Optimal Paths in Gliding Flight

Science.gov (United States)

Wolek, Artur

Underwater gliders are robust and long endurance ocean sampling platforms that are increasingly being deployed in coastal regions. This new environment is characterized by shallow waters and significant currents that can challenge the mobility of these efficient (but traditionally slow moving) vehicles. This dissertation aims to improve the performance of shallow water underwater gliders through path planning. The path planning problem is formulated for a dynamic particle (or "kinematic car") model. The objective is to identify the path which satisfies specified boundary conditions and minimizes a particular cost. Several cost functions are considered. The problem is addressed using optimal control theory. The length scales of interest for path planning are within a few turn radii. First, an approach is developed for planning minimum-time paths, for a fixed speed glider, that are sub-optimal but are guaranteed to be feasible in the presence of unknown time-varying currents. Next the minimum-time problem for a glider with speed controls, that may vary between the stall speed and the maximum speed, is solved. Last, optimal paths that minimize change in depth (equivalently, maximize range) are investigated. Recognizing that path planning alone cannot overcome all of the challenges associated with significant currents and shallow waters, the design of a novel underwater glider with improved capabilities is explored. A glider with a pneumatic buoyancy engine (allowing large, rapid buoyancy changes) and a cylindrical moving mass mechanism (generating large pitch and roll moments) is designed, manufactured, and tested to demonstrate potential improvements in speed and maneuverability.

Zero-Slack, Noncritical Paths

Science.gov (United States)

Simons, Jacob V., Jr.

2017-01-01

The critical path method/program evaluation and review technique method of project scheduling is based on the importance of managing a project's critical path(s). Although a critical path is the longest path through a network, its location in large projects is facilitated by the computation of activity slack. However, logical fallacies in…

Multiscale simulations of patchy particle systems combining Molecular Dynamics, Path Sampling and Green's Function Reaction Dynamics

Science.gov (United States)

Bolhuis, Peter

Important reaction-diffusion processes, such as biochemical networks in living cells, or self-assembling soft matter, span many orders in length and time scales. In these systems, the reactants' spatial dynamics at mesoscopic length and time scales of microns and seconds is coupled to the reactions between the molecules at microscopic length and time scales of nanometers and milliseconds. This wide range of length and time scales makes these systems notoriously difficult to simulate. While mean-field rate equations cannot describe such processes, the mesoscopic Green's Function Reaction Dynamics (GFRD) method enables efficient simulation at the particle level provided the microscopic dynamics can be integrated out. Yet, many processes exhibit non-trivial microscopic dynamics that can qualitatively change the macroscopic behavior, calling for an atomistic, microscopic description. The recently developed multiscale Molecular Dynamics Green's Function Reaction Dynamics (MD-GFRD) approach combines GFRD for simulating the system at the mesocopic scale where particles are far apart, with microscopic Molecular (or Brownian) Dynamics, for simulating the system at the microscopic scale where reactants are in close proximity. The association and dissociation of particles are treated with rare event path sampling techniques. I will illustrate the efficiency of this method for patchy particle systems. Replacing the microscopic regime with a Markov State Model avoids the microscopic regime completely. The MSM is then pre-computed using advanced path-sampling techniques such as multistate transition interface sampling. I illustrate this approach on patchy particle systems that show multiple modes of binding. MD-GFRD is generic, and can be used to efficiently simulate reaction-diffusion systems at the particle level, including the orientational dynamics, opening up the possibility for large-scale simulations of e.g. protein signaling networks.

Large sample neutron activation analysis of a reference inhomogeneous sample

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Vasilopoulou, T.; Athens National Technical University, Athens; Tzika, F.; Stamatelatos, I.E.; Koster-Ammerlaan, M.J.J.

2011-01-01

A benchmark experiment was performed for Neutron Activation Analysis (NAA) of a large inhomogeneous sample. The reference sample was developed in-house and consisted of SiO 2 matrix and an Al-Zn alloy 'inhomogeneity' body. Monte Carlo simulations were employed to derive appropriate correction factors for neutron self-shielding during irradiation as well as self-attenuation of gamma rays and sample geometry during counting. The large sample neutron activation analysis (LSNAA) results were compared against reference values and the trueness of the technique was evaluated. An agreement within ±10% was observed between LSNAA and reference elemental mass values, for all matrix and inhomogeneity elements except Samarium, provided that the inhomogeneity body was fully simulated. However, in cases that the inhomogeneity was treated as not known, the results showed a reasonable agreement for most matrix elements, while large discrepancies were observed for the inhomogeneity elements. This study provided a quantification of the uncertainties associated with inhomogeneity in large sample analysis and contributed to the identification of the needs for future development of LSNAA facilities for analysis of inhomogeneous samples. (author)

Large Sample Neutron Activation Analysis of Heterogeneous Samples

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Stamatelatos, I.E.; Vasilopoulou, T.; Tzika, F.

2018-01-01

A Large Sample Neutron Activation Analysis (LSNAA) technique was developed for non-destructive analysis of heterogeneous bulk samples. The technique incorporated collimated scanning and combining experimental measurements and Monte Carlo simulations for the identification of inhomogeneities in large volume samples and the correction of their effect on the interpretation of gamma-spectrometry data. Corrections were applied for the effect of neutron self-shielding, gamma-ray attenuation, geometrical factor and heterogeneous activity distribution within the sample. A benchmark experiment was performed to investigate the effect of heterogeneity on the accuracy of LSNAA. Moreover, a ceramic vase was analyzed as a whole demonstrating the feasibility of the technique. The LSNAA results were compared against results obtained by INAA and a satisfactory agreement between the two methods was observed. This study showed that LSNAA is a technique capable to perform accurate non-destructive, multi-elemental compositional analysis of heterogeneous objects. It also revealed the great potential of the technique for the analysis of precious objects and artefacts that need to be preserved intact and cannot be damaged for sampling purposes. (author)

Water evaporation: a transition path sampling study.

Science.gov (United States)

Varilly, Patrick; Chandler, David

2013-02-07

We use transition path sampling to study evaporation in the SPC/E model of liquid water. On the basis of thousands of evaporation trajectories, we characterize the members of the transition state ensemble (TSE), which exhibit a liquid-vapor interface with predominantly negative mean curvature at the site of evaporation. We also find that after evaporation is complete, the distributions of translational and angular momenta of the evaporated water are Maxwellian with a temperature equal to that of the liquid. To characterize the evaporation trajectories in their entirety, we find that it suffices to project them onto just two coordinates: the distance of the evaporating molecule to the instantaneous liquid-vapor interface and the velocity of the water along the average interface normal. In this projected space, we find that the TSE is well-captured by a simple model of ballistic escape from a deep potential well, with no additional barrier to evaporation beyond the cohesive strength of the liquid. Equivalently, they are consistent with a near-unity probability for a water molecule impinging upon a liquid droplet to condense. These results agree with previous simulations and with some, but not all, recent experiments.

Heating and thermal control of brazing technique to break contamination path for potential Mars sample return

Science.gov (United States)

Bao, Xiaoqi; Badescu, Mircea; Sherrit, Stewart; Bar-Cohen, Yoseph; Campos, Sergio

2017-04-01

The potential return of Mars sample material is of great interest to the planetary science community, as it would enable extensive analysis of samples with highly sensitive laboratory instruments. It is important to make sure such a mission concept would not bring any living microbes, which may possibly exist on Mars, back to Earth's environment. In order to ensure the isolation of Mars microbes from Earth's Atmosphere, a brazing sealing and sterilizing technique was proposed to break the Mars-to-Earth contamination path. Effectively, heating the brazing zone in high vacuum space and controlling the sample temperature for integrity are key challenges to the implementation of this technique. The break-thechain procedures for container configurations, which are being considered, were simulated by multi-physics finite element models. Different heating methods including induction and resistive/radiation were evaluated. The temperature profiles of Martian samples in a proposed container structure were predicted. The results show that the sealing and sterilizing process can be controlled such that the samples temperature is maintained below the level that may cause damage, and that the brazing technique is a feasible approach to breaking the contamination path.

Hard paths, soft paths or no paths? Cross-cultural perceptions of water solutions

Science.gov (United States)

Wutich, A.; White, A. C.; White, D. D.; Larson, K. L.; Brewis, A.; Roberts, C.

2014-01-01

In this study, we examine how development status and water scarcity shape people's perceptions of "hard path" and "soft path" water solutions. Based on ethnographic research conducted in four semi-rural/peri-urban sites (in Bolivia, Fiji, New Zealand, and the US), we use content analysis to conduct statistical and thematic comparisons of interview data. Our results indicate clear differences associated with development status and, to a lesser extent, water scarcity. People in the two less developed sites were more likely to suggest hard path solutions, less likely to suggest soft path solutions, and more likely to see no path to solutions than people in the more developed sites. Thematically, people in the two less developed sites envisioned solutions that involve small-scale water infrastructure and decentralized, community-based solutions, while people in the more developed sites envisioned solutions that involve large-scale infrastructure and centralized, regulatory water solutions. People in the two water-scarce sites were less likely to suggest soft path solutions and more likely to see no path to solutions (but no more likely to suggest hard path solutions) than people in the water-rich sites. Thematically, people in the two water-rich sites seemed to perceive a wider array of unrealized potential soft path solutions than those in the water-scarce sites. On balance, our findings are encouraging in that they indicate that people are receptive to soft path solutions in a range of sites, even those with limited financial or water resources. Our research points to the need for more studies that investigate the social feasibility of soft path water solutions, particularly in sites with significant financial and natural resource constraints.

Adaptive enhanced sampling with a path-variable for the simulation of protein folding and aggregation

Science.gov (United States)

Peter, Emanuel K.

2017-12-01

In this article, we present a novel adaptive enhanced sampling molecular dynamics (MD) method for the accelerated simulation of protein folding and aggregation. We introduce a path-variable L based on the un-biased momenta p and displacements dq for the definition of the bias s applied to the system and derive 3 algorithms: general adaptive bias MD, adaptive path-sampling, and a hybrid method which combines the first 2 methodologies. Through the analysis of the correlations between the bias and the un-biased gradient in the system, we find that the hybrid methodology leads to an improved force correlation and acceleration in the sampling of the phase space. We apply our method on SPC/E water, where we find a conservation of the average water structure. We then use our method to sample dialanine and the folding of TrpCage, where we find a good agreement with simulation data reported in the literature. Finally, we apply our methodologies on the initial stages of aggregation of a hexamer of Alzheimer's amyloid β fragment 25-35 (Aβ 25-35) and find that transitions within the hexameric aggregate are dominated by entropic barriers, while we speculate that especially the conformation entropy plays a major role in the formation of the fibril as a rate limiting factor.

Prevalence of Human Papillomavirus Infection in Unselected SurePath Samples Using the APTIMA HPV mRNA Assay

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Rebolj, Matejka; Preisler, Sarah; Ejegod, Ditte M

2013-01-01

The APTIMA Human Papillomavirus (HPV) Assay detects E6/E7 mRNA from 14 human papillomavirus genotypes. Horizon was a population-based split-sample study among well-screened women, with an aim to compare APTIMA, Hybrid Capture 2 (HC2), and liquid-based cytology (LBC) using SurePath samples. APTIMA...

Optimal sampling designs for large-scale fishery sample surveys in Greece

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

G. BAZIGOS

2007-12-01

The paper deals with the optimization of the following three large scale sample surveys: biological sample survey of commercial landings (BSCL, experimental fishing sample survey (EFSS, and commercial landings and effort sample survey (CLES.

Sample-Path Optimal Stationary Policies in Stable Markov Decision Chains with Average Reward Criterion

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Cavazos-Cadena, R.; Montes-de-Oca, R.; Sladký, Karel

2015-01-01

Roč. 52, č. 2 (2015), s. 419-440 ISSN 0021-9002 Grant - others:GA AV ČR(CZ) 171396 Institutional support: RVO:67985556 Keywords : Dominated Convergence theorem for the expected average criterion * Discrepancy function * Kolmogorov inequality * Innovations * Strong sample-path optimality Subject RIV: BC - Control Systems Theory Impact factor: 0.665, year: 2015 http://library.utia.cas.cz/separaty/2015/E/sladky-0449029.pdf

The large sample size fallacy.

Science.gov (United States)

Lantz, Björn

2013-06-01

Significance in the statistical sense has little to do with significance in the common practical sense. Statistical significance is a necessary but not a sufficient condition for practical significance. Hence, results that are extremely statistically significant may be highly nonsignificant in practice. The degree of practical significance is generally determined by the size of the observed effect, not the p-value. The results of studies based on large samples are often characterized by extreme statistical significance despite small or even trivial effect sizes. Interpreting such results as significant in practice without further analysis is referred to as the large sample size fallacy in this article. The aim of this article is to explore the relevance of the large sample size fallacy in contemporary nursing research. Relatively few nursing articles display explicit measures of observed effect sizes or include a qualitative discussion of observed effect sizes. Statistical significance is often treated as an end in itself. Effect sizes should generally be calculated and presented along with p-values for statistically significant results, and observed effect sizes should be discussed qualitatively through direct and explicit comparisons with the effects in related literature. © 2012 Nordic College of Caring Science.

Relative humidity effects on water vapour fluxes measured with closed-path eddy-covariance systems with short sampling lines

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Fratini, Gerardo; Ibrom, Andreas; Arriga, Nicola

2012-01-01

It has been formerly recognised that increasing relative humidity in the sampling line of closed-path eddy-covariance systems leads to increasing attenuation of water vapour turbulent fluctuations, resulting in strong latent heat flux losses. This occurrence has been analyzed for very long (50 m...... from eddy-covariance systems featuring short (4 m) and very short (1 m) sampling lines running at the same clover field and show that relative humidity effects persist also for these setups, and should not be neglected. Starting from the work of Ibrom and co-workers, we propose a mixed method...... and correction method proposed here is deemed applicable to closed-path systems featuring a broad range of sampling lines, and indeed applicable also to passive gases as a special case. The methods described in this paper are incorporated, as processing options, in the free and open-source eddy...

Sampling Large Graphs for Anticipatory Analytics

Science.gov (United States)

2015-05-15

low. C. Random Area Sampling Random area sampling [8] is a “ snowball ” sampling method in which a set of random seed vertices are selected and areas... Sampling Large Graphs for Anticipatory Analytics Lauren Edwards, Luke Johnson, Maja Milosavljevic, Vijay Gadepally, Benjamin A. Miller Lincoln...systems, greater human-in-the-loop involvement, or through complex algorithms. We are investigating the use of sampling to mitigate these challenges

Simultaneous determination of sample thickness, tilt, and electron mean free path using tomographic tilt images based on Beer-Lambert law.

Science.gov (United States)

Yan, Rui; Edwards, Thomas J; Pankratz, Logan M; Kuhn, Richard J; Lanman, Jason K; Liu, Jun; Jiang, Wen

2015-11-01

Cryo-electron tomography (cryo-ET) is an emerging technique that can elucidate the architecture of macromolecular complexes and cellular ultrastructure in a near-native state. Some important sample parameters, such as thickness and tilt, are needed for 3-D reconstruction. However, these parameters can currently only be determined using trial 3-D reconstructions. Accurate electron mean free path plays a significant role in modeling image formation process essential for simulation of electron microscopy images and model-based iterative 3-D reconstruction methods; however, their values are voltage and sample dependent and have only been experimentally measured for a limited number of sample conditions. Here, we report a computational method, tomoThickness, based on the Beer-Lambert law, to simultaneously determine the sample thickness, tilt and electron inelastic mean free path by solving an overdetermined nonlinear least square optimization problem utilizing the strong constraints of tilt relationships. The method has been extensively tested with both stained and cryo datasets. The fitted electron mean free paths are consistent with reported experimental measurements. The accurate thickness estimation eliminates the need for a generous assignment of Z-dimension size of the tomogram. Interestingly, we have also found that nearly all samples are a few degrees tilted relative to the electron beam. Compensation of the intrinsic sample tilt can result in horizontal structure and reduced Z-dimension of tomograms. Our fast, pre-reconstruction method can thus provide important sample parameters that can help improve performance of tomographic reconstruction of a wide range of samples. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Automated Prediction of Catalytic Mechanism and Rate Law Using Graph-Based Reaction Path Sampling.

Science.gov (United States)

Habershon, Scott

2016-04-12

In a recent article [ J. Chem. Phys. 2015 , 143 , 094106 ], we introduced a novel graph-based sampling scheme which can be used to generate chemical reaction paths in many-atom systems in an efficient and highly automated manner. The main goal of this work is to demonstrate how this approach, when combined with direct kinetic modeling, can be used to determine the mechanism and phenomenological rate law of a complex catalytic cycle, namely cobalt-catalyzed hydroformylation of ethene. Our graph-based sampling scheme generates 31 unique chemical products and 32 unique chemical reaction pathways; these sampled structures and reaction paths enable automated construction of a kinetic network model of the catalytic system when combined with density functional theory (DFT) calculations of free energies and resultant transition-state theory rate constants. Direct simulations of this kinetic network across a range of initial reactant concentrations enables determination of both the reaction mechanism and the associated rate law in an automated fashion, without the need for either presupposing a mechanism or making steady-state approximations in kinetic analysis. Most importantly, we find that the reaction mechanism which emerges from these simulations is exactly that originally proposed by Heck and Breslow; furthermore, the simulated rate law is also consistent with previous experimental and computational studies, exhibiting a complex dependence on carbon monoxide pressure. While the inherent errors of using DFT simulations to model chemical reactivity limit the quantitative accuracy of our calculated rates, this work confirms that our automated simulation strategy enables direct analysis of catalytic mechanisms from first principles.

A Novel Real-Time Path Servo Control of a Hardware-in-the-Loop for a Large-Stroke Asymmetric Rod-Less Pneumatic System under Variable Loads

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hao-Ting Lin

2017-06-01

Full Text Available This project aims to develop a novel large stroke asymmetric pneumatic servo system of a hardware-in-the-loop for path tracking control under variable loads based on the MATLAB Simulink real-time system. High pressure compressed air provided by the air compressor is utilized for the pneumatic proportional servo valve to drive the large stroke asymmetric rod-less pneumatic actuator. Due to the pressure differences between two chambers, the pneumatic actuator will operate. The highly nonlinear mathematical models of the large stroke asymmetric pneumatic system were analyzed and developed. The functional approximation technique based on the sliding mode controller (FASC is developed as a controller to solve the uncertain time-varying nonlinear system. The MATLAB Simulink real-time system was a main control unit of a hardware-in-the-loop system proposed to establish driver blocks for analog and digital I/O, a linear encoder, a CPU and a large stroke asymmetric pneumatic rod-less system. By the position sensor, the position signals of the cylinder will be measured immediately. The measured signals will be viewed as the feedback signals of the pneumatic servo system for the study of real-time positioning control and path tracking control. Finally, real-time control of a large stroke asymmetric pneumatic servo system with measuring system, a large stroke asymmetric pneumatic servo system, data acquisition system and the control strategy software will be implemented. Thus, upgrading the high position precision and the trajectory tracking performance of the large stroke asymmetric pneumatic servo system will be realized to promote the high position precision and path tracking capability. Experimental results show that fifth order paths in various strokes and the sine wave path are successfully implemented in the test rig. Also, results of variable loads under the different angle were implemented experimentally.

A Novel Real-Time Path Servo Control of a Hardware-in-the-Loop for a Large-Stroke Asymmetric Rod-Less Pneumatic System under Variable Loads.

Science.gov (United States)

Lin, Hao-Ting

2017-06-04

This project aims to develop a novel large stroke asymmetric pneumatic servo system of a hardware-in-the-loop for path tracking control under variable loads based on the MATLAB Simulink real-time system. High pressure compressed air provided by the air compressor is utilized for the pneumatic proportional servo valve to drive the large stroke asymmetric rod-less pneumatic actuator. Due to the pressure differences between two chambers, the pneumatic actuator will operate. The highly nonlinear mathematical models of the large stroke asymmetric pneumatic system were analyzed and developed. The functional approximation technique based on the sliding mode controller (FASC) is developed as a controller to solve the uncertain time-varying nonlinear system. The MATLAB Simulink real-time system was a main control unit of a hardware-in-the-loop system proposed to establish driver blocks for analog and digital I/O, a linear encoder, a CPU and a large stroke asymmetric pneumatic rod-less system. By the position sensor, the position signals of the cylinder will be measured immediately. The measured signals will be viewed as the feedback signals of the pneumatic servo system for the study of real-time positioning control and path tracking control. Finally, real-time control of a large stroke asymmetric pneumatic servo system with measuring system, a large stroke asymmetric pneumatic servo system, data acquisition system and the control strategy software will be implemented. Thus, upgrading the high position precision and the trajectory tracking performance of the large stroke asymmetric pneumatic servo system will be realized to promote the high position precision and path tracking capability. Experimental results show that fifth order paths in various strokes and the sine wave path are successfully implemented in the test rig. Also, results of variable loads under the different angle were implemented experimentally.

Path-based Queries on Trajectory Data

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Krogh, Benjamin Bjerre; Pelekis, Nikos; Theodoridis, Yannis

2014-01-01

In traffic research, management, and planning a number of path-based analyses are heavily used, e.g., for computing turn-times, evaluating green waves, or studying traffic flow. These analyses require retrieving the trajectories that follow the full path being analyzed. Existing path queries cannot...... sufficiently support such path-based analyses because they retrieve all trajectories that touch any edge in the path. In this paper, we define and formalize the strict path query. This is a novel query type tailored to support path-based analysis, where trajectories must follow all edges in the path...... a specific path by only retrieving data from the first and last edge in the path. To correctly answer strict path queries existing network-constrained trajectory indexes must retrieve data from all edges in the path. An extensive performance study of NETTRA using a very large real-world trajectory data set...

Channel Capacity Calculation at Large SNR and Small Dispersion within Path-Integral Approach

Science.gov (United States)

Reznichenko, A. V.; Terekhov, I. S.

2018-04-01

We consider the optical fiber channel modelled by the nonlinear Shrödinger equation with additive white Gaussian noise. Using Feynman path-integral approach for the model with small dispersion we find the first nonzero corrections to the conditional probability density function and the channel capacity estimations at large signal-to-noise ratio. We demonstrate that the correction to the channel capacity in small dimensionless dispersion parameter is quadratic and positive therefore increasing the earlier calculated capacity for a nondispersive nonlinear optical fiber channel in the intermediate power region. Also for small dispersion case we find the analytical expressions for simple correlators of the output signals in our noisy channel.

Efficient methods for including quantum effects in Monte Carlo calculations of large systems: extension of the displaced points path integral method and other effective potential methods to calculate properties and distributions.

Science.gov (United States)

Mielke, Steven L; Dinpajooh, Mohammadhasan; Siepmann, J Ilja; Truhlar, Donald G

2013-01-07

We present a procedure to calculate ensemble averages, thermodynamic derivatives, and coordinate distributions by effective classical potential methods. In particular, we consider the displaced-points path integral (DPPI) method, which yields exact quantal partition functions and ensemble averages for a harmonic potential and approximate quantal ones for general potentials, and we discuss the implementation of the new procedure in two Monte Carlo simulation codes, one that uses uncorrelated samples to calculate absolute free energies, and another that employs Metropolis sampling to calculate relative free energies. The results of the new DPPI method are compared to those from accurate path integral calculations as well as to results of two other effective classical potential schemes for the case of an isolated water molecule. In addition to the partition function, we consider the heat capacity and expectation values of the energy, the potential energy, the bond angle, and the OH distance. We also consider coordinate distributions. The DPPI scheme performs best among the three effective potential schemes considered and achieves very good accuracy for all of the properties considered. A key advantage of the effective potential schemes is that they display much lower statistical sampling variances than those for accurate path integral calculations. The method presented here shows great promise for including quantum effects in calculations on large systems.

Detecting reactive islands using Lagrangian descriptors and the relevance to transition path sampling.

Science.gov (United States)

Patra, Sarbani; Keshavamurthy, Srihari

2018-02-14

It has been known for sometime now that isomerization reactions, classically, are mediated by phase space structures called reactive islands (RI). RIs provide one possible route to correct for the nonstatistical effects in the reaction dynamics. In this work, we map out the reactive islands for the two dimensional Müller-Brown model potential and show that the reactive islands are intimately linked to the issue of rare event sampling. In particular, we establish the sensitivity of the so called committor probabilities, useful quantities in the transition path sampling technique, to the hierarchical RI structures. Mapping out the RI structure for high dimensional systems, however, is a challenging task. Here, we show that the technique of Lagrangian descriptors is able to effectively identify the RI hierarchy in the model system. Based on our results, we suggest that the Lagrangian descriptors can be useful for detecting RIs in high dimensional systems.

Path probability distribution of stochastic motion of non dissipative systems: a classical analog of Feynman factor of path integral

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lin, T.L.; Wang, R.; Bi, W.P.; El Kaabouchi, A.; Pujos, C.; Calvayrac, F.; Wang, Q.A.

2013-01-01

We investigate, by numerical simulation, the path probability of non dissipative mechanical systems undergoing stochastic motion. The aim is to search for the relationship between this probability and the usual mechanical action. The model of simulation is a one-dimensional particle subject to conservative force and Gaussian random displacement. The probability that a sample path between two fixed points is taken is computed from the number of particles moving along this path, an output of the simulation, divided by the total number of particles arriving at the final point. It is found that the path probability decays exponentially with increasing action of the sample paths. The decay rate increases with decreasing randomness. This result supports the existence of a classical analog of the Feynman factor in the path integral formulation of quantum mechanics for Hamiltonian systems

Simulation and validation of concentrated subsurface lateral flow paths in an agricultural landscape

Science.gov (United States)

Zhu, Q.; Lin, H. S.

2009-08-01

and thus is a useful indicator of possible subsurface flow path over a large area; and (3) observable Mn distribution in soil profiles can be used as a simple indicator of water flow paths in soils and over the landscape; however, it does require sufficient soil sampling (by excavation or augering) to possibly infer landscape-scale subsurface flow paths. In areas where subsurface interface topography varies similarly with surface topography, surface DEM can be used to simulate potential subsurface lateral flow path reasonably so the cost associated with obtaining depth to subsurface water-restricting layer can be minimized.

A Counterexample on Sample-Path Optimality in Stable Markov Decision Chains with the Average Reward Criterion

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Cavazos-Cadena, R.; Montes-de-Oca, R.; Sladký, Karel

2014-01-01

Roč. 163, č. 2 (2014), s. 674-684 ISSN 0022-3239 Grant - others:PSF Organization(US) 012/300/02; CONACYT (México) and ASCR (Czech Republic)(MX) 171396 Institutional support: RVO:67985556 Keywords : Strong sample-path optimality * Lyapunov function condition * Stationary policy * Expected average reward criterion Subject RIV: BB - Applied Statistics, Operational Research Impact factor: 1.509, year: 2014 http://library.utia.cas.cz/separaty/2014/E/sladky-0432661.pdf

Dynamic evolution of temporal dissipative-soliton molecules in large normal path-averaged dispersion fiber lasers

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Liu Xueming

2010-01-01

The robust dissipative soliton molecules (DSM's) exhibiting as the quasirectangular spectral profile are investigated numerically and observed experimentally in mode-locked fiber lasers with the large normal path-averaged dispersion and the large net cavity dispersion. These DSM's have an independently evolving phase with a pulse duration T 0 of about 20 ps and a peak-to-peak separation of about 8T 0 . Under laboratory conditions, the proposed laser delivers vibrating DSM's with an oscillating amplitude of less than a percent of peak separation. Numerical simulations show that DSM's are characterized by a spectral modulation pattern with about a 3-dB modulation depth measured as an averaged value. The experimental observations are in excellent agreement with the numerical predictions.

Simultaneous Water Vapor and Dry Air Optical Path Length Measurements and Compensation with the Large Binocular Telescope Interferometer

Science.gov (United States)

Defrere, D.; Hinz, P.; Downey, E.; Boehm, M.; Danchi, W. C.; Durney, O.; Ertel, S.; Hill, J. M.; Hoffmann, W. F.; Mennesson, B.;

Path diversity improves the identification of influential spreaders

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Duan-Bing; Xiao, Rui; Zeng, An; Zhang, Yi-Cheng

2013-12-01

Identifying influential spreaders in complex networks is a crucial problem which relates to wide applications. Many methods based on the global information such as K-shell and PageRank have been applied to rank spreaders. However, most of the related previous works overwhelmingly focus on the number of paths for propagation, while whether the paths are diverse enough is usually overlooked. Generally, the spreading ability of a node might not be strong if its propagation depends on one or two paths while the other paths are dead ends. In this letter, we introduced the concept of path diversity and find that it can largely improve the ranking accuracy. We further propose a local method combining the information of path number and path diversity to identify influential nodes in complex networks. This method is shown to outperform many well-known methods in both undirected and directed networks. Moreover, the efficiency of our method makes it possible to apply it to very large systems.

Cervical cancer incidence after normal cytological sample in routine screening using SurePath, ThinPrep, and conventional cytology

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Rozemeijer, Kirsten; Naber, Steffie K; Penning, Corine

2017-01-01

of histo- and cytopathology in the Netherlands (PALGA), January 2000 to March 2013.Population Women with 5 924 474 normal screening samples (23 833 123 person years).Exposure Use of SurePath or ThinPrep versus conventional cytology as screening test.Main outcome measure 72 month cumulative incidence...

The experimental electron mean-free-path in Si under typical (S)TEM conditions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Potapov, P.L.

2014-01-01

The electron mean-free-path in Si was measured by EELS using the test structure with the certified dimensions as a calibration standard. In a good agreement with the previous CBED measurements, the mean-free-path is 150 nm for 200 keV and 179 nm for 300 keV energy of primary electrons at large collection angles. These values are accurately predicted by the model of Iakoubovskii et al. while the model of Malis et al. incorporated in common microscopy software underestimates the mean-free-path by 15% at least. Correspondingly, the thickness of TEM samples reported in many studies of the Si-based materials last decades might be noticeably underestimated. - Highlights: • The electron inelastic mean-free-path in Si is measured for the typical (S)TEM conditions. • These reference values allow for accurate determination of the lamella thickness by EELS. • The theoretical model by Malis et al. underestimates the mean-free-path values

Path integral methods for primordial density perturbations - sampling of constrained Gaussian random fields

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bertschinger, E.

1987-01-01

Path integrals may be used to describe the statistical properties of a random field such as the primordial density perturbation field. In this framework the probability distribution is given for a Gaussian random field subjected to constraints such as the presence of a protovoid or supercluster at a specific location in the initial conditions. An algorithm has been constructed for generating samples of a constrained Gaussian random field on a lattice using Monte Carlo techniques. The method makes possible a systematic study of the density field around peaks or other constrained regions in the biased galaxy formation scenario, and it is effective for generating initial conditions for N-body simulations with rare objects in the computational volume. 21 references

Investigation of Prediction Accuracy, Sensitivity, and Parameter Stability of Large-Scale Propagation Path Loss Models for 5G Wireless Communications

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Sun, Shu; Rappaport, Theodore S.; Thomas, Timothy

2016-01-01

This paper compares three candidate large-scale propagation path loss models for use over the entire microwave and millimeter-wave (mmWave) radio spectrum: the alpha–beta–gamma (ABG) model, the close-in (CI) free-space reference distance model, and the CI model with a frequency-weighted path loss...... exponent (CIF). Each of these models has been recently studied for use in standards bodies such as 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) and for use in the design of fifth generation wireless systems in urban macrocell, urban microcell, and indoor office and shopping mall scenarios. Here, we compare...

DiversePathsJ: diverse shortest paths for bioimage analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Uhlmann, Virginie; Haubold, Carsten; Hamprecht, Fred A; Unser, Michael

2018-02-01

We introduce a formulation for the general task of finding diverse shortest paths between two end-points. Our approach is not linked to a specific biological problem and can be applied to a large variety of images thanks to its generic implementation as a user-friendly ImageJ/Fiji plugin. It relies on the introduction of additional layers in a Viterbi path graph, which requires slight modifications to the standard Viterbi algorithm rules. This layered graph construction allows for the specification of various constraints imposing diversity between solutions. The software allows obtaining a collection of diverse shortest paths under some user-defined constraints through a convenient and user-friendly interface. It can be used alone or be integrated into larger image analysis pipelines. http://bigwww.epfl.ch/algorithms/diversepathsj. michael.unser@epfl.ch or fred.hamprecht@iwr.uni-heidelberg.de. Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online. © The Author(s) 2017. Published by Oxford University Press.

Remote sensing data with the conditional latin hypercube sampling and geostatistical approach to delineate landscape changes induced by large chronological physical disturbances.

Science.gov (United States)

Lin, Yu-Pin; Chu, Hone-Jay; Wang, Cheng-Long; Yu, Hsiao-Hsuan; Wang, Yung-Chieh

2009-01-01

This study applies variogram analyses of normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) images derived from SPOT HRV images obtained before and after the ChiChi earthquake in the Chenyulan watershed, Taiwan, as well as images after four large typhoons, to delineate the spatial patterns, spatial structures and spatial variability of landscapes caused by these large disturbances. The conditional Latin hypercube sampling approach was applied to select samples from multiple NDVI images. Kriging and sequential Gaussian simulation with sufficient samples were then used to generate maps of NDVI images. The variography of NDVI image results demonstrate that spatial patterns of disturbed landscapes were successfully delineated by variogram analysis in study areas. The high-magnitude Chi-Chi earthquake created spatial landscape variations in the study area. After the earthquake, the cumulative impacts of typhoons on landscape patterns depended on the magnitudes and paths of typhoons, but were not always evident in the spatiotemporal variability of landscapes in the study area. The statistics and spatial structures of multiple NDVI images were captured by 3,000 samples from 62,500 grids in the NDVI images. Kriging and sequential Gaussian simulation with the 3,000 samples effectively reproduced spatial patterns of NDVI images. However, the proposed approach, which integrates the conditional Latin hypercube sampling approach, variogram, kriging and sequential Gaussian simulation in remotely sensed images, efficiently monitors, samples and maps the effects of large chronological disturbances on spatial characteristics of landscape changes including spatial variability and heterogeneity.

Large-deviation principles, stochastic effective actions, path entropies, and the structure and meaning of thermodynamic descriptions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Smith, Eric

2011-01-01

The meaning of thermodynamic descriptions is found in large-deviations scaling (Ellis 1985 Entropy, Large Deviations, and Statistical Mechanics (New York: Springer); Touchette 2009 Phys. Rep. 478 1-69) of the probabilities for fluctuations of averaged quantities. The central function expressing large-deviations scaling is the entropy, which is the basis both for fluctuation theorems and for characterizing the thermodynamic interactions of systems. Freidlin-Wentzell theory (Freidlin and Wentzell 1998 Random Perturbations in Dynamical Systems 2nd edn (New York: Springer)) provides a quite general formulation of large-deviations scaling for non-equilibrium stochastic processes, through a remarkable representation in terms of a Hamiltonian dynamical system. A number of related methods now exist to construct the Freidlin-Wentzell Hamiltonian for many kinds of stochastic processes; one method due to Doi (1976 J. Phys. A: Math. Gen. 9 1465-78; 1976 J. Phys. A: Math. Gen. 9 1479) and Peliti (1985 J. Physique 46 1469; 1986 J. Phys. A: Math. Gen. 19 L365, appropriate to integer counting statistics, is widely used in reaction-diffusion theory. Using these tools together with a path-entropy method due to Jaynes (1980 Annu. Rev. Phys. Chem. 31 579-601), this review shows how to construct entropy functions that both express large-deviations scaling of fluctuations, and describe system-environment interactions, for discrete stochastic processes either at or away from equilibrium. A collection of variational methods familiar within quantum field theory, but less commonly applied to the Doi-Peliti construction, is used to define a 'stochastic effective action', which is the large-deviations rate function for arbitrary non-equilibrium paths. We show how common principles of entropy maximization, applied to different ensembles of states or of histories, lead to different entropy functions and different sets of thermodynamic state variables. Yet the relations among all these levels of

MinePath: Mining for Phenotype Differential Sub-paths in Molecular Pathways

Science.gov (United States)

Koumakis, Lefteris; Kartsaki, Evgenia; Chatzimina, Maria; Zervakis, Michalis; Vassou, Despoina; Marias, Kostas; Moustakis, Vassilis; Potamias, George

2016-01-01

Pathway analysis methodologies couple traditional gene expression analysis with knowledge encoded in established molecular pathway networks, offering a promising approach towards the biological interpretation of phenotype differentiating genes. Early pathway analysis methodologies, named as gene set analysis (GSA), view pathways just as plain lists of genes without taking into account either the underlying pathway network topology or the involved gene regulatory relations. These approaches, even if they achieve computational efficiency and simplicity, consider pathways that involve the same genes as equivalent in terms of their gene enrichment characteristics. Most recent pathway analysis approaches take into account the underlying gene regulatory relations by examining their consistency with gene expression profiles and computing a score for each profile. Even with this approach, assessing and scoring single-relations limits the ability to reveal key gene regulation mechanisms hidden in longer pathway sub-paths. We introduce MinePath, a pathway analysis methodology that addresses and overcomes the aforementioned problems. MinePath facilitates the decomposition of pathways into their constituent sub-paths. Decomposition leads to the transformation of single-relations to complex regulation sub-paths. Regulation sub-paths are then matched with gene expression sample profiles in order to evaluate their functional status and to assess phenotype differential power. Assessment of differential power supports the identification of the most discriminant profiles. In addition, MinePath assess the significance of the pathways as a whole, ranking them by their p-values. Comparison results with state-of-the-art pathway analysis systems are indicative for the soundness and reliability of the MinePath approach. In contrast with many pathway analysis tools, MinePath is a web-based system (www.minepath.org) offering dynamic and rich pathway visualization functionality, with the

Path Planning with a Lazy Significant Edge Algorithm (LSEA

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Joseph Polden

2013-04-01

Full Text Available Probabilistic methods have been proven to be effective for robotic path planning in a geometrically complex environment. In this paper, we propose a novel approach, which utilizes a specialized roadmap expansion phase, to improve lazy probabilistic path planning. This expansion phase analyses roadmap connectivity information to bias sampling towards objects in the workspace that have not yet been navigated by the robot. A new method to reduce the number of samples required to navigate narrow passages is also proposed and tested. Experimental results show that the new algorithm is more efficient than the traditional path planning methodologies. It was able to generate solutions for a variety of path planning problems faster, using fewer samples to arrive at a valid solution.

Robust Adaptive Photon Tracing using Photon Path Visibility

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hachisuka, Toshiya; Jensen, Henrik Wann

2011-01-01

We present a new adaptive photon tracing algorithm which can handle illumination settings that are considered difficult for photon tracing approaches such as outdoor scenes, close-ups of a small part of an illuminated region, and illumination coming through a small gap. The key contribution in our...... algorithm is the use of visibility of photon path as the importance function which ensures that our sampling algorithm focuses on paths that are visible from the given viewpoint. Our sampling algorithm builds on two recent developments in Markov chain Monte Carlo methods: adaptive Markov chain sampling...... and replica exchange. Using these techniques, each photon path is adaptively mutated and it explores the sampling space efficiently without being stuck at a local peak of the importance function. We have implemented this sampling approach in the progressive photon mapping algorithm which provides visibility...

Aircraft path planning for optimal imaging using dynamic cost functions

Science.gov (United States)

Christie, Gordon; Chaudhry, Haseeb; Kochersberger, Kevin

2015-05-01

Unmanned aircraft development has accelerated with recent technological improvements in sensing and communications, which has resulted in an "applications lag" for how these aircraft can best be utilized. The aircraft are becoming smaller, more maneuverable and have longer endurance to perform sensing and sampling missions, but operating them aggressively to exploit these capabilities has not been a primary focus in unmanned systems development. This paper addresses a means of aerial vehicle path planning to provide a realistic optimal path in acquiring imagery for structure from motion (SfM) reconstructions and performing radiation surveys. This method will allow SfM reconstructions to occur accurately and with minimal flight time so that the reconstructions can be executed efficiently. An assumption is made that we have 3D point cloud data available prior to the flight. A discrete set of scan lines are proposed for the given area that are scored based on visibility of the scene. Our approach finds a time-efficient path and calculates trajectories between scan lines and over obstacles encountered along those scan lines. Aircraft dynamics are incorporated into the path planning algorithm as dynamic cost functions to create optimal imaging paths in minimum time. Simulations of the path planning algorithm are shown for an urban environment. We also present our approach for image-based terrain mapping, which is able to efficiently perform a 3D reconstruction of a large area without the use of GPS data.

Sampling large random knots in a confined space

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Arsuaga, J; Blackstone, T; Diao, Y; Hinson, K; Karadayi, E; Saito, M

2007-01-01

DNA knots formed under extreme conditions of condensation, as in bacteriophage P4, are difficult to analyze experimentally and theoretically. In this paper, we propose to use the uniform random polygon model as a supplementary method to the existing methods for generating random knots in confinement. The uniform random polygon model allows us to sample knots with large crossing numbers and also to generate large diagrammatically prime knot diagrams. We show numerically that uniform random polygons sample knots with large minimum crossing numbers and certain complicated knot invariants (as those observed experimentally). We do this in terms of the knot determinants or colorings. Our numerical results suggest that the average determinant of a uniform random polygon of n vertices grows faster than O(e n 2 )). We also investigate the complexity of prime knot diagrams. We show rigorously that the probability that a randomly selected 2D uniform random polygon of n vertices is almost diagrammatically prime goes to 1 as n goes to infinity. Furthermore, the average number of crossings in such a diagram is at the order of O(n 2 ). Therefore, the two-dimensional uniform random polygons offer an effective way in sampling large (prime) knots, which can be useful in various applications

Sampling large random knots in a confined space

Science.gov (United States)

Arsuaga, J.; Blackstone, T.; Diao, Y.; Hinson, K.; Karadayi, E.; Saito, M.

2007-09-01

DNA knots formed under extreme conditions of condensation, as in bacteriophage P4, are difficult to analyze experimentally and theoretically. In this paper, we propose to use the uniform random polygon model as a supplementary method to the existing methods for generating random knots in confinement. The uniform random polygon model allows us to sample knots with large crossing numbers and also to generate large diagrammatically prime knot diagrams. We show numerically that uniform random polygons sample knots with large minimum crossing numbers and certain complicated knot invariants (as those observed experimentally). We do this in terms of the knot determinants or colorings. Our numerical results suggest that the average determinant of a uniform random polygon of n vertices grows faster than O(e^{n^2}) . We also investigate the complexity of prime knot diagrams. We show rigorously that the probability that a randomly selected 2D uniform random polygon of n vertices is almost diagrammatically prime goes to 1 as n goes to infinity. Furthermore, the average number of crossings in such a diagram is at the order of O(n2). Therefore, the two-dimensional uniform random polygons offer an effective way in sampling large (prime) knots, which can be useful in various applications.

Sampling large random knots in a confined space

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Arsuaga, J [Department of Mathematics, San Francisco State University, 1600 Holloway Ave, San Francisco, CA 94132 (United States); Blackstone, T [Department of Computer Science, San Francisco State University, 1600 Holloway Ave., San Francisco, CA 94132 (United States); Diao, Y [Department of Mathematics and Statistics, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Charlotte, NC 28223 (United States); Hinson, K [Department of Mathematics and Statistics, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Charlotte, NC 28223 (United States); Karadayi, E [Department of Mathematics, University of South Florida, 4202 E Fowler Avenue, Tampa, FL 33620 (United States); Saito, M [Department of Mathematics, University of South Florida, 4202 E Fowler Avenue, Tampa, FL 33620 (United States)

2007-09-28

DNA knots formed under extreme conditions of condensation, as in bacteriophage P4, are difficult to analyze experimentally and theoretically. In this paper, we propose to use the uniform random polygon model as a supplementary method to the existing methods for generating random knots in confinement. The uniform random polygon model allows us to sample knots with large crossing numbers and also to generate large diagrammatically prime knot diagrams. We show numerically that uniform random polygons sample knots with large minimum crossing numbers and certain complicated knot invariants (as those observed experimentally). We do this in terms of the knot determinants or colorings. Our numerical results suggest that the average determinant of a uniform random polygon of n vertices grows faster than O(e{sup n{sup 2}}). We also investigate the complexity of prime knot diagrams. We show rigorously that the probability that a randomly selected 2D uniform random polygon of n vertices is almost diagrammatically prime goes to 1 as n goes to infinity. Furthermore, the average number of crossings in such a diagram is at the order of O(n{sup 2}). Therefore, the two-dimensional uniform random polygons offer an effective way in sampling large (prime) knots, which can be useful in various applications.

SyPRID sampler: A large-volume, high-resolution, autonomous, deep-ocean precision plankton sampling system

Science.gov (United States)

Billings, Andrew; Kaiser, Carl; Young, Craig M.; Hiebert, Laurel S.; Cole, Eli; Wagner, Jamie K. S.; Van Dover, Cindy Lee

2017-03-01

The current standard for large-volume (thousands of cubic meters) zooplankton sampling in the deep sea is the MOCNESS, a system of multiple opening-closing nets, typically lowered to within 50 m of the seabed and towed obliquely to the surface to obtain low-spatial-resolution samples that integrate across 10 s of meters of water depth. The SyPRID (Sentry Precision Robotic Impeller Driven) sampler is an innovative, deep-rated (6000 m) plankton sampler that partners with the Sentry Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) to obtain paired, large-volume plankton samples at specified depths and survey lines to within 1.5 m of the seabed and with simultaneous collection of sensor data. SyPRID uses a perforated Ultra-High-Molecular-Weight (UHMW) plastic tube to support a fine mesh net within an outer carbon composite tube (tube-within-a-tube design), with an axial flow pump located aft of the capture filter. The pump facilitates flow through the system and reduces or possibly eliminates the bow wave at the mouth opening. The cod end, a hollow truncated cone, is also made of UHMW plastic and includes a collection volume designed to provide an area where zooplankton can collect, out of the high flow region. SyPRID attaches as a saddle-pack to the Sentry vehicle. Sentry itself is configured with a flight control system that enables autonomous survey paths to low altitudes. In its verification deployment at the Blake Ridge Seep (2160 m) on the US Atlantic Margin, SyPRID was operated for 6 h at an altitude of 5 m. It recovered plankton samples, including delicate living larvae, from the near-bottom stratum that is seldom sampled by a typical MOCNESS tow. The prototype SyPRID and its next generations will enable studies of plankton or other particulate distributions associated with localized physico-chemical strata in the water column or above patchy habitats on the seafloor.

Paths correlation matrix.

Science.gov (United States)

Qian, Weixian; Zhou, Xiaojun; Lu, Yingcheng; Xu, Jiang

2015-09-15

Both the Jones and Mueller matrices encounter difficulties when physically modeling mixed materials or rough surfaces due to the complexity of light-matter interactions. To address these issues, we derived a matrix called the paths correlation matrix (PCM), which is a probabilistic mixture of Jones matrices of every light propagation path. Because PCM is related to actual light propagation paths, it is well suited for physical modeling. Experiments were performed, and the reflection PCM of a mixture of polypropylene and graphite was measured. The PCM of the mixed sample was accurately decomposed into pure polypropylene's single reflection, pure graphite's single reflection, and depolarization caused by multiple reflections, which is consistent with the theoretical derivation. Reflection parameters of rough surface can be calculated from PCM decomposition, and the results fit well with the theoretical calculations provided by the Fresnel equations. These theoretical and experimental analyses verify that PCM is an efficient way to physically model light-matter interactions.

Spreading paths in partially observed social networks

Science.gov (United States)

Onnela, Jukka-Pekka; Christakis, Nicholas A.

2012-03-01

Understanding how and how far information, behaviors, or pathogens spread in social networks is an important problem, having implications for both predicting the size of epidemics, as well as for planning effective interventions. There are, however, two main challenges for inferring spreading paths in real-world networks. One is the practical difficulty of observing a dynamic process on a network, and the other is the typical constraint of only partially observing a network. Using static, structurally realistic social networks as platforms for simulations, we juxtapose three distinct paths: (1) the stochastic path taken by a simulated spreading process from source to target; (2) the topologically shortest path in the fully observed network, and hence the single most likely stochastic path, between the two nodes; and (3) the topologically shortest path in a partially observed network. In a sampled network, how closely does the partially observed shortest path (3) emulate the unobserved spreading path (1)? Although partial observation inflates the length of the shortest path, the stochastic nature of the spreading process also frequently derails the dynamic path from the shortest path. We find that the partially observed shortest path does not necessarily give an inflated estimate of the length of the process path; in fact, partial observation may, counterintuitively, make the path seem shorter than it actually is.

Spreading paths in partially observed social networks.

Science.gov (United States)

Onnela, Jukka-Pekka; Christakis, Nicholas A

2012-03-01

Understanding how and how far information, behaviors, or pathogens spread in social networks is an important problem, having implications for both predicting the size of epidemics, as well as for planning effective interventions. There are, however, two main challenges for inferring spreading paths in real-world networks. One is the practical difficulty of observing a dynamic process on a network, and the other is the typical constraint of only partially observing a network. Using static, structurally realistic social networks as platforms for simulations, we juxtapose three distinct paths: (1) the stochastic path taken by a simulated spreading process from source to target; (2) the topologically shortest path in the fully observed network, and hence the single most likely stochastic path, between the two nodes; and (3) the topologically shortest path in a partially observed network. In a sampled network, how closely does the partially observed shortest path (3) emulate the unobserved spreading path (1)? Although partial observation inflates the length of the shortest path, the stochastic nature of the spreading process also frequently derails the dynamic path from the shortest path. We find that the partially observed shortest path does not necessarily give an inflated estimate of the length of the process path; in fact, partial observation may, counterintuitively, make the path seem shorter than it actually is.

A Path Space Extension for Robust Light Transport Simulation

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hachisuka, Toshiya; Pantaleoni, Jacopo; Jensen, Henrik Wann

2012-01-01

We present a new sampling space for light transport paths that makes it possible to describe Monte Carlo path integration and photon density estimation in the same framework. A key contribution of our paper is the introduction of vertex perturbations, which extends the space of paths with loosely...

A numerical scheme for optimal transition paths of stochastic chemical kinetic systems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Liu Di

2008-01-01

We present a new framework for finding the optimal transition paths of metastable stochastic chemical kinetic systems with large system size. The optimal transition paths are identified to be the most probable paths according to the Large Deviation Theory of stochastic processes. Dynamical equations for the optimal transition paths are derived using the variational principle. A modified Minimum Action Method (MAM) is proposed as a numerical scheme to solve the optimal transition paths. Applications to Gene Regulatory Networks such as the toggle switch model and the Lactose Operon Model in Escherichia coli are presented as numerical examples

Analysis of large soil samples for actinides

Science.gov (United States)

Maxwell, III; Sherrod, L [Aiken, SC

2009-03-24

A method of analyzing relatively large soil samples for actinides by employing a separation process that includes cerium fluoride precipitation for removing the soil matrix and precipitates plutonium, americium, and curium with cerium and hydrofluoric acid followed by separating these actinides using chromatography cartridges.

Revisiting path steering for 3D manipulation tasks

NARCIS (Netherlands)

L. Liu (Lei); J.-B. Martens; R. van Liere (Robert)

2011-01-01

htmlabstractThe law of path steering, as proposed by Accot and Zhai, describes a quantitative relationship between human temporal performance and the path spatial characteristics. The steering law is formulated as a continuous goal crossing task, in which a large number of goals are crossed along

Revisiting path steering for 3D manipulation tasks

NARCIS (Netherlands)

L. Liu (Lei); J.-B. Martens; R. van Liere (Robert)

2010-01-01

htmlabstractThe law of path steering, as proposed by Accot and Zhai, describes a quantitative relationship between human temporal performance and the path spatial characteristics. The steering law is formulated as a continuous goal crossing task, in which a large number of goals are crossed along

The BD Onclarity HPV assay on SurePath collected samples meets the International Guidelines for Human Papillomavirus Test Requirements for Cervical Screening

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Ejegod, Ditte; Bottari, Fabio; Pedersen, Helle

2016-01-01

This study describes a validation of the BD Onclarity HPV (Onclarity) assay using the international guidelines for HPV test requirements for cervical cancer screening of women 30 years and above using Danish SurePath screening samples. The clinical specificity (0.90, 95% CI: 0.88-0.91) and sensit......This study describes a validation of the BD Onclarity HPV (Onclarity) assay using the international guidelines for HPV test requirements for cervical cancer screening of women 30 years and above using Danish SurePath screening samples. The clinical specificity (0.90, 95% CI: 0.......88-0.91) and sensitivity (0.97, 95% CI: 0.87-1.0) of the Onclarity assay were shown to be non-inferior to the reference assay (specificity 0.90, 95% CI: 0.88-0.92, sensitivity 0.98, 95% CI: 0.91-1.0). The intra-laboratory reproducibility of Onclarity was 97% with a lower confidence bound of 96% (kappa value: 0...

Gibbs sampling on large lattice with GMRF

Science.gov (United States)

Marcotte, Denis; Allard, Denis

2018-02-01

Gibbs sampling is routinely used to sample truncated Gaussian distributions. These distributions naturally occur when associating latent Gaussian fields to category fields obtained by discrete simulation methods like multipoint, sequential indicator simulation and object-based simulation. The latent Gaussians are often used in data assimilation and history matching algorithms. When the Gibbs sampling is applied on a large lattice, the computing cost can become prohibitive. The usual practice of using local neighborhoods is unsatisfying as it can diverge and it does not reproduce exactly the desired covariance. A better approach is to use Gaussian Markov Random Fields (GMRF) which enables to compute the conditional distributions at any point without having to compute and invert the full covariance matrix. As the GMRF is locally defined, it allows simultaneous updating of all points that do not share neighbors (coding sets). We propose a new simultaneous Gibbs updating strategy on coding sets that can be efficiently computed by convolution and applied with an acceptance/rejection method in the truncated case. We study empirically the speed of convergence, the effect of choice of boundary conditions, of the correlation range and of GMRF smoothness. We show that the convergence is slower in the Gaussian case on the torus than for the finite case studied in the literature. However, in the truncated Gaussian case, we show that short scale correlation is quickly restored and the conditioning categories at each lattice point imprint the long scale correlation. Hence our approach enables to realistically apply Gibbs sampling on large 2D or 3D lattice with the desired GMRF covariance.

A spinner magnetometer for large Apollo lunar samples

Science.gov (United States)

Uehara, M.; Gattacceca, J.; Quesnel, Y.; Lepaulard, C.; Lima, E. A.; Manfredi, M.; Rochette, P.

2017-10-01

We developed a spinner magnetometer to measure the natural remanent magnetization of large Apollo lunar rocks in the storage vault of the Lunar Sample Laboratory Facility (LSLF) of NASA. The magnetometer mainly consists of a commercially available three-axial fluxgate sensor and a hand-rotating sample table with an optical encoder recording the rotation angles. The distance between the sample and the sensor is adjustable according to the sample size and magnetization intensity. The sensor and the sample are placed in a two-layer mu-metal shield to measure the sample natural remanent magnetization. The magnetic signals are acquired together with the rotation angle to obtain stacking of the measured signals over multiple revolutions. The developed magnetometer has a sensitivity of 5 × 10-7 Am2 at the standard sensor-to-sample distance of 15 cm. This sensitivity is sufficient to measure the natural remanent magnetization of almost all the lunar basalt and breccia samples with mass above 10 g in the LSLF vault.

A spinner magnetometer for large Apollo lunar samples.

Science.gov (United States)

Uehara, M; Gattacceca, J; Quesnel, Y; Lepaulard, C; Lima, E A; Manfredi, M; Rochette, P

2017-10-01

We developed a spinner magnetometer to measure the natural remanent magnetization of large Apollo lunar rocks in the storage vault of the Lunar Sample Laboratory Facility (LSLF) of NASA. The magnetometer mainly consists of a commercially available three-axial fluxgate sensor and a hand-rotating sample table with an optical encoder recording the rotation angles. The distance between the sample and the sensor is adjustable according to the sample size and magnetization intensity. The sensor and the sample are placed in a two-layer mu-metal shield to measure the sample natural remanent magnetization. The magnetic signals are acquired together with the rotation angle to obtain stacking of the measured signals over multiple revolutions. The developed magnetometer has a sensitivity of 5 × 10 -7 Am 2 at the standard sensor-to-sample distance of 15 cm. This sensitivity is sufficient to measure the natural remanent magnetization of almost all the lunar basalt and breccia samples with mass above 10 g in the LSLF vault.

Path Creation, Path Dependence and Breaking Away from the Path

OpenAIRE

Wang, Jens; Hedman, Jonas; Tuunainen, Virpi Kristiina

2016-01-01

The explanation of how and why firms succeed or fail is a recurrent research challenge. This is particularly important in the context of technological innovations. We focus on the role of historical events and decisions in explaining such success and failure. Using a case study of Nokia, we develop and extend a multi-layer path dependence framework. We identify four layers of path dependence: technical, strategic and leadership, organizational, and external collaboration. We show how path dep...

Large Sample Neutron Activation Analysis: A Challenge in Cultural Heritage Studies

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Stamatelatos, I.E.; Tzika, F.

2007-01-01

Large sample neutron activation analysis compliments and significantly extends the analytical tools available for cultural heritage and authentication studies providing unique applications of non-destructive, multi-element analysis of materials that are too precious to damage for sampling purposes, representative sampling of heterogeneous materials or even analysis of whole objects. In this work, correction factors for neutron self-shielding, gamma-ray attenuation and volume distribution of the activity in large volume samples composed of iron and ceramic material were derived. Moreover, the effect of inhomogeneity on the accuracy of the technique was examined

White Paper on Dish Stirling Technology: Path Toward Commercial Deployment

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Andraka, Charles E. [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States). Concentrating Solar Power Dept.; Stechel, Ellen [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States). Concentrating Solar Power Dept.; Becker, Peter [Stirling Energy Systems, Scottsdale, AZ (United States); Messick, Brian [Stirling Energy Systems, Scottsdale, AZ (United States)

2016-07-01

Dish Stirling energy systems have been developed for distributed and large-scale utility deployment. This report summarizes the state of the technology in a joint project between Stirling Energy Systems, Sandia National Laboratories, and the Department of Energy in 2011. It then lays out a feasible path to large scale deployment, including development needs and anticipated cost reduction paths that will make a viable deployment product.

Epidemic extinction paths in complex networks

Science.gov (United States)

Hindes, Jason; Schwartz, Ira B.

2017-05-01

We study the extinction of long-lived epidemics on finite complex networks induced by intrinsic noise. Applying analytical techniques to the stochastic susceptible-infected-susceptible model, we predict the distribution of large fluctuations, the most probable or optimal path through a network that leads to a disease-free state from an endemic state, and the average extinction time in general configurations. Our predictions agree with Monte Carlo simulations on several networks, including synthetic weighted and degree-distributed networks with degree correlations, and an empirical high school contact network. In addition, our approach quantifies characteristic scaling patterns for the optimal path and distribution of large fluctuations, both near and away from the epidemic threshold, in networks with heterogeneous eigenvector centrality and degree distributions.

Path-integral computation of superfluid densities

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Pollock, E.L.; Ceperley, D.M.

1987-01-01

The normal and superfluid densities are defined by the response of a liquid to sample boundary motion. The free-energy change due to uniform boundary motion can be calculated by path-integral methods from the distribution of the winding number of the paths around a periodic cell. This provides a conceptually and computationally simple way of calculating the superfluid density for any Bose system. The linear-response formulation relates the superfluid density to the momentum-density correlation function, which has a short-ranged part related to the normal density and, in the case of a superfluid, a long-ranged part whose strength is proportional to the superfluid density. These facts are discussed in the context of path-integral computations and demonstrated for liquid 4 He along the saturated vapor-pressure curve. Below the experimental superfluid transition temperature the computed superfluid fractions agree with the experimental values to within the statistical uncertainties of a few percent in the computations. The computed transition is broadened by finite-sample-size effects

Energy consumption of ProTaper Next X1 after glide path with PathFiles and ProGlider.

Science.gov (United States)

Berutti, Elio; Alovisi, Mario; Pastorelli, Michele Angelo; Chiandussi, Giorgio; Scotti, Nicola; Pasqualini, Damiano

2014-12-01

Instrument failure caused by excessive torsional stress can be controlled by creating a manual or mechanical glide path. The ProGlider single-file system (Dentsply Maillefer, Ballaigues, Switzerland) was recently introduced to perform a mechanical glide path. This study was designed to compare the effect of a glide path performed with PathFiles (Dentsply Maillefer) and ProGlider on torque, time, and pecking motion required for ProTaper Next X1 (Dentsply Maillefer) to reach the full working length in simulated root canals. Forty Endo Training Blocks (Dentsply Maillefer) were used. Twenty were prepared with a mechanical glide path using PathFiles 1 and 2 (the PathFile group), and 20 were prepared with a mechanical glide path using a ProGlider single file (the ProGlider group). All samples were shaped with ProTaper Next X1 driven by an endodontic motor connected to a digital wattmeter. The required torque for root canal instrumentation was analyzed by evaluating the electrical power consumption of the endodontic engine. Electric power consumption (mW/h), elapsed time (seconds), and number of pecking motions required to reach the full working length with ProTaper Next X1 were calculated. Differences among groups were analyzed with the parametric Student t test for independent data (P < .05). Elapsed time and electric power consumption were significantly different between groups (P = .0001 for both). ProGlider appears to perform more efficiently than PathFiles in decreasing electric power consumption of ProTaper Next X1 to reach the full working length. This study confirmed the ability of ProGlider to reduce stress in ProTaper Next X1 during shaping through a glide path and preliminary middle and coronal preflaring. Copyright © 2014 American Association of Endodontists. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

A review of methods for sampling large airborne particles and associated radioactivity

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Garland, J.A.; Nicholson, K.W.

1990-01-01

Radioactive particles, tens of μm or more in diameter, are unlikely to be emitted directly from nuclear facilities with exhaust gas cleansing systems, but may arise in the case of an accident or where resuspension from contaminated surfaces is significant. Such particles may dominate deposition and, according to some workers, may contribute to inhalation doses. Quantitative sampling of large airborne particles is difficult because of their inertia and large sedimentation velocities. The literature describes conditions for unbiased sampling and the magnitude of sampling errors for idealised sampling inlets in steady winds. However, few air samplers for outdoor use have been assessed for adequacy of sampling. Many size selective sampling methods are found in the literature but few are suitable at the low concentrations that are often encountered in the environment. A number of approaches for unbiased sampling of large particles have been found in the literature. Some are identified as meriting further study, for application in the measurement of airborne radioactivity. (author)

Path Following in the Exact Penalty Method of Convex Programming.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhou, Hua; Lange, Kenneth

2015-07-01

Classical penalty methods solve a sequence of unconstrained problems that put greater and greater stress on meeting the constraints. In the limit as the penalty constant tends to ∞, one recovers the constrained solution. In the exact penalty method, squared penalties are replaced by absolute value penalties, and the solution is recovered for a finite value of the penalty constant. In practice, the kinks in the penalty and the unknown magnitude of the penalty constant prevent wide application of the exact penalty method in nonlinear programming. In this article, we examine a strategy of path following consistent with the exact penalty method. Instead of performing optimization at a single penalty constant, we trace the solution as a continuous function of the penalty constant. Thus, path following starts at the unconstrained solution and follows the solution path as the penalty constant increases. In the process, the solution path hits, slides along, and exits from the various constraints. For quadratic programming, the solution path is piecewise linear and takes large jumps from constraint to constraint. For a general convex program, the solution path is piecewise smooth, and path following operates by numerically solving an ordinary differential equation segment by segment. Our diverse applications to a) projection onto a convex set, b) nonnegative least squares, c) quadratically constrained quadratic programming, d) geometric programming, and e) semidefinite programming illustrate the mechanics and potential of path following. The final detour to image denoising demonstrates the relevance of path following to regularized estimation in inverse problems. In regularized estimation, one follows the solution path as the penalty constant decreases from a large value.

Path Network Recovery Using Remote Sensing Data and Geospatial-Temporal Semantic Graphs

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

McLendon, William C.,; Brost, Randolph

2016-05-01

Remote sensing systems produce large volumes of high-resolution images that are difficult to search. The GeoGraphy (pronounced Geo-Graph-y) framework [2, 20] encodes remote sensing imagery into a geospatial-temporal semantic graph representation to enable high level semantic searches to be performed. Typically scene objects such as buildings and trees tend to be shaped like blocks with few holes, but other shapes generated from path networks tend to have a large number of holes and can span a large geographic region due to their connectedness. For example, we have a dataset covering the city of Philadelphia in which there is a single road network node spanning a 6 mile x 8 mile region. Even a simple question such as "find two houses near the same street" might give unexpected results. More generally, nodes arising from networks of paths (roads, sidewalks, trails, etc.) require additional processing to make them useful for searches in GeoGraphy. We have assigned the term Path Network Recovery to this process. Path Network Recovery is a three-step process involving (1) partitioning the network node into segments, (2) repairing broken path segments interrupted by occlusions or sensor noise, and (3) adding path-aware search semantics into GeoQuestions. This report covers the path network recovery process, how it is used, and some example use cases of the current capabilities.

Path lumping: An efficient algorithm to identify metastable path channels for conformational dynamics of multi-body systems

Science.gov (United States)

Meng, Luming; Sheong, Fu Kit; Zeng, Xiangze; Zhu, Lizhe; Huang, Xuhui

2017-07-01

Constructing Markov state models from large-scale molecular dynamics simulation trajectories is a promising approach to dissect the kinetic mechanisms of complex chemical and biological processes. Combined with transition path theory, Markov state models can be applied to identify all pathways connecting any conformational states of interest. However, the identified pathways can be too complex to comprehend, especially for multi-body processes where numerous parallel pathways with comparable flux probability often coexist. Here, we have developed a path lumping method to group these parallel pathways into metastable path channels for analysis. We define the similarity between two pathways as the intercrossing flux between them and then apply the spectral clustering algorithm to lump these pathways into groups. We demonstrate the power of our method by applying it to two systems: a 2D-potential consisting of four metastable energy channels and the hydrophobic collapse process of two hydrophobic molecules. In both cases, our algorithm successfully reveals the metastable path channels. We expect this path lumping algorithm to be a promising tool for revealing unprecedented insights into the kinetic mechanisms of complex multi-body processes.

Large-scale transcriptome analysis reveals arabidopsis metabolic pathways are frequently influenced by different pathogens.

Science.gov (United States)

Jiang, Zhenhong; He, Fei; Zhang, Ziding

2017-07-01

Through large-scale transcriptional data analyses, we highlighted the importance of plant metabolism in plant immunity and identified 26 metabolic pathways that were frequently influenced by the infection of 14 different pathogens. Reprogramming of plant metabolism is a common phenomenon in plant defense responses. Currently, a large number of transcriptional profiles of infected tissues in Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) have been deposited in public databases, which provides a great opportunity to understand the expression patterns of metabolic pathways during plant defense responses at the systems level. Here, we performed a large-scale transcriptome analysis based on 135 previously published expression samples, including 14 different pathogens, to explore the expression pattern of Arabidopsis metabolic pathways. Overall, metabolic genes are significantly changed in expression during plant defense responses. Upregulated metabolic genes are enriched on defense responses, and downregulated genes are enriched on photosynthesis, fatty acid and lipid metabolic processes. Gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA) identifies 26 frequently differentially expressed metabolic pathways (FreDE_Paths) that are differentially expressed in more than 60% of infected samples. These pathways are involved in the generation of energy, fatty acid and lipid metabolism as well as secondary metabolite biosynthesis. Clustering analysis based on the expression levels of these 26 metabolic pathways clearly distinguishes infected and control samples, further suggesting the importance of these metabolic pathways in plant defense responses. By comparing with FreDE_Paths from abiotic stresses, we find that the expression patterns of 26 FreDE_Paths from biotic stresses are more consistent across different infected samples. By investigating the expression correlation between transcriptional factors (TFs) and FreDE_Paths, we identify several notable relationships. Collectively, the current study

Core self-evaluations and work engagement: Testing a perception, action, and development path.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Maria Tims

Full Text Available Core self-evaluations (CSE have predictive value for important work outcomes such as job satisfaction and job performance. However, little is known about the mechanisms that may explain these relationships. The purpose of the present study is to contribute to CSE theory by proposing and subsequently providing a first test of theoretically relevant mediating paths through which CSE may be related to work engagement. Based on approach/avoidance motivation and Job Demands-Resources theory, we examined a perception (via job characteristics, action (via job crafting, and development path (via career competencies. Two independent samples were obtained from employees working in Germany and The Netherlands (N = 303 and N = 404, respectively. When taking all mediators into account, results showed that the perception path represented by autonomy and social support played a minor role in the relationship between CSE and work engagement. Specifically, autonomy did not function as a mediator in both samples while social support played a marginally significant role in the CSE-work engagement relationship in sample 1 and received full support in sample 2. The action path exemplified by job crafting mediated the relationship between CSE and work engagement in both samples. Finally, the development path operationalized with career competencies mediated the relationship between CSE and work engagement in sample 1. The study presents evidence for an action and development path over and above the often tested perception path to explain how CSE is related to work engagement. This is one of the first studies to propose and show that CSE not only influences perceptions but also triggers employee actions and developmental strategies that relate to work engagement.

Core self-evaluations and work engagement: Testing a perception, action, and development path

Science.gov (United States)

Akkermans, Jos

2017-01-01

Core self-evaluations (CSE) have predictive value for important work outcomes such as job satisfaction and job performance. However, little is known about the mechanisms that may explain these relationships. The purpose of the present study is to contribute to CSE theory by proposing and subsequently providing a first test of theoretically relevant mediating paths through which CSE may be related to work engagement. Based on approach/avoidance motivation and Job Demands-Resources theory, we examined a perception (via job characteristics), action (via job crafting), and development path (via career competencies). Two independent samples were obtained from employees working in Germany and The Netherlands (N = 303 and N = 404, respectively). When taking all mediators into account, results showed that the perception path represented by autonomy and social support played a minor role in the relationship between CSE and work engagement. Specifically, autonomy did not function as a mediator in both samples while social support played a marginally significant role in the CSE–work engagement relationship in sample 1 and received full support in sample 2. The action path exemplified by job crafting mediated the relationship between CSE and work engagement in both samples. Finally, the development path operationalized with career competencies mediated the relationship between CSE and work engagement in sample 1. The study presents evidence for an action and development path over and above the often tested perception path to explain how CSE is related to work engagement. This is one of the first studies to propose and show that CSE not only influences perceptions but also triggers employee actions and developmental strategies that relate to work engagement. PMID:28787464

Core self-evaluations and work engagement: Testing a perception, action, and development path.

Science.gov (United States)

Tims, Maria; Akkermans, Jos

2017-01-01

Core self-evaluations (CSE) have predictive value for important work outcomes such as job satisfaction and job performance. However, little is known about the mechanisms that may explain these relationships. The purpose of the present study is to contribute to CSE theory by proposing and subsequently providing a first test of theoretically relevant mediating paths through which CSE may be related to work engagement. Based on approach/avoidance motivation and Job Demands-Resources theory, we examined a perception (via job characteristics), action (via job crafting), and development path (via career competencies). Two independent samples were obtained from employees working in Germany and The Netherlands (N = 303 and N = 404, respectively). When taking all mediators into account, results showed that the perception path represented by autonomy and social support played a minor role in the relationship between CSE and work engagement. Specifically, autonomy did not function as a mediator in both samples while social support played a marginally significant role in the CSE-work engagement relationship in sample 1 and received full support in sample 2. The action path exemplified by job crafting mediated the relationship between CSE and work engagement in both samples. Finally, the development path operationalized with career competencies mediated the relationship between CSE and work engagement in sample 1. The study presents evidence for an action and development path over and above the often tested perception path to explain how CSE is related to work engagement. This is one of the first studies to propose and show that CSE not only influences perceptions but also triggers employee actions and developmental strategies that relate to work engagement.

Path Dependency

OpenAIRE

Mark Setterfield

2015-01-01

Path dependency is defined, and three different specific concepts of path dependency – cumulative causation, lock in, and hysteresis – are analyzed. The relationships between path dependency and equilibrium, and path dependency and fundamental uncertainty are also discussed. Finally, a typology of dynamical systems is developed to clarify these relationships.

Linear optics and projective measurements alone suffice to create large-photon-number path entanglement

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lee, Hwang; Kok, Pieter; Dowling, Jonathan P.; Cerf, Nicolas J.

2002-01-01

We propose a method for preparing maximal path entanglement with a definite photon-number N, larger than two, using projective measurements. In contrast with the previously known schemes, our method uses only linear optics. Specifically, we exhibit a way of generating four-photon, path-entangled states of the form vertical bar 4,0>+ vertical bar 0,4>, using only four beam splitters and two detectors. These states are of major interest as a resource for quantum interferometric sensors as well as for optical quantum lithography and quantum holography

105-DR Large Sodium Fire Facility decontamination, sampling, and analysis plan

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Knaus, Z.C.

1995-01-01

This is the decontamination, sampling, and analysis plan for the closure activities at the 105-DR Large Sodium Fire Facility at Hanford Reservation. This document supports the 105-DR Large Sodium Fire Facility Closure Plan, DOE-RL-90-25. The 105-DR LSFF, which operated from about 1972 to 1986, was a research laboratory that occupied the former ventilation supply room on the southwest side of the 105-DR Reactor facility in the 100-D Area of the Hanford Site. The LSFF was established to investigate fire fighting and safety associated with alkali metal fires in the liquid metal fast breeder reactor facilities. The decontamination, sampling, and analysis plan identifies the decontamination procedures, sampling locations, any special handling requirements, quality control samples, required chemical analysis, and data validation needed to meet the requirements of the 105-DR Large Sodium Fire Facility Closure Plan in compliance with the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act

Multivariate statistics high-dimensional and large-sample approximations

CERN Document Server

Fujikoshi, Yasunori; Shimizu, Ryoichi

2010-01-01

A comprehensive examination of high-dimensional analysis of multivariate methods and their real-world applications Multivariate Statistics: High-Dimensional and Large-Sample Approximations is the first book of its kind to explore how classical multivariate methods can be revised and used in place of conventional statistical tools. Written by prominent researchers in the field, the book focuses on high-dimensional and large-scale approximations and details the many basic multivariate methods used to achieve high levels of accuracy. The authors begin with a fundamental presentation of the basic

APTIMA assay on SurePath liquid-based cervical samples compared to endocervical swab samples facilitated by a real time database

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Khader Samer

2010-01-01

Full Text Available Background: Liquid-based cytology (LBC cervical samples are increasingly being used to test for pathogens, including: HPV, Chlamydia trachomatis (CT and Neisseria gonorrhoeae (GC using nucleic acid amplification tests. Several reports have shown the accuracy of such testing on ThinPrep (TP LBC samples. Fewer studies have evaluated SurePath (SP LBC samples, which utilize a different specimen preservative. This study was undertaken to assess the performance of the Aptima Combo 2 Assay (AC2 for CT and GC on SP versus endocervical swab samples in our laboratory. Materials and Methods: The live pathology database of Montefiore Medical Center was searched for patients with AC2 endocervical swab specimens and SP Paps taken the same day. SP samples from CT- and/or GC-positive endocervical swab patients and randomly selected negative patients were studied. In each case, 1.5 ml of the residual SP vial sample, which was in SP preservative and stored at room temperature, was transferred within seven days of collection to APTIMA specimen transfer tubes without any sample or patient identifiers. Blind testing with the AC2 assay was performed on the Tigris DTS System (Gen-probe, San Diego, CA. Finalized SP results were compared with the previously reported endocervical swab results for the entire group and separately for patients 25 years and younger and patients over 25 years. Results: SP specimens from 300 patients were tested. This included 181 swab CT-positive, 12 swab GC-positive, 7 CT and GC positive and 100 randomly selected swab CT and GC negative patients. Using the endocervical swab results as the patient′s infection status, AC2 assay of the SP samples showed: CT sensitivity 89.3%, CT specificity 100.0%; GC sensitivity and specificity 100.0%. CT sensitivity for patients 25 years or younger was 93.1%, versus 80.7% for patients over 25 years, a statistically significant difference (P = 0.02. Conclusions: Our results show that AC2 assay of 1.5 ml SP

Large sample NAA facility and methodology development

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Roth, C.; Gugiu, D.; Barbos, D.; Datcu, A.; Aioanei, L.; Dobrea, D.; Taroiu, I. E.; Bucsa, A.; Ghinescu, A.

2013-01-01

A Large Sample Neutron Activation Analysis (LSNAA) facility has been developed at the TRIGA- Annular Core Pulsed Reactor (ACPR) operated by the Institute for Nuclear Research in Pitesti, Romania. The central irradiation cavity of the ACPR core can accommodate a large irradiation device. The ACPR neutron flux characteristics are well known and spectrum adjustment techniques have been successfully applied to enhance the thermal component of the neutron flux in the central irradiation cavity. An analysis methodology was developed by using the MCNP code in order to estimate counting efficiency and correction factors for the major perturbing phenomena. Test experiments, comparison with classical instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA) methods and international inter-comparison exercise have been performed to validate the new methodology. (authors)

Hybrid Capture 2 and cobas human papillomavirus assays perform similarly on SurePath samples from women with abnormalities

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Fornari, D; Rebolj, M; Bjerregaard, B

2016-01-01

OBJECTIVE: In two laboratories (Departments of Pathology, Copenhagen University Hospitals of Herlev and Hvidovre), we compared cobas and Hybrid Capture 2 (HC2) human papillomavirus (HPV) assays using SurePath® samples from women with atypical squamous cells of undetermined significance (ASCUS......) at ≥30 years and women after treatment of cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN). METHODS: Samples from 566 women with ASCUS and 411 women after treatment were routinely tested with HC2 and, thereafter, with cobas. Histological outcomes were retrieved from the Danish Pathology Data Base. We calculated...... the overall agreement between the assays, and compared their sensitivity and specificity for ≥CIN2. RESULTS: In women with ASCUS, HC2 and cobas testing results were similar in the two laboratories. The overall agreement was 91% (95% CI, 88-93). After CIN treatment, the overall agreement was 87% (95% CI, 82...

Prediction of crack paths in WC-Co alloys

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Spiegler, R.; Fischmeister, H.F.

1992-01-01

This paper reports on a crack propagating through the WC-o microstructure which has to choose between paths along the binder/carbide interface and paths across binder regions. The latter paths are selected when the crack enters a binder region at a large angle from the nearest carbide interface, while the interface paths are preferred by cracks entering at a small angle. A critical angle can be defined for the switch from one type of crack path to the other. Empirical data for the area fractions of the two crack paths in widely different WC-Co alloys can be accounted for by a single critical angle, var-phi c = 25 degrees. Finite element analysis of the stress field in a region of binder enclosed between carbide grains shows that the preferred site for the growth of stress-induced microvoids will move from the carbide grain flanks to the interior of the binder region when the entry angle of the crack exceeds 24 degrees. Thus the observation of a critical angle deciding the crack path is verified by the stress field analysis and given a physical explanation in terms of the most likely site for microvoid formation

Sample preparation method for ICP-MS measurement of 99Tc in a large amount of environmental samples

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kondo, M.; Seki, R.

2002-01-01

Sample preparation for measurement of 99 Tc in a large amount of soil and water samples by ICP-MS has been developed using 95m Tc as a yield tracer. This method is based on the conventional method for a small amount of soil samples using incineration, acid digestion, extraction chromatography (TEVA resin) and ICP-MS measurement. Preliminary concentration of Tc has been introduced by co-precipitation with ferric oxide. The matrix materials in a large amount of samples were more sufficiently removed with keeping the high recovery of Tc than previous method. The recovery of Tc was 70-80% for 100 g soil samples and 60-70% for 500 g of soil and 500 L of water samples. The detection limit of this method was evaluated as 0.054 mBq/kg in 500 g soil and 0.032 μBq/L in 500 L water. The determined value of 99 Tc in the IAEA-375 (soil sample collected near the Chernobyl Nuclear Reactor) was 0.25 ± 0.02 Bq/kg. (author)

Efficient stochastic thermostatting of path integral molecular dynamics.

Science.gov (United States)

Ceriotti, Michele; Parrinello, Michele; Markland, Thomas E; Manolopoulos, David E

2010-09-28

The path integral molecular dynamics (PIMD) method provides a convenient way to compute the quantum mechanical structural and thermodynamic properties of condensed phase systems at the expense of introducing an additional set of high frequency normal modes on top of the physical vibrations of the system. Efficiently sampling such a wide range of frequencies provides a considerable thermostatting challenge. Here we introduce a simple stochastic path integral Langevin equation (PILE) thermostat which exploits an analytic knowledge of the free path integral normal mode frequencies. We also apply a recently developed colored noise thermostat based on a generalized Langevin equation (GLE), which automatically achieves a similar, frequency-optimized sampling. The sampling efficiencies of these thermostats are compared with that of the more conventional Nosé-Hoover chain (NHC) thermostat for a number of physically relevant properties of the liquid water and hydrogen-in-palladium systems. In nearly every case, the new PILE thermostat is found to perform just as well as the NHC thermostat while allowing for a computationally more efficient implementation. The GLE thermostat also proves to be very robust delivering a near-optimum sampling efficiency in all of the cases considered. We suspect that these simple stochastic thermostats will therefore find useful application in many future PIMD simulations.

Quivers of Bound Path Algebras and Bound Path Coalgebras

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Dr. Intan Muchtadi

2010-09-01

Full Text Available bras and coalgebras can be represented as quiver (directed graph, and from quiver we can construct algebras and coalgebras called path algebras and path coalgebras. In this paper we show that the quiver of a bound path coalgebra (resp. algebra is the dual quiver of its bound path algebra (resp. coalgebra.

Analysis of construction dynamic plan using fuzzy critical path method

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kurij Kazimir V.

2014-01-01

Full Text Available Critical Path Method (CPM technique has become widely recognized as valuable tool for the planning and scheduling large construction projects. The aim of this paper is to present an analytical method for finding the Critical Path in the precedence network diagram where the duration of each activity is represented by a trapezoidal fuzzy number. This Fuzzy Critical Path Method (FCPM uses a defuzzification formula for trapezoidal fuzzy number and applies it on the total float (slack time for each activity in the fuzzy precedence network to find the critical path. The method presented in this paper is very effective in determining the critical activities and finding the critical paths.

Fractional path planning and path tracking

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Melchior, P.; Jallouli-Khlif, R.; Metoui, B.

2011-01-01

This paper presents the main results of the application of fractional approach in path planning and path tracking. A new robust path planning design for mobile robot was studied in dynamic environment. The normalized attractive force applied to the robot is based on a fictitious fractional attractive potential. This method allows to obtain robust path planning despite robot mass variation. The danger level of each obstacles is characterized by the fractional order of the repulsive potential of the obstacles. Under these conditions, the robot dynamic behavior was studied by analyzing its X - Y path planning with dynamic target or dynamic obstacles. The case of simultaneously mobile obstacles and target is also considered. The influence of the robot mass variation is studied and the robustness analysis of the obtained path shows the robustness improvement due to the non integer order properties. Pre shaping approach is used to reduce system vibration in motion control. Desired systems inputs are altered so that the system finishes the requested move without residual vibration. This technique, developed by N.C. Singer and W.P.Seering, is used for flexible structure control, particularly in the aerospace field. In a previous work, this method was extended for explicit fractional derivative systems and applied to second generation CRONE control, the robustness was also studied. CRONE (the French acronym of C ommande Robuste d'Ordre Non Entier ) control system design is a frequency-domain based methodology using complex fractional integration.

Degree distribution of shortest path trees and bias of network sampling algorithms

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Bhamidi, S.; Goodman, J.A.; Hofstad, van der R.W.; Komjáthy, J.

2013-01-01

In this article, we explicitly derive the limiting distribution of the degree distribution of the shortest path tree from a single source on various random network models with edge weights. We determine the power-law exponent of the degree distribution of this tree and compare it to the degree

Cis-to- Trans Isomerization of Azobenzene Derivatives Studied with Transition Path Sampling and Quantum Mechanical/Molecular Mechanical Molecular Dynamics.

Science.gov (United States)

Muždalo, Anja; Saalfrank, Peter; Vreede, Jocelyne; Santer, Mark

2018-04-10

Azobenzene-based molecular photoswitches are becoming increasingly important for the development of photoresponsive, functional soft-matter material systems. Upon illumination with light, fast interconversion between a more stable trans and a metastable cis configuration can be established resulting in pronounced changes in conformation, dipole moment or hydrophobicity. A rational design of functional photosensitive molecules with embedded azo moieties requires a thorough understanding of isomerization mechanisms and rates, especially the thermally activated relaxation. For small azo derivatives considered in the gas phase or simple solvents, Eyring's classical transition state theory (TST) approach yields useful predictions for trends in activation energies or corresponding half-life times of the cis isomer. However, TST or improved theories cannot easily be applied when the azo moiety is part of a larger molecular complex or embedded into a heterogeneous environment, where a multitude of possible reaction pathways may exist. In these cases, only the sampling of an ensemble of dynamic reactive trajectories (transition path sampling, TPS) with explicit models of the environment may reveal the nature of the processes involved. In the present work we show how a TPS approach can conveniently be implemented for the phenomenon of relaxation-isomerization of azobenzenes starting with the simple examples of pure azobenzene and a push-pull derivative immersed in a polar (DMSO) and apolar (toluene) solvent. The latter are represented explicitly at a molecular mechanical (MM) and the azo moiety at a quantum mechanical (QM) level. We demonstrate for the push-pull azobenzene that path sampling in combination with the chosen QM/MM scheme produces the expected change in isomerization pathway from inversion to rotation in going from a low to a high permittivity (explicit) solvent model. We discuss the potential of the simulation procedure presented for comparative calculation of

Utilization of AHWR critical facility for research and development work on large sample NAA

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Acharya, R.; Dasari, K.B.; Pujari, P.K.; Swain, K.K.; Reddy, A.V.R.; Verma, S.K.; De, S.K.

2014-01-01

The graphite reflector position of AHWR critical facility (CF) was utilized for analysis of large size (g-kg scale) samples using internal mono standard neutron activation analysis (IM-NAA). The reactor position was characterized by cadmium ratio method using In monitor for total flux and sub cadmium to epithermal flux ratio (f). Large sample neutron activation analysis (LSNAA) work was carried out for samples of stainless steel, ancient and new clay potteries and dross. Large as well as non-standard geometry samples (1 g - 0.5 kg) were irradiated. Radioactive assay was carried out using high resolution gamma ray spectrometry. Concentration ratios obtained by IM-NAA were used for provenance study of 30 clay potteries, obtained from excavated Buddhist sites of AP, India. Concentrations of Au and Ag were determined in not so homogeneous three large size samples of dross. An X-Z rotary scanning unit has been installed for counting large and not so homogeneous samples. (author)

Exploring Technostress: Results of a Large Sample Factor Analysis

OpenAIRE

Jonušauskas, Steponas; Raišienė, Agota Giedrė

2016-01-01

With reference to the results of a large sample factor analysis, the article aims to propose the frame examining technostress in a population. The survey and principal component analysis of the sample consisting of 1013 individuals who use ICT in their everyday work was implemented in the research. 13 factors combine 68 questions and explain 59.13 per cent of the answers dispersion. Based on the factor analysis, questionnaire was reframed and prepared to reasonably analyze the respondents’ an...

Feynman's path integrals and Bohm's particle paths

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tumulka, Roderich

2005-01-01

Both Bohmian mechanics, a version of quantum mechanics with trajectories, and Feynman's path integral formalism have something to do with particle paths in space and time. The question thus arises how the two ideas relate to each other. In short, the answer is, path integrals provide a re-formulation of Schroedinger's equation, which is half of the defining equations of Bohmian mechanics. I try to give a clear and concise description of the various aspects of the situation. (letters and comments)

105-DR Large sodium fire facility soil sampling data evaluation report

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Adler, J.G.

1996-01-01

This report evaluates the soil sampling activities, soil sample analysis, and soil sample data associated with the closure activities at the 105-DR Large Sodium Fire Facility. The evaluation compares these activities to the regulatory requirements for meeting clean closure. The report concludes that there is no soil contamination from the waste treatment activities

Re-evaluation of P-T paths across the Himalayan Main Central Thrust

Science.gov (United States)

Catlos, E. J.; Harrison, M.; Kelly, E. D.; Ashley, K.; Lovera, O. M.; Etzel, T.; Lizzadro-McPherson, D. J.

2016-12-01

The Main Central Thrust (MCT) is the dominant crustal thickening structure in the Himalayas, juxtaposing high-grade Greater Himalayan Crystalline rocks over the lower-grade Lesser Himalaya Formations. The fault is underlain by a 2 to 12-km-thick sequence of deformed rocks characterized by an apparent inverted metamorphic gradient, termed the MCT shear zone. Garnet-bearing rocks sampled from across the MCT along the Marysandi River in central Nepal contain monazite that decrease in age from Early Miocene (ca. 20 Ma) in the hanging wall to Late Miocene-Pliocene (ca. 7 Ma and 3 Ma) towards structurally lower levels in the shear zone. We obtained high-resolution garnet-zoning pressure-temperature (P-T) paths from 11 of the same rocks used for monazite geochronology using a recently-developed semi-automated Gibbs-free-energy-minimization technique. Quartz-in-garnet Raman barometry refined the locations of the paths. Diffusional re-equilibration of garnet zoning in hanging wall samples prevented accurate path determinations from most Greater Himalayan Crystalline samples, but one that shows a bell-shaped Mn zoning profile shows a slight decrease in P (from 8.2 to 7.6kbar) with increase in T (from 590 to 640ºC). Three MCT shear zone samples were modeled: one yields a simple path increasing in both P and T (6 to 7kbar, 540 to 580ºC); the others yield N-shaped paths that occupy similar P-T space (4 to 5.5 kbar, 500 to 560ºC). Five lower lesser Himalaya garnet-bearing rocks were modeled. One yields a path increasing in both P-T (6 to 7 kbar, 525 to 550ºC) but others show either sharp compression/decompression or N-shape paths (within 4.5-6 kbar and 530-580ºC). The lowermost sample decreases in P (5.5 to 5 kbar) over increasing T (540 to 580°C). No progressive change is seen from one type of path to another within the Lesser Himalayan Formations to the MCT zone. The results using the modeling approach yield lower P-T conditions compared to the Gibbs method and lower

Multi-Dimensional Path Queries

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bækgaard, Lars

1998-01-01

to create nested path structures. We present an SQL-like query language that is based on path expressions and we show how to use it to express multi-dimensional path queries that are suited for advanced data analysis in decision support environments like data warehousing environments......We present the path-relationship model that supports multi-dimensional data modeling and querying. A path-relationship database is composed of sets of paths and sets of relationships. A path is a sequence of related elements (atoms, paths, and sets of paths). A relationship is a binary path...

A middle path for electricity options and sustainable development

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mills, J.I.; Herring, J.S.

1994-01-01

In a landmark article in Foreign Affairs in October 1976, Amory Lovins presented his vision of two vastly different and seemingly irreconcilable paths that energy provision might take into the future. One path was a ''hard'' path, characterized by extensive development of large, capital-intensive centralized electrical generating facilities and their peripherals, designed with little consideration given to the matching of these facilities to the requirements of the end-use needs. The second, ''soft'' path was characterized by energy technologies that are diverse, operate on renewable energy flows, are relatively simple, less capital-intensive, and matched in scale and energy quality to end-use needs. One of the most controversial arguments in the Lovins' paper was that the ''hard'' and ''soft'' paths are culturally and institutionally antagonistic. In retrospect, it seems this argument was self-fulfilling, for the history of the energy debate throughout the developed world since the appearance of the Lovins' article has been marked by an either-or antagonism that has left little room for serious discussion of a ''middle-path.'' In this paper, we argue that ''middle-path,'' paved with elements of both the soft and hard, is especially suited for developing countries, since they do not now carry the burden of an existing and extensive ''hard path'' energy infrastructure

Polygonal-path approximations on the path spaces of quantum-mechanical systems: properties of the polygonal paths

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Exner, P.; Kolerov, G.I.

1981-01-01

Properties of the subset of polygonal paths in the Hilbert space H of paths referring to a d-dimensional quantum-mechanical system are examined. Using the reproduction kernel technique we prove that each element of H is approximated by polygonal paths uniformly with respect to the ''norm'' of time-interval partitions. This result will be applied in the second part of the present paper to prove consistency of the uniform polygonal-path extension of the Feynman maps [ru

Joint importance sampling of low-order volumetric scattering

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Georgiev, Iliyan; Křivánek, Jaroslav; Hachisuka, Toshiya

2013-01-01

Central to all Monte Carlo-based rendering algorithms is the construction of light transport paths from the light sources to the eye. Existing rendering approaches sample path vertices incrementally when constructing these light transport paths. The resulting probability density is thus a product...... of the conditional densities of each local sampling step, constructed without explicit control over the form of the final joint distribution of the complete path. We analyze why current incremental construction schemes often lead to high variance in the presence of participating media, and reveal...... that such approaches are an unnecessary legacy inherited from traditional surface-based rendering algorithms. We devise joint importance sampling of path vertices in participating media to construct paths that explicitly account for the product of all scattering and geometry terms along a sequence of vertices instead...

Practical characterization of large networks using neighborhood information

KAUST Repository

Wang, Pinghui

2018-02-14

Characterizing large complex networks such as online social networks through node querying is a challenging task. Network service providers often impose severe constraints on the query rate, hence limiting the sample size to a small fraction of the total network of interest. Various ad hoc subgraph sampling methods have been proposed, but many of them give biased estimates and no theoretical basis on the accuracy. In this work, we focus on developing sampling methods for large networks where querying a node also reveals partial structural information about its neighbors. Our methods are optimized for NoSQL graph databases (if the database can be accessed directly), or utilize Web APIs available on most major large networks for graph sampling. We show that our sampling method has provable convergence guarantees on being an unbiased estimator, and it is more accurate than state-of-the-art methods. We also explore methods to uncover shortest paths between a subset of nodes and detect high degree nodes by sampling only a small fraction of the network of interest. Our results demonstrate that utilizing neighborhood information yields methods that are two orders of magnitude faster than state-of-the-art methods.

Corrigendum to “Relative humidity effects on water vapour fluxes measured with closed-path eddy-covariance systems with short sampling lines” [Agric. Forest Meteorol. 165 (2012) 53–63

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Fratini, Gerardo; Ibrom, Andreas; Arriga, Nicola

2012-01-01

It has been formerly recognised that increasing relative humidity in the sampling line of closed-path eddy-covariance systems leads to increasing attenuation of water vapour turbulent fluctuations, resulting in strong latent heat flux losses. This occurrence has been analyzed for very long (50 m...... from eddy-covariance systems featuring short (4 m) and very short (1 m) sampling lines running at the same clover field and show that relative humidity effects persist also for these setups, and should not be neglected. Starting from the work of Ibrom and co-workers, we propose a mixed method...... and correction method proposed here is deemed applicable to closed-path systems featuring a broad range of sampling lines, and indeed applicable also to passive gases as a special case. The methods described in this paper are incorporated, as processing options, in the free and open-source eddy...

Associations between sociodemographic, sampling and health factors and various salivary cortisol indicators in a large sample without psychopathology

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Vreeburg, Sophie A.; Kruijtzer, Boudewijn P.; van Pelt, Johannes; van Dyck, Richard; DeRijk, Roel H.; Hoogendijk, Witte J. G.; Smit, Johannes H.; Zitman, Frans G.; Penninx, Brenda

Background: Cortisol levels are increasingly often assessed in large-scale psychosomatic research. Although determinants of different salivary cortisol indicators have been described, they have not yet been systematically studied within the same study with a Large sample size. Sociodemographic,

A course in mathematical statistics and large sample theory

CERN Document Server

Bhattacharya, Rabi; Patrangenaru, Victor

2016-01-01

This graduate-level textbook is primarily aimed at graduate students of statistics, mathematics, science, and engineering who have had an undergraduate course in statistics, an upper division course in analysis, and some acquaintance with measure theoretic probability. It provides a rigorous presentation of the core of mathematical statistics. Part I of this book constitutes a one-semester course on basic parametric mathematical statistics. Part II deals with the large sample theory of statistics — parametric and nonparametric, and its contents may be covered in one semester as well. Part III provides brief accounts of a number of topics of current interest for practitioners and other disciplines whose work involves statistical methods. Large Sample theory with many worked examples, numerical calculations, and simulations to illustrate theory Appendices provide ready access to a number of standard results, with many proofs Solutions given to a number of selected exercises from Part I Part II exercises with ...

Magma paths at Piton de la Fournaise Volcano

OpenAIRE

Michon , Laurent; Ferrazzini , Valérie; Di Muro , Andrea

2016-01-01

International audience; Several patterns of magma paths have been proposed since the 1980s for Piton de la Fournaise volcano. Given the significant differences, which are presented here, we propose a reappraisal of the magma intrusion paths using a 17-years-long database of volcano-tectonic seismic events and a detailed mapping of the scoria cones. At the edifice scale, the magma propagates along two N120 trending rift zones. They are wide, linear, spotted by small to large scoria cones and r...

The effect of PLS regression in PLS path model estimation when multicollinearity is present

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Nielsen, Rikke; Kristensen, Kai; Eskildsen, Jacob

PLS path modelling has previously been found to be robust to multicollinearity both between latent variables and between manifest variables of a common latent variable (see e.g. Cassel et al. (1999), Kristensen, Eskildsen (2005), Westlund et al. (2008)). However, most of the studies investigate...... models with relatively few variables and very simple dependence structures compared to the models that are often estimated in practical settings. A recent study by Nielsen et al. (2009) found that when model structure is more complex, PLS path modelling is not as robust to multicollinearity between...... latent variables as previously assumed. A difference in the standard error of path coefficients of as much as 83% was found between moderate and severe levels of multicollinearity. Large differences were found not only for large path coefficients, but also for small path coefficients and in some cases...

Path optimization method for the sign problem

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ohnishi Akira

2018-01-01

Full Text Available We propose a path optimization method (POM to evade the sign problem in the Monte-Carlo calculations for complex actions. Among many approaches to the sign problem, the Lefschetz-thimble path-integral method and the complex Langevin method are promising and extensively discussed. In these methods, real field variables are complexified and the integration manifold is determined by the flow equations or stochastically sampled. When we have singular points of the action or multiple critical points near the original integral surface, however, we have a risk to encounter the residual and global sign problems or the singular drift term problem. One of the ways to avoid the singular points is to optimize the integration path which is designed not to hit the singular points of the Boltzmann weight. By specifying the one-dimensional integration-path as z = t +if(t(f ϵ R and by optimizing f(t to enhance the average phase factor, we demonstrate that we can avoid the sign problem in a one-variable toy model for which the complex Langevin method is found to fail. In this proceedings, we propose POM and discuss how we can avoid the sign problem in a toy model. We also discuss the possibility to utilize the neural network to optimize the path.

Pulled Motzkin paths

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Janse van Rensburg, E J

2010-01-01

In this paper the models of pulled Dyck paths in Janse van Rensburg (2010 J. Phys. A: Math. Theor. 43 215001) are generalized to pulled Motzkin path models. The generating functions of pulled Motzkin paths are determined in terms of series over trinomial coefficients and the elastic response of a Motzkin path pulled at its endpoint (see Orlandini and Whittington (2004 J. Phys. A: Math. Gen. 37 5305-14)) is shown to be R(f) = 0 for forces pushing the endpoint toward the adsorbing line and R(f) = f(1 + 2cosh f))/(2sinh f) → f as f → ∞, for forces pulling the path away from the X-axis. In addition, the elastic response of a Motzkin path pulled at its midpoint is shown to be R(f) = 0 for forces pushing the midpoint toward the adsorbing line and R(f) = f(1 + 2cosh (f/2))/sinh (f/2) → 2f as f → ∞, for forces pulling the path away from the X-axis. Formal combinatorial identities arising from pulled Motzkin path models are also presented. These identities are the generalization of combinatorial identities obtained in directed paths models to their natural trinomial counterparts.

Pulled Motzkin paths

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Janse van Rensburg, E J, E-mail: rensburg@yorku.c [Department of Mathematics and Statistics, York University, Toronto, ON, M3J 1P3 (Canada)

2010-08-20

In this paper the models of pulled Dyck paths in Janse van Rensburg (2010 J. Phys. A: Math. Theor. 43 215001) are generalized to pulled Motzkin path models. The generating functions of pulled Motzkin paths are determined in terms of series over trinomial coefficients and the elastic response of a Motzkin path pulled at its endpoint (see Orlandini and Whittington (2004 J. Phys. A: Math. Gen. 37 5305-14)) is shown to be R(f) = 0 for forces pushing the endpoint toward the adsorbing line and R(f) = f(1 + 2cosh f))/(2sinh f) {yields} f as f {yields} {infinity}, for forces pulling the path away from the X-axis. In addition, the elastic response of a Motzkin path pulled at its midpoint is shown to be R(f) = 0 for forces pushing the midpoint toward the adsorbing line and R(f) = f(1 + 2cosh (f/2))/sinh (f/2) {yields} 2f as f {yields} {infinity}, for forces pulling the path away from the X-axis. Formal combinatorial identities arising from pulled Motzkin path models are also presented. These identities are the generalization of combinatorial identities obtained in directed paths models to their natural trinomial counterparts.

Pulled Motzkin paths

Science.gov (United States)

Janse van Rensburg, E. J.

2010-08-01

In this paper the models of pulled Dyck paths in Janse van Rensburg (2010 J. Phys. A: Math. Theor. 43 215001) are generalized to pulled Motzkin path models. The generating functions of pulled Motzkin paths are determined in terms of series over trinomial coefficients and the elastic response of a Motzkin path pulled at its endpoint (see Orlandini and Whittington (2004 J. Phys. A: Math. Gen. 37 5305-14)) is shown to be R(f) = 0 for forces pushing the endpoint toward the adsorbing line and R(f) = f(1 + 2cosh f))/(2sinh f) → f as f → ∞, for forces pulling the path away from the X-axis. In addition, the elastic response of a Motzkin path pulled at its midpoint is shown to be R(f) = 0 for forces pushing the midpoint toward the adsorbing line and R(f) = f(1 + 2cosh (f/2))/sinh (f/2) → 2f as f → ∞, for forces pulling the path away from the X-axis. Formal combinatorial identities arising from pulled Motzkin path models are also presented. These identities are the generalization of combinatorial identities obtained in directed paths models to their natural trinomial counterparts.

Path Expressions

Science.gov (United States)

1975-06-01

Traditionally, synchronization of concurrent processes is coded in line by operations on semaphores or similar objects. Path expressions move the...discussion about a variety of synchronization primitives . An analysis of their relative power is found in [3]. Path expressions do not introduce yet...another synchronization primitive . A path expression relates to such primitives as a for- or while-statement of an ALGOL-like language relates to a JUMP

Neutron capture studies with a short flight path

Science.gov (United States)

Walter, Stephan; Heil, Michael; Käppeler, Franz; Plag, Ralf; Reifarth, René

The time of flight (TOF) method is an important tool for the experimental determination of neu- tron capture cross sections which are needed for s-process nucleosynthesis in general, and for analyses of branchings in the s-process reaction path in particular. So far, sample masses of at least several milligrams are required to compensate limitations in the currently available neutron fluxes. This constraint leads to unacceptable backgrounds for most of the relevant unstable branch point nuclei, due to the decay activity of the sample. A possible solution has been proposed by the NCAP project at the University of Frankfurt. A first step in this direction is reported here, which aims at enhancing the sensitivity of the Karlsruhe TOF array by reducing the neutron flight path to only a few centimeters. Though sample masses in the microgram regime can be used by this approach, the increase in neutron flux has to be paid by a higher background from the prompt flash related to neutron production. Test measurements with Au samples are reported.

Statistical Symbolic Execution with Informed Sampling

Science.gov (United States)

Filieri, Antonio; Pasareanu, Corina S.; Visser, Willem; Geldenhuys, Jaco

2014-01-01

Symbolic execution techniques have been proposed recently for the probabilistic analysis of programs. These techniques seek to quantify the likelihood of reaching program events of interest, e.g., assert violations. They have many promising applications but have scalability issues due to high computational demand. To address this challenge, we propose a statistical symbolic execution technique that performs Monte Carlo sampling of the symbolic program paths and uses the obtained information for Bayesian estimation and hypothesis testing with respect to the probability of reaching the target events. To speed up the convergence of the statistical analysis, we propose Informed Sampling, an iterative symbolic execution that first explores the paths that have high statistical significance, prunes them from the state space and guides the execution towards less likely paths. The technique combines Bayesian estimation with a partial exact analysis for the pruned paths leading to provably improved convergence of the statistical analysis. We have implemented statistical symbolic execution with in- formed sampling in the Symbolic PathFinder tool. We show experimentally that the informed sampling obtains more precise results and converges faster than a purely statistical analysis and may also be more efficient than an exact symbolic analysis. When the latter does not terminate symbolic execution with informed sampling can give meaningful results under the same time and memory limits.

Double sampling with multiple imputation to answer large sample meta-research questions: Introduction and illustration by evaluating adherence to two simple CONSORT guidelines

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Patrice L. Capers

2015-03-01

Full Text Available BACKGROUND: Meta-research can involve manual retrieval and evaluation of research, which is resource intensive. Creation of high throughput methods (e.g., search heuristics, crowdsourcing has improved feasibility of large meta-research questions, but possibly at the cost of accuracy. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the use of double sampling combined with multiple imputation (DS+MI to address meta-research questions, using as an example adherence of PubMed entries to two simple Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials (CONSORT guidelines for titles and abstracts. METHODS: For the DS large sample, we retrieved all PubMed entries satisfying the filters: RCT; human; abstract available; and English language (n=322,107. For the DS subsample, we randomly sampled 500 entries from the large sample. The large sample was evaluated with a lower rigor, higher throughput (RLOTHI method using search heuristics, while the subsample was evaluated using a higher rigor, lower throughput (RHITLO human rating method. Multiple imputation of the missing-completely-at-random RHITLO data for the large sample was informed by: RHITLO data from the subsample; RLOTHI data from the large sample; whether a study was an RCT; and country and year of publication. RESULTS: The RHITLO and RLOTHI methods in the subsample largely agreed (phi coefficients: title=1.00, abstract=0.92. Compliance with abstract and title criteria has increased over time, with non-US countries improving more rapidly. DS+MI logistic regression estimates were more precise than subsample estimates (e.g., 95% CI for change in title and abstract compliance by Year: subsample RHITLO 1.050-1.174 vs. DS+MI 1.082-1.151. As evidence of improved accuracy, DS+MI coefficient estimates were closer to RHITLO than the large sample RLOTHI. CONCLUSIONS: Our results support our hypothesis that DS+MI would result in improved precision and accuracy. This method is flexible and may provide a practical way to examine large corpora of

Low level constraints on dynamic contour path integration.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sophie Hall

Full Text Available Contour integration is a fundamental visual process. The constraints on integrating discrete contour elements and the associated neural mechanisms have typically been investigated using static contour paths. However, in our dynamic natural environment objects and scenes vary over space and time. With the aim of investigating the parameters affecting spatiotemporal contour path integration, we measured human contrast detection performance of a briefly presented foveal target embedded in dynamic collinear stimulus sequences (comprising five short 'predictor' bars appearing consecutively towards the fovea, followed by the 'target' bar in four experiments. The data showed that participants' target detection performance was relatively unchanged when individual contour elements were separated by up to 2° spatial gap or 200 ms temporal gap. Randomising the luminance contrast or colour of the predictors, on the other hand, had similar detrimental effect on grouping dynamic contour path and subsequent target detection performance. Randomising the orientation of the predictors reduced target detection performance greater than introducing misalignment relative to the contour path. The results suggest that the visual system integrates dynamic path elements to bias target detection even when the continuity of path is disrupted in terms of spatial (2°, temporal (200 ms, colour (over 10 colours and luminance (-25% to 25% information. We discuss how the findings can be largely reconciled within the functioning of V1 horizontal connections.

Information paths within the new product development process

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jespersen, Kristina Risom

2007-01-01

collection platform to obtain measurements from within the NPD process. 42 large, international companies participated in the data collecting simulation. Results revealed five different information paths that were not connecting all stages of the NPD process. Moreover, results show that the front......-end is not driving the information acquisition through the stages of the NPD process, and that environmental turbulence disconnects stages from the information paths in the NPD process. This implies that information is at the same time a key to success and a key to entrapment in the NPD process....

Another Look at the Mechanisms of Hydride Transfer Enzymes with Quantum and Classical Transition Path Sampling.

Science.gov (United States)

Dzierlenga, Michael W; Antoniou, Dimitri; Schwartz, Steven D

2015-04-02

The mechanisms involved in enzymatic hydride transfer have been studied for years, but questions remain due, in part, to the difficulty of probing the effects of protein motion and hydrogen tunneling. In this study, we use transition path sampling (TPS) with normal mode centroid molecular dynamics (CMD) to calculate the barrier to hydride transfer in yeast alcohol dehydrogenase (YADH) and human heart lactate dehydrogenase (LDH). Calculation of the work applied to the hydride allowed for observation of the change in barrier height upon inclusion of quantum dynamics. Similar calculations were performed using deuterium as the transferring particle in order to approximate kinetic isotope effects (KIEs). The change in barrier height in YADH is indicative of a zero-point energy (ZPE) contribution and is evidence that catalysis occurs via a protein compression that mediates a near-barrierless hydride transfer. Calculation of the KIE using the difference in barrier height between the hydride and deuteride agreed well with experimental results.

Path-sum calculations for rf current drive

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Belo, Jorge H.; Bizarro, Joao P.S.; Rodrigues, Paulo

2001-01-01

Path sums and Gaussian short-time propagators are used to solve two-dimensional Fokker-Planck models of lower-hybrid (LH) and electron-cyclotron (EC) current drive (CD), and are shown to be well suited to the two limiting situations where the rf quasilinear diffusion coefficient is either relatively small, D rf ≅0.1, or very large, D rf →∞, the latter case enabling a special treatment. Results are given for both LHCD and ECCD in the small D rf case, whereas the limiting situation is illustrated only for ECCD. To check the accuracy of path-sum calculations, comparisons with finite difference solutions are provided

Tornado intensity estimated from damage path dimensions.

Science.gov (United States)

Elsner, James B; Jagger, Thomas H; Elsner, Ian J

2014-01-01

The Newcastle/Moore and El Reno tornadoes of May 2013 are recent reminders of the destructive power of tornadoes. A direct estimate of a tornado's power is difficult and dangerous to get. An indirect estimate on a categorical scale is available from a post-storm survery of the damage. Wind speed bounds are attached to the scale, but the scale is not adequate for analyzing trends in tornado intensity separate from trends in tornado frequency. Here tornado intensity on a continuum is estimated from damage path length and width, which are measured on continuous scales and correlated to the EF rating. The wind speeds on the EF scale are treated as interval censored data and regressed onto the path dimensions and fatalities. The regression model indicates a 25% increase in expected intensity over a threshold intensity of 29 m s(-1) for a 100 km increase in path length and a 17% increase in expected intensity for a one km increase in path width. The model shows a 43% increase in the expected intensity when fatalities are observed controlling for path dimensions. The estimated wind speeds correlate at a level of .77 (.34, .93) [95% confidence interval] with a small sample of wind speeds estimated independently from a doppler radar calibration. The estimated wind speeds allow analyses to be done on the tornado database that are not possible with the categorical scale. The modeled intensities can be used in climatology and in environmental and engineering applications. Research is needed to understand the upward trends in path length and width.

Tornado intensity estimated from damage path dimensions.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

James B Elsner

Full Text Available The Newcastle/Moore and El Reno tornadoes of May 2013 are recent reminders of the destructive power of tornadoes. A direct estimate of a tornado's power is difficult and dangerous to get. An indirect estimate on a categorical scale is available from a post-storm survery of the damage. Wind speed bounds are attached to the scale, but the scale is not adequate for analyzing trends in tornado intensity separate from trends in tornado frequency. Here tornado intensity on a continuum is estimated from damage path length and width, which are measured on continuous scales and correlated to the EF rating. The wind speeds on the EF scale are treated as interval censored data and regressed onto the path dimensions and fatalities. The regression model indicates a 25% increase in expected intensity over a threshold intensity of 29 m s(-1 for a 100 km increase in path length and a 17% increase in expected intensity for a one km increase in path width. The model shows a 43% increase in the expected intensity when fatalities are observed controlling for path dimensions. The estimated wind speeds correlate at a level of .77 (.34, .93 [95% confidence interval] with a small sample of wind speeds estimated independently from a doppler radar calibration. The estimated wind speeds allow analyses to be done on the tornado database that are not possible with the categorical scale. The modeled intensities can be used in climatology and in environmental and engineering applications. Research is needed to understand the upward trends in path length and width.

Sampling strategy for a large scale indoor radiation survey - a pilot project

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Strand, T.; Stranden, E.

1986-01-01

Optimisation of a stratified random sampling strategy for large scale indoor radiation surveys is discussed. It is based on the results from a small scale pilot project where variances in dose rates within different categories of houses were assessed. By selecting a predetermined precision level for the mean dose rate in a given region, the number of measurements needed can be optimised. The results of a pilot project in Norway are presented together with the development of the final sampling strategy for a planned large scale survey. (author)

Combining control input with flight path data to evaluate pilot performance in transport aircraft.

Science.gov (United States)

Ebbatson, Matt; Harris, Don; Huddlestone, John; Sears, Rodney

2008-11-01

When deriving an objective assessment of piloting performance from flight data records, it is common to employ metrics which purely evaluate errors in flight path parameters. The adequacy of pilot performance is evaluated from the flight path of the aircraft. However, in large jet transport aircraft these measures may be insensitive and require supplementing with frequency-based measures of control input parameters. Flight path and control input data were collected from pilots undertaking a jet transport aircraft conversion course during a series of symmetric and asymmetric approaches in a flight simulator. The flight path data were analyzed for deviations around the optimum flight path while flying an instrument landing approach. Manipulation of the flight controls was subject to analysis using a series of power spectral density measures. The flight path metrics showed no significant differences in performance between the symmetric and asymmetric approaches. However, control input frequency domain measures revealed that the pilots employed highly different control strategies in the pitch and yaw axes. The results demonstrate that to evaluate pilot performance fully in large aircraft, it is necessary to employ performance metrics targeted at both the outer control loop (flight path) and the inner control loop (flight control) parameters in parallel, evaluating both the product and process of a pilot's performance.

An open-flow pulse ionization chamber for alpha spectrometry of large-area samples

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Johansson, L.; Roos, B.; Samuelsson, C.

1992-01-01

The presented open-flow pulse ionization chamber was developed to make alpha spectrometry on large-area surfaces easy. One side of the chamber is left open, where the sample is to be placed. The sample acts as a chamber wall and therby defeins the detector volume. The sample area can be as large as 400 cm 2 . To prevent air from entering the volume there is a constant gas flow through the detector, coming in at the bottom of the chamber and leaking at the sides of the sample. The method results in good energy resolution and has considerable applicability in the retrospective radon research. Alpha spectra obtained in the retrospective measurements descend from 210 Po, built up in the sample from the radon daughters recoiled into a glass surface. (au)

Discovery of path nearby clusters in spatial networks

KAUST Repository

Shang, Shuo; Zheng, Kai; Jensen, Christian S.; Yang, Bin; Kalnis, Panos; Li, Guohe; Wen, Ji Rong

2015-01-01

The discovery of regions of interest in large cities is an important challenge. We propose and investigate a novel query called the path nearby cluster (PNC) query that finds regions of potential interest (e.g., sightseeing places and commercial

Road networks as collections of minimum cost paths

Science.gov (United States)

Wegner, Jan Dirk; Montoya-Zegarra, Javier Alexander; Schindler, Konrad

2015-10-01

We present a probabilistic representation of network structures in images. Our target application is the extraction of urban roads from aerial images. Roads appear as thin, elongated, partially curved structures forming a loopy graph, and this complex layout requires a prior that goes beyond standard smoothness and co-occurrence assumptions. In the proposed model the network is represented as a union of 1D paths connecting distant (super-)pixels. A large set of putative candidate paths is constructed in such a way that they include the true network as much as possible, by searching for minimum cost paths in the foreground (road) likelihood. Selecting the optimal subset of candidate paths is posed as MAP inference in a higher-order conditional random field. Each path forms a higher-order clique with a type of clique potential, which attracts the member nodes of cliques with high cumulative road evidence to the foreground label. That formulation induces a robust PN -Potts model, for which a global MAP solution can be found efficiently with graph cuts. Experiments with two road data sets show that the proposed model significantly improves per-pixel accuracies as well as the overall topological network quality with respect to several baselines.

Path Creation, Path Dependence and Breaking Away from the Path: Re-Examining the Case of Nokia

OpenAIRE

Wang, Jens; Hedman, Jonas; Tuunainen, Virpi Kristiina

2016-01-01

The explanation of how and why firms succeed or fail is a recurrent research challenge. This is particularly important in the context of technological innovations. We focus on the role of historical events and decisions in explaining such success and failure. Using a case study of Nokia, we develop and extend a multi-layer path dependence framework. We identify four layers of path dependence: technical, strategic and leadership, organizational, and external collaboration. We show how path dep...

Path-dependent functions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Khrapko, R.I.

1985-01-01

A uniform description of various path-dependent functions is presented with the help of expansion of the type of the Taylor series. So called ''path-integrals'' and ''path-tensor'' are introduced which are systems of many-component quantities whose values are defined for arbitrary paths in coordinated region of space in such a way that they contain a complete information on the path. These constructions are considered as elementary path-dependent functions and are used instead of power monomials in the usual Taylor series. Coefficients of such an expansion are interpreted as partial derivatives dependent on the order of the differentiations or else as nonstandard cavariant derivatives called two-point derivatives. Some examples of pathdependent functions are presented.Space curvature tensor is considered whose geometrica properties are determined by the (non-transitive) translator of parallel transport of a general type. Covariant operation leading to the ''extension'' of tensor fiels is pointed out

PP: A graphics post-processor for the EQ6 reaction path code

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Stockman, H.W.

1994-09-01

The PP code is a graphics post-processor and plotting program for EQ6, a popular reaction-path code. PP runs on personal computers, allocates memory dynamically, and can handle very large reaction path runs. Plots of simple variable groups, such as fluid and solid phase composition, can be obtained with as few as two keystrokes. Navigation through the list of reaction path variables is simple and efficient. Graphics files can be exported for inclusion in word processing documents and spreadsheets, and experimental data may be imported and superposed on the reaction path runs. The EQ6 thermodynamic database can be searched from within PP, to simplify interpretation of complex plots

Fast concentration of dissolved forms of cesium radioisotopes from large seawater samples

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jan Kamenik; Henrieta Dulaiova; Ferdinand Sebesta; Kamila St'astna; Czech Technical University, Prague

2013-01-01

The method developed for cesium concentration from large freshwater samples was tested and adapted for analysis of cesium radionuclides in seawater. Concentration of dissolved forms of cesium in large seawater samples (about 100 L) was performed using composite absorbers AMP-PAN and KNiFC-PAN with ammonium molybdophosphate and potassium–nickel hexacyanoferrate(II) as active components, respectively, and polyacrylonitrile as a binding polymer. A specially designed chromatography column with bed volume (BV) 25 mL allowed fast flow rates of seawater (up to 1,200 BV h -1 ). The recovery yields were determined by ICP-MS analysis of stable cesium added to seawater sample. Both absorbers proved usability for cesium concentration from large seawater samples. KNiFC-PAN material was slightly more effective in cesium concentration from acidified seawater (recovery yield around 93 % for 700 BV h -1 ). This material showed similar efficiency in cesium concentration also from natural seawater. The activity concentrations of 137 Cs determined in seawater from the central Pacific Ocean were 1.5 ± 0.1 and 1.4 ± 0.1 Bq m -3 for an offshore (January 2012) and a coastal (February 2012) locality, respectively, 134 Cs activities were below detection limit ( -3 ). (author)

Reliable Path Selection Problem in Uncertain Traffic Network after Natural Disaster

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jing Wang

2013-01-01

Full Text Available After natural disaster, especially for large-scale disasters and affected areas, vast relief materials are often needed. In the meantime, the traffic networks are always of uncertainty because of the disaster. In this paper, we assume that the edges in the network are either connected or blocked, and the connection probability of each edge is known. In order to ensure the arrival of these supplies at the affected areas, it is important to select a reliable path. A reliable path selection model is formulated, and two algorithms for solving this model are presented. Then, adjustable reliable path selection model is proposed when the edge of the selected reliable path is broken. And the corresponding algorithms are shown to be efficient both theoretically and numerically.

Dynamic Path Analysis in Life-Course Epidemiology

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Gamborg, Michael Orland; Boje Jensen, Gorm; Sørensen, Thorkild I.A.

2011-01-01

it works through other risk factors. In this paper, the dynamic path analysis model is presented as a tool to analyze these dynamic mechanisms in life-course epidemiology. A key feature of dynamic path analysis is its ability to decompose the total effect of a risk factor into a direct effect (not mediated...... by other variables) and indirect effects (mediated through other variables). This is illustrated by examining the associations between repeated measurements of body mass index (BMI) and systolic blood pressure (SBP) and the risk of CHD in a sample of Danish men between 1976 and 2006. The effect of baseline...... BMI on the risk of CHD is decomposed into a direct effect and indirect effects going through later BMI, concurrent SBP, or later SBP. In conclusion, dynamic path analysis is a flexible tool that by the decomposition of effects can be used to increase the understanding of mechanisms that underlie...

Modelling of groundwater flow and flow paths for a large regional domain in northeast Uppland. A three-dimensional, mathematical modelling of groundwater flows and flow paths on a super-regional scale, for different complexity levels of the flow domain

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Holmen, Johan G.; Stigsson, Martin; Marsic, Niko; Gylling, Bjoern

2003-12-01

The general purpose of this study is to estimate the groundwater flow for a large regional domain by use of groundwater models; and to do that with such a resolution (degree of detail) that important local properties of the flow system studied is represented in the established models. Based on the results of the groundwater modelling, we have compared different theoretical locations of a repository for nuclear waste, considering length and breakthrough time (advective flow) for flow paths from such a repository. The area studied is located in Sweden, in the Northeast of the Uppland province. The area has a maximum horizontal extension of 90 km by 50 km, and the size of the area is approximately 2,000 km 2 . The study is based on a system analysis approach. The studied system is the groundwater flow in the rock mass of Northeast Uppland. To reach the objectives of the study, different mathematical models were devised of the studied domain; these models will, in an idealised and simplified way, reproduce the groundwater movements at the area studied. The formal models (the mathematical models) used for simulation of the groundwater flow are three dimensional mathematical descriptions of the studied hydraulic system. For establishment of the formal models we used two different numerical codes GEOAN, which is based on the finite difference method and NAMMU, which is based on the finite element method. Considering flow path lengths and breakthrough times from a theoretical repository, we have evaluated the following: Importance of the local and regional topography; Importance of cell size in the numerical model; Importance of depth of domain represented in the numerical model; Importance of regional fracture zones; Importance of local lakes; Importance of areas covered by a clay layer; Importance of a modified topography; Importance of the shore level progress. Importance of density dependent flow. The results of the study includes: Length and breakthrough time of flow

Modelling of groundwater flow and flow paths for a large regional domain in northeast Uppland. A three-dimensional, mathematical modelling of groundwater flows and flow paths on a super-regional scale, for different complexity levels of the flow domain

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Holmen, Johan G.; Stigsson, Martin [Golder Associates, Stockholm (Sweden); Marsic, Niko; Gylling, Bjoern [Kemakta Konsult AB, Stockholm (Sweden)

2003-12-01

The general purpose of this study is to estimate the groundwater flow for a large regional domain by use of groundwater models; and to do that with such a resolution (degree of detail) that important local properties of the flow system studied is represented in the established models. Based on the results of the groundwater modelling, we have compared different theoretical locations of a repository for nuclear waste, considering length and breakthrough time (advective flow) for flow paths from such a repository. The area studied is located in Sweden, in the Northeast of the Uppland province. The area has a maximum horizontal extension of 90 km by 50 km, and the size of the area is approximately 2,000 km{sup 2}. The study is based on a system analysis approach. The studied system is the groundwater flow in the rock mass of Northeast Uppland. To reach the objectives of the study, different mathematical models were devised of the studied domain; these models will, in an idealised and simplified way, reproduce the groundwater movements at the area studied. The formal models (the mathematical models) used for simulation of the groundwater flow are three dimensional mathematical descriptions of the studied hydraulic system. For establishment of the formal models we used two different numerical codes GEOAN, which is based on the finite difference method and NAMMU, which is based on the finite element method. Considering flow path lengths and breakthrough times from a theoretical repository, we have evaluated the following: Importance of the local and regional topography; Importance of cell size in the numerical model; Importance of depth of domain represented in the numerical model; Importance of regional fracture zones; Importance of local lakes; Importance of areas covered by a clay layer; Importance of a modified topography; Importance of the shore level progress. Importance of density dependent flow. The results of the study includes: Length and breakthrough time of

A self-sampling method to obtain large volumes of undiluted cervicovaginal secretions.

Science.gov (United States)

Boskey, Elizabeth R; Moench, Thomas R; Hees, Paul S; Cone, Richard A

2003-02-01

Studies of vaginal physiology and pathophysiology sometime require larger volumes of undiluted cervicovaginal secretions than can be obtained by current methods. A convenient method for self-sampling these secretions outside a clinical setting can facilitate such studies of reproductive health. The goal was to develop a vaginal self-sampling method for collecting large volumes of undiluted cervicovaginal secretions. A menstrual collection device (the Instead cup) was inserted briefly into the vagina to collect secretions that were then retrieved from the cup by centrifugation in a 50-ml conical tube. All 16 women asked to perform this procedure found it feasible and acceptable. Among 27 samples, an average of 0.5 g of secretions (range, 0.1-1.5 g) was collected. This is a rapid and convenient self-sampling method for obtaining relatively large volumes of undiluted cervicovaginal secretions. It should prove suitable for a wide range of assays, including those involving sexually transmitted diseases, microbicides, vaginal physiology, immunology, and pathophysiology.

Sample preparation for large-scale bioanalytical studies based on liquid chromatographic techniques.

Science.gov (United States)

Medvedovici, Andrei; Bacalum, Elena; David, Victor

2018-01-01

Quality of the analytical data obtained for large-scale and long term bioanalytical studies based on liquid chromatography depends on a number of experimental factors including the choice of sample preparation method. This review discusses this tedious part of bioanalytical studies, applied to large-scale samples and using liquid chromatography coupled with different detector types as core analytical technique. The main sample preparation methods included in this paper are protein precipitation, liquid-liquid extraction, solid-phase extraction, derivatization and their versions. They are discussed by analytical performances, fields of applications, advantages and disadvantages. The cited literature covers mainly the analytical achievements during the last decade, although several previous papers became more valuable in time and they are included in this review. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

A path method for finding energy barriers and minimum energy paths in complex micromagnetic systems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Dittrich, R.; Schrefl, T.; Suess, D.; Scholz, W.; Forster, H.; Fidler, J.

2002-01-01

Minimum energy paths and energy barriers are calculated for complex micromagnetic systems. The method is based on the nudged elastic band method and uses finite-element techniques to represent granular structures. The method was found to be robust and fast for both simple test problems as well as for large systems such as patterned granular media. The method is used to estimate the energy barriers in CoCr-based perpendicular recording media

Uncertainty budget in internal monostandard NAA for small and large size samples analysis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Dasari, K.B.; Acharya, R.

2014-01-01

Total uncertainty budget evaluation on determined concentration value is important under quality assurance programme. Concentration calculation in NAA or carried out by relative NAA and k0 based internal monostandard NAA (IM-NAA) method. IM-NAA method has been used for small and large sample analysis of clay potteries. An attempt was made to identify the uncertainty components in IM-NAA and uncertainty budget for La in both small and large size samples has been evaluated and compared. (author)

Chronic Fluoxetine Induces the Enlargement of Perforant Path-Granule Cell Synapses in the Mouse Dentate Gyrus

Science.gov (United States)

Kitahara, Yosuke; Ohta, Keisuke; Hasuo, Hiroshi; Shuto, Takahide; Kuroiwa, Mahomi; Sotogaku, Naoki; Togo, Akinobu; Nakamura, Kei-ichiro; Nishi, Akinori

2016-01-01

A selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor is the most commonly prescribed antidepressant for the treatment of major depression. However, the mechanisms underlying the actions of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors are not fully understood. In the dentate gyrus, chronic fluoxetine treatment induces increased excitability of mature granule cells (GCs) as well as neurogenesis. The major input to the dentate gyrus is the perforant path axons (boutons) from the entorhinal cortex (layer II). Through voltage-sensitive dye imaging, we found that the excitatory neurotransmission of the perforant path synapse onto the GCs in the middle molecular layer of the mouse dentate gyrus (perforant path-GC synapse) is enhanced after chronic fluoxetine treatment (15 mg/kg/day, 14 days). Therefore, we further examined whether chronic fluoxetine treatment affects the morphology of the perforant path-GC synapse, using FIB/SEM (focused ion beam/scanning electron microscopy). A three-dimensional reconstruction of dendritic spines revealed the appearance of extremely large-sized spines after chronic fluoxetine treatment. The large-sized spines had a postsynaptic density with a large volume. However, chronic fluoxetine treatment did not affect spine density. The presynaptic boutons that were in contact with the large-sized spines were large in volume, and the volumes of the mitochondria and synaptic vesicles inside the boutons were correlated with the size of the boutons. Thus, the large-sized perforant path-GC synapse induced by chronic fluoxetine treatment contains synaptic components that correlate with the synapse size and that may be involved in enhanced glutamatergic neurotransmission. PMID:26788851

Path Integrals in Quantum Mechanics

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Louko, J

2005-01-01

Jean Zinn-Justin's textbook Path Integrals in Quantum Mechanics aims to familiarize the reader with the path integral as a calculational tool in quantum mechanics and field theory. The emphasis is on quantum statistical mechanics, starting with the partition function Tr exp(-β H) and proceeding through the diffusion equation to barrier penetration problems and their semiclassical limit. The 'real time' path integral is defined via analytic continuation and used for the path-integral representation of the nonrelativistic S-matrix and its perturbative expansion. Holomorphic and Grassmannian path integrals are introduced and applied to nonrelativistic quantum field theory. There is also a brief discussion of path integrals in phase space. The introduction includes a brief historical review of path integrals, supported by a bibliography with some 40 entries. As emphasized in the introduction, mathematical rigour is not a central issue in the book. This allows the text to present the calculational techniques in a very readable manner: much of the text consists of worked-out examples, such as the quartic anharmonic oscillator in the barrier penetration chapter. At the end of each chapter there are exercises, some of which are of elementary coursework type, but the majority are more in the style of extended examples. Most of the exercises indeed include the solution or a sketch thereof. The book assumes minimal previous knowledge of quantum mechanics, and some basic quantum mechanical notation is collected in an appendix. The material has a large overlap with selected chapters in the author's thousand-page textbook Quantum Field Theory and Critical Phenomena (2002 Oxford: Clarendon). The stand-alone scope of the present work has, however, allowed a more focussed organization of this material, especially in the chapters on, respectively, holomorphic and Grassmannian path integrals. In my view the book accomplishes its aim admirably and is eminently usable as a textbook

Patterns and singular features of extreme fluctuational paths of a periodically driven system

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chen, Zhen; Liu, Xianbin

2016-01-01

Large fluctuations of an overdamped periodically driven oscillating system are investigated theoretically and numerically in the limit of weak noise. Optimal paths fluctuating to certain point are given by statistical analysis using the concept of prehistory probability distribution. The validity of statistical results is verified by solutions of boundary value problem. Optimal paths are found to change topologically when terminating points lie at opposite side of a switching line. Patterns of extreme paths are plotted through a proper parameterization of Lagrangian manifold having complicated structures. Several extreme paths to the same point are obtained by multiple solutions of boundary value solutions. Actions along various extreme paths are calculated and associated analysis is performed in relation to the singular features of the patterns. - Highlights: • Both extreme and optimal paths are obtained by various methods. • Boundary value problems are solved to ensure the validity of statistical results. • Topological structure of Lagrangian manifold is considered. • Singularities of the pattern of extreme paths are studied.

Exploring Technostress: Results of a Large Sample Factor Analysis

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Steponas Jonušauskas

2016-06-01

Full Text Available With reference to the results of a large sample factor analysis, the article aims to propose the frame examining technostress in a population. The survey and principal component analysis of the sample consisting of 1013 individuals who use ICT in their everyday work was implemented in the research. 13 factors combine 68 questions and explain 59.13 per cent of the answers dispersion. Based on the factor analysis, questionnaire was reframed and prepared to reasonably analyze the respondents’ answers, revealing technostress causes and consequences as well as technostress prevalence in the population in a statistically validated pattern. A key elements of technostress based on factor analysis can serve for the construction of technostress measurement scales in further research.

Multi-AGV path planning with double-path constraints by using an improved genetic algorithm.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Zengliang Han

Full Text Available This paper investigates an improved genetic algorithm on multiple automated guided vehicle (multi-AGV path planning. The innovations embody in two aspects. First, three-exchange crossover heuristic operators are used to produce more optimal offsprings for getting more information than with the traditional two-exchange crossover heuristic operators in the improved genetic algorithm. Second, double-path constraints of both minimizing the total path distance of all AGVs and minimizing single path distances of each AGV are exerted, gaining the optimal shortest total path distance. The simulation results show that the total path distance of all AGVs and the longest single AGV path distance are shortened by using the improved genetic algorithm.

Creep analysis by the path function method

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Akin, J.E.; Pardue, R.M.

1977-01-01

The finite element method has become a common analysis procedure for the creep analysis of structures. The most recent programs are designed to handle a general class of material properties and are able to calculate elastic, plastic, and creep components of strain under general loading histories. The constant stress approach is too crude a model to accurately represent the actual behaviour of the stress for large time steps. The true path of a point in the effective stress-effective strain (sigmasup(e)-epsilonsup(c)) plane is often one in which the slope is rapidly changing. Thus the stress level quickly moves away from the initial stress level and then gradually approaches the final one. The result is that the assumed constant stress level quickly becomes inaccurate. What is required is a better method of approximation of the true path in the sigmasup(e)-epsilonsup(c) space. The method described here is called the path function approach because it employs an assumed function to estimate the motion of points in the sigmasup(e)-epsilonsup(c) space. (Auth.)

Forces in Motzkin paths in a wedge

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Janse van Rensburg, E J

2006-01-01

Entropic forces in models of Motzkin paths in a wedge geometry are considered as models of forces in polymers in confined geometries. A Motzkin path in the square lattice is a path from the origin to a point in the line Y = X while it never visits sites below this line, and it is constrained to give unit length steps only in the north and east directions and steps of length √2 in the north-east direction. Motzkin path models may be generalized to ensembles of NE-oriented paths above the line Y = rX, where r > 0 is an irrational number. These are paths giving east, north and north-east steps from the origin in the square lattice, and confined to the r-wedge formed by the Y-axis and the line Y = rX. The generating function g r of these paths is not known, but if r > 1, then I determine its radius of convergence to be t r = min (r-1)/r≤y≤r/(r+1) [y y (1-r(1-y)) 1-r(1-y) (r(1-y)-y) r(1-y)-y ] and if r is an element of (0, 1), then t r = 1/3. The entropic force the path exerts on the line Y rX may be computed from this. An asymptotic expression for the force for large values of r is given by F(r) = log(2r)/r 2 - (1+2log(2r))/2r 3 + O (log(2r)/r 4 ). In terms of the vertex angle α of the r-wedge, the moment of the force about the origin has leading terms F(α) log(2/α) - (α/2)(1+2log(2/α)) + O(α 2 log(2/α)) as α → 0 + and F(α) = 0 if α is element of [π/4, π/2]. Moreover, numerical integration of the force shows that the total work done by closing the wedge is 1.085 07... lattice units. An alternative ensemble of NE-oriented paths may be defined by slightly changing the generating function g r . In this model, it is possible to determine closed-form expressions for the limiting free energy and the force. The leading term in an asymptotic expansions for this force agrees with the leading term in the asymptotic expansion of the above model, and the subleading term only differs by a factor of 2

Fast exploration of an optimal path on the multidimensional free energy surface

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Changjun

2017-01-01

In a reaction, determination of an optimal path with a high reaction rate (or a low free energy barrier) is important for the study of the reaction mechanism. This is a complicated problem that involves lots of degrees of freedom. For simple models, one can build an initial path in the collective variable space by the interpolation method first and then update the whole path constantly in the optimization. However, such interpolation method could be risky in the high dimensional space for large molecules. On the path, steric clashes between neighboring atoms could cause extremely high energy barriers and thus fail the optimization. Moreover, performing simulations for all the snapshots on the path is also time-consuming. In this paper, we build and optimize the path by a growing method on the free energy surface. The method grows a path from the reactant and extends its length in the collective variable space step by step. The growing direction is determined by both the free energy gradient at the end of the path and the direction vector pointing at the product. With fewer snapshots on the path, this strategy can let the path avoid the high energy states in the growing process and save the precious simulation time at each iteration step. Applications show that the presented method is efficient enough to produce optimal paths on either the two-dimensional or the twelve-dimensional free energy surfaces of different small molecules. PMID:28542475

Conceptual Soundness, Metric Development, Benchmarking, and Targeting for PATH Subprogram Evaluation

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Mosey. G.; Doris, E.; Coggeshall, C.; Antes, M.; Ruch, J.; Mortensen, J.

2009-01-01

The objective of this study is to evaluate the conceptual soundness of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Partnership for Advancing Technology in Housing (PATH) program's revised goals and establish and apply a framework to identify and recommend metrics that are the most useful for measuring PATH's progress. This report provides an evaluative review of PATH's revised goals, outlines a structured method for identifying and selecting metrics, proposes metrics and benchmarks for a sampling of individual PATH programs, and discusses other metrics that potentially could be developed that may add value to the evaluation process. The framework and individual program metrics can be used for ongoing management improvement efforts and to inform broader program-level metrics for government reporting requirements.

Automated, feature-based image alignment for high-resolution imaging mass spectrometry of large biological samples

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Broersen, A.; Liere, van R.; Altelaar, A.F.M.; Heeren, R.M.A.; McDonnell, L.A.

2008-01-01

High-resolution imaging mass spectrometry of large biological samples is the goal of several research groups. In mosaic imaging, the most common method, the large sample is divided into a mosaic of small areas that are then analyzed with high resolution. Here we present an automated alignment

Integral transforms of the quantum mechanical path integral: Hit function and path-averaged potential

Science.gov (United States)

Edwards, James P.; Gerber, Urs; Schubert, Christian; Trejo, Maria Anabel; Weber, Axel

2018-04-01

We introduce two integral transforms of the quantum mechanical transition kernel that represent physical information about the path integral. These transforms can be interpreted as probability distributions on particle trajectories measuring respectively the relative contribution to the path integral from paths crossing a given spatial point (the hit function) and the likelihood of values of the line integral of the potential along a path in the ensemble (the path-averaged potential).

Sampling large landscapes with small-scale stratification-User's Manual

Science.gov (United States)

Bart, Jonathan

2011-01-01

This manual explains procedures for partitioning a large landscape into plots, assigning the plots to strata, and selecting plots in each stratum to be surveyed. These steps are referred to as the "sampling large landscapes (SLL) process." We assume that users of the manual have a moderate knowledge of ArcGIS and Microsoft ® Excel. The manual is written for a single user but in many cases, some steps will be carried out by a biologist designing the survey and some steps will be carried out by a quantitative assistant. Thus, the manual essentially may be passed back and forth between these users. The SLL process primarily has been used to survey birds, and we refer to birds as subjects of the counts. The process, however, could be used to count any objects. ®

Algorithm for shortest path search in Geographic Information Systems by using reduced graphs.

Science.gov (United States)

Rodríguez-Puente, Rafael; Lazo-Cortés, Manuel S

2013-01-01

The use of Geographic Information Systems has increased considerably since the eighties and nineties. As one of their most demanding applications we can mention shortest paths search. Several studies about shortest path search show the feasibility of using graphs for this purpose. Dijkstra's algorithm is one of the classic shortest path search algorithms. This algorithm is not well suited for shortest path search in large graphs. This is the reason why various modifications to Dijkstra's algorithm have been proposed by several authors using heuristics to reduce the run time of shortest path search. One of the most used heuristic algorithms is the A* algorithm, the main goal is to reduce the run time by reducing the search space. This article proposes a modification of Dijkstra's shortest path search algorithm in reduced graphs. It shows that the cost of the path found in this work, is equal to the cost of the path found using Dijkstra's algorithm in the original graph. The results of finding the shortest path, applying the proposed algorithm, Dijkstra's algorithm and A* algorithm, are compared. This comparison shows that, by applying the approach proposed, it is possible to obtain the optimal path in a similar or even in less time than when using heuristic algorithms.

Piloting and Path Integration within and across Boundaries

Science.gov (United States)

Mou, Weimin; Wang, Lin

2015-01-01

Three experiments investigated whether navigation is less efficient across boundaries than within boundaries. In an immersive virtual environment, participants learned objects' locations in a large room or a small room. Participants then pointed to the objects' original locations after physically walking a circuitous path without vision.…

Path planning in uncertain flow fields using ensemble method

KAUST Repository

Wang, Tong

2016-08-20

An ensemble-based approach is developed to conduct optimal path planning in unsteady ocean currents under uncertainty. We focus our attention on two-dimensional steady and unsteady uncertain flows, and adopt a sampling methodology that is well suited to operational forecasts, where an ensemble of deterministic predictions is used to model and quantify uncertainty. In an operational setting, much about dynamics, topography, and forcing of the ocean environment is uncertain. To address this uncertainty, the flow field is parametrized using a finite number of independent canonical random variables with known densities, and the ensemble is generated by sampling these variables. For each of the resulting realizations of the uncertain current field, we predict the path that minimizes the travel time by solving a boundary value problem (BVP), based on the Pontryagin maximum principle. A family of backward-in-time trajectories starting at the end position is used to generate suitable initial values for the BVP solver. This allows us to examine and analyze the performance of the sampling strategy and to develop insight into extensions dealing with general circulation ocean models. In particular, the ensemble method enables us to perform a statistical analysis of travel times and consequently develop a path planning approach that accounts for these statistics. The proposed methodology is tested for a number of scenarios. We first validate our algorithms by reproducing simple canonical solutions, and then demonstrate our approach in more complex flow fields, including idealized, steady and unsteady double-gyre flows.

Girsanov reweighting for path ensembles and Markov state models

Science.gov (United States)

Donati, L.; Hartmann, C.; Keller, B. G.

2017-06-01

The sensitivity of molecular dynamics on changes in the potential energy function plays an important role in understanding the dynamics and function of complex molecules. We present a method to obtain path ensemble averages of a perturbed dynamics from a set of paths generated by a reference dynamics. It is based on the concept of path probability measure and the Girsanov theorem, a result from stochastic analysis to estimate a change of measure of a path ensemble. Since Markov state models (MSMs) of the molecular dynamics can be formulated as a combined phase-space and path ensemble average, the method can be extended to reweight MSMs by combining it with a reweighting of the Boltzmann distribution. We demonstrate how to efficiently implement the Girsanov reweighting in a molecular dynamics simulation program by calculating parts of the reweighting factor "on the fly" during the simulation, and we benchmark the method on test systems ranging from a two-dimensional diffusion process and an artificial many-body system to alanine dipeptide and valine dipeptide in implicit and explicit water. The method can be used to study the sensitivity of molecular dynamics on external perturbations as well as to reweight trajectories generated by enhanced sampling schemes to the original dynamics.

Predictors of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics choice options: A meta-analytic path analysis of the social-cognitive choice model by gender and race/ethnicity.

Science.gov (United States)

Lent, Robert W; Sheu, Hung-Bin; Miller, Matthew J; Cusick, Megan E; Penn, Lee T; Truong, Nancy N

2018-01-01

We tested the interest and choice portion of social-cognitive career theory (SCCT; Lent, Brown, & Hackett, 1994) in the context of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) domains. Data from 143 studies (including 196 independent samples) conducted over a 30-year period (1983 through 2013) were subjected to meta-analytic path analyses. The interest/choice model was found to fit the data well over all samples as well as within samples composed primarily of women and men and racial/ethnic minority and majority persons. The model also accounted for large portions of the variance in interests and choice goals within each path analysis. Despite the general predictive utility of SCCT across gender and racial/ethnic groups, we did find that several parameter estimates differed by group. We present both the group similarities and differences and consider their implications for future research, intervention, and theory refinement. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

Large Neighborhood Search

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Pisinger, David; Røpke, Stefan

2010-01-01

Heuristics based on large neighborhood search have recently shown outstanding results in solving various transportation and scheduling problems. Large neighborhood search methods explore a complex neighborhood by use of heuristics. Using large neighborhoods makes it possible to find better...... candidate solutions in each iteration and hence traverse a more promising search path. Starting from the large neighborhood search method,we give an overview of very large scale neighborhood search methods and discuss recent variants and extensions like variable depth search and adaptive large neighborhood...

Absolute activity determinations on large volume geological samples independent of self-absorption effects

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wilson, W.E.

1980-01-01

This paper describes a method for measuring the absolute activity of large volume samples by γ-spectroscopy independent of self-absorption effects using Ge detectors. The method yields accurate matrix independent results at the expense of replicative counting of the unknown sample. (orig./HP)

Pricing of path dependent derivatives with discretely monitored underlying assets

Science.gov (United States)

Choi, Hyomin

This dissertation presents two different approaches to path dependent option pricing with discrete sampling. Provided the underlying asset of a path dependent derivative contract follows an affine process, we use the forward characteristic method to evaluate its fair price. Our study shows that the valuation method is numerically accessible as long as the contract payoff is a linear combination of log return of its underlying asset price. We compute various examples of such contracts and give contract-tailored formulas that we use in these examples. In the second part, we consider variance options under stochastic volatility model. We analyze the difference between variance option prices with discrete and continuous sampling as a function of N, the number of observations made in the former. We find the series expansion of the difference with respect to 1/N and find its leading term. By adding this leading term to the value of continuously sampled variance option, we obtain a simple and well-understood approximation of discretely sample variance option price.

Assessment of large aperture scintillometry for large-area surface ...

Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

Abhishek Danodia

2017-07-19

Jul 19, 2017 ... Agriculture and Soils Division, Indian Institute of Remote Sensing – ISRO, ... height) were recorded at a temporal resolution of fortnight basis along the path length at usual sampling .... The measurement of net radiation, soil.

Procedure for plutonium analysis of large (100g) soil and sediment samples

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Meadows, J.W.T.; Schweiger, J.S.; Mendoza, B.; Stone, R.

1975-01-01

A method for the complete dissolution of large soil or sediment samples is described. This method is in routine usage at Lawrence Livermore Laboratory for the analysis of fall-out levels of Pu in soils and sediments. Intercomparison with partial dissolution (leach) techniques shows the complete dissolution method to be superior for the determination of plutonium in a wide variety of environmental samples. (author)

Vocational education paths, youth activities, and underage drinking in Russia: How early does the trouble start?

Science.gov (United States)

Lushin, Viktor; Jaccard, James; Ivaniushina, Valeria; Alexandrov, Daniel

2017-07-01

Working-class educational paths tend to be associated with elevated drinking. Little research has examined whether disproportionate alcohol use among vocationally oriented youth begins before or after the start of their vocational education. The present study analyzes a large sample of Russian middle-school students (N=1269; mean age=14.9), comparing the patterns of drinking among middle-schoolers oriented towards vocational educational, and their peers who do not plan a vocational education path. Results suggest that the orientation towards vocational education is associated with disproportionately high alcohol involvement among Russian middle-school students, even before they enter vocational schools. We studied if such difference could be partially explained by how youth orient towards extracurricular activities: discretionary peer time in risky contexts, reading for pleasure, working for pay, and religious activities. Reading demonstrated the strongest (negative) association with alcohol use, while religious activity unexpectedly revealed a positive (though weak) association with drinking. Research and policy implications are discussed. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Cyclic fatigue resistance of R-Pilot, HyFlex EDM and PathFile nickel-titanium glide path files in artificial canals with double (S-shaped) curvature.

Science.gov (United States)

Uslu, G; Özyürek, T; Yılmaz, K; Gündoğar, M

2018-05-01

To examine the cyclic fatigue resistances of R-Pilot, HyFlex EDM and PathFile NiTi glide path files in S-shaped artificial canals. Twenty R-Pilot (12.5/.04), 20 HyFlex EDM (10/.05) and 20 PathFile (19/.02) single-file glide path files were included. Sixty files (n: 20/each) were subjected to static cyclic fatigue testing using double-curved canals until fracture occurred (TF). The number of cycles to fracture (NCF) was calculated by multiplying the rpm value by the TF. The length of the fractured fragment (FL) was determined by a digital microcaliper. Six samples of fractured files (n: 2/each) were examined by SEM to determine the fracture mode. The NCF and the FL data were analysed using one-way anova, post hoc Tamhane and Kruskal-Wallis tests using SPPS 21 software. The significance level was set at 5%. In the double-curved canal, all the files fractured first in the apical curvature and then in the coronal curvature. The NCF values revealed that the R-Pilot had the greatest cyclic fatigue resistance, followed by the HyFlex EDM and PathFile in both the apical and coronal curvatures (P < 0.05). R-Pilot NiTi glide path files, used in a reciprocating motion, had the greatest cyclic fatigue resistance amongst the tested NiTi glide path files in an artificial S-shaped canal. © 2017 International Endodontic Journal. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Searching for a Path: A Bibliometric study on Innovation and Technological Capabilities

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

João Heitor De Avila Santos

2015-11-01

Full Text Available Innovation is recognize as a matter of survival and success to firms and technological capabilities can lead to an innovative behavior by using technological resources and competences. The literature about technological capability and innovation is vast, counting on several approaches and a large number of researchers involved within. Based on this, our aim is to use a bibliometrics approach to map out the authors, institutions, journals and the evolution of the publication as well, to provide the path needed to build a theoretical framework about the theme. We held this research on the Scopus database using a standard search protocol to perform the selection of the sample. Our results indicates an emerging field of study and a large number papers and citations concentrated in few journals. Most cited authors are related to seminal works on the subject and most cited papers are ones from late 90’s and early 2000. 

Fast sampling from a Hidden Markov Model posterior for large data

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bonnevie, Rasmus; Hansen, Lars Kai

2014-01-01

Hidden Markov Models are of interest in a broad set of applications including modern data driven systems involving very large data sets. However, approximate inference methods based on Bayesian averaging are precluded in such applications as each sampling step requires a full sweep over the data...

17 CFR Appendix B to Part 420 - Sample Large Position Report

Science.gov (United States)

2010-04-01

..., and as collateral for financial derivatives and other securities transactions $ Total Memorandum 1... 17 Commodity and Securities Exchanges 3 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Sample Large Position Report B Appendix B to Part 420 Commodity and Securities Exchanges DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY REGULATIONS UNDER...

Open-path, closed-path and reconstructed aerosol extinction at a rural site.

Science.gov (United States)

Gordon, Timothy D; Prenni, Anthony J; Renfro, James R; McClure, Ethan; Hicks, Bill; Onasch, Timothy B; Freedman, Andrew; McMeeking, Gavin R; Chen, Ping

2018-04-09

The Handix Scientific Open-Path Cavity Ringdown Spectrometer (OPCRDS) was deployed during summer 2016 in Great Smoky Mountains National Park (GRSM). Extinction coefficients from the relatively new OPCRDS and from a more well-established extinction instrument agreed to within 7%. Aerosol hygroscopic growth (f(RH)) was calculated from the ratio of ambient extinction measured by the OPCRDS to dry extinction measured by a closed-path extinction monitor (Aerodyne's Cavity Attenuated Phase Shift Particulate Matter Extinction Monitor, CAPS PMex). Derived hygroscopicity (RH 1995 at the same site and time of year, which is noteworthy given the decreasing trend for organics and sulfate in the eastern U.S. However, maximum f(RH) values in 1995 were less than half as large as those recorded in 2016-possibly due to nephelometer truncation losses in 1995. Two hygroscopicity parameterizations were investigated using high time resolution OPCRDS+CAPS PMex data, and the K ext model was more accurate than the γ model. Data from the two ambient optical instruments, the OPCRDS and the open-path nephelometer, generally agreed; however, significant discrepancies between ambient scattering and extinction were observed, apparently driven by a combination of hygroscopic growth effects, which tend to increase nephelometer truncation losses and decrease sensitivity to the wavelength difference between the two instruments as a function of particle size. There was not a statistically significant difference in the mean reconstructed extinction values obtained from the original and the revised IMPROVE (Interagency Monitoring of Protected Visual Environments) equations. On average IMPROVE reconstructed extinction was ~25% lower than extinction measured by the OPCRDS, which suggests that the IMPROVE equations and 24-hr aerosol data are moderately successful in estimating current haze levels at GRSM. However, this conclusion is limited by the coarse temporal resolution and the low dynamic range of

Large area synchrotron X-ray fluorescence mapping of biological samples

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kempson, I.; Thierry, B.; Smith, E.; Gao, M.; De Jonge, M.

2014-01-01

Large area mapping of inorganic material in biological samples has suffered severely from prohibitively long acquisition times. With the advent of new detector technology we can now generate statistically relevant information for studying cell populations, inter-variability and bioinorganic chemistry in large specimen. We have been implementing ultrafast synchrotron-based XRF mapping afforded by the MAIA detector for large area mapping of biological material. For example, a 2.5 million pixel map can be acquired in 3 hours, compared to a typical synchrotron XRF set-up needing over 1 month of uninterrupted beamtime. Of particular focus to us is the fate of metals and nanoparticles in cells, 3D tissue models and animal tissues. The large area scanning has for the first time provided statistically significant information on sufficiently large numbers of cells to provide data on intercellular variability in uptake of nanoparticles. Techniques such as flow cytometry generally require analysis of thousands of cells for statistically meaningful comparison, due to the large degree of variability. Large area XRF now gives comparable information in a quantifiable manner. Furthermore, we can now image localised deposition of nanoparticles in tissues that would be highly improbable to 'find' by typical XRF imaging. In addition, the ultra fast nature also makes it viable to conduct 3D XRF tomography over large dimensions. This technology avails new opportunities in biomonitoring and understanding metal and nanoparticle fate ex-vivo. Following from this is extension to molecular imaging through specific anti-body targeted nanoparticles to label specific tissues and monitor cellular process or biological consequence

Sampling of charged liquid radwaste stored in large tanks

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tchemitcheff, E.; Domage, M.; Bernard-Bruls, X.

1995-01-01

The final safe disposal of radwaste, in France and elsewhere, entails, for liquid effluents, their conversion to a stable solid form, hence implying their conditioning. The production of conditioned waste with the requisite quality, traceability of the characteristics of the packages produced, and safe operation of the conditioning processes, implies at least the accurate knowledge of the chemical and radiochemical properties of the effluents concerned. The problem in sampling the normally charged effluents is aggravated for effluents that have been stored for several years in very large tanks, without stirring and retrieval systems. In 1992, SGN was asked by Cogema to study the retrieval and conditioning of LL/ML chemical sludge and spent ion-exchange resins produced in the operation of the UP2 400 plant at La Hague, and stored temporarily in rectangular silos and tanks. The sampling aspect was crucial for validating the inventories, identifying the problems liable to arise in the aging of the effluents, dimensioning the retrieval systems and checking the transferability and compatibility with the downstream conditioning process. Two innovative self-contained systems were developed and built for sampling operations, positioned above the tanks concerned. Both systems have been operated in active conditions and have proved totally satisfactory for taking representative samples. Today SGN can propose industrially proven overall solutions, adaptable to the various constraints of many spent fuel cycle operators

A SIMPLE ANALYTICAL METHOD TO DETERMINE SOLAR ENERGETIC PARTICLES' MEAN FREE PATH

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

He, H.-Q.; Qin, G.

2011-01-01

To obtain the mean free path of solar energetic particles (SEPs) for a solar event, one usually has to fit time profiles of both flux and anisotropy from spacecraft observations to numerical simulations of SEPs' transport processes. This method can be called a simulation method. But a reasonably good fitting needs a lot of simulations, which demand a large amount of calculation resources. Sometimes, it is necessary to find an easy way to obtain the mean free path of SEPs quickly, for example, in space weather practice. Recently, Shalchi et al. provided an approximate analytical formula of SEPs' anisotropy time profile as a function of particles' mean free path for impulsive events. In this paper, we determine SEPs' mean free path by fitting the anisotropy time profiles from Shalchi et al.'s analytical formula to spacecraft observations. This new method can be called an analytical method. In addition, we obtain SEPs' mean free path with the traditional simulation methods. Finally, we compare the mean free path obtained with the simulation method to that of the analytical method to show that the analytical method, with some minor modifications, can give us a good, quick approximation of SEPs' mean free path for impulsive events.

Path integration quantization

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

DeWitt-Morette, C.

1983-01-01

Much is expected of path integration as a quantization procedure. Much more is possible if one recognizes that path integration is at the crossroad of stochastic and differential calculus and uses the full power of both stochastic and differential calculus in setting up and computing path integrals. In contrast to differential calculus, stochastic calculus has only comparatively recently become an instrument of thought. It has nevertheless already been used in a variety of challenging problems, for instance in the quantization problem. The author presents some applications of the stochastic scheme. (Auth.)

UMAPRM: Uniformly sampling the medial axis

KAUST Repository

Yeh, Hsin-Yi Cindy

2014-05-01

© 2014 IEEE. Maintaining clearance, or distance from obstacles, is a vital component of successful motion planning algorithms. Maintaining high clearance often creates safer paths for robots. Contemporary sampling-based planning algorithms That utilize The medial axis, or The set of all points equidistant To Two or more obstacles, produce higher clearance paths. However, They are biased heavily Toward certain portions of The medial axis, sometimes ignoring parts critical To planning, e.g., specific Types of narrow passages. We introduce Uniform Medial Axis Probabilistic RoadMap (UMAPRM), a novel planning variant That generates samples uniformly on The medial axis of The free portion of Cspace. We Theoretically analyze The distribution generated by UMAPRM and show its uniformity. Our results show That UMAPRM\\'s distribution of samples along The medial axis is not only uniform but also preferable To other medial axis samplers in certain planning problems. We demonstrate That UMAPRM has negligible computational overhead over other sampling Techniques and can solve problems The others could not, e.g., a bug Trap. Finally, we demonstrate UMAPRM successfully generates higher clearance paths in The examples.

Enabling Advanced Path-Finding on Terrains and in Spatial Networks

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kaul, Manohar

traffic updates. The solution assumes that the dynamic real-valued edge weights are bounded in a manner consistent with real-world data, which enables a theoretical guarantee on the travel time. Comprehensive experiments suggest that the proposed methods are accurate, efficient, robust, and scalable....... into the effectiveness and efficiency of the two approaches. Finally, we propose a scalable distributed system that maintains a large number of continuous fastest-path queries on a large spatial network, providing users with guaranteed approximate fastest paths to their destinations, while facing heavy real- time....... The first scans the 3D point-cloud in a single pass and constructs the 3D road network on the fly, while the second approach reads the 3D points as disk blocks in accordance to a locality-preserving space-filling curve. Results from empirical studies with real- world data offer insight...

Development of Large Sample Neutron Activation Technique for New Applications in Thailand

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Laoharojanaphand, S.; Tippayakul, C.; Wonglee, S.; Channuie, J.

2018-01-01

The development of the Large Sample Neutron Activation Analysis (LSNAA) in Thailand is presented in this paper. The technique had been firstly developed with rice sample as the test subject. The Thai Research Reactor-1/Modification 1 (TRR-1/M1) was used as the neutron source. The first step was to select and characterize an appropriate irradiation facility for the research. An out-core irradiation facility (A4 position) was first attempted. The results performed with the A4 facility were then used as guides for the subsequent experiments with the thermal column facility. The characterization of the thermal column was performed with Cu-wire to determine spatial distribution without and with rice sample. The flux depression without rice sample was observed to be less than 30% while the flux depression with rice sample increased to within 60%. The flux monitors internal to the rice sample were used to determine average flux over the rice sample. The gamma selfshielding effect during gamma measurement was corrected using the Monte Carlo simulation. The ratio between the efficiencies of the volume source and the point source for each energy point was calculated by the MCNPX code. The research team adopted the k0-NAA methodology to calculate the element concentration in the research. The k0-NAA program which developed by IAEA was set up to simulate the conditions of the irradiation and measurement facilities used in this research. The element concentrations in the bulk rice sample were then calculated taking into account the flux depression and gamma efficiency corrections. At the moment, the results still show large discrepancies with the reference values. However, more research on the validation will be performed to identify sources of errors. Moreover, this LS-NAA technique was introduced for the activation analysis of the IAEA archaeological mock-up. The results are provided in this report. (author)

Decomposition and (importance) sampling techniques for multi-stage stochastic linear programs

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Infanger, G.

1993-11-01

The difficulty of solving large-scale multi-stage stochastic linear programs arises from the sheer number of scenarios associated with numerous stochastic parameters. The number of scenarios grows exponentially with the number of stages and problems get easily out of hand even for very moderate numbers of stochastic parameters per stage. Our method combines dual (Benders) decomposition with Monte Carlo sampling techniques. We employ importance sampling to efficiently obtain accurate estimates of both expected future costs and gradients and right-hand sides of cuts. The method enables us to solve practical large-scale problems with many stages and numerous stochastic parameters per stage. We discuss the theory of sharing and adjusting cuts between different scenarios in a stage. We derive probabilistic lower and upper bounds, where we use importance path sampling for the upper bound estimation. Initial numerical results turned out to be promising.

CO2 isotope analyses using large air samples collected on intercontinental flights by the CARIBIC Boeing 767

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Assonov, S.S.; Brenninkmeijer, C.A.M.; Koeppel, C.; Röckmann, T.

2009-01-01

Analytical details for 13C and 18O isotope analyses of atmospheric CO2 in large air samples are given. The large air samples of nominally 300 L were collected during the passenger aircraft-based atmospheric chemistry research project CARIBIC and analyzed for a large number of trace gases and

Sampling of ore

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Boehme, R.C.; Nicholas, B.L.

1987-01-01

This invention relates to a method of an apparatus for ore sampling. The method includes the steps of periodically removing a sample of the output material of a sorting machine, weighing each sample so that each is of the same weight, measuring a characteristic such as the radioactivity, magnetivity or the like of each sample, subjecting at least an equal portion of each sample to chemical analysis to determine the mineral content of the sample and comparing the characteristic measurement with desired mineral content of the chemically analysed portion of the sample to determine the characteristic/mineral ratio of the sample. The apparatus includes an ore sample collector, a deflector for deflecting a sample of ore particles from the output of an ore sorter into the collector and means for moving the deflector from a first position in which it is clear of the particle path from the sorter to a second position in which it is in the particle path at predetermined time intervals and for predetermined time periods to deflect the sample particles into the collector. The apparatus conveniently includes an ore crusher for comminuting the sample particle, a sample hopper means for weighing the hopper, a detector in the hopper for measuring a characteristic such as radioactivity, magnetivity or the like of particles in the hopper, a discharge outlet from the hopper and means for feeding the particles from the collector to the crusher and then to the hopper

The problem of large samples. An activation analysis study of electronic waste material

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Segebade, C.; Goerner, W.; Bode, P.

2007-01-01

Large-volume instrumental photon activation analysis (IPAA) was used for the investigation of shredded electronic waste material. Sample masses from 1 to 150 grams were analyzed to obtain an estimate of the minimum sample size to be taken to achieve a representativeness of the results which is satisfactory for a defined investigation task. Furthermore, the influence of irradiation and measurement parameters upon the quality of the analytical results were studied. Finally, the analytical data obtained from IPAA and instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA), both carried out in a large-volume mode, were compared. Only parts of the values were found in satisfactory agreement. (author)

Reparametrization in the path integral

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Storchak, S.N.

1983-01-01

The question of the invariance of a measure in the n-dimensional path integral under the path reparametrization is considered. The non-invariance of the measure through the jacobian is suggeste. After the path integral reparametrization the representatioq for the Green's function of the Hamilton operator in terms of the path integral with the classical Hamiltonian has been obtained

Unique Path Partitions

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bessenrodt, Christine; Olsson, Jørn Børling; Sellers, James A.

2013-01-01

We give a complete classification of the unique path partitions and study congruence properties of the function which enumerates such partitions.......We give a complete classification of the unique path partitions and study congruence properties of the function which enumerates such partitions....

Time-optimal path planning in uncertain flow fields using ensemble method

KAUST Repository

Wang, Tong

2016-01-06

An ensemble-based approach is developed to conduct time-optimal path planning in unsteady ocean currents under uncertainty. We focus our attention on two-dimensional steady and unsteady uncertain flows, and adopt a sampling methodology that is well suited to operational forecasts, where a set deterministic predictions is used to model and quantify uncertainty in the predictions. In the operational setting, much about dynamics, topography and forcing of the ocean environment is uncertain, and as a result a single path produced by a model simulation has limited utility. To overcome this limitation, we rely on a finitesize ensemble of deterministic forecasts to quantify the impact of variability in the dynamics. The uncertainty of flow field is parametrized using a finite number of independent canonical random variables with known densities, and the ensemble is generated by sampling these variables. For each the resulting realizations of the uncertain current field, we predict the optimal path by solving a boundary value problem (BVP), based on the Pontryagin maximum principle. A family of backward-in-time trajectories starting at the end position is used to generate suitable initial values for the BVP solver. This allows us to examine and analyze the performance of sampling strategy, and develop insight into extensions dealing with regional or general circulation models. In particular, the ensemble method enables us to perform a statistical analysis of travel times, and consequently develop a path planning approach that accounts for these statistics. The proposed methodology is tested for a number of scenarios. We first validate our algorithms by reproducing simple canonical solutions, and then demonstrate our approach in more complex flow fields, including idealized, steady and unsteady double-gyre flows.

Path integral representation of Lorentzian spinfoam model, asymptotics and simplicial geometries

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Han, Muxin; Krajewski, Thomas

2014-01-01

A new path integral representation of Lorentzian Engle–Pereira–Rovelli–Livine spinfoam model is derived by employing the theory of unitary representation of SL(2,C). The path integral representation is taken as a starting point of semiclassical analysis. The relation between the spinfoam model and classical simplicial geometry is studied via the large-spin asymptotic expansion of the spinfoam amplitude with all spins uniformly large. More precisely, in the large-spin regime, there is an equivalence between the spinfoam critical configuration (with certain nondegeneracy assumption) and a classical Lorentzian simplicial geometry. Such an equivalence relation allows us to classify the spinfoam critical configurations by their geometrical interpretations, via two types of solution-generating maps. The equivalence between spinfoam critical configuration and simplical geometry also allows us to define the notion of globally oriented and time-oriented spinfoam critical configuration. It is shown that only at the globally oriented and time-oriented spinfoam critical configuration, the leading-order contribution of spinfoam large-spin asymptotics gives precisely an exponential of Lorentzian Regge action of General Relativity. At all other (unphysical) critical configurations, spinfoam large-spin asymptotics modifies the Regge action at the leading-order approximation. (paper)

Improved electromagnetic tracking for catheter path reconstruction with application in high-dose-rate brachytherapy.

Science.gov (United States)

Lugez, Elodie; Sadjadi, Hossein; Joshi, Chandra P; Akl, Selim G; Fichtinger, Gabor

2017-04-01

Electromagnetic (EM) catheter tracking has recently been introduced in order to enable prompt and uncomplicated reconstruction of catheter paths in various clinical interventions. However, EM tracking is prone to measurement errors which can compromise the outcome of the procedure. Minimizing catheter tracking errors is therefore paramount to improve the path reconstruction accuracy. An extended Kalman filter (EKF) was employed to combine the nonlinear kinematic model of an EM sensor inside the catheter, with both its position and orientation measurements. The formulation of the kinematic model was based on the nonholonomic motion constraints of the EM sensor inside the catheter. Experimental verification was carried out in a clinical HDR suite. Ten catheters were inserted with mean curvatures varying from 0 to [Formula: see text] in a phantom. A miniaturized Ascension (Burlington, Vermont, USA) trakSTAR EM sensor (model 55) was threaded within each catheter at various speeds ranging from 7.4 to [Formula: see text]. The nonholonomic EKF was applied on the tracking data in order to statistically improve the EM tracking accuracy. A sample reconstruction error was defined at each point as the Euclidean distance between the estimated EM measurement and its corresponding ground truth. A path reconstruction accuracy was defined as the root mean square of the sample reconstruction errors, while the path reconstruction precision was defined as the standard deviation of these sample reconstruction errors. The impacts of sensor velocity and path curvature on the nonholonomic EKF method were determined. Finally, the nonholonomic EKF catheter path reconstructions were compared with the reconstructions provided by the manufacturer's filters under default settings, namely the AC wide notch and the DC adaptive filter. With a path reconstruction accuracy of 1.9 mm, the nonholonomic EKF surpassed the performance of the manufacturer's filters (2.4 mm) by 21% and the raw EM

On some mathematical problems in the definition of Feynman path integral

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Combe, P.; Rodriguez, R.; Sirugue-Collin, M.

1976-07-01

It is shown how integration on a Hilbert space of paths can be performed to get exact evolution of non relativistic quantum systems for a rather large class of potentials including polynomial interaction

Paths from socioemotional behavior in middle childhood to personality in middle adulthood.

Science.gov (United States)

Pulkkinen, Lea; Kokko, Katja; Rantanen, Johanna

2012-09-01

Continuity in individual differences from socioemotional behavior in middle childhood to personality characteristics in middle adulthood was examined on the assumption that they share certain temperament-related elements. Socioemotional characteristics were measured using teacher ratings at ages 8 (N = 369; 53% males) and 14 (95% of the initial sample). Personality was assessed at age 42 (63% of the initial sample; 50% males) using a shortened version of the NEO Personality Inventory (NEO-PI); the Karolinska Scales of Personality (KSP); and the Adult Temperament Questionnaire (ATQ). Three models were tested using structural equation modeling. The results confirmed paths (a) from behavioral activity to adult Extraversion and Openness (NEO-PI), sociability (KSP), and surgency (ATQ); (b) from well-controlled behavior to adult conformity (KSP) and Conscientiousness (NEO-PI); and (c) from negative emotionality to adult aggression (KSP). The paths were significant only for one gender, and more frequently for males than for females. The significant male paths from behavioral activity to all indicators of adult activity and from well-controlled behavior to adult conformity started at age 8, whereas significant female paths from behavioral activity to adult sociability and from well-controlled behavior to adult Conscientiousness started at age 14. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved.

Path-finding in real and simulated rats

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Tamosiunaite, Minija; Ainge, James; Kulvicius, Tomas

2008-01-01

without affecting the path characteristic two additional mechanisms are implemented: a gradual drop of the learned weights (weight decay) and path length limitation, which prevents learning if the reward is not found after some expected time. Both mechanisms limit the memory of the system and thereby......A large body of experimental evidence suggests that the hippocampal place field system is involved in reward based navigation learning in rodents. Reinforcement learning (RL) mechanisms have been used to model this, associating the state space in an RL-algorithm to the place-field map in a rat...... convergence of RL-algorithms is also influenced by the state space characteristics, different PF-sizes and densities, leading to a different degree of overlap, were also investigated. The model rat learns finding a reward opposite to its starting point. We observed that the combination of biased straight...

Large sample neutron activation analysis: establishment at CDTN/CNEN, Brazil

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Menezes, Maria Angela de B.C., E-mail: menezes@cdtn.b [Centro de Desenvolvimento da Tecnologia Nuclear (CDTN/CNEN-MG), Belo Horizonte, MG (Brazil); Jacimovic, Radojko, E-mail: radojko.jacimovic@ijs.s [Jozef Stefan Institute, Ljubljana (Slovenia). Dept. of Environmental Sciences. Group for Radiochemistry and Radioecology

2011-07-01

In order to improve the application of the neutron activation technique at CDTN/CNEN, the large sample instrumental neutron activation analysis is being established, IAEA BRA 14798 and FAPEMIG APQ-01259-09 projects. This procedure, LS-INAA, usually requires special facilities for the activation as well as for the detection. However, the TRIGA Mark I IPR R1, CDTN/CNEN has not been adapted for the irradiation and the usual gamma spectrometry has being carried out. To start the establishment of the LS-INAA, a 5g sample - IAEA/Soil 7 reference material was analyzed by k{sub 0}-standardized method. This paper is about the detector efficiency over the volume source using KayWin v2.23 and ANGLE V3.0 software. (author)

The Influence of Face Angle and Club Path on the Resultant Launch Angle of a Golf Ball

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Paul Wood

2018-02-01

Full Text Available A two-part experimental study was conducted in order to better understand how the delivered face angle and club path of a golf club influences the initial launch direction of a golf ball for various club types. A robust understanding of how these parameters influence the ball direction has implications for both coaches and club designers. The first study used a large sample of golfers hitting shots with different clubs. Initial ball direction was measured with a Foresight Sports camera system, while club delivery parameters were recorded with a Vicon motion capture system. The second study used a golf robot and Vision Research camera to measure club and ball parameters. Results from these experiments show that the launch direction fell closer to face angle than club path. The percent toward the face angle ranged from 61% to 83%, where 100% designates a launch angle entirely toward the face angle.

Specifically Prescribed Dynamic Thermodynamic Paths and Resolidification Experiments

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nguyen, J; Orlikowski, D; Streitz, F; Holmes, N; Moriarty, J

2003-11-01

We describe here a series of dynamic compression experiments using impactors with specifically prescribed density profiles. Building upon previous impactor designs, we compose our functionally graded density impactors of materials whose densities vary from about 0.1 g/cc to more than 15 g/cc. These impactors, whose density profiles are not restricted to be monotonic, can be used to generate prescribed thermodynamic paths in the targets. These paths include quasi-isentropes as well as combinations of shock, rarefraction, and quasi-isentropic compression waves. The time-scale of these experiments ranges from nanoseconds to several microseconds. Strain-rates in the quasi-isentropic compression experiments vary from approximately 10 4 s -1 to 10 6 s -1 . We applied this quasi-isentropic compression technique to resolidify water where ice is at a higher temperature than the initial water sample. The particle velocity of quasi-isentropically compressed water exhibits a two-wave structure and sample thickness scales consistently with water-ice phase transition time. Experiments on resolidification of molten bismuth are also promising

Iterated Leavitt Path Algebras

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hazrat, R.

2009-11-01

Leavitt path algebras associate to directed graphs a Z-graded algebra and in their simplest form recover the Leavitt algebras L(1,k). In this note, we introduce iterated Leavitt path algebras associated to directed weighted graphs which have natural ± Z grading and in their simplest form recover the Leavitt algebras L(n,k). We also characterize Leavitt path algebras which are strongly graded. (author)

Path Dependence

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Madsen, Mogens Ove

Begrebet Path Dependence blev oprindelig udviklet inden for New Institutionel Economics af bl.a. David, Arthur og North. Begrebet har spredt sig vidt i samfundsvidenskaberne og undergået en udvikling. Dette paper propagerer for at der er sket så en så omfattende udvikling af begrebet, at man nu kan...... tale om 1. og 2. generation af Path Dependence begrebet. Den nyeste udvikling af begrebet har relevans for metodologi-diskusionerne i relation til Keynes...

Statistical characterization of a large geochemical database and effect of sample size

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, C.; Manheim, F.T.; Hinde, J.; Grossman, J.N.

2005-01-01

The authors investigated statistical distributions for concentrations of chemical elements from the National Geochemical Survey (NGS) database of the U.S. Geological Survey. At the time of this study, the NGS data set encompasses 48,544 stream sediment and soil samples from the conterminous United States analyzed by ICP-AES following a 4-acid near-total digestion. This report includes 27 elements: Al, Ca, Fe, K, Mg, Na, P, Ti, Ba, Ce, Co, Cr, Cu, Ga, La, Li, Mn, Nb, Nd, Ni, Pb, Sc, Sr, Th, V, Y and Zn. The goal and challenge for the statistical overview was to delineate chemical distributions in a complex, heterogeneous data set spanning a large geographic range (the conterminous United States), and many different geological provinces and rock types. After declustering to create a uniform spatial sample distribution with 16,511 samples, histograms and quantile-quantile (Q-Q) plots were employed to delineate subpopulations that have coherent chemical and mineral affinities. Probability groupings are discerned by changes in slope (kinks) on the plots. Major rock-forming elements, e.g., Al, Ca, K and Na, tend to display linear segments on normal Q-Q plots. These segments can commonly be linked to petrologic or mineralogical associations. For example, linear segments on K and Na plots reflect dilution of clay minerals by quartz sand (low in K and Na). Minor and trace element relationships are best displayed on lognormal Q-Q plots. These sensitively reflect discrete relationships in subpopulations within the wide range of the data. For example, small but distinctly log-linear subpopulations for Pb, Cu, Zn and Ag are interpreted to represent ore-grade enrichment of naturally occurring minerals such as sulfides. None of the 27 chemical elements could pass the test for either normal or lognormal distribution on the declustered data set. Part of the reasons relate to the presence of mixtures of subpopulations and outliers. Random samples of the data set with successively

Sensitivity of peak positions to flight-path parameters in a deep-inelastic scattering neutron TOF spectrometer

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gray, E.MacA.; Chatzidimitriou-Dreismann, C.A.; Blach, T.P.

2012-01-01

The effects of small changes in flight-path parameters (primary and secondary flight paths, detector angles), and of displacement of the sample along the beam axis away from its ideal position, are examined for an inelastic time-of-flight (TOF) neutron spectrometer, emphasising the deep-inelastic regime. The aim was to develop a rational basis for deciding what measured shifts in the positions of spectral peaks could be regarded as reliable in the light of the uncertainties in the calibrated flight-path parameters. Uncertainty in the length of the primary or secondary flight path has the least effect on the positions of the peaks of H, D and He, which are dominated by the accuracy of the calibration of the detector angles. This aspect of the calibration of a TOF spectrometer therefore demands close attention to achieve reliable outcomes where the position of the peaks is of significant scientific interest and is discussed in detail. The corresponding sensitivities of the position of peak of the Compton profile, J(y), to flight-path parameters and sample position are also examined, focusing on the comparability across experiments of results for H, D and He. We show that positioning the sample to within a few mm of the ideal position is required to ensure good comparability between experiments if data from detectors at high forward angles are to be reliably interpreted.

Investigation of real tissue water equivalent path lengths using an efficient dose extinction method

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Rongxiao; Baer, Esther; Jee, Kyung-Wook; Sharp, Gregory C.; Flanz, Jay; Lu, Hsiao-Ming

2017-07-01

For proton therapy, an accurate conversion of CT HU to relative stopping power (RSP) is essential. Validation of the conversion based on real tissue samples is more direct than the current practice solely based on tissue substitutes and can potentially address variations over the population. Based on a novel dose extinction method, we measured water equivalent path lengths (WEPL) on animal tissue samples to evaluate the accuracy of CT HU to RSP conversion and potential variations over a population. A broad proton beam delivered a spread out Bragg peak to the samples sandwiched between a water tank and a 2D ion-chamber detector. WEPLs of the samples were determined from the transmission dose profiles measured as a function of the water level in the tank. Tissue substitute inserts and Lucite blocks with known WEPLs were used to validate the accuracy. A large number of real tissue samples were measured. Variations of WEPL over different batches of tissue samples were also investigated. The measured WEPLs were compared with those computed from CT scans with the Stoichiometric calibration method. WEPLs were determined within  ±0.5% percentage deviation (% std/mean) and  ±0.5% error for most of the tissue surrogate inserts and the calibration blocks. For biological tissue samples, percentage deviations were within  ±0.3%. No considerable difference (extinction measurement took around 5 min to produce ~1000 WEPL values to be compared with calculations. This dose extinction system measures WEPL efficiently and accurately, which allows the validation of CT HU to RSP conversions based on the WEPL measured for a large number of samples and real tissues.

Note: A pure-sampling quantum Monte Carlo algorithm with independent Metropolis

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Vrbik, Jan [Department of Mathematics, Brock University, St. Catharines, Ontario L2S 3A1 (Canada); Ospadov, Egor; Rothstein, Stuart M., E-mail: srothstein@brocku.ca [Department of Physics, Brock University, St. Catharines, Ontario L2S 3A1 (Canada)

2016-07-14

Recently, Ospadov and Rothstein published a pure-sampling quantum Monte Carlo algorithm (PSQMC) that features an auxiliary Path Z that connects the midpoints of the current and proposed Paths X and Y, respectively. When sufficiently long, Path Z provides statistical independence of Paths X and Y. Under those conditions, the Metropolis decision used in PSQMC is done without any approximation, i.e., not requiring microscopic reversibility and without having to introduce any G(x → x′; τ) factors into its decision function. This is a unique feature that contrasts with all competing reptation algorithms in the literature. An example illustrates that dependence of Paths X and Y has adverse consequences for pure sampling.

Note: A pure-sampling quantum Monte Carlo algorithm with independent Metropolis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Vrbik, Jan; Ospadov, Egor; Rothstein, Stuart M.

2016-01-01

Recently, Ospadov and Rothstein published a pure-sampling quantum Monte Carlo algorithm (PSQMC) that features an auxiliary Path Z that connects the midpoints of the current and proposed Paths X and Y, respectively. When sufficiently long, Path Z provides statistical independence of Paths X and Y. Under those conditions, the Metropolis decision used in PSQMC is done without any approximation, i.e., not requiring microscopic reversibility and without having to introduce any G(x → x′; τ) factors into its decision function. This is a unique feature that contrasts with all competing reptation algorithms in the literature. An example illustrates that dependence of Paths X and Y has adverse consequences for pure sampling.

Optimal path-finding through mental exploration based on neural energy field gradients.

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Yihong; Wang, Rubin; Zhu, Yating

2017-02-01

Rodent animal can accomplish self-locating and path-finding task by forming a cognitive map in the hippocampus representing the environment. In the classical model of the cognitive map, the system (artificial animal) needs large amounts of physical exploration to study spatial environment to solve path-finding problems, which costs too much time and energy. Although Hopfield's mental exploration model makes up for the deficiency mentioned above, the path is still not efficient enough. Moreover, his model mainly focused on the artificial neural network, and clear physiological meanings has not been addressed. In this work, based on the concept of mental exploration, neural energy coding theory has been applied to the novel calculation model to solve the path-finding problem. Energy field is constructed on the basis of the firing power of place cell clusters, and the energy field gradient can be used in mental exploration to solve path-finding problems. The study shows that the new mental exploration model can efficiently find the optimal path, and present the learning process with biophysical meaning as well. We also analyzed the parameters of the model which affect the path efficiency. This new idea verifies the importance of place cell and synapse in spatial memory and proves that energy coding is effective to study cognitive activities. This may provide the theoretical basis for the neural dynamics mechanism of spatial memory.

Validation Of Intermediate Large Sample Analysis (With Sizes Up to 100 G) and Associated Facility Improvement

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bode, P.; Koster-Ammerlaan, M.J.J.

2018-01-01

Pragmatic rather than physical correction factors for neutron and gamma-ray shielding were studied for samples of intermediate size, i.e. up to the 10-100 gram range. It was found that for most biological and geological materials, the neutron self-shielding is less than 5 % and the gamma-ray self-attenuation can easily be estimated. A trueness control material of 1 kg size was made based on use of left-overs of materials, used in laboratory intercomparisons. A design study for a large sample pool-side facility, handling plate-type volumes, had to be stopped because of a reduction in human resources, available for this CRP. The large sample NAA facilities were made available to guest scientists from Greece and Brazil. The laboratory for neutron activation analysis participated in the world’s first laboratory intercomparison utilizing large samples. (author)

Intercomparison of open-path trace gas measurements with two dual-frequency-comb spectrometers

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

E. M. Waxman

2017-09-01

Full Text Available We present the first quantitative intercomparison between two open-path dual-comb spectroscopy (DCS instruments which were operated across adjacent 2 km open-air paths over a 2-week period. We used DCS to measure the atmospheric absorption spectrum in the near infrared from 6023 to 6376 cm−1 (1568 to 1660 nm, corresponding to a 355 cm−1 bandwidth, at 0.0067 cm−1 sample spacing. The measured absorption spectra agree with each other to within 5 × 10−4 in absorbance without any external calibration of either instrument. The absorption spectra are fit to retrieve path-integrated concentrations for carbon dioxide (CO2, methane (CH4, water (H2O, and deuterated water (HDO. The retrieved dry mole fractions agree to 0.14 % (0.57 ppm for CO2, 0.35 % (7 ppb for CH4, and 0.40 % (36 ppm for H2O at  ∼  30 s integration time over the 2-week measurement campaign, which included 24 °C outdoor temperature variations and periods of strong atmospheric turbulence. This agreement is at least an order of magnitude better than conventional active-source open-path instrument intercomparisons and is particularly relevant to future regional flux measurements as it allows accurate comparisons of open-path DCS data across locations and time. We additionally compare the open-path DCS retrievals to a World Meteorological Organization (WMO-calibrated cavity ring-down point sensor located along the path with good agreement. Short-term and long-term differences between the open-path DCS and point sensor are attributed, respectively, to spatial sampling discrepancies and to inaccuracies in the current spectral database used to fit the DCS data. Finally, the 2-week measurement campaign yields diurnal cycles of CO2 and CH4 that are consistent with the presence of local sources of CO2 and absence of local sources of CH4.

Evaluation of environmental sampling methods for detection of Salmonella enterica in a large animal veterinary hospital.

Science.gov (United States)

Goeman, Valerie R; Tinkler, Stacy H; Hammac, G Kenitra; Ruple, Audrey

2018-04-01

Environmental surveillance for Salmonella enterica can be used for early detection of contamination; thus routine sampling is an integral component of infection control programs in hospital environments. At the Purdue University Veterinary Teaching Hospital (PUVTH), the technique regularly employed in the large animal hospital for sample collection uses sterile gauze sponges for environmental sampling, which has proven labor-intensive and time-consuming. Alternative sampling methods use Swiffer brand electrostatic wipes for environmental sample collection, which are reportedly effective and efficient. It was hypothesized that use of Swiffer wipes for sample collection would be more efficient and less costly than the use of gauze sponges. A head-to-head comparison between the 2 sampling methods was conducted in the PUVTH large animal hospital and relative agreement, cost-effectiveness, and sampling efficiency were compared. There was fair agreement in culture results between the 2 sampling methods, but Swiffer wipes required less time and less physical effort to collect samples and were more cost-effective.

Exact Covariance Thresholding into Connected Components for Large-Scale Graphical Lasso.

Science.gov (United States)

Mazumder, Rahul; Hastie, Trevor

2012-03-01

We consider the sparse inverse covariance regularization problem or graphical lasso with regularization parameter λ. Suppose the sample covariance graph formed by thresholding the entries of the sample covariance matrix at λ is decomposed into connected components. We show that the vertex-partition induced by the connected components of the thresholded sample covariance graph (at λ) is exactly equal to that induced by the connected components of the estimated concentration graph, obtained by solving the graphical lasso problem for the same λ. This characterizes a very interesting property of a path of graphical lasso solutions. Furthermore, this simple rule, when used as a wrapper around existing algorithms for the graphical lasso, leads to enormous performance gains. For a range of values of λ, our proposal splits a large graphical lasso problem into smaller tractable problems, making it possible to solve an otherwise infeasible large-scale problem. We illustrate the graceful scalability of our proposal via synthetic and real-life microarray examples.

Mechanistic Insights on Human Phosphoglucomutase Revealed by Transition Path Sampling and Molecular Dynamics Calculations.

Science.gov (United States)

Brás, Natércia F; Fernandes, Pedro A; Ramos, Maria J; Schwartz, Steven D

2018-02-06

Human α-phosphoglucomutase 1 (α-PGM) catalyzes the isomerization of glucose-1-phosphate into glucose-6-phosphate (G6P) through two sequential phosphoryl transfer steps with a glucose-1,6-bisphosphate (G16P) intermediate. Given that the release of G6P in the gluconeogenesis raises the glucose output levels, α-PGM represents a tempting pharmacological target for type 2 diabetes. Here, we provide the first theoretical study of the catalytic mechanism of human α-PGM. We performed transition-path sampling simulations to unveil the atomic details of the two catalytic chemical steps, which could be key for developing transition state (TS) analogue molecules with inhibitory properties. Our calculations revealed that both steps proceed through a concerted S N 2-like mechanism, with a loose metaphosphate-like TS. Even though experimental data suggests that the two steps are identical, we observed noticeable differences: 1) the transition state ensemble has a well-defined TS region and a late TS for the second step, and 2) larger coordinated protein motions are required to reach the TS of the second step. We have identified key residues (Arg23, Ser117, His118, Lys389), and the Mg 2+ ion that contribute in different ways to the reaction coordinate. Accelerated molecular dynamics simulations suggest that the G16P intermediate may reorient without leaving the enzymatic binding pocket, through significant conformational rearrangements of the G16P and of specific loop regions of the human α-PGM. © 2018 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

Path integral for gauge theories with fermions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Fujikawa, K.

1980-01-01

The Atiyah-Singer index theorem indicates that a naive unitary transformation of basis vectors for fermions interacting with gauge fields is not allowed in general. On the basis of this observation, it was previously shown that the path-integral measure of a gauge-invariant fermion theory is transformed nontrivially under the chiral transformation, and thus leads to a simple derivation of ''anomalous'' chiral Ward-Takahashi identities. We here clarify some of the technical aspects associated with the discussion. It is shown that the Jacobian factor in the path-integral measure, which corresponds to the Adler-Bell-Jackiw anomaly, is independent of any smooth regularization procedure of large eigenvalues of D in Euclidean theory; this property holds in any even-dimensional space-time and also for the gravitational anomaly. The appearance of the anomaly and its connection with the index theorem are thus related to the fact that the primary importance is attached to the Lorentz-covariant ''energy'' operator D and that D and γ 5 do not commute. The abnormal behavior of the path-integral measure at the zero-frequency sector in the presence of instantons and its connection with spontaneous symmetry breaking is also clarified. We comment on several other problems associated with the anomaly and on the Pauli-Villars regularization method

Path dependence in social and psychological risk factors for dementia

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hiroko Matsuoka

Full Text Available Abstract This article focuses on social and psychological risk factors for Alzheimer's disease, dementia, and cognitive impairment and presents some key points for prevention in developing countries based on previous studies, a social science theory, and our preliminary survey. Previous population-based studies found that educational and occupational attainment, income, participation in social and mental activities, and psychological distress were associated with dementia risk. According to the theory of path dependence, earlier factors largely determine successive ones, where education is one of these early experiences in life. Our preliminary survey suggested that education sets a path that several psychosocial risk factors are dependent on. The expansion of basic education is indispensable. Resources for prevention should be concentrated on individuals with a low level of education. In order to break from a path creating self-reinforcement of risk factors, it is necessary to implement early and active interventions.

Shortest Paths and Vehicle Routing

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Petersen, Bjørn

This thesis presents how to parallelize a shortest path labeling algorithm. It is shown how to handle Chvátal-Gomory rank-1 cuts in a column generation context. A Branch-and-Cut algorithm is given for the Elementary Shortest Paths Problem with Capacity Constraint. A reformulation of the Vehicle...... Routing Problem based on partial paths is presented. Finally, a practical application of finding shortest paths in the telecommunication industry is shown....

[Dual insertion paths design characteristics and short-term clinical observation of rotational path removable partial dentures].

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Jian; Jiang, Ting; Li, Sai; Chen, Wei

2013-02-18

To investigate design methods of dual insertion paths and observe a short-term clinic overview of rotational path removable partial dentures (RPDs). In the study, 40 patients with partial edentulous arches were included and divided into two groups. The patients in group one were restored with rotational path RPDs (10 Kennedy class III and 10 Kennedy class IV respectively). The patients in group two (20 patients), whose edentulous area was matched with the patients' in group one, were restored with the linear path RPDs. After surveying and simulative preparation on diagnostic casts, the basic laws of designing rotational path RPDs were summarized. The oral preparation was accurately performed under the guidance of indices made on diagnostic casts after simulative preparation. The 40 dentures were recalled two weeks and one year after the insertion. The evaluations of the clinic outcome, including retention, stability, mastication function, esthetics and wearing convenience, were marked out as good, acceptable, and poor. The comparison of the evaluation results was performed between the two groups. In the rotational path design for Kennedy class III or IV RPDs, the angles (α) of dual insertion paths should be designed within a scope, approximate 10°-15°.When the angle (α) became larger, the denture retention turned to be better, but accordingly the posterior abutments needed more preparation. In the clinical application, the first insertions of the 40 dentures were all favorably accomplished. When the rotational path RPDs were compared to linear path RPDs, the time consuming on first insertion had no statistical difference[(32±8) min and (33±8) min respectively, P>0.05]. Recalled two weeks and one year after the insertion, in the esthetics evaluation, 20 rotational path RPDs were all evaluated as "A", but only 7(two weeks after) and 6 (one year after) linear path RPDs were evaluated as "A"(P<0.05). There was no significant difference in other evaluation results

Path planning in changeable environments

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Nieuwenhuisen, D.

2007-01-01

This thesis addresses path planning in changeable environments. In contrast to traditional path planning that deals with static environments, in changeable environments objects are allowed to change their configurations over time. In many cases, path planning algorithms must facilitate quick

Comparison of classical reaction paths and tunneling paths studied with the semiclassical instanton theory.

Science.gov (United States)

Meisner, Jan; Markmeyer, Max N; Bohner, Matthias U; Kästner, Johannes

2017-08-30

Atom tunneling in the hydrogen atom transfer reaction of the 2,4,6-tri-tert-butylphenyl radical to 3,5-di-tert-butylneophyl, which has a short but strongly curved reaction path, was investigated using instanton theory. We found the tunneling path to deviate qualitatively from the classical intrinsic reaction coordinate, the steepest-descent path in mass-weighted Cartesian coordinates. To perform that comparison, we implemented a new variant of the predictor-corrector algorithm for the calculation of the intrinsic reaction coordinate. We used the reaction force analysis method as a means to decompose the reaction barrier into structural and electronic components. Due to the narrow energy barrier, atom tunneling is important in the abovementioned reaction, even above room temperature. Our calculated rate constants between 350 K and 100 K agree well with experimental values. We found a H/D kinetic isotope effect of almost 10 6 at 100 K. Tunneling dominates the protium transfer below 400 K and the deuterium transfer below 300 K. We compared the lengths of the tunneling path and the classical path for the hydrogen atom transfer in the reaction HCl + Cl and quantified the corner cutting in this reaction. At low temperature, the tunneling path is about 40% shorter than the classical path.

Covering path generation for autonomous turf-care vehicle

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Mai, Christian; Jouffroy, Jerome; Top, Søren

2017-01-01

A covering path generation algorithm is developed to generate a lengthwise pattern based on a polygon describing the outer boundary and obstacles (polygon holes) of a geographical area. The algorithm is applied to an autonomous lawn-care robot for application to large grass turfs, for example golf......-courses, which require structured and precise cutting patterns. The geographical polygon is recorded by manually driving the vehicle around the contour, resulting in a polygon given as geographical (latitude, longitude) coordinates of the vertices, which together with machine parameters are used to generate...... a suitable toolpath. The algorithm has been tested on a recorded polygon from a local park turf which is non-convex and has holes, illustrating the algorithm functionality and limitations wrt. optimality. In particular, the algorithm can generate a tool-path for any polygon orientation....

Ted Irving and the Arc of APW Paths

Science.gov (United States)

Kent, D. V.

2014-12-01

Ted Irving's last two published papers neatly encapsulate his seminal contributions to the delineation of ever-important apparent polar wander (APW) paths. His final (210th) paper [Creer & Irving, 2012 Earth Sciences History] describes in detail how Ken Creer and he when still graduate students at Cambridge started to generate and assemble paleomagnetic data for the first APW path, for then only the UK; the paper was published 60 years ago and happened to be Ted's first [Creer, Irving & Runcorn, 1954 JGE]. Only 10 years later, there was already a lengthy reference list of paleomagnetic results available from most continents that had been compiled in pole lists he published in GJRAS from 1960 to 1965 and included in an appendix in his landmark book "Paleomagnetism" [Irving, 1964 Wiley] in support of wide ranging discussions of continental drift and related topics in chapters like 'Paleolatitudes and paleomeridians.' A subsequent innovation was calculating running means of poles indexed to a numerical geologic time scale [Irving, 1977 Nature], which with independent tectonic reconstructions as already for Gondwana allowed constructions of more detailed composite APW paths. His 1977 paper also coined Pangea B for an earlier albeit contentious configuration for the supercontinent that refuses to go away. Gliding over much work on APW tracks and hairpins in the Precambrian, we come to Ted's penultimate (209th) paper [Kent & Irving, 2010 JGR] in which individual poles from short-lived large igneous provinces were grouped and most sedimentary poles, many rather venerable, excluded as likely to be biased by variable degrees of inclination error. The leaner composite APW path helped to resurrect the Baja BC scenario of Cordilleran terrane motions virtually stopped in the 1980s by APW path techniques that relied on a few key but alas often badly skewed poles. The new composite APW path also revealed several major features, such as a huge polar shift of 30° in 15 Myr in the

Extended shortest path selection for package routing of complex networks

Science.gov (United States)

Ye, Fan; Zhang, Lei; Wang, Bing-Hong; Liu, Lu; Zhang, Xing-Yi

The routing strategy plays a very important role in complex networks such as Internet system and Peer-to-Peer networks. However, most of the previous work concentrates only on the path selection, e.g. Flooding and Random Walk, or finding the shortest path (SP) and rarely considering the local load information such as SP and Distance Vector Routing. Flow-based Routing mainly considers load balance and still cannot achieve best optimization. Thus, in this paper, we propose a novel dynamic routing strategy on complex network by incorporating the local load information into SP algorithm to enhance the traffic flow routing optimization. It was found that the flow in a network is greatly affected by the waiting time of the network, so we should not consider only choosing optimized path for package transformation but also consider node congestion. As a result, the packages should be transmitted with a global optimized path with smaller congestion and relatively short distance. Analysis work and simulation experiments show that the proposed algorithm can largely enhance the network flow with the maximum throughput within an acceptable calculating time. The detailed analysis of the algorithm will also be provided for explaining the efficiency.

Design of a Path-Tracking Steering Controller for Autonomous Vehicles

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Chuanyang Sun

2018-06-01

Full Text Available This paper presents a linearization method for the vehicle and tire models under the model predictive control (MPC scheme, and proposes a linear model-based MPC path-tracking steering controller for autonomous vehicles. The steering controller is designed to minimize lateral path-tracking deviation at high speeds. The vehicle model is linearized by a sequence of supposed steering angles, which are obtained by assuming the vehicle can reach the desired path at the end of the MPC prediction horizon and stay in a steady-state condition. The lateral force of the front tire is directly used as the control input of the model, and the rear tire’s lateral force is linearized by an equivalent cornering stiffness. The course-direction deviation, which is the angle between the velocity vector and the path heading, is chosen as a control reference state. The linearization model is validated through the simulation, and the results show high prediction accuracy even in regions of large steering angle. This steering controller is tested through simulations on the CarSim-Simulink platform (R2013b, MathWorks, Natick, MA, USA, showing the improved performance of the present controller at high speeds.

de Broglie Swapping Metadynamics for Quantum and Classical Sampling.

Science.gov (United States)

Nava, Marco; Quhe, Ruge; Palazzesi, Ferruccio; Tiwary, Pratyush; Parrinello, Michele

2015-11-10

This paper builds on our previous work on Path Integral Metadynamics [ Ruge et al. J. Chem. Theory Comput. 2015 , 11 , 1383 ] in which we have accelerated sampling in quantum systems described by Feynman's Path Integrals using Metadynamics. We extend the scope of Path Integral Metadynamics by combining it with a replica exchange scheme in which artificially enhanced quantum effects play the same role as temperature does in parallel tempering. Our scheme can be adapted so as to be used in an ancillary way to sample systems described by classical statistical mechanics. Contrary to Metadynamics and many other sampling methods no collective variables need to be defined. The method in its two variants, quantum and classical, is tested in a number of examples.

Thermal neutron self-shielding correction factors for large sample instrumental neutron activation analysis using the MCNP code

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tzika, F.; Stamatelatos, I.E.

2004-01-01

Thermal neutron self-shielding within large samples was studied using the Monte Carlo neutron transport code MCNP. The code enabled a three-dimensional modeling of the actual source and geometry configuration including reactor core, graphite pile and sample. Neutron flux self-shielding correction factors derived for a set of materials of interest for large sample neutron activation analysis are presented and evaluated. Simulations were experimentally verified by measurements performed using activation foils. The results of this study can be applied in order to determine neutron self-shielding factors of unknown samples from the thermal neutron fluxes measured at the surface of the sample

Path integrals on curved manifolds

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Grosche, C.; Steiner, F.

1987-01-01

A general framework for treating path integrals on curved manifolds is presented. We also show how to perform general coordinate and space-time transformations in path integrals. The main result is that one has to subtract a quantum correction ΔV ∝ ℎ 2 from the classical Lagrangian L, i.e. the correct effective Lagrangian to be used in the path integral is L eff = L-ΔV. A general prescription for calculating the quantum correction ΔV is given. It is based on a canonical approach using Weyl-ordering and the Hamiltonian path integral defined by the midpoint prescription. The general framework is illustrated by several examples: The d-dimensional rotator, i.e. the motion on the sphere S d-1 , the path integral in d-dimensional polar coordinates, the exact treatment of the hydrogen atom in R 2 and R 3 by performing a Kustaanheimo-Stiefel transformation, the Langer transformation and the path integral for the Morse potential. (orig.)

Radioimmunoassay of h-TSH - methodological suggestions for dealing with medium to large numbers of samples

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mahlstedt, J.

1977-01-01

The article deals with practical aspects of establishing a TSH-RIA for patients, with particular regard to predetermined quality criteria. Methodological suggestions are made for medium to large numbers of samples with the target of reducing monotonous precision working steps by means of simple aids. The quality criteria required are well met, while the test procedure is well adapted to the rhythm of work and may be carried out without loss of precision even with large numbers of samples. (orig.) [de

Welding Robot Collision-Free Path Optimization

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Xuewu Wang

2017-02-01

Full Text Available Reasonable welding path has a significant impact on welding efficiency, and a collision-free path should be considered first in the process of welding robot path planning. The shortest path length is considered as an optimization objective, and obstacle avoidance is considered as the constraint condition in this paper. First, a grid method is used as a modeling method after the optimization objective is analyzed. For local collision-free path planning, an ant colony algorithm is selected as the search strategy. Then, to overcome the shortcomings of the ant colony algorithm, a secondary optimization is presented to improve the optimization performance. Finally, the particle swarm optimization algorithm is used to realize global path planning. Simulation results show that the desired welding path can be obtained based on the optimization strategy.

A fast tomographic method for searching the minimum free energy path

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chen, Changjun; Huang, Yanzhao; Xiao, Yi; Jiang, Xuewei

2014-01-01

Minimum Free Energy Path (MFEP) provides a lot of important information about the chemical reactions, like the free energy barrier, the location of the transition state, and the relative stability between reactant and product. With MFEP, one can study the mechanisms of the reaction in an efficient way. Due to a large number of degrees of freedom, searching the MFEP is a very time-consuming process. Here, we present a fast tomographic method to perform the search. Our approach first calculates the free energy surfaces in a sequence of hyperplanes perpendicular to a transition path. Based on an objective function and the free energy gradient, the transition path is optimized in the collective variable space iteratively. Applications of the present method to model systems show that our method is practical. It can be an alternative approach for finding the state-to-state MFEP

Arctic curves in path models from the tangent method

Science.gov (United States)

Di Francesco, Philippe; Lapa, Matthew F.

2018-04-01

Recently, Colomo and Sportiello introduced a powerful method, known as the tangent method, for computing the arctic curve in statistical models which have a (non- or weakly-) intersecting lattice path formulation. We apply the tangent method to compute arctic curves in various models: the domino tiling of the Aztec diamond for which we recover the celebrated arctic circle; a model of Dyck paths equivalent to the rhombus tiling of a half-hexagon for which we find an arctic half-ellipse; another rhombus tiling model with an arctic parabola; the vertically symmetric alternating sign matrices, where we find the same arctic curve as for unconstrained alternating sign matrices. The latter case involves lattice paths that are non-intersecting but that are allowed to have osculating contact points, for which the tangent method was argued to still apply. For each problem we estimate the large size asymptotics of a certain one-point function using LU decomposition of the corresponding Gessel–Viennot matrices, and a reformulation of the result amenable to asymptotic analysis.

Elemental mapping of large samples by external ion beam analysis with sub-millimeter resolution and its applications

Science.gov (United States)

Silva, T. F.; Rodrigues, C. L.; Added, N.; Rizzutto, M. A.; Tabacniks, M. H.; Mangiarotti, A.; Curado, J. F.; Aguirre, F. R.; Aguero, N. F.; Allegro, P. R. P.; Campos, P. H. O. V.; Restrepo, J. M.; Trindade, G. F.; Antonio, M. R.; Assis, R. F.; Leite, A. R.

2018-05-01

The elemental mapping of large areas using ion beam techniques is a desired capability for several scientific communities, involved on topics ranging from geoscience to cultural heritage. Usually, the constraints for large-area mapping are not met in setups employing micro- and nano-probes implemented all over the world. A novel setup for mapping large sized samples in an external beam was recently built at the University of São Paulo employing a broad MeV-proton probe with sub-millimeter dimension, coupled to a high-precision large range XYZ robotic stage (60 cm range in all axis and precision of 5 μ m ensured by optical sensors). An important issue on large area mapping is how to deal with the irregularities of the sample's surface, that may introduce artifacts in the images due to the variation of the measuring conditions. In our setup, we implemented an automatic system based on machine vision to correct the position of the sample to compensate for its surface irregularities. As an additional benefit, a 3D digital reconstruction of the scanned surface can also be obtained. Using this new and unique setup, we have produced large-area elemental maps of ceramics, stones, fossils, and other sort of samples.

Vehicle path-planning in three dimensions using optics analogs for optimizing visibility and energy cost

Science.gov (United States)

Rowe, Neil C.; Lewis, David H.

1989-01-01

Path planning is an important issue for space robotics. Finding safe and energy-efficient paths in the presence of obstacles and other constraints can be complex although important. High-level (large-scale) path planning for robotic vehicles was investigated in three-dimensional space with obstacles, accounting for: (1) energy costs proportional to path length; (2) turn costs where paths change trajectory abruptly; and (3) safety costs for the danger associated with traversing a particular path due to visibility or invisibility from a fixed set of observers. Paths optimal with respect to these cost factors are found. Autonomous or semi-autonomous vehicles were considered operating either in a space environment around satellites and space platforms, or aircraft, spacecraft, or smart missiles operating just above lunar and planetary surfaces. One class of applications concerns minimizing detection, as for example determining the best way to make complex modifications to a satellite without being observed by hostile sensors; another example is verifying there are no paths (holes) through a space defense system. Another class of applications concerns maximizing detection, as finding a good trajectory between mountain ranges of a planet while staying reasonably close to the surface, or finding paths for a flight between two locations that maximize the average number of triangulation points available at any time along the path.

Hamiltonian path integrals

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Prokhorov, L.V.

1982-01-01

The properties of path integrals associated with the allowance for nonstandard terms reflecting the operator nature of the canonical variables are considered. Rules for treating such terms (''equivalence rules'') are formulated. Problems with a boundary, the behavior of path integrals under canonical transformations, and the problem of quantization of dynamical systems with constraints are considered in the framework of the method

Software engineering the mixed model for genome-wide association studies on large samples.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Zhiwu; Buckler, Edward S; Casstevens, Terry M; Bradbury, Peter J

2009-11-01

Mixed models improve the ability to detect phenotype-genotype associations in the presence of population stratification and multiple levels of relatedness in genome-wide association studies (GWAS), but for large data sets the resource consumption becomes impractical. At the same time, the sample size and number of markers used for GWAS is increasing dramatically, resulting in greater statistical power to detect those associations. The use of mixed models with increasingly large data sets depends on the availability of software for analyzing those models. While multiple software packages implement the mixed model method, no single package provides the best combination of fast computation, ability to handle large samples, flexible modeling and ease of use. Key elements of association analysis with mixed models are reviewed, including modeling phenotype-genotype associations using mixed models, population stratification, kinship and its estimation, variance component estimation, use of best linear unbiased predictors or residuals in place of raw phenotype, improving efficiency and software-user interaction. The available software packages are evaluated, and suggestions made for future software development.

Time-optimal path planning in uncertain flow fields using ensemble method

KAUST Repository

Wang, Tong; Le Maitre, Olivier; Hoteit, Ibrahim; Knio, Omar

2016-01-01

the performance of sampling strategy, and develop insight into extensions dealing with regional or general circulation models. In particular, the ensemble method enables us to perform a statistical analysis of travel times, and consequently develop a path planning

Automated Sample Preparation for Radiogenic and Non-Traditional Metal Isotopes: Removing an Analytical Barrier for High Sample Throughput

Science.gov (United States)

Field, M. Paul; Romaniello, Stephen; Gordon, Gwyneth W.; Anbar, Ariel D.; Herrmann, Achim; Martinez-Boti, Miguel A.; Anagnostou, Eleni; Foster, Gavin L.

2014-05-01

MC-ICP-MS has dramatically improved the analytical throughput for high-precision radiogenic and non-traditional isotope ratio measurements, compared to TIMS. The generation of large data sets, however, remains hampered by tedious manual drip chromatography required for sample purification. A new, automated chromatography system reduces the laboratory bottle neck and expands the utility of high-precision isotope analyses in applications where large data sets are required: geochemistry, forensic anthropology, nuclear forensics, medical research and food authentication. We have developed protocols to automate ion exchange purification for several isotopic systems (B, Ca, Fe, Cu, Zn, Sr, Cd, Pb and U) using the new prepFAST-MC™ (ESI, Nebraska, Omaha). The system is not only inert (all-flouropolymer flow paths), but is also very flexible and can easily facilitate different resins, samples, and reagent types. When programmed, precise and accurate user defined volumes and flow rates are implemented to automatically load samples, wash the column, condition the column and elute fractions. Unattended, the automated, low-pressure ion exchange chromatography system can process up to 60 samples overnight. Excellent reproducibility, reliability, recovery, with low blank and carry over for samples in a variety of different matrices, have been demonstrated to give accurate and precise isotopic ratios within analytical error for several isotopic systems (B, Ca, Fe, Cu, Zn, Sr, Cd, Pb and U). This illustrates the potential of the new prepFAST-MC™ (ESI, Nebraska, Omaha) as a powerful tool in radiogenic and non-traditional isotope research.

Rapid separation method for {sup 237}Np and Pu isotopes in large soil samples

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Maxwell, Sherrod L., E-mail: sherrod.maxwell@srs.go [Savannah River Nuclear Solutions, LLC, Building 735-B, Aiken, SC 29808 (United States); Culligan, Brian K.; Noyes, Gary W. [Savannah River Nuclear Solutions, LLC, Building 735-B, Aiken, SC 29808 (United States)

2011-07-15

A new rapid method for the determination of {sup 237}Np and Pu isotopes in soil and sediment samples has been developed at the Savannah River Site Environmental Lab (Aiken, SC, USA) that can be used for large soil samples. The new soil method utilizes an acid leaching method, iron/titanium hydroxide precipitation, a lanthanum fluoride soil matrix removal step, and a rapid column separation process with TEVA Resin. The large soil matrix is removed easily and rapidly using these two simple precipitations with high chemical recoveries and effective removal of interferences. Vacuum box technology and rapid flow rates are used to reduce analytical time.

Symbolic PathFinder v7

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Luckow, Kasper Søe; Păsăreanu, Corina

2014-01-01

We describe Symbolic PathFinder v7 in terms of its updated design addressing the changes of Java PathFinder v7 and of its new optimization when computing path conditions. Furthermore, we describe the Symbolic Execution Tree Extension; a newly added feature that allows for outputting the symbolic...... execution tree that characterizes the execution paths covered during symbolic execution. The new extension can be tailored to the needs of subsequent analyses/processing facilities, and we demonstrate this by presenting SPF-Visualizer, which is a tool for customizable visualization of the symbolic execution...

Evaluating Status Change of Soil Potassium from Path Model

Science.gov (United States)

He, Wenming; Chen, Fang

2013-01-01

The purpose of this study is to determine critical environmental parameters of soil K availability and to quantify those contributors by using a proposed path model. In this study, plot experiments were designed into different treatments, and soil samples were collected and further analyzed in laboratory to investigate soil properties influence on soil potassium forms (water soluble K, exchangeable K, non-exchangeable K). Furthermore, path analysis based on proposed path model was carried out to evaluate the relationship between potassium forms and soil properties. Research findings were achieved as followings. Firstly, key direct factors were soil S, ratio of sodium-potassium (Na/K), the chemical index of alteration (CIA), Soil Organic Matter in soil solution (SOM), Na and total nitrogen in soil solution (TN), and key indirect factors were Carbonate (CO3), Mg, pH, Na, S, and SOM. Secondly, path model can effectively determine direction and quantities of potassium status changes between Exchangeable potassium (eK), Non-exchangeable potassium (neK) and water-soluble potassium (wsK) under influences of specific environmental parameters. In reversible equilibrium state of , K balance state was inclined to be moved into β and χ directions in treatments of potassium shortage. However in reversible equilibrium of , K balance state was inclined to be moved into θ and λ directions in treatments of water shortage. Results showed that the proposed path model was able to quantitatively disclose moving direction of K status and quantify its equilibrium threshold. It provided a theoretical and practical basis for scientific and effective fertilization in agricultural plants growth. PMID:24204659

Matrix Sampling of Items in Large-Scale Assessments

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ruth A. Childs

2003-07-01

Full Text Available Matrix sampling of items -' that is, division of a set of items into different versions of a test form..-' is used by several large-scale testing programs. Like other test designs, matrixed designs have..both advantages and disadvantages. For example, testing time per student is less than if each..student received all the items, but the comparability of student scores may decrease. Also,..curriculum coverage is maintained, but reporting of scores becomes more complex. In this paper,..matrixed designs are compared with more traditional designs in nine categories of costs:..development costs, materials costs, administration costs, educational costs, scoring costs,..reliability costs, comparability costs, validity costs, and reporting costs. In choosing among test..designs, a testing program should examine the costs in light of its mandate(s, the content of the..tests, and the financial resources available, among other considerations.

MEASURING PATH DEPENDENCY

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Peter Juhasz

2017-03-01

Full Text Available While risk management gained popularity during the last decades even some of the basic risk types are still far out of focus. One of these is path dependency that refers to the uncertainty of how we reach a certain level of total performance over time. While decision makers are careful in accessing how their position will look like the end of certain periods, little attention is given how they will get there through the period. The uncertainty of how a process will develop across a shorter period of time is often “eliminated” by simply choosing a longer planning time interval, what makes path dependency is one of the most often overlooked business risk types. After reviewing the origin of the problem we propose and compare seven risk measures to access path. Traditional risk measures like standard deviation of sub period cash flows fail to capture this risk type. We conclude that in most cases considering the distribution of the expected cash flow effect caused by the path dependency may offer the best method, but we may need to use several measures at the same time to include all the optimisation limits of the given firm

Modeling heading and path perception from optic flow in the case of independently moving objects

Science.gov (United States)

Raudies, Florian; Neumann, Heiko

2013-01-01

Humans are usually accurate when estimating heading or path from optic flow, even in the presence of independently moving objects (IMOs) in an otherwise rigid scene. To invoke significant biases in perceived heading, IMOs have to be large and obscure the focus of expansion (FOE) in the image plane, which is the point of approach. For the estimation of path during curvilinear self-motion no significant biases were found in the presence of IMOs. What makes humans robust in their estimation of heading or path using optic flow? We derive analytical models of optic flow for linear and curvilinear self-motion using geometric scene models. Heading biases of a linear least squares method, which builds upon these analytical models, are large, larger than those reported for humans. This motivated us to study segmentation cues that are available from optic flow. We derive models of accretion/deletion, expansion/contraction, acceleration/deceleration, local spatial curvature, and local temporal curvature, to be used as cues to segment an IMO from the background. Integrating these segmentation cues into our method of estimating heading or path now explains human psychophysical data and extends, as well as unifies, previous investigations. Our analysis suggests that various cues available from optic flow help to segment IMOs and, thus, make humans' heading and path perception robust in the presence of such IMOs. PMID:23554589

Modeling Heading and Path Perception from Optic Flow in the Case of Independently Moving Objects

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Florian eRaudies

2013-04-01

Full Text Available Humans are usually accurate when estimating heading or path from optic flow, even in the presence of independently moving objects (IMO in an otherwise rigid scene. To invoke significant biases in perceived heading, IMOs have to be large and obscure the focus of expansion (FOE in the image plane, which is the point of approach. For the estimation of path during curvilinear self-motion no significant biases were found in the presence of IMOs. What makes humans robust in their estimation of heading or path using optic flow? We derive analytical models of optic flow for linear and curvilinear self-motion using geometric scene models. Heading biases of a linear least squares method, which builds upon these analytical models, are large, larger than those reported for humans. This motivated us to study segmentation cues that are available from optic flow. We derive models of accretion / deletion, expansion / contraction, acceleration / deceleration, local spatial curvature, and local temporal curvature, to be used as cues to segment an IMO from the background. Integrating these segmentation cues into our method of estimating heading or path now explains human psychophysical data and extends, as well as unifies, previous investigations. Our analysis suggests that various cues available from optic flow help to segment IMOs and, thus, make humans’ heading and path perception robust in the presence of such IMOs.

Random sampling of elementary flux modes in large-scale metabolic networks.

Science.gov (United States)

Machado, Daniel; Soons, Zita; Patil, Kiran Raosaheb; Ferreira, Eugénio C; Rocha, Isabel

2012-09-15

The description of a metabolic network in terms of elementary (flux) modes (EMs) provides an important framework for metabolic pathway analysis. However, their application to large networks has been hampered by the combinatorial explosion in the number of modes. In this work, we develop a method for generating random samples of EMs without computing the whole set. Our algorithm is an adaptation of the canonical basis approach, where we add an additional filtering step which, at each iteration, selects a random subset of the new combinations of modes. In order to obtain an unbiased sample, all candidates are assigned the same probability of getting selected. This approach avoids the exponential growth of the number of modes during computation, thus generating a random sample of the complete set of EMs within reasonable time. We generated samples of different sizes for a metabolic network of Escherichia coli, and observed that they preserve several properties of the full EM set. It is also shown that EM sampling can be used for rational strain design. A well distributed sample, that is representative of the complete set of EMs, should be suitable to most EM-based methods for analysis and optimization of metabolic networks. Source code for a cross-platform implementation in Python is freely available at http://code.google.com/p/emsampler. dmachado@deb.uminho.pt Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.

Path integration in conical space

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Inomata, Akira; Junker, Georg

2012-01-01

Quantum mechanics in conical space is studied by the path integral method. It is shown that the curvature effect gives rise to an effective potential in the radial path integral. It is further shown that the radial path integral in conical space can be reduced to a form identical with that in flat space when the discrete angular momentum of each partial wave is replaced by a specific non-integral angular momentum. The effective potential is found proportional to the squared mean curvature of the conical surface embedded in Euclidean space. The path integral calculation is compatible with the Schrödinger equation modified with the Gaussian and the mean curvature. -- Highlights: ► We study quantum mechanics on a cone by the path integral approach. ► The path integral depends only on the metric and the curvature effect is built in. ► The approach is consistent with the Schrödinger equation modified by an effective potential. ► The effective potential is found to be of the “Jensen–Koppe” and “da Costa” type.

Two dimensional simplicial paths

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Piso, M.I.

1994-07-01

Paths on the R 3 real Euclidean manifold are defined as 2-dimensional simplicial strips which are orbits of the action of a discrete one-parameter group. It is proven that there exists at least one embedding of R 3 in the free Z-module generated by S 2 (x 0 ). The speed is defined as the simplicial derivative of the path. If mass is attached to the simplex, the free Lagrangian is proportional to the width of the path. In the continuum limit, the relativistic form of the Lagrangian is recovered. (author). 7 refs

Autonomous Path Planning for Road Vehicles in Narrow Environments: An Efficient Continuous Curvature Approach

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Domokos Kiss

2017-01-01

Full Text Available In this paper we introduce a novel method for obtaining good quality paths for autonomous road vehicles (e.g., cars or buses in narrow environments. There are many traffic situations in urban scenarios where nontrivial maneuvering in narrow places is necessary. Navigating in cluttered parking lots or having to avoid obstacles blocking the way and finding a detour even in narrow streets are challenging, especially if the vehicle has large dimensions like a bus. We present a combined approximation-based approach to solve the path planning problem in such situations. Our approach consists of a global planner which generates a preliminary path consisting of straight and turning-in-place primitives and a local planner which is used to make the preliminary path feasible to car-like vehicles. The approximation methodology is well known in the literature; however, both components proposed in this paper differ from existing similar planning methods. The approximation process with the proposed local planner is proven to be convergent for any preliminary global paths. The resulting path has continuous curvature which renders our method well suited for application on real vehicles. Simulation experiments show that the proposed method outperforms similar approaches in terms of path quality in complicated planning tasks.

Design and performance analysis of global path planning techniques for autonomous mobile robots in grid environments

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Imen Chaari

2017-03-01

Full Text Available This article presents the results of the 2-year iroboapp research project that aims at devising path planning algorithms for large grid maps with much faster execution times while tolerating very small slacks with respect to the optimal path. We investigated both exact and heuristic methods. We contributed with the design, analysis, evaluation, implementation and experimentation of several algorithms for grid map path planning for both exact and heuristic methods. We also designed an innovative algorithm called relaxed A-star that has linear complexity with relaxed constraints, which provides near-optimal solutions with an extremely reduced execution time as compared to A-star. We evaluated the performance of the different algorithms and concluded that relaxed A-star is the best path planner as it provides a good trade-off among all the metrics, but we noticed that heuristic methods have good features that can be exploited to improve the solution of the relaxed exact method. This led us to design new hybrid algorithms that combine our relaxed A-star with heuristic methods which improve the solution quality of relaxed A-star at the cost of slightly higher execution time, while remaining much faster than A* for large-scale problems. Finally, we demonstrate how to integrate the relaxed A-star algorithm in the robot operating system as a global path planner and show that it outperforms its default path planner with an execution time 38% faster on average.

Time optimal paths for high speed maneuvering

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Reister, D.B.; Lenhart, S.M.

1993-01-01

Recent theoretical results have completely solved the problem of determining the minimum length path for a vehicle with a minimum turning radius moving from an initial configuration to a final configuration. Time optimal paths for a constant speed vehicle are a subset of the minimum length paths. This paper uses the Pontryagin maximum principle to find time optimal paths for a constant speed vehicle. The time optimal paths consist of sequences of axes of circles and straight lines. The maximum principle introduces concepts (dual variables, bang-bang solutions, singular solutions, and transversality conditions) that provide important insight into the nature of the time optimal paths. We explore the properties of the optimal paths and present some experimental results for a mobile robot following an optimal path.

Cooperative organic mine avoidance path planning

Science.gov (United States)

McCubbin, Christopher B.; Piatko, Christine D.; Peterson, Adam V.; Donnald, Creighton R.; Cohen, David

2005-06-01

The JHU/APL Path Planning team has developed path planning techniques to look for paths that balance the utility and risk associated with different routes through a minefield. Extending on previous years' efforts, we investigated real-world Naval mine avoidance requirements and developed a tactical decision aid (TDA) that satisfies those requirements. APL has developed new mine path planning techniques using graph based and genetic algorithms which quickly produce near-minimum risk paths for complicated fitness functions incorporating risk, path length, ship kinematics, and naval doctrine. The TDA user interface, a Java Swing application that obtains data via Corba interfaces to path planning databases, allows the operator to explore a fusion of historic and in situ mine field data, control the path planner, and display the planning results. To provide a context for the minefield data, the user interface also renders data from the Digital Nautical Chart database, a database created by the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency containing charts of the world's ports and coastal regions. This TDA has been developed in conjunction with the COMID (Cooperative Organic Mine Defense) system. This paper presents a description of the algorithms, architecture, and application produced.

Study of a large rapid ashing apparatus and a rapid dry ashing method for biological samples and its application

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jin Meisun; Wang Benli; Liu Wencang

1988-04-01

A large rapid-dry-ashing apparatus and a rapid ashing method for biological samples are described. The apparatus consists of specially made ashing furnace, gas supply system and temperature-programming control cabinet. The following adventages have been showed by ashing experiment with the above apparatus: (1) high speed of ashing and saving of electric energy; (2) The apparatus can ash a large amount of samples at a time; (3) The ashed sample is pure white (or spotless), loose and easily soluble with few content of residual char; (4) The fresh sample can also be ashed directly. The apparatus is suitable for ashing a large amount of the environmental samples containing low level radioactivity trace elements and the medical, food and agricultural research samples

A fast learning method for large scale and multi-class samples of SVM

Science.gov (United States)

Fan, Yu; Guo, Huiming

2017-06-01

A multi-class classification SVM(Support Vector Machine) fast learning method based on binary tree is presented to solve its low learning efficiency when SVM processing large scale multi-class samples. This paper adopts bottom-up method to set up binary tree hierarchy structure, according to achieved hierarchy structure, sub-classifier learns from corresponding samples of each node. During the learning, several class clusters are generated after the first clustering of the training samples. Firstly, central points are extracted from those class clusters which just have one type of samples. For those which have two types of samples, cluster numbers of their positive and negative samples are set respectively according to their mixture degree, secondary clustering undertaken afterwards, after which, central points are extracted from achieved sub-class clusters. By learning from the reduced samples formed by the integration of extracted central points above, sub-classifiers are obtained. Simulation experiment shows that, this fast learning method, which is based on multi-level clustering, can guarantee higher classification accuracy, greatly reduce sample numbers and effectively improve learning efficiency.

The effect of solar and lunar currents on simultaneous phase path, group path and amplitude measurements

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Baulch, R.N.E.; Butcher, E.C.

1984-01-01

The solar and lunar variations in the phase path, group path and amplitude of a fixed frequency transmission were obtained at the September equinox over a slightly oblique path. The phase of the lunar semi-diurnal tide in the phase path and amplitude were similar, the maxima occurring near 0200 lunar time, whereas the group path had a maximum near 0800 lunar time. These results were compared with other results obtained near the same location. The results suggest a complex situation in the E-region, where the height of the lunar current depends on season, and also suggest that the location and distribution of the solar and lunar currents may be different. (author)

Formal language constrained path problems

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Barrett, C.; Jacob, R.; Marathe, M.

1997-07-08

In many path finding problems arising in practice, certain patterns of edge/vertex labels in the labeled graph being traversed are allowed/preferred, while others are disallowed. Motivated by such applications as intermodal transportation planning, the authors investigate the complexity of finding feasible paths in a labeled network, where the mode choice for each traveler is specified by a formal language. The main contributions of this paper include the following: (1) the authors show that the problem of finding a shortest path between a source and destination for a traveler whose mode choice is specified as a context free language is solvable efficiently in polynomial time, when the mode choice is specified as a regular language they provide algorithms with improved space and time bounds; (2) in contrast, they show that the problem of finding simple paths between a source and a given destination is NP-hard, even when restricted to very simple regular expressions and/or very simple graphs; (3) for the class of treewidth bounded graphs, they show that (i) the problem of finding a regular language constrained simple path between source and a destination is solvable in polynomial time and (ii) the extension to finding context free language constrained simple paths is NP-complete. Several extensions of these results are presented in the context of finding shortest paths with additional constraints. These results significantly extend the results in [MW95]. As a corollary of the results, they obtain a polynomial time algorithm for the BEST k-SIMILAR PATH problem studied in [SJB97]. The previous best algorithm was given by [SJB97] and takes exponential time in the worst case.

A Dynamic Bayesian Observer Model Reveals Origins of Bias in Visual Path Integration.

Science.gov (United States)

Lakshminarasimhan, Kaushik J; Petsalis, Marina; Park, Hyeshin; DeAngelis, Gregory C; Pitkow, Xaq; Angelaki, Dora E

2018-06-20

Path integration is a strategy by which animals track their position by integrating their self-motion velocity. To identify the computational origins of bias in visual path integration, we asked human subjects to navigate in a virtual environment using optic flow and found that they generally traveled beyond the goal location. Such a behavior could stem from leaky integration of unbiased self-motion velocity estimates or from a prior expectation favoring slower speeds that causes velocity underestimation. Testing both alternatives using a probabilistic framework that maximizes expected reward, we found that subjects' biases were better explained by a slow-speed prior than imperfect integration. When subjects integrate paths over long periods, this framework intriguingly predicts a distance-dependent bias reversal due to buildup of uncertainty, which we also confirmed experimentally. These results suggest that visual path integration in noisy environments is limited largely by biases in processing optic flow rather than by leaky integration. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

A new path-integral representation of the T-matrix in potential scattering

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Carron, J.; Rosenfelder, R.

2011-01-01

We employ the method used by Barbashov and collaborators in Quantum Field Theory to derive a path-integral representation of the T-matrix in nonrelativistic potential scattering which is free of functional integration over fictitious variables as was necessary before. The resulting expression serves as a starting point for a variational approximation applied to high-energy scattering from a Gaussian potential. Good agreement with exact partial-wave calculations is found even at large scattering angles. A novel path-integral representation of the scattering length is obtained in the low-energy limit. -- Highlights: → We derive a new path-integral representation for the T-matrix in quantum scattering from a potential. → The method is based on a technique used by Barbashov and collaborators in Quantum Field Theory. → Unlike previous approaches no unphysical degrees of freedom in the path integral are needed. → The new representation is used for a variational approximation of the T-matrix at high energies. → A new expression for the scattering length at low energy is derived.

Development of digital gamma-activation autoradiography for analysis of samples of large area

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kolotov, V.P.; Grozdov, D.S.; Dogadkin, N.N.; Korobkov, V.I.

2011-01-01

Gamma-activation autoradiography is a prospective method for screening detection of inclusions of precious metals in geochemical samples. Its characteristics allow analysis of thin sections of large size (tens of cm2), that favourably distinguishes it among the other methods for local analysis. At the same time, the activating field of the accelerator bremsstrahlung, displays a sharp intensity decrease relative to the distance along the axis. A method for activation dose ''equalization'' during irradiation of the large size thin sections has been developed. The method is based on the usage of a hardware-software system. This includes a device for moving the sample during the irradiation, a program for computer modelling of the acquired activating dose for the chosen kinematics of the sample movement and a program for pixel-by pixel correction of the autoradiographic images. For detection of inclusions of precious metals, a method for analysis of the acquired dose dynamics during sample decay has been developed. The method is based on the software processing pixel by pixel a time-series of coaxial autoradiographic images and generation of the secondary meta-images allowing interpretation regarding the presence of interesting inclusions based on half-lives. The method is tested for analysis of copper-nickel polymetallic ores. The developed solutions considerably expand the possible applications of digital gamma-activation autoradiography. (orig.)

Development of digital gamma-activation autoradiography for analysis of samples of large area

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kolotov, V.P.; Grozdov, D.S.; Dogadkin, N.N.; Korobkov, V.I. [Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow (Russian Federation). Vernadsky Inst. of Geochemistry and Analytical Chemistry

2011-07-01

Gamma-activation autoradiography is a prospective method for screening detection of inclusions of precious metals in geochemical samples. Its characteristics allow analysis of thin sections of large size (tens of cm2), that favourably distinguishes it among the other methods for local analysis. At the same time, the activating field of the accelerator bremsstrahlung, displays a sharp intensity decrease relative to the distance along the axis. A method for activation dose ''equalization'' during irradiation of the large size thin sections has been developed. The method is based on the usage of a hardware-software system. This includes a device for moving the sample during the irradiation, a program for computer modelling of the acquired activating dose for the chosen kinematics of the sample movement and a program for pixel-by pixel correction of the autoradiographic images. For detection of inclusions of precious metals, a method for analysis of the acquired dose dynamics during sample decay has been developed. The method is based on the software processing pixel by pixel a time-series of coaxial autoradiographic images and generation of the secondary meta-images allowing interpretation regarding the presence of interesting inclusions based on half-lives. The method is tested for analysis of copper-nickel polymetallic ores. The developed solutions considerably expand the possible applications of digital gamma-activation autoradiography. (orig.)

A collaborative network middleware project by Lambda Station, TeraPaths, and Phoebus

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bobyshev, A.; Bradley, S.; Crawford, M.; DeMar, P.; Katramatos, D.; Shroff, K.; Swany, M.; Yu, D.

2010-01-01

The TeraPaths, Lambda Station, and Phoebus projects, funded by the US Department of Energy, have successfully developed network middleware services that establish on-demand and manage true end-to-end, Quality-of-Service (QoS) aware, virtual network paths across multiple administrative network domains, select network paths and gracefully reroute traffic over these dynamic paths, and streamline traffic between packet and circuit networks using transparent gateways. These services improve network QoS and performance for applications, playing a critical role in the effective use of emerging dynamic circuit network services. They provide interfaces to applications, such as dCache SRM, translate network service requests into network device configurations, and coordinate with each other to setup up end-to-end network paths. The End Site Control Plane Subsystem (ESCPS) builds upon the success of the three projects by combining their individual capabilities into the next generation of network middleware. ESCPS addresses challenges such as cross-domain control plane signalling and interoperability, authentication and authorization in a Grid environment, topology discovery, and dynamic status tracking. The new network middleware will take full advantage of the perfSONAR monitoring infrastructure and the Inter-Domain Control plane efforts and will be deployed and fully vetted in the Large Hadron Collider data movement environment.

NEW UPPER AND LOWER BOUNDS LINE OF SIGHT PATH LOSS MODELS FOR MOBILE PROPAGATION IN BUILDINGS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Supachai Phaiboon

2017-11-01

Full Text Available This paper proposes a method to predict line-of-sight (LOS path loss in buildings. We performed measurements in two different type of buildings at a frequency of 1.8 GHz and propose new upper and lower bounds path loss models which depend on max and min values of sample path loss data. This makes our models limit path loss within the boundary lines. The models include time-variant effects such as people moving and cars in parking areas with their influence on wave propagation that is very high.  The results have shown that the proposed models will be useful for the system and cell design of indoor wireless communication systems.

On the structure of path-like trees

OpenAIRE

Muntaner Batle, Francesc Antoni; Rius Font, Miquel

2007-01-01

We study the structure of path-like trees. In order to do this, we introduce a set of trees that we call expandable trees. In this paper we also generalize the concept of path-like trees and we call such generalization generalized path-like trees. As in the case of path-like trees, generalized path-like trees, have very nice labeling properties.

Evaluating status change of soil potassium from path model.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Wenming He

Full Text Available The purpose of this study is to determine critical environmental parameters of soil K availability and to quantify those contributors by using a proposed path model. In this study, plot experiments were designed into different treatments, and soil samples were collected and further analyzed in laboratory to investigate soil properties influence on soil potassium forms (water soluble K, exchangeable K, non-exchangeable K. Furthermore, path analysis based on proposed path model was carried out to evaluate the relationship between potassium forms and soil properties. Research findings were achieved as followings. Firstly, key direct factors were soil S, ratio of sodium-potassium (Na/K, the chemical index of alteration (CIA, Soil Organic Matter in soil solution (SOM, Na and total nitrogen in soil solution (TN, and key indirect factors were Carbonate (CO3, Mg, pH, Na, S, and SOM. Secondly, path model can effectively determine direction and quantities of potassium status changes between Exchangeable potassium (eK, Non-exchangeable potassium (neK and water-soluble potassium (wsK under influences of specific environmental parameters. In reversible equilibrium state of [Formula: see text], K balance state was inclined to be moved into β and χ directions in treatments of potassium shortage. However in reversible equilibrium of [Formula: see text], K balance state was inclined to be moved into θ and λ directions in treatments of water shortage. Results showed that the proposed path model was able to quantitatively disclose moving direction of K status and quantify its equilibrium threshold. It provided a theoretical and practical basis for scientific and effective fertilization in agricultural plants growth.

The influence of parenting style on academic achievement and career path.

Science.gov (United States)

Zahed Zahedani, Zahra; Rezaee, Rita; Yazdani, Zahra; Bagheri, Sina; Nabeiei, Parisa

2016-07-01

Several factors affect the academic performance of college students and parenting style is one significant factor. The current study has been done with the purpose of investigating the relationship between parenting styles, academic achievement and career path of students at Shiraz University of Medical Sciences. This is a correlation study carried out at Shiraz University of Medical Sciences. Among 1600 students, 310 students were selected randomly as the sample. Baumrind's Parenting Style and Moqimi's Career Path questionnaires were used and the obtained scores were correlated with the students' transcripts. To study the relation between variables Pearson correlation coefficient was used. There was a significant relationship between authoritarian parenting style and educational success (p=0.03). Also findings showed a significant relationship between firm parenting style and Career Path of the students, authoritarian parenting style and Career Path of the students, educational success and Career Path of the students (p=0.001). Parents have an important role in identifying children's talent and guiding them. Mutual understanding and close relationship between parents and children are recommended. Therefore, it is recommended that the methods of correct interaction of parents and children be more valued and parents familiarize their children with roles of businesses in society and the need for employment in legitimate businesses and this important affair should be more emphasized through mass media and family training classes.

Relationship of fish indices with sampling effort and land use change in a large Mediterranean river.

Science.gov (United States)

Almeida, David; Alcaraz-Hernández, Juan Diego; Merciai, Roberto; Benejam, Lluís; García-Berthou, Emili

2017-12-15

Fish are invaluable ecological indicators in freshwater ecosystems but have been less used for ecological assessments in large Mediterranean rivers. We evaluated the effects of sampling effort (transect length) on fish metrics, such as species richness and two fish indices (the new European Fish Index EFI+ and a regional index, IBICAT2b), in the mainstem of a large Mediterranean river. For this purpose, we sampled by boat electrofishing five sites each with 10 consecutive transects corresponding to a total length of 20 times the river width (European standard required by the Water Framework Directive) and we also analysed the effect of sampling area on previous surveys. Species accumulation curves and richness extrapolation estimates in general suggested that species richness was reasonably estimated with transect lengths of 10 times the river width or less. The EFI+ index was significantly affected by sampling area, both for our samplings and previous data. Surprisingly, EFI+ values in general decreased with increasing sampling area, despite the higher observed richness, likely because the expected values of metrics were higher. By contrast, the regional fish index was not dependent on sampling area, likely because it does not use a predictive model. Both fish indices, but particularly the EFI+, decreased with less forest cover percentage, even within the smaller disturbance gradient in the river type studied (mainstem of a large Mediterranean river, where environmental pressures are more general). Although the two fish-based indices are very different in terms of their development, methodology, and metrics used, they were significantly correlated and provided a similar assessment of ecological status. Our results reinforce the importance of standardization of sampling methods for bioassessment and suggest that predictive models that use sampling area as a predictor might be more affected by differences in sampling effort than simpler biotic indices. Copyright �

Controlling the optical path length in turbid media using differential path-length spectroscopy: fiber diameter dependence

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Kaspers, O. P.; Sterenborg, H. J. C. M.; Amelink, A.

2008-01-01

We have characterized the path length for the differential path-length spectroscopy (DPS) fiber optic geometry for a wide range of optical properties and for fiber diameters ranging from 200 mu m to 1000 mu m. Phantom measurements show that the path length is nearly constant for scattering

A Method on Dynamic Path Planning for Robotic Manipulator Autonomous Obstacle Avoidance Based on an Improved RRT Algorithm.

Science.gov (United States)

Wei, Kun; Ren, Bingyin

2018-02-13

In a future intelligent factory, a robotic manipulator must work efficiently and safely in a Human-Robot collaborative and dynamic unstructured environment. Autonomous path planning is the most important issue which must be resolved first in the process of improving robotic manipulator intelligence. Among the path-planning methods, the Rapidly Exploring Random Tree (RRT) algorithm based on random sampling has been widely applied in dynamic path planning for a high-dimensional robotic manipulator, especially in a complex environment because of its probability completeness, perfect expansion, and fast exploring speed over other planning methods. However, the existing RRT algorithm has a limitation in path planning for a robotic manipulator in a dynamic unstructured environment. Therefore, an autonomous obstacle avoidance dynamic path-planning method for a robotic manipulator based on an improved RRT algorithm, called Smoothly RRT (S-RRT), is proposed. This method that targets a directional node extends and can increase the sampling speed and efficiency of RRT dramatically. A path optimization strategy based on the maximum curvature constraint is presented to generate a smooth and curved continuous executable path for a robotic manipulator. Finally, the correctness, effectiveness, and practicability of the proposed method are demonstrated and validated via a MATLAB static simulation and a Robot Operating System (ROS) dynamic simulation environment as well as a real autonomous obstacle avoidance experiment in a dynamic unstructured environment for a robotic manipulator. The proposed method not only provides great practical engineering significance for a robotic manipulator's obstacle avoidance in an intelligent factory, but also theoretical reference value for other type of robots' path planning.

Two ways related to performance in elite sport: the path of self-confidence and competitive anxiety and the path of group cohesion and group goal-clarity.

Science.gov (United States)

Kjørmo, Odd; Halvari, Hallgeir

2002-06-01

A model tested among 136 Norwegian Olympic-level athletes yielded two paths related to performance. The first path indicated that self-confidence, modeled as an antecedent of competitive anxiety, is negatively correlated with anxiety. Competitive anxiety in turn is negatively correlated with performance. The second path indicated that group cohesion is positively correlated with group goal-clarity, which in turn is positively correlated with performance. Competitive anxiety mediates the relation between self-confidence and performance, whereas group goal-clarity mediates the relation between group cohesion and performance. Results from multiple regression analyses supported the model in the total sample and among individual sport athletes organized in training groups (n = 100). Among team sport athletes (n = 36), personality and group measures are more strongly intercorrelated than among individual sport athletes, and the relation with performance is more complex for the former group. The interaction of self-confidence and competitive anxiety is related to performance among team sport athletes.

Origin of path independence between cumulative CO2 emissions and global warming

Science.gov (United States)

Seshadri, Ashwin K.

2017-11-01

Observations and GCMs exhibit approximate proportionality between cumulative carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and global warming. Here we identify sufficient conditions for the relationship between cumulative CO2 emissions and global warming to be independent of the path of CO2 emissions; referred to as "path independence". Our starting point is a closed form expression for global warming in a two-box energy balance model (EBM), which depends explicitly on cumulative emissions, airborne fraction and time. Path independence requires that this function can be approximated as depending on cumulative emissions alone. We show that path independence arises from weak constraints, occurring if the timescale for changes in cumulative emissions (equal to ratio between cumulative emissions and emissions rate) is small compared to the timescale for changes in airborne fraction (which depends on CO2 uptake), and also small relative to a derived climate model parameter called the damping-timescale, which is related to the rate at which deep-ocean warming affects global warming. Effects of uncertainties in the climate model and carbon cycle are examined. Large deep-ocean heat capacity in the Earth system is not necessary for path independence, which appears resilient to climate modeling uncertainties. However long time-constants in the Earth system carbon cycle are essential, ensuring that airborne fraction changes slowly with timescale much longer than the timescale for changes in cumulative emissions. Therefore path independence between cumulative emissions and warming cannot arise for short-lived greenhouse gases.

High-order Path Integral Monte Carlo methods for solving strongly correlated fermion problems

Science.gov (United States)

Chin, Siu A.

2015-03-01

In solving for the ground state of a strongly correlated many-fermion system, the conventional second-order Path Integral Monte Carlo method is plagued with the sign problem. This is due to the large number of anti-symmetric free fermion propagators that are needed to extract the square of the ground state wave function at large imaginary time. In this work, I show that optimized fourth-order Path Integral Monte Carlo methods, which uses no more than 5 free-fermion propagators, in conjunction with the use of the Hamiltonian energy estimator, can yield accurate ground state energies for quantum dots with up to 20 polarized electrons. The correlations are directly built-in and no explicit wave functions are needed. This work is supported by the Qatar National Research Fund NPRP GRANT #5-674-1-114.

Additional collection devices used in conjunction with the SurePath Liquid-Based Pap Test broom device do not enhance diagnostic utility

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

O'Connor Jason C

2004-09-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background We have previously shown that use of an EC brush device in combination with the Rovers Cervex-Brush (SurePath broom offered no significant improvement in EC recovery. Here we determine if use of additional collection devices enhance the diagnostic utility of the SurePath Pap for gynecologic cytology. Methods After informed consent, 37 women ages 18–56 receiving their routine cervical examinations were randomized into four experimental groups. Each group was first sampled with the SurePath broom then immediately re-sampled with an additional collection device or devices. Group 1: Rover endocervix brush (n = 8. Group 2: Medscand CytoBrush Plus GT (n = 7. Group 3: Rover spatula + endocervix brush (n = 11. Group 4: Medscand spatula + CytoBrush Plus GT (n = 11. Results Examination of SurePath broom-collected cytology yielded the following abnormal diagnoses: atypia (n = 2, LSIL (n = 5 and HSIL (n = 3. Comparison of these diagnoses to those obtained from paired samples using the additional collection devices showed that use of a second and or third device yielded no additional abnormal diagnoses. Importantly, use of additional devices did not improve upon the abnormal cell recovery of the SurePath broom and in 4/10 cases under-predicted or did not detect the SurePath broom-collected lesion as confirmed by cervical biopsy. Finally, in 36/37 cases, the SurePath broom successfully recovered ECs. Use of additional devices, in Group 3, augmented EC recovery to 37/37. Conclusions Use of additional collection devices in conjunction with the SurePath broom did not enhance diagnostic utility of the SurePath Pap. A potential but not significant improvement in EC recovery might be seen with the use of three devices.

A path integral methodology for obtaining thermodynamic properties of nonadiabatic systems using Gaussian mixture distributions

Science.gov (United States)

Raymond, Neil; Iouchtchenko, Dmitri; Roy, Pierre-Nicholas; Nooijen, Marcel

2018-05-01

We introduce a new path integral Monte Carlo method for investigating nonadiabatic systems in thermal equilibrium and demonstrate an approach to reducing stochastic error. We derive a general path integral expression for the partition function in a product basis of continuous nuclear and discrete electronic degrees of freedom without the use of any mapping schemes. We separate our Hamiltonian into a harmonic portion and a coupling portion; the partition function can then be calculated as the product of a Monte Carlo estimator (of the coupling contribution to the partition function) and a normalization factor (that is evaluated analytically). A Gaussian mixture model is used to evaluate the Monte Carlo estimator in a computationally efficient manner. Using two model systems, we demonstrate our approach to reduce the stochastic error associated with the Monte Carlo estimator. We show that the selection of the harmonic oscillators comprising the sampling distribution directly affects the efficiency of the method. Our results demonstrate that our path integral Monte Carlo method's deviation from exact Trotter calculations is dominated by the choice of the sampling distribution. By improving the sampling distribution, we can drastically reduce the stochastic error leading to lower computational cost.

Feasibility studies on large sample neutron activation analysis using a low power research reactor

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gyampo, O.

2008-06-01

Instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA) using Ghana Research Reactor-1 (GHARR-1) can be directly applied to samples with masses in grams. Samples weights were in the range of 0.5g to 5g. Therefore, the representativity of the sample is improved as well as sensitivity. Irradiation of samples was done using a low power research reactor. The correction for the neutron self-shielding within the sample is determined from measurement of the neutron flux depression just outside the sample. Correction for gamma ray self-attenuation in the sample was performed via linear attenuation coefficients derived from transmission measurements. Quantitative and qualitative analysis of data were done using gamma ray spectrometry (HPGe detector). The results of this study on the possibilities of large sample NAA using a miniature neutron source reactor (MNSR) show clearly that the Ghana Research Reactor-1 (GHARR-1) at the National Nuclear Research Institute (NNRI) can be used for sample analyses up to 5 grams (5g) using the pneumatic transfer systems.

Software engineering the mixed model for genome-wide association studies on large samples

Science.gov (United States)

Mixed models improve the ability to detect phenotype-genotype associations in the presence of population stratification and multiple levels of relatedness in genome-wide association studies (GWAS), but for large data sets the resource consumption becomes impractical. At the same time, the sample siz...

A large deviation principle in H\\"older norm for multiple fractional integrals

OpenAIRE

Sanz-Solé, Marta; Torrecilla-Tarantino, Iván

2007-01-01

For a fractional Brownian motion $B^H$ with Hurst parameter $H\\in]{1/4},{1/2}[\\cup]{1/2},1[$, multiple indefinite integrals on a simplex are constructed and the regularity of their sample paths are studied. Then, it is proved that the family of probability laws of the processes obtained by replacing $B^H$ by $\\epsilon^{{1/2}} B^H$ satisfies a large deviation principle in H\\"older norm. The definition of the multiple integrals relies upon a representation of the fractional Brownian motion in t...

Walking path-planning method for multiple radiation areas

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Liu, Yong-kuo; Li, Meng-kun; Peng, Min-jun; Xie, Chun-li; Yuan, Cheng-qian; Wang, Shuang-yu; Chao, Nan

2016-01-01

Highlights: • Radiation environment modeling method is designed. • Path-evaluating method and segmented path-planning method are proposed. • Path-planning simulation platform for radiation environment is built. • The method avoids to be misled by minimum dose path in single area. - Abstract: Based on minimum dose path-searching method, walking path-planning method for multiple radiation areas was designed to solve minimum dose path problem in single area and find minimum dose path in the whole space in this paper. Path-planning simulation platform was built using C# programming language and DirectX engine. The simulation platform was used in simulations dealing with virtual nuclear facilities. Simulation results indicated that the walking-path planning method is effective in providing safety for people walking in nuclear facilities.

Auditory perception of motor vehicle travel paths.

Science.gov (United States)

Ashmead, Daniel H; Grantham, D Wesley; Maloff, Erin S; Hornsby, Benjamin; Nakamura, Takabun; Davis, Timothy J; Pampel, Faith; Rushing, Erin G

2012-06-01

These experiments address concerns that motor vehicles in electric engine mode are so quiet that they pose a risk to pedestrians, especially those with visual impairments. The "quiet car" issue has focused on hybrid and electric vehicles, although it also applies to internal combustion engine vehicles. Previous research has focused on detectability of vehicles, mostly in quiet settings. Instead, we focused on the functional ability to perceive vehicle motion paths. Participants judged whether simulated vehicles were traveling straight or turning, with emphasis on the impact of background traffic sound. In quiet, listeners made the straight-or-turn judgment soon enough in the vehicle's path to be useful for deciding whether to start crossing the street. This judgment is based largely on sound level cues rather than the spatial direction of the vehicle. With even moderate background traffic sound, the ability to tell straight from turn paths is severely compromised. The signal-to-noise ratio needed for the straight-or-turn judgment is much higher than that needed to detect a vehicle. Although a requirement for a minimum vehicle sound level might enhance detection of vehicles in quiet settings, it is unlikely that this requirement would contribute to pedestrian awareness of vehicle movements in typical traffic settings with many vehicles present. The findings are relevant to deliberations by government agencies and automobile manufacturers about standards for minimum automobile sounds and, more generally, for solutions to pedestrians' needs for information about traffic, especially for pedestrians with sensory impairments.

The Effects of Organizational Justice on Positive Organizational Behavior: Evidence from a Large-Sample Survey and a Situational Experiment

Science.gov (United States)

Pan, Xiaofu; Chen, Mengyan; Hao, Zhichao; Bi, Wenfen

2018-01-01

Employees' positive organizational behavior (POB) is not only to promote organizational function but also improve individual and organizational performance. As an important concept in organizational research, organizational justice is thought to be a universal predictor of employee and organizational outcomes. The current set of two studies examined the effects of organizational justice (OJ) on POB of employees with two different studies, a large-sample survey and a situational experiment. In study 1, a total of 2,566 employees from 45 manufacturing enterprises completed paper-and-pencil questionnaires assessing organizational justice (OJ) and positive organizational behavior (POB) of employees. In study 2, 747 employees were randomly sampled to participate in the situational experiment with 2 × 2 between-subjects design. They were asked to read one of the four situational stories and to image that this situation happen to the person in the story or them, and then they were asked to imagine how the person in the story or they would have felt and what the person or they subsequently would have done. The results of study 1 suggested that OJ was correlated with POB of employees and OJ is a positive predictor of POB. The results of study 2 suggested that OJ had significant effects on POB and negative organizational behavior (NOB). Procedural justice accounted for significantly more variance than distributive justice in POB of employees. Distributive justice and procedural justice have different influences on POB and NOB in terms of effectiveness and direction. The effect of OJ on POB was greater than that of NOB. In addition, path analysis indicated that the direct effect of OJ on POB was smaller than its indirect effect. Thus, many intermediary effects could possibly be between them. PMID:29375434

The Effects of Organizational Justice on Positive Organizational Behavior: Evidence from a Large-Sample Survey and a Situational Experiment.

Science.gov (United States)

Pan, Xiaofu; Chen, Mengyan; Hao, Zhichao; Bi, Wenfen

2017-01-01

Employees' positive organizational behavior (POB) is not only to promote organizational function but also improve individual and organizational performance. As an important concept in organizational research, organizational justice is thought to be a universal predictor of employee and organizational outcomes. The current set of two studies examined the effects of organizational justice (OJ) on POB of employees with two different studies, a large-sample survey and a situational experiment. In study 1, a total of 2,566 employees from 45 manufacturing enterprises completed paper-and-pencil questionnaires assessing organizational justice (OJ) and positive organizational behavior (POB) of employees. In study 2, 747 employees were randomly sampled to participate in the situational experiment with 2 × 2 between-subjects design. They were asked to read one of the four situational stories and to image that this situation happen to the person in the story or them, and then they were asked to imagine how the person in the story or they would have felt and what the person or they subsequently would have done. The results of study 1 suggested that OJ was correlated with POB of employees and OJ is a positive predictor of POB. The results of study 2 suggested that OJ had significant effects on POB and negative organizational behavior (NOB). Procedural justice accounted for significantly more variance than distributive justice in POB of employees. Distributive justice and procedural justice have different influences on POB and NOB in terms of effectiveness and direction. The effect of OJ on POB was greater than that of NOB. In addition, path analysis indicated that the direct effect of OJ on POB was smaller than its indirect effect. Thus, many intermediary effects could possibly be between them.

Determination of 129I in large soil samples after alkaline wet disintegration

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bunzl, K.; Kracke, W.

1992-01-01

Large soil samples (up to 500 g) can conveniently be disintegrated by hydrogen peroxide in an utility tank under alkaline conditions to determine subsequently 129 I by neutron activation analysis. Interfering elements such as Br are removed already before neutron irradiation to reduce the radiation exposure of the personnel. The precision of the method is 129 I also by the combustion method. (orig.)

Path Integral Treatment of Proton Transport Processes in BaZrO3

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Zhang, Qianfan; Wahnstrom, Goran; Björketun, Mårten

2008-01-01

Nuclear quantum effects on proton transfer and reorientation in BaZrO3 is investigated theoretically using the ab initio path-integral molecular-dynamics simulation technique. The result demonstrates that adding quantum fluctuations has a large effect on, in particular, the transfer barrier...

Cooperative path planning of unmanned aerial vehicles

CERN Document Server

Tsourdos, Antonios; Shanmugavel, Madhavan

2010-01-01

An invaluable addition to the literature on UAV guidance and cooperative control, Cooperative Path Planning of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles is a dedicated, practical guide to computational path planning for UAVs. One of the key issues facing future development of UAVs is path planning: it is vital that swarm UAVs/ MAVs can cooperate together in a coordinated manner, obeying a pre-planned course but able to react to their environment by communicating and cooperating. An optimized path is necessary in order to ensure a UAV completes its mission efficiently, safely, and successfully. Focussing on the path planning of multiple UAVs for simultaneous arrival on target, Cooperative Path Planning of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles also offers coverage of path planners that are applicable to land, sea, or space-borne vehicles. Cooperative Path Planning of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles is authored by leading researchers from Cranfield University and provides an authoritative resource for researchers, academics and engineers working in...

Determinants of salivary evening alpha-amylase in a large sample free of psychopathology

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Veen, Gerthe; Giltay, Erik J.; Vreeburg, Sophie A.; Licht, Carmilla M. M.; Cobbaert, Christa M.; Zitman, Frans G.; Penninx, Brenda W. J. H.

Objective: Recently, salivary alpha-amylase (sAA) has been proposed as a suitable index for sympathetic activity and dysregulation of the autonomic nervous system (ANS). Although determinants of sAA have been described, they have not been studied within the same study with a large sample size

The path of patient loyalty and the role of doctor reputation.

Science.gov (United States)

Torres, Eduardo; Vasquez-Parraga, Arturo Z; Barra, Cristobal

2009-01-01

Patient loyalty to doctors is relevant to medical services in which doctor-patient relationships are central and for which competition has increased in recent years. This study aims at understanding the process whereby patients develop loyalty to their doctor and doctor reputation has a moderating role. Based on a randomization of subjects, the study offers and tests an explanation chain representing key variables determining patient loyalty: patient commitment, trust and satisfaction, and doctor reputation. Primary data was collected using a structured questionnaire from a quota sample of regular patients in a large city in South America. The patients most committed to their doctor are more loyal to them. In turn, commitment is determined by patient trust, which is determined by patient satisfaction. Doctor reputation positively influences both patient trust and satisfaction. The explanation chain not only gives an account of how patient loyalty is formed; it also identifies a path health professionals can follow to secure patient loyalty.

Water pollution screening by large-volume injection of aqueous samples and application to GC/MS analysis of a river Elbe sample

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Mueller, S.; Efer, J.; Engewald, W. [Leipzig Univ. (Germany). Inst. fuer Analytische Chemie

1997-03-01

The large-volume sampling of aqueous samples in a programmed temperature vaporizer (PTV) injector was used successfully for the target and non-target analysis of real samples. In this still rarely applied method, e.g., 1 mL of the water sample to be analyzed is slowly injected direct into the PTV. The vaporized water is eliminated through the split vent. The analytes are concentrated onto an adsorbent inside the insert and subsequently thermally desorbed. The capability of the method is demonstrated using a sample from the river Elbe. By means of coupling this method with a mass selective detector in SIM mode (target analysis) the method allows the determination of pollutants in the concentration range up to 0.01 {mu}g/L. Furthermore, PTV enrichment is an effective and time-saving method for non-target analysis in SCAN mode. In a sample from the river Elbe over 20 compounds were identified. (orig.) With 3 figs., 2 tabs.

Strain path dependency in metal plasticity

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Viatkina, E.M.; Brekelmans, W.A.M.; Geers, M.G.D.

2003-01-01

A change in strain path has a significant effect on the mechanical response of metals. Strain path change effects physically originate from a complex microstructure evolution. This paper deals with the contribution of cell structure evolution to the strain path change effect. The material with cells

A hard-to-read font reduces the framing effect in a large sample.

Science.gov (United States)

Korn, Christoph W; Ries, Juliane; Schalk, Lennart; Oganian, Yulia; Saalbach, Henrik

2018-04-01

How can apparent decision biases, such as the framing effect, be reduced? Intriguing findings within recent years indicate that foreign language settings reduce framing effects, which has been explained in terms of deeper cognitive processing. Because hard-to-read fonts have been argued to trigger deeper cognitive processing, so-called cognitive disfluency, we tested whether hard-to-read fonts reduce framing effects. We found no reliable evidence for an effect of hard-to-read fonts on four framing scenarios in a laboratory (final N = 158) and an online study (N = 271). However, in a preregistered online study with a rather large sample (N = 732), a hard-to-read font reduced the framing effect in the classic "Asian disease" scenario (in a one-sided test). This suggests that hard-read-fonts can modulate decision biases-albeit with rather small effect sizes. Overall, our findings stress the importance of large samples for the reliability and replicability of modulations of decision biases.

The graph-theoretic minimum energy path problem for ionic conduction

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ippei Kishida

2015-10-01

Full Text Available A new computational method was developed to analyze the ionic conduction mechanism in crystals through graph theory. The graph was organized into nodes, which represent the crystal structures modeled by ionic site occupation, and edges, which represent structure transitions via ionic jumps. We proposed a minimum energy path problem, which is similar to the shortest path problem. An effective algorithm to solve the problem was established. Since our method does not use randomized algorithm and time parameters, the computational cost to analyze conduction paths and a migration energy is very low. The power of the method was verified by applying it to α-AgI and the ionic conduction mechanism in α-AgI was revealed. The analysis using single point calculations found the minimum energy path for long-distance ionic conduction, which consists of 12 steps of ionic jumps in a unit cell. From the results, the detailed theoretical migration energy was calculated as 0.11 eV by geometry optimization and nudged elastic band method. Our method can refine candidates for possible jumps in crystals and it can be adapted to other computational methods, such as the nudged elastic band method. We expect that our method will be a powerful tool for analyzing ionic conduction mechanisms, even for large complex crystals.

Topology synthesis of large-displacement compliant mechanisms

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Pedersen, Claus B. Wittendorf; Buhl, Thomas; Sigmund, Ole

2001-01-01

This paper describes the use of topology optimization as a synthesis tool for the design of large-displacement compliant mechanisms. An objective function for the synthesis of large-displacement mechanisms is proposed together with a formulation for synthesis of path-generating compliant mechanisms...

Path-Goal Theory of Leadership

Science.gov (United States)

1975-04-01

Leadership and Turnover Among Managers ," Organization Behavior and Human Performance, 10(1973), pp. 184-200; R. J. House, "A Path-Goal Theory of...of Leadership ." 6R. J. House and G. Dessler, "Path-Goal Theory of Leadership " R. M. Stqg- dill. Managers , Employees, Organization (Ohio State...of Control." 23 R. J. House, "Notes on the Path-Goal Theory of Leadership " (University of Toronto, Faculty of Management Studies, May 1974). 24 R

Path integral in Snyder space

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Mignemi, S., E-mail: smignemi@unica.it [Dipartimento di Matematica e Informatica, Università di Cagliari, Viale Merello 92, 09123 Cagliari (Italy); INFN, Sezione di Cagliari, Cittadella Universitaria, 09042 Monserrato (Italy); Štrajn, R. [Dipartimento di Matematica e Informatica, Università di Cagliari, Viale Merello 92, 09123 Cagliari (Italy); INFN, Sezione di Cagliari, Cittadella Universitaria, 09042 Monserrato (Italy)

2016-04-29

The definition of path integrals in one- and two-dimensional Snyder space is discussed in detail both in the traditional setting and in the first-order formalism of Faddeev and Jackiw. - Highlights: • The definition of the path integral in Snyder space is discussed using phase space methods. • The same result is obtained in the first-order formalism of Faddeev and Jackiw. • The path integral formulation of the two-dimensional Snyder harmonic oscillator is outlined.

Path integral in Snyder space

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mignemi, S.; Štrajn, R.

2016-01-01

The definition of path integrals in one- and two-dimensional Snyder space is discussed in detail both in the traditional setting and in the first-order formalism of Faddeev and Jackiw. - Highlights: • The definition of the path integral in Snyder space is discussed using phase space methods. • The same result is obtained in the first-order formalism of Faddeev and Jackiw. • The path integral formulation of the two-dimensional Snyder harmonic oscillator is outlined.

Leavitt path algebras

CERN Document Server

Abrams, Gene; Siles Molina, Mercedes

2017-01-01

This book offers a comprehensive introduction by three of the leading experts in the field, collecting fundamental results and open problems in a single volume. Since Leavitt path algebras were first defined in 2005, interest in these algebras has grown substantially, with ring theorists as well as researchers working in graph C*-algebras, group theory and symbolic dynamics attracted to the topic. Providing a historical perspective on the subject, the authors review existing arguments, establish new results, and outline the major themes and ring-theoretic concepts, such as the ideal structure, Z-grading and the close link between Leavitt path algebras and graph C*-algebras. The book also presents key lines of current research, including the Algebraic Kirchberg Phillips Question, various additional classification questions, and connections to noncommutative algebraic geometry. Leavitt Path Algebras will appeal to graduate students and researchers working in the field and related areas, such as C*-algebras and...

The 1+1 SU(2) Yang-Mills path integral

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Swanson, Mark S

2004-01-01

The path integral for SU(2) invariant two-dimensional Yang-Mills theory is recast in terms of the chromoelectric field strength by integrating the gauge fields from the theory. Implementing Gauss's law as a constraint in this process induces a topological term in the action that is no longer invariant under large gauge transformations. For the case that the partition function is considered over a circular spatial degree of freedom, it is shown that the effective action of the path integral is quantum mechanically WKB exact and localizes onto a set of chromoelectric zero modes satisfying antiperiodic boundary conditions. Summing over the zero modes yields a partition function that can be reexpressed using the Poisson resummation technique, allowing an easy determination of the energy spectrum, which is found to be identical to that given by other approaches

A Pipeline for Large Data Processing Using Regular Sampling for Unstructured Grids

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Berres, Anne Sabine [Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States); Adhinarayanan, Vignesh [Virginia Polytechnic Inst. and State Univ. (Virginia Tech), Blacksburg, VA (United States); Turton, Terece [Univ. of Texas, Austin, TX (United States); Feng, Wu [Virginia Polytechnic Inst. and State Univ. (Virginia Tech), Blacksburg, VA (United States); Rogers, David Honegger [Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)

2017-05-12

Large simulation data requires a lot of time and computational resources to compute, store, analyze, visualize, and run user studies. Today, the largest cost of a supercomputer is not hardware but maintenance, in particular energy consumption. Our goal is to balance energy consumption and cognitive value of visualizations of resulting data. This requires us to go through the entire processing pipeline, from simulation to user studies. To reduce the amount of resources, data can be sampled or compressed. While this adds more computation time, the computational overhead is negligible compared to the simulation time. We built a processing pipeline at the example of regular sampling. The reasons for this choice are two-fold: using a simple example reduces unnecessary complexity as we know what to expect from the results. Furthermore, it provides a good baseline for future, more elaborate sampling methods. We measured time and energy for each test we did, and we conducted user studies in Amazon Mechanical Turk (AMT) for a range of different results we produced through sampling.

Techniques and applications of path integration

CERN Document Server

Schulman, L S

2005-01-01

A book of techniques and applications, this text defines the path integral and illustrates its uses by example. It is suitable for advanced undergraduates and graduate students in physics; its sole prerequisite is a first course in quantum mechanics. For applications requiring specialized knowledge, the author supplies background material.The first part of the book develops the techniques of path integration. Topics include probability amplitudes for paths and the correspondence limit for the path integral; vector potentials; the Ito integral and gauge transformations; free particle and quadra

Joint modeling of constrained path enumeration and path choice behavior: a semi-compensatory approach

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kaplan, Sigal; Prato, Carlo Giacomo

2010-01-01

A behavioural and a modelling framework are proposed for representing route choice from a path set that satisfies travellers’ spatiotemporal constraints. Within the proposed framework, travellers’ master sets are constructed by path generation, consideration sets are delimited according to spatio...

Sensor-Oriented Path Planning for Multiregion Surveillance with a Single Lightweight UAV SAR

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Jincheng; Chen, Jie; Wang, Pengbo; Li, Chunsheng

2018-01-01

In the surveillance of interested regions by unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), system performance relies greatly on the motion control strategy of the UAV and the operation characteristics of the onboard sensors. This paper investigates the 2D path planning problem for the lightweight UAV synthetic aperture radar (SAR) system in an environment of multiple regions of interest (ROIs), the sizes of which are comparable to the radar swath width. Taking into account the special requirements of the SAR system on the motion of the platform, we model path planning for UAV SAR as a constrained multiobjective optimization problem (MOP). Based on the fact that the UAV route can be designed in the map image, an image-based path planner is proposed in this paper. First, the neighboring ROIs are merged by the morphological operation. Then, the parts of routes for data collection of the ROIs can be located according to the geometric features of the ROIs and the observation geometry of UAV SAR. Lastly, the route segments for ROIs surveillance are connected by a path planning algorithm named the sampling-based sparse A* search (SSAS) algorithm. Simulation experiments in real scenarios demonstrate that the proposed sensor-oriented path planner can improve the reconnaissance performance of lightweight UAV SAR greatly compared with the conventional zigzag path planner. PMID:29439447

Sensor-Oriented Path Planning for Multiregion Surveillance with a Single Lightweight UAV SAR.

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Jincheng; Chen, Jie; Wang, Pengbo; Li, Chunsheng

2018-02-11

In the surveillance of interested regions by unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), system performance relies greatly on the motion control strategy of the UAV and the operation characteristics of the onboard sensors. This paper investigates the 2D path planning problem for the lightweight UAV synthetic aperture radar (SAR) system in an environment of multiple regions of interest (ROIs), the sizes of which are comparable to the radar swath width. Taking into account the special requirements of the SAR system on the motion of the platform, we model path planning for UAV SAR as a constrained multiobjective optimization problem (MOP). Based on the fact that the UAV route can be designed in the map image, an image-based path planner is proposed in this paper. First, the neighboring ROIs are merged by the morphological operation. Then, the parts of routes for data collection of the ROIs can be located according to the geometric features of the ROIs and the observation geometry of UAV SAR. Lastly, the route segments for ROIs surveillance are connected by a path planning algorithm named the sampling-based sparse A* search (SSAS) algorithm. Simulation experiments in real scenarios demonstrate that the proposed sensor-oriented path planner can improve the reconnaissance performance of lightweight UAV SAR greatly compared with the conventional zigzag path planner.

Sampling Transition Pathways in Highly Correlated Complex Systems

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Chandler, David

2004-10-20

This research grant supported my group's efforts to apply and extend the method of transition path sampling that we invented during the late 1990s. This methodology is based upon a statistical mechanics of trajectory space. Traditional statistical mechanics focuses on state space, and with it, one can use Monte Carlo methods to facilitate importance sampling of states. With our formulation of a statistical mechanics of trajectory space, we have succeeded at creating algorithms by which importance sampling can be done for dynamical processes. In particular, we are able to study rare but important events without prior knowledge of transition states or mechanisms. In perhaps the most impressive application of transition path sampling, my group combined forces with Michele Parrinello and his coworkers to unravel the dynamics of auto ionization of water [5]. This dynamics is the fundamental kinetic step of pH. Other applications concern nature of dynamics far from equilibrium [1, 7], nucleation processes [2], cluster isomerization, melting and dissociation [3, 6], and molecular motors [10]. Research groups throughout the world are adopting transition path sampling. In part this has been the result of our efforts to provide pedagogical presentations of the technique [4, 8, 9], as well as providing new procedures for interpreting trajectories of complex systems [11].

Mode-specific tunneling using the Qim path: theory and an application to full-dimensional malonaldehyde.

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Yimin; Bowman, Joel M

2013-10-21

We present a theory of mode-specific tunneling that makes use of the general tunneling path along the imaginary-frequency normal mode of the saddle point, Qim, and the associated relaxed potential, V(Qim) [Y. Wang and J. M. Bowman, J. Chem. Phys. 129, 121103 (2008)]. The novel aspect of the theory is the projection of the normal modes of a minimum onto the Qim path and the determination of turning points on V(Qim). From that projection, the change in tunneling upon mode excitation can be calculated. If the projection is zero, no enhancement of tunneling is predicted. In that case vibrationally adiabatic (VA) theory could apply. However, if the projection is large then VA theory is not applicable. The approach is applied to mode-specific tunneling in full-dimensional malonaldehyde, using an accurate full-dimensional potential energy surface. Results are in semi-quantitative agreement with experiment for modes that show large enhancement of the tunneling, relative to the ground state tunneling splitting. For the six out-of-plane modes, which have zero projection on the planar Qim path, VA theory does apply, and results from that theory agree qualitatively and even semi-quantitatively with experiment. We also verify the failure of simple VA theory for modes that show large enhancement of tunneling.

Isomorphisms and traversability of directed path graphs

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Broersma, Haitze J.; Li, Xueliang; Li, X.

1998-01-01

The concept of a line digraph is generalized to that of a directed path graph. The directed path graph $\\forw P_k(D)$ of a digraph $D$ is obtained by representing the directed paths on $k$ vertices of $D$ by vertices. Two vertices are joined by an arc whenever the corresponding directed paths in $D$

The influence of parenting style on academic achievement and career path

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

ZAHRA ZAHED ZAHEDANI

2016-07-01

Full Text Available Introduction: Several factors affect the academic performance of college students and parenting style is one significant factor. The current study has been done with the purpose of investigating the relationship between parenting styles, academic achievement and career path of students at Shiraz University of Medical Sciences. Methods: This is a correlation study carried out at Shiraz University of Medical Sciences. Among 1600 students, 310 students were selected randomly as the sample. Baumrind’s Parenting Style and Moqimi’s Career Path questionnaires were used and the obtained scores were correlated with the students’ transcripts. To study the relation between variables Pearson correlation coefficient was used. Results: There was a significant relationship between authoritarian parenting style and educational success (p=0.03. Also findings showed a significant relationship between firm parenting style and Career Path of the students, authoritarian parenting style and Career Path of the students, educational success and Career Path of the students (p=0.001. Conclusion: Parents have an important role in identifying children’s talent and guiding them. Mutual understanding and close relationship between parents and children are recommended. Therefore, it is recommended that the methods of correct interaction of parents and children be more valued and parents familiarize their children with roles of businesses in society and the need for employment in legitimate businesses and this important affair should be more emphasized through mass media and family training classes.

The influence of parenting style on academic achievement and career path

Science.gov (United States)

ZAHED ZAHEDANI, ZAHRA; REZAEE, RITA; YAZDANI, ZAHRA; BAGHERI, SINA; NABEIEI, PARISA

2016-01-01

Introduction Several factors affect the academic performance of college students and parenting style is one significant factor. The current study has been done with the purpose of investigating the relationship between parenting styles, academic achievement and career path of students at Shiraz University of Medical Sciences.     Methods This is a correlation study carried out at Shiraz University of Medical Sciences. Among 1600 students, 310 students were selected randomly as the sample. Baumrind’s Parenting Style and Moqimi’s Career Path questionnaires were used and the obtained scores were correlated with the students' transcripts. To study the relation between variables Pearson correlation coefficient was used. Results There was a significant relationship between authoritarian parenting style and educational success (p=0.03). Also findings showed a significant relationship between firm parenting style and Career Path of the students, authoritarian parenting style and Career Path of the students, educational success and Career Path of the students (p=0.001). Conclusion Parents have an important role in identifying children’s talent and guiding them. Mutual understanding and close relationship between parents and children are recommended. Therefore, it is recommended that the methods of correct interaction of parents and children be more valued and parents familiarize their children with roles of businesses in society and the need for employment in legitimate businesses and this important affair should be more emphasized through mass media and family training classes. PMID:27382580

Association between genetic variation in a region on chromosome 11 and schizophrenia in large samples from Europe

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Rietschel, M; Mattheisen, M; Degenhardt, F

2012-01-01

the recruitment of very large samples of patients and controls (that is tens of thousands), or large, potentially more homogeneous samples that have been recruited from confined geographical areas using identical diagnostic criteria. Applying the latter strategy, we performed a genome-wide association study (GWAS...... between emotion regulation and cognition that is structurally and functionally abnormal in SCZ and bipolar disorder.Molecular Psychiatry advance online publication, 12 July 2011; doi:10.1038/mp.2011.80....

The effects of composition and thermal path on hot ductility of forging steels

Science.gov (United States)

Connolly, Brendan M.

This work examines the effects of composition and thermal path on the hot ductility of several forging steels with varied aluminum and nitrogen content. The primary mechanisms and controlling factors related to hot ductility are identified with a focus on the role of precipitates and segregation. The unique thermal paths and solidification structures of large cross-section forging ingots are discussed. Hot ductility testing is performed in a manner that approximates industrial conditions experienced by large cross-section forging ingots. A computer model for precipitation of aluminum nitride and vanadium nitride in austenite is presented. Industrial material is examined for comparison to experimental findings. It is found that increased aluminum and nitrogen content coarsens the as-solidified structure. The combined effects of microsegregation and uphill diffusion during deformation allow for carbide precipitation at prior austenite grain boundaries which reduces the hot ductility.

A Simple Sampling Method for Estimating the Accuracy of Large Scale Record Linkage Projects.

Science.gov (United States)

Boyd, James H; Guiver, Tenniel; Randall, Sean M; Ferrante, Anna M; Semmens, James B; Anderson, Phil; Dickinson, Teresa

2016-05-17

Record linkage techniques allow different data collections to be brought together to provide a wider picture of the health status of individuals. Ensuring high linkage quality is important to guarantee the quality and integrity of research. Current methods for measuring linkage quality typically focus on precision (the proportion of incorrect links), given the difficulty of measuring the proportion of false negatives. The aim of this work is to introduce and evaluate a sampling based method to estimate both precision and recall following record linkage. In the sampling based method, record-pairs from each threshold (including those below the identified cut-off for acceptance) are sampled and clerically reviewed. These results are then applied to the entire set of record-pairs, providing estimates of false positives and false negatives. This method was evaluated on a synthetically generated dataset, where the true match status (which records belonged to the same person) was known. The sampled estimates of linkage quality were relatively close to actual linkage quality metrics calculated for the whole synthetic dataset. The precision and recall measures for seven reviewers were very consistent with little variation in the clerical assessment results (overall agreement using the Fleiss Kappa statistics was 0.601). This method presents as a possible means of accurately estimating matching quality and refining linkages in population level linkage studies. The sampling approach is especially important for large project linkages where the number of record pairs produced may be very large often running into millions.

Combined Cycle Engine Large-Scale Inlet for Mode Transition Experiments: System Identification Rack Hardware Design

Science.gov (United States)

Thomas, Randy; Stueber, Thomas J.

2013-01-01

The System Identification (SysID) Rack is a real-time hardware-in-the-loop data acquisition (DAQ) and control instrument rack that was designed and built to support inlet testing in the NASA Glenn Research Center 10- by 10-Foot Supersonic Wind Tunnel. This instrument rack is used to support experiments on the Combined-Cycle Engine Large-Scale Inlet for Mode Transition Experiment (CCE? LIMX). The CCE?LIMX is a testbed for an integrated dual flow-path inlet configuration with the two flow paths in an over-and-under arrangement such that the high-speed flow path is located below the lowspeed flow path. The CCE?LIMX includes multiple actuators that are designed to redirect airflow from one flow path to the other; this action is referred to as "inlet mode transition." Multiple phases of experiments have been planned to support research that investigates inlet mode transition: inlet characterization (Phase-1) and system identification (Phase-2). The SysID Rack hardware design met the following requirements to support Phase-1 and Phase-2 experiments: safely and effectively move multiple actuators individually or synchronously; sample and save effector control and position sensor feedback signals; automate control of actuator positioning based on a mode transition schedule; sample and save pressure sensor signals; and perform DAQ and control processes operating at 2.5 KHz. This document describes the hardware components used to build the SysID Rack including their function, specifications, and system interface. Furthermore, provided in this document are a SysID Rack effectors signal list (signal flow); system identification experiment setup; illustrations indicating a typical SysID Rack experiment; and a SysID Rack performance overview for Phase-1 and Phase-2 experiments. The SysID Rack described in this document was a useful tool to meet the project objectives.

Path analysis of risk factors leading to premature birth.

Science.gov (United States)

Fields, S J; Livshits, G; Sirotta, L; Merlob, P

1996-01-01

The present study tested whether various sociodemographic, anthropometric, behavioral, and medical/physiological factors act in a direct or indirect manner on the risk of prematurity using path analysis on a sample of Israeli births. The path model shows that medical complications, primarily toxemia, chorioammionitis, and a previous low birth weight delivery directly and significantly act on the risk of prematurity as do low maternal pregnancy weight gain and ethnicity. Other medical complications, including chronic hypertension, preclampsia, and placental abruption, although significantly correlated with prematurity, act indirectly on prematurity through toxemia. The model further shows that the commonly accepted sociodemographic, anthropometric, and behavioral risk factors act by modifying the development of medical complications that lead to prematurity as opposed to having a direct effect on premature delivery. © 1996 Wiley-Liss, Inc. Copyright © 1996 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

Graphs with not all possible path-kernels

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Aldred, Robert; Thomassen, Carsten

2004-01-01

The Path Partition Conjecture states that the vertices of a graph G with longest path of length c may be partitioned into two parts X and Y such that the longest path in the subgraph of G induced by X has length at most a and the longest path in the subgraph of G induced by Y has length at most b...

Design of Active N-path Filters

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Darvishi, M.; van der Zee, Ronan A.R.; Nauta, Bram

2013-01-01

A design methodology for synthesis of active N-path bandpass filters is introduced. Based on this methodology, a 0.1-to-1.2 GHz tunable 6th-order N-path channel-select filter in 65 nm LP CMOS is introduced. It is based on coupling N-path filters with gyrators, achieving a “flat‿ passband shape and

Impulsive noise suppression in color images based on the geodesic digital paths

Science.gov (United States)

Smolka, Bogdan; Cyganek, Boguslaw

2015-02-01

In the paper a novel filtering design based on the concept of exploration of the pixel neighborhood by digital paths is presented. The paths start from the boundary of a filtering window and reach its center. The cost of transitions between adjacent pixels is defined in the hybrid spatial-color space. Then, an optimal path of minimum total cost, leading from pixels of the window's boundary to its center is determined. The cost of an optimal path serves as a degree of similarity of the central pixel to the samples from the local processing window. If a pixel is an outlier, then all the paths starting from the window's boundary will have high costs and the minimum one will also be high. The filter output is calculated as a weighted mean of the central pixel and an estimate constructed using the information on the minimum cost assigned to each image pixel. So, first the costs of optimal paths are used to build a smoothed image and in the second step the minimum cost of the central pixel is utilized for construction of the weights of a soft-switching scheme. The experiments performed on a set of standard color images, revealed that the efficiency of the proposed algorithm is superior to the state-of-the-art filtering techniques in terms of the objective restoration quality measures, especially for high noise contamination ratios. The proposed filter, due to its low computational complexity, can be applied for real time image denoising and also for the enhancement of video streams.

PATH ANALYSIS OF RECORDING SYSTEM INNOVATION FACTORS AFFECTING ADOPTION OF GOAT FARMERS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

S. Okkyla

2014-09-01

Full Text Available The objective of this study was to evaluate the path analysis of recording system innovation factorsaffecting adoption of goat farmers. This study was conducted from January to February 2014 inPringapus District, Semarang Regency by using survey method. For determining the location, this studyused purposive sampling method. The amount of respondents were determined by quota samplingmethod. Total respondents randomly chosed were 146 farmers. The data were descriptively andquantitatively analyzed by using path analysis of statistical package for the social science (SPSS 16.Independent variables in this study were internal factor, motivation, innovation characteristics,information source, and dependent variable was adoption. Analysis of linear regression showed thatthere was no significant effect of internal factor on adoption, so that it was important to use the trimmingmethod in path analysis. The result of path analysis showed that the influence of motivation, innovationcharacteristics and information source on adoption were 0.168; 0.720 and 0.09, respectively. Innovationcharacteristics were the greatest effect on adoption. In conclusion, by improving innovationcharacteristics of respondent through motivation and information source may significantly increase theadoption of recording system in goat farmers.

Path integrals and geometry of trajectories

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Blau, M.; Keski-Vakkuri, E.; Niemi, A.J.

1990-01-01

A geometrical interpretation of path integrals is developed in the space of trajectories. This yields a supersymmetric formulation of a generic path integral, with the supersymmetry resembling the BRST supersymmetry of a first class constrained system. If the classical equation of motion is a Killing vector field in the space of trajectories, the supersymmetry localizes the path integral to classical trajectories and the WKB approximation becomes exact. This can be viewed as a path integral generalization of the Duistermaat-Heckman theorem, which states the conditions for the exactness of the WKB approximation for integrals in a compact phase space. (orig.)

Perfect discretization of path integrals

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Steinhaus, Sebastian

2012-01-01

In order to obtain a well-defined path integral one often employs discretizations. In the case of General Relativity these generically break diffeomorphism symmetry, which has severe consequences since these symmetries determine the dynamics of the corresponding system. In this article we consider the path integral of reparametrization invariant systems as a toy example and present an improvement procedure for the discretized propagator. Fixed points and convergence of the procedure are discussed. Furthermore we show that a reparametrization invariant path integral implies discretization independence and acts as a projector onto physical states.

Perfect discretization of path integrals

Science.gov (United States)

Steinhaus, Sebastian

2012-05-01

In order to obtain a well-defined path integral one often employs discretizations. In the case of General Relativity these generically break diffeomorphism symmetry, which has severe consequences since these symmetries determine the dynamics of the corresponding system. In this article we consider the path integral of reparametrization invariant systems as a toy example and present an improvement procedure for the discretized propagator. Fixed points and convergence of the procedure are discussed. Furthermore we show that a reparametrization invariant path integral implies discretization independence and acts as a projector onto physical states.

Nucleation path of helium bubbles in metals during irradiation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Morishita, Kazunori

2008-01-01

Thermodynamical formalization is made for description of the nucleation and growth of helium bubbles in metals during irradiation. The proposed formalization is available or evaluating both microstructural changes in fusion first wall materials where helium is produced by (n, α) nuclear transmutation reactions, and those in fusion divertor materials where helium particles with low energy are directly implanted. Calculated nucleation barrier is significantly reduced by the presence of helium, showing that a helium bubble with an appropriate number of helium atoms depending on bubble size can nucleate without any large nucleation barriers, even at a condition where an empty void has very large nucleation barrier without helium. With the proposed thermodynamical formalization, the nucleation and growth process of helium bubbles in iron during irradiation is simulated by the kinetic Monte-Carlo (KMC) technique. It shows the nucleation path of a helium bubble on the (N He , N V ) space as functions of temperatures and the concentration of helium in the matrix, where N He and N V are the number of helium atoms and vacancies in the helium bubble, respectively. Bubble growth rates depend on the nucleation path and suggest that two different mechanisms operate for bubble growth: one is controlled by vacancy diffusion and the other is controlled by interstitial helium diffusion. (author)

Effects of dynamical paths on the energy gap and the corrections to the free energy in path integrals of mean-field quantum spin systems

Science.gov (United States)

Koh, Yang Wei

2018-03-01

In current studies of mean-field quantum spin systems, much attention is placed on the calculation of the ground-state energy and the excitation gap, especially the latter, which plays an important role in quantum annealing. In pure systems, the finite gap can be obtained by various existing methods such as the Holstein-Primakoff transform, while the tunneling splitting at first-order phase transitions has also been studied in detail using instantons in many previous works. In disordered systems, however, it remains challenging to compute the gap of large-size systems with specific realization of disorder. Hitherto, only quantum Monte Carlo techniques are practical for such studies. Recently, Knysh [Nature Comm. 7, 12370 (2016), 10.1038/ncomms12370] proposed a method where the exponentially large dimensionality of such systems is condensed onto a random potential of much lower dimension, enabling efficient study of such systems. Here we propose a slightly different approach, building upon the method of static approximation of the partition function widely used for analyzing mean-field models. Quantum effects giving rise to the excitation gap and nonextensive corrections to the free energy are accounted for by incorporating dynamical paths into the path integral. The time-dependence of the trace of the time-ordered exponential of the effective Hamiltonian is calculated by solving a differential equation perturbatively, yielding a finite-size series expansion of the path integral. Formulae for the first excited-state energy are proposed to aid in computing the gap. We illustrate our approach using the infinite-range ferromagnetic Ising model and the Hopfield model, both in the presence of a transverse field.

Efficacy of using multiple open-path Fourier transform infrared (OP-FTIR) spectrometers in an odor emission episode investigation at a semiconductor manufacturing plant

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Tsao, Yung-Chieh; Wu, Chang-Fu [Institute of Occupational Medicine and Industrial Hygiene, National Taiwan University College of Public Health, Taipei City 100, Taiwan (China); Chang, Pao-Erh; Chen, Shin-Yu [Green Energy and Environment Research Laboratories, Industrial Technology Research Institute, Hsinchu City 310, Taiwan 310 (China); Hwang, Yaw-Huei, E-mail: yhhwang@ntu.edu.tw [Institute of Occupational Medicine and Industrial Hygiene, National Taiwan University College of Public Health, Taipei City 100, Taiwan (China); Department of Public Health, College of Public Health, National Taiwan University, Taipei City 100, Taiwan (China)

2011-08-01

This study evaluated the efficacy of simultaneously employing three open-path Fourier transform infrared (OP-FTIR) spectrometers with 3-day consecutive monitoring, using an odor episode as an example. The corresponding monitoring paths were allocated among the possible emission sources of a semiconductor manufacturing plant and the surrounding optoelectronic and electronic-related factories, which were located in a high-tech industrial park. There was a combined total odor rate of 43.9% for the three monitoring paths, each comprised of 736 continuous 5-minute monitoring records and containing detectable odor compounds, such as ammonia, ozone, butyl acetate, and propylene glycol monomethyl ether acetate (PGMEA). The results of the logistic regression model indicated that the prevailing south wind and the OP-FTIR monitoring path closest to the emission source in down-wind direction resulted in a high efficacy for detecting odorous samples with odds ratios (OR) of 3.8 (95% confidence interval (CI): 2.9-5.0) and 5.1 (95% CI: 3.6-7.2), respectively. Meanwhile, the odds ratio for detecting ammonia odorous samples was 7.5 for Path II, which was downwind closer to the possible source, as compared to Path III, downwind far away from the possible source. PGMEA could not be monitored at Path II but could be at Path III, indicating the importance of the monitoring path and flow ejection velocities inside the stacks on the monitoring performance of OP-FTIR. Besides, an odds ratio of 5.1 for odorous sample detection was obtained with south prevailing wind comprising 65.0% of the monitoring time period. In general, it is concluded that OP-FTIR operated with multiple paths simultaneously shall be considered for investigation on relatively complicated episodes such as emergency of chemical release, multiple-source emission and chemical monitoring for odor in a densely populated plant area to enhance the efficacy of OP-FTIR monitoring. - Research highlights: {yields} To conduct

Efficacy of using multiple open-path Fourier transform infrared (OP-FTIR) spectrometers in an odor emission episode investigation at a semiconductor manufacturing plant

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tsao, Yung-Chieh; Wu, Chang-Fu; Chang, Pao-Erh; Chen, Shin-Yu; Hwang, Yaw-Huei

2011-01-01

This study evaluated the efficacy of simultaneously employing three open-path Fourier transform infrared (OP-FTIR) spectrometers with 3-day consecutive monitoring, using an odor episode as an example. The corresponding monitoring paths were allocated among the possible emission sources of a semiconductor manufacturing plant and the surrounding optoelectronic and electronic-related factories, which were located in a high-tech industrial park. There was a combined total odor rate of 43.9% for the three monitoring paths, each comprised of 736 continuous 5-minute monitoring records and containing detectable odor compounds, such as ammonia, ozone, butyl acetate, and propylene glycol monomethyl ether acetate (PGMEA). The results of the logistic regression model indicated that the prevailing south wind and the OP-FTIR monitoring path closest to the emission source in down-wind direction resulted in a high efficacy for detecting odorous samples with odds ratios (OR) of 3.8 (95% confidence interval (CI): 2.9-5.0) and 5.1 (95% CI: 3.6-7.2), respectively. Meanwhile, the odds ratio for detecting ammonia odorous samples was 7.5 for Path II, which was downwind closer to the possible source, as compared to Path III, downwind far away from the possible source. PGMEA could not be monitored at Path II but could be at Path III, indicating the importance of the monitoring path and flow ejection velocities inside the stacks on the monitoring performance of OP-FTIR. Besides, an odds ratio of 5.1 for odorous sample detection was obtained with south prevailing wind comprising 65.0% of the monitoring time period. In general, it is concluded that OP-FTIR operated with multiple paths simultaneously shall be considered for investigation on relatively complicated episodes such as emergency of chemical release, multiple-source emission and chemical monitoring for odor in a densely populated plant area to enhance the efficacy of OP-FTIR monitoring. - Research highlights: → To conduct multi-path

On Hilbert space of paths

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Exner, P.; Kolerov, G.I.

1980-01-01

A Hilbert space of paths, the elements of which are determined by trigonometric series, was proposed and used recently by Truman. This space is shown to consist precisely of all absolutely continuous paths ending in the origin with square-integrable derivatives

Partial path column generation for the vehicle routing problem with time windows

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Petersen, Bjørn; Jepsen, Mads Kehlet

2009-01-01

This paper presents a column generation algorithm for the Vehicle Routing Problem with Time Windows (VRPTW). Traditionally, column generation models of the VRPTW have consisted of a Set Partitioning master problem with each column representing a route, i.e., a resource feasible path starting...... and ending at the depot. Elementary routes (no customer visited more than once) have shown superior results on difficult instances (less restrictive capacity and time windows). However, the pricing problems do not scale well when the number of feasible routes increases, i.e., when a route may contain a large...... number of customers. We suggest to relax that ‘each column is a route’ into ‘each column is a part of the giant tour’; a so-called partial path, i.e., not necessarily starting and ending in the depot. This way, the length of the partial path can be bounded and a better control of the size of the solution...

Efficient growth of complex graph states via imperfect path erasure

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Campbell, Earl T; Fitzsimons, Joseph; Benjamin, Simon C; Kok, Pieter

2007-01-01

Given a suitably large and well connected (complex) graph state, any quantum algorithm can be implemented purely through local measurements on the individual qubits. Measurements can also be used to create the graph state: path erasure techniques allow one to entangle multiple qubits by determining only global properties of the qubits. Here, this powerful approach is extended by demonstrating that even imperfect path erasure can produce the required graph states with high efficiency. By characterizing the degree of error in each path erasure attempt, one can subsume the resulting imperfect entanglement into an extended graph state formalism. The subsequent growth of the improper graph state can be guided, through a series of strategic decisions, in such a way as to bound the growth of the error and eventually yield a high-fidelity graph state. As an implementation of these techniques, we develop an analytic model for atom (or atom-like) qubits in mismatched cavities, under the double-heralding entanglement procedure of Barrett and Kok (2005 Phys. Rev. A 71 060310). Compared to straightforward post-selection techniques our protocol offers a dramatic improvement in growing complex high-fidelity graph states

Explore Stochastic Instabilities of Periodic Points by Transition Path Theory

Science.gov (United States)

Cao, Yu; Lin, Ling; Zhou, Xiang

2016-06-01

We consider the noise-induced transitions from a linearly stable periodic orbit consisting of T periodic points in randomly perturbed discrete logistic map. Traditional large deviation theory and asymptotic analysis at small noise limit cannot distinguish the quantitative difference in noise-induced stochastic instabilities among the T periodic points. To attack this problem, we generalize the transition path theory to the discrete-time continuous-space stochastic process. In our first criterion to quantify the relative instability among T periodic points, we use the distribution of the last passage location related to the transitions from the whole periodic orbit to a prescribed disjoint set. This distribution is related to individual contributions to the transition rate from each periodic points. The second criterion is based on the competency of the transition paths associated with each periodic point. Both criteria utilize the reactive probability current in the transition path theory. Our numerical results for the logistic map reveal the transition mechanism of escaping from the stable periodic orbit and identify which periodic point is more prone to lose stability so as to make successful transitions under random perturbations.

Tool path in torus tool CNC machining

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

XU Ying

2016-10-01

Full Text Available This paper is about tool path in torus tool CNC machining.The mathematical model of torus tool is established.The tool path planning algorithm is determined through calculation of the cutter location,boundary discretization,calculation of adjacent tool path and so on,according to the conversion formula,the cutter contact point will be converted to the cutter location point and then these points fit a toolpath.Lastly,the path planning algorithm is implemented by using Matlab programming.The cutter location points for torus tool are calculated by Matlab,and then fit these points to a toolpath.While using UG software,another tool path of free surface is simulated of the same data.It is drew compared the two tool paths that using torus tool is more efficient.

Gibbon travel paths are goal oriented.

Science.gov (United States)

Asensio, Norberto; Brockelman, Warren Y; Malaivijitnond, Suchinda; Reichard, Ulrich H

2011-05-01

Remembering locations of food resources is critical for animal survival. Gibbons are territorial primates which regularly travel through small and stable home ranges in search of preferred, limited and patchily distributed resources (primarily ripe fruit). They are predicted to profit from an ability to memorize the spatial characteristics of their home range and may increase their foraging efficiency by using a 'cognitive map' either with Euclidean or with topological properties. We collected ranging and feeding data from 11 gibbon groups (Hylobates lar) to test their navigation skills and to better understand gibbons' 'spatial intelligence'. We calculated the locations at which significant travel direction changes occurred using the change-point direction test and found that these locations primarily coincided with preferred fruit sources. Within the limits of biologically realistic visibility distances observed, gibbon travel paths were more efficient in detecting known preferred food sources than a heuristic travel model based on straight travel paths in random directions. Because consecutive travel change-points were far from the gibbons' sight, planned movement between preferred food sources was the most parsimonious explanation for the observed travel patterns. Gibbon travel appears to connect preferred food sources as expected under the assumption of a good mental representation of the most relevant sources in a large-scale space.

Path Creation

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Karnøe, Peter; Garud, Raghu

2012-01-01

This paper employs path creation as a lens to follow the emergence of the Danish wind turbine cluster. Supplier competencies, regulations, user preferences and a market for wind power did not pre-exist; all had to emerge in a tranformative manner involving multiple actors and artefacts. Competenc......This paper employs path creation as a lens to follow the emergence of the Danish wind turbine cluster. Supplier competencies, regulations, user preferences and a market for wind power did not pre-exist; all had to emerge in a tranformative manner involving multiple actors and artefacts....... Competencies emerged through processes and mechanisms such as co-creation that implicated multiple learning processes. The process was not an orderly linear one as emergent contingencies influenced the learning processes. An implication is that public policy to catalyse clusters cannot be based...

Psychometric Evaluation of the Thought–Action Fusion Scale in a Large Clinical Sample

Science.gov (United States)

Meyer, Joseph F.; Brown, Timothy A.

2015-01-01

This study examined the psychometric properties of the 19-item Thought–Action Fusion (TAF) Scale, a measure of maladaptive cognitive intrusions, in a large clinical sample (N = 700). An exploratory factor analysis (n = 300) yielded two interpretable factors: TAF Moral (TAF-M) and TAF Likelihood (TAF-L). A confirmatory bifactor analysis was conducted on the second portion of the sample (n = 400) to account for possible sources of item covariance using a general TAF factor (subsuming TAF-M) alongside the TAF-L domain-specific factor. The bifactor model provided an acceptable fit to the sample data. Results indicated that global TAF was more strongly associated with a measure of obsessive-compulsiveness than measures of general worry and depression, and the TAF-L dimension was more strongly related to obsessive-compulsiveness than depression. Overall, results support the bifactor structure of the TAF in a clinical sample and its close relationship to its neighboring obsessive-compulsiveness construct. PMID:22315482

Psychometric evaluation of the thought-action fusion scale in a large clinical sample.

Science.gov (United States)

Meyer, Joseph F; Brown, Timothy A

2013-12-01

This study examined the psychometric properties of the 19-item Thought-Action Fusion (TAF) Scale, a measure of maladaptive cognitive intrusions, in a large clinical sample (N = 700). An exploratory factor analysis (n = 300) yielded two interpretable factors: TAF Moral (TAF-M) and TAF Likelihood (TAF-L). A confirmatory bifactor analysis was conducted on the second portion of the sample (n = 400) to account for possible sources of item covariance using a general TAF factor (subsuming TAF-M) alongside the TAF-L domain-specific factor. The bifactor model provided an acceptable fit to the sample data. Results indicated that global TAF was more strongly associated with a measure of obsessive-compulsiveness than measures of general worry and depression, and the TAF-L dimension was more strongly related to obsessive-compulsiveness than depression. Overall, results support the bifactor structure of the TAF in a clinical sample and its close relationship to its neighboring obsessive-compulsiveness construct.

Foundations and latest advances in replica exchange transition interface sampling

Science.gov (United States)

Cabriolu, Raffaela; Skjelbred Refsnes, Kristin M.; Bolhuis, Peter G.; van Erp, Titus S.

2017-10-01

Nearly 20 years ago, transition path sampling (TPS) emerged as an alternative method to free energy based approaches for the study of rare events such as nucleation, protein folding, chemical reactions, and phase transitions. TPS effectively performs Monte Carlo simulations with relatively short molecular dynamics trajectories, with the advantage of not having to alter the actual potential energy surface nor the underlying physical dynamics. Although the TPS approach also introduced a methodology to compute reaction rates, this approach was for a long time considered theoretically attractive, providing the exact same results as extensively long molecular dynamics simulations, but still expensive for most relevant applications. With the increase of computer power and improvements in the algorithmic methodology, quantitative path sampling is finding applications in more and more areas of research. In particular, the transition interface sampling (TIS) and the replica exchange TIS (RETIS) algorithms have, in turn, improved the efficiency of quantitative path sampling significantly, while maintaining the exact nature of the approach. Also, open-source software packages are making these methods, for which implementation is not straightforward, now available for a wider group of users. In addition, a blooming development takes place regarding both applications and algorithmic refinements. Therefore, it is timely to explore the wide panorama of the new developments in this field. This is the aim of this article, which focuses on the most efficient exact path sampling approach, RETIS, as well as its recent applications, extensions, and variations.

Current distribution in parallel paths of the coils of a 50 Hz prototype dipole magnet

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Otter, A.J.

1995-06-01

The prototype dipole made for TRIUMF's Kaon Factory proposal used coils with 12 parallel paths to reduce eddy current losses in the conductors. The ac current distribution in these paths was non-uniform due to different self and mutual inductances. Small differences in inductance can cause large circulating currents in the parallel windings. This paper describes the measurement of the inductances and shows an attempt to predict the current distribution for two alternative connection schemes. (author). 4 refs., 8 figs

Transformation Paths from Cubic to Low-Symmetry Structures in Heusler Ni2MnGa Compound.

Science.gov (United States)

Zelený, Martin; Straka, Ladislav; Sozinov, Alexei; Heczko, Oleg

2018-05-08

In order to explain the formation of low-temperature phases in stoichiometric Ni 2 MnGa magnetic shape memory alloy, we investigate the phase transformation paths from cubic austenite with Heusler structure to low-symmetry martensitic structures. We used ab initio calculations combined with the generalized solid state nudged elastic band method to determine the minimum energy path and corresponding changes in crystal lattice. The four-, five-, and seven-layered modulated phases of martensite (4O, 10M, and 14M) are built as the relaxed nanotwinned non-modulated (NM) phase. Despite having a total energy larger than the other martensitic phases, the 10M phase will spontaneously form at 0 K, because there is no energy barrier on the path and the energy decreases with a large negative slope. Moreover, a similar negative slope in the beginning of path is found also for the transformation to the 6M premartensite, which appears as a local minimum on the path leading further to 10M martensite. Transformation paths to other structures exhibit more or less significant barriers in the beginning hindering such a transformation from austenite. These findings correspond to experiment and demonstrates that the kinetics of the transformation is decisive for the selection of the particular low-symmetry structure.

Constrained approximation of effective generators for multiscale stochastic reaction networks and application to conditioned path sampling

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Cotter, Simon L., E-mail: simon.cotter@manchester.ac.uk

2016-10-15

Efficient analysis and simulation of multiscale stochastic systems of chemical kinetics is an ongoing area for research, and is the source of many theoretical and computational challenges. In this paper, we present a significant improvement to the constrained approach, which is a method for computing effective dynamics of slowly changing quantities in these systems, but which does not rely on the quasi-steady-state assumption (QSSA). The QSSA can cause errors in the estimation of effective dynamics for systems where the difference in timescales between the “fast” and “slow” variables is not so pronounced. This new application of the constrained approach allows us to compute the effective generator of the slow variables, without the need for expensive stochastic simulations. This is achieved by finding the null space of the generator of the constrained system. For complex systems where this is not possible, or where the constrained subsystem is itself multiscale, the constrained approach can then be applied iteratively. This results in breaking the problem down into finding the solutions to many small eigenvalue problems, which can be efficiently solved using standard methods. Since this methodology does not rely on the quasi steady-state assumption, the effective dynamics that are approximated are highly accurate, and in the case of systems with only monomolecular reactions, are exact. We will demonstrate this with some numerics, and also use the effective generators to sample paths of the slow variables which are conditioned on their endpoints, a task which would be computationally intractable for the generator of the full system.

A minimum resource neural network framework for solving multiconstraint shortest path problems.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Junying; Zhao, Xiaoxue; He, Xiaotao

2014-08-01

Characterized by using minimum hard (structural) and soft (computational) resources, a novel parameter-free minimal resource neural network (MRNN) framework is proposed for solving a wide range of single-source shortest path (SP) problems for various graph types. The problems are the k-shortest time path problems with any combination of three constraints: time, hop, and label constraints, and the graphs can be directed, undirected, or bidirected with symmetric and/or asymmetric traversal time, which can be real and time dependent. Isomorphic to the graph where the SP is to be sought, the network is activated by generating autowave at source neuron and the autowave travels automatically along the paths with the speed of a hop in an iteration. Properties of the network are studied, algorithms are presented, and computation complexity is analyzed. The framework guarantees globally optimal solutions of a series of problems during the iteration process of the network, which provides insight into why even the SP is still too long to be satisfied. The network facilitates very large scale integrated circuit implementation and adapt to very large scale problems due to its massively parallel processing and minimum resource utilization. When implemented in a sequentially processing computer, experiments on synthetic graphs, road maps of cities of the USA, and vehicle routing with time windows indicate that the MRNN is especially efficient for large scale sparse graphs and even dense graphs with some constraints, e.g., the CPU time taken and the iteration number used for the road maps of cities of the USA is even less than  ∼ 2% and 0.5% that of the Dijkstra's algorithm.

Path spectra derived from inversion of source and site spectra for earthquakes in Southern California

Science.gov (United States)

Klimasewski, A.; Sahakian, V. J.; Baltay, A.; Boatwright, J.; Fletcher, J. B.; Baker, L. M.

2017-12-01

A large source of epistemic uncertainty in Ground Motion Prediction Equations (GMPEs) is derived from the path term, currently represented as a simple geometric spreading and intrinsic attenuation term. Including additional physical relationships between the path properties and predicted ground motions would produce more accurate and precise, region-specific GMPEs by reclassifying some of the random, aleatory uncertainty as epistemic. This study focuses on regions of Southern California, using data from the Anza network and Southern California Seismic network to create a catalog of events magnitude 2.5 and larger from 1998 to 2016. The catalog encompasses regions of varying geology and therefore varying path and site attenuation. Within this catalog of events, we investigate several collections of event region-to-station pairs, each of which share similar origin locations and stations so that all events have similar paths. Compared with a simple regional GMPE, these paths consistently have high or low residuals. By working with events that have the same path, we can isolate source and site effects, and focus on the remaining residual as path effects. We decompose the recordings into source and site spectra for each unique event and site in our greater Southern California regional database using the inversion method of Andrews (1986). This model represents each natural log record spectra as the sum of its natural log event and site spectra, while constraining each record to a reference site or Brune source spectrum. We estimate a regional, path-specific anelastic attenuation (Q) and site attenuation (t*) from the inversion site spectra and corner frequency from the inversion event spectra. We then compute the residuals between the observed record data, and the inversion model prediction (event*site spectra). This residual is representative of path effects, likely anelastic attenuation along the path that varies from the regional median attenuation. We examine the

Calculating solution redox free energies with ab initio quantum mechanical/molecular mechanical minimum free energy path method

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zeng Xiancheng; Hu Hao; Hu Xiangqian; Yang Weitao

2009-01-01

A quantum mechanical/molecular mechanical minimum free energy path (QM/MM-MFEP) method was developed to calculate the redox free energies of large systems in solution with greatly enhanced efficiency for conformation sampling. The QM/MM-MFEP method describes the thermodynamics of a system on the potential of mean force surface of the solute degrees of freedom. The molecular dynamics (MD) sampling is only carried out with the QM subsystem fixed. It thus avoids 'on-the-fly' QM calculations and thus overcomes the high computational cost in the direct QM/MM MD sampling. In the applications to two metal complexes in aqueous solution, the new QM/MM-MFEP method yielded redox free energies in good agreement with those calculated from the direct QM/MM MD method. Two larger biologically important redox molecules, lumichrome and riboflavin, were further investigated to demonstrate the efficiency of the method. The enhanced efficiency and uncompromised accuracy are especially significant for biochemical systems. The QM/MM-MFEP method thus provides an efficient approach to free energy simulation of complex electron transfer reactions.

How to solve path integrals in quantum mechanics

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Grosche, C.

1994-10-01

A systematic classification of Feynman path integrals in quantum mechanics is presented and a table of solvable path integrals is given which reflects the progress made during the last 15 years, including, of course, the main contributions since the invention of the path integral by Feynman in 1942. An outline of the general theory is given which will serve as a quick reference for solving path integrals. Explicit formulae for the so-called basic path integrals are presented on which our general scheme to classify and calculate path integrals in quantum mechanics is based. (orig.)

Path integrals for arbitrary canonical transformations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Oliveira, L.A.R. de.

1980-01-01

Some aspects of the path integral formulation of quantum mechanics are studied. This formalism is generalized to arbitrary canonical transformations, by means of an association between path integral probalility amplitudes and classical generators of transformations, analogous to the usual Hamiltonian time development phase space expression. Such association turns out to be equivalent to the Weyl quantization rule, and it is also shown that this formalism furnishes a path integral representation for a Lie algebra of a given set of classical generators. Some physical considerations about the path integral quantization procedure and about the relationship between classical and quantum dynamical structures are also discussed. (Author) [pt

Path Planning Algorithms for the Adaptive Sensor Fleet

Science.gov (United States)

Stoneking, Eric; Hosler, Jeff

2005-01-01

The Adaptive Sensor Fleet (ASF) is a general purpose fleet management and planning system being developed by NASA in coordination with NOAA. The current mission of ASF is to provide the capability for autonomous cooperative survey and sampling of dynamic oceanographic phenomena such as current systems and algae blooms. Each ASF vessel is a software model that represents a real world platform that carries a variety of sensors. The OASIS platform will provide the first physical vessel, outfitted with the systems and payloads necessary to execute the oceanographic observations described in this paper. The ASF architecture is being designed for extensibility to accommodate heterogenous fleet elements, and is not limited to using the OASIS platform to acquire data. This paper describes the path planning algorithms developed for the acquisition phase of a typical ASF task. Given a polygonal target region to be surveyed, the region is subdivided according to the number of vessels in the fleet. The subdivision algorithm seeks a solution in which all subregions have equal area and minimum mean radius. Once the subregions are defined, a dynamic programming method is used to find a minimum-time path for each vessel from its initial position to its assigned region. This path plan includes the effects of water currents as well as avoidance of known obstacles. A fleet-level planning algorithm then shuffles the individual vessel assignments to find the overall solution which puts all vessels in their assigned regions in the minimum time. This shuffle algorithm may be described as a process of elimination on the sorted list of permutations of a cost matrix. All these path planning algorithms are facilitated by discretizing the region of interest onto a hexagonal tiling.

An initial examination of tungsten geochemistry along groundwater flow paths

Science.gov (United States)

Dave, H. B.; Johannesson, K. H.

2008-12-01

Groundwater samples were collected along groundwater flow paths from the Upper Floridan (Florida), Carrizo Sand (Texas), and the Aquia (Maryland) aquifers and analyzed for tungsten (W) concentrations by high- resolution inductively couple plasma mass spectrometry. At each well head, groundwater samples were also analyzed for pH, specific conductance, temperature, alkalinity, dissolved oxygen (DO), oxidation-reduction potential (Eh), dissolved iron speciation, and dissolved sulfide [S(-II)] concentrations. Sediment samples from the Carrizo Sand and Aquia aquifers were also collected and subjected to sequential extractions to provide additional insights into the solid-phase speciation of W in these aquifers. Tungsten concentrations varied along the groundwater flow paths chiefly in response to changing pH, and to a lesser extent, variations in the redox conditions. For groundwater from the Carrizo Sand aquifer, W ranges between 3.64 and 1297 pmol/kg, exhibiting the lowest values proximal to the recharge zone. Tungsten concentrations progressively increase along the flow path, reaching 1297 pmol/kg in the sulfidic groundwaters located approximately 60 km downgradient from the recharge area. Tungsten is strongly correlated with S(-II) concentrations and pH in Carrizo groundwaters (r = 0.95 and 0.78, respectively). Within the Aquia aquifer, however, W generally occurs at lower concentrations than the Carrizo (14 to 184 pmol/kg; mean = 80 pmol/kg), and shows no systematic trends along the flow path (e.g., r = 0.08 and 0.4 for W vs. S(-II) and pH, respectively). Our data are consistent with the increase in W concentrations in Carrizo groundwaters reflecting, in part, pH-related desorption, which has been shown to be substantial for pH greater than 8. Moreover, because of the broad similarities in the chemistry of W and Mo, which forms thiomolybdates in sulfidic waters, we suggest that thiotungstate complexes may form in sulfidic groundwaters, thus partially explaining the

The strain path dependence of plastic deformation response of AA5754: Experiment and modeling

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Pham, Minh-Son; Hu, Lin; Iadicola, Mark; Creuziger, Adam; Rollett, Anthony D.

2013-01-01

This work presents modeling of experiments on a balanced biaxial (BB) pre-strained AA5754 alloy, subsequently reloaded uniaxially along the rolling direction and transverse direction. The material exhibits a complex plastic deformation response during the change in strain path due to 1) crystallographic texture, 2) aging (interactions between dislocations and Mg atoms) and 3) recovery (annihilation and re-arrangement of dislocations). With a BB prestrain of about 5 %, the aging process is dominant, and the yield strength for uniaxially deformed samples is observed to be higher than the flow stress during BB straining. The strain hardening rate after changing path is, however, lower than that for pre-straining. Higher degrees of pre-straining make the dynamic recovery more active. The dynamic recovery at higher strain levels compensates for the aging effect, and results in: 1) a reduction of the yield strength, and 2) an increase in the hardening rate of re-strained specimens along other directions. The yield strength of deformed samples is further reduced if these samples are left at room temperature to let static recovery occur. The synergistic influences of texture condition, aging and recovery processes on the material response make the modeling of strain path dependence of mechanical behavior of AA5754 challenging. In this study, the influence of crystallographic texture is taken into account by incorporating the latent hardening into a visco-plastic self-consistent model. Different strengths of dislocation glide interaction models in 24 slip systems are used to represent the latent hardening. Moreover, the aging and recovery effects are also included into the latent hardening model by considering strong interactions between dislocations and dissolved atom Mg and the microstructural evolution. These microstructural considerations provide a powerful capability to successfully describe the strain path dependence of plastic deformation behavior of AA5754

Triangular Geometrized Sampling Heuristics for Fast Optimal Motion Planning

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ahmed Hussain Qureshi

2015-02-01

Full Text Available Rapidly-exploring Random Tree (RRT-based algorithms have become increasingly popular due to their lower computational complexity as compared with other path planning algorithms. The recently presented RRT* motion planning algorithm improves upon the original RRT algorithm by providing optimal path solutions. While RRT determines an initial collision-free path fairly quickly, RRT* guarantees almost certain convergence to an optimal, obstacle-free path from the start to the goal points for any given geometrical environment. However, the main limitations of RRT* include its slow processing rate and high memory consumption, due to the large number of iterations required for calculating the optimal path. In order to overcome these limitations, we present another improvement, i.e, the Triangular Geometerized-RRT* (TG-RRT* algorithm, which utilizes triangular geometrical methods to improve the performance of the RRT* algorithm in terms of the processing time and a decreased number of iterations required for an optimal path solution. Simulations comparing the performance results of the improved TG-RRT* with RRT* are presented to demonstrate the overall improvement in performance and optimal path detection.

Developing Students' Reasoning about Samples and Sampling Variability as a Path to Expert Statistical Thinking

Science.gov (United States)

Garfield, Joan; Le, Laura; Zieffler, Andrew; Ben-Zvi, Dani

2015-01-01

This paper describes the importance of developing students' reasoning about samples and sampling variability as a foundation for statistical thinking. Research on expert-novice thinking as well as statistical thinking is reviewed and compared. A case is made that statistical thinking is a type of expert thinking, and as such, research…

Molecular dynamics based enhanced sampling of collective variables with very large time steps

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Pei-Yang; Tuckerman, Mark E.

2018-01-01

Enhanced sampling techniques that target a set of collective variables and that use molecular dynamics as the driving engine have seen widespread application in the computational molecular sciences as a means to explore the free-energy landscapes of complex systems. The use of molecular dynamics as the fundamental driver of the sampling requires the introduction of a time step whose magnitude is limited by the fastest motions in a system. While standard multiple time-stepping methods allow larger time steps to be employed for the slower and computationally more expensive forces, the maximum achievable increase in time step is limited by resonance phenomena, which inextricably couple fast and slow motions. Recently, we introduced deterministic and stochastic resonance-free multiple time step algorithms for molecular dynamics that solve this resonance problem and allow ten- to twenty-fold gains in the large time step compared to standard multiple time step algorithms [P. Minary et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 93, 150201 (2004); B. Leimkuhler et al., Mol. Phys. 111, 3579-3594 (2013)]. These methods are based on the imposition of isokinetic constraints that couple the physical system to Nosé-Hoover chains or Nosé-Hoover Langevin schemes. In this paper, we show how to adapt these methods for collective variable-based enhanced sampling techniques, specifically adiabatic free-energy dynamics/temperature-accelerated molecular dynamics, unified free-energy dynamics, and by extension, metadynamics, thus allowing simulations employing these methods to employ similarly very large time steps. The combination of resonance-free multiple time step integrators with free-energy-based enhanced sampling significantly improves the efficiency of conformational exploration.

Investigating sex differences in psychological predictors of snack intake among a large representative sample

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Adriaanse, M.A.; Evers, C.; Verhoeven, A.A.C.; de Ridder, D.T.D.

It is often assumed that there are substantial sex differences in eating behaviour (e.g. women are more likely to be dieters or emotional eaters than men). The present study investigates this assumption in a large representative community sample while incorporating a comprehensive set of

An Empirical Path-Loss Model for Wireless Channels in Indoor Short-Range Office Environment

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ye Wang

2012-01-01

Full Text Available A novel empirical path-loss model for wireless indoor short-range office environment at 4.3–7.3 GHz band is presented. The model is developed based on the experimental datum sampled in 30 office rooms in both line of sight (LOS and non-LOS (NLOS scenarios. The model is characterized as the path loss to distance with a Gaussian random variable X due to the shadow fading by using linear regression. The path-loss exponent n is fitted by the frequency using power function and modeled as a frequency-dependent Gaussian variable as the standard deviation σ of X. The presented works should be available for the research of wireless channel characteristics under universal indoor short-distance environments in the Internet of Things (IOT.

UMAPRM: Uniformly sampling the medial axis

KAUST Repository

Yeh, Hsin-Yi Cindy; Denny, Jory; Lindsey, Aaron; Thomas, Shawna; Amato, Nancy M.

2014-01-01

© 2014 IEEE. Maintaining clearance, or distance from obstacles, is a vital component of successful motion planning algorithms. Maintaining high clearance often creates safer paths for robots. Contemporary sampling-based planning algorithms

Mission-directed path planning for planetary rover exploration

Science.gov (United States)

Tompkins, Paul

2005-07-01

Robotic rovers uniquely benefit planetary exploration---they enable regional exploration with the precision of in-situ measurements, a combination impossible from an orbiting spacecraft or fixed lander. Mission planning for planetary rover exploration currently utilizes sophisticated software for activity planning and scheduling, but simplified path planning and execution approaches tailored for localized operations to individual targets. This approach is insufficient for the investigation of multiple, regionally distributed targets in a single command cycle. Path planning tailored for this task must consider the impact of large scale terrain on power, speed and regional access; the effect of route timing on resource availability; the limitations of finite resource capacity and other operational constraints on vehicle range and timing; and the mutual influence between traverses and upstream and downstream stationary activities. Encapsulating this reasoning in an efficient autonomous planner would allow a rover to continue operating rationally despite significant deviations from an initial plan. This research presents mission-directed path planning that enables an autonomous, strategic reasoning capability for robotic explorers. Planning operates in a space of position, time and energy. Unlike previous hierarchical approaches, it treats these dimensions simultaneously to enable globally-optimal solutions. The approach calls on a near incremental search algorithm designed for planning and re-planning under global constraints, in spaces of higher than two dimensions. Solutions under this method specify routes that avoid terrain obstacles, optimize the collection and use of rechargable energy, satisfy local and global mission constraints, and account for the time and energy of interleaved mission activities. Furthermore, the approach efficiently re-plans in response to updates in vehicle state and world models, and is well suited to online operation aboard a robot

Path Integral Formulation of Anomalous Diffusion Processes

OpenAIRE

Friedrich, Rudolf; Eule, Stephan

2011-01-01

We present the path integral formulation of a broad class of generalized diffusion processes. Employing the path integral we derive exact expressions for the path probability densities and joint probability distributions for the class of processes under consideration. We show that Continuous Time Random Walks (CTRWs) are included in our framework. A closed expression for the path probability distribution of CTRWs is found in terms of their waiting time distribution as the solution of a Dyson ...

Strategic Team AI Path Plans: Probabilistic Pathfinding

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tng C. H. John

2008-01-01

Full Text Available This paper proposes a novel method to generate strategic team AI pathfinding plans for computer games and simulations using probabilistic pathfinding. This method is inspired by genetic algorithms (Russell and Norvig, 2002, in that, a fitness function is used to test the quality of the path plans. The method generates high-quality path plans by eliminating the low-quality ones. The path plans are generated by probabilistic pathfinding, and the elimination is done by a fitness test of the path plans. This path plan generation method has the ability to generate variation or different high-quality paths, which is desired for games to increase replay values. This work is an extension of our earlier work on team AI: probabilistic pathfinding (John et al., 2006. We explore ways to combine probabilistic pathfinding and genetic algorithm to create a new method to generate strategic team AI pathfinding plans.

Two Generations of Path Dependence

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Madsen, Mogens Ove

  Even if there is no fully articulated and generally accepted theory of Path Dependence it has eagerly been taken up across a wide range of social sciences - primarily coming from economics. Path Dependence is most of all a metaphor that offers reason to believe, that some political, social...

Partial Path Column Generation for the ESPPRC

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jepsen, Mads Kehlet; Petersen, Bjørn

This talk introduces a decomposition of the Elementary Shortest Path Problem with Resource Constraints(ESPPRC), where the path is combined by smaller sub paths. We show computational result by comparing different approaches for the decomposition and compare the best of these with existing algorit...

Ballistic electron transport in mesoscopic samples

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Diaconescu, D.

2000-01-01

In the framework of this thesis, the electron transport in the ballistic regime has been studied. Ballistic means that the lateral sample dimensions are smaller than the mean free path of the electrons, i.e. the electrons can travel through the whole device without being scattered. This leads to transport characteristics that differ significantly from the diffusive regime which is realised in most experiments. Making use of samples with high mean free path, features of ballistic transport have been observed on samples with sizes up to 100 μm. The basic device used in ballistic electron transport is the point contact, from which a collimated beam of ballistic electrons can be injected. Such point contacts were realised with focused ion beam (FIB) implantation and the collimating properties were analysed using a two opposite point contact configuration. The typical angular width at half maximum is around 50 , which is comparable with that of point contacts defined by other methods. (orig.)

Large-volume constant-concentration sampling technique coupling with surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy for rapid on-site gas analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Zhuomin; Zhan, Yisen; Huang, Yichun; Li, Gongke

2017-08-05

In this work, a portable large-volume constant-concentration (LVCC) sampling technique coupling with surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) was developed for the rapid on-site gas analysis based on suitable derivatization methods. LVCC sampling technique mainly consisted of a specially designed sampling cell including the rigid sample container and flexible sampling bag, and an absorption-derivatization module with a portable pump and a gas flowmeter. LVCC sampling technique allowed large, alterable and well-controlled sampling volume, which kept the concentration of gas target in headspace phase constant during the entire sampling process and made the sampling result more representative. Moreover, absorption and derivatization of gas target during LVCC sampling process were efficiently merged in one step using bromine-thiourea and OPA-NH 4 + strategy for ethylene and SO 2 respectively, which made LVCC sampling technique conveniently adapted to consequent SERS analysis. Finally, a new LVCC sampling-SERS method was developed and successfully applied for rapid analysis of trace ethylene and SO 2 from fruits. It was satisfied that trace ethylene and SO 2 from real fruit samples could be actually and accurately quantified by this method. The minor concentration fluctuations of ethylene and SO 2 during the entire LVCC sampling process were proved to be gas targets from real samples by SERS. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

OPEN PATH TUNABLE DIODE LASER ABSORPTION SPECTROSCOPY FOR ACQUISITION OF FUGITIVE EMISSION FLUX DATA

Science.gov (United States)

Air pollutant emission from unconfined sources is an increasingly important environmental issue. The U.S. EPA has developed a gorund-based optical remote sensing method that enables direct measurement of fugitive emission flux from large area sources. Open-path Fourier transfor...

In vivo verification of proton beam path by using post-treatment PET/CT imaging.

Science.gov (United States)

Hsi, Wen C; Indelicato, Daniel J; Vargas, Carlos; Duvvuri, Srividya; Li, Zuofeng; Palta, Jatinder

2009-09-01

The purpose of this study is to establish the in vivo verification of proton beam path by using proton-activated positron emission distributions. A total of 50 PET/CT imaging studies were performed on ten prostate cancer patients immediately after daily proton therapy treatment through a single lateral portal. The PET/CT and planning CT were registered by matching the pelvic bones, and the beam path of delivered protons was defined in vivo by the positron emission distribution seen only within the pelvic bones, referred to as the PET-defined beam path. Because of the patient position correction at each fraction, the marker-defined beam path, determined by the centroid of implanted markers seen in the posttreatment (post-Tx) CT, is used for the planned beam path. The angular variation and discordance between the PET- and marker-defined paths were derived to investigate the intrafraction prostate motion. For studies with large discordance, the relative location between the centroid and pelvic bones seen in the post-Tx CT was examined. The PET/CT studies are categorized for distinguishing the prostate motion that occurred before or after beam delivery. The post-PET CT was acquired after PET imaging to investigate prostate motion due to physiological changes during the extended PET acquisition. The less than 2 degrees of angular variation indicates that the patient roll was minimal within the immobilization device. Thirty of the 50 studies with small discordance, referred as good cases, show a consistent alignment between the field edges and the positron emission distributions from the entrance to the distal edge. For those good cases, average displacements are 0.6 and 1.3 mm along the anterior-posterior (D(AP)) and superior-inferior (D(SI)) directions, respectively, with 1.6 mm standard deviations in both directions. For the remaining 20 studies demonstrating a large discordance (more than 6 mm in either D(AP) or D(SI)), 13 studies, referred as motion-after-Tx cases

In vivo verification of proton beam path by using post-treatment PET/CT imaging

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Hsi, Wen C.; Indelicato, Daniel J.; Vargas, Carlos; Duvvuri, Srividya; Li Zuofeng; Palta, Jatinder [Proton Therapy Institute, University of Florida, Jacksonville, Florida 32206 (United States); Boca Radiation Oncology Associates, Boca Raton, Florida 33431 (United States); Proton Therapy Institute, University of Florida, Jacksonville, Florida 32206 (United States); Department of Radiation Oncology, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida 32610 (United States)

2009-09-15

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to establish the in vivo verification of proton beam path by using proton-activated positron emission distributions. Methods: A total of 50 PET/CT imaging studies were performed on ten prostate cancer patients immediately after daily proton therapy treatment through a single lateral portal. The PET/CT and planning CT were registered by matching the pelvic bones, and the beam path of delivered protons was defined in vivo by the positron emission distribution seen only within the pelvic bones, referred to as the PET-defined beam path. Because of the patient position correction at each fraction, the marker-defined beam path, determined by the centroid of implanted markers seen in the post-treatment (post-Tx) CT, is used for the planned beam path. The angular variation and discordance between the PET- and marker-defined paths were derived to investigate the intrafraction prostate motion. For studies with large discordance, the relative location between the centroid and pelvic bones seen in the post-Tx CT was examined. The PET/CT studies are categorized for distinguishing the prostate motion that occurred before or after beam delivery. The post-PET CT was acquired after PET imaging to investigate prostate motion due to physiological changes during the extended PET acquisition. Results: The less than 2 deg. of angular variation indicates that the patient roll was minimal within the immobilization device. Thirty of the 50 studies with small discordance, referred as good cases, show a consistent alignment between the field edges and the positron emission distributions from the entrance to the distal edge. For those good cases, average displacements are 0.6 and 1.3 mm along the anterior-posterior (D{sub AP}) and superior-inferior (D{sub SI}) directions, respectively, with 1.6 mm standard deviations in both directions. For the remaining 20 studies demonstrating a large discordance (more than 6 mm in either D{sub AP} or D{sub SI}), 13

Propagation Path Loss Models for 5G Urban Micro- and Macro-Cellular Scenarios

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Sun, Shu; Rappaport, Theodore S.; Rangan, Sundeep

2016-01-01

This paper presents and compares two candidate large-scale propagation path loss models, the alpha-beta-gamma (ABG) model and the close-in (CI) free space reference distance model, for the design of fifth generation (5G) wireless communication systems in urban micro- and macro-cellular scenarios....

Effect of Tool-Path on Morphology and Mechanical Properties of Ti-6Al-4V Fabricated by Wire and Arc Additive Manufacturing

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Fu Jie

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Ti-6Al-4V components are widely used in aerospace industry. However, it’s not economic to manufacture them in traditional subtractive methods. Wire and arc additive manufacturing (WAAM is a promising alternative technology for fabricating it efficiently and economically. Tool-path planning strategy is a very important step in WAAM process. This paper investigated the influence of the lap way between layers and layers in tool-path on the Ti-6Al-4V samples fabricated by WAAM. It has been found that the lap way between layers and layers in tool-path do influence the forming quality and especially mechanical properties of the fabricated samples. Samples have different surface quality (smooth or undulating and defects inside or on the surface of the components. The highest and smallest ultra tensile strength of the fabricated samples are respectively 907.86 MPa, 684.82 MPa. But it has few effect on the grains of the fabricated samples, and they all have cross-sectional columnar grains.

Path integration on hyperbolic spaces

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Grosche, C [Hamburg Univ. (Germany). 2. Inst. fuer Theoretische Physik

1991-11-01

Quantum mechanics on the hyperbolic spaces of rank one is discussed by path integration technique. Hyperbolic spaces are multi-dimensional generalisation of the hyperbolic plane, i.e. the Poincare upper half-plane endowed with a hyperbolic geometry. We evalute the path integral on S{sub 1} {approx equal} SO (n,1)/SO(n) and S{sub 2} {approx equal} SU(n,1)/S(U(1) x U(n)) in a particular coordinate system, yielding explicitly the wave-functions and the energy spectrum. Futhermore we can exploit a general property of all these spaces, namely that they can be parametrized by a pseudopolar coordinate system. This allows a separation in path integration over spheres and an additional path integration over the remaining hyperbolic coordinate, yielding effectively a path integral for a modified Poeschl-Teller potential. Only continuous spectra can exist in all the cases. For all the hyperbolic spaces of rank one we find a general formula for the largest lower bound (zero-point energy) of the spectrum which is given by E{sub O} = h{sup 2} /8m(m{sub {alpha}} +2m{sub 2} {alpha}){sup 2} (m {alpha} and m{sub 2}{alpha} denote the dimension of the root subspace corresponding to the roots {alpha} and 2{alpha}, respectively). I also discuss the case, where a constant magnetic field on H{sup n} is incorporated. (orig.).

Path integration on hyperbolic spaces

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Grosche, C.

1991-11-01

Quantum mechanics on the hyperbolic spaces of rank one is discussed by path integration technique. Hyperbolic spaces are multi-dimensional generalisation of the hyperbolic plane, i.e. the Poincare upper half-plane endowed with a hyperbolic geometry. We evalute the path integral on S 1 ≅ SO (n,1)/SO(n) and S 2 ≅ SU(n,1)/S[U(1) x U(n)] in a particular coordinate system, yielding explicitly the wave-functions and the energy spectrum. Futhermore we can exploit a general property of all these spaces, namely that they can be parametrized by a pseudopolar coordinate system. This allows a separation in path integration over spheres and an additional path integration over the remaining hyperbolic coordinate, yielding effectively a path integral for a modified Poeschl-Teller potential. Only continuous spectra can exist in all the cases. For all the hyperbolic spaces of rank one we find a general formula for the largest lower bound (zero-point energy) of the spectrum which is given by E O = h 2 /8m(m α +2m 2 α) 2 (m α and m 2 α denote the dimension of the root subspace corresponding to the roots α and 2α, respectively). I also discuss the case, where a constant magnetic field on H n is incorporated. (orig.)

Improved initial guess for minimum energy path calculations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Smidstrup, Søren; Pedersen, Andreas; Stokbro, Kurt; Jónsson, Hannes

2014-01-01

A method is presented for generating a good initial guess of a transition path between given initial and final states of a system without evaluation of the energy. An objective function surface is constructed using an interpolation of pairwise distances at each discretization point along the path and the nudged elastic band method then used to find an optimal path on this image dependent pair potential (IDPP) surface. This provides an initial path for the more computationally intensive calculations of a minimum energy path on an energy surface obtained, for example, by ab initio or density functional theory. The optimal path on the IDPP surface is significantly closer to a minimum energy path than a linear interpolation of the Cartesian coordinates and, therefore, reduces the number of iterations needed to reach convergence and averts divergence in the electronic structure calculations when atoms are brought too close to each other in the initial path. The method is illustrated with three examples: (1) rotation of a methyl group in an ethane molecule, (2) an exchange of atoms in an island on a crystal surface, and (3) an exchange of two Si-atoms in amorphous silicon. In all three cases, the computational effort in finding the minimum energy path with DFT was reduced by a factor ranging from 50% to an order of magnitude by using an IDPP path as the initial path. The time required for parallel computations was reduced even more because of load imbalance when linear interpolation of Cartesian coordinates was used

Evaluating methods for estimating space-time paths of individuals in calculating long-term personal exposure to air pollution

Science.gov (United States)

Schmitz, Oliver; Soenario, Ivan; Vaartjes, Ilonca; Strak, Maciek; Hoek, Gerard; Brunekreef, Bert; Dijst, Martin; Karssenberg, Derek

2016-04-01

Air pollution is one of the major concerns for human health. Associations between air pollution and health are often calculated using long-term (i.e. years to decades) information on personal exposure for each individual in a cohort. Personal exposure is the air pollution aggregated along the space-time path visited by an individual. As air pollution may vary considerably in space and time, for instance due to motorised traffic, the estimation of the spatio-temporal location of a persons' space-time path is important to identify the personal exposure. However, long term exposure is mostly calculated using the air pollution concentration at the x, y location of someone's home which does not consider that individuals are mobile (commuting, recreation, relocation). This assumption is often made as it is a major challenge to estimate space-time paths for all individuals in large cohorts, mostly because limited information on mobility of individuals is available. We address this issue by evaluating multiple approaches for the calculation of space-time paths, thereby estimating the personal exposure along these space-time paths with hyper resolution air pollution maps at national scale. This allows us to evaluate the effect of the space-time path and resulting personal exposure. Air pollution (e.g. NO2, PM10) was mapped for the entire Netherlands at a resolution of 5×5 m2 using the land use regression models developed in the European Study of Cohorts for Air Pollution Effects (ESCAPE, http://escapeproject.eu/) and the open source software PCRaster (http://www.pcraster.eu). The models use predictor variables like population density, land use, and traffic related data sets, and are able to model spatial variation and within-city variability of annual average concentration values. We approximated space-time paths for all individuals in a cohort using various aggregations, including those representing space-time paths as the outline of a persons' home or associated parcel

Sample preparation and analysis of large 238PuO2 and ThO2 spheres

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wise, R.L.; Selle, J.E.

1975-01-01

A program was initiated to determine the density gradient across a large spherical 238 PuO 2 sample produced by vacuum hot pressing. Due to the high thermal output of the ceramic a thin section was necessary to prevent overheating of the plastic mount. Techniques were developed for cross sectioning, mounting, grinding, and polishing of the sample. The polished samples were then analyzed on a quantitative image analyzer to determine the density as a function of location across the sphere. The techniques for indexing, analyzing, and reducing the data are described. Typical results obtained on a ThO 2 simulant sphere are given

Covering path generation for autonomous turf-care vehicle

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Mai, Christian; Jouffroy, Jerome; Top, Søren

2017-01-01

A covering path generation algorithm is developed to generate a lengthwise pattern based on a polygon describing the outer boundary and obstacles (polygon holes) of a geographical area. The algorithm is applied to an autonomous lawn-care robot for application to large grass turfs, for example golf......-courses, which require structured and precise cutting patterns. The geographical polygon is recorded by manually driving the vehicle around the contour, resulting in a polygon given as geographical (latitude, longitude) coordinates of the vertices, which together with machine parameters are used to generate...

Hidden supersymmetry and large N

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Alfaro, J.

1988-01-01

In this paper we present a new method to deal with the leading order in the large-N expansion of a quantum field theory. The method uses explicitly the hidden supersymmetry that is present in the path-integral formulation of a stochastic process. In addition to this we derive a new relation that is valid in the leading order of the large-N expansion of the hermitian-matrix model for any spacetime dimension. (orig.)

Path Complexity in Virtual Water Maze Navigation: Differential Associations with Age, Sex, and Regional Brain Volume.

Science.gov (United States)

Daugherty, Ana M; Yuan, Peng; Dahle, Cheryl L; Bender, Andrew R; Yang, Yiqin; Raz, Naftali

2015-09-01

Studies of human navigation in virtual maze environments have consistently linked advanced age with greater distance traveled between the start and the goal and longer duration of the search. Observations of search path geometry suggest that routes taken by older adults may be unnecessarily complex and that excessive path complexity may be an indicator of cognitive difficulties experienced by older navigators. In a sample of healthy adults, we quantify search path complexity in a virtual Morris water maze with a novel method based on fractal dimensionality. In a two-level hierarchical linear model, we estimated improvement in navigation performance across trials by a decline in route length, shortening of search time, and reduction in fractal dimensionality of the path. While replicating commonly reported age and sex differences in time and distance indices, a reduction in fractal dimension of the path accounted for improvement across trials, independent of age or sex. The volumes of brain regions associated with the establishment of cognitive maps (parahippocampal gyrus and hippocampus) were related to path dimensionality, but not to the total distance and time. Thus, fractal dimensionality of a navigational path may present a useful complementary method of quantifying performance in navigation. © The Author 2014. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Application of Conventional and K0-Based Internal Monostandard NAA Using Reactor Neutrons for Compositional Analysis of Large Samples

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Reddy, A.V.R.; Acharya, R.; Swain, K. K.; Pujari, P.K.

2018-01-01

Large sample neutron activation analysis (LSNAA) work was carried out for samples of coal, uranium ore, stainless steel, ancient and new clay potteries, dross and clay pottery replica from Peru using low flux high thermalized irradiation sites. Large as well as non-standard geometry samples (1 g - 0.5 kg) were irradiated using thermal column (TC) facility of Apsara reactor as well as graphite reflector position of critical facility (CF) at Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Mumbai. Small size (10 - 500 mg) samples were also irradiated at core position of Apsara reactor, pneumatic carrier facility (PCF) of Dhruva reactor and pneumatic fast transfer facility (PFTS) of KAMINI reactor. Irradiation positions were characterized using indium flux monitor for TC and CF whereas multi monitors were used at other positions. Radioactive assay was carried out using high resolution gamma ray spectrometry. The k0-based internal monostandard NAA (IM-NAA) method was used to determine elemental concentration ratios with respect to Na in coal and uranium ore samples, Sc in pottery samples and Fe in stainless steel. Insitu relative detection efficiency for each irradiated sample was obtained using γ rays of activation products in the required energy range. Representative sample sizes were arrived at for coal and uranium ore from the plots of La/Na ratios as a function of the mass of the sample. For stainless steel sample of SS 304L, the absolute concentrations were calculated from concentration ratios by mass balance approach since all the major elements (Fe, Cr, Ni and Mn) were amenable to NAA. Concentration ratios obtained by IM-NAA were used for provenance study of 30 clay potteries, obtained from excavated Buddhist sites of AP, India. The La to Ce concentration ratios were used for preliminary grouping and concentration ratios of 15 elements with respect to Sc were used by statistical cluster analysis for confirmation of grouping. Concentrations of Au and Ag were determined in not so

PTRACK: A particle tracking program for evaluation travel path/travel time uncertainties

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Thompson, B.M.; Campbell, J.E.; Longsine, D.E.

1987-12-01

PTRACK is a model which tracks the path of a radionuclide particle released from a nuclear waste repository into a ground-water flow system in a two-dimensional representation of stratified geologic medium. The code calculates the time required for the particle to travel from the release point (the edge of the disturbed zone) to the specified horizontal or vertical boundary (the accessible environment). The physical properties of the geologic setting and the ground-water flow system can be treated as fixed values or as random variables sampled from their respective probability distributions. In the latter case, PTRACK assigns a sampled value for each parameter and tracks a particle for this trial (realization) of the system. Repeated realizations allow the effects of parameter uncertainty on travel paths/travel times to be quantified. The code can also calculate partial correlation coefficients between dependent variables and independent variables, which are useful in identifying important independent variables. This documentation describes the mathematical basis for the model, the algorithms and solution techniques used, and the computer code design. It also contains a detailed user's manual. The implementation of PTRACK is verified with several systems for which solutions have been calculated by hand. The integration of PTRACK with a Latin hypercube sampling (LHS) code is also discussed, although other sampling methods can be employed in place of LHS. 11 refs., 14 figs., 22 tabs

Path Integration on the Upper Half-Plane

OpenAIRE

Reijiro, KUBO; Research Institute for Theoretical Physics Hiroshima University

1987-01-01

Feynman's path integral is considered on the Poincare upper half-plane. It is shown that the fundamental solution to the heat equation ∂f/∂t=Δ_Hf can be expressed in terms of a path integral. A simple relation between the path integral and the Selberg trace formula is discussed briefly.

Your choice MATor(s) : large-scale quantitative anonymity assessment of Tor path selection algorithms against structural attacks

OpenAIRE

Backes, Michael; Meiser, Sebastian; Slowik, Marcin

2015-01-01

In this paper, we present a rigorous methodology for quantifying the anonymity provided by Tor against a variety of structural attacks, i.e., adversaries that compromise Tor nodes and thereby perform eavesdropping attacks to deanonymize Tor users. First, we provide an algorithmic approach for computing the anonymity impact of such structural attacks against Tor. The algorithm is parametric in the considered path selection algorithm and is, hence, capable of reasoning about variants of Tor and...

epiPATH: an information system for the storage and management of molecular epidemiology data from infectious pathogens

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

González-Candelas Fernando

2007-04-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Most research scientists working in the fields of molecular epidemiology, population and evolutionary genetics are confronted with the management of large volumes of data. Moreover, the data used in studies of infectious diseases are complex and usually derive from different institutions such as hospitals or laboratories. Since no public database scheme incorporating clinical and epidemiological information about patients and molecular information about pathogens is currently available, we have developed an information system, composed by a main database and a web-based interface, which integrates both types of data and satisfies requirements of good organization, simple accessibility, data security and multi-user support. Results From the moment a patient arrives to a hospital or health centre until the processing and analysis of molecular sequences obtained from infectious pathogens in the laboratory, lots of information is collected from different sources. We have divided the most relevant data into 12 conceptual modules around which we have organized the database schema. Our schema is very complete and it covers many aspects of sample sources, samples, laboratory processes, molecular sequences, phylogenetics results, clinical tests and results, clinical information, treatments, pathogens, transmissions, outbreaks and bibliographic information. Communication between end-users and the selected Relational Database Management System (RDMS is carried out by default through a command-line window or through a user-friendly, web-based interface which provides access and management tools for the data. Conclusion epiPATH is an information system for managing clinical and molecular information from infectious diseases. It facilitates daily work related to infectious pathogens and sequences obtained from them. This software is intended for local installation in order to safeguard private data and provides advanced SQL-users the

Pedestrian paths: why path-dependence theory leaves health policy analysis lost in space.

Science.gov (United States)

Brown, Lawrence D

2010-08-01

Path dependence, a model first advanced to explain puzzles in the diffusion of technology, has lately won allegiance among analysts of the politics of public policy, including health care policy. Though the central premise of the model--that past events and decisions shape options for innovation in the present and future--is indisputable (indeed path dependence is, so to speak, too shallow to be false), the approach, at least as applied to health policy, suffers from ambiguities that undercut its claims to illuminate policy projects such as managed care, on which this article focuses. Because path dependence adds little more than marginal value to familiar images of the politics of policy--incrementalism, for one--analysts might do well to put it on the back burner and pursue instead "thick descriptions" that help them to distinguish different degrees of openness to exogenous change among diverse policy arenas.

Off-great-circle paths in transequatorial propagation: 2. Nonmagnetic-field-aligned reflections

Science.gov (United States)

Tsunoda, Roland T.; Maruyama, Takashi; Tsugawa, Takuya; Yokoyama, Tatsuhiro; Ishii, Mamoru; Nguyen, Trang T.; Ogawa, Tadahiko; Nishioka, Michi

2016-11-01

There is considerable evidence that plasma structure in nighttime equatorial F layer develops from large-scale wave structure (LSWS) in bottomside F layer. However, crucial details of how this process proceeds, from LSWS to equatorial plasma bubbles (EPBs), remain to be sorted out. A major obstacle to success is the paucity of measurements that provide a space-time description of the bottomside F layer over a broad geographical region. The transequatorial propagation (TEP) experiment is one of few methods that can do so. New findings using a TEP experiment, between Shepparton (SHP), Australia, and Oarai (ORI), Japan, are presented in two companion papers. In Paper 1 (P1), (1) off-great-circle (OGC) paths are described in terms of discrete and diffuse types, (2) descriptions of OGC paths are generalized from a single-reflection to a multiple-reflection process, and (3) discrete type is shown to be associated with an unstructured but distorted upwelling, whereas the diffuse type is shown to be associated with EPBs. In Paper 2 (P2), attention is placed on differences in east-west (EW) asymmetry, found between OGC paths from the SHP-ORI experiment and those from another near-identical TEP experiment. Differences are reconciled by allowing three distinct sources for the EW asymmetries: (1) reflection properties within an upwelling (see P1), (2) OGC paths that depend on magnetic declination of geomagnetic field (B), and (3) OGC paths supported by non-B-aligned reflectors at latitudes where inclination of B is finite.

The Thinnest Path Problem

Science.gov (United States)

2016-07-22

be reduced to TP in -D UDH for any . We then show that the 2-D disk hypergraph constructed in the proof of Theorem 1 can be modified to an exposed...transmission range that induces hy- peredge , i.e., (3) GAO et al.: THINNEST PATH PROBLEM 1181 Theorem 5 shows that the covered area of the path...representation of (the two hyperedges rooted at from the example given in Fig. 6 are illustrated in green and blue, respectively). step, we show in this

Curvature-Continuous 3D Path-Planning Using QPMI Method

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Seong-Ryong Chang

2015-06-01

Full Text Available It is impossible to achieve vertex movement and rapid velocity control in aerial robots and aerial vehicles because of momentum from the air. A continuous-curvature path ensures such robots and vehicles can fly with stable and continuous movements. General continuous path-planning methods use spline interpolation, for example B-spline and Bézier curves. However, these methods cannot be directly applied to continuous path planning in a 3D space. These methods use a subset of the waypoints to decide curvature and some waypoints are not included in the planned path. This paper proposes a method for constructing a curvature-continuous path in 3D space that includes every waypoint. The movements in each axis, x, y and z, are separated by the parameter u. Waypoint groups are formed, each with its own continuous path derived using quadratic polynomial interpolation. The membership function then combines each continuous path into one continuous path. The continuity of the path is verified and the curvature-continuous path is produced using the proposed method.

Path integration on the upper half-plane

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kubo, Reijiro.

1987-06-01

Feynman's path integral is considered on the Poincare upper half-plane. It is shown that the fundamental solution to the heat equation δf/δt = Δ H f can be expressed in terms of a path integral. A simple relation between the path integral and the Selberg trace formula is discussed briefly. (author)

Chromatic roots and hamiltonian paths

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Thomassen, Carsten

2000-01-01

We present a new connection between colorings and hamiltonian paths: If the chromatic polynomial of a graph has a noninteger root less than or equal to t(n) = 2/3 + 1/3 (3)root (26 + 6 root (33)) + 1/3 (3)root (26 - 6 root (33)) = 1.29559.... then the graph has no hamiltonian path. This result...

In-line optical fiber metallic mirror reflector for monolithic common path optical coherence tomography probes.

Science.gov (United States)

Singh, Kanwarpal; Reddy, Rohith; Sharma, Gargi; Verma, Yogesh; Gardecki, Joseph A; Tearney, Guillermo

2018-03-01

Endoscopic optical coherence tomography probes suffer from various artifacts due to dispersion imbalance and polarization mismatch between reference and sample arm light. Such artifacts can be minimized using a common path approach. In this work, we demonstrate a miniaturized common path probe for optical coherence tomography using an inline fiber mirror. A common path optical fiber probe suitable for performing high-resolution endoscopic optical coherence tomography imaging was developed. To achieve common path functionality, an inline fiber mirror was fabricated using a thin gold layer. A commercially available swept source engine was used to test the designed probe in a cadaver human coronary artery ex vivo. We achieved a sensitivity of 104 dB for this probe using a swept source optical coherence tomography system. To test the probe, images of a cadaver human coronary artery were obtained, demonstrating the quality that is comparable to those obtained by OCT systems with separate reference arms. Additionally, we demonstrate recovery of ranging depth by use of a Michelson interferometer in the detection path. We developed a miniaturized monolithic inline fiber mirror-based common path probe for optical coherence tomography. Owing to its simplicity, our design will be helpful in endoscopic applications that require high-resolution probes in a compact form factor while reducing system complexity. Lasers Surg. Med. 50:230-235, 2018. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Career paths in physicians' postgraduate training - an eight-year follow-up study.

Science.gov (United States)

Buddeberg-Fischer, Barbara; Stamm, Martina; Klaghofer, Richard

2010-10-06

To date, there are hardly any studies on the choice of career path in medical school graduates. The present study aimed to investigate what career paths can be identified in the course of postgraduate training of physicians; what factors have an influence on the choice of a career path; and in what way the career paths are correlated with career-related factors as well as with work-life balance aspirations. The data reported originates from five questionnaire surveys of the prospective SwissMedCareer Study, beginning in 2001 (T1, last year of medical school). The study sample consisted of 358 physicians (197 females, 55%; 161 males, 45%) participating at each assessment from T2 (2003, first year of residency) to T5 (2009, seventh year of residency), answering the question: What career do you aspire to have? Furthermore, personal characteristics, chosen specialty, career motivation, mentoring experience, work-life balance as well as workload, career success and career satisfaction were assessed. Career paths were analysed with cluster analysis, and differences between clusters analysed with multivariate methods. The cluster analysis revealed four career clusters which discriminated distinctly between each other: (1) career in practice, (2) hospital career, (3) academic career, and (4) changing career goal. From T3 (third year of residency) to T5, respondents in Cluster 1-3 were rather stable in terms of their career path aspirations, while those assigned to Cluster 4 showed a high fluctuation in their career plans. Physicians in Cluster 1 showed high values in extraprofessional concerns and often consider part-time work. Cluster 2 and 3 were characterised by high instrumentality, intrinsic and extrinsic career motivation, career orientation and high career success. No cluster differences were seen in career satisfaction. In Cluster 1 and 4, females were overrepresented. Trainees should be supported to stay on the career path that best suits his/her personal and

[Which route leads from chronic back pain to depression? A path analysis on direct and indirect effects using the cognitive mediators catastrophizing and helplessness/hopelessness in a general population sample].

Science.gov (United States)

Fahland, R A; Kohlmann, T; Hasenbring, M; Feng, Y-S; Schmidt, C O

2012-12-01

Chronic pain and depression are highly comorbid; however, the longitudinal link is only partially understood. This study examined direct and indirect effects of chronic back pain on depression using path analysis in a general population sample, focussing on cognitive mediator variables. Analyses are based on 413 participants (aged 18-75 years) in a population-based postal survey on back pain who reported chronic back pain at baseline. Follow-up data were collected after 1 year. Depression was measured with the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D). Fear-avoidance-beliefs (FABQ), catastrophizing and helplessness/hopelessness (KRSS) were considered as cognitive mediators. Data were analyzed using path analysis. Chronic back pain had no direct effect on depression at follow-up when controlling for cognitive mediators. A mediating effect emerged for helplessness/hopelessness but not for catastrophizing or fear-avoidance beliefs. These results support the cognitive mediation hypothesis which assumes that psychological variables mediate the association between pain and depression. The importance of helplessness/hopelessness is of relevance for the treatment of patients with chronic back pain.

Electron Inelastic-Mean-Free-Path Database

Science.gov (United States)

SRD 71 NIST Electron Inelastic-Mean-Free-Path Database (PC database, no charge)   This database provides values of electron inelastic mean free paths (IMFPs) for use in quantitative surface analyses by AES and XPS.

Hanford spent nuclear fuel project recommended path forward, volume III: Alternatives and path forward evaluation supporting documentation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Fulton, J.C.

1994-10-01

Volume I of the Hanford Spent Nuclear Fuel Project - Recommended Path Forward constitutes an aggressive series of projects to construct and operate systems and facilities to safely retrieve, package, transport, process, and store K Basins fuel and sludge. Volume II provided a comparative evaluation of four Alternatives for the Path Forward and an evaluation for the Recommended Path Forward. Although Volume II contained extensive appendices, six supporting documents have been compiled in Volume III to provide additional background for Volume II

Understanding and applying open-path optical sensing data

Science.gov (United States)

Virag, Peter; Kricks, Robert J.

1999-02-01

During the last 10 years, open-path air monitors have evolved to yield reliable and effective measurements of single and multiple compounds on a real-time basis. To many individuals within the optical remote sensing community, the attributes of open-path and its the potential uses seem unlimited. Then why has the market has been stagnant for the last few years? The reason may center on how open-path information is applied and how well the end user understands that information. We constantly try to compare open-path data to risk/health or safety levels that are based for use at a single point and for a specific averaging period often far longer than a typical open-path data point. Often this approach is perceived as putting a square peg in a round hole. This perception may be well founded, as open-path data at times may need to go through extensive data manipulation and assumptions before it can be applied. This paper will review pervious open-path monitoring programs and their success in applying the data collected. We will also look at how open-path data is being currently used, some previous pitfalls in data use, alternate methods of data interpretation, and how open-path data can be best practically applied to fit current needs.

Unusual bond paths in organolithium compounds

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bachrach, S.M.; Ritchie, J.P.

1986-01-01

We have applied the topological method to a number of organolithium compounds. The wavefunctions were determined with GAUSSIAN-82 using 3-21G basis set and fully optimized geometries. Gradient paths were obtained using the RHODER package and critical points were located using EXTREME. These results indicate the unusual nature of organolithium compounds. The strange bond paths arise mainly from the ionic nature of the C-Li interaction. We suggest that the term ''bond path'' may best be suited for covalent bonds. 4 figs., 1 tab

An advanced open-path atmospheric pollution monitor for large areas

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Taylor, L.

1995-01-01

Large amounts of toxic waste materials, generated in manufacturing fuel for nuclear reactors, are stored in tanks buried over large areas at DOE sites. Flammable and hazardous gases are continually generated by chemical reactions in the waste materials. To prevent explosive concentrations of these gases, the gases are automatically vented to the atmosphere when the pressure exceeds a preset value. Real-time monitoring of the atmosphere above the tanks with automatic alarming is needed to prevent exposing workers to unsafe conditions when venting occurs. This project is to design, develop, and test an atmospheric pollution monitor which can measure concentrations of DOE-specified and EPA-specified hazardous gases over ranges as long as 4km. A CO 2 laser to measure absorption spectra and to determine the distance over which the measurements are made, is combined with an acousto-optic tunable filter (AOTF) to measure thermal emission spectra

Two-path plasmonic interferometer with integrated detector

Science.gov (United States)

Dyer, Gregory Conrad; Shaner, Eric A.; Aizin, Gregory

2016-03-29

An electrically tunable terahertz two-path plasmonic interferometer with an integrated detection element can down convert a terahertz field to a rectified DC signal. The integrated detector utilizes a resonant plasmonic homodyne mixing mechanism that measures the component of the plasma waves in-phase with an excitation field that functions as the local oscillator in the mixer. The plasmonic interferometer comprises two independently tuned electrical paths. The plasmonic interferometer enables a spectrometer-on-a-chip where the tuning of electrical path length plays an analogous role to that of physical path length in macroscopic Fourier transform interferometers.

Large-volume constant-concentration sampling technique coupling with surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy for rapid on-site gas analysis

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Zhuomin; Zhan, Yisen; Huang, Yichun; Li, Gongke

2017-08-01

In this work, a portable large-volume constant-concentration (LVCC) sampling technique coupling with surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) was developed for the rapid on-site gas analysis based on suitable derivatization methods. LVCC sampling technique mainly consisted of a specially designed sampling cell including the rigid sample container and flexible sampling bag, and an absorption-derivatization module with a portable pump and a gas flowmeter. LVCC sampling technique allowed large, alterable and well-controlled sampling volume, which kept the concentration of gas target in headspace phase constant during the entire sampling process and made the sampling result more representative. Moreover, absorption and derivatization of gas target during LVCC sampling process were efficiently merged in one step using bromine-thiourea and OPA-NH4+ strategy for ethylene and SO2 respectively, which made LVCC sampling technique conveniently adapted to consequent SERS analysis. Finally, a new LVCC sampling-SERS method was developed and successfully applied for rapid analysis of trace ethylene and SO2 from fruits. It was satisfied that trace ethylene and SO2 from real fruit samples could be actually and accurately quantified by this method. The minor concentration fluctuations of ethylene and SO2 during the entire LVCC sampling process were proved to be samples were achieved in range of 95.0-101% and 97.0-104% respectively. It is expected that portable LVCC sampling technique would pave the way for rapid on-site analysis of accurate concentrations of trace gas targets from real samples by SERS.

Optimization of educational paths for higher education

Science.gov (United States)

Tarasyev, Alexandr A.; Agarkov, Gavriil; Medvedev, Aleksandr

2017-11-01

In our research, we combine the theory of economic behavior and the methodology of increasing efficiency of the human capital to estimate the optimal educational paths. We provide an optimization model for higher education process to analyze possible educational paths for each rational individual. The preferences of each rational individual are compared to the best economically possible educational path. The main factor of the individual choice, which is formed by the formation of optimal educational path, deals with higher salaries level in the chosen economic sector after graduation. Another factor that influences on the economic profit is the reduction of educational costs or the possibility of the budget support for the student. The main outcome of this research consists in correction of the governmental policy of investment in human capital based on the results of educational paths optimal control.

Optimized Compositional Design and Processing-Fabrication Paths for Larger Heats of Nanostructured Ferritic Alloys

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Odette, G. Robert [Univ. of California, Santa Barbara, CA (United States)

2017-02-06

The objective of this work was to characterize the alloy 14YWT-PM2, which is an extruded and cross-rolled precursor alloy to a large heat of 14YWT being produced using an alternative processing path that incorporates Y during gas atomization process.

A moderated mediated path analysis of factors influencing student performance on a standardized high-stakes science test

Science.gov (United States)

Pelkey, Ramona K.

Gender, ethnicity, family economic status, reading score, mathematics score, and number of science semesters successfully completed were examined for their contributory role to a student's science score on a high-stakes, high school exit examination. Path analysis and analysis of variance procedures were used to quantify each variable's influence on science score. Gender, ethnicity, and family economic status were found to be moderators while reading proved to mediate within the model. The path model was created using a calibration sample and cross-validated using a hold-out validation sample. Bootstrapping was used to verify the goodness of fit of the model. A predictive equation explained 66% (R2 = .66) of the variance in observed TAKS science score.

Longitudinal Impact of the Project PATHS on Adolescent Risk Behavior: What Happened after Five Years?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Daniel T. L. Shek

2012-01-01

Full Text Available The present study investigated the longitudinal impact of the Project PATHS, a large-scale curriculum-based positive youth development program in Hong Kong, on the development of adolescents’ risk behavior over a period of five years. Using a longitudinal randomized controlled design, eight waves of data were collected from 19 experimental schools in which students participated in the Project PATHS (=2,850 at Wave 8 and 24 control schools without joining the Project PATHS (=3,640 at Wave 8. At each wave, students responded to measures assessing their current risk behaviors, including delinquency, use of different types of drug, and their intentions of participating in risk behaviors in the future. Results demonstrated that adolescents receiving the program exhibited significantly slower increases in delinquent behaviors and substance use as compared to the control participants. During two years after the completion of the program, differences in youth risk behaviors in the two groups still existed. These results suggest that the Project PATHS has long-term effect in preventing adolescent problem behavior through promoting positive youth development.

Path operator algebras in conformal quantum field theories

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Roesgen, M.

2000-10-01

Two different kinds of path algebras and methods from noncommutative geometry are applied to conformal field theory: Fusion rings and modular invariants of extended chiral algebras are analyzed in terms of essential paths which are a path description of intertwiners. As an example, the ADE classification of modular invariants for minimal models is reproduced. The analysis of two-step extensions is included. Path algebras based on a path space interpretation of character identities can be applied to the analysis of fusion rings as well. In particular, factorization properties of character identities and therefore of the corresponding path spaces are - by means of K-theory - related to the factorization of the fusion ring of Virasoro- and W-algebras. Examples from nonsupersymmetric as well as N=2 supersymmetric minimal models are discussed. (orig.)

Improved Path Loss Simulation Incorporating Three-Dimensional Terrain Model Using Parallel Coprocessors

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Zhang Bin Loo

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Current network simulators abstract out wireless propagation models due to the high computation requirements for realistic modeling. As such, there is still a large gap between the results obtained from simulators and real world scenario. In this paper, we present a framework for improved path loss simulation built on top of an existing network simulation software, NS-3. Different from the conventional disk model, the proposed simulation also considers the diffraction loss computed using Epstein and Peterson’s model through the use of actual terrain elevation data to give an accurate estimate of path loss between a transmitter and a receiver. The drawback of high computation requirements is relaxed by offloading the computationally intensive components onto an inexpensive off-the-shelf parallel coprocessor, which is a NVIDIA GPU. Experiments are performed using actual terrain elevation data provided from United States Geological Survey. As compared to the conventional CPU architecture, the experimental result shows that a speedup of 20x to 42x is achieved by exploiting the parallel processing of GPU to compute the path loss between two nodes using terrain elevation data. The result shows that the path losses between two nodes are greatly affected by the terrain profile between these two nodes. Besides this, the result also suggests that the common strategy to place the transmitter in the highest position may not always work.

Implementation of PATHS through Dutch Municipal Health Services: A Quasi-Experiment

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ferry X. Goossens

2012-12-01

Full Text Available Only a limited number of effectiveness studies have been performed to study the benefits of efficacious behavior problems prevention programs for children when implemented through national health service systems. This study uses a quasi-experimental design to test the effectiveness of the school-based PATHS prevention program (Providing Alternative THinking Strategies when implemented through Dutch municipal health services by health promotion professionals. A sample of 1,294 children was followed for two years: 674 children attending nine schools providing PATHS and 620 children in nine comparison schools. We hypothesized finding an intervention effect of PATHS in terms of a significant reduction in teacher- and student-rated externalizing and internalizing problem behaviors, and a significant improvement in teacher-, student-, and peer-rated social skills and emotional skills. In fact, the results show low levels of programimplementation and no intervention effects on problem behavior or social and emotional skills, suggesting that it is hard to reproduce positive intervention effects where an efficacious social-emotional prevention program is implemented through a national health service. More research is needed on the specific conditions required to implement efficacious programs effectively.

Field investigation of preferential fissure flow paths with hydrochemical analysis of small-scale sprinkling experiments

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Krzeminska, D.M.; Bogaard, T.A.; Debieche, T.H.; Cervi, F.; Marc, V.; Malet, J.P.

2014-01-01

The unsaturated zone largely controls groundwater recharge by buffering precipitation while at the same time providing preferential flow paths for infiltration. The importance of preferential flow on landslide hydrology is recognised in the literature; however, its monitoring and quantification

Approximate Model Checking of PCTL Involving Unbounded Path Properties

Science.gov (United States)

Basu, Samik; Ghosh, Arka P.; He, Ru

We study the problem of applying statistical methods for approximate model checking of probabilistic systems against properties encoded as PCTL formulas. Such approximate methods have been proposed primarily to deal with state-space explosion that makes the exact model checking by numerical methods practically infeasible for large systems. However, the existing statistical methods either consider a restricted subset of PCTL, specifically, the subset that can only express bounded until properties; or rely on user-specified finite bound on the sample path length. We propose a new method that does not have such restrictions and can be effectively used to reason about unbounded until properties. We approximate probabilistic characteristics of an unbounded until property by that of a bounded until property for a suitably chosen value of the bound. In essence, our method is a two-phase process: (a) the first phase is concerned with identifying the bound k 0; (b) the second phase computes the probability of satisfying the k 0-bounded until property as an estimate for the probability of satisfying the corresponding unbounded until property. In both phases, it is sufficient to verify bounded until properties which can be effectively done using existing statistical techniques. We prove the correctness of our technique and present its prototype implementations. We empirically show the practical applicability of our method by considering different case studies including a simple infinite-state model, and large finite-state models such as IPv4 zeroconf protocol and dining philosopher protocol modeled as Discrete Time Markov chains.

Cosmological implications of a large complete quasar sample.

Science.gov (United States)

Segal, I E; Nicoll, J F

1998-04-28

Objective and reproducible determinations of the probabilistic significance levels of the deviations between theoretical cosmological prediction and direct model-independent observation are made for the Large Bright Quasar Sample [Foltz, C., Chaffee, F. H., Hewett, P. C., MacAlpine, G. M., Turnshek, D. A., et al. (1987) Astron. J. 94, 1423-1460]. The Expanding Universe model as represented by the Friedman-Lemaitre cosmology with parameters qo = 0, Lambda = 0 denoted as C1 and chronometric cosmology (no relevant adjustable parameters) denoted as C2 are the cosmologies considered. The mean and the dispersion of the apparent magnitudes and the slope of the apparent magnitude-redshift relation are the directly observed statistics predicted. The C1 predictions of these cosmology-independent quantities are deviant by as much as 11sigma from direct observation; none of the C2 predictions deviate by >2sigma. The C1 deviations may be reconciled with theory by the hypothesis of quasar "evolution," which, however, appears incapable of being substantiated through direct observation. The excellent quantitative agreement of the C1 deviations with those predicted by C2 without adjustable parameters for the results of analysis predicated on C1 indicates that the evolution hypothesis may well be a theoretical artifact.

A study of diabetes mellitus within a large sample of Australian twins

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Condon, Julianne; Shaw, Joanne E; Luciano, Michelle

2008-01-01

with type 2 diabetes (T2D), 41 female pairs with gestational diabetes (GD), 5 pairs with impaired glucose tolerance (IGT) and one pair with MODY. Heritabilities of T1D, T2D and GD were all high, but our samples did not have the power to detect effects of shared environment unless they were very large......Twin studies of diabetes mellitus can help elucidate genetic and environmental factors in etiology and can provide valuable biological samples for testing functional hypotheses, for example using expression and methylation studies of discordant pairs. We searched the volunteer Australian Twin...... Registry (19,387 pairs) for twins with diabetes using disease checklists from nine different surveys conducted from 1980-2000. After follow-up questionnaires to the twins and their doctors to confirm diagnoses, we eventually identified 46 pairs where one or both had type 1 diabetes (T1D), 113 pairs...

Comparing laser-based open- and closed-path gas analyzers to measure methane fluxes using the eddy covariance method

Science.gov (United States)

Detto, Matteo; Verfaillie, Joseph; Anderson, Frank; Xu, Liukang; Baldocchi, Dennis

2011-01-01

Closed- and open-path methane gas analyzers are used in eddy covariance systems to compare three potential methane emitting ecosystems in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta (CA, USA): a rice field, a peatland pasture and a restored wetland. The study points out similarities and differences of the systems in field experiments and data processing. The closed-path system, despite a less intrusive placement with the sonic anemometer, required more care and power. In contrast, the open-path system appears more versatile for a remote and unattended experimental site. Overall, the two systems have comparable minimum detectable limits, but synchronization between wind speed and methane data, air density corrections and spectral losses have different impacts on the computed flux covariances. For the closed-path analyzer, air density effects are less important, but the synchronization and spectral losses may represent a problem when fluxes are small or when an undersized pump is used. For the open-path analyzer air density corrections are greater, due to spectroscopy effects and the classic Webb–Pearman–Leuning correction. Comparison between the 30-min fluxes reveals good agreement in terms of magnitudes between open-path and closed-path flux systems. However, the scatter is large, as consequence of the intensive data processing which both systems require.

Is Business Failure Due to Lack of Effort? Empirical Evidence from a Large Administrative Sample

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Ejrnaes, M.; Hochguertel, S.

2013-01-01

Does insurance provision reduce entrepreneurs' effort to avoid business failure? We exploit unique features of the voluntary Danish unemployment insurance (UI) scheme, that is available to the self-employed. Using a large sample of self-employed individuals, we estimate the causal effect of

In-situ high resolution particle sampling by large time sequence inertial spectrometry

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Prodi, V.; Belosi, F.

1990-09-01

In situ sampling is always preferred, when possible, because of the artifacts that can arise when the aerosol has to flow through long sampling lines. On the other hand, the amount of possible losses can be calculated with some confidence only when the size distribution can be measured with a sufficient precision and the losses are not too large. This makes it desirable to sample directly in the vicinity of the aerosol source or containment. High temperature sampling devices with a detailed aerodynamic separation are extremely useful to this purpose. Several measurements are possible with the inertial spectrometer (INSPEC), but not with cascade impactors or cyclones. INSPEC - INertial SPECtrometer - has been conceived to measure the size distribution of aerosols by separating the particles while airborne according to their size and collecting them on a filter. It consists of a channel of rectangular cross-section with a 90 degree bend. Clean air is drawn through the channel, with a thin aerosol sheath injected close to the inner wall. Due to the bend, the particles are separated according to their size, leaving the original streamline by a distance which is a function of particle inertia and resistance, i.e. of aerodynamic diameter. The filter collects all the particles of the same aerodynamic size at the same distance from the inlet, in a continuous distribution. INSPEC particle separation at high temperature (up to 800 C) has been tested with Zirconia particles as calibration aerosols. The feasibility study has been concerned with resolution and time sequence sampling capabilities under high temperature (700 C)

A low-volume cavity ring-down spectrometer for sample-limited applications

Science.gov (United States)

Stowasser, C.; Farinas, A. D.; Ware, J.; Wistisen, D. W.; Rella, C.; Wahl, E.; Crosson, E.; Blunier, T.

2014-08-01

In atmospheric and environmental sciences, optical spectrometers are used for the measurements of greenhouse gas mole fractions and the isotopic composition of water vapor or greenhouse gases. The large sample cell volumes (tens of milliliters to several liters) in commercially available spectrometers constrain the usefulness of such instruments for applications that are limited in sample size and/or need to track fast variations in the sample stream. In an effort to make spectrometers more suitable for sample-limited applications, we developed a low-volume analyzer capable of measuring mole fractions of methane and carbon monoxide based on a commercial cavity ring-down spectrometer. The instrument has a small sample cell (9.6 ml) and can selectively be operated at a sample cell pressure of 140, 45, or 20 Torr (effective internal volume of 1.8, 0.57, and 0.25 ml). We present the new sample cell design and the flow path configuration, which are optimized for small sample sizes. To quantify the spectrometer's usefulness for sample-limited applications, we determine the renewal rate of sample molecules within the low-volume spectrometer. Furthermore, we show that the performance of the low-volume spectrometer matches the performance of the standard commercial analyzers by investigating linearity, precision, and instrumental drift.

CAST: a new program package for the accurate characterization of large and flexible molecular systems.

Science.gov (United States)

Grebner, Christoph; Becker, Johannes; Weber, Daniel; Bellinger, Daniel; Tafipolski, Maxim; Brückner, Charlotte; Engels, Bernd

2014-09-15

The presented program package, Conformational Analysis and Search Tool (CAST) allows the accurate treatment of large and flexible (macro) molecular systems. For the determination of thermally accessible minima CAST offers the newly developed TabuSearch algorithm, but algorithms such as Monte Carlo (MC), MC with minimization, and molecular dynamics are implemented as well. For the determination of reaction paths, CAST provides the PathOpt, the Nudge Elastic band, and the umbrella sampling approach. Access to free energies is possible through the free energy perturbation approach. Along with a number of standard force fields, a newly developed symmetry-adapted perturbation theory-based force field is included. Semiempirical computations are possible through DFTB+ and MOPAC interfaces. For calculations based on density functional theory, a Message Passing Interface (MPI) interface to the Graphics Processing Unit (GPU)-accelerated TeraChem program is available. The program is available on request. Copyright © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Computing the optimal path in stochastic dynamical systems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bauver, Martha; Forgoston, Eric; Billings, Lora

2016-01-01

In stochastic systems, one is often interested in finding the optimal path that maximizes the probability of escape from a metastable state or of switching between metastable states. Even for simple systems, it may be impossible to find an analytic form of the optimal path, and in high-dimensional systems, this is almost always the case. In this article, we formulate a constructive methodology that is used to compute the optimal path numerically. The method utilizes finite-time Lyapunov exponents, statistical selection criteria, and a Newton-based iterative minimizing scheme. The method is applied to four examples. The first example is a two-dimensional system that describes a single population with internal noise. This model has an analytical solution for the optimal path. The numerical solution found using our computational method agrees well with the analytical result. The second example is a more complicated four-dimensional system where our numerical method must be used to find the optimal path. The third example, although a seemingly simple two-dimensional system, demonstrates the success of our method in finding the optimal path where other numerical methods are known to fail. In the fourth example, the optimal path lies in six-dimensional space and demonstrates the power of our method in computing paths in higher-dimensional spaces.

Neutron fraction and neutrino mean free path predictions in relativistic mean field models

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hutauruk, P.T.P.; Williams, C.K.; Sulaksono, A.; Mart, T.

2004-01-01

The equation of state (EOS) of dense matter and neutrino mean free path (NMFP) in a neutron star have been studied by using relativistic mean field models motivated by effective field theory. It is found that the models predict too large proton fractions, although one of the models (G2) predicts an acceptable EOS. This is caused by the isovector terms. Except G2, the other two models predict anomalous NMFP's. In order to minimize the anomaly, besides an acceptable EOS, a large M* is favorable. A model with large M* retains the regularity in the NMFP even for a small neutron fraction

Managing path-breaking innovations CERN-ATLAS, Airbus, and stem cell research

CERN Document Server

Liyanage, Shanta; Nordberg, Markus

2007-01-01

Path-breaking innovations are about instigating fundamental changes in people, organizations, communities, and economies. They are complex, continuous, and evolutionary processes that take considerable time, resources, and the efforts of many individuals and organizations to be accomplished successfully. Representing distinct departures from existing practices, they differ from other types of innovation, such as product extensions and incremental improvements. By examining path-breaking innovation processes through in-depth analysis of several large-scale initiatives around the world, the authors explore how profound changes in product, process, and service can be explained and managed, and consider the practical implications for scientific, organizational, institutional, and political leaders concerned with channeling innovation toward economic growth. In-depth analysis of science and technology initiatives at CERN-ATLAS, Airbus, and in stem cell research, the authors explore and illuminate how profound cha...

Field sampling, preparation procedure and plutonium analyses of large freshwater samples

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Straelberg, E.; Bjerk, T.O.; Oestmo, K.; Brittain, J.E.

2002-01-01

This work is part of an investigation of the mobility of plutonium in freshwater systems containing humic substances. A well-defined bog-stream system located in the catchment area of a subalpine lake, Oevre Heimdalsvatn, Norway, is being studied. During the summer of 1999, six water samples were collected from the tributary stream Lektorbekken and the lake itself. However, the analyses showed that the plutonium concentration was below the detection limit in all the samples. Therefore renewed sampling at the same sites was carried out in August 2000. The results so far are in agreement with previous analyses from the Heimdalen area. However, 100 times higher concentrations are found in the lowlands in the eastern part of Norway. The reason for this is not understood, but may be caused by differences in the concentrations of humic substances and/or the fact that the mountain areas are covered with snow for a longer period of time every year. (LN)

Moments of inertia and the shapes of Brownian paths

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Fougere, F.; Desbois, J.

1993-01-01

The joint probability law of the principal moments of inertia of Brownian paths (open or closed) is computed, using constrained path integrals and Random Matrix Theory. The case of two-dimensional paths is discussed in detail. In particular, it is shown that the ratio of the average values of the largest and smallest moments is equal to 4.99 (open paths) and 3.07 (closed paths). Results of numerical simulations are also presented, which include investigation of the relationships between the moments of inertia and the arithmetic area enclosed by a path. (authors) 28 refs., 2 figs

A topological analysis of large-scale structure, studied using the CMASS sample of SDSS-III

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Parihar, Prachi; Gott, J. Richard III; Vogeley, Michael S.; Choi, Yun-Young; Kim, Juhan; Kim, Sungsoo S.; Speare, Robert; Brownstein, Joel R.; Brinkmann, J.

2014-01-01

We study the three-dimensional genus topology of large-scale structure using the northern region of the CMASS Data Release 10 (DR10) sample of the SDSS-III Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey. We select galaxies with redshift 0.452 < z < 0.625 and with a stellar mass M stellar > 10 11.56 M ☉ . We study the topology at two smoothing lengths: R G = 21 h –1 Mpc and R G = 34 h –1 Mpc. The genus topology studied at the R G = 21 h –1 Mpc scale results in the highest genus amplitude observed to date. The CMASS sample yields a genus curve that is characteristic of one produced by Gaussian random phase initial conditions. The data thus support the standard model of inflation where random quantum fluctuations in the early universe produced Gaussian random phase initial conditions. Modest deviations in the observed genus from random phase are as expected from shot noise effects and the nonlinear evolution of structure. We suggest the use of a fitting formula motivated by perturbation theory to characterize the shift and asymmetries in the observed genus curve with a single parameter. We construct 54 mock SDSS CMASS surveys along the past light cone from the Horizon Run 3 (HR3) N-body simulations, where gravitationally bound dark matter subhalos are identified as the sites of galaxy formation. We study the genus topology of the HR3 mock surveys with the same geometry and sampling density as the observational sample and find the observed genus topology to be consistent with ΛCDM as simulated by the HR3 mock samples. We conclude that the topology of the large-scale structure in the SDSS CMASS sample is consistent with cosmological models having primordial Gaussian density fluctuations growing in accordance with general relativity to form galaxies in massive dark matter halos.

Gene coexpression measures in large heterogeneous samples using count statistics.

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Y X Rachel; Waterman, Michael S; Huang, Haiyan

2014-11-18

With the advent of high-throughput technologies making large-scale gene expression data readily available, developing appropriate computational tools to process these data and distill insights into systems biology has been an important part of the "big data" challenge. Gene coexpression is one of the earliest techniques developed that is still widely in use for functional annotation, pathway analysis, and, most importantly, the reconstruction of gene regulatory networks, based on gene expression data. However, most coexpression measures do not specifically account for local features in expression profiles. For example, it is very likely that the patterns of gene association may change or only exist in a subset of the samples, especially when the samples are pooled from a range of experiments. We propose two new gene coexpression statistics based on counting local patterns of gene expression ranks to take into account the potentially diverse nature of gene interactions. In particular, one of our statistics is designed for time-course data with local dependence structures, such as time series coupled over a subregion of the time domain. We provide asymptotic analysis of their distributions and power, and evaluate their performance against a wide range of existing coexpression measures on simulated and real data. Our new statistics are fast to compute, robust against outliers, and show comparable and often better general performance.

Quick start users guide for the PATH/AWARE decision support system.

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Knowlton, Robert G.; Melton, Brad J; Einfeld, Wayne; Tucker, Mark D; Franco, David Oliver; Yang, Lynn I.

2013-06-01

The Prioritization Analysis Tool for All-Hazards/Analyzer for Wide Area Restoration Effectiveness (PATH/AWARE) software system, developed by Sandia National Laboratories, is a comprehensive decision support tool designed to analyze situational awareness, as well as response and recovery actions, following a wide-area release of chemical, biological or radiological materials. The system provides capability to prioritize critical infrastructure assets and services for restoration. It also provides a capability to assess resource needs (e.g., number of sampling teams, laboratory capacity, decontamination units, etc.), timelines for consequence management activities, and costs. PATH/AWARE is a very comprehensive tool set with a considerable amount of database information managed through a Microsoft SQL (Structured Query Language) database engine, a Geographical Information System (GIS) engine that provides comprehensive mapping capabilities, as well as comprehensive decision logic to carry out the functional aspects of the tool set. This document covers the basic installation and operation of the PATH/AWARE tool in order to give the user enough information to start using the tool. A companion users manual is under development with greater specificity of the PATH/AWARE functionality.

Gaussian vs. Bessel light-sheets: performance analysis in live large sample imaging

Science.gov (United States)

Reidt, Sascha L.; Correia, Ricardo B. C.; Donnachie, Mark; Weijer, Cornelis J.; MacDonald, Michael P.

2017-08-01

Lightsheet fluorescence microscopy (LSFM) has rapidly progressed in the past decade from an emerging technology into an established methodology. This progress has largely been driven by its suitability to developmental biology, where it is able to give excellent spatial-temporal resolution over relatively large fields of view with good contrast and low phototoxicity. In many respects it is superseding confocal microscopy. However, it is no magic bullet and still struggles to image deeply in more highly scattering samples. Many solutions to this challenge have been presented, including, Airy and Bessel illumination, 2-photon operation and deconvolution techniques. In this work, we show a comparison between a simple but effective Gaussian beam illumination and Bessel illumination for imaging in chicken embryos. Whilst Bessel illumination is shown to be of benefit when a greater depth of field is required, it is not possible to see any benefits for imaging into the highly scattering tissue of the chick embryo.

76 FR 17064 - Shared Use Path Accessibility Guidelines

Science.gov (United States)

2011-03-28

...] RIN 3014-AA41 Shared Use Path Accessibility Guidelines AGENCY: Architectural and Transportation... (ANPRM) to develop accessibility guidelines for shared use paths. Shared use paths are designed for both... users. The guidelines will include technical provisions for making newly constructed and altered shared...

A focussed dynamic path finding algorithm with constraints

CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

Leenen, L

2013-11-01

Full Text Available heuristic to focus the search for an optimal path. Existing approaches to solving path planning problems tend to combine path costs with various other criteria such as obstacle avoidance in the objective function which is being optimised. The authors...

Path probability of stochastic motion: A functional approach

Science.gov (United States)

Hattori, Masayuki; Abe, Sumiyoshi

2016-06-01

The path probability of a particle undergoing stochastic motion is studied by the use of functional technique, and the general formula is derived for the path probability distribution functional. The probability of finding paths inside a tube/band, the center of which is stipulated by a given path, is analytically evaluated in a way analogous to continuous measurements in quantum mechanics. Then, the formalism developed here is applied to the stochastic dynamics of stock price in finance.

Waardenburg syndrome: Novel mutations in a large Brazilian sample.

Science.gov (United States)

Bocángel, Magnolia Astrid Pretell; Melo, Uirá Souto; Alves, Leandro Ucela; Pardono, Eliete; Lourenço, Naila Cristina Vilaça; Marcolino, Humberto Vicente Cezar; Otto, Paulo Alberto; Mingroni-Netto, Regina Célia

2018-06-01

This paper deals with the molecular investigation of Waardenburg syndrome (WS) in a sample of 49 clinically diagnosed probands (most from southeastern Brazil), 24 of them having the type 1 (WS1) variant (10 familial and 14 isolated cases) and 25 being affected by the type 2 (WS2) variant (five familial and 20 isolated cases). Sequential Sanger sequencing of all coding exons of PAX3, MITF, EDN3, EDNRB, SOX10 and SNAI2 genes, followed by CNV detection by MLPA of PAX3, MITF and SOX10 genes in selected cases revealed many novel pathogenic variants. Molecular screening, performed in all patients, revealed 19 causative variants (19/49 = 38.8%), six of them being large whole-exon deletions detected by MLPA, seven (four missense and three nonsense substitutions) resulting from single nucleotide substitutions (SNV), and six representing small indels. A pair of dizygotic affected female twins presented the c.430delC variant in SOX10, but the mutation, imputed to gonadal mosaicism, was not found in their unaffected parents. At least 10 novel causative mutations, described in this paper, were found in this Brazilian sample. Copy-number-variation detected by MLPA identified the causative mutation in 12.2% of our cases, corresponding to 31.6% of all causative mutations. In the majority of cases, the deletions were sporadic, since they were not present in the parents of isolated cases. Our results, as a whole, reinforce the fact that the screening of copy-number-variants by MLPA is a powerful tool to identify the molecular cause in WS patients. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.

A path-level exact parallelization strategy for sequential simulation

Science.gov (United States)

Peredo, Oscar F.; Baeza, Daniel; Ortiz, Julián M.; Herrero, José R.

2018-01-01

Sequential Simulation is a well known method in geostatistical modelling. Following the Bayesian approach for simulation of conditionally dependent random events, Sequential Indicator Simulation (SIS) method draws simulated values for K categories (categorical case) or classes defined by K different thresholds (continuous case). Similarly, Sequential Gaussian Simulation (SGS) method draws simulated values from a multivariate Gaussian field. In this work, a path-level approach to parallelize SIS and SGS methods is presented. A first stage of re-arrangement of the simulation path is performed, followed by a second stage of parallel simulation for non-conflicting nodes. A key advantage of the proposed parallelization method is to generate identical realizations as with the original non-parallelized methods. Case studies are presented using two sequential simulation codes from GSLIB: SISIM and SGSIM. Execution time and speedup results are shown for large-scale domains, with many categories and maximum kriging neighbours in each case, achieving high speedup results in the best scenarios using 16 threads of execution in a single machine.

Land-mobile satellite excess path loss measurements

Science.gov (United States)

Hess, G. C.

1980-05-01

An experiment conducted with the ATS-6 satellite to determine the additional path loss over free-space loss experienced by land-mobile communication links is described. This excess path loss is measured as a function of 1) local environment, 2) vehicle heading, 3) link frequency, 4) satellite elevation angle, and 5) street side. A statistical description of excess loss developed from the data shows that the first two parameters dominate. Excess path loss on the order of 25 dB is typical in urban situations, but decreases to under 10 dB in suburban/rural areas. Spaced antenna selection diversity is found to provide only a slight decrease (4 dB, typically) in the urban excess path loss observed. Level crossing rates are depressed in satellite links relative to those of Rayleigh-faded terrestrial links, but increases in average fade durations tend to offset that advantage. The measurements show that the excess path loss difference between 860-MHz links and 1550-MHz links is generally negligible.

Perfect discretization of reparametrization invariant path integrals

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bahr, Benjamin; Dittrich, Bianca; Steinhaus, Sebastian

2011-01-01

To obtain a well-defined path integral one often employs discretizations. In the case of gravity and reparametrization-invariant systems, the latter of which we consider here as a toy example, discretizations generically break diffeomorphism and reparametrization symmetry, respectively. This has severe implications, as these symmetries determine the dynamics of the corresponding system. Indeed we will show that a discretized path integral with reparametrization-invariance is necessarily also discretization independent and therefore uniquely determined by the corresponding continuum quantum mechanical propagator. We use this insight to develop an iterative method for constructing such a discretized path integral, akin to a Wilsonian RG flow. This allows us to address the problem of discretization ambiguities and of an anomaly-free path integral measure for such systems. The latter is needed to obtain a path integral, that can act as a projector onto the physical states, satisfying the quantum constraints. We will comment on implications for discrete quantum gravity models, such as spin foams.

Perfect discretization of reparametrization invariant path integrals

Science.gov (United States)

Bahr, Benjamin; Dittrich, Bianca; Steinhaus, Sebastian

2011-05-01

To obtain a well-defined path integral one often employs discretizations. In the case of gravity and reparametrization-invariant systems, the latter of which we consider here as a toy example, discretizations generically break diffeomorphism and reparametrization symmetry, respectively. This has severe implications, as these symmetries determine the dynamics of the corresponding system. Indeed we will show that a discretized path integral with reparametrization-invariance is necessarily also discretization independent and therefore uniquely determined by the corresponding continuum quantum mechanical propagator. We use this insight to develop an iterative method for constructing such a discretized path integral, akin to a Wilsonian RG flow. This allows us to address the problem of discretization ambiguities and of an anomaly-free path integral measure for such systems. The latter is needed to obtain a path integral, that can act as a projector onto the physical states, satisfying the quantum constraints. We will comment on implications for discrete quantum gravity models, such as spin foams.

Path integral for relativistic particle theory

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Fradkin, E.S.; Gitman, D.M.; Shvartsman, Sh.M.

1990-06-01

An action for a relativistic spinning particle interacting with external electromagnetic field is considered in reparametrization and local supergauge invariant form. It is shown that various path integral representations derived for the causal Green function correspond to the different forms of the relativistic particle action. The analogy of the path integral derived with the Lagrangian path integral of the field theory is discussed. It is shown that to obtain the causal propagator, the integration over the null mode of the Lagrangian multiplier corresponding to the reparametrization invariance, has to be performed in the (0,+infinity) limits. (author). 23 refs

Positroids Induced by Rational Dyck Paths

OpenAIRE

Gotti, Felix

2017-01-01

A rational Dyck path of type $(m,d)$ is an increasing unit-step lattice path from $(0,0)$ to $(m,d) \\in \\mathbb{Z}^2$ that never goes above the diagonal line $y = (d/m)x$. On the other hand, a positroid of rank $d$ on the ground set $[d+m]$ is a special type of matroid coming from the totally nonnegative Grassmannian. In this paper we describe how to naturally assign a rank $d$ positroid on the ground set $[d+m]$, which we name rational Dyck positroid, to each rational Dyck path of type $(m,d...

Realizing spaces as path-component spaces

OpenAIRE

Banakh, Taras; Brazas, Jeremy

2018-01-01

The path component space of a topological space $X$ is the quotient space $\\pi_0(X)$ whose points are the path components of $X$. We show that every Tychonoff space $X$ is the path-component space of a Tychonoff space $Y$ of weight $w(Y)=w(X)$ such that the natural quotient map $Y\\to \\pi_0(Y)=X$ is a perfect map. Hence, many topological properties of $X$ transfer to $Y$. We apply this result to construct a compact space $X\\subset \\mathbb{R}^3$ for which the fundamental group $\\pi_1(X,x_0)$ is...

Capacity bounds for kth best path selection over generalized fading channels

KAUST Repository

Hanif, Muhammad Fainan

2014-02-01

Exact ergodic capacity calculation for fading wireless channels typically involves time-consuming numerical evaluation of infinite integrals. In this paper, lower and upper bounds on ergodic capacity for kth best path are presented. These bounds have simple analytic expressions which allow their fast evaluation. Numerical results show that the newly proposed bounds closely approximate the exact ergodic capacity for a large variety of system configurations. © 1997-2012 IEEE.

Location-based Mobile Relay Selection and Impact of Inaccurate Path Loss Model Parameters

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Nielsen, Jimmy Jessen; Madsen, Tatiana Kozlova; Schwefel, Hans-Peter

2010-01-01

In this paper we propose a relay selection scheme which uses collected location information together with a path loss model for relay selection, and analyze the performance impact of mobility and different error causes on this scheme. Performance is evaluated in terms of bit error rate...... by simulations. The SNR measurement based relay selection scheme proposed previously is unsuitable for use with fast moving users in e.g. vehicular scenarios due to a large signaling overhead. The proposed location based scheme is shown to work well with fast moving users due to a lower signaling overhead...... in these situations. As the location-based scheme relies on a path loss model to estimate link qualities and select relays, the sensitivity with respect to inaccurate estimates of the unknown path loss model parameters is investigated. The parameter ranges that result in useful performance were found...

Construction of Time-Stamped Mobility Map for Path Tracking via Smith-Waterman Measurement Matching

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mu Zhou

2014-01-01

Full Text Available Path tracking in wireless and mobile environments is a fundamental technology for ubiquitous location-based services (LBSs. In particular, it is very challenging to develop highly accurate and cost-efficient tracking systems applied to the anonymous areas where the floor plans are not available for security and privacy reasons. This paper proposes a novel path tracking approach for large Wi-Fi areas based on the time-stamped unlabeled mobility map which is constructed from Smith-Waterman received signal strength (RSS measurement matching. Instead of conventional location fingerprinting, we construct mobility map with the technique of dimension reduction from the raw measurement space into a low-dimensional embedded manifold. The feasibility of our proposed approach is verified by the real-world experiments in the HKUST campus Wi-Fi networks, sMobileNet. The experimental results prove that our approach is adaptive and capable of achieving an adequate precision level in path tracking.

Quantum circuit dynamics via path integrals: Is there a classical action for discrete-time paths?

Science.gov (United States)

Penney, Mark D.; Enshan Koh, Dax; Spekkens, Robert W.

2017-07-01

It is straightforward to compute the transition amplitudes of a quantum circuit using the sum-over-paths methodology when the gates in the circuit are balanced, where a balanced gate is one for which all non-zero transition amplitudes are of equal magnitude. Here we consider the question of whether, for such circuits, the relative phases of different discrete-time paths through the configuration space can be defined in terms of a classical action, as they are for continuous-time paths. We show how to do so for certain kinds of quantum circuits, namely, Clifford circuits where the elementary systems are continuous-variable systems or discrete systems of odd-prime dimension. These types of circuit are distinguished by having phase-space representations that serve to define their classical counterparts. For discrete systems, the phase-space coordinates are also discrete variables. We show that for each gate in the generating set, one can associate a symplectomorphism on the phase-space and to each of these one can associate a generating function, defined on two copies of the configuration space. For discrete systems, the latter association is achieved using tools from algebraic geometry. Finally, we show that if the action functional for a discrete-time path through a sequence of gates is defined using the sum of the corresponding generating functions, then it yields the correct relative phases for the path-sum expression. These results are likely to be relevant for quantizing physical theories where time is fundamentally discrete, characterizing the classical limit of discrete-time quantum dynamics, and proving complexity results for quantum circuits.

Purely geometric path integral for spin-foams

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Shirazi, Atousa Chaharsough; Engle, Jonathan

2014-01-01

Spin-foams are a proposal for defining the dynamics of loop quantum gravity via path integral. In order for a path integral to be at least formally equivalent to the corresponding canonical quantization, at each point in the space of histories it is important that the integrand have not only the correct phase—a topic of recent focus in spin-foams—but also the correct modulus, usually referred to as the measure factor. The correct measure factor descends from the Liouville measure on the reduced phase space, and its calculation is a task of canonical analysis. The covariant formulation of gravity from which spin-foams are derived is the Plebanski–Holst formulation, in which the basic variables are a Lorentz connection and a Lorentz-algebra valued 2-form, called the Plebanski 2-form. However, in the final spin-foam sum, one usually sums over only spins and intertwiners, which label eigenstates of the Plebanski 2-form alone. The spin-foam sum is therefore a discretized version of a Plebanski–Holst path integral in which only the Plebanski 2-form appears, and in which the connection degrees of freedom have been integrated out. We call this a purely geometric Plebanski–Holst path integral. In prior work in which one of the authors was involved, the measure factor for the Plebanski–Holst path integral with both connection and 2-form variables was calculated. Before one discretizes this measure and incorporates it into a spin-foam sum, however, one must integrate out the connection in order to obtain the purely geometric version of the path integral. To calculate this purely geometric path integral is the principal task of the present paper, and it is done in two independent ways. Background independence of the resulting path integral is discussed in the final section, and gauge-fixing is discussed in appendix B. (paper)

Acquisition Path Analysis as a Collaborative Activity

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nakao, A.; Grundule, R.; Gushchyn, K.; El Gebaly, A.; Higgy, R.; Tsvetkov, I.; Mandl, W.

2015-01-01

In the International Atomic Energy Agency, acquisition path analysis (APA) is indispensable to safeguards implementation. It is an integral part of both State evaluation process and the development of State level safeguards approaches, all performed through ongoing collaborative analysis of all available safeguards relevant information by State evaluation groups (SEG) with participation of other contributors, as required. To perform comprehensive State evaluation, to develop and revise State-level safeguards approaches, and to prepare annual implementation plans, the SEG in its collaborative analysis follows accepted safeguards methodology and guidance. In particular, the guide ''Performing Acquisition Path Analysis for the Development of a State-level Safeguards Approach for a State with a CSA'' is used. This guide identifies four major steps of the APA process: 1. Consolidating information about the State's past, present and planned nuclear fuel cycle-related capabilities and infrastructure; 2. Identifying and visually presenting technically plausible acquisition paths for the State; 3. Assessing acquisition path steps (State's technical capabilities and possible actions) along the identified acquisition paths; and 4. Assessing the time needed to accomplish each identified technically plausible acquisition path for the State. The paper reports on SEG members' and other contributors' experience with APA when following the above steps, including the identification of plausible acquisition pathways, estimation of time frames for all identified steps and determination of the time needed to accomplish each acquisition path. The difficulties that the SEG encountered during the process of performing the APA are also addressed. Feedback in the form of practical suggestions for improving the clarity of the acquisition path step assessment forms and a proposal for software support are also included. (author)

Adaptive Sampling based 3D Profile Measuring Method for Free-Form Surface

Science.gov (United States)

Duan, Xianyin; Zou, Yu; Gao, Qiang; Peng, Fangyu; Zhou, Min; Jiang, Guozhang

2018-03-01

In order to solve the problem of adaptability and scanning efficiency of the current surface profile detection device, a high precision and high efficiency detection approach is proposed for surface contour of free-form surface parts based on self- adaptability. The contact mechanical probe and the non-contact laser probe are synthetically integrated according to the sampling approach of adaptive front-end path detection. First, the front-end path is measured by the non-contact laser probe, and the detection path is planned by the internal algorithm of the measuring instrument. Then a reasonable measurement sampling is completed according to the planned path by the contact mechanical probe. The detection approach can effectively improve the measurement efficiency of the free-form surface contours and can simultaneously detect the surface contours of unknown free-form surfaces with different curvatures and even different rate of curvature. The detection approach proposed in this paper also has important reference value for free-form surface contour detection.

An advanced open path atmospheric pollution monitor for large areas

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Taylor, L.; Suhre, D.; Mani, S. [and others

1996-12-31

Over 100 million gallons of radioactive and toxic waste materials generated in weapon materials production are stored in 322 tanks buried within large areas at DOE sites. Toxic vapors occur in the tank headspace due to the solvents used and chemical reactions within the tanks. To prevent flammable or explosive concentration of volatile vapors, the headspace are vented, either manually or automatically, to the atmosphere when the headspace pressure exceeds preset values. Furthermore, 67 of the 177 tanks at the DOE Hanford Site are suspected or are known to be leaking into the ground. These underground storage tanks are grouped into tank farms which contain closely spaced tanks in areas as large as 1 km{sup 2}. The objective of this program is to protect DOE personnel and the public by monitoring the air above these tank farms for toxic air pollutants without the monitor entering the tanks farms, which can be radioactive. A secondary objective is to protect personnel by monitoring the air above buried 50 gallon drums containing moderately low radioactive materials but which could also emit toxic air pollutants.

Tracing the trajectory of skill learning with a very large sample of online game players.

Science.gov (United States)

Stafford, Tom; Dewar, Michael

2014-02-01

In the present study, we analyzed data from a very large sample (N = 854,064) of players of an online game involving rapid perception, decision making, and motor responding. Use of game data allowed us to connect, for the first time, rich details of training history with measures of performance from participants engaged for a sustained amount of time in effortful practice. We showed that lawful relations exist between practice amount and subsequent performance, and between practice spacing and subsequent performance. Our methodology allowed an in situ confirmation of results long established in the experimental literature on skill acquisition. Additionally, we showed that greater initial variation in performance is linked to higher subsequent performance, a result we link to the exploration/exploitation trade-off from the computational framework of reinforcement learning. We discuss the benefits and opportunities of behavioral data sets with very large sample sizes and suggest that this approach could be particularly fecund for studies of skill acquisition.

On-demand Overlay Networks for Large Scientific Data Transfers

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Ramakrishnan, Lavanya [Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States); Guok, Chin [Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States); Jackson, Keith [Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States); Kissel, Ezra [Univ. of Delaware, Newark, DE (United States); Swany, D. Martin [Univ. of Delaware, Newark, DE (United States); Agarwal, Deborah [Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)

2009-10-12

Large scale scientific data transfers are central to scientific processes. Data from large experimental facilities have to be moved to local institutions for analysis or often data needs to be moved between local clusters and large supercomputing centers. In this paper, we propose and evaluate a network overlay architecture to enable highthroughput, on-demand, coordinated data transfers over wide-area networks. Our work leverages Phoebus and On-demand Secure Circuits and AdvanceReservation System (OSCARS) to provide high performance wide-area network connections. OSCARS enables dynamic provisioning of network paths with guaranteed bandwidth and Phoebus enables the coordination and effective utilization of the OSCARS network paths. Our evaluation shows that this approach leads to improved end-to-end data transfer throughput with minimal overheads. The achievedthroughput using our overlay was limited only by the ability of the end hosts to sink the data.

Imaging a Large Sample with Selective Plane Illumination Microscopy Based on Multiple Fluorescent Microsphere Tracking

Science.gov (United States)

Ryu, Inkeon; Kim, Daekeun

2018-04-01

A typical selective plane illumination microscopy (SPIM) image size is basically limited by the field of view, which is a characteristic of the objective lens. If an image larger than the imaging area of the sample is to be obtained, image stitching, which combines step-scanned images into a single panoramic image, is required. However, accurately registering the step-scanned images is very difficult because the SPIM system uses a customized sample mount where uncertainties for the translational and the rotational motions exist. In this paper, an image registration technique based on multiple fluorescent microsphere tracking is proposed in the view of quantifying the constellations and measuring the distances between at least two fluorescent microspheres embedded in the sample. Image stitching results are demonstrated for optically cleared large tissue with various staining methods. Compensation for the effect of the sample rotation that occurs during the translational motion in the sample mount is also discussed.

Hardening behavior and texture evolution of TWIP steel during strain path change

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wen, W; Borodachenkova, M; Pereira, A; Barlat, F; Gracio, J

2015-01-01

Polycrystal materials exhibit large changes in the flow stress and hardening behavior during the strain path change. Such changes are related with the crystallographic texture anisotropy and the rearrangement of dislocation structure during the pre-loading. These effects have been captured by a dislocation hardening model embedded in the visco-plastic selfconsistent (VPSC) model. In this work, the texture evolution and mechanical behavior of TWIP steel during the strain path change are investigated. The experimental studies are carried out on rolled TWIP steel sheet. The mechanical responses are obtained under tensile tests along rolling direction, followed by tension along the directions with 0° and 90° from the pre-loading direction. The simulated results of strain-stress curves and the texture evolution are in good agreement with the experimental data. (paper)

Large zero-tension plate lysimeters for soil water and solute collection in undisturbed soils

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

A. Peters

2009-09-01

Full Text Available Water collection from undisturbed unsaturated soils to estimate in situ water and solute fluxes in the field is a challenge, in particular if soils are heterogeneous. Large sampling devices are required if preferential flow paths are present. We present a modular plate system that allows installation of large zero-tension lysimeter plates under undisturbed soils in the field. To investigate the influence of the lysimeter on the water flow field in the soil, a numerical 2-D simulation study was conducted for homogeneous soils with uni- and bimodal pore-size distributions and stochastic Miller-Miller heterogeneity. The collection efficiency was found to be highly dependent on the hydraulic functions, infiltration rate, and lysimeter size, and was furthermore affected by the degree of heterogeneity. In homogeneous soils with high saturated conductivities the devices perform poorly and even large lysimeters (width 250 cm can be bypassed by the soil water. Heterogeneities of soil hydraulic properties result into a network of flow channels that enhance the sampling efficiency of the lysimeter plates. Solute breakthrough into zero-tension lysimeter occurs slightly retarded as compared to the free soil, but concentrations in the collected water are similar to the mean flux concentration in the undisturbed soil. To validate the results from the numerical study, a dual tracer study with seven lysimeters of 1.25×1.25 m area was conducted in the field. Three lysimeters were installed underneath a 1.2 m filling of contaminated silty sand, the others deeper in the undisturbed soil. The lysimeters directly underneath the filled soil material collected water with a collection efficiency of 45%. The deeper lysimeters did not collect any water. The arrival of the tracers showed that almost all collected water came from preferential flow paths.

The Brief Negative Symptom Scale (BNSS): Independent validation in a large sample of Italian patients with schizophrenia.

Science.gov (United States)

Mucci, A; Galderisi, S; Merlotti, E; Rossi, A; Rocca, P; Bucci, P; Piegari, G; Chieffi, M; Vignapiano, A; Maj, M

2015-07-01

The Brief Negative Symptom Scale (BNSS) was developed to address the main limitations of the existing scales for the assessment of negative symptoms of schizophrenia. The initial validation of the scale by the group involved in its development demonstrated good convergent and discriminant validity, and a factor structure confirming the two domains of negative symptoms (reduced emotional/verbal expression and anhedonia/asociality/avolition). However, only relatively small samples of patients with schizophrenia were investigated. Further independent validation in large clinical samples might be instrumental to the broad diffusion of the scale in clinical research. The present study aimed to examine the BNSS inter-rater reliability, convergent/discriminant validity and factor structure in a large Italian sample of outpatients with schizophrenia. Our results confirmed the excellent inter-rater reliability of the BNSS (the intraclass correlation coefficient ranged from 0.81 to 0.98 for individual items and was 0.98 for the total score). The convergent validity measures had r values from 0.62 to 0.77, while the divergent validity measures had r values from 0.20 to 0.28 in the main sample (n=912) and in a subsample without clinically significant levels of depression and extrapyramidal symptoms (n=496). The BNSS factor structure was supported in both groups. The study confirms that the BNSS is a promising measure for quantifying negative symptoms of schizophrenia in large multicenter clinical studies. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.

Cellular scanning strategy for selective laser melting: Generating reliable, optimized scanning paths and processing parameters

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Mohanty, Sankhya; Hattel, Jesper Henri

2015-01-01

method based uncertainty and reliability analysis. The reliability of the scanning paths are established using cumulative probability distribution functions for process output criteria such as sample density, thermal homogeneity, etc. A customized genetic algorithm is used along with the simulation model...

Quantum cosmology based on discrete Feynman paths

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chew, Geoffrey F.

2002-01-01

Although the rules for interpreting local quantum theory imply discretization of process, Lorentz covariance is usually regarded as precluding time quantization. Nevertheless a time-discretized quantum representation of redshifting spatially-homogeneous universe may be based on discrete-step Feynman paths carrying causal Lorentz-invariant action--paths that not only propagate the wave function but provide a phenomenologically-promising elementary-particle Hilbert-space basis. In a model under development, local path steps are at Planck scale while, at a much larger ''wave-function scale'', global steps separate successive wave-functions. Wave-function spacetime is but a tiny fraction of path spacetime. Electromagnetic and gravitational actions are ''at a distance'' in Wheeler-Feynman sense while strong (color) and weak (isospin) actions, as well as action of particle motion, are ''local'' in a sense paralleling the action of local field theory. ''Nonmaterial'' path segments and ''trivial events'' collaborate to define energy and gravity. Photons coupled to conserved electric charge enjoy privileged model status among elementary fermions and vector bosons. Although real path parameters provide no immediate meaning for ''measurement'', the phase of the complex wave function allows significance for ''information'' accumulated through ''gentle'' electromagnetic events involving charged matter and ''soft'' photons. Through its soft-photon content the wave function is an ''information reservoir''

Path dependence and creation

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Garud, Raghu; Karnøe, Peter

This edited volume stems from a conference held in Copenhagen that the authors ran in August of 1997. The authors, aware of the recent work in evolutionary theory and the science of chaos and complexity, challenge the sometimes deterministic flavour of this work. They are interested in uncovering...... the place of agency in these theories that take history so seriously. In the end, they are as interested in path creation and destruction as they are in path dependence. This book is compiled of both theoretical and empirical writing. It shows relatively well-known industries such as the automobile...