Modelling dynamics with context-free grammars

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

García-Huerta, Juan-M.; Jiménez-Hernández, Hugo; Herrera-Navarro, Ana-M.; Hernández-Díaz, Teresa; Terol-Villalobos, Ivan

2014-03-01

This article presents a strategy to model the dynamics performed by vehicles in a freeway. The proposal consists on encode the movement as a set of finite states. A watershed-based segmentation is used to localize regions with high-probability of motion. Each state represents a proportion of a camera projection in a two-dimensional space, where each state is associated to a symbol, such that any combination of symbols is expressed as a language. Starting from a sequence of symbols through a linear algorithm a free-context grammar is inferred. This grammar represents a hierarchical view of common sequences observed into the scene. Most probable grammar rules express common rules associated to normal movement behavior. Less probable rules express themselves a way to quantify non-common behaviors and they might need more attention. Finally, all sequences of symbols that does not match with the grammar rules, may express itself uncommon behaviors (abnormal). The grammar inference is built with several sequences of images taken from a freeway. Testing process uses the sequence of symbols emitted by the scenario, matching the grammar rules with common freeway behaviors. The process of detect abnormal/normal behaviors is managed as the task of verify if any word generated by the scenario is recognized by the grammar.

AFRESh: an adaptive framework for compression of reads and assembled sequences with random access functionality.

PubMed

Paridaens, Tom; Van Wallendael, Glenn; De Neve, Wesley; Lambert, Peter

2017-05-15

The past decade has seen the introduction of new technologies that lowered the cost of genomic sequencing increasingly. We can even observe that the cost of sequencing is dropping significantly faster than the cost of storage and transmission. The latter motivates a need for continuous improvements in the area of genomic data compression, not only at the level of effectiveness (compression rate), but also at the level of functionality (e.g. random access), configurability (effectiveness versus complexity, coding tool set …) and versatility (support for both sequenced reads and assembled sequences). In that regard, we can point out that current approaches mostly do not support random access, requiring full files to be transmitted, and that current approaches are restricted to either read or sequence compression. We propose AFRESh, an adaptive framework for no-reference compression of genomic data with random access functionality, targeting the effective representation of the raw genomic symbol streams of both reads and assembled sequences. AFRESh makes use of a configurable set of prediction and encoding tools, extended by a Context-Adaptive Binary Arithmetic Coding scheme (CABAC), to compress raw genetic codes. To the best of our knowledge, our paper is the first to describe an effective implementation CABAC outside of its' original application. By applying CABAC, the compression effectiveness improves by up to 19% for assembled sequences and up to 62% for reads. By applying AFRESh to the genomic symbols of the MPEG genomic compression test set for reads, a compression gain is achieved of up to 51% compared to SCALCE, 42% compared to LFQC and 44% compared to ORCOM. When comparing to generic compression approaches, a compression gain is achieved of up to 41% compared to GNU Gzip and 22% compared to 7-Zip at the Ultra setting. Additionaly, when compressing assembled sequences of the Human Genome, a compression gain is achieved up to 34% compared to GNU Gzip and 16% compared to 7-Zip at the Ultra setting. A Windows executable version can be downloaded at https://github.com/tparidae/AFresh . tom.paridaens@ugent.be. © The Author 2017. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com

Learning predictive statistics from temporal sequences: Dynamics and strategies

PubMed Central

Wang, Rui; Shen, Yuan; Tino, Peter; Welchman, Andrew E.; Kourtzi, Zoe

2017-01-01

Human behavior is guided by our expectations about the future. Often, we make predictions by monitoring how event sequences unfold, even though such sequences may appear incomprehensible. Event structures in the natural environment typically vary in complexity, from simple repetition to complex probabilistic combinations. How do we learn these structures? Here we investigate the dynamics of structure learning by tracking human responses to temporal sequences that change in structure unbeknownst to the participants. Participants were asked to predict the upcoming item following a probabilistic sequence of symbols. Using a Markov process, we created a family of sequences, from simple frequency statistics (e.g., some symbols are more probable than others) to context-based statistics (e.g., symbol probability is contingent on preceding symbols). We demonstrate the dynamics with which individuals adapt to changes in the environment's statistics—that is, they extract the behaviorally relevant structures to make predictions about upcoming events. Further, we show that this structure learning relates to individual decision strategy; faster learning of complex structures relates to selection of the most probable outcome in a given context (maximizing) rather than matching of the exact sequence statistics. Our findings provide evidence for alternate routes to learning of behaviorally relevant statistics that facilitate our ability to predict future events in variable environments. PMID:28973111

Learning predictive statistics from temporal sequences: Dynamics and strategies.

PubMed

Wang, Rui; Shen, Yuan; Tino, Peter; Welchman, Andrew E; Kourtzi, Zoe

2017-10-01

Human behavior is guided by our expectations about the future. Often, we make predictions by monitoring how event sequences unfold, even though such sequences may appear incomprehensible. Event structures in the natural environment typically vary in complexity, from simple repetition to complex probabilistic combinations. How do we learn these structures? Here we investigate the dynamics of structure learning by tracking human responses to temporal sequences that change in structure unbeknownst to the participants. Participants were asked to predict the upcoming item following a probabilistic sequence of symbols. Using a Markov process, we created a family of sequences, from simple frequency statistics (e.g., some symbols are more probable than others) to context-based statistics (e.g., symbol probability is contingent on preceding symbols). We demonstrate the dynamics with which individuals adapt to changes in the environment's statistics-that is, they extract the behaviorally relevant structures to make predictions about upcoming events. Further, we show that this structure learning relates to individual decision strategy; faster learning of complex structures relates to selection of the most probable outcome in a given context (maximizing) rather than matching of the exact sequence statistics. Our findings provide evidence for alternate routes to learning of behaviorally relevant statistics that facilitate our ability to predict future events in variable environments.

The impact of visual sequencing of graphic symbols on the sentence construction output of children who have acquired language.

PubMed

Alant, Erna; du Plooy, Amelia; Dada, Shakila

2007-01-01

Although the sequence of graphic or pictorial symbols displayed on a communication board can have an impact on the language output of children, very little research has been conducted to describe this. Research in this area is particularly relevant for prioritising the importance of specific visual and graphic features in providing more effective and user-friendly access to communication boards. This study is concerned with understanding the impact ofspecific sequences of graphic symbol input on the graphic and spoken output of children who have acquired language. Forty participants were divided into two comparable groups. Each group was exposed to graphic symbol input with a certain word order sequence. The structure of input was either in typical English word order sequence Subject- Verb-Object (SVO) or in the word order sequence of Subject-Object-Verb (SOV). Both input groups had to answer six questions by using graphic output as well as speech. The findings indicated that there are significant differences in the PCS graphic output patterns of children who are exposed to graphic input in the SOV and SVO sequences. Furthermore, the output produced in the graphic mode differed considerably to the output produced in the spoken mode. Clinical implications of these findings are discussed

Symbolic dynamics techniques for complex systems: Application to share price dynamics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Xu, Dan; Beck, Christian

2017-05-01

The symbolic dynamics technique is well known for low-dimensional dynamical systems and chaotic maps, and lies at the roots of the thermodynamic formalism of dynamical systems. Here we show that this technique can also be successfully applied to time series generated by complex systems of much higher dimensionality. Our main example is the investigation of share price returns in a coarse-grained way. A nontrivial spectrum of Rényi entropies is found. We study how the spectrum depends on the time scale of returns, the sector of stocks considered, as well as the number of symbols used for the symbolic description. Overall our analysis confirms that in the symbol space transition probabilities of observed share price returns depend on the entire history of previous symbols, thus emphasizing the need for a modelling based on non-Markovian stochastic processes. Our method allows for quantitative comparisons of entirely different complex systems, for example the statistics of symbol sequences generated by share price returns using 4 symbols can be compared with that of genomic sequences.

Preschool-aged children have difficulty constructing and interpreting simple utterances composed of graphic symbols.

PubMed

Sutton, Ann; Trudeau, Natacha; Morford, Jill; Rios, Monica; Poirier, Marie-Andrée

2010-01-01

Children who require augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) systems while they are in the process of acquiring language face unique challenges because they use graphic symbols for communication. In contrast to the situation of typically developing children, they use different modalities for comprehension (auditory) and expression (visual). This study explored the ability of three- and four-year-old children without disabilities to perform tasks involving sequences of graphic symbols. Thirty participants were asked to transpose spoken simple sentences into graphic symbols by selecting individual symbols corresponding to the spoken words, and to interpret graphic symbol utterances by selecting one of four photographs corresponding to a sequence of three graphic symbols. The results showed that these were not simple tasks for the participants, and few of them performed in the expected manner - only one in transposition, and only one-third of participants in interpretation. Individual response strategies in some cases lead to contrasting response patterns. Children at this age level have not yet developed the skills required to deal with graphic symbols even though they have mastered the corresponding spoken language structures.

The Organization of Words and Symbolic Gestures in 18-Month-Olds’ Lexicons: Evidence from a Disambiguation Task

PubMed Central

Suanda, Sumarga H.; Namy, Laura L.

2012-01-01

Infants’ early communicative repertoires include both words and symbolic gestures. The current study examined the extent to which infants organize words and gestures in a single unified lexicon. As a window into lexical organization, eighteen-month-olds’ (N = 32) avoidance of word-gesture overlap was examined and compared to avoidance of word-word overlap. The current study revealed that when presented with novel words, infants avoided lexical overlap, mapping novel words onto novel objects. In contrast, when presented with novel gestures, infants sought overlap, mapping novel gestures onto familiar objects. The results suggest that infants do not treat words and gestures as equivalent lexical items and that during a period of development when word and symbolic gesture processing share many similarities, important differences also exist between these two symbolic forms. PMID:23539273

Mitigation of time-varying distortions in Nyquist-WDM systems using machine learning

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Granada Torres, Jhon J.; Varughese, Siddharth; Thomas, Varghese A.; Chiuchiarelli, Andrea; Ralph, Stephen E.; Cárdenas Soto, Ana M.; Guerrero González, Neil

2017-11-01

We propose a machine learning-based nonsymmetrical demodulation technique relying on clustering to mitigate time-varying distortions derived from several impairments such as IQ imbalance, bias drift, phase noise and interchannel interference. Experimental results show that those impairments cause centroid movements in the received constellations seen in time-windows of 10k symbols in controlled scenarios. In our demodulation technique, the k-means algorithm iteratively identifies the cluster centroids in the constellation of the received symbols in short time windows by means of the optimization of decision thresholds for a minimum BER. We experimentally verified the effectiveness of this computationally efficient technique in multicarrier 16QAM Nyquist-WDM systems over 270 km links. Our nonsymmetrical demodulation technique outperforms the conventional QAM demodulation technique, reducing the OSNR requirement up to ∼0.8 dB at a BER of 1 × 10-2 for signals affected by interchannel interference.

Local Renyi entropic profiles of DNA sequences.

PubMed

Vinga, Susana; Almeida, Jonas S

2007-10-16

In a recent report the authors presented a new measure of continuous entropy for DNA sequences, which allows the estimation of their randomness level. The definition therein explored was based on the Rényi entropy of probability density estimation (pdf) using the Parzen's window method and applied to Chaos Game Representation/Universal Sequence Maps (CGR/USM). Subsequent work proposed a fractal pdf kernel as a more exact solution for the iterated map representation. This report extends the concepts of continuous entropy by defining DNA sequence entropic profiles using the new pdf estimations to refine the density estimation of motifs. The new methodology enables two results. On the one hand it shows that the entropic profiles are directly related with the statistical significance of motifs, allowing the study of under and over-representation of segments. On the other hand, by spanning the parameters of the kernel function it is possible to extract important information about the scale of each conserved DNA region. The computational applications, developed in Matlab m-code, the corresponding binary executables and additional material and examples are made publicly available at http://kdbio.inesc-id.pt/~svinga/ep/. The ability to detect local conservation from a scale-independent representation of symbolic sequences is particularly relevant for biological applications where conserved motifs occur in multiple, overlapping scales, with significant future applications in the recognition of foreign genomic material and inference of motif structures.

Local Renyi entropic profiles of DNA sequences

PubMed Central

Vinga, Susana; Almeida, Jonas S

2007-01-01

Background In a recent report the authors presented a new measure of continuous entropy for DNA sequences, which allows the estimation of their randomness level. The definition therein explored was based on the Rényi entropy of probability density estimation (pdf) using the Parzen's window method and applied to Chaos Game Representation/Universal Sequence Maps (CGR/USM). Subsequent work proposed a fractal pdf kernel as a more exact solution for the iterated map representation. This report extends the concepts of continuous entropy by defining DNA sequence entropic profiles using the new pdf estimations to refine the density estimation of motifs. Results The new methodology enables two results. On the one hand it shows that the entropic profiles are directly related with the statistical significance of motifs, allowing the study of under and over-representation of segments. On the other hand, by spanning the parameters of the kernel function it is possible to extract important information about the scale of each conserved DNA region. The computational applications, developed in Matlab m-code, the corresponding binary executables and additional material and examples are made publicly available at . Conclusion The ability to detect local conservation from a scale-independent representation of symbolic sequences is particularly relevant for biological applications where conserved motifs occur in multiple, overlapping scales, with significant future applications in the recognition of foreign genomic material and inference of motif structures. PMID:17939871

Research on the co-movement between high-end talent and economic growth: A complex network approach

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, Zhen; Wang, Minggang; Xu, Hua; Zhang, Wenbin; Tian, Lixin

2018-02-01

The major goal of this paper is to focus on the co-movement between high-end talent and economic growth by a complex network approach. Firstly, the national high-end talent development efficiency from 1990 to 2015 is taken as the quantitative index to measure the development of high-end talent. The added values of the primary industry, secondary industry, tertiary industry are selected as economic growth indexes, and all the selected sample data are standardized by the mean value processing method. Secondly, let seven months as the length of the sliding window, and one month as the sliding step, then the grey correlation degrees between systems are measured using the slope correlation degrees, and the grey correlation degree sequence is mapped into the symbol series composed by three symbols { Y , O , N } based on the coarse graining method. Let three characters as a mode, the nodes are obtained by the modes according to the time sequence. Let the transformation between the modal be the edge, and the times of the transformation be weight, then the co-movement networks between national high-end talent development efficiency and the added values of the primary industry, secondary industry, tertiary industry are built respectively. Finally, the dynamic characteristics of the networks are analysed by the node strength, strength distribution, weighted clustering coefficient, conversion cycle of the modes and the transition between the co-movement modes. The results indicate that there are mutual influence and promotion relations between the national high-end talent development efficiency and the added values of the primary, secondary and tertiary industry.

Information entropy of humpback whale songs.

PubMed

Suzuki, Ryuji; Buck, John R; Tyack, Peter L

2006-03-01

The structure of humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) songs was examined using information theory techniques. The song is an ordered sequence of individual sound elements separated by gaps of silence. Song samples were converted into sequences of discrete symbols by both human and automated classifiers. This paper analyzes the song structure in these symbol sequences using information entropy estimators and autocorrelation estimators. Both parametric and nonparametric entropy estimators are applied to the symbol sequences representing the songs. The results provide quantitative evidence consistent with the hierarchical structure proposed for these songs by Payne and McVay [Science 173, 587-597 (1971)]. Specifically, this analysis demonstrates that: (1) There is a strong structural constraint, or syntax, in the generation of the songs, and (2) the structural constraints exhibit periodicities with periods of 6-8 and 180-400 units. This implies that no empirical Markov model is capable of representing the songs' structure. The results are robust to the choice of either human or automated song-to-symbol classifiers. In addition, the entropy estimates indicate that the maximum amount of information that could be communicated by the sequence of sounds made is less than 1 bit per second.

Robust Synchronization Schemes for Dynamic Channel Environments

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Xiong, Fugin

2003-01-01

Professor Xiong will investigate robust synchronization schemes for dynamic channel environment. A sliding window will be investigated for symbol timing synchronizer and an open loop carrier estimator for carrier synchronization. Matlab/Simulink will be used for modeling and simulations.

Segmented-memory recurrent neural networks.

PubMed

Chen, Jinmiao; Chaudhari, Narendra S

2009-08-01

Conventional recurrent neural networks (RNNs) have difficulties in learning long-term dependencies. To tackle this problem, we propose an architecture called segmented-memory recurrent neural network (SMRNN). A symbolic sequence is broken into segments and then presented as inputs to the SMRNN one symbol per cycle. The SMRNN uses separate internal states to store symbol-level context, as well as segment-level context. The symbol-level context is updated for each symbol presented for input. The segment-level context is updated after each segment. The SMRNN is trained using an extended real-time recurrent learning algorithm. We test the performance of SMRNN on the information latching problem, the "two-sequence problem" and the problem of protein secondary structure (PSS) prediction. Our implementation results indicate that SMRNN performs better on long-term dependency problems than conventional RNNs. Besides, we also theoretically analyze how the segmented memory of SMRNN helps learning long-term temporal dependencies and study the impact of the segment length.

Time-series analysis of foreign exchange rates using time-dependent pattern entropy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ishizaki, Ryuji; Inoue, Masayoshi

2013-08-01

Time-dependent pattern entropy is a method that reduces variations to binary symbolic dynamics and considers the pattern of symbols in a sliding temporal window. We use this method to analyze the instability of daily variations in foreign exchange rates, in particular, the dollar-yen rate. The time-dependent pattern entropy of the dollar-yen rate was found to be high in the following periods: before and after the turning points of the yen from strong to weak or from weak to strong, and the period after the Lehman shock.

Graph determined symbolic dynamics and hybrid systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ayers, Kimberly Danielle

In this paper we explore the concept of symbolic dynamical systems whose structure is determined by a directed graph, and then discrete-continuous hybrid systems that arise from such dynamical systems. Typically, symbolic dynamics involve the study of a left shift of a bi-infinite sequence. We examine the case when the bi-infinite system is dictated by a graph; that is, the sequence is a bi-infinite path of a directed graph. We then use the concept to study a system of dynamical systems all on the same compact space M, where "switching" between the systems occurs as given by the bi-infinite sequence in question. The concepts of limit sets, chain recurrent sets, chaos, and Morse sets for these systems are explored.

Assessing randomness and complexity in human motion trajectories through analysis of symbolic sequences

PubMed Central

Peng, Zhen; Genewein, Tim; Braun, Daniel A.

2014-01-01

Complexity is a hallmark of intelligent behavior consisting both of regular patterns and random variation. To quantitatively assess the complexity and randomness of human motion, we designed a motor task in which we translated subjects' motion trajectories into strings of symbol sequences. In the first part of the experiment participants were asked to perform self-paced movements to create repetitive patterns, copy pre-specified letter sequences, and generate random movements. To investigate whether the degree of randomness can be manipulated, in the second part of the experiment participants were asked to perform unpredictable movements in the context of a pursuit game, where they received feedback from an online Bayesian predictor guessing their next move. We analyzed symbol sequences representing subjects' motion trajectories with five common complexity measures: predictability, compressibility, approximate entropy, Lempel-Ziv complexity, as well as effective measure complexity. We found that subjects' self-created patterns were the most complex, followed by drawing movements of letters and self-paced random motion. We also found that participants could change the randomness of their behavior depending on context and feedback. Our results suggest that humans can adjust both complexity and regularity in different movement types and contexts and that this can be assessed with information-theoretic measures of the symbolic sequences generated from movement trajectories. PMID:24744716

Experimental research of UWB over fiber system employing 128-QAM and ISFA-optimized scheme

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

He, Jing; Xiang, Changqing; Long, Fengting; Chen, Zuo

2018-05-01

In this paper, an optimized intra-symbol frequency-domain averaging (ISFA) scheme is proposed and experimentally demonstrated in intensity-modulation and direct-detection (IMDD) multiband orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (MB-OFDM) ultra-wideband over fiber (UWBoF) system. According to the channel responses of three MB-OFDM UWB sub-bands, the optimal ISFA window size for each sub-band is investigated. After 60-km standard single mode fiber (SSMF) transmission, the experimental results show that, at the bit error rate (BER) of 3.8 × 10-3, the receiver sensitivity of 128-quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) can be improved by 1.9 dB using the proposed enhanced ISFA combined with training sequence (TS)-based channel estimation scheme, compared with the conventional TS-based channel estimation. Moreover, the spectral efficiency (SE) is up to 5.39 bit/s/Hz.

The Roles of Visualization and Symbolism in the Potential and Actual Infinity of the Limit Process

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kidron, Ivy; Tall, David

2015-01-01

A teaching experiment-using Mathematica to investigate the convergence of sequence of functions visually as a sequence of objects (graphs) converging onto a fixed object (the graph of the limit function)-is here used to analyze how the approach can support the dynamic blending of visual and symbolic representations that has the potential to lead…

WebLogo

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

Crooks, Gavin E.

WebLogo is a web based application designed to make the generation of sequence logos as easy and painless as possible. Sequesnce logos are a graphical representation of an amino acid or nucleic acid multiple sequence alignment developed by Tom Schneider and Mike Stephens. Each logo consists of stacks of symbols, one stack for each position in the sequence. The overall height of the stack indicates the sequence conservation at that position, while the height of symbols within the stack indicates the relative frequency of each amino or nucleic acid at that position. In general, a sequence logo provides a richermore » and more precise description of, for example, a binding site, than would a consensus sequence.« less

Symbolic Dynamics of Reanalysis Data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Larson, J. W.; Dickens, P. M.

2003-12-01

Symbolic dynamics1 is the study of sequences of symbols belonging to a discrete set of elements, the most commmon example being a sequence of ones and zeroes. Often the set of symbols is derived from a timeseries of a continuous variable through the introduction of a partition function--a process called symbolization. Symbolic dynamics has been used widely in the physical sciences; a geophysical example being the application of C1 and C2 complexity2 to hourly precipitation station data3. The C1 and C2 complexities are computed by examining subsequences--or words--of fixed length L in the limit of large values of L. Recent advances in information theory have led to techniques focused on the growth rate of the Shannon entropy and its asymptotic behavior in the limit of long words--levels of entropy convergence4. The result is a set of measures one can use to quantify the amount of memory stored in the sequence, whether or not an observer is able to synchronize to the sequence, and with what confidence it may be predicted. These techniques may also be used to uncover periodic behavior in the sequence. We are currently applying complexity theory and levels of entropy convergence to gridpoint timeseries from the NCAR/NCEP 50-year reanalysis5. Topics to be discussed include: a brief introduction to symbolic dynamics; a description of the partition function/symbolization strategy; a discussion of C1 and C2 complexity and entropy convergence rates and their utility; and example applications of these techniques to NCAR/NCEP 50-reanalyses gridpoint timeseries, resulting in maps of C1 and C2 complexities and entropy convergence rates. Finally, we will discuss how these results may be used to validate climate models. 1{Hao, Bai-Lin, Elementary Symbolic Dynamics and Chaos in Dissipative Systems, Wold Scientific, Singapore (1989)} 2{d'Alessandro, G. and Politi, A., Phys. Rev. Lett., 64, 1609-1612 (1990).} 3{Elsner, J. and Tsonis, A., J. Atmos. Sci., 50, 400-405 (1993).} 4{Crutchfield, J. and Feldman, D., Chaos, {bf 13}, 25-54 (2003).} 5{Kalnay, E.~, Kanamitsu, M.~, Kistler, R.~, Collins, W.~, Deaven, D.~, Gandin, L.~, Iredell, M.~, Saha, S.~, White, G.~, Woolen, J.~, Zhu, Y.~, Chelliah, M.~, Ebisuzaki, W.~, Higgins, W.~, Janowiak, J.~, Mo, K.~C.~, Ropelewski, C.~, Wang, J.~, Leetmaa, A.~, Reynolds, R.~, Jenne, R.~, and Joseph, D.~, Bull. Amer. Met. Soc., 77, 437-471 (1996).}

Biological sequence compression algorithms.

PubMed

Matsumoto, T; Sadakane, K; Imai, H

2000-01-01

Today, more and more DNA sequences are becoming available. The information about DNA sequences are stored in molecular biology databases. The size and importance of these databases will be bigger and bigger in the future, therefore this information must be stored or communicated efficiently. Furthermore, sequence compression can be used to define similarities between biological sequences. The standard compression algorithms such as gzip or compress cannot compress DNA sequences, but only expand them in size. On the other hand, CTW (Context Tree Weighting Method) can compress DNA sequences less than two bits per symbol. These algorithms do not use special structures of biological sequences. Two characteristic structures of DNA sequences are known. One is called palindromes or reverse complements and the other structure is approximate repeats. Several specific algorithms for DNA sequences that use these structures can compress them less than two bits per symbol. In this paper, we improve the CTW so that characteristic structures of DNA sequences are available. Before encoding the next symbol, the algorithm searches an approximate repeat and palindrome using hash and dynamic programming. If there is a palindrome or an approximate repeat with enough length then our algorithm represents it with length and distance. By using this preprocessing, a new program achieves a little higher compression ratio than that of existing DNA-oriented compression algorithms. We also describe new compression algorithm for protein sequences.

EMD-Based Symbolic Dynamic Analysis for the Recognition of Human and Nonhuman Pyroelectric Infrared Signals.

PubMed

Zhao, Jiaduo; Gong, Weiguo; Tang, Yuzhen; Li, Weihong

2016-01-20

In this paper, we propose an effective human and nonhuman pyroelectric infrared (PIR) signal recognition method to reduce PIR detector false alarms. First, using the mathematical model of the PIR detector, we analyze the physical characteristics of the human and nonhuman PIR signals; second, based on the analysis results, we propose an empirical mode decomposition (EMD)-based symbolic dynamic analysis method for the recognition of human and nonhuman PIR signals. In the proposed method, first, we extract the detailed features of a PIR signal into five symbol sequences using an EMD-based symbolization method, then, we generate five feature descriptors for each PIR signal through constructing five probabilistic finite state automata with the symbol sequences. Finally, we use a weighted voting classification strategy to classify the PIR signals with their feature descriptors. Comparative experiments show that the proposed method can effectively classify the human and nonhuman PIR signals and reduce PIR detector's false alarms.

Construction of Graphic Symbol Sequences by Preschool-Aged Children: Learning, Training, and Maintenance

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Poupart, Annick; Trudeau, Natacha; Sutton, Ann

2013-01-01

The use of augmentative and alternative communication systems based on graphic symbols requires children to learn to combine symbols to convey utterances. The current study investigated how children without disabilities aged 4 to 6 years (n = 74) performed on a simple sentence (subject-verb and subject-verb-object) transposition task (i.e., spoken…

Multiple-Bit Differential Detection of OQPSK

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Simon, Marvin

2005-01-01

A multiple-bit differential-detection method has been proposed for the reception of radio signals modulated with offset quadrature phase-shift keying (offset QPSK or OQPSK). The method is also applicable to other spectrally efficient offset quadrature modulations. This method is based partly on the same principles as those of a multiple-symbol differential-detection method for M-ary QPSK, which includes QPSK (that is, non-offset QPSK) as a special case. That method was introduced more than a decade ago by the author of the present method as a means of improving performance relative to a traditional (two-symbol observation) differential-detection scheme. Instead of symbol-by-symbol detection, both that method and the present one are based on a concept of maximum-likelihood sequence estimation (MLSE). As applied to the modulations in question, MLSE involves consideration of (1) all possible binary data sequences that could have been received during an observation time of some number, N, of symbol periods and (2) selection of the sequence that yields the best match to the noise-corrupted signal received during that time. The performance of the prior method was shown to range from that of traditional differential detection for short observation times (small N) to that of ideal coherent detection (with differential encoding) for long observation times (large N).

Computer-generated mineral commodity deposit maps

USGS Publications Warehouse

Schruben, Paul G.; Hanley, J. Thomas

1983-01-01

This report describes an automated method of generating deposit maps of mineral commodity information. In addition, it serves as a user's manual for the authors' mapping system. Procedures were developed which allow commodity specialists to enter deposit information, retrieve selected data, and plot deposit symbols in any geographic area within the conterminous United States. The mapping system uses both micro- and mainframe computers. The microcomputer is used to input and retrieve information, thus minimizing computing charges. The mainframe computer is used to generate map plots which are printed by a Calcomp plotter. Selector V data base system is employed for input and retrieval on the microcomputer. A general mapping program (Genmap) was written in FORTRAN for use on the mainframe computer. Genmap can plot fifteen symbol types (for point locations) in three sizes. The user can assign symbol types to data items interactively. Individual map symbols can be labeled with a number or the deposit name. Genmap also provides several geographic boundary file and window options.

File compression and encryption based on LLS and arithmetic coding

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yu, Changzhi; Li, Hengjian; Wang, Xiyu

2018-03-01

e propose a file compression model based on arithmetic coding. Firstly, the original symbols, to be encoded, are input to the encoder one by one, we produce a set of chaotic sequences by using the Logistic and sine chaos system(LLS), and the values of this chaotic sequences are randomly modified the Upper and lower limits of current symbols probability. In order to achieve the purpose of encryption, we modify the upper and lower limits of all character probabilities when encoding each symbols. Experimental results show that the proposed model can achieve the purpose of data encryption while achieving almost the same compression efficiency as the arithmetic coding.

Mathematics Programming on the Apple II and IBM PC.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Myers, Roy E.; Schneider, David I.

1987-01-01

Details the features of BASIC used in mathematics programming and provides the information needed to translate between the Apple II and IBM PC computers. Discusses inputing a user-defined function, setting scroll windows, displaying subscripts and exponents, variable names, mathematical characters and special symbols. (TW)

Estimation of chaotic coupled map lattices using symbolic vector dynamics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, Kai; Pei, Wenjiang; Cheung, Yiu-ming; Shen, Yi; He, Zhenya

2010-01-01

In [K. Wang, W.J. Pei, Z.Y. He, Y.M. Cheung, Phys. Lett. A 367 (2007) 316], an original symbolic vector dynamics based method has been proposed for initial condition estimation in additive white Gaussian noisy environment. The estimation precision of this estimation method is determined by symbolic errors of the symbolic vector sequence gotten by symbolizing the received signal. This Letter further develops the symbolic vector dynamical estimation method. We correct symbolic errors with backward vector and the estimated values by using different symbols, and thus the estimation precision can be improved. Both theoretical and experimental results show that this algorithm enables us to recover initial condition of coupled map lattice exactly in both noisy and noise free cases. Therefore, we provide novel analytical techniques for understanding turbulences in coupled map lattice.

Error correcting code with chip kill capability and power saving enhancement

DOEpatents

Gara, Alan G [Mount Kisco, NY; Chen, Dong [Croton On Husdon, NY; Coteus, Paul W [Yorktown Heights, NY; Flynn, William T [Rochester, MN; Marcella, James A [Rochester, MN; Takken, Todd [Brewster, NY; Trager, Barry M [Yorktown Heights, NY; Winograd, Shmuel [Scarsdale, NY

2011-08-30

A method and system are disclosed for detecting memory chip failure in a computer memory system. The method comprises the steps of accessing user data from a set of user data chips, and testing the user data for errors using data from a set of system data chips. This testing is done by generating a sequence of check symbols from the user data, grouping the user data into a sequence of data symbols, and computing a specified sequence of syndromes. If all the syndromes are zero, the user data has no errors. If one of the syndromes is non-zero, then a set of discriminator expressions are computed, and used to determine whether a single or double symbol error has occurred. In the preferred embodiment, less than two full system data chips are used for testing and correcting the user data.

Decomposition of conditional probability for high-order symbolic Markov chains.

PubMed

Melnik, S S; Usatenko, O V

2017-07-01

The main goal of this paper is to develop an estimate for the conditional probability function of random stationary ergodic symbolic sequences with elements belonging to a finite alphabet. We elaborate on a decomposition procedure for the conditional probability function of sequences considered to be high-order Markov chains. We represent the conditional probability function as the sum of multilinear memory function monomials of different orders (from zero up to the chain order). This allows us to introduce a family of Markov chain models and to construct artificial sequences via a method of successive iterations, taking into account at each step increasingly high correlations among random elements. At weak correlations, the memory functions are uniquely expressed in terms of the high-order symbolic correlation functions. The proposed method fills the gap between two approaches, namely the likelihood estimation and the additive Markov chains. The obtained results may have applications for sequential approximation of artificial neural network training.

Decomposition of conditional probability for high-order symbolic Markov chains

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Melnik, S. S.; Usatenko, O. V.

2017-07-01

The main goal of this paper is to develop an estimate for the conditional probability function of random stationary ergodic symbolic sequences with elements belonging to a finite alphabet. We elaborate on a decomposition procedure for the conditional probability function of sequences considered to be high-order Markov chains. We represent the conditional probability function as the sum of multilinear memory function monomials of different orders (from zero up to the chain order). This allows us to introduce a family of Markov chain models and to construct artificial sequences via a method of successive iterations, taking into account at each step increasingly high correlations among random elements. At weak correlations, the memory functions are uniquely expressed in terms of the high-order symbolic correlation functions. The proposed method fills the gap between two approaches, namely the likelihood estimation and the additive Markov chains. The obtained results may have applications for sequential approximation of artificial neural network training.

Similarity of Symbol Frequency Distributions with Heavy Tails

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gerlach, Martin; Font-Clos, Francesc; Altmann, Eduardo G.

2016-04-01

Quantifying the similarity between symbolic sequences is a traditional problem in information theory which requires comparing the frequencies of symbols in different sequences. In numerous modern applications, ranging from DNA over music to texts, the distribution of symbol frequencies is characterized by heavy-tailed distributions (e.g., Zipf's law). The large number of low-frequency symbols in these distributions poses major difficulties to the estimation of the similarity between sequences; e.g., they hinder an accurate finite-size estimation of entropies. Here, we show analytically how the systematic (bias) and statistical (fluctuations) errors in these estimations depend on the sample size N and on the exponent γ of the heavy-tailed distribution. Our results are valid for the Shannon entropy (α =1 ), its corresponding similarity measures (e.g., the Jensen-Shanon divergence), and also for measures based on the generalized entropy of order α . For small α 's, including α =1 , the errors decay slower than the 1 /N decay observed in short-tailed distributions. For α larger than a critical value α*=1 +1 /γ ≤2 , the 1 /N decay is recovered. We show the practical significance of our results by quantifying the evolution of the English language over the last two centuries using a complete α spectrum of measures. We find that frequent words change more slowly than less frequent words and that α =2 provides the most robust measure to quantify language change.

Multi-scale symbolic transfer entropy analysis of EEG

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yao, Wenpo; Wang, Jun

2017-10-01

From both global and local perspectives, we symbolize two kinds of EEG and analyze their dynamic and asymmetrical information using multi-scale transfer entropy. Multi-scale process with scale factor from 1 to 199 and step size of 2 is applied to EEG of healthy people and epileptic patients, and then the permutation with embedding dimension of 3 and global approach are used to symbolize the sequences. The forward and reverse symbol sequences are taken as the inputs of transfer entropy. Scale factor intervals of permutation and global way are (37, 57) and (65, 85) where the two kinds of EEG have satisfied entropy distinctions. When scale factor is 67, transfer entropy of the healthy and epileptic subjects of permutation, 0.1137 and 0.1028, have biggest difference. And the corresponding values of the global symbolization is 0.0641 and 0.0601 which lies in the scale factor of 165. Research results show that permutation which takes contribution of local information has better distinction and is more effectively applied to our multi-scale transfer entropy analysis of EEG.

Toward a Theory of Sequencing: Study 1-6: An Exploration of the Effect of Instructional Sequences Involving Enactive and Iconic Embodiments on the Attainment of Concepts Embodied Symbolically.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gau, Gerald Elmer

The purpose of the study was to examine the effect of instruction using Dienes' perceptual variability principle on the development of ability to operate with symbols in a meaningful way. The following was studied: whether an increase in the number of enactive and/or iconic embodiments of a concept utilized in an instructional episode will produce…

A Window into New Teachers' Minds

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brooks, Jacqueline Grennon; Mammo, Behailu

2016-01-01

The authors--directors of the Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program that recruits new teachers to help students in high-needs schools learn math and science--gave participants in their program the chance to present a metaphor or symbol for good teaching. Each novice teacher presented an artifact or image and described what that artifact represented to…

A measurement of disorder in binary sequences

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gong, Longyan; Wang, Haihong; Cheng, Weiwen; Zhao, Shengmei

2015-03-01

We propose a complex quantity, AL, to characterize the degree of disorder of L-length binary symbolic sequences. As examples, we respectively apply it to typical random and deterministic sequences. One kind of random sequences is generated from a periodic binary sequence and the other is generated from the logistic map. The deterministic sequences are the Fibonacci and Thue-Morse sequences. In these analyzed sequences, we find that the modulus of AL, denoted by |AL | , is a (statistically) equivalent quantity to the Boltzmann entropy, the metric entropy, the conditional block entropy and/or other quantities, so it is a useful quantitative measure of disorder. It can be as a fruitful index to discern which sequence is more disordered. Moreover, there is one and only one value of |AL | for the overall disorder characteristics. It needs extremely low computational costs. It can be easily experimentally realized. From all these mentioned, we believe that the proposed measure of disorder is a valuable complement to existing ones in symbolic sequences.

Using hidden Markov models to align multiple sequences.

PubMed

Mount, David W

2009-07-01

A hidden Markov model (HMM) is a probabilistic model of a multiple sequence alignment (msa) of proteins. In the model, each column of symbols in the alignment is represented by a frequency distribution of the symbols (called a "state"), and insertions and deletions are represented by other states. One moves through the model along a particular path from state to state in a Markov chain (i.e., random choice of next move), trying to match a given sequence. The next matching symbol is chosen from each state, recording its probability (frequency) and also the probability of going to that state from a previous one (the transition probability). State and transition probabilities are multiplied to obtain a probability of the given sequence. The hidden nature of the HMM is due to the lack of information about the value of a specific state, which is instead represented by a probability distribution over all possible values. This article discusses the advantages and disadvantages of HMMs in msa and presents algorithms for calculating an HMM and the conditions for producing the best HMM.

Music viewed by its entropy content: A novel window for comparative analysis

PubMed Central

Febres, Gerardo; Jaffe, Klaus

2017-01-01

Polyphonic music files were analyzed using the set of symbols that produced the Minimal Entropy Description, which we call the Fundamental Scale. This allowed us to create a novel space to represent music pieces by developing: (a) a method to adjust a textual description from its original scale of observation to an arbitrarily selected scale, (b) a method to model the structure of any textual description based on the shape of the symbol frequency profiles, and (c) the concept of higher order entropy as the entropy associated with the deviations of a frequency-ranked symbol profile from a perfect Zipfian profile. We call this diversity index the ‘2nd Order Entropy’. Applying these methods to a variety of musical pieces showed how the space of ‘symbolic specific diversity-entropy’ and that of ‘2nd order entropy’ captures characteristics that are unique to each music type, style, composer and genre. Some clustering of these properties around each musical category is shown. These methods allow us to visualize a historic trajectory of academic music across this space, from medieval to contemporary academic music. We show that the description of musical structures using entropy, symbol frequency profiles and specific symbolic diversity allows us to characterize traditional and popular expressions of music. These classification techniques promise to be useful in other disciplines for pattern recognition and machine learning. PMID:29040288

Music viewed by its entropy content: A novel window for comparative analysis.

PubMed

Febres, Gerardo; Jaffe, Klaus

2017-01-01

Polyphonic music files were analyzed using the set of symbols that produced the Minimal Entropy Description, which we call the Fundamental Scale. This allowed us to create a novel space to represent music pieces by developing: (a) a method to adjust a textual description from its original scale of observation to an arbitrarily selected scale, (b) a method to model the structure of any textual description based on the shape of the symbol frequency profiles, and (c) the concept of higher order entropy as the entropy associated with the deviations of a frequency-ranked symbol profile from a perfect Zipfian profile. We call this diversity index the '2nd Order Entropy'. Applying these methods to a variety of musical pieces showed how the space of 'symbolic specific diversity-entropy' and that of '2nd order entropy' captures characteristics that are unique to each music type, style, composer and genre. Some clustering of these properties around each musical category is shown. These methods allow us to visualize a historic trajectory of academic music across this space, from medieval to contemporary academic music. We show that the description of musical structures using entropy, symbol frequency profiles and specific symbolic diversity allows us to characterize traditional and popular expressions of music. These classification techniques promise to be useful in other disciplines for pattern recognition and machine learning.

Due-Window Assignment Scheduling with Variable Job Processing Times

PubMed Central

Wu, Yu-Bin

2015-01-01

We consider a common due-window assignment scheduling problem jobs with variable job processing times on a single machine, where the processing time of a job is a function of its position in a sequence (i.e., learning effect) or its starting time (i.e., deteriorating effect). The problem is to determine the optimal due-windows, and the processing sequence simultaneously to minimize a cost function includes earliness, tardiness, the window location, window size, and weighted number of tardy jobs. We prove that the problem can be solved in polynomial time. PMID:25918745

Efficient Symbolic Task Planning for Multiple Mobile Robots

DTIC Science & Technology

2016-12-13

Efficient Symbolic Task Planning for Multiple Mobile Robots Yuqian Jiang December 13, 2016 Abstract Symbolic task planning enables a robot to make...high-level deci- sions toward a complex goal by computing a sequence of actions with minimum expected costs. This thesis builds on a single- robot ...time complexity of optimal planning for multiple mobile robots . In this thesis we first investigate the performance of the state-of-the-art solvers of

Numerical Magnitude Processing Impairments in Genetic Syndromes: A Cross-Syndrome Comparison of Turner and 22Q11.2 Deletion Syndromes

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brankaer, Carmen; Ghesquière, Pol; De Wel, Anke; Swillen, Ann; De Smedt, Bert

2017-01-01

Cross-syndrome comparisons offer an important window onto understanding heterogeneity in mathematical learning disabilities or dyscalculia. The present study therefore investigated symbolic numerical magnitude processing in two genetic syndromes that are both characterized by mathematical learning disabilities: Turner syndrome and 22q11.2 deletion…

Color-Changing Microfiber-Based Multifunctional Window Screen for Capture and Visualized Monitoring of NH3.

PubMed

Wang, Zhen; Yuan, Xinxin; Cong, Shan; Chen, Zhigang; Li, Qingwen; Geng, Fengxia; Zhao, Zhigang

2018-05-02

Air pollution is one of the most serious issues affecting the world today. Instead of expensive and energy-intensive air filtering devices, a fiber-based transparent air filter coated on a window screen is seen as one of the state-of-the-art filtration technologies to combat the seriously growing problem, delivering the advantages of simplicity, convenience, and high filtering efficiency. However, such a window screen is currently limited to particulate matter (PM) filtration and ineffective with other air pollutants. Here, we report the use of a newfangled type of color-changing fibers, porous Prussian blue analogues (CuHCF)/polymer composite microfibers, for transparent window screens toward air pollutant filtration. To increase pollution filtration, pores and dimples are purposely introduced to the fibers using binary solvent systems through a nonsolvent-induced phase separation mechanism. Such composite microfibers overcome some of the limitations of those previously used fibers and could simultaneously capture PM 2.5 , PM 10 , and NH 3 with high efficiency. More interestingly, a distinct color change is observed upon exposure to air pollutants in such window screens, which provides multifunctional capability of simultaneous pollutant capture and naked eye screening of the pollutant amount. Specifically, in the case of long-term exposure to low-concentration NH 3 , the symbol displayed in such window screens changes from yellow color to brown and the coloration rate is directly controlled by the NH 3 concentration, which may serve as a careful reminder for those people who are repeatedly exposed to low-concentration ammonia gas (referred to as chronic poisoning). In contrast, after short-term exposure to a high concentration of ammonia gas, the yellow symbol immediately becomes blackened, which provides timely information about the risk of acute ammonia poisoning or even ammonia explosion. Further spectroscopic results show that the chromatic behaviors in response to different concentrations of NH 3 are fundamentally different, which is related to the different locations of ammonia in the lattice of CuHCF, either in its interstitial sites or at the Fe(CN) 6 vacancy sites, largely distinguished by the absence or presence of atmospheric moisture.

Time-series analysis of multiple foreign exchange rates using time-dependent pattern entropy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ishizaki, Ryuji; Inoue, Masayoshi

2018-01-01

Time-dependent pattern entropy is a method that reduces variations to binary symbolic dynamics and considers the pattern of symbols in a sliding temporal window. We use this method to analyze the instability of daily variations in multiple foreign exchange rates. The time-dependent pattern entropy of 7 foreign exchange rates (AUD/USD, CAD/USD, CHF/USD, EUR/USD, GBP/USD, JPY/USD, and NZD/USD) was found to be high in the long period after the Lehman shock, and be low in the long period after Mar 2012. We compared the correlation matrix between exchange rates in periods of high and low of the time-dependent pattern entropy.

Representation of DNA sequences in genetic codon context with applications in exon and intron prediction.

PubMed

Yin, Changchuan

2015-04-01

To apply digital signal processing (DSP) methods to analyze DNA sequences, the sequences first must be specially mapped into numerical sequences. Thus, effective numerical mappings of DNA sequences play key roles in the effectiveness of DSP-based methods such as exon prediction. Despite numerous mappings of symbolic DNA sequences to numerical series, the existing mapping methods do not include the genetic coding features of DNA sequences. We present a novel numerical representation of DNA sequences using genetic codon context (GCC) in which the numerical values are optimized by simulation annealing to maximize the 3-periodicity signal to noise ratio (SNR). The optimized GCC representation is then applied in exon and intron prediction by Short-Time Fourier Transform (STFT) approach. The results show the GCC method enhances the SNR values of exon sequences and thus increases the accuracy of predicting protein coding regions in genomes compared with the commonly used 4D binary representation. In addition, this study offers a novel way to reveal specific features of DNA sequences by optimizing numerical mappings of symbolic DNA sequences.

On the synchronizability and detectability of random PPM sequences

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Georghiades, Costas N.; Lin, Shu

1987-01-01

The problem of synchronization and detection of random pulse-position-modulation (PPM) sequences is investigated under the assumption of perfect slot synchronization. Maximum-likelihood PPM symbol synchronization and receiver algorithms are derived that make decisions based both on soft as well as hard data; these algorithms are seen to be easily implementable. Bounds derived on the symbol error probability as well as the probability of false synchronization indicate the existence of a rather severe performance floor, which can easily be the limiting factor in the overall system performance. The performance floor is inherent in the PPM format and random data and becomes more serious as the PPM alphabet size Q is increased. A way to eliminate the performance floor is suggested by inserting special PPM symbols in the random data stream.

On the synchronizability and detectability of random PPM sequences

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Georghiades, Costas N.

1987-01-01

The problem of synchronization and detection of random pulse-position-modulation (PPM) sequences is investigated under the assumption of perfect slot synchronization. Maximum likelihood PPM symbol synchronization and receiver algorithms are derived that make decisions based both on soft as well as hard data; these algorithms are seen to be easily implementable. Bounds were derived on the symbol error probability as well as the probability of false synchronization that indicate the existence of a rather severe performance floor, which can easily be the limiting factor in the overall system performance. The performance floor is inherent in the PPM format and random data and becomes more serious as the PPM alphabet size Q is increased. A way to eliminate the performance floor is suggested by inserting special PPM symbols in the random data stream.

Spectral characteristics of convolutionally coded digital signals

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Divsalar, D.

1979-01-01

The power spectral density of the output symbol sequence of a convolutional encoder is computed for two different input symbol stream source models, namely, an NRZ signaling format and a first order Markov source. In the former, the two signaling states of the binary waveform are not necessarily assumed to occur with equal probability. The effects of alternate symbol inversion on this spectrum are also considered. The mathematical results are illustrated with many examples corresponding to optimal performance codes.

Bi-orthogonal Symbol Mapping and Detection in Optical CDMA Communication System

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Liu, Maw-Yang

2017-12-01

In this paper, the bi-orthogonal symbol mapping and detection scheme is investigated in time-spreading wavelength-hopping optical CDMA communication system. The carrier-hopping prime code is exploited as signature sequence, whose put-of-phase autocorrelation is zero. Based on the orthogonality of carrier-hopping prime code, the equal weight orthogonal signaling scheme can be constructed, and the proposed scheme using bi-orthogonal symbol mapping and detection can be developed. The transmitted binary data bits are mapped into corresponding bi-orthogonal symbols, where the orthogonal matrix code and its complement are utilized. In the receiver, the received bi-orthogonal data symbol is fed into the maximum likelihood decoder for detection. Under such symbol mapping and detection, the proposed scheme can greatly enlarge the Euclidean distance; hence, the system performance can be drastically improved.

47 CFR 15.403 - Definitions.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-10-01

... or below its maximum level. (p) Pulse. A pulse is a continuous transmission of a sequence of... bridge in a peer-to-peer connection or as a connector between the wired and wireless segments of the... the presence of a radar. (c) Average Symbol Envelope Power. The average symbol envelope power is the...

Typical Window, Interior Wall Paint Sequence, Wall Section, and Foundation ...

Library of Congress Historic Buildings Survey, Historic Engineering Record, Historic Landscapes Survey

Typical Window, Interior Wall Paint Sequence, Wall Section, and Foundation Sections - Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) Camp NP-5-C, Barracks No. 5, CCC Camp Historic District at Chapin Mesa, Cortez, Montezuma County, CO

Characterizing system dynamics with a weighted and directed network constructed from time series data

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

Sun, Xiaoran, E-mail: sxr0806@gmail.com; School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Western Australia, Crawley WA 6009; Small, Michael, E-mail: michael.small@uwa.edu.au

In this work, we propose a novel method to transform a time series into a weighted and directed network. For a given time series, we first generate a set of segments via a sliding window, and then use a doubly symbolic scheme to characterize every windowed segment by combining absolute amplitude information with an ordinal pattern characterization. Based on this construction, a network can be directly constructed from the given time series: segments corresponding to different symbol-pairs are mapped to network nodes and the temporal succession between nodes is represented by directed links. With this conversion, dynamics underlying the timemore » series has been encoded into the network structure. We illustrate the potential of our networks with a well-studied dynamical model as a benchmark example. Results show that network measures for characterizing global properties can detect the dynamical transitions in the underlying system. Moreover, we employ a random walk algorithm to sample loops in our networks, and find that time series with different dynamics exhibits distinct cycle structure. That is, the relative prevalence of loops with different lengths can be used to identify the underlying dynamics.« less

Efficient Implementation of a Symbol Timing Estimator for Broadband PLC.

PubMed

Nombela, Francisco; García, Enrique; Mateos, Raúl; Hernández, Álvaro

2015-08-21

Broadband Power Line Communications (PLC) have taken advantage of the research advances in multi-carrier modulations to mitigate frequency selective fading, and their adoption opens up a myriad of applications in the field of sensory and automation systems, multimedia connectivity or smart spaces. Nonetheless, the use of these multi-carrier modulations, such as Wavelet-OFDM, requires a highly accurate symbol timing estimation for reliably recovering of transmitted data. Furthermore, the PLC channel presents some particularities that prevent the direct use of previous synchronization algorithms proposed in wireless communication systems. Therefore more research effort should be involved in the design and implementation of novel and robust synchronization algorithms for PLC, thus enabling real-time synchronization. This paper proposes a symbol timing estimator for broadband PLC based on cross-correlation with multilevel complementary sequences or Zadoff-Chu sequences and its efficient implementation in a FPGA; the obtained results show a 90% of success rate in symbol timing estimation for a certain PLC channel model and a reduced resource consumption for its implementation in a Xilinx Kyntex FPGA.

Time-series analysis of sleep wake stage of rat EEG using time-dependent pattern entropy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ishizaki, Ryuji; Shinba, Toshikazu; Mugishima, Go; Haraguchi, Hikaru; Inoue, Masayoshi

2008-05-01

We performed electroencephalography (EEG) for six male Wistar rats to clarify temporal behaviors at different levels of consciousness. Levels were identified both by conventional sleep analysis methods and by our novel entropy method. In our method, time-dependent pattern entropy is introduced, by which EEG is reduced to binary symbolic dynamics and the pattern of symbols in a sliding temporal window is considered. A high correlation was obtained between level of consciousness as measured by the conventional method and mean entropy in our entropy method. Mean entropy was maximal while awake (stage W) and decreased as sleep deepened. These results suggest that time-dependent pattern entropy may offer a promising method for future sleep research.

Self-organisation of symbolic information

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Feistel, R.

2017-01-01

Information is encountered in two different appearances, in native form by arbitrary physical structures, or in symbolic form by coded sequences of letters or the like. The self-organised emergence of symbolic information from structural information is referred to as a ritualisation transition. Occurring at some stage in evolutionary history, ritualisation transitions have in common that after the crossover, arbitrary symbols are issued and recognised by information-processing devices, by transmitters and receivers in the sense of Shannon's communication theory. Symbolic information-processing systems exhibit the fundamental code symmetry whose key features, such as largely lossless copying or persistence under hostile conditions, may elucidate the reasons for the repeated successful occurrence of ritualisation phenomena in evolution history. Ritualisation examples are briefly reviewed such as the origin of life, the appearance of human languages, the establishment of emergent social categories such as money, or the development of digital computers. In addition to their role as carriers of symbolic information, symbols are physical structures which also represent structural information. For a thermodynamic description of symbols and their arrangements, it appears reasonable to distinguish between Boltzmann entropy, Clausius entropy and Pauling entropy. Thermodynamic properties of symbols imply that their lifetimes are limited by the 2nd law.

Symbolic dynamics for arrhythmia identification from heart variability of rats with cardiac failures

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Letellier, C.; Roulin, E.; Loriot, S.; Morin, J.-P.; Dionnet, F.

2004-12-01

Heart rate variability of rats is investigated using concepts from the nonlinear dynamical system theory. Among the important techniques offered, symbolic dynamics is very appealing by its power to investigate patterns which can be repeated in a time series. The present analysis was performed in six control rats and six chronic cardiac insufficient rats (myocardial infarction due to left descendent coronary artery ligation). Rats are left in clean atmosphere or exposed to atmosphere containing diluted engine emission pollutants. The evolution of the heart rate variability is then investigated with a three element symbolic dynamics which allows to distinguish extrasystoles from tachycardia or bradycardia using the symbol sequences.

Comparative ruralism and 'opening new windows' on gentrification.

PubMed

Phillips, Martin; Smith, Darren P

2018-03-01

In response to the five commentaries on our paper 'Comparative approaches to gentrification: lessons from the rural', we open up more 'windows' on rural gentrification and its urban counterpart. First, we highlight the issues of metrocentricity and urbanormativity within gentrification studies, highlighting their employment by our commentators. Second, we consider the issue of displacement and its operation within rural space, as well as gentrification as a coping strategy for neoliberal existence and connections to more-than-human natures. Finally, we consider questions of scale, highlighting the need to avoid naturalistic conceptions of scale and arguing that attention could be paid to the role of material practices, symbolizations and lived experiences in producing scaled geographies of rural and urban gentrification.

What Information is Stored in DNA: Does it Contain Digital Error Correcting Codes?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Liebovitch, Larry

1998-03-01

The longest term correlations in living systems are the information stored in DNA which reflects the evolutionary history of an organism. The 4 bases (A,T,G,C) encode sequences of amino acids as well as locations of binding sites for proteins that regulate DNA. The fidelity of this important information is maintained by ANALOG error check mechanisms. When a single strand of DNA is replicated the complementary base is inserted in the new strand. Sometimes the wrong base is inserted that sticks out disrupting the phosphate backbone. The new base is not yet methylated, so repair enzymes, that slide along the DNA, can tear out the wrong base and replace it with the right one. The bases in DNA form a sequence of 4 different symbols and so the information is encoded in a DIGITAL form. All the digital codes in our society (ISBN book numbers, UPC product codes, bank account numbers, airline ticket numbers) use error checking code, where some digits are functions of other digits to maintain the fidelity of transmitted informaiton. Does DNA also utitlize a DIGITAL error chekcing code to maintain the fidelity of its information and increase the accuracy of replication? That is, are some bases in DNA functions of other bases upstream or downstream? This raises the interesting mathematical problem: How does one determine whether some symbols in a sequence of symbols are a function of other symbols. It also bears on the issue of determining algorithmic complexity: What is the function that generates the shortest algorithm for reproducing the symbol sequence. The error checking codes most used in our technology are linear block codes. We developed an efficient method to test for the presence of such codes in DNA. We coded the 4 bases as (0,1,2,3) and used Gaussian elimination, modified for modulus 4, to test if some bases are linear combinations of other bases. We used this method to analyze the base sequence in the genes from the lac operon and cytochrome C. We did not find evidence for such error correcting codes in these genes. However, we analyzed only a small amount of DNA and if digitial error correcting schemes are present in DNA, they may be more subtle than such simple linear block codes. The basic issue we raise here, is how information is stored in DNA and an appreciation that digital symbol sequences, such as DNA, admit of interesting schemes to store and protect the fidelity of their information content. Liebovitch, Tao, Todorov, Levine. 1996. Biophys. J. 71:1539-1544. Supported by NIH grant EY6234.

Non-Symbolic Arithmetic Abilities and Mathematics Achievement in the First Year of Formal Schooling

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gilmore, Camilla K.; McCarthy, Shannon E.; Spelke, Elizabeth S.

2010-01-01

Children take years to learn symbolic arithmetic. Nevertheless, non-human animals, human adults with no formal education, and human infants represent approximate number in arrays of objects and sequences of events, and they use these capacities to perform approximate addition and subtraction. Do children harness these abilities when they begin to…

On the Modularity of Implicit Sequence Learning: Independent Acquisition of Spatial, Symbolic, and Manual Sequences

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Goschke, Thomas; Bolte, Annette

2012-01-01

Learning sequential structures is of fundamental importance for a wide variety of human skills. While it has long been debated whether implicit sequence learning is perceptual or response-based, here we propose an alternative framework that cuts across this dichotomy and assumes that sequence learning rests on associative changes that can occur…

Brain potentials predict learning, transmission and modification of an artificial symbolic system.

PubMed

Lumaca, Massimo; Baggio, Giosuè

2016-12-01

It has recently been argued that symbolic systems evolve while they are being transmitted across generations of learners, gradually adapting to the relevant brain structures and processes. In the context of this hypothesis, little is known on whether individual differences in neural processing capacity account for aspects of 'variation' observed in symbolic behavior and symbolic systems. We addressed this issue in the domain of auditory processing. We conducted a combined behavioral and EEG study on 2 successive days. On day 1, participants listened to standard and deviant five-tone sequences: as in previous oddball studies, an mismatch negativity (MMN) was elicited by deviant tones. On day 2, participants learned an artificial signaling system from a trained confederate of the experimenters in a coordination game in which five-tone sequences were associated to affective meanings (emotion-laden pictures of human faces). In a subsequent game with identical structure, participants transmitted and occasionally changed the signaling system learned during the first game. The MMN latency from day 1 predicted learning, transmission and structural modification of signaling systems on day 2. Our study introduces neurophysiological methods into research on cultural transmission and evolution, and relates aspects of variation in symbolic systems to individual differences in neural information processing. © The Author (2016). Published by Oxford University Press. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Map-invariant spectral analysis for the identification of DNA periodicities

PubMed Central

2012-01-01

Many signal processing based methods for finding hidden periodicities in DNA sequences have primarily focused on assigning numerical values to the symbolic DNA sequence and then applying spectral analysis tools such as the short-time discrete Fourier transform (ST-DFT) to locate these repeats. The key results pertaining to this approach are however obtained using a very specific symbolic to numerical map, namely the so-called Voss representation. An important research problem is to therefore quantify the sensitivity of these results to the choice of the symbolic to numerical map. In this article, a novel algebraic approach to the periodicity detection problem is presented and provides a natural framework for studying the role of the symbolic to numerical map in finding these repeats. More specifically, we derive a new matrix-based expression of the DNA spectrum that comprises most of the widely used mappings in the literature as special cases, shows that the DNA spectrum is in fact invariable under all these mappings, and generates a necessary and sufficient condition for the invariance of the DNA spectrum to the symbolic to numerical map. Furthermore, the new algebraic framework decomposes the periodicity detection problem into several fundamental building blocks that are totally independent of each other. Sophisticated digital filters and/or alternate fast data transforms such as the discrete cosine and sine transforms can therefore be always incorporated in the periodicity detection scheme regardless of the choice of the symbolic to numerical map. Although the newly proposed framework is matrix based, identification of these periodicities can be achieved at a low computational cost. PMID:23067324

A Longitudinal Study of Cognitive Representation in Symbolic Play, Self-recognition, and Object Permanence during the Second Year.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chapman, Michael

1987-01-01

Explores development of cognitive representation in 20 infants 12 to 24 months of age with regard to (l) their understanding of agency in symbolic play (agent use), (2) recognition of their own mirror image, and (3) object permanence. Results were generally consistent with developmental sequences predicted by Fischer's Skill Theory for agent use…

Discrete sequence prediction and its applications

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Laird, Philip

1992-01-01

Learning from experience to predict sequences of discrete symbols is a fundamental problem in machine learning with many applications. We apply sequence prediction using a simple and practical sequence-prediction algorithm, called TDAG. The TDAG algorithm is first tested by comparing its performance with some common data compression algorithms. Then it is adapted to the detailed requirements of dynamic program optimization, with excellent results.

Doped Aluminum Gallium Arsenide (AlGaAs)/Gallium Arsenide (GaAs) Photoconductive Semiconductor Switch (PCSS) Fabrication

DTIC Science & Technology

2016-09-27

contact regions and epitaxial capping layer are fabricated to investigate the advantages of both approaches. Devices were fabricated with various... Contacts 7 2.5 Packaging 11 3. Conclusions 12 4. References 13 Appendix. Detailed Fabrication Process 15 List of Symbols, Abbreviations, and...regions in violet (overlaying previous patterns) .......7 Fig. 6 Mask 4: intrinsic device contact window regions in orange (overlaying previous

Grammatical complexity for two-dimensional maps

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hagiwara, Ryouichi; Shudo, Akira

2004-11-01

We calculate the grammatical complexity of the symbol sequences generated from the Hénon map and the Lozi map using the recently developed methods to construct the pruning front. When the map is hyperbolic, the language of symbol sequences is regular in the sense of the Chomsky hierarchy and the corresponding grammatical complexity takes finite values. It is found that the complexity exhibits a self-similar structure as a function of the system parameter, and the similarity of the pruning fronts is discussed as an origin of such self-similarity. For non-hyperbolic cases, it is observed that the complexity monotonically increases as we increase the resolution of the pruning front.

Universal Entropy of Word Ordering Across Linguistic Families

PubMed Central

Montemurro, Marcelo A.; Zanette, Damián H.

2011-01-01

Background The language faculty is probably the most distinctive feature of our species, and endows us with a unique ability to exchange highly structured information. In written language, information is encoded by the concatenation of basic symbols under grammatical and semantic constraints. As is also the case in other natural information carriers, the resulting symbolic sequences show a delicate balance between order and disorder. That balance is determined by the interplay between the diversity of symbols and by their specific ordering in the sequences. Here we used entropy to quantify the contribution of different organizational levels to the overall statistical structure of language. Methodology/Principal Findings We computed a relative entropy measure to quantify the degree of ordering in word sequences from languages belonging to several linguistic families. While a direct estimation of the overall entropy of language yielded values that varied for the different families considered, the relative entropy quantifying word ordering presented an almost constant value for all those families. Conclusions/Significance Our results indicate that despite the differences in the structure and vocabulary of the languages analyzed, the impact of word ordering in the structure of language is a statistical linguistic universal. PMID:21603637

[Spanish normative studies in a young adult population (NEURONORMA young adults Project): norms for the verbal span, visuospatial span, Letter-Number Sequencing, Trail Making Test and Symbol Digit Modalities Test].

PubMed

Tamayo, F; Casals-Coll, M; Sánchez-Benavides, G; Quintana, M; Manero, R M; Rognoni, T; Calvo, L; Palomo, R; Aranciva, F; Peña-Casanova, J

2012-01-01

Verbal and visuospatial span, Letter-Number Sequencing, Trail Making Test, and Symbol Digit Modalities Test are frequently used in clinical practice to assess attention, executive functions and memory. In the present study, as part of the Spanish normative studies of NEURONORMA young adults Project, normative data adjusted by age and education are provided for digits, Corsi Block-Tapping Task, Letter-Number Sequencing, Trail Making Test, and Symbol Digit Modalities Test. The sample consisted of 179 participants from 18 to 49 years old, who were cognitively normal. Tables to convert raw scores to scaled scores are provided. Age and education adjusted scores are provided by applying linear regressions. Education affected scores in most of the attention tests; age was found to be related to the visuospatial span and to speed of visuomotor tracking, and there was no relationship as regards sex. The data obtained will be useful in the clinical evaluation of young Spanish adults. Copyright © 2011 Sociedad Española de Neurología. Published by Elsevier Espana. All rights reserved.

37 CFR 5.31-5.33 - [Reserved

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

... from abandonment 1.135 Amino Acid Sequences. (See Nucleotide and/or Amino Acid Sequences) Appeal to... Appeals and Interference 41.47 Of rejection of an application 1.104(a) Nucleotide and/or Amino Acid...) Symbols for nucleotide and/or amino acid sequence data 1.822 T Tables in patent applications 1.58 Terminal...

Noncoherent DTTLs for Symbol Synchronization

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Simon, Marvin; Tkacenko, Andre

2007-01-01

Noncoherent data-transition tracking loops (DTTLs) have been proposed for use as symbol synchronizers in digital communication receivers. [Communication- receiver subsystems that can perform their assigned functions in the absence of synchronization with the phases of their carrier signals ( carrier synchronization ) are denoted by the term noncoherent, while receiver subsystems that cannot function without carrier synchronization are said to be coherent. ] The proposal applies, more specifically, to receivers of binary phase-shift-keying (BPSK) signals generated by directly phase-modulating binary non-return-to-zero (NRZ) data streams onto carrier signals having known frequencies but unknown phases. The proposed noncoherent DTTLs would be modified versions of traditional DTTLs, which are coherent. The symbol-synchronization problem is essentially the problem of recovering symbol timing from a received signal. In the traditional, coherent approach to symbol synchronization, it is necessary to establish carrier synchronization in order to recover symbol timing. A traditional DTTL effects an iterative process in which it first generates an estimate of the carrier phase in the absence of symbol-synchronization information, then uses the carrier-phase estimate to obtain an estimate of the symbol-synchronization information, then feeds the symbol-synchronization estimate back to the carrier-phase-estimation subprocess. In a noncoherent symbol-synchronization process, there is no need for carrier synchronization and, hence, no need for iteration between carrier-synchronization and symbol- synchronization subprocesses. The proposed noncoherent symbolsynchronization process is justified theoretically by a mathematical derivation that starts from a maximum a posteriori (MAP) method of estimation of symbol timing utilized in traditional, coherent DTTLs. In that MAP method, one chooses the value of a variable of interest (in this case, the offset in the estimated symbol timing) that causes a likelihood function of symbol estimates over some number of symbol periods to assume a maximum value. In terms that are necessarily oversimplified to fit within the space available for this article, it can be said that the mathematical derivation involves a modified interpretation of the likelihood function that lends itself to noncoherent DTTLs. The proposal encompasses both linear and nonlinear noncoherent DTTLs. The performances of both have been computationally simulated; for comparison, the performances of linear and nonlinear coherent DTTLs have also been computationally simulated. The results of these simulations show that, among other things, the expected mean-square timing errors of coherent and noncoherent DTTLs are relatively insensitive to window width. The results also show that at high signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs), the performances of the noncoherent DTTLs approach those of their coherent counterparts at, while at low SNRs, the noncoherent DTTLs incur penalties of the order of 1.5 to 2 dB.

Anomaly Detection in Large Sets of High-Dimensional Symbol Sequences

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Budalakoti, Suratna; Srivastava, Ashok N.; Akella, Ram; Turkov, Eugene

2006-01-01

This paper addresses the problem of detecting and describing anomalies in large sets of high-dimensional symbol sequences. The approach taken uses unsupervised clustering of sequences using the normalized longest common subsequence (LCS) as a similarity measure, followed by detailed analysis of outliers to detect anomalies. As the LCS measure is expensive to compute, the first part of the paper discusses existing algorithms, such as the Hunt-Szymanski algorithm, that have low time-complexity. We then discuss why these algorithms often do not work well in practice and present a new hybrid algorithm for computing the LCS that, in our tests, outperforms the Hunt-Szymanski algorithm by a factor of five. The second part of the paper presents new algorithms for outlier analysis that provide comprehensible indicators as to why a particular sequence was deemed to be an outlier. The algorithms provide a coherent description to an analyst of the anomalies in the sequence, compared to more normal sequences. The algorithms we present are general and domain-independent, so we discuss applications in related areas such as anomaly detection.

Exploration of Toeplitz-like matrices with unbounded symbols is not a purely academic journey

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Böttcher, A.; Garoni, C.; Serra-Capizzano, S.

2017-11-01

It is often asked why Toeplitz-like matrices with unbounded symbols are worth studying. This paper gives an answer by presenting several concrete problems that motivate such studies. It surveys the central results of the theory of Generalized Locally Toeplitz (GLT) sequences in a self-contained tool-kit fashion, and gives a new extension from bounded Riemann integrable functions to unbounded almost everywhere continuous functions. The emergence of unbounded symbols is illustrated by local grid refinements in finite difference and finite element discretizations and also by preconditioning strategies. Bibliography: 40 titles.

Weighted LCS

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Amir, Amihood; Gotthilf, Zvi; Shalom, B. Riva

The Longest Common Subsequence (LCS) of two strings A and B is a well studied problem having a wide range of applications. When each symbol of the input strings is assigned a positive weight the problem becomes the Heaviest Common Subsequence (HCS) problem. In this paper we consider a different version of weighted LCS on Position Weight Matrices (PWM). The Position Weight Matrix was introduced as a tool to handle a set of sequences that are not identical, yet, have many local similarities. Such a weighted sequence is a 'statistical image' of this set where we are given the probability of every symbol's occurrence at every text location. We consider two possible definitions of LCS on PWM. For the first, we solve the weighted LCS problem of z sequences in time O(zn z + 1). For the second, we prove \\cal{NP}-hardness and provide an approximation algorithm.

The interplay of representations and patterns of classroom discourse in science teaching sequences

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tang, Kok-Sing

2016-09-01

The purpose of this study is to examines the relationship between the communicative approach of classroom talk and the modes of representations used by science teachers. Based on video data from two physics classrooms in Singapore, a recurring pattern in the relationship was observed as the teaching sequence of a lesson unfolded. It was found that as the mode of representation shifted from enactive (action based) to iconic (image based) to symbolic (language based), there was a concurrent and coordinated shift in the classroom communicative approach from interactive-dialogic to interactive-authoritative to non-interactive-authoritative. Specifically, the shift from enactive to iconic to symbolic representations occurred mainly within the interactive-dialogic approach while the shift towards the interactive-authoritative and non-interactive-authoritative approaches occurred when symbolic modes of representation were used. This concurrent and coordinated shift has implications on how we conceive the use of representations in conjunction with the co-occurring classroom discourse, both theoretically and pedagogically.

Code-Time Diversity for Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum Systems

PubMed Central

Hassan, A. Y.

2014-01-01

Time diversity is achieved in direct sequence spread spectrum by receiving different faded delayed copies of the transmitted symbols from different uncorrelated channel paths when the transmission signal bandwidth is greater than the coherence bandwidth of the channel. In this paper, a new time diversity scheme is proposed for spread spectrum systems. It is called code-time diversity. In this new scheme, N spreading codes are used to transmit one data symbol over N successive symbols interval. The diversity order in the proposed scheme equals to the number of the used spreading codes N multiplied by the number of the uncorrelated paths of the channel L. The paper represents the transmitted signal model. Two demodulators structures will be proposed based on the received signal models from Rayleigh flat and frequency selective fading channels. Probability of error in the proposed diversity scheme is also calculated for the same two fading channels. Finally, simulation results are represented and compared with that of maximal ration combiner (MRC) and multiple-input and multiple-output (MIMO) systems. PMID:24982925

Optimization of training sequence for DFT-spread DMT signal in optical access network with direct detection utilizing DML.

PubMed

Li, Fan; Li, Xinying; Yu, Jianjun; Chen, Lin

2014-09-22

We experimentally demonstrated the transmission of 79.86-Gb/s discrete-Fourier-transform spread 32 QAM discrete multi-tone (DFT-spread 32 QAM-DMT) signal over 20-km standard single-mode fiber (SSMF) utilizing directly modulated laser (DML). The experimental results show DFT-spread effectively reduces Peak-to-Average Power Ratio (PAPR) of DMT signal, and also well overcomes narrowband interference and high frequencies power attenuation. We compared different types of training sequence (TS) symbols and found that the optimized TS for channel estimation is the symbol with digital BPSK/QPSK modulation format due to its best performance against optical link noise during channel estimation.

poRe: an R package for the visualization and analysis of nanopore sequencing data.

PubMed

Watson, Mick; Thomson, Marian; Risse, Judith; Talbot, Richard; Santoyo-Lopez, Javier; Gharbi, Karim; Blaxter, Mark

2015-01-01

The Oxford Nanopore MinION device represents a unique sequencing technology. As a mobile sequencing device powered by the USB port of a laptop, the MinION has huge potential applications. To enable these applications, the bioinformatics community will need to design and build a suite of tools specifically for MinION data. Here we present poRe, a package for R that enables users to manipulate, organize, summarize and visualize MinION nanopore sequencing data. As a package for R, poRe has been tested on Windows, Linux and MacOSX. Crucially, the Windows version allows users to analyse MinION data on the Windows laptop attached to the device. poRe is released as a package for R at http://sourceforge.net/projects/rpore/. A tutorial and further information are available at https://sourceforge.net/p/rpore/wiki/Home/. © The Author 2014. Published by Oxford University Press.

Human Infants' Preference for Left-to-Right Oriented Increasing Numerical Sequences

PubMed Central

de Hevia, Maria Dolores; Girelli, Luisa; Addabbo, Margaret; Macchi Cassia, Viola

2014-01-01

While associations between number and space, in the form of a spatially oriented numerical representation, have been extensively reported in human adults, the origins of this phenomenon are still poorly understood. The commonly accepted view is that this number-space association is a product of human invention, with accounts proposing that culture, symbolic knowledge, and mathematics education are at the roots of this phenomenon. Here we show that preverbal infants aged 7 months, who lack symbolic knowledge and mathematics education, show a preference for increasing magnitude displayed in a left-to-right spatial orientation. Infants habituated to left-to-right oriented increasing or decreasing numerical sequences showed an overall higher looking time to new left-to-right oriented increasing numerical sequences at test (Experiment 1). This pattern did not hold when infants were presented with the same ordinal numerical information displayed from right to left (Experiment 2). The different pattern of results was congruent with the presence of a malleable, context-dependent baseline preference for increasing, left-to-right oriented, numerosities (Experiment 3). These findings are suggestive of an early predisposition in humans to link numerical order with a left-to-right spatial orientation, which precedes the acquisition of symbolic abilities, mathematics education, and the acquisition of reading and writing skills. PMID:24802083

The Crystal Hole.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Law, Maxine S.

1980-01-01

Presented are three curriculum sequences about windows that were designed as part of an architectural education course for junior high school students in Ohio. The three units, or "encounters," deal with stained glass, styles of windows, and functions of the window. Each includes student objectives and selected activities. (SJL)

Importance of Viral Sequence Length and Number of Variable and Informative Sites in Analysis of HIV Clustering.

PubMed

Novitsky, Vlad; Moyo, Sikhulile; Lei, Quanhong; DeGruttola, Victor; Essex, M

2015-05-01

To improve the methodology of HIV cluster analysis, we addressed how analysis of HIV clustering is associated with parameters that can affect the outcome of viral clustering. The extent of HIV clustering and tree certainty was compared between 401 HIV-1C near full-length genome sequences and subgenomic regions retrieved from the LANL HIV Database. Sliding window analysis was based on 99 windows of 1,000 bp and 45 windows of 2,000 bp. Potential associations between the extent of HIV clustering and sequence length and the number of variable and informative sites were evaluated. The near full-length genome HIV sequences showed the highest extent of HIV clustering and the highest tree certainty. At the bootstrap threshold of 0.80 in maximum likelihood (ML) analysis, 58.9% of near full-length HIV-1C sequences but only 15.5% of partial pol sequences (ViroSeq) were found in clusters. Among HIV-1 structural genes, pol showed the highest extent of clustering (38.9% at a bootstrap threshold of 0.80), although it was significantly lower than in the near full-length genome sequences. The extent of HIV clustering was significantly higher for sliding windows of 2,000 bp than 1,000 bp. We found a strong association between the sequence length and proportion of HIV sequences in clusters, and a moderate association between the number of variable and informative sites and the proportion of HIV sequences in clusters. In HIV cluster analysis, the extent of detectable HIV clustering is directly associated with the length of viral sequences used, as well as the number of variable and informative sites. Near full-length genome sequences could provide the most informative HIV cluster analysis. Selected subgenomic regions with a high extent of HIV clustering and high tree certainty could also be considered as a second choice.

Importance of Viral Sequence Length and Number of Variable and Informative Sites in Analysis of HIV Clustering

PubMed Central

Novitsky, Vlad; Moyo, Sikhulile; Lei, Quanhong; DeGruttola, Victor

2015-01-01

Abstract To improve the methodology of HIV cluster analysis, we addressed how analysis of HIV clustering is associated with parameters that can affect the outcome of viral clustering. The extent of HIV clustering and tree certainty was compared between 401 HIV-1C near full-length genome sequences and subgenomic regions retrieved from the LANL HIV Database. Sliding window analysis was based on 99 windows of 1,000 bp and 45 windows of 2,000 bp. Potential associations between the extent of HIV clustering and sequence length and the number of variable and informative sites were evaluated. The near full-length genome HIV sequences showed the highest extent of HIV clustering and the highest tree certainty. At the bootstrap threshold of 0.80 in maximum likelihood (ML) analysis, 58.9% of near full-length HIV-1C sequences but only 15.5% of partial pol sequences (ViroSeq) were found in clusters. Among HIV-1 structural genes, pol showed the highest extent of clustering (38.9% at a bootstrap threshold of 0.80), although it was significantly lower than in the near full-length genome sequences. The extent of HIV clustering was significantly higher for sliding windows of 2,000 bp than 1,000 bp. We found a strong association between the sequence length and proportion of HIV sequences in clusters, and a moderate association between the number of variable and informative sites and the proportion of HIV sequences in clusters. In HIV cluster analysis, the extent of detectable HIV clustering is directly associated with the length of viral sequences used, as well as the number of variable and informative sites. Near full-length genome sequences could provide the most informative HIV cluster analysis. Selected subgenomic regions with a high extent of HIV clustering and high tree certainty could also be considered as a second choice. PMID:25560745

Description of 3D digital curves using the theory free groups

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Imiya, Atsushi; Oosawa, Muneaki

1999-09-01

In this paper, we propose a new descriptor for two- and three- dimensional digital curves using the theory of free groups. A spatial digital curve is expressed as a word which is an element of the free group which consists from three elements. These three symbols correspond to the directions of the orthogonal coordinates, respectively. Since a digital curve is treated as a word which is a sequence of alphabetical symbols, this expression permits us to describe any geometric operation as rewriting rules for words. Furthermore, the symbolic derivative of words yields geometric invariants of digital curves for digital Euclidean motion. These invariants enable us to design algorithms for the matching and searching procedures of partial structures of digital curves. Moreover, these symbolic descriptors define the global and local distances for digital curves as an editing distance.

A Systems Engineering Survey of Artificial Intelligence and Smart Sensor Networks in a Network-Centric Environment

DTIC Science & Technology

2009-09-01

problems, to better model the problem solving of computer systems. This research brought about the intertwining of AI and cognitive psychology . Much of...where symbol sequences are sequential intelligent states of the network, and must be classified as normal, abnormal , or unknown. These symbols...is associated with abnormal behavior; and abcbc is associated with unknown behavior, as it fits no known behavior. Predicted outcomes from

Information theory and the ethylene genetic network.

PubMed

González-García, José S; Díaz, José

2011-10-01

The original aim of the Information Theory (IT) was to solve a purely technical problem: to increase the performance of communication systems, which are constantly affected by interferences that diminish the quality of the transmitted information. That is, the theory deals only with the problem of transmitting with the maximal precision the symbols constituting a message. In Shannon's theory messages are characterized only by their probabilities, regardless of their value or meaning. As for its present day status, it is generally acknowledged that Information Theory has solid mathematical foundations and has fruitful strong links with Physics in both theoretical and experimental areas. However, many applications of Information Theory to Biology are limited to using it as a technical tool to analyze biopolymers, such as DNA, RNA or protein sequences. The main point of discussion about the applicability of IT to explain the information flow in biological systems is that in a classic communication channel, the symbols that conform the coded message are transmitted one by one in an independent form through a noisy communication channel, and noise can alter each of the symbols, distorting the message; in contrast, in a genetic communication channel the coded messages are not transmitted in the form of symbols but signaling cascades transmit them. Consequently, the information flow from the emitter to the effector is due to a series of coupled physicochemical processes that must ensure the accurate transmission of the message. In this review we discussed a novel proposal to overcome this difficulty, which consists of the modeling of gene expression with a stochastic approach that allows Shannon entropy (H) to be directly used to measure the amount of uncertainty that the genetic machinery has in relation to the correct decoding of a message transmitted into the nucleus by a signaling pathway. From the value of H we can define a function I that measures the amount of information content in the input message that the cell's genetic machinery is processing during a given time interval. Furthermore, combining Information Theory with the frequency response analysis of dynamical systems we can examine the cell's genetic response to input signals with varying frequencies, amplitude and form, in order to determine if the cell can distinguish between different regimes of information flow from the environment. In the particular case of the ethylene signaling pathway, the amount of information managed by the root cell of Arabidopsis can be correlated with the frequency of the input signal. The ethylene signaling pathway cuts off very low and very high frequencies, allowing a window of frequency response in which the nucleus reads the incoming message as a varying input. Outside of this window the nucleus reads the input message as an approximately non-varying one. This frequency response analysis is also useful to estimate the rate of information transfer during the transport of each new ERF1 molecule into the nucleus. Additionally, application of Information Theory to analysis of the flow of information in the ethylene signaling pathway provides a deeper insight in the form in which the transition between auxin and ethylene hormonal activity occurs during a circadian cycle. An ambitious goal for the future would be to use Information Theory as a theoretical foundation for a suitable model of the information flow that runs at each level and through all levels of biological organization.

A note on chaotic unimodal maps and applications.

PubMed

Zhou, C T; He, X T; Yu, M Y; Chew, L Y; Wang, X G

2006-09-01

Based on the word-lift technique of symbolic dynamics of one-dimensional unimodal maps, we investigate the relation between chaotic kneading sequences and linear maximum-length shift-register sequences. Theoretical and numerical evidence that the set of the maximum-length shift-register sequences is a subset of the set of the universal sequence of one-dimensional chaotic unimodal maps is given. By stabilizing unstable periodic orbits on superstable periodic orbits, we also develop techniques to control the generation of long binary sequences.

Rolling element bearings diagnostics using the Symbolic Aggregate approXimation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Georgoulas, George; Karvelis, Petros; Loutas, Theodoros; Stylios, Chrysostomos D.

2015-08-01

Rolling element bearings are a very critical component in various engineering assets. Therefore it is of paramount importance the detection of possible faults, especially at an early stage, that may lead to unexpected interruptions of the production or worse, to severe accidents. This research work introduces a novel, in the field of bearing fault detection, method for the extraction of diagnostic representations of vibration recordings using the Symbolic Aggregate approXimation (SAX) framework and the related intelligent icons representation. SAX essentially transforms the original real valued time-series into a discrete one, which is then represented by a simple histogram form summarizing the occurrence of the chosen symbols/words. Vibration signals from healthy bearings and bearings with three different fault locations and with three different severity levels, as well as loading conditions, are analyzed. Considering the diagnostic problem as a classification one, the analyzed vibration signals and the resulting feature vectors feed simple classifiers achieving remarkably high classification accuracies. Moreover a sliding window scheme combined with a simple majority voting filter further increases the reliability and robustness of the diagnostic method. The results encourage the potential use of the proposed methodology for the diagnosis of bearing faults.

Level statistics of words: Finding keywords in literary texts and symbolic sequences

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Carpena, P.; Bernaola-Galván, P.; Hackenberg, M.; Coronado, A. V.; Oliver, J. L.

2009-03-01

Using a generalization of the level statistics analysis of quantum disordered systems, we present an approach able to extract automatically keywords in literary texts. Our approach takes into account not only the frequencies of the words present in the text but also their spatial distribution along the text, and is based on the fact that relevant words are significantly clustered (i.e., they self-attract each other), while irrelevant words are distributed randomly in the text. Since a reference corpus is not needed, our approach is especially suitable for single documents for which no a priori information is available. In addition, we show that our method works also in generic symbolic sequences (continuous texts without spaces), thus suggesting its general applicability.

Adaptive frequency-domain equalization in digital coherent optical receivers.

PubMed

Faruk, Md Saifuddin; Kikuchi, Kazuro

2011-06-20

We propose a novel frequency-domain adaptive equalizer in digital coherent optical receivers, which can reduce computational complexity of the conventional time-domain adaptive equalizer based on finite-impulse-response (FIR) filters. The proposed equalizer can operate on the input sequence sampled by free-running analog-to-digital converters (ADCs) at the rate of two samples per symbol; therefore, the arbitrary initial sampling phase of ADCs can be adjusted so that the best symbol-spaced sequence is produced. The equalizer can also be configured in the butterfly structure, which enables demultiplexing of polarization tributaries apart from equalization of linear transmission impairments. The performance of the proposed equalization scheme is verified by 40-Gbits/s dual-polarization quadrature phase-shift keying (QPSK) transmission experiments.

37 CFR 1.822 - Symbols and format to be used for nucleotide and/or amino acid sequence data.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-07-01

... in WIPO Standard ST.25 (1998), Appendix 2, Tables 1 and 3. This incorporation by reference was... ST.25 (1998), Appendix 2, Tables 1 and 3, shall be listed in a given sequence as “n” or “Xaa... acids. (1) The amino acids in a protein or peptide sequence shall be listed using the three-letter...

37 CFR 1.822 - Symbols and format to be used for nucleotide and/or amino acid sequence data.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... in WIPO Standard ST.25 (1998), Appendix 2, Tables 1 and 3. This incorporation by reference was... ST.25 (1998), Appendix 2, Tables 1 and 3, shall be listed in a given sequence as “n” or “Xaa... acids. (1) The amino acids in a protein or peptide sequence shall be listed using the three-letter...

37 CFR 1.822 - Symbols and format to be used for nucleotide and/or amino acid sequence data.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-07-01

... in WIPO Standard ST.25 (1998), Appendix 2, Tables 1 and 3. This incorporation by reference was... ST.25 (1998), Appendix 2, Tables 1 and 3, shall be listed in a given sequence as “n” or “Xaa... acids. (1) The amino acids in a protein or peptide sequence shall be listed using the three-letter...

Joint channel estimation and multi-user detection for multipath fading channels in DS-CDMA systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wu, Sau-Hsuan; Kuo, C.-C. Jay

2002-11-01

The technique of joint blind channel estimation and multiple access interference (MAI) suppression for an asynchronous code-division multiple-access (CDMA) system is investigated in this research. To identify and track dispersive time-varying fading channels and to avoid the phase ambiguity that come with the second-order statistic approaches, a sliding-window scheme using the expectation maximization (EM) algorithm is proposed. The complexity of joint channel equalization and symbol detection for all users increases exponentially with system loading and the channel memory. The situation is exacerbated if strong inter-symbol interference (ISI) exists. To reduce the complexity and the number of samples required for channel estimation, a blind multiuser detector is developed. Together with multi-stage interference cancellation using soft outputs provided by this detector, our algorithm can track fading channels with no phase ambiguity even when channel gains attenuate close to zero.

Communication systems, transceivers, and methods for generating data based on channel characteristics

DOEpatents

Forman, Michael A; Young, Derek

2012-09-18

Examples of methods for generating data based on a communications channel are described. In one such example, a processing unit may generate a first vector representation based in part on at least two characteristics of a communications channel. A constellation having at least two dimensions may be addressed with the first vector representation to identify a first symbol associated with the first vector representation. The constellation represents a plurality of regions, each region associated with a respective symbol. The symbol may be used to generate data, which may stored in an electronic storage medium and used as a cryptographic key or a spreading code or hopping sequence in a modulation technique.

Thermodynamic framework for information in nanoscale systems with memory

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Arias-Gonzalez, J. Ricardo

2017-11-01

Information is represented by linear strings of symbols with memory that carry errors as a result of their stochastic nature. Proofreading and edition are assumed to improve certainty although such processes may not be effective. Here, we develop a thermodynamic theory for material chains made up of nanoscopic subunits with symbolic meaning in the presence of memory. This framework is based on the characterization of single sequences of symbols constructed under a protocol and is used to derive the behavior of ensembles of sequences similarly constructed. We then analyze the role of proofreading and edition in the presence of memory finding conditions to make revision an effective process, namely, to decrease the entropy of the chain. Finally, we apply our formalism to DNA replication and RNA transcription finding that Watson and Crick hybridization energies with which nucleotides are branched to the template strand during the copying process are optimal to regulate the fidelity in proofreading. These results are important in applications of information theory to a variety of solid-state physical systems and other biomolecular processes.

Thermodynamic framework for information in nanoscale systems with memory.

PubMed

Arias-Gonzalez, J Ricardo

2017-11-28

Information is represented by linear strings of symbols with memory that carry errors as a result of their stochastic nature. Proofreading and edition are assumed to improve certainty although such processes may not be effective. Here, we develop a thermodynamic theory for material chains made up of nanoscopic subunits with symbolic meaning in the presence of memory. This framework is based on the characterization of single sequences of symbols constructed under a protocol and is used to derive the behavior of ensembles of sequences similarly constructed. We then analyze the role of proofreading and edition in the presence of memory finding conditions to make revision an effective process, namely, to decrease the entropy of the chain. Finally, we apply our formalism to DNA replication and RNA transcription finding that Watson and Crick hybridization energies with which nucleotides are branched to the template strand during the copying process are optimal to regulate the fidelity in proofreading. These results are important in applications of information theory to a variety of solid-state physical systems and other biomolecular processes.

Effect of cerebral spinal fluid suppression for diffusional kurtosis imaging.

PubMed

Yang, Alicia W; Jensen, Jens H; Hu, Caixia C; Tabesh, Ali; Falangola, Maria F; Helpern, Joseph A

2013-02-01

To evaluate the cerebral spinal fluid (CSF) partial volume effect on diffusional kurtosis imaging (DKI) metrics in white matter and cortical gray matter. Four healthy volunteers participated in this study. Standard DKI and fluid-attenuated inversion recovery (FLAIR) DKI experiments were performed using a twice-refocused-spin-echo diffusion sequence. The conventional diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) metrics of fractional anisotropy (FA), mean, axial, and radial diffusivity (MD, D[symbol in text], D[symbol in text] together with DKI metrics of mean, axial, and radial kurtosis (MK, K[symbol in text], K[symbol in text], were measured and compared. Single image slices located above the lateral ventricles, with similar anatomical features for each subject, were selected to minimize the effect of CSF from the ventricles. In white matter, differences of less than 10% were observed between diffusion metrics measured with standard DKI and FLAIR-DKI sequences, suggesting minimal CSF contamination. For gray matter, conventional DTI metrics differed by 19% to 52%, reflecting significant CSF partial volume effects. Kurtosis metrics, however, changed by 11% or less, indicating greater robustness with respect to CSF contamination. Kurtosis metrics are less sensitive to CSF partial voluming in cortical gray matter than conventional diffusion metrics. The kurtosis metrics may then be more specific indicators of changes in tissue microstructure, provided the effect sizes for the changes are comparable. Copyright © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Novel methodologies for spectral classification of exon and intron sequences

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kwan, Hon Keung; Kwan, Benjamin Y. M.; Kwan, Jennifer Y. Y.

2012-12-01

Digital processing of a nucleotide sequence requires it to be mapped to a numerical sequence in which the choice of nucleotide to numeric mapping affects how well its biological properties can be preserved and reflected from nucleotide domain to numerical domain. Digital spectral analysis of nucleotide sequences unfolds a period-3 power spectral value which is more prominent in an exon sequence as compared to that of an intron sequence. The success of a period-3 based exon and intron classification depends on the choice of a threshold value. The main purposes of this article are to introduce novel codes for 1-sequence numerical representations for spectral analysis and compare them to existing codes to determine appropriate representation, and to introduce novel thresholding methods for more accurate period-3 based exon and intron classification of an unknown sequence. The main findings of this study are summarized as follows: Among sixteen 1-sequence numerical representations, the K-Quaternary Code I offers an attractive performance. A windowed 1-sequence numerical representation (with window length of 9, 15, and 24 bases) offers a possible speed gain over non-windowed 4-sequence Voss representation which increases as sequence length increases. A winner threshold value (chosen from the best among two defined threshold values and one other threshold value) offers a top precision for classifying an unknown sequence of specified fixed lengths. An interpolated winner threshold value applicable to an unknown and arbitrary length sequence can be estimated from the winner threshold values of fixed length sequences with a comparable performance. In general, precision increases as sequence length increases. The study contributes an effective spectral analysis of nucleotide sequences to better reveal embedded properties, and has potential applications in improved genome annotation.

Continuation of research into language concepts for the mission support environment

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1991-01-01

A concept for a more intuitive and graphically based Computation (Comp) Builder was developed. The Graphical Comp Builder Prototype was developed, which is an X Window based graphical tool that allows the user to build Comps using graphical symbols. Investigation was conducted to determine the availability and suitability of the Ada programming language for the development of future control center type software. The Space Station Freedom Project identified Ada as the desirable programming language for the development of Space Station Control Center software systems.

Navigation Using Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexed Signals of Opportunity

DTIC Science & Technology

2007-09-01

transmits a 32,767 bit pseudo -random “short” code that repeats 37.5 times per second. Since the pseudo -random bit pattern and modulation scheme are... correlation process takes two “ sample windows,” both of which are ν = 16 samples wide and are spaced N = 64 samples apart, and compares them. When the...technique in (3.4) is a necessary step in order to get a more accurate estimate of the sample shift from the symbol boundary correlator in (3.1). Figure

Composeable Chat over Low-Bandwidth Intermittent Communication Links

DTIC Science & Technology

2007-04-01

Compression (STC), introduced in this report, is a data compression algorithm intended to compress alphanumeric... Ziv - Lempel coding, the grandfather of most modern general-purpose file compression programs, watches for input symbol sequences that have previously... data . This section applies these techniques to create a new compression algorithm called Small Text Compression . Various sequence compression

A Teaching-Learning Sequence about Weather Map Reading

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mandrikas, Achilleas; Stavrou, Dimitrios; Skordoulis, Constantine

2017-01-01

In this paper a teaching-learning sequence (TLS) introducing pre-service elementary teachers (PET) to weather map reading, with emphasis on wind assignment, is presented. The TLS includes activities about recognition of wind symbols, assignment of wind direction and wind speed on a weather map and identification of wind characteristics in a…

A new endonuclease recognizing the deoxynucleotide sequence CCNNGG from the cyanobacterium Synechocystis 6701.

PubMed

Calléja, F; Tandeau de Marsac, N; Coursin, T; van Ormondt, H; de Waard, A

1985-09-25

A new sequence-specific endonuclease from the cyanobacterium Synechocystis species PCC 6701 has been purified and characterized. This enzyme, SecI, is unique in recognizing the nucleotide sequence: 5' -CCNNGG-3' 3' -GGNNCC-5' and cleaves it at the position indicated by the symbol. Two other restriction endonucleases, SecII and SecIII, found in this organism are isoschizomers of MspI and MstII, respectively.

Direct mapping of symbolic DNA sequence into frequency domain in global repeat map algorithm

PubMed Central

Glunčić, Matko; Paar, Vladimir

2013-01-01

The main feature of global repeat map (GRM) algorithm (www.hazu.hr/grm/software/win/grm2012.exe) is its ability to identify a broad variety of repeats of unbounded length that can be arbitrarily distant in sequences as large as human chromosomes. The efficacy is due to the use of complete set of a K-string ensemble which enables a new method of direct mapping of symbolic DNA sequence into frequency domain, with straightforward identification of repeats as peaks in GRM diagram. In this way, we obtain very fast, efficient and highly automatized repeat finding tool. The method is robust to substitutions and insertions/deletions, as well as to various complexities of the sequence pattern. We present several case studies of GRM use, in order to illustrate its capabilities: identification of α-satellite tandem repeats and higher order repeats (HORs), identification of Alu dispersed repeats and of Alu tandems, identification of Period 3 pattern in exons, implementation of ‘magnifying glass’ effect, identification of complex HOR pattern, identification of inter-tandem transitional dispersed repeat sequences and identification of long segmental duplications. GRM algorithm is convenient for use, in particular, in cases of large repeat units, of highly mutated and/or complex repeats, and of global repeat maps for large genomic sequences (chromosomes and genomes). PMID:22977183

Optimal word sizes for dissimilarity measures and estimation of the degree of dissimilarity between DNA sequences.

PubMed

Wu, Tiee-Jian; Huang, Ying-Hsueh; Li, Lung-An

2005-11-15

Several measures of DNA sequence dissimilarity have been developed. The purpose of this paper is 3-fold. Firstly, we compare the performance of several word-based or alignment-based methods. Secondly, we give a general guideline for choosing the window size and determining the optimal word sizes for several word-based measures at different window sizes. Thirdly, we use a large-scale simulation method to simulate data from the distribution of SK-LD (symmetric Kullback-Leibler discrepancy). These simulated data can be used to estimate the degree of dissimilarity beta between any pair of DNA sequences. Our study shows (1) for whole sequence similiarity/dissimilarity identification the window size taken should be as large as possible, but probably not >3000, as restricted by CPU time in practice, (2) for each measure the optimal word size increases with window size, (3) when the optimal word size is used, SK-LD performance is superior in both simulation and real data analysis, (4) the estimate beta of beta based on SK-LD can be used to filter out quickly a large number of dissimilar sequences and speed alignment-based database search for similar sequences and (5) beta is also applicable in local similarity comparison situations. For example, it can help in selecting oligo probes with high specificity and, therefore, has potential in probe design for microarrays. The algorithm SK-LD, estimate beta and simulation software are implemented in MATLAB code, and are available at http://www.stat.ncku.edu.tw/tjwu

Coded DS-CDMA Systems with Iterative Channel Estimation and no Pilot Symbols

DTIC Science & Technology

2010-08-01

ar X iv :1 00 8. 31 96 v1 [ cs .I T ] 1 9 A ug 2 01 0 1 Coded DS - CDMA Systems with Iterative Channel Estimation and no Pilot Symbols Don...sequence code-division multiple-access ( DS - CDMA ) systems with quadriphase-shift keying in which channel estimation, coherent demodulation, and decoding...amplitude, phase, and the interference power spectral density (PSD) due to the combined interference and thermal noise is proposed for DS - CDMA systems

Genomecmp: computer software to detect genomic rearrangements using markers

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kulawik, Maciej; Nowak, Robert M.

2017-08-01

Detection of genomics rearrangements is a tough task, because of the size of data to be processed. As genome sequences may consist of hundreds of millions symbols, it is not only practically impossible to compare them by hand, but it is also complex problem for computer software. The way to significantly accelerate the process is to use rearrangement detection algorithm based on unique short sequences called markers. The algorithm described in this paper develops markers using base genome and find the markers positions on other genome. The algorithm has been extended by support for ambiguity symbols. Web application with graphical user interface has been created using three-layer architecture, where users could run the task simultaneously. The accuracy and efficiency of proposed solution has been studied using generated and real data.

Synchronization for Optical PPM with Inter-Symbol Guard Times

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rogalin, R.; Srinivasan, M.

2017-05-01

Deep space optical communications promises orders of magnitude growth in communication capacity, supporting high data rate applications such as video streaming and high-bandwidth science instruments. Pulse position modulation is the modulation format of choice for deep space applications, and by inserting inter-symbol guard times between the symbols, the signal carries the timing information needed by the demodulator. Accurately extracting this timing information is crucial to demodulating and decoding this signal. In this article, we propose a number of timing and frequency estimation schemes for this modulation format, and in particular highlight a low complexity maximum likelihood timing estimator that significantly outperforms the prior art in this domain. This method does not require an explicit synchronization sequence, freeing up channel resources for data transmission.

HMM-based lexicon-driven and lexicon-free word recognition for online handwritten Indic scripts.

PubMed

Bharath, A; Madhvanath, Sriganesh

2012-04-01

Research for recognizing online handwritten words in Indic scripts is at its early stages when compared to Latin and Oriental scripts. In this paper, we address this problem specifically for two major Indic scripts--Devanagari and Tamil. In contrast to previous approaches, the techniques we propose are largely data driven and script independent. We propose two different techniques for word recognition based on Hidden Markov Models (HMM): lexicon driven and lexicon free. The lexicon-driven technique models each word in the lexicon as a sequence of symbol HMMs according to a standard symbol writing order derived from the phonetic representation. The lexicon-free technique uses a novel Bag-of-Symbols representation of the handwritten word that is independent of symbol order and allows rapid pruning of the lexicon. On handwritten Devanagari word samples featuring both standard and nonstandard symbol writing orders, a combination of lexicon-driven and lexicon-free recognizers significantly outperforms either of them used in isolation. In contrast, most Tamil word samples feature the standard symbol order, and the lexicon-driven recognizer outperforms the lexicon free one as well as their combination. The best recognition accuracies obtained for 20,000 word lexicons are 87.13 percent for Devanagari when the two recognizers are combined, and 91.8 percent for Tamil using the lexicon-driven technique.

A new endonuclease recognizing the deoxynucleotide sequence CCNNGG from the cyanobacterium Synechocystis 6701.

PubMed Central

Calléja, F; Tandeau de Marsac, N; Coursin, T; van Ormondt, H; de Waard, A

1985-01-01

A new sequence-specific endonuclease from the cyanobacterium Synechocystis species PCC 6701 has been purified and characterized. This enzyme, SecI, is unique in recognizing the nucleotide sequence: 5' -CCNNGG-3' 3' -GGNNCC-5' and cleaves it at the position indicated by the symbol. Two other restriction endonucleases, SecII and SecIII, found in this organism are isoschizomers of MspI and MstII, respectively. Images PMID:2997722

Real-time image sequence segmentation using curve evolution

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, Jun; Liu, Weisong

2001-04-01

In this paper, we describe a novel approach to image sequence segmentation and its real-time implementation. This approach uses the 3D structure tensor to produce a more robust frame difference signal and uses curve evolution to extract whole objects. Our algorithm is implemented on a standard PC running the Windows operating system with video capture from a USB camera that is a standard Windows video capture device. Using the Windows standard video I/O functionalities, our segmentation software is highly portable and easy to maintain and upgrade. In its current implementation on a Pentium 400, the system can perform segmentation at 5 frames/sec with a frame resolution of 160 by 120.

Symbolic emblems of the Levantine Aurignacians as a regional entity identifier (Hayonim Cave, Lower Galilee, Israel).

PubMed

Tejero, José-Miguel; Belfer-Cohen, Anna; Bar-Yosef, Ofer; Gutkin, Vitaly; Rabinovich, Rivka

2018-05-15

The Levantine Aurignacian is a unique phenomenon in the local Upper Paleolithic sequence, showing greater similarity to the West European classic Aurignacian than to the local Levantine archaeological entities preceding and following it. Herewith we highlight another unique characteristic of this entity, namely, the presence of symbolic objects in the form of notched bones (mostly gazelle scapulae) from the Aurignacian levels of Hayonim Cave, Lower Galilee, Israel. Through both macroscopic and microscopic analyses of the items, we suggest that they are not mere cut marks but rather are intentional (decorative?) human-made markings. The significance of this evidence for symbolic behavior is discussed in its chrono-cultural and geographical contexts. Notched bones are among the oldest symbolic expressions of anatomically modern humans. However, unlike other Paleolithic sites where such findings were reported in single numbers, the number of these items recovered at Hayonim Cave is sufficient to assume they possibly served as an emblem of the Levantine Aurignacian.

Non-numeric computation for high eccentricity orbits. [Earth satellite orbit perturbation

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Sridharan, R.; Renard, M. L.

1975-01-01

Geocentric orbits of large eccentricity (e = 0.9 to 0.95) are significantly perturbed in cislunar space by the sun and moon. The time-history of the height of perigee, subsequent to launch, is particularly critical. The determination of 'launch windows' is mostly concerned with preventing the height of perigee from falling below its low initial value before the mission lifetime has elapsed. Between the extremes of high accuracy digital integration of the equations of motion and of using an approximate, but very fast, stability criteria method, this paper is concerned with the developement of a method of intermediate complexity using non-numeric computation. The computer is used as the theory generator to generalize Lidov's theory using six osculating elements. Symbolic integration is completely automatized and the output is a set of condensed formulae well suited for repeated applications in launch window analysis. Examples of applications are given.

Teaching Time Concepts to Young Children.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Muir, Sharon Pray

1986-01-01

Presents many activity ideas for teaching young children about time using chronological events, clocks, and calendars. Jerome Bruner's enactive-iconic-symbolic sequence of concept development is used as a guide for these learning experiences. (LP)

Frame synchronization methods based on channel symbol measurements

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Dolinar, S.; Cheung, K.-M.

1989-01-01

The current DSN frame synchronization procedure is based on monitoring the decoded bit stream for the appearance of a sync marker sequence that is transmitted once every data frame. The possibility of obtaining frame synchronization by processing the raw received channel symbols rather than the decoded bits is explored. Performance results are derived for three channel symbol sync methods, and these are compared with results for decoded bit sync methods reported elsewhere. It is shown that each class of methods has advantages or disadvantages under different assumptions on the frame length, the global acquisition strategy, and the desired measure of acquisition timeliness. It is shown that the sync statistics based on decoded bits are superior to the statistics based on channel symbols, if the desired operating region utilizes a probability of miss many orders of magnitude higher than the probability of false alarm. This operating point is applicable for very large frame lengths and minimal frame-to-frame verification strategy. On the other hand, the statistics based on channel symbols are superior if the desired operating point has a miss probability only a few orders of magnitude greater than the false alarm probability. This happens for small frames or when frame-to-frame verifications are required.

Construction of graphic symbol utterances by children, teenagers, and adults: the effect of structure and task demands.

PubMed

Trudeau, Natacha; Sutton, Ann; Dagenais, Emmanuelle; de Broeck, Sophie; Morford, Jill

2007-10-01

This study investigated the impact of syntactic complexity and task demands on construction of utterances using picture communication symbols by participants from 3 age groups with no communication disorders. Participants were 30 children (7;0 [years;months] to 8;11), 30 teenagers (12;0 to 13;11), and 30 adults (18 years and above). All participants constructed graphic symbol utterances to describe photographs presented with spoken French stimuli. Stimuli included simple and complex (object relative and subject relative) utterances describing the photographs, which were presented either 1 at a time (neutral condition) or in an array of 4 (contrast condition). Simple utterances lead to more uniform response patterns than complex utterances. Among complex utterances, subject relative sentences appeared more difficult to convey. Increasing the need for message clarity (i.e., contrast condition) elicited changes in the production of graphic symbol sequences for complex propositions. The effects of syntactic complexity and task demands were more pronounced for children. Graphic symbol utterance construction appears to involve more than simply transferring spoken language skills. One possible explanation is that this type of task requires higher levels of metalinguistic ability. Clinical implications and directions for further research are discussed.

'DNA Strider': a 'C' program for the fast analysis of DNA and protein sequences on the Apple Macintosh family of computers.

PubMed Central

Marck, C

1988-01-01

DNA Strider is a new integrated DNA and Protein sequence analysis program written with the C language for the Macintosh Plus, SE and II computers. It has been designed as an easy to learn and use program as well as a fast and efficient tool for the day-to-day sequence analysis work. The program consists of a multi-window sequence editor and of various DNA and Protein analysis functions. The editor may use 4 different types of sequences (DNA, degenerate DNA, RNA and one-letter coded protein) and can handle simultaneously 6 sequences of any type up to 32.5 kB each. Negative numbering of the bases is allowed for DNA sequences. All classical restriction and translation analysis functions are present and can be performed in any order on any open sequence or part of a sequence. The main feature of the program is that the same analysis function can be repeated several times on different sequences, thus generating multiple windows on the screen. Many graphic capabilities have been incorporated such as graphic restriction map, hydrophobicity profile and the CAI plot- codon adaptation index according to Sharp and Li. The restriction sites search uses a newly designed fast hexamer look-ahead algorithm. Typical runtime for the search of all sites with a library of 130 restriction endonucleases is 1 second per 10,000 bases. The circular graphic restriction map of the pBR322 plasmid can be therefore computed from its sequence and displayed on the Macintosh Plus screen within 2 seconds and its multiline restriction map obtained in a scrolling window within 5 seconds. PMID:2832831

Effects of Temporal Sequencing and Auditory Discrimination on Children's Memory Patterns for Tones, Numbers, and Nonsense Words

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gromko, Joyce Eastlund; Hansen, Dee; Tortora, Anne Halloran; Higgins, Daniel; Boccia, Eric

2009-01-01

The purpose of this study was to determine whether children's recall of tones, numbers, and words was supported by a common temporal sequencing mechanism; whether children's patterns of memory for tones, numbers, and nonsense words were the same despite differences in symbol systems; and whether children's recall of tones, numbers, and nonsense…

Window for Optimal Frequency Operation and Reliability of 3DEG and 2DEG Channels for Oxide Microwave MESFETs and HFETs

DTIC Science & Technology

2016-04-01

noise, and energy relaxation for doped zinc-oxide and structured ZnO transistor materials with a 2-D electron gas (2DEG) channel subjected to a strong...function on the time delay. Closed symbols represent the Monte Carlo data with hot-phonon effect at different electron gas density: 1•1017 cm-3...Monte Carlo simulation is performed for electron gas density of 1•1018 cm-3. Figure 18. Monte Carlo simulation of density-dependent hot-electron energy

Control of an Estuarine Microfouling Sequence on Optical Surfaces Using Low-Intensity Ultraviolet Irradiation

PubMed Central

DiSalvo, L. H.; Cobet, A. B.

1974-01-01

Ultraviolet light has been investigated as an active energy input for the control of slime film formation on optical surfaces submerged in San Francisco Bay for periods up to 6 weeks. Irradiation of quartz underwater windows was carried out from three positions: (i) exterior to the window, (ii) from directly behind the window, and (iii) from the edge of the window with the ultraviolet (UV) energy refracted through the front of the window. Internally administered irradiation reaching levels of 10 to 30 μW per cm2 measurable at the glass surface was effective in preventing bacterial slime film formation and settlement of metazoan larvae. When administered from the external position, over one order of magnitude more (500 to 600 μW/cm2) UV energy was required to accomplish the same result. Irradiation from the edge position was most promising logistically and was effective in fouling control for 6 weeks. The results provide a preliminary quantitation of the energy requirement for control of the marine microfouling sequence which precedes development of macrofouling communities. Images PMID:16349978

The Iconography and Symbolism of Sun God in Urartian Art

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Poghosyan, Gayane

2016-12-01

The predominating symbol of the winged sun disc in Urartian religious iconography testifies the significant role and importance of the sun in worship. The stylistic variation and peculiar iconographic features of the winged discs, sacred animals and divine images associated with solar deity shows the relationship between the cult of the sun god, sequence of the different phases of the year and constellations in Urartian culture. Such kind of iconography is possibly formed and stylized in result of interaction of ancient human imaginations, influence of rock paintings and religious beliefs.

Self-Organizing Hidden Markov Model Map (SOHMMM): Biological Sequence Clustering and Cluster Visualization.

PubMed

Ferles, Christos; Beaufort, William-Scott; Ferle, Vanessa

2017-01-01

The present study devises mapping methodologies and projection techniques that visualize and demonstrate biological sequence data clustering results. The Sequence Data Density Display (SDDD) and Sequence Likelihood Projection (SLP) visualizations represent the input symbolical sequences in a lower-dimensional space in such a way that the clusters and relations of data elements are depicted graphically. Both operate in combination/synergy with the Self-Organizing Hidden Markov Model Map (SOHMMM). The resulting unified framework is in position to analyze automatically and directly raw sequence data. This analysis is carried out with little, or even complete absence of, prior information/domain knowledge.

A smart-phone application and a companion website for the improvement of the communication skills of children with autism: clinical rationale, technical development and preliminary results.

PubMed

De Leo, Gianluca; Gonzales, Carol H; Battagiri, Padmaja; Leroy, Gondy

2011-08-01

Autism is a complex neurobiological disorder that is part of a group of disorders known as autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Today, one in 150 individuals is diagnosed with autism. Lack of social interaction and problems with communication are the main characteristics displayed by children with ASD. The Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS) is a communication system where children exchange visual symbols as a form of communication. The visual symbols are laminated pictures stored in a binder. We have designed, developed and are currently testing a software application, called PixTalk which works on any Windows Mobile Smart-phone. Teachers and caregivers can access a web site and select from an online library the images to be downloaded on to the Smart-phone. Children can browse and select images to express their intentions, desires, and emotions using PixTalk. Case study results indicate that PixTalk can be used as part of ongoing therapy.

Short segment search method for phylogenetic analysis using nested sliding windows

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Iskandar, A. A.; Bustamam, A.; Trimarsanto, H.

2017-10-01

To analyze phylogenetics in Bioinformatics, coding DNA sequences (CDS) segment is needed for maximal accuracy. However, analysis by CDS cost a lot of time and money, so a short representative segment by CDS, which is envelope protein segment or non-structural 3 (NS3) segment is necessary. After sliding window is implemented, a better short segment than envelope protein segment and NS3 is found. This paper will discuss a mathematical method to analyze sequences using nested sliding window to find a short segment which is representative for the whole genome. The result shows that our method can find a short segment which more representative about 6.57% in topological view to CDS segment than an Envelope segment or NS3 segment.

Symbols of a cosmic order

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Madjid, F. Hadi; Myers, John M.

2016-10-01

The world runs on networks over which signals communicate sequences of symbols, e.g. numerals. Examining both engineered and natural communications networks reveals an unsuspected order that depends on contact with an unpredictable entity. This order has three roots. The first is a proof within quantum theory that no evidence can ever determine its explanation, so that an agent choosing an explanation must do so unpredictably. The second root is the showing that clocks that step computers do not "tell time" but serve as self-adjusting symbol-handling agents that regulate "logically synchronized" motion in response to unpredictable disturbances. Such a clock-agent has a certain independence as well as the capacity to communicate via unpredictable symbols with other clock-agents and to adjust its own tick rate in response to that communication. The third root is the noticing of unpredictable symbol exchange in natural systems, including the transmission of symbols found in molecular biology. We introduce a symbol-handling agent as a role played in some cases by a person, for example a physicist who chooses an explanation of given experimental outcomes, and in other cases by some other biological entity, and in still other cases by an inanimate device, such as a computer-based detector used in physical measurements. While we forbear to try to explain the propensity of agents at all levels from cells to civilizations to form and operate networks of logically synchronized symbol-handling agents, we point to this propensity as an overlooked cosmic order, an order structured by the unpredictability ensuing from the proof. Appreciating the cosmic order leads to a conception of agency that replaces volition by unpredictability and reconceives the notion of objectivity in a way that makes a place for agency in the world as described by physics. Some specific implications for physics are outlined.

Nonlinear Algorithms for Channel Equalization and Map Symbol Detection.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Giridhar, K.

The transfer of information through a communication medium invariably results in various kinds of distortion to the transmitted signal. In this dissertation, a feed -forward neural network-based equalizer, and a family of maximum a posteriori (MAP) symbol detectors are proposed for signal recovery in the presence of intersymbol interference (ISI) and additive white Gaussian noise. The proposed neural network-based equalizer employs a novel bit-mapping strategy to handle multilevel data signals in an equivalent bipolar representation. It uses a training procedure to learn the channel characteristics, and at the end of training, the multilevel symbols are recovered from the corresponding inverse bit-mapping. When the channel characteristics are unknown and no training sequences are available, blind estimation of the channel (or its inverse) and simultaneous data recovery is required. Convergence properties of several existing Bussgang-type blind equalization algorithms are studied through computer simulations, and a unique gain independent approach is used to obtain a fair comparison of their rates of convergence. Although simple to implement, the slow convergence of these Bussgang-type blind equalizers make them unsuitable for many high data-rate applications. Rapidly converging blind algorithms based on the principle of MAP symbol-by -symbol detection are proposed, which adaptively estimate the channel impulse response (CIR) and simultaneously decode the received data sequence. Assuming a linear and Gaussian measurement model, the near-optimal blind MAP symbol detector (MAPSD) consists of a parallel bank of conditional Kalman channel estimators, where the conditioning is done on each possible data subsequence that can convolve with the CIR. This algorithm is also extended to the recovery of convolutionally encoded waveforms in the presence of ISI. Since the complexity of the MAPSD algorithm increases exponentially with the length of the assumed CIR, a suboptimal decision-feedback mechanism is introduced to truncate the channel memory "seen" by the MAPSD section. Also, simpler gradient-based updates for the channel estimates, and a metric pruning technique are used to further reduce the MAPSD complexity. Spatial diversity MAP combiners are developed to enhance the error rate performance and combat channel fading. As a first application of the MAPSD algorithm, dual-mode recovery techniques for TDMA (time-division multiple access) mobile radio signals are presented. Combined estimation of the symbol timing and the multipath parameters is proposed, using an auxiliary extended Kalman filter during the training cycle, and then tracking of the fading parameters is performed during the data cycle using the blind MAPSD algorithm. For the second application, a single-input receiver is employed to jointly recover cochannel narrowband signals. Assuming known channels, this two-stage joint MAPSD (JMAPSD) algorithm is compared to the optimal joint maximum likelihood sequence estimator, and to the joint decision-feedback detector. A blind MAPSD algorithm for the joint recovery of cochannel signals is also presented. Computer simulation results are provided to quantify the performance of the various algorithms proposed in this dissertation.

37 CFR 1.822 - Symbols and format to be used for nucleotide and/or amino acid sequence data.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-07-01

... base or modified or unusual amino acid may be presented in a given sequence as the corresponding unmodified base or amino acid if the modified base or modified or unusual amino acid is one of those listed... the Feature section. Otherwise, each occurrence of a base or amino acid not appearing in WIPO Standard...

Border Collision and Smooth Bifurcations in a Family of Linear-Power Maps

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gardini, Laura; Makrooni, Roya

2016-02-01

In this work we describe some properties and bifurcations which occur in a family of linear-power maps typical in Nordmark’ systems. The continuous case has been investigated by many authors since a few years, while the discontinuous case has been considered only recently. In particular, having a vertical asymptote, it gives rise to new kinds of bifurcations. Organizing centers related to codimension-two bifurcation points, due to the intersection of a border collision bifurcation and a smooth fold bifurcation of cycles having a different symbolic sequence are evidenced. It is shown the relevant role played by a codimension-two point existing on any border collision bifurcation curve, and related to the smooth fold bifurcation of cycles with the same symbolic sequence. We recall some of the properties proved up to now, evidencing the rich structure which is still to be understood.

Methods and apparatuses using filter banks for multi-carrier spread-spectrum signals

DOEpatents

Moradi, Hussein; Farhang, Behrouz; Kutsche, Carl A

2014-10-14

A transmitter includes a synthesis filter bank to spread a data symbol to a plurality of frequencies by encoding the data symbol on each frequency, apply a common pulse-shaping filter, and apply gains to the frequencies such that a power level of each frequency is less than a noise level of other communication signals within the spectrum. Each frequency is modulated onto a different evenly spaced subcarrier. A demodulator in a receiver converts a radio frequency input to a spread-spectrum signal in a baseband. A matched filter filters the spread-spectrum signal with a common filter having characteristics matched to the synthesis filter bank in the transmitter by filtering each frequency to generate a sequence of narrow pulses. A carrier recovery unit generates control signals responsive to the sequence of narrow pulses suitable for generating a phase-locked loop between the demodulator, the matched filter, and the carrier recovery unit.

Methods and apparatuses using filter banks for multi-carrier spread-spectrum signals

DOEpatents

Moradi, Hussein; Farhang, Behrouz; Kutsche, Carl A

2014-05-20

A transmitter includes a synthesis filter bank to spread a data symbol to a plurality of frequencies by encoding the data symbol on each frequency, apply a common pulse-shaping filter, and apply gains to the frequencies such that a power level of each frequency is less than a noise level of other communication signals within the spectrum. Each frequency is modulated onto a different evenly spaced subcarrier. A demodulator in a receiver converts a radio frequency input to a spread-spectrum signal in a baseband. A matched filter filters the spread-spectrum signal with a common filter having characteristics matched to the synthesis filter bank in the transmitter by filtering each frequency to generate a sequence of narrow pulses. A carrier recovery unit generates control signals responsive to the sequence of narrow pulses suitable for generating a phase-locked loop between the demodulator, the matched filter, and the carrier recovery unit.

Quantification of cardiorespiratory interactions based on joint symbolic dynamics.

PubMed

Kabir, Muammar M; Saint, David A; Nalivaiko, Eugene; Abbott, Derek; Voss, Andreas; Baumert, Mathias

2011-10-01

Cardiac and respiratory rhythms are highly nonlinear and nonstationary. As a result traditional time-domain techniques are often inadequate to characterize their complex dynamics. In this article, we introduce a novel technique to investigate the interactions between R-R intervals and respiratory phases based on their joint symbolic dynamics. To evaluate the technique, electrocardiograms (ECG) and respiratory signals were recorded in 13 healthy subjects in different body postures during spontaneous and controlled breathing. Herein, the R-R time series were extracted from ECG and respiratory phases were obtained from abdomen impedance belts using the Hilbert transform. Both time series were transformed into ternary symbol vectors based on the changes between two successive R-R intervals or respiratory phases. Subsequently, words of different symbol lengths were formed and the correspondence between the two series of words was determined to quantify the interaction between cardiac and respiratory cycles. To validate our results, respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) was further studied using the phase-averaged characterization of the RSA pattern. The percentage of similarity of the sequence of symbols, between the respective words of the two series determined by joint symbolic dynamics, was significantly reduced in the upright position compared to the supine position (26.4 ± 4.7 vs. 20.5 ± 5.4%, p < 0.01). Similarly, RSA was also reduced during upright posture, but the difference was less significant (0.11 ± 0.02 vs. 0.08 ± 0.01 s, p < 0.05). In conclusion, joint symbolic dynamics provides a new efficient technique for the analysis of cardiorespiratory interaction that is highly sensitive to the effects of orthostatic challenge.

Apple Macintosh programs for nucleic and protein sequence analyses.

PubMed Central

Bellon, B

1988-01-01

This paper describes a package of programs for handling and analyzing nucleic acid and protein sequences using the Apple Macintosh microcomputer. There are three important features of these programs: first, because of the now classical Macintosh interface the programs can be easily used by persons with little or no computer experience. Second, it is possible to save all the data, written in an editable scrolling text window or drawn in a graphic window, as files that can be directly used either as word processing documents or as picture documents. Third, sequences can be easily exchanged with any other computer. The package is composed of thirteen programs, written in Pascal programming language. PMID:2832832

Relations between Shannon entropy and genome order index in segmenting DNA sequences.

PubMed

Zhang, Yi

2009-04-01

Shannon entropy H and genome order index S are used in segmenting DNA sequences. Zhang [Phys. Rev. E 72, 041917 (2005)] found that the two schemes are equivalent when a DNA sequence is converted to a binary sequence of S (strong H bond) and W (weak H bond). They left the mathematical proof to mathematicians who are interested in this issue. In this paper, a possible mathematical explanation is given. Moreover, we find that Chargaff parity rule 2 is the necessary condition of the equivalence, and the equivalence disappears when a DNA sequence is regarded as a four-symbol sequence. At last, we propose that S-2(-H) may be related to species evolution.

The Reality of Neandertal Symbolic Behavior at the Grotte du Renne, Arcy-sur-Cure, France

PubMed Central

Caron, François; d'Errico, Francesco; Del Moral, Pierre; Santos, Frédéric; Zilhão, João

2011-01-01

Background The question of whether symbolically mediated behavior is exclusive to modern humans or shared with anatomically archaic populations such as the Neandertals is hotly debated. At the Grotte du Renne, Arcy-sur-Cure, France, the Châtelperronian levels contain Neandertal remains and large numbers of personal ornaments, decorated bone tools and colorants, but it has been suggested that this association reflects intrusion of the symbolic artifacts from the overlying Protoaurignacian and/or of the Neandertal remains from the underlying Mousterian. Methodology/Principal Findings We tested these hypotheses against the horizontal and vertical distributions of the various categories of diagnostic finds and statistically assessed the probability that the Châtelperronian levels are of mixed composition. Our results reject that the associations result from large or small scale, localized or generalized post-depositional displacement, and they imply that incomplete sample decontamination is the parsimonious explanation for the stratigraphic anomalies seen in the radiocarbon dating of the sequence. Conclusions/Significance The symbolic artifacts in the Châtelperronian of the Grotte du Renne are indeed Neandertal material culture. PMID:21738702

Gestural and symbolic development among apes and humans: support for a multimodal theory of language evolution.

PubMed

Gillespie-Lynch, Kristen; Greenfield, Patricia M; Lyn, Heidi; Savage-Rumbaugh, Sue

2014-01-01

What are the implications of similarities and differences in the gestural and symbolic development of apes and humans?This focused review uses as a starting point our recent study that provided evidence that gesture supported the symbolic development of a chimpanzee, a bonobo, and a human child reared in language-enriched environments at comparable stages of communicative development. These three species constitute a complete clade, species possessing a common immediate ancestor. Communicative behaviors observed among all species in a clade are likely to have been present in the common ancestor. Similarities in the form and function of many gestures produced by the chimpanzee, bonobo, and human child suggest that shared non-verbal skills may underlie shared symbolic capacities. Indeed, an ontogenetic sequence from gesture to symbol was present across the clade but more pronounced in child than ape. Multimodal expressions of communicative intent (e.g., vocalization plus persistence or eye-contact) were normative for the child, but less common for the apes. These findings suggest that increasing multimodal expression of communicative intent may have supported the emergence of language among the ancestors of humans. Therefore, this focused review includes new studies, since our 2013 article, that support a multimodal theory of language evolution.

Gestural and symbolic development among apes and humans: support for a multimodal theory of language evolution

PubMed Central

Gillespie-Lynch, Kristen; Greenfield, Patricia M.; Lyn, Heidi; Savage-Rumbaugh, Sue

2014-01-01

What are the implications of similarities and differences in the gestural and symbolic development of apes and humans?This focused review uses as a starting point our recent study that provided evidence that gesture supported the symbolic development of a chimpanzee, a bonobo, and a human child reared in language-enriched environments at comparable stages of communicative development. These three species constitute a complete clade, species possessing a common immediate ancestor. Communicative behaviors observed among all species in a clade are likely to have been present in the common ancestor. Similarities in the form and function of many gestures produced by the chimpanzee, bonobo, and human child suggest that shared non-verbal skills may underlie shared symbolic capacities. Indeed, an ontogenetic sequence from gesture to symbol was present across the clade but more pronounced in child than ape. Multimodal expressions of communicative intent (e.g., vocalization plus persistence or eye-contact) were normative for the child, but less common for the apes. These findings suggest that increasing multimodal expression of communicative intent may have supported the emergence of language among the ancestors of humans. Therefore, this focused review includes new studies, since our 2013 article, that support a multimodal theory of language evolution. PMID:25400607

Toward a Theory of Sequencing: Study 1-7: An Exploration of the Effect of Instructional Sequences Involving Enactive and Iconic Embodiments on the Ability to Generalize.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Beardslee, Edward Clarke

The purpose of the study was to examine the effect of instruction using Dienes' perceptual variability principles on primitive generalization and mathematical generalization. The following was studied: the effect of achievement-to-criterion on one, two, or three non-symbolic embodiments of an objective using a selected class of variables on the…

Detecting the borders between coding and non-coding DNA regions in prokaryotes based on recursive segmentation and nucleotide doublets statistics

PubMed Central

2012-01-01

Background Detecting the borders between coding and non-coding regions is an essential step in the genome annotation. And information entropy measures are useful for describing the signals in genome sequence. However, the accuracies of previous methods of finding borders based on entropy segmentation method still need to be improved. Methods In this study, we first applied a new recursive entropic segmentation method on DNA sequences to get preliminary significant cuts. A 22-symbol alphabet is used to capture the differential composition of nucleotide doublets and stop codon patterns along three phases in both DNA strands. This process requires no prior training datasets. Results Comparing with the previous segmentation methods, the experimental results on three bacteria genomes, Rickettsia prowazekii, Borrelia burgdorferi and E.coli, show that our approach improves the accuracy for finding the borders between coding and non-coding regions in DNA sequences. Conclusions This paper presents a new segmentation method in prokaryotes based on Jensen-Rényi divergence with a 22-symbol alphabet. For three bacteria genomes, comparing to A12_JR method, our method raised the accuracy of finding the borders between protein coding and non-coding regions in DNA sequences. PMID:23282225

Dynamic Energy Landscapes of Riboswitches Help Interpret Conformational Rearrangements and Function

PubMed Central

Quarta, Giulio; Sin, Ken; Schlick, Tamar

2012-01-01

Riboswitches are RNAs that modulate gene expression by ligand-induced conformational changes. However, the way in which sequence dictates alternative folding pathways of gene regulation remains unclear. In this study, we compute energy landscapes, which describe the accessible secondary structures for a range of sequence lengths, to analyze the transcriptional process as a given sequence elongates to full length. In line with experimental evidence, we find that most riboswitch landscapes can be characterized by three broad classes as a function of sequence length in terms of the distribution and barrier type of the conformational clusters: low-barrier landscape with an ensemble of different conformations in equilibrium before encountering a substrate; barrier-free landscape in which a direct, dominant “downhill” pathway to the minimum free energy structure is apparent; and a barrier-dominated landscape with two isolated conformational states, each associated with a different biological function. Sharing concepts with the “new view” of protein folding energy landscapes, we term the three sequence ranges above as the sensing, downhill folding, and functional windows, respectively. We find that these energy landscape patterns are conserved in various riboswitch classes, though the order of the windows may vary. In fact, the order of the three windows suggests either kinetic or thermodynamic control of ligand binding. These findings help understand riboswitch structure/function relationships and open new avenues to riboswitch design. PMID:22359488

DEVS representation of dynamical systems - Event-based intelligent control. [Discrete Event System Specification

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Zeigler, Bernard P.

1989-01-01

It is shown how systems can be advantageously represented as discrete-event models by using DEVS (discrete-event system specification), a set-theoretic formalism. Such DEVS models provide a basis for the design of event-based logic control. In this control paradigm, the controller expects to receive confirming sensor responses to its control commands within definite time windows determined by its DEVS model of the system under control. The event-based contral paradigm is applied in advanced robotic and intelligent automation, showing how classical process control can be readily interfaced with rule-based symbolic reasoning systems.

Emerging Technologies and Cognitive Disability

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Braddock, David; Rizzolo, Mary C.; Thompson, Micah; Bell, Rodney

2004-01-01

Cognitive disability entails a substantial limitation in one's capacity to think, including conceptualizing, planning, and sequencing thoughts and actions, remembering, interpreting subtle social cues, and understanding numbers and symbols. Cognitive disabilities include intellectual disabilities and can also stem from brain injury, Alzheimer's…

Software Reviews: "Pow! Zap! Ker-plunk! The Comic Book Maker" (Pelican Software).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Porter, Bernajean

1990-01-01

Reviews the newest addition to Pelican's Creative Writing Series of instructional software, which uses the comic book format to provide a unique writing environment for satire, symbolism, sequencing, and combining text and graphics to communicate ideas. (SR)

Symbolically Modeling Concurrent MCAPI Executions

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Fischer, Topher; Mercer, Eric; Rungta, Neha

2011-01-01

Improper use of Inter-Process Communication (IPC) within concurrent systems often creates data races which can lead to bugs that are challenging to discover. Techniques that use Satisfiability Modulo Theories (SMT) problems to symbolically model possible executions of concurrent software have recently been proposed for use in the formal verification of software. In this work we describe a new technique for modeling executions of concurrent software that use a message passing API called MCAPI. Our technique uses an execution trace to create an SMT problem that symbolically models all possible concurrent executions and follows the same sequence of conditional branch outcomes as the provided execution trace. We check if there exists a satisfying assignment to the SMT problem with respect to specific safety properties. If such an assignment exists, it provides the conditions that lead to the violation of the property. We show how our method models behaviors of MCAPI applications that are ignored in previously published techniques.

A Locally Optimal Algorithm for Estimating a Generating Partition from an Observed Time Series and Its Application to Anomaly Detection.

PubMed

Ghalyan, Najah F; Miller, David J; Ray, Asok

2018-06-12

Estimation of a generating partition is critical for symbolization of measurements from discrete-time dynamical systems, where a sequence of symbols from a (finite-cardinality) alphabet may uniquely specify the underlying time series. Such symbolization is useful for computing measures (e.g., Kolmogorov-Sinai entropy) to identify or characterize the (possibly unknown) dynamical system. It is also useful for time series classification and anomaly detection. The seminal work of Hirata, Judd, and Kilminster (2004) derives a novel objective function, akin to a clustering objective, that measures the discrepancy between a set of reconstruction values and the points from the time series. They cast estimation of a generating partition via the minimization of their objective function. Unfortunately, their proposed algorithm is nonconvergent, with no guarantee of finding even locally optimal solutions with respect to their objective. The difficulty is a heuristic-nearest neighbor symbol assignment step. Alternatively, we develop a novel, locally optimal algorithm for their objective. We apply iterative nearest-neighbor symbol assignments with guaranteed discrepancy descent, by which joint, locally optimal symbolization of the entire time series is achieved. While most previous approaches frame generating partition estimation as a state-space partitioning problem, we recognize that minimizing the Hirata et al. (2004) objective function does not induce an explicit partitioning of the state space, but rather the space consisting of the entire time series (effectively, clustering in a (countably) infinite-dimensional space). Our approach also amounts to a novel type of sliding block lossy source coding. Improvement, with respect to several measures, is demonstrated over popular methods for symbolizing chaotic maps. We also apply our approach to time-series anomaly detection, considering both chaotic maps and failure application in a polycrystalline alloy material.

A Comparative Study of Frequent and Maximal Periodic Pattern Mining Algorithms in Spatiotemporal Databases

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Obulesu, O.; Rama Mohan Reddy, A., Dr; Mahendra, M.

2017-08-01

Detecting regular and efficient cyclic models is the demanding activity for data analysts due to unstructured, vigorous and enormous raw information produced from web. Many existing approaches generate large candidate patterns in the occurrence of huge and complex databases. In this work, two novel algorithms are proposed and a comparative examination is performed by considering scalability and performance parameters. The first algorithm is, EFPMA (Extended Regular Model Detection Algorithm) used to find frequent sequential patterns from the spatiotemporal dataset and the second one is, ETMA (Enhanced Tree-based Mining Algorithm) for detecting effective cyclic models with symbolic database representation. EFPMA is an algorithm grows models from both ends (prefixes and suffixes) of detected patterns, which results in faster pattern growth because of less levels of database projection compared to existing approaches such as Prefixspan and SPADE. ETMA uses distinct notions to store and manage transactions data horizontally such as segment, sequence and individual symbols. ETMA exploits a partition-and-conquer method to find maximal patterns by using symbolic notations. Using this algorithm, we can mine cyclic models in full-series sequential patterns including subsection series also. ETMA reduces the memory consumption and makes use of the efficient symbolic operation. Furthermore, ETMA only records time-series instances dynamically, in terms of character, series and section approaches respectively. The extent of the pattern and proving efficiency of the reducing and retrieval techniques from synthetic and actual datasets is a really open & challenging mining problem. These techniques are useful in data streams, traffic risk analysis, medical diagnosis, DNA sequence Mining, Earthquake prediction applications. Extensive investigational outcomes illustrates that the algorithms outperforms well towards efficiency and scalability than ECLAT, STNR and MAFIA approaches.

Bio-Inspired Computation: Clock-Free, Grid-Free, Scale-Free and Symbol Free

DTIC Science & Technology

2015-06-11

for Prediction Tasks in Spiking Neural Networks ." Artificial Neural Networks and Machine Learning–ICANN 2014. Springer, 2014. pp 635-642. Gibson, T...Henderson, JA and Wiles, J. "Predicting temporal sequences using an event-based spiking neural network incorporating learnable delays." IEEE...Adelaide (2014 Jan). Gibson, T and Wiles, J "Predicting temporal sequences using an event-based spiking neural network incorporating learnable delays" at

Augmentation of machine structure to improve its diagnosability

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hsieh, L.

1973-01-01

Two methods of augmenting the structure of a sequential machine so that it is diagnosable are presented. The checkable (checking sequences) and repeated symbol distinguishing sequences (RDS) are discussed. It was found that as few as twice the number of outputs of the given machine is sufficient for constructing a state-output augmentation with RDS. Techniques for minimizing the number of states in resolving convergences and in resolving equivalent and nonreduced cycles are developed.

Concurrent validity of the Microsoft Kinect for Windows v2 for measuring spatiotemporal gait parameters.

PubMed

Dolatabadi, Elham; Taati, Babak; Mihailidis, Alex

2016-09-01

This paper presents a study to evaluate the concurrent validity of the Microsoft Kinect for Windows v2 for measuring the spatiotemporal parameters of gait. Twenty healthy adults performed several sequences of walks across a GAITRite mat under three different conditions: usual pace, fast pace, and dual task. Each walking sequence was simultaneously captured with two Kinect for Windows v2 and the GAITRite system. An automated algorithm was employed to extract various spatiotemporal features including stance time, step length, step time and gait velocity from the recorded Kinect v2 sequences. Accuracy in terms of reliability, concurrent validity and limits of agreement was examined for each gait feature under different walking conditions. The 95% Bland-Altman limits of agreement were narrow enough for the Kinect v2 to be a valid tool for measuring all reported spatiotemporal parameters of gait in all three conditions. An excellent intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC2, 1) ranging from 0.9 to 0.98 was observed for all gait measures across different walking conditions. The inter trial reliability of all gait parameters were shown to be strong for all walking types (ICC3, 1 > 0.73). The results of this study suggest that the Kinect for Windows v2 has the capacity to measure selected spatiotemporal gait parameters for healthy adults. Copyright © 2016 IPEM. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Counterinsurgency

DTIC Science & Technology

2006-12-15

may use these narratives to mobi- lize the population. 3-51. Other cultural forms include ritual and symbols. A ritual is a stereotyped sequence of...investigations or legal actions. 8-46. In the case of claims for damages allegedly caused by counterinsurgents, legal reviews show genu - inely wronged people

Microcomputers and Preschoolers.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Evans, Dina

Preschool children can benefit by working with microcomputers. Thinking skills are enhanced by software games that focus on logic, memory, problem solving, and pattern recognition. Counting, sequencing, and matching games develop mathematics skills, and word games focusing on basic letter symbol and word recognition develop language skills.…

WebLogo: A Sequence Logo Generator

PubMed Central

Crooks, Gavin E.; Hon, Gary; Chandonia, John-Marc; Brenner, Steven E.

2004-01-01

WebLogo generates sequence logos, graphical representations of the patterns within a multiple sequence alignment. Sequence logos provide a richer and more precise description of sequence similarity than consensus sequences and can rapidly reveal significant features of the alignment otherwise difficult to perceive. Each logo consists of stacks of letters, one stack for each position in the sequence. The overall height of each stack indicates the sequence conservation at that position (measured in bits), whereas the height of symbols within the stack reflects the relative frequency of the corresponding amino or nucleic acid at that position. WebLogo has been enhanced recently with additional features and options, to provide a convenient and highly configurable sequence logo generator. A command line interface and the complete, open WebLogo source code are available for local installation and customization. PMID:15173120

Reduction of display artifacts by random sampling

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ahumada, A. J., Jr.; Nagel, D. C.; Watson, A. B.; Yellott, J. I., Jr.

1983-01-01

The application of random-sampling techniques to remove visible artifacts (such as flicker, moire patterns, and paradoxical motion) introduced in TV-type displays by discrete sequential scanning is discussed and demonstrated. Sequential-scanning artifacts are described; the window of visibility defined in spatiotemporal frequency space by Watson and Ahumada (1982 and 1983) and Watson et al. (1983) is explained; the basic principles of random sampling are reviewed and illustrated by the case of the human retina; and it is proposed that the sampling artifacts can be replaced by random noise, which can then be shifted to frequency-space regions outside the window of visibility. Vertical sequential, single-random-sequence, and continuously renewed random-sequence plotting displays generating 128 points at update rates up to 130 Hz are applied to images of stationary and moving lines, and best results are obtained with the single random sequence for the stationary lines and with the renewed random sequence for the moving lines.

Effective Energy Simulation and Optimal Design of Side-lit Buildings with Venetian Blinds

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cheng, Tian

Venetian blinds are popularly used in buildings to control the amount of incoming daylight for improving visual comfort and reducing heat gains in air-conditioning systems. Studies have shown that the proper design and operation of window systems could result in significant energy savings in both lighting and cooling. However, there is no convenient computer tool that allows effective and efficient optimization of the envelope of side-lit buildings with blinds now. Three computer tools, Adeline, DOE2 and EnergyPlus widely used for the above-mentioned purpose have been experimentally examined in this study. Results indicate that the two former tools give unacceptable accuracy due to unrealistic assumptions adopted while the last one may generate large errors in certain conditions. Moreover, current computer tools have to conduct hourly energy simulations, which are not necessary for life-cycle energy analysis and optimal design, to provide annual cooling loads. This is not computationally efficient, particularly not suitable for optimal designing a building at initial stage because the impacts of many design variations and optional features have to be evaluated. A methodology is therefore developed for efficient and effective thermal and daylighting simulations and optimal design of buildings with blinds. Based on geometric optics and radiosity method, a mathematical model is developed to reasonably simulate the daylighting behaviors of venetian blinds. Indoor illuminance at any reference point can be directly and efficiently computed. They have been validated with both experiments and simulations with Radiance. Validation results show that indoor illuminances computed by the new models agree well with the measured data, and the accuracy provided by them is equivalent to that of Radiance. The computational efficiency of the new models is much higher than that of Radiance as well as EnergyPlus. Two new methods are developed for the thermal simulation of buildings. A fast Fourier transform (FFT) method is presented to avoid the root-searching process in the inverse Laplace transform of multilayered walls. Generalized explicit FFT formulae for calculating the discrete Fourier transform (DFT) are developed for the first time. They can largely facilitate the implementation of FFT. The new method also provides a basis for generating the symbolic response factors. Validation simulations show that it can generate the response factors as accurate as the analytical solutions. The second method is for direct estimation of annual or seasonal cooling loads without the need for tedious hourly energy simulations. It is validated by hourly simulation results with DOE2. Then symbolic long-term cooling load can be created by combining the two methods with thermal network analysis. The symbolic long-term cooling load can keep the design parameters of interest as symbols, which is particularly useful for the optimal design and sensitivity analysis. The methodology is applied to an office building in Hong Kong for the optimal design of building envelope. Design variables such as window-to-wall ratio, building orientation, and glazing optical and thermal properties are included in the study. Results show that the selected design values could significantly impact the energy performance of windows, and the optimal design of side-lit buildings could greatly enhance energy savings. The application example also demonstrates that the developed methodology significantly facilitates the optimal building design and sensitivity analysis, and leads to high computational efficiency.

Visibility graphs and symbolic dynamics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lacasa, Lucas; Just, Wolfram

2018-07-01

Visibility algorithms are a family of geometric and ordering criteria by which a real-valued time series of N data is mapped into a graph of N nodes. This graph has been shown to often inherit in its topology nontrivial properties of the series structure, and can thus be seen as a combinatorial representation of a dynamical system. Here we explore in some detail the relation between visibility graphs and symbolic dynamics. To do that, we consider the degree sequence of horizontal visibility graphs generated by the one-parameter logistic map, for a range of values of the parameter for which the map shows chaotic behaviour. Numerically, we observe that in the chaotic region the block entropies of these sequences systematically converge to the Lyapunov exponent of the time series. Hence, Pesin's identity suggests that these block entropies are converging to the Kolmogorov-Sinai entropy of the physical measure, which ultimately suggests that the algorithm is implicitly and adaptively constructing phase space partitions which might have the generating property. To give analytical insight, we explore the relation k(x) , x ∈ [ 0 , 1 ] that, for a given datum with value x, assigns in graph space a node with degree k. In the case of the out-degree sequence, such relation is indeed a piece-wise constant function. By making use of explicit methods and tools from symbolic dynamics we are able to analytically show that the algorithm indeed performs an effective partition of the phase space and that such partition is naturally expressed as a countable union of subintervals, where the endpoints of each subinterval are related to the fixed point structure of the iterates of the map and the subinterval enumeration is associated with particular ordering structures that we called motifs.

Extremes of fractional noises: A model for the timings of arrhythmic heart beats in post-infarction patients

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Witt, Annette; Ehlers, Frithjof; Luther, Stefan

2017-09-01

We have analyzed symbol sequences of heart beat annotations obtained from 24-h electrocardiogram recordings of 184 post-infarction patients (from the Cardiac Arrhythmia Suppression Trial database, CAST). In the symbol sequences, each heart beat was coded as an arrhythmic or as a normal beat. The symbol sequences were analyzed with a model-based approach which relies on two-parametric peaks over the threshold (POT) model, interpreting each premature ventricular contraction (PVC) as an extreme event. For the POT model, we explored (i) the Shannon entropy which was estimated in terms of the Lempel-Ziv complexity, (ii) the shape parameter of the Weibull distribution that best fits the PVC return times, and (iii) the strength of long-range correlations quantified by detrended fluctuation analysis (DFA) for the two-dimensional parameter space. We have found that in the frame of our model the Lempel-Ziv complexity is functionally related to the shape parameter of the Weibull distribution. Thus, two complementary measures (entropy and strength of long-range correlations) are sufficient to characterize realizations of the two-parametric model. For the CAST data, we have found evidence for an intermediate strength of long-range correlations in the PVC timings, which are correlated to the age of the patient: younger post-infarction patients have higher strength of long-range correlations than older patients. The normalized Shannon entropy has values in the range 0.5

An investigation of application of the golden ratio and Fibonacci sequence in fashion design and pattern making

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kazlacheva, Z. I.

2017-10-01

The Golden ratio and Fibonacci sequence are used as proportions in design as symbols of beauty and harmony. That symbolism is a result of the strong connections in their mathematical nature. The Golden section is a number, introduced with Greek letter φ, which is found by dividing a line into two parts as the longer part divided by the smaller part is equal as the whole length of longer and smaller parts divided by the longer part. Fibonacci sequence is a series of numbers where every number is equal to the two numbers before it. An investigation of application of proportions based on the Golden ratio and Fibonacci sequence in the fashion design and pattern making of ladies’ clothing is the main aim of the paper. Based on the study it may be concluded that in fashion design and pattern making the Golden ratio and Fibonacci sequence can be used in creation of beautiful and harmonic forms directly or with the help of geometrical figures as: In directly use the Golden and Fibonacci numbers proportions can be in one and the same or different directions. In the application with the help of geometrical shapes the Golden and Fibonacci figures combine proportioning and form creation. The Golden and Fibonacci shapes can be used directly as forms or as frames of forms creation of elements and pieces. Its application can be in different directions and location according the bodice. The Golden section and Fibonacci sequence can combine proportions with other principles of design as symmetry, rhythm, etc.

You can only die thrice: death and dying of a human body in psychoanalytical perspective.

PubMed

Sterk, Karmen

2010-12-01

This paper compares the (cultural) necessity of death/dying, perceived as a sequence of Imaginary--Real--Symbolic, to Van Gennep's three-staged rite of passage. If this logic is disrupted, the subject responsible necessitates attribution of special social status and can come to embody the imagery of a life worth living. This philosophical framework, which includes epistemologies borrowed from medical anthropology, demonstrates there is more for humans to lose than biological (Real) life; a far greater loss is to exist without (Symbolic) reason to live. A critique of prevalent quantitative methodology in assessing links between spirituality and the human body is added.

Exact folded-band chaotic oscillator.

PubMed

Corron, Ned J; Blakely, Jonathan N

2012-06-01

An exactly solvable chaotic oscillator with folded-band dynamics is shown. The oscillator is a hybrid dynamical system containing a linear ordinary differential equation and a nonlinear switching condition. Bounded oscillations are provably chaotic, and successive waveform maxima yield a one-dimensional piecewise-linear return map with segments of both positive and negative slopes. Continuous-time dynamics exhibit a folded-band topology similar to Rössler's oscillator. An exact solution is written as a linear convolution of a fixed basis pulse and a discrete binary sequence, from which an equivalent symbolic dynamics is obtained. The folded-band topology is shown to be dependent on the symbol grammar.

Quantification of fetal heart rate regularity using symbolic dynamics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

van Leeuwen, P.; Cysarz, D.; Lange, S.; Geue, D.; Groenemeyer, D.

2007-03-01

Fetal heart rate complexity was examined on the basis of RR interval time series obtained in the second and third trimester of pregnancy. In each fetal RR interval time series, short term beat-to-beat heart rate changes were coded in 8bit binary sequences. Redundancies of the 28 different binary patterns were reduced by two different procedures. The complexity of these sequences was quantified using the approximate entropy (ApEn), resulting in discrete ApEn values which were used for classifying the sequences into 17 pattern sets. Also, the sequences were grouped into 20 pattern classes with respect to identity after rotation or inversion of the binary value. There was a specific, nonuniform distribution of the sequences in the pattern sets and this differed from the distribution found in surrogate data. In the course of gestation, the number of sequences increased in seven pattern sets, decreased in four and remained unchanged in six. Sequences that occurred less often over time, both regular and irregular, were characterized by patterns reflecting frequent beat-to-beat reversals in heart rate. They were also predominant in the surrogate data, suggesting that these patterns are associated with stochastic heart beat trains. Sequences that occurred more frequently over time were relatively rare in the surrogate data. Some of these sequences had a high degree of regularity and corresponded to prolonged heart rate accelerations or decelerations which may be associated with directed fetal activity or movement or baroreflex activity. Application of the pattern classes revealed that those sequences with a high degree of irregularity correspond to heart rate patterns resulting from complex physiological activity such as fetal breathing movements. The results suggest that the development of the autonomic nervous system and the emergence of fetal behavioral states lead to increases in not only irregular but also regular heart rate patterns. Using symbolic dynamics to examine the cardiovascular system may thus lead to new insight with respect to fetal development.

Pop Goes the Poster! Tips for Effective Poster Design.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Helmken, Charles M.

1979-01-01

Posters' power in academic advertising to persuade and inform is successful when message and graphics are combined. Design principles and techniques are identified: symbolism, symbiosis, substitution, sequence, scale, silhouette, script, spectrum, and simplicity. Designers should avoid: typographic fog, color confusion, excessive elements, and…

Recognizing Chinese characters in digital ink from non-native language writers using hierarchical models

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bai, Hao; Zhang, Xi-wen

2017-06-01

While Chinese is learned as a second language, its characters are taught step by step from their strokes to components, radicals to components, and their complex relations. Chinese Characters in digital ink from non-native language writers are deformed seriously, thus the global recognition approaches are poorer. So a progressive approach from bottom to top is presented based on hierarchical models. Hierarchical information includes strokes and hierarchical components. Each Chinese character is modeled as a hierarchical tree. Strokes in one Chinese characters in digital ink are classified with Hidden Markov Models and concatenated to the stroke symbol sequence. And then the structure of components in one ink character is extracted. According to the extraction result and the stroke symbol sequence, candidate characters are traversed and scored. Finally, the recognition candidate results are listed by descending. The method of this paper is validated by testing 19815 copies of the handwriting Chinese characters written by foreign students.

Methods and apparatuses using filter banks for multi-carrier spread spectrum signals

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

Moradi, Hussein; Farhang, Behrouz; Kutsche, Carl A

2017-01-31

A transmitter includes a synthesis filter bank to spread a data symbol to a plurality of frequencies by encoding the data symbol on each frequency, apply a common pulse-shaping filter, and apply gains to the frequencies such that a power level of each frequency is less than a noise level of other communication signals within the spectrum. Each frequency is modulated onto a different evenly spaced subcarrier. A demodulator in a receiver converts a radio frequency input to a spread-spectrum signal in a baseband. A matched filter filters the spread-spectrum signal with a common filter having characteristics matched to themore » synthesis filter bank in the transmitter by filtering each frequency to generate a sequence of narrow pulses. A carrier recovery unit generates control signals responsive to the sequence of narrow pulses suitable for generating a phase-locked loop between the demodulator, the matched filter, and the carrier recovery unit.« less

Methods and apparatuses using filter banks for multi-carrier spread spectrum signals

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

Moradi, Hussein; Farhang, Behrouz; Kutsche, Carl A.

2016-06-14

A transmitter includes a synthesis filter bank to spread a data symbol to a plurality of frequencies by encoding the data symbol on each frequency, apply a common pulse-shaping filter, and apply gains to the frequencies such that a power level of each frequency is less than a noise level of other communication signals within the spectrum. Each frequency is modulated onto a different evenly spaced subcarrier. A demodulator in a receiver converts a radio frequency input to a spread-spectrum signal in a baseband. A matched filter filters the spread-spectrum signal with a common filter having characteristics matched to themore » synthesis filter bank in the transmitter by filtering each frequency to generate a sequence of narrow pulses. A carrier recovery unit generates control signals responsive to the sequence of narrow pulses suitable for generating a phase-locked loop between the demodulator, the matched filter, and the carrier recovery unit.« less

Replacement Sequence of Events Generator

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Fisher, Forest; Gladden, Daniel Wenkert Roy; Khanampompan, Teerpat

2008-01-01

The soeWINDOW program automates the generation of an ITAR (International Traffic in Arms Regulations)-compliant sub-RSOE (Replacement Sequence of Events) by extracting a specified temporal window from an RSOE while maintaining page header information. RSOEs contain a significant amount of information that is not ITAR-compliant, yet that foreign partners need to see for command details to their instrument, as well as the surrounding commands that provide context for validation. soeWINDOW can serve as an example of how command support products can be made ITAR-compliant for future missions. This software is a Perl script intended for use in the mission operations UNIX environment. It is designed for use to support the MRO (Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter) instrument team. The tool also provides automated DOM (Distributed Object Manager) storage into the special ITAR-okay DOM collection, and can be used for creating focused RSOEs for product review by any of the MRO teams.

Launch mission summary and sequence of events Telesat-F(anik-D1)/Delta-164

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1982-01-01

The launch vehicle, spacecraft, and mission are summarized. Launch window information, vehicle telemetry coverage, real time data flow, telemetry coverage by station, selected trajectory information, and a brief sequence of flight events are included.

An open trial assessment of "The Number Race", an adaptive computer game for remediation of dyscalculia

PubMed Central

Wilson, Anna J; Revkin, Susannah K; Cohen, David; Cohen, Laurent; Dehaene, Stanislas

2006-01-01

Background In a companion article [1], we described the development and evaluation of software designed to remediate dyscalculia. This software is based on the hypothesis that dyscalculia is due to a "core deficit" in number sense or in its access via symbolic information. Here we review the evidence for this hypothesis, and present results from an initial open-trial test of the software in a sample of nine 7–9 year old children with mathematical difficulties. Methods Children completed adaptive training on numerical comparison for half an hour a day, four days a week over a period of five-weeks. They were tested before and after intervention on their performance in core numerical tasks: counting, transcoding, base-10 comprehension, enumeration, addition, subtraction, and symbolic and non-symbolic numerical comparison. Results Children showed specific increases in performance on core number sense tasks. Speed of subitizing and numerical comparison increased by several hundred msec. Subtraction accuracy increased by an average of 23%. Performance on addition and base-10 comprehension tasks did not improve over the period of the study. Conclusion Initial open-trial testing showed promising results, and suggested that the software was successful in increasing number sense over the short period of the study. However these results need to be followed up with larger, controlled studies. The issues of transfer to higher-level tasks, and of the best developmental time window for intervention also need to be addressed. PMID:16734906

Markov models of genome segmentation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Thakur, Vivek; Azad, Rajeev K.; Ramaswamy, Ram

2007-01-01

We introduce Markov models for segmentation of symbolic sequences, extending a segmentation procedure based on the Jensen-Shannon divergence that has been introduced earlier. Higher-order Markov models are more sensitive to the details of local patterns and in application to genome analysis, this makes it possible to segment a sequence at positions that are biologically meaningful. We show the advantage of higher-order Markov-model-based segmentation procedures in detecting compositional inhomogeneity in chimeric DNA sequences constructed from genomes of diverse species, and in application to the E. coli K12 genome, boundaries of genomic islands, cryptic prophages, and horizontally acquired regions are accurately identified.

In Situ alignment system for phase-shifting point-diffraction interferometry

DOEpatents

Goldberg, Kenneth Alan; Naulleau, Patrick P.

2000-01-01

A device and method to facilitate the gross alignment of patterned object- and image-plane masks in optical systems such as the phase-shifting point diffraction interferometer are provided. When an array of similar pinholes or discreet mask fields is used, confusion can occur over the alignment of the focused beams within the field. Adding to the mask pattern a circumscribed or inscribed set of symbols that are identifiable in situ facilitates the unambiguous gross alignment of the object- and/or image-plane masks. Alternatively, a system of markings can be encoded directly into the window shape to accomplish this same task.

An algorithm for a single machine scheduling problem with sequence dependent setup times and scheduling windows

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Moore, J. E.

1975-01-01

An enumeration algorithm is presented for solving a scheduling problem similar to the single machine job shop problem with sequence dependent setup times. The scheduling problem differs from the job shop problem in two ways. First, its objective is to select an optimum subset of the available tasks to be performed during a fixed period of time. Secondly, each task scheduled is constrained to occur within its particular scheduling window. The algorithm is currently being used to develop typical observational timelines for a telescope that will be operated in earth orbit. Computational times associated with timeline development are presented.

A fixed-memory moving, expanding window for obtaining scatter corrections in X-ray CT and other stochastic averages

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Levine, Zachary H.; Pintar, Adam L.

2015-11-01

A simple algorithm for averaging a stochastic sequence of 1D arrays in a moving, expanding window is provided. The samples are grouped in bins which increase exponentially in size so that a constant fraction of the samples is retained at any point in the sequence. The algorithm is shown to have particular relevance for a class of Monte Carlo sampling problems which includes one characteristic of iterative reconstruction in computed tomography. The code is available in the CPC program library in both Fortran 95 and C and is also available in R through CRAN.

Word and frame synchronization with verification for PPM optical communications

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Marshall, William K.

1986-01-01

A method for obtaining word and frame synchronization in pulse position modulated optical communication systems is described. The method uses a short sync sequence inserted at the beginning of each data frame and a verification procedure to distinguish between inserted and randomly occurring sequences at the receiver. This results in an easy to implement sync system which provides reliable synchronization even at high symbol error rates. Results are given for the application of this approach to a highly energy efficient 256-ary PPM test system.

Predictive Caching Using the TDAG Algorithm

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Laird, Philip; Saul, Ronald

1992-01-01

We describe how the TDAG algorithm for learning to predict symbol sequences can be used to design a predictive cache store. A model of a two-level mass storage system is developed and used to calculate the performance of the cache under various conditions. Experimental simulations provide good confirmation of the model.

Algebraic Procedures and Creative Thinking

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tabach, Michal; Friedlander, Alex

2017-01-01

Simplifying symbolic expressions is usually perceived in middle school algebra as an algorithmic activity, achieved by performing sequences of short drill-and-practice tasks, which have little to do with conceptual learning or with creative mathematical thinking. The aim of this study is to explore possible ways by which ninth-grade students can…

Feather Boas in Real Analysis

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Barnes, Julie

2011-01-01

Several years ago, the author noticed that her students were having trouble understanding the formal definitions for convergence of sequences, continuity of functions, and uniform convergence of functions. To her students, these definitions were just a bunch of symbols with little to no meaning. She drew diagrams, but students had trouble seeing…

Plan averaging for multicriteria navigation of sliding window IMRT and VMAT

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

Craft, David, E-mail: dcraft@partners.org; Papp, Dávid; Unkelbach, Jan

2014-02-15

Purpose: To describe a method for combining sliding window plans [intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) or volumetric modulated arc therapy (VMAT)] for use in treatment plan averaging, which is needed for Pareto surface navigation based multicriteria treatment planning. Methods: The authors show that by taking an appropriately defined average of leaf trajectories of sliding window plans, the authors obtain a sliding window plan whose fluence map is the exact average of the fluence maps corresponding to the initial plans. In the case of static-beam IMRT, this also implies that the dose distribution of the averaged plan is the exact dosimetricmore » average of the initial plans. In VMAT delivery, the dose distribution of the averaged plan is a close approximation of the dosimetric average of the initial plans. Results: The authors demonstrate the method on three Pareto optimal VMAT plans created for a demanding paraspinal case, where the tumor surrounds the spinal cord. The results show that the leaf averaged plans yield dose distributions that approximate the dosimetric averages of the precomputed Pareto optimal plans well. Conclusions: The proposed method enables the navigation of deliverable Pareto optimal plans directly, i.e., interactive multicriteria exploration of deliverable sliding window IMRT and VMAT plans, eliminating the need for a sequencing step after navigation and hence the dose degradation that is caused by such a sequencing step.« less

Examining pitch and numerical magnitude processing in congenital amusia: A quasi-experimental pilot study.

PubMed

Nunes-Silva, Marilia; Moura, Ricardo; Lopes-Silva, Júlia Beatriz; Haase, Vitor Geraldi

2016-08-01

Congenital amusia is a developmental disorder associated with deficits in pitch height discrimination or in integrating pitch sequences into melodies. This quasi-experimental pilot study investigated whether there is an association between pitch and numerical processing deficits in congenital amusia. Since pitch height discrimination is considered a form of magnitude processing, we investigated whether individuals with amusia present an impairment in numerical magnitude processing, which would reflect damage to a generalized magnitude system. Alternatively, we investigated whether the numerical processing deficit would reflect a disconnection between nonsymbolic and symbolic number representations. This study was conducted with 11 adult individuals with congenital amusia and a control comparison group of 6 typically developing individuals. Participants performed nonsymbolic and symbolic magnitude comparisons and number line tasks. Results were available from previous testing using the Montreal Battery of Evaluation of Amusia (MBEA) and a pitch change detection task (PCD). Compared to the controls, individuals with amusia exhibited no significant differences in their performance on both the number line and the nonsymbolic magnitude tasks. Nevertheless, they showed significantly worse performance on the symbolic magnitude task. Moreover, individuals with congenital amusia, who presented worse performance in the Meter subtest, also presented less precise nonsymbolic numerical representation. The relationship between meter and nonsymbolic numerical discrimination could indicate a general ratio processing deficit. The finding of preserved nonsymbolic numerical magnitude discrimination and mental number line representations, with impaired symbolic number processing, in individuals with congenital amusia indicates that (a) pitch height and numerical magnitude processing may not share common neural representations, and (b) in addition to pitch processing, individuals with amusia may present a deficit in accessing nonsymbolic numerical representations from symbolic representations. The symbolic access deficit could reflect a widespread impairment in the establishment of cortico-cortical connections between association areas.

Multi-Point Hermes Acoustic Modem for High-Speed, High-Frequency Acoustic Communications with Low-Frequency Acoustic Control Loop for Real-Time Transmission of AUV-Carried High-Resolution Images and Navigation Data in Support of Ship Hulls Inspection

DTIC Science & Technology

2013-08-31

13.3 µs) used in the data frame. The preamble uses direct-sequence spread spectrum (DSSS) to reduce the negative impact of fading. Three bits... ifr t covers one of the allocated hops of index  h i . The received reference symbol transmitted in hop   1,2,..., Hh i N is    ( )h...are recovered based on the phase difference between the constellation points demodulated from the sub-band m of the information symbol  ( ) ifr t

Dynamics and computation in functional shifts

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Namikawa, Jun; Hashimoto, Takashi

2004-07-01

We introduce a new type of shift dynamics as an extended model of symbolic dynamics, and investigate the characteristics of shift spaces from the viewpoints of both dynamics and computation. This shift dynamics is called a functional shift, which is defined by a set of bi-infinite sequences of some functions on a set of symbols. To analyse the complexity of functional shifts, we measure them in terms of topological entropy, and locate their languages in the Chomsky hierarchy. Through this study, we argue that considering functional shifts from the viewpoints of both dynamics and computation gives us opposite results about the complexity of systems. We also describe a new class of shift spaces whose languages are not recursively enumerable.

csaw: a Bioconductor package for differential binding analysis of ChIP-seq data using sliding windows

PubMed Central

Lun, Aaron T.L.; Smyth, Gordon K.

2016-01-01

Chromatin immunoprecipitation with massively parallel sequencing (ChIP-seq) is widely used to identify binding sites for a target protein in the genome. An important scientific application is to identify changes in protein binding between different treatment conditions, i.e. to detect differential binding. This can reveal potential mechanisms through which changes in binding may contribute to the treatment effect. The csaw package provides a framework for the de novo detection of differentially bound genomic regions. It uses a window-based strategy to summarize read counts across the genome. It exploits existing statistical software to test for significant differences in each window. Finally, it clusters windows into regions for output and controls the false discovery rate properly over all detected regions. The csaw package can handle arbitrarily complex experimental designs involving biological replicates. It can be applied to both transcription factor and histone mark datasets, and, more generally, to any type of sequencing data measuring genomic coverage. csaw performs favorably against existing methods for de novo DB analyses on both simulated and real data. csaw is implemented as a R software package and is freely available from the open-source Bioconductor project. PMID:26578583

Generalization of Entropy Based Divergence Measures for Symbolic Sequence Analysis

PubMed Central

Ré, Miguel A.; Azad, Rajeev K.

2014-01-01

Entropy based measures have been frequently used in symbolic sequence analysis. A symmetrized and smoothed form of Kullback-Leibler divergence or relative entropy, the Jensen-Shannon divergence (JSD), is of particular interest because of its sharing properties with families of other divergence measures and its interpretability in different domains including statistical physics, information theory and mathematical statistics. The uniqueness and versatility of this measure arise because of a number of attributes including generalization to any number of probability distributions and association of weights to the distributions. Furthermore, its entropic formulation allows its generalization in different statistical frameworks, such as, non-extensive Tsallis statistics and higher order Markovian statistics. We revisit these generalizations and propose a new generalization of JSD in the integrated Tsallis and Markovian statistical framework. We show that this generalization can be interpreted in terms of mutual information. We also investigate the performance of different JSD generalizations in deconstructing chimeric DNA sequences assembled from bacterial genomes including that of E. coli, S. enterica typhi, Y. pestis and H. influenzae. Our results show that the JSD generalizations bring in more pronounced improvements when the sequences being compared are from phylogenetically proximal organisms, which are often difficult to distinguish because of their compositional similarity. While small but noticeable improvements were observed with the Tsallis statistical JSD generalization, relatively large improvements were observed with the Markovian generalization. In contrast, the proposed Tsallis-Markovian generalization yielded more pronounced improvements relative to the Tsallis and Markovian generalizations, specifically when the sequences being compared arose from phylogenetically proximal organisms. PMID:24728338

Generalization of entropy based divergence measures for symbolic sequence analysis.

PubMed

Ré, Miguel A; Azad, Rajeev K

2014-01-01

Entropy based measures have been frequently used in symbolic sequence analysis. A symmetrized and smoothed form of Kullback-Leibler divergence or relative entropy, the Jensen-Shannon divergence (JSD), is of particular interest because of its sharing properties with families of other divergence measures and its interpretability in different domains including statistical physics, information theory and mathematical statistics. The uniqueness and versatility of this measure arise because of a number of attributes including generalization to any number of probability distributions and association of weights to the distributions. Furthermore, its entropic formulation allows its generalization in different statistical frameworks, such as, non-extensive Tsallis statistics and higher order Markovian statistics. We revisit these generalizations and propose a new generalization of JSD in the integrated Tsallis and Markovian statistical framework. We show that this generalization can be interpreted in terms of mutual information. We also investigate the performance of different JSD generalizations in deconstructing chimeric DNA sequences assembled from bacterial genomes including that of E. coli, S. enterica typhi, Y. pestis and H. influenzae. Our results show that the JSD generalizations bring in more pronounced improvements when the sequences being compared are from phylogenetically proximal organisms, which are often difficult to distinguish because of their compositional similarity. While small but noticeable improvements were observed with the Tsallis statistical JSD generalization, relatively large improvements were observed with the Markovian generalization. In contrast, the proposed Tsallis-Markovian generalization yielded more pronounced improvements relative to the Tsallis and Markovian generalizations, specifically when the sequences being compared arose from phylogenetically proximal organisms.

Identifying functional thermodynamics in autonomous Maxwellian ratchets

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Boyd, Alexander B.; Mandal, Dibyendu; Crutchfield, James P.

2016-02-01

We introduce a family of Maxwellian Demons for which correlations among information bearing degrees of freedom can be calculated exactly and in compact analytical form. This allows one to precisely determine Demon functional thermodynamic operating regimes, when previous methods either misclassify or simply fail due to approximations they invoke. This reveals that these Demons are more functional than previous candidates. They too behave either as engines, lifting a mass against gravity by extracting energy from a single heat reservoir, or as Landauer erasers, consuming external work to remove information from a sequence of binary symbols by decreasing their individual uncertainty. Going beyond these, our Demon exhibits a new functionality that erases bits not by simply decreasing individual-symbol uncertainty, but by increasing inter-bit correlations (that is, by adding temporal order) while increasing single-symbol uncertainty. In all cases, but especially in the new erasure regime, exactly accounting for informational correlations leads to tight bounds on Demon performance, expressed as a refined Second Law of thermodynamics that relies on the Kolmogorov-Sinai entropy for dynamical processes and not on changes purely in system configurational entropy, as previously employed. We rigorously derive the refined Second Law under minimal assumptions and so it applies quite broadly—for Demons with and without memory and input sequences that are correlated or not. We note that general Maxwellian Demons readily violate previously proposed, alternative such bounds, while the current bound still holds. As such, it broadly describes the minimal energetic cost of any computation by a thermodynamic system.

Does the cost function matter in Bayes decision rule?

PubMed

Schlü ter, Ralf; Nussbaum-Thom, Markus; Ney, Hermann

2012-02-01

In many tasks in pattern recognition, such as automatic speech recognition (ASR), optical character recognition (OCR), part-of-speech (POS) tagging, and other string recognition tasks, we are faced with a well-known inconsistency: The Bayes decision rule is usually used to minimize string (symbol sequence) error, whereas, in practice, we want to minimize symbol (word, character, tag, etc.) error. When comparing different recognition systems, we do indeed use symbol error rate as an evaluation measure. The topic of this work is to analyze the relation between string (i.e., 0-1) and symbol error (i.e., metric, integer valued) cost functions in the Bayes decision rule, for which fundamental analytic results are derived. Simple conditions are derived for which the Bayes decision rule with integer-valued metric cost function and with 0-1 cost gives the same decisions or leads to classes with limited cost. The corresponding conditions can be tested with complexity linear in the number of classes. The results obtained do not make any assumption w.r.t. the structure of the underlying distributions or the classification problem. Nevertheless, the general analytic results are analyzed via simulations of string recognition problems with Levenshtein (edit) distance cost function. The results support earlier findings that considerable improvements are to be expected when initial error rates are high.

Quality of pre-school children's pretend play and subsequent development of semantic organization and narrative re-telling skills.

PubMed

Stagnitti, Karen; Lewis, Fiona M

2015-04-01

This study investigated if the quality of pre-school children's pretend play predicted their semantic organization and narrative re-telling ability when they were in early primary school. It was hypothesized that the elaborateness of a child's play and the child's use of symbols in play were predictors of their semantic organization and narrative re-tell scores of the School Age Oral Language Assessment. Forty-eight children were assessed using the Child-Initiated Pretend Play Assessment when they were aged 4-5 years. Three-to-five years after this assessment their semantic organization and narrative re-telling skills were assessed. Results indicate that the elaborateness of a child's play and their ability to use symbols was predictive of semantic organization skills. Use of symbols in play was the strongest play predictor of narrative re-telling skills. The quality of a pre-school child's ability to elaborate complex sequences in pretend play and use symbols predicted up to 20% of a child's semantic organization and narrative re-telling skills up to 5 years later. The study provides evidence that the quality of pretend play in 4-5 year olds is important for semantic organization and narrative re-telling abilities in the school-aged child.

Experimental demonstration of iterative post-equalization algorithm for 37.5-Gbaud PM-16QAM quad-carrier Terabit superchannel.

PubMed

Jia, Zhensheng; Chien, Hung-Chang; Cai, Yi; Yu, Jianjun; Zhang, Chengliang; Li, Junjie; Ma, Yiran; Shang, Dongdong; Zhang, Qi; Shi, Sheping; Wang, Huitao

2015-02-09

We experimentally demonstrate a quad-carrier 1-Tb/s solution with 37.5-GBaud PM-16QAM signal over 37.5-GHz optical grid at 6.7 b/s/Hz net spectral efficiency. Digital Nyquist pulse shaping at the transmitter and post-equalization at the receiver are employed to mitigate the impairments of joint inter-symbol-interference (ISI) and inter-channel-interference (ICI) symbol degradation. The post-equalization algorithms consist of one sample/symbol based decision-directed least mean square (DD-LMS) adaptive filter, digital post filter and maximum likelihood sequence estimation (MLSE), and a positive iterative process among them. By combining these algorithms, the improvement as much as 4-dB OSNR (0.1nm) at SD-FEC limit (Q(2) = 6.25 corresponding to BER = 2.0e-2) is obtained when compared to no such post-equalization process, and transmission over 820-km EDFA-only standard single-mode fiber (SSMF) link is achieved for two 1.2-Tb/s signals with the averaged Q(2) factor larger than 6.5 dB for all sub-channels. Additionally, 50-GBaud 16QAM operating at 1.28 samples/symbol in a DAC is also investigated and successful transmission over 410-km SSMF link is achieved at 62.5-GHz optical grid.

Comparison of the learnability and retention between Blissymbols and CyberGlyphs.

PubMed

Alant, Erna; Life, Henriette; Harty, Michal

2005-01-01

There are a variety of graphic symbol sets/systems (GSSs) currently used in the field of augmentative and alternative communication (AAC). Various characteristics of these graphic symbol systems affect learnability and should be considered in order to make a meaningful match between the user of AAC and the system. Although a variety of studies on learnability of graphic systems have been conducted in the past, all studies conducted included participants from Western countries. To compare two symbol systems, namely Blissymbolics and CyberGlyphs in terms of learnability. To identify the overall performance between Blissymbolics and CyberGlyphs in terms of the percentage of symbols correctly identified at the various stages. A quasi-experimental crossover design between groups was carried out on two homogeneous groups of typically developing, Northern Sotho-speaking children. Data were obtained by teaching 80 different referents (40 from each symbol system) to 50 Northern Sotho speaking regular students from South Africa, ranging from grade 4 to 6. The participants were tested on symbol recognition at four different stages: after initial training, after a revision period, after a 7-day withdrawal period and after 30 days of withdrawal. The overall results indicated that the ease of learning and memory retention of the CyberGlyphs were higher than that of Blissymbols, irrespective of the group or the sequence of exposure. Possible reasons for the differences are discussed. CyberGlyphs seem to be more accessible as the symbols in general seem to be more detailed and also are meant to be hand drawn rather than computer or stencil produced. Within this context, CyberGlyphs could be easier to access visually than Blissymbolics, especially for children who do not have extensive experience in dealing with geometric shapes, particularly for the children who do not come from rich literacy backgrounds or who do not have rich visual perceptual experiences to draw from. Even though initial learning might be faster for CyberGlyphs than for Blissymbolics in certain populations, there may be other factors to consider when making a choice between the two graphic symbol systems. Within the clinical setting CyberGlyphs can provide the individual who uses AAC with a more user-friendly system as an entrance to the use of other graphic symbol systems. This may be especially important in contexts where issues surrounding poverty and lack of early exposure to literacy exist.

Fault Diagnosis of Induction Machines in a Transient Regime Using Current Sensors with an Optimized Slepian Window

PubMed Central

Burriel-Valencia, Jordi; Martinez-Roman, Javier; Sapena-Bano, Angel

2018-01-01

The aim of this paper is to introduce a new methodology for the fault diagnosis of induction machines working in the transient regime, when time-frequency analysis tools are used. The proposed method relies on the use of the optimized Slepian window for performing the short time Fourier transform (STFT) of the stator current signal. It is shown that for a given sequence length of finite duration, the Slepian window has the maximum concentration of energy, greater than can be reached with a gated Gaussian window, which is usually used as the analysis window. In this paper, the use and optimization of the Slepian window for fault diagnosis of induction machines is theoretically introduced and experimentally validated through the test of a 3.15-MW induction motor with broken bars during the start-up transient. The theoretical analysis and the experimental results show that the use of the Slepian window can highlight the fault components in the current’s spectrogram with a significant reduction of the required computational resources. PMID:29316650

Defining window-boundaries for genomic analyses using smoothing spline techniques

DOE PAGES

Beissinger, Timothy M.; Rosa, Guilherme J.M.; Kaeppler, Shawn M.; ...

2015-04-17

High-density genomic data is often analyzed by combining information over windows of adjacent markers. Interpretation of data grouped in windows versus at individual locations may increase statistical power, simplify computation, reduce sampling noise, and reduce the total number of tests performed. However, use of adjacent marker information can result in over- or under-smoothing, undesirable window boundary specifications, or highly correlated test statistics. We introduce a method for defining windows based on statistically guided breakpoints in the data, as a foundation for the analysis of multiple adjacent data points. This method involves first fitting a cubic smoothing spline to the datamore » and then identifying the inflection points of the fitted spline, which serve as the boundaries of adjacent windows. This technique does not require prior knowledge of linkage disequilibrium, and therefore can be applied to data collected from individual or pooled sequencing experiments. Moreover, in contrast to existing methods, an arbitrary choice of window size is not necessary, since these are determined empirically and allowed to vary along the genome.« less

Fault Diagnosis of Induction Machines in a Transient Regime Using Current Sensors with an Optimized Slepian Window.

PubMed

Burriel-Valencia, Jordi; Puche-Panadero, Ruben; Martinez-Roman, Javier; Sapena-Bano, Angel; Pineda-Sanchez, Manuel

2018-01-06

The aim of this paper is to introduce a new methodology for the fault diagnosis of induction machines working in the transient regime, when time-frequency analysis tools are used. The proposed method relies on the use of the optimized Slepian window for performing the short time Fourier transform (STFT) of the stator current signal. It is shown that for a given sequence length of finite duration, the Slepian window has the maximum concentration of energy, greater than can be reached with a gated Gaussian window, which is usually used as the analysis window. In this paper, the use and optimization of the Slepian window for fault diagnosis of induction machines is theoretically introduced and experimentally validated through the test of a 3.15-MW induction motor with broken bars during the start-up transient. The theoretical analysis and the experimental results show that the use of the Slepian window can highlight the fault components in the current's spectrogram with a significant reduction of the required computational resources.

Alview: Portable Software for Viewing Sequence Reads in BAM Formatted Files.

PubMed

Finney, Richard P; Chen, Qing-Rong; Nguyen, Cu V; Hsu, Chih Hao; Yan, Chunhua; Hu, Ying; Abawi, Massih; Bian, Xiaopeng; Meerzaman, Daoud M

2015-01-01

The name Alview is a contraction of the term Alignment Viewer. Alview is a compiled to native architecture software tool for visualizing the alignment of sequencing data. Inputs are files of short-read sequences aligned to a reference genome in the SAM/BAM format and files containing reference genome data. Outputs are visualizations of these aligned short reads. Alview is written in portable C with optional graphical user interface (GUI) code written in C, C++, and Objective-C. The application can run in three different ways: as a web server, as a command line tool, or as a native, GUI program. Alview is compatible with Microsoft Windows, Linux, and Apple OS X. It is available as a web demo at https://cgwb.nci.nih.gov/cgi-bin/alview. The source code and Windows/Mac/Linux executables are available via https://github.com/NCIP/alview.

Inter-Level Scaffolding and Sequences of Representational Activities in Teaching a Chemical System with Graphical Simulations

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Li, Na; Black, John B.

2016-01-01

Chemistry knowledge can be represented at macro-, micro- and symbolic levels, and learning a chemistry topic requires students to engage in multiple representational activities. This study focused on scaffolding for inter-level connection-making in learning chemistry knowledge with graphical simulations. We also tested whether different sequences…

Orthographic Processing and Visual Sequential Memory in Unexpectedly Poor Spellers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Holmes, Virginia M.; Malone, Aisling M.; Redenbach, Holly

2008-01-01

Does unexpectedly poor spelling in adults result from inferior visual sequential memory? In one experiment, unexpectedly poor spellers performed significantly worse than better spellers in the immediate reproduction of sequences of visual symbols, but in a second experiment, the effect was not replicated. Poor spellers were also no worse at the…

Measuring information-based energy and temperature of literary texts

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chang, Mei-Chu; Yang, Albert C.-C.; Eugene Stanley, H.; Peng, C.-K.

2017-02-01

We apply a statistical method, information-based energy, to quantify informative symbolic sequences. To apply this method to literary texts, it is assumed that different words with different occurrence frequencies are at different energy levels, and that the energy-occurrence frequency distribution obeys a Boltzmann distribution. The temperature within the Boltzmann distribution can be an indicator for the author's writing capacity as the repertory of thoughts. The relative temperature of a text is obtained by comparing the energy-occurrence frequency distributions of words collected from one text versus from all texts of the same author. Combining the relative temperature with the Shannon entropy as the text complexity, the information-based energy of the text is defined and can be viewed as a quantitative evaluation of an author's writing performance. We demonstrate the method by analyzing two authors, Shakespeare in English and Jin Yong in Chinese, and find that their well-known works are associated with higher information-based energies. This method can be used to measure the creativity level of a writer's work in linguistics, and can also quantify symbolic sequences in different systems.

Feature Selection, Flaring Size and Time-to-Flare Prediction Using Support Vector Regression, and Automated Prediction of Flaring Behavior Based on Spatio-Temporal Measures Using Hidden Markov Models

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Al-Ghraibah, Amani

Solar flares release stored magnetic energy in the form of radiation and can have significant detrimental effects on earth including damage to technological infrastructure. Recent work has considered methods to predict future flare activity on the basis of quantitative measures of the solar magnetic field. Accurate advanced warning of solar flare occurrence is an area of increasing concern and much research is ongoing in this area. Our previous work 111] utilized standard pattern recognition and classification techniques to determine (classify) whether a region is expected to flare within a predictive time window, using a Relevance Vector Machine (RVM) classification method. We extracted 38 features which describing the complexity of the photospheric magnetic field, the result classification metrics will provide the baseline against which we compare our new work. We find a true positive rate (TPR) of 0.8, true negative rate (TNR) of 0.7, and true skill score (TSS) of 0.49. This dissertation proposes three basic topics; the first topic is an extension to our previous work [111, where we consider a feature selection method to determine an appropriate feature subset with cross validation classification based on a histogram analysis of selected features. Classification using the top five features resulting from this analysis yield better classification accuracies across a large unbalanced dataset. In particular, the feature subsets provide better discrimination of the many regions that flare where we find a TPR of 0.85, a TNR of 0.65 sightly lower than our previous work, and a TSS of 0.5 which has an improvement comparing with our previous work. In the second topic, we study the prediction of solar flare size and time-to-flare using support vector regression (SVR). When we consider flaring regions only, we find an average error in estimating flare size of approximately half a GOES class. When we additionally consider non-flaring regions, we find an increased average error of approximately 3/4 a GOES class. We also consider thresholding the regressed flare size for the experiment containing both flaring and non-flaring regions and find a TPR. of 0.69 and a TNR of 0.86 for flare prediction, consistent with our previous studies of flare prediction using the same magnetic complexity features. The results for both of these size regression experiments are consistent across a wide range of predictive time windows, indicating that the magnetic complexity features may be persistent in appearance long before flare activity. This conjecture is supported by our larger error rates of some 40 hours in the time-to-flare regression problem. The magnetic complexity features considered here appear to have discriminative potential for flare size, but their persistence in time makes them less discriminative for the time-to-flare problem. We also study the prediction of solar flare size and time-to-flare using two temporal features, namely the ▵- and ▵-▵-features, the same average size and time-to-flare regression error are found when these temporal features are used in size and time-to-flare prediction. In the third topic, we study the temporal evolution of active region magnetic fields using Hidden Markov Models (HMMs) which is one of the efficient temporal analyses found in literature. We extracted 38 features which describing the complexity of the photospheric magnetic field. These features are converted into a sequence of symbols using k-nearest neighbor search method. We study many parameters before prediction; like the length of the training window Wtrain which denotes to the number of history images use to train the flare and non-flare HMMs, and number of hidden states Q. In training phase, the model parameters of the HMM of each category are optimized so as to best describe the training symbol sequences. In testing phase, we use the best flare and non-flare models to predict/classify active regions as a flaring or non-flaring region using a sliding window method. The best prediction result is found where the length of the history training images are 15 images (i.e., Wtrain= 15) and the length of the sliding testing window is less than or equal to W train, the best result give a TPR of 0.79 consistent with previous flare prediction work, TNR of 0.87 arid TSS of 0.66, where both are higher than our previous flare prediction work. We find that the best number of hidden states which can describe the temporal evolution of the solar ARs is equal to five states, at the same time, a close resultant metrics are found using different number of states.

Combining factual and heuristic knowledge in knowledge acquisition

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Gomez, Fernando; Hull, Richard; Karr, Clark; Hosken, Bruce; Verhagen, William

1992-01-01

A knowledge acquisition technique that combines heuristic and factual knowledge represented as two hierarchies is described. These ideas were applied to the construction of a knowledge acquisition interface to the Expert System Analyst (OPERA). The goal of OPERA is to improve the operations support of the computer network in the space shuttle launch processing system. The knowledge acquisition bottleneck lies in gathering knowledge from human experts and transferring it to OPERA. OPERA's knowledge acquisition problem is approached as a classification problem-solving task, combining this approach with the use of factual knowledge about the domain. The interface was implemented in a Symbolics workstation making heavy use of windows, pull-down menus, and other user-friendly devices.

Apollo 11 lunar sample

NASA Image and Video Library

2009-06-24

ISS020-E-14200 (FOR RELEASE 21 JULY 2009) --- A moon rock brought to Earth by Apollo 11, humans? first landing on the moon in July 1969, is shown as it floats aboard the International Space Station. Part of Earth can be seen through the window. The 3.6 billion year-old lunar sample was flown to the station aboard Space Shuttle mission STS-119 in April 2009 in honor of the July 2009 40th anniversary of the historic first moon landing. The rock, lunar sample 10072, was flown to the station to serve as a symbol of the nation?s resolve to continue the exploration of space. It will be returned on shuttle mission STS-128 to be publicly displayed.

Apollo 11 lunar sample

NASA Image and Video Library

2009-06-24

ISS020-E-014193 (FOR RELEASE 21 JULY 2009) --- A moon rock brought to Earth by Apollo 11, humans? first landing on the moon in July 1969, is shown as it floats aboard the International Space Station. Part of Earth can be seen through the window. The 3.6 billion year-old lunar sample was flown to the station aboard Space Shuttle mission STS-119 in April 2009 in honor of the July 2009 40th anniversary of the historic first moon landing. The rock, lunar sample 10072, was flown to the station to serve as a symbol of the nation?s resolve to continue the exploration of space. It will be returned on shuttle mission STS-128 to be publicly displayed.

Apollo 11 lunar sample

NASA Image and Video Library

2009-06-24

ISS020-E-14196 (FOR RELEASE 21 JULY 2009) --- A moon rock brought to Earth by Apollo 11, humans? first landing on the moon in July 1969, is shown as it floats aboard the International Space Station. Part of Earth can be seen through the window. The 3.6 billion year-old lunar sample was flown to the station aboard Space Shuttle mission STS-119 in April 2009 in honor of the July 2009 40th anniversary of the historic first moon landing. The rock, lunar sample 10072, was flown to the station to serve as a symbol of the nation?s resolve to continue the exploration of space. It will be returned on shuttle mission STS-128 to be publicly displayed.

Learning Extended Finite State Machines

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Cassel, Sofia; Howar, Falk; Jonsson, Bengt; Steffen, Bernhard

2014-01-01

We present an active learning algorithm for inferring extended finite state machines (EFSM)s, combining data flow and control behavior. Key to our learning technique is a novel learning model based on so-called tree queries. The learning algorithm uses the tree queries to infer symbolic data constraints on parameters, e.g., sequence numbers, time stamps, identifiers, or even simple arithmetic. We describe sufficient conditions for the properties that the symbolic constraints provided by a tree query in general must have to be usable in our learning model. We have evaluated our algorithm in a black-box scenario, where tree queries are realized through (black-box) testing. Our case studies include connection establishment in TCP and a priority queue from the Java Class Library.

The transition to formal thinking in mathematics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tall, David

2008-09-01

This paper focuses on the changes in thinking involved in the transition from school mathematics to formal proof in pure mathematics at university. School mathematics is seen as a combination of visual representations, including geometry and graphs, together with symbolic calculations and manipulations. Pure mathematics in university shifts towards a formal framework of axiomatic systems and mathematical proof. In this paper, the transition in thinking is formulated within a framework of `three worlds of mathematics'- the `conceptual-embodied' world based on perception, action and thought experiment, the `proceptual-symbolic' world of calculation and algebraic manipulation compressing processes such as counting into concepts such as number, and the `axiomatic-formal' world of set-theoretic concept definitions and mathematical proof. Each `world' has its own sequence of development and its own forms of proof that may be blended together to give a rich variety of ways of thinking mathematically. This reveals mathematical thinking as a blend of differing knowledge structures; for instance, the real numbers blend together the embodied number line, symbolic decimal arithmetic and the formal theory of a complete ordered field. Theoretical constructs are introduced to describe how genetic structures set before birth enable the development of mathematical thinking, and how experiences that the individual has met before affect their personal growth. These constructs are used to consider how students negotiate the transition from school to university mathematics as embodiment and symbolism are blended with formalism. At a higher level, structure theorems proved in axiomatic theories link back to more sophisticated forms of embodiment and symbolism, revealing the intimate relationship between the three worlds.

Chaotic Behaviour of a Driven P-N Junction

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Perez, Jose Maria

The chaotic behavior of a driven p-n junction is experimentally examined. Bifurcation diagrams for the system are measured, showing period doubling bifurcations up to f/32, onset of chaos, reverse bifurcations of chaotic bands, and periodic windows. Some of the measured bifurcation diagrams are similar to the bifurcation diagram of the logistic map x(,n+1) = (lamda)x(,n)(1 - x(,n)). A return map is also measured showing approximately a one-dimensional map with a single extremum at low driving voltages. The intermittency route to chaos is experimentally observed to occur near a tangent bifurcation as the system approaches a period 5 window at (lamda) = (lamda)(,5). Data are presented for the dependence of the average laminar length on (epsilon) = (lamda)(,5) - (lamda), and for the probability distribution P(l) vs. l. The effects of additive stochastic noise on period doubling, chaos, windows, and intermittency are examined and are found to agree with the logistic model and universal predictions. Three examples of crisis of the attractor are observed. The crises occur when an unstable orbit intersects the chaotic attractor. A period adding sequence is reported in which wide periodic windows of period 2, 3, 4, ... are observed for increasing driving voltage. The initial period doubling cascade and the period adding sequence are compared to two theoretical models, with reasonable success.

PHYSICO2: an UNIX based standalone procedure for computation of physicochemical, window-dependent and substitution based evolutionary properties of protein sequences along with automated block preparation tool, version 2.

PubMed

Banerjee, Shyamashree; Gupta, Parth Sarthi Sen; Nayek, Arnab; Das, Sunit; Sur, Vishma Pratap; Seth, Pratyay; Islam, Rifat Nawaz Ul; Bandyopadhyay, Amal K

2015-01-01

Automated genome sequencing procedure is enriching the sequence database very fast. To achieve a balance between the entry of sequences in the database and their analyses, efficient software is required. In this end PHYSICO2, compare to earlier PHYSICO and other public domain tools, is most efficient in that it i] extracts physicochemical, window-dependent and homologousposition-based-substitution (PWS) properties including positional and BLOCK-specific diversity and conservation, ii] provides users with optional-flexibility in setting relevant input-parameters, iii] helps users to prepare BLOCK-FASTA-file by the use of Automated Block Preparation Tool of the program, iv] performs fast, accurate and user-friendly analyses and v] redirects itemized outputs in excel format along with detailed methodology. The program package contains documentation describing application of methods. Overall the program acts as efficient PWS-analyzer and finds application in sequence-bioinformatics. PHYSICO2: is freely available at http://sourceforge.net/projects/physico2/ along with its documentation at https://sourceforge.net/projects/physico2/files/Documentation.pdf/download for all users.

PHYSICO2: an UNIX based standalone procedure for computation of physicochemical, window-dependent and substitution based evolutionary properties of protein sequences along with automated block preparation tool, version 2

PubMed Central

Banerjee, Shyamashree; Gupta, Parth Sarthi Sen; Nayek, Arnab; Das, Sunit; Sur, Vishma Pratap; Seth, Pratyay; Islam, Rifat Nawaz Ul; Bandyopadhyay, Amal K

2015-01-01

Automated genome sequencing procedure is enriching the sequence database very fast. To achieve a balance between the entry of sequences in the database and their analyses, efficient software is required. In this end PHYSICO2, compare to earlier PHYSICO and other public domain tools, is most efficient in that it i] extracts physicochemical, window-dependent and homologousposition-based-substitution (PWS) properties including positional and BLOCK-specific diversity and conservation, ii] provides users with optional-flexibility in setting relevant input-parameters, iii] helps users to prepare BLOCK-FASTA-file by the use of Automated Block Preparation Tool of the program, iv] performs fast, accurate and user-friendly analyses and v] redirects itemized outputs in excel format along with detailed methodology. The program package contains documentation describing application of methods. Overall the program acts as efficient PWS-analyzer and finds application in sequence-bioinformatics. Availability PHYSICO2: is freely available at http://sourceforge.net/projects/physico2/ along with its documentation at https://sourceforge.net/projects/physico2/files/Documentation.pdf/download for all users. PMID:26339154

Bayesian selection of Markov models for symbol sequences: application to microsaccadic eye movements.

PubMed

Bettenbühl, Mario; Rusconi, Marco; Engbert, Ralf; Holschneider, Matthias

2012-01-01

Complex biological dynamics often generate sequences of discrete events which can be described as a Markov process. The order of the underlying Markovian stochastic process is fundamental for characterizing statistical dependencies within sequences. As an example for this class of biological systems, we investigate the Markov order of sequences of microsaccadic eye movements from human observers. We calculate the integrated likelihood of a given sequence for various orders of the Markov process and use this in a Bayesian framework for statistical inference on the Markov order. Our analysis shows that data from most participants are best explained by a first-order Markov process. This is compatible with recent findings of a statistical coupling of subsequent microsaccade orientations. Our method might prove to be useful for a broad class of biological systems.

Detection of Splice Sites Using Support Vector Machine

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Varadwaj, Pritish; Purohit, Neetesh; Arora, Bhumika

Automatic identification and annotation of exon and intron region of gene, from DNA sequences has been an important research area in field of computational biology. Several approaches viz. Hidden Markov Model (HMM), Artificial Intelligence (AI) based machine learning and Digital Signal Processing (DSP) techniques have extensively and independently been used by various researchers to cater this challenging task. In this work, we propose a Support Vector Machine based kernel learning approach for detection of splice sites (the exon-intron boundary) in a gene. Electron-Ion Interaction Potential (EIIP) values of nucleotides have been used for mapping character sequences to corresponding numeric sequences. Radial Basis Function (RBF) SVM kernel is trained using EIIP numeric sequences. Furthermore this was tested on test gene dataset for detection of splice site by window (of 12 residues) shifting. Optimum values of window size, various important parameters of SVM kernel have been optimized for a better accuracy. Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curves have been utilized for displaying the sensitivity rate of the classifier and results showed 94.82% accuracy for splice site detection on test dataset.

Chaos and crises in a model for cooperative hunting: a symbolic dynamics approach.

PubMed

Duarte, Jorge; Januário, Cristina; Martins, Nuno; Sardanyés, Josep

2009-12-01

In this work we investigate the population dynamics of cooperative hunting extending the McCann and Yodzis model for a three-species food chain system with a predator, a prey, and a resource species. The new model considers that a given fraction sigma of predators cooperates in prey's hunting, while the rest of the population 1-sigma hunts without cooperation. We use the theory of symbolic dynamics to study the topological entropy and the parameter space ordering of the kneading sequences associated with one-dimensional maps that reproduce significant aspects of the dynamics of the species under several degrees of cooperative hunting. Our model also allows us to investigate the so-called deterministic extinction via chaotic crisis and transient chaos in the framework of cooperative hunting. The symbolic sequences allow us to identify a critical boundary in the parameter spaces (K,C(0)) and (K,sigma) which separates two scenarios: (i) all-species coexistence and (ii) predator's extinction via chaotic crisis. We show that the crisis value of the carrying capacity K(c) decreases at increasing sigma, indicating that predator's populations with high degree of cooperative hunting are more sensitive to the chaotic crises. We also show that the control method of Dhamala and Lai [Phys. Rev. E 59, 1646 (1999)] can sustain the chaotic behavior after the crisis for systems with cooperative hunting. We finally analyze and quantify the inner structure of the target regions obtained with this control method for wider parameter values beyond the crisis, showing a power law dependence of the extinction transients on such critical parameters.

Understanding communicative actions: a repetitive TMS study.

PubMed

Stolk, Arjen; Noordzij, Matthijs L; Volman, Inge; Verhagen, Lennart; Overeem, Sebastiaan; van Elswijk, Gijs; Bloem, Bas; Hagoort, Peter; Toni, Ivan

2014-02-01

Despite the ambiguity inherent in human communication, people are remarkably efficient in establishing mutual understanding. Studying how people communicate in novel settings provides a window into the mechanisms supporting the human competence to rapidly generate and understand novel shared symbols, a fundamental property of human communication. Previous work indicates that the right posterior superior temporal sulcus (pSTS) is involved when people understand the intended meaning of novel communicative actions. Here, we set out to test whether normal functioning of this cerebral structure is required for understanding novel communicative actions using inhibitory low-frequency repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS). A factorial experimental design contrasted two tightly matched stimulation sites (right pSTS vs left MT+, i.e., a contiguous homotopic task-relevant region) and tasks (a communicative task vs a visual tracking task that used the same sequences of stimuli). Overall task performance was not affected by rTMS, whereas changes in task performance over time were disrupted according to TMS site and task combinations. Namely, rTMS over pSTS led to a diminished ability to improve action understanding on the basis of recent communicative history, while rTMS over MT+ perturbed improvement in visual tracking over trials. These findings qualify the contributions of the right pSTS to human communicative abilities, showing that this region might be necessary for incorporating previous knowledge, accumulated during interactions with a communicative partner, to constrain the inferential process that leads to action understanding. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

PHYSICO: An UNIX based Standalone Procedure for Computation of Individual and Group Properties of Protein Sequences.

PubMed

Gupta, Parth Sarthi Sen; Banerjee, Shyamashree; Islam, Rifat Nawaz Ul; Mondal, Sudipta; Mondal, Buddhadev; Bandyopadhyay, Amal K

2014-01-01

In the genomic and proteomic era, efficient and automated analyses of sequence properties of protein have become an important task in bioinformatics. There are general public licensed (GPL) software tools to perform a part of the job. However, computations of mean properties of large number of orthologous sequences are not possible from the above mentioned GPL sets. Further, there is no GPL software or server which can calculate window dependent sequence properties for a large number of sequences in a single run. With a view to overcome above limitations, we have developed a standalone procedure i.e. PHYSICO, which performs various stages of computation in a single run based on the type of input provided either in RAW-FASTA or BLOCK-FASTA format and makes excel output for: a) Composition, Class composition, Mean molecular weight, Isoelectic point, Aliphatic index and GRAVY, b) column based compositions, variability and difference matrix, c) 25 kinds of window dependent sequence properties. The program is fast, efficient, error free and user friendly. Calculation of mean and standard deviation of homologous sequences sets, for comparison purpose when relevant, is another attribute of the program; a property seldom seen in existing GPL softwares. PHYSICO is freely available for non-commercial/academic user in formal request to the corresponding author akbanerjee@biotech.buruniv.ac.in.

PHYSICO: An UNIX based Standalone Procedure for Computation of Individual and Group Properties of Protein Sequences

PubMed Central

Gupta, Parth Sarthi Sen; Banerjee, Shyamashree; Islam, Rifat Nawaz Ul; Mondal, Sudipta; Mondal, Buddhadev; Bandyopadhyay, Amal K

2014-01-01

In the genomic and proteomic era, efficient and automated analyses of sequence properties of protein have become an important task in bioinformatics. There are general public licensed (GPL) software tools to perform a part of the job. However, computations of mean properties of large number of orthologous sequences are not possible from the above mentioned GPL sets. Further, there is no GPL software or server which can calculate window dependent sequence properties for a large number of sequences in a single run. With a view to overcome above limitations, we have developed a standalone procedure i.e. PHYSICO, which performs various stages of computation in a single run based on the type of input provided either in RAW-FASTA or BLOCK-FASTA format and makes excel output for: a) Composition, Class composition, Mean molecular weight, Isoelectic point, Aliphatic index and GRAVY, b) column based compositions, variability and difference matrix, c) 25 kinds of window dependent sequence properties. The program is fast, efficient, error free and user friendly. Calculation of mean and standard deviation of homologous sequences sets, for comparison purpose when relevant, is another attribute of the program; a property seldom seen in existing GPL softwares. Availability PHYSICO is freely available for non-commercial/academic user in formal request to the corresponding author akbanerjee@biotech.buruniv.ac.in PMID:24616564

On Fibonacci Numbers Which Are Elliptic Korselt Numbers

DTIC Science & Technology

2014-11-17

1, where (a|p) denotes the Legendre symbol of a with respect to p, then the order of group of points on E modulo p denoted #E(Fp), equals p+1. In...Fibonacci sequence, polynomials and the Euler function”, Indag. Math. (N.S.) 17 (2006), 611–625. [8] F. Luca and I. E. Shparlinski, “On the counting

On Fibonacci Numbers Which Are Elliptic Carmichael

DTIC Science & Technology

2014-12-27

d|p) = −1, where (a|p) denotes the Legendre symbol of a with respect to p. Then ap = 0, so, in particular, #E(Fp) = p + 1. Furthermore, if there...sequence, polynomials and the Euler function”, Indag. Math. (N.S.) 17 (2006), 611–625. [10] F. Luca and I. E. Shparlinski, “On the counting function of

The Use of Symbolic Modeling to Promote Social Skills in Preschool Children with Low Levels of Social Responsiveness

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Keller, Martha Freese; Carlson, Peter M.

1974-01-01

Nineteen socially isolated preschool children were exposed either to four videotapes in which social skills were modeled (treatment) or to four sequences of a nature film (control). Observations indicated that treatment produced increases in the frequency with which subjects dispensed and received social reinforcement and the frequency of social…

Compilation of small ribosomal subunit RNA structures.

PubMed Central

Neefs, J M; Van de Peer, Y; De Rijk, P; Chapelle, S; De Wachter, R

1993-01-01

The database on small ribosomal subunit RNA structure contained 1804 nucleotide sequences on April 23, 1993. This number comprises 365 eukaryotic, 65 archaeal, 1260 bacterial, 30 plastidial, and 84 mitochondrial sequences. These are stored in the form of an alignment in order to facilitate the use of the database as input for comparative studies on higher-order structure and for reconstruction of phylogenetic trees. The elements of the postulated secondary structure for each molecule are indicated by special symbols. The database is available on-line directly from the authors by ftp and can also be obtained from the EMBL nucleotide sequence library by electronic mail, ftp, and on CD ROM disk. PMID:8332525

Covariance Matrix Estimation for Massive MIMO

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Upadhya, Karthik; Vorobyov, Sergiy A.

2018-04-01

We propose a novel pilot structure for covariance matrix estimation in massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems in which each user transmits two pilot sequences, with the second pilot sequence multiplied by a random phase-shift. The covariance matrix of a particular user is obtained by computing the sample cross-correlation of the channel estimates obtained from the two pilot sequences. This approach relaxes the requirement that all the users transmit their uplink pilots over the same set of symbols. We derive expressions for the achievable rate and the mean-squared error of the covariance matrix estimate when the proposed method is used with staggered pilots. The performance of the proposed method is compared with existing methods through simulations.

Skeleton-based human action recognition using multiple sequence alignment

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ding, Wenwen; Liu, Kai; Cheng, Fei; Zhang, Jin; Li, YunSong

2015-05-01

Human action recognition and analysis is an active research topic in computer vision for many years. This paper presents a method to represent human actions based on trajectories consisting of 3D joint positions. This method first decompose action into a sequence of meaningful atomic actions (actionlets), and then label actionlets with English alphabets according to the Davies-Bouldin index value. Therefore, an action can be represented using a sequence of actionlet symbols, which will preserve the temporal order of occurrence of each of the actionlets. Finally, we employ sequence comparison to classify multiple actions through using string matching algorithms (Needleman-Wunsch). The effectiveness of the proposed method is evaluated on datasets captured by commodity depth cameras. Experiments of the proposed method on three challenging 3D action datasets show promising results.

Gaze-independent BCI-spelling using rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP).

PubMed

Acqualagna, Laura; Blankertz, Benjamin

2013-05-01

A Brain Computer Interface (BCI) speller is a communication device, which can be used by patients suffering from neurodegenerative diseases to select symbols in a computer application. For patients unable to overtly fixate the target symbol, it is crucial to develop a speller independent of gaze shifts. In the present online study, we investigated rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) as a paradigm for mental typewriting. We investigated the RSVP speller in three conditions, regarding the Stimulus Onset Asynchrony (SOA) and the use of color features. A vocabulary of 30 symbols was presented one-by-one in a pseudo random sequence at the same location of display. All twelve participants were able to successfully operate the RSVP speller. The results show a mean online spelling rate of 1.43 symb/min and a mean symbol selection accuracy of 94.8% in the best condition. We conclude that the RSVP is a promising paradigm for BCI spelling and its performance is competitive with the fastest gaze-independent spellers in literature. The RSVP speller does not require gaze shifts towards different target locations and can be operated by non-spatial visual attention, therefore it can be considered as a valid paradigm in applications with patients for impaired oculo-motor control. Copyright © 2013 International Federation of Clinical Neurophysiology. Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Search for the Exotic Wobbling Mode in Rhenium-171

DTIC Science & Technology

2011-05-13

USB hard drive. The decay sequences mentioned above release all of their γ rays within a nanosecond (ns). Data will be recorded when multiple ...events in which multiple detectors measured γ rays within a 120 ns window. An event in which three detectors fired within the coincidence window is...spherical nuclei; however, if the nucleus is axially deformed (non-spherical), the shell model cannot accurately describe its features . The shell model

Engineering neural systems for high-level problem solving.

PubMed

Sylvester, Jared; Reggia, James

2016-07-01

There is a long-standing, sometimes contentious debate in AI concerning the relative merits of a symbolic, top-down approach vs. a neural, bottom-up approach to engineering intelligent machine behaviors. While neurocomputational methods excel at lower-level cognitive tasks (incremental learning for pattern classification, low-level sensorimotor control, fault tolerance and processing of noisy data, etc.), they are largely non-competitive with top-down symbolic methods for tasks involving high-level cognitive problem solving (goal-directed reasoning, metacognition, planning, etc.). Here we take a step towards addressing this limitation by developing a purely neural framework named galis. Our goal in this work is to integrate top-down (non-symbolic) control of a neural network system with more traditional bottom-up neural computations. galis is based on attractor networks that can be "programmed" with temporal sequences of hand-crafted instructions that control problem solving by gating the activity retention of, communication between, and learning done by other neural networks. We demonstrate the effectiveness of this approach by showing that it can be applied successfully to solve sequential card matching problems, using both human performance and a top-down symbolic algorithm as experimental controls. Solving this kind of problem makes use of top-down attention control and the binding together of visual features in ways that are easy for symbolic AI systems but not for neural networks to achieve. Our model can not only be instructed on how to solve card matching problems successfully, but its performance also qualitatively (and sometimes quantitatively) matches the performance of both human subjects that we had perform the same task and the top-down symbolic algorithm that we used as an experimental control. We conclude that the core principles underlying the galis framework provide a promising approach to engineering purely neurocomputational systems for problem-solving tasks that in people require higher-level cognitive functions. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Analysis of noise-induced temporal correlations in neuronal spike sequences

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Reinoso, José A.; Torrent, M. C.; Masoller, Cristina

2016-11-01

We investigate temporal correlations in sequences of noise-induced neuronal spikes, using a symbolic method of time-series analysis. We focus on the sequence of time-intervals between consecutive spikes (inter-spike-intervals, ISIs). The analysis method, known as ordinal analysis, transforms the ISI sequence into a sequence of ordinal patterns (OPs), which are defined in terms of the relative ordering of consecutive ISIs. The ISI sequences are obtained from extensive simulations of two neuron models (FitzHugh-Nagumo, FHN, and integrate-and-fire, IF), with correlated noise. We find that, as the noise strength increases, temporal order gradually emerges, revealed by the existence of more frequent ordinal patterns in the ISI sequence. While in the FHN model the most frequent OP depends on the noise strength, in the IF model it is independent of the noise strength. In both models, the correlation time of the noise affects the OP probabilities but does not modify the most probable pattern.

Prediction of cis/trans isomerization in proteins using PSI-BLAST profiles and secondary structure information.

PubMed

Song, Jiangning; Burrage, Kevin; Yuan, Zheng; Huber, Thomas

2006-03-09

The majority of peptide bonds in proteins are found to occur in the trans conformation. However, for proline residues, a considerable fraction of Prolyl peptide bonds adopt the cis form. Proline cis/trans isomerization is known to play a critical role in protein folding, splicing, cell signaling and transmembrane active transport. Accurate prediction of proline cis/trans isomerization in proteins would have many important applications towards the understanding of protein structure and function. In this paper, we propose a new approach to predict the proline cis/trans isomerization in proteins using support vector machine (SVM). The preliminary results indicated that using Radial Basis Function (RBF) kernels could lead to better prediction performance than that of polynomial and linear kernel functions. We used single sequence information of different local window sizes, amino acid compositions of different local sequences, multiple sequence alignment obtained from PSI-BLAST and the secondary structure information predicted by PSIPRED. We explored these different sequence encoding schemes in order to investigate their effects on the prediction performance. The training and testing of this approach was performed on a newly enlarged dataset of 2424 non-homologous proteins determined by X-Ray diffraction method using 5-fold cross-validation. Selecting the window size 11 provided the best performance for determining the proline cis/trans isomerization based on the single amino acid sequence. It was found that using multiple sequence alignments in the form of PSI-BLAST profiles could significantly improve the prediction performance, the prediction accuracy increased from 62.8% with single sequence to 69.8% and Matthews Correlation Coefficient (MCC) improved from 0.26 with single local sequence to 0.40. Furthermore, if coupled with the predicted secondary structure information by PSIPRED, our method yielded a prediction accuracy of 71.5% and MCC of 0.43, 9% and 0.17 higher than the accuracy achieved based on the singe sequence information, respectively. A new method has been developed to predict the proline cis/trans isomerization in proteins based on support vector machine, which used the single amino acid sequence with different local window sizes, the amino acid compositions of local sequence flanking centered proline residues, the position-specific scoring matrices (PSSMs) extracted by PSI-BLAST and the predicted secondary structures generated by PSIPRED. The successful application of SVM approach in this study reinforced that SVM is a powerful tool in predicting proline cis/trans isomerization in proteins and biological sequence analysis.

Phonology without universal grammar

PubMed Central

Archangeli, Diana; Pulleyblank, Douglas

2015-01-01

The question of identifying the properties of language that are specific human linguistic abilities, i.e., Universal Grammar, lies at the center of linguistic research. This paper argues for a largely Emergent Grammar in phonology, taking as the starting point that memory, categorization, attention to frequency, and the creation of symbolic systems are all nonlinguistic characteristics of the human mind. The articulation patterns of American English rhotics illustrate categorization and systems; the distribution of vowels in Bantu vowel harmony uses frequencies of particular sequences to argue against Universal Grammar and in favor of Emergent Grammar; prefix allomorphy in Esimbi illustrates the Emergent symbolic system integrating phonological and morphological generalizations. The Esimbi case has been treated as an example of phonological opacity in a Universal Grammar account; the Emergent analysis resolves the pattern without opacity concerns. PMID:26388791

The Genome Sequence of Taurine Cattle: A Window to Ruminant Biology and Evolution

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

As a major step toward understanding the biology and evolution of ruminants, the cattle genome was sequenced to ~7x coverage using a combined whole genome shotgun and BAC skim approach. The cattle genome contains a minimum of 22,000 genes, with a core set of 14,345 orthologs found in seven mammalian...

Processing sequence annotation data using the Lua programming language.

PubMed

Ueno, Yutaka; Arita, Masanori; Kumagai, Toshitaka; Asai, Kiyoshi

2003-01-01

The data processing language in a graphical software tool that manages sequence annotation data from genome databases should provide flexible functions for the tasks in molecular biology research. Among currently available languages we adopted the Lua programming language. It fulfills our requirements to perform computational tasks for sequence map layouts, i.e. the handling of data containers, symbolic reference to data, and a simple programming syntax. Upon importing a foreign file, the original data are first decomposed in the Lua language while maintaining the original data schema. The converted data are parsed by the Lua interpreter and the contents are stored in our data warehouse. Then, portions of annotations are selected and arranged into our catalog format to be depicted on the sequence map. Our sequence visualization program was successfully implemented, embedding the Lua language for processing of annotation data and layout script. The program is available at http://staff.aist.go.jp/yutaka.ueno/guppy/.

Evaluation of the Bacterial Diversity in the Human Tongue Coating Based on Genus-Specific Primers for 16S rRNA Sequencing.

PubMed

Sun, Beili; Zhou, Dongrui; Tu, Jing; Lu, Zuhong

2017-01-01

The characteristics of tongue coating are very important symbols for disease diagnosis in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) theory. As a habitat of oral microbiota, bacteria on the tongue dorsum have been proved to be the cause of many oral diseases. The high-throughput next-generation sequencing (NGS) platforms have been widely applied in the analysis of bacterial 16S rRNA gene. We developed a methodology based on genus-specific multiprimer amplification and ligation-based sequencing for microbiota analysis. In order to validate the efficiency of the approach, we thoroughly analyzed six tongue coating samples from lung cancer patients with different TCM types, and more than 600 genera of bacteria were detected by this platform. The results showed that ligation-based parallel sequencing combined with enzyme digestion and multiamplification could expand the effective length of sequencing reads and could be applied in the microbiota analysis.

New hepatitis C virus genotype 1 subtype naturally harbouring resistance-associated mutations to NS5A inhibitors.

PubMed

Ordeig, Laura; Garcia-Cehic, Damir; Gregori, Josep; Soria, Maria Eugenia; Nieto-Aponte, Leonardo; Perales, Celia; Llorens, Meritxell; Chen, Qian; Riveiro-Barciela, Mar; Buti, Maria; Esteban, Rafael; Esteban, Juan Ignacio; Rodriguez-Frias, Francisco; Quer, Josep

2018-01-01

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is a highly divergent virus currently classified into seven major genotypes and 86 subtypes (ICTV, June 2017), which can have differing responses to therapy. Accurate genotyping/subtyping using high-resolution HCV subtyping enables confident subtype identification, identifies mixed infections and allows detection of new subtypes. During routine genotyping/subtyping, one sample from an Equatorial Guinea patient could not be classified into any of the subtypes. The complete genomic sequence was compared to reference sequences by phylogenetic and sliding window analysis. Resistance-associated substitutions (RASs) were assessed by deep sequencing. The unclassified HCV genome did not belong to any of the existing genotype 1 (G1) subtypes. Sliding window analysis along the complete genome ruled out recombination phenomena suggesting that it belongs to a new HCV G1 subtype. Two NS5A RASs (L31V+Y93H) were found to be naturally combined in the genome which could limit treatment possibilities in patients infected with this subtype.

Errorless Establishment of a Match-to-Sample Form Discrimination in Preschool Children. I. A Modification of Animal Laboratory Procedures for Children, II. A Comparison of Errorless and Trial-and-Error Discrimination. Progress Report.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

LeBlanc, Judith M.

A sequence of studies compared two types of discrimination formation: errorless learning and trial-and-error procedures. The subjects were three boys and five girls from a university preschool. The children performed the experimental tasks at a typical match-to-sample apparatus with one sample window above and four match (response) windows below.…

A Sequence of Assignments for Basic Writing: Teaching To Problems "Beyond the Sentence."

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wall, Susan V.

Students in college basic writing courses need to consider their own written language and to compare it with other students' work before they can develop a sense of the symbolic relationship between language and experience. Because of a lack of previous writing experience, basic writers have no sense that the "facts" about which they write are…

Three Concepts or One? Students' Understanding of Basic Limit Concepts

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fernández-Plaza, José Antonio; Simpson, Adrian

2016-01-01

In many mathematics curricula, the notion of limit is introduced three times: the limit of a sequence, the limit of a function at a point and the limit of a function at infinity. Despite the use of very similar symbols, few connections between these notions are made explicitly and few papers in the large literature on student understanding of…

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

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Barker, Bruce O.; Petersen, Paul D.

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

Human behavior recognition using a context-free grammar

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rosani, Andrea; Conci, Nicola; De Natale, Francesco G. B.

2014-05-01

Automatic recognition of human activities and behaviors is still a challenging problem for many reasons, including limited accuracy of the data acquired by sensing devices, high variability of human behaviors, and gap between visual appearance and scene semantics. Symbolic approaches can significantly simplify the analysis and turn raw data into chains of meaningful patterns. This allows getting rid of most of the clutter produced by low-level processing operations, embedding significant contextual information into the data, as well as using simple syntactic approaches to perform the matching between incoming sequences and models. We propose a symbolic approach to learn and detect complex activities through the sequences of atomic actions. Compared to previous methods based on context-free grammars, we introduce several important novelties, such as the capability to learn actions based on both positive and negative samples, the possibility of efficiently retraining the system in the presence of misclassified or unrecognized events, and the use of a parsing procedure that allows correct detection of the activities also when they are concatenated and/or nested one with each other. An experimental validation on three datasets with different characteristics demonstrates the robustness of the approach in classifying complex human behaviors.

Embedded interruptions and task complexity influence schema-related cognitive load progression in an abstract learning task.

PubMed

Wirzberger, Maria; Esmaeili Bijarsari, Shirin; Rey, Günter Daniel

2017-09-01

Cognitive processes related to schema acquisition comprise an essential source of demands in learning situations. Since the related amount of cognitive load is supposed to change over time, plausible temporal models of load progression based on different theoretical backgrounds are inspected in this study. A total of 116 student participants completed a basal symbol sequence learning task, which provided insights into underlying cognitive dynamics. Two levels of task complexity were determined by the amount of elements within the symbol sequence. In addition, interruptions due to an embedded secondary task occurred at five predefined stages over the task. Within the resulting 2x5-factorial mixed between-within design, the continuous monitoring of efficiency in learning performance enabled assumptions on relevant resource investment. From the obtained results, a nonlinear change of learning efficiency over time seems most plausible in terms of cognitive load progression. Moreover, different effects of the induced interruptions show up in conditions of task complexity, which indicate the activation of distinct cognitive mechanisms related to structural aspects of the task. Findings are discussed in the light of evidence from research on memory and information processing. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Computation of entropy and Lyapunov exponent by a shift transform.

PubMed

Matsuoka, Chihiro; Hiraide, Koichi

2015-10-01

We present a novel computational method to estimate the topological entropy and Lyapunov exponent of nonlinear maps using a shift transform. Unlike the computation of periodic orbits or the symbolic dynamical approach by the Markov partition, the method presented here does not require any special techniques in computational and mathematical fields to calculate these quantities. In spite of its simplicity, our method can accurately capture not only the chaotic region but also the non-chaotic region (window region) such that it is important physically but the (Lebesgue) measure zero and usually hard to calculate or observe. Furthermore, it is shown that the Kolmogorov-Sinai entropy of the Sinai-Ruelle-Bowen measure (the physical measure) coincides with the topological entropy.

Moon rock in JPM

NASA Image and Video Library

2009-06-07

ISS020-E-007383 (FOR RELEASE 21 JULY 2009) --- A moon rock brought to Earth by Apollo 11, humans? first landing on the moon in July 1969, is shown as it floats aboard the International Space Station. Part of Earth and a section of a station solar panel can be seen through the window. The 3.6 billion year-old lunar sample was flown to the station aboard Space Shuttle mission STS-119 in April 2009 in honor of the July 2009 40th anniversary of the historic first moon landing. The rock, lunar sample 10072, was flown to the station to serve as a symbol of the nation?s resolve to continue the exploration of space. It will be returned on shuttle mission STS-128 to be publicly displayed.

Computation of entropy and Lyapunov exponent by a shift transform

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

Matsuoka, Chihiro, E-mail: matsuoka.chihiro.mm@ehime-u.ac.jp; Hiraide, Koichi

2015-10-15

We present a novel computational method to estimate the topological entropy and Lyapunov exponent of nonlinear maps using a shift transform. Unlike the computation of periodic orbits or the symbolic dynamical approach by the Markov partition, the method presented here does not require any special techniques in computational and mathematical fields to calculate these quantities. In spite of its simplicity, our method can accurately capture not only the chaotic region but also the non-chaotic region (window region) such that it is important physically but the (Lebesgue) measure zero and usually hard to calculate or observe. Furthermore, it is shown thatmore » the Kolmogorov-Sinai entropy of the Sinai-Ruelle-Bowen measure (the physical measure) coincides with the topological entropy.« less

Windowed R-PDLF recoupling: a flexible and reliable tool to characterize molecular dynamics.

PubMed

Gansmüller, Axel; Simorre, Jean-Pierre; Hediger, Sabine

2013-09-01

This work focuses on the improvement of the R-PDLF heteronuclear recoupling scheme, a method that allows quantification of molecular dynamics up to the microsecond timescale in heterogeneous materials. We show how the stability of the sequence towards rf-imperfections, one of the main sources of error of this technique, can be improved by the insertion of windows without irradiation into the basic elements of the symmetry-based recoupling sequence. The impact of this modification on the overall performance of the sequence in terms of scaling factor and homonuclear decoupling efficiency is evaluated. This study indicates the experimental conditions for which precise and reliable measurement of dipolar couplings can be obtained using the popular R18(1)(7) recoupling sequence, as well as alternative symmetry-based R sequences suited for fast MAS conditions. An analytical expression for the recoupled dipolar modulation has been derived that applies to a whole class of sequences with similar recoupling properties as R18(1)(7). This analytical expression provides an efficient and precise way to extract dipolar couplings from the experimental dipolar modulation curves. We hereby provide helpful tools and information for tailoring R-PDLF recoupling schemes to specific sample properties and hardware capabilities. This approach is particularly well suited for the study of materials with strong and heterogeneous molecular dynamics where a precise measurement of dipolar couplings is crucial. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Tattoos as a window to the psyche: How talking about skin art can inform psychiatric practice.

PubMed

Roggenkamp, Hannah; Nicholls, Andrew; Pierre, Joseph M

2017-09-22

Tattooing the skin as a means of personal expression is a ritualized practice that has been around for centuries across many different cultures. Accordingly, the symbolic meaning of tattoos has evolved over time and is highly individualized, from both the internal perspective of the wearer and the external perspective of an observer. Within modern Western societies through the 1970s, tattoos represented a cultural taboo, typically associated with those outside of the mainstream such as soldiers, incarcerated criminals, gang members, and others belonging to marginalized and counter-cultural groups. This paper aims to review the more recent epidemiology of tattoos in Western culture in order to establish that tattooing has become a mainstream phenomenon. We then review psychological and psychiatric aspects of tattoos, with a goal of revising outmoded stigmas about tattooing and helping clinicians working with tattooed patients to facilitate an exploration of the personal meaning of skin art and self-identity. We suggest that as a kind of augmentation of the physical exam, looking at and talking to patients about their tattoos can provide a valuable window into the psyche, informing clinical practice.

Tattoos as a window to the psyche: How talking about skin art can inform psychiatric practice

PubMed Central

Roggenkamp, Hannah; Nicholls, Andrew; Pierre, Joseph M

2017-01-01

Tattooing the skin as a means of personal expression is a ritualized practice that has been around for centuries across many different cultures. Accordingly, the symbolic meaning of tattoos has evolved over time and is highly individualized, from both the internal perspective of the wearer and the external perspective of an observer. Within modern Western societies through the 1970s, tattoos represented a cultural taboo, typically associated with those outside of the mainstream such as soldiers, incarcerated criminals, gang members, and others belonging to marginalized and counter-cultural groups. This paper aims to review the more recent epidemiology of tattoos in Western culture in order to establish that tattooing has become a mainstream phenomenon. We then review psychological and psychiatric aspects of tattoos, with a goal of revising outmoded stigmas about tattooing and helping clinicians working with tattooed patients to facilitate an exploration of the personal meaning of skin art and self-identity. We suggest that as a kind of augmentation of the physical exam, looking at and talking to patients about their tattoos can provide a valuable window into the psyche, informing clinical practice. PMID:29043152

Hardware-in-the-loop environment facility to address pilot-vehicle-interface issues of a fighter aircraft

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pandurangareddy, Meenige

2002-07-01

The evolution of Pilot-Vehicle-Interface (PVI) of a fighter aircraft is a complex task. The PVI design involves both static and dynamic issues. Static issues involve the study of reach of controls and switches, ejection path clearance, readability of indicators and display symbols, etc. Dynamic issues involve the study of the effect of aircraft motion on display symbols, pilot emergency handling, situation awareness, weapon aiming, etc. This paper describes a method of addressing the above issues by building a facility with cockpit, which is ergonomically similar to the fighter cockpit. The cockpit is also fitted with actual displays, controls and switches. The cockpit is interfaced with various simulation models of aircraft and outside-window-image generators. The architecture of the facility is designed to represent the latencies of the aircraft and facilitates replacement of simulation models with actual units. A parameter injection facility could be used to induce faults in a comprehensive manner. Pilots could use the facility right from familiarising themselves with procedures to start the engine, take-off, navigate, aim the weapons, handling of emergencies and landing. This approach is being followed and further being enhanced on Cockpit-Environment-Facility (CEF) at Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA), Bangalore, India.

Communication patterns in a psychotherapy following traumatic brain injury: A quantitative case study based on symbolic dynamics

PubMed Central

2011-01-01

Background The role of psychotherapy in the treatment of traumatic brain injury is receiving increased attention. The evaluation of psychotherapy with these patients has been conducted largely in the absence of quantitative data concerning the therapy itself. Quantitative methods for characterizing the sequence-sensitive structure of patient-therapist communication are now being developed with the objective of improving the effectiveness of psychotherapy following traumatic brain injury. Methods The content of three therapy session transcripts (sessions were separated by four months) obtained from a patient with a history of several motor vehicle accidents who was receiving dialectical behavior therapy was scored and analyzed using methods derived from the mathematical theory of symbolic dynamics. Results The analysis of symbol frequencies was largely uninformative. When repeated triples were examined a marked pattern of change in content was observed over the three sessions. The context free grammar complexity and the Lempel-Ziv complexity were calculated for each therapy session. For both measures, the rate of complexity generation, expressed as bits per minute, increased longitudinally during the course of therapy. The between-session increases in complexity generation rates are consistent with calculations of mutual information. Taken together these results indicate that there was a quantifiable increase in the variability of patient-therapist verbal behavior during the course of therapy. Comparison of complexity values against values obtained from equiprobable random surrogates established the presence of a nonrandom structure in patient-therapist dialog (P = .002). Conclusions While recognizing that only limited conclusions can be based on a case history, it can be noted that these quantitative observations are consistent with qualitative clinical observations of increases in the flexibility of discourse during therapy. These procedures can be of particular value in the examination of therapies following traumatic brain injury because, in some presentations, these therapies are complicated by deficits that result in subtle distortions of language that produce significant post-injury social impairment. Independently of the mathematical analysis applied to the investigation of therapy-generated symbol sequences, our experience suggests that the procedures presented here are of value in training therapists. PMID:21794113

Protein contact prediction using patterns of correlation.

PubMed

Hamilton, Nicholas; Burrage, Kevin; Ragan, Mark A; Huber, Thomas

2004-09-01

We describe a new method for using neural networks to predict residue contact pairs in a protein. The main inputs to the neural network are a set of 25 measures of correlated mutation between all pairs of residues in two "windows" of size 5 centered on the residues of interest. While the individual pair-wise correlations are a relatively weak predictor of contact, by training the network on windows of correlation the accuracy of prediction is significantly improved. The neural network is trained on a set of 100 proteins and then tested on a disjoint set of 1033 proteins of known structure. An average predictive accuracy of 21.7% is obtained taking the best L/2 predictions for each protein, where L is the sequence length. Taking the best L/10 predictions gives an average accuracy of 30.7%. The predictor is also tested on a set of 59 proteins from the CASP5 experiment. The accuracy is found to be relatively consistent across different sequence lengths, but to vary widely according to the secondary structure. Predictive accuracy is also found to improve by using multiple sequence alignments containing many sequences to calculate the correlations. Copyright 2004 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

CHROMA: consensus-based colouring of multiple alignments for publication.

PubMed

Goodstadt, L; Ponting, C P

2001-09-01

CHROMA annotates multiple protein sequence alignments by consensus to produce formatted and coloured text suitable for incorporation into other documents for publication. The package is designed to be flexible and reliable, and has a simple-to-use graphical user interface running under Microsoft Windows. Both the executables and source code for CHROMA running under Windows and Linux (portable command-line only) are freely available at http://www.lg.ndirect.co.uk/chroma. Software enquiries should be directed to CHROMA@lg.ndirect.co.uk.

Validation of vision-based obstacle detection algorithms for low-altitude helicopter flight

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Suorsa, Raymond; Sridhar, Banavar

1991-01-01

A validation facility being used at the NASA Ames Research Center is described which is aimed at testing vision based obstacle detection and range estimation algorithms suitable for low level helicopter flight. The facility is capable of processing hundreds of frames of calibrated multicamera 6 degree-of-freedom motion image sequencies, generating calibrated multicamera laboratory images using convenient window-based software, and viewing range estimation results from different algorithms along with truth data using powerful window-based visualization software.

Methods in Symbolic Computation and p-Adic Valuations of Polynomials

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Guan, Xiao

Symbolic computation has widely appear in many mathematical fields such as combinatorics, number theory and stochastic processes. The techniques created in the area of experimental mathematics provide us efficient ways of symbolic computing and verification of complicated relations. Part I consists of three problems. The first one focuses on a unimodal sequence derived from a quartic integral. Many of its properties are explored with the help of hypergeometric representations and automatic proofs. The second problem tackles the generating function of the reciprocal of Catalan number. It springs from the closed form given by Mathematica. Furthermore, three methods in special functions are used to justify this result. The third issue addresses the closed form solutions for the moments of products of generalized elliptic integrals , which combines the experimental mathematics and classical analysis. Part II concentrates on the p-adic valuations of polynomials from the perspective of trees. For a given polynomial f( n) indexed in positive integers, the package developed in Mathematica will create certain tree structure following a couple of rules. The evolution of such trees are studied both rigorously and experimentally from the view of field extension, nonparametric statistics and random matrix.

A new phase encoding approach for a compact head-up display

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Suszek, Jaroslaw; Makowski, Michal; Sypek, Maciej; Siemion, Andrzej; Kolodziejczyk, Andrzej; Bartosz, Andrzej

2008-12-01

The possibility of encoding multiple asymmetric symbols into a single thin binary Fourier hologram would have a practical application in the design of simple translucent holographic head-up displays. A Fourier hologram displays the encoded images at the infinity so this enables an observation without a time-consuming eye accommodation. Presenting a set of the most crucial signs for a driver in this way is desired, especially by older people with various eyesight disabilities. In this paper a method of holographic design is presented that assumes a combination of a spatial segmentation and carrier frequencies. It allows to achieve multiple reconstructed images selectable by the angle of the incident laser beam. In order to encode several binary symbols into a single Fourier hologram, the chessboard shaped segmentation function is used. An optimized sequence of phase encoding steps and a final direct phase binarization enables recording of asymmetric symbols into a binary hologram. The theoretical analysis is presented, verified numerically and confirmed in the optical experiment. We suggest and describe a practical and highly useful application of such holograms in an inexpensive HUD device for the use of the automotive industry. We present two alternative propositions of car viewing setups.

Launch mission summary: INTELSAT 5 (F4) ATLAS/CENTAUR-58

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1982-01-01

The launch vehicle, spacecraft, and mission are described. Information relative to launch windows, flight plan, trajectory, and radar and telemetry coverage are included with brief sequence of flight events.

Symbolic Dynamics and Grammatical Complexity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hao, Bai-Lin; Zheng, Wei-Mou

The following sections are included: * Formal Languages and Their Complexity * Formal Language * Chomsky Hierarchy of Grammatical Complexity * The L-System * Regular Language and Finite Automaton * Finite Automaton * Regular Language * Stefan Matrix as Transfer Function for Automaton * Beyond Regular Languages * Feigenbaum and Generalized Feigenbaum Limiting Sets * Even and Odd Fibonacci Sequences * Odd Maximal Primitive Prefixes and Kneading Map * Even Maximal Primitive Prefixes and Distinct Excluded Blocks * Summary of Results

Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum (DSSS) Receiver, User Manual

DTIC Science & Technology

2008-01-01

sampled data is clocked in to correlator data registers and a comparison is made between the code and data register contents, producing a correlation ...symbol (equal to the processing gain Gp ) but need not be otherwise synchronised with the spreading codes . This allows a very long and noise- like PRBS...and Q channels are independently but synchronously sampled . Complex Real ADC FIR Filter Interpolator Acquisition Correlators

Compositional searching of CpG islands in the human genome

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Luque-Escamilla, Pedro Luis; Martínez-Aroza, José; Oliver, José L.; Gómez-Lopera, Juan Francisco; Román-Roldán, Ramón

2005-06-01

We report on an entropic edge detector based on the local calculation of the Jensen-Shannon divergence with application to the search for CpG islands. CpG islands are pieces of the genome related to gene expression and cell differentiation, and thus to cancer formation. Searching for these CpG islands is a major task in genetics and bioinformatics. Some algorithms have been proposed in the literature, based on moving statistics in a sliding window, but its size may greatly influence the results. The local use of Jensen-Shannon divergence is a completely different strategy: the nucleotide composition inside the islands is different from that in their environment, so a statistical distance—the Jensen-Shannon divergence—between the composition of two adjacent windows may be used as a measure of their dissimilarity. Sliding this double window over the entire sequence allows us to segment it compositionally. The fusion of those segments into greater ones that satisfy certain identification criteria must be achieved in order to obtain the definitive results. We find that the local use of Jensen-Shannon divergence is very suitable in processing DNA sequences for searching for compositionally different structures such as CpG islands, as compared to other algorithms in literature.

A trace display and editing program for data from fluorescence based sequencing machines.

PubMed

Gleeson, T; Hillier, L

1991-12-11

'Ted' (Trace editor) is a graphical editor for sequence and trace data from automated fluorescence sequencing machines. It provides facilities for viewing sequence and trace data (in top or bottom strand orientation), for editing the base sequence, for automated or manual trimming of the head (vector) and tail (uncertain data) from the sequence, for vertical and horizontal trace scaling, for keeping a history of sequence editing, and for output of the edited sequence. Ted has been used extensively in the C.elegans genome sequencing project, both as a stand-alone program and integrated into the Staden sequence assembly package, and has greatly aided in the efficiency and accuracy of sequence editing. It runs in the X windows environment on Sun workstations and is available from the authors. Ted currently supports sequence and trace data from the ABI 373A and Pharmacia A.L.F. sequencers.

Evidence of Anticipatory Eye Movements in the Spatial Hebb Repetition Effect: Insights for Modeling Sequence Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tremblay, Sebastien; Saint-Aubin, Jean

2009-01-01

In the present study, the authors offer a window onto the mechanisms that drive the Hebb repetition effect through the analysis of eye movement and recall performance. In a spatial serial recall task in which sequences of dots are to be remembered in order, when one particular series is repeated every 4 trials, memory performance markedly improves…

Effects of coarse-graining on the scaling behavior of long-range correlated and anti-correlated signals.

PubMed

Xu, Yinlin; Ma, Qianli D Y; Schmitt, Daniel T; Bernaola-Galván, Pedro; Ivanov, Plamen Ch

2011-11-01

We investigate how various coarse-graining (signal quantization) methods affect the scaling properties of long-range power-law correlated and anti-correlated signals, quantified by the detrended fluctuation analysis. Specifically, for coarse-graining in the magnitude of a signal, we consider (i) the Floor, (ii) the Symmetry and (iii) the Centro-Symmetry coarse-graining methods. We find that for anti-correlated signals coarse-graining in the magnitude leads to a crossover to random behavior at large scales, and that with increasing the width of the coarse-graining partition interval Δ, this crossover moves to intermediate and small scales. In contrast, the scaling of positively correlated signals is less affected by the coarse-graining, with no observable changes when Δ < 1, while for Δ > 1 a crossover appears at small scales and moves to intermediate and large scales with increasing Δ. For very rough coarse-graining (Δ > 3) based on the Floor and Symmetry methods, the position of the crossover stabilizes, in contrast to the Centro-Symmetry method where the crossover continuously moves across scales and leads to a random behavior at all scales; thus indicating a much stronger effect of the Centro-Symmetry compared to the Floor and the Symmetry method. For coarse-graining in time, where data points are averaged in non-overlapping time windows, we find that the scaling for both anti-correlated and positively correlated signals is practically preserved. The results of our simulations are useful for the correct interpretation of the correlation and scaling properties of symbolic sequences.

Effects of coarse-graining on the scaling behavior of long-range correlated and anti-correlated signals

PubMed Central

Xu, Yinlin; Ma, Qianli D.Y.; Schmitt, Daniel T.; Bernaola-Galván, Pedro; Ivanov, Plamen Ch.

2014-01-01

We investigate how various coarse-graining (signal quantization) methods affect the scaling properties of long-range power-law correlated and anti-correlated signals, quantified by the detrended fluctuation analysis. Specifically, for coarse-graining in the magnitude of a signal, we consider (i) the Floor, (ii) the Symmetry and (iii) the Centro-Symmetry coarse-graining methods. We find that for anti-correlated signals coarse-graining in the magnitude leads to a crossover to random behavior at large scales, and that with increasing the width of the coarse-graining partition interval Δ, this crossover moves to intermediate and small scales. In contrast, the scaling of positively correlated signals is less affected by the coarse-graining, with no observable changes when Δ < 1, while for Δ > 1 a crossover appears at small scales and moves to intermediate and large scales with increasing Δ. For very rough coarse-graining (Δ > 3) based on the Floor and Symmetry methods, the position of the crossover stabilizes, in contrast to the Centro-Symmetry method where the crossover continuously moves across scales and leads to a random behavior at all scales; thus indicating a much stronger effect of the Centro-Symmetry compared to the Floor and the Symmetry method. For coarse-graining in time, where data points are averaged in non-overlapping time windows, we find that the scaling for both anti-correlated and positively correlated signals is practically preserved. The results of our simulations are useful for the correct interpretation of the correlation and scaling properties of symbolic sequences. PMID:25392599

Framework for analyzing ecological trait-based models in multidimensional niche spaces

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Biancalani, Tommaso; DeVille, Lee; Goldenfeld, Nigel

2015-05-01

We develop a theoretical framework for analyzing ecological models with a multidimensional niche space. Our approach relies on the fact that ecological niches are described by sequences of symbols, which allows us to include multiple phenotypic traits. Ecological drivers, such as competitive exclusion, are modeled by introducing the Hamming distance between two sequences. We show that a suitable transform diagonalizes the community interaction matrix of these models, making it possible to predict the conditions for niche differentiation and, close to the instability onset, the asymptotically long time population distributions of niches. We exemplify our method using the Lotka-Volterra equations with an exponential competition kernel.

Remembering the Important Things: Semantic Importance in Stream Reasoning

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

Yan, Rui; Greaves, Mark T.; Smith, William P.

Reasoning and querying over data streams rely on the abil- ity to deliver a sequence of stream snapshots to the processing algo- rithms. These snapshots are typically provided using windows as views into streams and associated window management strategies. Generally, the goal of any window management strategy is to preserve the most im- portant data in the current window and preferentially evict the rest, so that the retained data can continue to be exploited. A simple timestamp- based strategy is rst-in-rst-out (FIFO), in which items are replaced in strict order of arrival. All timestamp-based strategies implicitly assume that a temporalmore » ordering reliably re ects importance to the processing task at hand, and thus that window management using timestamps will maximize the ability of the processing algorithms to deliver accurate interpretations of the stream. In this work, we explore a general no- tion of semantic importance that can be used for window management for streams of RDF data using semantically-aware processing algorithms like deduction or semantic query. Semantic importance exploits the infor- mation carried in RDF and surrounding ontologies for ranking window data in terms of its likely contribution to the processing algorithms. We explore the general semantic categories of query contribution, prove- nance, and trustworthiness, as well as the contribution of domain-specic ontologies. We describe how these categories behave using several con- crete examples. Finally, we consider how a stream window management strategy based on semantic importance could improve overall processing performance, especially as available window sizes decrease.« less

Emergence of spike correlations in periodically forced excitable systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Reinoso, José A.; Torrent, M. C.; Masoller, Cristina

2016-09-01

In sensory neurons the presence of noise can facilitate the detection of weak information-carrying signals, which are encoded and transmitted via correlated sequences of spikes. Here we investigate the relative temporal order in spike sequences induced by a subthreshold periodic input in the presence of white Gaussian noise. To simulate the spikes, we use the FitzHugh-Nagumo model and to investigate the output sequence of interspike intervals (ISIs), we use the symbolic method of ordinal analysis. We find different types of relative temporal order in the form of preferred ordinal patterns that depend on both the strength of the noise and the period of the input signal. We also demonstrate a resonancelike behavior, as certain periods and noise levels enhance temporal ordering in the ISI sequence, maximizing the probability of the preferred patterns. Our findings could be relevant for understanding the mechanisms underlying temporal coding, by which single sensory neurons represent in spike sequences the information about weak periodic stimuli.

The Role of Sequence Markers on Reading and Recall: A Comparison of Native and Nonnative English Speakers

DTIC Science & Technology

1988-12-15

ORGANIZATION PEPOPT NVBER S; 6a E O c PEPFC=V’NG CPC;% ZA " ON 6o OrFiCE SYMBOL 7a NAME OF MONITORING ORGANZA - ON 0 University of Califor-ia (If appi cable...readers. Experimental Aging Research, 7, 253-268. McLeod, B., & McLaughlin, B. (1986). Restructuring or automatization? Reading in a second language

GRIL: genome rearrangement and inversion locator.

PubMed

Darling, Aaron E; Mau, Bob; Blattner, Frederick R; Perna, Nicole T

2004-01-01

GRIL is a tool to automatically identify collinear regions in a set of bacterial-size genome sequences. GRIL uses three basic steps. First, regions of high sequence identity are located. Second, some of these regions are filtered based on user-specified criteria. Finally, the remaining regions of sequence identity are used to define significant collinear regions among the sequences. By locating collinear regions of sequence, GRIL provides a basis for multiple genome alignment using current alignment systems. GRIL also provides a basis for using current inversion distance tools to infer phylogeny. GRIL is implemented in C++ and runs on any x86-based Linux or Windows platform. It is available from http://asap.ahabs.wisc.edu/gril

A novel brain-computer interface based on the rapid serial visual presentation paradigm.

PubMed

Acqualagna, Laura; Treder, Matthias Sebastian; Schreuder, Martijn; Blankertz, Benjamin

2010-01-01

Most present-day visual brain computer interfaces (BCIs) suffer from the fact that they rely on eye movements, are slow-paced, or feature a small vocabulary. As a potential remedy, we explored a novel BCI paradigm consisting of a central rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) of the stimuli. It has a large vocabulary and realizes a BCI system based on covert non-spatial selective visual attention. In an offline study, eight participants were presented sequences of rapid bursts of symbols. Two different speeds and two different color conditions were investigated. Robust early visual and P300 components were elicited time-locked to the presentation of the target. Offline classification revealed a mean accuracy of up to 90% for selecting the correct symbol out of 30 possibilities. The results suggest that RSVP-BCI is a promising new paradigm, also for patients with oculomotor impairments.

Super high compression of line drawing data

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Cooper, D. B.

1976-01-01

Models which can be used to accurately represent the type of line drawings which occur in teleconferencing and transmission for remote classrooms and which permit considerable data compression were described. The objective was to encode these pictures in binary sequences of shortest length but such that the pictures can be reconstructed without loss of important structure. It was shown that exploitation of reasonably simple structure permits compressions in the range of 30-100 to 1. When dealing with highly stylized material such as electronic or logic circuit schematics, it is unnecessary to reproduce configurations exactly. Rather, the symbols and configurations must be understood and be reproduced, but one can use fixed font symbols for resistors, diodes, capacitors, etc. Compression of pictures of natural phenomena such as can be realized by taking a similar approach, or essentially zero error reproducibility can be achieved but at a lower level of compression.

Debt and growth: A non-parametric approach

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Brida, Juan Gabriel; Gómez, David Matesanz; Seijas, Maria Nela

2017-11-01

In this study, we explore the dynamic relationship between public debt and economic growth by using a non-parametric approach based on data symbolization and clustering methods. The study uses annual data of general government consolidated gross debt-to-GDP ratio and gross domestic product for sixteen countries between 1977 and 2015. Using symbolic sequences, we introduce a notion of distance between the dynamical paths of different countries. Then, a Minimal Spanning Tree and a Hierarchical Tree are constructed from time series to help detecting the existence of groups of countries sharing similar economic performance. The main finding of the study appears for the period 2008-2016 when several countries surpassed the 90% debt-to-GDP threshold. During this period, three groups (clubs) of countries are obtained: high, mid and low indebted countries, suggesting that the employed debt-to-GDP threshold drives economic dynamics for the selected countries.

Launch mission summary: Intelsat 5 (F3) Atlas/Centaur-55

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1981-01-01

Intelsat 5 (F3) spacecraft, launch vehicle, and mission are described. Information relative to launch windows, flight plan, radar and telemetry coverage, selected trajectory information, and a brief sequence of flight events is provided.

enoLOGOS: a versatile web tool for energy normalized sequence logos

PubMed Central

Workman, Christopher T.; Yin, Yutong; Corcoran, David L.; Ideker, Trey; Stormo, Gary D.; Benos, Panayiotis V.

2005-01-01

enoLOGOS is a web-based tool that generates sequence logos from various input sources. Sequence logos have become a popular way to graphically represent DNA and amino acid sequence patterns from a set of aligned sequences. Each position of the alignment is represented by a column of stacked symbols with its total height reflecting the information content in this position. Currently, the available web servers are able to create logo images from a set of aligned sequences, but none of them generates weighted sequence logos directly from energy measurements or other sources. With the advent of high-throughput technologies for estimating the contact energy of different DNA sequences, tools that can create logos directly from binding affinity data are useful to researchers. enoLOGOS generates sequence logos from a variety of input data, including energy measurements, probability matrices, alignment matrices, count matrices and aligned sequences. Furthermore, enoLOGOS can represent the mutual information of different positions of the consensus sequence, a unique feature of this tool. Another web interface for our software, C2H2-enoLOGOS, generates logos for the DNA-binding preferences of the C2H2 zinc-finger transcription factor family members. enoLOGOS and C2H2-enoLOGOS are accessible over the web at . PMID:15980495

Low-complexity image processing for real-time detection of neonatal clonic seizures.

PubMed

Ntonfo, Guy Mathurin Kouamou; Ferrari, Gianluigi; Raheli, Riccardo; Pisani, Francesco

2012-05-01

In this paper, we consider a novel low-complexity real-time image-processing-based approach to the detection of neonatal clonic seizures. Our approach is based on the extraction, from a video of a newborn, of an average luminance signal representative of the body movements. Since clonic seizures are characterized by periodic movements of parts of the body (e.g., the limbs), by evaluating the periodicity of the extracted average luminance signal it is possible to detect the presence of a clonic seizure. The periodicity is investigated, through a hybrid autocorrelation-Yin estimation technique, on a per-window basis, where a time window is defined as a sequence of consecutive video frames. While processing is first carried out on a single window basis, we extend our approach to interlaced windows. The performance of the proposed detection algorithm is investigated, in terms of sensitivity and specificity, through receiver operating characteristic curves, considering video recordings of newborns affected by neonatal seizures.

Interuser Interference Analysis for Direct-Sequence Spread-Spectrum Systems Part I: Partial-Period Cross-Correlation

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ni, Jianjun (David)

2012-01-01

This presentation discusses an analysis approach to evaluate the interuser interference for Direct-Sequence Spread-Spectrum (DSSS) Systems for Space Network (SN) Users. Part I of this analysis shows that the correlation property of pseudo noise (PN) sequences is the critical factor which determines the interuser interference performance of the DSSS system. For non-standard DSSS systems in which PN sequence s period is much larger than one data symbol duration, it is the partial-period cross-correlation that determines the system performance. This study reveals through an example that a well-designed PN sequence set (e.g. Gold Sequence, in which the cross-correlation for a whole-period is well controlled) may have non-controlled partial-period cross-correlation which could cause severe interuser interference for a DSSS system. Since the analytical derivation of performance metric (bit error rate or signal-to-noise ratio) based on partial-period cross-correlation is prohibitive, the performance degradation due to partial-period cross-correlation will be evaluated using simulation in Part II of this analysis in the future.

Using cellular automata to generate image representation for biological sequences.

PubMed

Xiao, X; Shao, S; Ding, Y; Huang, Z; Chen, X; Chou, K-C

2005-02-01

A novel approach to visualize biological sequences is developed based on cellular automata (Wolfram, S. Nature 1984, 311, 419-424), a set of discrete dynamical systems in which space and time are discrete. By transforming the symbolic sequence codes into the digital codes, and using some optimal space-time evolvement rules of cellular automata, a biological sequence can be represented by a unique image, the so-called cellular automata image. Many important features, which are originally hidden in a long and complicated biological sequence, can be clearly revealed thru its cellular automata image. With biological sequences entering into databanks rapidly increasing in the post-genomic era, it is anticipated that the cellular automata image will become a very useful vehicle for investigation into their key features, identification of their function, as well as revelation of their "fingerprint". It is anticipated that by using the concept of the pseudo amino acid composition (Chou, K.C. Proteins: Structure, Function, and Genetics, 2001, 43, 246-255), the cellular automata image approach can also be used to improve the quality of predicting protein attributes, such as structural class and subcellular location.

Protecting Urban Health and Safety: Balancing Care and Harm in the Era of Mass Incarceration.

PubMed

Gaber, Nadia; Wright, Anthony

2016-04-01

This paper explores theoretical, spatial, and mediatized pathways through which policing poses harms to the health of marginalized communities in the urban USA, including analysis of two recent and widely publicized incidents of officer-involved killings in Ferguson, Missouri and Staten Island, New York. We examine the influence of the "broken windows" model in both policing and public health, revealing alternate institutional strategies for responding to urban disorder in the interests of the health and safety of the city. Drawing on ecosocial theory and medical anthropology, we consider the roles of the segregated built environment and historical experience in the embodiment of structural vulnerability with respect to police violence. We examine the recent shootings of Eric Garner and Michael Brown as the most visible, most circulated symbols of this complex and contradictory terrain, focusing on the pathways through which theories of causality authorize violent and/or caring intervention by the state. We show how police killings reveal an underlying and racialized association between disorder and deviance that becomes institutionalized and embodied through spatial and symbolic pathways. If public health workers and advocates are to play a role in responding to the call of the Black Lives Matter movement, it is important to understand the interpretations and translations of urban social life that circulate on the streets, in the media, in public policy, and in institutional practice.

Joint Source-Channel Coding by Means of an Oversampled Filter Bank Code

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Marinkovic, Slavica; Guillemot, Christine

2006-12-01

Quantized frame expansions based on block transforms and oversampled filter banks (OFBs) have been considered recently as joint source-channel codes (JSCCs) for erasure and error-resilient signal transmission over noisy channels. In this paper, we consider a coding chain involving an OFB-based signal decomposition followed by scalar quantization and a variable-length code (VLC) or a fixed-length code (FLC). This paper first examines the problem of channel error localization and correction in quantized OFB signal expansions. The error localization problem is treated as an[InlineEquation not available: see fulltext.]-ary hypothesis testing problem. The likelihood values are derived from the joint pdf of the syndrome vectors under various hypotheses of impulse noise positions, and in a number of consecutive windows of the received samples. The error amplitudes are then estimated by solving the syndrome equations in the least-square sense. The message signal is reconstructed from the corrected received signal by a pseudoinverse receiver. We then improve the error localization procedure by introducing a per-symbol reliability information in the hypothesis testing procedure of the OFB syndrome decoder. The per-symbol reliability information is produced by the soft-input soft-output (SISO) VLC/FLC decoders. This leads to the design of an iterative algorithm for joint decoding of an FLC and an OFB code. The performance of the algorithms developed is evaluated in a wavelet-based image coding system.

Tugboats and tennis games: Preservice conceptions of teaching and learning revealed through metaphors

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gurney, Bruce F.

Black (1979) writes about the inextricable interrelationships among language, perception, knowledge, experience and metaphor. An extension of this, grounded in Wittgenstein's (1953) notion of the symbolic, experiential basis of first language, is the view that metaphors are windows into this primitive, personal framework. The purpose of this paper is to take an exploratory look at preservice teachers' metaphors of teaching and learning and to examine some components of student teachers' own intuitions in this area. In this study, a questionnaire was administered to one hundred and fifty-one science education students at the beginning of their preservice training on which they were challenged to generate a personal metaphor for teaching and learning. Descriptive elements within the responses were differentiated and applied to the development of a classification scheme. Both the technique and the categorization are seen as useful devices for the identification of common conceptions about the teaching and learning process. The metaphors have been seen to communicate a richness of meaning which convey elements of mood, control, roles, attitudes and beliefs as they apply to teaching and learning and which, it is argued here, are grounded on more deeply rooted symbols than literal language. In the light of constructivist pedagogy, the elicitation of students' preconceptions is seen to be germane to the organization of learning experiences.Received: 27 June 1993; Revised: 2 August 1994;

RDNAnalyzer: A tool for DNA secondary structure prediction and sequence analysis.

PubMed

Afzal, Muhammad; Shahid, Ahmad Ali; Shehzadi, Abida; Nadeem, Shahid; Husnain, Tayyab

2012-01-01

RDNAnalyzer is an innovative computer based tool designed for DNA secondary structure prediction and sequence analysis. It can randomly generate the DNA sequence or user can upload the sequences of their own interest in RAW format. It uses and extends the Nussinov dynamic programming algorithm and has various application for the sequence analysis. It predicts the DNA secondary structure and base pairings. It also provides the tools for routinely performed sequence analysis by the biological scientists such as DNA replication, reverse compliment generation, transcription, translation, sequence specific information as total number of nucleotide bases, ATGC base contents along with their respective percentages and sequence cleaner. RDNAnalyzer is a unique tool developed in Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 using Microsoft Visual C# and Windows Presentation Foundation and provides user friendly environment for sequence analysis. It is freely available. http://www.cemb.edu.pk/sw.html RDNAnalyzer - Random DNA Analyser, GUI - Graphical user interface, XAML - Extensible Application Markup Language.

The route to chaos for the Kuramoto-Sivashinsky equation

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Papageorgiou, Demetrios T.; Smyrlis, Yiorgos

1990-01-01

The results of extensive numerical experiments of the spatially periodic initial value problem for the Kuramoto-Sivashinsky equation. This paper is concerned with the asymptotic nonlinear dynamics at the dissipation parameter decreases and spatio-temporal chaos sets in. To this end the initial condition is taken to be the same for all numerical experiments (a single sine wave is used) and the large time evolution of the system is followed numerically. Numerous computations were performed to establish the existence of windows, in parameter space, in which the solution has the following characteristics as the viscosity is decreased: a steady fully modal attractor to a steady bimodal attractor to another steady fully modal attractor to a steady trimodal attractor to a periodic attractor, to another steady fully modal attractor, to another periodic attractor, to a steady tetramodal attractor, to another periodic attractor having a full sequence of period-doublings (in parameter space) to chaos. Numerous solutions are presented which provide conclusive evidence of the period-doubling cascades which precede chaos for this infinite-dimensional dynamical system. These results permit a computation of the length of subwindows which in turn provide an estimate for their successive ratios as the cascade develops. A calculation based on the numerical results is also presented to show that the period doubling sequences found here for the Kuramoto-Sivashinsky equation, are in complete agreement with Feigenbaum's universal constant of 4,669201609... . Some preliminary work shows several other windows following the first chaotic one including periodic, chaotic, and a steady octamodal window; however, the windows shrink significantly in size to enable concrete quantitative conclusions to be made.

Multifractal analysis of 2001 Mw 7 . 7 Bhuj earthquake sequence in Gujarat, Western India

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Aggarwal, Sandeep Kumar; Pastén, Denisse; Khan, Prosanta Kumar

2017-12-01

The 2001 Mw 7 . 7 Bhuj mainshock seismic sequence in the Kachchh area, occurring during 2001 to 2012, has been analyzed using mono-fractal and multi-fractal dimension spectrum analysis technique. This region was characterized by frequent moderate shocks of Mw ≥ 5 . 0 for more than a decade since the occurrence of 2001 Bhuj earthquake. The present study is therefore important for precursory analysis using this sequence. The selected long-sequence has been investigated first time for completeness magnitude Mc 3.0 using the maximum curvature method. Multi-fractal Dq spectrum (Dq ∼ q) analysis was carried out using effective window-length of 200 earthquakes with a moving window of 20 events overlapped by 180 events. The robustness of the analysis has been tested by considering the magnitude completeness correction term of 0.2 to Mc 3.0 as Mc 3.2 and we have tested the error in the calculus of Dq for each magnitude threshold. On the other hand, the stability of the analysis has been investigated down to the minimum magnitude of Mw ≥ 2 . 6 in the sequence. The analysis shows the multi-fractal dimension spectrum Dq decreases with increasing of clustering of events with time before a moderate magnitude earthquake in the sequence, which alternatively accounts for non-randomness in the spatial distribution of epicenters and its self-organized criticality. Similar behavior is ubiquitous elsewhere around the globe, and warns for proximity of a damaging seismic event in an area. OS: Please confirm math roman or italics in abs.

High precision in protein contact prediction using fully convolutional neural networks and minimal sequence features.

PubMed

Jones, David T; Kandathil, Shaun M

2018-04-26

In addition to substitution frequency data from protein sequence alignments, many state-of-the-art methods for contact prediction rely on additional sources of information, or features, of protein sequences in order to predict residue-residue contacts, such as solvent accessibility, predicted secondary structure, and scores from other contact prediction methods. It is unclear how much of this information is needed to achieve state-of-the-art results. Here, we show that using deep neural network models, simple alignment statistics contain sufficient information to achieve state-of-the-art precision. Our prediction method, DeepCov, uses fully convolutional neural networks operating on amino-acid pair frequency or covariance data derived directly from sequence alignments, without using global statistical methods such as sparse inverse covariance or pseudolikelihood estimation. Comparisons against CCMpred and MetaPSICOV2 show that using pairwise covariance data calculated from raw alignments as input allows us to match or exceed the performance of both of these methods. Almost all of the achieved precision is obtained when considering relatively local windows (around 15 residues) around any member of a given residue pairing; larger window sizes have comparable performance. Assessment on a set of shallow sequence alignments (fewer than 160 effective sequences) indicates that the new method is substantially more precise than CCMpred and MetaPSICOV2 in this regime, suggesting that improved precision is attainable on smaller sequence families. Overall, the performance of DeepCov is competitive with the state of the art, and our results demonstrate that global models, which employ features from all parts of the input alignment when predicting individual contacts, are not strictly needed in order to attain precise contact predictions. DeepCov is freely available at https://github.com/psipred/DeepCov. d.t.jones@ucl.ac.uk.

Activity Recognition on Streaming Sensor Data.

PubMed

Krishnan, Narayanan C; Cook, Diane J

2014-02-01

Many real-world applications that focus on addressing needs of a human, require information about the activities being performed by the human in real-time. While advances in pervasive computing have lead to the development of wireless and non-intrusive sensors that can capture the necessary activity information, current activity recognition approaches have so far experimented on either a scripted or pre-segmented sequence of sensor events related to activities. In this paper we propose and evaluate a sliding window based approach to perform activity recognition in an on line or streaming fashion; recognizing activities as and when new sensor events are recorded. To account for the fact that different activities can be best characterized by different window lengths of sensor events, we incorporate the time decay and mutual information based weighting of sensor events within a window. Additional contextual information in the form of the previous activity and the activity of the previous window is also appended to the feature describing a sensor window. The experiments conducted to evaluate these techniques on real-world smart home datasets suggests that combining mutual information based weighting of sensor events and adding past contextual information into the feature leads to best performance for streaming activity recognition.

Exact Performance Analysis of Two Distributed Processes with Multiple Synchronization Points.

DTIC Science & Technology

1987-05-01

number of processes with straight-line sequences of semaphore operations . We use the geometric model for performance analysis, in contrast to proving...distribution unlimited. 4. PERFORMING’*ORGANIZATION REPORT NUMBERS) 5. MONITORING ORGANIZATION REPORT NUMB CS-TR-1845 6a. NAME OF PERFORMING ORGANIZATION 6b...OFFICE SYMBOL 7a. NAME OF MONITORING ORGANIZATIO U University of Maryland (If applicable) Office of Naval Research N/A 6c. ADDRESS (City, State, and

Constructing Abstraction Hierarchies Using a Skill-Symbol Loop

PubMed Central

Konidaris, George

2017-01-01

We describe a framework for building abstraction hierarchies whereby an agent alternates skill- and representation-construction phases to construct a sequence of increasingly abstract Markov decision processes. Our formulation builds on recent results showing that the appropriate abstract representation of a problem is specified by the agent’s skills. We describe how such a hierarchy can be used for fast planning, and illustrate the construction of an appropriate hierarchy for the Taxi domain. PMID:28579718

A teaching-learning sequence about weather map reading

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mandrikas, Achilleas; Stavrou, Dimitrios; Skordoulis, Constantine

2017-07-01

In this paper a teaching-learning sequence (TLS) introducing pre-service elementary teachers (PET) to weather map reading, with emphasis on wind assignment, is presented. The TLS includes activities about recognition of wind symbols, assignment of wind direction and wind speed on a weather map and identification of wind characteristics in a weather forecast. Sixty PET capabilities and difficulties in understanding weather maps were investigated, using inquiry-based learning activities. The results show that most PET became more capable of reading weather maps and assigning wind direction and speed on them. Our results also show that PET could be guided to understand meteorology concepts useful in everyday life and in teaching their future students.

An exploratory drilling exhaustion sequence plot program

USGS Publications Warehouse

Schuenemeyer, J.H.; Drew, L.J.

1977-01-01

The exhaustion sequence plot program computes the conditional area of influence for wells in a specified rectangular region with respect to a fixed-size deposit. The deposit is represented by an ellipse whose size is chosen by the user. The area of influence may be displayed on computer printer plots consisting of a maximum of 10,000 grid points. At each point, a symbol is presented that indicates the probability of that point being exhausted by nearby wells with respect to a fixed-size ellipse. This output gives a pictorial view of the manner in which oil fields are exhausted. In addition, the exhaustion data may be used to estimate the number of deposits remaining in a basin. ?? 1977.

TANDEM: matching proteins with tandem mass spectra.

PubMed

Craig, Robertson; Beavis, Ronald C

2004-06-12

Tandem mass spectra obtained from fragmenting peptide ions contain some peptide sequence specific information, but often there is not enough information to sequence the original peptide completely. Several proprietary software applications have been developed to attempt to match the spectra with a list of protein sequences that may contain the sequence of the peptide. The application TANDEM was written to provide the proteomics research community with a set of components that can be used to test new methods and algorithms for performing this type of sequence-to-data matching. The source code and binaries for this software are available at http://www.proteome.ca/opensource.html, for Windows, Linux and Macintosh OSX. The source code is made available under the Artistic License, from the authors.

Automated symbolic calculations in nonequilibrium thermodynamics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kröger, Martin; Hütter, Markus

2010-12-01

We cast the Jacobi identity for continuous fields into a local form which eliminates the need to perform any partial integration to the expense of performing variational derivatives. This allows us to test the Jacobi identity definitely and efficiently and to provide equations between different components defining a potential Poisson bracket. We provide a simple Mathematica TM notebook which allows to perform this task conveniently, and which offers some additional functionalities of use within the framework of nonequilibrium thermodynamics: reversible equations of change for fields, and the conservation of entropy during the reversible dynamics. Program summaryProgram title: Poissonbracket.nb Catalogue identifier: AEGW_v1_0 Program summary URL:http://cpc.cs.qub.ac.uk/summaries/AEGW_v1_0.html Program obtainable from: CPC Program Library, Queen's University, Belfast, N. Ireland Licensing provisions: Standard CPC licence, http://cpc.cs.qub.ac.uk/licence/licence.html No. of lines in distributed program, including test data, etc.: 227 952 No. of bytes in distributed program, including test data, etc.: 268 918 Distribution format: tar.gz Programming language: Mathematica TM 7.0 Computer: Any computer running Mathematica TM 6.0 and later versions Operating system: Linux, MacOS, Windows RAM: 100 Mb Classification: 4.2, 5, 23 Nature of problem: Testing the Jacobi identity can be a very complex task depending on the structure of the Poisson bracket. The Mathematica TM notebook provided here solves this problem using a novel symbolic approach based on inherent properties of the variational derivative, highly suitable for the present tasks. As a by product, calculations performed with the Poisson bracket assume a compact form. Solution method: The problem is first cast into a form which eliminates the need to perform partial integration for arbitrary functionals at the expense of performing variational derivatives. The corresponding equations are conveniently obtained using the symbolic programming environment Mathematica TM. Running time: For the test cases and most typical cases in the literature, the running time is of the order of seconds or minutes, respectively.

The baladi curative system of Cairo, Egypt.

PubMed

Early, E A

1988-03-01

The article explores the symbolic structure of the baladi (traditional) cultural system as revealed in everyday narratives, with a focus on baladi curative action. The everyday illness narrative provides a cultural window to the principles of fluidity and restorative balance of baladi curative practices. The body is seen as a dynamic organism through which both foreign objects and physiological entities can move. The body should be in balance, as with any humorally-influenced system, and so baladi cures aim to restore normal balance and functioning of the body. The article examines in detail a narrative on treatment of a sick child, and another on treatment of fertility problems. It traces such cultural oppositions as insider: outsider; authentic:inauthentic; home remedy:cosmopolitan medicine. In the social as well as the medical arena these themes organize social/medical judgements about correct action and explanations of events.

Phylo-mLogo: an interactive and hierarchical multiple-logo visualization tool for alignment of many sequences

PubMed Central

Shih, Arthur Chun-Chieh; Lee, DT; Peng, Chin-Lin; Wu, Yu-Wei

2007-01-01

Background When aligning several hundreds or thousands of sequences, such as epidemic virus sequences or homologous/orthologous sequences of some big gene families, to reconstruct the epidemiological history or their phylogenies, how to analyze and visualize the alignment results of many sequences has become a new challenge for computational biologists. Although there are several tools available for visualization of very long sequence alignments, few of them are applicable to the alignments of many sequences. Results A multiple-logo alignment visualization tool, called Phylo-mLogo, is presented in this paper. Phylo-mLogo calculates the variabilities and homogeneities of alignment sequences by base frequencies or entropies. Different from the traditional representations of sequence logos, Phylo-mLogo not only displays the global logo patterns of the whole alignment of multiple sequences, but also demonstrates their local homologous logos for each clade hierarchically. In addition, Phylo-mLogo also allows the user to focus only on the analysis of some important, structurally or functionally constrained sites in the alignment selected by the user or by built-in automatic calculation. Conclusion With Phylo-mLogo, the user can symbolically and hierarchically visualize hundreds of aligned sequences simultaneously and easily check the changes of their amino acid sites when analyzing many homologous/orthologous or influenza virus sequences. More information of Phylo-mLogo can be found at URL . PMID:17319966

Effective channel estimation and efficient symbol detection for multi-input multi-output underwater acoustic communications

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ling, Jun

Achieving reliable underwater acoustic communications (UAC) has long been recognized as a challenging problem owing to the scarce bandwidth available and the reverberant spread in both time and frequency domains. To pursue high data rates, we consider a multi-input multi-output (MIMO) UAC system, and our focus is placed on two main issues regarding a MIMO UAC system: (1) channel estimation, which involves the design of the training sequences and the development of a reliable channel estimation algorithm, and (2) symbol detection, which requires interference cancelation schemes due to simultaneous transmission from multiple transducers. To enhance channel estimation performance, we present a cyclic approach for designing training sequences with good auto- and cross-correlation properties, and a channel estimation algorithm called the iterative adaptive approach (IAA). Sparse channel estimates can be obtained by combining IAA with the Bayesian information criterion (BIC). Moreover, we present sparse learning via iterative minimization (SLIM) and demonstrate that SLIM gives similar performance to IAA but at a much lower computational cost. Furthermore, an extension of the SLIM algorithm is introduced to estimate the sparse and frequency modulated acoustic channels. The extended algorithm is referred to as generalization of SLIM (GoSLIM). Regarding symbol detection, a linear minimum mean-squared error based detection scheme, called RELAX-BLAST, which is a combination of vertical Bell Labs layered space-time (V-BLAST) algorithm and the cyclic principle of the RELAX algorithm, is presented and it is shown that RELAX-BLAST outperforms V-BLAST. We show that RELAX-BLAST can be implemented efficiently by making use of the conjugate gradient method and diagonalization properties of circulant matrices. This fast implementation approach requires only simple fast Fourier transform operations and facilitates parallel implementations. The effectiveness of the proposed MIMO schemes is verified by both computer simulations and experimental results obtained by analyzing the measurements acquired in multiple in-water experiments.

Structure of Franciscan complex in the Stanley Mountain window, Southern Coast ranges, California

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

Korsch, R.J.

1982-11-01

Three sets of deformational events are recognized in the Franciscan Complex of the Stanley Mt. area, S. Coast ranges, California. First, in pre-melange time, shortening of the relatively cohesive sequence of interbedded graywacke and mudstone formed isoclinal folds and an axial-plane slaty cleavage. Second, fragmentation of the once cohesive sequence, probably over a considerable period of time, produced the configuration now considered a melange. Third, after the melange developed, the Franciscan Complex was deformed along with the surrounding upper Mesozoic Great Valley sequence into the Stanley Mt. antiform. In the cohesive Upper Cretaceous Carrie Creek Formation, macroscopic and mesoscopic foldsmore » have 2 predominant orientations. The less cohesive Franciscan Complex attempted to fold, as shown by the distribution of shear foliations on stereographic projections, but lack of lithologic continuity and slip along previously formed shear fractures prevents the recognition of macroscopic folds. Hence, in the Franciscan Complex of the Stanley Mt. window, several lines of evidence show that the melange structure is tectonic in origin, not just a tectonic imprint superimposed upon already chaotic rocks of sedimentary origin (olistostromes). 43 references.« less

Presentation Extensions of the SOAP

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Carnright, Robert; Stodden, David; Coggi, John

2009-01-01

A set of extensions of the Satellite Orbit Analysis Program (SOAP) enables simultaneous and/or sequential presentation of information from multiple sources. SOAP is used in the aerospace community as a means of collaborative visualization and analysis of data on planned spacecraft missions. The following definitions of terms also describe the display modalities of SOAP as now extended: In SOAP terminology, View signifies an animated three-dimensional (3D) scene, two-dimensional still image, plot of numerical data, or any other visible display derived from a computational simulation or other data source; a) "Viewport" signifies a rectangular portion of a computer-display window containing a view; b) "Palette" signifies a collection of one or more viewports configured for simultaneous (split-screen) display in the same window; c) "Slide" signifies a palette with a beginning and ending time and an animation time step; and d) "Presentation" signifies a prescribed sequence of slides. For example, multiple 3D views from different locations can be crafted for simultaneous display and combined with numerical plots and other representations of data for both qualitative and quantitative analysis. The resulting sets of views can be temporally sequenced to convey visual impressions of a sequence of events for a planned mission.

AUTOMATED FLOWCHART SYSTEM FROM TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Woodford, W.

1994-01-01

An accurate flowchart is an important part of the documentation for any computer program. The flowchart offers the user an easy to follow overview of program operation and the maintenance programmer an effective debugging tool. The TAMU FLOWCHART System was developed to flowchart any program written in the FORTRAN language. It generates a line printer flowchart which is representative of the program logic. This flowchart provides the user with a detailed representation of the program action taken as each program statement is executed. The TAMU FLOWCHART System should prove to be a valuable aid to groups working with complex FORTRAN programs. Each statement in the program is displayed within a symbol which represents the program action during processing of the enclosed statement. Symbols available include: subroutine, function, and entry statements; arithmetic statements; input and output statements; arithmetical and logical IF statements; subroutine calls with or without argument list returns; computed and assigned GO TO statements; DO statements; STOP and RETURN statements; and CONTINUE and ASSIGN statements. Comment cards within the source program may be suppressed or displayed and associated with a succeeding source statement. Each symbol is annotated with a label (if present in the source code), a block number, and the statement sequence number. Program flow and options within the program are represented by line segments and direction indicators connecting symbols. The TAMU FLOWCHART System should be able to accurately flowchart any working FORTRAN program. This program is written in COBOL for batch execution and has been implemented on an IBM 370 series computer with an OS operating system and with a central memory requirement of approximately 380K of 8 bit bytes. The TAMU FLOWCHART System was developed in 1977.

Environment and Structure Influence in DNA Conduction

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Adessi, C.; Walch, S.; Anantram, M. P.; Biegel, Bryan (Technical Monitor)

2002-01-01

Results for transmission through the poly(G) DNA molecule are presented. We show that (i) periodically arranged sodium counter-ions in close proximity to dry DNA gives rise to a new conduction channel and aperiodicity in the counter-ion sequence can lead to a significant reduction in conduction, (ii) modification of the rise of B-DNA induces a change in the width of the transmission window, and (iii) specifically designed sequences are predicted to show intrinsic resonant tunneling behavior.

Launch mission summary: INTELSAT 5(F1) ATLAS/CENTAUR-56

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1981-01-01

The technology and capability of the INTELSAT 5 series satellites and the Atlas-Centaur launch vehicle are described. Data relative to launch windows, flight plans, radar, and telemetry are included along with selected trajectory information and a sequence of flight events.

A Western apache writing system: the symbols of silas john.

PubMed

Basso, K H; Anderson, N

1973-06-08

At the outset of this article, it was observed that the adequacy of an etic typology of written symbols could be judged by its ability to describe all the emic distinctions in all the writing systems of the world. In conclusion, we should like to return to this point and briefly examine the extent to which currently available etic concepts can be used to describe the distinctions made by Western Apaches in relation to the writing system of Silas John. Every symbol in the Silas John script may be classified as a phonetic-semantic sign. Symbols of this type denote linguistic expressions that consist of one or more words and contrast as a class with phonetic-nonsemantic signs, which denote phonemes (or phoneme clusters), syllables (or syllable clusters), and various prosodic phenomena (2, pp. 2, 248). Phonetic semantic signs are commonly partitioned into two subclasses: alogographs (which denote single words) and phraseographs (which denote on or more words). Although every symbol in the Silas John script can be assigned to one or the other of these categories, such an exercise is without justification (21). We have no evidence to suggest that Western Apaches classify symbols according to the length or complexity of their linguistic referents, and therefore the imposition of distinctions based on these criteria would be inappropriate and misleading. A far more useful contrast, and one we have already employed, is presented in most etic typologies as an opposition between compound (composite) and noncompound (noncomposite) symbols. Used to break down the category of phonetic-semantic signs, these two concepts enable us to describe more or less exactly the distinction Apaches draw between "symbol elements put together" (ke?escin ledidilgoh) and "symbol elements standing alone" (ke?- escin doledidildaahi). The former may now be defined as consisting of compound phonetic-semantic signs, while the latter is composed of noncompound phonetic-semantic signs. Up to this point, etic concepts have served us well. However, a deficiency appears when we search for a terminology that allows us to describe the distinction between "symbols that tell what to say" and "symbols that tell what to do." As far as we have been able to determine, standard typologies make no provision for this kind of contrast, apparently because their creators have tacitly assumed that systems composed of phonetic-semantic signs serve exclusively to communicate linguistic information. Consequently, the possibility that these systems might also convey nonlinguistic information seems to have been ignored. This oversight may be a product of Western ethnocentrism; after all, it is. we who use alphabets who most frequently associate writing with language (22). On the other hand, it may simply stem from the fact that systems incorporating symbols with kinesic referents are exceedingly rare and have not yet been reported. In any case, it is important to recognize that the etic inventory is not complete. Retaining the term "phonetic sign" as a label for written symbols. that denote linguistic phenomena, we propose that the term "kinetic sign" be introduced to label symbols that denote sequences of nonverbal behavior. Symbols of the latter type that simultaneously denote some unit of language may be classified as "phonetic-kinetic" signs. With these concepts, the contrast between " symbols that tell what to say" and "symbols that tell what to do" can be rephrased as one that distinguishes phonetic signs (by definition nonkinetic) from phonetic-kinetic signs. Purely kinetic signs-symbols that refer solely to physical gestures-are absent from the Silas John script. The utility of the kinetic sign and the phonetic-kinetic sign as comparative concepts must ultimately be judged on the basis of their capacity to clarify and describe emic distinctions in other systems of writing. However, as we have previously pointed out, ethnographic studies of American Indian systems that address themselves to the identification of these distinctions-and thus provide the information necessary to evaluate the relevance and applicability of etic concepts-are in very short supply. As a result, meaningful comparisons cannot be made. At this point, we simply alack the data with which to determine whether the kinetic component so prominen in the Silas John script is unique or whether it had counterparts else-where in North America. The view is still prevalent among anthropologists and linguists that the great majority of American Indian writing systems conform to one or two global "primitive" types. Our study of the Silas John script casts doubt upon this position, for it demonstrates that fundamental emic distinctions remain to be discovered and that existing etic frameworks are less than adequatelyequipped to describe them. The implications of these findings are clear. On the one hand, we must acknowledge the possibility that several structurally distinct forms of writing were developed by North America's Indian cultures. Concomitantly, we must be prepared to aabandon traditional ideas of typological similarity and simplicity among thes systems in favor of those that take into account variation and complexity.

Maximum-Likelihood Detection Of Noncoherent CPM

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Divsalar, Dariush; Simon, Marvin K.

1993-01-01

Simplified detectors proposed for use in maximum-likelihood-sequence detection of symbols in alphabet of size M transmitted by uncoded, full-response continuous phase modulation over radio channel with additive white Gaussian noise. Structures of receivers derived from particular interpretation of maximum-likelihood metrics. Receivers include front ends, structures of which depends only on M, analogous to those in receivers of coherent CPM. Parts of receivers following front ends have structures, complexity of which would depend on N.

Trellis Coding of Non-coherent Multiple Symbol Full Response M-ary CPFSK with Modulation Index 1/M

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lee, H.; Divsalar, D.; Weber, C.

1994-01-01

This paper introduces a trellis coded modulation (TCM) scheme for non-coherent multiple full response M-ary CPFSK with modulation index 1/M. A proper branch metric for the trellis decoder is obtained by employing a simple approximation of the modified Bessel function for large signal to noise ratio (SNR). Pairwise error probability of coded sequences is evaluated by applying a linear approximation to the Rician random variable.

The Coding of Biological Information: From Nucleotide Sequence to Protein Recognition

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Štambuk, Nikola

The paper reviews the classic results of Swanson, Dayhoff, Grantham, Blalock and Root-Bernstein, which link genetic code nucleotide patterns to the protein structure, evolution and molecular recognition. Symbolic representation of the binary addresses defining particular nucleotide and amino acid properties is discussed, with consideration of: structure and metric of the code, direct correspondence between amino acid and nucleotide information, and molecular recognition of the interacting protein motifs coded by the complementary DNA and RNA strands.

Randomizer for High Data Rates

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Garon, Howard; Sank, Victor J.

2018-01-01

NASA as well as a number of other space agencies now recognize that the current recommended CCSDS randomizer used for telemetry (TM) is too short. When multiple applications of the PN8 Maximal Length Sequence (MLS) are required in order to fully cover a channel access data unit (CADU), spectral problems in the form of elevated spurious discretes (spurs) appear. Originally the randomizer was called a bit transition generator (BTG) precisely because it was thought that its primary value was to insure sufficient bit transitions to allow the bit/symbol synchronizer to lock and remain locked. We, NASA, have shown that the old BTG concept is a limited view of the real value of the randomizer sequence and that the randomizer also aids in signal acquisition as well as minimizing the potential for false decoder lock. Under the guidelines we considered here there are multiple maximal length sequences under GF(2) which appear attractive in this application. Although there may be mitigating reasons why another MLS sequence could be selected, one sequence in particular possesses a combination of desired properties which offsets it from the others.

Sliding window prior data assisted compressed sensing for MRI tracking of lung tumors.

PubMed

Yip, Eugene; Yun, Jihyun; Wachowicz, Keith; Gabos, Zsolt; Rathee, Satyapal; Fallone, B G

2017-01-01

Hybrid magnetic resonance imaging and radiation therapy devices are capable of imaging in real-time to track intrafractional lung tumor motion during radiotherapy. Highly accelerated magnetic resonance (MR) imaging methods can potentially reduce system delay time and/or improves imaging spatial resolution, and provide flexibility in imaging parameters. Prior Data Assisted Compressed Sensing (PDACS) has previously been proposed as an acceleration method that combines the advantages of 2D compressed sensing and the KEYHOLE view-sharing technique. However, as PDACS relies on prior data acquired at the beginning of a dynamic imaging sequence, decline in image quality occurs for longer duration scans due to drifts in MR signal. Novel sliding window-based techniques for refreshing prior data are proposed as a solution to this problem. MR acceleration is performed by retrospective removal of data from the fully sampled sets. Six patients with lung tumors are scanned with a clinical 3 T MRI using a balanced steady-state free precession (bSSFP) sequence for 3 min at approximately 4 frames per second, for a total of 650 dynamics. A series of distinct pseudo-random patterns of partial k-space acquisition is generated such that, when combined with other dynamics within a sliding window of 100 dynamics, covers the entire k-space. The prior data in the sliding window are continuously refreshed to reduce the impact of MR signal drifts. We intended to demonstrate two different ways to utilize the sliding window data: a simple averaging method and a navigator-based method. These two sliding window methods are quantitatively compared against the original PDACS method using three metrics: artifact power, centroid displacement error, and Dice's coefficient. The study is repeated with pseudo 0.5 T images by adding complex, normally distributed noise with a standard deviation that reduces image SNR, relative to original 3 T images, by a factor of 6. Without sliding window implemented, PDACS-reconstructed dynamic datasets showed progressive increases in image artifact power as the 3 min scan progresses. With sliding windows implemented, this increase in artifact power is eliminated. Near the end of a 3 min scan at 3 T SNR and 5× acceleration, implementation of an averaging (navigator) sliding window method improves our metrics by the following ways: artifact power decreases from 0.065 without sliding window to 0.030 (0.031), centroid error decreases from 2.64 to 1.41 mm (1.28 mm), and Dice coefficient agreement increases from 0.860 to 0.912 (0.915). At pseudo 0.5 T SNR, the improvements in metrics are as follows: artifact power decreases from 0.110 without sliding window to 0.0897 (0.0985), centroid error decreases from 2.92 mm to 1.36 mm (1.32 mm), and Dice coefficient agreements increases from 0.851 to 0.894 (0.896). In this work we demonstrated the negative impact of slow changes in MR signal for longer duration PDACS dynamic scans, namely increases in image artifact power and reductions of tumor tracking accuracy. We have also demonstrated sliding window implementations (i.e., refreshing of prior data) of PDACS are effective solutions to this problem at both 3 T and simulated 0.5 T bSSFP images. © 2016 American Association of Physicists in Medicine.

Universal sequence map (USM) of arbitrary discrete sequences

PubMed Central

2002-01-01

Background For over a decade the idea of representing biological sequences in a continuous coordinate space has maintained its appeal but not been fully realized. The basic idea is that any sequence of symbols may define trajectories in the continuous space conserving all its statistical properties. Ideally, such a representation would allow scale independent sequence analysis – without the context of fixed memory length. A simple example would consist on being able to infer the homology between two sequences solely by comparing the coordinates of any two homologous units. Results We have successfully identified such an iterative function for bijective mappingψ of discrete sequences into objects of continuous state space that enable scale-independent sequence analysis. The technique, named Universal Sequence Mapping (USM), is applicable to sequences with an arbitrary length and arbitrary number of unique units and generates a representation where map distance estimates sequence similarity. The novel USM procedure is based on earlier work by these and other authors on the properties of Chaos Game Representation (CGR). The latter enables the representation of 4 unit type sequences (like DNA) as an order free Markov Chain transition table. The properties of USM are illustrated with test data and can be verified for other data by using the accompanying web-based tool:http://bioinformatics.musc.edu/~jonas/usm/. Conclusions USM is shown to enable a statistical mechanics approach to sequence analysis. The scale independent representation frees sequence analysis from the need to assume a memory length in the investigation of syntactic rules. PMID:11895567

SP-Designer: a user-friendly program for designing species-specific primer pairs from DNA sequence alignments.

PubMed

Villard, Pierre; Malausa, Thibaut

2013-07-01

SP-Designer is an open-source program providing a user-friendly tool for the design of specific PCR primer pairs from a DNA sequence alignment containing sequences from various taxa. SP-Designer selects PCR primer pairs for the amplification of DNA from a target species on the basis of several criteria: (i) primer specificity, as assessed by interspecific sequence polymorphism in the annealing regions, (ii) the biochemical characteristics of the primers and (iii) the intended PCR conditions. SP-Designer generates tables, detailing the primer pair and PCR characteristics, and a FASTA file locating the primer sequences in the original sequence alignment. SP-Designer is Windows-compatible and freely available from http://www2.sophia.inra.fr/urih/sophia_mart/sp_designer/info_sp_designer.php. © 2013 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Powerful timing generator using mono-chip timers: An application to pulsed nuclear magnetic resonance

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Saint-Jalmes, Hervé; Barjhoux, Yves

1982-01-01

We present a 10 line-7 MHz timing generator built on a single board around two LSI timer chips interfaced to a 16-bit microcomputer. Once programmed from the host computer, this device is able to generate elaborate logic sequences on its 10 output lines without further interventions from the CPU. Powerful architecture introduces new possibilities over conventional memory-based timing simulators and word generators. Loop control on a given sequence of events, loop nesting, and various logic combinations can easily be implemented through a software interface, using a symbolic command language. Typical applications of such a device range from development, emulation, and test of integrated circuits, circuit boards, and communication systems to pulse-controlled instrumentation (radar, ultrasonic systems). A particular application to a pulsed Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectrometer is presented, along with customization of the device for generating four-channel radio-frequency pulses and the necessary sequence for subsequent data acquisition.

Airborne target tracking algorithm against oppressive decoys in infrared imagery

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sun, Xiechang; Zhang, Tianxu

2009-10-01

This paper presents an approach for tracking airborne target against oppressive infrared decoys. Oppressive decoy lures infrared guided missile by its high infrared radiation. Traditional tracking algorithms have degraded stability even come to tracking failure when airborne target continuously throw out many decoys. The proposed approach first determines an adaptive tracking window. The center of the tracking window is set at a predicted target position which is computed based on uniform motion model. Different strategies are applied for determination of tracking window size according to target state. The image within tracking window is segmented and multi features of candidate targets are extracted. The most similar candidate target is associated to the tracking target by using a decision function, which calculates a weighted sum of normalized feature differences between two comparable targets. Integrated intensity ratio of association target and tracking target, and target centroid are examined to estimate target state in the presence of decoys. The tracking ability and robustness of proposed approach has been validated by processing available real-world and simulated infrared image sequences containing airborne targets and oppressive decoys.

Effects of animation on naming and identification across two graphic symbol sets representing verbs and prepositions.

PubMed

Schlosser, Ralf W; Koul, Rajinder; Shane, Howard; Sorce, James; Brock, Kristofer; Harmon, Ashley; Moerlein, Dorothy; Hearn, Emilia

2014-10-01

The effects of animation on naming and identification of graphic symbols for verbs and prepositions were studied in 2 graphic symbol sets in preschoolers. Using a 2 × 2 × 2 × 3 completely randomized block design, preschoolers across three age groups were randomly assigned to combinations of symbol set (Autism Language Program [ALP] Animated Graphics or Picture Communication Symbols [PCS]), symbol format (animated or static), and word class (verbs or prepositions). Children were asked to name symbols and to identify a target symbol from an array given the spoken label. Animated symbols were more readily named than static symbols, although this was more pronounced for verbs than for prepositions. ALP symbols were named more accurately than PCS in particular with prepositions. Animation did not facilitate identification. ALP symbols for prepositions were identified better than PCS, but there was no difference for verbs. Finally, older children guessed and identified symbols more effectively than younger children. Animation improves the naming of graphic symbols for verbs. For prepositions, ALP symbols are named more accurately and are more readily identifiable than PCS. Naming and identifying symbols are learned skills that develop over time. Limitations and future research directions are discussed.

Spreadsheet-based program for alignment of overlapping DNA sequences.

PubMed

Anbazhagan, R; Gabrielson, E

1999-06-01

Molecular biology laboratories frequently face the challenge of aligning small overlapping DNA sequences derived from a long DNA segment. Here, we present a short program that can be used to adapt Excel spreadsheets as a tool for aligning DNA sequences, regardless of their orientation. The program runs on any Windows or Macintosh operating system computer with Excel 97 or Excel 98. The program is available for use as an Excel file, which can be downloaded from the BioTechniques Web site. Upon execution, the program opens a specially designed customized workbook and is capable of identifying overlapping regions between two sequence fragments and displaying the sequence alignment. It also performs a number of specialized functions such as recognition of restriction enzyme cutting sites and CpG island mapping without costly specialized software.

Parametric and non-parametric masking of randomness in sequence alignments can be improved and leads to better resolved trees.

PubMed

Kück, Patrick; Meusemann, Karen; Dambach, Johannes; Thormann, Birthe; von Reumont, Björn M; Wägele, Johann W; Misof, Bernhard

2010-03-31

Methods of alignment masking, which refers to the technique of excluding alignment blocks prior to tree reconstructions, have been successful in improving the signal-to-noise ratio in sequence alignments. However, the lack of formally well defined methods to identify randomness in sequence alignments has prevented a routine application of alignment masking. In this study, we compared the effects on tree reconstructions of the most commonly used profiling method (GBLOCKS) which uses a predefined set of rules in combination with alignment masking, with a new profiling approach (ALISCORE) based on Monte Carlo resampling within a sliding window, using different data sets and alignment methods. While the GBLOCKS approach excludes variable sections above a certain threshold which choice is left arbitrary, the ALISCORE algorithm is free of a priori rating of parameter space and therefore more objective. ALISCORE was successfully extended to amino acids using a proportional model and empirical substitution matrices to score randomness in multiple sequence alignments. A complex bootstrap resampling leads to an even distribution of scores of randomly similar sequences to assess randomness of the observed sequence similarity. Testing performance on real data, both masking methods, GBLOCKS and ALISCORE, helped to improve tree resolution. The sliding window approach was less sensitive to different alignments of identical data sets and performed equally well on all data sets. Concurrently, ALISCORE is capable of dealing with different substitution patterns and heterogeneous base composition. ALISCORE and the most relaxed GBLOCKS gap parameter setting performed best on all data sets. Correspondingly, Neighbor-Net analyses showed the most decrease in conflict. Alignment masking improves signal-to-noise ratio in multiple sequence alignments prior to phylogenetic reconstruction. Given the robust performance of alignment profiling, alignment masking should routinely be used to improve tree reconstructions. Parametric methods of alignment profiling can be easily extended to more complex likelihood based models of sequence evolution which opens the possibility of further improvements.

A human performance evaluation of graphic symbol-design features.

PubMed

Samet, M G; Geiselman, R E; Landee, B M

1982-06-01

16 subjects learned each of two tactical display symbol sets (conventional symbols and iconic symbols) in turn and were then shown a series of graphic displays containing various symbol configurations. For each display, the subject was asked questions corresponding to different behavioral processes relating to symbol use (identification, search, comparison, pattern recognition). The results indicated that: (a) conventional symbols yielded faster pattern-recognition performance than iconic symbols, and iconic symbols did not yield faster identification than conventional symbols, and (b) the portrayal of additional feature information (through the use of perimeter density or vector projection coding) slowed processing of the core symbol information in four tasks, but certain symbol-design features created less perceptual interference and had greater correspondence with the portrayal of specific tactical concepts than others. The results were discussed in terms of the complexities involved in the selection of symbol design features for use in graphic tactical displays.

System and method for forward error correction

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Cole, Robert M. (Inventor); Bishop, James E. (Inventor)

2006-01-01

A system and method are provided for transferring a packet across a data link. The packet may include a stream of data symbols which is delimited by one or more framing symbols. Corruptions of the framing symbol which result in valid data symbols may be mapped to invalid symbols. If it is desired to transfer one of the valid data symbols that has been mapped to an invalid symbol, the data symbol may be replaced with an unused symbol. At the receiving end, these unused symbols are replaced with the corresponding valid data symbols. The data stream of the packet may be encoded with forward error correction information to detect and correct errors in the data stream.

System and method for transferring data on a data link

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Cole, Robert M. (Inventor); Bishop, James E. (Inventor)

2007-01-01

A system and method are provided for transferring a packet across a data link. The packet may include a stream of data symbols which is delimited by one or more framing symbols. Corruptions of the framing symbol which result in valid data symbols may be mapped to invalid symbols. If it is desired to transfer one of the valid data symbols that has been mapped to an invalid symbol, the data symbol may be replaced with an unused symbol. At the receiving end, these unused symbols are replaced with the corresponding valid data symbols. The data stream of the packet may be encoded with forward error correction information to detect and correct errors in the data stream.

Solid State Ionics Advanced Materials for Emerging Technologies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chowdari, B. V. R.; Careem, M. A.; Dissanayake, M. A. K. L.; Rajapakse, R. M. G.; Seneviratne, V. A.

2006-06-01

Keynote lecture. Challenges and opportunities of solid state ionic devices / W. Weppner -- pt. I. Ionically conducting inorganic solids. Invited papers. Multinuclear NMR studies of mass transport of phosphoric acid in water / J. R. P. Jayakody ... [et al.]. Crystalline glassy and polymeric electrolytes: similarities and differences in ionic transport mechanisms / J.-L. Souquet. 30 years of NMR/NQR experiments in solid electrolytes / D. Brinkmann. Analysis of conductivity and NMR measurements in Li[symbol]La[symbol]TiO[symbol] fast Li[symbol] ionic conductor: evidence for correlated Li[symbol] motion / O. Bohnké ... [et al.]. Transport pathways for ions in disordered solids from bond valence mismatch landscapes / S. Adams. Proton conductivity in condensed phases of water: implications on linear and ball lightning / K. Tennakone -- Contributed papers. Proton transport in nanocrystalline bioceramic materials: an investigative study of synthetic bone with that of natural bone / H. Jena, B. Rambabu. Synthesis and properties of the nanostructured fast ionic conductor Li[symbol]La[symbol]TiO[symbol] / Q. N. Pham ... [et al.]. Hydrogen production: ceramic materials for high temperature water electrolysis / A. Hammou. Influence of the sintering temperature on pH sensor ability of Li[symbol]La[symbol]TiO[symbol]. Relationship between potentiometric and impedance spectroscopy measurements / Q. N. Pham ... [et al.]. Microstructure chracterization and ionic conductivity of nano-sized CeO[symbol]-Sm[symbol]O[symbol] system (x=0.05 - 0.2) prepared by combustion route / K. Singh, S. A. Acharya, S. S. Bhoga. Red soil in Northern Sri Lanka is a natural magnetic ceramic / K. Ahilan ... [et al.]. Neutron scattering of LiNiO[symbol] / K. Basar ... [et al.]. Preparation and properties of LiFePO[symbol] nanorods / L. Q. Mai ... [et al.]. Structural and electrochemical properties of monoclinic and othorhombic MoO[symbol] phases / O. M. Hussain ... [et al.]. Preparation of Zircon (ZrSiO[symbol]) ceramics via solid state sintering of Zr)[symbol] and SiO[symbol] and the effect of dopants on the zircon yield / U. Dhanayake, B. S. B. Karunaratne. Preparation and properties of vanadium doped ZnTe cermet thin films / M. S. Hossain, R. Islam, K. A. Khan. Dynamical properties and electronic structure of lithium-ion conductor / M. Kobayashi ... [et al.]. Cuprous ion conducting Montmorillonite-Polypyrrole nanocomposites / D. M. M. Krishantha ... [et al.]. Frequency dependence of conductivity studies on a newly synthesized superionic solid solution/mixed system: [0.75AgI: 0.25AgCl] / R. K. Nagarch, R. Kumar. Diffuse X-ray and neutron scattering from Powder PbS / X. Lian ... [et al.]. Electron affinity and work function of Pyrolytic MnO[symbol] thin films prepared from Mn(C[symbol]H[symbol]O[symbol])[symbol].4H[symbol]) / A. K. M. Farid Ul Islam, R. Islam, K. A. Khan. Crystal structure and heat capacity of Ba[symbol]Ca[symbol]Nb[symbol]O[symbol] / T. Shimoyama ... [et al.]. XPS and impedance investigations on amorphous vanadium oxide thin films / M. Kamalanathan ... [et al.]. Sintering and mixed electronic-ionic conducting properties of La[symbol]Sr[symbol]NiO[symbol] derived from a polyaminocarboxylate complex precursor / D.-P. Huang ... [et al.]. Preparation and characteristics of ball milled MgH[symbol] + M (M= Fe, VF[symbol] and FeF[symbol]) nanocomposites for hydrogen storage / N. W. B. Balasooriya, Ch. Poinsignon. Structural studies of oxysulfide glasses by X-ray diffraction and molecular dynamics simulation / R. Prasada Rao, M. Seshasayee, J. Dheepa. Synthesis, sintering and oxygen ionic conducting properties of Bi[symbol]V[symbol]Cu[symbol]O[symbol] / F. Zhang ... [et al.]. Synthesis and transport characteristics of PbI[symbol]-Ag[symbol]O-Cr[symbol]O[symbol] superioninc system / S. A. Suthanthiraraj, V. Mathew. Electronic conductivity of La[symbol]Sr[symbol]Ga[symbol]Mg[symbol]Co[symbol]O[symbol] electrolytes / K. Yamaji ... [et al.] -- pt. II. Electrode materials. Invited papers. Cathodic properties of Al-doped LiCoO[symbol] prepared by molten salt method Li-Ion batteries / M. V. Reddy, G. V. Subba Rao, B. V. R. Chowdari. Layered ion-electron conducting materials / M. A. Santa Ana, E. Benavente, G. González. LiNi[symbol]Co[symbol]O[symbol] cathode thin-film prepared by RF sputtering for all-solid-state rechargeable microbatteries / X. J. Zhu ... [et al.] -- Contributed papers. Contributed papers. Nanocomposite cathode for SOFCs prepared by electrostatic spray deposition / A. Princivalle, E. Djurado. Effect of the addition of nanoporous carbon black on the cycling characteristics of Li[symbol]Co[symbol](MoO[symbol])[symbol] for lithium batteries / K. M. Begam, S. R. S. Prabaharan. Protonic conduction in TiP[symbol]O[symbol] / V. Nalini, T. Norby, A. M. Anuradha. Preparation and electrochemical LiMn[symbol]O[symbol] thin film by a solution deposition method / X. Y. Gan ... [et al.]. Synthesis and characterization LiMPO[symbol] (M = Ni, Co) / T. Savitha, S. Selvasekarapandian, C. S. Ramya. Synthesis and electrical characterization of LiCoO[symbol] LiFeO[symbol] and NiO compositions / A. Wijayasinghe, B. Bergman. Natural Sri Lanka graphite as conducting enhancer in manganese dioxide (Emd type) cathode of alkaline batteries / N. W. B. Balasooriya ... [et al.]. Electrochemical properties of LiNi[symbol]Al[symbol]Zn[symbol]O[symbol] cathode material synthesized by emulsion method / B.-H. Kim ... [et al.]. LiNi[symbol]Co[symbol]O[symbol] cathode materials synthesized by particulate sol-gel method for lithium ion batteries / X. J. Zhu ... [et al.]. Pulsed laser deposition of highly oriented LiCoO[symbol] and LiMn[symbol]O[symbol] thin films for microbattery applications / O. M. Hussain ... [et al.]. Preparation of LiNi[symbol]Co[symbol]O[symbol] thin films by a sol-gel method / X. J. Zhu ... [et al.]. Electrochemical lithium insertion into a manganese dioxide electrode in aqueous solutions / M. Minakshi ... [et al.]. AC impedance spectroscopic analysis of thin film LiNiVO[symbol] prepared by pulsed laser deposition technique / S. Selvasekarapandian ... [et al.]. Synthesis and characterization of LiFePO[symbol] cathode materials by microwave processing / J. Zhou ... [et al.]. Characterization of Nd[symbol]Sr[symbol]CoO[symbol] including Pt second phase as the cathode material for low-temperature SOFCs / J. W. Choi ... [et al.]. Thermodynamic behavior of lithium intercalation into natural vein and synthetic graphite / N. W. B. Balasooriya, P. W. S. K. Bandaranayake, Ph. Touzain -- pt. III. Electroactive polymers. Invited papers. Organised or disorganised? looking at polymer electrolytes from both points of view / Y.-P. Liao ... [et al.]. Polymer electrolytes - simple low permittivity solutions? / I. Albinsson, B.-E. Mellander. Dependence of conductivity enhancement on the dielectric constant of the dispersoid in polymer-ferroelectric composite electrolytes / A. Chandra, P. K. Singh, S. Chandra. Design and application of boron compounds for high-performance polymer electrolytes / T. Fujinami. Structural, vibrational and AC impedance analysis of nano composite polymer electrolytes based on PVAC / S. Selvasekarapandian ... [et al.]. Absorption intensity variation with ion association in PEO based electrolytes / J. E. Furneaux ... [et al.]. Study of ion-polymer interactions in cationic and anionic ionomers from the dependence of conductivity on pressure and temperature / M. Duclot ... [et al.]. Triol based polyurethane gel electrolytes for electrochemical devices / A. R. Kulkarni. Contributed papers. Accurate conductivity measurements to solvation energies in nafion / M. Maréchal, J.-L Souquet. Ion conducting behaviour of composite polymer gel electrolyte: PEG-PVA-(NH[symbol]CH[symbol]CO[symbol])[symbol] system / S. L. Agrawal, A. Awadhia, S. K. Patel. Impedance spectroscopy and DSC studies of poly(vinylalcohol)/ silicotungstic acid crosslinked composite membranes / A. Anis, A. K. Banthia. (PEO)[symbol]:Na[symbol]P[symbol]O[symbol]: a report on complex formation / A. Bhide, K. Hariharan. Experimental studies on (PVC+LiClO[symbol]+DMP) polymer electrolyte systems for lithium battery / Ch. V. S. Reddy. Stability of the gel electrolyte, PAN: EC: PC: LiCF[symbol]SO[symbol] towards lithium / K. Perera ... [et al.]. Montmorillonite as a conductivity enhancer in (PEO)[symbol]LiCF[symbol]SO[symbol] polymer electrolyte / C. H. Manoratne ... [et al.]. Polymeric gel electrolytes for electrochemical capacitors / M. Morita ... [et al.]. Electrical conductivity studies on proton conducting polymer electrolytes based on poly (viniyl acetate) / D. Arun Kumar ... [et al.]. Conductivity and thermal studies on plasticized PEO:LiTf-Al[symbol]O[symbol] composite polymer electrolyte / H. M. J. C. Pitawala, M. A. K. L. Dissanayake, V. A. Seneviratne. Investigation of transport properties of a new biomaterials - gum mangosteen / S. S. Pradhan, A. Sarkar. Investigation of ionic conductivity of PEO-MgCl[symbol] based solid polymer electrolyte / M. Sundar ... [et al.]. [symbol]H NMR and Raman analysis of proton conducting polymer electrolytes based on partially hydrolyzed poly (vinyl alcohol) / G. Hirankumar ... [et al.]. Influence of Al[symbol]O[symbol] nanoparticles on the phase matrix of polyethylene oxide-silver triflate polymer electrolytes / S. Austin Suthanthiraraj, D. Joice Sheeba. Effect of different types of ceramic fillers on thermal, dielectric and transport properties of PEO[symbol]LiTf solid polymer electrolyte / K. Vignarooban ... [et al.]. Characterization of PVP based solid polymer electrolytes using spectroscopic techniques / C. S. Ramya ... [et al.]. Electrochemical and structural properties of poly vinylidene fluoride - silver triflate solid polymer electrolyte system / S. Austin Suthanthiraraj, B. Joseph Paul. Micro Raman, Li NMR and AC impedance analysis of PVAC:LiClO[symbol] solid polymer eectrolytes / R. Baskaran ... [et al.].Study of Na+ ion conduction in PVA-NaSCN solid polymer electrolytes / G. M. Brahmanandhan ... [et al.]. Effect of filler addition on plasticized polymer electrolyte systems / M. Sundar, S. Selladurai. Ionic motion in PEDOT and PPy conducting polymer bilayers / U. L. Zainudeen, S. Skaarup, M. A. Careem. Film formation mechanism and electrochemical characterization of V[symbol]O[symbol] xerogel intercalated by polyaniniline / Q. Zhu ... [et al.]. Effect of NH[symbol]NO[symbol] concentration on the conductivity of PVA based solid polymer electrolyte / M. Hema ... [et al.]. Dielectric and conductivity studies of PVA-KSCN based solid polymer electrolytes / J. Malathi ... [et al.] -- pt. IV. Emerging applications. Invited papers. The use of solid state ionic materials and devices in medical applications / R. Linford. Development of all-solid-state lithium batteries / V. Thangadurai, J. Schwenzei, W. Weppner. Reversible intermediate temperature solid oxide fuel cells / B.-E. Mellander, I. Albinsson. Nano-size effects in lithium batteries / P. Balaya, Y. Hu, J. Maier. Electrochromics: fundamentals and applications / C. G. Granqvist. Electrochemical CO[symbol] gas sensor / K. Singh. Polypyrrole for artificial muscles: ionic mechanisms / S. Skaarup. Development and characterization of polyfluorene based light emitting diodes and their colour tuning using Forster resonance energy transfer / P. C. Mattur ... [et al.]. Mesoporous and nanoparticulate metal oxides: applications in new photocatalysis / C. Boxall. Proton Conducting (PC) perovskite membranes for hydrogen separation and PC-SOFC electrodes and electrolytes / H. Jena, B. Rambabu. Contributed papers. Electroceramic materials for the development of natural gas fuelled SOFC/GT plant in developing country (Trinidad and Tobogo (T&T)) / R. Saunders, H. Jena, B. Rambabu. Thin film SOFC supported on nano-porous substrate / J. Hoon Joo, G. M. Choi. Characterization and fabrication of silver solid state battery Ag/AGI-AgPO[symbol]/I[symbol], C / E. Kartini ... [et al.]. Performance of lithium polymer cells with polyacrylonitrile based electrolyte / K. Perera ... [et al.]. Hydrothermal synthesis and electrochemical behavior of MoO[symbol] nanobelts for lithium batteries / Y. Qi ... [et al.]. Electrochemical behaviour of a PPy (DBS)/polyacrylonitrile: LiTF:EC:PC/Li cell / K. Vidanapathirana ... [et al.]. Characteristics of thick film CO[symbol] sensors based on NASICON using Li[symbol]CO[symbol]-CaCO[symbol] auxiliary phases / H. J. Kim ... [et al.]. Solid state battery discharge characteristic study on fast silver ion conducting composite system: 0.9[0.75AgI:0.25AgCl]: 0.1TiO[symbol] / R. K. Nagarch, R. Kumar, P. Rawat. Intercalating protonic solid-state batteries with series and parallel combination / K. Singh, S. S. Bhoga, S. M. Bansod. Synthesis and characterization of ZnO fiber by microwave processing / Lin Wang ... [et al.]. Preparation of Sn-Ge alloy coated Ge nanoparticles and Sn-Si alloy coated Si nanoparticles by ball-milling / J. K. D. S. Jayanett, S. M. Heald. Synthesis of ultrafine and crystallized TiO[symbol] by alalkoxied free polymerizable precursor method / M. Vijayakumar ... [et al.]. Development and characterization of polythiophene/fullerene composite solar cells and their degradation studies / P. K. Bhatnagar ... [et al.].

Representation of the inverse of a frame multiplier.

PubMed

Balazs, P; Stoeva, D T

2015-02-15

Certain mathematical objects appear in a lot of scientific disciplines, like physics, signal processing and, naturally, mathematics. In a general setting they can be described as frame multipliers, consisting of analysis, multiplication by a fixed sequence (called the symbol), and synthesis. In this paper we show a surprising result about the inverse of such operators, if any, as well as new results about a core concept of frame theory, dual frames. We show that for semi-normalized symbols, the inverse of any invertible frame multiplier can always be represented as a frame multiplier with the reciprocal symbol and dual frames of the given ones. Furthermore, one of those dual frames is uniquely determined and the other one can be arbitrarily chosen. We investigate sufficient conditions for the special case, when both dual frames can be chosen to be the canonical duals. In connection to the above, we show that the set of dual frames determines a frame uniquely. Furthermore, for a given frame, the union of all coefficients of its dual frames is dense in [Formula: see text]. We also introduce a class of frames (called pseudo-coherent frames), which includes Gabor frames and coherent frames, and investigate invertible pseudo-coherent frame multipliers, allowing a classification for frame-type operators for these frames. Finally, we give a numerical example for the invertibility of multipliers in the Gabor case.

Representation of the inverse of a frame multiplier☆

PubMed Central

Balazs, P.; Stoeva, D.T.

2015-01-01

Certain mathematical objects appear in a lot of scientific disciplines, like physics, signal processing and, naturally, mathematics. In a general setting they can be described as frame multipliers, consisting of analysis, multiplication by a fixed sequence (called the symbol), and synthesis. In this paper we show a surprising result about the inverse of such operators, if any, as well as new results about a core concept of frame theory, dual frames. We show that for semi-normalized symbols, the inverse of any invertible frame multiplier can always be represented as a frame multiplier with the reciprocal symbol and dual frames of the given ones. Furthermore, one of those dual frames is uniquely determined and the other one can be arbitrarily chosen. We investigate sufficient conditions for the special case, when both dual frames can be chosen to be the canonical duals. In connection to the above, we show that the set of dual frames determines a frame uniquely. Furthermore, for a given frame, the union of all coefficients of its dual frames is dense in ℓ2. We also introduce a class of frames (called pseudo-coherent frames), which includes Gabor frames and coherent frames, and investigate invertible pseudo-coherent frame multipliers, allowing a classification for frame-type operators for these frames. Finally, we give a numerical example for the invertibility of multipliers in the Gabor case. PMID:25843976

RDNAnalyzer: A tool for DNA secondary structure prediction and sequence analysis

PubMed Central

Afzal, Muhammad; Shahid, Ahmad Ali; Shehzadi, Abida; Nadeem, Shahid; Husnain, Tayyab

2012-01-01

RDNAnalyzer is an innovative computer based tool designed for DNA secondary structure prediction and sequence analysis. It can randomly generate the DNA sequence or user can upload the sequences of their own interest in RAW format. It uses and extends the Nussinov dynamic programming algorithm and has various application for the sequence analysis. It predicts the DNA secondary structure and base pairings. It also provides the tools for routinely performed sequence analysis by the biological scientists such as DNA replication, reverse compliment generation, transcription, translation, sequence specific information as total number of nucleotide bases, ATGC base contents along with their respective percentages and sequence cleaner. RDNAnalyzer is a unique tool developed in Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 using Microsoft Visual C# and Windows Presentation Foundation and provides user friendly environment for sequence analysis. It is freely available. Availability http://www.cemb.edu.pk/sw.html Abbreviations RDNAnalyzer - Random DNA Analyser, GUI - Graphical user interface, XAML - Extensible Application Markup Language. PMID:23055611

Signal peptide discrimination and cleavage site identification using SVM and NN.

PubMed

Kazemian, H B; Yusuf, S A; White, K

2014-02-01

About 15% of all proteins in a genome contain a signal peptide (SP) sequence, at the N-terminus, that targets the protein to intracellular secretory pathways. Once the protein is targeted correctly in the cell, the SP is cleaved, releasing the mature protein. Accurate prediction of the presence of these short amino-acid SP chains is crucial for modelling the topology of membrane proteins, since SP sequences can be confused with transmembrane domains due to similar composition of hydrophobic amino acids. This paper presents a cascaded Support Vector Machine (SVM)-Neural Network (NN) classification methodology for SP discrimination and cleavage site identification. The proposed method utilises a dual phase classification approach using SVM as a primary classifier to discriminate SP sequences from Non-SP. The methodology further employs NNs to predict the most suitable cleavage site candidates. In phase one, a SVM classification utilises hydrophobic propensities as a primary feature vector extraction using symmetric sliding window amino-acid sequence analysis for discrimination of SP and Non-SP. In phase two, a NN classification uses asymmetric sliding window sequence analysis for prediction of cleavage site identification. The proposed SVM-NN method was tested using Uni-Prot non-redundant datasets of eukaryotic and prokaryotic proteins with SP and Non-SP N-termini. Computer simulation results demonstrate an overall accuracy of 0.90 for SP and Non-SP discrimination based on Matthews Correlation Coefficient (MCC) tests using SVM. For SP cleavage site prediction, the overall accuracy is 91.5% based on cross-validation tests using the novel SVM-NN model. © 2013 Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Signaling on the continuous spectrum of nonlinear optical fiber.

PubMed

Tavakkolnia, Iman; Safari, Majid

2017-08-07

This paper studies different signaling techniques on the continuous spectrum (CS) of nonlinear optical fiber defined by nonlinear Fourier transform. Three different signaling techniques are proposed and analyzed based on the statistics of the noise added to CS after propagation along the nonlinear optical fiber. The proposed methods are compared in terms of error performance, distance reach, and complexity. Furthermore, the effect of chromatic dispersion on the data rate and noise in nonlinear spectral domain is investigated. It is demonstrated that, for a given sequence of CS symbols, an optimal bandwidth (or symbol rate) can be determined so that the temporal duration of the propagated signal at the end of the fiber is minimized. In effect, the required guard interval between the subsequently transmitted data packets in time is minimized and the effective data rate is significantly enhanced. Moreover, by selecting the proper signaling method and design criteria a distance reach of 7100 km is reported by only singling on CS at a rate of 9.6 Gbps.

A Golay complementary TS-based symbol synchronization scheme in variable rate LDPC-coded MB-OFDM UWBoF system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

He, Jing; Wen, Xuejie; Chen, Ming; Chen, Lin

2015-09-01

In this paper, a Golay complementary training sequence (TS)-based symbol synchronization scheme is proposed and experimentally demonstrated in multiband orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (MB-OFDM) ultra-wideband over fiber (UWBoF) system with a variable rate low-density parity-check (LDPC) code. Meanwhile, the coding gain and spectral efficiency in the variable rate LDPC-coded MB-OFDM UWBoF system are investigated. By utilizing the non-periodic auto-correlation property of the Golay complementary pair, the start point of LDPC-coded MB-OFDM UWB signal can be estimated accurately. After 100 km standard single-mode fiber (SSMF) transmission, at the bit error rate of 1×10-3, the experimental results show that the short block length 64QAM-LDPC coding provides a coding gain of 4.5 dB, 3.8 dB and 2.9 dB for a code rate of 62.5%, 75% and 87.5%, respectively.

Is Life Unique?

PubMed Central

Abel, David L.

2011-01-01

Is life physicochemically unique? No. Is life unique? Yes. Life manifests innumerable formalisms that cannot be generated or explained by physicodynamics alone. Life pursues thousands of biofunctional goals, not the least of which is staying alive. Neither physicodynamics, nor evolution, pursue goals. Life is largely directed by linear digital programming and by the Prescriptive Information (PI) instantiated particularly into physicodynamically indeterminate nucleotide sequencing. Epigenomic controls only compound the sophistication of these formalisms. Life employs representationalism through the use of symbol systems. Life manifests autonomy, homeostasis far from equilibrium in the harshest of environments, positive and negative feedback mechanisms, prevention and correction of its own errors, and organization of its components into Sustained Functional Systems (SFS). Chance and necessity—heat agitation and the cause-and-effect determinism of nature’s orderliness—cannot spawn formalisms such as mathematics, language, symbol systems, coding, decoding, logic, organization (not to be confused with mere self-ordering), integration of circuits, computational success, and the pursuit of functionality. All of these characteristics of life are formal, not physical. PMID:25382119

Resistance genes in barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) and their identification with molecular markers.

PubMed

Chełkowski, Jerzy; Tyrka, Mirosław; Sobkiewicz, Andrzej

2003-01-01

Current information on barley resistance genes available from scientific papers and on-line databases is summarised. The recent literature contains information on 107 major resistance genes (R genes) against fungal pathogens (excluding powdery mildew), pathogenic viruses and aphids identified in Hordeum vulgare accessions. The highest number of resistance genes was identified against Puccinia hordei, Rhynchosporium secalis, and the viruses BaYMV and BaMMV, with 17, 14 and 13 genes respectively. There is still a lot of confusion regarding symbols for R genes against powdery mildew. Among the 23 loci described to date, two regions Mla and Mlo comprise approximately 31 and 25 alleles. Over 50 R genes have already been localised and over 30 mapped on 7 barley chromosomes. Four barley R genes have been cloned recently: Mlo, Rpg1, Mla1 and Mla6, and their structures (sequences) are available. The paper presents a catalogue of barley resistance gene symbols, their chromosomalocation and the list of available DNA markers useful in characterising cultivars and breeding accessions.

How Universal Are Universal Symbols? An Estimation of Cross-Cultural Adoption of Universal Healthcare Symbols.

PubMed

Joy Lo, Chih-Wei; Yien, Huey-Wen; Chen, I-Ping

2016-04-01

To evaluate the effectiveness of universal health symbol usage and to analyze the factors influencing the adoption of those symbols in Taiwan. Universal symbols are an important innovative tool for health facility wayfinding systems. Hablamos Juntos, a universal healthcare symbol system developed in the United States, is a thoughtful, well-designed, and thoroughly tested symbol system that facilitates communication across languages and cultures. We designed a questionnaire to test how well the selected graphic symbols were understood by Taiwanese participants and determined factors related to successful symbol decoding, including participant-related factors, stimulation factors, and the interaction between stimulation and participants. Additionally, we further established a design principle for future development of localized healthcare symbols. (1) Eleven symbols were identified as highly comprehensible and effective symbols that can be directly adopted in Taiwanese healthcare settings. Sixteen symbols were deemed incomprehensible or confusing and thus had to be redesigned. Finally, 14 were identified as relatively incomprehensible and could thus be redesigned and then have their effectiveness evaluated again. (2) Three factors were found to influence the participants' differing levels of comprehension of the Hablamos Juntos symbols. In order to prevent the three aforementioned factors from causing difficulty in interpreting symbols, we suggest that the local symbol designers should (1) use more iconic images, (2) carefully evaluate the indexical and symbolic meaning of graphic symbols, and (3) collect the consensus of Taiwanese people with different educational backgrounds. © The Author(s) 2016.

The development of automated access to symbolic and non-symbolic number knowledge in children: an ERP study.

PubMed

Gebuis, Titia; Herfs, Inkeri K; Kenemans, J Leon; de Haan, Edward H F; van der Smagt, Maarten J

2009-11-01

Infants can visually detect changes in numerosity, which suggests that a (non-symbolic) numerosity system is already present early in life. This non-symbolic system is hypothesized to serve as the basis for the later acquired symbolic system. Little is known about the processes underlying the transition from the non-symbolic to symbolic code. In the current study we investigated the development of automatization of symbolic number processing in children from second (6.0 years) and fourth grade (8.0 years) and adults using a symbolic and non-symbolic size congruency task and event-related potentials (ERPs) as a measure. The comparison between symbolic and non-symbolic size congruency effects (SCEs) allowed us to disentangle processes necessary to perform the task from processes specific to numerosity notation. In contrast to previous studies, second graders already revealed a behavioral symbolic SCE similar to that of adults. In addition, the behavioral SCE increased for symbolic and decreased for non-symbolic notation with increasing age. For all age groups, the ERP data showed that the two magnitudes interfered at a level before selective activation of the response system, for both notations. However, only for the second graders distinct processes were recruited to perform the symbolic size comparison task. This shift in recruited processes for the symbolic task only might reflect the functional specialization of the parietal cortex.

Escape Excel: A tool for preventing gene symbol and accession conversion errors.

PubMed

Welsh, Eric A; Stewart, Paul A; Kuenzi, Brent M; Eschrich, James A

2017-01-01

Microsoft Excel automatically converts certain gene symbols, database accessions, and other alphanumeric text into dates, scientific notation, and other numerical representations. These conversions lead to subsequent, irreversible, corruption of the imported text. A recent survey of popular genomic literature estimates that one-fifth of all papers with supplementary gene lists suffer from this issue. Here, we present an open-source tool, Escape Excel, which prevents these erroneous conversions by generating an escaped text file that can be safely imported into Excel. Escape Excel is implemented in a variety of formats (http://www.github.com/pstew/escape_excel), including a command line based Perl script, a Windows-only Excel Add-In, an OS X drag-and-drop application, a simple web-server, and as a Galaxy web environment interface. Test server implementations are accessible as a Galaxy interface (http://apostl.moffitt.org) and simple non-Galaxy web server (http://apostl.moffitt.org:8000/). Escape Excel detects and escapes a wide variety of problematic text strings so that they are not erroneously converted into other representations upon importation into Excel. Examples of problematic strings include date-like strings, time-like strings, leading zeroes in front of numbers, and long numeric and alphanumeric identifiers that should not be automatically converted into scientific notation. It is hoped that greater awareness of these potential data corruption issues, together with diligent escaping of text files prior to importation into Excel, will help to reduce the amount of Excel-corrupted data in scientific analyses and publications.

sts-130patch-design-finalthreads

NASA Image and Video Library

2009-09-18

STS130-S-001 (September 2009) --- The STS-130 patch was designed by the crew to reflect both the objectives of the mission and its place in the history of human spaceflight. The main goal of the mission is to deliver Node 3 and the Cupola to the International Space Station (ISS). Node 3, named ?Tranquility,? will contain life support systems enabling continued human presence in orbit aboard the ISS. The shape of the patch represents the Cupola, which is the windowed robotics viewing station, from which astronauts will have the opportunity not only to monitor a variety of ISS operations, but also to study our home planet. The image of Earth depicted in the patch is the first photograph of Earth taken from the moon by Lunar Orbiter I on Aug. 23, 1966. As both a past and a future destination for explorers from planet Earth, the moon is thus represented symbolically in the STS-130 patch. The space shuttle Endeavour is pictured approaching the ISS, symbolizing the space shuttle's role as the prime construction vehicle for the ISS. The NASA insignia design for space shuttle flights is reserved for use by the astronauts and for other official use as the NASA Administrator may authorize. Public availability has been approved only in the forms of illustrations by the various news media. When and if there is any change in this policy, which is not anticipated, the change will be publicly announced. Photo credit: NASA

Transparent volume imaging

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wixson, Steve E.

1990-07-01

Transparent Volume Imaging began with the stereo xray in 1895 and ended for most investigators when radiation safety concerns eliminated the second view. Today, similiar images can be generated by the computer without safety hazards providing improved perception and new means of image quantification. A volumetric workstation is under development based on an operational prototype. The workstation consists of multiple symbolic and numeric processors, binocular stereo color display generator with large image memory and liquid crystal shutter, voice input and output, a 3D pointer that uses projection lenses so that structures in 3 space can be touched directly, 3D hard copy using vectograph and lenticular printing, and presentation facilities using stereo 35mm slide and stereo video tape projection. Volumetric software includes a volume window manager, Mayo Clinic's Analyze program and our Digital Stereo Microscope (DSM) algorithms. The DSM uses stereo xray-like projections, rapidly oscillating motion and focal depth cues such that detail can be studied in the spatial context of the entire set of data. Focal depth cues are generated with a lens and apeture algorithm that generates a plane of sharp focus, and multiple stereo pairs each with a different plane of sharp focus are generated and stored in the large memory for interactive selection using a physical or symbolic depth selector. More recent work is studying non-linear focussing. Psychophysical studies are underway to understand how people perce ive images on a volumetric display and how accurately 3 dimensional structures can be quantitated from these displays.

Launch mission summary and terminal countdown, Delta 153 Satellite Business Systems satellite (SBS-A)

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1980-01-01

A brief summary of the launch vehicle, spacecraft, and mission is contained. Information relative to launch windows, vehicle telemetry coverage, realtime data flow, telemetry coverage by station, selected trajectory information, and a brief sequence of flight events is also included.

Differentiating Visual from Response Sequencing during Long-term Skill Learning.

PubMed

Lynch, Brighid; Beukema, Patrick; Verstynen, Timothy

2017-01-01

The dual-system model of sequence learning posits that during early learning there is an advantage for encoding sequences in sensory frames; however, it remains unclear whether this advantage extends to long-term consolidation. Using the serial RT task, we set out to distinguish the dynamics of learning sequential orders of visual cues from learning sequential responses. On each day, most participants learned a new mapping between a set of symbolic cues and responses made with one of four fingers, after which they were exposed to trial blocks of either randomly ordered cues or deterministic ordered cues (12-item sequence). Participants were randomly assigned to one of four groups (n = 15 per group): Visual sequences (same sequence of visual cues across training days), Response sequences (same order of key presses across training days), Combined (same serial order of cues and responses on all training days), and a Control group (a novel sequence each training day). Across 5 days of training, sequence-specific measures of response speed and accuracy improved faster in the Visual group than any of the other three groups, despite no group differences in explicit awareness of the sequence. The two groups that were exposed to the same visual sequence across days showed a marginal improvement in response binding that was not found in the other groups. These results indicate that there is an advantage, in terms of rate of consolidation across multiple days of training, for learning sequences of actions in a sensory representational space, rather than as motoric representations.

From sequences to polynomials and back, via operator orderings

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

Amdeberhan, Tewodros, E-mail: tamdeber@tulane.edu; Dixit, Atul, E-mail: adixit@tulane.edu; Moll, Victor H., E-mail: vhm@tulane.edu

2013-12-15

Bender and Dunne [“Polynomials and operator orderings,” J. Math. Phys. 29, 1727–1731 (1988)] showed that linear combinations of words q{sup k}p{sup n}q{sup n−k}, where p and q are subject to the relation qp − pq = ı, may be expressed as a polynomial in the symbol z=1/2 (qp+pq). Relations between such polynomials and linear combinations of the transformed coefficients are explored. In particular, examples yielding orthogonal polynomials are provided.

The GlycanBuilder: a fast, intuitive and flexible software tool for building and displaying glycan structures.

PubMed

Ceroni, Alessio; Dell, Anne; Haslam, Stuart M

2007-08-07

Carbohydrates play a critical role in human diseases and their potential utility as biomarkers for pathological conditions is a major driver for characterization of the glycome. However, the additional complexity of glycans compared to proteins and nucleic acids has slowed the advancement of glycomics in comparison to genomics and proteomics. The branched nature of carbohydrates, the great diversity of their constituents and the numerous alternative symbolic notations, make the input and display of glycans not as straightforward as for example the amino-acid sequence of a protein. Every glycoinformatic tool providing a user interface would benefit from a fast, intuitive, appealing mechanism for input and output of glycan structures in a computer readable format. A software tool for building and displaying glycan structures using a chosen symbolic notation is described here. The "GlycanBuilder" uses an automatic rendering algorithm to draw the saccharide symbols and to place them on the drawing board. The information about the symbolic notation is derived from a configurable graphical model as a set of rules governing the aspect and placement of residues and linkages. The algorithm is able to represent a structure using only few traversals of the tree and is inherently fast. The tool uses an XML format for import and export of encoded structures. The rendering algorithm described here is able to produce high-quality representations of glycan structures in a chosen symbolic notation. The automated rendering process enables the "GlycanBuilder" to be used both as a user-independent component for displaying glycans and as an easy-to-use drawing tool. The "GlycanBuilder" can be integrated in web pages as a Java applet for the visual editing of glycans. The same component is available as a web service to render an encoded structure into a graphical format. Finally, the "GlycanBuilder" can be integrated into other applications to create intuitive and appealing user interfaces: an example is the "GlycoWorkbench", a software tool for assisted annotation of glycan mass spectra. The "GlycanBuilder" represent a flexible, reliable and efficient solution to the problem of input and output of glycan structures in any glycomic tool or database.

Symbolic Analysis of Heart Rate Variability During Exposure to Musical Auditory Stimulation.

PubMed

Vanderlei, Franciele Marques; de Abreu, Luiz Carlos; Garner, David Matthew; Valenti, Vitor Engrácia

2016-01-01

In recent years, the application of nonlinear methods for analysis of heart rate variability (HRV) has increased. However, studies on the influence of music on cardiac autonomic modulation in those circumstances are rare. The research team aimed to evaluate the acute effects on HRV of selected auditory stimulation by 2 musical styles, measuring the results using nonlinear methods of analysis: Shannon entropy, symbolic analysis, and correlation-dimension analysis. Prospective control study in which the volunteers were exposed to music and variables were compared between control (no auditory stimulation) and during exposure to music. All procedures were performed in a sound-proofed room at the Faculty of Science and Technology at São Paulo State University (UNESP), São Paulo, Brazil. Participants were 22 healthy female students, aged between 18 and 30 y. Prior to the actual intervention, the participants remained at rest for 20 min, and then they were exposed to one of the selected types of music, either classical baroque (64-84 dB) or heavy-metal (75-84 dB). Each musical session lasted a total of 5 min and 15 s. At a point occurring up to 1 wk after that day, the participants listened to the second type of music. The 2 types of music were delivered in a random sequence that depended on the group to which the participant was assigned. The study analyzed the following HRV indices through Shannon entropy; symbolic analysis-0V%, 1V%, 2LV%, and 2ULV%; and correlation-dimension analysis. During exposure to auditory stimulation by heavy-metal or classical baroque music, the study established no statistically significant variations regarding the indices for the Shannon entropy; the symbolic analysis-0V%, 1V%, and 2ULV%; and the correlation-dimension analysis. However, during heavy-metal music, the 2LV% index in the symbolic analysis was reduced compared with the controls. Auditory stimulation with the heavy-metal music reduced the parasympathetic modulation of HRV, whereas no significant changes occurred in cardiac autonomic modulation during exposure to the classical music.

Local backbone structure prediction of proteins

PubMed Central

De Brevern, Alexandre G.; Benros, Cristina; Gautier, Romain; Valadié, Hélène; Hazout, Serge; Etchebest, Catherine

2004-01-01

Summary A statistical analysis of the PDB structures has led us to define a new set of small 3D structural prototypes called Protein Blocks (PBs). This structural alphabet includes 16 PBs, each one is defined by the (φ, Ψ) dihedral angles of 5 consecutive residues. The amino acid distributions observed in sequence windows encompassing these PBs are used to predict by a Bayesian approach the local 3D structure of proteins from the sole knowledge of their sequences. LocPred is a software which allows the users to submit a protein sequence and performs a prediction in terms of PBs. The prediction results are given both textually and graphically. PMID:15724288

PySCeSToolbox: a collection of metabolic pathway analysis tools.

PubMed

Christensen, Carl D; Hofmeyr, Jan-Hendrik S; Rohwer, Johann M

2018-01-01

PySCeSToolbox is an extension to the Python Simulator for Cellular Systems (PySCeS) that includes tools for performing generalized supply-demand analysis, symbolic metabolic control analysis, and a framework for investigating the kinetic and thermodynamic aspects of enzyme-catalyzed reactions. Each tool addresses a different aspect of metabolic behaviour, control, and regulation; the tools complement each other and can be used in conjunction to better understand higher level system behaviour. PySCeSToolbox is available on Linux, Mac OS X and Windows. It is licensed under the BSD 3-clause licence. Code, setup instructions and a link to documentation can be found at https://github.com/PySCeS/PyscesToolbox. jr@sun.ac.za. Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online. © The Author (2017). Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com

Counting Patterns in Degenerated Sequences

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nuel, Grégory

Biological sequences like DNA or proteins, are always obtained through a sequencing process which might produce some uncertainty. As a result, such sequences are usually written in a degenerated alphabet where some symbols may correspond to several possible letters (ex: IUPAC DNA alphabet). When counting patterns in such degenerated sequences, the question that naturally arises is: how to deal with degenerated positions ? Since most (usually 99%) of the positions are not degenerated, it is considered harmless to discard the degenerated positions in order to get an observation, but the exact consequences of such a practice are unclear. In this paper, we introduce a rigorous method to take into account the uncertainty of sequencing for biological sequences (DNA, Proteins). We first introduce a Forward-Backward approach to compute the marginal distribution of the constrained sequence and use it both to perform a Expectation-Maximization estimation of parameters, as well as deriving a heterogeneous Markov distribution for the constrained sequence. This distribution is hence used along with known DFA-based pattern approaches to obtain the exact distribution of the pattern count under the constraints. As an illustration, we consider a EST dataset from the EMBL database. Despite the fact that only 1% of the positions in this dataset are degenerated, we show that not taking into account these positions might lead to erroneous observations, further proving the interest of our approach.

7-T magnetic resonance imaging of the inner ear's anatomy by using dual four-element radiofrequency coil arrays and the VIBE sequence

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kim, Kyoung-Nam; Heo, Phil; Kim, Young-Bo; Han, Gyu-Cheol

2015-02-01

An ultra-high-field magnetic resonance (MR) scanner and a specially-optimized radiofrequency (RF) coil and sequence protocol are required to obtain high-resolution images of the inner ear that can noninvasively confirm pathologic diagnoses. In phantom studies, the MR signal distribution of the gradient echo MR images generated by using a customized RF coil was compared with that of a commercial volume coil. The MR signal intensity of the customized RF coil decreases rapidly from near the RF coil plane toward the exterior of the phantom. However, the signal sensitivity of this coil is superior on both sides of the phantom, corresponding to the petrous pyramid. In in-vivo 7-T MR imaging, a customized RF coil and a volumetric-interpolated breath-hold examination imaging sequence are employed for visualization of the inner ear's structure. The entire membranous portion of the cochlear and the three semicircular canals, including the ductus reunions, oval window, and round window with associated nervous tissue, were clearly depicted with sufficient spatial coverage for adequate inspection of the surrounding anatomy. Developments from a new perspective to inner ear imaging using the 7-T modality could lead to further improved image sensitivity and, thus, enable ultra-structural MR imaging.

The Symbol Grounding Problem Revisited: A Thorough Evaluation of the ANS Mapping Account and the Proposal of an Alternative Account Based on Symbol–Symbol Associations

PubMed Central

Reynvoet, Bert; Sasanguie, Delphine

2016-01-01

Recently, a lot of studies in the domain of numerical cognition have been published demonstrating a robust association between numerical symbol processing and individual differences in mathematics achievement. Because numerical symbols are so important for mathematics achievement, many researchers want to provide an answer on the ‘symbol grounding problem,’ i.e., how does a symbol acquires its numerical meaning? The most popular account, the approximate number system (ANS) mapping account, assumes that a symbol acquires its numerical meaning by being mapped on a non-verbal and ANS. Here, we critically evaluate four arguments that are supposed to support this account, i.e., (1) there is an evolutionary system for approximate number processing, (2) non-symbolic and symbolic number processing show the same behavioral effects, (3) non-symbolic and symbolic numbers activate the same brain regions which are also involved in more advanced calculation and (4) non-symbolic comparison is related to the performance on symbolic mathematics achievement tasks. Based on this evaluation, we conclude that all of these arguments and consequently also the mapping account are questionable. Next we explored less popular alternative, where small numerical symbols are initially mapped on a precise representation and then, in combination with increasing knowledge of the counting list result in an independent and exact symbolic system based on order relations between symbols. We evaluate this account by reviewing evidence on order judgment tasks following the same four arguments. Although further research is necessary, the available evidence so far suggests that this symbol–symbol association account should be considered as a worthy alternative of how symbols acquire their meaning. PMID:27790179

Symbolic Number Comparison Is Not Processed by the Analog Number System: Different Symbolic and Non-symbolic Numerical Distance and Size Effects

PubMed Central

Krajcsi, Attila; Lengyel, Gábor; Kojouharova, Petia

2018-01-01

HIGHLIGHTS We test whether symbolic number comparison is handled by an analog noisy system.Analog system model has systematic biases in describing symbolic number comparison.This suggests that symbolic and non-symbolic numbers are processed by different systems. Dominant numerical cognition models suppose that both symbolic and non-symbolic numbers are processed by the Analog Number System (ANS) working according to Weber's law. It was proposed that in a number comparison task the numerical distance and size effects reflect a ratio-based performance which is the sign of the ANS activation. However, increasing number of findings and alternative models propose that symbolic and non-symbolic numbers might be processed by different representations. Importantly, alternative explanations may offer similar predictions to the ANS prediction, therefore, former evidence usually utilizing only the goodness of fit of the ANS prediction is not sufficient to support the ANS account. To test the ANS model more rigorously, a more extensive test is offered here. Several properties of the ANS predictions for the error rates, reaction times, and diffusion model drift rates were systematically analyzed in both non-symbolic dot comparison and symbolic Indo-Arabic comparison tasks. It was consistently found that while the ANS model's prediction is relatively good for the non-symbolic dot comparison, its prediction is poorer and systematically biased for the symbolic Indo-Arabic comparison. We conclude that only non-symbolic comparison is supported by the ANS, and symbolic number comparisons are processed by other representation. PMID:29491845

Assessment of cardiac time intervals using high temporal resolution real-time spiral phase contrast with UNFOLDed-SENSE.

PubMed

Kowalik, Grzegorz T; Knight, Daniel S; Steeden, Jennifer A; Tann, Oliver; Odille, Freddy; Atkinson, David; Taylor, Andrew; Muthurangu, Vivek

2015-02-01

To develop a real-time phase contrast MR sequence with high enough temporal resolution to assess cardiac time intervals. The sequence utilized spiral trajectories with an acquisition strategy that allowed a combination of temporal encoding (Unaliasing by fourier-encoding the overlaps using the temporal dimension; UNFOLD) and parallel imaging (Sensitivity encoding; SENSE) to be used (UNFOLDed-SENSE). An in silico experiment was performed to determine the optimum UNFOLD filter. In vitro experiments were carried out to validate the accuracy of time intervals calculation and peak mean velocity quantification. In addition, 15 healthy volunteers were imaged with the new sequence, and cardiac time intervals were compared to reference standard Doppler echocardiography measures. For comparison, in silico, in vitro, and in vivo experiments were also carried out using sliding window reconstructions. The in vitro experiments demonstrated good agreement between real-time spiral UNFOLDed-SENSE phase contrast MR and the reference standard measurements of velocity and time intervals. The protocol was successfully performed in all volunteers. Subsequent measurement of time intervals produced values in keeping with literature values and good agreement with the gold standard echocardiography. Importantly, the proposed UNFOLDed-SENSE sequence outperformed the sliding window reconstructions. Cardiac time intervals can be successfully assessed with UNFOLDed-SENSE real-time spiral phase contrast. Real-time MR assessment of cardiac time intervals may be beneficial in assessment of patients with cardiac conditions such as diastolic dysfunction. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Waiting for the Monarch

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Forrest, Lorrie; Hechter, Richard

2017-01-01

This article describes an activity designed to foster an authentic way for students to learn about the biodiversity in their community. The activity is a half year scaffolding sequence to explore the living environment right outside the classroom. In using the outdoors just outside the window as a classroom, an inquiry based activity accomplished…

Optimal ranking regime analysis of TreeFlow dendrohydrological reconstructions

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

The Optimal Ranking Regime (ORR) method was used to identify 6-100 year time windows containing significant ranking sequences in 55 western U.S. streamflow reconstructions, and reconstructions of the level of the Great Salt Lake and San Francisco Bay salinity during 1500-2007. The method’s ability t...

DELIMINATE--a fast and efficient method for loss-less compression of genomic sequences: sequence analysis.

PubMed

Mohammed, Monzoorul Haque; Dutta, Anirban; Bose, Tungadri; Chadaram, Sudha; Mande, Sharmila S

2012-10-01

An unprecedented quantity of genome sequence data is currently being generated using next-generation sequencing platforms. This has necessitated the development of novel bioinformatics approaches and algorithms that not only facilitate a meaningful analysis of these data but also aid in efficient compression, storage, retrieval and transmission of huge volumes of the generated data. We present a novel compression algorithm (DELIMINATE) that can rapidly compress genomic sequence data in a loss-less fashion. Validation results indicate relatively higher compression efficiency of DELIMINATE when compared with popular general purpose compression algorithms, namely, gzip, bzip2 and lzma. Linux, Windows and Mac implementations (both 32 and 64-bit) of DELIMINATE are freely available for download at: http://metagenomics.atc.tcs.com/compression/DELIMINATE. sharmila@atc.tcs.com Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.

Learning and Transition of Symbols: Towards a Dynamical Model of a Symbolic Individual

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hashimoto, Takashi; Masumi, Akira

The remarkable feature of linguistic communications is the use of symbols for transmitting information and mutual understanding. Deacon (1997) pointed out that humans are symbolic species, namely, we show symbolic cognitive activities such as learning, formation, and manipulation of symbols. In research into the origin and the evolution of language, we should elucidate the emerging process of such symbolic cognitive activities.

Double symbolic joint entropy in nonlinear dynamic complexity analysis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yao, Wenpo; Wang, Jun

2017-07-01

Symbolizations, the base of symbolic dynamic analysis, are classified as global static and local dynamic approaches which are combined by joint entropy in our works for nonlinear dynamic complexity analysis. Two global static methods, symbolic transformations of Wessel N. symbolic entropy and base-scale entropy, and two local ones, namely symbolizations of permutation and differential entropy, constitute four double symbolic joint entropies that have accurate complexity detections in chaotic models, logistic and Henon map series. In nonlinear dynamical analysis of different kinds of heart rate variability, heartbeats of healthy young have higher complexity than those of the healthy elderly, and congestive heart failure (CHF) patients are lowest in heartbeats' joint entropy values. Each individual symbolic entropy is improved by double symbolic joint entropy among which the combination of base-scale and differential symbolizations have best complexity analysis. Test results prove that double symbolic joint entropy is feasible in nonlinear dynamic complexity analysis.

The effects of sign design features on bicycle pictorial symbols for bicycling facility signs.

PubMed

Oh, Kyunghui; Rogoff, Aaron; Smith-Jackson, Tonya

2013-11-01

The inanimate bicycle symbol has long been used to indicate the animate activity of bicycling facility signs. In contrast, either the inanimate bicycle symbol or the animate bicycle symbol has been used interchangeably for the standard pavement symbols in bike lanes. This has led to confusion among pedestrians and cyclists alike. The purpose of this study was to examine two different designs (inanimate symbol vs. animate symbol) involved in the evaluation of perceived preference and glance legibility, and investigate sign design features on bicycle pictorial symbols. Thirty-five participants compared current bicycle signs (inanimate symbols) to alternative designs (animate symbols) in a controlled laboratory setting. The results indicated that the alternative designs (animate symbols) showed better performance in both preference and glance legibility tests. Conceptual compatibility, familiarity, and perceptual affordances were found to be important factors as well. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd and The Ergonomics Society. All rights reserved.

Symbolism in prehistoric man.

PubMed

Facchini, F

2000-12-01

The aptitude for symbolization, characteristic of man, is revealed not only in artistic representations and funerary practices. It is exhibited by every manifestation of human activity or representation of natural phenomena that assumes or refers to a meaning. We can recognize functional symbolism (tool-making, habitative or food technology), social symbolism, (language and social communication) and spiritual symbolism (funerary practices and artistic expressions). On the basis of these concepts, research into symbolism in prehistoric man allows us to recognize forms of symbolism already in the manifestations of the most ancient humans, starting with Homo habilis (or rudolfensis). Toolmaking, social organization and organization of the territory are oriented toward survival and the life of the family group. They attest to symbolic behaviors and constitute symbolic systems by means of which man expresses himself, lives and transmits his symbolic world. The diverse forms of symbolism are discussed with reference to the different phases of prehistoric humanity.

Online medical symbol recognition using a Tablet PC

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kundu, Amlan; Hu, Qian; Boykin, Stanley; Clark, Cheryl; Fish, Randy; Jones, Stephen; Moore, Stephen

2011-01-01

In this paper we describe a scheme to enhance the usability of a Tablet PC's handwriting recognition system by including medical symbols that are not a part of the Tablet PC's symbol library. The goal of this work is to make handwriting recognition more useful for medical professionals accustomed to using medical symbols in medical records. To demonstrate that this new symbol recognition module is robust and expandable, we report results on both a medical symbol set and an expanded symbol test set which includes selected mathematical symbols.

[The concept of risk and its estimation].

PubMed

Zocchetti, C; Della Foglia, M; Colombi, A

1996-01-01

The concept of risk, in relation to human health, is a topic of primary interest for occupational health professionals. A new legislation recently established in Italy (626/94) according to European Community directives in the field of Preventive Medicine, called attention to this topic, and in particular to risk assessment and evaluation. Motivated by this context and by the impression that the concept of risk is frequently misunderstood, the present paper has two aims: the identification of the different meanings of the term "risk" in the new Italian legislation and the critical discussion of some commonly used definitions; and the proposal of a general definition, with the specification of a mathematical expression for quantitative risk estimation. The term risk (and risk estimation, assessment, or evaluation) has mainly referred to three different contexts: hazard identification, exposure assessment, and adverse health effects occurrence. Unfortunately, there are contexts in the legislation in which it is difficult to identify the true meaning of the term. This might cause equivocal interpretations and erroneous applications of the law because hazard evaluation, exposure assessment, and adverse health effects identification are completely different topics that require integrated but distinct approaches to risk management. As far as a quantitative definition of risk is of concern, we suggest an algorithm which connects the three basic risk elements (hazard, exposure, adverse health effects) by means of their probabilities of occurrence: the probability of being exposed (to a definite dose) given that a specific hazard is present (Pr(e[symbol: see text]p)), and the probability of occurrence of an adverse health effect as a consequence of that exposure (Pr(d[symbol: see text]e)). Using these quantitative components, risk can be defined as a sequence of measurable events that starts with hazard identification and terminates with disease occurrence; therefore, the following formal definition of risk is proposed: the probability of occurrence, in a given period of time, of an adverse health effect as a consequence of the existence of an hazard. In formula: R(d[symbol: see text]p) = Pr(e[symbol: see text]p) x Pr(d[symbol: see text]e). While Pr(e[symbol: see text]p) (exposure given hazard) must be evaluated in the situation under study, two alternatives exist for the estimation of the occurrence of adverse health effects (Pr(d[symbol: see text]e)): a "direct" estimation of the damage (Pr(d[symbol: see text]e) through formal epidemiologic studies conducted in the situation under observation; and an "indirect" estimation of Pr(d[symbol: see text]e) using information taken from the scientific literature (epidemiologic evaluations, dose-response relationships, extrapolations, ...). Both conditions are presented along with their respective advantages, disadvantages, and uncertainties. The usefulness of the proposed algorithm is discussed with respect to commonly used applications of risk assessment in occupational medicine; the relevance of time for risk estimation (both in the term of duration of observation, duration of exposure, and latency of effect) is briefly explained; and how the proposed algorithm takes into account (in terms of prevention and public health) both the etiologic relevance of the exposure and the consequences of exposure removal is highlighted. As a last comment, it is suggested that the diffuse application of good work practices (technical, behavioral, organizational, ...), or the exhaustive use of check lists, can be relevant in terms of improvement of prevention efficacy, but does not represent any quantitative procedure of risk assessment which, in any circumstance, must be considered the elective approach to adverse health effect prevention.

Representation of visual symbols in the visual word processing network.

PubMed

Muayqil, Taim; Davies-Thompson, Jodie; Barton, Jason J S

2015-03-01

Previous studies have shown that word processing involves a predominantly left-sided occipitotemporal network. Words are a form of symbolic representation, in that they are arbitrary perceptual stimuli that represent other objects, actions or concepts. Lesions of parts of the visual word processing network can cause alexia, which can be associated with difficulty processing other types of symbols such as musical notation or road signs. We investigated whether components of the visual word processing network were also activated by other types of symbols. In 16 music-literate subjects, we defined the visual word network using fMRI and examined responses to four symbolic categories: visual words, musical notation, instructive symbols (e.g. traffic signs), and flags and logos. For each category we compared responses not only to scrambled stimuli, but also to similar stimuli that lacked symbolic meaning. The left visual word form area and a homologous right fusiform region responded similarly to all four categories, but equally to both symbolic and non-symbolic equivalents. Greater response to symbolic than non-symbolic stimuli occurred only in the left inferior frontal and middle temporal gyri, but only for words, and in the case of the left inferior frontal gyri, also for musical notation. A whole-brain analysis comparing symbolic versus non-symbolic stimuli revealed a distributed network of inferior temporooccipital and parietal regions that differed for different symbols. The fusiform gyri are involved in processing the form of many symbolic stimuli, but not specifically for stimuli with symbolic content. Selectivity for stimuli with symbolic content only emerges in the visual word network at the level of the middle temporal and inferior frontal gyri, but is specific for words and musical notation. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Improving Preschoolers’ Arithmetic through Number Magnitude Training: The Impact of Non-Symbolic and Symbolic Training

PubMed Central

2016-01-01

The numerical cognition literature offers two views to explain numerical and arithmetical development. The unique-representation view considers the approximate number system (ANS) to represent the magnitude of both symbolic and non-symbolic numbers and to be the basis of numerical learning. In contrast, the dual-representation view suggests that symbolic and non-symbolic skills rely on different magnitude representations and that it is the ability to build an exact representation of symbolic numbers that underlies math learning. Support for these hypotheses has come mainly from correlative studies with inconsistent results. In this study, we developed two training programs aiming at enhancing the magnitude processing of either non-symbolic numbers or symbolic numbers and compared their effects on arithmetic skills. Fifty-six preschoolers were randomly assigned to one of three 10-session-training conditions: (1) non-symbolic training (2) symbolic training and (3) control training working on story understanding. Both numerical training conditions were significantly more efficient than the control condition in improving magnitude processing. Moreover, symbolic training led to a significantly larger improvement in arithmetic than did non-symbolic training and the control condition. These results support the dual-representation view. PMID:27875540

Identification and expression analysis of genes involved in early ovary development in diploid gynogenetic hybrids of red crucian carp x common carp.

PubMed

Liu, Dong; Liu, Shaojun; You, Cuiping; Chen, Lin; Liu, Zhen; Liu, Liangguo; Wang, Jing; Liu, Yun

2010-04-01

Diploid eggs of allotetraploid hybrids (red crucian carp female symbol x common carp male symbol), when activated by UV-irradiated sperm of scatter scale carp, can develop into diploid progenies without chromosome duplication treatment. Diploid progenies produce diploid eggs, which develop into diploid population by the same way. To understand the molecular mechanism underlying the production of diploid eggs by the diploid fish, we constructed a forward suppression subtractive hybridization complementary DNA (cDNA) library. The cDNAs from the ovary in proliferation phase were employed as the "tester," and those in growth phase were used as the "driver." Seventy-three cDNA clones that are specifically expressed in proliferation phase were detected by dot-blot hybridization. Sequencing analyses revealed that several of these cDNAs have high homologies to the known sequences in the NCBI database. Their encoded proteins include the protein preventing mitosis catastrophe (PMC), the signal recognition particle 9, the ATP-binding cassette transporter, the glucanase-xylanase fusion protein, and others. These genes were confirmed by reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction. The expression profile of the PMC gene at different time points was analyzed by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction. The results indicated that the expression of this suppression subtractive hybridization-identified gene changed during the time course, corresponding with the cellular phenomenon in the ovary development. Our studies provide insights into the molecular mechanism underlying the ovary development of diploid gynogenetic fish.

Spatial but not temporal numerosity thresholds correlate with formal math skills in children.

PubMed

Anobile, Giovanni; Arrighi, Roberto; Castaldi, Elisa; Grassi, Eleonora; Pedonese, Lara; Moscoso, Paula A M; Burr, David C

2018-03-01

Humans and other animals are able to make rough estimations of quantities using what has been termed the approximate number system (ANS). Much evidence suggests that sensitivity to numerosity correlates with symbolic math capacity, leading to the suggestion that the ANS may serve as a start-up tool to develop symbolic math. Many experiments have demonstrated that numerosity perception transcends the sensory modality of stimuli and their presentation format (sequential or simultaneous), but it remains an open question whether the relationship between numerosity and math generalizes over stimulus format and modality. Here we measured precision for estimating the numerosity of clouds of dots and sequences of flashes or clicks, as well as for paired comparisons of the numerosity of clouds of dots. Our results show that in children, formal math abilities correlate positively with sensitivity for estimation and paired-comparisons of the numerosity of visual arrays of dots. However, precision of numerosity estimation for sequences of flashes or sounds did not correlate with math, although sensitivities in all estimations tasks (for sequential or simultaneous stimuli) were strongly correlated with each other. In adults, we found no significant correlations between math scores and sensitivity to any of the psychophysical tasks. Taken together these results support the existence of a generalized number sense, and go on to demonstrate an intrinsic link between mathematics and perception of spatial, but not temporal numerosity. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

Entropic Movement Complexity Reflects Subjective Creativity Rankings of Visualized Hand Motion Trajectories

PubMed Central

Peng, Zhen; Braun, Daniel A.

2015-01-01

In a previous study we have shown that human motion trajectories can be characterized by translating continuous trajectories into symbol sequences with well-defined complexity measures. Here we test the hypothesis that the motion complexity individuals generate in their movements might be correlated to the degree of creativity assigned by a human observer to the visualized motion trajectories. We asked participants to generate 55 novel hand movement patterns in virtual reality, where each pattern had to be repeated 10 times in a row to ensure reproducibility. This allowed us to estimate a probability distribution over trajectories for each pattern. We assessed motion complexity not only by the previously proposed complexity measures on symbolic sequences, but we also propose two novel complexity measures that can be directly applied to the distributions over trajectories based on the frameworks of Gaussian Processes and Probabilistic Movement Primitives. In contrast to previous studies, these new methods allow computing complexities of individual motion patterns from very few sample trajectories. We compared the different complexity measures to how a group of independent jurors rank ordered the recorded motion trajectories according to their personal creativity judgment. We found three entropic complexity measures that correlate significantly with human creativity judgment and discuss differences between the measures. We also test whether these complexity measures correlate with individual creativity in divergent thinking tasks, but do not find any consistent correlation. Our results suggest that entropic complexity measures of hand motion may reveal domain-specific individual differences in kinesthetic creativity. PMID:26733896

Infants learn better from left to right: a directional bias in infants' sequence learning.

PubMed

Bulf, Hermann; de Hevia, Maria Dolores; Gariboldi, Valeria; Macchi Cassia, Viola

2017-05-26

A wealth of studies show that human adults map ordered information onto a directional spatial continuum. We asked whether mapping ordinal information into a directional space constitutes an early predisposition, already functional prior to the acquisition of symbolic knowledge and language. While it is known that preverbal infants represent numerical order along a left-to-right spatial continuum, no studies have investigated yet whether infants, like adults, organize any kind of ordinal information onto a directional space. We investigated whether 7-month-olds' ability to learn high-order rule-like patterns from visual sequences of geometric shapes was affected by the spatial orientation of the sequences (left-to-right vs. right-to-left). Results showed that infants readily learn rule-like patterns when visual sequences were presented from left to right, but not when presented from right to left. This result provides evidence that spatial orientation critically determines preverbal infants' ability to perceive and learn ordered information in visual sequences, opening to the idea that a left-to-right spatially organized mental representation of ordered dimensions might be rooted in biologically-determined constraints on human brain development.

Comparison of Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum Rake Receiver with a Maximum Ratio Combining Multicarrier Spread Spectrum Receiver

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

Daryl Leon Wasden; Hussein Moradi; Behrouz Farhang-Broujeny

2014-06-01

This paper presents a theoretical analysis of the performance of a filter bank-based multicarrier spread spectrum (FB-MC-SS) system. We consider an FB-MC-SS setup where each data symbol is spread across multiple subcarriers, but there is no spreading in time. The results are then compared with those of the well-known direct sequence spread spectrum (DS-SS) system with a rake receiver for its best performance. We compare the two systems when the channel noise is white. We prove that as the processing gains of the two systems tend to infinity both approach the same performance. However, numerical simulations show that, in practice,more » where processing gain is limited, FB-MC-SS outperforms DS-SS.« less

Genetic evolution of pancreatic cancer: lessons learnt from the pancreatic cancer genome sequencing project

PubMed Central

Iacobuzio-Donahue, Christine A

2012-01-01

Pancreatic cancer is a disease caused by the accumulation of genetic alterations in specific genes. Elucidation of the human genome sequence, in conjunction with technical advances in the ability to perform whole exome sequencing, have provided new insight into the mutational spectra characteristic of this lethal tumour type. Most recently, exomic sequencing has been used to clarify the clonal evolution of pancreatic cancer as well as provide time estimates of pancreatic carcinogenesis, indicating that a long window of opportunity may exist for early detection of this disease while in the curative stage. Moving forward, these mutational analyses indicate potential targets for personalised diagnostic and therapeutic intervention as well as the optimal timing for intervention based on the natural history of pancreatic carcinogenesis and progression. PMID:21749982

A test matrix sequencer for research test facility automation

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Mccartney, Timothy P.; Emery, Edward F.

1990-01-01

The hardware and software configuration of a Test Matrix Sequencer, a general purpose test matrix profiler that was developed for research test facility automation at the NASA Lewis Research Center, is described. The system provides set points to controllers and contact closures to data systems during the course of a test. The Test Matrix Sequencer consists of a microprocessor controlled system which is operated from a personal computer. The software program, which is the main element of the overall system is interactive and menu driven with pop-up windows and help screens. Analog and digital input/output channels can be controlled from a personal computer using the software program. The Test Matrix Sequencer provides more efficient use of aeronautics test facilities by automating repetitive tasks that were once done manually.

What is that mysterious booming sound?

USGS Publications Warehouse

Hill, David P.

2011-01-01

The residents of coastal North Carolina are occasionally treated to sequences of booming sounds of unknown origin. The sounds are often energetic enough to rattle windows and doors. A recent sequence occurred in early January 2011 during clear weather with no evidence of local thunder storms. Queries by a local reporter (Colin Hackman of the NBC affiliate WETC in Wilmington, North Carolina, personal communication 2011) seemed to eliminate common anthropogenic sources such as sonic booms or quarry blasts. So the commonly asked question, “What's making these booming sounds?” remained (and remains) unanswered.

Front of package symbols as a tool to promote healthier food choices in Slovenia: Accompanying explanatory claim can considerably influence the consumer's preferences.

PubMed

Miklavec, Krista; Pravst, Igor; Raats, Monique M; Pohar, Jure

2016-12-01

Many nutrition and/or health symbols were introduced in different countries in the past years and Slovenia is no exception. The objective of our study was to examine familiarity with and perception of the Protective Food symbol (PF symbol) in Slovenia and to investigate consumers' associations related to the symbol, and the influence of symbols' appearance on their preferences. The study was conducted through online questionnaire with incorporated word-association tasks and conjoint analysis; GfK consumer panel and social media (Facebook) were used for recruitment of Slovenian adults (n=1050; 534 men, 516 women). The majority (78%) of the participants reported they had previously seen the PF symbol, and 64% declared familiarity with it. Familiarity was verified using a word-association task in which we analysed the nature of the symbol's description, distinguishing the description of symbol's visual appearance or its meaning. In this task, 73% of the participants described the symbol's meaning with reference to health or a healthy lifestyle, confirming their familiarity with it. Women and those responsible for grocery shopping were significantly more familiar with the symbol. The impact of the symbol's appearance on consumers' preferences was investigated using conjoint analysis consisting of two attributes - three different symbols found on foods in Slovenia (PF symbol, Choices Programme symbol and Keyhole symbol), and accompanying worded claims. Although worded claims had less relative importance (29.5%) than the symbols (70.5%), we show that careful choice of the wording can affect consumers' preferences considerably. The lowest part-worth utility was observed without an accompanying claim, and the highest for the claim directly communicating health ("Protects your health"). The fact that most participants are well familiar with the PF symbol indicates the symbol's potential to promote healthier food choices, which could be further improved by an accompanying worded claim that clearly describes its meaning. In addition, the use of Facebook ads is shown to be a useful alternative recruitment method for research with consumers. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Using a color-coded ambigraphic nucleic acid notation to visualize conserved palindromic motifs within and across genomes

PubMed Central

2014-01-01

Background Ambiscript is a graphically-designed nucleic acid notation that uses symbol symmetries to support sequence complementation, highlight biologically-relevant palindromes, and facilitate the analysis of consensus sequences. Although the original Ambiscript notation was designed to easily represent consensus sequences for multiple sequence alignments, the notation’s black-on-white ambiguity characters are unable to reflect the statistical distribution of nucleotides found at each position. We now propose a color-augmented ambigraphic notation to encode the frequency of positional polymorphisms in these consensus sequences. Results We have implemented this color-coding approach by creating an Adobe Flash® application ( http://www.ambiscript.org) that shades and colors modified Ambiscript characters according to the prevalence of the encoded nucleotide at each position in the alignment. The resulting graphic helps viewers perceive biologically-relevant patterns in multiple sequence alignments by uniquely combining color, shading, and character symmetries to highlight palindromes and inverted repeats in conserved DNA motifs. Conclusion Juxtaposing an intuitive color scheme over the deliberate character symmetries of an ambigraphic nucleic acid notation yields a highly-functional nucleic acid notation that maximizes information content and successfully embodies key principles of graphic excellence put forth by the statistician and graphic design theorist, Edward Tufte. PMID:24447494

Solving the chemical master equation using sliding windows

PubMed Central

2010-01-01

Background The chemical master equation (CME) is a system of ordinary differential equations that describes the evolution of a network of chemical reactions as a stochastic process. Its solution yields the probability density vector of the system at each point in time. Solving the CME numerically is in many cases computationally expensive or even infeasible as the number of reachable states can be very large or infinite. We introduce the sliding window method, which computes an approximate solution of the CME by performing a sequence of local analysis steps. In each step, only a manageable subset of states is considered, representing a "window" into the state space. In subsequent steps, the window follows the direction in which the probability mass moves, until the time period of interest has elapsed. We construct the window based on a deterministic approximation of the future behavior of the system by estimating upper and lower bounds on the populations of the chemical species. Results In order to show the effectiveness of our approach, we apply it to several examples previously described in the literature. The experimental results show that the proposed method speeds up the analysis considerably, compared to a global analysis, while still providing high accuracy. Conclusions The sliding window method is a novel approach to address the performance problems of numerical algorithms for the solution of the chemical master equation. The method efficiently approximates the probability distributions at the time points of interest for a variety of chemically reacting systems, including systems for which no upper bound on the population sizes of the chemical species is known a priori. PMID:20377904

Mario Becomes Cognitive.

PubMed

Schrodt, Fabian; Kneissler, Jan; Ehrenfeld, Stephan; Butz, Martin V

2017-04-01

In line with Allen Newell's challenge to develop complete cognitive architectures, and motivated by a recent proposal for a unifying subsymbolic computational theory of cognition, we introduce the cognitive control architecture SEMLINCS. SEMLINCS models the development of an embodied cognitive agent that learns discrete production rule-like structures from its own, autonomously gathered, continuous sensorimotor experiences. Moreover, the agent uses the developing knowledge to plan and control environmental interactions in a versatile, goal-directed, and self-motivated manner. Thus, in contrast to several well-known symbolic cognitive architectures, SEMLINCS is not provided with production rules and the involved symbols, but it learns them. In this paper, the actual implementation of SEMLINCS causes learning and self-motivated, autonomous behavioral control of the game figure Mario in a clone of the computer game Super Mario Bros. Our evaluations highlight the successful development of behavioral versatility as well as the learning of suitable production rules and the involved symbols from sensorimotor experiences. Moreover, knowledge- and motivation-dependent individualizations of the agents' behavioral tendencies are shown. Finally, interaction sequences can be planned on the sensorimotor-grounded production rule level. Current limitations directly point toward the need for several further enhancements, which may be integrated into SEMLINCS in the near future. Overall, SEMLINCS may be viewed as an architecture that allows the functional and computational modeling of embodied cognitive development, whereby the current main focus lies on the development of production rules from sensorimotor experiences. Copyright © 2017 Cognitive Science Society, Inc.

Elisabeth Kubler-Ross and the Tradition of the Private Sphere: An Analysis of Symbols.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Klass, Dennis

1981-01-01

Shows how Kubler-Ross' schema functions as a symbol system. Analyzes the symbol "acceptance." Shows how that symbol is part of a strong American tradition of symbols of the private sphere. (Author/JAC)

Symbol Recognition Using a Concept Lattice of Graphical Patterns

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rusiñol, Marçal; Bertet, Karell; Ogier, Jean-Marc; Lladós, Josep

In this paper we propose a new approach to recognize symbols by the use of a concept lattice. We propose to build a concept lattice in terms of graphical patterns. Each model symbol is decomposed in a set of composing graphical patterns taken as primitives. Each one of these primitives is described by boundary moment invariants. The obtained concept lattice relates which symbolic patterns compose a given graphical symbol. A Hasse diagram is derived from the context and is used to recognize symbols affected by noise. We present some preliminary results over a variation of the dataset of symbols from the GREC 2005 symbol recognition contest.

Spatial Stroop interference occurs in the processing of radicals of ideogrammic compounds.

PubMed

Luo, Chunming; Proctor, Robert W; Weng, Xuchu; Li, Xinshan

2014-06-01

In this study, we investigated whether the meanings of radicals are involved in reading ideogrammic compounds in a spatial Stroop task. We found spatial Stroop effects of similar size for the simple characters [symbol: see text] ("up") and [symbol: see text] ("down") and for the complex characters [symbol: see text] ("nervous") and [symbol: see text] ("nervous"), which are ideogrammic compounds containing a radical [symbol: see text] or [symbol: see text], in Experiments 1 and 2. In Experiment 3, the spatial Stroop effects were also similar for the simple characters [symbol: see text] ("east") and [symbol: see text] ("west") and for the complex characters [symbol: see text] ("state") and [symbol: see text] ("spray"), which contain [symbol: see text] and [symbol: see text] as radicals. This outcome occurred regardless of whether the task was to identify the character (Exps. 1 and 3) or its location (Exp. 2). Thus, the spatial Stroop effect emerges in the processing of radicals just as it does for processing simple characters. This finding suggests that when reading ideogrammic compounds, (a) their radicals' meanings can be processed and (b) ideogrammic compounds have little or no influence on their radicals' semantic processing.

PET performance and MRI compatibility evaluation of a digital, ToF-capable PET/MRI insert equipped with clinical scintillators.

PubMed

Schug, David; Wehner, Jakob; Dueppenbecker, Peter Michael; Weissler, Bjoern; Gebhardt, Pierre; Goldschmidt, Benjamin; Salomon, Andre; Kiessling, Fabian; Schulz, Volkmar

2015-09-21

We evaluate the MR compatibility of the Hyperion-II(D) positron emission tomography (PET) insert, which allows simultaneous operation in a clinical magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanner. In contrast to previous investigations, this work aims at the evaluation of a clinical crystal configuration. An imaging-capable demonstrator with an axial field-of-view of 32 mm and a crystal-to-crystal spacing of 217.6 mm was equipped with LYSO scintillators with a pitch of 4 mm which were read out in a one-to-one coupling scheme by sensor tiles composed of digital silicon photomultipliers from Philips Digital Photon Counting (DPC 3200-22). The PET performance degradation (energy resolution and coincidence resolution time (CRT)) was evaluated during simultaneous operation of the MRI scanner. We used clinically motivated imaging sequences as well as synthetic gradient stress test sequences. Without activity of the MRI scanner, we measured for trigger scheme 1 (first photon trigger) an energy resolution of 11.4% and a CRT of 213 ps for a narrow energy (NE) window using five (22)Na point-like sources. When applying the synthetic gradient sequences, we found worst-case relative degradations of the energy resolution by 5.1% and of the CRT by 33.9%. After identifying the origin of the degradations and implementing a fix to the read-out hardware, the same evaluation revealed no degradation of the PET performance anymore even when the most demanding gradient stress tests were applied. The PET performance of the insert was initially evaluated using the point sources, a high-activity phantom and hot-rod phantoms in order to assess the spatial resolution. Trigger schemes 2-4 delivered an energy resolution of 11.4% as well and CRTs of 279 ps, 333 ps and 557 ps for the NE window, respectively. An isocenter sensitivity of 0.41% using the NE window and 0.71% with a wide energy window was measured. Using a hot-rod phantom, a spatial resolution in the order of 2 mm was demonstrated and the benefit of time-of-flight PET was shown with a larger rabbit-sized phantom. In conclusion, the Hyperion architecture is an interesting platform for clinically driven hybrid PET/MRI systems.

PET performance and MRI compatibility evaluation of a digital, ToF-capable PET/MRI insert equipped with clinical scintillators

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Schug, David; Wehner, Jakob; Dueppenbecker, Peter Michael; Weissler, Bjoern; Gebhardt, Pierre; Goldschmidt, Benjamin; Salomon, Andre; Kiessling, Fabian; Schulz, Volkmar

2015-09-01

We evaluate the MR compatibility of the Hyperion-IID positron emission tomography (PET) insert, which allows simultaneous operation in a clinical magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanner. In contrast to previous investigations, this work aims at the evaluation of a clinical crystal configuration. An imaging-capable demonstrator with an axial field-of-view of 32 mm and a crystal-to-crystal spacing of 217.6 mm was equipped with LYSO scintillators with a pitch of 4 mm which were read out in a one-to-one coupling scheme by sensor tiles composed of digital silicon photomultipliers from Philips Digital Photon Counting (DPC 3200-22). The PET performance degradation (energy resolution and coincidence resolution time (CRT)) was evaluated during simultaneous operation of the MRI scanner. We used clinically motivated imaging sequences as well as synthetic gradient stress test sequences. Without activity of the MRI scanner, we measured for trigger scheme 1 (first photon trigger) an energy resolution of 11.4% and a CRT of 213 ps for a narrow energy (NE) window using five 22Na point-like sources. When applying the synthetic gradient sequences, we found worst-case relative degradations of the energy resolution by 5.1% and of the CRT by 33.9%. After identifying the origin of the degradations and implementing a fix to the read-out hardware, the same evaluation revealed no degradation of the PET performance anymore even when the most demanding gradient stress tests were applied. The PET performance of the insert was initially evaluated using the point sources, a high-activity phantom and hot-rod phantoms in order to assess the spatial resolution. Trigger schemes 2-4 delivered an energy resolution of 11.4% as well and CRTs of 279 ps, 333 ps and 557 ps for the NE window, respectively. An isocenter sensitivity of 0.41% using the NE window and 0.71% with a wide energy window was measured. Using a hot-rod phantom, a spatial resolution in the order of 2 mm was demonstrated and the benefit of time-of-flight PET was shown with a larger rabbit-sized phantom. In conclusion, the Hyperion architecture is an interesting platform for clinically driven hybrid PET/MRI systems.

Task Selection, Task Switching and Multitasking during Computer-Based Independent Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Judd, Terry

2015-01-01

Detailed logs of students' computer use, during independent study sessions, were captured in an open-access computer laboratory. Each log consisted of a chronological sequence of tasks representing either the application or the Internet domain displayed in the workstation's active window. Each task was classified using a three-tier schema…

Intra- to Multi-Decadal Temperature Variability over the Continental United States: 1896-2012

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

The Optimal Ranking Regime (ORR) method was used to identify intra- to multi-decadal (IMD) time windows containing significant ranking sequences in U.S. climate division temperature data. The simplicity of the ORR procedure’s output – a time series’ most significant non-overlapping periods of high o...

Optimal ranking regime analysis of intra- to multidecadal U.S. climate variability. Part I: Temperature

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

The Optimal Ranking Regime (ORR) method was used to identify intra- to multi-decadal (IMD) time windows containing significant ranking sequences in U.S. climate division temperature data. The simplicity of the ORR procedure’s output – a time series’ most significant non-overlapping periods of high o...

ChimericSeq: An open-source, user-friendly interface for analyzing NGS data to identify and characterize viral-host chimeric sequences.

PubMed

Shieh, Fwu-Shan; Jongeneel, Patrick; Steffen, Jamin D; Lin, Selena; Jain, Surbhi; Song, Wei; Su, Ying-Hsiu

2017-01-01

Identification of viral integration sites has been important in understanding the pathogenesis and progression of diseases associated with particular viral infections. The advent of next-generation sequencing (NGS) has enabled researchers to understand the impact that viral integration has on the host, such as tumorigenesis. Current computational methods to analyze NGS data of virus-host junction sites have been limited in terms of their accessibility to a broad user base. In this study, we developed a software application (named ChimericSeq), that is the first program of its kind to offer a graphical user interface, compatibility with both Windows and Mac operating systems, and optimized for effectively identifying and annotating virus-host chimeric reads within NGS data. In addition, ChimericSeq's pipeline implements custom filtering to remove artifacts and detect reads with quantitative analytical reporting to provide functional significance to discovered integration sites. The improved accessibility of ChimericSeq through a GUI interface in both Windows and Mac has potential to expand NGS analytical support to a broader spectrum of the scientific community.

ChimericSeq: An open-source, user-friendly interface for analyzing NGS data to identify and characterize viral-host chimeric sequences

PubMed Central

Shieh, Fwu-Shan; Jongeneel, Patrick; Steffen, Jamin D.; Lin, Selena; Jain, Surbhi; Song, Wei

2017-01-01

Identification of viral integration sites has been important in understanding the pathogenesis and progression of diseases associated with particular viral infections. The advent of next-generation sequencing (NGS) has enabled researchers to understand the impact that viral integration has on the host, such as tumorigenesis. Current computational methods to analyze NGS data of virus-host junction sites have been limited in terms of their accessibility to a broad user base. In this study, we developed a software application (named ChimericSeq), that is the first program of its kind to offer a graphical user interface, compatibility with both Windows and Mac operating systems, and optimized for effectively identifying and annotating virus-host chimeric reads within NGS data. In addition, ChimericSeq’s pipeline implements custom filtering to remove artifacts and detect reads with quantitative analytical reporting to provide functional significance to discovered integration sites. The improved accessibility of ChimericSeq through a GUI interface in both Windows and Mac has potential to expand NGS analytical support to a broader spectrum of the scientific community. PMID:28829778

Distinctive Role of Symbolic Number Sense in Mediating the Mathematical Abilities of Children with Autism

PubMed Central

Hiniker, Alexis

2016-01-01

Despite reports of mathematical talent in autism spectrum disorders (ASD), little is known about basic number processing abilities in affected children. We investigated number sense, the ability to rapidly assess quantity information, in 36 children with ASD and 61 typically developing controls. Numerical acuity was assessed using symbolic (Arabic numerals) as well as non-symbolic (dot array) formats. We found significant impairments in non-symbolic acuity in children with ASD, but symbolic acuity was intact. Symbolic acuity mediated the relationship between non-symbolic acuity and mathematical abilities only in children with ASD, indicating a distinctive role for symbolic number sense in the acquisition of mathematical proficiency in this group. Our findings suggest that symbolic systems may help children with ASD organize imprecise information. PMID:26659551

Aircraft stress sequence development: A complex engineering process made simple

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Schrader, K. H.; Butts, D. G.; Sparks, W. A.

1994-01-01

Development of stress sequences for critical aircraft structure requires flight measured usage data, known aircraft loads, and established relationships between aircraft flight loads and structural stresses. Resulting cycle-by-cycle stress sequences can be directly usable for crack growth analysis and coupon spectra tests. Often, an expert in loads and spectra development manipulates the usage data into a typical sequence of representative flight conditions for which loads and stresses are calculated. For a fighter/trainer type aircraft, this effort is repeated many times for each of the fatigue critical locations (FCL) resulting in expenditure of numerous engineering hours. The Aircraft Stress Sequence Computer Program (ACSTRSEQ), developed by Southwest Research Institute under contract to San Antonio Air Logistics Center, presents a unique approach for making complex technical computations in a simple, easy to use method. The program is written in Microsoft Visual Basic for the Microsoft Windows environment.

Auditory perception in the child.

PubMed

Nicolay-Pirmolin, M

2003-01-01

The development of auditory perception in the infant starts in utero and continues up to the age of 9-10 years. We shall examine the various stages, the various acoustic parameters and the segmental level. Three stages are important: from 7 months onwards: first perceptual reorganization; between 7 and 12 months: second perceptual reorganization; from 10 to 24 months: segmentation of the spoken word. We will note the evolution between 2 and 6 years and between 6 and 9 years: 9 years being the critical age--switching from global treatment to analytic treatment of utterances. We will then examine musical perception and we note that at the prelinguistic level it is the same perceptive units that handle verbal sequences and musical sequences. The stages of musical perception are parallel to those for speech. Bigand posed the question: "should we see in these hierarchies, and in their importance to perception, the manifestation of an overall cognitive constraint restricting the handling of long sequences of acoustic events (including language) and why not even for all processes dealing with symbolic information".

Using stochastic language models (SLM) to map lexical, syntactic, and phonological information processing in the brain.

PubMed

Lopopolo, Alessandro; Frank, Stefan L; van den Bosch, Antal; Willems, Roel M

2017-01-01

Language comprehension involves the simultaneous processing of information at the phonological, syntactic, and lexical level. We track these three distinct streams of information in the brain by using stochastic measures derived from computational language models to detect neural correlates of phoneme, part-of-speech, and word processing in an fMRI experiment. Probabilistic language models have proven to be useful tools for studying how language is processed as a sequence of symbols unfolding in time. Conditional probabilities between sequences of words are at the basis of probabilistic measures such as surprisal and perplexity which have been successfully used as predictors of several behavioural and neural correlates of sentence processing. Here we computed perplexity from sequences of words and their parts of speech, and their phonemic transcriptions. Brain activity time-locked to each word is regressed on the three model-derived measures. We observe that the brain keeps track of the statistical structure of lexical, syntactic and phonological information in distinct areas.

Vibration measurement by temporal Fourier analyses of a digital hologram sequence.

PubMed

Fu, Yu; Pedrini, Giancarlo; Osten, Wolfgang

2007-08-10

A method for whole-field noncontact measurement of displacement, velocity, and acceleration of a vibrating object based on image-plane digital holography is presented. A series of digital holograms of a vibrating object are captured by use of a high-speed CCD camera. The result of the reconstruction is a three-dimensional complex-valued matrix with noise. We apply Fourier analysis and windowed Fourier analysis in both the spatial and the temporal domains to extract the displacement, the velocity, and the acceleration. The instantaneous displacement is obtained by temporal unwrapping of the filtered phase map, whereas the velocity and acceleration are evaluated by Fourier analysis and by windowed Fourier analysis along the time axis. The combination of digital holography and temporal Fourier analyses allows for evaluation of the vibration, without a phase ambiguity problem, and smooth spatial distribution of instantaneous displacement, velocity, and acceleration of each instant are obtained. The comparison of Fourier analysis and windowed Fourier analysis in velocity and acceleration measurements is also presented.

Fast Human Detection for Intelligent Monitoring Using Surveillance Visible Sensors

PubMed Central

Ko, Byoung Chul; Jeong, Mira; Nam, JaeYeal

2014-01-01

Human detection using visible surveillance sensors is an important and challenging work for intruder detection and safety management. The biggest barrier of real-time human detection is the computational time required for dense image scaling and scanning windows extracted from an entire image. This paper proposes fast human detection by selecting optimal levels of image scale using each level's adaptive region-of-interest (ROI). To estimate the image-scaling level, we generate a Hough windows map (HWM) and select a few optimal image scales based on the strength of the HWM and the divide-and-conquer algorithm. Furthermore, adaptive ROIs are arranged per image scale to provide a different search area. We employ a cascade random forests classifier to separate candidate windows into human and nonhuman classes. The proposed algorithm has been successfully applied to real-world surveillance video sequences, and its detection accuracy and computational speed show a better performance than those of other related methods. PMID:25393782

Effects of background color and symbol arrangement cues on construction of multi-symbol messages by young children without disabilities: implications for aided AAC design.

PubMed

Thistle, Jennifer J; Wilkinson, Krista

2017-09-01

Children whose speech does not meet their communication needs often benefit from augmentative and alternative communication (AAC). The design of an AAC display may influence the child's ability to communicate effectively. The current study examined how symbol background color cues and symbol arrangement affected construction of multi-symbol messages using line-drawing symbols, by young children with typical development. Participants (N = 52) heard a spoken phrase matching a photograph and selected line drawings within a 4 × 4 array. Friedman two-way ANOVAs evaluated speed and accuracy of multi-symbol message construction under four conditions in which the background color and arrangement of symbols was manipulated. Participants demonstrated significantly faster response times when symbols were arranged by word-class category compared to no symbol arrangement. The majority of children responded faster when symbols had white backgrounds, but this effect failed to reach statistical significance. This study provides preliminary evidence suggesting the importance of symbol arrangement for young children. The findings highlight the need for caution when incorporating background color on displays for young children. Future research is needed to examine the effect of visual cues on children who use AAC and consider additional factors that could influence efficacy of symbol arrangement and background color use.

Robust Timing Synchronization in Aeronautical Mobile Communication Systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Xiong, Fu-Qin; Pinchak, Stanley

2004-01-01

This work details a study of robust synchronization schemes suitable for satellite to mobile aeronautical applications. A new scheme, the Modified Sliding Window Synchronizer (MSWS), is devised and compared with existing schemes, including the traditional Early-Late Gate Synchronizer (ELGS), the Gardner Zero-Crossing Detector (GZCD), and the Sliding Window Synchronizer (SWS). Performance of the synchronization schemes is evaluated by a set of metrics that indicate performance in digital communications systems. The metrics are convergence time, mean square phase error (or root mean-square phase error), lowest SNR for locking, initial frequency offset performance, midstream frequency offset performance, and system complexity. The performance of the synchronizers is evaluated by means of Matlab simulation models. A simulation platform is devised to model the satellite to mobile aeronautical channel, consisting of a Quadrature Phase Shift Keying modulator, an additive white Gaussian noise channel, and a demodulator front end. Simulation results show that the MSWS provides the most robust performance at the cost of system complexity. The GZCD provides a good tradeoff between robustness and system complexity for communication systems that require high symbol rates or low overall system costs. The ELGS has a high system complexity despite its average performance. Overall, the SWS, originally designed for multi-carrier systems, performs very poorly in single-carrier communications systems. Table 5.1 in Section 5 provides a ranking of each of the synchronization schemes in terms of the metrics set forth in Section 4.1. Details of comparison are given in Section 5. Based on the results presented in Table 5, it is safe to say that the most robust synchronization scheme examined in this work is the high-sample-rate Modified Sliding Window Synchronizer. A close second is its low-sample-rate cousin. The tradeoff between complexity and lowest mean-square phase error determines the rankings of the Gardner Zero-Crossing Detector and both versions of the Early-Late Gate Synchronizer. The least robust models are the high and low-sample-rate Sliding Window Synchronizers. Consequently, the recommended replacement synchronizer for NASA's Advanced Air Transportation Technologies mobile aeronautical communications system is the high-sample-rate Modified Sliding Window Synchronizer. By incorporating this synchronizer into their system, NASA can be assured that their system will be operational in extremely adverse conditions. The quick convergence time of the MSWS should allow the use of high-level protocols. However, if NASA feels that reduced system complexity is the most important aspect of their replacement synchronizer, the Gardner Zero-Crossing Detector would be the best choice.

Sublinear growth of information in DNA sequences.

PubMed

Menconi, Giulia

2005-07-01

We introduce a novel method to analyse complete genomes and recognise some distinctive features by means of an adaptive compression algorithm, which is not DNA-oriented, based on the Lempel-Ziv scheme. We study the Information Content as a function of the number of symbols encoded by the algorithm and we analyse the dictionary created by the algorithm. Preliminary results are shown concerning regions showing a sublinear type of information growth, which is strictly connected to the presence of highly repetitive subregions that might be supposed to have a regulatory function within the genome.

Typed Multiset Rewriting Specifications of Security Protocols

DTIC Science & Technology

2011-10-01

to define the type of a tuple as the sequence of the types of its components. Therefore, if A is a principal name and kA is a public key for A, the...tuple (A, kA ) would have type “principal × pubK A” (the Cartesian product symbol “×” is the standard constructor for tuple types). This construction...allows us to associate a generic principal with A’s public key: if B is another principal, then (B, kA ) will have this type as well. We will often need

A Four-Phase Modulation System for Use with an Adaptive Array.

DTIC Science & Technology

1982-07-01

MODULATION SYSTEM FORIteia epr * ~USE WITH AN ADAPTIVE ARRAY *P RIGOG EOTM~E _____________________________________ ESL 711679-5 7s AUTHOeO~) 9 . CONTRACT r0...OUSOLE1T6 UNCLASSIFIED SECURITY CLASSIFICATION OF THIS P040E (when Doe I91 r2 UNCLASSIFIED 8ncumV CL"M,ICAnIo, o TP , ImS 8... ., 9 fte-H - LMS...nterval has a duration of : Tb seconds. a(t) is a pseudonotse code, i.e., a maximum length " lInear shift register sequence [ 9 ]. The code symbol interval

Comparisons of Lower Cambrian ( ) Chilhowee Group siliciclastics of the frontal Blue Ridge with possible equivalents in the central Blue Ridge and basement massifs in the southern Appalachians

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

Aylor, J.G. Jr.; Tull, J.F.

1993-03-01

The Lower Cambrian Chilhowee Group (CG) along the Blue Ridge (BR) foreland boundary may also be represented in more internal parts of the orogen. The relative palinspastic positions of these more internal CG( ) sequences are poorly constrained, but they are believed to represent more outboard facies than those along the frontal BR. Although correlation with CG rocks of the frontal BR is indefinite due to metamorphism and polydeformation, correlative sequences may include the cover of the Corbin and Salem Church gneisses (Pinelog Fm.), Grandfather Mountain window, Murphy belt (MB) (Hiwassee River Group), Tallulah and Toxaway domes (TTD) (quartzite-schist membermore » of the Tallulah Falls Fm.), Pine Mountain window (Hollis Quartzite), and Sauratown Mountains window (Hogan Creek and Sauratown Fms.). The CG is generally bounded on the west by the Great Smoky fault. Siliciclastics of the CG represent stacked, coarsening upward sequences, separated by transgressive facies, and capped by a highstand of the Shady Dolomite or its equivalents. CG correlations in the Kahatchee Mountain Group of the Talladega belt and the siliciclastics in the Hiwassee River Group of the MB are supported by fossil constraints. Other units are correlated with CG based upon intimate associations with marble believed to be equivalent to the overlying Lower Cambrian Shady Dolomite, or upon presumed uncomformable relationships above Grenville basement. The CG averages about 1,260 meters thickness at the frontal BR, whereas lower siliciclastics in the MB average 1,830 meters. The Pinelog Fm. is up to 600 meters thick. The Hollis Quartzite is approximately 325 meters thick, and the estimated thickness of the quartz-schist member at Tallulah Falls is up to 900 meters. More distal siliciclastics of the central BR in the MB and distal siliciclastics overlying basement were deposited farther out on the shelf as stratigraphic, litho-facies equivalents of shallower marine and continental deposits of the CG.« less

SigWin-detector: a Grid-enabled workflow for discovering enriched windows of genomic features related to DNA sequences.

PubMed

Inda, Márcia A; van Batenburg, Marinus F; Roos, Marco; Belloum, Adam S Z; Vasunin, Dmitry; Wibisono, Adianto; van Kampen, Antoine H C; Breit, Timo M

2008-08-08

Chromosome location is often used as a scaffold to organize genomic information in both the living cell and molecular biological research. Thus, ever-increasing amounts of data about genomic features are stored in public databases and can be readily visualized by genome browsers. To perform in silico experimentation conveniently with this genomics data, biologists need tools to process and compare datasets routinely and explore the obtained results interactively. The complexity of such experimentation requires these tools to be based on an e-Science approach, hence generic, modular, and reusable. A virtual laboratory environment with workflows, workflow management systems, and Grid computation are therefore essential. Here we apply an e-Science approach to develop SigWin-detector, a workflow-based tool that can detect significantly enriched windows of (genomic) features in a (DNA) sequence in a fast and reproducible way. For proof-of-principle, we utilize a biological use case to detect regions of increased and decreased gene expression (RIDGEs and anti-RIDGEs) in human transcriptome maps. We improved the original method for RIDGE detection by replacing the costly step of estimation by random sampling with a faster analytical formula for computing the distribution of the null hypothesis being tested and by developing a new algorithm for computing moving medians. SigWin-detector was developed using the WS-VLAM workflow management system and consists of several reusable modules that are linked together in a basic workflow. The configuration of this basic workflow can be adapted to satisfy the requirements of the specific in silico experiment. As we show with the results from analyses in the biological use case on RIDGEs, SigWin-detector is an efficient and reusable Grid-based tool for discovering windows enriched for features of a particular type in any sequence of values. Thus, SigWin-detector provides the proof-of-principle for the modular e-Science based concept of integrative bioinformatics experimentation.

The Moon System Adapted for Musical Notation.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jackson, Michael

1987-01-01

A means is presented for using William Moon's embossed symbols to represent musical notation for blind individuals, as an alternative to braille notation. The proposed system includes pitch symbols, octave indicators, duration symbols, accidentals, key signatures, rests, stress symbols, ornaments, and other symbols. (Author/JDD)

Escape Excel: A tool for preventing gene symbol and accession conversion errors

PubMed Central

Stewart, Paul A.; Kuenzi, Brent M.; Eschrich, James A.

2017-01-01

Background Microsoft Excel automatically converts certain gene symbols, database accessions, and other alphanumeric text into dates, scientific notation, and other numerical representations. These conversions lead to subsequent, irreversible, corruption of the imported text. A recent survey of popular genomic literature estimates that one-fifth of all papers with supplementary gene lists suffer from this issue. Results Here, we present an open-source tool, Escape Excel, which prevents these erroneous conversions by generating an escaped text file that can be safely imported into Excel. Escape Excel is implemented in a variety of formats (http://www.github.com/pstew/escape_excel), including a command line based Perl script, a Windows-only Excel Add-In, an OS X drag-and-drop application, a simple web-server, and as a Galaxy web environment interface. Test server implementations are accessible as a Galaxy interface (http://apostl.moffitt.org) and simple non-Galaxy web server (http://apostl.moffitt.org:8000/). Conclusions Escape Excel detects and escapes a wide variety of problematic text strings so that they are not erroneously converted into other representations upon importation into Excel. Examples of problematic strings include date-like strings, time-like strings, leading zeroes in front of numbers, and long numeric and alphanumeric identifiers that should not be automatically converted into scientific notation. It is hoped that greater awareness of these potential data corruption issues, together with diligent escaping of text files prior to importation into Excel, will help to reduce the amount of Excel-corrupted data in scientific analyses and publications. PMID:28953918

Symbolic and non symbolic numerical representation in adults with and without developmental dyscalculia

PubMed Central

2012-01-01

Background The question whether Developmental Dyscalculia (DD; a deficit in the ability to process numerical information) is the result of deficiencies in the non symbolic numerical representation system (e.g., a group of dots) or in the symbolic numerical representation system (e.g., Arabic numerals) has been debated in scientific literature. It is accepted that the non symbolic system is divided into two different ranges, the subitizing range (i.e., quantities from 1-4) which is processed automatically and quickly, and the counting range (i.e., quantities larger than 4) which is an attention demanding procedure and is therefore processed serially and slowly. However, so far no study has tested the automaticity of symbolic and non symbolic representation in DD participants separately for the subitizing and the counting ranges. Methods DD and control participants undergo a novel version of the Stroop task, i.e., the Enumeration Stroop. They were presented with a random series of between one and nine written digits, and were asked to name either the relevant written digit (in the symbolic task) or the relevant quantity of digits (in the non symbolic task) while ignoring the irrelevant aspect. Result DD participants, unlike the control group, didn't show any congruency effect in the subitizing range of the non symbolic task. Conclusion These findings suggest that DD may be impaired in the ability to process symbolic numerical information or in the ability to automatically associate the two systems (i.e., the symbolic vs. the non symbolic). Additionally DD have deficiencies in the non symbolic counting range. PMID:23190433

Symbolic and non symbolic numerical representation in adults with and without developmental dyscalculia.

PubMed

Furman, Tamar; Rubinsten, Orly

2012-11-28

The question whether Developmental Dyscalculia (DD; a deficit in the ability to process numerical information) is the result of deficiencies in the non symbolic numerical representation system (e.g., a group of dots) or in the symbolic numerical representation system (e.g., Arabic numerals) has been debated in scientific literature. It is accepted that the non symbolic system is divided into two different ranges, the subitizing range (i.e., quantities from 1-4) which is processed automatically and quickly, and the counting range (i.e., quantities larger than 4) which is an attention demanding procedure and is therefore processed serially and slowly. However, so far no study has tested the automaticity of symbolic and non symbolic representation in DD participants separately for the subitizing and the counting ranges. DD and control participants undergo a novel version of the Stroop task, i.e., the Enumeration Stroop. They were presented with a random series of between one and nine written digits, and were asked to name either the relevant written digit (in the symbolic task) or the relevant quantity of digits (in the non symbolic task) while ignoring the irrelevant aspect. DD participants, unlike the control group, didn't show any congruency effect in the subitizing range of the non symbolic task. These findings suggest that DD may be impaired in the ability to process symbolic numerical information or in the ability to automatically associate the two systems (i.e., the symbolic vs. the non symbolic). Additionally DD have deficiencies in the non symbolic counting range.

Front-of-pack symbols are not a reliable indicator of products with healthier nutrient profiles.

PubMed

Emrich, Teri E; Qi, Ying; Cohen, Joanna E; Lou, Wendy Y; L'Abbe, Mary L

2015-01-01

Front-of-pack (FOP) nutrition rating systems and symbols are a form of nutrition marketing used on food labels worldwide. In the absence of standardized criteria for their use, it is unclear if FOP symbols are being used to promote products more nutritious than products without symbols. To compare the amount of calories, saturated fat, sodium, and sugar in products with FOP symbols, and different FOP symbol types, to products without symbols. The median calorie, saturated fat, sodium, and sugar content per reference amount of products with FOP symbols were compared to products without FOP symbols using data from the Food Label Information Program, a database of 10,487 Canadian packaged food labels. Ten food categories and 60 subcategories were analyzed. Nutrient content differences were compared using Wilcoxon rank-sum test; differences greater than 25% were deemed nutritionally relevant. Products with FOP symbols were not uniformly lower in calories, saturated fat, sodium, and sugar per reference amount than products without these symbols in any food category and the majority of subcategories (59/60). None of the different FOP types examined were used to market products with overall better nutritional profiles than products without this type of marketing. FOP symbols are being used to market foods that are no more nutritious than foods without this type of marketing. Because FOP symbols may influence consumer perceptions of products and their purchases, it may be a useful public health strategy to set minimum nutritional standards for products using FOP symbol marketing. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Ordinality and the nature of symbolic numbers.

PubMed

Lyons, Ian M; Beilock, Sian L

2013-10-23

The view that representations of symbolic and nonsymbolic numbers are closely tied to one another is widespread. However, the link between symbolic and nonsymbolic numbers is almost always inferred from cardinal processing tasks. In the current work, we show that considering ordinality instead points to striking differences between symbolic and nonsymbolic numbers. Human behavioral and neural data show that ordinal processing of symbolic numbers (Are three Indo-Arabic numerals in numerical order?) is distinct from symbolic cardinal processing (Which of two numerals represents the greater quantity?) and nonsymbolic number processing (ordinal and cardinal judgments of dot-arrays). Behaviorally, distance-effects were reversed when assessing ordinality in symbolic numbers, but canonical distance-effects were observed for cardinal judgments of symbolic numbers and all nonsymbolic judgments. At the neural level, symbolic number-ordering was the only numerical task that did not show number-specific activity (greater than control) in the intraparietal sulcus. Only activity in left premotor cortex was specifically associated with symbolic number-ordering. For nonsymbolic numbers, activation in cognitive-control areas during ordinal processing and a high degree of overlap between ordinal and cardinal processing networks indicate that nonsymbolic ordinality is assessed via iterative cardinality judgments. This contrasts with a striking lack of neural overlap between ordinal and cardinal judgments anywhere in the brain for symbolic numbers, suggesting that symbolic number processing varies substantially with computational context. Ordinal processing sheds light on key differences between symbolic and nonsymbolic number processing both behaviorally and in the brain. Ordinality may prove important for understanding the power of representing numbers symbolically.

A standardized framework for accurate, high-throughput genotyping of recombinant and non-recombinant viral sequences.

PubMed

Alcantara, Luiz Carlos Junior; Cassol, Sharon; Libin, Pieter; Deforche, Koen; Pybus, Oliver G; Van Ranst, Marc; Galvão-Castro, Bernardo; Vandamme, Anne-Mieke; de Oliveira, Tulio

2009-07-01

Human immunodeficiency virus type-1 (HIV-1), hepatitis B and C and other rapidly evolving viruses are characterized by extremely high levels of genetic diversity. To facilitate diagnosis and the development of prevention and treatment strategies that efficiently target the diversity of these viruses, and other pathogens such as human T-lymphotropic virus type-1 (HTLV-1), human herpes virus type-8 (HHV8) and human papillomavirus (HPV), we developed a rapid high-throughput-genotyping system. The method involves the alignment of a query sequence with a carefully selected set of pre-defined reference strains, followed by phylogenetic analysis of multiple overlapping segments of the alignment using a sliding window. Each segment of the query sequence is assigned the genotype and sub-genotype of the reference strain with the highest bootstrap (>70%) and bootscanning (>90%) scores. Results from all windows are combined and displayed graphically using color-coded genotypes. The new Virus-Genotyping Tools provide accurate classification of recombinant and non-recombinant viruses and are currently being assessed for their diagnostic utility. They have incorporated into several HIV drug resistance algorithms including the Stanford (http://hivdb.stanford.edu) and two European databases (http://www.umcutrecht.nl/subsite/spread-programme/ and http://www.hivrdb.org.uk/) and have been successfully used to genotype a large number of sequences in these and other databases. The tools are a PHP/JAVA web application and are freely accessible on a number of servers including: http://bioafrica.mrc.ac.za/rega-genotype/html/, http://lasp.cpqgm.fiocruz.br/virus-genotype/html/, http://jose.med.kuleuven.be/genotypetool/html/.

Rényi continuous entropy of DNA sequences.

PubMed

Vinga, Susana; Almeida, Jonas S

2004-12-07

Entropy measures of DNA sequences estimate their randomness or, inversely, their repeatability. L-block Shannon discrete entropy accounts for the empirical distribution of all length-L words and has convergence problems for finite sequences. A new entropy measure that extends Shannon's formalism is proposed. Renyi's quadratic entropy calculated with Parzen window density estimation method applied to CGR/USM continuous maps of DNA sequences constitute a novel technique to evaluate sequence global randomness without some of the former method drawbacks. The asymptotic behaviour of this new measure was analytically deduced and the calculation of entropies for several synthetic and experimental biological sequences was performed. The results obtained were compared with the distributions of the null model of randomness obtained by simulation. The biological sequences have shown a different p-value according to the kernel resolution of Parzen's method, which might indicate an unknown level of organization of their patterns. This new technique can be very useful in the study of DNA sequence complexity and provide additional tools for DNA entropy estimation. The main MATLAB applications developed and additional material are available at the webpage . Specialized functions can be obtained from the authors.

Hierarchical structure in sharply divided phase space for the piecewise linear map

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Akaishi, Akira; Aoki, Kazuki; Shudo, Akira

2017-05-01

We have studied a two-dimensional piecewise linear map to examine how the hierarchical structure of stable regions affects the slow dynamics in Hamiltonian systems. In the phase space there are infinitely many stable regions, each of which is polygonal-shaped, and the rest is occupied by chaotic orbits. By using symbolic representation of stable regions, a procedure to compute the edges of the polygons is presented. The stable regions are hierarchically distributed in phase space and the edges of the stable regions show the marginal instability. The cumulative distribution of the recurrence time obeys a power law as ˜t-2 , the same as the one for the system with phase space, which is composed of a single stable region and chaotic components. By studying the symbol sequence of recurrence trajectories, we show that the hierarchical structure of stable regions has no significant effect on the power-law exponent and that only the marginal instability on the boundary of stable regions is responsible for determining the exponent. We also discuss the relevance of the hierarchical structure to those in more generic chaotic systems.

Power strain imaging based on vibro-elastography techniques

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wen, Xu; Salcudean, S. E.

2007-03-01

This paper describes a new ultrasound elastography technique, power strain imaging, based on vibro-elastography (VE) techniques. With this method, tissue is compressed by a vibrating actuator driven by low-pass or band-pass filtered white noise, typically in the 0-20 Hz range. Tissue displacements at different spatial locations are estimated by correlation-based approaches on the raw ultrasound radio frequency signals and recorded in time sequences. The power spectra of these time sequences are computed by Fourier spectral analysis techniques. As the average of the power spectrum is proportional to the squared amplitude of the tissue motion, the square root of the average power over the range of excitation frequencies is used as a measure of the tissue displacement. Then tissue strain is determined by the least squares estimation of the gradient of the displacement field. The computation of the power spectra of the time sequences can be implemented efficiently by using Welch's periodogram method with moving windows or with accumulative windows with a forgetting factor. Compared to the transfer function estimation originally used in VE, the computation of cross spectral densities is not needed, which saves both the memory and computational times. Phantom experiments demonstrate that the proposed method produces stable and operator-independent strain images with high signal-to-noise ratio in real time. This approach has been also tested on a few patient data of the prostate region, and the results are encouraging.

Feature co-localization landscape of the human genome

PubMed Central

Ng, Siu-Kin; Hu, Taobo; Long, Xi; Chan, Cheuk-Hin; Tsang, Shui-Ying; Xue, Hong

2016-01-01

Although feature co-localizations could serve as useful guide-posts to genome architecture, a comprehensive and quantitative feature co-localization map of the human genome has been lacking. Herein we show that, in contrast to the conventional bipartite division of genomic sequences into genic and inter-genic regions, pairwise co-localizations of forty-two genomic features in the twenty-two autosomes based on 50-kb to 2,000-kb sequence windows indicate a tripartite zonal architecture comprising Genic zones enriched with gene-related features and Alu-elements; Proximal zones enriched with MIR- and L2-elements, transcription-factor-binding-sites (TFBSs), and conserved-indels (CIDs); and Distal zones enriched with L1-elements. Co-localizations between single-nucleotide-polymorphisms (SNPs) and copy-number-variations (CNVs) reveal a fraction of sequence windows displaying steeply enhanced levels of SNPs, CNVs and recombination rates that point to active adaptive evolution in such pathways as immune response, sensory perceptions, and cognition. The strongest positive co-localization observed between TFBSs and CIDs suggests a regulatory role of CIDs in cooperation with TFBSs. The positive co-localizations of cancer somatic CNVs (CNVT) with all Proximal zone and most Genic zone features, in contrast to the distinctly more restricted co-localizations exhibited by germline CNVs (CNVG), reveal disparate distributions of CNVTs and CNVGs indicative of dissimilarity in their underlying mechanisms. PMID:26854351

RNA 3D Modules in Genome-Wide Predictions of RNA 2D Structure

PubMed Central

Theis, Corinna; Zirbel, Craig L.; zu Siederdissen, Christian Höner; Anthon, Christian; Hofacker, Ivo L.; Nielsen, Henrik; Gorodkin, Jan

2015-01-01

Recent experimental and computational progress has revealed a large potential for RNA structure in the genome. This has been driven by computational strategies that exploit multiple genomes of related organisms to identify common sequences and secondary structures. However, these computational approaches have two main challenges: they are computationally expensive and they have a relatively high false discovery rate (FDR). Simultaneously, RNA 3D structure analysis has revealed modules composed of non-canonical base pairs which occur in non-homologous positions, apparently by independent evolution. These modules can, for example, occur inside structural elements which in RNA 2D predictions appear as internal loops. Hence one question is if the use of such RNA 3D information can improve the prediction accuracy of RNA secondary structure at a genome-wide level. Here, we use RNAz in combination with 3D module prediction tools and apply them on a 13-way vertebrate sequence-based alignment. We find that RNA 3D modules predicted by metaRNAmodules and JAR3D are significantly enriched in the screened windows compared to their shuffled counterparts. The initially estimated FDR of 47.0% is lowered to below 25% when certain 3D module predictions are present in the window of the 2D prediction. We discuss the implications and prospects for further development of computational strategies for detection of RNA 2D structure in genomic sequence. PMID:26509713

SU-E-J-126: Respiratory Gating Quality Assurance: A Simple Method to Achieve Millisecond Temporal Resolution

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

McCabe, B; Wiersma, R

Purpose: Low temporal latency between a gating on/off signal and a linac beam on/off during respiratory gating is critical for patient safety. Although, a measurement of temporal lag is recommended by AAPM Task Group 142 for commissioning and annual quality assurance, there currently exists no published method. Here we describe a simple, inexpensive, and reliable method to precisely measure gating lag at millisecond resolutions. Methods: A Varian Real-time Position Management™ (RPM) gating simulator with rotating disk was modified with a resistive flex sensor (Spectra Symbol) attached to the gating box platform. A photon diode was placed at machine isocenter. Outputmore » signals of the flex sensor and diode were monitored with a multichannel oscilloscope (Tektronix™ DPO3014). Qualitative inspection of the gating window/beam on synchronicity were made by setting the linac to beam on/off at end-expiration, and the oscilloscope's temporal window to 100 ms to visually examine if the on/off timing was within the recommended 100-ms tolerance. Quantitative measurements were made by saving the signal traces and analyzing in MatLab™. The on and off of the beam signal were located and compared to the expected gating window (e.g. 40% to 60%). Four gating cycles were measured and compared. Results: On a Varian TrueBeam™ STx linac with RPM gating software, the average difference in synchronicity at beam on and off for four cycles was 14 ms (3 to 30 ms) and 11 ms (2 to 32 ms), respectively. For a Varian Clinac™ 21EX the average difference at beam on and off was 127 ms (122 to 133 ms) and 46 ms (42 to 49 ms), respectively. The uncertainty in the synchrony difference was estimated at ±6 ms. Conclusion: This new gating QA method is easy to implement and allows for fast qualitative inspection and quantitative measurements for commissioning and TG-142 annual QA measurements.« less

Naturalistic Experience and the Early Use of Symbolic Artifacts

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Troseth, Georgene L.; Casey, Amy M.; Lawver, Kelly A.; Walker, Joan M. T.; Cole, David A.

2007-01-01

Experience with a variety of symbolic artifacts has been proposed as a mechanism underlying symbolic development. In this study, the parents of 120 2-year-old children who participated in symbolic object retrieval tasks completed a questionnaire regarding their children's naturalistic experience with symbolic artifacts and activities. In separate…

Metasearch Accuracy for Letters and Symbols: Do Our Intuitions Match Empirical Reality?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Green, Sean R.; Redford, Joshua

2016-01-01

The "familiarity effect" (Shen and Reingold, "Perception & Psychophysics" 63(3):464-475, 2001) is a phenomenon in which unfamiliar symbols perceptually "pop-out" when placed among familiar symbols (e.g., letters). In contrast, searching for familiar symbols among unfamiliar symbols is more challenging. Failure to…

Relations of different types of numerical magnitude representations to each other and to mathematics achievement.

PubMed

Fazio, Lisa K; Bailey, Drew H; Thompson, Clarissa A; Siegler, Robert S

2014-07-01

We examined relations between symbolic and non-symbolic numerical magnitude representations, between whole number and fraction representations, and between these representations and overall mathematics achievement in fifth graders. Fraction and whole number symbolic and non-symbolic numerical magnitude understandings were measured using both magnitude comparison and number line estimation tasks. After controlling for non-mathematical cognitive proficiency, both symbolic and non-symbolic numerical magnitude understandings were uniquely related to mathematics achievement, but the relation was much stronger for symbolic numbers. A meta-analysis of 19 published studies indicated that relations between non-symbolic numerical magnitude knowledge and mathematics achievement are present but tend to be weak, especially beyond 6 years of age. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From symbolizing to non-symbolizing within the scope of a link: from dreams to shouts of terror caused by an absent presence.

PubMed

Levy, Ruggero

2012-08-01

This article examines pathologies in the creation of symbols and those pathologies' ensuing consequences. It relies mainly on the vertices provided by Bion and Meltzer. It studies the different forms in which these lapses occur in symbolic processes, where they may create vacuums in symbolic networks or give rise to 'lies', and even destroy or de-symbolize established symbols. Based on Bion's concept of the minus-contained (-contained), I propose that when a symbol is attacked, a particular mental structure with its own peculiar characteristics comes about. This structure not only creates a vacuum in that mental zone, it ends up damaging the entire symbolization process. This contribution aims to describe that structure from the metapsychological point of view - contained. I end by synthesizing the possible widening of what could be a Bionian negative grid. Copyright © 2012 Institute of Psychoanalysis.

Method for coding low entrophy data

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Yeh, Pen-Shu (Inventor)

1995-01-01

A method of lossless data compression for efficient coding of an electronic signal of information sources of very low information rate is disclosed. In this method, S represents a non-negative source symbol set, (s(sub 0), s(sub 1), s(sub 2), ..., s(sub N-1)) of N symbols with s(sub i) = i. The difference between binary digital data is mapped into symbol set S. Consecutive symbols in symbol set S are then paired into a new symbol set Gamma which defines a non-negative symbol set containing the symbols (gamma(sub m)) obtained as the extension of the original symbol set S. These pairs are then mapped into a comma code which is defined as a coding scheme in which every codeword is terminated with the same comma pattern, such as a 1. This allows a direct coding and decoding of the n-bit positive integer digital data differences without the use of codebooks.

Effects of environmental sounds on the guessability of animated graphic symbols.

PubMed

Harmon, Ashley C; Schlosser, Ralf W; Gygi, Brian; Shane, Howard C; Kong, Ying-Yee; Book, Lorraine; Macduff, Kelly; Hearn, Emilia

2014-12-01

Graphic symbols are a necessity for pre-literate children who use aided augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) systems (including non-electronic communication boards and speech generating devices), as well as for mobile technologies using AAC applications. Recently, developers of the Autism Language Program (ALP) Animated Graphics Set have added environmental sounds to animated symbols representing verbs in an attempt to enhance their iconicity. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of environmental sounds (added to animated graphic symbols representing verbs) in terms of naming. Participants included 46 children with typical development between the ages of 3;0 to 3;11 (years;months). The participants were randomly allocated to a condition of symbols with environmental sounds or a condition without environmental sounds. Results indicated that environmental sounds significantly enhanced the naming accuracy of animated symbols for verbs. Implications in terms of symbol selection, symbol refinement, and future symbol development will be discussed.

The sound symbolism bootstrapping hypothesis for language acquisition and language evolution

PubMed Central

Imai, Mutsumi; Kita, Sotaro

2014-01-01

Sound symbolism is a non-arbitrary relationship between speech sounds and meaning. We review evidence that, contrary to the traditional view in linguistics, sound symbolism is an important design feature of language, which affects online processing of language, and most importantly, language acquisition. We propose the sound symbolism bootstrapping hypothesis, claiming that (i) pre-verbal infants are sensitive to sound symbolism, due to a biologically endowed ability to map and integrate multi-modal input, (ii) sound symbolism helps infants gain referential insight for speech sounds, (iii) sound symbolism helps infants and toddlers associate speech sounds with their referents to establish a lexical representation and (iv) sound symbolism helps toddlers learn words by allowing them to focus on referents embedded in a complex scene, alleviating Quine's problem. We further explore the possibility that sound symbolism is deeply related to language evolution, drawing the parallel between historical development of language across generations and ontogenetic development within individuals. Finally, we suggest that sound symbolism bootstrapping is a part of a more general phenomenon of bootstrapping by means of iconic representations, drawing on similarities and close behavioural links between sound symbolism and speech-accompanying iconic gesture. PMID:25092666

Cartographic symbol library considering symbol relations based on anti-aliasing graphic library

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mei, Yang; Li, Lin

2007-06-01

Cartographic visualization represents geographic information with a map form, which enables us retrieve useful geospatial information. In digital environment, cartographic symbol library is the base of cartographic visualization and is an essential component of Geographic Information System as well. Existing cartographic symbol libraries have two flaws. One is the display quality and the other one is relations adjusting. Statistic data presented in this paper indicate that the aliasing problem is a major factor on the symbol display quality on graphic display devices. So, effective graphic anti-aliasing methods based on a new anti-aliasing algorithm are presented and encapsulated in an anti-aliasing graphic library with the form of Component Object Model. Furthermore, cartographic visualization should represent feature relation in the way of correctly adjusting symbol relations besides displaying an individual feature. But current cartographic symbol libraries don't have this capability. This paper creates a cartographic symbol design model to implement symbol relations adjusting. Consequently the cartographic symbol library based on this design model can provide cartographic visualization with relations adjusting capability. The anti-aliasing graphic library and the cartographic symbol library are sampled and the results prove that the two libraries both have better efficiency and effect.

Heart Rate Fragmentation: A Symbolic Dynamical Approach.

PubMed

Costa, Madalena D; Davis, Roger B; Goldberger, Ary L

2017-01-01

Background: We recently introduced the concept of heart rate fragmentation along with a set of metrics for its quantification. The term was coined to refer to an increase in the percentage of changes in heart rate acceleration sign, a dynamical marker of a type of anomalous variability. The effort was motivated by the observation that fragmentation, which is consistent with the breakdown of the neuroautonomic-electrophysiologic control system of the sino-atrial node, could confound traditional short-term analysis of heart rate variability. Objective: The objectives of this study were to: (1) introduce a symbolic dynamical approach to the problem of quantifying heart rate fragmentation; (2) evaluate how the distribution of the different dynamical patterns ("words") varied with the participants' age in a group of healthy subjects and patients with coronary artery disease (CAD); and (3) quantify the differences in the fragmentation patterns between the two sample populations. Methods: The symbolic dynamical method employed here was based on a ternary map of the increment NN interval time series and on the analysis of the relative frequency of symbolic sequences (words) with a pre-defined set of features. We analyzed annotated, open-access Holter databases of healthy subjects and patients with CAD, provided by the University of Rochester Telemetric and Holter ECG Warehouse (THEW). Results: The degree of fragmentation was significantly higher in older individuals than in their younger counterparts. However, the fragmentation patterns were different in the two sample populations. In healthy subjects, older age was significantly associated with a higher percentage of transitions from acceleration/deceleration to zero acceleration and vice versa (termed "soft" inflection points). In patients with CAD, older age was also significantly associated with higher percentages of frank reversals in heart rate acceleration (transitions from acceleration to deceleration and vice versa , termed "hard" inflection points). Compared to healthy subjects, patients with CAD had significantly higher percentages of soft and hard inflection points, an increased percentage of words with a high degree of fragmentation and a decreased percentage of words with a lower degree of fragmentation. Conclusion: The symbolic dynamical method employed here was useful to probe the newly recognized property of heart rate fragmentation. The findings from these cross-sectional studies confirm that CAD and older age are associated with higher levels of heart rate fragmentation. Furthermore, fragmentation with healthy aging appears to be phenotypically different from fragmentation in the context of CAD.

Symbols on Formal Groups

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Vostokov, S. V.

1982-04-01

The theory of a continuous Steinberg symbol in a local field is generalized to formal commutative groups. For Lubin-Tate groups, a universal symbol is constructed in explicit form, and it is shown that the module of values of an arbitrary symbol imbeds into the group of points of the formal group. By means of this theory of symbols a new approach is given to obtaining an explicit form for the Hilbert norm residue symbol on Lubin-Tate formal groups. Bibliography: 10 titles.

Facilitating Children’s Ability to Distinguish Symbols for Emotions: The Effects of Background Color Cues and Spatial Arrangement of Symbols on Accuracy and Speed of Search

PubMed Central

Wilkinson, Krista M.; Snell, Julie

2012-01-01

Purpose Communication about feelings is a core element of human interaction. Aided augmentative and alternative communication systems must therefore include symbols representing these concepts. The symbols must be readily distinguishable in order for users to communicate effectively. However, emotions are represented within most systems by schematic faces in which subtle distinctions are difficult to represent. We examined whether background color cuing and spatial arrangement might help children identify symbols for different emotions. Methods Thirty nondisabled children searched for symbols representing emotions within an 8-choice array. On some trials, a color cue signaled the valence of the emotion (positive vs. negative). Additionally, symbols were either organized with the negatively-valenced symbols at the top and the positive symbols on the bottom of the display, or the symbols were distributed randomly throughout. Dependent variables were accuracy and speed of responses. Results The speed with which children could locate a target was significantly faster for displays in which symbols were clustered by valence, but only when the symbols had white backgrounds. Addition of a background color cue did not facilitate responses. Conclusions Rapid search was facilitated by a spatial organization cue, but not by the addition of background color. Further examination of the situations in which color cues may be useful is warranted. PMID:21813821

[Origin of three symbols in medicine and surgery].

PubMed

de la Garza-Villaseñor, Lorenzo

2010-01-01

Humans use many ways to communicate with fellow humans. Symbols have been one of these ways. Shamans probably used these in the beginning and adopted other distinctive symbols as they were introduced. The origin, the reason and use of three symbols in medicine and surgery are discussed. Some symbols currently remain the same and others have been modified or have disappeared. The oldest of these three symbols is the staff of Aesculapius, related to the Greek god of medicine and health. Since the 19th century, in some countries the symbol of the medical profession has become the caduceus, but the staff is the natural symbol. The second symbol is the barber pole that was created at the beginning of the Middle Ages. This was the means to locate the office and shop of a barber/surgeon in towns, cities and battlefields. On the other hand, the surgeon made use of the emblem of the union, trade or fraternity to which he belonged, accompanied by the bowl for bloodletting. The third symbol is the wearing of long and short robes that distinguished graduate surgeons from a medical school and the so-called barber/surgeons. Symbols facilitate the manner in which to identify the origin or trade of many working people. Some symbols currently remain and others have either been modified or are obsolete, losing their relationship with surgery and medicine.

Symbolic play and language development.

PubMed

Orr, Edna; Geva, Ronny

2015-02-01

Symbolic play and language are known to be highly interrelated, but the developmental process involved in this relationship is not clear. Three hypothetical paths were postulated to explore how play and language drive each other: (1) direct paths, whereby initiation of basic forms in symbolic action or babbling, will be directly related to all later emerging language and motor outputs; (2) an indirect interactive path, whereby basic forms in symbolic action will be associated with more complex forms in symbolic play, as well as with babbling, and babbling mediates the relationship between symbolic play and speech; and (3) a dual path, whereby basic forms in symbolic play will be associated with basic forms of language, and complex forms of symbolic play will be associated with complex forms of language. We micro-coded 288 symbolic vignettes gathered during a yearlong prospective bi-weekly examination (N=14; from 6 to 18 months of age). Results showed that the age of initiation of single-object symbolic play correlates strongly with the age of initiation of later-emerging symbolic and vocal outputs; its frequency at initiation is correlated with frequency at initiation of babbling, later-emerging speech, and multi-object play in initiation. Results support the notion that a single-object play relates to the development of other symbolic forms via a direct relationship and an indirect relationship, rather than a dual-path hypothesis. Copyright © 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The Cognitive Content of the World of Symbols in a Language

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zhirenov, Sayan A.; Satemirova, Darikha A.; Ibraeva, Aizat D.; Tanzharikova, Alua V.

2016-01-01

The purpose of this study is to analyze the meaning of symbols, the symbolic world in linguistics. Using the methods of observation, analysis, synthesis and interpretation, the author determines the category of symbols in linguistic-cognitive research. The study delineates connection between linguistic image of the universe and symbolic categories…

DNA Translator and Aligner: HyperCard utilities to aid phylogenetic analysis of molecules.

PubMed

Eernisse, D J

1992-04-01

DNA Translator and Aligner are molecular phylogenetics HyperCard stacks for Macintosh computers. They manipulate sequence data to provide graphical gene mapping, conversions, translations and manual multiple-sequence alignment editing. DNA Translator is able to convert documented GenBank or EMBL documented sequences into linearized, rescalable gene maps whose gene sequences are extractable by clicking on the corresponding map button or by selection from a scrolling list. Provided gene maps, complete with extractable sequences, consist of nine metazoan, one yeast, and one ciliate mitochondrial DNAs and three green plant chloroplast DNAs. Single or multiple sequences can be manipulated to aid in phylogenetic analysis. Sequences can be translated between nucleic acids and proteins in either direction with flexible support of alternate genetic codes and ambiguous nucleotide symbols. Multiple aligned sequence output from diverse sources can be converted to Nexus, Hennig86 or PHYLIP format for subsequent phylogenetic analysis. Input or output alignments can be examined with Aligner, a convenient accessory stack included in the DNA Translator package. Aligner is an editor for the manual alignment of up to 100 sequences that toggles between display of matched characters and normal unmatched sequences. DNA Translator also generates graphic displays of amino acid coding and codon usage frequency relative to all other, or only synonymous, codons for approximately 70 select organism-organelle combinations. Codon usage data is compatible with spreadsheet or UWGCG formats for incorporation of additional molecules of interest. The complete package is available via anonymous ftp and is free for non-commercial uses.

Two-year-olds' understanding of self-symbols.

PubMed

Herold, Katherine; Akhtar, Nameera

2014-09-01

This study investigated 48 2.5-year-olds' ability to map from their own body to a two-dimensional self-representation and also examined relations between parents' talk about body representations and their children's understanding of self-symbols. Children participated in two dual-representation tasks in which they were asked to match body parts between a symbol and its referent. In one task, they used a self-symbol and in the other they used a symbol for a doll. Participants were also read a book about body parts by a parent. As a group, children found the self-symbol task more difficult than the doll-task; however, those whose parents explicitly pointed out the relation between their children's bodies and the symbols in the book performed better on the self-symbol task. The findings demonstrate that 2-year-old children have difficulty comprehending a self-symbol, even when it is two-dimensional and approximately the same size as them, and suggest that parents' talk about self-symbols may facilitate their understanding. © 2014 The British Psychological Society.

Animation of graphic symbols representing verbs and prepositions: effects on transparency, name agreement, and identification.

PubMed

Schlosser, Ralf W; Shane, Howard; Sorce, James; Koul, Rajinder; Bloomfield, Emma; Debrowski, Lisa; DeLuca, Tim; Miller, Stephanie; Schneider, Danielle; Neff, Allison

2012-04-01

The effects of animation on transparency, name agreement, and identification of graphic symbols for verbs and prepositions were evaluated in preschoolers of 3 age groups. Methods A mixed-group design was used; in each age group, half of the children were randomly allocated to 1 of 2 orders of symbol formats. The 52 children were asked to guess the meaning of symbols and to identify a target symbol among foils given the spoken label. Animated symbols were more transparent than static symbols, although this was more pronounced for verbs. Animated verbs were named more accurately than static verbs, but there was no difference between animated and static prepositions. Verbs were identified more accurately compared with prepositions, but there was no difference between symbol formats. Older children guessed, named, and identified symbols more effectively than younger children. Animation enhances transparency and name agreement, especially for verbs, which reduces the instructional burden that comes with nontransparent symbols. Animation does not enhance identification accuracy. Verbs are easier to identify than prepositions. A developmental effect was observed for each measure. Limitations and implications for future research are discussed.

Unsupervised learning of natural languages

PubMed Central

Solan, Zach; Horn, David; Ruppin, Eytan; Edelman, Shimon

2005-01-01

We address the problem, fundamental to linguistics, bioinformatics, and certain other disciplines, of using corpora of raw symbolic sequential data to infer underlying rules that govern their production. Given a corpus of strings (such as text, transcribed speech, chromosome or protein sequence data, sheet music, etc.), our unsupervised algorithm recursively distills from it hierarchically structured patterns. The adios (automatic distillation of structure) algorithm relies on a statistical method for pattern extraction and on structured generalization, two processes that have been implicated in language acquisition. It has been evaluated on artificial context-free grammars with thousands of rules, on natural languages as diverse as English and Chinese, and on protein data correlating sequence with function. This unsupervised algorithm is capable of learning complex syntax, generating grammatical novel sentences, and proving useful in other fields that call for structure discovery from raw data, such as bioinformatics. PMID:16087885

Unsupervised learning of natural languages.

PubMed

Solan, Zach; Horn, David; Ruppin, Eytan; Edelman, Shimon

2005-08-16

We address the problem, fundamental to linguistics, bioinformatics, and certain other disciplines, of using corpora of raw symbolic sequential data to infer underlying rules that govern their production. Given a corpus of strings (such as text, transcribed speech, chromosome or protein sequence data, sheet music, etc.), our unsupervised algorithm recursively distills from it hierarchically structured patterns. The adios (automatic distillation of structure) algorithm relies on a statistical method for pattern extraction and on structured generalization, two processes that have been implicated in language acquisition. It has been evaluated on artificial context-free grammars with thousands of rules, on natural languages as diverse as English and Chinese, and on protein data correlating sequence with function. This unsupervised algorithm is capable of learning complex syntax, generating grammatical novel sentences, and proving useful in other fields that call for structure discovery from raw data, such as bioinformatics.

Genomic signal analysis of pathogen variability

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cristea, Paul Dan

2006-02-01

The paper presents results in the study of pathogen variability by using genomic signals. The conversion of symbolic nucleotide sequences into digital signals offers the possibility to apply signal processing methods to the analysis of genomic data. The method is particularly well suited to characterize small size genomic sequences, such as those found in viruses and bacteria, being a promising tool in tracking the variability of pathogens, especially in the context of developing drug resistance. The paper is based on data downloaded from GenBank [32], and comprises results on the variability of the eight segments of the influenza type A, subtype H5N1, virus genome, and of the Hemagglutinin (HA) gene, for the H1, H2, H3, H4, H5 and H16 types. Data from human and avian virus isolates are used.

Spectral analysis of variable-length coded digital signals

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cariolaro, G. L.; Pierobon, G. L.; Pupolin, S. G.

1982-05-01

A spectral analysis is conducted for a variable-length word sequence by an encoder driven by a stationary memoryless source. A finite-state sequential machine is considered as a model of the line encoder, and the spectral analysis of the encoded message is performed under the assumption that the sourceword sequence is composed of independent identically distributed words. Closed form expressions for both the continuous and discrete parts of the spectral density are derived in terms of the encoder law and sourceword statistics. The jump part exhibits jumps at multiple integers of per lambda(sub 0)T, where lambda(sub 0) is the greatest common divisor of the possible codeword lengths, and T is the symbol period. The derivation of the continuous part can be conveniently factorized, and the theory is applied to the spectral analysis of BnZS and HDBn codes.

HOWDY: an integrated database system for human genome research

PubMed Central

Hirakawa, Mika

2002-01-01

HOWDY is an integrated database system for accessing and analyzing human genomic information (http://www-alis.tokyo.jst.go.jp/HOWDY/). HOWDY stores information about relationships between genetic objects and the data extracted from a number of databases. HOWDY consists of an Internet accessible user interface that allows thorough searching of the human genomic databases using the gene symbols and their aliases. It also permits flexible editing of the sequence data. The database can be searched using simple words and the search can be restricted to a specific cytogenetic location. Linear maps displaying markers and genes on contig sequences are available, from which an object can be chosen. Any search starting point identifies all the information matching the query. HOWDY provides a convenient search environment of human genomic data for scientists unsure which database is most appropriate for their search. PMID:11752279

Free Classification as a Window on Executive Functioning in Autism Spectrum Disorders

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McGonigle-Chalmers, Margaret; Alderson-Day, Ben

2010-01-01

Spontaneous classification was assessed using a free serial search task in 18 school-aged children at the high functioning end of the autistic spectrum and compared with results from age-matched typically developing controls. The task required participants to touch shapes in an exhaustive non-repetitive sequence. The positions of the items varied…

BAOBAB: a Java editor for large phylogenetic trees.

PubMed

Dutheil, J; Galtier, N

2002-06-01

BAOBAB is a Java user interface dedicated to viewing and editing large phylogenetic trees. Original features include: (i) a colour-mediated overview of magnified subtrees; (ii) copy/cut/paste of (sub)trees within or between windows; (iii) compressing/ uncompressing subtrees; and (iv) managing sequence files together with tree files. http://www.univ-montp2.fr/~genetix/.

Ambitious STS-7 mission to feature first landing at Kennedy

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Garrett, D.; Hess, M.; White, T.; Taylor, J.

1982-01-01

The STS-7 press briefing schedule, NASA select television schedule; launch preparations, countdown and liftoff; major countdown milestones; launch window; STS-7 flight sequence of events, landing timeline; STS-7 flight timeline; landing and post landing operations; flight objectives; Telesat's ANIK-C 2; PALAPA-B; STS-7 experiments; and spacecraft tracking and data network are presented.

Pattern Discovery and Change Detection of Online Music Query Streams

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Li, Hua-Fu

In this paper, an efficient stream mining algorithm, called FTP-stream (Frequent Temporal Pattern mining of streams), is proposed to find the frequent temporal patterns over melody sequence streams. In the framework of our proposed algorithm, an effective bit-sequence representation is used to reduce the time and memory needed to slide the windows. The FTP-stream algorithm can calculate the support threshold in only a single pass based on the concept of bit-sequence representation. It takes the advantage of "left" and "and" operations of the representation. Experiments show that the proposed algorithm only scans the music query stream once, and runs significant faster and consumes less memory than existing algorithms, such as SWFI-stream and Moment.

Spectrophotometry of comets Giacobini-Zinner and Halley

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Tegler, Stephen C.; O'Dell, C. R.

1987-01-01

Optical window spectrophotometry was performed on comets Giacobini-Zinner and Halley over the interval 300-1000 nm. Band and band-sequence fluxes were obtained for the brightest features of OH, CN, NH, and C2, special care having been given to determinations of extinction, instrumental sensitivities, and corrections for Fraunhofer lines. C2 Swan band-sequence flux ratios were determined with unprecedented accuracy and compared with the predictions of the detailed equilibrium models of Krishna Swamy et al. (1977, 1979, 1981, and 1987). It is found that these band sequences do not agree with the predictions, which calls into question the assumptions made in deriving the model, namely resonance fluorescence statistical equilibrium. Suggestions are made as to how to resolve this discrepancy.

Prediction of CpG-island function: CpG clustering vs. sliding-window methods

PubMed Central

2010-01-01

Background Unmethylated stretches of CpG dinucleotides (CpG islands) are an outstanding property of mammal genomes. Conventionally, these regions are detected by sliding window approaches using %G + C, CpG observed/expected ratio and length thresholds as main parameters. Recently, clustering methods directly detect clusters of CpG dinucleotides as a statistical property of the genome sequence. Results We compare sliding-window to clustering (i.e. CpGcluster) predictions by applying new ways to detect putative functionality of CpG islands. Analyzing the co-localization with several genomic regions as a function of window size vs. statistical significance (p-value), CpGcluster shows a higher overlap with promoter regions and highly conserved elements, at the same time showing less overlap with Alu retrotransposons. The major difference in the prediction was found for short islands (CpG islets), often exclusively predicted by CpGcluster. Many of these islets seem to be functional, as they are unmethylated, highly conserved and/or located within the promoter region. Finally, we show that window-based islands can spuriously overlap several, differentially regulated promoters as well as different methylation domains, which might indicate a wrong merge of several CpG islands into a single, very long island. The shorter CpGcluster islands seem to be much more specific when concerning the overlap with alternative transcription start sites or the detection of homogenous methylation domains. Conclusions The main difference between sliding-window approaches and clustering methods is the length of the predicted islands. Short islands, often differentially methylated, are almost exclusively predicted by CpGcluster. This suggests that CpGcluster may be the algorithm of choice to explore the function of these short, but putatively functional CpG islands. PMID:20500903

A longer vernal window: the role of winter coldness and snowpack in driving spring transitions and lags.

PubMed

Contosta, Alexandra R; Adolph, Alden; Burchsted, Denise; Burakowski, Elizabeth; Green, Mark; Guerra, David; Albert, Mary; Dibb, Jack; Martin, Mary; McDowell, William H; Routhier, Michael; Wake, Cameron; Whitaker, Rachel; Wollheim, Wilfred

2017-04-01

Climate change is altering the timing and duration of the vernal window, a period that marks the end of winter and the start of the growing season when rapid transitions in ecosystem energy, water, nutrient, and carbon dynamics take place. Research on this period typically captures only a portion of the ecosystem in transition and focuses largely on the dates by which the system wakes up. Previous work has not addressed lags between transitions that represent delays in energy, water, nutrient, and carbon flows. The objectives of this study were to establish the sequence of physical and biogeochemical transitions and lags during the vernal window period and to understand how climate change may alter them. We synthesized observations from a statewide sensor network in New Hampshire, USA, that concurrently monitored climate, snow, soils, and streams over a three-year period and supplemented these observations with climate reanalysis data, snow data assimilation model output, and satellite spectral data. We found that some of the transitions that occurred within the vernal window were sequential, with air temperatures warming prior to snow melt, which preceded forest canopy closure. Other transitions were simultaneous with one another and had zero-length lags, such as snowpack disappearance, rapid soil warming, and peak stream discharge. We modeled lags as a function of both winter coldness and snow depth, both of which are expected to decline with climate change. Warmer winters with less snow resulted in longer lags and a more protracted vernal window. This lengthening of individual lags and of the entire vernal window carries important consequences for the thermodynamics and biogeochemistry of ecosystems, both during the winter-to-spring transition and throughout the rest of the year. © 2016 The Authors Global Change Biology Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

The sound symbolism bootstrapping hypothesis for language acquisition and language evolution.

PubMed

Imai, Mutsumi; Kita, Sotaro

2014-09-19

Sound symbolism is a non-arbitrary relationship between speech sounds and meaning. We review evidence that, contrary to the traditional view in linguistics, sound symbolism is an important design feature of language, which affects online processing of language, and most importantly, language acquisition. We propose the sound symbolism bootstrapping hypothesis, claiming that (i) pre-verbal infants are sensitive to sound symbolism, due to a biologically endowed ability to map and integrate multi-modal input, (ii) sound symbolism helps infants gain referential insight for speech sounds, (iii) sound symbolism helps infants and toddlers associate speech sounds with their referents to establish a lexical representation and (iv) sound symbolism helps toddlers learn words by allowing them to focus on referents embedded in a complex scene, alleviating Quine's problem. We further explore the possibility that sound symbolism is deeply related to language evolution, drawing the parallel between historical development of language across generations and ontogenetic development within individuals. Finally, we suggest that sound symbolism bootstrapping is a part of a more general phenomenon of bootstrapping by means of iconic representations, drawing on similarities and close behavioural links between sound symbolism and speech-accompanying iconic gesture. © 2014 The Author(s) Published by the Royal Society. All rights reserved.

A Survey of New Trends in Symbolic Execution for Software Testing and Analysis

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Pasareanu, Corina S.; Visser, Willem

2009-01-01

Symbolic execution is a well-known program analysis technique which represents values of program inputs with symbolic values instead of concrete (initialized) data and executes the program by manipulating program expressions involving the symbolic values. Symbolic execution has been proposed over three decades ago but recently it has found renewed interest in the research community, due in part to the progress in decision procedures, availability of powerful computers and new algorithmic developments. We provide a survey of some of the new research trends in symbolic execution, with particular emphasis on applications to test generation and program analysis. We first describe an approach that handles complex programming constructs such as input data structures, arrays, as well as multi-threading. We follow with a discussion of abstraction techniques that can be used to limit the (possibly infinite) number of symbolic configurations that need to be analyzed for the symbolic execution of looping programs. Furthermore, we describe recent hybrid techniques that combine concrete and symbolic execution to overcome some of the inherent limitations of symbolic execution, such as handling native code or availability of decision procedures for the application domain. Finally, we give a short survey of interesting new applications, such as predictive testing, invariant inference, program repair, analysis of parallel numerical programs and differential symbolic execution.

Individual differences in non-symbolic numerical abilities predict mathematical achievements but contradict ATOM.

PubMed

Agrillo, Christian; Piffer, Laura; Adriano, Andrea

2013-07-01

A significant debate surrounds the nature of the cognitive mechanisms involved in non-symbolic number estimation. Several studies have suggested the existence of the same cognitive system for estimation of time, space, and number, called "a theory of magnitude" (ATOM). In addition, researchers have proposed the theory that non-symbolic number abilities might support our mathematical skills. Despite the large number of studies carried out, no firm conclusions can be drawn on either topic. In the present study, we correlated the performance of adults on non-symbolic magnitude estimations and symbolic numerical tasks. Non-symbolic magnitude abilities were assessed by asking participants to estimate which auditory tone lasted longer (time), which line was longer (space), and which group of dots was more numerous (number). To assess symbolic numerical abilities, participants were required to perform mental calculations and mathematical reasoning. We found a positive correlation between non-symbolic and symbolic numerical abilities. On the other hand, no correlation was found among non-symbolic estimations of time, space, and number. Our study supports the idea that mathematical abilities rely on rudimentary numerical skills that predate verbal language. By contrast, the lack of correlation among non-symbolic estimations of time, space, and number is incompatible with the idea that these magnitudes are entirely processed by the same cognitive system.

Performance analysis of sliding window filtering of two dimensional signals based on stream data processing systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kazanskiy, Nikolay; Protsenko, Vladimir; Serafimovich, Pavel

2016-03-01

This research article contains an experiment with implementation of image filtering task in Apache Storm and IBM InfoSphere Streams stream data processing systems. The aim of presented research is to show that new technologies could be effectively used for sliding window filtering of image sequences. The analysis of execution was focused on two parameters: throughput and memory consumption. Profiling was performed on CentOS operating systems running on two virtual machines for each system. The experiment results showed that IBM InfoSphere Streams has about 1.5 to 13.5 times lower memory footprint than Apache Storm, but could be about 2.0 to 2.5 slower on a real hardware.

77 FR 22036 - Self-Regulatory Organizations; NASDAQ OMX PHLX LLC; Notice of Filing and Immediate Effectiveness...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-04-12

... Change Relating to Rebates and Fees for Adding and Removing Liquidity in Select Symbols April 6, 2012...'s Pricing Schedule entitled ``Rebates and Fees for Adding and Removing Liquidity in Select Symbols,'' specifically to remove various Select Symbols.\\3\\ \\3\\ The term ``Select Symbols'' refers to the symbols which...

77 FR 5072 - Self-Regulatory Organizations; NASDAQ OMX PHLX LLC; Notice of Filing and Immediate Effectiveness...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-02-01

... Change Amending the Rebates and Fees for Adding and Removing Liquidity in Select Symbols January 26, 2012...'s Fee Schedule titled ``Rebates and Fees for Adding and Removing Liquidity in Select Symbols,'' specifically to remove various Select Symbols.\\3\\ \\3\\ The term ``Select Symbols'' refers to the symbols which...

77 FR 1106 - Self-Regulatory Organizations; NASDAQ OMX PHLX LLC; Notice of Filing and Immediate Effectiveness...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-01-09

... Change Relating to the Rebates and Fees for Adding and Removing Liquidity in Select Symbols January 3...'s Fee Schedule titled ``Rebates and Fees for Adding and Removing Liquidity in Select Symbols,'' specifically to amend the Select Symbols.\\3\\ \\3\\ The term ``Select Symbols'' refers to the symbols which are...

IRiS: construction of ARG networks at genomic scales.

PubMed

Javed, Asif; Pybus, Marc; Melé, Marta; Utro, Filippo; Bertranpetit, Jaume; Calafell, Francesc; Parida, Laxmi

2011-09-01

Given a set of extant haplotypes IRiS first detects high confidence recombination events in their shared genealogy. Next using the local sequence topology defined by each detected event, it integrates these recombinations into an ancestral recombination graph. While the current system has been calibrated for human population data, it is easily extendible to other species as well. IRiS (Identification of Recombinations in Sequences) binary files are available for non-commercial use in both Linux and Microsoft Windows, 32 and 64 bit environments from https://researcher.ibm.com/researcher/view_project.php?id = 2303 parida@us.ibm.com.

On the selection and evaluation of visual display symbology Factors influencing search and identification times

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Remington, Roger; Williams, Douglas

1986-01-01

Three single-target visual search tasks were used to evaluate a set of cathode-ray tube (CRT) symbols for a helicopter situation display. The search tasks were representative of the information extraction required in practice, and reaction time was used to measure the efficiency with which symbols could be located and identified. Familiar numeric symbols were responded to more quickly than graphic symbols. The addition of modifier symbols, such as a nearby flashing dot or surrounding square, had a greater disruptive effect on the graphic symbols than did the numeric characters. The results suggest that a symbol set is, in some respects, like a list that must be learned. Factors that affect the time to identify items in a memory task, such as familiarity and visual discriminability, also affect the time to identify symbols. This analogy has broad implications for the design of symbol sets. An attempt was made to model information access with this class of display.

Observing eye movements and the influence of cognition during a symbol search task: a comparison across three age groups.

PubMed

Perrin, Maxine; Robillard, Manon; Roy-Charland, Annie

2017-12-01

This study examined eye movements during a visual search task as well as cognitive abilities within three age groups. The aim was to explore scanning patterns across symbol grids and to better understand the impact of symbol location in AAC displays on speed and accuracy of symbol selection. For the study, 60 students were asked to locate a series of symbols on 16 cell grids. The EyeLink 1000 was used to measure eye movements, accuracy, and response time. Accuracy was high across all cells. Participants had faster response times, longer fixations, and more frequent fixations on symbols located in the middle of the grid. Group comparisons revealed significant differences for accuracy and reaction times. The Leiter-R was used to evaluate cognitive abilities. Sustained attention and cognitive flexibility scores predicted the participants' reaction time and accuracy in symbol selection. Findings suggest that symbol location within AAC devices and individuals' cognitive abilities influence the speed and accuracy of retrieving symbols.

Automated Non-Alphanumeric Symbol Resolution in Clinical Texts

PubMed Central

Moon, SungRim; Pakhomov, Serguei; Ryan, James; Melton, Genevieve B.

2011-01-01

Although clinical texts contain many symbols, relatively little attention has been given to symbol resolution by medical natural language processing (NLP) researchers. Interpreting the meaning of symbols may be viewed as a special case of Word Sense Disambiguation (WSD). One thousand instances of four common non-alphanumeric symbols (‘+’, ‘–’, ‘/’, and ‘#’) were randomly extracted from a clinical document repository and annotated by experts. The symbols and their surrounding context, in addition to bag-of-Words (BoW), and heuristic rules were evaluated as features for the following classifiers: Naïve Bayes, Support Vector Machine, and Decision Tree, using 10-fold cross-validation. Accuracies for ‘+’, ‘–’, ‘/’, and ‘#’ were 80.11%, 80.22%, 90.44%, and 95.00% respectively, with Naïve Bayes. While symbol context contributed the most, BoW was also helpful for disambiguation of some symbols. Symbol disambiguation with supervised techniques can be implemented with reasonable accuracy as a module for medical NLP systems. PMID:22195157

The effects of age on symbol comprehension in central rail hubs in Taiwan.

PubMed

Liu, Yung-Ching; Ho, Chin-Heng

2012-11-01

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of age and symbol design features on passengers' comprehension of symbols and the performance of these symbols with regard to route guidance. In the first experiment, 30 young participants and 30 elderly participants interpreted the meanings and rated the features of 39 symbols. Researchers collected data on each subject's comprehension time, comprehension score, and feature ratings for each symbol. In the second experiment, this study used a series of photos to simulate scenarios in which passengers follow symbols to arrive at their destinations. The length of time each participant required to follow his/her route and his/her errors were recorded. Older adults experienced greater difficulty in understanding particular symbols as compared to younger adults. Familiarity was the feature most highly correlated with comprehension of symbols and accuracy of semantic depiction was the best predictor of behavior in following routes. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd and The Ergonomics Society. All rights reserved.

Symbolic Constraint Maintenance Grid

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

James, Mark

2006-01-01

Version 3.1 of Symbolic Constraint Maintenance Grid (SCMG) is a software system that provides a general conceptual framework for utilizing pre-existing programming techniques to perform symbolic transformations of data. SCMG also provides a language (and an associated communication method and protocol) for representing constraints on the original non-symbolic data. SCMG provides a facility for exchanging information between numeric and symbolic components without knowing the details of the components themselves. In essence, it integrates symbolic software tools (for diagnosis, prognosis, and planning) with non-artificial-intelligence software. SCMG executes a process of symbolic summarization and monitoring of continuous time series data that are being abstractly represented as symbolic templates of information exchange. This summarization process enables such symbolic- reasoning computing systems as artificial- intelligence planning systems to evaluate the significance and effects of channels of data more efficiently than would otherwise be possible. As a result of the increased efficiency in representation, reasoning software can monitor more channels and is thus able to perform monitoring and control functions more effectively.

Fuzzy Intervals for Designing Structural Signature: An Application to Graphic Symbol Recognition

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Luqman, Muhammad Muzzamil; Delalandre, Mathieu; Brouard, Thierry; Ramel, Jean-Yves; Lladós, Josep

The motivation behind our work is to present a new methodology for symbol recognition. The proposed method employs a structural approach for representing visual associations in symbols and a statistical classifier for recognition. We vectorize a graphic symbol, encode its topological and geometrical information by an attributed relational graph and compute a signature from this structural graph. We have addressed the sensitivity of structural representations to noise, by using data adapted fuzzy intervals. The joint probability distribution of signatures is encoded by a Bayesian network, which serves as a mechanism for pruning irrelevant features and choosing a subset of interesting features from structural signatures of underlying symbol set. The Bayesian network is deployed in a supervised learning scenario for recognizing query symbols. The method has been evaluated for robustness against degradations & deformations on pre-segmented 2D linear architectural & electronic symbols from GREC databases, and for its recognition abilities on symbols with context noise i.e. cropped symbols.

Developmental dyscalculia and low numeracy in Chinese children.

PubMed

Chan, Winnie Wai Lan; Au, Terry K; Tang, Joey

2013-05-01

Children struggle with mathematics for different reasons. Developmental dyscalculia and low numeracy - two kinds of mathematical difficulties - may have their roots, respectively, in poor understanding of exact non-symbolic numerosities and of symbolic numerals. This study was the first to explore whether Chinese children, despite cultural and linguistic factors supporting their mathematical learning, also showed such mathematical difficulties and whether such difficulties have measurable impact on children's early school mathematical performance. First-graders, classified as dyscalculia, low numeracy, or normal achievement, were compared for their performance in various school mathematical tasks requiring a grasp of non-symbolic numerosities (i.e., non-symbolic tasks) or an understanding of symbolic numerals (i.e., symbolic tasks). Children with dyscalculia showed poorer performance than their peers in non-symbolic tasks but not symbolic ones, whereas those with low numeracy showed poorer performance in symbolic tasks but not non-symbolic ones. As hypothesized, these findings suggested that dyscalculia and low numeracy were distinct deficits and caused by deficits in non-symbolic and symbolic processing, respectively. These findings went beyond prior research that only documented generally low mathematical achievements for these two groups of children. Moreover, these deficits appeared to be persistent and could not be remedied simply through day-to-day school mathematical learning. The present findings highlighted the importance of tailoring early learning support for children with these distinct deficits, and pointed to future directions for the screening of such mathematical difficulties among Chinese children. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The span of correlations in dolphin whistle sequences

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ferrer-i-Cancho, Ramon; McCowan, Brenda

2012-06-01

Long-range correlations are found in symbolic sequences from human language, music and DNA. Determining the span of correlations in dolphin whistle sequences is crucial for shedding light on their communicative complexity. Dolphin whistles share various statistical properties with human words, i.e. Zipf's law for word frequencies (namely that the probability of the ith most frequent word of a text is about i-α) and a parallel of the tendency of more frequent words to have more meanings. The finding of Zipf's law for word frequencies in dolphin whistles has been the topic of an intense debate on its implications. One of the major arguments against the relevance of Zipf's law in dolphin whistles is that it is not possible to distinguish the outcome of a die-rolling experiment from that of a linguistic or communicative source producing Zipf's law for word frequencies. Here we show that statistically significant whistle-whistle correlations extend back to the second previous whistle in the sequence, using a global randomization test, and to the fourth previous whistle, using a local randomization test. None of these correlations are expected by a die-rolling experiment and other simple explanations of Zipf's law for word frequencies, such as Simon's model, that produce sequences of unpredictable elements.

Symbol interval optimization for molecular communication with drift.

PubMed

Kim, Na-Rae; Eckford, Andrew W; Chae, Chan-Byoung

2014-09-01

In this paper, we propose a symbol interval optimization algorithm in molecular communication with drift. Proper symbol intervals are important in practical communication systems since information needs to be sent as fast as possible with low error rates. There is a trade-off, however, between symbol intervals and inter-symbol interference (ISI) from Brownian motion. Thus, we find proper symbol interval values considering the ISI inside two kinds of blood vessels, and also suggest no ISI system for strong drift models. Finally, an isomer-based molecule shift keying (IMoSK) is applied to calculate achievable data transmission rates (achievable rates, hereafter). Normalized achievable rates are also obtained and compared in one-symbol ISI and no ISI systems.

Symbolic and non-symbolic number magnitude processing in children with developmental dyscalculia.

PubMed

Castro Cañizares, Danilka; Reigosa Crespo, Vivian; González Alemañy, Eduardo

2012-11-01

The aim of this study was to evaluate if children with Developmental Dyscalculia (DD) exhibit a general deficit in magnitude representations or a specific deficit in the connection of symbolic representations with the corresponding analogous magnitudes. DD was diagnosed using a timed arithmetic task. The experimental magnitude comparison tasks were presented in non-symbolic and symbolic formats. DD and typically developing (TD) children showed similar numerical distance and size congruity effects. However, DD children performed significantly slower in the symbolic task. These results are consistent with the access deficit hypothesis, according to which DD children's deficits are caused by difficulties accessing magnitude information from numerical symbols rather than in processing numerosities per se.

Thematic Matching as Remedial Teaching for Symbolic Matching for Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder

PubMed Central

Lionello-DeNolf, Karen M.; Farber, Rachel; Jones, B. Max; Dube, William V.

2014-01-01

Matching-to-sample (MTS) is often used to teach symbolic relationships between spoken or printed words and their referents to children with intellectual and developmental disabilities. However, many children have difficulty learning symbolic matching, even though they may demonstrate generalized identity matching. The current study investigated whether training on symbolic MTS tasks in which the stimuli are physically dissimilar but members of familiar categories (i.e., thematic matching) can remediate an individual’s difficulty learning symbolic MTS tasks involving non-representative stimuli. Three adolescent males diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder were first trained on symbolic MTS tasks with unfamiliar, non-representative form stimuli. Thematic matching was introduced after the participants failed to learn 0, 2 or 4 symbolic MTS tasks and before additional symbolic MTS tasks were introduced. After exposure to thematic matching, accuracy on symbolic MTS tasks with novel stimuli increased to above chance for all participants. For two participants, high accuracy (> 90%) was achieved on a majority of these sessions. Thus, thematic matching may be an effective intervention for students with limited verbal repertoires and who have difficulty learning symbolic MTS tasks. Possible explanations for the facilitative effect of thematic matching are considered and warrant further investigation. PMID:24634695

Incidental recall on WAIS-R digit symbol discriminates Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases.

PubMed

Demakis, G J; Sawyer, T P; Fritz, D; Sweet, J J

2001-03-01

The purpose of this study was to examine how Alzheimer's (n = 37) and Parkinson's (n = 21) patients perform on the incidental recall adaptation to the Digit Symbol of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Revised (WAIS-R) and how such performance is related to established cognitive efficiency and memory measures. This adaptation requires the examinee to complete the entire subtest and then, without warning, to immediately recall the symbols associated with each number. Groups did not differ significantly on standard Digit Symbol administration (90 seconds), but on recall Parkinson's patients recalled significantly more symbols and symbol-number pairs than Alzheimer's patients. Using only the number of symbols recalled, discriminate function analysis correctly classified 76% of these patients. Correlations between age-corrected scaled score, symbols incidentally recalled, and established measures of cognitive efficiency and memory provided evidence of convergent and divergent validity. Age-corrected scaled scores were more consistently and strongly related to cognitive efficiency, whereas symbols recalled were more consistently and strongly related to memory measures. These findings suggest that the Digit Symbol recall adaptation is actually assessing memory and that it can be another useful way to detect memory impairment. Copyright 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

The use of contextual cues to improve warning symbol comprehension: making the connection for older adults.

PubMed

Lesch, Mary F; Powell, W Ryan; Horrey, William J; Wogalter, Michael S

2013-01-01

This study teased apart the effects of comprehensibility and complexity on older adults' comprehension of warning symbols by manipulating the relevance of additional information in further refining the meaning of the symbol. Symbols were systematically altered such that increased visual complexity (in the form of contextual cues) resulted in increased comprehensibility. One hundred older adults, aged 50-71 years, were tested on their comprehension of these symbols before and after training. High comprehensibility-complexity symbols were found to be better understood than low- or medium-comprehensibility-complexity symbols and the effectiveness of the contextual cues varied as a function of training. Therefore, the nature of additional detail determines whether increased complexity is detrimental or beneficial to older adults' comprehension - if the additional details provide 'cues to knowledge', older adults' comprehension improves as a result of the increased complexity. However, some cues may require training in order to be effective. Research suggests that older adults have greater difficulty in understanding more complex symbols. However, we found that when the complexity of symbols was increased through the addition of contextual cues, older adults' comprehension actually improved. Contextual cues aid older adults in making the connection between the symbol and its referent.

Identifying performing and under performing graphic symbols for verbs and prepositions in animated and static formats: a research note.

PubMed

Schlosser, Ralf W; Shane, Howard; Sorce, James; Koul, Rajinder; Bloomfield, Emma

2011-09-01

The purpose of this study was to identify graphic symbols for verbs and prepositions that were performing and underperforming in static and animated formats in a recent experiment on the effects of animation on transparency, name agreement, and identification of graphic symbols. Variable-specific criteria were developed in order to define when a symbol is considered to be performing in terms of its transparency, name agreement, and identification accuracy. Additionally, across-variable heuristic criteria were developed that allowed classification of symbols into four categories: (a) performing exceptionally, (b) performing effectively, (c) performing adequately, and (d) performing inadequately. These criteria were applied to 24 symbols for verbs and 8 symbols for prepositions in both animated and static formats. Results indicated that the vast majority of the symbols performed adequately or better while a few did not. Potential reasons as to why some of the symbols may have underperformed are discussed. Where appropriate, implications for modifying existing symbols and future research are drawn. Although the fact that the heuristic criteria were developed post-hoc is discussed as a limitation, the benefits of the proposed categories bode well for future applications.

Assessment of the knowledge of graphical symbols labelled on malaria rapid diagnostic tests in four international settings.

PubMed

Hermans, Veerle; Monzote, Lianet; Van den Sande, Björn; Mukadi, Pierre; Sopheak, Thai; Gillet, Philippe; Jacobs, Jan

2011-11-02

Graphical symbols on in vitro diagnostics (IVD symbols) replace the need for text in different languages and are used on malaria rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs) marketed worldwide. The present study assessed the comprehension of IVD symbols labelled on malaria RDT kits among laboratory staff in four different countries. Participants (n = 293) in Belgium (n = 96), the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC, n = 87), Cambodia (n = 59) and Cuba (n = 51) were presented with an anonymous questionnaire with IVD symbols extracted from ISO 15223 and EN 980 presented as stand-alone symbols (n = 18) and in context (affixed on RDT packages, n = 16). Responses were open-ended and scored for correctness by local professionals. Presented as stand-alone, three and five IVD symbols were correctly scored for comprehension by 67% and 50% of participants; when contextually presented, five and seven symbols reached the 67% and 50% correct score respectively. 'Batch code' scored best (correctly scored by 71.3% of participants when presented as stand-alone), 'Authorized representative in the European Community' scored worst (1.4% correct). Another six IVD symbols were scored correctly by less than 10% of participants: 'Do not reuse', 'In vitro diagnostic medical device', 'Sufficient for', 'Date of manufacture', 'Authorised representative in EC', and 'Do not use if package is damaged'. Participants in Belgium and Cuba both scored six symbols above the 67% criterion, participants from DRC and Cambodia scored only two and one symbols above this criterion. Low correct scores were observed for safety-related IVD symbols, such as for 'Biological Risk' (42.7%) and 'Do not reuse' (10.9%). Comprehension of IVD symbols on RDTs among laboratory staff in four international settings was unsatisfactory. Administrative and outreach procedures should be undertaken to assure their acquaintance by end-users.

36 CFR 264.11 - Use of symbol.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... MANAGEMENT Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument Symbol § 264.11 Use of symbol. Except as provided in § 264.12, use of the Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument official symbol, including a facsimile...

Nuclear Structure in China 2010

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bai, Hong-Bo; Meng, Jie; Zhao, En-Guang; Zhou, Shan-Gui

2011-08-01

Personal view on nuclear physics research / Jie Meng -- High-spin level structures in [symbol]Zr / X. P. Cao ... [et al.] -- Constraining the symmetry energy from the neutron skin thickness of tin isotopes / Lie-Wen Chen ... [et al.] -- Wobbling rotation in atomic nuclei / Y. S. Chen and Zao-Chun Gao -- The mixing of scalar mesons and the possible nonstrange dibaryons / L. R. Dai ... [et al.] -- Net baryon productions and gluon saturation in the SPS, RHIC and LHC energy regions / Sheng-Qin Feng -- Production of heavy isotopes with collisions between two actinide nuclides / Z. Q. Feng ... [et al.] -- The projected configuration interaction method / Zao-Chun Gao and Yong-Shou Chen -- Applications of Nilsson mean-field plus extended pairing model to rare-earth nuclei / Xin Guan ... [et al.] -- Complex scaling method and the resonant states / Jian-You Guo ... [et al.] -- Probing the equation of state by deep sub-barrier fusion reactions / Hong-Jun Hao and Jun-Long Tian -- Doublet structure study in A[symbol]105 mass region / C. Y. He ... [et al.] -- Rotational bands in transfermium nuclei / X. T. He -- Shape coexistence and shape evolution [symbol]Yb / H. Hua ... [et al.] -- Multistep shell model method in the complex energy plane / R. J. Liotta -- The evolution of protoneutron stars with kaon condensate / Ang Li -- High spin structures in the [symbol]Lu nucleus / Li Cong-Bo ... [et al.] -- Nuclear stopping and equation of state / QingFeng Li and Ying Yuan -- Covariant description of the low-lying states in neutron-deficient Kr isotopes / Z. X. Li ... [et al.] -- Isospin corrections for superallowed [symbol] transitions / HaoZhao Liang ... [et al.] -- The positive-parity band structures in [symbol]Ag / C. Liu ... [et al.] -- New band structures in odd-odd [symbol]I and [symbol]I / Liu GongYe ... [et al.] -- The sd-pair shell model and interacting boson model / Yan-An Luo ... [et al.] -- Cross-section distributions of fragments in the calcium isotopes projectile fragmentation at the intermediate energy / C. W. Ma ... [et al.].Systematic study of spin assignment and dynamic moment of inertia of high-j intruder band in [symbol]In / K. Y. Ma ... [et al.] -- Signals of diproton emission from the three-body breakup channel of [symbol]Al and [symbol]Mg / Ma Yu-Gang ... [et al.] -- Uncertainties of Th/Eu and Th/Hf chronometers from nucleus masses / Z. M. Niu ... [et al.] -- The chiral doublet bands with [symbol] configuration in A[symbol]100 mass region / B. Qi ... [et al.] -- [symbol] formation probabilities in nuclei and pairing collectivity / Chong Qi -- A theoretical prospective on triggered gamma emission from [symbol]Hf[symbol] isomer / ShuiFa Shen ... [et al.] -- Study of nuclear giant resonances using a Fermi-liquid method / Bao-Xi Sun -- Rotational bands in doubly odd [symbol]Sb / D. P. Sun ... [et al.] -- The study of the neutron N=90 nuclei / W. X. Teng ... [et al.] -- Dynamical modes and mechanisms in ternary reaction of [symbol]Au+[symbol]Au / Jun-Long Tian ... [et al.] -- Dynamical study of X(3872) as a D[symbol] molecular state / B. Wang ... [et al.] -- Super-heavy stability island with a semi-empirical nuclear mass formula / N. Wang ... [et al.] -- Pseudospin partner bands in [symbol]Sb / S. Y. Wang ... [et al.] -- Study of elastic resonance scattering at CIAE / Y. B. Wang ... [et al.] -- Systematic study of survival probability of excited superheavy nuclei / C. J. Xia ... [et al.] -- Angular momentum projection of the Nilsson mean-field plus nearest-orbit pairing interaction model / Ming-Xia Xie ... [et al.] -- Possible shape coexistence for [symbol]Sm in a reflection-asymmetric relativistic mean-field approach / W. Zhang ... [et al.] -- Nuclear pairing reduction due to rotation and blocking / Zhen-Hua Zhang -- Nucleon pair approximation of the shell model: a review and perspective / Y. M. Zhao ... [et al.] -- Band structures in doubly odd [symbol]I / Y. Zheng ... [et al.] -- Lifetimes of high spin states in [symbol]Ag / Y. Zheng ... [et al.] -- Effect of tensor interaction on the shell structure of superheavy nuclei / Xian-Rong Zhou ... [et al.].

Facilitating children's ability to distinguish symbols for emotions: the effects of background color cues and spatial arrangement of symbols on accuracy and speed of search.

PubMed

Wilkinson, Krista M; Snell, Julie

2011-11-01

Communication about feelings is a core element of human interaction. Aided augmentative and alternative communication systems must therefore include symbols representing these concepts. The symbols must be readily distinguishable in order for users to communicate effectively. However, emotions are represented within most systems by schematic faces in which subtle distinctions are difficult to represent. We examined whether background color cuing and spatial arrangement might help children identify symbols for different emotions. Thirty nondisabled children searched for symbols representing emotions within an 8-choice array. On some trials, a color cue signaled the valence of the emotion (positive vs. negative). Additionally, the symbols were either (a) organized with the negatively valenced symbols at the top and the positive symbols on the bottom of the display or (b) distributed randomly throughout. Dependent variables were accuracy and speed of responses. The speed with which children could locate a target was significantly faster for displays in which symbols were clustered by valence, but only when the symbols had white backgrounds. Addition of a background color cue did not facilitate responses. Rapid search was facilitated by a spatial organization cue, but not by the addition of background color. Further examination of the situations in which color cues may be useful is warranted.

Perception and multimeaning analysis of graphic symbols for Thai picture-based communication system.

PubMed

Chompoobutr, Sarinya; Potibal, Puttachart; Boriboon, Monthika; Phantachat, Wantanee

2013-03-01

Graphic symbols are a vital part of most augmentative and alternative communication systems. Communication fluency of graphic symbol user depends on how well the relationship between symbols and its referents are learnt. The first aim of this study is to survey the perception of the selected graphic symbols across seven age groups of participants with different educational background. Sixty-five individuals identified themselves as Thai and ranged in age from 10 to 50 years participated in the investigation used 64 graphic symbols. The last aim of this study is to demonstrate the analysis of multimeaning graphic symbols, which will be used in Thai Picture-based communication system. The twenty graphic symbols with 9-14 meanings are analyzed in both syntactic and semantic aspects. The meanings are divided into five categories: noun, verb/adjective, size, color and shape. Respect to the first aim, the results suggest that the participants under investigation with different sexes, age groups, as well as various educational levels perceive the features or inherent characteristics of such graphic symbols similarly. The results of the analysis of multimeaning of graphic symbols indicate that the foundation of Minspeak, polysemy and redundancy of the words illustrates the inherit meanings of the real-life objects, and it also conveys that the Thai graphic symbols are influenced by numerous factors in Thai circumstance such as ability, motivation, experience, worldview and culture.

The evaluation of display symbology - A chronometric study of visual search. [on cathode ray tubes

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Remington, R.; Williams, D.

1984-01-01

Three single-target visual search tasks were used to evaluate a set of CRT symbols for a helicopter traffic display. The search tasks were representative of the kinds of information extraction required in practice, and reaction time was used to measure the efficiency with which symbols could be located and identified. The results show that familiar numeric symbols were responded to more quickly than graphic symbols. The addition of modifier symbols such as a nearby flashing dot or surrounding square had a greater disruptive effect on the graphic symbols than the alphanumeric characters. The results suggest that a symbol set is like a list that must be learned. Factors that affect the time to respond to items in a list, such as familiarity and visual discriminability, and the division of list items into categories, also affect the time to identify symbols.

Creating illusions of past encounter through brief exposure.

PubMed

Brown, Alan S; Marsh, Elizabeth J

2009-05-01

Titchener (1928) suggested that briefly glancing at a scene could make it appear strangely familiar when it was fully processed moments later. The closest laboratory demonstration used words as stimuli, and showed that briefly glancing at a to-be-judged word increased the subject's belief that it had been presented in an earlier study list (Jacoby & Whitehouse, 1989). We evaluated whether a hasty glance could elicit a false belief in a prior encounter, from a time and place outside of the experiment. This goal precluded using word stimuli, so we had subjects evaluate unfamiliar symbols. Each symbol was preceded by a brief exposure to an identical symbol, a different symbol, or no symbol. A brief glance at an identical symbol increased attributions to preexperimental experience, relative to a glance at a different symbol or no symbol, providing a possible mechanism for common illusions of false recognition.

RNAslider: a faster engine for consecutive windows folding and its application to the analysis of genomic folding asymmetry.

PubMed

Horesh, Yair; Wexler, Ydo; Lebenthal, Ilana; Ziv-Ukelson, Michal; Unger, Ron

2009-03-04

Scanning large genomes with a sliding window in search of locally stable RNA structures is a well motivated problem in bioinformatics. Given a predefined window size L and an RNA sequence S of size N (L < N), the consecutive windows folding problem is to compute the minimal free energy (MFE) for the folding of each of the L-sized substrings of S. The consecutive windows folding problem can be naively solved in O(NL3) by applying any of the classical cubic-time RNA folding algorithms to each of the N-L windows of size L. Recently an O(NL2) solution for this problem has been described. Here, we describe and implement an O(NLpsi(L)) engine for the consecutive windows folding problem, where psi(L) is shown to converge to O(1) under the assumption of a standard probabilistic polymer folding model, yielding an O(L) speedup which is experimentally confirmed. Using this tool, we note an intriguing directionality (5'-3' vs. 3'-5') folding bias, i.e. that the minimal free energy (MFE) of folding is higher in the native direction of the DNA than in the reverse direction of various genomic regions in several organisms including regions of the genomes that do not encode proteins or ncRNA. This bias largely emerges from the genomic dinucleotide bias which affects the MFE, however we see some variations in the folding bias in the different genomic regions when normalized to the dinucleotide bias. We also present results from calculating the MFE landscape of a mouse chromosome 1, characterizing the MFE of the long ncRNA molecules that reside in this chromosome. The efficient consecutive windows folding engine described in this paper allows for genome wide scans for ncRNA molecules as well as large-scale statistics. This is implemented here as a software tool, called RNAslider, and applied to the scanning of long chromosomes, leading to the observation of features that are visible only on a large scale.

Method and Apparatus for Reading Two Dimensional Identification Symbols Using Radar Techniques

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Schramm, Harry F., Jr. (Inventor); Roxby, Donald L. (Inventor)

2003-01-01

A method and apparatus are provided for sensing two-dimensional identification marks provided on a substrate or embedded within a substrate below a surface of the substrate. Micropower impulse radar is used to transmit a high risetime, short duration pulse to a focussed radar target area of the substrate having the two dimensional identification marks. The method further includes the steps of listening for radar echoes returned from the identification marks during a short listening period window occurring a predetermined time after transmission of the radar pulse. If radar echoes are detected, an image processing step is carried out. If no radar echoes are detected, the method further includes sequentially transmitting further high risetime, short duration pulses, and listening for radar echoes from each of said further pulses after different elapsed times for each of the further pulses until radar echoes are detected. When radar echoes are detected, data based on the detected echoes is processed to produce an image of the identification marks.

Edward Burne-Jones' Heavenly Conception: A Biblical Cosmos

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cheney, L. D. G.

2016-01-01

Edward Burne-Jones was a Pre-Raphaelite artist and designer, who collaborated with William Morris on many decorative arts (stained glass windows, book illustrations, ceramic and tapestry designs). He was a founding partner in the firm Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Company. Burne-Jones composed The Days of Creation between 1870 and 1876 for the Morris firm. These paintings were executed in gouache and gold paint, and cartoons were made for tile and in stained glass, for the Church of St. Editha at Tamworth in Staffordshire. Burne-Jones' creation was highly praised and elegantly described by Oscar Wilde: “The picture is divided into six compartments, each representing a day in the Creation of the World, under the symbol of an angel holding a crystal globe, within which is shown the work of a day.” This paper will examine how Burne-Jones visualized an unusual celestial creation where angels holding magical spheres unveil the divine manifestation for the creation of a terrestrial realm. He created a cosmic utopia of the natural world.

Preconscious defence analysis, memory and structural change.

PubMed

Ross, John Munder

2003-02-01

Beginning with the ways in which the use of the couch lends 'depth to the surface' (Erikson, 1954), I explore the topography of the inter- and intrasubjective psychoanalytic situation and process. I suggest that defences are not by definition unconscious but rather can be observed operating at conscious and preconscious levels, particularly under these conditions. A focus on preconscious disavowal provides a window on what has become unconscious repression. As a result of eliciting and then verbalising the operation of such defences with regard to anxieties in the here-and-now transference, declarative memories of increasingly specific childhood fantasies and events begin to hold sway over unmanageable procedural remnants from the analysand's past. With this may even come the possibility of neuronal regeneration, the more generalisable enhancement of declarative and symbolic functions and the sense of identity with which these are associated. Herein may lie one enduring therapeutic effect of the 'talking cure' - putting feelings into words - as one among a variety of psychotherapeutic modalities.

Photorealistic scene presentation: virtual video camera

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Johnson, Michael J.; Rogers, Joel Clark W.

1994-07-01

This paper presents a low cost alternative for presenting photo-realistic imagery during the final approach, which often is a peak workload phase of flight. The method capitalizes on `a priori' information. It accesses out-the-window `snapshots' from a mass storage device, selecting the snapshots that deliver the best match for a given aircraft position and runway scene. It then warps the snapshots to align them more closely with the current viewpoint. The individual snapshots, stored as highly compressed images, are decompressed and interpolated to produce a `clear-day' video stream. The paper shows how this warping, when combined with other compression methods, saves considerable amounts of storage; compression factors from 1000 to 3000 were achieved. Thus, a CD-ROM today can store reference snapshots for thousands of different runways. Dynamic scene elements not present in the snapshot database can be inserted as separate symbolic or pictorial images. When underpinned by an appropriate suite of sensor technologies, the methods discussed indicate an all-weather virtual video camera is possible.

Jadeitites and Plate Tectonics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Harlow, George E.; Tsujimori, Tatsuki; Sorensen, Sorena S.

2015-05-01

Jadeitite is a relatively rare, very tough rock composed predominantly of jadeite and typically found associated with tectonic blocks of high-pressure/low-temperature metabasaltic rocks (e.g., eclogite, blueschist) in exhumed serpentinite-matrix mélanges. Studies over the past ˜20 years have interpreted jadeitite either as the direct hydrous fluid precipitate from subduction channel dewatering into the overlying mantle wedge or as the metasomatic replacement by such fluids of oceanic plagiogranite, graywacke, or metabasite along the channel margin. Thus, jadeitites directly sample and record fluid transport in the subduction factory and provide a window into this geochemical process that is critical to a major process in the Earth system. They record the remarkable transport of large ion lithophile elements, such as Li, Ba, Sr, and Pb, as well as elements generally considered more refractory, such as U, Th, Zr, and Hf. Jadeitite is also the precious form of jade, utilized since antiquity in the form of tools, adornments, and symbols of prestige.

“Live” Formulations of International Association for the properties of Water and Steam (IAPWS)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ochkov, V. F.; Orlov, K. A.; Gurke, S.

2017-11-01

Online publication of IAPWS formulations for calculation of the properties of water and steam is reviewed. The advantages of electronic delivery via Internet over traditional publication on paper are examined. Online calculation can be used with or without formulas or equations printed in traditional publications. Online calculations should preferably free of charge and compatible across multiple platforms (Windows, Android, Linux). Other requirements include availability of multilingual interface, traditional math operators and functions, 2D and 3D graphic capabilities, animation, numerical and symbolic math, tools for solving equation systems, local functions, etc. Using of online visualization tools for verification of functions for calculating thermophysical properties of substances is reviewed. Specific examples are provided of tools for the modeling of the properties of chemical substances, including desktop and online calculation software, downloadable online calculations, and calculations that use server technologies such as Mathcad Calculation Server (see the site of National Research University “Moscow Power Engineering Institute”) and SMath (see the site of Knovel, an Elsevier company).

Report order and identification of multidimensional stimuli: a study of event-related brain potentials.

PubMed

Shieh, Kong-King; Shen, I-Hsuan

2004-06-01

An experiment was conducted to investigate the effect of order of report on multidimensional stimulus identification. Subjects were required to identify each two-dimensional symbol by pushing corresponding buttons on the keypad on which there were two columns representing the two dimensions. Order of report was manipulated for the dimension represented by the left or right column. Both behavioral data and event-related potentials were recorded from 14 college students. Behavioral data analysis showed that order of report had a significant effect on response times. Such results were consistent with those of previous studies. Analysis of event-related brain potentials showed significant differences in peak amplitude and mean amplitude at time windows of 120-250 msec. at Fz, F3, and F4 and of 350-750 msec. at Fz, F3, F4, Cz, and Pz. Data provided neurophysiological evidence that reporting dimensional values according to natural language habits was appropriate and less cognitively demanding.

Physics of Unstable Nuclei

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Khoa, Dao Tien; Egelhof, Peter; Gales, Sydney; Giai, Nguyen Van; Motobayashi, Tohru

2008-04-01

Studies at the RIKEN RI beam factory / T. Motobayashi -- Dilute nuclear states / M. Freer -- Studies of exotic systems using transfer reactions at GANIL / D. Beaumel et al. -- First results from the Magnex large-acceptance spectrometer / A. Cunsolo et al. -- The ICHOR project and spin-isospin physics with unstable beams / H. Sakai -- Structure and low-lying states of the [symbol]He exotic nucleus via direct reactions on proton / V. Lapoux et al. -- Shell gap below [symbol]Sn based on the excited states in [symbol]Cd and [symbol]In / M. Górska -- Heavy neutron-rich nuclei produced in the fragmentation of a [symbol]Pb beam / Zs. Podolyák et al. -- Breakup and incomplete fusion in reactions of weakly-bound nuclei / D.J. Hinde et al. -- Excited states of [symbol]B and [symbol]He and their cluster aspect / Y. Kanada-En'yo et al. -- Nuclear reactions with weakly-bound systems: the treatment of the continuum / C. H. Dasso, A. Vitturi -- Dynamic evolution of three-body decaying resonances / A. S. Jensen et al. -- Prerainbow oscillations in [symbol]He scattering from the Hoyle state of [symbol]C and alpha particle condensation / S. Ohkubo, Y. Hirabayashi -- Angular dispersion behavior in heavy ion elastic scattering / Q. Wang et al. -- Microscopic optical potential in relativistic approach / Z.Yu. Ma et al. -- Exotic nuclei studied in direct reactions at low momentum transfer - recent results and future perspectives at fair / P. Egelhof -- Isotopic temperatures and symmetry energy in spectator fragmentation / M. De Napoli et al. -- Multi-channel algebraic scattering theory and the structure of exotic compound nuclei / K. Amos et al. -- Results for the first feasibility study for the EXL project at the experimental storage ring at GSI / N. Kalantar-Nayestanaki et al. -- Coulomb excitation of ISOLDE neutron-rich beams along the Z = 28 chain / P. Van Duppen -- The gamma decay of the pygmy resonance far from stability and the GDR at finite temperature / G. Benzoni et al. -- Thermal pairing in nuclei / N. D. Dang -- Molecular-orbital and di-nuclei states in Ne and F isotopes / M. Kimura -- Low-momentum interactions for nuclei / A. Schwenk -- Nonrelativistic nuclear energy functionals including the tensor force / G. Colo et al. -- New aspects on dynamics in nuclei described by covariant density functional theory / P. Ring, D. Pena -- Theoretical studies on ground-state properties of superheavy nuclei / Z. Z. Ren et al. -- New results in the study of superfluid nuclei: many-body effects, spectroscopic factors / P. F. Bortignon et al. -- New Effective nucleon-nucleon interaction for the mean-field approximation / V. K. Au et al. -- Linear response calculations with the time-dependent Skyrme density functional / T. Nakatsukasa et al. -- Dissipative dynamics with exotic beams / M. Di Toro et al. -- Exploring the symmetry energy of asymmetric nuclear matter with heavy ion reactions / M. B. Tsang -- Invariant mass spectroscopy of halo nuclei / T. Nakamura et al. -- Core [symbol] structures in [symbol]C, [symbol]C and [symbol]C up to high excitation energies / H. G. Bohlen et al. -- Light neutron-rich nuclei studied by alpha-induced reactions / S. Shimoura -- Fusion and direct reactions around the Coulomb barrier for the system [symbol]He + [symbol]Zn / V. Scuderi et al. -- Analyzing power measurement for proton elastic scattering on [symbol]He / S. Sakaguchi et al. -- Knockout reaction spectroscopy of exotic nuclei / J. A. Tostevin -- Exotic nuclei, quantum phase transitions, and the evolution of structure / R. F. Casten -- Structure of exotic nuclei in the medium mass region / T. Otsuka -- Pairing correlations in halo nuclei / H. Sagawa, K. Hagino -- Experimental approach to high-temperature Stellar reactions with low-energy RI beams / S. Kubono et al. -- Transition to quark matter in neutron stars / G. X. Peng et al. -- Research at VATLY: main themes and recent results / P. N. Diep et al. -- Study of the astrophysical reaction [symbol]C([symbol], n)[symbol]O by the transfer reaction [symbol]C([symbol]Li, t)[symbol]O / F. Hammache et al. -- SPIRAL2 at GANIL: a world of leading ISOL facility for the physics of exotic nuclei / S. Gales -- Magnetic properties of light neutron-rich nuclei and shell evolution / T. Suzuki, T. Otsuka -- Multiple scattering effects in elastic and quasi free proton scattering from halo nuclei / R. Crespo et al. -- The dipole response of neutron halos and skins / T. Aumann -- Giant and pygmy resonances within axially-symmetric-deformed QRPA with the Gogny force / S. Péru, H. Goutte -- Soft K[symbol] = O+ modes unique to deformed neutron-rich unstable nuclei / K. Yoshida et al. -- Synthesis, decay properties, and identification of superheavy nuclei produced in [symbol]Ca-induced reactions / Yu. Ts. Oganessian et al. -- Highlights of the Brazilian RIB facility and its first results and hindrance of fusion cross section induced by [symbol]He / P. R. S. Gomes et al. -- Search for long fission times of super-heavy elements with Z = 114 / M. Morjean et al. -- Microscopic dynamics of shape coexistence phenomena around [symbol]Se and [symbol]Kr / N. Hinohara et al. -- [symbol]-cluster states and 4[symbol]-particle condensation in [symbol]O / Y. Funaki et al. -- Evolution of the N = 28 shell closure far from stability / O. Sorlin et al. -- Continuum QRPA approach and the surface di-neutron modes in nuclei near the neutron drip-line / M. Matsuo et al. -- Deformed relativistic Hartree-Bogoliubov model for exotic nuclei / S. G. Zhou et al. -- Two- and three-body correlations in three-body resonances and continuum states / K. Katō, K. Ikeda -- Pion- and Rho-Meson effects in relativistic Hartree-Fock and RPA / N. V. Giai et al. -- Study of the structure of neutron rich nuclei by using [symbol]-delayed neutron and gamma emission method / Y. Ye et al. -- Production of secondary radioactive [symbol] Na beam for the study of [symbol]Na([symbol], p)[symbol]Mg stellar reaction / D. N. Binh et al. -- Asymmetric nuclear matter properties within the Brueckner theory / W. Zuo et al. -- Study of giant dipole resonance in continuum relativistic random phase approximation / D. Yang et al. -- Chiral bands for quasi-proton and quasi-neutron coupling with a triaxial rotor / B. Qi et al. -- Continuum properties of the Hartree-Fock mean field with finite-range interactions / H. S. Than et al. -- A study of pairing interaction in a separable form / Y. Tian et al. -- Microscopic study of the inelastic [symbol]+[symbol]C scattering / D. C. Cuong, D. T. Khoa -- Probing the high density behavior of the symmetry energy / F. Zhang et al. -- Microscopic calculations based on a Skyrme functional plus the pairing contribution / J. Li et al. -- In-medium cross sections in Dirac-Brueckner-Hartree-Fock approach / L. Peiyan et al. -- The effect of the tensor force on single-particle states and on the isotope shift / W. Zou et al. -- [symbol]Ne excited states two-proton decay / M. De Napoli et al. -- The isomeric ratio and angular momentum of fragment [symbol]Xe in photofission of heavy nuclei / T. D. Thiep et al. -- Search for correlated two-nucleon systems in [symbol]Li and [symbol]He nuclei via one-nucleon exchange reaction / N. T. Khai et al. -- Summary talk of ISPUN07 / N. Alamanos.

Cognitive factors affecting children's nonsymbolic and symbolic magnitude judgment abilities: A latent profile analysis.

PubMed

Chew, Cindy S; Forte, Jason D; Reeve, Robert A

2016-12-01

Early math abilities are claimed to be linked to magnitude representation ability. Some claim that nonsymbolic magnitude abilities scaffold the acquisition of symbolic (Arabic number) magnitude abilities and influence math ability. Others claim that symbolic magnitude abilities, and ipso facto math abilities, are independent of nonsymbolic abilities and instead depend on the ability to process number symbols (e.g., 2, 7). Currently, the issue of whether symbolic abilities are or are not related to nonsymbolic abilities, and the cognitive factors associated with nonsymbolic-symbolic relationships, remains unresolved. We suggest that different nonsymbolic-symbolic relationships reside within the general magnitude ability distribution and that different cognitive abilities are likely associated with these different relationships. We further suggest that the different nonsymbolic-symbolic relationships and cognitive abilities in combination differentially predict math abilities. To test these claims, we used latent profile analysis to identify nonsymbolic-symbolic judgment patterns of 124, 5- to 7-year-olds. We also assessed four cognitive factors (visuospatial working memory [VSWM], naming numbers, nonverbal IQ, and basic reaction time [RT]) and two math abilities (number transcoding and single-digit addition abilities). Four nonsymbolic-symbolic ability profiles were identified. Naming numbers, VSWM, and basic RT abilities were differentially associated with the different ability profiles and in combination differentially predicted math abilities. Findings show that different patterns of nonsymbolic-symbolic magnitude abilities can be identified and suggest that an adequate account of math development should specify the inter-relationship between cognitive factors and nonsymbolic-symbolic ability patterns. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Magnitude processing of symbolic and non-symbolic proportions: an fMRI study.

PubMed

Mock, Julia; Huber, Stefan; Bloechle, Johannes; Dietrich, Julia F; Bahnmueller, Julia; Rennig, Johannes; Klein, Elise; Moeller, Korbinian

2018-05-10

Recent research indicates that processing proportion magnitude is associated with activation in the intraparietal sulcus. Thus, brain areas associated with the processing of numbers (i.e., absolute magnitude) were activated during processing symbolic fractions as well as non-symbolic proportions. Here, we investigated systematically the cognitive processing of symbolic (e.g., fractions and decimals) and non-symbolic proportions (e.g., dot patterns and pie charts) in a two-stage procedure. First, we investigated relative magnitude-related activations of proportion processing. Second, we evaluated whether symbolic and non-symbolic proportions share common neural substrates. We conducted an fMRI study using magnitude comparison tasks with symbolic and non-symbolic proportions, respectively. As an indicator for magnitude-related processing of proportions, the distance effect was evaluated. A conjunction analysis indicated joint activation of specific occipito-parietal areas including right intraparietal sulcus (IPS) during proportion magnitude processing. More specifically, results indicate that the IPS, which is commonly associated with absolute magnitude processing, is involved in processing relative magnitude information as well, irrespective of symbolic or non-symbolic presentation format. However, we also found distinct activation patterns for the magnitude processing of the different presentation formats. Our findings suggest that processing for the separate presentation formats is not only associated with magnitude manipulations in the IPS, but also increasing demands on executive functions and strategy use associated with frontal brain regions as well as visual attention and encoding in occipital regions. Thus, the magnitude processing of proportions may not exclusively reflect processing of number magnitude information but also rather domain-general processes.

Effects of Non-Symbolic Approximate Number Practice on Symbolic Numerical Abilities in Pakistani Children.

PubMed

Khanum, Saeeda; Hanif, Rubina; Spelke, Elizabeth S; Berteletti, Ilaria; Hyde, Daniel C

2016-01-01

Current theories of numerical cognition posit that uniquely human symbolic number abilities connect to an early developing cognitive system for representing approximate numerical magnitudes, the approximate number system (ANS). In support of this proposal, recent laboratory-based training experiments with U.S. children show enhanced performance on symbolic addition after brief practice comparing or adding arrays of dots without counting: tasks that engage the ANS. Here we explore the nature and generality of this effect through two brief training experiments. In Experiment 1, elementary school children in Pakistan practiced either a non-symbolic numerical addition task or a line-length addition task with no numerical content, and then were tested on symbolic addition. After training, children in the numerical training group completed the symbolic addition test faster than children in the line length training group, suggesting a causal role of brief, non-symbolic numerical training on exact, symbolic addition. These findings replicate and extend the core findings of a recent U.S. laboratory-based study to non-Western children tested in a school setting, attesting to the robustness and generalizability of the observed training effects. Experiment 2 tested whether ANS training would also enhance the consistency of performance on a symbolic number line task. Over several analyses of the data there was some evidence that approximate number training enhanced symbolic number line placements relative to control conditions. Together, the findings suggest that engagement of the ANS through brief training procedures enhances children's immediate attention to number and engagement with symbolic number tasks.

Effects of Non-Symbolic Approximate Number Practice on Symbolic Numerical Abilities in Pakistani Children

PubMed Central

Khanum, Saeeda; Hanif, Rubina; Spelke, Elizabeth S.; Berteletti, Ilaria; Hyde, Daniel C.

2016-01-01

Current theories of numerical cognition posit that uniquely human symbolic number abilities connect to an early developing cognitive system for representing approximate numerical magnitudes, the approximate number system (ANS). In support of this proposal, recent laboratory-based training experiments with U.S. children show enhanced performance on symbolic addition after brief practice comparing or adding arrays of dots without counting: tasks that engage the ANS. Here we explore the nature and generality of this effect through two brief training experiments. In Experiment 1, elementary school children in Pakistan practiced either a non-symbolic numerical addition task or a line-length addition task with no numerical content, and then were tested on symbolic addition. After training, children in the numerical training group completed the symbolic addition test faster than children in the line length training group, suggesting a causal role of brief, non-symbolic numerical training on exact, symbolic addition. These findings replicate and extend the core findings of a recent U.S. laboratory-based study to non-Western children tested in a school setting, attesting to the robustness and generalizability of the observed training effects. Experiment 2 tested whether ANS training would also enhance the consistency of performance on a symbolic number line task. Over several analyses of the data there was some evidence that approximate number training enhanced symbolic number line placements relative to control conditions. Together, the findings suggest that engagement of the ANS through brief training procedures enhances children's immediate attention to number and engagement with symbolic number tasks. PMID:27764117

A decade of pig genome sequencing: a window on pig domestication and evolution.

PubMed

Groenen, Martien A M

2016-03-29

Insight into how genomes change and adapt due to selection addresses key questions in evolutionary biology and in domestication of animals and plants by humans. In that regard, the pig and its close relatives found in Africa and Eurasia represent an excellent group of species that enables studies of the effect of both natural and human-mediated selection on the genome. The recent completion of the draft genome sequence of a domestic pig and the development of next-generation sequencing technology during the past decade have created unprecedented possibilities to address these questions in great detail. In this paper, I review recent whole-genome sequencing studies in the pig and closely-related species that provide insight into the demography, admixture and selection of these species and, in particular, how domestication and subsequent selection of Sus scrofa have shaped the genomes of these animals.

Localization and characterization of X chromosome inversion breakpoints separating Drosophila mojavensis and Drosophila arizonae.

PubMed

Cirulli, Elizabeth T; Noor, Mohamed A F

2007-01-01

Ectopic exchange between transposable elements or other repetitive sequences along a chromosome can produce chromosomal inversions. As a result, genome sequence studies typically find sequence similarity between corresponding inversion breakpoint regions. Here, we identify and investigate the breakpoint regions of the X chromosome inversion distinguishing Drosophila mojavensis and Drosophila arizonae. We localize one inversion breakpoint to 13.7 kb and localize the other to a 1-Mb interval. Using this localization and assuming microsynteny between Drosophila melanogaster and D. arizonae, we pinpoint likely positions of the inversion breakpoints to windows of less than 3000 bp. These breakpoints define the size of the inversion to approximately 11 Mb. However, in contrast to many other studies, we fail to find significant sequence similarity between the 2 breakpoint regions. The localization of these inversion breakpoints will facilitate future genetic and molecular evolutionary studies in this species group, an emerging model system for ecological genetics.

Spatiotemporal attention operator using isotropic contrast and regional homogeneity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Palenichka, Roman; Lakhssassi, Ahmed; Zaremba, Marek

2011-04-01

A multiscale operator for spatiotemporal isotropic attention is proposed to reliably extract attention points during image sequence analysis. Its consecutive local maxima indicate attention points as the centers of image fragments of variable size with high intensity contrast, region homogeneity, regional shape saliency, and temporal change presence. The scale-adaptive estimation of temporal change (motion) and its aggregation with the regional shape saliency contribute to the accurate determination of attention points in image sequences. Multilocation descriptors of an image sequence are extracted at the attention points in the form of a set of multidimensional descriptor vectors. A fast recursive implementation is also proposed to make the operator's computational complexity independent from the spatial scale size, which is the window size in the spatial averaging filter. Experiments on the accuracy of attention-point detection have proved the operator consistency and its high potential for multiscale feature extraction from image sequences.

37 CFR 1.824 - Form and format for nucleotide and/or amino acid sequence submissions in computer readable form.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-07-01

... which the data were recorded on the computer readable form, the operating system used, a reference...) Operating System Compatibility: MS-DOS, MS-Windows, Unix or Macintosh; (3) Line Terminator: ASCII Carriage... in a self-extracting format that will decompress on one of the systems described in paragraph (b) of...

37 CFR 1.824 - Form and format for nucleotide and/or amino acid sequence submissions in computer readable form.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-07-01

... which the data were recorded on the computer readable form, the operating system used, a reference...) Operating System Compatibility: MS-DOS, MS-Windows, Unix or Macintosh; (3) Line Terminator: ASCII Carriage... in a self-extracting format that will decompress on one of the systems described in paragraph (b) of...

37 CFR 1.824 - Form and format for nucleotide and/or amino acid sequence submissions in computer readable form.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-07-01

... which the data were recorded on the computer readable form, the operating system used, a reference...) Operating System Compatibility: MS-DOS, MS-Windows, Unix or Macintosh; (3) Line Terminator: ASCII Carriage... in a self-extracting format that will decompress on one of the systems described in paragraph (b) of...

DNA methylation Landscape of body size variation in sheep.

PubMed

Cao, Jiaxue; Wei, Caihong; Liu, Dongming; Wang, Huihua; Wu, Mingming; Xie, Zhiyuan; Capellini, Terence D; Zhang, Li; Zhao, Fuping; Li, Li; Zhong, Tao; Wang, Linjie; Lu, Jian; Liu, Ruizao; Zhang, Shifang; Du, Yongfei; Zhang, Hongping; Du, Lixin

2015-10-16

Sub-populations of Chinese Mongolian sheep exhibit significant variance in body mass. In the present study, we sequenced the whole genome DNA methylation in these breeds to detect whether DNA methylation plays a role in determining the body mass of sheep by Methylated DNA immunoprecipitation - sequencing method. A high quality methylation map of Chinese Mongolian sheep was obtained in this study. We identified 399 different methylated regions located in 93 human orthologs, which were previously reported as body size related genes in human genome-wide association studies. We tested three regions in LTBP1, and DNA methylation of two CpG sites showed significant correlation with its RNA expression. Additionally, a particular set of differentially methylated windows enriched in the "development process" (GO: 0032502) was identified as potential candidates for association with body mass variation. Next, we validated small part of these windows in 5 genes; DNA methylation of SMAD1, TSC1 and AKT1 showed significant difference across breeds, and six CpG were significantly correlated with RNA expression. Interestingly, two CpG sites showed significant correlation with TSC1 protein expression. This study provides a thorough understanding of body size variation in sheep from an epigenetic perspective.

Song Perception by Professional Singers and Actors: An MEG Study

PubMed Central

Rosslau, Ken; Herholz, Sibylle C.; Knief, Arne; Ortmann, Magdalene; Deuster, Dirk; Schmidt, Claus-Michael; Zehnhoff-Dinnesen, Antoinetteam; Pantev, Christo; Dobel, Christian

2016-01-01

The cortical correlates of speech and music perception are essentially overlapping, and the specific effects of different types of training on these networks remain unknown. We compared two groups of vocally trained professionals for music and speech, singers and actors, using recited and sung rhyme sequences from German art songs with semantic and/ or prosodic/melodic violations (i.e. violations of pitch) of the last word, in order to measure the evoked activation in a magnetoencephalographic (MEG) experiment. MEG data confirmed the existence of intertwined networks for the sung and spoken modality in an early time window after word violation. In essence for this early response, higher activity was measured after melodic/prosodic than semantic violations in predominantly right temporal areas. For singers as well as for actors, modality-specific effects were evident in predominantly left-temporal lateralized activity after semantic expectancy violations in the spoken modality, and right-dominant temporal activity in response to melodic violations in the sung modality. As an indication of a special group-dependent audiation process, higher neuronal activity for singers appeared in a late time window in right temporal and left parietal areas, both after the recited and the sung sequences. PMID:26863437

Cooperativity among Short Amyloid Stretches in Long Amyloidogenic Sequences

PubMed Central

He, Zhisong; Shi, Xiaohe; Feng, Kaiyan; Ma, Buyong; Cai, Yu-Dong

2012-01-01

Amyloid fibrillar aggregates of polypeptides are associated with many neurodegenerative diseases. Short peptide segments in protein sequences may trigger aggregation. Identifying these stretches and examining their behavior in longer protein segments is critical for understanding these diseases and obtaining potential therapies. In this study, we combined machine learning and structure-based energy evaluation to examine and predict amyloidogenic segments. Our feature selection method discovered that windows consisting of long amino acid segments of ∼30 residues, instead of the commonly used short hexapeptides, provided the highest accuracy. Weighted contributions of an amino acid at each position in a 27 residue window revealed three cooperative regions of short stretch, resemble the β-strand-turn-β-strand motif in A-βpeptide amyloid and β-solenoid structure of HET-s(218–289) prion (C). Using an in-house energy evaluation algorithm, the interaction energy between two short stretches in long segment is computed and incorporated as an additional feature. The algorithm successfully predicted and classified amyloid segments with an overall accuracy of 75%. Our study revealed that genome-wide amyloid segments are not only dependent on short high propensity stretches, but also on nearby residues. PMID:22761773

Detecting Recombination Hotspots from Patterns of Linkage Disequilibrium.

PubMed

Wall, Jeffrey D; Stevison, Laurie S

2016-08-09

With recent advances in DNA sequencing technologies, it has become increasingly easy to use whole-genome sequencing of unrelated individuals to assay patterns of linkage disequilibrium (LD) across the genome. One type of analysis that is commonly performed is to estimate local recombination rates and identify recombination hotspots from patterns of LD. One method for detecting recombination hotspots, LDhot, has been used in a handful of species to further our understanding of the basic biology of recombination. For the most part, the effectiveness of this method (e.g., power and false positive rate) is unknown. In this study, we run extensive simulations to compare the effectiveness of three different implementations of LDhot. We find large differences in the power and false positive rates of these different approaches, as well as a strong sensitivity to the window size used (with smaller window sizes leading to more accurate estimation of hotspot locations). We also compared our LDhot simulation results with comparable simulation results obtained from a Bayesian maximum-likelihood approach for identifying hotspots. Surprisingly, we found that the latter computationally intensive approach had substantially lower power over the parameter values considered in our simulations. Copyright © 2016 Wall and Stevison.

Insights into Conifer Giga-Genomes1

PubMed Central

De La Torre, Amanda R.; Birol, Inanc; Bousquet, Jean; Ingvarsson, Pär K.; Jansson, Stefan; Jones, Steven J.M.; Keeling, Christopher I.; MacKay, John; Nilsson, Ove; Ritland, Kermit; Street, Nathaniel; Yanchuk, Alvin; Zerbe, Philipp; Bohlmann, Jörg

2014-01-01

Insights from sequenced genomes of major land plant lineages have advanced research in almost every aspect of plant biology. Until recently, however, assembled genome sequences of gymnosperms have been missing from this picture. Conifers of the pine family (Pinaceae) are a group of gymnosperms that dominate large parts of the world’s forests. Despite their ecological and economic importance, conifers seemed long out of reach for complete genome sequencing, due in part to their enormous genome size (20–30 Gb) and the highly repetitive nature of their genomes. Technological advances in genome sequencing and assembly enabled the recent publication of three conifer genomes: white spruce (Picea glauca), Norway spruce (Picea abies), and loblolly pine (Pinus taeda). These genome sequences revealed distinctive features compared with other plant genomes and may represent a window into the past of seed plant genomes. This Update highlights recent advances, remaining challenges, and opportunities in light of the publication of the first conifer and gymnosperm genomes. PMID:25349325

Insights into conifer giga-genomes.

PubMed

De La Torre, Amanda R; Birol, Inanc; Bousquet, Jean; Ingvarsson, Pär K; Jansson, Stefan; Jones, Steven J M; Keeling, Christopher I; MacKay, John; Nilsson, Ove; Ritland, Kermit; Street, Nathaniel; Yanchuk, Alvin; Zerbe, Philipp; Bohlmann, Jörg

2014-12-01

Insights from sequenced genomes of major land plant lineages have advanced research in almost every aspect of plant biology. Until recently, however, assembled genome sequences of gymnosperms have been missing from this picture. Conifers of the pine family (Pinaceae) are a group of gymnosperms that dominate large parts of the world's forests. Despite their ecological and economic importance, conifers seemed long out of reach for complete genome sequencing, due in part to their enormous genome size (20-30 Gb) and the highly repetitive nature of their genomes. Technological advances in genome sequencing and assembly enabled the recent publication of three conifer genomes: white spruce (Picea glauca), Norway spruce (Picea abies), and loblolly pine (Pinus taeda). These genome sequences revealed distinctive features compared with other plant genomes and may represent a window into the past of seed plant genomes. This Update highlights recent advances, remaining challenges, and opportunities in light of the publication of the first conifer and gymnosperm genomes. © 2014 American Society of Plant Biologists. All Rights Reserved.

Age-related differences in warning symbol comprehension and training effectiveness: effects of familiarity, complexity, and comprehensibility.

PubMed

Lesch, M F; Horrey, W J; Wogalter, M S; Powell, W R

2011-10-01

Age-related changes in selective attention, inhibitory efficiency, and the ability to form new associations suggest that older adults may have greater difficulty with more complex and less comprehensible symbols. We examined comprehension of symbols varying in terms of ratings of familiarity, complexity, and comprehensibility, by younger (aged 18-35) and older (aged 55-70) adults. It was found that older adults have greater difficulty than younger adults in comprehending warning symbols and that accident scenario training improves comprehension. Regression analyses indicated that familiarity and comprehensibility were important in determining performance on the pre-training comprehension test by both younger and older adults. However, training eliminated the effects of stimulus characteristics for younger adults, while older adults' comprehension continued to be significantly influenced by comprehensibility. We suggest that symbol design incorporates cues to knowledge to facilitate the linkage between new knowledge (i.e. the warning symbol) and relevant knowledge in long-term memory. Statement of Relevance: Symbol characteristics play an important role in age-related differences in warning symbol comprehension. To optimise comprehension by older adults, symbols should have a clear relationship with areal-world referent. Alternatively, symbol design could incorporate cues to knowledge to facilitate the linkage between new knowledge and relevant knowledge in long-term memory.

The use of contextual cues to improve warning symbol comprehension: making the connection for older adults

PubMed Central

Lesch, Mary F.; Powell, W. Ryan; Horrey, William J.; Wogalter, Michael S.

2013-01-01

This study teased apart the effects of comprehensibility and complexity on older adults' comprehension of warning symbols by manipulating the relevance of additional information in further refining the meaning of the symbol. Symbols were systematically altered such that increased visual complexity (in the form of contextual cues) resulted in increased comprehensibility. One hundred older adults, aged 50–71 years, were tested on their comprehension of these symbols before and after training. High comprehensibility–complexity symbols were found to be better understood than low- or medium-comprehensibility–complexity symbols and the effectiveness of the contextual cues varied as a function of training. Therefore, the nature of additional detail determines whether increased complexity is detrimental or beneficial to older adults' comprehension – if the additional details provide ‘cues to knowledge’, older adults' comprehension improves as a result of the increased complexity. However, some cues may require training in order to be effective. Practitioner Summary: Research suggests that older adults have greater difficulty in understanding more complex symbols. However, we found that when the complexity of symbols was increased through the addition of contextual cues, older adults' comprehension actually improved. Contextual cues aid older adults in making the connection between the symbol and its referent. PMID:23767856

Medical Symbols in Practice: Myths vs Reality.

PubMed

Shetty, Anil; Shetty, Shraddha; Dsouza, Oliver

2014-08-01

The caduceus is the popular symbol of medicine. However, premier health organizations and regulatory bodies such as the World Health Organization and the Medical Council of India use a different symbol- the rod of Asclepius in their logo. There is an increasing awareness and recognition that the caduceus is a false symbol and has no historical substantiation as an emblem of medicine. Many academic and health institutions in the western hemisphere have changed their logo as a consequence. There are other symbols of medicine which are similarly misunderstood. The purpose of the study is to assess the knowledge of common medical symbols among doctors and medical students. Three hundred doctors and medical students were assessed on their knowledge about the Rx symbol, the Red Cross emblem and the true representative emblem of medicine. Logos and emblems of elite medical colleges and medical associations were also studied. Only 6% of doctors were aware that the Rod of Asclepius is the true symbol of healing. Knowledge of the significance of the Rx symbol and the origin of the Red Cross emblem was 55% and 39 %. There is very little awareness about the rod of Asclepius and most institutions have adopted a logo based on the caduceus. Awareness of the true origins and the symbolism of the emblems is lacking in the medical fraternity.

The least channel capacity for chaos synchronization.

PubMed

Wang, Mogei; Wang, Xingyuan; Liu, Zhenzhen; Zhang, Huaguang

2011-03-01

Recently researchers have found that a channel with capacity exceeding the Kolmogorov-Sinai entropy of the drive system (h(KS)) is theoretically necessary and sufficient to sustain the unidirectional synchronization to arbitrarily high precision. In this study, we use symbolic dynamics and the automaton reset sequence to distinguish the information that is required in identifying the current drive word and obtaining the synchronization. Then, we show that the least channel capacity that is sufficient to transmit the distinguished information and attain the synchronization of arbitrarily high precision is h(KS). Numerical simulations provide support for our conclusions.

Autism and Piaget's theory: are the two compatible?

PubMed

Morgan, S B

1986-12-01

Autism is interpreted in Piagetian terms with particular reference to the question of whether the atypical cognitive development represents an exception to the similar sequence hypothesis. Findings from relevant research applying Piaget's theory to mental retardation, psychosis, and autism are reviewed. The apparent exceptions to the hypothesis presented in autistic individuals are explained by Piaget's two-factor theory of figurative versus operative functions. Many autistic individuals show an arrest in operative functions at the sensorimotor level while continuing to progress in figurative functions. The early arrest interferes with subsequent development of higher-level conceptual, symbolic, and social skills. Questions for research are offered.

Information categorization approach to literary authorship disputes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yang, Albert C.-C.; Peng, C.-K.; Yien, H.-W.; Goldberger, Ary L.

2003-11-01

Scientific analysis of the linguistic styles of different authors has generated considerable interest. We present a generic approach to measuring the similarity of two symbolic sequences that requires minimal background knowledge about a given human language. Our analysis is based on word rank order-frequency statistics and phylogenetic tree construction. We demonstrate the applicability of this method to historic authorship questions related to the classic Chinese novel “The Dream of the Red Chamber,” to the plays of William Shakespeare, and to the Federalist papers. This method may also provide a simple approach to other large databases based on their information content.

Linguistic Analysis of the Human Heartbeat Using Frequency and Rank Order Statistics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yang, Albert C.-C.; Hseu, Shu-Shya; Yien, Huey-Wen; Goldberger, Ary L.; Peng, C.-K.

2003-03-01

Complex physiologic signals may carry unique dynamical signatures that are related to their underlying mechanisms. We present a method based on rank order statistics of symbolic sequences to investigate the profile of different types of physiologic dynamics. We apply this method to heart rate fluctuations, the output of a central physiologic control system. The method robustly discriminates patterns generated from healthy and pathologic states, as well as aging. Furthermore, we observe increased randomness in the heartbeat time series with physiologic aging and pathologic states and also uncover nonrandom patterns in the ventricular response to atrial fibrillation.

40 CFR 1042.905 - Symbols, acronyms, and abbreviations.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

... 40 Protection of Environment 33 2011-07-01 2011-07-01 false Symbols, acronyms, and abbreviations... Definitions and Other Reference Information § 1042.905 Symbols, acronyms, and abbreviations. The following symbols, acronyms, and abbreviations apply to this part: ABTAveraging, banking, and trading. AECDauxiliary...