Harnessing collaborative technology to accelerate achievement of chronic disease management objectives for Canada.

Science.gov (United States)

Thompson, Leslee J; Healey, Lindsay; Falk, Will

2007-01-01

Morgan and colleagues put forth a call to action for the transformation of the Canadian healthcare system through the adoption of a national chronic disease prevention and management (CDPM) strategy. They offer examples of best practices and national solutions including investment in clinical information technologies to help support improved care and outcomes. Although we acknowledge that the authors propose CDPM solutions that are headed in the right direction, more rapid deployment of solutions that harness the potential of advanced collaborative technologies is required. We provide examples of how technologies that exist today can help to accelerate the achievement of some key CDPM objectives.

Fakability of different measurement methods for achievement motivation: questionnaire, semi-projective, and objective

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

MATTHIAS ZIEGLER

2007-12-01

Full Text Available Different means can be applied to assess noncognitive personality aspects: projective, semi-projective, self-report, and objective. However, so far little attention has been paid towards the different fakability of these methods. The present study investigated this question with different achievement motivation instruments. The instruments were randomly administered to three student groups: fake bad (n = 41, fake good (n = 37, and control group (n = 41. The faking groups were given specific faking instructions while the control group only received the standard instructions. All instruments were applied computer-assisted. The results show that all tests are fakeable with the exception of the objective measure which could not be faked good as was expected. The effect sizes (d ranged from .10 to 2.36. Cut-off scores for the detection of faking were computed based on sensitivity as well as specificity. Moreover, they were tested within a second student sample (n = 123. Sensitivity and specificity values are reported. The practical implications for test authors and practitioners are discussed.

25 CFR 30.116 - If a school fails to achieve its annual measurable objectives, what other methods may it use to...

Science.gov (United States)

2010-04-01

... participated in the assessment. (b) Method B—Uniform Averaging Procedure. A school may use uniform averaging... 25 Indians 1 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false If a school fails to achieve its annual measurable... Adequate Yearly Progress § 30.116 If a school fails to achieve its annual measurable objectives, what other...

Balanced Scorecard Goal Four: Provide Policy Management, Advocacy and Problem Solving Measuring Achievement of Internal Customer Objectives

Science.gov (United States)

2002-06-01

Achievement of Internal Customer Objectives A Graduate Management Project Submitted to The Residency Committee In Candidacy for the Degree of Masters in...internal customer relations, the GPRMC has incorporated use of a Balanced Scorecard within its management scheme. The scorecard serves as a strategy map...headquarters. The goal, "Provide Policy Management , Advocacy and Problem Solving", addresses the relationship between the headquarters and its internal

Effectiveness of Guided Multiple Choice Objective Questions Test on Students' Academic Achievement in Senior School Mathematics by School Location

Science.gov (United States)

Igbojinwaekwu, Patrick Chukwuemeka

2015-01-01

This study investigated, using pretest-posttest quasi-experimental research design, the effectiveness of guided multiple choice objective questions test on students' academic achievement in Senior School Mathematics, by school location, in Delta State Capital Territory, Nigeria. The sample comprised 640 Students from four coeducation secondary…

Author Details

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Amao, A.O. Vol 4, No 1 (2009) - Articles Natural foods and feeding habits of the African honey bee Apis mellifera adansonii Latrielle (1804) in Zaria, northern Nigeria Abstract PDF. ISSN: 1597-6343. AJOL African Journals Online. HOW TO USE AJOL... for Researchers · for Librarians · for Authors · FAQ's · More about AJOL ...

Sustainable energy for all. Technical report of task force 1 in support of the objective to achieve universal access to modern energy services by 2030

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Birol, Fatih [International Energy Agency, Paris (France); Brew-Hammond, Abeeku [University of Science and Technology (Ghana

2012-04-15

The UN Secretary General established the Sustainable Energy for All initiative in order to guide and support efforts to achieve universal access to modern energy, rapidly increase energy efficiency, and expand the use of renewable energies. Task forces were formed involving prominent energy leaders and experts from business, government, academia and civil society worldwide. The goal of the Task Forces is to inform the implementation of the initiative by identifying challenges and opportunities for achieving its objectives. This report contains the findings of Task Force One which is dedicated to the objective of achieving universal access to modern energy services by 2030. The report shows that universal energy access can be realized by 2030 with strong, focused actions set within a coordinated framework.

Radiation technique in conservation of antique objects - achievement in Poland

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Perkowski, J.

2002-01-01

In this work the progress of the radiation technique in conservation of antique objects in Poland was presented. From two, quite different problems: radiation's disinfection or consolidation, only the first one was applied in our country. The technique of radiation disinfection and desinsection was applied only in the nine cases, in spite of numerous propaganda's information's and advertisement's actions. It were both wooden antiques (altars, sculptures, furniture), sandstone sculpture and prison footwear. In the first case it was connected with destruction of the wood's pest, in the second with bacteria which were destroying of the object inside and in the third with the elimination of the moulds, fungus and bacteria. Differ dose of gamma radiation was applied, depending on the kind and size of initial infection. The time of the operation depended on the quality of the dose rate which was connected first of all with the size and shape of the object. Decisive significance for obtained values of irregular distribution absorbed radiation dose had the type of the material in which the object was done and it's size. (author)

Development of Pathways to Achieve the SE4ALL Energy Efficiency Objective: Global and Regional Potential for Energy Efficiency Improvements

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Gregg, Jay Sterling; Balyk, Olexandr; Pérez, Cristian Hernán Cabrera

This study examines the three objectives of the UN Sustainable Energy for All (SE4ALL) initiative: 1. Ensure universal access to modern energy services by 2030. 2. Double the global rate of improvement in energy efficiency (from 1.3% to 2.6% annual reduction in energy intensity of GDP) by 2030. 3....... Double the share of renewable energy in global final energy from 18% to 36% by 2030. The integrated assessment model, ETSAP-TIAM, was used in this study to compare, from an economic optimization point of view, different scenarios for the development of the energy system between 2010 and 2030....... This analysis is conducted on a global and regional scale. The scenarios were constructed to analyze the effect of achieving the SE4ALL energy efficiency objective, the SE4ALL renewable energy objective, both together, and all three SE4ALL objectives. Synergies exist between renewable energy and energy...

Object feature extraction and recognition model

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wan Min; Xiang Rujian; Wan Yongxing

2001-01-01

The characteristics of objects, especially flying objects, are analyzed, which include characteristics of spectrum, image and motion. Feature extraction is also achieved. To improve the speed of object recognition, a feature database is used to simplify the data in the source database. The feature vs. object relationship maps are stored in the feature database. An object recognition model based on the feature database is presented, and the way to achieve object recognition is also explained

Achieving maximum sustainable yield in mixed fisheries

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Ulrich, Clara; Vermard, Youen; Dolder, Paul J.; Brunel, Thomas; Jardim, Ernesto; Holmes, Steven J.; Kempf, Alexander; Mortensen, Lars O.; Poos, Jan Jaap; Rindorf, Anna

2017-01-01

Achieving single species maximum sustainable yield (MSY) in complex and dynamic fisheries targeting multiple species (mixed fisheries) is challenging because achieving the objective for one species may mean missing the objective for another. The North Sea mixed fisheries are a representative example

[Relationship between perceived emotional intelligence and professional quality of life with the achievement of occupational objectives in the costa del sol primary health care district].

Science.gov (United States)

Macías Fernández, Antonio José; Gutiérrez-Castañeda, Carlos; Carmona González, Francisco Jesús; Crespillo Vílchez, Daniel

2016-05-01

To examine the relationship between "Quality of Professional Life" and "Perceived Emotional Intelligence" and the relationship of both of these with the level of achievement of occupational objectives in the Costa del Sol Primary Health Care District. Multicentre descriptive cross-sectional observational study. The Costa del Sol Primary Health Care District in the province of Málaga. Sample of Employees of all categories in fixed and contracted employment in the Management Units of the Costa del Sol District. (N=303). Respondents 247 (81.5%) The data collected was that of the percentage of achievement of objectives in 2010 and the socio-demographic data of the participants, using ad hoc designed self-report questionnaires. The TMMS -24 questionnaire was used to measure the "Perceived Emotional Intelligence", with the following dimensions: Perception, comprehension, and emotional control, and the CVP-35 measuring: management support, work demands, and intrinsic motivation. Significant correlationas were observed between Quality of Professional Life and Emotional Intelligence in the Regulation (p<.01) and Comprehension categories (p<0.05). There were also significant correlations between the profession and the type of contract in the achievement of objectives (p<.005), and quality of professional life and type of contract (p<.05). The perceived quality of professional life is related to perception and regulation dimensions of Emotional Intelligence. Knowledge of emotion management methods should be promoted by management organisations for all employees. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier España, S.L.U. All rights reserved.

Corporate Social Responsibility, social contract, corporate personhood and human rights law: Understanding the emerging responsibilities of modern corporations

OpenAIRE

Amao, O

2008-01-01

Copyright @ 2008 Olufemi Amao. The social contract theory has been advanced as a theoretical basis for explaining the emerging practice of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) by corporations. Since the 17th century the social contract concept has also been used to justify human rights. The concept is the constitutional foundation of many western states starting with England, US and France. Business ethicists and philosophers have tried to construct and analyse the social responsibility o...

A review about Smart Objects, Sensors, and Actuators

OpenAIRE

Cristian González García; Daniel Meana-Llorián; Cristina Pelayo G-Bustelo; Juan Manuel Cueva-Lovelle

2017-01-01

Smart Objects and the Internet of Things are two ideas which describe the future, walk together, and complement each other. Thus, the interconnection among objects can make them more intelligent or expand their intelligence to unsuspected limits. This could be achieved with a new network that interconnects each object around the world. However, to achieve this goal, the objects need a network that supports heterogeneous and ubiquitous objects, a network where exists more traffic among objects...

Objectivity in psychosocial measurement: what, why, how.

Science.gov (United States)

Fisher, W P

2000-01-01

This article raises and tries to answer questions concerning what objectivity in psychosocial measurement is, why it is important, and how it can be achieved. Following in the tradition of the Socratic art of maiuetics, objectivity is characterized by the separation of meaning from the geometric, metaphoric, or numeric figure carrying it, allowing an ideal and abstract entity to take on a life of its own. Examples of objective entities start from anything teachable and learnable, but for the purposes of measurement, the meter, gram, volt, and liter are paradigmatic because of their generalizability across observers, instruments, laboratories, samples, applications, etc. Objectivity is important because it is only through it that distinct conceptual entities are meaningfully distinguished. Seen from another angle, objectivity is important because it defines the conditions of the possibility of shared meaning and community. Full objectivity in psychosocial measurement can be achieved only by attending to both its methodological and its social aspects. The methodological aspect has recently achieved some notice in psychosocial measurement, especially in the form of Rasch's probabilistic conjoint models. Objectivity's social aspect has only recently been noticed by historians of science, and has not yet been systematically incorporated in any psychosocial science. An approach to achieving full objectivity in psychosocial measurement is adapted from the ASTM Standard Practice for Conducting an Interlaboratory Study to Determine the Precision of a Test Method (ASTM Committee E-11 on Statistical Methods, 1992).

National plan for achieving the objectives of the OSPAR strategy with regard to radioactive substances

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2002-06-01

This report describes the Swedish plans for implementation of the OSPAR strategy with regard to radioactive substances. Revised release regulations for nuclear facilities are the primary tool in the work for achieving the objectives of the OSPAR strategy. The limitation of releases of radioactive substances shall be based on optimisation of radiation protection (ALARA) and the use of best available technique (BAT). Technical improvements to reduce discharges from the nuclear facilities include changes of daily routines in the waste management. Plans for the future include the introduction of new purification techniques and modernisation of waste facilities. The implementation of the new regulations, and in particular the introduction of BAT in terms of reference and target values for nuclear power reactors indicates the foreseen reductions of releases for the forthcoming five years. After that time, new reference and target values will be established. The regulations stipulate that monitoring of releases of radioactive substances shall be reported to the authorities. These reports will fulfil the demand for following-up of the progress of implementing the strategy. In particular, in yearly reports the progress towards reaching the target values will be monitored

Accounting for the NCEA : Has the Transition to Standards-based Assessment Achieved its Objectives?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Stephen Agnew

2010-12-01

Full Text Available This paper identifies trends in secondary school accounting participation and achievement during the firstfive years of the full implementation of the National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA in NewZealand schools. NCEA marks a shift from a norm-referenced assessment regime to standards-basedassessment. Literature suggests that standards-based assessment increases the academic performance ofminority ethnic groups (such as Maori and Pacific Island students, and low socio-economic status (SESstudents. The author pays particular attention to these groups and his analysis reveals some interestingresults: in accounting, the NCEA has not met expectations for these students. From 2004 to 2008, thenumber of low SES accounting students has dropped, as has the number of accounting standards entered andthe rates of achievement. Likewise, there has been no significant improvement in the academic performanceof Maori students taking accounting standards, while Pacific Island students have experienced a significantdecrease in achievement. The author also discusses how studying high school accounting impacts on tertiarylevel study and offers some future implications of this research.

Identifying Achievement Goals and Their Relationship to Academic Achievement in Undergraduate Pharmacy Students

Science.gov (United States)

Sainsbury, Erica; Rose, Grenville; Smith, Lorraine

2014-01-01

Objectives. To compare the achievement goal orientations of first-year with those of third-year undergraduate Australian pharmacy students and to examine the relationship of goal orientations to academic achievement. Methods. The Achievement Goal Questionnaire was administered to first-year and third-year students during class time. Students’ grades were obtained from course coordinators. Results. More first-year students adopted performance-approach and mastery-approach goals than did third-year students. Performance-approach goals were positively correlated with academic achievement in the first year. Chinese Australian students scored the highest in adopting performance-approach goals. Vietnamese Australian students adopted mastery-avoidance goals more than other ethnicities. First-year students were more strongly performance approach goal-oriented than third-year students. Conclusion. Adopting performance-approach goals was positively correlated with academic achievement, while adopting avoidance goals was not. Ethnicity has an effect on the adoption of achievement goals and academic achievement. PMID:25258438

THE USE OF THE PROCESS "MANAGEMENT IDEAS" TO ACHIEVE OBJECTIVES OF THE COMPANY

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

L. B. Likhacheva

2015-01-01

Full Text Available Summary. This article proposes a way of dealing with the eighth type of losses (according to the concept of "Lean production" – loss of employee creativity, and a method of involving all employees in the continuous improvement process of the enterprise. This method is the introduction process «Idea Management» into the management system of the factory. The article describes the sequence of steps in this process, identifies inputs and outputs of the process and the interrelation of the considered process with other processes of the management system of industrial enterprises, and also defines goals of the process. The authors concluded that the presence of "Idea management" process in the management system will help to achieve the strategic goals of the company, as the process is directly correlated with the company's goals. Furthermore the algorithm of action for the effective implementation and further management of the process were suggested in accordance with the Deming cycle including methods that should be applied: goal setting for employees and company (plan; employee engagement and motivation (do ; periodic monitoring of achievement of goals (check; assessment of goal achievement, conducting corrective action (act. The authors show that an important condition for successful implementation and further efficient functioning of the process "Management ideas" is the interest of the top management and its constant attention to the ongoing process of activity. The proposed method is universal for all kinds of enterprises. The proposed method allows for a relatively short time to implement and guide the Idea Management process to achieve strategically important goals of the company.

Nuclear Fuel Cycle Objectives

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2013-01-01

One of the IAEA's statutory objectives is to 'seek to accelerate and enlarge the contribution of atomic energy to peace, health and prosperity throughout the world'. One way this objective is achieved is through the publication of a range of technical series. Two of these are the IAEA Nuclear Energy Series and the IAEA Safety Standards Series. According to Article III.A.6 of the IAEA Statute, the safety standards establish 'standards of safety for protection of health and minimization of danger to life and property'. The safety standards include the Safety Fundamentals, Safety Requirements and Safety Guides. These standards are written primarily in a regulatory style, and are binding on the IAEA for its own programmes. The principal users are the regulatory bodies in member States and other national authorities. The IAEA Nuclear Energy Series comprises reports designed to encourage and assist R and D on, and application of, nuclear energy for peaceful uses. This includes practical examples to be used by owners and operators of utilities in member States, implementing organizations, academia and government officials, among others. This information is presented in guides, reports on technology status and advances, and best practices for peaceful uses of nuclear energy based on inputs from international experts. The IAEA Nuclear Energy Series complements the IAEA Safety Standards Series. The Nuclear Energy Basic Principles is the highest level publication in the IAEA Nuclear Energy Series, and describes the rationale and vision for the peaceful uses of nuclear energy. It presents eight Basic Principles on which nuclear energy systems should be based to fulfil nuclear energy's potential to help meet growing global energy needs. The Nuclear Energy Series Objectives are the second level publications. They describe what needs to be considered and the specific goals to be achieved at different stages of implementation, all of which are consistent with the Basic Principles

Teaching Object Permanence: An Action Research Study

Science.gov (United States)

Bruce, Susan M.; Vargas, Claudia

2013-01-01

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

Radioactive Waste Management Objectives

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2011-01-01

One of the IAEA's statutory objectives is to 'seek to accelerate and enlarge the contribution of atomic energy to peace, health and prosperity throughout the world'. One way it achieves this objective is to issue publications in various series. Two of these series are the IAEA Nuclear Energy Series and the IAEA Safety Standards Series. According to Article III, paragraph A.6, of the IAEA Statute, the IAEA safety standards establish 'standards of safety for protection of health and minimization of danger to life and property.' The safety standards include the Safety Fundamentals, Safety Requirements and Safety Guides. These standards are primarily written in a regulatory style, and are binding on the IAEA for its own activities. The principal users are Member State regulatory bodies and other national authorities. The IAEA Nuclear Energy Series consists of reports designed to encourage and assist research on, and development and practical application of, nuclear energy for peaceful uses. This includes practical examples to be used by owners and operators of utilities in Member States, implementing organizations, academia and politicians, among others. The information is presented in guides, reports on the status of technology and advances, and best practices for peaceful uses of nuclear energy based on inputs from international experts. The series complements the IAEA's safety standards, and provides detailed guidance, experience, good practices and examples on the five areas covered in the IAEA Nuclear Energy Series. The Nuclear Energy Basic Principles is the highest level publication in the IAEA Nuclear Energy Series and describes the rationale and vision for the peaceful uses of nuclear energy. It presents eight Basic Principles on which nuclear energy systems should be based to fulfil nuclear energy's potential to help meet growing global energy needs. The Nuclear Energy Series Objectives are the second level publications. They describe what needs to be

The Relationship between Students' Attitudes towards School, Values of Education, Achievement Motivation and Academic Achievement in Gondar Secondary Schools, Ethiopia

Science.gov (United States)

Dagnew, Asrat

2017-01-01

The current study investigated the relationship between students' attitudes towards school, values of education, achievement motivation and academic achievement. Accordingly, the study adopted a correlation research design. To achieve the objectives of the study, 362 students using systematic sampling technique were taken from grade 9 students of…

Piles of objects

KAUST Repository

Hsu, Shu-Wei

2010-01-01

We present a method for directly modeling piles of objects in multi-body simulations. Piles of objects represent some of the more interesting, but also most time-consuming portion of simulation. We propose a method for reducing computation in many of these situations by explicitly modeling the piles that the objects may form into. By modeling pile behavior rather than the behavior of all individual objects, we can achieve realistic results in less time, and without directly modeling the frictional component that leads to desired pile shapes. Our method is simple to implement and can be easily integrated with existing rigid body simulations. We observe notable speedups in several rigid body examples, and generate a wider variety of piled structures than possible with strict impulse-based simulation. © 2010 ACM.

Objects, materiality and meaning

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Lenau, Torben Anker; Lindegaard, Hanne

2008-01-01

The present research work investigates the relation between physical objects, their materiality, understood as the physical substances they are made from, and the communication from the objects. In product design of physical objects the communicative aspects are just as important as the function...... of the object, and the designers aim is therefore to tune both in order to achieve a desired goal. To do so the designer basically has 2 options: Alteration of the physical shape of the object and the selection of materials. Through the manipulation of shape and materials can symbolic and sensory information...... be written into the object. The materials are therefore carriers of communication, even though this is dependent of the cultural context and the environment which the object will be part of. However the designer has only minor influence on those....

Minimum Delay Moving Object Detection

KAUST Repository

Lao, Dong

2017-11-09

We present a general framework and method for detection of an object in a video based on apparent motion. The object moves relative to background motion at some unknown time in the video, and the goal is to detect and segment the object as soon it moves in an online manner. Due to unreliability of motion between frames, more than two frames are needed to reliably detect the object. Our method is designed to detect the object(s) with minimum delay, i.e., frames after the object moves, constraining the false alarms. Experiments on a new extensive dataset for moving object detection show that our method achieves less delay for all false alarm constraints than existing state-of-the-art.

Minimum Delay Moving Object Detection

KAUST Repository

Lao, Dong

2017-01-08

We present a general framework and method for detection of an object in a video based on apparent motion. The object moves relative to background motion at some unknown time in the video, and the goal is to detect and segment the object as soon it moves in an online manner. Due to unreliability of motion between frames, more than two frames are needed to reliably detect the object. Our method is designed to detect the object(s) with minimum delay, i.e., frames after the object moves, constraining the false alarms. Experiments on a new extensive dataset for moving object detection show that our method achieves less delay for all false alarm constraints than existing state-of-the-art.

Minimum Delay Moving Object Detection

KAUST Repository

Lao, Dong; Sundaramoorthi, Ganesh

2017-01-01

We present a general framework and method for detection of an object in a video based on apparent motion. The object moves relative to background motion at some unknown time in the video, and the goal is to detect and segment the object as soon it moves in an online manner. Due to unreliability of motion between frames, more than two frames are needed to reliably detect the object. Our method is designed to detect the object(s) with minimum delay, i.e., frames after the object moves, constraining the false alarms. Experiments on a new extensive dataset for moving object detection show that our method achieves less delay for all false alarm constraints than existing state-of-the-art.

Utilities objectives

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cousin, Y.; Fabian, H.U.

1996-01-01

The policy of French and german utilities is to make use of nuclear energy as a long term, competitive and environmentally friendly power supply. The world electricity generation is due to double within the next 30 years. In the next 20 to 30 years the necessity of nuclear energy will be broadly recognized. More than for most industries, to deal properly with nuclear energy requires the combination of a consistent political will, of a proper institutional framework, of strong and legitimate control authorities, of a sophisticated industry and of operators with skilled management and human resources. One of the major risk facing nuclear energy is the loss of competitiveness. This can be achieved only through the combination of an optimized design, a consistent standardization, a proper industrial partnership and a stable long term strategy. Although the existing plants in Western Europe are already very safe, the policy is clearly to enhance the safety of the next generation of nuclear plants which are designing today. The French and German utilities have chosen an evolutionary approach based on experience and proven technologies, with an enhanced defense in depth and an objective of easier operation and maintenance. The cost objective is to maintain and improve what has been achieved in the best existing power plants in both countries. This calls for rational choices and optimized design to meet the safety objectives, a strong standardization policy, short construction times, high availability and enough flexibility to enable optimization of the fuel cycle throughout the lifetime of the plants. The conceptual design phase has proven that the French and German teams from industry and from the utilities are able to pursue both the safety and the cost objectives, basing their decision on a rational approach which could be accepted by the safety authorities. (J.S.)

MULTIPLE OBJECTS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

A. A. Bosov

2015-04-01

Full Text Available Purpose. The development of complicated techniques of production and management processes, information systems, computer science, applied objects of systems theory and others requires improvement of mathematical methods, new approaches for researches of application systems. And the variety and diversity of subject systems makes necessary the development of a model that generalizes the classical sets and their development – sets of sets. Multiple objects unlike sets are constructed by multiple structures and represented by the structure and content. The aim of the work is the analysis of multiple structures, generating multiple objects, the further development of operations on these objects in application systems. Methodology. To achieve the objectives of the researches, the structure of multiple objects represents as constructive trio, consisting of media, signatures and axiomatic. Multiple object is determined by the structure and content, as well as represented by hybrid superposition, composed of sets, multi-sets, ordered sets (lists and heterogeneous sets (sequences, corteges. Findings. In this paper we study the properties and characteristics of the components of hybrid multiple objects of complex systems, proposed assessments of their complexity, shown the rules of internal and external operations on objects of implementation. We introduce the relation of arbitrary order over multiple objects, we define the description of functions and display on objects of multiple structures. Originality.In this paper we consider the development of multiple structures, generating multiple objects.Practical value. The transition from the abstract to the subject of multiple structures requires the transformation of the system and multiple objects. Transformation involves three successive stages: specification (binding to the domain, interpretation (multiple sites and particularization (goals. The proposed describe systems approach based on hybrid sets

Niveles de logro y criterios para evaluar la comprensión de los objetos de la geometría / Levels of achievement and criteria to evaluate geometrical objects comprehension

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Elizabeth Rincón Santana

2017-09-01

Full Text Available ABSTRACT The article shows the results of a doctoral investigation related to the development of the understanding of the objects of plane geometry by students of Mathematics at the Education major, at the Autonomous University of Santo Domingo (UASD. Its objective is to offer levels of achievement and criteria to evaluate the development of understanding processes of the objects of the plane geometry. There were used different scientific methods and techniques such as framework construction to determine the levels and criteria, and the analysis and synthesis to contextualize them to the didactic demands of Mathematics teachers’ training.

Evaluation of Achievement of Universal Basic Education (UBE) in Delta State

Science.gov (United States)

Osadebe, P. U.

2014-01-01

The study evaluated the objectives of the Universal Basic Education (UBE) programme in Delta State. It considered the extent to which each objective was achieved. A research question on the extent to which the UBE objectives were achieved guided the study. Two hypotheses were tested. A sample of 300 students was randomly drawn through the use of…

A review about Smart Objects, Sensors, and Actuators

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Cristian González García

2017-03-01

Full Text Available Smart Objects and the Internet of Things are two ideas which describe the future, walk together, and complement each other. Thus, the interconnection among objects can make them more intelligent or expand their intelligence to unsuspected limits. This could be achieved with a new network that interconnects each object around the world. However, to achieve this goal, the objects need a network that supports heterogeneous and ubiquitous objects, a network where exists more traffic among objects than among humans, but supporting for both types. For these reasons, both concepts are very close. Cities, houses, cars, machines, or any another object that can sense, respond, work, or make easier the lives of their owner. This is a part of the future, an immediate future. Notwithstanding, first of all, there are to resolve a series of problems. The most important problem is the heterogeneity of objects. This article is going to show a theoretical frame and the related work about Smart Object. The article will explain what are Smart Objects, doing emphasis in their difference with Not- Smart Objects. After, we will present one of the different object classification system, in our opinion, the most complete.

Sweden's environmental objectives - are we getting there. A progress report from the Swedish Environmental Objectives Council. de Facto 2004

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

NONE

2004-06-01

In April 1999 the Swedish Parliament adopted fifteen national environmental quality objectives, describing what quality and state of the environment and the natural and cultural resources of Sweden are ecologically sustainable in the long term. In a series of decisions from 2001 to 2003, Parliament has subsequently adopted a total of seventy-one interim targets, indicating the direction and timescale of the action to be taken to achieve the fifteen objectives. In this, its third annual report to the Government, the Environmental Objectives Council presents its appraisal of progress towards the objectives. The main body of the report deals with the fifteen environmental quality objectives. The fold-out diagram on the inside front cover gives a summary of the assessments made, symbolized by smiley and less cheerful faces. Our assessments answer the questions: Will the environmental quality objectives be achieved by 2020 (or 2050, as a first step, in the case of the climate objective), and will the interim targets be met within the time-frames laid down for each of them. This year's report also deals - very briefly - with the four broader issues, related to the objectives, that are referred to in the Environmental Objectives Bill: 'The Swedish Environmental Objectives - Interim Targets and Action Strategies' (2001). It is very important that the values and principles which these issues represent are pursued and upheld as efforts to implement the environmental objectives continue. In addition, de Facto 2004 offers a few glimpses of how businesses and local authorities are working to achieve a better environment. This chapter of the report is based on interviews and information from Sweden's county administrative boards. For further information about the country's environmental goals, readers are referred to the Environmental Objectives Portal, miljomal.nu. The ultimate aim of our endeavour to attain the environmental quality objectives is to ensure that the next

Flight Test of Advanced Digital Control Concepts.

Science.gov (United States)

1982-03-01

34 equations, and this result is then compared against the "model" equations. OPTION :::CREATrE ,CIEY, COFPY, MAT ,AMAT, COIP-YUMAT, BMAT , 74 COPFY, CMAT...BMATY .-COPY, NMAT, AMAT ,72 ,COPY, GMAT, RMA, COP:Y, (MAT, BMA’TCOFY, MA T ,AMAT >74, COPY, CMA’TsmA, PCOPY, RMAT, BmAT , pCOPYVMiAT , AMAo.T 72...COP’Y, MAT, AMAT, >75, COPY , MAtT, BMAT , COPY, ZMAT, AMAT, 74 ,COP’Y, MAT, TMAT, COPY, VMAT, AMAT, .:COPY ,RMAiT, MAT,73,COPW GMAT, E4MAT, COP-"YTMAT

A formal approach to organization of educational objectives

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Segedinac Milan

2011-01-01

Full Text Available The organization of educational objectives plays an important role in curriculum development process, since it enables the sequencing of educational experiences. The main goal of this paper is to propose a framework for the formal representation of educational objectives, which enables the evaluation of organization of educational objectives. The model is based on domain ontology, Bloom’s taxonomy and objectives organization in the competence-based knowledge space. The model is verified on the case study that evaluates the students‘ achievements in Chemistry field Solutions by conducting an informal knowledge test on the group of 199 14-year-old students of primary schools in the Republic of Serbia. The results obtained from the case study clearly indicate the necessity for including assessment of students‘ achievements in the organization of educational objectives. The proposed model enables evaluation of organization of educational objectives which could be further used for an iterative refinement of the organization of educational objectives.

STRATEGIES FOR ACHIEVING COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE

OpenAIRE

Jusuf ZEKIRI; Alexandru NEDELEA

2011-01-01

This paper is organized in three parts. A brief overview of the importance of strategies within companies, as well as literature review is presented along with traditional approaches on strategies for achieving competitive advantage, and new approaches for gaining a competitive advantage. The main objective of the paper is to outline and discuss the relevant issues and challenges from a theoretical viewpoint related with the possible strategy formulation of companies in order to achieve a com...

Command in the Objective Force

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Wilbeck, Christopher

2003-01-01

This paper seeks to answer what type of command will best serve the Army's Objective Force in gaining the initiative, building momentum, and exploiting success to achieve land dominance in the future...

Bi-species imposex monitoring in Galicia (NW Spain) shows contrasting achievement of the OSPAR Ecological Quality Objective for TBT.

Science.gov (United States)

Ruiz, J M; Carro, B; Albaina, N; Couceiro, L; Míguez, A; Quintela, M; Barreiro, R

2017-01-30

Imposex is decreasing worldwide after the total ban on tributyltin (TBT) from antifouling paints. In order to assess improvement in the NE Atlantic, the OSPAR Convention designed an Ecological Quality Objective (EcoQO) based on the VDSI (vas deferens sequence index, an agreed measure of imposex) in the rock snail Nucella lapillus; wherever this is not available, the mud snail Nassarius reticulatus was proposed as a proxy. We determined VDSI in Galician populations of rock (n≥34) and mud (n≥18) snails at regular intervals from pre-ban times until 2009 and 2011, respectively. While imposex in the former started decreasing in 2006 and by 2009 the EcoQO had been met in the area, VDSI in the latter was not significantly reduced until 2011 and values contradict such an achievement. This suggests that the OSPAR imposex bi-species scheme may not be of direct application in the current post-ban scenario. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Export pricing objectives and factors influencing them

OpenAIRE

Snieškienė, Gabrielė; Pridotkienė, Jūratė

2010-01-01

Pricing is recognized as one of the most important tools to achieve a successful export operation. The starting point in every pricing effort is the process of creating pricing objectives. Pricing objectives are the strategic and economic goals desired by management in pricing the product. Pricing objectives constitute the basis on which pricing methods and policies are formulated. Therefore, a better understanding of the pricing objectives should direct the company’s overall pricing process....

Herbicides as an alternative to prescribed burning for achieving wildlife management objectives

Science.gov (United States)

T. Bently Wigley; Karl V. Miller; David S. deCalesta; Mark W. Thomas

2002-01-01

Prescribed burning is used for many silvicultural and wildlife management objectives. However, the use of prescribed burning can be constrained due to difficulties in obtaining burning permits, concerns about liability, potential effects of scorch on growth and survival of crop trees, its sometimes ineffective results, limited burning days, and the costs of applying,...

Roads from Rio+20. Pathways to achieve global sustainability goals by 2050

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Van Vuuren, D. [ed.; Kok, M. [ed.; Van der Esch, S.; Jeuken, M.; Lucas, P.; Prins, Anne-Gerdien; Alkemade, R.; Van den Berg, M.; Hilderink, H.; Kram, T.; Stehfest, E.; De Vries, B. [Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency PBL, Den Haag (Netherlands); Biermann, F.; Van der Grijp, N.; Pattberg, P. [Institute for Environmental Studies IVM, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam (Netherlands); Melamed, C.; Scott, A.; Te Velde, D. W.; Wiggins, S. [Overseas Development Institute ODI, London (United Kingdom)

2012-06-15

This report analyses how combinations of technological measures and changes in consumption patterns could contribute to achieving a set of sustainability objectives, taking into account the interlinkages between them. The potential exists for achieving all of the objectives.

Precise Object Tracking under Deformation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Saad, M.H.

2010-01-01

The precise object tracking is an essential issue in several serious applications such as; robot vision, automated surveillance (civil and military), inspection, biomedical image analysis, video coding, motion segmentation, human-machine interface, visualization, medical imaging, traffic systems, satellite imaging etc. This framework focuses on the precise object tracking under deformation such as scaling, rotation, noise, blurring and change of illumination. This research is a trail to solve these serious problems in visual object tracking by which the quality of the overall system will be improved. Developing a three dimensional (3D) geometrical model to determine the current pose of an object and predict its future location based on FIR model learned by the OLS. This framework presents a robust ranging technique to track a visual target instead of the traditional expensive ranging sensors. The presented research work is applied to real video stream and achieved high precession results. xiiiThe precise object tracking is an essential issue in several serious applications such as; robot vision, automated surveillance (civil and military), inspection, biomedical image analysis, video coding, motion segmentation, human-machine interface, visualization, medical imaging, traffic systems, satellite imaging etc. This framework focuses on the precise object tracking under deformation such as scaling, rotation, noise, blurring and change of illumination. This research is a trail to solve these serious problems in visual object tracking by which the quality of the overall system will be improved. Developing a three dimensional (3D) geometrical model to determine the current pose of an object and predict its future location based on FIR model learned by the OLS. This framework presents a robust ranging technique to track a visual target instead of the traditional expensive ranging sensors. The presented research work is applied to real video stream and achieved high

Achievement Motivation: A Rational Approach to Psychological Education

Science.gov (United States)

Smith, Robert L.; Troth, William A.

1975-01-01

Investigated the achievement motivation training component of psychological education. The subjects were 54 late-adolescent pupils. The experimental training program had as its objectives an increase in academic achievement motivation, internal feelings of control, and school performance, and a reduction of test anxiety. Results indicated…

Sweden's environmental objectives - are we getting there. A progress report from the Swedish Environmental Objectives Council. de Facto 2004

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

NONE

2004-06-01

In April 1999 the Swedish Parliament adopted fifteen national environmental quality objectives, describing what quality and state of the environment and the natural and cultural resources of Sweden are ecologically sustainable in the long term. In a series of decisions from 2001 to 2003, Parliament has subsequently adopted a total of seventy-one interim targets, indicating the direction and timescale of the action to be taken to achieve the fifteen objectives. In this, its third annual report to the Government, the Environmental Objectives Council presents its appraisal of progress towards the objectives. The main body of the report deals with the fifteen environmental quality objectives. The fold-out diagram on the inside front cover gives a summary of the assessments made, symbolized by smiley and less cheerful faces. Our assessments answer the questions: Will the environmental quality objectives be achieved by 2020 (or 2050, as a first step, in the case of the climate objective), and will the interim targets be met within the time-frames laid down for each of them. This year's report also deals - very briefly - with the four broader issues, related to the objectives, that are referred to in the Environmental Objectives Bill: 'The Swedish Environmental Objectives - Interim Targets and Action Strategies' (2001). It is very important that the values and principles which these issues represent are pursued and upheld as efforts to implement the environmental objectives continue. In addition, de Facto 2004 offers a few glimpses of how businesses and local authorities are working to achieve a better environment. This chapter of the report is based on interviews and information from Sweden's county administrative boards. For further information about the country's environmental goals, readers are referred to the Environmental Objectives Portal, miljomal.nu. The ultimate aim of our endeavour to attain the environmental quality objectives is to

Plug & Play object oriented Bayesian networks

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bangsø, Olav; Flores, J.; Jensen, Finn Verner

2003-01-01

been shown to be quite suitable for dynamic domains as well. However, processing object oriented Bayesian networks in practice does not take advantage of their modular structure. Normally the object oriented Bayesian network is transformed into a Bayesian network and, inference is performed...... dynamic domains. The communication needed between instances is achieved by means of a fill-in propagation scheme....

The Aalborg Model and management by objectives and resources

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Qvist, Palle; Spliid, Claus Monrad

2010-01-01

Model is successful has never been subject to a scientific study. An educational program in an HEI (Higher Education Institution) can be seen and understood as a system managed by objectives (MBO)5 within a given resource frame and based on an “agreement” between the student and the study board....... The student must achieve the objectives decided by the study board and that achievement is then documented with an exam. The study board supports the student with resources which helps them to fulfill the objectives. When the resources are divided into human, material and methodological resources...

A layered semantics for a parallel object-oriented language

NARCIS (Netherlands)

P.H.M. America (Pierre); J.J.M.M. Rutten (Jan)

1990-01-01

textabstractWe develop a denotational semantics for POOL, a parallel object-oriented programming language. The main contribution of this semantics is an accurate mathematical model of the most important concept in object-oriented programming: the object. This is achieved by structuring the semantics

Minimum Delay Moving Object Detection

KAUST Repository

Lao, Dong

2017-05-14

This thesis presents a general framework and method for detection of an object in a video based on apparent motion. The object moves, at some unknown time, differently than the “background” motion, which can be induced from camera motion. The goal of proposed method is to detect and segment the object as soon it moves in an online manner. Since motion estimation can be unreliable between frames, more than two frames are needed to reliably detect the object. Observing more frames before declaring a detection may lead to a more accurate detection and segmentation, since more motion may be observed leading to a stronger motion cue. However, this leads to greater delay. The proposed method is designed to detect the object(s) with minimum delay, i.e., frames after the object moves, constraining the false alarms, defined as declarations of detection before the object moves or incorrect or inaccurate segmentation at the detection time. Experiments on a new extensive dataset for moving object detection show that our method achieves less delay for all false alarm constraints than existing state-of-the-art.

Object tracking using multiple camera video streams

Science.gov (United States)

Mehrubeoglu, Mehrube; Rojas, Diego; McLauchlan, Lifford

2010-05-01

Two synchronized cameras are utilized to obtain independent video streams to detect moving objects from two different viewing angles. The video frames are directly correlated in time. Moving objects in image frames from the two cameras are identified and tagged for tracking. One advantage of such a system involves overcoming effects of occlusions that could result in an object in partial or full view in one camera, when the same object is fully visible in another camera. Object registration is achieved by determining the location of common features in the moving object across simultaneous frames. Perspective differences are adjusted. Combining information from images from multiple cameras increases robustness of the tracking process. Motion tracking is achieved by determining anomalies caused by the objects' movement across frames in time in each and the combined video information. The path of each object is determined heuristically. Accuracy of detection is dependent on the speed of the object as well as variations in direction of motion. Fast cameras increase accuracy but limit the speed and complexity of the algorithm. Such an imaging system has applications in traffic analysis, surveillance and security, as well as object modeling from multi-view images. The system can easily be expanded by increasing the number of cameras such that there is an overlap between the scenes from at least two cameras in proximity. An object can then be tracked long distances or across multiple cameras continuously, applicable, for example, in wireless sensor networks for surveillance or navigation.

The Composite OLAP-Object Data Model

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Pourabbas, Elaheh; Shoshani, Arie

2005-12-07

In this paper, we define an OLAP-Object model that combines the main characteristics of OLAP and Object data models in order to achieve their functionalities in a common framework. We classify three different object classes: primitive, regular and composite. Then, we define a query language which uses the path concept in order to facilitate data navigation and data manipulation. The main feature of the proposed language is an anchor. It allows us to fix dynamically an object class (primitive, regular or composite) along the paths over the OLAP-Object data model for expressing queries. The queries can be formulated on objects, composite objects and combination of both. The power of the proposed query language is investigated through multiple query examples. The semantic of different clauses and syntax of the proposed language are investigated.

Gamifying Video Object Segmentation.

Science.gov (United States)

Spampinato, Concetto; Palazzo, Simone; Giordano, Daniela

2017-10-01

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

Safety objectives for nuclear activities in Canada

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1982-04-01

This report by the Advisory Committee on Nuclear Safety presents a concise statement of the basic safety objectives which the Committee considers underlie, or should underlie, the regulations and the licensing and compliance practices of the Atomic Energy Control Board. The report also includes a number of general criteria for achieving these objectives

Science Motivation of University Students: Achievement Goals as a Predictor

Science.gov (United States)

Arslan, Serhat; Akcaalan, Mehmet; Yurdakul, Cengiz

2017-01-01

The objective of this investigation is to make a study of the relationship between achievement goals and science motivation. Research data were collected from 295 university students. Achievement goals and science motivation scales were utilized as measure tools. The link between achievement goals orientation and science motivation was…

The objective is to achieve safe and competitive nuclear power

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mattila, L.

1996-01-01

The 440 nuclear power plants in operation in the world today produce nearly one fifth of the world's electricity. Few new nuclear power plants are currently under construction in the West. Among the major factors slowing down the increase of nuclear power are the negative public opinion and the poor competitiveness of large plant units. In contrast, some of the countries in the Far East are busy building new nuclear power plant units. New advanced nuclear power plant types have been under development; the objective is to continue to improve safety and to raise the competitiveness. Increasing attention is also paid to measures extending the service life of the present power plants. Gas-cooled high-temperature reactors and liquid-metal-cooled breeder reactors appear to be promising alternatives. Practical experience of both plant types is available on the prototype level. Considerable sums of public research funds are spent towards the development of fusion technology. It is, however, unrealistic to expect fusion to become an important commercial source of energy before the middle of next century. (orig.) (4 figs.)

Achievement Motivation: A Cross-Cultural Comparison Of Structure ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

The objective of this study is to analyze the structure of the achievement motive domain for samples from five states in Nigeria. It was hypothesized that data collected from the various samples will reflect the basic facets suggested by the definitional framework of achievement motivation. It was also hypothesized that the ...

Learning object-to-class kernels for scene classification.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Lei; Zhen, Xiantong; Shao, Ling

2014-08-01

High-level image representations have drawn increasing attention in visual recognition, e.g., scene classification, since the invention of the object bank. The object bank represents an image as a response map of a large number of pretrained object detectors and has achieved superior performance for visual recognition. In this paper, based on the object bank representation, we propose the object-to-class (O2C) distances to model scene images. In particular, four variants of O2C distances are presented, and with the O2C distances, we can represent the images using the object bank by lower-dimensional but more discriminative spaces, called distance spaces, which are spanned by the O2C distances. Due to the explicit computation of O2C distances based on the object bank, the obtained representations can possess more semantic meanings. To combine the discriminant ability of the O2C distances to all scene classes, we further propose to kernalize the distance representation for the final classification. We have conducted extensive experiments on four benchmark data sets, UIUC-Sports, Scene-15, MIT Indoor, and Caltech-101, which demonstrate that the proposed approaches can significantly improve the original object bank approach and achieve the state-of-the-art performance.

Intelligent Discovery for Learning Objects Using Semantic Web Technologies

Science.gov (United States)

Hsu, I-Ching

2012-01-01

The concept of learning objects has been applied in the e-learning field to promote the accessibility, reusability, and interoperability of learning content. Learning Object Metadata (LOM) was developed to achieve these goals by describing learning objects in order to provide meaningful metadata. Unfortunately, the conventional LOM lacks the…

Nuclear Energy General Objectives

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2011-01-01

One of the IAEA's statutory objectives is to 'seek to accelerate and enlarge the contribution of atomic energy to peace, health and prosperity throughout the world'. One way it achieves this objective is to issue publications in various series. Two of these series are the IAEA Nuclear Energy Series and the IAEA Safety Standards Series. According to Article III, paragraph A.6, of the IAEA Statute, the IAEA safety standards establish 'standards of safety for protection of health and minimization of danger to life and property.' The safety standards include the Safety Fundamentals, Safety Requirements and Safety Guides. These standards are primarily written in a regulatory style, and are binding on the IAEA for its own activities. The principal users are Member State regulatory bodies and other national authorities. The IAEA Nuclear Energy Series consists of reports designed to encourage and assist research on, and development and practical application of, nuclear energy for peaceful uses. This includes practical examples to be used by owners and operators of utilities in Member States, implementing organizations, academia and politicians, among others. The information is presented in guides, reports on the status of technology and advances, and best practices for peaceful uses of nuclear energy based on inputs from international experts. The series complements the IAEA's safety standards, and provides detailed guidance, experience, good practices and examples on the five areas covered in the IAEA Nuclear Energy Series. The Nuclear Energy Basic Principles is the highest level publication in the IAEA Nuclear Energy Series and describes the rationale and vision for the peaceful uses of nuclear energy. It presents eight Basic Principles on which nuclear energy systems should be based to fulfil nuclear energy's potential to help meet growing global energy needs. The Nuclear Energy Series Objectives are the second level publications. They describe what needs to be

Development of object permanence in food-storing magpies (Pica pica).

Science.gov (United States)

Pollok, B; Prior, H; Güntürkün, O

2000-06-01

The development of object permanence was investigated in black-billed magpies (Pica pica), a food-storing passerine bird. The authors tested the hypothesis that food-storing development should be correlated with object-permanence development and that specific stages of object permanence should be achieved before magpies become independent. As predicted, Piagetian Stages 4 and 5 were reached before independence was achieved, and the ability to represent a fully hidden object (Piagetian Stage 4) emerged by the age when magpies begin to retrieve food. Contrary to psittacine birds and humans, but as in dogs and cats, no "A-not-B error" occurred. Although magpies also mastered 5 of 6 invisible displacement tasks, evidence of Piagetian Stage 6 competence was ambiguous.

An Achievement Degree Analysis Approach to Identifying Learning Problems in Object-Oriented Programming

Science.gov (United States)

Allinjawi, Arwa A.; Al-Nuaim, Hana A.; Krause, Paul

2014-01-01

Students often face difficulties while learning object-oriented programming (OOP) concepts. Many papers have presented various assessment methods for diagnosing learning problems to improve the teaching of programming in computer science (CS) higher education. The research presented in this article illustrates that although max-min composition is…

Linear regression methods a ccording to objective functions

OpenAIRE

Yasemin Sisman; Sebahattin Bektas

2012-01-01

The aim of the study is to explain the parameter estimation methods and the regression analysis. The simple linear regressionmethods grouped according to the objective function are introduced. The numerical solution is achieved for the simple linear regressionmethods according to objective function of Least Squares and theLeast Absolute Value adjustment methods. The success of the appliedmethods is analyzed using their objective function values.

The foundations of object permanence: does perceived cohesion determine infants' appreciation of the continuous existence of material objects?

Science.gov (United States)

Cacchione, Trix

2013-09-01

One of the most fundamental achievements in infants' cognitive development is their appreciation that material objects exist permanently in space and time. Recent findings suggest that infants fail to identify fragmented material objects as continuously existing items. Four experiments assessed 8-12-month-old infants' ability to further represent an object that was fragmented into two or more parts. Results suggest that infants successfully trace the spatiotemporal displacement of fragmented objects, but that their processing of size/quantity-related property information may be affected. This suggests that, contrary to recent claims, 8- to 12-month-old infants can and do appreciate the continuity of fragmented objects. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Does tutor subject-matter expertise influence student achievement in ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Objective. To establish whether or not tutor subject-matter expertise influences student achievement in content-based examinations in the problem-based learning (PBL) curriculum at the University of Transkei (UNITRA) Medical School. Design. A retrospective study of MB ChB III student achievement in end-of-block ...

Towards C++ object libraries for accelerator physics

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Michelotti, L.

1993-01-01

We must write robust, flexible, portable software that is easier to understand, maintain, modify, reuse, and extend. These attributes are more than mere buzzwords. They are important goals that computer scientists strive to achieve by refining their programming models and devising languages to support them. An important breakthrough was achieved by the introduction of object oriented programming (OOP) as the computing model behind such languages as Smalltalk, ADA, Eiffel, Objective-C, and C++. OOP is not a ''fad'': it is arguably the most significant development in programming since the invention of FORTRAN, and it is the way that the best software will be written well into the next century. An ''object'' comprises structures of data, the functions that manipulate them, and rules for bringing them into and out of scope. OOP is a methodology for realizing and fully utilizing this abstract concept, an extension to programming of the basic technique that has advanced mathematics for centuries

Integrated production planning and control: A multi-objective optimization model

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Cheng Wang

2013-09-01

Full Text Available Purpose: Production planning and control has crucial impact on the production and business activities of enterprise. Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP is the most popular resources planning and management system, however there are some shortcomings and deficiencies in the production planning and control because its core component is still the Material Requirements Planning (MRP. For the defects of ERP system, many local improvement and optimization schemes have been proposed, and improve the feasibility and practicality of the plan in some extent, but study considering the whole planning system optimization in the multiple performance management objectives and achieving better application performance is less. The purpose of this paper is to propose a multi-objective production planning optimization model Based on the point of view of the integration of production planning and control, in order to achieve optimization and control of enterprise manufacturing management. Design/methodology/approach: On the analysis of ERP planning system’s defects and disadvantages, and related research and literature, a multi-objective production planning optimization model is proposed, in addition to net demand and capacity, multiple performance management objectives, such as on-time delivery, production balance, inventory, overtime production, are considered incorporating into the examination scope of the model, so that the manufacturing process could be management and controlled Optimally between multiple objectives. The validity and practicability of the model will be verified by the instance in the last part of the paper. Findings: The main finding is that production planning management of manufacturing enterprise considers not only the capacity and materials, but also a variety of performance management objectives in the production process, and building a multi-objective optimization model can effectively optimize the management and control of enterprise

Teachers' Careers: The Objective Dimension.

Science.gov (United States)

Evetts, Julia

1986-01-01

Analyzes the objective dimension of teachers' careers showing how 530 British male/female teachers are distributed throughout the pay scale and promotions making up the formal structure of teaching. Indicates length of experience is the rewarding but not the sole factor in bureaucratic structure and differential male/female career achievements.…

Strategic Directions in Object-Oriented Programming

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Aksit, Mehmet; Guerroui, Rachid

1996-01-01

This paper has provided an overview of the field of object-oriented programming. After presenting a historical perspective and some major achievements in the field, four research directions were introduced: technologies integration, software components, distributed programming, and new paradigms. In

Mitigation strategies for pandemic influenza A: balancing conflicting policy objectives.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

T Déirdre Hollingsworth

Full Text Available Mitigation of a severe influenza pandemic can be achieved using a range of interventions to reduce transmission. Interventions can reduce the impact of an outbreak and buy time until vaccines are developed, but they may have high social and economic costs. The non-linear effect on the epidemic dynamics means that suitable strategies crucially depend on the precise aim of the intervention. National pandemic influenza plans rarely contain clear statements of policy objectives or prioritization of potentially conflicting aims, such as minimizing mortality (depending on the severity of a pandemic or peak prevalence or limiting the socio-economic burden of contact-reducing interventions. We use epidemiological models of influenza A to investigate how contact-reducing interventions and availability of antiviral drugs or pre-pandemic vaccines contribute to achieving particular policy objectives. Our analyses show that the ideal strategy depends on the aim of an intervention and that the achievement of one policy objective may preclude success with others, e.g., constraining peak demand for public health resources may lengthen the duration of the epidemic and hence its economic and social impact. Constraining total case numbers can be achieved by a range of strategies, whereas strategies which additionally constrain peak demand for services require a more sophisticated intervention. If, for example, there are multiple objectives which must be achieved prior to the availability of a pandemic vaccine (i.e., a time-limited intervention, our analysis shows that interventions should be implemented several weeks into the epidemic, not at the very start. This observation is shown to be robust across a range of constraints and for uncertainty in estimates of both R(0 and the timing of vaccine availability. These analyses highlight the need for more precise statements of policy objectives and their assumed consequences when planning and implementing strategies

Only Children, Achievement, and Interpersonal Orientation.

Science.gov (United States)

Falbo, Toni

Many psychological theories point to the importance of siblings in individual personality development. The impact of sibling status on interpersonal and achievement orientation was examined with undergraduates (N=1782) who completed a series of objective personality measures and a background questionnaire. Sibling status was defined in terms of…

Precise object tracking under deformation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Saad, M.H

2010-01-01

The precise object tracking is an essential issue in several serious applications such as; robot vision, automated surveillance (civil and military), inspection, biomedical image analysis, video coding, motion segmentation, human-machine interface, visualization, medical imaging, traffic systems, satellite imaging etc. This frame-work focuses on the precise object tracking under deformation such as scaling , rotation, noise, blurring and change of illumination. This research is a trail to solve these serious problems in visual object tracking by which the quality of the overall system will be improved. Developing a three dimensional (3D) geometrical model to determine the current pose of an object and predict its future location based on FIR model learned by the OLS. This framework presents a robust ranging technique to track a visual target instead of the traditional expensive ranging sensors. The presented research work is applied to real video stream and achieved high precession results.

Incremental Visualizer for Visible Objects

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bukauskas, Linas; Bøhlen, Michael Hanspeter

This paper discusses the integration of database back-end and visualizer front-end into a one tightly coupled system. The main aim which we achieve is to reduce the data pipeline from database to visualization by using incremental data extraction of visible objects in a fly-through scenarios. We...... also argue that passing only relevant data from the database will substantially reduce the overall load of the visualization system. We propose the system Incremental Visualizer for Visible Objects (IVVO) which considers visible objects and enables incremental visualization along the observer movement...... path. IVVO is the novel solution which allows data to be visualized and loaded on the fly from the database and which regards visibilities of objects. We run a set of experiments to convince that IVVO is feasible in terms of I/O operations and CPU load. We consider the example of data which uses...

Manifold-Based Visual Object Counting.

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Yi; Zou, Yuexian; Wang, Wenwu

2018-07-01

Visual object counting (VOC) is an emerging area in computer vision which aims to estimate the number of objects of interest in a given image or video. Recently, object density based estimation method is shown to be promising for object counting as well as rough instance localization. However, the performance of this method tends to degrade when dealing with new objects and scenes. To address this limitation, we propose a manifold-based method for visual object counting (M-VOC), based on the manifold assumption that similar image patches share similar object densities. Firstly, the local geometry of a given image patch is represented linearly by its neighbors using a predefined patch training set, and the object density of this given image patch is reconstructed by preserving the local geometry using locally linear embedding. To improve the characterization of local geometry, additional constraints such as sparsity and non-negativity are also considered via regularization, nonlinear mapping, and kernel trick. Compared with the state-of-the-art VOC methods, our proposed M-VOC methods achieve competitive performance on seven benchmark datasets. Experiments verify that the proposed M-VOC methods have several favorable properties, such as robustness to the variation in the size of training dataset and image resolution, as often encountered in real-world VOC applications.

24 CFR 984.102 - Program objectives.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-04-01

... education, employment, and business and social skills necessary to achieve self-sufficiency, as defined in... 984.102 Housing and Urban Development Regulations Relating to Housing and Urban Development (Continued... SECTION 8 AND PUBLIC HOUSING FAMILY SELF-SUFFICIENCY PROGRAM General § 984.102 Program objectives. The...

The Role of Libraries and Information Centres in the Achievements ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

It views the objectives of Universal Primary Education, school libraries and infonnation centres thereby enumerating roles of libraries and information centres in the achievement of MDGs for Africa. It concludes by giving recommendations towards the achievement of education for Africa in the millennium development goals ...

Dose planning objectives in anal canal cancer IMRT: the TROG ANROTAT experience

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Brown, Elizabeth, E-mail: elizabeth@mebrown.net [Princess Alexandra Hospital, Brisbane, Queensland (Australia); Cray, Alison [Peter MacCallum Cancer Cancer Centre, Box Hill, Victoria (Australia); Haworth, Annette [Peter MacCallum Cancer Cancer Centre, Box Hill, Victoria (Australia); University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria (Australia); Chander, Sarat [Peter MacCallum Cancer Cancer Centre, Box Hill, Victoria (Australia); Lin, Robert [Medica Oncology, Hurstville, New South Wales (Australia); Subramanian, Brindha; Ng, Michael [Radiation Oncology Victoria, Melbourne, Victoria (Australia); Princess Alexandra Hospital, Brisbane, Queensland (Australia)

2015-06-15

Intensity modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) is ideal for anal canal cancer (ACC), delivering high doses to irregular tumour volumes whilst minimising dose to surrounding normal tissues. Establishing achievable dose objectives is a challenge. The purpose of this paper was to utilise data collected in the Assessment of New Radiation Oncology Treatments and Technologies (ANROTAT) project to evaluate the feasibility of ACC IMRT dose planning objectives employed in the Australian situation. Ten Australian centres were randomly allocated three data sets from 15 non-identifiable computed tomography data sets representing a range of disease stages and gender. Each data set was planned by two different centres, producing 30 plans. All tumour and organ at risk (OAR) contours, prescription and dose constraint details were provided. Dose–volume histograms (DVHs) for each plan were analysed to evaluate the feasibility of dose planning objectives provided. All dose planning objectives for the bone marrow (BM) and femoral heads were achieved. Median planned doses exceeded one or more objectives for bowel, external genitalia and bladder. This reached statistical significance for bowel V30 (P = 0.04), V45 (P < 0.001), V50 (P < 0.001), external genitalia V20 (P < 0.001) and bladder V35 (P < 0.001), V40 (P = 0.01). Gender was found to be the only significant factor in the likelihood of achieving the bowel V50 (P = 0.03) and BM V30 constraints (P = 0.04). The dose planning objectives used in the ANROTAT project provide a good starting point for ACC IMRT planning. To facilitate clinical implementation, it is important to prioritise OAR objectives and recognise factors that affect the achievability of these objectives.

Identifying relevant feature-action associations for grasping unmodelled objects

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Thomsen, Mikkel Tang; Kraft, Dirk; Krüger, Norbert

2015-01-01

content. The method is provided with a large and structured set of visual features, motivated by the visual hierarchy in primates and finds relevant feature action associations automatically. We apply our method in a simulated environment on three different object sets for the case of grasp affordance...... learning. For box objects, we achieve a 0.90 success probability, 0.80 for round objects and up to 0.75 for open objects, when presented with novel objects. In this work, we in particular demonstrate the effect of choosing appropriate feature representations. We demonstrate a significant performance...

Color descriptors for object category recognition

NARCIS (Netherlands)

van de Sande, K.E.A.; Gevers, T.; Snoek, C.G.M.

2008-01-01

Category recognition is important to access visual information on the level of objects. A common approach is to compute image descriptors first and then to apply machine learning to achieve category recognition from annotated examples. As a consequence, the choice of image descriptors is of great

Diversity Programme 2012-2014 Strategic Objectives - Progress Report

CERN Document Server

Guinot, Genevieve

2015-01-01

According to the process described in the Diversity Policy, strategic objectives for the Diversity Programme were decided by the Director-General, after consultation with the Enlarged Directorate, in the form of short- and longer-term objectives set over the period 2012-2014 along with key performance indicators. The strategic objectives are related to all dimensions of diversity and are implemented across the three main axes of recruitment, career development and work environment, through pro-active measures (rather than positive discrimination). This report highlights actions undertaken in pursuit of these objectives during the period 2012-2014 and the related achievements.

Fast neuromimetic object recognition using FPGA outperforms GPU implementations.

Science.gov (United States)

Orchard, Garrick; Martin, Jacob G; Vogelstein, R Jacob; Etienne-Cummings, Ralph

2013-08-01

Recognition of objects in still images has traditionally been regarded as a difficult computational problem. Although modern automated methods for visual object recognition have achieved steadily increasing recognition accuracy, even the most advanced computational vision approaches are unable to obtain performance equal to that of humans. This has led to the creation of many biologically inspired models of visual object recognition, among them the hierarchical model and X (HMAX) model. HMAX is traditionally known to achieve high accuracy in visual object recognition tasks at the expense of significant computational complexity. Increasing complexity, in turn, increases computation time, reducing the number of images that can be processed per unit time. In this paper we describe how the computationally intensive and biologically inspired HMAX model for visual object recognition can be modified for implementation on a commercial field-programmable aate Array, specifically the Xilinx Virtex 6 ML605 evaluation board with XC6VLX240T FPGA. We show that with minor modifications to the traditional HMAX model we can perform recognition on images of size 128 × 128 pixels at a rate of 190 images per second with a less than 1% loss in recognition accuracy in both binary and multiclass visual object recognition tasks.

Uncovering the multiple objectives behind national energy efficiency planning

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Haydt, Gustavo; Leal, Vítor; Dias, Luís

2013-01-01

This work seeks to identify the fundamental objectives behind the development of energy efficiency (EE) plans for countries. It also presents a method to quantify the degree of achievement of each objective, through the identification and operationalization of attributes. This was achieved by applying Keeney's value-focused thinking approach. For that purpose, three key decision makers in EE planning were interviewed along with a bibliographic review on the subject. From this process six fundamental objectives were identified formalizing the problem as a multi-objective one: (i) to minimize the influence of energy use on climate change; (ii) to minimize the financial risk from the investment; (iii) to maximize the security of energy supply; (iv) to minimize investment costs; (v) to minimize the impacts of building new power plants and transmission infrastructures and (vi) to maximize the local air quality. The respective attributes were: (i) CO 2 emissions savings; (ii) payback; (iii) imported energy savings; (iv) investment cost; (v) electricity savings; and (vi) total suspended particles savings. To show the usefulness of the work, the objectives and attributes identified were used to show the possible outcomes from five hypothetical EE plans for Portugal

The Initial Development of Object Knowledge by a Learning Robot.

Science.gov (United States)

Modayil, Joseph; Kuipers, Benjamin

2008-11-30

We describe how a robot can develop knowledge of the objects in its environment directly from unsupervised sensorimotor experience. The object knowledge consists of multiple integrated representations: trackers that form spatio-temporal clusters of sensory experience, percepts that represent properties for the tracked objects, classes that support efficient generalization from past experience, and actions that reliably change object percepts. We evaluate how well this intrinsically acquired object knowledge can be used to solve externally specified tasks including object recognition and achieving goals that require both planning and continuous control.

The association between educational achievements, career aspirations, achievement motives and oral hygiene behavior among dental students of Udaipur, India.

Science.gov (United States)

Asawa, Kailash; Chaturvedi, Pulkit; Tak, Mridula; Nagarajappa, Ramesh; Bhat, Nagesh; Bapat, Salil; Gupta, Vivek; Jalihal, Sagar

2014-10-01

There are several factors which influence oral hygiene behavior of an individual. Educational achievements, career aspirations and achievement motives of individuals are some of those factors. The objective of this study was to investigate whether educational achievements, career aspirations and achievement motives have associations with oral hygiene behavior among dental students of Udaipur, India. A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted among all (n=200) 1st year dental students from all dental colleges of Udaipur City, India. Self-administered structured questions were used to assess their educational achievements, career aspirations and oral hygiene behavior (OHB). Achievement motives were assessed using Achievement Motive Scale developed by Lang and Fries (2006). Chi-square test and multivariate logistic regression tests were used in data analysis. Confidence level and level of significance were set at 95% and 5% respectively. Students with better educational achievements undergone regular dental check-up (30.48%) (p=0.03) and used other oral hygiene aids (90.24%) (p=0.01). Tooth brushing frequency, time and replacement time of tooth brush were found to be significantly associated with career aspiration (p=0.007; p=0.002; p=0.00 respectively). Achievement motives did not have statistically significant association with oral hygiene behavior. Educational achievements and career aspirations appear to be associated with oral hygiene behavior of young dental students. Students with higher career aspirations practiced better oral hygiene behavior. There was no significant relationship between achievement motives and oral hygiene behavior.

Achieving excellence with limited resources

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Anson, L.W.; Spinney, R.W.

1985-01-01

The achievement of excellence in safety of nuclear power plant operation is dependent in part upon establishment of a performance-based training program. Developing such a program can be a laborious, time-consuming, and very expensive effort. Conducting job and task analyses, designing course outlines from learning objectives, developing training materials, evaluating program effectiveness and managing the training process and program through the out-years will exhaust any utility's training budget and staff. Because the achievement of excellence implies that training become in part performance-based, the question arises of how best to attain quality training yet still maintain a reasonable budget and staff workload. The answer lies not just in contracting the support necessary but making use of all available resources - training staff, contractor personnel in INPO

Special Aspects of Learning Objectives Design for Disciplines in Engineering Education

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yu. B. Tsvetkov

2015-01-01

Full Text Available The article is devoted to a problem of learning objectives design for disciplines in engineering education. It is shown that the system of well defined objectives can form a basis of discipline content analysis, acquisition control and improvement.The detailed defining of clear objectives and designing forms and content of objectives which allow to estimate their achievement are considered.For this purpose the objectives should consider the level of learners, to designate result which they will be able to show after training, conditions and how well they will be able to make it.Some examples of objective formulations are provided which allow to show in an explicit form the results reached by a learner.It is shown that cognitive process dimension can be divided into groups of initial level of thinking (to remember, understand, apply and thinking of high level (to analyze, estimate, create.Thus knowledge dimension include the factual, conceptual, procedural and metacognitive knowledges.On the basis of cognitive process dimension and knowledge dimension in engineering education it is offered to form system of learning objectives on the basis of their twodimensional classification - taxonomy.Objectives examples for engineering discipline are given. They consider conditions of their achievement and criteria of execution for various combinations of cognitive process dimension and levels of knowledge dimension.For some engineering disciplines examples of learning objectives are formulated including their achievement and criterion of execution of the corresponding actions.The given results can form a basis for design of learning objectives at realization of a competence approach in modern engineering education.Further work in this direction preplan the analysis and approbation of two-dimensional matrix applicability for objectives design on examples of various engineering disciplines.It is of profound importance to use matrixes of well defined

Nursing staff connect libraries with improving patient care but not with achieving organisational objectives: a grounded theory approach.

Science.gov (United States)

Chamberlain, David; Brook, Richard

2014-03-01

Health organisations are often driven by specific targets defined by mission statements, aims and objectives to improve patient care. Health libraries need to demonstrate that they contribute to organisational objectives, but it is not clear how nurses view that contribution. To investigate ward nursing staff motivations, their awareness of ward and organisational objectives; and their attitudes towards the contribution of health library services to improving patient care. Qualitative research using focus group data was combined with content analysis of literature evidence and library statistics (quantitative data). Data were analysed using thematic coding, divided into five group themes: understanding of Trust, Ward and Personal objectives, use of Library, use of other information sources, quality and Issues. Four basic social-psychological processes were then developed. Behaviour indicates low awareness of organisational objectives despite patient-centric motivation. High awareness of library services is shown with some connection made by ward staff between improved knowledge and improved patient care. There was a two-tiered understanding of ward objectives and library services, based on level of seniority. However, evidence-based culture needs to be intrinsic in the organisation before all staff benefit. Libraries can actively engage in this at ward and board level and improve patient care by supporting organisational objectives. © 2014 The author. Health Information and Libraries Journal © 2014 Health Libraries Group.

Concurrent object-oriented programming: The MP-Eiffel approach

OpenAIRE

Silva, Miguel Augusto Mendes Oliveira e

2004-01-01

This article evaluates several possible approaches for integrating concurrency into object-oriented programming languages, presenting afterwards, a new language named MP-Eiffel. MP-Eiffel was designed attempting to include all the essential properties of both concurrent and object-oriented programming with simplicity and safety. A special care was taken to achieve the orthogonality of all the language mechanisms, allowing their joint use without unsafe side-effects (such as inh...

PARTICULARITIES OF EDUCATIONAL OBJECTS IN COMPUTER-ASSISTED LEARNING FOR PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Narcisa ISĂILĂ

2010-12-01

Full Text Available The current trend in computer-assisted learning is the creation of reusable learning objects. They can be used independently or can be coupled to make lessons that best fit the users' learning needs. From this perspective, the specific of learning objects for people with disabilities is to ensure accessibility and usability. Using standards in the process of creating learning objects provide flexibility in achieving lessons, thus being helpful for educational content creators (teachers. Metadata have an essential role in achieving interoperability and provide standardized information about the learning objects, allowing the searching, accessing and their finding. The compliance of eLearning standards ensures the compatibility and portability of materials from one system to another, which reduces the time and cost of development.

Environmental Management System Objectives & Targets Results Summary - FY 2015.

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Vetter, Douglas W

2016-02-01

Sandia National Laboratories (SNL) Environmental Management System is the integrated approach for members of the workforce to identify and manage environmental risks. Each Fiscal Year (FY) SNL performs an analysis to identify environmental aspects, and the environmental programs associated with them are charged with the task of routinely monitoring and measuring the objectives and targets that are established to mitigate potential impacts of SNL's operations on the environment. An annual summary of the results achieved towards meeting established Sandia Corporation and SNL Site-specific objectives and targets provides a connection to, and rational for, annually revised environmental aspects. The purpose of this document is to summarize the results achieved and documented in FY 2015.

Small target detection using objectness and saliency

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Naiwen; Xiao, Yang; Fang, Zhiwen; Yang, Jian; Wang, Li; Li, Tao

2017-10-01

We are motived by the need for generic object detection algorithm which achieves high recall for small targets in complex scenes with acceptable computational efficiency. We propose a novel object detection algorithm, which has high localization quality with acceptable computational cost. Firstly, we obtain the objectness map as in BING[1] and use NMS to get the top N points. Then, k-means algorithm is used to cluster them into K classes according to their location. We set the center points of the K classes as seed points. For each seed point, an object potential region is extracted. Finally, a fast salient object detection algorithm[2] is applied to the object potential regions to highlight objectlike pixels, and a series of efficient post-processing operations are proposed to locate the targets. Our method runs at 5 FPS on 1000*1000 images, and significantly outperforms previous methods on small targets in cluttered background.

Reasoning Ability and Academic Achievement among Secondary School Students in Trivandrum

Science.gov (United States)

Rani, K. V.

2017-01-01

Reasoning ability is the 'problem solving skills' or 'analytical ability' or 'deductive and inductive reasoning'. Academic achievement is the total score one achieved at school, college, or university from class, laboratory, library, or field work. The objectives of the study were to explore the relationship between reasoning ability and academic…

Object specific reconstruction using compressively sensed data

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mahalanobis, Abhijit

2008-01-01

Compressed sensing holds the promise for radically novel sensors that can perfectly reconstruct images using considerably less samples of data than required by the otherwise general Shannon sampling theorem. In surveillance systems however, it is also desirable to cue regions of the image where objects of interest may exist. Thus in this paper, we are interested in imaging interesting objects in a scene, without necessarily seeking perfect reconstruction of the whole image. We show that our goals are achieved by minimizing a modified L2-norm criterion with good results when the reconstruction of only specific objects is of interest. The method yields a simple closed form analytical solution that does not require iterative processing. Objects can be meaningfully sensed in considerable detail while heavily compressing the scene elsewhere. Essentially, this embeds the object detection and clutter discrimination function in the sensing and imaging process.

34 CFR 200.18 - Annual measurable objectives.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-07-01

... 34 Education 1 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Annual measurable objectives. 200.18 Section 200.18 Education Regulations of the Offices of the Department of Education OFFICE OF ELEMENTARY AND SECONDARY EDUCATION, DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION TITLE I-IMPROVING THE ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT OF THE DISADVANTAGED Improving...

THE ROLE OF INTEGRATED ISLAMIC COMMERCIAL AND SOCIAL FINANCE FOR CURBING CREDIT CYCLES AND ACHIEVING MACROPRUDENTIAL OBJECTIVE

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Arif Widodo

2018-03-01

Full Text Available It is widely believed that Islamic finance is inherently stable since the principle of risk-sharing and linking the financial to real counterpart in particular through its social finance are applied, hence the financial stability may successfully be attained. If mimicking the conventional finance, Islamic model will probably be facing instability, following the financial cycle. There has been a growing literature discussing credit cycle in mainstream perspective since 2008 global financial crash. However, it is quite rare to find study, in macro context, on credit cycles and the effectiveness of integrated Islamic commercial and social finance in achieving macroprudential objective: curtailing excessive credit. This study is designed to empirically examine the characteristics of cycles stemming from conventional and Islamic credit whether both have similar trend and also to investigate how the integrated Islamic commercial and social finance may be effective to hamper such cycles. By employing Hodrick-Presscot Filter, Markov Switching and Vector Error Correction Model, this study demonstrates that, in terms of cycle, Islamic model cycle has certain similarities with conventional counterpart since it functions under similar financial environment despite the fact that Islamic has less amplitude compared with conventional credit. Both credit and financing cycles tend to grow rapidly (excessive several months before global financial crisis happened in 2008. This means that, in a dual banking system, credit and financing boom may precede financial crisis. Moreover, it is apparent also that the integrated Islamic finance is proven to be effective in curbing credit growth due to the effectiveness of both macroprudential instrument applied in banking sector and social finance in safeguarding financial stability. Keywords:  Credit cycle, Macroprudential policy, Markov Switching, HP filter JEL Classification: E32, E51, G29

Coding of visual object features and feature conjunctions in the human brain.

Science.gov (United States)

Martinovic, Jasna; Gruber, Thomas; Müller, Matthias M

2008-01-01

Object recognition is achieved through neural mechanisms reliant on the activity of distributed coordinated neural assemblies. In the initial steps of this process, an object's features are thought to be coded very rapidly in distinct neural assemblies. These features play different functional roles in the recognition process--while colour facilitates recognition, additional contours and edges delay it. Here, we selectively varied the amount and role of object features in an entry-level categorization paradigm and related them to the electrical activity of the human brain. We found that early synchronizations (approx. 100 ms) increased quantitatively when more image features had to be coded, without reflecting their qualitative contribution to the recognition process. Later activity (approx. 200-400 ms) was modulated by the representational role of object features. These findings demonstrate that although early synchronizations may be sufficient for relatively crude discrimination of objects in visual scenes, they cannot support entry-level categorization. This was subserved by later processes of object model selection, which utilized the representational value of object features such as colour or edges to select the appropriate model and achieve identification.

Quasi-objects, Cult Objects and Fashion Objects

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Andersen, Bjørn Schiermer

2011-01-01

This article attempts to rehabilitate the concept of fetishism and to contribute to the debate on the social role of objects as well as to fashion theory. Extrapolating from Michel Serres’ theory of the quasi-objects, I distinguish two phenomenologies possessing almost opposite characteristics. T...... as a unique opportunity for studying the interchange between these two forms of fetishism and their respective phenomenologies. Finally, returning to Serres, I briefly consider the theoretical consequences of introducing the fashion object as a quasi-object.......This article attempts to rehabilitate the concept of fetishism and to contribute to the debate on the social role of objects as well as to fashion theory. Extrapolating from Michel Serres’ theory of the quasi-objects, I distinguish two phenomenologies possessing almost opposite characteristics....... These two phenomenologies are, so I argue, essential to quasi-object theory, yet largely ignored by Serres’ sociological interpreters. They correspond with the two different theories of fetishism found in Marx and Durkheim, respectively. In the second half of the article, I introduce the fashion object...

Low-complexity object detection with deep convolutional neural network for embedded systems

Science.gov (United States)

Tripathi, Subarna; Kang, Byeongkeun; Dane, Gokce; Nguyen, Truong

2017-09-01

We investigate low-complexity convolutional neural networks (CNNs) for object detection for embedded vision applications. It is well-known that consolidation of an embedded system for CNN-based object detection is more challenging due to computation and memory requirement comparing with problems like image classification. To achieve these requirements, we design and develop an end-to-end TensorFlow (TF)-based fully-convolutional deep neural network for generic object detection task inspired by one of the fastest framework, YOLO.1 The proposed network predicts the localization of every object by regressing the coordinates of the corresponding bounding box as in YOLO. Hence, the network is able to detect any objects without any limitations in the size of the objects. However, unlike YOLO, all the layers in the proposed network is fully-convolutional. Thus, it is able to take input images of any size. We pick face detection as an use case. We evaluate the proposed model for face detection on FDDB dataset and Widerface dataset. As another use case of generic object detection, we evaluate its performance on PASCAL VOC dataset. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed network can predict object instances of different sizes and poses in a single frame. Moreover, the results show that the proposed method achieves comparative accuracy comparing with the state-of-the-art CNN-based object detection methods while reducing the model size by 3× and memory-BW by 3 - 4× comparing with one of the best real-time CNN-based object detectors, YOLO. Our 8-bit fixed-point TF-model provides additional 4× memory reduction while keeping the accuracy nearly as good as the floating-point model. Moreover, the fixed- point model is capable of achieving 20× faster inference speed comparing with the floating-point model. Thus, the proposed method is promising for embedded implementations.

A Vision for Spaceflight Reliability: NASA's Objectives Based Strategy

Science.gov (United States)

Groen, Frank; Evans, John; Hall, Tony

2015-01-01

In defining the direction for a new Reliability and Maintainability standard, OSMA has extracted the essential objectives that our programs need, to undertake a reliable mission. These objectives have been structured to lead mission planning through construction of an objective hierarchy, which defines the critical approaches for achieving high reliability and maintainability (R M). Creating a hierarchy, as a basis for assurance implementation, is a proven approach; yet, it holds the opportunity to enable new directions, as NASA moves forward in tackling the challenges of space exploration.

Device-free object tracking using passive tags

CERN Document Server

Han, Jinsong; Zhao, Kun; Jiang, Zhiping

2014-01-01

This SpringerBrief examines the use of cheap commercial passive RFID tags to achieve accurate device-free object-tracking. It presents a sensitive detector, named Twins, which uses a pair of adjacent passive tags to detect uncooperative targets (such as intruders). Twins leverages a newly observed phenomenon called critical state that is caused by interference among passive tags.The author expands on the previous object tracking methods, which are mostly device-based, and reveals a new interference model and their extensive experiments for validation. A prototype implementation of the Twins-ba

PERANCANGAAN TOOLS PENGUKURAN KINERJA PERUSAHAAN DAN KARYAWAN DENGAN MENGGUNAKAN OBJECTIVE MATRIX

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Winda Amilia

2016-11-01

Full Text Available Performance measurement is a management tool to improve the decisionmaking quality for organizational performance improvement. Performance managementis about how to manage activities within an organization to achieve its goals. Theperformance measurement design requires performance indicators formed from thedimensions of satisfaction and employee contributions to the company. By using thedimensions of employee satisfaction structured business goals to be achieved throughthe fulfillment of employee satisfaction firm. Business objectives is the basis for buildKey Performance Indicators in this measurement design. Based on the results of theKPIs identification, there are 12 KPIs to measure corporate performance to theemployee. The results shown on OMAX that 4 KPIs on the highest target, and 8 KPIs are stillunder target. Measurement results compiled in Objective Matrix (OMAX to determinethe level / achievement level performance indicators set targets.

Effect of Prior Knowledge of Instructional Objectives on Students ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Administrator

instructional objectives on students' achievement in selected difficult concepts in senior ... nature of science learning in general, and physics learning in particular, as ..... curriculum as perceived by in-service mathematics teachers. Journal of ...

Dynamic optimal grasping of a circular object with gravity using robotic soft-fingertips

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

García-Rodríguez Rodolfo

2016-06-01

Full Text Available Object manipulation usually requires dexterity, encoded as the ability to roll, which is very difficult to achieve with robotic hands based on point contact models (subject to holonomic constraints. As an alternative for dexterous manipulation, deformable contact with hemispherical shape fingertips has been proposed to yield naturally a rolling constraint. It entails dexterity at the expense of dealing with normal and tangential forces, as well as more elaborated models and control schemes. Furthermore, the essential feature of the quality of grasp can be addressed with this type of robot hands, but it has been overlooked for deformable contact. In this paper, a passivity-based controller that considers an optimal grasping measure is proposed for robotic hands with hemispherical deformable fingertips, to manipulate circular dynamic objects. Optimal grasping that minimizes the contact wrenches is achieved through fingertip rolling until normal forces pass through the center of mass of the object, aligning the relative angle between these normal forces. The case of a circular object is developed in detail, though our proposal can be extended to objects with an arbitrary shape that admit a local decomposition by a circular curvature. Simulation and experimental results show convergence under various conditions, wherein rolling and tangent forces become instrumental to achieve such a quality of grasp.

Where and when Do Objects Become Scenes?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jiye G. Kim

2011-05-01

Full Text Available Scenes can be understood with extraordinary speed and facility, not merely as an inventory of individual objects but in the coding of the relations among them. These relations, which can be readily described by prepositions or gerunds (e.g., a hand holding a pen, allows the explicit representation of complex structures. Where in the brain are inter-object relations specified? In a series of fMRI experiments, we show that pairs of objects shown as interacting elicit greater activity in LOC than when the objects are depicted side-by-side (e.g., a hand beside a pen. Other visual areas, PPA, IPS, and DLPFC, did not show this sensitivity to scene relations, rendering it unlikely that the relations were computed in these regions. Using EEG and TMS, we further show that LOC's sensitivity to object interactions arises around 170ms post stimulus onset and that disruption of normal LOC activity—but not IPS activity—is detrimental to the behavioral sensitivity of inter-object relations. Insofar as LOC is the earliest cortical region where shape is distinguished from texture, our results provide strong evidence that scene-like relations are achieved simultaneously with the perception of object shape and not inferred at some stage following object identification.

Behavioral Objectives and Standards Movement Revisited

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Nima Shakouri

2014-02-01

Full Text Available The present paper sparks a complementary argument that the development of standards movement must not be at the expense of sacrificing the achievement of behavioral objectives. Furthermore, due to the systemic and dynamic nature of standards, standards need to be revised off and on.  Besides, the present writers taking a more or less relativist stance maintains that if and only if the goal of education is to change one's behavior, the behavioral objectives seem to be plausible; however, it is less than a realistic wish because classroom as a dynamic setting cannot be accomplished within the framework of feed-forward planning, where ends are classified before means are selected.

Do Algorithms Homogenize Students' Achievements in Secondary School Better than Teachers' Tracking Decisions?

Science.gov (United States)

Klapproth, Florian

2015-01-01

Two objectives guided this research. First, this study examined how well teachers' tracking decisions contribute to the homogenization of their students' achievements. Second, the study explored whether teachers' tracking decisions would be outperformed in homogenizing the students' achievements by statistical models of tracking decisions. These…

32 CFR 237a.3 - Objective and policy.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-07-01

...) MISCELLANEOUS PUBLIC AFFAIRS LIAISON WITH INDUSTRY § 237a.3 Objective and policy. (a) It is important that...D. Such understanding can be achieved by (1) wide dissemination of information to the business community, consistent with national security, and (2) cooperation with industry in public relations...

Academic achievement of physics education students' in two ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

The objective of this study was to find out factors affecting the academic achievement of physics education students' in Benue State University and University of Agriculture, Makurdi. The study sought answers to four research questions. The research was carried out using a sample size of 108 students of the department of ...

Locator-Checker-Scaler Object Tracking Using Spatially Ordered and Weighted Patch Descriptor.

Science.gov (United States)

Kim, Han-Ul; Kim, Chang-Su

2017-08-01

In this paper, we propose a simple yet effective object descriptor and a novel tracking algorithm to track a target object accurately. For the object description, we divide the bounding box of a target object into multiple patches and describe them with color and gradient histograms. Then, we determine the foreground weight of each patch to alleviate the impacts of background information in the bounding box. To this end, we perform random walk with restart (RWR) simulation. We then concatenate the weighted patch descriptors to yield the spatially ordered and weighted patch (SOWP) descriptor. For the object tracking, we incorporate the proposed SOWP descriptor into a novel tracking algorithm, which has three components: locator, checker, and scaler (LCS). The locator and the scaler estimate the center location and the size of a target, respectively. The checker determines whether it is safe to adjust the target scale in a current frame. These three components cooperate with one another to achieve robust tracking. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed LCS tracker achieves excellent performance on recent benchmarks.

[An object-oriented intelligent engineering design approach for lake pollution control].

Science.gov (United States)

Zou, Rui; Zhou, Jing; Liu, Yong; Zhu, Xiang; Zhao, Lei; Yang, Ping-Jian; Guo, Huai-Cheng

2013-03-01

Regarding the shortage and deficiency of traditional lake pollution control engineering techniques, a new lake pollution control engineering approach was proposed in this study, based on object-oriented intelligent design (OOID) from the perspective of intelligence. It can provide a new methodology and framework for effectively controlling lake pollution and improving water quality. The differences between the traditional engineering techniques and the OOID approach were compared. The key points for OOID were described as object perspective, cause and effect foundation, set points into surface, and temporal and spatial optimization. The blue algae control in lake was taken as an example in this study. The effect of algae control and water quality improvement were analyzed in details from the perspective of object-oriented intelligent design based on two engineering techniques (vertical hydrodynamic mixer and pumping algaecide recharge). The modeling results showed that the traditional engineering design paradigm cannot provide scientific and effective guidance for engineering design and decision-making regarding lake pollution. Intelligent design approach is based on the object perspective and quantitative causal analysis in this case. This approach identified that the efficiency of mixers was much higher than pumps in achieving the goal of low to moderate water quality improvement. However, when the objective of water quality exceeded a certain value (such as the control objective of peak Chla concentration exceeded 100 microg x L(-1) in this experimental water), the mixer cannot achieve this goal. The pump technique can achieve the goal but with higher cost. The efficiency of combining the two techniques was higher than using one of the two techniques alone. Moreover, the quantitative scale control of the two engineering techniques has a significant impact on the actual project benefits and costs.

The visual system supports online translation invariance for object identification.

Science.gov (United States)

Bowers, Jeffrey S; Vankov, Ivan I; Ludwig, Casimir J H

2016-04-01

The ability to recognize the same image projected to different retinal locations is critical for visual object recognition in natural contexts. According to many theories, the translation invariance for objects extends only to trained retinal locations, so that a familiar object projected to a nontrained location should not be identified. In another approach, invariance is achieved "online," such that learning to identify an object in one location immediately affords generalization to other locations. We trained participants to name novel objects at one retinal location using eyetracking technology and then tested their ability to name the same images presented at novel retinal locations. Across three experiments, we found robust generalization. These findings provide a strong constraint for theories of vision.

Teaching and Assessing Ethics as a Learning Objective: One School's Journey

Science.gov (United States)

Templin, Carl R.; Christensen, David

2009-01-01

This paper reports the results of a ten-year effort to establish ethics as a learning objective for all business students, to assess the effectiveness in achieving that learning objective and to incorporate ethical conduct as a part of the school's organizational culture. First, it addresses the importance of ethics instruction for all business…

Exploring Mathematics Achievement Goals Using Kolb’s Learning Style Model

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Avelino G. Ignacio Jr.

2017-02-01

Full Text Available This research work is an exploration of causality connection of learning styles to mathematics achievement goals. The objectives of the study are as follows: (1 to identify the mathematics achievement goal of students when grouped according to preferred learning style (2 to identify the learning style of students when grouped according to preferred mathematics achievement goal and (3 to determine if there is a significant difference in each mathematics achievement goal when grouped according to learning style. The researcher used explanatory cross-sectional design. The Revised Achievement Goal Questionnaire and Kolb’s Learning Style Inventory 3.1 were utilized to collect data. Results show that respondents hold mastery-approach achievement goals regardless of learning styles. Also, students with approach type of mathematics achievement goals hold assimilative learning style which operates on reflective observation and abstract conceptualization; and students with avoidance type of mathematics achievement goals hold accommodative learning style which operates on active experimentation and concrete experimentation. Furthermore, findings show that there is no significant difference in the mathematics achievement goals based on learning style. Exploratory research is recommended to understand why students with approach type of mathematics achievement goals hold assimilative learning style and why students with avoidance type of mathematics achievement goals hold accommodative learning style.

Impact of Teacher's Income on Student's Educational Achievements

Science.gov (United States)

Lukaš, Mirko; Samardžic, Darko

2014-01-01

The aim of this paper is to provide an objective overview of the impact of teacher salaries on the educational achievements of students. It is often debated about teacher salaries and improvement or jeopardizing their standard, but educational consequences that may ensue as a result of these intentions are rarely addressed. Teacher's role in…

The Effect of Extrinsic Motivational Factors Towards Iba Student Achievement

OpenAIRE

Pangemanan, Sifrid S.; Saerang, David Paul Elia; Rondonuwu, Mariska

2014-01-01

The reason students can facing the world of competition because they have a motivation. A thing that help students to get their motivation when they are not get a motivation by themself is through extrinsic motivational factors. There are two objectives of this research are to analyze the effect of extrinsic motivational factors towards student achievement and to identify the most influental factors on student achievement. The method is multiple linear regression analysis to examine the effec...

Freeform object design and simultaneous manufacturing

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Wei; Zhang, Weihan; Lin, Heng; Leu, Ming C.

2003-04-01

Today's product design, especially the consuming product design, focuses more and more on individuation, originality, and the time to market. One way to meet these challenges is using the interactive and creationary product design methods and rapid prototyping/rapid tooling. This paper presents a novel Freeform Object Design and Simultaneous Manufacturing (FODSM) method that combines the natural interaction feature in the design phase and simultaneous manufacturing feature in the prototyping phase. The natural interactive three-dimensional design environment is achieved by adopting virtual reality technology. The geometry of the designed object is defined through the process of "virtual sculpting" during which the designer can touch and visualize the designed object and can hear the virtual manufacturing environment noise. During the designing process, the computer records the sculpting trajectories and automatically translates them into NC codes so as to simultaneously machine the designed part. The paper introduced the principle, implementation process, and key techniques of the new method, and compared it with other popular rapid prototyping methods.

Frame sequences analysis technique of linear objects movement

Science.gov (United States)

Oshchepkova, V. Y.; Berg, I. A.; Shchepkin, D. V.; Kopylova, G. V.

2017-12-01

Obtaining data by noninvasive methods are often needed in many fields of science and engineering. This is achieved through video recording in various frame rate and light spectra. In doing so quantitative analysis of movement of the objects being studied becomes an important component of the research. This work discusses analysis of motion of linear objects on the two-dimensional plane. The complexity of this problem increases when the frame contains numerous objects whose images may overlap. This study uses a sequence containing 30 frames at the resolution of 62 × 62 pixels and frame rate of 2 Hz. It was required to determine the average velocity of objects motion. This velocity was found as an average velocity for 8-12 objects with the error of 15%. After processing dependencies of the average velocity vs. control parameters were found. The processing was performed in the software environment GMimPro with the subsequent approximation of the data obtained using the Hill equation.

Asthma and the Achievement Gap among Urban Minority Youth

Science.gov (United States)

Basch, Charles E.

2011-01-01

Objectives: To outline the prevalence and disparities of asthma among school-aged urban minority youth, causal pathways through which poorly controlled asthma adversely affects academic achievement, and proven or promising approaches for schools to address these problems. Methods: Literature review. Results: Asthma is the most common chronic…

Improved Object Proposals with Geometrical Features for Autonomous Driving

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yiliu Feng

2017-01-01

Full Text Available This paper aims at generating high-quality object proposals for object detection in autonomous driving. Most existing proposal generation methods are designed for the general object detection, which may not perform well in a particular scene. We propose several geometrical features suited for autonomous driving and integrate them into state-of-the-art general proposal generation methods. In particular, we formulate the integration as a feature fusion problem by fusing the geometrical features with existing proposal generation methods in a Bayesian framework. Experiments on the challenging KITTI benchmark demonstrate that our approach improves the existing methods significantly. Combined with a convolutional neural net detector, our approach achieves state-of-the-art performance on all three KITTI object classes.

Multi-objective optimization design method of radiation shielding

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yang Shouhai; Wang Weijin; Lu Daogang; Chen Yixue

2012-01-01

Due to the shielding design goals of diversification and uncertain process of many factors, it is necessary to develop an optimization design method of intelligent shielding by which the shielding scheme selection will be achieved automatically and the uncertainties of human impact will be reduced. For economical feasibility to achieve a radiation shielding design for automation, the multi-objective genetic algorithm optimization of screening code which combines the genetic algorithm and discrete-ordinate method was developed to minimize the costs, size, weight, and so on. This work has some practical significance for gaining the optimization design of shielding. (authors)

Achievement Goals and Achievement Emotions: A Meta-Analysis

Science.gov (United States)

Huang, Chiungjung

2011-01-01

This meta-analysis synthesized 93 independent samples (N = 30,003) in 77 studies that reported in 78 articles examining correlations between achievement goals and achievement emotions. Achievement goals were meaningfully associated with different achievement emotions. The correlations of mastery and mastery approach goals with positive achievement…

Foreign object detection and removal to improve automated analysis of chest radiographs

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hogeweg, Laurens; Sánchez, Clara I.; Melendez, Jaime; Maduskar, Pragnya; Ginneken, Bram van; Story, Alistair; Hayward, Andrew

2013-01-01

Purpose: Chest radiographs commonly contain projections of foreign objects, such as buttons, brassier clips, jewellery, or pacemakers and wires. The presence of these structures can substantially affect the output of computer analysis of these images. An automated method is presented to detect, segment, and remove foreign objects from chest radiographs.Methods: Detection is performed using supervised pixel classification with a kNN classifier, resulting in a probability estimate per pixel to belong to a projected foreign object. Segmentation is performed by grouping and post-processing pixels with a probability above a certain threshold. Next, the objects are replaced by texture inpainting.Results: The method is evaluated in experiments on 257 chest radiographs. The detection at pixel level is evaluated with receiver operating characteristic analysis on pixels within the unobscured lung fields and an A z value of 0.949 is achieved. Free response operator characteristic analysis is performed at the object level, and 95.6% of objects are detected with on average 0.25 false positive detections per image. To investigate the effect of removing the detected objects through inpainting, a texture analysis system for tuberculosis detection is applied to images with and without pathology and with and without foreign object removal. Unprocessed, the texture analysis abnormality score of normal images with foreign objects is comparable to those with pathology. After removing foreign objects, the texture score of normal images with and without foreign objects is similar, while abnormal images, whether they contain foreign objects or not, achieve on average higher scores.Conclusions: The authors conclude that removal of foreign objects from chest radiographs is feasible and beneficial for automated image analysis

Evaluating State-of-the-art Object Detector on Challenging Traffic Light Data

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jensen, Morten Bornø; Nasrollahi, Kamal; Moeslund, Thomas B.

2017-01-01

-of-the-art, real-time object detection system You Only Look Once, (YOLO) on the public LISA Traffic Light dataset available through the VIVA-challenge, which contain a high number of annotated traffic lights, captured in varying light and weather conditions. The YOLO object detector achieves an AUC of impres...

Object instance recognition using motion cues and instance specific appearance models

Science.gov (United States)

Schumann, Arne

2014-03-01

In this paper we present an object instance retrieval approach. The baseline approach consists of a pool of image features which are computed on the bounding boxes of a query object track and compared to a database of tracks in order to find additional appearances of the same object instance. We improve over this simple baseline approach in multiple ways: 1) we include motion cues to achieve improved robustness to viewpoint and rotation changes, 2) we include operator feedback to iteratively re-rank the resulting retrieval lists and 3) we use operator feedback and location constraints to train classifiers and learn an instance specific appearance model. We use these classifiers to further improve the retrieval results. The approach is evaluated on two popular public datasets for two different applications. We evaluate person re-identification on the CAVIAR shopping mall surveillance dataset and vehicle instance recognition on the VIVID aerial dataset and achieve significant improvements over our baseline results.

REAL-TIME OBJECT DETECTION IN PARALLEL THROUGH ATOMIC TRANSACTIONS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

K Sivakumar

2016-11-01

Full Text Available Object detection and tracking is important operation involved in embedded systems like video surveillance, Traffic monitoring, campus security system, machine vision applications and other areas. Detecting and tracking multiple objects in a video or image is challenging problem in machine vision and computer vision based embedded systems. Implementation of such a object detection and tracking systems are done in sequential way of processing and also it was implemented using hardware synthesize tools like verilog HDL with FPGA, achieves considerably lesser performance in speed and it does support lesser atomic transactions. There are many object detection and tracking algorithm were proposed and implemented, among them background subtraction is one of them. This paper proposes a implementation of detecting and tracking multiple objects based on background subtraction algorithm using java and .NET and also discuss about the architecture concept for object detection through atomic transactional, modern hardware synthesizes language called Bluespec.

Understanding of Object Detection Based on CNN Family and YOLO

Science.gov (United States)

Du, Juan

2018-04-01

As a key use of image processing, object detection has boomed along with the unprecedented advancement of Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) and its variants since 2012. When CNN series develops to Faster Region with CNN (R-CNN), the Mean Average Precision (mAP) has reached 76.4, whereas, the Frame Per Second (FPS) of Faster R-CNN remains 5 to 18 which is far slower than the real-time effect. Thus, the most urgent requirement of object detection improvement is to accelerate the speed. Based on the general introduction to the background and the core solution CNN, this paper exhibits one of the best CNN representatives You Only Look Once (YOLO), which breaks through the CNN family’s tradition and innovates a complete new way of solving the object detection with most simple and high efficient way. Its fastest speed has achieved the exciting unparalleled result with FPS 155, and its mAP can also reach up to 78.6, both of which have surpassed the performance of Faster R-CNN greatly. Additionally, compared with the latest most advanced solution, YOLOv2 achieves an excellent tradeoff between speed and accuracy as well as an object detector with strong generalization ability to represent the whole image.

The effects of chronic achievement motivation and achievement primes on the activation of achievement and fun goals.

Science.gov (United States)

Hart, William; Albarracín, Dolores

2009-12-01

This research examined the hypothesis that situational achievement cues can elicit achievement or fun goals depending on chronic differences in achievement motivation. In 4 studies, chronic differences in achievement motivation were measured, and achievement-denoting words were used to influence behavior. The effects of these variables were assessed on self-report inventories, task performance, task resumption following an interruption, and the pursuit of means relevant to achieving or having fun. Findings indicated that achievement priming (vs. control priming) activated a goal to achieve and inhibited a goal to have fun in individuals with chronically high-achievement motivation but activated a goal to have fun and inhibited a goal to achieve in individuals with chronically low-achievement motivation.

Students' Achievement Goals, Learning-Related Emotions and Academic Achievement

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Marko eLüftenegger

2016-05-01

Full Text Available In the present research, the recently proposed 3x2 model of achievement goals is tested and associations with achievement emotions and their joint influence on academic achievement are investigated. The study was conducted with 388 students using the 3x2 Achievement Goal Questionnaire including the six proposed goal constructs (task-approach, task-avoidance, self-approach, self-avoidance, other-approach, other-avoidance and the enjoyment and boredom scales from the Achievement Emotion Questionnaire. Exam grades were used as an indicator of academic achievement. Findings from CFAs provided strong support for the proposed structure of the 3x2 achievement goal model. Self-based goals, other-based goals and task-approach goals predicted enjoyment. Task-approach goals negatively predicted boredom. Task-approach and other-approach predicted achievement. The indirect effects of achievement goals through emotion variables on achievement were assessed using bias-corrected bootstrapping. No mediation effects were found. Implications for educational practice are discussed.

Real-time object detection and semantic segmentation for autonomous driving

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Baojun; Liu, Shun; Xu, Weichao; Qiu, Wei

2018-02-01

In this paper, we proposed a Highly Coupled Network (HCNet) for joint objection detection and semantic segmentation. It follows that our method is faster and performs better than the previous approaches whose decoder networks of different tasks are independent. Besides, we present multi-scale loss architecture to learn better representation for different scale objects, but without extra time in the inference phase. Experiment results show that our method achieves state-of-the-art results on the KITTI datasets. Moreover, it can run at 35 FPS on a GPU and thus is a practical solution to object detection and semantic segmentation for autonomous driving.

Color appearance of familiar objects: effects of object shape, texture, and illumination changes.

Science.gov (United States)

Olkkonen, Maria; Hansen, Thorsten; Gegenfurtner, Karl R

2008-05-26

People perceive roughly constant surface colors despite large changes in illumination. The familiarity of colors of some natural objects might help achieve this feat through direct modulation of the objects' color appearance. Research on memory colors and color appearance has yielded controversial results and due to the employed methods has often confounded perceptual with semantic effects. We studied the effect of memory colors on color appearance by presenting photographs of fruit on a monitor under various simulated illuminations and by asking observers to make either achromatic or typical color settings without placing demands on short-term memory or semantic processing. In a control condition, we presented photographs of 3D fruit shapes without texture and 2D outline shapes. We found that (1) achromatic settings for fruit were systematically biased away from the gray point toward the opposite direction of a fruit's memory color; (2) the strength of the effect depended on the degree of naturalness of the stimuli; and (3) the effect was evident under all tested illuminations, being strongest for illuminations whose chromaticity was closest to the stimulus chromaticity. We conclude that the visual identity of an object has a measurable effect on color perception, and that this effect is robust under illuminant changes, indicating its potential significance as an additional mechanism for color constancy.

Object Detection and Classification by Decision-Level Fusion for Intelligent Vehicle Systems

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sang-Il Oh

2017-01-01

Full Text Available To understand driving environments effectively, it is important to achieve accurate detection and classification of objects detected by sensor-based intelligent vehicle systems, which are significantly important tasks. Object detection is performed for the localization of objects, whereas object classification recognizes object classes from detected object regions. For accurate object detection and classification, fusing multiple sensor information into a key component of the representation and perception processes is necessary. In this paper, we propose a new object-detection and classification method using decision-level fusion. We fuse the classification outputs from independent unary classifiers, such as 3D point clouds and image data using a convolutional neural network (CNN. The unary classifiers for the two sensors are the CNN with five layers, which use more than two pre-trained convolutional layers to consider local to global features as data representation. To represent data using convolutional layers, we apply region of interest (ROI pooling to the outputs of each layer on the object candidate regions generated using object proposal generation to realize color flattening and semantic grouping for charge-coupled device and Light Detection And Ranging (LiDAR sensors. We evaluate our proposed method on a KITTI benchmark dataset to detect and classify three object classes: cars, pedestrians and cyclists. The evaluation results show that the proposed method achieves better performance than the previous methods. Our proposed method extracted approximately 500 proposals on a 1226 × 370 image, whereas the original selective search method extracted approximately 10 6 × n proposals. We obtained classification performance with 77.72% mean average precision over the entirety of the classes in the moderate detection level of the KITTI benchmark dataset.

Young Children Help Others to Achieve Their Social Goals

Science.gov (United States)

Beier, Jonathan S.; Over, Harriet; Carpenter, Malinda

2014-01-01

From early in development, humans have strong prosocial tendencies. Much research has documented young children's propensity to help others achieve their unfulfilled goals toward physical objects. Yet many of our most common and important goals are social--directed toward other people. Here we demonstrate that children are also inclined, and able,…

A Cross-Lagged Longitudinal Study of Relations between Academic Achievement and Korean Adolescent Delinquency

Science.gov (United States)

Lee, Julie

2013-01-01

Objective: Previous studies have shown that academic achievement has a significant effect on juvenile delinquency, with the reverse reported as well. This study, therefore, examined the reciprocal causal relationships between academic achievement and juvenile delinquency. Methods: The participants were 3449 Korean adolescents (mean age 13.2 years,…

Multiple-Sensor Discrimination of Closely-Spaced Objects on a Ballistic Trajectory

Science.gov (United States)

2015-05-18

Modeling Two-body orbit dynamics was utilized to generate ballistic trajectories between the desired burnout and reentry points. The dispersion of object...trajectories within the target complex was achieved by varying the velocity of each object at the burnout points. The generated trajectories served...utilized as it removes several limitations associated with using the Euclidean distance mainly that it accounts for the scaling of the coordinate

Classifying objects in LWIR imagery via CNNs

Science.gov (United States)

Rodger, Iain; Connor, Barry; Robertson, Neil M.

2016-10-01

The aim of the presented work is to demonstrate enhanced target recognition and improved false alarm rates for a mid to long range detection system, utilising a Long Wave Infrared (LWIR) sensor. By exploiting high quality thermal image data and recent techniques in machine learning, the system can provide automatic target recognition capabilities. A Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) is trained and the classifier achieves an overall accuracy of > 95% for 6 object classes related to land defence. While the highly accurate CNN struggles to recognise long range target classes, due to low signal quality, robust target discrimination is achieved for challenging candidates. The overall performance of the methodology presented is assessed using human ground truth information, generating classifier evaluation metrics for thermal image sequences.

Colombian public policies contributing to the achievement of Millennium Development Goals in the health sector, 2006

OpenAIRE

Lina M. Grisales; Libardo A. Giraldo

2008-01-01

During the General Assembly of the United Nations, in September 2000,189 countries (including Colombia) committed to eight objectives leading to a more human and fairer world. Such objectives are called the Millennium Development Goals (mdg) and to achieve them it is crucial to incorporate them in the action agendas of each country. The purpose of this monograph is to recognize current public policies in Colombia and Antioquia leading the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals, speci...

Multi-energy method of digital radiography for imaging of biological objects

Science.gov (United States)

Ryzhikov, V. D.; Naydenov, S. V.; Opolonin, O. D.; Volkov, V. G.; Smith, C. F.

2016-03-01

This work has been dedicated to the search for a new possibility to use multi-energy digital radiography (MER) for medical applications. Our work has included both theoretical and experimental investigations of 2-energy (2E) and 3- energy (3D) radiography for imaging the structure of biological objects. Using special simulation methods and digital analysis based on the X-ray interaction energy dependence for each element of importance to medical applications in the X-ray range of energy up to 150 keV, we have implemented a quasi-linear approximation for the energy dependence of the X-ray linear mass absorption coefficient μm (E) that permits us to determine the intrinsic structure of the biological objects. Our measurements utilize multiple X-ray tube voltages (50, 100, and 150 kV) with Al and Cu filters of different thicknesses to achieve 3-energy X-ray examination of objects. By doing so, we are able to achieve significantly improved imaging quality of the structure of the subject biological objects. To reconstruct and visualize the final images, we use both two-dimensional (2D) and three-dimensional (3D) palettes of identification. The result is a 2E and/or 3E representation of the object with color coding of each pixel according to the data outputs. Following the experimental measurements and post-processing, we produce a 3D image of the biological object - in the case of our trials, fragments or parts of chicken and turkey.

The Achievement Ideology and Whiteness: "Achieving Whiteness" or "Achieving Middle Class?"

Science.gov (United States)

Allen, Ricky Lee

Over the past few decades, social reproduction theorists have criticized achievement ideology as a dominant and dominating myth that hides the true nature of class immobility. Social reproductionists' primary criticism of achievement ideology is that it blinds the working class, regardless of race or gender, to the possibilities of collective…

Geothermal Program Review VI: proceedings. Beyond goals and objectives

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

1988-01-01

Program Review VI was comprised of six sessions, including an opening session, four technical sessions that addressed each of the major DOE research areas, and a session on special issues. The technical sessions were on Hydrothermal, Hot Dry Rock, Geopressured and Magma resources. Presenters in the technical sessions discussed their R and D activities within the context of specific GTD Programmatic Objectives for that technology, their progress toward achieving those objectives, and the value of those achievements to industry. The ''Special Issues'' presentations addressed several topics such as the interactions between government and industry on geothermal energy R and D; the origin and basis for the programmatic objectives analytical computer model; and international marketing opportunities for US geothermal equipment and services. The unique aspect of Program Review VI was that it was held in conjunction with the National Geothermal Association's Industry Round Table on Federal R and D. The Round Table provided a forum for open and lively discussions between industry and government researchers and gave industry an opportunity to convey their needs and perspectives on DOE's research programs. These discussions also provided valuable information to DOE regarding industry's priorities and directions.

An Exploratory Study into the Efficacy of Learning Objects

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Nicholas W. Farha, Ph.D.

2009-07-01

Full Text Available Learning objects have quickly become a widely accepted approach to instructional technology, particularly in on-line and computer-based learning environments. While there is a substantial body of literature concerning learning objects, very little of it verifies their efficacy. This research investigated the effectiveness of learning objects by comparing learning outcomes using a learning object with outcomes using a traditional textbook-based method of instruction. Participants were 327 undergraduate college students at a traditional public four-year coed institution, a private four-year women’s college, a private four-year engineering institution, and a public two-year community college. Through a series of independent samples t-tests and Analyses of Variance, results revealed mean scores for the learning object group that were nearly three times higher than the mean scores for the textbook-taught group. Gaming experience, age, gender, and learner preference were evaluated for their potential influence on the results; no statistically significant differences were found, implying that the learning object itself was central to the outcomes achieved. The future of learning objects is bright, and more empirical research is called for in the area of learning object effectiveness.

Policy consistency and the achievement of Nigeria's foreign policy ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

This study is an attempt to investigate the policy consistency of Nigeria‟s foreign policy and to understand the basis for this consistency; and also to see whether peacekeeping/peace-enforcement is key instrument in the achievement of Nigeria‟s foreign policy goals. The objective of the study was to examine whether the ...

The Role of Radiological Protection in Sweden's National Environmental quality Objectives

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hubbard, L.; Mjones, L.; Holm, E.

2004-01-01

In 1999, the Swedish Parliament adopted fifteen environmental quality objectives, defining the quality of Sweden's environment and of its natural and cultural resources that will insure sustainable growth. In 2001, the government proposed interim targets for each objective, specifying the direction and time scale of the proposed actions. These objectives give Sweden a unique opportunity to define, quantify and achieve an ecologically sustainable environment. One of the national objectives, A Safe Radiation Environment, targets both ionising and non-ionising radiation and states, human health and biological diversity must be protected against the harmful effects of radiation in the environment. The Swedish Radiation Protection Authority (SSI) has the responsibility for formulating and achieving the interim targets for this objective. The targets presently focus on controlling radioactive emissions, limiting exposures to ultraviolet radiation and defining the risks from exposure to electromagnetic fields. Part of SSI's responsibility for the environmental quality objective is to develop a system for monitoring and quantifying progress towards each interim target. Sweden's National Board of Housing, Building and Planning (NBHBP) is responsible for another of the national objectives, A Good Built- Environment. As part of this objective, a special interim target for the indoor environment was approved by Parliament in 2002, which includes a specification for human exposure to radon in indoor air. It states: radon concentrations should be lower than 200 Bq/m3 in schools and pre-schools by the year 2010, and below 200 Bq/m3 in homes by 2020. This substantially raises the level of ambition regarding reducing exposure to indoor radon. The aim of this paper is to briefly summarize the role of radiological protection in Sweden's environmental quality objectives. (Author) 3 refs

Objective - oriented financial analysis introduction

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Dessislava Kostova – Pickett

2018-02-01

Full Text Available The practice of financial analysis has been immeasurably strengthened in recent years thanks to the ongoing evolution of computerized approaches in the form of spreadsheets and computer-based financial models of different types. These devices not only relieved the analyst's computing task, but also opened up a wide range of analyzes and research into alternative sensitivity, which so far has not been possible. The main potential for object-oriented financial analysis consists in enormously expanding the analyst's capabilities through an online knowledge and information interface that has not yet been achieved through existing methods and software packages.

Integrated conservation planning for coral reefs: Designing conservation zones for multiple conservation objectives in spatial prioritisation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Rafael A. Magris

2017-07-01

Full Text Available Decision-makers focus on representing biodiversity pattern, maintaining connectivity, and strengthening resilience to global warming when designing marine protected area (MPA systems, especially in coral reef ecosystems. The achievement of these broad conservation objectives will likely require large areas, and stretch limited funds for MPA implementation. We undertook a spatial prioritisation of Brazilian coral reefs that considered two types of conservation zones (i.e. no-take and multiple use areas and integrated multiple conservation objectives into MPA planning, while assessing the potential impact of different sets of objectives on implementation costs. We devised objectives for biodiversity, connectivity, and resilience to global warming, determined the extent to which existing MPAs achieved them, and designed complementary zoning to achieve all objectives combined in expanded MPA systems. In doing so, we explored interactions between different sets of objectives, determined whether refinements to the existing spatial arrangement of MPAs were necessary, and tested the utility of existing MPAs by comparing their cost effectiveness with an MPA system designed from scratch. We found that MPAs in Brazil protect some aspects of coral reef biodiversity pattern (e.g. threatened fauna and ecosystem types more effectively than connectivity or resilience to global warming. Expanding the existing MPA system was as cost-effective as designing one from scratch only when multiple objectives were considered and management costs were accounted for. Our approach provides a comprehensive assessment of the benefits of integrating multiple objectives in the initial stages of conservation planning, and yields insights for planners of MPAs tackling multiple objectives in other regions.

Fuzzy-Rule-Based Object Identification Methodology for NAVI System

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yaacob Sazali

2005-01-01

Full Text Available We present an object identification methodology applied in a navigation assistance for visually impaired (NAVI system. The NAVI has a single board processing system (SBPS, a digital video camera mounted headgear, and a pair of stereo earphones. The captured image from the camera is processed by the SBPS to generate a specially structured stereo sound suitable for vision impaired people in understanding the presence of objects/obstacles in front of them. The image processing stage is designed to identify the objects in the captured image. Edge detection and edge-linking procedures are applied in the processing of image. A concept of object preference is included in the image processing scheme and this concept is realized using a fuzzy-rule base. The blind users are trained with the stereo sound produced by NAVI for achieving a collision-free autonomous navigation.

Fuzzy-Rule-Based Object Identification Methodology for NAVI System

Science.gov (United States)

Nagarajan, R.; Sainarayanan, G.; Yaacob, Sazali; Porle, Rosalyn R.

2005-12-01

We present an object identification methodology applied in a navigation assistance for visually impaired (NAVI) system. The NAVI has a single board processing system (SBPS), a digital video camera mounted headgear, and a pair of stereo earphones. The captured image from the camera is processed by the SBPS to generate a specially structured stereo sound suitable for vision impaired people in understanding the presence of objects/obstacles in front of them. The image processing stage is designed to identify the objects in the captured image. Edge detection and edge-linking procedures are applied in the processing of image. A concept of object preference is included in the image processing scheme and this concept is realized using a fuzzy-rule base. The blind users are trained with the stereo sound produced by NAVI for achieving a collision-free autonomous navigation.

Academic Procrastination in Linking Motivation and Achievement-Related Behaviours: A Perspective of Expectancy-Value Theory

Science.gov (United States)

Wu, Fan; Fan, Weihua

2017-01-01

The objective of the present study was to investigate the relationships among college students' achievement motivation (subjective task value and academic self-efficacy), academic procrastination (delay and missing deadlines) and achievement-related behaviours (effort and persistence). More specifically, the study investigated the mediating role…

A two-level parallel direct search implementation for arbitrarily sized objective functions

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Hutchinson, S.A.; Shadid, N.; Moffat, H.K. [Sandia National Labs., Albuquerque, NM (United States)] [and others

1994-12-31

In the past, many optimization schemes for massively parallel computers have attempted to achieve parallel efficiency using one of two methods. In the case of large and expensive objective function calculations, the optimization itself may be run in serial and the objective function calculations parallelized. In contrast, if the objective function calculations are relatively inexpensive and can be performed on a single processor, then the actual optimization routine itself may be parallelized. In this paper, a scheme based upon the Parallel Direct Search (PDS) technique is presented which allows the objective function calculations to be done on an arbitrarily large number (p{sub 2}) of processors. If, p, the number of processors available, is greater than or equal to 2p{sub 2} then the optimization may be parallelized as well. This allows for efficient use of computational resources since the objective function calculations can be performed on the number of processors that allow for peak parallel efficiency and then further speedup may be achieved by parallelizing the optimization. Results are presented for an optimization problem which involves the solution of a PDE using a finite-element algorithm as part of the objective function calculation. The optimum number of processors for the finite-element calculations is less than p/2. Thus, the PDS method is also parallelized. Performance comparisons are given for a nCUBE 2 implementation.

Individual versus Peer Grit: Influence on Later Individual Literacy Achievement of Dual Language Learners

Science.gov (United States)

O'Neal, Colleen R.

2018-01-01

The objective of this short-term longitudinal study was to examine individual versus classroom peer effects of grit on later individual literacy achievement in elementary school. The dual language learner, largely Latina/o sample included students from the 3rd through the 5th grades. Participants completed a literacy achievement performance task…

A cooperative approach to queue allocation of indivisible objects

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Hamers, H.J.M.; Klijn, F.; Slikker, M.; Velzen, van B.

2009-01-01

We consider the allocation of a finite number of indivisible objects to the same number of agents according to an exogenously given queue. We assume that the agents collaborate in order to achieve an efficient outcome for society. We allow for side-payments and provide a method for obtaining stable

AUTOMATIC FAST VIDEO OBJECT DETECTION AND TRACKING ON VIDEO SURVEILLANCE SYSTEM

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

V. Arunachalam

2012-08-01

Full Text Available This paper describes the advance techniques for object detection and tracking in video. Most visual surveillance systems start with motion detection. Motion detection methods attempt to locate connected regions of pixels that represent the moving objects within the scene; different approaches include frame-to-frame difference, background subtraction and motion analysis. The motion detection can be achieved by Principle Component Analysis (PCA and then separate an objects from background using background subtraction. The detected object can be segmented. Segmentation consists of two schemes: one for spatial segmentation and the other for temporal segmentation. Tracking approach can be done in each frame of detected Object. Pixel label problem can be alleviated by the MAP (Maximum a Posteriori technique.

Object permanence in common marmosets (Callithrix jacchus).

Science.gov (United States)

Mendes, Natacha; Huber, Ludwig

2004-03-01

A series of 9 search tasks corresponding to the Piagetian Stages 3-6 of object permanence were administered to 11 common marmosets (Callithrix jacchus). Success rates varied strongly among tasks and marmosets, but the performances of most subjects were above chance level on the majority of tasks of visible and invisible displacements. Although up to 24 trials were administered in the tests, subjects did not improve their performance across trials. Errors were due to preferences for specific locations or boxes, simple search strategies, and attentional deficits. The performances of at least 2 subjects that achieved very high scores up to the successive invisible displacement task suggest that this species is able to represent the existence and the movements of unperceived objects. ((c) 2004 APA, all rights reserved)

The Effect of Teaching Strategies and Curiosity on Students' Achievement in Reading Comprehension

Science.gov (United States)

Gurning, Busmin; Siregar, Aguslani

2017-01-01

The objectives of this study were to find out whether 1) students' achievement in reading comprehension taught by using INSERT strategy was higher than those taught by using SQ3R strategy, 2) Students' achievement in reading comprehension having high curiosity was higher than those having low curiosity, 3) there was an interaction between teaching…

The Development of Object Permanence in Children with Intellectual Disability, Physical Disability, Autism, and Blindness

Science.gov (United States)

Bruce, Susan; Muhammad, Zayyad

2009-01-01

This article presents a review of the literature on object permanence with an emphasis on research on children with severe disabilities. Object permanence is the realisation that objects continue to exist in time and place even when they are no longer visible. This understanding is achieved across Stages IV-VI of Piaget's Sensorimotor Period.…

Estimation of object motion parameters from noisy images.

Science.gov (United States)

Broida, T J; Chellappa, R

1986-01-01

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

Is 2 Degrees Achievable? The Cold Turkey Experiment

Science.gov (United States)

Schwartz, S. E.

2017-12-01

The 2015 Paris Agreement calls for collective international action to hold the increase in global average temperature to well below 2˚C above preindustrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit the increase to 1.5°C. How much would carbon dioxide emissions have to be reduced to achieve these objectives, or can these objectives even be achieved at all? These questions are examined using a global energy balance model to carry out a "cold turkey" experiment in which emissions from fossil fuel combustion are abruptly halted; this is a limiting case for any practically achievable gradual reduction in emissions. The model study halts emissions not just of CO2 but also of atmospheric aerosols and precursor gases. These aerosols are thought to be offsetting a substantial but highly uncertain fraction of the radiative forcing of anthropogenic CO2 by scattering solar radiation and by increasing cloud reflectivity. In contrast to CO2, which would persist in the atmosphere for decades to centuries, aerosols would be removed almost immediately after cessation of emissions. Consequently, at least in the early decades following abrupt cessation of emissions, net forcing and global temperature would likely increase, not decrease. The magnitude of the temperature increase that would ensue depends on Earth's climate sensitivity and current aerosol forcing. These quantities are quite uncertain but are strongly correlated through observational constraints. Within present uncertainty it cannot be stated with confidence whether the 2˚C target could be achieved even if emissions were abruptly halted. Future global CO2 emissions consistent with achieving the 2˚C target range from as much as 100 years at current emission rates if Earth's climate sensitivity is at the low end of the range estimated by the IPCC 2013 Assessment Report, to zero, the committed temperature increase already exceeding the 2˚C limit, if sensitivity is at the high end of the IPCC range. Figure. Global mean

Food safety objective: an integral part of food chain management

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Gorris, L.G.M.

2005-01-01

The concept of food safety objective has been proposed to provide a target for operational food safety management, leaving flexibility in the way equivalent food safety levels are achieved by different food chains. The concept helps to better relate operational food safety management to public

Piagetian object permanence and its development in Eurasian jays (Garrulus glandarius).

Science.gov (United States)

Zucca, Paolo; Milos, Nadia; Vallortigara, Giorgio

2007-04-01

Object permanence in Eurasian jays (Garrulus glandarius) was investigated using a complete version of the Uzgiris and Hunt scale 1. Nine hand-raised jays were studied, divided into two groups according to their different developmental stages (experiment 1, older jays: 2-3 months old, n = 4; experiment 2, younger jays: 15 days old, n = 5). In the first experiment, we investigated whether older jays could achieve piagetian stage 6 of object permanence. Tasks were administered in a fixed sequence (1-15) according to the protocols used in other avian species. The aim of the second experiment was to check whether testing very young jays before their development of "neophobia" could influence the achievement times of piagetian stages. Furthermore, in this experiment tasks were administered randomly to investigate whether the jays' achievement of stage 6 follows a fixed sequence related to the development of specific cognitive abilities. All jays tested in experiments 1 and 2 fully achieved piagetian stage 6 and no "A not B" errors were observed. Performance on visible displacement tasks was better than performance on invisible ones. The results of experiment 2 show that "neophobia" affected the response of jays in terms of achievement times; the older jays in experiment 1 took longer to pass all the tasks when compared with the younger, less neophobic, jays in experiment 2. With regard to the achieving order, jays followed a fixed sequence of acquisition in experiment 2, even if tasks were administered randomly, with the exception of one subject. The results of these experiments support the idea that piagetian stages of cognitive development exist in avian species and that they progress through relatively fixed sequences.

Relation between infants'/toddlers' developmental status and their levels of object play

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Urška Fekonja

2001-06-01

Full Text Available The purpose of introduced study was to establish the connection between the highest achieved levels of infant' and toddler's object play and their developmental status. 23 Slovenian infants and toddlers were included in the sample. They were engaged in solitary play with standard toys. Global and partial quotients were established using the early childhood development scale RT-R. The levels of child's solitary play were estimated using assesment scale designed by Belsky and Most. The results showed some statisticaly significant correlations between children's developmental qoutients (global and partial and their highest achieved levels of object play. As the basis for the interpretation of results I used the theories which explain the development of child's language, cognition and play.

The Impact of Principal Instructional Leadership Practices on Student Achievement

Science.gov (United States)

Nason, Kristen Kendrick

2011-01-01

The problem addressed in this cross-sectional, quantitative study was a continual stagnation in student achievement in one U.S. state, which is critical to stakeholders responsible for increasing student advancement in college and the 21st century workforce. Specifically, the objective was to identify the relationship between principal-perceived…

College Students' Motivation to Achieve and Maintain a Healthy Weight

Science.gov (United States)

Furia, Andrea C.; Lee, Rebecca E.; Strother, Myra L.; Huang, Terry T-K.

2009-01-01

Objectives: To develop and refine a scale of motivational factors related to healthy weight achievement and maintenance and to examine differences by gender and weight status. Methods: A cross-sectional survey of 300 university students aged 18-24 years. Results: Factor analysis yielded 6 factors--Intrinsic (Cronbach's alpha = 0.73): affective…

Teen Pregnancy and the Achievement Gap among Urban Minority Youth

Science.gov (United States)

Basch, Charles E.

2011-01-01

Objectives: To outline the prevalence and disparities of teen pregnancy among school-aged urban minority youth, causal pathways through which nonmarital teen births adversely affects academic achievement, and proven or promising approaches for schools to address this problem. Methods: Literature review. Results: In 2006, the birth rate among 15-…

The effect of post-discharge educational intervention on patients in achieving objectives in modifiable risk factors six months after discharge following an episode of acute coronary syndrome, (CAM-2 Project: a randomized controlled trial

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

de Teresa-Galván ß Eduardo

2010-11-01

Full Text Available Abstract Objectives We investigated whether an intervention mainly consisting of a signed agreement between patient and physician on the objectives to be reached, improves reaching these secondary prevention objectives in modifiable cardiovascular risk factors six-months after discharge following an acute coronary syndrome. Background There is room to improve mid-term adherence to clinical guidelines' recommendations in coronary heart disease secondary prevention, specially non-pharmacological ones, often neglected. Methods In CAM-2, patients discharged after an acute coronary syndrome were randomly assigned to the intervention or the usual care group. The primary outcome was reaching therapeutic objectives in various secondary prevention variables: smoking, obesity, blood lipids, blood pressure control, exercise and taking of medication. Results 1757 patients were recruited in 64 hospitals and 1510 (762 in the intervention and 748 in the control group attended the six-months follow-up visit. After adjustment for potentially important variables, there were, between the intervention and control group, differences in the mean reduction of body mass index (0.5 vs. 0.2; p Conclusions At least in the short term, lifestyle changes among coronary heart disease patients are achievable by intensifying the responsibility of the patient himself by means of a simple and feasible intervention.

Social Adaptation and Its Relationship to Achievement Motivation among High School Students in Jordan

Science.gov (United States)

AlZboon, Saleem Odeh

2013-01-01

The study amid at exploring and detecting the level of social adaptation and its relationship with the achievement motivation of the secondary school students in Jordan, the study sample consisted of 495 secondary school students in the province of Jerash, and to achieve the objective of this study comes the development of two tools: the first one…

Multi-objective Optimization of Process Parameters in Friction Stir Welding

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Tutum, Cem Celal; Hattel, Jesper Henri

The objective of this paper is to investigate optimum process parameters in Friction Stir Welding (FSW) to minimize residual stresses in the work piece and maximize production efficiency meanwhile satisfying process specific constraints as well. More specifically, the choices of tool rotational...... speed and traverse welding speed have been sought in order to achieve the goals mentioned above using an evolutionary multi-objective optimization (MOO) algorithm, i.e. non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm (NSGA-II), integrated with a transient, 2- dimensional sequentially coupled thermo...

Vertical Object Layout and Compression for Fixed Heaps

Science.gov (United States)

Titzer, Ben L.; Palsberg, Jens

Research into embedded sensor networks has placed increased focus on the problem of developing reliable and flexible software for microcontroller-class devices. Languages such as nesC [10] and Virgil [20] have brought higher-level programming idioms to this lowest layer of software, thereby adding expressiveness. Both languages are marked by the absence of dynamic memory allocation, which removes the need for a runtime system to manage memory. While nesC offers code modules with statically allocated fields, arrays and structs, Virgil allows the application to allocate and initialize arbitrary objects during compilation, producing a fixed object heap for runtime. This paper explores techniques for compressing fixed object heaps with the goal of reducing the RAM footprint of a program. We explore table-based compression and introduce a novel form of object layout called vertical object layout. We provide experimental results that measure the impact on RAM size, code size, and execution time for a set of Virgil programs. Our results show that compressed vertical layout has better execution time and code size than table-based compression while achieving more than 20% heap reduction on 6 of 12 benchmark programs and 2-17% heap reduction on the remaining 6. We also present a formalization of vertical object layout and prove tight relationships between three styles of object layout.

Model-based object classification using unification grammars and abstract representations

Science.gov (United States)

Liburdy, Kathleen A.; Schalkoff, Robert J.

1993-04-01

The design and implementation of a high level computer vision system which performs object classification is described. General object labelling and functional analysis require models of classes which display a wide range of geometric variations. A large representational gap exists between abstract criteria such as `graspable' and current geometric image descriptions. The vision system developed and described in this work addresses this problem and implements solutions based on a fusion of semantics, unification, and formal language theory. Object models are represented using unification grammars, which provide a framework for the integration of structure and semantics. A methodology for the derivation of symbolic image descriptions capable of interacting with the grammar-based models is described and implemented. A unification-based parser developed for this system achieves object classification by determining if the symbolic image description can be unified with the abstract criteria of an object model. Future research directions are indicated.

Three-dimensional object recognition using similar triangles and decision trees

Science.gov (United States)

Spirkovska, Lilly

1993-01-01

A system, TRIDEC, that is capable of distinguishing between a set of objects despite changes in the objects' positions in the input field, their size, or their rotational orientation in 3D space is described. TRIDEC combines very simple yet effective features with the classification capabilities of inductive decision tree methods. The feature vector is a list of all similar triangles defined by connecting all combinations of three pixels in a coarse coded 127 x 127 pixel input field. The classification is accomplished by building a decision tree using the information provided from a limited number of translated, scaled, and rotated samples. Simulation results are presented which show that TRIDEC achieves 94 percent recognition accuracy in the 2D invariant object recognition domain and 98 percent recognition accuracy in the 3D invariant object recognition domain after training on only a small sample of transformed views of the objects.

Birth of the Object: Detection of Objectness and Extraction of Object Shape through Object Action Complexes

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kraft, Dirk; Pugeault, Nicolas; Baseski, Emre

2008-01-01

We describe a process in which the segmentation of objects as well as the extraction of the object shape becomes realized through active exploration of a robot vision system. In the exploration process, two behavioral modules that link robot actions to the visual and haptic perception of objects...... interact. First, by making use of an object independent grasping mechanism, physical control over potential objects can be gained. Having evaluated the initial grasping mechanism as being successful, a second behavior extracts the object shape by making use of prediction based on the motion induced...... system, knowledge about its own embodiment as well as knowledge about geometric relationships such as rigid body motion. This prior knowledge allows the extraction of representations that are semantically richer compared to many other approaches....

The Role of Emotional Intelligence in Mediating the Relationship between Emerging Adulthood and Academic Achievement

Science.gov (United States)

Noor, Farukh; Hanafi, Zahyah

2017-01-01

Purpose: Academic achievement of students can be fostered and improved if they learn to apply emotional intelligence in their emerging adulthood. The core objective of this research is to test the relationship between emerging adulthood and academic achievement by taking emotional intelligence as a mediator. Methodology: The sample comprises 90…

Detecting objects in radiographs for homeland security

Science.gov (United States)

Prasad, Lakshman; Snyder, Hans

2005-05-01

We present a general scheme for segmenting a radiographic image into polygons that correspond to visual features. This decomposition provides a vectorized representation that is a high-level description of the image. The polygons correspond to objects or object parts present in the image. This characterization of radiographs allows the direct application of several shape recognition algorithms to identify objects. In this paper we describe the use of constrained Delaunay triangulations as a uniform foundational tool to achieve multiple visual tasks, namely image segmentation, shape decomposition, and parts-based shape matching. Shape decomposition yields parts that serve as tokens representing local shape characteristics. Parts-based shape matching enables the recognition of objects in the presence of occlusions, which commonly occur in radiographs. The polygonal representation of image features affords the efficient design and application of sophisticated geometric filtering methods to detect large-scale structural properties of objects in images. Finally, the representation of radiographs via polygons results in significant reduction of image file sizes and permits the scalable graphical representation of images, along with annotations of detected objects, in the SVG (scalable vector graphics) format that is proposed by the world wide web consortium (W3C). This is a textual representation that can be compressed and encrypted for efficient and secure transmission of information over wireless channels and on the Internet. In particular, our methods described here provide an algorithmic framework for developing image analysis tools for screening cargo at ports of entry for homeland security.

Object-Based Benefits without Object-Based Representations

OpenAIRE

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

2012-01-01

The organization of visual information into objects strongly influences visual memory: Displays with objects defined by two features (e.g. color, orientation) are easier to remember than displays with twice as many objects defined by one feature (Olson & Jiang, 2002). Existing theories suggest that this ‘object-benefit’ is based on object-based limitations in working memory: because a limited number of objects can be stored, packaging features together so that fewer objects have to be remembe...

Farm Planning by Fuzzy Multi Objective Programming Model

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

m Raei Jadidi

2010-05-01

Full Text Available In current study, Fuzzy Goal Programming (FGP model by considering a set of social and economic goals, was applied to optimal land allocation in Koshksaray district, Marand city, East Azarbaijan province, Iran. Farmer goals including total cultivable area, factor of production, production levels of various crops and total expected profit were considered fuzzily in establishment of the model. The goals were considered by 16 scenarios in the form of single objective, compound and priority structures. Results showed that, cost minimization in single objective and compound scenario is the best as compared with current conditions. In priority structure, scenario 10 with priorities of profit maximization, cost minimization, satisfying of production goals considering cost minimization and production goals, and scenario 13 with priorities of profit maximization, satisfying factor of production goals, cost minimization and fulfilling production goals, had minimum Euclidean Distance and satisfied the fuzzy objectives. Moreover, dry barley, irrigated and dry wheat and irrigated barely had maximum and minimum cultivated area, respectively. According to the findings, by reallocation of resources, farmers can achieve their better goals and objectives.

Object permanence development in infants with motor handicaps.

Science.gov (United States)

Fetters, L

1981-03-01

This study was an investigation of the effects of a motor handicap on the development of object permanence in the young child. Motor abilities were evaluated for 12 infants aged 13 to 29 months. Based on this evaluation, the children were described as manipulators or nonmanipulators in reference to their upper extremity skills. Their stage of object permanence was assessed using traditional and nontraditional assessments. Heart rate and visual tracking were recorded during the nontraditional assessment. Heart rate did not significantly relate to visual fixation or search response. There was, however, a significant difference (p less than .02) between stage achievement with traditional testing and age-appropriate levels. There was no significant difference between the nontraditional assessment and the age-appropriate levels. In addition, there was no significant difference in the development of object permanence between infants described as manipulators and those described as nonmanipulators. The last two findings suggest that infants with motor handicaps may develop object permanence at the expected ages, according to a nontraditional assessment.

Object width modulates object-based attentional selection.

Science.gov (United States)

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

2018-04-24

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

Analysis of process parameters in surface grinding using single objective Taguchi and multi-objective grey relational grade

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Prashant J. Patil

2016-09-01

Full Text Available Close tolerance and good surface finish are achieved by means of grinding process. This study was carried out for multi-objective optimization of MQL grinding process parameters. Water based Al2O3 and CuO nanofluids of various concentrations are used as lubricant for MQL system. Grinding experiments were carried out on instrumented surface grinding machine. For experimentation purpose Taguchi's method was used. Important process parameters that affect the G ratio and surface finish in MQL grinding are depth of cut, type of lubricant, feed rate, grinding wheel speed, coolant flow rate, and nanoparticle size. Grinding performance was calculated by the measurement G ratio and surface finish. For improvement of grinding process a multi-objective process parameter optimization is performed by use of Taguchi based grey relational analysis. To identify most significant factor of process analysis of variance (ANOVA has been used.

Multi-Objective Ant Colony Optimization Based on the Physarum-Inspired Mathematical Model for Bi-Objective Traveling Salesman Problems.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Zili Zhang

Full Text Available Bi-objective Traveling Salesman Problem (bTSP is an important field in the operations research, its solutions can be widely applied in the real world. Many researches of Multi-objective Ant Colony Optimization (MOACOs have been proposed to solve bTSPs. However, most of MOACOs suffer premature convergence. This paper proposes an optimization strategy for MOACOs by optimizing the initialization of pheromone matrix with the prior knowledge of Physarum-inspired Mathematical Model (PMM. PMM can find the shortest route between two nodes based on the positive feedback mechanism. The optimized algorithms, named as iPM-MOACOs, can enhance the pheromone in the short paths and promote the search ability of ants. A series of experiments are conducted and experimental results show that the proposed strategy can achieve a better compromise solution than the original MOACOs for solving bTSPs.

Comparing Faculty and Students Perceptions on Clinical Competency Achievement in Rehabilitation Programs

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Foroozan Shokooh

2009-10-01

Full Text Available Objectives: Clinical competencies are learning outcomes the student should display by the end of the program and competency based instruction measures what participants have learned as opposed to what instructors think they have thought. Objective of this study was to compare student and faculty perceptions of the importance and achievement of clinical competencies in rehabilitation programs. Methods: The survey instrument was a dual-response 5-point Likert-type questionnaire consisting of 29 competencies based on content and skill areas in the management of patient with chronic illnesses. The instrument was administered to all faculty members and final year undergraduate students of three rehabilitation programs including Speech therapy, physiotherapy and occupational therapy at the University of Rehabilitation and Social Welfare in Iran. Results: 45 students and 19 faculty members participated in the study. Overall, most of the students (81% rated themselves as moderately competent (mean between 2 to 4. Perceived self-efficacy of male students was significantly higher than female students. (P=0.014 Differences between perceived importance and perceived achievement were statistically significant in each subject group. (P=0.000. Discussion: Faculty members and students shared very similar perceptions on the importance & achievement of competencies. Difference between importance and achievement of competencies may suggest a failure in consideration of required competencies or successful implementation of them in the current curriculum.

Why greatness cannot be planned the myth of the objective

CERN Document Server

Stanley, Kenneth O

2015-01-01

Why does modern life revolve around objectives? From how science is funded, to improving how children are educated -- and nearly everything in-between -- our society has become obsessed with a seductive illusion: that greatness results from doggedly measuring improvement in the relentless pursuit of an ambitious goal. In Why Greatness Cannot Be Planned, Stanley and Lehman begin with a surprising scientific discovery in artificial intelligence that leads ultimately to the conclusion that the objective obsession has gone too far. They make the case that great achievement can't be bottled up int

Achieving the Benefits of Safeguards by Design

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bjornard, Trond; Bean, Robert; Hebditch, David; Morgan, Jim; Meppen, Bruce; DeMuth, Scott; Ehinger, Michael; Hockert, John

2008-01-01

The overarching driver for developing a formalized process to achieve safeguards by design is to support the global growth of nuclear power while reducing 'nuclear security' risks. This paper discusses an institutional approach to the design process for a nuclear facility, for designing proliferation resistance, international safeguards and U.S. national safeguards and security into new nuclear facilities. In the United States, the need exists to develop a simple, concise, formalized, and integrated approach for incorporating international safeguards and other non-proliferation considerations into the facility design process. An effective and efficient design process is one which clearly defines the functional requirements at the beginning of the project and provides for the execution of the project to achieve a reasonable balance among competing objectives in a cost effective manner. Safeguards by Design is defined as 'the integration of international and national safeguards, physical security and non-proliferation features as full and equal partners in the design process of a nuclear energy system or facility,' with the objective to achieve facilities that are intrinsically more robust while being less expensive to safeguard and protect. This Safeguards by Design process has been developed such that it: (sm b ullet) Provides improved safeguards, security, and stronger proliferation barriers, while reducing the life cycle costs to the operator and regulatory agencies, (sm b ullet) Can be translated to any international context as a model for nuclear facility design, (sm b ullet) Fosters a culture change to ensure the treatment of 'nuclear security' considerations as 'full and equal' partners in the design process, (sm b ullet) Provides a useful tool for the project manager responsible for the design, construction, and start-up of nuclear facilities, and (sm b ullet) Addresses the key integration activities necessary to efficiently incorporate International Atomic

Surpassing digital holography limits by lensless object scanning holography.

Science.gov (United States)

Micó, Vicente; Ferreira, Carlos; García, Javier

2012-04-23

We present lensless object scanning holography (LOSH) as a fully lensless method, capable of improving image quality in reflective digital Fourier holography, by means of an extremely simplified experimental setup. LOSH is based on the recording and digital post-processing of a set of digital lensless holograms and results in a synthetic image with improved resolution, field of view (FOV), signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), and depth of field (DOF). The superresolution (SR) effect arises from the generation of a synthetic aperture (SA) based on the linear movement of the inspected object. The same scanning principle enlarges the object FOV. SNR enhancement is achieved by speckle suppression and coherent artifacts averaging due to the coherent addition of the multiple partially overlapping bandpass images. And DOF extension is performed by digital refocusing to different object's sections. Experimental results showing an impressive image quality improvement are reported for a one-dimensional reflective resolution test target. © 2012 Optical Society of America

The Effect of Online Gaming, Cognition and Feedback Type in Facilitating Delayed Achievement of Different Learning Objectives

Science.gov (United States)

Cameron, Brian; Dwyer, Francis

2005-01-01

Online and computer-based instructional gaming is becoming a viable instructional strategy at all levels of education. The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of (a) gaming, (b) gaming plus embedded questions, and (c) gaming plus questions plus feedback on delayed retention of different types of educational objectives for students…

Progress and achievements of the ITER L-4 blanket project

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Daenner, W.; Toschi, R.; Cardella, A.

2001-01-01

The L-4 Blanket Project embraces the R and D of the ITER Shielding Blanket, and its main objective is the fabrication of prototype components. This paper summarises the main conclusions from the materials R and D and the development of technologies which were required for the prototype specifications and manufacturing. The main results of the ongoing testing activities, and of the component manufacture are outlined. The main objectives of the project have been achieved including improvements of the material properties and of joining technologies, which resulted in good component quality and high performance in qualification tests. (author)

Progress and achievements of the ITER L-4 blanket project

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Daenner, W.; Toschi, R.; Cardella, A.

1999-01-01

The L-4 Blanket Project embraces the R and D of the ITER Shielding Blanket, and its main objective is the fabrication of prototype components. This paper summarises the main conclusions from the materials R and D and the development of technologies which were required for the prototype specifications and manufacturing. The main results of the ongoing testing activities, and of the component manufacture are outlined.The main objectives of the project have been achieved including improvements of the material properties and of joining technologies, which resulted in good component quality and high performance in qualification tests. (author)

Attention-spreading based on hierarchical spatial representations for connected objects.

Science.gov (United States)

Kasai, Tetsuko

2010-01-01

Attention selects objects or groups as the most fundamental unit, and this may be achieved through a process in which attention automatically spreads throughout their entire region. Previously, we found that a lateralized potential relative to an attended hemifield at occipito-temporal electrode sites reflects attention-spreading in response to connected bilateral stimuli [Kasai, T., & Kondo, M. Electrophysiological correlates of attention-spreading in visual grouping. NeuroReport, 18, 93-98, 2007]. The present study examined the nature of object representations by manipulating the extent of grouping through connectedness, while controlling the symmetrical structure of bilateral stimuli. The electrophysiological results of two experiments consistently indicated that attention was guided twice in association with perceptual grouping in the early phase (N1, 150-200 msec poststimulus) and with the unity of an object in the later phase (N2pc, 310/330-390 msec). This suggests that there are two processes in object-based spatial selection, and these are discussed with regard to their cognitive mechanisms and object representations.

Key design features of a new smokefree law to help achieve the Smokefree Aotearoa.

Science.gov (United States)

Delany, Louise; Thomson, George; Wilson, Nick; Edwards, Richard

2016-08-05

To design new tobacco control legislation to achieve the New Zealand Government's 2025 smokefree goal. An original analysis of the legislative options for New Zealand tobacco control. 'Business as usual' is most unlikely to achieve smoking prevalence that is less than 5% by 2025. Key components of a new Act would ideally include plans and targets with teeth, a focus on the industry, a focus on the product, reduction of supply, and a whole-of-society approach to promote consistency in policy implementation through: i) a public duty on government agencies to act consistently with smokefree law; ii) a general duty on those associated with the tobacco/nicotine industry in relation to tobacco control objectives; and iii) a principle requiring international treaties to be interpreted consistently with tobacco control objectives. Strategies such as those identified in this Viewpoint should be explored further as part of urgently needed planning to achieve the New Zealand Government's goal for Smokefree Aotearoa by 2025.

Assessing Resource Value and Relationships Between Objectives in Effects-Based Operations

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Jones, Robert D

2006-01-01

...?s objective hierarchy in terms of a set of desired end states for the campaign?s system of systems. Value theory was used to identify the resource's value in terms of the direct and indirect effects that are produced to achieve the campaign...

Objective structured practical examination in biochemistry: An experience in Medical College, Kolkata.

Science.gov (United States)

Kundu, Dipankar; Das, H N; Sen, Gargi; Osta, Manish; Mandal, T; Gautam, Divyendu

2013-01-01

Undergraduate medical examination is undergoing extensive re evaluation with new core educational objectives being defined. Consequently, new exam systems have also been designed to test the objectives. Objective structured practical examination (OSPE) is one of them. To introduce OSPE as a method of assessment of practical skills and learning and to determine student satisfaction regarding the OSPE. Furthermore, to explore the faculty perception of OSPE as a learning and assessment tool. The first M.B.B.S students of 2011 12 batch of Medical College, Kolkata, were the subjects for the study. OSPE was organized and conducted on "Identification of Unknown Abnormal Constituents in Urine." Coefficient of reliability of questions administered was done by calculating Cronbach's alpha. A questionnaire on various components of the OSPE was administered to get the feedback. 16 students failed to achieve an average of 50% or above in the assessment. However, 49 students on an average achieved >75%, 52 students achieved between 65% and 75%, and 29 students scored between 50% and 65%. Cronbach's alpha of the questions administered showed to be having high internal consistency with a score of 0.80. Ninety nine percent of students believed that OSPE helps them to improve and 81% felt that this type of assessment fits in as both learning and evaluation tools. Faculty feedback reflected that such assessment tested objectivity, measured practical skills better, and eliminated examiner bias to a greater extent. OSPE tests different desired components of competence better and eliminated examiner bias. Student feedback reflects that such assessment helps them to improve as it is effective both as teaching and evaluation tools.

Understanding the Role of Achievements in Game-Based Learning

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lucas Blair

2016-12-01

Full Text Available The objective of the current research was to examine whether one potentially effective gaming strategy—achievements—has a positive impact on learning in a game-based environment. An achievement in a video game is a reward or recognition earned by players for an in-game accomplishment. This paper describes a series of studies to evaluate the effects of achievement types on learning in a game designed to teach about health resources. The Game “Phone Dash” was used as the testbed for the following studies. The following questionnaires were utilized in this study: Video Game Self-Efficacy Scale (VGSES questionnaire, Relevance and Usefulness questionnaire, Game Engagement Questionnaire (GEQ, and the Intrinsic Motivation Inventory (IMI. Four studies were conducted. Results indicated that while in unison, the achievements were not as potent in motivating performance, certainly when combined they produced measurable changes in behavior. The four studies described in this paper provide important information regarding the optimal design of achievements in game-based health education. Developers of future game-based learning can use this information to enhance the potential effectiveness of their products. 

Multi objective optimization of horizontal axis tidal current turbines, using Meta heuristics algorithms

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tahani, Mojtaba; Babayan, Narek; Astaraei, Fatemeh Razi; Moghadam, Ali

2015-01-01

Highlights: • The performance of four different Meta heuristic optimization algorithms was studied. • Power coefficient and produced torque on stationary blade were selected as objective functions. • Chord and twist distributions were selected as decision variables. • All optimization algorithms were combined with blade element momentum theory. • The best Pareto front was obtained by multi objective flower pollination algorithm for HATCTs. - Abstract: The performance of horizontal axis tidal current turbines (HATCT) strongly depends on their geometry. According to this fact, the optimum performance will be achieved by optimized geometry. In this research study, the multi objective optimization of the HATCT is carried out by using four different multi objective optimization algorithms and their performance is evaluated in combination with blade element momentum theory (BEM). The second version of non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm (NSGA-II), multi objective particle swarm optimization algorithm (MOPSO), multi objective cuckoo search algorithm (MOCS) and multi objective flower pollination algorithm (MOFPA) are the selected algorithms. The power coefficient and the produced torque on stationary blade are selected as objective functions and chord and twist distributions along the blade span are selected as decision variables. These algorithms are combined with the blade element momentum (BEM) theory for the purpose of achieving the best Pareto front. The obtained Pareto fronts are compared with each other. Different sets of experiments are carried out by considering different numbers of iterations, population size and tip speed ratios. The Pareto fronts which are achieved by MOFPA and NSGA-II have better quality in comparison to MOCS and MOPSO, but on the other hand a detail comparison between the first fronts of MOFPA and NSGA-II indicated that MOFPA algorithm can obtain the best Pareto front and can maximize the power coefficient up to 4.3% and the

Neural dynamics of object-based multifocal visual spatial attention and priming: object cueing, useful-field-of-view, and crowding.

Science.gov (United States)

Foley, Nicholas C; Grossberg, Stephen; Mingolla, Ennio

2012-08-01

How are spatial and object attention coordinated to achieve rapid object learning and recognition during eye movement search? How do prefrontal priming and parietal spatial mechanisms interact to determine the reaction time costs of intra-object attention shifts, inter-object attention shifts, and shifts between visible objects and covertly cued locations? What factors underlie individual differences in the timing and frequency of such attentional shifts? How do transient and sustained spatial attentional mechanisms work and interact? How can volition, mediated via the basal ganglia, influence the span of spatial attention? A neural model is developed of how spatial attention in the where cortical stream coordinates view-invariant object category learning in the what cortical stream under free viewing conditions. The model simulates psychological data about the dynamics of covert attention priming and switching requiring multifocal attention without eye movements. The model predicts how "attentional shrouds" are formed when surface representations in cortical area V4 resonate with spatial attention in posterior parietal cortex (PPC) and prefrontal cortex (PFC), while shrouds compete among themselves for dominance. Winning shrouds support invariant object category learning, and active surface-shroud resonances support conscious surface perception and recognition. Attentive competition between multiple objects and cues simulates reaction-time data from the two-object cueing paradigm. The relative strength of sustained surface-driven and fast-transient motion-driven spatial attention controls individual differences in reaction time for invalid cues. Competition between surface-driven attentional shrouds controls individual differences in detection rate of peripheral targets in useful-field-of-view tasks. The model proposes how the strength of competition can be mediated, though learning or momentary changes in volition, by the basal ganglia. A new explanation of

Deep Spatial-Temporal Joint Feature Representation for Video Object Detection.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhao, Baojun; Zhao, Boya; Tang, Linbo; Han, Yuqi; Wang, Wenzheng

2018-03-04

With the development of deep neural networks, many object detection frameworks have shown great success in the fields of smart surveillance, self-driving cars, and facial recognition. However, the data sources are usually videos, and the object detection frameworks are mostly established on still images and only use the spatial information, which means that the feature consistency cannot be ensured because the training procedure loses temporal information. To address these problems, we propose a single, fully-convolutional neural network-based object detection framework that involves temporal information by using Siamese networks. In the training procedure, first, the prediction network combines the multiscale feature map to handle objects of various sizes. Second, we introduce a correlation loss by using the Siamese network, which provides neighboring frame features. This correlation loss represents object co-occurrences across time to aid the consistent feature generation. Since the correlation loss should use the information of the track ID and detection label, our video object detection network has been evaluated on the large-scale ImageNet VID dataset where it achieves a 69.5% mean average precision (mAP).

Searching for the Pareto frontier in multi-objective protein design.

Science.gov (United States)

Nanda, Vikas; Belure, Sandeep V; Shir, Ofer M

2017-08-01

The goal of protein engineering and design is to identify sequences that adopt three-dimensional structures of desired function. Often, this is treated as a single-objective optimization problem, identifying the sequence-structure solution with the lowest computed free energy of folding. However, many design problems are multi-state, multi-specificity, or otherwise require concurrent optimization of multiple objectives. There may be tradeoffs among objectives, where improving one feature requires compromising another. The challenge lies in determining solutions that are part of the Pareto optimal set-designs where no further improvement can be achieved in any of the objectives without degrading one of the others. Pareto optimality problems are found in all areas of study, from economics to engineering to biology, and computational methods have been developed specifically to identify the Pareto frontier. We review progress in multi-objective protein design, the development of Pareto optimization methods, and present a specific case study using multi-objective optimization methods to model the tradeoff between three parameters, stability, specificity, and complexity, of a set of interacting synthetic collagen peptides.

The first Russian «Encyclopedic Dictionary of Biblical Phrases»: its objectives and ways of their achievement

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Кира Николаевна Дубровина

2010-12-01

Full Text Available The article deals with the aims and objectives of «Encyclopaedic Dictionary of Biblical Phrases» and establishes the base of its acute necessity. The article considers the ways of fulfilling these special tasks and cites examples of similarities and peculiarities of modern Russian biblical expressions and their prototypes found in the Bible.

A linear actuator for precision positioning of dual objects

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Peng, Yuxin; Cao, Jie; Guo, Zhao; Yu, Haoyong

2015-01-01

In this paper, a linear actuator for precision positioning of dual objects is proposed based on a double friction drive principle using a single piezoelectric element (PZT). The linear actuator consists of an electromagnet and a permanent magnet, which are connected by the PZT. The electromagnet serves as an object 1, and another object (object 2) is attached on the permanent magnet by the magnetic force. For positioning the dual objects independently, two different friction drive modes can be alternated by an on–off control of the electromagnet. When the electromagnet releases from the guide way, it can be driven by impact friction force generated by the PZT. Otherwise, when the electromagnet clamps on the guide way and remains stationary, the object 2 can be driven based on the principle of smooth impact friction drive. A prototype was designed and constructed and experiments were carried out to test the basic performance of the actuator. It has been verified that with a compact size of 31 mm (L) × 12 mm (W) × 8 mm (H), the two objects can achieve long strokes on the order of several millimeters and high resolutions of several tens of nanometers. Since the proposed actuator allows independent movement of two objects by a single PZT, the actuator has the potential to be constructed compactly. (paper)

Radioprotection: the 5th HSE objective of 2012

CERN Multimedia

2012-01-01

The fifth objective of 2012 in matters of safety at CERN is to increase awareness of best practices in matters of radiation protection and radiation safety all over the laboratory.   The aim of radiation protection is to protect people from potentially harmful effects of ionising radiation linked to CERN activities. Naturally, the objective is to keep doses to a person - be they staff, users, contracting personnel or members of the public - to values not only below legal limits but as low as reasonably achievable (ALARA). This is obtained by a proper knowledge of the risks related to ionising radiation at CERN, individual dosimetry, monitoring of ionising radiation at workplaces and in the environment, accurate planning of interventions in accelerator and experimental areas, etc. The 2012 focus is on job and dose planning, which translates into three main objectives: 1 - Appointment and training of radiation safety support officers (RSSOs) to ensure coverage of all equipment groups working in ra...

Multi-Objective Optimization for Energy Performance Improvement of Residential Buildings: A Comparative Study

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Kangji Li

2017-02-01

Full Text Available Numerous conflicting criteria exist in building design optimization, such as energy consumption, greenhouse gas emission and indoor thermal performance. Different simulation-based optimization strategies and various optimization algorithms have been developed. A few of them are analyzed and compared in solving building design problems. This paper presents an efficient optimization framework to facilitate optimization designs with the aid of commercial simulation software and MATLAB. The performances of three optimization strategies, including the proposed approach, GenOpt method and artificial neural network (ANN method, are investigated using a case study of a simple building energy model. Results show that the proposed optimization framework has competitive performances compared with the GenOpt method. Further, in another practical case, four popular multi-objective algorithms, e.g., the non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm (NSGA-II, multi-objective particle swarm optimization (MOPSO, the multi-objective genetic algorithm (MOGA and multi-objective differential evolution (MODE, are realized using the propose optimization framework and compared with three criteria. Results indicate that MODE achieves close-to-optimal solutions with the best diversity and execution time. An uncompetitive result is achieved by the MOPSO in this case study.

A novel algorithm for fast grasping of unknown objects using C-shape configuration

Science.gov (United States)

Lei, Qujiang; Chen, Guangming; Meijer, Jonathan; Wisse, Martijn

2018-02-01

Increasing grasping efficiency is very important for the robots to grasp unknown objects especially subjected to unfamiliar environments. To achieve this, a new algorithm is proposed based on the C-shape configuration. Specifically, the geometric model of the used under-actuated gripper is approximated as a C-shape. To obtain an appropriate graspable position, this C-shape configuration is applied to fit geometric model of an unknown object. The geometric model of unknown object is constructed by using a single-view partial point cloud. To examine the algorithm using simulations, a comparison of the commonly used motion planners is made. The motion planner with the highest number of solved runs, lowest computing time and the shortest path length is chosen to execute grasps found by this grasping algorithm. The simulation results demonstrate that excellent grasping efficiency is achieved by adopting our algorithm. To validate this algorithm, experiment tests are carried out using a UR5 robot arm and an under-actuated gripper. The experimental results show that steady grasping actions are obtained. Hence, this research provides a novel algorithm for fast grasping of unknown objects.

Learning Language Levels in Students Accurate with a History Academic Achievement History

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Noorlela Binti Noordin

2017-11-01

Full Text Available This study was aimed to evaluate the Malay proficiency among students in Form Two especially non-Malay students and its relationship to academic achievement History. To achieve the purpose of the study there are two objectives, the first is to look at the difference between mean of Malay Language test influences min of academic achievement of History subject among non-Malay students in Form Two and the second is the relationship between the level of Malay proficiency and their academic achievement for History. This study used quantitative methods, which involved 100 people of Form Two non-Malay students in one of the schools in Klang, Selangor. This study used quantitative data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and statistical inference with IBM SPSS Statistics v22 software. This study found that there was a relationship between the proficiency of Malay language among non-Malay students with achievements in the subject of History. The implications of this study are discussed in this article.

Colombian public policies contributing to the achievement of Millennium Development Goals in the health sector, 2006

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lina M. Grisales

2008-02-01

Full Text Available During the General Assembly of the United Nations, in September 2000,189 countries (including Colombia committed to eight objectives leading to a more human and fairer world. Such objectives are called the Millennium Development Goals (mdg and to achieve them it is crucial to incorporate them in the action agendas of each country. The purpose of this monograph is to recognize current public policies in Colombia and Antioquia leading the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals, specifically those related to the reduction of mortality among children less than 5 years of age, improvement of maternal health and fighting against hiv/aids, malaria and dengue.In Colombia, Conpes 91 of 2005 is the only guideline given by the Government establishing goals and strategies to achieve the Millennium Development Goals in 2015. Nevertheless, other policies, programs and projects before and even after the Millennium Statement (but without explicit purpose contribute to achieving such goals. Revision of those policies is an effort for the research project “Degree of contribution of public policies to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals related to the health sector, Antioquia, 2006”, which will evaluate the impact these guidelines have had in the achievement of the development goals in that particular sector.

Visual object tracking by correlation filters and online learning

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Xin; Xia, Gui-Song; Lu, Qikai; Shen, Weiming; Zhang, Liangpei

2018-06-01

Due to the complexity of background scenarios and the variation of target appearance, it is difficult to achieve high accuracy and fast speed for object tracking. Currently, correlation filters based trackers (CFTs) show promising performance in object tracking. The CFTs estimate the target's position by correlation filters with different kinds of features. However, most of CFTs can hardly re-detect the target in the case of long-term tracking drifts. In this paper, a feature integration object tracker named correlation filters and online learning (CFOL) is proposed. CFOL estimates the target's position and its corresponding correlation score using the same discriminative correlation filter with multi-features. To reduce tracking drifts, a new sampling and updating strategy for online learning is proposed. Experiments conducted on 51 image sequences demonstrate that the proposed algorithm is superior to the state-of-the-art approaches.

Underwater object classification using scattering transform of sonar signals

Science.gov (United States)

Saito, Naoki; Weber, David S.

2017-08-01

In this paper, we apply the scattering transform (ST)-a nonlinear map based off of a convolutional neural network (CNN)-to classification of underwater objects using sonar signals. The ST formalizes the observation that the filters learned by a CNN have wavelet-like structure. We achieve effective binary classification both on a real dataset of Unexploded Ordinance (UXOs), as well as synthetically generated examples. We also explore the effects on the waveforms with respect to changes in the object domain (e.g., translation, rotation, and acoustic impedance, etc.), and examine the consequences coming from theoretical results for the scattering transform. We show that the scattering transform is capable of excellent classification on both the synthetic and real problems, thanks to having more quasi-invariance properties that are well-suited to translation and rotation of the object.

Teacher Research Experience Programs = Increase in Student Achievement

Science.gov (United States)

Dubner, J.

2010-12-01

Columbia University's Summer Research Program for Science Teachers (SRP), founded in 1990, is one of the largest, best known university-based professional development programs for science teachers in the U.S. The program’s basic premise is simple: teachers cannot effectively teach science if they have not experienced it firsthand. For eight weeks in each of two consecutive summers, teachers participate as a member of a research team, led by a member of Columbia University’s research faculty. In addition to the laboratory experience, all teachers meet as a group one day each week during the summer for a series of pedagogical activities. A unique quality of the Summer Research Program is its focus on objective assessment of its impact on attitudes and instructional practices of participating teachers, on the performance of these teachers in their mentors’ laboratories, and most importantly, on the impact of their participation in the program on student interest and performance in science. SRP uses pass rate on the New York State Regents standardized science examinations as an objective measure of student achievement. SRP's data is the first scientific evidence of a connection between a research experience for teachers program and gains in student achievement. As a result of the research, findings were published in Science Magazine. The author will present an overview of Columbia's teacher research program and the results of the published program evaluation.

High-Performance Neural Networks for Visual Object Classification

OpenAIRE

Cireşan, Dan C.; Meier, Ueli; Masci, Jonathan; Gambardella, Luca M.; Schmidhuber, Jürgen

2011-01-01

We present a fast, fully parameterizable GPU implementation of Convolutional Neural Network variants. Our feature extractors are neither carefully designed nor pre-wired, but rather learned in a supervised way. Our deep hierarchical architectures achieve the best published results on benchmarks for object classification (NORB, CIFAR10) and handwritten digit recognition (MNIST), with error rates of 2.53%, 19.51%, 0.35%, respectively. Deep nets trained by simple back-propagation perform better ...

Feasibility analysis of CNP 1000 computerized I and C system design objectives

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zhang Mingguang; Xu Jijun; Zhang Qinshen

2000-01-01

The author states the design objectives of the computerized I and C (CIC) system and advanced main control room (AMCR), which could and should be achieved in CNP 1000, based on the national 1E computer production technology including software and hardware, and current instrumentation and control design technique of nuclear power plant. The feasibility analysis on the design objectives and the reasons or necessity to do the design research projects have been described. The objectives of design research on CIC and AMCR as well as the self-design proficiency after the design research have been given

Intelligent Virtual Reality and its Impact on Spatial Skills and Academic Achievements

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Esther Zaretsky

2005-08-01

Full Text Available It is known that the training of intelligent virtual reality, through the use of computer games, can improve spatial skills especially visualization and enhances academic achievements. Through an experiment of using Tetris software, two objectives were achieved: developing spatial as well as intelligence skills and enhancing academic achievements, focusing on mathematics. This study followed studies dealing with the impact on putting the learner into action in 3d space software. During teaching a transition from 2d to 3d spatial perception and operation occurred. A positive transfer from 3d virtual reality rotation training to structural induction skills, by means of mental imaging, was also achieved. At the same time the motivation for learning was enhanced, without using extrinsic reinforcements. The duration of concentration while using the intelligent software increased gradually up to 60 minutes.

Clarity Versus Accuracy and Objectivity in Written Legal English

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Violeta Janulevičienė

2011-12-01

Full Text Available This paper is an attempt to analyse the most important grammatical and, specifically, syntactic features and to point out some prominent lexical ones, which aim at accuracy and objectivity of a written legal document, and to discuss how these features influence clarity and transparency of the legal documents. The study covers the analysis of some EU, UK, US legislative acts alongside with some extracts from contract samples. The analysis reveals that written legal English is distinguished by long compound sentences, often with inverted word order and numerous embeddings, passive constructions and nominalisations, specific use of personal pronouns and collocations of synonyms (doublets and triplets, etc. These means allow to achieve the most possible accuracy and objectivity in legal texts but make them complicated and difficult to comprehend at once. Formality, achieved by the mentioned means, makes legal English distant from everyday language and often becomes a reason for criticism. Plain English supporters encourage simplifying legal language; however, long traditions of legal English make changes slow and difficult. Therefore, comprehension and usage of legal English still requires special knowledge of its lexical and grammatical features.

Near-field imaging of interacting nano objects with metal and metamaterial superlenses

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hakkarainen, T; Setälä, T; Friberg, A T

2012-01-01

Employing rigorous electromagnetic theory we investigate optical the near-field imaging of two interacting dipole-like objects with metal and slightly lossy metamaterial nanoslab superlenses. Our analysis indicates that the dipole emission is suppressed by near-field interactions when the objects are close to the lens or each other. This strongly influences the image quality, in particular with objects of small size and high polarizability. The interference from two nearby objects also affects the resolution and subwavelength definition can only be obtained for objects with dipole moments predominantly orthogonal to the slab. Such an optimal imaging condition is achieved with excitation by total internal reflection. With simulations we show that in these circumstances, subwavelength resolutions of about λ/5 for silver superlens and λ/10 for metamaterial slab are reached. (paper)

3D high- and super-resolution imaging using single-objective SPIM.

Science.gov (United States)

Galland, Remi; Grenci, Gianluca; Aravind, Ajay; Viasnoff, Virgile; Studer, Vincent; Sibarita, Jean-Baptiste

2015-07-01

Single-objective selective-plane illumination microscopy (soSPIM) is achieved with micromirrored cavities combined with a laser beam-steering unit installed on a standard inverted microscope. The illumination and detection are done through the same objective. soSPIM can be used with standard sample preparations and features high background rejection and efficient photon collection, allowing for 3D single-molecule-based super-resolution imaging of whole cells or cell aggregates. Using larger mirrors enabled us to broaden the capabilities of our system to image Drosophila embryos.

THE CORRELATION OF LEARNING INDEPENDENCE ATTITUDES AND STUDENT’S LEARNING ACHIEVEMENT ON PHYSICS LEARNING BASED-PORTFOLIO

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Asep Saefullah

2017-05-01

Full Text Available This study aimed to determine correlation between learning independence attitudes and student’s learning achievement. Type of this research is a correlation study to detect the connection of learning independence attitude’s variance in relation to learning achievement variance. This study used an attitude scale to measure the student’s learning independence attitude and objective multiple-choice questions to measure the student’s learning achievement. The results showed that there is a positive correlation (unidirectional and significant betweenthe learning independence attitude and learning achievement. This means that the better student’s learning independence attitude, it will be the better students learning achievement. The attitude of learning independence contributed to 40.96% of students learning achievement.

[Object permanence in children with neurological and psychomotor disorders].

Science.gov (United States)

Pisaturo, C; Frassoni, S; Borreani, A; Battaglia, F; Meruzzi, B

1995-06-01

The aim of this research was to investigate whether the development of object permanence is an available sign of the cognitive development in infants with psychomotor handicaps. Subjects consisted of 5 males, ranging in age from 12 to 33 months, with handicaps as a result of perinatal brain injury. Four were preterm infants. All of the children received psychomotor treatment. Their stage of object permanence was assessed using traditional (B-L) and non traditional test (U-H). (The children's performances on the U-H scales have an "Intrinsic validity"). Four children achieved the first stages of the development of object permanence. The acquisition of object permanence was delayed in comparison with the age-appropriated time, but it may be considered adequate in comparison with the "developmental age" (B-L). One children with severe mental and motor disorders solved no task, the findings suggest that the children with psychomotor handicaps may gain the concept of object permanence and that psychomotor treatment may assist them in the development of the concept. This performance is not age-dependent. So the acquisition of the concept of object permanence may be considered an accurate and sensitive tool for the follow-up of the sensorimotor development in the handicapped children.

Critical issues related to registration of space objects and transparency of space activities

Science.gov (United States)

Jakhu, Ram S.; Jasani, Bhupendra; McDowell, Jonathan C.

2018-02-01

The main purpose of the 1975 Registration Convention is to achieve transparency in space activities and this objective is motivated by the belief that a mandatory registration system would assist in the identification of space objects launched into outer space. This would also consequently contribute to the application and development of international law governing the exploration and use of outer space. States Parties to the Convention furnish the required information to the United Nations' Register of Space Objects. However, the furnished information is often so general that it may not be as helpful in creating transparency as had been hoped by the drafters of the Convention. While registration of civil satellites has been furnished with some general details, till today, none of the Parties have described the objects as having military functions despite the fact that a large number of such objects do perform military functions as well. In some cases, the best they have done is to indicate that the space objects are for their defense establishments. Moreover, the number of registrations of space objects is declining. This paper addresses the challenges posed by the non-registration of space objects. Particularly, the paper provides some data about the registration and non-registration of satellites and the States that have and have not complied with their legal obligations. It also analyses the specific requirements of the Convention, the reasons for non-registration, new challenges posed by the registration of small satellites and the on-orbit transfer of satellites. Finally, the paper provides some recommendations on how to enhance the registration of space objects, on the monitoring of the implementation of the Registration Convention and consequently how to achieve maximum transparency in space activities.

Study on hybrid multi-objective optimization algorithm for inverse treatment planning of radiation therapy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Li Guoli; Song Gang; Wu Yican

2007-01-01

Inverse treatment planning for radiation therapy is a multi-objective optimization process. The hybrid multi-objective optimization algorithm is studied by combining the simulated annealing(SA) and genetic algorithm(GA). Test functions are used to analyze the efficiency of algorithms. The hybrid multi-objective optimization SA algorithm, which displacement is based on the evolutionary strategy of GA: crossover and mutation, is implemented in inverse planning of external beam radiation therapy by using two kinds of objective functions, namely the average dose distribution based and the hybrid dose-volume constraints based objective functions. The test calculations demonstrate that excellent converge speed can be achieved. (authors)

Learning Rich Features from RGB-D Images for Object Detection and Segmentation

OpenAIRE

Gupta, Saurabh; Girshick, Ross; Arbeláez, Pablo; Malik, Jitendra

2014-01-01

In this paper we study the problem of object detection for RGB-D images using semantically rich image and depth features. We propose a new geocentric embedding for depth images that encodes height above ground and angle with gravity for each pixel in addition to the horizontal disparity. We demonstrate that this geocentric embedding works better than using raw depth images for learning feature representations with convolutional neural networks. Our final object detection system achieves an av...

ENHANCING THE LISTENING MOTIVATION AND ACHIEVEMENT OF THE ELEVENTH GRADERS BY USING DRAMA MOVIES VIEWING TECHNIQUES

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Suramto Suramto

2016-09-01

Full Text Available The present study aimed to investigate whether or not there was a significant differencein students’ listening motivation and achievement after they were taught by dramamovies viewing technique. The objects of the study were 60 eleventh graders. A quasiexperimental design was used in this study.Data were collected by using motivationquestionnaire and listening achievement tests. The results showed that the students whowere treated by drama movies viewing technique achieved higher mean score inlistening motivation (80.57 and listening achievement (81.46. Drama movies viewingtechnique also gave contribution in listening motivation (31.9% and listeningachievement (61.8%.Keywords: drama movies viewing techniques, listening motivation, and listeningAchievement.

The objectives of the directive on radiation protection for patients

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Courades, J.M.

1992-01-01

Improvement of the quality of medical uses of radiation and avoiding unnecessary exposure are the main objectives of the 1984 Directive laying down basic measures for the radiation protection of persons undergoing medical examination or treatment. This paper explains how these goals have been achieved through the implementation of the various provisions of the Community act since its adoption

Academic Self-Concept, Achievement Goals, and Achievement: Is Their Relation the Same for Academic Achievers and Underachievers?

Science.gov (United States)

Preckel, Franzis; Brunner, Martin

2015-01-01

This longitudinal study investigated the contribution of achievement goals and academic self-concept for the prediction of unexpected academic achievement (i.e., achievement that is higher or lower than expected with respect to students' cognitive ability) in general and when comparing groups of extreme over- and underachievers. Our sample…

Object oriented software development in the atlas collaboration

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Schaffer, A.

1994-01-01

For more than a year a group within the Atlas Collaboration has been investigating the possibilities of the application of object oriented methodology and program development to the software of Atlas. Recently this group has been joined by members of the CMS Collaboration in the submission of a proposal to the DRDC at CERN to find a common solution for the software development environment for LHC. This talk will discuss the progress achieved so far and the future perspective

Grounded Object and Grasp Representations in a Cognitive Architecture

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kraft, Dirk

developed. This work presents a system that is able to learn autonomously about objects and applicable grasps in an unknown environment through exploratory manipulation and to then use this grounded knowledge in a planning setup to address complex tasks. A set of different subsystems is needed to achieve....... The topics are ordered so that we proceed from the more general integration works towards the works describing the individual components. The first chapter gives an overview over the system that is able to learn a grounded visual object representation and a grounded grasp representation. In the following...... part, we describe how this grounding procedures can be embedded in a three cognitive level architecture. Our initial work to use a tactile sensor to enrichen the object representations as well as allow for more complex actions is presented here as well. Since our system is concerned with learning about...

Robust object tacking based on self-adaptive search area

Science.gov (United States)

Dong, Taihang; Zhong, Sheng

2018-02-01

Discriminative correlation filter (DCF) based trackers have recently achieved excellent performance with great computational efficiency. However, DCF based trackers suffer boundary effects, which result in the unstable performance in challenging situations exhibiting fast motion. In this paper, we propose a novel method to mitigate this side-effect in DCF based trackers. We change the search area according to the prediction of target motion. When the object moves fast, broad search area could alleviate boundary effects and reserve the probability of locating object. When the object moves slowly, narrow search area could prevent effect of useless background information and improve computational efficiency to attain real-time performance. This strategy can impressively soothe boundary effects in situations exhibiting fast motion and motion blur, and it can be used in almost all DCF based trackers. The experiments on OTB benchmark show that the proposed framework improves the performance compared with the baseline trackers.

Learning based particle filtering object tracking for visible-light systems.

Science.gov (United States)

Sun, Wei

2015-10-01

We propose a novel object tracking framework based on online learning scheme that can work robustly in challenging scenarios. Firstly, a learning-based particle filter is proposed with color and edge-based features. We train a. support vector machine (SVM) classifier with object and background information and map the outputs into probabilities, then the weight of particles in a particle filter can be calculated by the probabilistic outputs to estimate the state of the object. Secondly, the tracking loop starts with Lucas-Kanade (LK) affine template matching and follows by learning-based particle filter tracking. Lucas-Kanade method estimates errors and updates object template in the positive samples dataset, and learning-based particle filter tracker will start if the LK tracker loses the object. Finally, SVM classifier evaluates every tracked appearance to update the training set or restart the tracking loop if necessary. Experimental results show that our method is robust to challenging light, scale and pose changing, and test on eButton image sequence also achieves satisfactory tracking performance.

Comparative analysis of imaging configurations and objectives for Fourier microscopy.

Science.gov (United States)

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

2015-11-01

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

Comparison of the binding of the irreversible monoamine oxidase tracers, [11C]clorgyline and [11C]l-deprenyl in brain and peripheral organs in humans

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Fowler, Joanna S.; Logan, Jean; Wang, Gene-Jack; Volkow, Nora D.; Telang, Frank; Ding Yushin; Shea, Colleen; Garza, Victor; Xu Youwen; Li Zizhong; Alexoff, David; Vaska, Paul; Ferrieri, Richard; Schlyer, David; Zhu Wei; John Gatley, S.

2004-01-01

The monoamine oxidase A and B (MAO A and B) radiotracers [ 11 C]clorgyline (CLG) and [ 11 C]L-deprenyl (DEP) and their deuterium labeled counterparts (CLG-D and DEP-D) were compared to determine whether their distribution and kinetics in humans are consistent with their physical, chemical and pharmacological properties and the reported ratios of MAO A:MAO B in post-mortem human tissues. Irreversible binding was consistently higher for DEP in brain, heart, kidneys and spleen but not lung where CLG >DEP and not in thyroid where there is no DEP binding. The generally higher DEP binding is consistent with its higher enzyme affinity and larger free fraction in plasma while differences in regional distribution for CLG and DEP in brain, heart, thyroid and lungs are consistent with different relative ratios of MAO A and B in humans

Adobe Boxes: Locating Object Proposals Using Object Adobes.

Science.gov (United States)

Fang, Zhiwen; Cao, Zhiguo; Xiao, Yang; Zhu, Lei; Yuan, Junsong

2016-09-01

Despite the previous efforts of object proposals, the detection rates of the existing approaches are still not satisfactory enough. To address this, we propose Adobe Boxes to efficiently locate the potential objects with fewer proposals, in terms of searching the object adobes that are the salient object parts easy to be perceived. Because of the visual difference between the object and its surroundings, an object adobe obtained from the local region has a high probability to be a part of an object, which is capable of depicting the locative information of the proto-object. Our approach comprises of three main procedures. First, the coarse object proposals are acquired by employing randomly sampled windows. Then, based on local-contrast analysis, the object adobes are identified within the enlarged bounding boxes that correspond to the coarse proposals. The final object proposals are obtained by converging the bounding boxes to tightly surround the object adobes. Meanwhile, our object adobes can also refine the detection rate of most state-of-the-art methods as a refinement approach. The extensive experiments on four challenging datasets (PASCAL VOC2007, VOC2010, VOC2012, and ILSVRC2014) demonstrate that the detection rate of our approach generally outperforms the state-of-the-art methods, especially with relatively small number of proposals. The average time consumed on one image is about 48 ms, which nearly meets the real-time requirement.

A mediation analysis of achievement motives, goals, learning strategies, and academic achievement.

Science.gov (United States)

Diseth, Age; Kobbeltvedt, Therese

2010-12-01

Previous research is inconclusive regarding antecedents and consequences of achievement goals, and there is a need for more research in order to examine the joint effects of different types of motives and learning strategies as predictors of academic achievement. To investigate the relationship between achievement motives, achievement goals, learning strategies (deep, surface, and strategic), and academic achievement in a hierarchical model. Participants were 229 undergraduate students (mean age: 21.2 years) of psychology and economics at the University of Bergen, Norway. Variables were measured by means of items from the Achievement Motives Scale (AMS), the Approaches and Study Skills Inventory for Students, and an achievement goal scale. Correlation analysis showed that academic achievement (examination grade) was positively correlated with performance-approach goal, mastery goal, and strategic learning strategies, and negatively correlated with performance-avoidance goal and surface learning strategy. A path analysis (structural equation model) showed that achievement goals were mediators between achievement motives and learning strategies, and that strategic learning strategies mediated the relationship between achievement goals and academic achievement. This study integrated previous findings from several studies and provided new evidence on the direct and indirect effects of different types of motives and learning strategies as predictors of academic achievement.

Do primary health centres and hospitals contribute equally towards achievement of the transversal clinical competencies of medical students? Performance on the Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) in competency acquisition.

Science.gov (United States)

Soler-González, Jorge; Buti, Miquel; Boada, Jordi; Ayala, Victoria; Peñascal, Eduard; Rodriguez, Toni

2016-01-01

The adaptation of the educational programmes of European faculties of medicine to the European Higher Education Area guidelines has focused curricula design on competence acquisition. Competencies are defined as the achievements of a predetermined level of efficacy in real-world scenarios. Our objective was to assess whether performance on a common competence evaluation test, the Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE), resulted in different scores for second-year students after a practical medical training course took place in a primary health centre (PHC) or in a hospital. A descriptive study was conducted during the 2010-2014 academic year of the OSCE test scores obtained by all second-year students. Faculty of Medicine at the University of Lleida (Catalonia, Spain). We performed a correlation analysis between students who completed their practical medical training at the PHC and hospitals utilising Student's t-test for comparison of means. 423 students who completed internships at the PHC and at hospitals obtained OSCE mean scores of 7.32 (SD; IC) (0.82; 7.18-7.47) points and 7.17 (0.83; 6.07-7.26) points, respectively (p=0.07). Second-year medical students acquired similar competency levels in the two analysed training scenarios. The two areas both serve their teaching purpose. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier España, S.L.U. All rights reserved.

Deep Spatial-Temporal Joint Feature Representation for Video Object Detection

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Baojun Zhao

2018-03-01

Full Text Available With the development of deep neural networks, many object detection frameworks have shown great success in the fields of smart surveillance, self-driving cars, and facial recognition. However, the data sources are usually videos, and the object detection frameworks are mostly established on still images and only use the spatial information, which means that the feature consistency cannot be ensured because the training procedure loses temporal information. To address these problems, we propose a single, fully-convolutional neural network-based object detection framework that involves temporal information by using Siamese networks. In the training procedure, first, the prediction network combines the multiscale feature map to handle objects of various sizes. Second, we introduce a correlation loss by using the Siamese network, which provides neighboring frame features. This correlation loss represents object co-occurrences across time to aid the consistent feature generation. Since the correlation loss should use the information of the track ID and detection label, our video object detection network has been evaluated on the large-scale ImageNet VID dataset where it achieves a 69.5% mean average precision (mAP.

Automated Storage Retrieval System (ASRS) Role Towards Achievement of Safety Objective and Safety Culture in Radioactive Storage Facilities

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mohamad Hakiman Mohd Yusoff; Nurul Wahida Ahmad Khairuddin; Nik Marzukee Nik Ibrahim; Mat Bakar Mahusin; Muhammad, Z.A.; Nur Azna Mahmud; Norfazlina Zainal Abidin

2012-01-01

Waste Technology Development Centre (WasTeC) has been awarded with quality management system ISO 9001:2000 in June 2004 or now known as ISO 9001:2008. The scope of the unit's ISO certification is radioactive waste management and storage of radioactive material. To meet the objectives and requirements ISO 9001:2008, WasTeC has started a project known as Automated Storage and Retrieval System (ASRS). ASRS is a computing controlled method for automatically depositing and retrieving waste from defined locations. The system is used to replace the existing process of storage and retrieval of radioactive waste at storage facility at block 33.The main objective of this project is to reduced the radiation exposure to the worker and potential forklift accident occur during storage and retrieval of the radioactive waste. By using the ASRS system, WasTeC/ Nuclear Malaysia can provide a safe storage of radioactive waste and the use of this system can eliminate the repeat handling and can improve productivity. (author)

Evolutionary Bi-objective Optimization for Bulldozer and Its Blade in Soil Cutting

Science.gov (United States)

Sharma, Deepak; Barakat, Nada

2018-02-01

An evolutionary optimization approach is adopted in this paper for simultaneously achieving the economic and productive soil cutting. The economic aspect is defined by minimizing the power requirement from the bulldozer, and the soil cutting is made productive by minimizing the time of soil cutting. For determining the power requirement, two force models are adopted from the literature to quantify the cutting force on the blade. Three domain-specific constraints are also proposed, which are limiting the power from the bulldozer, limiting the maximum force on the bulldozer blade and achieving the desired production rate. The bi-objective optimization problem is solved using five benchmark multi-objective evolutionary algorithms and one classical optimization technique using the ɛ-constraint method. The Pareto-optimal solutions are obtained with the knee-region. Further, the post-optimal analysis is performed on the obtained solutions to decipher relationships among the objectives and decision variables. Such relationships are later used for making guidelines for selecting the optimal set of input parameters. The obtained results are then compared with the experiment results from the literature that show a close agreement among them.

Attitude Towards Physics and Additional Mathematics Achievement Towards Physics Achievement

Science.gov (United States)

Veloo, Arsaythamby; Nor, Rahimah; Khalid, Rozalina

2015-01-01

The purpose of this research is to identify the difference in students' attitude towards Physics and Additional Mathematics achievement based on gender and relationship between attitudinal variables towards Physics and Additional Mathematics achievement with achievement in Physics. This research focused on six variables, which is attitude towards…

Achieving excellence on shift through teamwork

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Newman, L.

1988-01-01

Anyone familiar with the nuclear industry realizes the importance of operators. Operators can achieve error-free plant operations, i.e., excellence on shift through teamwork. As a shift supervisor (senior reactor operator/shift technical advisor) the author went through the plant's first cycle of operations with no scrams and no equipment damaged by operator error, having since changed roles (and companies) to one of assessing plant operations. This change has provided the opportunity to see objectively the importance of operators working together and of the team building and teamwork that contribute to the shift's success. This paper uses examples to show the effectiveness of working together and outlines steps for building a group of operators into a team

Conditioning 3D object-based models to dense well data

Science.gov (United States)

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

2018-06-01

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

A Multi-Objective Demand Side Management Considering ENS Cost in Smart Grids

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Yousefi Khanghah, Babak; Ghassemzadeh, Saeid; Hosseini, Seyed Hossein

2017-01-01

In this paper a new method is presented to achieve economic exploitation and proper usage of network capacity by exerting controlling actions over flexible loads and energy storage (ES) equipment. Multi-objective planning for demand response programs (DRP) and battery management policies is carried...... out by considering energy not supplied (ENS). In order to achieve an optimal scheduling, charge/discharge control for batteries, demand response programs and dispatch of controllable distributed generations (DGs) are also considered. Then, the balanced cost and benefits of participants are evaluated...

Subordinate-level object classification reexamined.

Science.gov (United States)

Biederman, I; Subramaniam, S; Bar, M; Kalocsai, P; Fiser, J

1999-01-01

The classification of a table as round rather than square, a car as a Mazda rather than a Ford, a drill bit as 3/8-inch rather than 1/4-inch, and a face as Tom have all been regarded as a single process termed "subordinate classification." Despite the common label, the considerable heterogeneity of the perceptual processing required to achieve such classifications requires, minimally, a more detailed taxonomy. Perceptual information relevant to subordinate-level shape classifications can be presumed to vary on continua of (a) the type of distinctive information that is present, nonaccidental or metric, (b) the size of the relevant contours or surfaces, and (c) the similarity of the to-be-discriminated features, such as whether a straight contour has to be distinguished from a contour of low curvature versus high curvature. We consider three, relatively pure cases. Case 1 subordinates may be distinguished by a representation, a geon structural description (GSD), specifying a nonaccidental characterization of an object's large parts and the relations among these parts, such as a round table versus a square table. Case 2 subordinates are also distinguished by GSDs, except that the distinctive GSDs are present at a small scale in a complex object so the location and mapping of the GSDs are contingent on an initial basic-level classification, such as when we use a logo to distinguish various makes of cars. Expertise for Cases 1 and 2 can be easily achieved through specification, often verbal, of the GSDs. Case 3 subordinates, which have furnished much of the grist for theorizing with "view-based" template models, require fine metric discriminations. Cases 1 and 2 account for the overwhelming majority of shape-based basic- and subordinate-level object classifications that people can and do make in their everyday lives. These classifications are typically made quickly, accurately, and with only modest costs of viewpoint changes. Whereas the activation of an array of

Selectivity and balance of spatial filtering velocimetry of objective speckles for measuring out-of-plane motion

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jakobsen, Michael Linde; Yura, Hal T.; Hanson, Steen Grüner

2015-01-01

We probe the dynamics of objective laser speckles as the axial distance between the object and the observation plane changes. With the purpose of measuring out-of-plane motion in real time, we apply optical spatial filtering velocimetry to the speckle dynamics. To achieve this, a rotationally sym...

Laser cutting of irregular shape object based on stereo vision laser galvanometric scanning system

Science.gov (United States)

Qi, Li; Zhang, Yixin; Wang, Shun; Tang, Zhiqiang; Yang, Huan; Zhang, Xuping

2015-05-01

Irregular shape objects with different 3-dimensional (3D) appearances are difficult to be shaped into customized uniform pattern by current laser machining approaches. A laser galvanometric scanning system (LGS) could be a potential candidate since it can easily achieve path-adjustable laser shaping. However, without knowing the actual 3D topography of the object, the processing result may still suffer from 3D shape distortion. It is desirable to have a versatile auxiliary tool that is capable of generating 3D-adjusted laser processing path by measuring the 3D geometry of those irregular shape objects. This paper proposed the stereo vision laser galvanometric scanning system (SLGS), which takes the advantages of both the stereo vision solution and conventional LGS system. The 3D geometry of the object obtained by the stereo cameras is used to guide the scanning galvanometers for 3D-shape-adjusted laser processing. In order to achieve precise visual-servoed laser fabrication, these two independent components are integrated through a system calibration method using plastic thin film target. The flexibility of SLGS has been experimentally demonstrated by cutting duck feathers for badminton shuttle manufacture.

Ultra rapid object categorization: effects of level, animacy and context.

Science.gov (United States)

Praß, Maren; Grimsen, Cathleen; König, Martina; Fahle, Manfred

2013-01-01

It is widely agreed that in object categorization bottom-up and top-down influences interact. How top-down processes affect categorization has been primarily investigated in isolation, with only one higher level process at a time being manipulated. Here, we investigate the combination of different top-down influences (by varying the level of category, the animacy and the background of the object) and their effect on rapid object categorization. Subjects participated in a two-alternative forced choice rapid categorization task, while we measured accuracy and reaction times. Subjects had to categorize objects on the superordinate, basic or subordinate level. Objects belonged to the category animal or vehicle and each object was presented on a gray, congruent (upright) or incongruent (inverted) background. The results show that each top-down manipulation impacts object categorization and that they interact strongly. The best categorization was achieved on the superordinate level, providing no advantage for basic level in rapid categorization. Categorization between vehicles was faster than between animals on the basic level and vice versa on the subordinate level. Objects in homogenous gray background (context) yielded better overall performance than objects embedded in complex scenes, an effect most prominent on the subordinate level. An inverted background had no negative effect on object categorization compared to upright scenes. These results show how different top-down manipulations, such as category level, category type and background information, are related. We discuss the implications of top-down interactions on the interpretation of categorization results.

Managing forest and marginal agricultural land for multiple tradeoffs : compromising on economic, carbon and structural biodiversity objectives

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Krcmar, E.; Kooten, van G.C.; Vertinsky, I.

2005-01-01

In this paper, we use compromise programming to solve a multiple-objective land use and forest management planning model. Long- and short- (`fast¿) term carbon uptake, maintenance of structural diversity, and economic (net returns to forestry and agriculture) objectives are simultaneously achieved

Cooperative Learning and Learning Achievement in Social Science Subjects for Sociable Students

Science.gov (United States)

Herpratiwi; Darsono; Sasmiati; Pujiyatli

2018-01-01

Purpose: The research objective was to compare students' learning achievement for sociable learning motivation students in social science (IPS) using cooperative learning. Research Methods: This research used a quasi-experimental method with a pre-test/post-test design involving 35 fifth-grade students. The learning process was conducted four…

10 CFR 50.34a - Design objectives for equipment to control releases of radioactive material in effluents-nuclear...

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

... 10 Energy 1 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Design objectives for equipment to control releases of... out in appendix I to this part provide numerical guidance on design objectives for light-water-cooled... unrestricted areas be kept as low as is reasonably achievable. These numerical guides for design objectives and...

Anxiety and inattention as predictors of achievement in early elementary school children.

Science.gov (United States)

Grills-Taquechel, Amie E; Fletcher, Jack M; Vaughn, Sharon R; Denton, Carolyn A; Taylor, Pat

2013-01-01

The objective of this study was to examine the relations among anxiety, inattention, and math/reading achievement, as well as the mediating/moderating role of inattention in the anxiety-achievement association both concurrently and longitudinally. Participants included 161 ethnically diverse children (aged 6-8) and their teachers. At the middle and end of first grade (approximately 5 months apart), students completed measures of anxiety and achievement while their teachers completed a measure of inattention. For the concurrent analyses, greater harm avoidance anxiety was associated with better attention, which was in turn related to better achievement. For the longitudinal analyses, mid-year inattention interacted with harm avoidance and separation anxiety to predict end of year reading fluency. For those rated as more attentive, greater separation anxiety symptoms were associated with decreased fluency performance while greater harm avoidance symptoms were associated with increased performance. Findings were discussed in terms of the importance of considering socioemotional variables in the study of children's academic achievement and the potential utility of early anxiety prevention/intervention programs, especially for children experiencing academic difficulties who also show internalizing behaviors.

The relationship among customer demand, competitive strategy and manufacturing system functional objectives

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Wei Xu

2013-09-01

Full Text Available Purpose: To ascertain the relationship between the operation system function goal decision making and customer demand and competition strategy, can better discover and integrate all available resources (including important capital resources to achieve business opportunities, the establishment of sustainable competitive ability. Because, to achieve business development lead policymakers take great uncertainty, which led to the investment behavior required for the operational activities of resources also bear the enormous risks. Design/methodology/approach: Through principal component analysis on the data collected by questionnaires, the manuscript obtains dominant factors for customer demand, competitive strategy and manufacturing system functional objectives respectively. By these factors, it tests its three hypotheses with the data from northeast of China and draws some conclusions. Findings: The results show that customer demand have a significant positive effect on competitive strategy; competitive strategy have positive influence on manufacturing system functional objectives; customer demand affect the functional objectives, by competitive strategy. Research limitations/implications: In this research, competitive strategy and manufacturing system functional objectives are influenced by customer demand. The conclusion of the research can provide theoretical guidance for Chinese enterprises which carry out manufacturing system functional objectives. Originality/value: In this research, a new measure questionnaire of competition strategy, customer satisfaction and operating system function goal was used, analyzed the influence factors of time, quality, cost, efficiency, service and environment, on the operation of the system. The study shows that the effect of competition strategy and customer demand has a direct impact on the operating system functions, customer demand through competitive strategy of indirect effects operating system functions.

Robust Optimization Using Supremum of the Objective Function for Nonlinear Programming Problems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lee, Se Jung; Park, Gyung Jin

2014-01-01

In the robust optimization field, the robustness of the objective function emphasizes an insensitive design. In general, the robustness of the objective function can be achieved by reducing the change of the objective function with respect to the variation of the design variables and parameters. However, in conventional methods, when an insensitive design is emphasized, the performance of the objective function can be deteriorated. Besides, if the numbers of the design variables are increased, the numerical cost is quite high in robust optimization for nonlinear programming problems. In this research, the robustness index for the objective function and a process of robust optimization are proposed. Moreover, a method using the supremum of linearized functions is also proposed to reduce the computational cost. Mathematical examples are solved for the verification of the proposed method and the results are compared with those from the conventional methods. The proposed approach improves the performance of the objective function and its efficiency

Large-scale weakly supervised object localization via latent category learning.

Science.gov (United States)

Chong Wang; Kaiqi Huang; Weiqiang Ren; Junge Zhang; Maybank, Steve

2015-04-01

Localizing objects in cluttered backgrounds is challenging under large-scale weakly supervised conditions. Due to the cluttered image condition, objects usually have large ambiguity with backgrounds. Besides, there is also a lack of effective algorithm for large-scale weakly supervised localization in cluttered backgrounds. However, backgrounds contain useful latent information, e.g., the sky in the aeroplane class. If this latent information can be learned, object-background ambiguity can be largely reduced and background can be suppressed effectively. In this paper, we propose the latent category learning (LCL) in large-scale cluttered conditions. LCL is an unsupervised learning method which requires only image-level class labels. First, we use the latent semantic analysis with semantic object representation to learn the latent categories, which represent objects, object parts or backgrounds. Second, to determine which category contains the target object, we propose a category selection strategy by evaluating each category's discrimination. Finally, we propose the online LCL for use in large-scale conditions. Evaluation on the challenging PASCAL Visual Object Class (VOC) 2007 and the large-scale imagenet large-scale visual recognition challenge 2013 detection data sets shows that the method can improve the annotation precision by 10% over previous methods. More importantly, we achieve the detection precision which outperforms previous results by a large margin and can be competitive to the supervised deformable part model 5.0 baseline on both data sets.

Multi-objective design of PV-wind-diesel-hydrogen-battery systems

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Dufo-Lopez, Rodolfo; Bernal-Agustin, Jose L. [Department of Electrical Engineering, University of Zaragoza, Calle Maria de Luna 3, 50018-Zaragoza (Spain)

2008-12-15

This paper presents, for the first time, a triple multi-objective design of isolated hybrid systems minimizing, simultaneously, the total cost throughout the useful life of the installation, pollutant emissions (CO{sub 2}) and unmet load. For this task, a multi-objective evolutionary algorithm (MOEA) and a genetic algorithm (GA) have been used in order to find the best combination of components of the hybrid system and control strategies. As an example of application, a complex PV-wind-diesel-hydrogen-battery system has been designed, obtaining a set of possible solutions (Pareto Set). The results achieved demonstrate the practical utility of the developed design method. (author)

The objectives of the Directive on radiation protection for patients

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Courades, J.M.

1992-01-01

Improvement of the quality of medical uses of radiation and avoiding unnecessary exposure are the main objectives of the 1984 Directive laying down basic measures for the radiation protection of persons undergoing medical examination or treatment. This paper explains how these goals have been achieved through the implementation of the various provisions of the Community act since its adoption. (author)

An Intelligent Systems Approach to Automated Object Recognition: A Preliminary Study

Science.gov (United States)

Maddox, Brian G.; Swadley, Casey L.

2002-01-01

Attempts at fully automated object recognition systems have met with varying levels of success over the years. However, none of the systems have achieved high enough accuracy rates to be run unattended. One of the reasons for this may be that they are designed from the computer's point of view and rely mainly on image-processing methods. A better solution to this problem may be to make use of modern advances in computational intelligence and distributed processing to try to mimic how the human brain is thought to recognize objects. As humans combine cognitive processes with detection techniques, such a system would combine traditional image-processing techniques with computer-based intelligence to determine the identity of various objects in a scene.

Radioactive waste management practices in India: achievements and challenges

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wattal, P.K.; Basu, S.

2013-01-01

Safe and effective management of radioactive waste has been given utmost importance from the very inception of nuclear industry in India. This article gives an account of the basic principles, practices being followed in our country to achieve this objective. A brief description of the existing methods for management of diverse kinds of radioactive wastes including high level radioactive waste and also the research and development activities to address the future challenges is presented in the article. (author)

A Model for Predicting Learning Flow and Achievement in Corporate e-Learning

Science.gov (United States)

Joo, Young Ju; Lim, Kyu Yon; Kim, Su Mi

2012-01-01

The primary objective of this study was to investigate the determinants of learning flow and achievement in corporate online training. Self-efficacy, intrinsic value, and test anxiety were selected as learners' motivational factors, while perceived usefulness and ease of use were also selected as learning environmental factors. Learning flow was…

School Context and the Effect ESL Placement on Mexican-Origin Adolescents' Achievement.

Science.gov (United States)

Callahan, Rebecca; Wilkinson, Lindsey; Muller, Chandra

2008-01-01

OBJECTIVES: Immigrant adolescents' academic achievement is crucial to our future economic stability, and Mexican-origin linguistic minority youth in U.S. schools generally demonstrate lower levels of achievement. English as a Second Language (ESL) programs provide an institutional response to these students' needs, the effect of which may vary by the proportion of immigrant students in the school. MEASURES: Using propensity score matching and data from the Adolescent Health and Academic Achievement Study (AHAA) and the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health), we estimate the effect of ESL placement on Mexican-origin achievement for first-, second-, and third-generation adolescents separately in schools with many and few immigrant students. RESULTS: The estimated effect of ESL placement varies by both immigrant concentration in the school and by students' generational status. CONCLUSIONS: We find that ESL enrollment may be protective for second-generation Mexican-origin adolescents in high immigrant concentration schools, and may prove detrimental for first-generation adolescents in contexts with few other immigrant students.

3D shape measurement of moving object with FFT-based spatial matching

Science.gov (United States)

Guo, Qinghua; Ruan, Yuxi; Xi, Jiangtao; Song, Limei; Zhu, Xinjun; Yu, Yanguang; Tong, Jun

2018-03-01

This work presents a new technique for 3D shape measurement of moving object in translational motion, which finds applications in online inspection, quality control, etc. A low-complexity 1D fast Fourier transform (FFT)-based spatial matching approach is devised to obtain accurate object displacement estimates, and it is combined with single shot fringe pattern prolometry (FPP) techniques to achieve high measurement performance with multiple captured images through coherent combining. The proposed technique overcomes some limitations of existing ones. Specifically, the placement of marks on object surface and synchronization between projector and camera are not needed, the velocity of the moving object is not required to be constant, and there is no restriction on the movement trajectory. Both simulation and experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed technique.

Robot soccer anywhere: achieving persistent autonomous navigation, mapping, and object vision tracking in dynamic environments

Science.gov (United States)

Dragone, Mauro; O'Donoghue, Ruadhan; Leonard, John J.; O'Hare, Gregory; Duffy, Brian; Patrikalakis, Andrew; Leederkerken, Jacques

2005-06-01

The paper describes an ongoing effort to enable autonomous mobile robots to play soccer in unstructured, everyday environments. Unlike conventional robot soccer competitions that are usually held on purpose-built robot soccer "fields", in our work we seek to develop the capability for robots to demonstrate aspects of soccer-playing in more diverse environments, such as schools, hospitals, or shopping malls, with static obstacles (furniture) and dynamic natural obstacles (people). This problem of "Soccer Anywhere" presents numerous research challenges including: (1) Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM) in dynamic, unstructured environments, (2) software control architectures for decentralized, distributed control of mobile agents, (3) integration of vision-based object tracking with dynamic control, and (4) social interaction with human participants. In addition to the intrinsic research merit of these topics, we believe that this capability would prove useful for outreach activities, in demonstrating robotics technology to primary and secondary school students, to motivate them to pursue careers in science and engineering.

A Study on Relation between Self Concept and Academic Achievement among Secondary School Students of Jammu District

Science.gov (United States)

Lone, Parveez Ahmad; Lone, Tariq Ahmad

2016-01-01

Self-concept is the whole set of attitudes, opinions, and cognitions that a person has of himself while the academic achievement or (academic) performance is the outcome of education - the extent to which a student, teacher or institution has achieved their educational goals. The objective of the paper is to study the relation between the…

An Adaptable Robot Vision System Performing Manipulation Actions With Flexible Objects

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bodenhagen, Leon; Fugl, Andreas R.; Jordt, Andreas

2014-01-01

system should be viewed as a library of new technologies that have been proven to work in close to industrial conditions. As a rather basic, but necessary part, we provide a technology for determining the shape of the object when passing on, e. g., a conveyor belt prior to being handled. The main......This paper describes an adaptable system which is able to perform manipulation operations (such as Peg-in-Hole or Laying-Down actions) with flexible objects. As such objects easily change their shape significantly during the execution of an action, traditional strategies, e. g., for solve path......, operating in real-time. Simulations have been used to bootstrap the learning of optimal actions, which are subsequently improved through real-world executions. To achieve reproducible results, we demonstrate this for casted silicone test objects of regular shape. Note to Practitioners-The aim of this work...

Object Detection Based on Fast/Faster RCNN Employing Fully Convolutional Architectures

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yun Ren

2018-01-01

Full Text Available Modern object detectors always include two major parts: a feature extractor and a feature classifier as same as traditional object detectors. The deeper and wider convolutional architectures are adopted as the feature extractor at present. However, many notable object detection systems such as Fast/Faster RCNN only consider simple fully connected layers as the feature classifier. In this paper, we declare that it is beneficial for the detection performance to elaboratively design deep convolutional networks (ConvNets of various depths for feature classification, especially using the fully convolutional architectures. In addition, this paper also demonstrates how to employ the fully convolutional architectures in the Fast/Faster RCNN. Experimental results show that a classifier based on convolutional layer is more effective for object detection than that based on fully connected layer and that the better detection performance can be achieved by employing deeper ConvNets as the feature classifier.

Multi-Objective Optimization of Start-up Strategy for Pumped Storage Units

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Jinjiao Hou

2018-05-01

Full Text Available This paper proposes a multi-objective optimization method for the start-up strategy of pumped storage units (PSU for the first time. In the multi-objective optimization method, the speed rise time and the overshoot during the process of the start-up are taken as the objectives. A precise simulation platform is built for simulating the transient process of start-up, and for calculating the objectives based on the process. The Multi-objective Particle Swarm Optimization algorithm (MOPSO is adopted to optimize the widely applied start-up strategies based on one-stage direct guide vane control (DGVC, and two-stage DGVC. Based on the Pareto Front obtained, a multi-objective decision-making method based on the relative objective proximity is used to sort the solutions in the Pareto Front. Start-up strategy optimization for a PSU of a pumped storage power station in Jiangxi Province in China is conducted in experiments. The results show that: (1 compared with the single objective optimization, the proposed multi-objective optimization of start-up strategy not only greatly shortens the speed rise time and the speed overshoot, but also makes the speed curve quickly stabilize; (2 multi-objective optimization of strategy based on two-stage DGVC achieves better solution for a quick and smooth start-up of PSU than that of the strategy based on one-stage DGVC.

The Effect of an Educational Computer Game for the Achievement of Factual and Simple Conceptual Knowledge Acquisition

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Luis C. Almeida

2012-01-01

Full Text Available This paper presents findings of a quantitative investigation of how games affect achievement of an educational objective based on the foundations of information processing. The results suggest that games can be used to assist achievement of classroom content. The results of this experimental quantitative study pointed to the overwhelming evidence that games outperformed the control group (nongames in the achievement of factual knowledge in a group of freshman education students at a medium-size university.

Learning Objectives and Testing: An Analysis of Six Principles of Economics Textbooks, Using Bloom's Taxonomy.

Science.gov (United States)

Karns, James M. L.; And Others

1983-01-01

Significant differences were found between the stated objectives of most college level economics textbooks and the instruments included in the instructor's manuals to measure student achievement. (Author/RM)

Noncontact orientation of objects in three-dimensional space using magnetic levitation.

Science.gov (United States)

Subramaniam, Anand Bala; Yang, Dian; Yu, Hai-Dong; Nemiroski, Alex; Tricard, Simon; Ellerbee, Audrey K; Soh, Siowling; Whitesides, George M

2014-09-09

This paper describes several noncontact methods of orienting objects in 3D space using Magnetic Levitation (MagLev). The methods use two permanent magnets arranged coaxially with like poles facing and a container containing a paramagnetic liquid in which the objects are suspended. Absent external forcing, objects levitating in the device adopt predictable static orientations; the orientation depends on the shape and distribution of mass within the objects. The orientation of objects of uniform density in the MagLev device shows a sharp geometry-dependent transition: an analytical theory rationalizes this transition and predicts the orientation of objects in the MagLev device. Manipulation of the orientation of the levitating objects in space is achieved in two ways: (i) by rotating and/or translating the MagLev device while the objects are suspended in the paramagnetic solution between the magnets; (ii) by moving a small external magnet close to the levitating objects while keeping the device stationary. Unlike mechanical agitation or robotic selection, orienting using MagLev is possible for objects having a range of different physical characteristics (e.g., different shapes, sizes, and mechanical properties from hard polymers to gels and fluids). MagLev thus has the potential to be useful for sorting and positioning components in 3D space, orienting objects for assembly, constructing noncontact devices, and assembling objects composed of soft materials such as hydrogels, elastomers, and jammed granular media.

DETECTION AND CLASSIFICATION OF POLE-LIKE OBJECTS FROM MOBILE MAPPING DATA

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K. Fukano

2015-08-01

Full Text Available Laser scanners on a vehicle-based mobile mapping system can capture 3D point-clouds of roads and roadside objects. Since roadside objects have to be maintained periodically, their 3D models are useful for planning maintenance tasks. In our previous work, we proposed a method for detecting cylindrical poles and planar plates in a point-cloud. However, it is often required to further classify pole-like objects into utility poles, streetlights, traffic signals and signs, which are managed by different organizations. In addition, our previous method may fail to extract low pole-like objects, which are often observed in urban residential areas. In this paper, we propose new methods for extracting and classifying pole-like objects. In our method, we robustly extract a wide variety of poles by converting point-clouds into wireframe models and calculating cross-sections between wireframe models and horizontal cutting planes. For classifying pole-like objects, we subdivide a pole-like object into five subsets by extracting poles and planes, and calculate feature values of each subset. Then we apply a supervised machine learning method using feature variables of subsets. In our experiments, our method could achieve excellent results for detection and classification of pole-like objects.

Object tracking system using a VSW algorithm based on color and point features

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Lim Hye-Youn

2011-01-01

Full Text Available Abstract An object tracking system using a variable search window (VSW algorithm based on color and feature points is proposed. A meanshift algorithm is an object tracking technique that works according to color probability distributions. An advantage of this algorithm based on color is that it is robust to specific color objects; however, a disadvantage is that it is sensitive to non-specific color objects due to illumination and noise. Therefore, to offset this weakness, it presents the VSW algorithm based on robust feature points for the accurate tracking of moving objects. The proposed method extracts the feature points of a detected object which is the region of interest (ROI, and generates a VSW using the given information which is the positions of extracted feature points. The goal of this paper is to achieve an efficient and effective object tracking system that meets the accurate tracking of moving objects. Through experiments, the object tracking system is implemented that it performs more precisely than existing techniques.

A novice's process of object-oriented programming

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Caspersen, Michael Edelgaard; Kölling, Michael

2006-01-01

Exposing students to the process of programming is merely implied but not explicitly addressed in texts on programming which appear to deal with 'program' as a noun rather than as a verb.We present a set of principles and techniques as well as an informal but systematic process of decomposing...... a programming problem. Two examples are used to demonstrate the application of process and techniques.The process is a carefully down-scaled version of a full and rich software engineering process particularly suited for novices learning object-oriented programming. In using it, we hope to achieve two things...

Perceived School and Neighborhood Safety, Neighborhood Violence and Academic Achievement in Urban School Children

Science.gov (United States)

AJ, Milam; CDM, Furr-Holden; PJ, Leaf

2010-01-01

Community and school violence continue to be a major public health problem, especially among urban children and adolescents. Little research has focused on the effect of school safety and neighborhood violence on academic performance. This study examines the effect of the school and neighborhood climate on academic achievement among a population of 3rd-5th grade students in an urban public school system. Community and school safety were assessed using the School Climate Survey, an annual city-wide assessment of student’s perception of school and community safety. Community violence was measured using the Neighborhood Inventory for Environmental Typology, an objective observational assessment of neighborhood characteristics. Academic achievement was measured using the Maryland State Assessment (MSA), a standardized exam given to all Maryland 3rd-8th graders. School Climate Data and MSA data were aggregated by school and grade. Objective assessments of neighborhood environment and students’ self-reported school and neighborhood safety were both strongly associated with academic performance. Increasing neighborhood violence was associated with statistically significant decreases from 4.2%-8.7% in math and reading achievement; increasing perceived safety was associated with significant increases in achievement from 16%-22%. These preliminary findings highlight the adverse impact of perceived safety and community violence exposure on primary school children’s academic performance. PMID:21197388

Environment factors to achieve strategic objectives in companies

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Guga, L.

2010-12-01

Full Text Available Strategic management begins with an evaluation of the organization’s mission, goals, and strategy. This is followed by situation analysis (sometimes called SWOT analysis which examines opportunities and threats in the external environment as well as strengths and weaknesses within the organization. Situation analysis leads to the formulation of explicit strategic plans, which then must be implemented.This planning usually takes place in for-profit business organizations and pertains to competitive actions on the market. Although some companies hire strategic planning experts, the responsibility for strategic planning rests with line managers. Seniors executives of companies want middle and lower-level line managers to think strategically. Strategic thinking means to take the long-term view and to see the big picture, including the organization and the competitive environment and consider how they fit together. Understanding the strategy concept, the levels of strategy, and strategy formulations versus implementation is an important start towards strategic thinking.

Human-like object tracking and gaze estimation with PKD android.

Science.gov (United States)

Wijayasinghe, Indika B; Miller, Haylie L; Das, Sumit K; Bugnariu, Nicoleta L; Popa, Dan O

2016-05-01

As the use of robots increases for tasks that require human-robot interactions, it is vital that robots exhibit and understand human-like cues for effective communication. In this paper, we describe the implementation of object tracking capability on Philip K. Dick (PKD) android and a gaze tracking algorithm, both of which further robot capabilities with regard to human communication. PKD's ability to track objects with human-like head postures is achieved with visual feedback from a Kinect system and an eye camera. The goal of object tracking with human-like gestures is twofold : to facilitate better human-robot interactions and to enable PKD as a human gaze emulator for future studies. The gaze tracking system employs a mobile eye tracking system (ETG; SensoMotoric Instruments) and a motion capture system (Cortex; Motion Analysis Corp.) for tracking the head orientations. Objects to be tracked are displayed by a virtual reality system, the Computer Assisted Rehabilitation Environment (CAREN; MotekForce Link). The gaze tracking algorithm converts eye tracking data and head orientations to gaze information facilitating two objectives: to evaluate the performance of the object tracking system for PKD and to use the gaze information to predict the intentions of the user, enabling the robot to understand physical cues by humans.

Human-like object tracking and gaze estimation with PKD android

Science.gov (United States)

Wijayasinghe, Indika B.; Miller, Haylie L.; Das, Sumit K.; Bugnariu, Nicoleta L.; Popa, Dan O.

2016-05-01

As the use of robots increases for tasks that require human-robot interactions, it is vital that robots exhibit and understand human-like cues for effective communication. In this paper, we describe the implementation of object tracking capability on Philip K. Dick (PKD) android and a gaze tracking algorithm, both of which further robot capabilities with regard to human communication. PKD's ability to track objects with human-like head postures is achieved with visual feedback from a Kinect system and an eye camera. The goal of object tracking with human-like gestures is twofold: to facilitate better human-robot interactions and to enable PKD as a human gaze emulator for future studies. The gaze tracking system employs a mobile eye tracking system (ETG; SensoMotoric Instruments) and a motion capture system (Cortex; Motion Analysis Corp.) for tracking the head orientations. Objects to be tracked are displayed by a virtual reality system, the Computer Assisted Rehabilitation Environment (CAREN; MotekForce Link). The gaze tracking algorithm converts eye tracking data and head orientations to gaze information facilitating two objectives: to evaluate the performance of the object tracking system for PKD and to use the gaze information to predict the intentions of the user, enabling the robot to understand physical cues by humans.

High Voltage Overhead Power Line Routing under an Objective Observability Criterion

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L. Alfredo Fernandez-Jimenez

2017-10-01

Full Text Available The construction of new high voltage overhead power lines (HVOPLs has become a controversial issue for electricity companies due to social opposition. Citizens are concerned about how these power lines may have an impact on their lives, basically caused by their effects on health and safety. Visual impact is one of the most easily perceived. Although there are several published works that deal with the assessment of the visual impact produced by HVOPLs, no methodology has been proposed to assess this impact from an objective perspective. This work presents an original methodology which helps to identify the optimal routes for a new HVOPL under an objective observability criterion, enabling the selection of those with the lowest visibility in a zone. The application of the proposed methodology achieves a set of routes that links new HVOPL origin and destination points creating a corridor which includes all possible routes with an observability of its towers under a threshold limit. This methodology is illustrated by a real-life use corresponding to the selection of the route with least observability for a new power line in La Rioja (Spain. The results obtained may help to achieve a consensus between key stakeholders since it is focused on the specific issues of the planned HVOPL and its observability from an objective perspective.

The subjective experience of object recognition: comparing metacognition for object detection and object categorization.

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Meuwese, Julia D I; van Loon, Anouk M; Lamme, Victor A F; Fahrenfort, Johannes J

2014-05-01

Perceptual decisions seem to be made automatically and almost instantly. Constructing a unitary subjective conscious experience takes more time. For example, when trying to avoid a collision with a car on a foggy road you brake or steer away in a reflex, before realizing you were in a near accident. This subjective aspect of object recognition has been given little attention. We used metacognition (assessed with confidence ratings) to measure subjective experience during object detection and object categorization for degraded and masked objects, while objective performance was matched. Metacognition was equal for degraded and masked objects, but categorization led to higher metacognition than did detection. This effect turned out to be driven by a difference in metacognition for correct rejection trials, which seemed to be caused by an asymmetry of the distractor stimulus: It does not contain object-related information in the detection task, whereas it does contain such information in the categorization task. Strikingly, this asymmetry selectively impacted metacognitive ability when objective performance was matched. This finding reveals a fundamental difference in how humans reflect versus act on information: When matching the amount of information required to perform two tasks at some objective level of accuracy (acting), metacognitive ability (reflecting) is still better in tasks that rely on positive evidence (categorization) than in tasks that rely more strongly on an absence of evidence (detection).

BIBLIOGRAPHY ON ACHIEVEMENT.

Science.gov (United States)

Harvard Univ., Cambridge, MA. Graduate School of Education.

THIS BIBLIOGRAPHY LISTS MATERIAL ON VARIOUS ASPECTS OF ACHIEVEMENT. APPROXIMATELY 40 UNANNOTATED REFERENCES ARE PROVIDED TO DOCUMENTS DATING FROM 1952 TO 1965. JOURNALS, BOOKS, AND REPORT MATERIALS ARE LISTED. SUBJECT AREAS INCLUDED ARE BEHAVIOR TESTS, ACHIEVEMENT BEHAVIOR, ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT, AND SOCIAL-CLASS BACKGROUND. A RELATED REPORT IS ED…

Achievement Goals and Discrete Achievement Emotions: A Theoretical Model and Prospective Test

Science.gov (United States)

Pekrun, Reinhard; Elliot, Andrew J.; Maier, Markus A.

2006-01-01

A theoretical model linking achievement goals to discrete achievement emotions is proposed. The model posits relations between the goals of the trichotomous achievement goal framework and 8 commonly experienced achievement emotions organized in a 2 (activity/outcome focus) x 2 (positive/negative valence) taxonomy. Two prospective studies tested…

MOTION PLANNING OF MULTIPLE MOBILE ROBOTS COOPERATIVELY TRANSPORTING A COMMON OBJECT

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

无

2000-01-01

Many applications above the capability of a single robot need the cooperation of multiple mobile robots, but effective cooperation is hard to achieve. In this paper, a master-slave method is proposed to control the motions of multiple mobile robots that cooperatively transport a common object from a start point to a goal point. A noholonomic kinematic model to constrain the motions of multiple mobile robots is built in order to achieve cooperative motions of them, and a "Dynamic Coordinator" strategy is used to deal with the collision-avoidance of the master robot and slave robot individually. Simulation results show the robustness and effectiveness of the method.

Breaking object correspondence across saccadic eye movements deteriorates object recognition

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Christian H. Poth

2015-12-01

Full Text Available Visual perception is based on information processing during periods of eye fixations that are interrupted by fast saccadic eye movements. The ability to sample and relate information on task-relevant objects across fixations implies that correspondence between presaccadic and postsaccadic objects is established. Postsaccadic object information usually updates and overwrites information on the corresponding presaccadic object. The presaccadic object representation is then lost. In contrast, the presaccadic object is conserved when object correspondence is broken. This helps transsaccadic memory but it may impose attentional costs on object recognition. Therefore, we investigated how breaking object correspondence across the saccade affects postsaccadic object recognition. In Experiment 1, object correspondence was broken by a brief postsaccadic blank screen. Observers made a saccade to a peripheral object which was displaced during the saccade. This object reappeared either immediately after the saccade or after the blank screen. Within the postsaccadic object, a letter was briefly presented (terminated by a mask. Observers reported displacement direction and letter identity in different blocks. Breaking object correspondence by blanking improved displacement identification but deteriorated postsaccadic letter recognition. In Experiment 2, object correspondence was broken by changing the object’s contrast-polarity. There were no object displacements and observers only reported letter identity. Again, breaking object correspondence deteriorated postsaccadic letter recognition. These findings identify transsaccadic object correspondence as a key determinant of object recognition across the saccade. This is in line with the recent hypothesis that breaking object correspondence results in separate representations of presaccadic and postsaccadic objects which then compete for limited attentional processing resources (Schneider, 2013. Postsaccadic

Coaching bioethically with the purpose of achieving sustainable development

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Striedinger-Meléndez, Martha Patricia

2016-12-01

Full Text Available The present article analyzes the problematic of teaching and learning bioethics in the context of higher education, with an emphasis in medicine and aiming towards sustainable development. The objective is to expose that one of the alternatives to get to know bioethics in higher education institutions, is to coach each community bioethically. This means that the educator must be a role model for the students: not only teaching, but, living bioethically. In the beginning, it makes reference to the general aspects of bioethics and sustainable development to explain the evolution of these concepts, its situation in the present and the challenges of the future. Further, it focuses on the methodological strategies in the process of educating bio ethically, directed in leading students of higher education institutions with the purpose of achieving sustainable development. Yet, not achieving it in a traditional manner, since sustainable development also refers to wellbeing. Thus, coaching bioethically, which improves the way society functions. The conclusion is that institutions must give educators and students the tools for problem solving the priorities of humanity, such sustainable development. This can be achieved through bioethics.

Modeling relationships between physical fitness, executive functioning, and academic achievement in primary school children

NARCIS (Netherlands)

van der Niet, Anneke G.; Hartman, Esther; Smith, Joanne; Visscher, Chris

Objectives: The relationship between physical fitness and academic achievement in children has received much attention, however, whether executive functioning plays a mediating role in this relationship is unclear. The aim of this study therefore was to investigate the relationships between physical

Objectivity

CERN Document Server

Daston, Lorraine

2010-01-01

Objectivity has a history, and it is full of surprises. In Objectivity, Lorraine Daston and Peter Galison chart the emergence of objectivity in the mid-nineteenth-century sciences--and show how the concept differs from its alternatives, truth-to-nature and trained judgment. This is a story of lofty epistemic ideals fused with workaday practices in the making of scientific images. From the eighteenth through the early twenty-first centuries, the images that reveal the deepest commitments of the empirical sciences--from anatomy to crystallography--are those featured in scientific atlases, the compendia that teach practitioners what is worth looking at and how to look at it. Galison and Daston use atlas images to uncover a hidden history of scientific objectivity and its rivals. Whether an atlas maker idealizes an image to capture the essentials in the name of truth-to-nature or refuses to erase even the most incidental detail in the name of objectivity or highlights patterns in the name of trained judgment is a...

The Impact of School Climate and School Identification on Academic Achievement: Multilevel Modeling with Student and Teacher Data

OpenAIRE

Maxwell, Sophie; Reynolds, Katherine J.; Lee, Eunro; Subasic, Emina; Bromhead, David

2017-01-01

School climate is a leading factor in explaining student learning and achievement. Less work has explored the impact of both staff and student perceptions of school climate raising interesting questions about whether staff school climate experiences can add “value” to students' achievement. In the current research, multiple sources were integrated into a multilevel model, including staff self-reports, student self-reports, objective school records of academic achievement, and socio-economic d...

Logistic Regression and Path Analysis Method to Analyze Factors influencing Students’ Achievement

Science.gov (United States)

Noeryanti, N.; Suryowati, K.; Setyawan, Y.; Aulia, R. R.

2018-04-01

Students' academic achievement cannot be separated from the influence of two factors namely internal and external factors. The first factors of the student (internal factors) consist of intelligence (X1), health (X2), interest (X3), and motivation of students (X4). The external factors consist of family environment (X5), school environment (X6), and society environment (X7). The objects of this research are eighth grade students of the school year 2016/2017 at SMPN 1 Jiwan Madiun sampled by using simple random sampling. Primary data are obtained by distributing questionnaires. The method used in this study is binary logistic regression analysis that aims to identify internal and external factors that affect student’s achievement and how the trends of them. Path Analysis was used to determine the factors that influence directly, indirectly or totally on student’s achievement. Based on the results of binary logistic regression, variables that affect student’s achievement are interest and motivation. And based on the results obtained by path analysis, factors that have a direct impact on student’s achievement are students’ interest (59%) and students’ motivation (27%). While the factors that have indirect influences on students’ achievement, are family environment (97%) and school environment (37).

Object manipulation facilitates kind-based object individuation of shape-similar objects

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kingo, Osman Skjold; Krøjgaard, Peter

2011-01-01

Five experiments investigated the importance of shape and object manipulation when 12-month-olds were given the task of individuating objects representing exemplars of kinds in an event-mapping design. In Experiments 1 and 2, results of the study from Xu, Carey, and Quint (2004, Experiment 4) wer...

RAPTOR-scan: Identifying and Tracking Objects Through Thousands of Sky Images

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Davidoff, Sherri; Wozniak, Przemyslaw

2004-01-01

The RAPTOR-scan system mines data for optical transients associated with gamma-ray bursts and is used to create a catalog for the RAPTOR telescope system. RAPTOR-scan can detect and track individual astronomical objects across data sets containing millions of observed points.Accurately identifying a real object over many optical images (clustering the individual appearances) is necessary in order to analyze object light curves. To achieve this, RAPTOR telescope observations are sent in real time to a database. Each morning, a program based on the DBSCAN algorithm clusters the observations and labels each one with an object identifier. Once clustering is complete, the analysis program may be used to query the database and produce light curves, maps of the sky field, or other informative displays.Although RAPTOR-scan was designed for the RAPTOR optical telescope system, it is a general tool designed to identify objects in a collection of astronomical data and facilitate quick data analysis. RAPTOR-scan will be released as free software under the GNU General Public License

A Multi-objective Optimization Application in Friction Stir Welding: Considering Thermo-mechanical Aspects

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Tutum, Cem Celal; Hattel, Jesper Henri

2010-01-01

speed and traverse welding speed have been sought in order to achieve the goals mentioned above using an evolutionary multi-objective optimization (MOO) algorithm, i.e. non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm (NSGA-II), integrated with a transient, 2-dimensional sequentially coupled thermomechanical...

Academic achievement of junior high school students with sleep disorders

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Fijri Auliyanti

2015-03-01

Full Text Available Background Sleep disorders are prevalent in adolescents and may influence their academic achievement. To date, no study has been done in Indonesia on academic achievement in students with sleep disorders and its related factors. Objective To assess for relationships between academic achievement and related factors, including gender, motivation and learning strategies, IQ level, maternal educational level, socioeconomic status, family structure, after-hours education program, presence of TV/computer in the bedroom, sleep duration during school days, as well as bedtime and wakeup time difference in junior high school students with sleep disorders. Methods This cross-sectional study was performed from January to March 2013. Subjects were students from five junior high schools in Jakarta who fulfilled the criteria for sleep disorders based on the Sleep Disturbance Scale for Children questionnaire. Results There were 111 study subjects. The prevalence of sleep disorders was 39.7%, mostly in difficulties initiating and maintaining sleep (70.2%. Below-average academic achievement was seen in 47.6% of subjects. Factors significantly related to below-average academic achievement were after-hours education program (prevalence ratio 5.6; 95%CI 1.36 to 23.18; P = 0.017, average IQ level (prevalence ratio 3.26; 95%CI 1.38 to 7.71; P = 0.007, and male gender (prevalence ratio 2.68; 95%CI 1.06 to 6.78; P = 0.037. Conclusion Among junior high school students with sleep disorders, factors related to below-average academic achievement are afterhours education program (more than 2 types, the average IQ level, and male gender.

Using Weblog in Cooperative Learning to Improve the Achievement of History Learning

Science.gov (United States)

Leng, Lim Hooi; Leng, Chin Hai; Abedalaziz, Nabeel

2013-01-01

This research investigates the use of Weblog in Cooperative Learning to enhance students' learning of History. The main issues of this study were the lack of interest and low achievement scores in History learning. The objectives of this study are to explore the incorporation of Weblog in Cooperative Learning within the teaching and learning…

Pre-conceptual-schema-based patterns for deriving key performance indicators from strategic objectives

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Carlos Mario Zapata Jaramillo

2017-05-01

Full Text Available Performance measurement is crucial for achieving business success. Moreover, such success is also related to the fulfillment of the organizational strategic objectives. Hence, an adequate determination of relevant performance indicators—or key performance indicators (KPIs—and their relationships to organizational objectives is needed. Even though several approaches for treating KPIs and objective-KPI relationships have been proposed, they exhibit some drawbacks associated with the lack of reusability and traceability. We attempt to fill this gap by proposing a set of patterns based on pre-conceptual schemas for supporting the systematic derivation of KPIs and their relationships to organizational objectives. In this way, the proposed patterns guarantee a reusable and traceable derivation process of a set of candidate KPIs from organizational strategic objectives. Lastly, we provide a lab study in order to illustrate the usefulness of this proposal.

Multi-objective Optimization of a Solar Humidification Dehumidification Desalination Unit

Science.gov (United States)

Rafigh, M.; Mirzaeian, M.; Najafi, B.; Rinaldi, F.; Marchesi, R.

2017-11-01

In the present paper, a humidification-dehumidification desalination unit integrated with solar system is considered. In the first step mathematical model of the whole plant is represented. Next, taking into account the logical constraints, the performance of the system is optimized. On one hand it is desired to have higher energetic efficiency, while on the other hand, higher efficiency results in an increment in the required area for each subsystem which consequently leads to an increase in the total cost of the plant. In the present work, the optimum solution is achieved when the specific energy of the solar heater and also the areas of humidifier and dehumidifier are minimized. Due to the fact that considered objective functions are in conflict, conventional optimization methods are not applicable. Hence, multi objective optimization using genetic algorithm which is an efficient tool for dealing with problems with conflicting objectives has been utilized and a set of optimal solutions called Pareto front each of which is a tradeoff between the mentioned objectives is generated.

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

Science.gov (United States)

Vickery, Timothy J; Chun, Marvin M

2010-12-01

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

Virtual Surveyor based Object Extraction from Airborne LiDAR data

Science.gov (United States)

Habib, Md. Ahsan

Topographic feature detection of land cover from LiDAR data is important in various fields - city planning, disaster response and prevention, soil conservation, infrastructure or forestry. In recent years, feature classification, compliant with Object-Based Image Analysis (OBIA) methodology has been gaining traction in remote sensing and geographic information science (GIS). In OBIA, the LiDAR image is first divided into meaningful segments called object candidates. This results, in addition to spectral values, in a plethora of new information such as aggregated spectral pixel values, morphology, texture, context as well as topology. Traditional nonparametric segmentation methods rely on segmentations at different scales to produce a hierarchy of semantically significant objects. Properly tuned scale parameters are, therefore, imperative in these methods for successful subsequent classification. Recently, some progress has been made in the development of methods for tuning the parameters for automatic segmentation. However, researchers found that it is very difficult to automatically refine the tuning with respect to each object class present in the scene. Moreover, due to the relative complexity of real-world objects, the intra-class heterogeneity is very high, which leads to over-segmentation. Therefore, the method fails to deliver correctly many of the new segment features. In this dissertation, a new hierarchical 3D object segmentation algorithm called Automatic Virtual Surveyor based Object Extracted (AVSOE) is presented. AVSOE segments objects based on their distinct geometric concavity/convexity. This is achieved by strategically mapping the sloping surface, which connects the object to its background. Further analysis produces hierarchical decomposition of objects to its sub-objects at a single scale level. Extensive qualitative and qualitative results are presented to demonstrate the efficacy of this hierarchical segmentation approach.

Producing a Linear Laser System for 3d Modelimg of Small Objects

Science.gov (United States)

Amini, A. Sh.; Mozaffar, M. H.

2012-07-01

Today, three dimensional modeling of objects is considered in many applications such as documentation of ancient heritage, quality control, reverse engineering and animation In this regard, there are a variety of methods for producing three-dimensional models. In this paper, a 3D modeling system is developed based on photogrammetry method using image processing and laser line extraction from images. In this method the laser beam profile is radiated on the body of the object and with video image acquisition, and extraction of laser line from the frames, three-dimensional coordinates of the objects can be achieved. In this regard, first the design and implementation of hardware, including cameras and laser systems was conducted. Afterwards, the system was calibrated. Finally, the software of the system was implemented for three dimensional data extraction. The system was investigated for modeling a number of objects. The results showed that the system can provide benefits such as low cost, appropriate speed and acceptable accuracy in 3D modeling of objects.

Efficient Dynamic Adaptation Strategies for Object Tracking Tree in Wireless Sensor Network

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

CHEN, M.

2012-12-01

Full Text Available Most object tracking trees are established using the predefined mobility profile. However, when the real object's movement behaviors and query rates are different from the predefined mobility profile and query rates, the update cost and query cost of object tracking tree may increase. To upgrade the object tracking tree, the sink needs to send very large messages to collect the real movement information from the network, introducing a very large message overhead, which is referred to as adaptation cost. The Sub Root Message-Tree Adaptive procedure was proposed to dynamically collect the real movement information under the sub-tree and reconstruct the sub-tree to provide good performance based on the collected information. The simulation results indicates that the Sub Root Message-Tree Adaptive procedure is sufficient to achieve good total cost and lower adaptation cost.

Family Inequality, School Inequalities, and Mathematics Achievement in 65 Countries: Microeconomic Mechanisms of Rent Seeking and Diminishing Marginal Returns

Science.gov (United States)

Chiu, Ming Ming

2015-01-01

Background/Context: While many studies show that greater economic inequality widens the achievement gap between rich and poor students, recent studies indicate that countries with greater economic inequality have lower overall student achievement. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study: This study explores whether family inequalities…

Objective psychomotor skills assessment of experienced, junior, and novice laparoscopists with virtual reality.

Science.gov (United States)

Gallagher, A G; Richie, K; McClure, N; McGuigan, J

2001-11-01

Objective assessment of psychomotor skills in surgery is now a priority; however, this assessment is difficult to achieve because of measurement difficulties associated with the reliability and validity of assessing surgical skills in vivo and in the laboratory. In this study virtual reality (VR) was used to overcome these problems in the objective psychomotor assessment of senior, junior, and novice laparoscopists. Twelve experienced laparoscopic surgeons (performed >50 Minimal Access Surgery (MAS) procedures), 12 inexperienced laparoscopic surgeons (psychomotor skills for laparoscopic surgery.

Anxiety and Inattention as Predictors of Achievement in Early Elementary School Children

Science.gov (United States)

Fletcher, Jack M.; Vaughn, Sharon R.; Denton, Carolyn A.; Taylor, Pat

2012-01-01

The objective of this study was to examine the relations among anxiety, inattention, and math/reading achievement, as well as the mediating/moderating role of inattention in the anxiety-achievement association both concurrently and longitudinally. Participants included 161 ethnically diverse children (aged 6–8) and their teachers. At the middle and end of first-grade (approximately 5 months apart), students completed measures of anxiety and achievement while their teachers completed a measure of inattention. For the concurrent analyses, greater harm avoidance anxiety was associated with better attention, which was in turn related to better achievement. For the longitudinal analyses, mid-year inattention interacted with harm avoidance and separation anxiety to predict end of year reading fluency. For those rated as more attentive, greater separation anxiety symptoms were associated with decreased fluency performance while greater harm avoidance symptoms were associated with increased performance. Findings were discussed in terms of the importance of considering socioemotional variables in the study of children’s academic achievement and the potential utility of early anxiety prevention/intervention programs, especially for children experiencing academic difficulties who also show internalizing behaviors. PMID:22764776

Identification of core objectives for teaching sustainable healthcare education.

Science.gov (United States)

Teherani, Arianne; Nishimura, Holly; Apatira, Latifat; Newman, Thomas; Ryan, Susan

2017-01-01

Physicians will be called upon to care for patients who bear the burden of disease from the impact of climate change and ecologically irresponsible practices which harm ecosystems and contribute to climate change. However, physicians must recognize the connection between the climate, ecosystems, sustainability, and health and their responsibility and capacity in changing the status quo. Sustainable healthcare education (SHE), defined as education about the impact of climate change and ecosystem alterations on health and the impact of the healthcare industry on the aforementioned, is vital to prevention of adverse health outcomes due to the changing climate and environment. To systematically determine which and when a set of SHE objectives should be included in the medical education continuum. Fifty-two SHE experts participated in a two-part modified-Delphi study. A survey was developed based on 21 SHE objectives. Respondents rated the importance of each objective and when each objective should be taught. Descriptive statistics and an item-level content validity index (CVI) were used to analyze data. Fifteen of the objectives achieved a content validity index of 78% or greater. The remaining objectives had content validity indices between 58% and 77%. The preclinical years of medical school were rated as the optimal time for introducing 13 and the clinical years for introducing six of the objectives. Respondents noted the definition of environmental sustainability should be learned prior to medical school and identifying ways to improve the environmental sustainability of health systems in post-graduate training. This study proposes SHE objectives for the continuum of medical education. These objectives ensure the identity of the physician includes the requisite awareness and competence to care for patients who experience the impact of climate and environment on health and advocate for sustainability of the health systems in which they work. CVI: Content validity

Impact of Teacher Self-Efficacy on Secondary School Students’ Academic Achievement

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Khurram Shahzad

2017-06-01

Full Text Available The study of self-efficacy and its impact on human performance has intrigued many scholars during the last two decades, for example, Clayson and Sheffet, 2006; Nauta, 2004; Muijsand Rejnolds 2001; Bandura, 1997 and Soodak and Podell, 1993. This study was conducted with the objective to find out the impact ofteacher self-efficacy on the secondary school students’ academic achievement. For this purpose, sixty (60 secondary school teachers and a hundred (100 secondary school students in Chiltan Town of Quetta city were randomly selected. To collect the data, teacher self-efficacy questionnaire for teachers was used and to measure students’ academic achievement a test was developed. Data were analyzed through Pearson Correlation and Multiple Regressions. The findings of the study revealed that teacher self-efficacy has a positive impact on the students’ academic achievement. The results of the study and their pedagogical implications have been discussed, and recommendations have been provided for further researches.

A Blueprint for Innovation to Achieve Health System Transformation.

Science.gov (United States)

Snowdon, Anne W

2017-01-01

Global health systems are challenged by escalating costs and growing demands for care created by the demands of aging populations and rising rates of chronic illness which place unsustainable pressure on health systems to meet population health needs. To overcome these challenges, transformational change is needed to strengthen health system performance and sustainability. Innovation is widely viewed as the strategy to drive transformational change in health systems; yet to date, innovation has lacked a clearly defined focus or agenda to achieve transformation. An actionable innovation agenda is needed to achieve transformational change for health systems. The key conditions for success as an innovation strategy are examined, including clearly defined innovation objectives, key milestones, and actionable steps every system stakeholder must pursue in order to guide the innovation agenda and ultimately accelerate the transformational changes needed for a sustainable healthcare system that delivers value to populations.

Object Tracking via 2DPCA and l2-Regularization

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Haijun Wang

2016-01-01

Full Text Available We present a fast and robust object tracking algorithm by using 2DPCA and l2-regularization in a Bayesian inference framework. Firstly, we model the challenging appearance of the tracked object using 2DPCA bases, which exploit the strength of subspace representation. Secondly, we adopt the l2-regularization to solve the proposed presentation model and remove the trivial templates from the sparse tracking method which can provide a more fast tracking performance. Finally, we present a novel likelihood function that considers the reconstruction error, which is concluded from the orthogonal left-projection matrix and the orthogonal right-projection matrix. Experimental results on several challenging image sequences demonstrate that the proposed method can achieve more favorable performance against state-of-the-art tracking algorithms.

Imaging the Messier objects remotely from your laptop

CERN Document Server

Adam, Len

2018-01-01

This is a guide for anyone interested in practical astronomy but intimidated by the idea of investing in a telescope. It explores the world of remote observing, which requires nothing more than a laptop and an Internet connection. The book aims to make readers comfortable navigating the plethora of online equipment at their disposal and to show that a challenge like imaging the Messier objects can be fun, simple, and achievable for all. In this text, all 110 Messier objects are discussed, each one remotely imaged with clear instructions on what telescope and camera combinations give the best results. Common astronomical phrases and units are all explained and illustrated to help newcomers get a grasp of terminology. Tidbits of history and quotes from Messier and other astronomers round out this beginner-friendly read, which also features a handy Quick Reference Image Library.

Exposure to Childhood Sexual and Physical Abuse and Subsequent Educational Achievement Outcomes

Science.gov (United States)

Boden, Joseph M.; Horwood, L. John; Fergusson, David M.

2007-01-01

Objective: This paper examined the relationship between exposure to sexual and physical abuse (CSA and CPA) in childhood and later educational achievement outcomes in late adolescence and early adulthood in a birth cohort of over 1,000 children studied to age 25. Method: Retrospective data on CSA and CPA were gathered at ages 18 and 21 and used to…

Improving the Achievement on Writing Narrative Text through Discussion Starter Story Technique

Science.gov (United States)

Purba, Rodearta

2018-01-01

The objective of this study is to find out whether discussion starter story significantly improves the achievement on narrative text of the first grade students of Senior High School. This study was conducted by applying Classroom Action Research (CAR). The subject of this study is the first grade students of SMA Negeri 2 Pangururan in academic…

Building objectives and incorrect use of regulatory standards

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Sůra Miroslav

2018-01-01

Full Text Available European and other regulatory standards affect, besides everyday life, also planning, designing, and other building processes. Regulations alter, sometimes threaten, or even completely prevent, the achievement of the intended objectives of investors and other participants in building processes. Implementation of regulative standards may result in problems that cause various defects to planning-design-construction objectives. Such regulatory issues are known to have already caused ethical, social and financial burdens in other areas of human activity. In planning and construction processes, various participants may be the source of misuse problems – unintentionally or otherwise. A model of categories of problems is presented (and has been tested – of misuse problems that result from potential conflicts between (EU regulatory standards and objectives of participants in building processes. The categories have been compiled and compared also according to sources and actors of the problems. Protective strategies against incorrect application and/or misuse of regulations are in the process of formulation and verification, taking into account sources and actors in the problem categories. Finally, it helps and protects participants – especially as regards matters of technology, design phase, public attitudes, and money.

Joints and Strings: Body and Object in Performance

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Esa Kirkkopelto

2016-07-01

Full Text Available This article concerns the ontological status of the performing body. What if it were not considered derivative in relation to any kind of discursive construction or any kind of pre-existent materiality or force? What if it were taken as a starting point of our attempts to understand the linguistic and material aspects of our bodily co-existence? If so, our ideas of what a body can do while performing, and what it consists of, have to change radically. The anatomy of the performing body is studied through a series of scenic experiments and practical examples, and the argumentation rests on the evidence thus provided. On the philosophical level the discussion focuses on ’object-oriented ontology’ and its representatives. The indications are that our understanding of objects, objectivity and things in general is based on our understanding of bodies as linguistic entities. Becoming a performing body means becoming a linguistic body, and vice versa. This does not take us back to ‘transcendentalism’ or ‘correlationism’, however. The equality of all things, claimed by ‘ooo’ proponents, can only be achieved via the medium of the performing body as an equalizing instance.

Multi-Objective Stochastic Optimization Programs for a Non-Life Insurance Company under Solvency Constraints

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Massimiliano Kaucic

2015-09-01

Full Text Available In the paper, we introduce a multi-objective scenario-based optimization approach for chance-constrained portfolio selection problems. More specifically, a modified version of the normal constraint method is implemented with a global solver in order to generate a dotted approximation of the Pareto frontier for bi- and tri-objective programming problems. Numerical experiments are carried out on a set of portfolios to be optimized for an EU-based non-life insurance company. Both performance indicators and risk measures are managed as objectives. Results show that this procedure is effective and readily applicable to achieve suitable risk-reward tradeoff analysis.

Unsupervised Object Modeling and Segmentation with Symmetry Detection for Human Activity Recognition

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Jui-Yuan Su

2015-04-01

Full Text Available In this paper we present a novel unsupervised approach to detecting and segmenting objects as well as their constituent symmetric parts in an image. Traditional unsupervised image segmentation is limited by two obvious deficiencies: the object detection accuracy degrades with the misaligned boundaries between the segmented regions and the target, and pre-learned models are required to group regions into meaningful objects. To tackle these difficulties, the proposed approach aims at incorporating the pair-wise detection of symmetric patches to achieve the goal of segmenting images into symmetric parts. The skeletons of these symmetric parts then provide estimates of the bounding boxes to locate the target objects. Finally, for each detected object, the graphcut-based segmentation algorithm is applied to find its contour. The proposed approach has significant advantages: no a priori object models are used, and multiple objects are detected. To verify the effectiveness of the approach based on the cues that a face part contains an oval shape and skin colors, human objects are extracted from among the detected objects. The detected human objects and their parts are finally tracked across video frames to capture the object part movements for learning the human activity models from video clips. Experimental results show that the proposed method gives good performance on publicly available datasets.

Objectives and Incentives at the European Patent Office

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Friebel, Guido; Koch, Alexander Karl; Prady, Delphine

of incentives for speedy, efficient processing of applications by the EPO. These are most likely to be achieved, however, by an appropriate balance between a system of “implicit” incentives – those that function via performance appraisal, the esteem of peers and the criteria for promotion – and “explicit......-dimensional nature of the Office’s objectives and criteria of excellence. Any proposal to strengthen the explicit component of such a system needs to take care not to undermine the implicit components. In particular, it will be important to re-establish a greater degree of consensus about what the goals...... they believe is achieved by the current system of incentives within the Office. While this divergence is not in itself an argument in favor of one or the other point of view, it is a matter of concern for the future functioning of the Office. 4. There is also a risk of adverse feedback effects to the Office...

THE DECISION-MAKING SUBSYSTEM OF THE MANAGEMENT BY OBJECTIVES WITH FRAMEWORK PROCEDURE

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Munteanu Stolojanu Victoria-Ileana

2011-12-01

Full Text Available Management by objectives framwork- a management system based on strict targets to determine the executors, who participate directly in establishing their close correlation and that rewards and sanctions to achieve the predetermined objectives. The main goal of the article is represented by the goals as management elements but also as the nervous system of the managerial actions. The presence of the functional deviationism in organizations, the need of reconsidering the functional deviationism in organizations, the need of reconsidering the strategic planning, all these lead under economic and financial crisis to the need of elaborating a tool which should the manager find an optimum combination between the limited resources and carryng out the objectives with a minimum cost.

Initial building investigations at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland: Objectives and methodology

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Brubaker, K.L.; Dougherty, J.M.; McGinnis, L.D.

1994-12-01

As part of an environmental-contamination source-definition program at Aberdeen Proving Ground, detailed internal and external inspections of 23 potentially contaminated buildings are being conducted to describe and characterize the state of each building as it currently exists and to identify areas potentially contaminated with toxic or other hazardous substances. In addition, a detailed geophysical investigation is being conducted in the vicinity of each target building to locate and identify subsurface structures, associated with former building operations, that are potential sources of contamination. This report describes the objectives of the initial building inspections, including the geophysical investigations, and discusses the methodology that has been developed to achieve these objectives.

An object-oriented programming paradigm for parallelization of computational fluid dynamics

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ohta, Takashi.

1997-03-01

We propose an object-oriented programming paradigm for parallelization of scientific computing programs, and show that the approach can be a very useful strategy. Generally, parallelization of scientific programs tends to be complicated and unportable due to the specific requirements of each parallel computer or compiler. In this paper, we show that the object-oriented programming design, which separates the parallel processing parts from the solver of the applications, can achieve the large improvement in the maintenance of the codes, as well as the high portability. We design the program for the two-dimensional Euler equations according to the paradigm, and evaluate the parallel performance on IBM SP2. (author)

Mobile irradiator and its application in the preservation of the objects of art

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Teply, J.; Franek, C.; Kraus, R.; Cervenka, V.

1986-01-01

The ionizing radiation is used as an efficient agent for preservation of wooden objects of cultural or historical value attacked by wood-destroying insect or fungi. Many objects are not in a state to be transportable to the radiation laboratory and the idea appears to arrange the irradiation in situ. In this communication a project of a transportable mobile irradiation robot is described. The irradiator with about 6 kCi 137 Cs moves automatically according to a precalculated programme on the gridwork situated in front of the object. The optimum dose homogeneity and the achievement of the required dose in the whole object is claimed. The problems of radiation safety during the irradiation are discussed. A few preliminary results on the effect of radiation on wood destroying fungi are presented. (author)

School Context and the Effect ESL Placement on Mexican-Origin Adolescents’ Achievement*

Science.gov (United States)

Callahan, Rebecca; Wilkinson, Lindsey; Muller, Chandra

2010-01-01

Objectives Immigrant adolescents’ academic achievement is crucial to our future economic stability, and Mexican-origin linguistic minority youth in U.S. schools generally demonstrate lower levels of achievement. English as a Second Language (ESL) programs provide an institutional response to these students’ needs, the effect of which may vary by the proportion of immigrant students in the school. Measures Using propensity score matching and data from the Adolescent Health and Academic Achievement Study (AHAA) and the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health), we estimate the effect of ESL placement on Mexican-origin achievement for first-, second-, and third-generation adolescents separately in schools with many and few immigrant students. Results The estimated effect of ESL placement varies by both immigrant concentration in the school and by students’ generational status. Conclusions We find that ESL enrollment may be protective for second-generation Mexican-origin adolescents in high immigrant concentration schools, and may prove detrimental for first-generation adolescents in contexts with few other immigrant students. PMID:20354570

Can the Green Economy deliver it all? Experiences of renewable energy policies with socio-economic objectives

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Pahle, Michael; Pachauri, Shonali; Steinbacher, Karoline

2016-01-01

Highlights: • Open question if renewables achieve both environmental and socioeconomic objectives. • Two policies each assessed looking at energy access and employment respectively. • Important role of governments and need for monitoring capacity is confirmed. • Short-term socioeconomic benefits realized in two cases, but they may not sustain. • Cases underline need for methodologies to better assess multiple-objective policies. - Abstract: The Green Economy (GE) paradigm aims to reconcile environmental and socio-economic objectives. Policies to deploy renewable energy (RE) are widely perceived as a way to tap the potential synergies of these objectives. It is, however, still largely unclear whether the potential of simultaneously achieving both environmental and socio-economic objectives can be fully realized, and whether and how multiple objectives influence policy design, implementation, and evaluation. We aim to contribute to this aspect of GE research by looking at selected country experiences of renewable energy deployment with respect to the socio-economic goals of job creation or energy access. Across the cases examined, we find the following implications of relevance for the GE framework: First, we confirm the important role of governmental action for GE, with the specific need to state objectives clearly and build monitoring capacity. Second, consistent with the “strong” green growth variant of GE, some of the cases suggest that while renewable deployment may indeed lead to short-term socio-economic benefits, these benefits may not last. Third, we underline the urgent need for new methodologies to analyze and better understand multiple-objective policies, which are at the heart of the GE paradigm.

A hierarchical probabilistic model for rapid object categorization in natural scenes.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Xiaofu He

Full Text Available Humans can categorize objects in complex natural scenes within 100-150 ms. This amazing ability of rapid categorization has motivated many computational models. Most of these models require extensive training to obtain a decision boundary in a very high dimensional (e.g., ∼6,000 in a leading model feature space and often categorize objects in natural scenes by categorizing the context that co-occurs with objects when objects do not occupy large portions of the scenes. It is thus unclear how humans achieve rapid scene categorization.To address this issue, we developed a hierarchical probabilistic model for rapid object categorization in natural scenes. In this model, a natural object category is represented by a coarse hierarchical probability distribution (PD, which includes PDs of object geometry and spatial configuration of object parts. Object parts are encoded by PDs of a set of natural object structures, each of which is a concatenation of local object features. Rapid categorization is performed as statistical inference. Since the model uses a very small number (∼100 of structures for even complex object categories such as animals and cars, it requires little training and is robust in the presence of large variations within object categories and in their occurrences in natural scenes. Remarkably, we found that the model categorized animals in natural scenes and cars in street scenes with a near human-level performance. We also found that the model located animals and cars in natural scenes, thus overcoming a flaw in many other models which is to categorize objects in natural context by categorizing contextual features. These results suggest that coarse PDs of object categories based on natural object structures and statistical operations on these PDs may underlie the human ability to rapidly categorize scenes.

Pareto-optimal multi-objective design of airplane control systems

Science.gov (United States)

Schy, A. A.; Johnson, K. G.; Giesy, D. P.

1980-01-01

A constrained minimization algorithm for the computer aided design of airplane control systems to meet many requirements over a set of flight conditions is generalized using the concept of Pareto-optimization. The new algorithm yields solutions on the boundary of the achievable domain in objective space in a single run, whereas the older method required a sequence of runs to approximate such a limiting solution. However, Pareto-optimality does not guarantee a satisfactory design, since such solutions may emphasize some objectives at the expense of others. The designer must still interact with the program to obtain a well-balanced set of objectives. Using the example of a fighter lateral stability augmentation system (SAS) design over five flight conditions, several effective techniques are developed for obtaining well-balanced Pareto-optimal solutions. For comparison, one of these techniques is also used in a recently developed algorithm of Kreisselmeier and Steinhauser, which replaces the hard constraints with soft constraints, using a special penalty function. It is shown that comparable results can be obtained.

Meeting Food Aid and Price Stabilization Objectives through Local Grain Purchase: A Review of the 1996 Experience

OpenAIRE

Amha, Wolday; Stepanek, Julie; Jayne, Thomas S.; Negassa, Asfaw

1997-01-01

The objective of this paper is to identify factors that can improve the ability of future local purchase activities to achieve a range of national food policy objectives. This analysis reviews the design and implementation of 1996 local purchase activities in Ethiopia in relation to three key policy objectives: price stabilization for farmers; promoting the development of a competitive and low-cost food marketing system; and procuring food aid resources in a cost effective manner.

A Pilot Study of Working Memory and Academic Achievement in College Students with ADHD

Science.gov (United States)

Gropper, Rachel J.; Tannock, Rosemary

2009-01-01

Objective: To investigate working memory (WM), academic achievement, and their relationship in university students with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Method: Participants were university students with previously confirmed diagnoses of ADHD (n = 16) and normal control (NC) students (n = 30). Participants completed 3…

Object-based attention: strength of object representation and attentional guidance.

Science.gov (United States)

Shomstein, Sarah; Behrmann, Marlene

2008-01-01

Two or more features belonging to a single object are identified more quickly and more accurately than are features belonging to different objects--a finding attributed to sensory enhancement of all features belonging to an attended or selected object. However, several recent studies have suggested that this "single-object advantage" may be a product of probabilistic and configural strategic prioritizations rather than of object-based perceptual enhancement per se, challenging the underlying mechanism that is thought to give rise to object-based attention. In the present article, we further explore constraints on the mechanisms of object-based selection by examining the contribution of the strength of object representations to the single-object advantage. We manipulated factors such as exposure duration (i.e., preview time) and salience of configuration (i.e., objects). Varying preview time changes the magnitude of the object-based effect, so that if there is ample time to establish an object representation (i.e., preview time of 1,000 msec), then both probability and configuration (i.e., objects) guide attentional selection. If, however, insufficient time is provided to establish a robust object-based representation, then only probabilities guide attentional selection. Interestingly, at a short preview time of 200 msec, when the two objects were sufficiently different from each other (i.e., different colors), both configuration and probability guided attention selection. These results suggest that object-based effects can be explained both in terms of strength of object representations (established at longer exposure durations and by pictorial cues) and probabilistic contingencies in the visual environment.

Metacognition, achievement goals, study strategies and academic achievement: pathways to achievement

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Vrugt, A.; Oort, F.J.

2008-01-01

The purpose of this research was to develop and test a model of effective selfregulated learning. Based on effort expenditure we discerned effective self-regulators and less effective self-regulators. The model comprised achievement goals (mastery, performance-approach and -avoidance goals),

A multi-objective robust optimization model for logistics planning in the earthquake response phase

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Najafi, M.; Eshghi, K.; Dullaert, W.E.H.

2013-01-01

Usually, resources are short in supply when earthquakes occur. In such emergency situations, disaster relief organizations must use these scarce resources efficiently to achieve the best possible emergency relief. This paper therefore proposes a multi-objective, multi-mode, multi-commodity, and

Probing optimal measurement configuration for optical scatterometry by the multi-objective genetic algorithm

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Xiuguo; Gu, Honggang; Jiang, Hao; Zhang, Chuanwei; Liu, Shiyuan

2018-04-01

Measurement configuration optimization (MCO) is a ubiquitous and important issue in optical scatterometry, whose aim is to probe the optimal combination of measurement conditions, such as wavelength, incidence angle, azimuthal angle, and/or polarization directions, to achieve a higher measurement precision for a given measuring instrument. In this paper, the MCO problem is investigated and formulated as a multi-objective optimization problem, which is then solved by the multi-objective genetic algorithm (MOGA). The case study on the Mueller matrix scatterometry for the measurement of a Si grating verifies the feasibility of the MOGA in handling the MCO problem in optical scatterometry by making a comparison with the Monte Carlo simulations. Experiments performed at the achieved optimal measurement configuration also show good agreement between the measured and calculated best-fit Mueller matrix spectra. The proposed MCO method based on MOGA is expected to provide a more general and practical means to solve the MCO problem in the state-of-the-art optical scatterometry.

Fast, multiple optimizations of quadratic dose objective functions in IMRT

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Breedveld, Sebastiaan; Storchi, Pascal R M; Keijzer, Marleen; Heijmen, Ben J M

2006-01-01

Inverse treatment planning for intensity-modulated radiotherapy may include time consuming, multiple minimizations of an objective function. In this paper, methods are presented to speed up the process of (repeated) minimization of the well-known quadratic dose objective function, extended with a smoothing term that ensures generation of clinically acceptable beam profiles. In between two subsequent optimizations, the voxel-dependent importance factors of the quadratic terms will generally be adjusted, based on an intermediate plan evaluation. The objective function has been written in matrix-vector format, facilitating the use of a recently published, fast quadratic minimization algorithm, instead of commonly applied gradient-based methods. This format also reduces the calculation time in between subsequent minimizations, related to adjustment of the voxel-dependent importance factors. Sparse matrices are used to limit the required amount of computer memory. For three patients, comparisons have been made with a gradient method. Mean speed improvements of up to a factor of 37 have been achieved

Impact of Data Placement on Resilience in Large-Scale Object Storage Systems

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Carns, Philip; Harms, Kevin; Jenkins, John; Mubarak, Misbah; Ross, Robert; Carothers, Christopher

2016-05-02

Distributed object storage architectures have become the de facto standard for high-performance storage in big data, cloud, and HPC computing. Object storage deployments using commodity hardware to reduce costs often employ object replication as a method to achieve data resilience. Repairing object replicas after failure is a daunting task for systems with thousands of servers and billions of objects, however, and it is increasingly difficult to evaluate such scenarios at scale on realworld systems. Resilience and availability are both compromised if objects are not repaired in a timely manner. In this work we leverage a high-fidelity discrete-event simulation model to investigate replica reconstruction on large-scale object storage systems with thousands of servers, billions of objects, and petabytes of data. We evaluate the behavior of CRUSH, a well-known object placement algorithm, and identify configuration scenarios in which aggregate rebuild performance is constrained by object placement policies. After determining the root cause of this bottleneck, we then propose enhancements to CRUSH and the usage policies atop it to enable scalable replica reconstruction. We use these methods to demonstrate a simulated aggregate rebuild rate of 410 GiB/s (within 5% of projected ideal linear scaling) on a 1,024-node commodity storage system. We also uncover an unexpected phenomenon in rebuild performance based on the characteristics of the data stored on the system.

Correspondence of perceived vs. objective proximity to parks and their relationship to park-based physical activity

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kaczynski Andrew T

2009-08-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Parks are key environmental resources for encouraging population-level physical activity (PA. In measuring availability of parks, studies have employed both self-reported and objective indicators of proximity, with little correspondence observed between these two types of measures. However, little research has examined how the degree of correspondence between self-reported and objectively-measured distance to parks is influenced by individual, neighborhood, and park-related variables, or which type of measure is more strongly related to physical activity outcomes. Methods We used data from 574 respondents who reported the distance to their closest park and compared this with objective measurements of proximity to the closest park. Both indicators were dichotomized as having or not having a park within 750 m. Audits of all park features within this distance were also conducted and other personal characteristics and neighborhood context variables (safety, connectedness, aesthetics were gleaned from participants' survey responses. Participants also completed detailed seven-day PA log booklets from which measures of neighborhood-based and park-based PA were derived. Results Agreement was poor in that only 18% of respondents achieved a match between perceived and objective proximity to the closest park (kappa = 0.01. Agreement was higher among certain subgroups, especially those who reported engaging in at least some park-based PA. As well, respondents with a greater number of parks nearby, whose closest park had more features, and whose closest park contained a playground or wooded area were more likely to achieve a match. Having a ball diamond or soccer field in the closest park was negatively related to achieving a match between perceived and objective proximity. Finally, engaging in at least some park-based PA was not related to either perceived or objective proximity to a park, but was more likely when a match between and

Enriching the hierarchical model of achievement motivation: autonomous and controlling reasons underlying achievement goals.

Science.gov (United States)

Michou, Aikaterini; Vansteenkiste, Maarten; Mouratidis, Athanasios; Lens, Willy

2014-12-01

The hierarchical model of achievement motivation presumes that achievement goals channel the achievement motives of need for achievement and fear of failure towards motivational outcomes. Yet, less is known whether autonomous and controlling reasons underlying the pursuit of achievement goals can serve as additional pathways between achievement motives and outcomes. We tested whether mastery approach, performance approach, and performance avoidance goals and their underlying autonomous and controlling reasons would jointly explain the relation between achievement motives (i.e., fear of failure and need for achievement) and learning strategies (Study 1). Additionally, we examined whether the autonomous and controlling reasons underlying learners' dominant achievement goal would account for the link between achievement motives and the educational outcomes of learning strategies and cheating (Study 2). Six hundred and six Greek adolescent students (Mage = 15.05, SD = 1.43) and 435 university students (Mage M = 20.51, SD = 2.80) participated in studies 1 and 2, respectively. In both studies, a correlational design was used and the hypotheses were tested via path modelling. Autonomous and controlling reasons underlying the pursuit of achievement goals mediated, respectively, the relation of need for achievement and fear of failure to aspects of learning outcomes. Autonomous and controlling reasons underlying achievement goals could further explain learners' functioning in achievement settings. © 2014 The British Psychological Society.

Objective assessment of image quality and dose reduction in CT iterative reconstruction

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Vaishnav, J. Y., E-mail: jay.vaishnav@fda.hhs.gov; Jung, W. C. [Diagnostic X-Ray Systems Branch, Office of In Vitro Diagnostic Devices and Radiological Health, Center for Devices and Radiological Health, United States Food and Drug Administration, 10903 New Hampshire Avenue, Silver Spring, Maryland 20993 (United States); Popescu, L. M.; Zeng, R.; Myers, K. J. [Division of Imaging and Applied Mathematics, Office of Science and Engineering Laboratories, Center for Devices and Radiological Health, United States Food and Drug Administration, 10903 New Hampshire Avenue, Silver Spring, Maryland 20993 (United States)

2014-07-15

Purpose: Iterative reconstruction (IR) algorithms have the potential to reduce radiation dose in CT diagnostic imaging. As these algorithms become available on the market, a standardizable method of quantifying the dose reduction that a particular IR method can achieve would be valuable. Such a method would assist manufacturers in making promotional claims about dose reduction, buyers in comparing different devices, physicists in independently validating the claims, and the United States Food and Drug Administration in regulating the labeling of CT devices. However, the nonlinear nature of commercially available IR algorithms poses challenges to objectively assessing image quality, a necessary step in establishing the amount of dose reduction that a given IR algorithm can achieve without compromising that image quality. This review paper seeks to consolidate information relevant to objectively assessing the quality of CT IR images, and thereby measuring the level of dose reduction that a given IR algorithm can achieve. Methods: The authors discuss task-based methods for assessing the quality of CT IR images and evaluating dose reduction. Results: The authors explain and review recent literature on signal detection and localization tasks in CT IR image quality assessment, the design of an appropriate phantom for these tasks, possible choices of observers (including human and model observers), and methods of evaluating observer performance. Conclusions: Standardizing the measurement of dose reduction is a problem of broad interest to the CT community and to public health. A necessary step in the process is the objective assessment of CT image quality, for which various task-based methods may be suitable. This paper attempts to consolidate recent literature that is relevant to the development and implementation of task-based methods for the assessment of CT IR image quality.

Objective assessment of image quality and dose reduction in CT iterative reconstruction

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Vaishnav, J. Y.; Jung, W. C.; Popescu, L. M.; Zeng, R.; Myers, K. J.

2014-01-01

Purpose: Iterative reconstruction (IR) algorithms have the potential to reduce radiation dose in CT diagnostic imaging. As these algorithms become available on the market, a standardizable method of quantifying the dose reduction that a particular IR method can achieve would be valuable. Such a method would assist manufacturers in making promotional claims about dose reduction, buyers in comparing different devices, physicists in independently validating the claims, and the United States Food and Drug Administration in regulating the labeling of CT devices. However, the nonlinear nature of commercially available IR algorithms poses challenges to objectively assessing image quality, a necessary step in establishing the amount of dose reduction that a given IR algorithm can achieve without compromising that image quality. This review paper seeks to consolidate information relevant to objectively assessing the quality of CT IR images, and thereby measuring the level of dose reduction that a given IR algorithm can achieve. Methods: The authors discuss task-based methods for assessing the quality of CT IR images and evaluating dose reduction. Results: The authors explain and review recent literature on signal detection and localization tasks in CT IR image quality assessment, the design of an appropriate phantom for these tasks, possible choices of observers (including human and model observers), and methods of evaluating observer performance. Conclusions: Standardizing the measurement of dose reduction is a problem of broad interest to the CT community and to public health. A necessary step in the process is the objective assessment of CT image quality, for which various task-based methods may be suitable. This paper attempts to consolidate recent literature that is relevant to the development and implementation of task-based methods for the assessment of CT IR image quality

Cross-Cultural Comparisons of the Motivation of Young Children to Achieve in School.

Science.gov (United States)

Adkins, Dorothy C.

Research on the differences in motivation to achieve in school among 10 groups of four-year-olds utilized a new, 75-item objective projective test called Gumpgookies. This test was individually administered to approximately 2000 children mainly from low economic backgrounds. The various ethnic and religious groups were compared with respect to…

Economic planning for electric energy systems: a multi objective linearized approach for solution

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mata Medeiros Branco, T. da.

1986-01-01

The economic planning problem associated to the expansion and operation of electrical power systems is considered in this study, represented for a vectorial objective function in which the minimization of resources involved and maximization of attended demand constitute goals to be satisfied. Supposing all the variables involved with linear characteristic and considering the conflict existing among the objectives to be achieved, in order to find a solution, a multi objective linearized approach is proposed. This approximation utilizes the compromise programming technique and linear programming methods. Generation and transmission are simultaneously considered into the optimization process in which associated losses and the capacity of each line are included. Illustrated examples are also presented with results discussed. (author)

Channels as Objects in Concurrent Object-Oriented Programming

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Joana Campos

2011-10-01

Full Text Available There is often a sort of a protocol associated to each class, stating when and how certain methods should be called. Given that this protocol is, if at all, described in the documentation accompanying the class, current mainstream object-oriented languages cannot provide for the verification of client code adherence against the sought class behaviour. We have defined a class-based concurrent object-oriented language that formalises such protocols in the form of usage types. Usage types are attached to class definitions, allowing for the specification of (1 the available methods, (2 the tests clients must perform on the result of methods, and (3 the object status - linear or shared - all of which depend on the object's state. Our work extends the recent approach on modular session types by eliminating channel operations, and defining the method call as the single communication primitive in both sequential and concurrent settings. In contrast to previous works, we define a single category for objects, instead of distinct categories for linear and for shared objects, and let linear objects evolve into shared ones. We introduce a standard sync qualifier to prevent thread interference in certain operations on shared objects. We formalise the language syntax, the operational semantics, and a type system that enforces by static typing that methods are called only when available, and by a single client if so specified in the usage type. We illustrate the language via a complete example.

Means of achieving high load factors at Olkiluoto 1 and 2

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Patrakka, E.

2001-01-01

Teollisuuden Voima Oy operates two BWR units Olkiluoto 1 and 2 that have achieved load factors typically higher than 90%. The operating experiences gained in the 1990s is summarised and the factors contributing to the high capacity factors are addressed. These include the general objectives for operation and maintenance, plant modernisation programme, maintenance principles, and outage policy and experiences. Finally, the international evaluations performed at Olkiluoto are mentioned. (author)

Multi-objective unit commitment with wind penetration and emission concerns under stochastic and fuzzy uncertainties

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wang, Bo; Wang, Shuming; Zhou, Xianzhong; Watada, Junzo

2016-01-01

Recent years have witnessed the ever increasing renewable penetration in power generation systems, which entails modern unit commitment problems with modelling and computation burdens. This study aims to simulate the impacts of manifold uncertainties on system operation with emission concerns. First, probability theory and fuzzy set theory are applied to jointly represent the uncertainties such as wind generation, load fluctuation and unit outage that interleaved in unit commitment problems. Second, a Value-at-Risk-based multi-objective approach is developed as a bridge of existing stochastic and robust unit commitment optimizations, which not only captures the inherent conflict between operation cost and supply reliability, but also provides easy-to-adjust robustness against worst-case scenarios. Third, a multi-objective algorithm that integrates fuzzy simulation and particle swarm optimization is developed to achieve approximate Pareto-optimal solutions. The research effectiveness is exemplified by two case studies: The comparison between test systems with and without generation uncertainty demonstrates that this study is practicable and can suggest operational insights of generation mix systems. The sensitivity analysis on Value-at-Risk proves that our method can achieve adequate tradeoff between performance optimality and robustness, thus help system operators in making informed decisions. Finally, the model and algorithm comparisons also justify the superiority of this research. - Highlights: • Probability theory and fuzzy set theory are used to describe different uncertainties. • A Value-at-Risk-based multi-objective unit commitment model is proposed. • An improved multi-objective particle swarm optimization algorithm is developed. • The model achieves adequate trade-off between performance optimality and robustness. • The algorithm can obtain convergent and diversified Pareto fronts.

Real-time, resource-constrained object classification on a micro-air vehicle

Science.gov (United States)

Buck, Louis; Ray, Laura

2013-12-01

A real-time embedded object classification algorithm is developed through the novel combination of binary feature descriptors, a bag-of-visual-words object model and the cortico-striatal loop (CSL) learning algorithm. The BRIEF, ORB and FREAK binary descriptors are tested and compared to SIFT descriptors with regard to their respective classification accuracies, execution times, and memory requirements when used with CSL on a 12.6 g ARM Cortex embedded processor running at 800 MHz. Additionally, the effect of x2 feature mapping and opponent-color representations used with these descriptors is examined. These tests are performed on four data sets of varying sizes and difficulty, and the BRIEF descriptor is found to yield the best combination of speed and classification accuracy. Its use with CSL achieves accuracies between 67% and 95% of those achieved with SIFT descriptors and allows for the embedded classification of a 128x192 pixel image in 0.15 seconds, 60 times faster than classification with SIFT. X2 mapping is found to provide substantial improvements in classification accuracy for all of the descriptors at little cost, while opponent-color descriptors are offer accuracy improvements only on colorful datasets.

Importance of baseline specification in evaluating conservation interventions and achieving no net loss of biodiversity.

Science.gov (United States)

Bull, J W; Gordon, A; Law, E A; Suttle, K B; Milner-Gulland, E J

2014-06-01

There is an urgent need to improve the evaluation of conservation interventions. This requires specifying an objective and a frame of reference from which to measure performance. Reference frames can be baselines (i.e., known biodiversity at a fixed point in history) or counterfactuals (i.e., a scenario that would have occurred without the intervention). Biodiversity offsets are interventions with the objective of no net loss of biodiversity (NNL). We used biodiversity offsets to analyze the effects of the choice of reference frame on whether interventions met stated objectives. We developed 2 models to investigate the implications of setting different frames of reference in regions subject to various biodiversity trends and anthropogenic impacts. First, a general analytic model evaluated offsets against a range of baseline and counterfactual specifications. Second, a simulation model then replicated these results with a complex real world case study: native grassland offsets in Melbourne, Australia. Both models showed that achieving NNL depended upon the interaction between reference frame and background biodiversity trends. With a baseline, offsets were less likely to achieve NNL where biodiversity was decreasing than where biodiversity was stable or increasing. With a no-development counterfactual, however, NNL was achievable only where biodiversity was declining. Otherwise, preventing development was better for biodiversity. Uncertainty about compliance was a stronger determinant of success than uncertainty in underlying biodiversity trends. When only development and offset locations were considered, offsets sometimes resulted in NNL, but not across an entire region. Choice of reference frame determined feasibility and effort required to attain objectives when designing and evaluating biodiversity offset schemes. We argue the choice is thus of fundamental importance for conservation policy. Our results shed light on situations in which biodiversity offsets may

Intelligent and Adaptive Educational-Learning Systems Achievements and Trends

CERN Document Server

2013-01-01

The Smart Innovation, Systems and Technologies book series encompasses the topics of knowledge, intelligence, innovation and sustainability. The aim of the series is to make available a platform for the publication of books on all aspects of single and multi-disciplinary research on these themes in order to make the latest results available in a readily-accessible form.  This book is devoted to the “Intelligent and Adaptive Educational-Learning Systems”. It privileges works that highlight key achievements and outline trends to inspire future research.  After a rigorous revision process twenty manuscripts were accepted and organized into four parts as follows: ·     Modeling: The first part embraces five chapters oriented to: 1) shape the affective behavior; 2) depict the adaptive learning curriculum; 3) predict learning achievements; 4) mine learner models to outcome optimized and adaptive e-learning objects; 5) classify learning preferences of learners. ·     Content: The second part encompas...

Variability in Clinical Integration Achieved by Athletic Training Students across Different Clinical Sport Assignments

Science.gov (United States)

Dodge, Thomas M.; Mazerolle, Stephanie M.; Bowman, Thomas G.

2015-01-01

Context: Clinical integration impacts athletic training students' (ATSs) motivation and persistence. Research has yet to elucidate the manner in which different clinical placements can influence clinical integration. Objective: To examine differences in the levels of clinical integration achieved by ATSs across various clinical sport assignments.…

Physically Active Math and Language Lessons Improve Academic Achievement : A Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Mullender-Wijnsma, Marijke J,; Hartman, Esther; de Greeff, Johannes W.; Doolaard, Simone; Bosker, Roel J.; Visscher, Chris

OBJECTIVES: Using physical activity in the teaching of academic lessons is a new way of learning. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of an innovative physically active academic intervention ("Fit & Vaardig op School" [F&V]) on academic achievement of children. METHODS: Using

Individual Differences in Kindergarten Math Achievement: The Integrative Roles of Approximation Skills and Working Memory

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Xenidou-Dervou, I.; De Smedt, B.; van der Schoot, M.; van Lieshout, E.C.D.M.

2013-01-01

Kindergarteners can conduct basic computations with large nonsymbolic (e.g. dots, objects) and symbolic (i.e. Arabic numbers) numerosities in an approximate manner. These abilities are related to individual differences in mathematics achievement. At the same time, these individual differences are

Eating patterns and leisure-time exercise among active duty military personnel: comparison to the Healthy People objectives.

Science.gov (United States)

Smith, Tracey J; Dotson, Laura E; Young, Andrew J; White, Alan; Hadden, Louise; Bathalon, Gaston P; Funderburk, LesLee; Marriott, Bernadette P

2013-07-01

To assess whether active duty military personnel meet Healthy People 2010 objectives for physical activity and fruit, vegetable, and whole-grain intake; the relationship of select demographic characteristics, lifestyle factors (eg, smoking), and eating patterns (eg, frequency and location of meals) on achieving diet and exercise-related Healthy People 2010 objectives; and the relationship of eating patterns to self-reported weight gain. Secondary data from 15,747 participants in the 2005 Department of Defense Health Related Behaviors Survey was analyzed. More than 57% of respondents met the Healthy People 2010 guidelines for moderate or vigorous leisure exercise but only 3% reported eating fruit (once), vegetables (3 times), and whole grains (3 times) daily. Individuals who reported gaining weight during the previous year were more likely to skip breakfast and eat at, or from, a restaurant ≥2 times per week compared with those who did not gain weight (Pexercise (OR 0.71). Military personnel who skipped breakfast ≥2 times per week (OR 0.45) or ate at a restaurant/takeout food (OR 0.54) ≥2 times per week were significantly less likely to meet Healthy People 2010 guidelines for food intake (defined as achieving a daily intake of one or more fruits, three or more vegetables, and three or more servings of whole grains) and exercise (OR 0.88 and 0.82, respectively). Although the majority of military personnel met guidelines for physical activity, their intake of fruits, vegetables, and whole grains was suboptimal. Skipping breakfast and eating at, or from, restaurants were risk factors for poor nutrient intake and associated with weight gain. These data suggest that skipping breakfast and eating out deter achieving Healthy People 2010 objectives and provide targets for military programs to promote achieving these objectives. Copyright © 2013 Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

A foreground object features-based stereoscopic image visual comfort assessment model

Science.gov (United States)

Jin, Xin; Jiang, G.; Ying, H.; Yu, M.; Ding, S.; Peng, Z.; Shao, F.

2014-11-01

Since stereoscopic images provide observers with both realistic and discomfort viewing experience, it is necessary to investigate the determinants of visual discomfort. By considering that foreground object draws most attention when human observing stereoscopic images. This paper proposes a new foreground object based visual comfort assessment (VCA) metric. In the first place, a suitable segmentation method is applied to disparity map and then the foreground object is ascertained as the one having the biggest average disparity. In the second place, three visual features being average disparity, average width and spatial complexity of foreground object are computed from the perspective of visual attention. Nevertheless, object's width and complexity do not consistently influence the perception of visual comfort in comparison with disparity. In accordance with this psychological phenomenon, we divide the whole images into four categories on the basis of different disparity and width, and exert four different models to more precisely predict its visual comfort in the third place. Experimental results show that the proposed VCA metric outperformance other existing metrics and can achieve a high consistency between objective and subjective visual comfort scores. The Pearson Linear Correlation Coefficient (PLCC) and Spearman Rank Order Correlation Coefficient (SROCC) are over 0.84 and 0.82, respectively.

Quantization and training of object detection networks with low-precision weights and activations

Science.gov (United States)

Yang, Bo; Liu, Jian; Zhou, Li; Wang, Yun; Chen, Jie

2018-01-01

As convolutional neural networks have demonstrated state-of-the-art performance in object recognition and detection, there is a growing need for deploying these systems on resource-constrained mobile platforms. However, the computational burden and energy consumption of inference for these networks are significantly higher than what most low-power devices can afford. To address these limitations, this paper proposes a method to train object detection networks with low-precision weights and activations. The probability density functions of weights and activations of each layer are first directly estimated using piecewise Gaussian models. Then, the optimal quantization intervals and step sizes for each convolution layer are adaptively determined according to the distribution of weights and activations. As the most computationally expensive convolutions can be replaced by effective fixed point operations, the proposed method can drastically reduce computation complexity and memory footprint. Performing on the tiny you only look once (YOLO) and YOLO architectures, the proposed method achieves comparable accuracy to their 32-bit counterparts. As an illustration, the proposed 4-bit and 8-bit quantized versions of the YOLO model achieve a mean average precision of 62.6% and 63.9%, respectively, on the Pascal visual object classes 2012 test dataset. The mAP of the 32-bit full-precision baseline model is 64.0%.

Planning and setting objectives in field studies: Chapter 2

Science.gov (United States)

Fisher, Robert N.; Dodd, C. Kenneth

2016-01-01

This chapter enumerates the steps required in designing and planning field studies on the ecology and conservation of reptiles, as these involve a high level of uncertainty and risk. To this end, the chapter differentiates between goals (descriptions of what one intends to accomplish) and objectives (the measurable steps required to achieve the established goals). Thus, meeting a specific goal may require many objectives. It may not be possible to define some of them until certain experiments have been conducted; often evaluations of sampling protocols are needed to increase certainty in the biological results. And if sampling locations are fixed and sampling events are repeated over time, then both study-specific covariates and sampling-specific covariates should exist. Additionally, other critical design considerations for field study include obtaining permits, as well as researching ethics and biosecurity issues.

A framework for multi-object tracking over distributed wireless camera networks

Science.gov (United States)

Gau, Victor; Hwang, Jenq-Neng

2010-07-01

In this paper, we propose a unified framework targeting at two important issues in a distributed wireless camera network, i.e., object tracking and network communication, to achieve reliable multi-object tracking over distributed wireless camera networks. In the object tracking part, we propose a fully automated approach for tracking of multiple objects across multiple cameras with overlapping and non-overlapping field of views without initial training. To effectively exchange the tracking information among the distributed cameras, we proposed an idle probability based broadcasting method, iPro, which adaptively adjusts the broadcast probability to improve the broadcast effectiveness in a dense saturated camera network. Experimental results for the multi-object tracking demonstrate the promising performance of our approach on real video sequences for cameras with overlapping and non-overlapping views. The modeling and ns-2 simulation results show that iPro almost approaches the theoretical performance upper bound if cameras are within each other's transmission range. In more general scenarios, e.g., in case of hidden node problems, the simulation results show that iPro significantly outperforms standard IEEE 802.11, especially when the number of competing nodes increases.

Robot Acting on Moving Bodies (RAMBO): Interaction with tumbling objects

Science.gov (United States)

Davis, Larry S.; Dementhon, Daniel; Bestul, Thor; Ziavras, Sotirios; Srinivasan, H. V.; Siddalingaiah, Madhu; Harwood, David

1989-01-01

Interaction with tumbling objects will become more common as human activities in space expand. Attempting to interact with a large complex object translating and rotating in space, a human operator using only his visual and mental capacities may not be able to estimate the object motion, plan actions or control those actions. A robot system (RAMBO) equipped with a camera, which, given a sequence of simple tasks, can perform these tasks on a tumbling object, is being developed. RAMBO is given a complete geometric model of the object. A low level vision module extracts and groups characteristic features in images of the object. The positions of the object are determined in a sequence of images, and a motion estimate of the object is obtained. This motion estimate is used to plan trajectories of the robot tool to relative locations rearby the object sufficient for achieving the tasks. More specifically, low level vision uses parallel algorithms for image enhancement by symmetric nearest neighbor filtering, edge detection by local gradient operators, and corner extraction by sector filtering. The object pose estimation is a Hough transform method accumulating position hypotheses obtained by matching triples of image features (corners) to triples of model features. To maximize computing speed, the estimate of the position in space of a triple of features is obtained by decomposing its perspective view into a product of rotations and a scaled orthographic projection. This allows use of 2-D lookup tables at each stage of the decomposition. The position hypotheses for each possible match of model feature triples and image feature triples are calculated in parallel. Trajectory planning combines heuristic and dynamic programming techniques. Then trajectories are created using dynamic interpolations between initial and goal trajectories. All the parallel algorithms run on a Connection Machine CM-2 with 16K processors.

Grey Relational Analyses for Multi-Objective Optimization of Turning S45C Carbon Steel

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Shah, A.H.A.; Azmi, A.I.; Khalil, A.N.M.

2016-01-01

The optimization of performance characteristics in turning process can be achieved through selection of proper machining parameters. It is well known that many researchers have successfully reported the optimization of single performance characteristic. Nevertheless, the multi-objective optimization can be difficult and challenging to be studied due to its complexity in analysis. This is because an improvement of one performance characteristic may lead to degradation of other performance characteristic. As a result, the study of multi-objective optimization in CNC turning of S45C carbon steel has been attempted in this paper through Taguchi and Grey Relational Analysis (GRA) method. Through this methodology, the multiple performance characteristics, namely; surface roughness, material removal rate (MRR), tool wear, and power consumption; can be optimized simultaneously. It appears from the experimental results that the multiple performance characteristics in CNC turning was achieved and improved through the methodology employed. (paper)

Translation of environmental leadership objectives into routine project execution for the uranium mining industry

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Breker, J.; Studer, T.; Voykin, N.; Berg, B.; Scott, W.

2010-01-01

Cameco Corporation (Cameco) aligns its social and environmental responsibilities with its vision, mission and values. Environmental Leadership is established as a corporate objective that emphasizes the triple-bottom-line and a systematic approach to understanding environmental, social and economic issues, risks and opportunities. These are ingrained in the project culture, systems and processes and used to influence solutions derived by the project teams to achieve Cameco's objectives. This paper traces the organizational objectives from the early stages of a project through to implementation and turn over to Operations. A case study is used to demonstrate how an asset is influenced by Cameco's strategy. (author)

Translation of environmental leadership objectives into routine project execution for the uranium mining industry

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Breker, J.; Studer, T.; Voykin, N.; Berg, B., E-mail: jeremy_breker@cameco.com [Cameco Corp., Saskatoon, SK (Canada); Scott, W. [Wardrop Engineering, Thunder Bay, ON (Canada)

2010-07-01

Cameco Corporation (Cameco) aligns its social and environmental responsibilities with its vision, mission and values. Environmental Leadership is established as a corporate objective that emphasizes the triple-bottom-line and a systematic approach to understanding environmental, social and economic issues, risks and opportunities. These are ingrained in the project culture, systems and processes and used to influence solutions derived by the project teams to achieve Cameco's objectives. This paper traces the organizational objectives from the early stages of a project through to implementation and turn over to Operations. A case study is used to demonstrate how an asset is influenced by Cameco's strategy. (author)

Using a Graphics Turing Test to Evaluate the Effect of Frame Rate and Motion Blur on Telepresence of Animated Objects

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Borg, Mathias; Johansen, Stine Schmieg; Krog, Kim Srirat

2013-01-01

A limited Graphics Turing Test is used to determine the frame rate that is required to achieve telepresence of an animated object. For low object velocities of 2.25 and 4.5 degrees of visual angle per second at 60 frames per second a rotating object with no added motion blur is able to pass the t...

A Comparative Analysis of the Objectives of the National Education in the United States, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, China and Japan

Science.gov (United States)

Sarheed, Arif Mohammed Mufleh

2015-01-01

The researcher in this study attempted to identify the objectives of the National Educational and sources to derive educational objectives and the methods and means to achieve the objectives of National Education and the subjects and courses that are taught in the subject of national education in the levels of education in a range of countries:…

Effects of Gender, Mathematics Anxiety and Achievement Motivation on College Students’ Achievement in Mathematics

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ajogbeje Oke James

2013-07-01

Full Text Available The urge to excel or perform maximally in mathematics varies from individual to individual because achievement motivation is often developed or learnt during socialization and learning experiences. The study examined the relationship between College of Education students’ achievement motivation and mathematics achievement, correlation coefficient between mathematics anxiety and college students’ achievement motivation as well as mathematics anxiety and mathematics achievement. The sample, 268 College of Education students offering mathematics as one of their subject combination, was selected using purposive sampling techniques. Three research instruments namely: Mathematics Anxiety Scale (MAS, Achievement Motivation Scale (AMS and Mathematics Achievement Test (MAT were used to collect data for the study. Data collected for the study were analyzed using correlational analysis and ANOVA. The results showed that a significantly low negative correlation coefficient existed between mathematics anxiety and mathematics achievement. There is a negative and significant correlation coefficient between mathematics anxiety and achievement motivation. Similarly, a positive and significant correlation coefficient also exists between achievement motivation and mathematics achievement. Based on the findings of the study, it was recommended that mathematics teachers should adopt activity based strategies and conducive learning environment in order to reduce college students’ anxieties in mathematics learning.

The discard ban and its impact on the MSY objective on fisheries-the North Sea

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Ulrich, Clara

2016-01-01

North Sea fisheries are characterised by numerous biological and technical interactions, which create difficulties in identifying MSY targets and achieving those for all stocks simultaneously. The landing obligation may reinforce these issues, as ‘choke’ effects might be triggered by the least...... productive stocks. A flexible management approach can help achieve the multiple objectives, but this requires trade-offs to be made. The ecological benefits of reducing fishing mortality are likely larger than those from the landing obligation itself...

Health and Academic Achievement: Cumulative Effects of Health Assets on Standardized Test Scores among Urban Youth in the United States

Science.gov (United States)

Ickovics, Jeannette R.; Carroll-Scott, Amy; Peters, Susan M.; Schwartz, Marlene; Gilstad-Hayden, Kathryn; McCaslin, Catherine

2014-01-01

Background: The Institute of Medicine (2012) concluded that we must "strengthen schools as the heart of health." To intervene for better outcomes in both health and academic achievement, identifying factors that impact children is essential. Study objectives are to (1) document associations between health assets and academic achievement,…

PRODUCING A LINEAR LASER SYSTEM FOR 3D MODELIMG OF SMALL OBJECTS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

A. Sh. Amini

2012-07-01

Full Text Available Today, three dimensional modeling of objects is considered in many applications such as documentation of ancient heritage, quality control, reverse engineering and animation In this regard, there are a variety of methods for producing three-dimensional models. In this paper, a 3D modeling system is developed based on photogrammetry method using image processing and laser line extraction from images. In this method the laser beam profile is radiated on the body of the object and with video image acquisition, and extraction of laser line from the frames, three-dimensional coordinates of the objects can be achieved. In this regard, first the design and implementation of hardware, including cameras and laser systems was conducted. Afterwards, the system was calibrated. Finally, the software of the system was implemented for three dimensional data extraction. The system was investigated for modeling a number of objects. The results showed that the system can provide benefits such as low cost, appropriate speed and acceptable accuracy in 3D modeling of objects.

Population and Habitat Objectives for Avian Conservation in California's Central Valley Riparian Ecosystems

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kristen E. Dybala

2017-03-01

Full Text Available https://doi.org/10.15447/sfews.2017v15iss1art5Riparian ecosystems provide important ecosystem services and recreational opportunities for people, and habitat for wildlife. In California’s Central Valley, government agencies and private organizations are working together to protect and restore riparian ecosystems, and the Central Valley Joint Venture provides leadership in the formulation of goals and objectives for avian conservation in riparian ecosystems. We defined a long-term conservation goal as the establishment of riparian ecosystems that provide sufficient habitat to support genetically robust, self-sustaining, and resilient bird populations. To achieve this goal, we selected a suite of 12 breeding riparian landbird focal species as indicators of the state of riparian ecosystems in each of four major Central Valley planning regions. Using recent bird survey data, we estimated that over half of the regional focal species populations are currently small (< 10,000 and may be vulnerable to extirpation, and two species have steeply declining population trends. For each focal species in each region, we defined long-term (100-year population objectives that are intended to be conservation endpoints that we expect to meet the goal of genetically robust, self-sustaining, and resilient populations. We then estimated the long-term species density and riparian restoration objectives required to achieve the long-term population objectives. To track progress toward the long-term objectives, we propose short-term (10- year objectives, including the addition of 12,919 ha (31,923 ac of riparian vegetation in the Central Valley (by planning region: 3,390 ha in Sacramento, 2,390 ha in Yolo–Delta, 3,386 ha in San Joaquin, and 3,753 ha in Tulare. We expect that reaching these population, density, and habitat objectives through threat abatement, habitat restoration, and habitat enhancement will result in improvements to riparian ecosystem function and

Fuzzy object models for newborn brain MR image segmentation

Science.gov (United States)

Kobashi, Syoji; Udupa, Jayaram K.

2013-03-01

Newborn brain MR image segmentation is a challenging problem because of variety of size, shape and MR signal although it is the fundamental study for quantitative radiology in brain MR images. Because of the large difference between the adult brain and the newborn brain, it is difficult to directly apply the conventional methods for the newborn brain. Inspired by the original fuzzy object model introduced by Udupa et al. at SPIE Medical Imaging 2011, called fuzzy shape object model (FSOM) here, this paper introduces fuzzy intensity object model (FIOM), and proposes a new image segmentation method which combines the FSOM and FIOM into fuzzy connected (FC) image segmentation. The fuzzy object models are built from training datasets in which the cerebral parenchyma is delineated by experts. After registering FSOM with the evaluating image, the proposed method roughly recognizes the cerebral parenchyma region based on a prior knowledge of location, shape, and the MR signal given by the registered FSOM and FIOM. Then, FC image segmentation delineates the cerebral parenchyma using the fuzzy object models. The proposed method has been evaluated using 9 newborn brain MR images using the leave-one-out strategy. The revised age was between -1 and 2 months. Quantitative evaluation using false positive volume fraction (FPVF) and false negative volume fraction (FNVF) has been conducted. Using the evaluation data, a FPVF of 0.75% and FNVF of 3.75% were achieved. More data collection and testing are underway.

Trajectories of Achievement within Race/Ethnicity: "Catching Up" in Achievement across Time

Science.gov (United States)

Davis-Kean, Pamela E.; Jager, Justin

2014-01-01

The achievement gap has long been the focus of educational research, policy, and intervention. The authors took a new approach to examining the achievement gap by examining achievement trajectories within each racial group. To identify these trajectories they used the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Kindergarten Cohort, which is a nationally…

Cascade Boosting-Based Object Detection from High-Level Description to Hardware Implementation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

K. Khattab

2009-01-01

Full Text Available Object detection forms the first step of a larger setup for a wide variety of computer vision applications. The focus of this paper is the implementation of a real-time embedded object detection system while relying on high-level description language such as SystemC. Boosting-based object detection algorithms are considered as the fastest accurate object detection algorithms today. However, the implementation of a real time solution for such algorithms is still a challenge. A new parallel implementation, which exploits the parallelism and the pipelining in these algorithms, is proposed. We show that using a SystemC description model paired with a mainstream automatic synthesis tool can lead to an efficient embedded implementation. We also display some of the tradeoffs and considerations, for this implementation to be effective. This implementation proves capable of achieving 42 fps for 320×240 images as well as bringing regularity in time consuming.

The relationship between autonomous motivation and autonomy support in medical students’ academic achievement

Science.gov (United States)

Soemantri, Diantha; Jusuf, Anwar

2016-01-01

Objectives This study applied self-determination theory (SDT) to investigate the relationship between students’ autonomous motivation and tutors’ autonomy support in medical students’ academic achievement. Methods This was a cross-sectional study. Out of 204 students in a fundamental medical science course, 199 participated in the study. Data was collected using two questionnaires: the Learning Self-Regulation and Learning Climate Questionnaires. The score of the course assessment was the measure of academic achievement. Data was analyzed and reported with descriptive and inferential statistics (mean, standard deviation and multiple regression analysis).  Results Mean score (±standard deviation) of the autonomous motivation, tutors’ autonomy support, and academic achievement were 5.48±0.89, 5.22±0.92, and 5.22±0.92. Multiple regression results reported students’ autonomous motivation was associated with improvement of students’ academic achievement (β=15.2, p=0.004). However, augmentation of tutors’ autonomy support was not reflected in the improvement of students’ academic achievement (β = -12.6, p = 0.019). Both students’ autonomous motivation and tutors’ autonomy support had a contribution of about 4.2% students’ academic achievement (F = 4.343, p = 0.014, R2 = 0.042). Conclusions Due to the unique characteristic of our medical students’ educational background, our study shows that tutors’ autonomy support is inconsistent with students’ academic achievement. However, both autonomous motivation and support are essential to students’ academic achievement. Further study is needed to explore students’ educational background and self-regulated learning competence to improve students’ academic achievement.               PMID:28035054

Object oriented reconstruction software for the Instrumented Flux Return of BABAR

CERN Document Server

Nardo, E D; Lista, L

2001-01-01

BABAR experiment is the first High Energy Physics experiment to extensively use object oriented technology and the C++ programming language for online and offline software. Object orientation permits to reach a high level of flexibility and maintainability of the code, which is a key point in a large project with many developers. These goals are reached with the introduction of reusable code elements, with abstraction of code behaviours and polymorphism. Software design, before code implementation, is the key task that determines the achievement of such a goal. We present the experience with the application of object oriented technology and design patterns to the reconstruction software of the Instrumented Flux Return detector of BABAR experiment. The use of abstract interfaces improved the development of reconstruction code and permitted to flexibly apply modification to reconstruction strategies, and eventually to reduce the maintenance load. The experience during the last years of development is presented....

Achieving competences in patient-centred care

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Lomborg, Kirsten; Nielsen, Else Skånning; Jensen, Annesofie Lunde

2011-01-01

Aim: To document the efficacy of a training programme in patient-centred care in which the nursing staff was trained to involve chronic obstructive pulmonary patients in assisted personal body care (APBC). The objectives were to describe the programme and uncover the outcomes. Background: Chronic....... In order to achieve such competences in nursing staff, we developed, implemented and evaluated a training programme. Design: A qualitative outcome analysis was conducted in order to explore the dynamics of the training programme process and the outcome. patients to be more active, as was common practice...... prior to the training. According to the staff, there was no actual change in the patients’ level of activity. The training was time-consuming. Methods: Seven nurses and six nursing assistants from three hospital units were divided into two groups in which training and evaluation took place. The content...

Determining the orientation of the observed object in threedimensional space using stereo vision methods

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ponomarev, S

2014-01-01

The task of matching image of an object with its template is central for many optoelectronic systems. Solution of the matching problem in three-dimensional space in contrast to the structural alignment in the image plane allows using a larger amount of information about the object for determining its orientation, which may increase the probability of correct matching. In the case of stereo vision methods for constructing a three-dimensional image of the object, it becomes possible to achieve invariance w.r.t. background and distance to the observed object. Only three of the orientation angle of the object relative to the camera are uncertain and require measurements. This paper proposes a method for determining the orientation angles of the observed object in three-dimensional space, which is based on the processing of stereo image sequences. Disparity map segmentation method that allows one to ensure the invariance of the background is presented. Quantitative estimates of the effectiveness of the proposed method are presented and discussed.

An object-oriented classification method of high resolution imagery based on improved AdaTree

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Xiaohe, Zhang; Liang, Zhai; Jixian, Zhang; Huiyong, Sang

2014-01-01

With the popularity of the application using high spatial resolution remote sensing image, more and more studies paid attention to object-oriented classification on image segmentation as well as automatic classification after image segmentation. This paper proposed a fast method of object-oriented automatic classification. First, edge-based or FNEA-based segmentation was used to identify image objects and the values of most suitable attributes of image objects for classification were calculated. Then a certain number of samples from the image objects were selected as training data for improved AdaTree algorithm to get classification rules. Finally, the image objects could be classified easily using these rules. In the AdaTree, we mainly modified the final hypothesis to get classification rules. In the experiment with WorldView2 image, the result of the method based on AdaTree showed obvious accuracy and efficient improvement compared with the method based on SVM with the kappa coefficient achieving 0.9242

Improving Remote Sensing Scene Classification by Integrating Global-Context and Local-Object Features

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Dan Zeng

2018-05-01

Full Text Available Recently, many researchers have been dedicated to using convolutional neural networks (CNNs to extract global-context features (GCFs for remote-sensing scene classification. Commonly, accurate classification of scenes requires knowledge about both the global context and local objects. However, unlike the natural images in which the objects cover most of the image, objects in remote-sensing images are generally small and decentralized. Thus, it is hard for vanilla CNNs to focus on both global context and small local objects. To address this issue, this paper proposes a novel end-to-end CNN by integrating the GCFs and local-object-level features (LOFs. The proposed network includes two branches, the local object branch (LOB and global semantic branch (GSB, which are used to generate the LOFs and GCFs, respectively. Then, the concatenation of features extracted from the two branches allows our method to be more discriminative in scene classification. Three challenging benchmark remote-sensing datasets were extensively experimented on; the proposed approach outperformed the existing scene classification methods and achieved state-of-the-art results for all three datasets.

Leadership - a key to success in achieving higher competitiveness at companies

OpenAIRE

Hudakova, Ivana

2008-01-01

The idea of leadership has fascinated people for centuries. Leadership, or leading, is an asocial process, where the leader is seeking for voluntary participation of the subordinated, thus striving to achieve the company's objectives. Leadership clearly proves to be more than exercising power and authority. It also covers a number of managerial abilities, such as susceptibility, motivation, scrupulousness, empathy and communication. Leadership has to be present at all levels of the organizati...

Advances in RGB and RGBD Generic Object Trackers

KAUST Repository

Bibi, Adel

2016-04-01

Visual object tracking is a classical and very popular problem in computer vision with a plethora of applications such as vehicle navigation, human computer interface, human motion analysis, surveillance, auto-control systems and many more. Given the initial state of a target in the first frame, the goal of tracking is to predict states of the target over time where the states describe a bounding box covering the target. Despite numerous object tracking methods that have been proposed in recent years [1-4], most of these trackers suffer a degradation in performance mainly because of several challenges that include illumination changes, motion blur, complex motion, out of plane rotation, and partial or full occlusion, while occlusion is usually the most contributing factor in degrading the majority of trackers, if not all of them. This thesis is devoted to the advancement of generic object trackers tackling different challenges through different proposed methods. The work presented propose four new state-of-the-art trackers. One of which is 3D based tracker in a particle filter framework where both synchronization and registration of RGB and depth streams are adjusted automatically, and three works in correlation filters that achieve state-of-the-art performance in terms of accuracy while maintaining reasonable speeds.

The Role of Teacher Morale and Motivation on Students' Science and Math Achievement: Findings from Singapore, Japan, Finland and Turkey

Science.gov (United States)

Abazaoglu, Ilkay; Aztekin, Serdar

2016-01-01

Teacher motivation is one of the factors that affect the realization of the teaching objectives, motivation and academic achievement of student. This study aimed to answer to the question "How is the relation between the students' academic (sciences and mathematics) achievement and teachers' morale/motivation in Singapore, Japan, Finland and…

The effect of technology on learner attention and achievement in the classroom

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G Bester

2013-01-01

Full Text Available The objective of this investigation was to determine the effect of technology on attention and achievement within a classroom context, taking motivation and concentration into account as well. Lessons in Geography, English and Mathematics were presented to an experimental and a control group consisting of 23 and 22 Grade 8 learners, respectively. Technology was implemented for the experimental group but not for the control group. Significant differences were found between the average achievements of a group of learners, exposed to technology during a lesson, compared to a group not exposed to technology. Significant differences were also found between the average attention of a group of learners, exposed to technology during a lesson, compared to a group not exposed to technology. A high positive relationship was obtained between motivation and concentration and moderate to high positive correlations were obtained between attention, concentration and motivation, taken jointly as independent variables and achievement as the dependent variable.

Achieving an early pregnancy following allogeneic uterine transplantation in a rabbit model

OpenAIRE

Saso, Srdjan; Petts, Gemma; David, Anna L.; Thum, Meen-Yau; Chatterjee, Jayanta; Vicente Antón, José Salvador; Marco Jiménez, Francisco; Corless, David; Boyd, Michael; Noakes, David; Lindsay, Iain; Del Priorei, Giuseppe; Ghaem-Maghami, Sadaf; Smith, J. Richard

2015-01-01

[EN] Objective: Uterine transplantation (UTx) has been proposed as a treatment option for women diagnosed with absolute uterine factor infertility (AUFI). The goal of UTx remains achieving pregnancy and live birth of a healthy neonate following allogeneic UTx. Our aim was to assess whether fertility was possible following allogeneic uterine transplantation (UTx), when the recipient had demonstrated long-term survival and had been administered immunosuppression. Study desig...

A Multi-Objective Trade-Off Model in Sustainable Construction Projects

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Guangdong Wu

2017-10-01

Full Text Available Based on the consideration of the relative importance of sustainability-related objectives and the inherent nature of sustainable construction projects, this study proposes that the contractor can balance the levels of efforts and resources used to improve the overall project sustainability. A multi-objective trade-off model using game theory was established and verified through simulation and numerical example under a moral hazard situation. Results indicate that effort levels of the contractor on sustainability-related objectives are positively related to the outcome coefficient while negatively to the coefficients of effort cost of the relevant objectives. High levels of the relative importance of sustainability-related objectives contribute to high levels of effort of the contractor. With the variation in effort levels and the coefficient of benefit allocation, the project net benefit increases before declining. The function of project benefit has a marked peak value, with an inverted “U” shape. An equilibrium always exists as for the given relative importance and coefficients of the effort costs of sustainability-related objectives. Under this condition, the owner may offer the contractor a less intense incentive and motivate the contractor reasonably arranging input resources. The coefficient of benefit allocation is affected by the contractor characteristic factors and the project characteristic factors. The owner should balance these two types of factors and select the most appropriate incentive mechanism to improve the project benefit. Meanwhile, the contractor can balance the relative importance of the objectives and arrange the appropriate levels of effort and resources to achieve a sustainability-related objective. Very few studies have emphasized the effects of the relative importance of sustainability-related objectives on the benefits of sustainable construction projects. This study therefore builds a multi-objective trade

Evaluation of the environmental quality objective 'A Safe Radiation Environment'; Utvaerdering av miljoekvalitetsmaalet 'Saeker straalmiljoe'

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Asp, Helene; Brewitz, Erica; Halvarsson, Andreas; Ljungberg, Sophie; Mjoenes, Lars; Wallberg, Petra

2007-11-15

The evaluation of the environmental quality objective 'A Safe Radiation Environment' is a contribution to the Environmental Objective Council's assessment of progress towards the national environmental quality objectives. The report describes and evaluates the radiation environment in Sweden, the regulatory instruments, measures carried out and the monitoring programmes. Furthermore, the possibility of achieving the objective and its interim targets is evaluated. New measures and means of control are proposed. The proposals are directed to the government and Parliament, national authorities and other stakeholders in society. The Swedish Radiation Protection Authority (SSI) considers it possible to achieve the objective, but additional efforts are required to ensure success. Environmental monitoring, research on health effects of radiation and supervision are still important areas. Intensified efforts will be needed to change attitudes towards suntanning. Changes in the formulation of the objective and its interim targets are suggested. Today only protection against radiation in the external environment is covered by the objective. Radiation protection work has to consider all. SSI therefore suggests that the objective should extend to include workplaces and indoor environment. For the three interim targets included in 'A Safe Radiation Environment', changes are suggested for the interim targets for radioactive substances and electromagnetic fields. No change is suggested for the interim target for skin cancer

Psychosocial aspects and management of evaluation in secondary high and low achievement

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Alicia Rivera Morales

2017-01-01

Full Text Available This article describes a segment of a broader study of mixed cut occurs. In this space only part of the qualitative analysis is recovered around the psychosocial aspects that influence the management of the evaluation results from the application of semi-structured interviews and focus groups with 80 senior secondary schools with high and low achievement located in four states of Mexico: Sonora, Durango, Mexico City and Oaxaca. The findings are presented from categories they consider the meaning, beliefs and expectations about evaluation and how these aspects influence the actions of the directors of the schools studied. Polarized cases allow, in their contrasts, identify processes and factors that mark the differences or similarities between them. Thus it was found that school principals low achievement hope to change the attitude of teachers towards the assessment, expect supervisors to monitor teachers and external support (specialists that indicate how to evaluate them. Moreover, the idea that a school with high achievement is an organization that promotes the participation director, has high expectations of students and teachers, its management system and decision-making can achieve the objectives set, and reasserts Assessment proposes actions that seek continuous improvement.

A retrofit strategy to achieve “Fast, Flexible, Future (F3)” pharmaceutical production processes

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Singh, Ravendra; Rozada-Sanchez, Raquel; Wrate, Tim

2011-01-01

n the work reported here, a substrates adoption methodology for a series of similar substrates has been developed as part of a retrofit strategy. The objective is to achieve “fast, flexible and future” pharmaceutical production processes by adapting a generic modular process-plant template...

Real-world objects are more memorable than photographs of objects

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jacqueline C Snow

2014-10-01

Full Text Available Research studies in psychology typically use two-dimensional (2D images of objects as proxies for real-world three-dimensional (3D stimuli. There are, however, a number of important differences between real objects and images that could influence cognition and behavior. Although human memory has been studied extensively, only a handful of studies have used real objects in the context of memory and virtually none have directly compared memory for real objects versus their 2D counterparts. Here we examined whether or not episodic memory is influenced by the format in which objects are displayed. We conducted two experiments asking participants to freely recall, and to recognize, a set of 44 common household objects. Critically, the exemplars were displayed to observers in one of three viewing conditions: real-world objects, colored photographs, or black and white line drawings. Stimuli were closely matched across conditions for size, orientation, and illumination. Surprisingly, recall and recognition performance was significantly better for real objects compared to colored photographs or line drawings (for which memory performance was equivalent. We replicated this pattern in a second experiment comparing memory for real objects versus color photos, when the stimuli were matched for viewing angle across conditions. Again, recall and recognition performance was significantly better for the real objects than matched color photos of the same items. Taken together, our data suggest that real objects are more memorable than pictorial stimuli. Our results highlight the importance of studying real-world object cognition and raise the potential for applied use in developing effective strategies for education, marketing, and further research on object-related cognition.

Single and multiple object tracking using log-euclidean Riemannian subspace and block-division appearance model.

Science.gov (United States)

Hu, Weiming; Li, Xi; Luo, Wenhan; Zhang, Xiaoqin; Maybank, Stephen; Zhang, Zhongfei

2012-12-01

Object appearance modeling is crucial for tracking objects, especially in videos captured by nonstationary cameras and for reasoning about occlusions between multiple moving objects. Based on the log-euclidean Riemannian metric on symmetric positive definite matrices, we propose an incremental log-euclidean Riemannian subspace learning algorithm in which covariance matrices of image features are mapped into a vector space with the log-euclidean Riemannian metric. Based on the subspace learning algorithm, we develop a log-euclidean block-division appearance model which captures both the global and local spatial layout information about object appearances. Single object tracking and multi-object tracking with occlusion reasoning are then achieved by particle filtering-based Bayesian state inference. During tracking, incremental updating of the log-euclidean block-division appearance model captures changes in object appearance. For multi-object tracking, the appearance models of the objects can be updated even in the presence of occlusions. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed tracking algorithm obtains more accurate results than six state-of-the-art tracking algorithms.

UWB tomosynthesis of objects in mediums with metal inclusions

Science.gov (United States)

Yakubov, V. P.; Shipilov, S. E.; Sukhanov, D. Ya; Minin, I. V.; Minin, O. V.

2017-08-01

Radiowave tomography of dielectric objects containing metal inclusions is a rather complex problem, since the scattering of waves by dielectric inhomogeneities occurs against the background of substantially stronger reflections from metal parts, even if they are geometrically small. The arising features of obtaining a tomogram in such conditions, including overcoming of disguising by reinforcing ribbons and the appearance of locational shadows at different depths, are discussed in the paper. Herewith principled importance to achieve high focusing of UWB radiation by tomosynthesis is noted on the basis of direct experimental data.

Simultaneous positioning and orientation of a single nano-object by flow control: theory and simulations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mathai, Pramod P; Berglund, Andrew J; Alexander Liddle, J; Shapiro, Benjamin A

2011-01-01

In this paper, we theoretically describe a method to simultaneously control both the position and orientation of single nano-objects in fluids by precisely controlling the flow around them. We develop and simulate a control law that uses electro-osmotic flow (EOF) actuation to translate and rotate rigid nano-objects in two spatial dimensions. Using EOF to control nano-objects offers advantages as compared to other approaches: a wide class of objects can be manipulated (no magnetic or electric dipole moments are needed), the object can be controlled over a long range (>100 μm) with sub-micrometer accuracy, and control may be achieved with simple polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) devices. We demonstrate the theory and numerical solutions that will enable deterministic control of the position and orientation of a nano-object in solution, which can be used, for example, to integrate nanostructures in circuits and orient sensors to probe living cells.

Object-relational database design-exploiting object orientation at the ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

This paper applies the object-relational database paradigm in the design of a Health Management Information System. The class design, mapping of object classes to relational tables, the representation of inheritance hierarchies, and the appropriate database schema are all examined. Keywords: object relational ...

Ten objectives for sustainable development.

Science.gov (United States)

Hu, A

2000-02-01

Sustainable development is one of the fundamental strategies for China's socioeconomic development in its 10th 5-Year Plan (2001-2005) period and beyond. It is a human-centered strategy focusing on improved quality of life in which environmental quality is an important part. This article presents 10 objectives that must be achieved for the sustainable development strategy to succeed. These objectives are: 1) continue to implement the family planning program; 2) maintain a dynamic balance of arable land (not less than 123 million hectares) and implement an agricultural development strategy; 3) maintain a dynamic balance of water resources by reducing water consumption for every unit of gross development product growth and agricultural value added; 4) import large quantities of oil and natural gas; 5) control emissions of carbon dioxide and sulfur dioxide by large cities and industries and close high-pollution thermal power plants; 6) compensate for ¿forest deficit¿ with ¿trade surplus¿ by reducing timber production and increase timber import; 7) import large quantities of iron ore, copper, zinc, aluminum, and other minerals and encourage foreign participation in resource exploration and development; 8) make time-bound commitments to clean up large cities, rivers, and lakes and forcefully close down seriously polluting enterprises; 9) implement a massive ecological construction project to slow down ecological degradation; and 10) develop the environmental industry and eco-buildup to expand domestic demand, increase employment, and alleviate poverty.

Patterns of muscle activity underlying object-specific grasp by the macaque monkey.

Science.gov (United States)

Brochier, T; Spinks, R L; Umilta, M A; Lemon, R N

2004-09-01

During object grasp, a coordinated activation of distal muscles is required to shape the hand in relation to the physical properties of the object. Despite the fundamental importance of the grasping action, little is known of the muscular activation patterns that allow objects of different sizes and shapes to be grasped. In a study of two adult macaque monkeys, we investigated whether we could distinguish between EMG activation patterns associated with grasp of 12 differently shaped objects, chosen to evoke a wide range of grasping postures. Each object was mounted on a horizontal shuttle held by a weak spring (load force 1-2 N). Objects were located in separate sectors of a "carousel," and inter-trial rotation of the carousel allowed sequential presentation of the objects in pseudorandom order. EMG activity from 10 to 12 digit, hand, and arm muscles was recorded using chronically implanted electrodes. We show that the grasp of different objects was characterized by complex but distinctive patterns of EMG activation. Cluster analysis shows that these object-related EMG patterns were specific and consistent enough to identify the object unequivocally from the EMG recordings alone. EMG-based object identification required a minimum of six EMGs from simultaneously recorded muscles. EMG patterns were consistent across recording sessions in a given monkey but showed some differences between animals. These results identify the specific patterns of activity required to achieve distinct hand postures for grasping, and they open the way to our understanding of how these patterns are generated by the central motor network.

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

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Diemer de Vries

2007-01-01

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

Object formation in visual working memory: Evidence from object-based attention.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhou, Jifan; Zhang, Haihang; Ding, Xiaowei; Shui, Rende; Shen, Mowei

2016-09-01

We report on how visual working memory (VWM) forms intact perceptual representations of visual objects using sub-object elements. Specifically, when objects were divided into fragments and sequentially encoded into VWM, the fragments were involuntarily integrated into objects in VWM, as evidenced by the occurrence of both positive and negative object-based attention effects: In Experiment 1, when subjects' attention was cued to a location occupied by the VWM object, the target presented at the location of that object was perceived as occurring earlier than that presented at the location of a different object. In Experiment 2, responses to a target were significantly slower when a distractor was presented at the same location as the cued object (Experiment 2). These results suggest that object fragments can be integrated into objects within VWM in a manner similar to that of visual perception. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

THE ISPRS BENCHMARK ON URBAN OBJECT CLASSIFICATION AND 3D BUILDING RECONSTRUCTION

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

F. Rottensteiner

2012-07-01

Full Text Available For more than two decades, many efforts have been made to develop methods for extracting urban objects from data acquired by airborne sensors. In order to make the results of such algorithms more comparable, benchmarking data sets are of paramount importance. Such a data set, consisting of airborne image and laserscanner data, has been made available to the scientific community. Researchers were encouraged to submit results of urban object detection and 3D building reconstruction, which were evaluated based on reference data. This paper presents the outcomes of the evaluation for building detection, tree detection, and 3D building reconstruction. The results achieved by different methods are compared and analysed to identify promising strategies for automatic urban object extraction from current airborne sensor data, but also common problems of state-of-the-art methods.

Design and Implementation of High-Performance GIS Dynamic Objects Rendering Engine

Science.gov (United States)

Zhong, Y.; Wang, S.; Li, R.; Yun, W.; Song, G.

2017-12-01

Spatio-temporal dynamic visualization is more vivid than static visualization. It important to use dynamic visualization techniques to reveal the variation process and trend vividly and comprehensively for the geographical phenomenon. To deal with challenges caused by dynamic visualization of both 2D and 3D spatial dynamic targets, especially for different spatial data types require high-performance GIS dynamic objects rendering engine. The main approach for improving the rendering engine with vast dynamic targets relies on key technologies of high-performance GIS, including memory computing, parallel computing, GPU computing and high-performance algorisms. In this study, high-performance GIS dynamic objects rendering engine is designed and implemented for solving the problem based on hybrid accelerative techniques. The high-performance GIS rendering engine contains GPU computing, OpenGL technology, and high-performance algorism with the advantage of 64-bit memory computing. It processes 2D, 3D dynamic target data efficiently and runs smoothly with vast dynamic target data. The prototype system of high-performance GIS dynamic objects rendering engine is developed based SuperMap GIS iObjects. The experiments are designed for large-scale spatial data visualization, the results showed that the high-performance GIS dynamic objects rendering engine have the advantage of high performance. Rendering two-dimensional and three-dimensional dynamic objects achieve 20 times faster on GPU than on CPU.

Evaluation of progress under the EU National Emission Ceilings Directive. Progress towards EU air quality objectives

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

NONE

2012-10-15

The objective of this report was to assess to what extent the NEC Directive's environmental and health objectives concerning acidification, eutrophication and ground-level ozone exposure for the year 2010 have been achieved. The main basis for the assessment is the emission inventory data officially reported by Member States. The analysis was conducted by using the same scientific methods of 2001 (original knowledge) and 2010 (present knowledge) that support European air pollution abatement policies. The original knowledge consisted of modelling concentrations and exposure using the older Lagrangian EMEP model (utilising a 150 x 150 km{sup 2} grid for the computation of grid-average S and N depositions and ground-level ozone concentrations, together with the 1998 European critical load database for assessing the risk of acidification and eutrophication). The assessment performed on the basis of present knowledge used the current Eulerian EMEP model on a 50 x 50 km{sup 2} grid for the computation of ecosystem-specific depositions and ground-level ozone concentrations, in combination with the 2008 European critical loads database. When assessing progress using original knowledge, the NEC Directive's interim environmental acidification objective has been met in almost all grid cells, while the eutrophication objective - provided in a footnote within the NEC Directive and which was formulated on the European Union area as a whole - has been met both for the EU-15 and the EU-27 regions as a whole. If, in contrast, the eutrophication objective had been required to be met in individual grid cells (as for acidification) or in individual Member States, it would be exceeded in many grid cells and in 11 Member States. While acidification has been markedly reduced, eutrophication is now recognised as a major environmental problem in Europe, especially in the context of its potential adverse impacts on biodiversity. An assessment using present knowledge indicates that

Version II of the ISACS Intelligent Coordinator: object-oriented design and implementation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Liholt, V.; Miazza, P.

1993-03-01

Within the Integrated Surveillance And Control System (ISACS-1)prototype coupled to the NORS PWR simulator, the Intelligent Coordinator (IC) is a central software module. It provides for example the operators with high-level knowledge on the overall plant status. This is performed through the integration of information fetched from the process and different Computerised Operator Support Systems. In 1991, the first version of ISACS and its associated Intelligent Information Coordinator came into operation. During initial ISACS-1 test runs, minor malfunctions were evidently detected in the IC software. At the same time, new reasoning capabilities were also required. A careful analysis of the IC software, implemented with the software shell G2, revealed that its software structure did not allow any easy extension. This report presents in detail the object-oriented redesign of the Intelligent Coordinator of ISACS-1 Firstly, the main capabilities of the Intelligent Coordinator are recalled. Then, the different object classes composing the application are commented in detail The implementation of this new design with the G2 software shell is illustrated through examples. This allows us at the same time to comment our experiences made with the G2 tool. Finally, a quantitative comparison between the successive versions of the Intelligent Coordinator shows clearly the improvements achieved by this object-oriented redesign. A drastic reduction of the number of production rules attests that a better representation of the plant expert knowledge embedded in the Intelligent Coordinator has been achieved. (author)

A Novel Object Tracking Algorithm Based on Compressed Sensing and Entropy of Information

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ding Ma

2015-01-01

Full Text Available Object tracking has always been a hot research topic in the field of computer vision; its purpose is to track objects with specific characteristics or representation and estimate the information of objects such as their locations, sizes, and rotation angles in the current frame. Object tracking in complex scenes will usually encounter various sorts of challenges, such as location change, dimension change, illumination change, perception change, and occlusion. This paper proposed a novel object tracking algorithm based on compressed sensing and information entropy to address these challenges. First, objects are characterized by the Haar (Haar-like and ORB features. Second, the dimensions of computation space of the Haar and ORB features are effectively reduced through compressed sensing. Then the above-mentioned features are fused based on information entropy. Finally, in the particle filter framework, an object location was obtained by selecting candidate object locations in the current frame from the local context neighboring the optimal locations in the last frame. Our extensive experimental results demonstrated that this method was able to effectively address the challenges of perception change, illumination change, and large area occlusion, which made it achieve better performance than existing approaches such as MIL and CT.

Improving Students' Achievement in Writing Descriptive Text by Using Movie Posters

OpenAIRE

Saleha, Ayu -; -, Sumarsih -

2014-01-01

This study concerns on Improving Students' Achievement in Writing Descriptive Text by Using Movie Posters. The underlying objective of this study is to investigate whether teaching descriptive by using movie posters potentially improves students' skill. The research was conducted by using Classroom Action Research (CAR). The subject of the research was class X of SMA SWASTA UTAMA MEDAN. The number of the students was 28. The procedure of the research was administrated into two cycles which ea...

Image de-noising based on mathematical morphology and multi-objective particle swarm optimization

Science.gov (United States)

Dou, Liyun; Xu, Dan; Chen, Hao; Liu, Yicheng

2017-07-01

To overcome the problem of image de-noising, an efficient image de-noising approach based on mathematical morphology and multi-objective particle swarm optimization (MOPSO) is proposed in this paper. Firstly, constructing a series and parallel compound morphology filter based on open-close (OC) operation and selecting a structural element with different sizes try best to eliminate all noise in a series link. Then, combining multi-objective particle swarm optimization (MOPSO) to solve the parameters setting of multiple structural element. Simulation result shows that our algorithm can achieve a superior performance compared with some traditional de-noising algorithm.

A model of objective weighting for EIA.

Science.gov (United States)

Ying, L G; Liu, Y C

1995-06-01

In spite of progress achieved in the research of environmental impact assessment (EIA), the problem of weight distribution for a set of parameters has not as yet, been properly solved. This paper presents an approach of objective weighting by using a procedure of P ij principal component-factor analysis (P ij PCFA), which suits specifically those parameters measured directly by physical scales. The P ij PCFA weighting procedure reforms the conventional weighting practice in two aspects: first, the expert subjective judgment is replaced by the standardized measure P ij as the original input of weight processing and, secondly, the principal component-factor analysis is introduced to approach the environmental parameters for their respective contributions to the totality of the regional ecosystem. Not only is the P ij PCFA weighting logical in theoretical reasoning, it also suits practically all levels of professional routines in natural environmental assessment and impact analysis. Having been assured of objectivity and accuracy in the EIA case study of the Chuansha County in Shanghai, China, the P ij PCFA weighting procedure has the potential to be applied in other geographical fields that need assigning weights to parameters that are measured by physical scales.

Instructional Style, Cognitive Processing, and Achievement Behavior Patterns of Schoolchildren

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Atasi Mohanty

2015-03-01

Full Text Available The objective of the study was to examine the performance characteristics and differences between English and Oriya medium school children on various cognitive processing, reading, academic achievement, and teacher perception measures. The sample consists of 243 schoolchildren, 120 from Grade IV and 123 from Grade VII from three different schools of Cuttack city in Orissa, India. The children were individually administered the Figure-Copying, Raven’s Progressive Matrices, Matching Familiar Figure Task, Serial Recall, Digit-Span, Wechsler’s Intelligence Scale for Children, Block Design, Cloze Reading Comprehension, and Oral Reading tasks. Classroom Achievement scores on different subjects and the teachers’ ratings about their students were also taken. Results revealed that children reading in English medium schools outperformed their Oriya medium counterparts in some cognitive measures such as Figure Copying, MFFT, RPM, and Digit-Span tasks irrespective of levels. However, the children studying in Oriya medium schools scored higher in Reading Comprehension task and commit less error compared with their English medium counterparts. However, in case of academic achievement measures at primary level, the Oriya medium children performed better in social science, whereas the English medium students excelled in first language and mathematics. The teachers of Oriya medium schools also rated their children better in general conduct, motivation, and effort in schoolwork, whereas, at the secondary level, there was no difference between these two groups in academic achievement or teacher perception measures.

Objective-C

CERN Document Server

DeVoe, Jiva

2011-01-01

A soup-to-nuts guide on the Objective-C programming language. Objective-C is the language behind Cocoa and Cocoa Touch, which is the Framework of applications written for the Macintosh, iPod touch, iPhone, and iPad platforms. Part of the Developer Reference series covering the hottest Apple topics, this book covers everything from the basics of the C language to advanced aspects of Apple development. You'll examine Objective-C and high-level subjects of frameworks, threading, networking, and much more.: Covers the basics of the C language and then quickly moves onto Objective-C and more advanc

Effects of Selected Object Characteristics on Object Permanence Test Performance.

Science.gov (United States)

Lingle, Kathleen M.; Lingle, John H.

A study was conducted to investigate the degree to which both object familiarity and motivational factors influence infants' search behavior in an object permanence test. Infants' search behavior for an unfamiliar test object was compared with search behavior for (a) an experientially familiar object that each infant had played with daily for a…

An International Comparison Study of Pharmacy Students’ Achievement Goals and their Relationship to Assessment Type and Scores

Science.gov (United States)

Anderson, Claire; Coulman, Sion A.; John, Dai N.; Tordoff, June; Sainsbury, Erica; Rose, Grenville; Smith, Lorraine

2015-01-01

Objective: To identify pharmacy students’ preferred achievement goals in a multi-national undergraduate population, to investigate achievement goal preferences across comparable degree programs, and to identify relationships between achievement goals, academic performance, and assessment type. Methods: The Achievement Goal Questionnaire was administered to second year students in 4 universities in Australia, New Zealand, England, and Wales. Academic performance was measured using total scores, multiple-choice questions, and written answers (short essay). Results: Four hundred eighty-six second year students participated. Students showed an overall preference for the mastery-approach goal orientation across all sites. The predicted relationships between goal orientation and multiple-choice questions, and written answers scores, were significant. Conclusion: This study is the first of its kind to examine pharmacy students’ achievement goals at a multi-national level and to differentiate between assessment type and measures of achievement motivation. Students adopting a mastery-approach goal are more likely to gain high scores in assessments that measure understanding and depth of knowledge. PMID:25995510

Efficient and equitable design of marine protected areas in Fiji through inclusion of stakeholder-specific objectives in conservation planning.

Science.gov (United States)

Gurney, Georgina G; Pressey, Robert L; Ban, Natalie C; Álvarez-Romero, Jorge G; Jupiter, Stacy; Adams, Vanessa M

2015-10-01

The efficacy of protected areas varies, partly because socioeconomic factors are not sufficiently considered in planning and management. Although integrating socioeconomic factors into systematic conservation planning is increasingly advocated, research is needed to progress from recognition of these factors to incorporating them effectively in spatial prioritization of protected areas. We evaluated 2 key aspects of incorporating socioeconomic factors into spatial prioritization: treatment of socioeconomic factors as costs or objectives and treatment of stakeholders as a single group or multiple groups. Using as a case study the design of a system of no-take marine protected areas (MPAs) in Kubulau, Fiji, we assessed how these aspects affected the configuration of no-take MPAs in terms of trade-offs between biodiversity objectives, fisheries objectives, and equity in catch losses among fisher stakeholder groups. The achievement of fisheries objectives and equity tended to trade-off concavely with increasing biodiversity objectives, indicating that it is possible to achieve low to mid-range biodiversity objectives with relatively small losses to fisheries and equity. Importantly, the extent of trade-offs depended on the method used to incorporate socioeconomic data and was least severe when objectives were set for each fisher stakeholder group explicitly. We found that using different methods to incorporate socioeconomic factors that require similar data and expertise can result in plans with very different impacts on local stakeholders. © 2015 Society for Conservation Biology.

Global Vlasov simulation on magnetospheres of astronomical objects

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Umeda, Takayuki; Ito, Yosuke; Fukazawa, Keiichiro

2013-01-01

Space plasma is a collisionless, multi-scale, and highly nonlinear medium. There are various types of self-consistent computer simulations that treat space plasma according to various approximations. We develop numerical schemes for solving the Vlasov (collisionless Boltzmann) equation, which is the first-principle kinetic equation for collisionless plasma. The weak-scaling benchmark test shows that our parallel Vlasov code achieves a high performance and a high scalability. Currently, we use more than 1000 cores for parallel computations and apply the present parallel Vlasov code to various cross-scale processes in space plasma, such as a global simulation on the interaction between solar/stellar wind and magnetospheres of astronomical objects

Real Objects Can Impede Conditional Reasoning but Augmented Objects Do Not.

Science.gov (United States)

Sato, Yuri; Sugimoto, Yutaro; Ueda, Kazuhiro

2018-03-01

In this study, Knauff and Johnson-Laird's (2002) visual impedance hypothesis (i.e., mental representations with irrelevant visual detail can impede reasoning) is applied to the domain of external representations and diagrammatic reasoning. We show that the use of real objects and augmented real (AR) objects can control human interpretation and reasoning about conditionals. As participants made inferences (e.g., an invalid one from "if P then Q" to "P"), they also moved objects corresponding to premises. Participants who moved real objects made more invalid inferences than those who moved AR objects and those who did not manipulate objects (there was no significant difference between the last two groups). Our results showed that real objects impeded conditional reasoning, but AR objects did not. These findings are explained by the fact that real objects may over-specify a single state that exists, while AR objects suggest multiple possibilities. Copyright © 2017 Cognitive Science Society, Inc.

Creating Objects and Object Categories for Studying Perception and Perceptual Learning

Science.gov (United States)

Hauffen, Karin; Bart, Eugene; Brady, Mark; Kersten, Daniel; Hegdé, Jay

2012-01-01

In order to quantitatively study object perception, be it perception by biological systems or by machines, one needs to create objects and object categories with precisely definable, preferably naturalistic, properties1. Furthermore, for studies on perceptual learning, it is useful to create novel objects and object categories (or object classes) with such properties2. Many innovative and useful methods currently exist for creating novel objects and object categories3-6 (also see refs. 7,8). However, generally speaking, the existing methods have three broad types of shortcomings. First, shape variations are generally imposed by the experimenter5,9,10, and may therefore be different from the variability in natural categories, and optimized for a particular recognition algorithm. It would be desirable to have the variations arise independently of the externally imposed constraints. Second, the existing methods have difficulty capturing the shape complexity of natural objects11-13. If the goal is to study natural object perception, it is desirable for objects and object categories to be naturalistic, so as to avoid possible confounds and special cases. Third, it is generally hard to quantitatively measure the available information in the stimuli created by conventional methods. It would be desirable to create objects and object categories where the available information can be precisely measured and, where necessary, systematically manipulated (or 'tuned'). This allows one to formulate the underlying object recognition tasks in quantitative terms. Here we describe a set of algorithms, or methods, that meet all three of the above criteria. Virtual morphogenesis (VM) creates novel, naturalistic virtual 3-D objects called 'digital embryos' by simulating the biological process of embryogenesis14. Virtual phylogenesis (VP) creates novel, naturalistic object categories by simulating the evolutionary process of natural selection9,12,13. Objects and object categories created

Thickness and clearance visualization based on distance field of 3D objects

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Masatomo Inui

2015-07-01

Full Text Available This paper proposes a novel method for visualizing the thickness and clearance of 3D objects in a polyhedral representation. The proposed method uses the distance field of the objects in the visualization. A parallel algorithm is developed for constructing the distance field of polyhedral objects using the GPU. The distance between a voxel and the surface polygons of the model is computed many times in the distance field construction. Similar sets of polygons are usually selected as close polygons for close voxels. By using this spatial coherence, a parallel algorithm is designed to compute the distances between a cluster of close voxels and the polygons selected by the culling operation so that the fast shared memory mechanism of the GPU can be fully utilized. The thickness/clearance of the objects is visualized by distributing points on the visible surfaces of the objects and painting them with a unique color corresponding to the thickness/clearance values at those points. A modified ray casting method is developed for computing the thickness/clearance using the distance field of the objects. A system based on these algorithms can compute the distance field of complex objects within a few minutes for most cases. After the distance field construction, thickness/clearance visualization at a near interactive rate is achieved.

Learning Object Repositories

Science.gov (United States)

Lehman, Rosemary

2007-01-01

This chapter looks at the development and nature of learning objects, meta-tagging standards and taxonomies, learning object repositories, learning object repository characteristics, and types of learning object repositories, with type examples. (Contains 1 table.)

Achieving Public Schools

Science.gov (United States)

Abowitz, Kathleen Knight

2011-01-01

Public schools are functionally provided through structural arrangements such as government funding, but public schools are achieved in substance, in part, through local governance. In this essay, Kathleen Knight Abowitz explains the bifocal nature of achieving public schools; that is, that schools are both subject to the unitary Public compact of…

Multi-objective optimization of a continuous bio-dissimilation process of glycerol to 1, 3-propanediol.

Science.gov (United States)

Xu, Gongxian; Liu, Ying; Gao, Qunwang

2016-02-10

This paper deals with multi-objective optimization of continuous bio-dissimilation process of glycerol to 1, 3-propanediol. In order to maximize the production rate of 1, 3-propanediol, maximize the conversion rate of glycerol to 1, 3-propanediol, maximize the conversion rate of glycerol, and minimize the concentration of by-product ethanol, we first propose six new multi-objective optimization models that can simultaneously optimize any two of the four objectives above. Then these multi-objective optimization problems are solved by using the weighted-sum and normal-boundary intersection methods respectively. Both the Pareto filter algorithm and removal criteria are used to remove those non-Pareto optimal points obtained by the normal-boundary intersection method. The results show that the normal-boundary intersection method can successfully obtain the approximate Pareto optimal sets of all the proposed multi-objective optimization problems, while the weighted-sum approach cannot achieve the overall Pareto optimal solutions of some multi-objective problems. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

BOLD repetition decreases in object-responsive ventral visual areas depend on spatial attention.

Science.gov (United States)

Eger, E; Henson, R N A; Driver, J; Dolan, R J

2004-08-01

Functional imaging studies of priming-related repetition phenomena have become widely used to study neural object representation. Although blood oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) repetition decreases can sometimes be observed without awareness of repetition, any role for spatial attention in BOLD repetition effects remains largely unknown. We used fMRI in 13 healthy subjects to test whether BOLD repetition decreases for repeated objects in ventral visual cortices depend on allocation of spatial attention to the prime. Subjects performed a size-judgment task on a probe object that had been attended or ignored in a preceding prime display of 2 lateralized objects. Reaction times showed faster responses when the probe was the same object as the attended prime, independent of the view tested (identical vs. mirror image). No behavioral effect was evident from unattended primes. BOLD repetition decreases for attended primes were found in lateral occipital and fusiform regions bilaterally, which generalized across identical and mirror-image repeats. No repetition decreases were observed for ignored primes. Our results suggest a critical role for attention in achieving visual representations of objects that lead to both BOLD signal decreases and behavioral priming on repeated presentation.

BIBLIOGRAPHY ON ACHIEVEMENT. SUPPLEMENT I.

Science.gov (United States)

Harvard Univ., Cambridge, MA. Graduate School of Education.

THIS BIBLIOGRAPHY SUPPLEMENT LISTS MATERIALS ON VARIOUS ASPECTS OF ACHIEVEMENT. APPROXIMATELY 60 REFERENCES ARE PROVIDED TO DOCUMENTS DATING FROM 1961 TO 1966. JOURNALS, BOOKS, AND REPORT MATERIALS ARE LISTED. SUBJECT AREAS INCLUDED ARE ACHIEVEMENT LEVEL, ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT, ACHIEVEMENT MOTIVATION, UNDERACHIEVERS, PROBABILITY ESTIMATES, AND…

Object detection system based on multimodel saliency maps

Science.gov (United States)

Guo, Ya'nan; Luo, Chongfan; Ma, Yide

2017-03-01

Detection of visually salient image regions is extensively applied in computer vision and computer graphics, such as object detection, adaptive compression, and object recognition, but any single model always has its limitations to various images, so in our work, we establish a method based on multimodel saliency maps to detect the object, which intelligently absorbs the merits of various individual saliency detection models to achieve promising results. The method can be roughly divided into three steps: in the first step, we propose a decision-making system to evaluate saliency maps obtained by seven competitive methods and merely select the three most valuable saliency maps; in the second step, we introduce heterogeneous PCNN algorithm to obtain three prime foregrounds; and then a self-designed nonlinear fusion method is proposed to merge these saliency maps; at last, the adaptive improved and simplified PCNN model is used to detect the object. Our proposed method can constitute an object detection system for different occasions, which requires no training, is simple, and highly efficient. The proposed saliency fusion technique shows better performance over a broad range of images and enriches the applicability range by fusing different individual saliency models, this proposed system is worthy enough to be called a strong model. Moreover, the proposed adaptive improved SPCNN model is stemmed from the Eckhorn's neuron model, which is skilled in image segmentation because of its biological background, and in which all the parameters are adaptive to image information. We extensively appraise our algorithm on classical salient object detection database, and the experimental results demonstrate that the aggregation of saliency maps outperforms the best saliency model in all cases, yielding highest precision of 89.90%, better recall rates of 98.20%, greatest F-measure of 91.20%, and lowest mean absolute error value of 0.057, the value of proposed saliency evaluation

Object-based spatial attention when objects have sufficient depth cues.

Science.gov (United States)

Takeya, Ryuji; Kasai, Tetsuko

2015-01-01

Attention directed to a part of an object tends to obligatorily spread over all of the spatial regions that belong to the object, which may be critical for rapid object-recognition in cluttered visual scenes. Previous studies have generally used simple rectangles as objects and have shown that attention spreading is reflected by amplitude modulation in the posterior N1 component (150-200 ms poststimulus) of event-related potentials, while other interpretations (i.e., rectangular holes) may arise implicitly in early visual processing stages. By using modified Kanizsa-type stimuli that provided less ambiguity of depth ordering, the present study examined early event-related potential spatial-attention effects for connected and separated objects, both of which were perceived in front of (Experiment 1) and in back of (Experiment 2) the surroundings. Typical P1 (100-140 ms) and N1 (150-220 ms) attention effects of ERP in response to unilateral probes were observed in both experiments. Importantly, the P1 attention effect was decreased for connected objects compared to separated objects only in Experiment 1, and the typical object-based modulations of N1 were not observed in either experiment. These results suggest that spatial attention spreads over a figural object at earlier stages of processing than previously indicated, in three-dimensional visual scenes with multiple depth cues.

Importance of Baseline Specification in Evaluating Conservation Interventions and Achieving No Net Loss of Biodiversity

Science.gov (United States)

Bull, J W; Gordon, A; Law, E A; Suttle, K B; Milner-Gulland, E J

2014-01-01

There is an urgent need to improve the evaluation of conservation interventions. This requires specifying an objective and a frame of reference from which to measure performance. Reference frames can be baselines (i.e., known biodiversity at a fixed point in history) or counterfactuals (i.e., a scenario that would have occurred without the intervention). Biodiversity offsets are interventions with the objective of no net loss of biodiversity (NNL). We used biodiversity offsets to analyze the effects of the choice of reference frame on whether interventions met stated objectives. We developed 2 models to investigate the implications of setting different frames of reference in regions subject to various biodiversity trends and anthropogenic impacts. First, a general analytic model evaluated offsets against a range of baseline and counterfactual specifications. Second, a simulation model then replicated these results with a complex real world case study: native grassland offsets in Melbourne, Australia. Both models showed that achieving NNL depended upon the interaction between reference frame and background biodiversity trends. With a baseline, offsets were less likely to achieve NNL where biodiversity was decreasing than where biodiversity was stable or increasing. With a no-development counterfactual, however, NNL was achievable only where biodiversity was declining. Otherwise, preventing development was better for biodiversity. Uncertainty about compliance was a stronger determinant of success than uncertainty in underlying biodiversity trends. When only development and offset locations were considered, offsets sometimes resulted in NNL, but not across an entire region. Choice of reference frame determined feasibility and effort required to attain objectives when designing and evaluating biodiversity offset schemes. We argue the choice is thus of fundamental importance for conservation policy. Our results shed light on situations in which biodiversity offsets may

Comparative Associations Between Achieved Bicultural Identity, Achieved Ego Identity, and Achieved Religious Identity and Adaptation Among Australian Adolescent Muslims.

Science.gov (United States)

Abu-Rayya, Hisham M; Abu-Rayya, Maram H; White, Fiona A; Walker, Richard

2018-04-01

This study examined the comparative roles of biculturalism, ego identity, and religious identity in the adaptation of Australian adolescent Muslims. A total of 504 high school Muslim students studying at high schools in metropolitan Sydney and Melbourne, Australia, took part in this study which required them to complete a self-report questionnaire. Analyses indicated that adolescent Muslims' achieved religious identity seems to play a more important role in shaping their psychological and socio-cultural adaptation compared to adolescents' achieved bicultural identity. Adolescents' achieved ego identity tended also to play a greater role in their psychological and socio-cultural adaptation than achieved bicultural identity. The relationships between the three identities and negative indicators of psychological adaptation were consistently indifferent. Based on these findings, we propose that the three identity-based forces-bicultural identity development, religious identity attainment, and ego identity formation-be amalgamated into one framework in order for researchers to more accurately examine the adaptation of Australian adolescent Muslims.

From 2D Silhouettes to 3D Object Retrieval: Contributions and Benchmarking

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Napoléon Thibault

2010-01-01

Full Text Available 3D retrieval has recently emerged as an important boost for 2D search techniques. This is mainly due to its several complementary aspects, for instance, enriching views in 2D image datasets, overcoming occlusion and serving in many real-world applications such as photography, art, archeology, and geolocalization. In this paper, we introduce a complete "2D photography to 3D object" retrieval framework. Given a (collection of picture(s or sketch(es of the same scene or object, the method allows us to retrieve the underlying similar objects in a database of 3D models. The contribution of our method includes (i a generative approach for alignment able to find canonical views consistently through scenes/objects and (ii the application of an efficient but effective matching method used for ranking. The results are reported through the Princeton Shape Benchmark and the Shrec benchmarking consortium evaluated/compared by a third party. In the two gallery sets, our framework achieves very encouraging performance and outperforms the other runs.

Students' Facebook Usage and Academic Achievement: A Case Study of Private University in Thailand

Science.gov (United States)

Sereetrakul, Wilailuk

2013-01-01

The objective of this study was to determine if the time spent on Facebook and the purpose for which Facebook was used had any impact on the academic achievement of the students. This exploratory research used a questionnaire to collect data from 251 undergraduate students at a private university in Bangkok, Thailand. Data were analyzed using…

Gravity influences the visual representation of object tilt in parietal cortex.

Science.gov (United States)

Rosenberg, Ari; Angelaki, Dora E

2014-10-22

Sensory systems encode the environment in egocentric (e.g., eye, head, or body) reference frames, creating inherently unstable representations that shift and rotate as we move. However, it is widely speculated that the brain transforms these signals into an allocentric, gravity-centered representation of the world that is stable and independent of the observer's spatial pose. Where and how this representation may be achieved is currently unknown. Here we demonstrate that a subpopulation of neurons in the macaque caudal intraparietal area (CIP) visually encodes object tilt in nonegocentric coordinates defined relative to the gravitational vector. Neuronal responses to the tilt of a visually presented planar surface were measured with the monkey in different spatial orientations (upright and rolled left/right ear down) and then compared. This revealed a continuum of representations in which planar tilt was encoded in a gravity-centered reference frame in approximately one-tenth of the comparisons, intermediate reference frames ranging between gravity-centered and egocentric in approximately two-tenths of the comparisons, and in an egocentric reference frame in less than half of the comparisons. Altogether, almost half of the comparisons revealed a shift in the preferred tilt and/or a gain change consistent with encoding object orientation in nonegocentric coordinates. Through neural network modeling, we further show that a purely gravity-centered representation of object tilt can be achieved directly from the population activity of CIP-like units. These results suggest that area CIP may play a key role in creating a stable, allocentric representation of the environment defined relative to an "earth-vertical" direction. Copyright © 2014 the authors 0270-6474/14/3414170-11$15.00/0.

Ignition and flame-growth modeling on realistic building and landscape objects in changing environments

Science.gov (United States)

Mark A. Dietenberger

2010-01-01

Effective mitigation of external fires on structures can be achieved flexibly, economically, and aesthetically by (1) preventing large-area ignition on structures by avoiding close proximity of burning vegetation; and (2) stopping flame travel from firebrands landing on combustible building objects. Using bench-scale and mid-scale fire tests to obtain flammability...

Creating technical heritage object replicas in a virtual environment

Science.gov (United States)

Egorova, Olga; Shcherbinin, Dmitry

2016-03-01

The paper presents innovative informatics methods for creating virtual technical heritage replicas, which are of significant scientific and practical importance not only to researchers but to the public in general. By performing 3D modeling and animation of aircrafts, spaceships, architectural-engineering buildings, and other technical objects, the process of learning is achieved while promoting the preservation of the replicas for future generations. Modern approaches based on the wide usage of computer technologies attract a greater number of young people to explore the history of science and technology and renew their interest in the field of mechanical engineering.

A computer-aided approach for achieving sustainable process design by process intensification

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Anantasarn, Nateetorn; Suriyapraphadilok, Uthaiporn; Babi, Deenesh Kavi

2017-01-01

to generate flowsheet alternatives that satisfy the design targets thereby, minimizing and/or eliminating the process hot-spots. The application of the framework is highlighted through the production of para-xylene via toluene methylation where more sustainable flowsheet alternatives that consist of hybrid......Process intensification can be applied to achieve sustainable process design. In this paper, a systematic, 3-stage synthesis-intensification framework is applied to achieve more sustainable design. In stage 1, the synthesis stage, an objective function and design constraints are defined and a base...... case is synthesized. In stage 2, the design and analysis stage, the base case is analyzed using economic and environmental analyses to identify process hot-spots that are translated into design targets. In stage 3, the innovation design stage, phenomena-based process intensification is performed...

Public Ethics in Educational Organizations: How to Manage For Achieving Common Wealth

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ana Prieto Sánchez

2007-04-01

Full Text Available The objective of this essay is to reflect about the rol that should be assumed by the management of the educational organizations, as public administration’s leaders, under a perspective of public ethics based on values, like fundamental pillars of how to achieve the common wealth. The method used was documentary, consulting authors as Aranguren (1996, Santana (2000, Arana (2000 y Camargo (1998. It could be concluded: the educational manager as ethics public leader, should encourage the social learning of values to change from a right ethics to a responsibility ethics, in order to obtain a social transformation. The education and the educational policies are the way to achieve the convivence and the common wealth, when they are practiced by the ethics manager, presents in the educational organizations.

A MULTI-OBJECTIVE APPROACH TO THE EVALUATION OF INNOVATIVE POTENTIAL OF THE TOURISM INDUSTRY ORGANIZATIONS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tat’yana Pavlovna Levchenko

2018-02-01

Full Text Available Speaking about innovation in the tourism industry and hotel business, in particular, it usually means events of a systemic nature, with quality novelty, aimed at achieving positive changes, stable functioning and dynamic development. Along with general economic factors that determine the uneven demand for services of hospitality, it is explained by the sharp increase in dependence of their tourism and recreational opportunities from innovative potential (IP, capability of adapting to challenging competitive environment. The article considers a multi-objective approach to the study of the innovative potential of the tourism industry organizations. Its essence lies in the fact that the choice of the structural elements from the point of view of their value and importance (in any combination cannot be established a priori, without sufficient objective analysis on some of the more important criteria for achieving the goals. A diagnostic analysis and evaluation of the innovation potential of several hotel organizations from the standpoint of a multi-purpose approach is performed.

BL Lacertae objects

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Disney, M.J.; Veron, P.

1977-01-01

The properties of BL Lacertae objects are discussed including their spectra, variability, and brightness. The historical development of observation, and the conclusion that these objects are possibly quasar-related objects rather than variable stars as originally supposed are treated. The possible mechanisms for the unusual luminosity of these objects are considered

Conceptual Coherence Affects Phonological Activation of Context Objects During Object Naming

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Oppermann, F.; Jescheniak, J.D.; Schriefers, H.J.

2008-01-01

In 4 picture-word interference experiments, speakers named a target object that was presented with a context object. Using auditory distractors that were phonologically related or unrelated either to the target object or the context object, the authors assessed whether phonological processing was

A Knowledge-Informed and Pareto-Based Artificial Bee Colony Optimization Algorithm for Multi-Objective Land-Use Allocation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lina Yang

2018-02-01

Full Text Available Land-use allocation is of great significance in urban development. This type of allocation is usually considered to be a complex multi-objective spatial optimization problem, whose optimized result is a set of Pareto-optimal solutions (Pareto front reflecting different tradeoffs in several objectives. However, obtaining a Pareto front is a challenging task, and the Pareto front obtained by state-of-the-art algorithms is still not sufficient. To achieve better Pareto solutions, taking the grid-representative land-use allocation problem with two objectives as an example, an artificial bee colony optimization algorithm for multi-objective land-use allocation (ABC-MOLA is proposed. In this algorithm, the traditional ABC’s search direction guiding scheme and solution maintaining process are modified. In addition, a knowledge-informed neighborhood search strategy, which utilizes the auxiliary knowledge of natural geography and spatial structures to facilitate the neighborhood spatial search around each solution, is developed to further improve the Pareto front’s quality. A series of comparison experiments (a simulated experiment with small data volume and a real-world data experiment for a large area shows that all the Pareto fronts obtained by ABC-MOLA totally dominate the Pareto fronts by other algorithms, which demonstrates ABC-MOLA’s effectiveness in achieving Pareto fronts of high quality.

Seeing Objects as Faces Enhances Object Detection.

Science.gov (United States)

Takahashi, Kohske; Watanabe, Katsumi

2015-10-01

The face is a special visual stimulus. Both bottom-up processes for low-level facial features and top-down modulation by face expectations contribute to the advantages of face perception. However, it is hard to dissociate the top-down factors from the bottom-up processes, since facial stimuli mandatorily lead to face awareness. In the present study, using the face pareidolia phenomenon, we demonstrated that face awareness, namely seeing an object as a face, enhances object detection performance. In face pareidolia, some people see a visual stimulus, for example, three dots arranged in V shape, as a face, while others do not. This phenomenon allows us to investigate the effect of face awareness leaving the stimulus per se unchanged. Participants were asked to detect a face target or a triangle target. While target per se was identical between the two tasks, the detection sensitivity was higher when the participants recognized the target as a face. This was the case irrespective of the stimulus eccentricity or the vertical orientation of the stimulus. These results demonstrate that seeing an object as a face facilitates object detection via top-down modulation. The advantages of face perception are, therefore, at least partly, due to face awareness.

Seeing Objects as Faces Enhances Object Detection

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Kohske Takahashi

2015-09-01

Full Text Available The face is a special visual stimulus. Both bottom-up processes for low-level facial features and top-down modulation by face expectations contribute to the advantages of face perception. However, it is hard to dissociate the top-down factors from the bottom-up processes, since facial stimuli mandatorily lead to face awareness. In the present study, using the face pareidolia phenomenon, we demonstrated that face awareness, namely seeing an object as a face, enhances object detection performance. In face pareidolia, some people see a visual stimulus, for example, three dots arranged in V shape, as a face, while others do not. This phenomenon allows us to investigate the effect of face awareness leaving the stimulus per se unchanged. Participants were asked to detect a face target or a triangle target. While target per se was identical between the two tasks, the detection sensitivity was higher when the participants recognized the target as a face. This was the case irrespective of the stimulus eccentricity or the vertical orientation of the stimulus. These results demonstrate that seeing an object as a face facilitates object detection via top-down modulation. The advantages of face perception are, therefore, at least partly, due to face awareness.

An objective spinal motion imaging assessment (OSMIA): reliability, accuracy and exposure data.

OpenAIRE

Breen, Alan C.; Muggleton, J.M.; Mellor, F.E.

2006-01-01

Abstract Background Minimally-invasive measurement of continuous inter-vertebral motion in clinical settings is difficult to achieve. This paper describes the reliability, validity and radiation exposure levels in a new Objective Spinal Motion Imaging Assessment system (OSMIA) based on low-dose fluoroscopy and image processing. Methods Fluoroscopic sequences in coronal and sagittal planes were obtained from 2 calibration models using dry lumbar vertebrae, plus the lumbar spines of 30 asymptom...

Implications of perspective in teaching objects first and object design

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Christensen, Henrik Bærbak

2005-01-01

There are an increasing number of books published on the important topics of "object-oriented programming" and "object-oriented design" for use in education. However, object-orientation can be viewed from a number of different perspectives---each perspective having its benefits and liabilities...

3D Imaging of Dielectric Objects Buried under a Rough Surface by Using CSI

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Evrim Tetik

2015-01-01

Full Text Available A 3D scalar electromagnetic imaging of dielectric objects buried under a rough surface is presented. The problem has been treated as a 3D scalar problem for computational simplicity as a first step to the 3D vector problem. The complexity of the background in which the object is buried is simplified by obtaining Green’s function of its background, which consists of two homogeneous half-spaces, and a rough interface between them, by using Buried Object Approach (BOA. Green’s function of the two-part space with planar interface is obtained to be used in the process. Reconstruction of the location, shape, and constitutive parameters of the objects is achieved by Contrast Source Inversion (CSI method with conjugate gradient. The scattered field data that is used in the inverse problem is obtained via both Method of Moments (MoM and Comsol Multiphysics pressure acoustics model.

Selected personality traits and achievement motivation in university students of physical culture, education and natural sciences

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Martin Sigmund

2013-09-01

Full Text Available BACKGROUND: Understanding personality variables and other important psychological traits in the university population appears topical particularly with respect to personality, motivation, health as well as overall academic achievement. A significant role is played by correlations of the monitored variables in relation to selected study specialization. OBJECTIVE: The main objective of the present study is to extend the knowledge on selected personality traits and the level of achievement motivation in a specific group of university students with respect to the diversity of their study specialization. METHODS: The study included a total of 522 students from Palacký University. These were students from the Faculty of Physical Culture (n = 118, Faculty of Education (n = 218 and Faculty of Science (n = 186. In terms of age, the study focused on young adults aged 19 to 26. In the research, psychodiagnostic methods were used to perform diagnostics and to fulfil the overall research plan. All diagnostic methods used are fully standardized and contain domestic normative values. We monitored variables such as personality, achievement motivation and achievement anxiety. Statistical result processing was conducted using the Statgraphics programme v. 9.0. Result processing was made using parametric as well as non-parametric statistical methods (Shapiro-Wilk, Mann-Whitney, Kruskal-Wallis, Spearman’s correlation. RESULTS: University students specialized in physical culture showed the highest values of extraversion and psychoticism, and clearly the lowest values of neuroticism compared to the students of education and natural sciences. The highest values of openness were observed in the students specialized in sports. In terms of the overall achievement motivation related to study specialization, almost identical values were observed. However, the students of physical culture showed significantly lower values of achievement debilitating anxiety

Associative recognition and the hippocampus: differential effects of hippocampal lesions on object-place, object-context and object-place-context memory.

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Langston, Rosamund F; Wood, Emma R

2010-10-01

The hippocampus is thought to be required for the associative recognition of objects together with the spatial or temporal contexts in which they occur. However, recent data showing that rats with fornix lesions perform as well as controls in an object-place task, while being impaired on an object-place-context task (Eacott and Norman (2004) J Neurosci 24:1948-1953), suggest that not all forms of context-dependent associative recognition depend on the integrity of the hippocampus. To examine the role of the hippocampus in context-dependent recognition directly, the present study tested the effects of large, selective, bilateral hippocampus lesions in rats on performance of a series of spontaneous recognition memory tasks: object recognition, object-place recognition, object-context recognition and object-place-context recognition. Consistent with the effects of fornix lesions, animals with hippocampus lesions were impaired only on the object-place-context task. These data confirm that not all forms of context-dependent associative recognition are mediated by the hippocampus. Subsequent experiments suggested that the object-place task does not require an allocentric representation of space, which could account for the lack of impairment following hippocampus lesions. Importantly, as the object-place-context task has similar spatial requirements, the selective deficit in object-place-context recognition suggests that this task requires hippocampus-dependent neural processes distinct from those required for allocentric spatial memory, or for object memory, object-place memory or object-context memory. Two possibilities are that object, place, and context information converge only in the hippocampus, or that recognition of integrated object-place-context information requires a hippocampus-dependent mode of retrieval, such as recollection. © 2009 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

Hypothetical model of factors determining performance and sports achievement in team sports

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Trninić Marko

2011-01-01

Full Text Available The objective of this paper is formation of a comprehensive hypothetical dynamic interactional process model structured by assumed constructs, i.e. processes or mechanisms that obtain real features and influences on athlete's performance and athletic achievement. Thus there are formed and assumed reciprocal relations between high training and competition - based stress as the input variable, cognitive appraisal and interpretation as the mediator, and mood state as the moderator based on the development of the dynamic systems theory. Also, proposed model uses basic assumptions of the Action-Theory approach and it is in accordance with the contemporary socialcognitive view of team functioning in sports. Within the process model, the output variables are measures of efficacy evident through athlete's individual and team performance and athletic achievement. The situation, the team and athlete attributes, the performance and the athletic achievement are joined variables, and the individual and the collective efficacy are the consequence of their reciprocal interaction. Therefore, there are complex and reciprocal interactive processes in real sports and explorative situations amongst the attributes of athlete and team and the behaviour and situation that determine performance and athletic achievement. This is probably the result of an integrated network of reciprocal multi-causal activity of a set of stated assumed constructs from different theories. Thus the hypothetical model is an effort to describe elaborate correlations and/or interdependencies between internal and external determinants which presumably affect athlete's performance and athletic achievement.

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

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lee, Taewoo; Hammad, Muhannad; Chan, Timothy C. Y.; Craig, Tim; Sharpe, Michael B.

2013-01-01

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

Multiple Object Permanence Tracking: Maintenance, Retrieval and Transformation of Dynamic Object Representations

OpenAIRE

Saiki, Jun

2008-01-01

Multiple object permanence tracking (MOPT) task revealed that our ability of maintaining and transforming multiple representations of complex feature-bound objects is limited to handle only 1-2 objects. Often reported capacity of 3-5 objects likely reflects memory for partial representations of objects and simple cases such as just color and their locations. Also, performance in multiple object tracking (MOT) task is likely mediated by spatiotemporal indices, not by feature-bound object repre...

Study strategies and beliefs about learning as a function of academic achievement and achievement goals.

Science.gov (United States)

Geller, Jason; Toftness, Alexander R; Armstrong, Patrick I; Carpenter, Shana K; Manz, Carly L; Coffman, Clark R; Lamm, Monica H

2018-05-01

Prior research by Hartwig and Dunlosky [(2012). Study strategies of college students: Are self-testing and scheduling related to achievement? Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 19(1), 126-134] has demonstrated that beliefs about learning and study strategies endorsed by students are related to academic achievement: higher performing students tend to choose more effective study strategies and are more aware of the benefits of self-testing. We examined whether students' achievement goals, independent of academic achievement, predicted beliefs about learning and endorsement of study strategies. We administered Hartwig and Dunlosky's survey, along with the Achievement Goals Questionnaire [Elliot, A. J., & McGregor, H. A. (2001). A 2 × 2 achievement goal framework. Journal of Personality & Social Psychology, 80, 501-519] to a large undergraduate biology course. Similar to results by Hartwig and Dunlosky, we found that high-performing students (relative to low-performing students) were more likely to endorse self-testing, less likely to cram, and more likely to plan a study schedule ahead of time. Independent of achievement, however, achievement goals were stronger predictors of certain study behaviours. In particular, avoidance goals (e.g., fear of failure) coincided with increased use of cramming and the tendency to be driven by impending deadlines. Results suggest that individual differences in student achievement, as well as the underlying reasons for achievement, are important predictors of students' approaches to studying.

Motivational Objects in Natural Scenes (MONS): A Database of >800 Objects.

Science.gov (United States)

Schomaker, Judith; Rau, Elias M; Einhäuser, Wolfgang; Wittmann, Bianca C

2017-01-01

In daily life, we are surrounded by objects with pre-existing motivational associations. However, these are rarely controlled for in experiments with natural stimuli. Research on natural stimuli would therefore benefit from stimuli with well-defined motivational properties; in turn, such stimuli also open new paths in research on motivation. Here we introduce a database of Motivational Objects in Natural Scenes (MONS). The database consists of 107 scenes. Each scene contains 2 to 7 objects placed at approximately equal distance from the scene center. Each scene was photographed creating 3 versions, with one object ("critical object") being replaced to vary the overall motivational value of the scene (appetitive, aversive, and neutral), while maintaining high visual similarity between the three versions. Ratings on motivation, valence, arousal and recognizability were obtained using internet-based questionnaires. Since the main objective was to provide stimuli of well-defined motivational value, three motivation scales were used: (1) Desire to own the object; (2) Approach/Avoid; (3) Desire to interact with the object. Three sets of ratings were obtained in independent sets of observers: for all 805 objects presented on a neutral background, for 321 critical objects presented in their scene context, and for the entire scenes. On the basis of the motivational ratings, objects were subdivided into aversive, neutral, and appetitive categories. The MONS database will provide a standardized basis for future studies on motivational value under realistic conditions.

Exploring the relationship between object realism and object-based attention effects.

Science.gov (United States)

Roque, Nelson; Boot, Walter R

2015-09-01

Visual attention prioritizes processing of locations in space, and evidence also suggests that the benefits of attention can be shaped by the presence of objects (object-based attention). However, the prevalence of object-based attention effects has been called into question recently by evidence from a large-sampled study employing classic attention paradigms (Pilz et al., 2012). We conducted two experiments to explore factors that might determine when and if object-based attention effects are observed, focusing on the degree to which the concreteness and realism of objects might contribute to these effects. We adapted the classic attention paradigm first reported by Egly, Driver, and Rafal (1994) by replacing abstract bar stimuli in some conditions with objects that were more concrete and familiar to participants: items of silverware. Furthermore, we varied the realism of these items of silverware, presenting either cartoon versions or photo-realistic versions. Contrary to predictions, increased realism did not increase the size of object-based effects. In fact, no clear object-based effects were observed in either experiment, consistent with previous failures to replicate these effects in similar paradigms. While object-based attention may exist, and may have important influences on how we parse the visual world, these and other findings suggest that the two-object paradigm typically relied upon to study object-based effects may not be the best paradigm to investigate these issues. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Herbig-Haro objects

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Schwartz, R.D.

1983-01-01

Progress in the understanding of Herbig-Haro (HH) objects is reviewed. The results of optical studies of the proper motions and alignments, variability, and polarization of HH objects and the results of spectroscopic studies are discussed. Ground-based infrared studies and far-infrared observations are reviewed. Findings on the properties of molecular clouds associated with HH objects, on gas flows associated with HH IR stars, on maser emission, and on radio continuum observations are considered. A history of proposed excitation mechanisms for HH objects is briefly presented, and the salient shock-wave calculations aimed at synthesizing the spectra of HH objects are summarized along with hypotheses that have been advanced about the origin of the objects. 141 references

The neural basis of precise visual short-term memory for complex recognisable objects.

Science.gov (United States)

Veldsman, Michele; Mitchell, Daniel J; Cusack, Rhodri

2017-10-01

Recent evidence suggests that visual short-term memory (VSTM) capacity estimated using simple objects, such as colours and oriented bars, may not generalise well to more naturalistic stimuli. More visual detail can be stored in VSTM when complex, recognisable objects are maintained compared to simple objects. It is not yet known if it is recognisability that enhances memory precision, nor whether maintenance of recognisable objects is achieved with the same network of brain regions supporting maintenance of simple objects. We used a novel stimulus generation method to parametrically warp photographic images along a continuum, allowing separate estimation of the precision of memory representations and the number of items retained. The stimulus generation method was also designed to create unrecognisable, though perceptually matched, stimuli, to investigate the impact of recognisability on VSTM. We adapted the widely-used change detection and continuous report paradigms for use with complex, photographic images. Across three functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) experiments, we demonstrated greater precision for recognisable objects in VSTM compared to unrecognisable objects. This clear behavioural advantage was not the result of recruitment of additional brain regions, or of stronger mean activity within the core network. Representational similarity analysis revealed greater variability across item repetitions in the representations of recognisable, compared to unrecognisable complex objects. We therefore propose that a richer range of neural representations support VSTM for complex recognisable objects. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The “May” Decrees of the President: objective, indicators, implementation dynamics

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Mariya Aleksandrovna Pechenskaya

2015-01-01

Full Text Available Two and a half years have passed since the RF President’s adoption of a number of decrees aimed at improving social welfare of the citizens. The objectives of the given legal documents concern the issues of education and science, health, demography and social policy, economy and foreign policy, military service and development of the Armed Forces of Russia, inter-ethnic harmony, governance and quality of housing and utility services. V.V. Putin has set targets to be achieved in Russia by 2020. However, the acute budget crisis of regional systems hinders the implementation of Presidential Decrees. This article provides the reader with the analysis of the achieved results and states the problems of “May” requirements funding. In addition, there are possible options for the implementation of the targets laid down in the presidential decrees in the prescribed period

National objectives and flexible mechanisms: A discussions report

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Johansson, Bengt

2003-01-01

The Swedish climate policy has the target that the national emissions of greenhouse gases should be reduced 4%, compared to the 1990 level. But according to the EU common policy in line with the Kyoto agreement, Sweden has the right to increase the emissions by 4%. The Kyoto obligations could also be fulfilled by acting through the flexible mechanisms. In the present report the following issues are discussed: Why did Sweden set so ambitious targets; How can you handle the interconnection between national targets and flexible mechanisms; Methods to determine the amounts of the emissions rights that should be allocated to the trading sectors; Are there alternative means for achieving the targets that the national objectives have set

Multi-Objective Planning Techniques in Distribution Networks: A Composite Review

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Syed Ali Abbas Kazmi

2017-02-01

Full Text Available Distribution networks (DNWs are facing numerous challenges, notably growing load demands, environmental concerns, operational constraints and expansion limitations with the current infrastructure. These challenges serve as a motivation factor for various distribution network planning (DP strategies, such as timely addressing load growth aiming at prominent objectives such as reliability, power quality, economic viability, system stability and deferring costly reinforcements. The continuous transformation of passive to active distribution networks (ADN needs to consider choices, primarily distributed generation (DG, network topology change, installation of new protection devices and key enablers as planning options in addition to traditional grid reinforcements. Since modern DP (MDP in deregulated market environments includes multiple stakeholders, primarily owners, regulators, operators and consumers, one solution fit for all planning scenarios may not satisfy all these stakeholders. Hence, this paper presents a review of several planning techniques (PTs based on mult-objective optimizations (MOOs in DNWs, aiming at better trade-off solutions among conflicting objectives and satisfying multiple stakeholders. The PTs in the paper spread across four distinct planning classifications including DG units as an alternative to costly reinforcements, capacitors and power electronic devices for ensuring power quality aspects, grid reinforcements, expansions, and upgrades as a separate category and network topology alteration and reconfiguration as a viable planning option. Several research works associated with multi-objective planning techniques (MOPT have been reviewed with relevant models, methods and achieved objectives, abiding with system constraints. The paper also provides a composite review of current research accounts and interdependence of associated components in the respective classifications. The potential future planning areas, aiming at

Recent IAEA Achievements in the Field of Fast Neutron Systems and Scope and Objectives of the Meeting

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Monti, S.

2013-01-01

Scope of this technical meeting: • Within FR development programmes, significant research and development (R&D) efforts are devoted to the design of innovative reactor cores ⇒ intrinsic safety features (enhanced negative reactivity feedbacks, reduced coolant void reactivity effects, etc.), ⇒ high performance (in terms of cycle length, high fuel burnup, breeding gain, etc.), ⇒ Minor Actinide transmutation capability. • The development of high performance in-core structural materials represents one of the most challenging aspects ⇒ high neutron flux, ⇒ liquid metal coolant, ⇒ high temperatures. Objectives and expected outcomes: • Present and discuss results of studies and on-going R&D and design activities in the field of innovative reactor core concepts; • Present and discuss results of studies and on-going R&D activities in the field of advanced reactor core structural materials; • Identification of research and technology gaps to be covered through new R&D initiatives to be carried out under the aegis of the IAEA

The Reviewing of Object Files: Object-Specific Integration of Information.

Science.gov (United States)

Kahneman, Daniel; And Others

1992-01-01

Seven experiments involving a total of 203 college students explored a form of object-specific priming and established a robust object-specific benefit that indicates that a new stimulus will be named faster if it physically matches a previous stimulus seen as part of the same perceptual object. (SLD)

The Relationship between The Level of Intelligence, Achievement Motivation, Mathematics Learning Habits and Learning Achievement

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Farkhatu Sikhah

2017-03-01

Full Text Available Tujuan penelitian ini adalah (1 Untuk mengetahui hubungan antara tingkat kecerdasan dengan prestasi belajar matematika (2 Untuk mengetahui hubungan antara motivasi berprestasi dengan prestasi belajar matematika (3 Untuk mengetahui hubungan antara kebiasaan belajar dengan prestasi belajar matematika (4 Untuk mengetahui hubungan antara tingkat kecerdasan, motivasi berprestasi, dan kebiasaan belajar matematika dengan prestasi belajar matematika siswa semester 1 kelas XI IPA SMAN 1 Bojong. Jumlah sampel dalam penelitian ini sebanyak 40 orang siswa. Penelitian ini merupakan penelitian deskriptif korelatif sehingga data dianalisa untuk mendeskripsikan hubungan antara tingkat kecerdasan, motivasi berprestasi, dan kebiasaan belajar matematika dengan prestasi belajar matematika siswa. Instrumen pengambilan data menggunakan dokumentasi dan angket, dan dianalisa menggunakan regresi dan korelasi linier sederhana, serta regresi dan korelasi linier berganda. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa terdapat hubungan yang signifikan antara : (1 tingkat kecerdasan dengan prestasi belajar matematika siswa, (2 motivasi berprestasi dengan prestasi belajar matematika siswa, (3 kebiasaan belajar dengan prestasi belajar matematika siswa (4 tingkat kecerdasan, motivasi berprestasi dan kebiasaan belajar matematika dengan prestasi belajar matematika siswa.   The purpose of this study is (1 To determine the relationship between the level of intelligence and academic achievement of mathematics (2 To determine the relationship between achievement motivation and learning achievement in mathematics (3 To determine the relationship between study habits and academic achievement of mathematics (4 To determine the relationship between level of intelligence, achievement motivation and study habits mathematics learning achievement of student mathematics 1st semester of grade XI IPA SMAN 1 Bojong. The number of samples in this study were 40 students.This research was descriptive

Real-Time Attitude Control Algorithm for Fast Tumbling Objects under Torque Constraint

Science.gov (United States)

Tsuda, Yuichi; Nakasuka, Shinichi

This paper describes a new control algorithm for achieving any arbitrary attitude and angular velocity states of a rigid body, even fast and complicated tumbling rotations, under some practical constraints. This technique is expected to be applied for the attitude motion synchronization to capture a non-cooperative, tumbling object in such missions as removal of debris from orbit, servicing broken-down satellites for repairing or inspection, rescue of manned vehicles, etc. For this objective, we have introduced a novel control algorithm called Free Motion Path Method (FMPM) in the previous paper, which was formulated as an open-loop controller. The next step of this consecutive work is to derive a closed-loop FMPM controller, and as the preliminary step toward the objective, this paper attempts to derive a conservative state variables representation of a rigid body dynamics. 6-Dimensional conservative state variables are introduced in place of general angular velocity-attitude angle representation, and how to convert between both representations are shown in this paper.

Detecting Chloride Contamination of Objects and Buildings – Evaluating a New Testing Process

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