs in series oscillators via asymptotic approach

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Starosta, Roman; Sypniewska-Kamińska, Grażyna; Awrejcewicz, Jan

2017-05-01

Dynamical regular response of an oscillator with two serially connected springs with nonlinear characteristics of cubic type and governed by a set of differential-algebraic equations (DAEs) is studied. The classical approach of the multiple scales method (MSM) in time domain has been employed and appropriately modified to solve the governing DAEs of two systems, i.e. with one- and two degrees-of-freedom. The approximate analytical solutions have been verified by numerical simulations.

Comparing a paper based monitoring and evaluation system to a mHealth system to support the national community health worker programme, South Africa: an evaluation

PubMed Central

2014-01-01

Background In an attempt to address a complex disease burden, including improving progress towards MDGs 4 and 5, South Africa recently introduced a re-engineered Primary Health Care (PHC) strategy, which has led to the development of a national community health worker (CHW) programme. The present study explored the development of a cell phone-based and paper-based monitoring and evaluation (M&E) system to support the work of the CHWs. Methods One sub-district in the North West province was identified for the evaluation. One outreach team comprising ten CHWs maintained both the paper forms and mHealth system to record household data on community-based services. A comparative analysis was done to calculate the correspondence between the paper and phone records. A focus group discussion was conducted with the CHWs. Clinical referrals, data accuracy and supervised visits were compared and analysed for the paper and phone systems. Results Compared to the mHealth system where data accuracy was assured, 40% of the CHWs showed a consistently high level (>90% correspondence) of data transfer accuracy on paper. Overall, there was an improvement over time, and by the fifth month, all CHWs achieved a correspondence of 90% or above between phone and paper data. The most common error that occurred was summing the total number of visits and/or activities across the five household activity indicators. Few supervised home visits were recorded in either system and there was no evidence of the team leader following up on the automatic notifications received on their cell phones. Conclusions The evaluation emphasizes the need for regular supervision for both systems and rigorous and ongoing assessments of data quality for the paper system. Formalization of a mHealth M&E system for PHC outreach teams delivering community based services could offer greater accuracy of M&E and enhance supervision systems for CHWs. PMID:25106499

Hardware/Software Data Acquisition System for Real Time Cell Temperature Monitoring in Air-Cooled Polymer Electrolyte Fuel Cells

PubMed Central

Bartolucci, Veronica

2017-01-01

This work presents a hardware/software data acquisition system developed for monitoring the temperature in real time of the cells in Air-Cooled Polymer Electrolyte Fuel Cells (AC-PEFC). These fuel cells are of great interest because they can carry out, in a single operation, the processes of oxidation and refrigeration. This allows reduction of weight, volume, cost and complexity of the control system in the AC-PEFC. In this type of PEFC (and in general in any PEFC), the reliable monitoring of temperature along the entire surface of the stack is fundamental, since a suitable temperature and a regular distribution thereof, are key for a better performance of the stack and a longer lifetime under the best operating conditions. The developed data acquisition (DAQ) system can perform non-intrusive temperature measurements of each individual cell of an AC-PEFC stack of any power (from watts to kilowatts). The stack power is related to the temperature gradient; i.e., a higher power corresponds to a higher stack surface, and consequently higher temperature difference between the coldest and the hottest point. The developed DAQ system has been implemented with the low-cost open-source platform Arduino, and it is completed with a modular virtual instrument that has been developed using NI LabVIEW. Temperature vs time evolution of all the cells of an AC-PEFC both together and individually can be registered and supervised. The paper explains comprehensively the developed DAQ system together with experimental results that demonstrate the suitability of the system. PMID:28698497

Hardware/Software Data Acquisition System for Real Time Cell Temperature Monitoring in Air-Cooled Polymer Electrolyte Fuel Cells.

PubMed

Segura, Francisca; Bartolucci, Veronica; Andújar, José Manuel

2017-07-09

This work presents a hardware/software data acquisition system developed for monitoring the temperature in real time of the cells in Air-Cooled Polymer Electrolyte Fuel Cells (AC-PEFC). These fuel cells are of great interest because they can carry out, in a single operation, the processes of oxidation and refrigeration. This allows reduction of weight, volume, cost and complexity of the control system in the AC-PEFC. In this type of PEFC (and in general in any PEFC), the reliable monitoring of temperature along the entire surface of the stack is fundamental, since a suitable temperature and a regular distribution thereof, are key for a better performance of the stack and a longer lifetime under the best operating conditions. The developed data acquisition (DAQ) system can perform non-intrusive temperature measurements of each individual cell of an AC-PEFC stack of any power (from watts to kilowatts). The stack power is related to the temperature gradient; i.e., a higher power corresponds to a higher stack surface, and consequently higher temperature difference between the coldest and the hottest point. The developed DAQ system has been implemented with the low-cost open-source platform Arduino, and it is completed with a modular virtual instrument that has been developed using NI LabVIEW. Temperature vs time evolution of all the cells of an AC-PEFC both together and individually can be registered and supervised. The paper explains comprehensively the developed DAQ system together with experimental results that demonstrate the suitability of the system.

A Hybrid Indoor Localization and Navigation System with Map Matching for Pedestrians Using Smartphones.

PubMed

Tian, Qinglin; Salcic, Zoran; Wang, Kevin I-Kai; Pan, Yun

2015-12-05

Pedestrian dead reckoning is a common technique applied in indoor inertial navigation systems that is able to provide accurate tracking performance within short distances. Sensor drift is the main bottleneck in extending the system to long-distance and long-term tracking. In this paper, a hybrid system integrating traditional pedestrian dead reckoning based on the use of inertial measurement units, short-range radio frequency systems and particle filter map matching is proposed. The system is a drift-free pedestrian navigation system where position error and sensor drift is regularly corrected and is able to provide long-term accurate and reliable tracking. Moreover, the whole system is implemented on a commercial off-the-shelf smartphone and achieves real-time positioning and tracking performance with satisfactory accuracy.

A regularity result for fixed points, with applications to linear response

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sedro, Julien

2018-04-01

In this paper, we show a series of abstract results on fixed point regularity with respect to a parameter. They are based on a Taylor development taking into account a loss of regularity phenomenon, typically occurring for composition operators acting on spaces of functions with finite regularity. We generalize this approach to higher order differentiability, through the notion of an n-graded family. We then give applications to the fixed point of a nonlinear map, and to linear response in the context of (uniformly) expanding dynamics (theorem 3 and corollary 2), in the spirit of Gouëzel-Liverani.

Catalytic micromotor generating self-propelled regular motion through random fluctuation.

PubMed

Yamamoto, Daigo; Mukai, Atsushi; Okita, Naoaki; Yoshikawa, Kenichi; Shioi, Akihisa

2013-07-21

Most of the current studies on nano∕microscale motors to generate regular motion have adapted the strategy to fabricate a composite with different materials. In this paper, we report that a simple object solely made of platinum generates regular motion driven by a catalytic chemical reaction with hydrogen peroxide. Depending on the morphological symmetry of the catalytic particles, a rich variety of random and regular motions are observed. The experimental trend is well reproduced by a simple theoretical model by taking into account of the anisotropic viscous effect on the self-propelled active Brownian fluctuation.

Catalytic micromotor generating self-propelled regular motion through random fluctuation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yamamoto, Daigo; Mukai, Atsushi; Okita, Naoaki; Yoshikawa, Kenichi; Shioi, Akihisa

2013-07-01

Most of the current studies on nano/microscale motors to generate regular motion have adapted the strategy to fabricate a composite with different materials. In this paper, we report that a simple object solely made of platinum generates regular motion driven by a catalytic chemical reaction with hydrogen peroxide. Depending on the morphological symmetry of the catalytic particles, a rich variety of random and regular motions are observed. The experimental trend is well reproduced by a simple theoretical model by taking into account of the anisotropic viscous effect on the self-propelled active Brownian fluctuation.

SU-G-BRA-11: Tumor Tracking in An Iterative Volume of Interest Based 4D CBCT Reconstruction

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

Martin, R; Pan, T; Ahmad, M

2016-06-15

Purpose: 4D CBCT can allow evaluation of tumor motion immediately prior to radiation therapy, but suffers from heavy artifacts that limit its ability to track tumors. Various iterative and compressed sensing reconstructions have been proposed to reduce these artifacts, but are costly time-wise and can degrade the image quality of bony anatomy for alignment with regularization. We have previously proposed an iterative volume of interest (I4D VOI) method which minimizes reconstruction time and maintains image quality of bony anatomy by focusing a 4D reconstruction within a VOI. The purpose of this study is to test the tumor tracking accuracy ofmore » this method compared to existing methods. Methods: Long scan (8–10 mins) CBCT data with corresponding RPM data was collected for 12 lung cancer patients. The full data set was sorted into 8 phases and reconstructed using FDK cone beam reconstruction to serve as a gold standard. The data was reduced in way that maintains a normal breathing pattern and used to reconstruct 4D images using FDK, low and high regularization TV minimization (λ=2,10), and the proposed I4D VOI method with PTVs used for the VOI. Tumor trajectories were found using rigid registration within the VOI for each reconstruction and compared to the gold standard. Results: The root mean square error (RMSE) values were 2.70mm for FDK, 2.50mm for low regularization TV, 1.48mm for high regularization TV, and 2.34mm for I4D VOI. Streak artifacts in I4D VOI were reduced compared to FDK and images were less blurred than TV reconstructed images. Conclusion: I4D VOI performed at least as well as existing methods in tumor tracking, with the exception of high regularization TV minimization. These results along with the reconstruction time and outside VOI image quality advantages suggest I4D VOI to be an improvement over existing methods. Funding support provided by CPRIT grant RP110562-P2-01.« less

Saturn's icy satellites investigated by Cassini-VIMS. II. Results at the end of nominal mission

USGS Publications Warehouse

Filacchione, G.; Capaccioni, F.; Clark, R.N.; Cuzzi, J.N.; Cruikshank, D.P.; Coradini, A.; Cerroni, P.; Nicholson, P.D.; McCord, T.B.; Brown, R.H.; Buratti, B.J.; Tosi, F.; Nelson, R.M.; Jaumann, R.; Stephan, K.

2010-01-01

We report the detailed analysis of the spectrophotometric properties of Saturn's icy satellites as derived by full-disk observations obtained by visual and infrared mapping spectrometer (VIMS) experiment aboard Cassini. In this paper, we have extended the coverage until the end of the Cassini's nominal mission (June 1st 2008), while a previous paper (Filacchione, G., and 28 colleagues [2007]. Icarus 186, 259-290, hereby referred to as Paper I) reported the preliminary results of this study. During the four years of nominal mission, VIMS has observed the entire population of Saturn's icy satellites allowing us to make a comparative analysis of the VIS-NIR spectral properties of the major satellites (Mimas, Enceladus, Tethys, Dione, Rhea, Hyperion, Iapetus) and irregular moons (Atlas, Prometheus, Pandora, Janus, Epimetheus, Telesto, Calypso, Phoebe). The results we discuss here are derived from the entire dataset available at June 2008 which consists of 1417 full-disk observations acquired from a variety of distances and inclinations from the equatorial plane, with different phase angles and hemispheric coverage. The most important spectrophotometric indicators (as defined in Paper I: I/F continua at 0.55 ??m, 1.822 ??m and 3.547 ??m, visible spectral slopes, water and carbon dioxide bands depths and positions) are calculated for each observation in order to investigate the disk-integrated composition of the satellites, the distribution of water ice respect to "contaminants" abundances and typical regolith grain properties. These quantities vary from the almost pure water ice surfaces of Enceladus and Calypso to the organic and carbon dioxide rich Hyperion, Iapetus and Phoebe. Janus visible colors are intermediate between these two classes having a slightly positive spectral slope. These results could help to decipher the origins and evolutionary history of the minor moons of the Saturn's system. We introduce a polar representation of the spectrophotometric parameters as function of the solar phase angle (along radial distance) and of the effective longitude interval illuminated by the Sun and covered by VIMS during the observation (in azimuth) to better investigate the spatial distribution of the spectrophotometric quantities across the regular satellites hemispheres. Finally, we report the observed spectral positions of the 4.26 ??m band of the carbon dioxide present in the surface material of three outermost moons Hyperion, Iapetus and Phoebe. ?? 2009 Elsevier Inc.

Global Static Indexing for Real-Time Exploration of Very Large Regular Grids

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

Pascucci, V; Frank, R

2001-07-23

In this paper we introduce a new indexing scheme for progressive traversal and visualization of large regular grids. We demonstrate the potential of our approach by providing a tool that displays at interactive rates planar slices of scalar field data with very modest computing resources. We obtain unprecedented results both in terms of absolute performance and, more importantly, in terms of scalability. On a laptop computer we provide real time interaction with a 2048{sup 3} grid (8 Giga-nodes) using only 20MB of memory. On an SGI Onyx we slice interactively an 8192{sup 3} grid (1/2 tera-nodes) using only 60MB ofmore » memory. The scheme relies simply on the determination of an appropriate reordering of the rectilinear grid data and a progressive construction of the output slice. The reordering minimizes the amount of I/O performed during the out-of-core computation. The progressive and asynchronous computation of the output provides flexible quality/speed tradeoffs and a time-critical and interruptible user interface.« less

Cross correlation and time-lag between cosmic ray intensity and solar activity during solar cycles 21, 22 and 23

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sierra-Porta, D.

2018-07-01

In the present paper a systematic study is carried out to validate the similarity or co-variability between daily terrestrial cosmic-ray intensity and three parameters of the solar corona evolution, i.e., the number of sunspots and flare index observed in the solar corona and the Ap index for regular magnetic field variations caused by regular solar radiation changes. The study is made for a period including three solar cycles starting with cycle 21 (year 1976) and ending on cycle 23 (year 2008). A cross-correlation analysis was used to establish patterns and dependence of the variables. This study focused on the time lag calculation for these variables and found a maximum of negative correlation over CC1≈ 0.85, CC2≈ 0.75 and CC3≈ 0.63 with an estimation of 181, 156 and 2 days of deviation between maximum/minimum of peaks for the intensity of cosmic rays related with sunspot number, flare index and Ap index regression, respectively.

Collaborative Support for Inclusion

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sanahuja-Gavaldà, Josep M.; Olmos-Rueda, Patricia; Morón-Velasco, Mar

2016-01-01

Nowadays, in Catalonia, students with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are increasingly in regular schools although their presence, participation, learning and success are unequal. Barriers towards inclusion often depend on how to organise supporting at regular schools and the teachers' collaboration during this process. In this paper, the support…

Variability in Regularity: Mining Temporal Mobility Patterns in London, Singapore and Beijing Using Smart-Card Data

PubMed Central

Zhong, Chen; Batty, Michael; Manley, Ed; Wang, Jiaqiu; Wang, Zijia; Chen, Feng; Schmitt, Gerhard

2016-01-01

To discover regularities in human mobility is of fundamental importance to our understanding of urban dynamics, and essential to city and transport planning, urban management and policymaking. Previous research has revealed universal regularities at mainly aggregated spatio-temporal scales but when we zoom into finer scales, considerable heterogeneity and diversity is observed instead. The fundamental question we address in this paper is at what scales are the regularities we detect stable, explicable, and sustainable. This paper thus proposes a basic measure of variability to assess the stability of such regularities focusing mainly on changes over a range of temporal scales. We demonstrate this by comparing regularities in the urban mobility patterns in three world cities, namely London, Singapore and Beijing using one-week of smart-card data. The results show that variations in regularity scale as non-linear functions of the temporal resolution, which we measure over a scale from 1 minute to 24 hours thus reflecting the diurnal cycle of human mobility. A particularly dramatic increase in variability occurs up to the temporal scale of about 15 minutes in all three cities and this implies that limits exist when we look forward or backward with respect to making short-term predictions. The degree of regularity varies in fact from city to city with Beijing and Singapore showing higher regularity in comparison to London across all temporal scales. A detailed discussion is provided, which relates the analysis to various characteristics of the three cities. In summary, this work contributes to a deeper understanding of regularities in patterns of transit use from variations in volumes of travellers entering subway stations, it establishes a generic analytical framework for comparative studies using urban mobility data, and it provides key points for the management of variability by policy-makers intent on for making the travel experience more amenable. PMID:26872333

Variability in Regularity: Mining Temporal Mobility Patterns in London, Singapore and Beijing Using Smart-Card Data.

PubMed

Zhong, Chen; Batty, Michael; Manley, Ed; Wang, Jiaqiu; Wang, Zijia; Chen, Feng; Schmitt, Gerhard

2016-01-01

To discover regularities in human mobility is of fundamental importance to our understanding of urban dynamics, and essential to city and transport planning, urban management and policymaking. Previous research has revealed universal regularities at mainly aggregated spatio-temporal scales but when we zoom into finer scales, considerable heterogeneity and diversity is observed instead. The fundamental question we address in this paper is at what scales are the regularities we detect stable, explicable, and sustainable. This paper thus proposes a basic measure of variability to assess the stability of such regularities focusing mainly on changes over a range of temporal scales. We demonstrate this by comparing regularities in the urban mobility patterns in three world cities, namely London, Singapore and Beijing using one-week of smart-card data. The results show that variations in regularity scale as non-linear functions of the temporal resolution, which we measure over a scale from 1 minute to 24 hours thus reflecting the diurnal cycle of human mobility. A particularly dramatic increase in variability occurs up to the temporal scale of about 15 minutes in all three cities and this implies that limits exist when we look forward or backward with respect to making short-term predictions. The degree of regularity varies in fact from city to city with Beijing and Singapore showing higher regularity in comparison to London across all temporal scales. A detailed discussion is provided, which relates the analysis to various characteristics of the three cities. In summary, this work contributes to a deeper understanding of regularities in patterns of transit use from variations in volumes of travellers entering subway stations, it establishes a generic analytical framework for comparative studies using urban mobility data, and it provides key points for the management of variability by policy-makers intent on for making the travel experience more amenable.

Initial-boundary value problem to 2D Boussinesq equations for MHD convection with stratification effects

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bian, Dongfen; Liu, Jitao

2017-12-01

This paper is concerned with the initial-boundary value problem to 2D magnetohydrodynamics-Boussinesq system with the temperature-dependent viscosity, thermal diffusivity and electrical conductivity. First, we establish the global weak solutions under the minimal initial assumption. Then by imposing higher regularity assumption on the initial data, we obtain the global strong solution with uniqueness. Moreover, the exponential decay rates of weak solutions and strong solution are obtained respectively.

Semantic classification of business images

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Erol, Berna; Hull, Jonathan J.

2006-01-01

Digital cameras are becoming increasingly common for capturing information in business settings. In this paper, we describe a novel method for classifying images into the following semantic classes: document, whiteboard, business card, slide, and regular images. Our method is based on combining low-level image features, such as text color, layout, and handwriting features with high-level OCR output analysis. Several Support Vector Machine Classifiers are combined for multi-class classification of input images. The system yields 95% accuracy in classification.

Cas5d Protein Processes Pre-crRNA and Assembles into a Cascade-like Interference Complex in Subtype I-C/Dvulg CRISPR-Cas System

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

Nam, Ki Hyun; Haitjema, Charles; Liu, Xueqi

Clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPRs), together with an operon of CRISPR-associated (Cas) proteins, form an RNA-based prokaryotic immune system against exogenous genetic elements. Cas5 family proteins are found in several type I CRISPR-Cas systems. Here, we report the molecular function of subtype I-C/Dvulg Cas5d from Bacillus halodurans. We show that Cas5d cleaves pre-crRNA into unit length by recognizing both the hairpin structure and the 3 single stranded sequence in the CRISPR repeat region. Cas5d structure reveals a ferredoxin domain-based architecture and a catalytic triad formed by Y46, K116, and H117 residues. We further show that after pre-crRNA processing,more » Cas5d assembles with crRNA, Csd1, and Csd2 proteins to form a multi-sub-unit interference complex similar to Escherichia coli Cascade (CRISPR-associated complex for antiviral defense) in architecture. Our results suggest that formation of a crRNA-presenting Cascade-like complex is likely a common theme among type I CRISPR subtypes.« less

[Comparison of ability to humidification of inspired air through the nose and oral cavity using dew point hygrometer].

PubMed

Paczesny, Daniel; Rapiejko, Piotr; Weremczuk, Jerzy; Jachowicz, Ryszard; Jurkiewicz, Dariusz

2007-01-01

Aim of this study was to check at the hospital the dew point hygrometer for fast measurement of air humidity in upper airways. The nose ability to humidification of inspired air and partially recover moisture from expired air was evaluated. Measurements from respiration through the nose and oral cavity were compared. The study was carried out in a group of 30 people (8 female and 22 male), age group 18 to 70 (mean age: 37 years old). In 22 of the participants there were no deviation from normal state in laryngologic examination, while in 4 participants nasal septum deviation without imaired nasal; oatency was found, in other 3--nasal vonchae hyperthrophy and in 1--nasal polips (grade I). The measurements of air humidity in upper air ways was done using specially designed and constructed measurement system. The air inspired through the nose and oral cavity is humidified. For typical external conditions (T = 22 degrees C i RH = 50%) the nose humidifies inspired air two times better then oral cavity (short time range of measurement approximately 1 min). Moisture from expired air through the nose is partially recovered (for patients with regular patency is 25% of the value of humidifying of inspired air). The oral cavity does not have ability to partially recovery moisture form expired air. The paper presented fast dew point hygrometer based on semiconductor microsystems for measurement humidity in inspired and expired air through the nose and oral cavity. Presented system can be a proper instrument for evaluation of nasal functions.

Statistical Physics of Complex Substitutive Systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jin, Qing

Diffusion processes are central to human interactions. Despite extensive studies that span multiple disciplines, our knowledge is limited to spreading processes in non-substitutive systems. Yet, a considerable number of ideas, products, and behaviors spread by substitution; to adopt a new one, agents must give up an existing one. This captures the spread of scientific constructs--forcing scientists to choose, for example, a deterministic or probabilistic worldview, as well as the adoption of durable items, such as mobile phones, cars, or homes. In this dissertation, I develop a statistical physics framework to describe, quantify, and understand substitutive systems. By empirically exploring three collected high-resolution datasets pertaining to such systems, I build a mechanistic model describing substitutions, which not only analytically predicts the universal macroscopic phenomenon discovered in the collected datasets, but also accurately captures the trajectories of individual items in a complex substitutive system, demonstrating a high degree of regularity and universality in substitutive systems. I also discuss the origins and insights of the parameters in the substitution model and possible generalization form of the mathematical framework. The systematical study of substitutive systems presented in this dissertation could potentially guide the understanding and prediction of all spreading phenomena driven by substitutions, from electric cars to scientific paradigms, and from renewable energy to new healthy habits.

Sowing simulation tests of a pneumatic drill equipped with systems aimed at reducing the emission of abrasion dust from maize dressed seed.

PubMed

Biocca, Marcello; Conte, Elisa; Pulcini, Patrizio; Marinelli, Enzo; Pochi, Daniele

2011-01-01

The utilization of dressed seed for spring sowing is a widespread practice to control some pests with reduced doses of chemical products. However some insecticides employed in maize seed dressing, namely belonging to the neonicotinoid family and fipronil, have been claimed to play a role in the decline of honeybees (Apis mellifera L.). Pneumatic drills used in maize sowing are charged with contributing to the dispersion of the abrasion dust produced by dressed seeds, favoring the contamination of the honeybee habitat. Different devices similar to air deflectors have been introduced on pneumatic drills in order to reduce dust drift. During previous field tests carried out by the authors during recent years reduction of dust concentration both in the air and at soil surface has been shown as a consequence of their application. As field tests are affected by the variability of environmental parameters (namely wind speed and direction) the results are not always reliable, comparable and of a general validity. This paper refers to a sowing simulation test system in which pneumatic drills can be tested at a fixed point under controlled conditions of the main environmental parameters. In the test area, protected by external influences, artificial wind conditions are created by means of a fan. The drill, suitably placed in the test area, operates the seed distribution "sur place" by means of an electric engine connected to the drill's driving wheel. A 22.5 m long sampling area, leeward with respect to the drill position, has been identified. Along the sampling area a series of Petri dishes has been placed, with the aim of capturing the depositing dust and providing the concentration of the active ingredients (a.i.) at ground level. At the same time, three air samplers with PTFE diskette filters have been used for the detection of the a.i. The test system has been used for the test of a pneumatic drill, equipped with and without air deflectors, using maize seed dressed with four a. i. (imidacloprid, clothianidin, thiametoxam, fipronil). The results showed regularly decreasing of the concentrations as distance increased, both in the air and at ground level. Moreover, the difference determined by the adoption of the drift reducing device (air deflectors) resulted clear and it can be quantified at around 50 % of the a.i. amounts observed without deflectors. Finally, the paper proposes a data processing method that, from the values observed at fixed point, provides the theoretical a.i. concentration behavior that would occur in field, under the same conditions of wind speed and direction and working speed. The obtained results are coherent with previous field test.

Improving the performance of interferometric imaging through the use of disturbance feedforward.

PubMed

Böhm, Michael; Glück, Martin; Keck, Alexander; Pott, Jörg-Uwe; Sawodny, Oliver

2017-05-01

In this paper, we present a disturbance compensation technique to improve the performance of interferometric imaging for extremely large ground-based telescopes, e.g., the Large Binocular Telescope (LBT), which serves as the application example in this contribution. The most significant disturbance sources at ground-based telescopes are wind-induced mechanical vibrations in the range of 8-60 Hz. Traditionally, their optical effect is eliminated by feedback systems, such as the adaptive optics control loop combined with a fringe tracking system within the interferometric instrument. In this paper, accelerometers are used to measure the vibrations. These measurements are used to estimate the motion of the mirrors, i.e., tip, tilt and piston, with a dynamic estimator. Additional delay compensation methods are presented to cancel sensor network delays and actuator input delays, improving the estimation result even more, particularly at higher frequencies. Because various instruments benefit from the implementation of telescope vibration mitigation, the estimator is implemented as a separate, independent software on the telescope, publishing the estimated values via multicast on the telescope's ethernet. Every client capable of using and correcting the estimated disturbances can subscribe and use these values in a feedforward for its compensation device, e.g., the deformable mirror, the piston mirror of LINC-NIRVANA, or the fast path length corrector of the Large Binocular Telescope Interferometer. This easy-to-use approach eventually leveraged the presented technology for interferometric use at the LBT and now significantly improves the sky coverage, performance, and operational robustness of interferometric imaging on a regular basis.

76 FR 44025 - Missouri; Emergency and Related Determinations

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-07-22

... Public Assistance program. This assistance excludes regular time costs for subgrantees' regular employees..., under the Public Assistance program. The following Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance Numbers (CFDA... Emergency Assistance Act, 42 U.S.C. 5121-5208 (the Stafford Act), as follows: I have determined that the...

An embedded wireless system for remote monitoring of bridges

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Harms, T.; Bastianini, F.; Sedigh Sarvestani, S.

2008-03-01

This paper describes an autonomous embedded system for remote monitoring of bridges. Salient features of the system include ultra-low power consumption, wireless communication of data and alerts, and incorporation of embedded sensors that monitor various indicators of the structural health of a bridge, while capturing the state of its surrounding environment. Examples include water level, temperature, vibration, and acoustic emissions. Ease of installation, physical robustness, remote maintenance and calibration, and autonomous data communication make the device a self-contained solution for remote monitoring of structural health. The system addresses shortcomings present in centralized structural health monitoring systems, particularly their reliance on a laptop or handheld computer. The system has been field-tested to verify the accuracy of the collected data and dependability of communication. The sheer volume of data collected, and the regularity of its collection can enable accurate and precise assessment of the health of a bridge, guiding maintenance efforts and providing early warning of potentially dangerous events. In this paper, we present a detailed breakdown of the system's power requirements and the results of the initial field test.

Regularization of the Perturbed Spatial Restricted Three-Body Problem by L-Transformations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Poleshchikov, S. M.

2018-03-01

Equations of motion for the perturbed circular restricted three-body problem have been regularized in canonical variables in a moving coordinate system. Two different L-matrices of the fourth order are used in the regularization. Conditions for generalized symplecticity of the constructed transform have been checked. In the unperturbed case, the regular equations have a polynomial structure. The regular equations have been numerically integrated using the Runge-Kutta-Fehlberg method. The results of numerical experiments are given for the Earth-Moon system parameters taking into account the perturbation of the Sun for different L-matrices.

Personal, societal, and ecological values of wilderness: Sixth World Wilderness Congress proceedings on research, management, and allocation, Volume I

Treesearch

Alan E. Watson; Greg H. Aplet; John C. Hendee

1998-01-01

The papers contained in Volume I of these Proceedings were originally scheduled for presentation at the Sixth World Wilderness Congress in Bangalore, India, in 1997. Due to a delay of the Congress until 1998, these 27 papers were compiled for publication prior to presentation. Volumes I and II contain papers covering seven topics: protected area systems: challenges,...

Novel harmonic regularization approach for variable selection in Cox's proportional hazards model.

PubMed

Chu, Ge-Jin; Liang, Yong; Wang, Jia-Xuan

2014-01-01

Variable selection is an important issue in regression and a number of variable selection methods have been proposed involving nonconvex penalty functions. In this paper, we investigate a novel harmonic regularization method, which can approximate nonconvex Lq  (1/2 < q < 1) regularizations, to select key risk factors in the Cox's proportional hazards model using microarray gene expression data. The harmonic regularization method can be efficiently solved using our proposed direct path seeking approach, which can produce solutions that closely approximate those for the convex loss function and the nonconvex regularization. Simulation results based on the artificial datasets and four real microarray gene expression datasets, such as real diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DCBCL), the lung cancer, and the AML datasets, show that the harmonic regularization method can be more accurate for variable selection than existing Lasso series methods.

A rational eating model of binges, diets and obesity.

PubMed

Dragone, Davide

2009-07-01

This paper addresses the rapid diffusion of obesity and the existence of different individual patterns of food consumption between non-dieters and chronic dieters. I propose a rational eating model where a forward-looking agent optimizes the intertemporal satisfaction from eating, taking into account the cost of changing consumption habits and the negative health consequences of having a non-optimal body weight. Consistent with the evidence, I show that the intertemporal maximization problem leads to a condition of overweightness, and that heterogeneity in the individual relevance of habits in consumption can determine the observed differences in the individual intertemporal patterns of food consumption and body weight. Sufficient conditions for determining when the convergence to the steady state implies oscillations or is monotonic are given. In the former case, the agent optimally alternates diets and binges until the steady state is reached, in the latter a regular intertemporal pattern of food consumption is optimal.

Cas4 Facilitates PAM-Compatible Spacer Selection during CRISPR Adaptation.

PubMed

Kieper, Sebastian N; Almendros, Cristóbal; Behler, Juliane; McKenzie, Rebecca E; Nobrega, Franklin L; Haagsma, Anna C; Vink, Jochem N A; Hess, Wolfgang R; Brouns, Stan J J

2018-03-27

CRISPR-Cas systems adapt their immunological memory against their invaders by integrating short DNA fragments into clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeat (CRISPR) loci. While Cas1 and Cas2 make up the core machinery of the CRISPR integration process, various class I and II CRISPR-Cas systems encode Cas4 proteins for which the role is unknown. Here, we introduced the CRISPR adaptation genes cas1, cas2, and cas4 from the type I-D CRISPR-Cas system of Synechocystis sp. 6803 into Escherichia coli and observed that cas4 is strictly required for the selection of targets with protospacer adjacent motifs (PAMs) conferring I-D CRISPR interference in the native host Synechocystis. We propose a model in which Cas4 assists the CRISPR adaptation complex Cas1-2 by providing DNA substrates tailored for the correct PAM. Introducing functional spacers that target DNA sequences with the correct PAM is key to successful CRISPR interference, providing a better chance of surviving infection by mobile genetic elements. Copyright © 2018 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Construction of normal-regular decisions of Bessel typed special system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tasmambetov, Zhaksylyk N.; Talipova, Meiramgul Zh.

2017-09-01

Studying a special system of differential equations in the separate production of the second order is solved by the degenerate hypergeometric function reducing to the Bessel functions of two variables. To construct a solution of this system near regular and irregular singularities, we use the method of Frobenius-Latysheva applying the concepts of rank and antirank. There is proved the basic theorem that establishes the existence of four linearly independent solutions of studying system type of Bessel. To prove the existence of normal-regular solutions we establish necessary conditions for the existence of such solutions. The existence and convergence of a normally regular solution are shown using the notion of rank and antirank.

Deviance detection based on regularity encoding along the auditory hierarchy: electrophysiological evidence in humans.

PubMed

Escera, Carles; Leung, Sumie; Grimm, Sabine

2014-07-01

Detection of changes in the acoustic environment is critical for survival, as it prevents missing potentially relevant events outside the focus of attention. In humans, deviance detection based on acoustic regularity encoding has been associated with a brain response derived from the human EEG, the mismatch negativity (MMN) auditory evoked potential, peaking at about 100-200 ms from deviance onset. By its long latency and cerebral generators, the cortical nature of both the processes of regularity encoding and deviance detection has been assumed. Yet, intracellular, extracellular, single-unit and local-field potential recordings in rats and cats have shown much earlier (circa 20-30 ms) and hierarchically lower (primary auditory cortex, medial geniculate body, inferior colliculus) deviance-related responses. Here, we review the recent evidence obtained with the complex auditory brainstem response (cABR), the middle latency response (MLR) and magnetoencephalography (MEG) demonstrating that human auditory deviance detection based on regularity encoding-rather than on refractoriness-occurs at latencies and in neural networks comparable to those revealed in animals. Specifically, encoding of simple acoustic-feature regularities and detection of corresponding deviance, such as an infrequent change in frequency or location, occur in the latency range of the MLR, in separate auditory cortical regions from those generating the MMN, and even at the level of human auditory brainstem. In contrast, violations of more complex regularities, such as those defined by the alternation of two different tones or by feature conjunctions (i.e., frequency and location) fail to elicit MLR correlates but elicit sizable MMNs. Altogether, these findings support the emerging view that deviance detection is a basic principle of the functional organization of the auditory system, and that regularity encoding and deviance detection is organized in ascending levels of complexity along the auditory pathway expanding from the brainstem up to higher-order areas of the cerebral cortex.

Influence of regular proprioceptive and bioenergetic physical activities on balance control in elderly women.

PubMed

Gauchard, Gérome C; Gangloff, Pierre; Jeandel, Claude; Perrin, Philippe P

2003-09-01

Balance disorders increase considerably with age due to a decrease in posture regulation quality, and are accompanied by a higher risk of falling. Conversely, physical activities have been shown to improve the quality of postural control in elderly individuals and decrease the number of falls. The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of two types of exercise on the visual afferent and on the different parameters of static balance regulation. Static postural control was evaluated in 44 healthy women aged over 60 years. Among them, 15 regularly practiced proprioceptive physical activities (Group I), 12 regularly practiced bioenergetic physical activities (Group II), and 18 controls walked on a regular basis (Group III). Group I participants displayed lower sway path and area values, whereas Group III participants displayed the highest, both in eyes-open and eyes-closed conditions. Group II participants displayed intermediate values, close to those of Group I in the eyes-open condition and those of Group III in the eyes-closed condition. Visual afferent contribution was more pronounced for Group II and III participants than for Group I participants. Proprioceptive exercise appears to have the best impact on balance regulation and precision. Besides, even if bioenergetic activity improves postural control in simple postural tasks, more difficult postural tasks show that this type of activity does not develop a neurosensorial proprioceptive input threshold as well, probably on account of the higher contribution of visual afferent.

Model-based adaptive 3D sonar reconstruction in reverberating environments.

PubMed

Saucan, Augustin-Alexandru; Sintes, Christophe; Chonavel, Thierry; Caillec, Jean-Marc Le

2015-10-01

In this paper, we propose a novel model-based approach for 3D underwater scene reconstruction, i.e., bathymetry, for side scan sonar arrays in complex and highly reverberating environments like shallow water areas. The presence of multipath echoes and volume reverberation generates false depth estimates. To improve the resulting bathymetry, this paper proposes and develops an adaptive filter, based on several original geometrical models. This multimodel approach makes it possible to track and separate the direction of arrival trajectories of multiple echoes impinging the array. Echo tracking is perceived as a model-based processing stage, incorporating prior information on the temporal evolution of echoes in order to reject cluttered observations generated by interfering echoes. The results of the proposed filter on simulated and real sonar data showcase the clutter-free and regularized bathymetric reconstruction. Model validation is carried out with goodness of fit tests, and demonstrates the importance of model-based processing for bathymetry reconstruction.

Festival Foods in the Immigrant Diet

PubMed Central

Azar, Kristen M.J.; Chen, Edith; Holland, Ariel T.; Palaniappan, Latha P.

2012-01-01

Dietary acculturation for immigrant groups has largely been attributed to the “Westernization” of indigenous diets, as characterized by an increased consumption of unhealthy American foods (i.e. fast foods, hamburgers). However, acculturation and adoption of western dietary habits may not fully explain new dietary patterns among racial/ethnic minority immigrants. The immigrant diet may change in such a way that it elaborates on specific ethnic traditions in addition to the incorporation of Western food habits. In this paper, we explore the role that festival foods, those foods that were once eaten a few times a year and on special occasions, play in the regular diet of immigrants to the U.S. This paper will focus on the overconsumption of ethnic festival foods, which are often high in carbohydrates, animal protein, sugar and fat, as opposed to Western “junk” food, as an explanation for the increased risk of cardiometabolic disorders among new immigrant groups. PMID:22968231

Critical thinking as culture: Teaching post-Soviet teachers in Kazakhstan

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Burkhalter, Nancy; Shegebayev, Maganat R.

2012-02-01

This paper explores the question of whether critical thinking can eventually become part of the cultural fabric in Kazakhstan, a country whose Soviet educational system not only trained teachers to memorise, lecture and intimidate students but also created a culture in educational institutions fraught with many fear-based behaviours engendering competitiveness, intolerance and other hostile behaviours antithetical to critical thinking and an open, democratic society. While educational reform can have profound effects on a nation, education is but one system in a complex network of governmental and cultural systems, and change must be borne by many. This paper reviews literature and presents qualitative data gathered through interviews with Soviet-trained teachers. The authors recommend that teachers should embrace student-centred techniques and critical thinking methodologies, as well as shift from a fear-based, authoritarian, top-down system of relating to students and colleagues to one of cooperation, openness and fairness. Such a reform will take repetitive, intensive and experiential training as well as regular assessments of progress.

Geodesic active fields--a geometric framework for image registration.

PubMed

Zosso, Dominique; Bresson, Xavier; Thiran, Jean-Philippe

2011-05-01

In this paper we present a novel geometric framework called geodesic active fields for general image registration. In image registration, one looks for the underlying deformation field that best maps one image onto another. This is a classic ill-posed inverse problem, which is usually solved by adding a regularization term. Here, we propose a multiplicative coupling between the registration term and the regularization term, which turns out to be equivalent to embed the deformation field in a weighted minimal surface problem. Then, the deformation field is driven by a minimization flow toward a harmonic map corresponding to the solution of the registration problem. This proposed approach for registration shares close similarities with the well-known geodesic active contours model in image segmentation, where the segmentation term (the edge detector function) is coupled with the regularization term (the length functional) via multiplication as well. As a matter of fact, our proposed geometric model is actually the exact mathematical generalization to vector fields of the weighted length problem for curves and surfaces introduced by Caselles-Kimmel-Sapiro. The energy of the deformation field is measured with the Polyakov energy weighted by a suitable image distance, borrowed from standard registration models. We investigate three different weighting functions, the squared error and the approximated absolute error for monomodal images, and the local joint entropy for multimodal images. As compared to specialized state-of-the-art methods tailored for specific applications, our geometric framework involves important contributions. Firstly, our general formulation for registration works on any parametrizable, smooth and differentiable surface, including nonflat and multiscale images. In the latter case, multiscale images are registered at all scales simultaneously, and the relations between space and scale are intrinsically being accounted for. Second, this method is, to the best of our knowledge, the first reparametrization invariant registration method introduced in the literature. Thirdly, the multiplicative coupling between the registration term, i.e. local image discrepancy, and the regularization term naturally results in a data-dependent tuning of the regularization strength. Finally, by choosing the metric on the deformation field one can freely interpolate between classic Gaussian and more interesting anisotropic, TV-like regularization.

EIT image regularization by a new Multi-Objective Simulated Annealing algorithm.

PubMed

Castro Martins, Thiago; Sales Guerra Tsuzuki, Marcos

2015-01-01

Multi-Objective Optimization can be used to produce regularized Electrical Impedance Tomography (EIT) images where the weight of the regularization term is not known a priori. This paper proposes a novel Multi-Objective Optimization algorithm based on Simulated Annealing tailored for EIT image reconstruction. Images are reconstructed from experimental data and compared with images from other Multi and Single Objective optimization methods. A significant performance enhancement from traditional techniques can be inferred from the results.

Generation of Look-Up Tables for Dynamic Job Shop Scheduling Decision Support Tool

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Oktaviandri, Muchamad; Hassan, Adnan; Mohd Shaharoun, Awaluddin

2016-02-01

Majority of existing scheduling techniques are based on static demand and deterministic processing time, while most job shop scheduling problem are concerned with dynamic demand and stochastic processing time. As a consequence, the solutions obtained from the traditional scheduling technique are ineffective wherever changes occur to the system. Therefore, this research intends to develop a decision support tool (DST) based on promising artificial intelligent that is able to accommodate the dynamics that regularly occur in job shop scheduling problem. The DST was designed through three phases, i.e. (i) the look-up table generation, (ii) inverse model development and (iii) integration of DST components. This paper reports the generation of look-up tables for various scenarios as a part in development of the DST. A discrete event simulation model was used to compare the performance among SPT, EDD, FCFS, S/OPN and Slack rules; the best performances measures (mean flow time, mean tardiness and mean lateness) and the job order requirement (inter-arrival time, due dates tightness and setup time ratio) which were compiled into look-up tables. The well-known 6/6/J/Cmax Problem from Muth and Thompson (1963) was used as a case study. In the future, the performance measure of various scheduling scenarios and the job order requirement will be mapped using ANN inverse model.

Why Medical Informatics (still) Needs Cognitive and Social Sciences.

PubMed

Declerck, G; Aimé, X

2013-01-01

To summarize current excellent medical informatics research in the field of human factors and organizational issues. Using PubMed, a total of 3,024 papers were selected from 17 journals. The papers were evaluated on the basis of their title, keywords, and abstract, using several exclusion and inclusion criteria. 15 preselected papers were carefully evaluated by six referees using a standard evaluation grid. Six best papers were selected exemplifying the central role cognitive and social sciences can play in medical informatics research. Among other contributions, those studies: (i) make use of the distributed cognition paradigm to model and understand clinical care situations; (ii) take into account organizational issues to analyse the impact of HIT on information exchange and coordination processes; (iii) illustrate how models and empirical data from cognitive psychology can be used in medical informatics; and (iv) highlight the need of qualitative studies to analyze the unexpected side effects of HIT on cognitive and work processes. The selected papers demonstrate that paradigms, methodologies, models, and results from cognitive and social sciences can help to bridge the gap between HIT and end users, and contribute to limit adoption failures that are reported regularly.

Comparison of least squares and exponential sine sweep methods for Parallel Hammerstein Models estimation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rebillat, Marc; Schoukens, Maarten

2018-05-01

Linearity is a common assumption for many real-life systems, but in many cases the nonlinear behavior of systems cannot be ignored and must be modeled and estimated. Among the various existing classes of nonlinear models, Parallel Hammerstein Models (PHM) are interesting as they are at the same time easy to interpret as well as to estimate. One way to estimate PHM relies on the fact that the estimation problem is linear in the parameters and thus that classical least squares (LS) estimation algorithms can be used. In that area, this article introduces a regularized LS estimation algorithm inspired on some of the recently developed regularized impulse response estimation techniques. Another mean to estimate PHM consists in using parametric or non-parametric exponential sine sweeps (ESS) based methods. These methods (LS and ESS) are founded on radically different mathematical backgrounds but are expected to tackle the same issue. A methodology is proposed here to compare them with respect to (i) their accuracy, (ii) their computational cost, and (iii) their robustness to noise. Tests are performed on simulated systems for several values of methods respective parameters and of signal to noise ratio. Results show that, for a given set of data points, the ESS method is less demanding in computational resources than the LS method but that it is also less accurate. Furthermore, the LS method needs parameters to be set in advance whereas the ESS method is not subject to conditioning issues and can be fully non-parametric. In summary, for a given set of data points, ESS method can provide a first, automatic, and quick overview of a nonlinear system than can guide more computationally demanding and precise methods, such as the regularized LS one proposed here.

Stress Modulates Illness-Course of Substance Use Disorders: A Translational Review

PubMed Central

Lijffijt, Marijn; Hu, Kesong; Swann, Alan C.

2014-01-01

Childhood trauma and post-childhood chronic/repeated stress could increase the risk of a substance use disorder by affecting five stages of addiction illness-course: (a) initial experimentation with substances; (b) shifting from experimental to regular use; (c) escalation from regular use to abuse or dependence; (d) motivation to quit; and (e) risk of (re-)lapse. We reviewed the human literature on relationships between stress and addiction illness-course. We explored per illness-course stage: (i) whether childhood trauma and post-childhood chronic/repeated stress have comparable effects and (ii) whether effects cut across classes of substances of abuse. We further discuss potential underlying mechanisms by which stressors may affect illness-course stages for which we relied on evidence from studies in animals and humans. Stress and substances of abuse both activate stress and dopaminergic motivation systems, and childhood trauma and post-childhood stressful events are more chronic and occur more frequently in people who use substances. Stressors increase risk to initiate early use potentially by affecting trait-like factors of risk-taking, decision making, and behavioral control. Stressors also accelerate transition to regular use potentially due to prior effects of stress on sensitization of dopaminergic motivation systems, cross-sensitizing with substances of abuse, especially in people with high trait impulsivity who are more prone to sensitization. Finally, stressors increase risk for abuse and dependence, attenuate motivation to quit, and increase relapse risk potentially by intensified sensitization of motivational systems, by a shift from positive to negative reinforcement due to sensitization of the amygdala by corticotropin releasing factor, and by increased sensitization of noradrenergic systems. Stress generally affects addiction illness-course across stressor types and across classes of substances of abuse. PMID:25101007

Making technological innovation work for sustainable development.

PubMed

Anadon, Laura Diaz; Chan, Gabriel; Harley, Alicia G; Matus, Kira; Moon, Suerie; Murthy, Sharmila L; Clark, William C

2016-08-30

This paper presents insights and action proposals to better harness technological innovation for sustainable development. We begin with three key insights from scholarship and practice. First, technological innovation processes do not follow a set sequence but rather emerge from complex adaptive systems involving many actors and institutions operating simultaneously from local to global scales. Barriers arise at all stages of innovation, from the invention of a technology through its selection, production, adaptation, adoption, and retirement. Second, learning from past efforts to mobilize innovation for sustainable development can be greatly improved through structured cross-sectoral comparisons that recognize the socio-technical nature of innovation systems. Third, current institutions (rules, norms, and incentives) shaping technological innovation are often not aligned toward the goals of sustainable development because impoverished, marginalized, and unborn populations too often lack the economic and political power to shape innovation systems to meet their needs. However, these institutions can be reformed, and many actors have the power to do so through research, advocacy, training, convening, policymaking, and financing. We conclude with three practice-oriented recommendations to further realize the potential of innovation for sustainable development: (i) channels for regularized learning across domains of practice should be established; (ii) measures that systematically take into account the interests of underserved populations throughout the innovation process should be developed; and (iii) institutions should be reformed to reorient innovation systems toward sustainable development and ensure that all innovation stages and scales are considered at the outset.

Making technological innovation work for sustainable development

PubMed Central

Anadon, Laura Diaz; Harley, Alicia G.; Matus, Kira; Moon, Suerie; Murthy, Sharmila L.

2016-01-01

This paper presents insights and action proposals to better harness technological innovation for sustainable development. We begin with three key insights from scholarship and practice. First, technological innovation processes do not follow a set sequence but rather emerge from complex adaptive systems involving many actors and institutions operating simultaneously from local to global scales. Barriers arise at all stages of innovation, from the invention of a technology through its selection, production, adaptation, adoption, and retirement. Second, learning from past efforts to mobilize innovation for sustainable development can be greatly improved through structured cross-sectoral comparisons that recognize the socio-technical nature of innovation systems. Third, current institutions (rules, norms, and incentives) shaping technological innovation are often not aligned toward the goals of sustainable development because impoverished, marginalized, and unborn populations too often lack the economic and political power to shape innovation systems to meet their needs. However, these institutions can be reformed, and many actors have the power to do so through research, advocacy, training, convening, policymaking, and financing. We conclude with three practice-oriented recommendations to further realize the potential of innovation for sustainable development: (i) channels for regularized learning across domains of practice should be established; (ii) measures that systematically take into account the interests of underserved populations throughout the innovation process should be developed; and (iii) institutions should be reformed to reorient innovation systems toward sustainable development and ensure that all innovation stages and scales are considered at the outset. PMID:27519800

Conservative regularization of compressible dissipationless two-fluid plasmas

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Krishnaswami, Govind S.; Sachdev, Sonakshi; Thyagaraja, A.

2018-02-01

This paper extends our earlier approach [cf. A. Thyaharaja, Phys. Plasmas 17, 032503 (2010) and Krishnaswami et al., Phys. Plasmas 23, 022308 (2016)] to obtaining à priori bounds on enstrophy in neutral fluids and ideal magnetohydrodynamics. This results in a far-reaching local, three-dimensional, non-linear, dispersive generalization of a KdV-type regularization to compressible/incompressible dissipationless 2-fluid plasmas and models derived therefrom (quasi-neutral, Hall, and ideal MHD). It involves the introduction of vortical and magnetic "twirl" terms λl 2 ( w l + ( q l / m l ) B ) × ( ∇ × w l ) in the ion/electron velocity equations ( l = i , e ) where w l are vorticities. The cut-off lengths λl and number densities nl must satisfy λl 2 n l = C l , where Cl are constants. A novel feature is that the "flow" current ∑ l q l n l v l in Ampère's law is augmented by a solenoidal "twirl" current ∑ l ∇ × ∇ × λl 2 j flow , l . The resulting equations imply conserved linear and angular momenta and a positive definite swirl energy density E * which includes an enstrophic contribution ∑ l ( 1 / 2 ) λl 2 ρ l wl 2 . It is shown that the equations admit a Hamiltonian-Poisson bracket formulation. Furthermore, singularities in ∇ × B are conservatively regularized by adding ( λB 2 / 2 μ 0 ) ( ∇ × B ) 2 to E * . Finally, it is proved that among regularizations that admit a Hamiltonian formulation and preserve the continuity equations along with the symmetries of the ideal model, the twirl term is unique and minimal in non-linearity and space derivatives of velocities.

Working in small-scale, homelike dementia care: effects on staff burnout symptoms and job characteristics. A quasi-experimental, longitudinal study

PubMed Central

Zwakhalen, Sandra MG; Hamers, Jan PH; van Rossum, Erik; Ambergen, Ton; Kempen, Gertrudis IJM; Verbeek, Hilde

2018-01-01

Aim This paper reports on a quasi-experimental, longitudinal study on the effects of working in a new type of dementia care facility (i.e. small-scale living facilities) on staff burnout symptoms and job characteristics (job autonomy, social support, physical demands and workload). Methods It is hypothesised that nursing staff working in small-scale facilities experience fewer burnout symptoms, more autonomy and social support, and fewer symptoms of physical demands and workload compared with staff in regular wards. Two types of long-term institutional nursing care settings were included: 28 houses in small-scale living facilities and 21 regular psychogeriatric wards in nursing homes. At baseline and at follow-ups after 6 and 12 months nursing staff were assessed by means of self-report questionnaires. In total, 305 nursing staff members were included in the study, 114 working in small-scale living facilities (intervention group) and 191 in regular wards (control group). Results No overall effects on burnout symptoms were detected. Significantly fewer physical demands and lower workload were experienced by staff working in small-scale living facilities compared with staff in regular wards. They also experienced more job autonomy. No significant effect was found for overall social support in the total group. Conclusions This study suggests positive effects of the work environment on several work characteristics. Organisational climate differs in the two conditions, which might account for our results. This may influence nursing staff well-being and has important implications for nursing home managers and policy makers. Future studies should enhance our understanding of the influence of job characteristics on outcomes. PMID:29805471

30 CFR 100.3 - Determination of penalty amount; regular assessment.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... criteria are: (i) The appropriateness of the penalty to the size of the business of the operator charged; (ii) The operator's history of previous violations; (iii) Whether the operator was negligent; (iv) The... ability to continue in business. (2) A regular assessment is determined by first assigning the appropriate...

77 FR 41193 - West Virginia; Emergency and Related Determinations

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-07-12

... Public Assistance program. This assistance excludes regular time costs for subgrantees' regular employees... Assistance program. The following Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance Numbers (CFDA) are to be used [[Page... Emergency Assistance Act, 42 U.S.C. 5121-5207 (the Stafford Act), as follows: I have determined that the...

76 FR 44026 - Kansas; Emergency and Related Determinations

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-07-22

... Public Assistance program. This assistance excludes regular time costs for subgrantees' regular employees... Assistance program. The following Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance Numbers (CFDA) are to be used for... Emergency Assistance Act, 42 U.S.C. 5121-5208 (the Stafford Act), as follows: I have determined that the...

Regularized Generalized Structured Component Analysis

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hwang, Heungsun

2009-01-01

Generalized structured component analysis (GSCA) has been proposed as a component-based approach to structural equation modeling. In practice, GSCA may suffer from multi-collinearity, i.e., high correlations among exogenous variables. GSCA has yet no remedy for this problem. Thus, a regularized extension of GSCA is proposed that integrates a ridge…

Academic Improvement through Regular Assessment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wolf, Patrick J.

2007-01-01

Media reports are rife with claims that students in the United States are overtested and that they and their education are suffering as result. Here I argue the opposite--that students would benefit in numerous ways from more frequent assessment, especially of diagnostic testing. The regular assessment of students serves critical educational and…

Destructive materials thermal characteristics determination with application for spacecraft structures testing

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Alifanov, O. M.; Budnik, S. A.; Nenarokomov, A. V.; Netelev, A. V.; Titov, D. M.

2013-04-01

In many practical situations it is impossible to measure directly thermal and thermokinetic properties of analyzed composite materials. The only way that can often be used to overcome these difficulties is indirect measurements. This type of measurements is usually formulated as the solution of inverse heat transfer problems. Such problems are ill-posed in mathematical sense and their main feature shows itself in the solution instabilities. That is why special regularizing methods are needed to solve them. The general method of iterative regularization is concerned with application to the estimation of materials properties. The objective of this paper is to estimate thermal and thermokinetic properties of advanced materials using the approach based on inverse methods. An experimental-computational system is presented for investigating the thermal and kinetics properties of composite materials by methods of inverse heat transfer problems and which is developed at the Thermal Laboratory of Department Space Systems Engineering, of Moscow Aviation Institute (MAI). The system is aimed at investigating the materials in conditions of unsteady contact and/or radiation heating over a wide range of temperature changes and heating rates in a vacuum, air and inert gas medium.

Using Lunar Observations for Calibration Stability and Data Continuity for SNPP VIIRS and MODIS Reflected Solar Bands

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Xiong, X.; Stone, T. C.

2017-12-01

To meet objectives for assembling continuous Earth environmental data records from multiple satellite instruments, a key consideration is to assure consistent and stable sensor calibration across platforms and spanning mission lifetimes. Maintaining and verifying calibration stability in orbit is particularly challenging for reflected solar band (RSB) radiometer instruments, as options for stable references are limited. The Moon is used regularly as a calibration target, which has capabilities for long-term sensor performance monitoring and for use as a common reference for RSB sensor inter-calibration. Suomi NPP VIIRS has viewed the Moon nearly every month since launch, utilizing spacecraft roll maneuvers to acquire lunar observations within a small range of phase angles. The VIIRS Characterization Support Team (VCST) at NASA GSFC has processed the Moon images acquired by SNPP VIIRS into irradiance measurements for calibration purposes; however, the variations in the Moon's brightness still require normalizing the VIIRS lunar measurements using radiometric reference values generated by the USGS lunar calibration system, i.e. the ROLO model. Comparison of the lunar irradiance time series to the calibration f-factors derived from the VIIRS on-board solar diffuser system shows similar overall trends in sensor response, but also reveals residual geometric anomalies in the lunar model results. The excellent lunar radiometry achieved by SNPP VIIRS is actively being used to advance lunar model development at USGS. Both MODIS instruments also have viewed the Moon regularly since launch, providing a practical application of sensor inter-calibration using the Moon as a common reference. This paper discusses ongoing efforts aimed toward demonstrating and utilizing the full potential of lunar observations to support long-term calibration stability and consistency for SNPP VIIRS and MODIS, thus contributing to level-1B data quality assurance for continuity and monitoring global environmental changes.

High throughput profile-profile based fold recognition for the entire human proteome.

PubMed

McGuffin, Liam J; Smith, Richard T; Bryson, Kevin; Sørensen, Søren-Aksel; Jones, David T

2006-06-07

In order to maintain the most comprehensive structural annotation databases we must carry out regular updates for each proteome using the latest profile-profile fold recognition methods. The ability to carry out these updates on demand is necessary to keep pace with the regular updates of sequence and structure databases. Providing the highest quality structural models requires the most intensive profile-profile fold recognition methods running with the very latest available sequence databases and fold libraries. However, running these methods on such a regular basis for every sequenced proteome requires large amounts of processing power. In this paper we describe and benchmark the JYDE (Job Yield Distribution Environment) system, which is a meta-scheduler designed to work above cluster schedulers, such as Sun Grid Engine (SGE) or Condor. We demonstrate the ability of JYDE to distribute the load of genomic-scale fold recognition across multiple independent Grid domains. We use the most recent profile-profile version of our mGenTHREADER software in order to annotate the latest version of the Human proteome against the latest sequence and structure databases in as short a time as possible. We show that our JYDE system is able to scale to large numbers of intensive fold recognition jobs running across several independent computer clusters. Using our JYDE system we have been able to annotate 99.9% of the protein sequences within the Human proteome in less than 24 hours, by harnessing over 500 CPUs from 3 independent Grid domains. This study clearly demonstrates the feasibility of carrying out on demand high quality structural annotations for the proteomes of major eukaryotic organisms. Specifically, we have shown that it is now possible to provide complete regular updates of profile-profile based fold recognition models for entire eukaryotic proteomes, through the use of Grid middleware such as JYDE.

New Technologies in Portugal: Regular Middle and High School

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Florentino, Teresa; Sanchez, Lucas; Joyanes, Luis

2010-01-01

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to elaborate upon the relation between information and communication technologies (ICT), particularly web-based resources, and their use, programs and learning in Portuguese middle and high regular public schools. Design/methodology/approach: Adding collected documentation on curriculum, laws and other related…

Attributions about Consultation Outcomes by Special and Regular Education Teachers.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

San Nicolas, Gregg C.; Moore, Mary W.

The research project described in this paper concerned the application of attribution theory and its underlying principles to the consultation process and activities of special and regular education teachers. In recent years, consultation between teachers for the "mainstreaming" of disabled and/or handicapped students into general education has…

Discrete Regularization for Calibration of Geologic Facies Against Dynamic Flow Data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Khaninezhad, Mohammad-Reza; Golmohammadi, Azarang; Jafarpour, Behnam

2018-04-01

Subsurface flow model calibration involves many more unknowns than measurements, leading to ill-posed problems with nonunique solutions. To alleviate nonuniqueness, the problem is regularized by constraining the solution space using prior knowledge. In certain sedimentary environments, such as fluvial systems, the contrast in hydraulic properties of different facies types tends to dominate the flow and transport behavior, making the effect of within facies heterogeneity less significant. Hence, flow model calibration in those formations reduces to delineating the spatial structure and connectivity of different lithofacies types and their boundaries. A major difficulty in calibrating such models is honoring the discrete, or piecewise constant, nature of facies distribution. The problem becomes more challenging when complex spatial connectivity patterns with higher-order statistics are involved. This paper introduces a novel formulation for calibration of complex geologic facies by imposing appropriate constraints to recover plausible solutions that honor the spatial connectivity and discreteness of facies models. To incorporate prior connectivity patterns, plausible geologic features are learned from available training models. This is achieved by learning spatial patterns from training data, e.g., k-SVD sparse learning or the traditional Principal Component Analysis. Discrete regularization is introduced as a penalty functions to impose solution discreteness while minimizing the mismatch between observed and predicted data. An efficient gradient-based alternating directions algorithm is combined with variable splitting to minimize the resulting regularized nonlinear least squares objective function. Numerical results show that imposing learned facies connectivity and discreteness as regularization functions leads to geologically consistent solutions that improve facies calibration quality.

"I'm Just a'-Walking the Dog" correlates of regular dog walking.

PubMed

Christian nee Cutt, Hayley; Giles-Corti, Billie; Knuiman, Matthew

2010-01-01

Intrapersonal and environmental factors associated with dog walking (N = 483) were examined. A greater proportion of regular (80%) than irregular (59%) dog walkers met the recommended 150 minutes of physical activity per week. Owners who perceived greater social support and motivation from their dogs to walk, and who had access to a dog-supportive park within their neighborhood, were more likely to regularly walk with their dogs, even after adjustment for other well-known correlates of physical activity. The higher level of physical activity of regular dog walkers can be attributed to the additional walking these owners perform with their dogs.

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

Kuzmina, L.K.

The research deals with different aspects of mathematical modelling and the analysis of complex dynamic non-linear systems as a consequence of applied problems in mechanics (in particular those for gyrosystems, for stabilization and orientation systems, control systems of movable objects, including the aviation and aerospace systems) Non-linearity, multi-connectedness and high dimensionness of dynamical problems, that occur at the initial full statement lead to the need of the problem narrowing, and of the decomposition of the full model, but with safe-keeping of main properties and of qualitative equivalence. The elaboration of regular methods for modelling problems in dynamics, the generalization ofmore » reduction principle are the main aims of the investigations. Here, uniform methodology, based on Lyapunov`s methods, founded by N.G.Ohetayev, is developed. The objects of the investigations are considered with exclusive positions, as systems of singularly perturbed class, treated as ones with singular parametrical perturbations. It is the natural extension of the statements of N.G.Chetayev and P.A.Kuzmin for parametrical stability. In paper the systematical procedures for construction of correct simplified models (comparison ones) are developed, the validity conditions of the transition are determined the appraisals are received, the regular algorithms of engineering level are obtained. Applicabilitelly to the stabilization and orientation systems with the gyroscopic controlling subsystems, these methods enable to build the hierarchical sequence of admissible simplified models; to determine the conditions of their correctness.« less

Arduino based radioactive tracking system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rahman, Nur Aira Abd; Rashid, Mohd Fazlie Bin Abdul; Rahman, Anwar Bin Abdul; Ramlan, Atikah

2017-01-01

There is a clear need to strengthen security measures to prevent any malevolent use or accidental misuse of radioactive sources. Some of these radioactive sources are regularly transported outside of office or laboratory premises for work and consultation purposes. This paper present the initial development of radioactive source tracking system, which combined Arduino microcontroller, Global Positioning System (GPS) and Global System for Mobile communication (GSM) technologies. The tracking system will help the owner to monitor the movement of the radioactive sources. Currently, the system is capable of tracking the movement of radioactive source through the GPS satellite signals. The GPS co-ordinate could either be transmitted to headquarters at fixed interval via Short Messaging Service (SMS) to enable real time monitoring, or stored in a memory card for offline monitoring and data logging.

An Optimal Control Method for Maximizing the Efficiency of Direct Drive Ocean Wave Energy Extraction System

PubMed Central

Chen, Zhongxian; Yu, Haitao; Wen, Cheng

2014-01-01

The goal of direct drive ocean wave energy extraction system is to convert ocean wave energy into electricity. The problem explored in this paper is the design and optimal control for the direct drive ocean wave energy extraction system. An optimal control method based on internal model proportion integration differentiation (IM-PID) is proposed in this paper though most of ocean wave energy extraction systems are optimized by the structure, weight, and material. With this control method, the heavy speed of outer heavy buoy of the energy extraction system is in resonance with incident wave, and the system efficiency is largely improved. Validity of the proposed optimal control method is verified in both regular and irregular ocean waves, and it is shown that IM-PID control method is optimal in that it maximizes the energy conversion efficiency. In addition, the anti-interference ability of IM-PID control method has been assessed, and the results show that the IM-PID control method has good robustness, high precision, and strong anti-interference ability. PMID:25152913

An optimal control method for maximizing the efficiency of direct drive ocean wave energy extraction system.

PubMed

Chen, Zhongxian; Yu, Haitao; Wen, Cheng

2014-01-01

The goal of direct drive ocean wave energy extraction system is to convert ocean wave energy into electricity. The problem explored in this paper is the design and optimal control for the direct drive ocean wave energy extraction system. An optimal control method based on internal model proportion integration differentiation (IM-PID) is proposed in this paper though most of ocean wave energy extraction systems are optimized by the structure, weight, and material. With this control method, the heavy speed of outer heavy buoy of the energy extraction system is in resonance with incident wave, and the system efficiency is largely improved. Validity of the proposed optimal control method is verified in both regular and irregular ocean waves, and it is shown that IM-PID control method is optimal in that it maximizes the energy conversion efficiency. In addition, the anti-interference ability of IM-PID control method has been assessed, and the results show that the IM-PID control method has good robustness, high precision, and strong anti-interference ability.

Learning to Identify Local Flora with Human Feedback (Author’s Manuscript)

DTIC Science & Technology

2014-06-23

UNEP- WCMC, 2002. 1 [4] J . Hays and A. A. Efros. IM2GPS: estimating geographic informa- tion from a single image. In CVPR, 2008. 1 [5] R. Jin, S. Wang...and Y. Zhou. Regularized distance metric learning: Theory and algorithm. In NIPS, 2009. 2 [6] N. Kumar, P. Belhumeur, A. Biswas, D. Jacobs, W. J . Kress...I. Lopez, and J . Soare. Leafsnap: A computer vision system for automatic plant species identification. In ECCV, 2012. 1 [7] A. Oliva and A. Torralba

Probabilistic and Statistical Modeling of Complex Systems Exhibiting Long Range Dependence and Heavy Tails

DTIC Science & Technology

2010-07-01

cluster input can look like a Fractional Brownian motion even in the slow growth regime’’. Advances in Applied Probability, 41(2), 393-427. Yeghiazarian, L... Brownian motion ? Ann. Appl. Probab., 12(1):23–68, 2002. [10] A. Mitra and S.I. Resnick. Hidden domain of attraction: extension of hidden regular variation...variance? A paradox and an explanation’’. Quantitative Finance , 1, 11 pages. Hult, H. and Samorodnitsky, G. (2010) ``Large deviations for point

Regularity of the Solution of Elliptic Problems with Piecewise Analytic Data. Part 1. Boundary Value Problems for Linear Ellilptic Equation of Second Order.

DTIC Science & Technology

1986-05-01

neighborhood of the Program PROBE of Noetic Technologies, St. Louis. corners of the domain, place where the type of the boundary condition changes, etc...is studied . , r ° -. o. - *- . ,. .- -*. ... - - . . . ’ , ..- , .- *- , . --s,." . ",-:, "j’ . ], k i-, j!3 ,, :,’ - .A L...Manual. Noetic Technologies Corp., St. Louis, Missouri (1985). 318] Szab’, B. A.: Implementation of a Finite Element Software System with h and p

From Global Stresses to Local Cell Packing During Development

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lubensky, David

2011-03-01

To perform their functions, cells in epithelial tissues must often adopt highly regular packings. It is still not fully understood how these ordered arrangements of cells arise from disordered, proliferative epithelia during development. I will use experimental and theoretical studies on an attractive model system, the cone cell mosaic in fish retina, to illustrate some ways that mechanical forces and cell signaling can interact to produce this transformation. Experiments examining the response to surgical lesions suggest that the correct mechanical environment at the tissue scale is essential to induce cone cells to rearrange into a rectangular lattice. Starting from this observation, I will argue that large-scale mechanical stresses naturally couple to and orient cell polarization and that this coupling can lead cells to line up in regular rows, as observed in the fish retina. This model predicts that cells in the rows will adopt characteristic trapezoidal shapes and that fragments of rows will persist even in tissue where the mosaic pattern is disrupted by lesions; these predictions are borne out by an analysis of cell packings at the level of the zonula occludens in wildtype and lesioned retinas. Supported by NSF grant IOS-0952873.