A prototype distributed object-oriented architecture for image-based automatic laser alignment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Stout, E.A.; Kamm, V.J.M.; Spann, J.M.; Van Arsdall, P.J.

1996-01-01

Designing a computer control system for the National Ignition Facility (NIF) is a complex undertaking because of the system's large size and its distributed nature. The controls team is addressing that complexity by adopting the object-oriented programming paradigm, designing reusable software frameworks, and using the Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA) for distribution. A prototype system for image-based automatic laser alignment has been developed to evaluate and gain experience with CORBA and OOP in a small distributed system. The prototype is also important in evaluating alignment concepts, image processing techniques, speed and accuracy of automatic alignment objectives for the NIF, and control hardware for aligment devices. The prototype system has met its inital objectives and provides a basis for continued development

A CORBA Wrapper for Applications with Multiple Robots

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ekaitz Zulueta

2011-11-01

Full Text Available This paper presents a CORBA wrapper which encapsulates a generic anthropomorphic industrial robot. Since this wrapper abstracts the communications, building applications that require remote manipulation or coordination of several devices may be easily achieved by using it. This article describes an implementation of this wrapper over a real-time operating system (RTOS, namely RTAI. This type of OS ensures determinism in the movement operations of the robot. Also, a low resource consuming implementation of the CORBA specification, namely ORBit, has been used to wrap the robot and implement the communications with other devices. Finally, as a matter of example, we present how this wrapper is used to coordinate the operation of several robots in a typical 'pick & place' operation.

TeleMed: Wide-area, secure, collaborative object computing with Java and CORBA for healthcare

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Forslund, D.W.; George, J.E.; Gavrilov, E.M.

1998-12-31

Distributed computing is becoming commonplace in a variety of industries with healthcare being a particularly important one for society. The authors describe the development and deployment of TeleMed in a few healthcare domains. TeleMed is a 100% Java distributed application build on CORBA and OMG standards enabling the collaboration on the treatment of chronically ill patients in a secure manner over the Internet. These standards enable other systems to work interoperably with TeleMed and provide transparent access to high performance distributed computing to the healthcare domain. The goal of wide scale integration of electronic medical records is a grand-challenge scale problem of global proportions with far-reaching social benefits.

Módulo Distribuido de Subasta Java sobre CORBA de Tiempo Real

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

P. Basanta-Val

2012-10-01

Full Text Available Resumen: El uso de infraestructuras middleware que permitan intercomunicar diferentes nodos de un sistema puede aliviar aspectos importantes relacionados con el coste de desarrollo y mantenimiento de dichos sistemas en entornos flexibles. En este contexto el artículo presenta una arquitectura desarrollada dentro del contexto de los sistemas de subasta distribuidos que tienen ciertos requisitos de tiempo real que han de ser satisfechos. Dicha arquitectura implementa un sistema de puja doble (CDA para un sistema de tiempo real industriales. El artículo presenta tanto la arquitectura del sistema con sus diferentes actores así como una evaluación en una plataforma real utilizando middleware de tiempo real ya existente. Abstract: Using middleware infrastructures that enable communication among different nodes in a system may alleviate aspects related to management and development cost in flexible environments. In that context the article presents an auction architecture with certain real-time requirements that have to be satisfied. The architecture implements a continuous double action (CDA algorithm for a real-time middleware. The article describes the architecture (actors and goals and the results obtained by using common-off-the-shelf real-time middleware. Palabras clave: Sistema de Subasta, Informática Industrial, Middleware, Tiempo Real, RT-CORBA, Real-time Java, Keywords: Action Systems, Real-time, Middleware, Industrial informatics, RT-CORBA, Real-time Java

Issues Concerning the Development of a CORBA Trading Service

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Lui, Andrew

1999-01-01

.... The Trading Service is a more advanced variant of the Location Service. This work focuses on the design and development of a trader running on CORBA. In particular an implementation of a trader using Java is presented, in addition to discussions on development issues and future research directions on traders.

A CORBA-Based Control Architecture for Real-Time Teleoperation Tasks in a Developmental Humanoid Robot

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hanafiah Yussof

2011-06-01

Full Text Available This paper presents the development of new Humanoid Robot Control Architecture (HRCA platform based on Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA in a developmental biped humanoid robot for real-time teleoperation tasks. The objective is to make the control platform open for collaborative teleoperation research in humanoid robotics via the internet. Meanwhile, to generate optimal trajectory generation in bipedal walk, we proposed a real time generation of optimal gait by using Genetic Algorithms (GA to minimize the energy for humanoid robot gait. In addition, we proposed simplification of kinematical solutions to generate controlled trajectories of humanoid robot legs in teleoperation tasks. The proposed control systems and strategies was evaluated in teleoperation experiments between Australia and Japan using humanoid robot Bonten-Maru. Additionally, we have developed a user-friendly Virtual Reality (VR user interface that is composed of ultrasonic 3D mouse system and a Head Mounted Display (HMD for working coexistence of human and humanoid robot in teleoperation tasks. The teleoperation experiments show good performance of the proposed system and control, and also verified the good performance for working coexistence of human and humanoid robot.

A CORBA-Based Control Architecture for Real-Time Teleoperation Tasks in a Developmental Humanoid Robot

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hanafiah Yussof

2011-06-01

Full Text Available This paper presents the development of new Humanoid Robot Control Architecture (HRCA platform based on Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA in a developmental biped humanoid robot for real‐time teleoperation tasks. The objective is to make the control platform open for collaborative teleoperation research in humanoid robotics via the internet. Meanwhile, to generate optimal trajectory generation in bipedal walk, we proposed a real time generation of optimal gait by using Genetic Algorithms (GA to minimize the energy for humanoid robot gait. In addition, we proposed simplification of kinematical solutions to generate controlled trajectories of humanoid robot legs in teleoperation tasks. The proposed control systems and strategies was evaluated in teleoperation experiments between Australia and Japan using humanoid robot Bonten‐Maru. Additionally, we have developed a user‐ friendly Virtual Reality (VR user interface that is composed of ultrasonic 3D mouse system and a Head Mounted Display (HMD for working coexistence of human and humanoid robot in teleoperation tasks. The teleoperation experiments show good performance of the proposed system and control, and also verified the good performance for working coexistence of human and humanoid robot.

Data analysis in an Object Request Broker environment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Malon, D.M.; May, E.N.; Grossman, R.L.; Day, C.T.; Quarrie, D.R.

1995-01-01

Computing for the Next Millenium will require software interoperability in heterogeneous, increasingly object-oriented environments. The Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA) is a software industry effort, under the aegis of the Object Management Group (OMG), to standardize mechanisms for software interaction among disparate applications written in a variety of languages and running on a variety of distributed platforms. In this paper, we describe some of the design and performance implications for software that must function in such a brokered environment in a standards-compliant way. We illustrate these implications with a physics data analysis example as a case study

CORBA technology in reengineering the FTU data acquisition system

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bertocchi, A.; Buceti, G.; Centioli, C.; Di Muzio, D.; Iannone, F.; Panella, M.; Vitale, V.

2002-01-01

In its early stages, Frascati tokamak upgrade DAS was essentially devoted to acquiring data from experiments in CAMAC standard, using a software system (code and database) entirely written by domestic professionals. In 15 years of life DAS has been growing in size and complexity, still preserving its original structure; at the same time new standards were introduced (VME, PCI) to take into account users' ever increasing demands for amount of data and acquisition frequency with which the existing code couldn't cope. Moreover, machines were getting old and the maintenance became troublesome. Finally, the data archive porting to Unix has definitely shown that the DAS system was ageing and a thorough redesign was needed. The system we are planning to introduce is founded on a standard CORBA bus: (i) to integrate heterogeneous platforms and define a standard layer for interactions between the different acquisition units; (ii) to grant, with open source tools (MySql) and interfaces (Html and Java), unified access to hardware and software configuration data. So, a dedicated PC server, connected via a suitable PCI serial highway driver card, will perform the CAMAC access for all the clients interacting through the CORBA layer. Up to now we have successfully tested CAMAC access, and we designed an acquisition unit, which will be the building block of the new system. The next step will be migrating to Alpha/VMS the software related to CAMAC data acquisition, which has been so far the cornerstone of the whole DAS; it will be completely redesigned to fit the 'acquisition unit' paradigm we have defined. Finally we will have a fully distributed data acquisition system with VME (at present six such units have been operating since 1999) and PCI stations, an Alpha/VMS client of the CAMAC/PC server and any possible platform interacting through a CORBA bus for getting data configuration, synchronisation and data archiving

CORBA technology in reengineering the FTU data acquisition system

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Bertocchi, A; Buceti, G; Centioli, C; Di Muzio, D; Iannone, F.; Panella, M; Vitale, V

2002-06-01

In its early stages, Frascati tokamak upgrade DAS was essentially devoted to acquiring data from experiments in CAMAC standard, using a software system (code and database) entirely written by domestic professionals. In 15 years of life DAS has been growing in size and complexity, still preserving its original structure; at the same time new standards were introduced (VME, PCI) to take into account users' ever increasing demands for amount of data and acquisition frequency with which the existing code couldn't cope. Moreover, machines were getting old and the maintenance became troublesome. Finally, the data archive porting to Unix has definitely shown that the DAS system was ageing and a thorough redesign was needed. The system we are planning to introduce is founded on a standard CORBA bus: (i) to integrate heterogeneous platforms and define a standard layer for interactions between the different acquisition units; (ii) to grant, with open source tools (MySql) and interfaces (Html and Java), unified access to hardware and software configuration data. So, a dedicated PC server, connected via a suitable PCI serial highway driver card, will perform the CAMAC access for all the clients interacting through the CORBA layer. Up to now we have successfully tested CAMAC access, and we designed an acquisition unit, which will be the building block of the new system. The next step will be migrating to Alpha/VMS the software related to CAMAC data acquisition, which has been so far the cornerstone of the whole DAS; it will be completely redesigned to fit the 'acquisition unit' paradigm we have defined. Finally we will have a fully distributed data acquisition system with VME (at present six such units have been operating since 1999) and PCI stations, an Alpha/VMS client of the CAMAC/PC server and any possible platform interacting through a CORBA bus for getting data configuration, synchronisation and data archiving.

Data analysis in an object request broker environment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Malon, David M.; May, Edward N.; Grossman, Robert L.; Day, Christopher T.; Quarrie, David R.

1996-01-01

Computing for the Next Millennium will require software interoperability in heterogeneous, increasingly object-oriented environments. The Common Request Broker Architecture (CORBA) is a software industry effort, under the aegis of the Object Management Group (OMG), to standardize mechanism for software interaction among disparate applications written in a variety of languages and running on a variety of distributed platforms. In this paper, we describe some of the design and performance implications for software that must function is such a brokered environment in a standards-compliant way. We illustrate these implications with a physics data analysis example as a case study. (author)

Distributed control of protein crystallography beamline 5.0 using CORBA

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Timossi, Chris

1999-01-01

The Protein Crystallography Beamline at Berkeley Lab's Advanced Light Source is a facility that is being used to solve the structure of proteins. The software that is being used to control this beamline uses Java for user interface applications which communicate via CORBA with workstations that control the beamline hardware. We describe the software architecture for the beamline and our experiences after two years of operation

A CORBA BASED ARCHITECTURE FOR ACCESSING REUSABLE SOFTWARE COMPONENTS ON THE WEB.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

R. Cenk ERDUR

2003-01-01

Full Text Available In a very near future, as a result of the continious growth of Internet and advances in networking technologies, Internet will become the common software repository for people and organizations who employ component based reuse approach in their software development life cycles. In order to use the reusable components such as source codes, analysis, designs, design patterns during new software development processes, environments that support the identification of the components over Internet are needed. Basic elements of such an environment are the coordinator programs which deliver user requests to appropriate component libraries, user interfaces for querying, and programs that wrap the component libraries. First, a CORBA based architecture is proposed for such an environment. Then, an alternative architecture that is based on the Java 2 platform technologies is given for the same environment. Finally, the two architectures are compared.

DEVELOPMENT OF TRANSPORT SUBSYSTEM STREAMING DATA REPLICATION CLUSTER IN CORBA-SYSTEM WITH ZEROMQ TECHNOLOGY

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

F. A. Kozlov

2013-03-01

Full Text Available The article deals with the peculiarities of distributed cluster system creation with streaming data replication. Ways of replication cluster implementation in CORBA-systems with ZeroMq technology are presented. Major advantages of ZeroMQ technology over similar technologies are considered in this type distributed systems creation.

Computação de objetos distribuídos na era da internet

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Désiré Nguessan

2003-01-01

Full Text Available In this paper, we discuss recent trends in distributed objects and the Internet computing technologies. Both technologies converge to create a paradigm for distributed computing. We provide an overview of CORBA (Common Object Request Broker Architecture, emphasizing its open architecture for distributed application based on distributed objects and the IIOP (Internet Inter-ORB Protocol that improve the integration of the applications in heterogeneous environments. The CORBA protocol is emerging as the business application messaging standard for the Internet and deserves attention from Information Technologies (IT organizations. We conclude that CORBA, together with the Internet, constitute a perfect symbiotic relationship to build, maintain and extend client/server applications with critical mission.

Exploring object-oriented technologies

CERN Multimedia

2000-01-01

Object oriented technologies are the corner stone of modern software development. A piece of software is today conceived, constructed and tested as a set of objects interacting with each other, rather than as a large sequential program. OO is present throughout the whole software life cycle allowing for maintainable code re-use, clean design and manageable complexity. OO is also the seed upon which other technologies are being built and deployed, such as distributed computing, component models, open interoperability, etc.This series of three seminars will provide a pragmatic overview on the main ideas behind OO software development and will explain the inner workings of the most outstanding technologies being built on OO, such as UML, CORBA, Component Models, Agent Oriented Computing, Business Objects, etc.

Simultaneously Discovering and Localizing Common Objects in Wild Images.

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Zhenzhen; Yuan, Junsong

2018-09-01

Motivated by the recent success of supervised and weakly supervised common object discovery, in this paper, we move forward one step further to tackle common object discovery in a fully unsupervised way. Generally, object co-localization aims at simultaneously localizing objects of the same class across a group of images. Traditional object localization/detection usually trains specific object detectors which require bounding box annotations of object instances, or at least image-level labels to indicate the presence/absence of objects in an image. Given a collection of images without any annotations, our proposed fully unsupervised method is to simultaneously discover images that contain common objects and also localize common objects in corresponding images. Without requiring to know the total number of common objects, we formulate this unsupervised object discovery as a sub-graph mining problem from a weighted graph of object proposals, where nodes correspond to object proposals, and edges represent the similarities between neighbouring proposals. The positive images and common objects are jointly discovered by finding sub-graphs of strongly connected nodes, with each sub-graph capturing one object pattern. The optimization problem can be efficiently solved by our proposed maximal-flow-based algorithm. Instead of assuming that each image contains only one common object, our proposed solution can better address wild images where each image may contain multiple common objects or even no common object. Moreover, our proposed method can be easily tailored to the task of image retrieval in which the nodes correspond to the similarity between query and reference images. Extensive experiments on PASCAL VOC 2007 and Object Discovery data sets demonstrate that even without any supervision, our approach can discover/localize common objects of various classes in the presence of scale, view point, appearance variation, and partial occlusions. We also conduct broad

Arquitectura para balancear carga dinámica por demanda adaptativa, utilizando CORBA en JAVA-IDL

OpenAIRE

Jesús Chávez Esparza; Gerardo Rentería Castillo; Francisco Javier Luna Rosas

2008-01-01

En este trabajo desglosaremos la elaboración de una nueva Arquitectura para balancear carga dinámica, por demanda adaptativa, utilizando CORBA en JAVA-IDL. Una arquitectura de balanceo de carga es un sistema que permite distribuir el trabajo computacional entre varias máquinas, con el objetivo de reducir el tiempo de respuesta global del sistema. A través de las pruebas se justifica el uso de la arquitectura y se definen los parámetros a considerar para obtener un óptimo desempeño, refiriéndo...

Aviation Safety Modeling and Simulation (ASMM) Propulsion Fleet Modeling: A Tool for Semi-Automatic Construction of CORBA-based Applications from Legacy Fortran Programs

Science.gov (United States)

Sang, Janche

2003-01-01

Within NASA's Aviation Safety Program, NASA GRC participates in the Modeling and Simulation Project called ASMM. NASA GRC s focus is to characterize the propulsion systems performance from a fleet management and maintenance perspective by modeling and through simulation predict the characteristics of two classes of commercial engines (CFM56 and GE90). In prior years, the High Performance Computing and Communication (HPCC) program funded, NASA Glenn in developing a large scale, detailed simulations for the analysis and design of aircraft engines called the Numerical Propulsion System Simulation (NPSS). Three major aspects of this modeling included the integration of different engine components, coupling of multiple disciplines, and engine component zooming at appropriate level fidelity, require relatively tight coupling of different analysis codes. Most of these codes in aerodynamics and solid mechanics are written in Fortran. Refitting these legacy Fortran codes with distributed objects can increase these codes reusability. Aviation Safety s modeling and simulation use in characterizing fleet management has similar needs. The modeling and simulation of these propulsion systems use existing Fortran and C codes that are instrumental in determining the performance of the fleet. The research centers on building a CORBA-based development environment for programmers to easily wrap and couple legacy Fortran codes. This environment consists of a C++ wrapper library to hide the details of CORBA and an efficient remote variable scheme to facilitate data exchange between the client and the server model. Additionally, a Web Service model should also be constructed for evaluation of this technology s use over the next two- three years.

Attribute Cafe: A Java/COBRA Technology Experiment

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Toh, T

1998-01-01

.... The experiment focused on the use of Java and Common Object Request Broker (CORBA) technologies as used in the development of a software visualization demonstrator application (the Attribute Cafe...

CORBA (Common Object Request Broker Architecture) compliant tools for high energy physics data analysis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rouse, Forest R.; Patel, Mayank B.

1996-01-01

We describe a system that given an IDL specification for a subroutine can generate the code required for autonomous execution of the routine in a distributed heterogeneous computing environment using the COBRA standard. This allows users to interactively modify the network of tools to either change the functionality or to redistribute the tools among the available processors without modifying any code. We show that the additional system overhead is small in comparison to the data movement time. Additionally, a prototype Graphical User Interface (GUI) to configure and control the network of tools has been written. (author)

National Ignition Facility integrated computer control system

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Van Arsdall, P.J. LLNL

1998-01-01

The NIF design team is developing the Integrated Computer Control System (ICCS), which is based on an object-oriented software framework applicable to event-driven control systems. The framework provides an open, extensible architecture that is sufficiently abstract to construct future mission-critical control systems. The ICCS will become operational when the first 8 out of 192 beams are activated in mid 2000. The ICCS consists of 300 front-end processors attached to 60,000 control points coordinated by a supervisory system. Computers running either Solaris or VxWorks are networked over a hybrid configuration of switched fast Ethernet and asynchronous transfer mode (ATM). ATM carries digital motion video from sensors to operator consoles. Supervisory software is constructed by extending the reusable framework components for each specific application. The framework incorporates services for database persistence, system configuration, graphical user interface, status monitoring, event logging, scripting language, alert management, and access control. More than twenty collaborating software applications are derived from the common framework. The framework is interoperable among different kinds of computers and functions as a plug-in software bus by leveraging a common object request brokering architecture (CORBA). CORBA transparently distributes the software objects across the network. Because of the pivotal role played, CORBA was tested to ensure adequate performance

Moving the Hazard Prediction and Assessment Capability to a Distributed, Portable Architecture

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Lee, RW

2002-09-05

The Hazard Prediction and Assessment Capability (HPAC) has been re-engineered from a Windows application with tight binding between computation and a graphical user interface (GUI) to a new distributed object architecture. The key goals of this new architecture are platform portability, extensibility, deployment flexibility, client-server operations, easy integration with other systems, and support for a new map-based GUI. Selection of Java as the development and runtime environment is the major factor in achieving each of the goals, platform portability in particular. Portability is further enforced by allowing only Java components in the client. Extensibility is achieved via Java's dynamic binding and class loading capabilities and a design by interface approach. HPAC supports deployment on a standalone host, as a heavy client in client-server mode with data stored on the client but calculations performed on the server host, and as a thin client with data and calculations on the server host. The principle architectural element supporting deployment flexibility is the use of Universal Resource Locators (URLs) for all file references. Java WebStart{trademark} is used for thin client deployment. Although there were many choices for the object distribution mechanism, the Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA) was chosen to support HPAC client server operation. HPAC complies with version 2.0 of the CORBA standard and does not assume support for pass-by-value method arguments. Execution in standalone mode is expedited by having most server objects run in the same process as client objects, thereby bypassing CORBA object transport. HPAC provides four levels for access by other tools and systems, starting with a Windows library providing transport and dispersion (T&D) calculations and output generation, detailed and more abstract sets of CORBA services, and reusable Java components.

Large distributed control system using Ada in fusion research

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Van Arsdall, P J; Woodruff, J P.

1998-01-01

Construction of the National Ignition Facility laser at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory features a distributed control system that uses object-oriented software engineering techniques. Control of 60,000 devices is effected using a network of some 500 computers. The software is being written in Ada and communicates through CORBA. Software controls are implemented in two layers: individual device controllers and a supervisory layer. The software architecture provides services in the form of frameworks that address issues common to event-driven control systems. Those services are allocated to levels that strictly prescribe their interdependency so the levels are separately reusable. The project has completed its final design review. The delivery of the first increment takes place in October 1998. Keywords Distributed control system, object-oriented development, CORBA, application frameworks, levels of abstraction

GUEST EDITORS' INTRODUCTION: Guest Editors' introduction

Science.gov (United States)

Guerraoui, Rachid; Vinoski, Steve

1997-09-01

The organization of a distributed system can have a tremendous impact on its capabilities, its performance, and its ability to evolve to meet changing requirements. For example, the client - server organization model has proven to be adequate for organizing a distributed system as a number of distributed servers that offer various functions to client processes across the network. However, it lacks peer-to-peer capabilities, and experience with the model has been predominantly in the context of local networks. To achieve peer-to-peer cooperation in a more global context, systems issues of scale, heterogeneity, configuration management, accounting and sharing are crucial, and the complexity of migrating from locally distributed to more global systems demands new tools and techniques. An emphasis on interfaces and modules leads to the modelling of a complex distributed system as a collection of interacting objects that communicate with each other only using requests sent to well defined interfaces. Although object granularity typically varies at different levels of a system architecture, the same object abstraction can be applied to various levels of a computing architecture. Since 1989, the Object Management Group (OMG), an international software consortium, has been defining an architecture for distributed object systems called the Object Management Architecture (OMA). At the core of the OMA is a `software bus' called an Object Request Broker (ORB), which is specified by the OMG Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA) specification. The OMA distributed object model fits the structure of heterogeneous distributed applications, and is applied in all layers of the OMA. For example, each of the OMG Object Services, such as the OMG Naming Service, is structured as a set of distributed objects that communicate using the ORB. Similarly, higher-level OMA components such as Common Facilities and Domain Interfaces are also organized as distributed objects that can

Use of psychoactive substances in prison: Results of a study in the Lyon-Corbas prison, France.

Science.gov (United States)

Sahajian, F; Berger-Vergiat, A; Pot, E

2017-09-01

In prison, in 2012, according to various sources, from 4 to 56% of the European inmate population used psychoactive substances (PAS). The aim of our study was to describe PAS consumption during incarceration in the prison of Lyon-Corbas, France. A transversal descriptive study was conducted between September 23rd and September 27th 2013 among all inmates of this prison. We used an anonymous self-administered questionnaire, distributed at lunchtime and collected, the same day, at dinnertime, by the mental health service personnel. Among 785 inmates present at the time of the study in the prison of Lyon-Corbas, 710 were included and the response rate was 64.4% (95% CI [60.8-67.8]). Among 457 responding inmates, 16.4% (95% CI [13.2-20.0]) reported no PAS consumption. Among 382 consumers, 74.4% (95% CI [69.8-78.5]) used tobacco, 36.8% (95% CI [32.2-41.8]) cannabis, 30.4% (95% CI [25.9-35.1]) alcohol, 7.7% (95% CI [5.2-10.6]) heroin and 10.3% (95% CI [7.5-13.6]) cocaine. Furthermore, 15% of consumers had started PAS consumption during their incarceration. Among consumers of at least one PAS other than tobacco, cannabis and alcohol, the way of consumption was sniff for 60.0% (95% CI [48.5-70.2]) and injection for 31.0% (95% CI [21.6-42.1]). Use of several PAS at the same time and sharing sniffing and/or injection paraphernalia were other risky behaviors observed; 12% (95% CI [5.8-20.4]) of drug injectors declared using chlorine to sterilize their injection paraphernalia. Our study provides worrying data about PAS consumption in prison. The measures of prohibition do not prevent this consumption. There is even an initiation of consumption of PAS for 15% of the first-time incarcerated inmates. This finding should encourage public authorities to facilitate access of inmates to the care structures in prisons, to improve drug use prevention and care programs and to develop activities (sports, cultural, educational and vocational). Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Masson SAS

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)

Overarching sustainability objectives overcome incompatible directions in the Common Fisheries Policy

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Goti, Leyre; Fitzpatrick, Mike; Döring, Ralf

2018-01-01

The lack of clarity in the objectives of the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) must be addressed to create a more efficient balance across diverse ecological, economic and social dimensions. Particularly economic and social objectives present at an overarching level must be made explicit and addressed...... objectives to managing fisheries can be derived from stakeholders. The paper first reviews the definition of objectives, from a historical and conceptual perspective. Secondly, it discusses the issues of manageability and acceptability, and finally describes an articulation of the high level objectives...

Using Object-Orientation as a Common Basis for System Development Education

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Madsen, Ole Lehrmann; Knudsen, Jørgen Lindskov

1996-01-01

development method where they make a number of iterations through analysis, design and implementation. To do these iterations, it is necessary with good development tools like a CASE tool that supports code generation and reverse engineering. The Mjølner BETA System is used in the various courses as a common...... areas to be taught. Besides providing a common conceptual framework, it also makes it possible to use common languages and tools that have a profound influence on the integration. Especially in the software engineering course, it has been possible to let the students experience an iterative software...... platform, but the students are also introduced to other object-oriented environments like Smalltalk, Self, Eiffel, and C++. The Mjølner BETA System that is a software development environment for object-oriented development based on the BETA programming language....

Guest Editor's introduction: Selected papers from the 4th USENIX Conference on Object-Oriented Technologies and Systems

Science.gov (United States)

Sventek, Joe

1998-12-01

Hewlett-Packard Laboratories, 1501 Page Mill Road, Palo Alto, CA 94304, USA Introduction The USENIX Conference on Object-Oriented Technologies and Systems (COOTS) is held annually in the late spring. The conference evolved from a set of C++ workshops that were held under the auspices of USENIX, the first of which met in 1989. Given the growing diverse interest in object-oriented technologies, the C++ focus of the workshop eventually became too narrow, with the result that the scope was widened in 1995 to include object-oriented technologies and systems. COOTS is intended to showcase advanced R&D efforts in object-oriented technologies and software systems. The conference emphasizes experimental research and experience gained by using object-oriented techniques and languages to build complex software systems that meet real-world needs. COOTS solicits papers in the following general areas: application of, and experiences with, object-oriented technologies in particular domains (e.g. financial, medical, telecommunication); the architecture and implementation of distributed object systems (e.g. CORBA, DCOM, RMI); object-oriented programming and specification languages; object-oriented design and analysis. The 4th meeting of COOTS was held 27 - 30 April 1998 at the El Dorado Hotel, Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA. Several tutorials were given. The technical program proper consisted of a single track of six sessions, with three paper presentations per session. A keynote address and a provocative panel session rounded out the technical program. The program committee reviewed 56 papers, selecting the best 18 for presentation in the technical sessions. While we solicit papers across the spectrum of applications of object-oriented technologies, this year there was a predominance of distributed, object-oriented papers. The accepted papers reflected this asymmetry, with 15 papers on distributed objects and 3 papers on object-oriented languages. The papers in this special issue are

YENİDEN KULLANILABİLİR YAZILIM BİLEŞENLERİNE WEB ÜZERİNDEN ERİŞİM İÇİN CORBA TEMELLİ BİR MİMARİ

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

R. Cenk ERDUR

2003-01-01

Full Text Available Bilgisayar ağları teknolojilerinin gelişimi ve İnternet'in sürekli büyümesi sonucunda, İnternet, yakın bir gelecekte yeniden kullanıma dayalı yazılım geliştiren kişi veya kuruluşların ortak yazılım bileşeni deposu durumuna gelecektir. Bu yazılım deposunda bulunan yeniden kullanılabilir kodlar, analizler, tasarımlar, tasarım desenleri (design patterns gibi bileşenlerin yeni yazılım geliştirme süreçlerinde de kullanılabilmesi için, söz konusu bileşenlerin İnternet üzerinden aranabilmesini sağlayan ortamlara gerek duyulmaktadır. Bu ortamlar; kullanıcıların sorgu girebilmelerini sağlayan arayüzler, bileşen kütüphanelerine erişimi sağlayan bağlayıcı (wrapper programlar, kullanıcı isteklerini ilgili bileşen kütüphanelerine ileten koordinatör programlar gibi temel elemanlardan oluşmaktadır. Bu çalışmada ilk olarak bu tür bir ortam için CORBA temelli bir mimari ortaya konmaktadır. Daha sonra, aynı ortam için Java 2 platformu teknolojileri kullanımına dayanan alternatif bir mimari verilmekte ve önerilen CORBA temelli mimari ile karşılaştırılmaktadır.

The new inter process communication middle-ware for the ATLAS Trigger and Data Acquisition system

CERN Document Server

Kolos, Serguei; The ATLAS collaboration

2016-01-01

The ATLAS Trigger & Data Acquisition (TDAQ) project was started almost twenty years ago with the aim of providing scalable distributed data collection system for the experiment. While the software dealing with physics data flow was implemented by directly using the low-level communication protocols, like TCP and UDP, the control and monitoring infrastructure services for the TDAQ system were implemented on top of the CORBA communication middle-ware. CORBA provides a high-level object oriented abstraction for the inter process communication, hiding communication complexity from the developers. This approach speeds up and simplifies development of communication services but incurs some extra cost in terms of performance and resources overhead. Our experience of using CORBA for control and monitoring data exchange in the distributed TDAQ system was very successful, mostly due to the outstanding quality of the CORBA brokers, which have been used in the project: omniORB for C++ and JacORB for Java. However, du...

Managing ANSA Objects with OSI Network Management Tools

OpenAIRE

Polizzi, Marc; Genilloud, Guy

1995-01-01

OSI Network Management provides a general framework for the management of OSI systems, and by extension of any distributed system. However, as this model is not well-adapted for the management of software components, distributed programming environments (e.g. DCE, CORBA, ANSAware) essentially ignore the OSI Network Management model. We assume nevertheless that OSI Network managers will want to have some control of a distributed infrastructure and application. We examine how access to some of ...

US NDC Modernization Iteration E1 Prototyping Report: Common Object Interface

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Lewis, Jennifer E. [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States); Hess, Michael M. [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)

2014-12-01

During the first iteration of the US NDC Modernization Elaboration phase (E1), the SNL US NDC modernization project team completed an initial survey of applicable COTS solutions, and established exploratory prototyping related to the Common Object Interface (COI) in support of system architecture definition. This report summarizes these activities and discusses planned follow-on work.

CORBASec Used to Secure Distributed Aerospace Propulsion Simulations

Science.gov (United States)

Blaser, Tammy M.

2003-01-01

The NASA Glenn Research Center and its industry partners are developing a Common Object Request Broker (CORBA) Security (CORBASec) test bed to secure their distributed aerospace propulsion simulations. Glenn has been working with its aerospace propulsion industry partners to deploy the Numerical Propulsion System Simulation (NPSS) object-based technology. NPSS is a program focused on reducing the cost and time in developing aerospace propulsion engines. It was developed by Glenn and is being managed by the NASA Ames Research Center as the lead center reporting directly to NASA Headquarters' Aerospace Technology Enterprise. Glenn is an active domain member of the Object Management Group: an open membership, not-for-profit consortium that produces and manages computer industry specifications (i.e., CORBA) for interoperable enterprise applications. When NPSS is deployed, it will assemble a distributed aerospace propulsion simulation scenario from proprietary analytical CORBA servers and execute them with security afforded by the CORBASec implementation. The NPSS CORBASec test bed was initially developed with the TPBroker Security Service product (Hitachi Computer Products (America), Inc., Waltham, MA) using the Object Request Broker (ORB), which is based on the TPBroker Basic Object Adaptor, and using NPSS software across different firewall products. The test bed has been migrated to the Portable Object Adaptor architecture using the Hitachi Security Service product based on the VisiBroker 4.x ORB (Borland, Scotts Valley, CA) and on the Orbix 2000 ORB (Dublin, Ireland, with U.S. headquarters in Waltham, MA). Glenn, GE Aircraft Engines, and Pratt & Whitney Aircraft are the initial industry partners contributing to the NPSS CORBASec test bed. The test bed uses Security SecurID (RSA Security Inc., Bedford, MA) two-factor token-based authentication together with Hitachi Security Service digital-certificate-based authentication to validate the various NPSS users. The test

Software To Secure Distributed Propulsion Simulations

Science.gov (United States)

Blaser, Tammy M.

2003-01-01

Distributed-object computing systems are presented with many security threats, including network eavesdropping, message tampering, and communications middleware masquerading. NASA Glenn Research Center, and its industry partners, has taken an active role in mitigating the security threats associated with developing and operating their proprietary aerospace propulsion simulations. In particular, they are developing a collaborative Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA) Security (CORBASec) test bed to secure their distributed aerospace propulsion simulations. Glenn has been working with its aerospace propulsion industry partners to deploy the Numerical Propulsion System Simulation (NPSS) object-based technology. NPSS is a program focused on reducing the cost and time in developing aerospace propulsion engines

Multi-Robot Systems in Military Domains (Les Systemes Multi-Robots Dans les Domaines Militaires)

Science.gov (United States)

2008-12-01

IST-032 Middleware G-6 Object Request Brokers (ORBs) G-8 DCOM G-10 CORBA G-11 Java RMI G-14 Java RMI-IIOP G-16 Jini G-16 Comparison... hibernating since 2003 but might be continued in the future. 2.4.3 USA The RTG would like to thank Alan C. Schulz from the NRL (the US...messages, threads, synchronisation, timer). • Language (C,C++, Java , ...) and programming model (OO, binary model-COM, CORBA, DCOM). At the higher

Experience moderates overlap between object and face recognition, suggesting a common ability.

Science.gov (United States)

Gauthier, Isabel; McGugin, Rankin W; Richler, Jennifer J; Herzmann, Grit; Speegle, Magen; Van Gulick, Ana E

2014-07-03

Some research finds that face recognition is largely independent from the recognition of other objects; a specialized and innate ability to recognize faces could therefore have little or nothing to do with our ability to recognize objects. We propose a new framework in which recognition performance for any category is the product of domain-general ability and category-specific experience. In Experiment 1, we show that the overlap between face and object recognition depends on experience with objects. In 256 subjects we measured face recognition, object recognition for eight categories, and self-reported experience with these categories. Experience predicted neither face recognition nor object recognition but moderated their relationship: Face recognition performance is increasingly similar to object recognition performance with increasing object experience. If a subject has a lot of experience with objects and is found to perform poorly, they also prove to have a low ability with faces. In a follow-up survey, we explored the dimensions of experience with objects that may have contributed to self-reported experience in Experiment 1. Different dimensions of experience appear to be more salient for different categories, with general self-reports of expertise reflecting judgments of verbal knowledge about a category more than judgments of visual performance. The complexity of experience and current limitations in its measurement support the importance of aggregating across multiple categories. Our findings imply that both face and object recognition are supported by a common, domain-general ability expressed through experience with a category and best measured when accounting for experience. © 2014 ARVO.

Web-Based Distributed Simulation of Aeronautical Propulsion System

Science.gov (United States)

Zheng, Desheng; Follen, Gregory J.; Pavlik, William R.; Kim, Chan M.; Liu, Xianyou; Blaser, Tammy M.; Lopez, Isaac

2001-01-01

An application was developed to allow users to run and view the Numerical Propulsion System Simulation (NPSS) engine simulations from web browsers. Simulations were performed on multiple INFORMATION POWER GRID (IPG) test beds. The Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA) was used for brokering data exchange among machines and IPG/Globus for job scheduling and remote process invocation. Web server scripting was performed by JavaServer Pages (JSP). This application has proven to be an effective and efficient way to couple heterogeneous distributed components.

The Development of a Framework for Target Diagnostic Centralized Control System (TDCCS) in ICF Experiments

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zhang Chi; Wang Jian; Yu Xiaoqi; Yang Dong

2008-01-01

A framework for target diagnostic centralized control system (TDCCS) in inertial confinement fusion (ICF) experiment has been developed. The developed framework is based on the common object request broker architecture (CORBA) standard and part of the concept from the ICFRoot (a framework based on ROOT for ICF experiments) framework design. This framework is of a component architecture, including a message bus, command executer, status processor, parser and proxy. To test the function of the framework, a simplified prototype of the TDCCS has been developed as well.

Agricultural franchising and contribution to achieving objectives of the EU common agricultural policy

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Stanković Milica

2014-01-01

Full Text Available The Common Agricultural Policy is the oldest, the most complex, the most expensive EU policy and it represents one of the most important drivers of European integration. Agrarian franchising is one of the innovations in the field of franchising, which implementation is still in its infancy and it is necessary to strive for the popularization of this business model. The aim of the paper is to emphasize the importance of agricultural franchising concept development and contribution of implementation of this concept to the achievement of the Common Agricultural Policy objectives and improvement of the agrarian sector as a whole. Special attention is paid on agricultural franchising as a hybrid form of disinvestment in conditions of economic crisis. Based on analysis of advantages and disadvantages of agricultural franchising, we conclude that it has the potential for solving a large number of problems that occur in the agrarian sector, with a particular focus on the importance of agricultural franchising to the achievement of the CAP objectives.

LEGOS: Object-based software components for mission-critical systems. Final report, June 1, 1995--December 31, 1997

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

NONE

1998-08-01

An estimated 85% of the installed base of software is a custom application with a production quantity of one. In practice, almost 100% of military software systems are custom software. Paradoxically, the marginal costs of producing additional units are near zero. So why hasn`t the software market, a market with high design costs and low productions costs evolved like other similar custom widget industries, such as automobiles and hardware chips? The military software industry seems immune to market pressures that have motivated a multilevel supply chain structure in other widget industries: design cost recovery, improve quality through specialization, and enable rapid assembly from purchased components. The primary goal of the ComponentWare Consortium (CWC) technology plan was to overcome barriers to building and deploying mission-critical information systems by using verified, reusable software components (Component Ware). The adoption of the ComponentWare infrastructure is predicated upon a critical mass of the leading platform vendors` inevitable adoption of adopting emerging, object-based, distributed computing frameworks--initially CORBA and COM/OLE. The long-range goal of this work is to build and deploy military systems from verified reusable architectures. The promise of component-based applications is to enable developers to snap together new applications by mixing and matching prefabricated software components. A key result of this effort is the concept of reusable software architectures. A second important contribution is the notion that a software architecture is something that can be captured in a formal language and reused across multiple applications. The formalization and reuse of software architectures provide major cost and schedule improvements. The Unified Modeling Language (UML) is fast becoming the industry standard for object-oriented analysis and design notation for object-based systems. However, the lack of a standard real-time distributed

Design Guide for Earth System Science Education: Common Student Learning Objectives and Special Pedagogical Approaches

Science.gov (United States)

Baker, D.

2006-12-01

As part of the NASA-supported undergraduate Earth System Science Education (ESSE) program, fifty-seven institutions have developed and implemented a wide range of Earth system science (ESS) courses, pedagogies, and evaluation tools. The Teaching, Learning, and Evaluation section of USRA's online ESSE Design Guide showcases these ESS learning environments. This Design Guide section also provides resources for faculty who wish to develop ESS courses. It addresses important course design issues including prior student knowledge and interests, student learning objectives, learning resources, pedagogical approaches, and assessments tied to student learning objectives. The ESSE Design Guide provides links to over 130 ESS course syllabi at introductory, senior, and graduate levels. ESS courses over the past 15 years exhibit common student learning objectives and unique pedagogical approaches. From analysis of ESS course syllabi, seven common student learning objectives emerged: 1) demonstrate systems thinking, 2) develop an ESS knowledge base, 3) apply ESS to the human dimension, 4) expand and apply analytical skills, 5) improve critical thinking skills, 6) build professional/career skills, and 7) acquire an enjoyment and appreciation for science. To meet these objectives, ESSE often requires different ways of teaching than in traditional scientific disciplines. This presentation will highlight some especially successful pedagogical approaches for creating positive and engaging ESS learning environments.

Providing the Persistent Data Storage in a Software Engineering Environment Using Java/COBRA and a DBMS

Science.gov (United States)

Dhaliwal, Swarn S.

1997-01-01

An investigation was undertaken to build the software foundation for the WHERE (Web-based Hyper-text Environment for Requirements Engineering) project. The TCM (Toolkit for Conceptual Modeling) was chosen as the foundation software for the WHERE project which aims to provide an environment for facilitating collaboration among geographically distributed people involved in the Requirements Engineering process. The TCM is a collection of diagram and table editors and has been implemented in the C++ programming language. The C++ implementation of the TCM was translated into Java in order to allow the editors to be used for building various functionality of the WHERE project; the WHERE project intends to use the Web as its communication back- bone. One of the limitations of the translated software (TcmJava), which militated against its use in the WHERE project, was persistent data management mechanisms which it inherited from the original TCM; it was designed to be used in standalone applications. Before TcmJava editors could be used as a part of the multi-user, geographically distributed applications of the WHERE project, a persistent storage mechanism must be built which would allow data communication over the Internet, using the capabilities of the Web. An approach involving features of Java, CORBA (Common Object Request Broker), the Web, a middle-ware (Java Relational Binding (JRB)), and a database server was used to build the persistent data management infrastructure for the WHERE project. The developed infrastructure allows a TcmJava editor to be downloaded and run from a network host by using a JDK 1.1 (Java Developer's Kit) compatible Web-browser. The aforementioned editor establishes connection with a server by using the ORB (Object Request Broker) software and stores/retrieves data in/from the server. The server consists of a CORBA object or objects depending upon whether the data is to be made persistent on a single server or multiple servers. The CORBA

Evaluation of software and electronics technologies for the control of the E-ELT instruments: a case study

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Di Marcantonio, P.; Cirami, R.; Coretti, I.; Chiozzi, G.; Kiekebusch, M.

2012-01-01

In the scope of the evaluation of architecture and technologies for the control system of the E-ELT (European-Extremely Large Telescope) instruments, a collaboration has been set up between the Instrumentation and Control Group of the INAF-OATs and the ESO Directorate of Engineering. The first result of this collaboration is the design and implementation of a prototype of a small but representative control system for a kind of multi-object (optical) spectrograph. The electronics has been based on PLCs (Programmable Logical Controller) and Ethernet based field-buses from different vendors but using international standards like the IEC 61131-3 and PLCopen Motion Control. The baseline design for the control software follows the architecture of the VLT (Very Large Telescope) Instrumentation application framework but it has been implemented using the ACS (ALMA Common Software), an open source software framework developed for the ALMA project and based on CORBA middle-ware. The communication among the software components is based on two models: CORBA calls for command/reply using the client/server paradigm and CORBA notification channel for distributing the devices status using the publisher/subscriber paradigm. The communication with the PLCs is based on OPC UA, an international standard for the communication with industrial controllers. The results of this work will contribute to the definition of the architecture of the control system that will be provided to all consortia responsible for the actual implementation of the E-ELT instruments. This paper presents the prototype motivation, its architecture, design and implementation. (authors)

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.

The artifacts of component-based development

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rizwan, M.; Qureshi, J.; Hayat, S.A.

2007-01-01

Component based development idea was floated in a conference name Mass Produced Software Components in 1968 (1). Since then engineering and scientific libraries are developed to reuse the previously developed functions. This concept is now widely used in SW development as component based development (CBD). Component-based software engineering (CBSE) is used to develop/ assemble software from existing components (2). Software developed using components is called component where (3). This paper presents different architectures of CBD such as Active X, common object request broker architecture (CORBA), remote method invocation (RMI) and simple object access protocol (SOAP). The overall objective of this paper is to support the practice of CBD by comparing its advantages and disadvantages. This paper also evaluates object oriented process model to adapt it for CBD. (author)

Creation of a common information system on the Republic of Kazakhstan radiation hazardous objects

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kadyrzhanov, K.K.; Kuterbekov, K.A.; Lukashenko, S.N.; Morenko, V.S.; Glushchenko, V.N.

2005-01-01

Works on creation of a common information system on the Republic of Kazakhstan territory radiation hazardous objects for providing of radiation situation control and stewardship decision making under nature-conservative measures conducting are considered. The information system is forming on the base of up-to-date GIS system - ArcGIS - and incorporates two databases - geographical and attributive

Integrating multi-objective optimization with computational fluid dynamics to optimize boiler combustion process of a coal fired power plant

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Liu, Xingrang; Bansal, R.C.

2014-01-01

Highlights: • A coal fired power plant boiler combustion process model based on real data. • We propose multi-objective optimization with CFD to optimize boiler combustion. • The proposed method uses software CORBA C++ and ANSYS Fluent 14.5 with AI. • It optimizes heat flux transfers and maintains temperature to avoid ash melt. - Abstract: The dominant role of electricity generation and environment consideration have placed strong requirements on coal fired power plants, requiring them to improve boiler combustion efficiency and decrease carbon emission. Although neural network based optimization strategies are often applied to improve the coal fired power plant boiler efficiency, they are limited by some combustion related problems such as slagging. Slagging can seriously influence heat transfer rate and decrease the boiler efficiency. In addition, it is difficult to measure slag build-up. The lack of measurement for slagging can restrict conventional neural network based coal fired boiler optimization, because no data can be used to train the neural network. This paper proposes a novel method of integrating non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm (NSGA II) based multi-objective optimization with computational fluid dynamics (CFD) to decrease or even avoid slagging inside a coal fired boiler furnace and improve boiler combustion efficiency. Compared with conventional neural network based boiler optimization methods, the method developed in the work can control and optimize the fields of flue gas properties such as temperature field inside a boiler by adjusting the temperature and velocity of primary and secondary air in coal fired power plant boiler control systems. The temperature in the vicinity of water wall tubes of a boiler can be maintained within the ash melting temperature limit. The incoming ash particles cannot melt and bond to surface of heat transfer equipment of a boiler. So the trend of slagging inside furnace is controlled. Furthermore, the

Evaluating Information System Integration approaches for fixed asset management framework in Tanzania

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Theophil Assey

2017-10-01

Full Text Available Information systems are developed based on different requirements and different technologies. Integration of these systems is of vital importance as they cannot work in isolation, they need to share and exchange data with other information systems. The Information Systems handle data of different types and formats’, finding a way to make them communicate is important as they need to exchange data during transactions, communication and different aspects which may require their interactions. In Tanzanian Local Government Authorities (LGAs, fixed asset data are not centralized, individual Local Government Authority stores their own data in isolation yet accountability is required through the provision of centralized storage for easy data access and easier data integration with other Information Systems in order to enhance fixed asset accountability. The study was carried out through reviewing of literature on the existing Information System integration approaches in order to identify and propose the best approach to be used in fixed asset management systems in LGA’s in Tanzania. The different approaches which are used for systems integration such as Service Oriented Architecture (SOA, Common Object Request Broker (CORBA, Common Object Model (COM and eXtensible Markup Language (XML were evaluated under the factors considered at the LGA. The XML was preferred over SOA, CORBA and COM because of some challenges in governance, data security, availability of expertise for support, maintenance, implementation cost, performance, compliance with government changing policies and service reliability. The proposed approach integrates data for all the Local Government Authorities at a centralized location and middleware transforms the centralized data into XML so it can easily be used by other Information Systems.

Common business objects: Demonstrating interoperability in the oil and gas industry

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

McLellan, S.G.; Abusalbi, N.; Brown, J.; Quinlivan, W.F.

1997-01-01

The PetroTechnical Open Software Corp. (POSC) was organized in 1990 to define technical methods to make it easier to design interoperable data solutions for oil and gas companies. When POSC rolls out seed implementations, oilfield service members must validate them, correct any errors or ambiguities, and champion these corrections into the original specifications before full integration into POSC-compliant, commercial products. Organizations like POSC are assuming a new role of promoting formation of projects where E and P companies and vendors jointly test their pieces of the migration puzzle on small subsets of the whole problem. The authors describe three such joint projects. While confirming the value of such open cross-company cooperation, these cases also help to redefine interoperability in terms of business objects that will be common across oilfield companies, their applications, access software, data, or data stores

National Ignition Facility (NIF) Control Network Design and Analysis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bryant, R M; Carey, R W; Claybourn, R V; Pavel, G; Schaefer, W J

2001-01-01

The control network for the National Ignition Facility (NIF) is designed to meet the needs for common object request broker architecture (CORBA) inter-process communication, multicast video transport, device triggering, and general TCP/IP communication within the NIF facility. The network will interconnect approximately 650 systems, including the embedded controllers, front-end processors (FEPs), supervisory systems, and centralized servers involved in operation of the NIF. All systems are networked with Ethernet to serve the majority of communication needs, and asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) is used to transport multicast video and synchronization triggers. CORBA software infra-structure provides location-independent communication services over TCP/IP between the application processes in the 15 supervisory and 300 FEP systems. Video images sampled from 500 video cameras at a 10-Hz frame rate will be multicast using direct ATM Application Programming Interface (API) communication from video FEPs to any selected operator console. The Ethernet and ATM control networks are used to broadcast two types of device triggers for last-second functions in a large number of FEPs, thus eliminating the need for a separate infrastructure for these functions. Analysis, design, modeling, and testing of the NIF network has been performed to provide confidence that the network design will meet NIF control requirements

Fostering design for avoiding small parts in commonly used objects.

Science.gov (United States)

de Koning, Ton; Foltran, Francesca; Gregori, Dario

2012-05-14

Injuries due to the accidental ingestion or aspiration of small parts have became a matter of interest in the last 30 years, focusing on the relationship between a proper prevention and the diminished frequency of occurrences. Small parts in commonly used objects represent a large sector of potential danger, taking explicit mouthing behavior of children in the first four years of life. In this paper the intent is to show the current situation of design projects and legislation around the world, meant to avoid the casual accidents due to manufacturing reasons. Proposed process and quality control standards seek to eliminate production errors and control materials to avoid deviation from the design. The present study draws its data from the Susy Safe registry, a European Commission co-funded project started in February 2005, whose aim is to establish an international registry of cases of Foreign Bodies (FB) injuries in children aged 0-14 years. Information collected from the data base concern age and gender of the child, location, shape, volume, consistency and elipticity of the foreign body, any complication occurred, hospitalization, and behavioral aspects linked to the injury, like the supervision of the parents or the activity concomitant to the injury. Cases are prospectively collected using the Susy Safe system from 06/2005; moreover, also information regarding past consecutive cases available in each center adhering to the project have been entered in the Susy Safe Registry. Data evidenced that the majority of small parts related injuries are related to stationery. The majority of objects (56.7%), were located in the nose, followed by the ears (31.5%). The distribution on incidence of FB injuries by age class shows that the majority of injuries due to small parts in common objects occurred in children older than >3 years. Male and female were affected with the same frequency when concerning the nose, while all other locations showed a higher frequency in males

The ALMA Common Software as a Basis for a Distributed Software Development

Science.gov (United States)

Raffi, Gianni; Chiozzi, Gianluca; Glendenning, Brian

The Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) is a joint project involving astronomical organizations in Europe, North America and Japan. ALMA will consist of 64 12-m antennas operating in the millimetre and sub-millimetre wavelength range, with baselines of more than 10 km. It will be located at an altitude above 5000 m in the Chilean Atacama desert. The ALMA Computing group is a joint group with staff scattered on 3 continents and is responsible for all the control and data flow software related to ALMA, including tools ranging from support of proposal preparation to archive access of automatically created images. Early in the project it was decided that an ALMA Common Software (ACS) would be developed as a way to provide to all partners involved in the development a common software platform. The original assumption was that some key middleware like communication via CORBA and the use of XML and Java would be part of the project. It was intended from the beginning to develop this software in an incremental way based on releases, so that it would then evolve into an essential embedded part of all ALMA software applications. In this way we would build a basic unity and coherence into a system that will have been developed in a distributed fashion. This paper evaluates our progress after 1.5 year of work, following a few tests and preliminary releases. It analyzes the advantages and difficulties of such an ambitious approach, which creates an interface across all the various control and data flow applications.

The common objectives of the European Nordic countries and the role of space

Science.gov (United States)

Lehnert, Christopher; Giannopapa, Christina; Vaudo, Ersilia

2016-11-01

The European Space Agency (ESA) has twenty two Member States with common goals of engaging in European space activities. However, the various Member States have a variety of governance structures, strategic priorities regarding space and other sectorial areas depending on their cultural and geopolitical aspirations. The Nordic countries, namely Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden, have similarities which result often in common geopolitical and cultural aspects. These in turn shape their respective priorities and interests in setting up their policies in a number of sectorial areas like shipping and fisheries, energy, immigration, agriculture, security and defence, infrastructures, climate change and the Arctic. Space technology, navigation, earth observation, telecommunication and integrated applications can assist the Nordic countries in developing, implementing and monitoring policies of common interest. This paper provides an in-depth overview and a comprehensive assessment of these common interests in policy areas where space can provide support in their realisation. The first part provides a synthesis of the Nordic countries respective priorities through analysing their government programmes and plans. The priorities are classified according to the six areas of sustainability: energy, environment and climate change, transport, knowledge and innovation, natural resources (fisheries, agriculture, forestry, mining, etc), and security and external relations. Although the national strategies present different national perspectives, at the same time, there are a number of similarities when it comes to overall policy objectives in a number of areas such as the Arctic and climate change. In other words, even though the Arctic plays a different role in each country's national context and there are clear differences as regards geography, access to resources and security policies, the strategies display common general interest in sustainable development and management of

Developing a framework for digital objects in the Big Data to Knowledge (BD2K) commons: Report from the Commons Framework Pilots workshop.

Science.gov (United States)

Jagodnik, Kathleen M; Koplev, Simon; Jenkins, Sherry L; Ohno-Machado, Lucila; Paten, Benedict; Schurer, Stephan C; Dumontier, Michel; Verborgh, Ruben; Bui, Alex; Ping, Peipei; McKenna, Neil J; Madduri, Ravi; Pillai, Ajay; Ma'ayan, Avi

2017-07-01

The volume and diversity of data in biomedical research have been rapidly increasing in recent years. While such data hold significant promise for accelerating discovery, their use entails many challenges including: the need for adequate computational infrastructure, secure processes for data sharing and access, tools that allow researchers to find and integrate diverse datasets, and standardized methods of analysis. These are just some elements of a complex ecosystem that needs to be built to support the rapid accumulation of these data. The NIH Big Data to Knowledge (BD2K) initiative aims to facilitate digitally enabled biomedical research. Within the BD2K framework, the Commons initiative is intended to establish a virtual environment that will facilitate the use, interoperability, and discoverability of shared digital objects used for research. The BD2K Commons Framework Pilots Working Group (CFPWG) was established to clarify goals and work on pilot projects that address existing gaps toward realizing the vision of the BD2K Commons. This report reviews highlights from a two-day meeting involving the BD2K CFPWG to provide insights on trends and considerations in advancing Big Data science for biomedical research in the United States. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Common input to motor units of intrinsic and extrinsic hand muscles during two-digit object hold.

Science.gov (United States)

Winges, Sara A; Kornatz, Kurt W; Santello, Marco

2008-03-01

Anatomical and physiological evidence suggests that common input to motor neurons of hand muscles is an important neural mechanism for hand control. To gain insight into the synaptic input underlying the coordination of hand muscles, significant effort has been devoted to describing the distribution of common input across motor units of extrinsic muscles. Much less is known, however, about the distribution of common input to motor units belonging to different intrinsic muscles and to intrinsic-extrinsic muscle pairs. To address this void in the literature, we quantified the incidence and strength of near-simultaneous discharges of motor units residing in either the same or different intrinsic hand muscles (m. first dorsal, FDI, and m. first palmar interosseus, FPI) during two-digit object hold. To extend the characterization of common input to pairs of extrinsic muscles (previous work) and pairs of intrinsic muscles (present work), we also recorded electromyographic (EMG) activity from an extrinsic thumb muscle (m. flexor pollicis longus, FPL). Motor-unit synchrony across FDI and FPI was weak (common input strength, CIS, mean +/- SE: 0.17 +/- 0.02). Similarly, motor units from extrinsic-intrinsic muscle pairs were characterized by weak synchrony (FPL-FDI: 0.25 +/- 0.02; FPL-FPI: 0.29 +/- 0.03) although stronger than FDI-FPI. Last, CIS from within FDI and FPI was more than three times stronger (0.70 +/- 0.06 and 0.66 +/- 0.06, respectively) than across these muscles. We discuss present and previous findings within the framework of muscle-pair specific distribution of common input to hand muscles based on their functional role in grasping.

"RecognizeCane" : The new concept of a cane which recognizes the most common objects and safety clues.

Science.gov (United States)

Scherlen, Anne-Catherine; Dumas, Jean Claude; Guedj, Benjamin; Vignot, Alexandre

2007-01-01

This paper introduces the new concept of an electronic cane for blind people. While some systems inform the subject only of the presence of the object and its relative distance, RecognizeCane is also able to recognize most common objects and environment clues to increase the safety and confidence of the navigation process. The originality of RecognizeCane is the use of simple sensors, such as infrared, brilliance or water sensors to inform the subject of the presence, for example, of a stairway, a water puddle, a zebra crossing or a trash can. This cane does not use an embedded vision system. RecognizeCane is equipped with several sensors and microprocessors to collect sensor data and extract the desired information about the close environment by means of a dynamic analysis of output signals.

The implement of java based GUI for data acquisition system

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yang Xiaoqing

2003-01-01

Web based technique have been used to produce a Graphic User Interface framework for small Data Acquisition System. A CORBA library used for the communication with the JRCS servers. The GUI was implemented by Java Swing. the integration between Java and CORBA provide a powerful independent distributed environment. (authors)

Identification of uncommon objects in containers

Science.gov (United States)

Bremer, Peer-Timo; Kim, Hyojin; Thiagarajan, Jayaraman J.

2017-09-12

A system for identifying in an image an object that is commonly found in a collection of images and for identifying a portion of an image that represents an object based on a consensus analysis of segmentations of the image. The system collects images of containers that contain objects for generating a collection of common objects within the containers. To process the images, the system generates a segmentation of each image. The image analysis system may also generate multiple segmentations for each image by introducing variations in the selection of voxels to be merged into a segment. The system then generates clusters of the segments based on similarity among the segments. Each cluster represents a common object found in the containers. Once the clustering is complete, the system may be used to identify common objects in images of new containers based on similarity between segments of images and the clusters.

FGPA Mission Assurance Center (FMAC) Support Activity at the University of New Mexico

Science.gov (United States)

2013-10-31

supports other popular programming languages such as C, Objective-C, C#, PHP, Java , Python, IDL (Corba, Microsoft, and UNO/OpenOffice flavors), Fortran...analyzed here are: - Group 1: Antennas using switches - Group 2: Antennas using capacitors or varactors - Group 3: Antennas using physical angular ...for group 1 with multiple metallic parts. Constraints: The connection between each two parts has a distinctive angular direction. The designer defines

COM Support in BETA

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Madsen, Ole Lehrmann

1999-01-01

Component technologies based on binary units of independent production are some of the most important contributions to software architecture and reuse during recent years. Especially the COM technologies and the CORBA standard from the Object Management Group have contributed new and interesting...... principles for software architecture, and proven to be useful in parctice. In this paper ongoing work with component support in the BETA language is described....

Common path in-line holography using enhanced joint object reference digital interferometers

Science.gov (United States)

Kelner, Roy; Katz, Barak; Rosen, Joseph

2014-01-01

Joint object reference digital interferometer (JORDI) is a recently developed system capable of recording holograms of various types [Opt. Lett. 38(22), 4719 (2013)24322115]. Presented here is a new enhanced system design that is based on the previous JORDI. While the previous JORDI has been based purely on diffractive optical elements, displayed on spatial light modulators, the present design incorporates an additional refractive objective lens, thus enabling hologram recording with improved resolution and increased system applicability. Experimental results demonstrate successful hologram recording for various types of objects, including transmissive, reflective, three-dimensional, phase and highly scattering objects. The resolution limit of the system is analyzed and experimentally validated. Finally, the suitability of JORDI for microscopic applications is verified as a microscope objective based configuration of the system is demonstrated. PMID:24663838

Common path in-line holography using enhanced joint object reference digital interferometers.

Science.gov (United States)

Kelner, Roy; Katz, Barak; Rosen, Joseph

2014-03-10

Joint object reference digital interferometer (JORDI) is a recently developed system capable of recording holograms of various types [Opt. Lett. 38(22), 4719 (2013)]. Presented here is a new enhanced system design that is based on the previous JORDI. While the previous JORDI has been based purely on diffractive optical elements, displayed on spatial light modulators, the present design incorporates an additional refractive objective lens, thus enabling hologram recording with improved resolution and increased system applicability. Experimental results demonstrate successful hologram recording for various types of objects, including transmissive, reflective, three-dimensional, phase and highly scattering objects. The resolution limit of the system is analyzed and experimentally validated. Finally, the suitability of JORDI for microscopic applications is verified as a microscope objective based configuration of the system is demonstrated.

Individuating Faces and Common Objects Produces Equal Responses in Putative Face Processing Areas in the Ventral Occipitotemporal Cortex

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Frank Haist

2010-10-01

Full Text Available Controversy surrounds the proposal that specific human cortical regions in the ventral occipitotemporal cortex, commonly called the fusiform face area (FFA and occipital face area (OFA, are specialized for face processing. Here, we present findings from a fMRI study of identity discrimination of faces and objects that demonstrates the FFA and OFA are equally responsive to processing stimuli at the level of individuals (i.e., individuation, be they human faces or non-face objects. The FFA and OFA were defined via a passive viewing task as regions that produced greater activation to faces relative to non-face stimuli within the middle fusiform gyrus and inferior occipital gyrus. In the individuation task, participants judged whether sequentially presented images of faces, diverse objects, or wristwatches depicted the identical or a different exemplar. All three stimulus types produced equivalent BOLD activation within the FFA and OFA; that is, there was no face-specific or face-preferential processing. Critically, individuation processing did not eliminate an object superiority effect relative to faces within a region more closely linked to object processing in the lateral occipital complex (LOC, suggesting that individuation processes are reasonably specific to the FFA and OFA. Taken together, these findings challenge the prevailing view that the FFA and OFA are face-specific processing regions, demonstrating instead that they function to individuate -- i.e., identify specific individuals -- within a category. These findings have significant implications for understanding the function of a brain region widely believed to play an important role in social cognition.

Intercalibrating classifications of ecological status: Europe's quest for common management objectives for aquatic ecosystems.

Science.gov (United States)

Birk, S; Willby, N J; Kelly, M G; Bonne, W; Borja, A; Poikane, S; van de Bund, W

2013-06-01

Halting and reversing the deterioration of aquatic ecosystems requires concerted action across state boundaries and administrative barriers. However, the achievement of common management objectives is jeopardised by different national quality targets and ambitions. The European Water Framework Directive requires that quality classifications are harmonised via an intercalibration exercise, ensuring a consistent level of ambition in the protection and restoration of surface water bodies across the Member States of the European Union. We outline the key principles of the intercalibration methodology, review the achievements of intercalibration and discuss its benefits and drawbacks. Less than half of the required intercalibration has been completed, mostly due to a lack of national assessment methods. The process has fostered a scientific debate on ecological classification with important implications for environmental management. Despite a significant level of statistical abstraction, intercalibration yielded a fundamental and unified vision of what constitutes good ecology across Europe, in principle ensuring greater parity in the funds invested to achieve good ecological status. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Abandonment and reconciliation: addressing political and common law objections to fetal homicide laws.

Science.gov (United States)

Curran, Douglas S

2009-03-01

Fetal homicide laws criminalize killing a fetus largely to the same extent as killing any other human being. Historically, the common law did not generally recognize feticide as a crime, but this was because of the evidentiary "born-alive" rule, not because of the substantive understanding of the term "human being." As medicine and science have advanced, states have become increasingly willing to abandon this evidentiary rule and to criminalize feticide as homicide. Although most states have recognized the crime of fetal homicide, fourteen have not. This is largely the result of two independent obstacles: (judicial) adherence to the born-alive rule and (legislative) concern that fetal homicide laws could erode constitutionally protected reproductive rights. This Note explores a variety of fetal homicide laws that states have adopted, demonstrating that popular opinion has shifted toward recognizing this crime. It then directly confronts the objections that have prevented other states from adopting such laws: it first reviews the literature suggesting that the born-alive rule should be abandoned, as it is an obsolete evidentiary standard; it then argues that constitutionally protected reproductive liberties can be reconciled with, and in fact augmented by, punishing the killing of a fetus as a homicide.

QCI Common

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

2016-11-18

There are many common software patterns and utilities for the ORNL Quantum Computing Institute that can and should be shared across projects. Otherwise we find duplication of code which adds unwanted complexity. This is a software product seeks to alleviate this by providing common utilities such as object factories, graph data structures, parameter input mechanisms, etc., for other software products within the ORNL Quantum Computing Institute. This work enables pure basic research, has no export controlled utilities, and has no real commercial value.

Design and Applications of a Multimodality Image Data Warehouse Framework

Science.gov (United States)

Wong, Stephen T.C.; Hoo, Kent Soo; Knowlton, Robert C.; Laxer, Kenneth D.; Cao, Xinhau; Hawkins, Randall A.; Dillon, William P.; Arenson, Ronald L.

2002-01-01

A comprehensive data warehouse framework is needed, which encompasses imaging and non-imaging information in supporting disease management and research. The authors propose such a framework, describe general design principles and system architecture, and illustrate a multimodality neuroimaging data warehouse system implemented for clinical epilepsy research. The data warehouse system is built on top of a picture archiving and communication system (PACS) environment and applies an iterative object-oriented analysis and design (OOAD) approach and recognized data interface and design standards. The implementation is based on a Java CORBA (Common Object Request Broker Architecture) and Web-based architecture that separates the graphical user interface presentation, data warehouse business services, data staging area, and backend source systems into distinct software layers. To illustrate the practicality of the data warehouse system, the authors describe two distinct biomedical applications—namely, clinical diagnostic workup of multimodality neuroimaging cases and research data analysis and decision threshold on seizure foci lateralization. The image data warehouse framework can be modified and generalized for new application domains. PMID:11971885

Meeting the Challenge of Distributed Real-Time & Embedded (DRE) Systems

Science.gov (United States)

2012-05-10

replication • Dynamic resource management • Examples • W3C Web Services, CORBA Component Model & Object Services, Sun’s J2EE, Microsoft’s .NET, etc...System Middleware Infrastructure Mission Computing Services Model-driven engineering ( MDE ) •Apply MDE tools to • Model • Analyze • Synthesize...Pulse Rate GPS MyLocation Refresh Ready www.isis.vanderbilt.edu/ projects/mobies Applying MDE to Bold Stroke ANALYSIS TOOLS CODE GENERATORS Stateflow Real

A Model for Concurrent Objects

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Sørensen, Morten U.

1996-01-01

We present a model for concurrent objects where obejcts interact by taking part in common events that are closely matched to form call-response pairs, resulting in resulting in rendez-vous like communications. Objects are built from primitive objects by parallel composition, encapsulation...

A Service Oriented Architecture for Robotic Platforms

Science.gov (United States)

2011-03-01

Composite patternsidentify combinations of business and integration patterns such as those used in eCommerce applications, 4. Application patterns...systems and oers the same advantages and disadvantages of both layered and CORBA systems. 5One commercial CORBA implementation that the author is...complexity to users of the SOA and Player approaches. The advantage of the SOA approach over the Player approach is through the ESB concept in which we

Duo: A Human/Wearable Hybrid for Learning About Common Manipulate Objects

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Kemp, Charles C

2002-01-01

... with them. Duo is a human/wearable hybrid that is designed to learn about this important domain of human intelligence by interacting with natural manipulable objects in unconstrained environments...

Common path in-line holography using enhanced joint object reference digital interferometers

OpenAIRE

Kelner, Roy; Katz, Barak; Rosen, Joseph

2014-01-01

Joint object reference digital interferometer (JORDI) is a recently developed system capable of recording holograms of various types [Opt. Lett. 22(5), 4719 (2013)]. Presented here is a new enhanced system design that is based on the previous JORDI. While the previous JORDI has been based purely on diffractive optical elements, displayed on spatial light modulators, the present design incorporates an additional refractive objective lens, thus enabling hologram recording with improved resoluti...

Object permanence in adult common marmosets (Callithrix jacchus): not everything is an "A-not-B" error that seems to be one.

Science.gov (United States)

Kis, Anna; Gácsi, Márta; Range, Friederike; Virányi, Zsófia

2012-01-01

In this paper, we describe a behaviour pattern similar to the "A-not-B" error found in human infants and young apes in a monkey species, the common marmosets (Callithrix jacchus). In contrast to the classical explanation, recently it has been suggested that the "A-not-B" error committed by human infants is at least partially due to misinterpretation of the hider's ostensively communicated object hiding actions as potential 'teaching' demonstrations during the A trials. We tested whether this so-called Natural Pedagogy hypothesis would account for the A-not-B error that marmosets commit in a standard object permanence task, but found no support for the hypothesis in this species. Alternatively, we present evidence that lower level mechanisms, such as attention and motivation, play an important role in committing the "A-not-B" error in marmosets. We argue that these simple mechanisms might contribute to the effect of undeveloped object representational skills in other species including young non-human primates that commit the A-not-B error.

Extended object-oriented Petri net model for mission reliability simulation of repairable PMS with common cause failures

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wu, Xin-yang; Wu, Xiao-Yue

2015-01-01

Phased Mission Systems (PMS) have several phases with different success criteria. Generally, traditional analytical methods need to make some assumptions when they are applied for reliability evaluation and analysis of complex PMS, for example, the components are non-repairable or components are not subjected to common cause failures (CCF). However, the evaluation and analysis results may be inapplicable when the assumptions do not agree with practical situation. In this article, we propose an extended object-oriented Petri net (EOOPN) model for mission reliability simulation of repairable PMS with CCFs. Based on object-oriented Petri net (OOPN), EOOPN defines four reusable sub-models to depict PMS at system, phase, or component levels respectively, logic transitions to depict complex components reliability logics in a more readable form, and broadcast place to transmit shared information among components synchronously. After extension, EOOPN could deal with repairable PMS with both external and internal CCFs conveniently. The mission reliability modelling, simulation and analysis using EOOPN are illustrated by a PMS example. The results demonstrate that the proposed EOOPN model is effective. - Highlights: • EOOPN model was effective in reliability simulation for repairable PMS with CCFs. • EOOPN had modular and hierarchical structure. • New elements of EOOPN made the modelling process more convenient and friendlier. • EOOPN had better model reusability and readability than other PNs

4D profile of phase objects through the use of a simultaneous phase shifting quasi-common path interferometer

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Toto-Arellano, Noel-Ivan; Zurita, Gustavo Rodríguez; Montes-Pérez, Areli; Serrano-García, David Ignacio; García, Amalia Martínez

2011-01-01

Modulation of polarization is commonly employed in optical interferometry through the use of polarizers and quarter-wave retarders. Phase shifts between interfering beams can be easily controlled with such techniques. This communication describes some details of modulation of polarization which are useful in phase shifting interferometry applied to the study of phase objects. As an application, the case of a two-beam phase grating interferometer is discussed on the grounds of polarization analysis as an example. The configuration presented does not require micro-polarizer arrays or additional software to eliminate noise caused by vibration. This system does not use a double window, and generates two beams, the separation of which can be varied according to the characteristics of the grid used. Experimental results are also given

CTserver: A Computational Thermodynamics Server for the Geoscience Community

Science.gov (United States)

Kress, V. C.; Ghiorso, M. S.

2006-12-01

The CTserver platform is an Internet-based computational resource that provides on-demand services in Computational Thermodynamics (CT) to a diverse geoscience user base. This NSF-supported resource can be accessed at ctserver.ofm-research.org. The CTserver infrastructure leverages a high-quality and rigorously tested software library of routines for computing equilibrium phase assemblages and for evaluating internally consistent thermodynamic properties of materials, e.g. mineral solid solutions and a variety of geological fluids, including magmas. Thermodynamic models are currently available for 167 phases. Recent additions include Duan, Møller and Weare's model for supercritical C-O-H-S, extended to include SO2 and S2 species, and an entirely new associated solution model for O-S-Fe-Ni sulfide liquids. This software library is accessed via the CORBA Internet protocol for client-server communication. CORBA provides a standardized, object-oriented, language and platform independent, fast, low-bandwidth interface to phase property modules running on the server cluster. Network transport, language translation and resource allocation are handled by the CORBA interface. Users access server functionality in two principal ways. Clients written as browser- based Java applets may be downloaded which provide specific functionality such as retrieval of thermodynamic properties of phases, computation of phase equilibria for systems of specified composition, or modeling the evolution of these systems along some particular reaction path. This level of user interaction requires minimal programming effort and is ideal for classroom use. A more universal and flexible mode of CTserver access involves making remote procedure calls from user programs directly to the server public interface. The CTserver infrastructure relieves the user of the burden of implementing and testing the often complex thermodynamic models of real liquids and solids. A pilot application of this distributed

Effects of olestra and sorbitol consumption on objective measures of diarrhea: impact of stool viscosity on common gastrointestinal symptoms.

Science.gov (United States)

McRorie, J; Zorich, N; Riccardi, K; Bishop, L; Filloon, T; Wason, S; Giannella, R

2000-02-01

The aim of this study was to determine the effects of olestra and sorbitol consumption on three accepted objective measures of diarrhea (stool output >250 g/day, liquid/watery stools, bowel movement frequency >3/day), and how stool composition influences reports of common gastrointestinal symptoms. A double-blind, placebo-controlled study compared the effects of sorbitol (40 g/day in candy), a poorly absorbed sugar-alcohol with known osmotic effects, with those of olestra (20 or 40 g/day in potato chips), a nonabsorbed fat, on objective measures of stool composition and GI symptoms. Sixty-six subjects resided on a metabolic ward for 12 days: 2 days lead-in, 4 days baseline, 6 days treatment. Sorbitol 40 g/day resulted in loose/liquid stools within 1-3 h of consumption. In contrast, olestra resulted in a dose-responsive stool softening effect after 2-4 days of consumption. Subjects reported "diarrhea" when mean stool apparent viscosity (peak force (PF), g) decreased from a perceived "normal" (mean +/- SE, 1355 +/- 224 g PF; firm stool) to loose (260 +/- 68 g PF) stool. Mean apparent viscosity of stool during treatment: placebo, 1363 +/- 280 g (firm); olestra 20 g/day 743 +/- 65 g (soft); olestra 40 g/day, 563 +/- 105 g (soft); and sorbitol 40 g/day, 249 +/- 53 g (loose). Of the 1098 stool samples collected, 38% (419/1098) were rated by subjects as "diarrhea," yet only 2% of treatment days (all in the sorbitol treatment group) met commonly accepted criteria for a clinical diarrhea. Sorbitol, but not olestra, increased the severity of abdominal cramping, urgency and nausea compared to placebo. Olestra consumption, at levels far in excess of normal snacking conditions, resulted in a gradual stool softening effect after several days of consumption, did not meet any of the three objective measures of diarrhea, and did not increase GI symptoms. Sorbitol consumption, at only 80% of the dose requiring a "laxative effect" information label, resulted in rapid onset loose

Learning DCOM

CERN Document Server

Thai, Thuan

2011-01-01

DCOM -- the Distributed Component Object Model -- is a recent upgrade of a time-honored and well-tested technology promoted by Microsoft for distributed object programming. Now that components are playing a larger and larger part in Windows 98, Windows NT 4.0, and Windows 2000, every Windows programmer will want to understand the technology. DCOM competes with CORBA as a rich and robust method for creating expandable and flexible components, allowing you to plug in new parts conveniently and upgrade without the need for code changes to every program that uses your component. This book introd

An objective comparison of leakage between commonly used earplugs.

Science.gov (United States)

Alt, Jeremiah A; Collins, William O

2012-01-01

We sought to determine the efficacy of commonly used earplugs using an anatomically correct ear model. The total volume and rate of water that leaked past the earplug and subsequent defect in the tympanic membrane over separately measured 30, 60, 120, and 180-second intervals were recorded. Scenarios tested included a control with no earplug, custom molded earplug (Precision Laboratories, Orlando, FL), Mack's plug (Warren, MI), Doc's plug (Santa Cruz, CA), and cotton balls coated with petroleum jelly. All plugs tested resulted in less leakage at all time points when compared with no plug (P leakage when compared with the cotton ball coated with petroleum jelly (P leakage compared with the customized plug (P leakage than the cotton plug (P leakage rate (f(4,45) = 94 [P water exposure should be minimized, then use of earplugs, particularly the moldable variety, merits further consideration. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Young Children's Understanding of Cultural Common Ground

Science.gov (United States)

Liebal, Kristin; Carpenter, Malinda; Tomasello, Michael

2013-01-01

Human social interaction depends on individuals identifying the common ground they have with others, based both on personally shared experiences and on cultural common ground that all members of the group share. We introduced 3- and 5-year-old children to a culturally well-known object and a novel object. An experimenter then entered and asked,…

Development of an integrated data storage and retrieval system for TEC

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kemmerling, G.; Blom, H.; Busch, P.; Kooijman, W.; Korten, M.; Laat, C.T.A.M. de; Lourens, W.; Meer, E. van der; Nideroest, B.; Oomens, A.A.M.; Wijnoltz, F.; Zwoll, K.

2000-01-01

The database system for the storage and retrieval of experimental and technical data at TEXTOR-94 has to be revised. A new database has to be developed, which complies with future performance and multiplatform requirements. The concept, to be presented here, is based on the commercial object database Objectivity. Objectivity allows a flexible object oriented data design and is able to cope with the large amount of data, which is expected to be about 1 TByte per year. Furthermore, it offers the possibility of data distribution over several hosts. Thus, parallel data storage from the frontend to the database is possible and can be used to achieve the required storage performance of 200 MByte per min. In order to store configurational and experimental data, an object model is under design. It is aimed at describing the device specific information and the acquired data in a common way such that different aproaches for data access may be applied. There are several methods forseen for remote access. In addition to the C++ and Java interfaces already included in Objectivity/DB, CORBA and socket based C interfaces are currently under development. This could also allow an access by non-supported platforms and enable existing legacy applications an integration of the database for storage and retrieval of data by a minimum of code changes

DOUBLE COMPACT OBJECTS. I. THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE COMMON ENVELOPE ON MERGER RATES

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Dominik, Michal; Belczynski, Krzysztof; Bulik, Tomasz; Fryer, Christopher; Holz, Daniel E.; Berti, Emanuele; Mandel, Ilya; O'Shaughnessy, Richard

2012-01-01

The last decade of observational and theoretical developments in stellar and binary evolution provides an opportunity to incorporate major improvements to the predictions from population synthesis models. We compute the Galactic merger rates for NS-NS, BH-NS, and BH-BH mergers with the StarTrack code. The most important revisions include updated wind mass-loss rates (allowing for stellar-mass black holes up to 80 M ☉ ), a realistic treatment of the common envelope phase (a process that can affect merger rates by 2-3 orders of magnitude), and a qualitatively new neutron star/black hole mass distribution (consistent with the observed m ass gap ) . Our findings include the following. (1) The binding energy of the envelope plays a pivotal role in determining whether a binary merges within a Hubble time. (2) Our description of natal kicks from supernovae plays an important role, especially for the formation of BH-BH systems. (3) The masses of BH-BH systems can be substantially increased in the case of low metallicities or weak winds. (4) Certain combinations of parameters underpredict the Galactic NS-NS merger rate and can be ruled out. (5) Models incorporating delayed supernovae do not agree with the observed NS/BH 'mass gap', in accordance with our previous work. This is the first in a series of three papers. The second paper will study the merger rates of double compact objects as a function of redshift, star formation rate, and metallicity. In the third paper, we will present the detection rates for gravitational-wave observatories, using up-to-date signal waveforms and sensitivity curves.

Common envelope evolution

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Taam, Ronald E.; Ricker, Paul M.

2010-01-01

The common envelope phase of binary star evolution plays a central role in many evolutionary pathways leading to the formation of compact objects in short period systems. Using three dimensional hydrodynamical computations, we review the major features of this evolutionary phase, focusing on the

Laboratories of commons: experimentation, recursivity and activism

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Adolfo Estalella Fernández

2013-03-01

Full Text Available The urban public space, digital creations or the air, all of them are objects that have been traditionally thought within the dichotomous logic of the public and private property but in the last decade they have started to be considered as common resources. Commons is an old concept that has been recovered with intensity in the last decade; it refers to collective resources and goods that are governed collectively and whose property regime is different from the public and private. This article introduces the contributions to a monograph devoted to the topic of ‘Laboratories of commons’. Contributors discuss the diverse modalities of commons in different social domains like art, activism, the rural and the urban domain. This introduction contextualizes these contributions and identifies some of the issues that cross the different articles. In this exercise we introduce a tentative argument according to which the commons and the commons research take an exceptional configuration in Spain. Very briefly: commons are brought into existence as an epistemic object, an experimental domain quite different from the conventional conceptualizations that conceive it as a property regime or a type of good. This peculiar configuration gives a distinctive condition to commons in Spain that are different from other geographies; this is evidenced in a double shift: the emergence of new objects that are thought as commons and the location of their research in the domain of cultural and creative production.

Middleware Trends And Market Leaders 2011

CERN Document Server

Dworak, A; Ehm, F; Sliwinski, W; Sobczak, M

2011-01-01

The Controls Middleware (CMW) project was launched over ten years ago. Its main goal was to unify middleware solutions used to operate CERN accelerators. An important part of the project, the equipment access library RDA, was based on CORBA, an unquestionable standard at the time. RDA became an operational and critical part of the infrastructure, yet the demanding run-time environment revealed some shortcomings of the system. Accumulation of fixes and workarounds led to unnecessary complexity. RDA became difficult to maintain and to extend. CORBA proved to be rather a cumbersome product than a panacea. Fortunately, many new transport frameworks appeared since then. They boasted a better design and supported concepts that made them easy to use. Willing to profit from the new libraries, the CMW team updated user requirements and in their terms investigated eventual CORBA substitutes. The process consisted of several phases: a review of middleware solutions belonging to different categories (e.g. data-centric, o...

The Use of Object-Oriented Analysis Methods in Surety Analysis

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Craft, Richard L.; Funkhouser, Donald R.; Wyss, Gregory D.

1999-05-01

Object-oriented analysis methods have been used in the computer science arena for a number of years to model the behavior of computer-based systems. This report documents how such methods can be applied to surety analysis. By embodying the causality and behavior of a system in a common object-oriented analysis model, surety analysts can make the assumptions that underlie their models explicit and thus better communicate with system designers. Furthermore, given minor extensions to traditional object-oriented analysis methods, it is possible to automatically derive a wide variety of traditional risk and reliability analysis methods from a single common object model. Automatic model extraction helps ensure consistency among analyses and enables the surety analyst to examine a system from a wider variety of viewpoints in a shorter period of time. Thus it provides a deeper understanding of a system's behaviors and surety requirements. This report documents the underlying philosophy behind the common object model representation, the methods by which such common object models can be constructed, and the rules required to interrogate the common object model for derivation of traditional risk and reliability analysis models. The methodology is demonstrated in an extensive example problem.

Multidisciplinary Optimization Object Library, Phase I

Data.gov (United States)

National Aeronautics and Space Administration — The development of a library of Common MDO Objects is proposed, in which the software objects will automate a variety of recurring problems in the development of MDO...

Multidisciplinary Optimization Object Library, Phase II

Data.gov (United States)

National Aeronautics and Space Administration — The development of a library of Common MDO Objects is proposed, in which the software objects will automate a variety of recurring problems in the development of MDO...

Categorization in Infancy: Labeling Induces a Persisting Focus on Commonalities

Science.gov (United States)

Althaus, Nadja; Plunkett, Kim

2016-01-01

Recent studies with infants and adults demonstrate a facilitative role of labels in object categorization. A common interpretation is that labels highlight commonalities between objects. However, direct evidence for such a mechanism is lacking. Using a novel object category with spatially separate features that are either of low or high…

Robust video object cosegmentation.

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Wenguan; Shen, Jianbing; Li, Xuelong; Porikli, Fatih

2015-10-01

With ever-increasing volumes of video data, automatic extraction of salient object regions became even more significant for visual analytic solutions. This surge has also opened up opportunities for taking advantage of collective cues encapsulated in multiple videos in a cooperative manner. However, it also brings up major challenges, such as handling of drastic appearance, motion pattern, and pose variations, of foreground objects as well as indiscriminate backgrounds. Here, we present a cosegmentation framework to discover and segment out common object regions across multiple frames and multiple videos in a joint fashion. We incorporate three types of cues, i.e., intraframe saliency, interframe consistency, and across-video similarity into an energy optimization framework that does not make restrictive assumptions on foreground appearance and motion model, and does not require objects to be visible in all frames. We also introduce a spatio-temporal scale-invariant feature transform (SIFT) flow descriptor to integrate across-video correspondence from the conventional SIFT-flow into interframe motion flow from optical flow. This novel spatio-temporal SIFT flow generates reliable estimations of common foregrounds over the entire video data set. Experimental results show that our method outperforms the state-of-the-art on a new extensive data set (ViCoSeg).

Object-Oriented Type Systems

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Schwartzbach, Michael Ignatieff; Palsberg, Jens

a type system that generalizes and explains them. The theory is based on an idealized object-oriented language called BOPL (Basic Object Programming Language), containing common features of the above languages. A type system, type inference algorithm, and typings of inheritance and genericity......Object-Oriented Type Systems Jens Palsberg and Michael I. Schwartzbach Aarhus University, Denmark Type systems are required to ensure reliability and efficiency of software. For object-oriented languages, typing is an especially challenging problem because of inheritance, assignment, and late...... are provided for BOPL. Throughout, the results are related to the languages on which BOPL is based. This text offers advanced undergraduates and professional software developers a sound understanding of the key aspects of object-oriented type systems. All algorithms are implemented in a freely available...

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.

Declarative flow control for distributed instrumentation

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Parvin, Bahram; Taylor, John; Fontenay, Gerald; Callahan, Daniel

2001-06-01

We have developed a 'microscopy channel' to advertise a unique set of on-line scientific instruments and to let users join a particular session, perform an experiment, collaborate with other users, and collect data for further analysis. The channel is a collaborative problem solving environment (CPSE) that allows for both synchronous and asynchronous collaboration, as well as flow control for enhanced scalability. The flow control is a declarative feature that enhances software functionality at the experimental scale. Our testbed includes several unique electron and optical microscopes with applications ranging from material science to cell biology. We have built a system that leverages current commercial CORBA services, Web Servers, and flow control specifications to meet diverse requirements for microscopy and experimental protocols. In this context, we have defined and enhanced Instrument Services (IS), Exchange Services (ES), Computational Services (CS), and Declarative Services (DS) that sit on top of CORBA and its enabling services (naming, trading, security, and notification) IS provides a layer of abstraction for controlling any type of microscope. ES provides a common set of utilities for information management and transaction. CS provides the analytical capabilities needed for online microscopy. DS provides mechanisms for flow control for improving the dynamic behavior of the system.

Governing of common cause failures

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bock, H.W.

1998-01-01

Agreed strategy is to govern common cause failures by the application of diversity, to assure that the overall plant safety objectives are met even in the case that a common cause failure of a system with all redundant trains is assumed. The presented strategy aims on the application of functional diversity without the implementation of equipment diversity. In the focus are the design criteria which have to be met for the design of independent systems in such a way that the time-correlated failure of such independent systems according a common cause can be excluded deterministically. (author)

Common micronutrient deficiencies among food aid beneficiaries ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

admin

Abstract. Background: Ethiopia is amongst the African countries that have received significant food aid. Nonetheless, the common micronutrient deficiencies among food aid beneficiaries are not well documented. Objective: To find out the common micronutrient deficiencies among food aid beneficiaries in the country based ...

Self-Motion Impairs Multiple-Object Tracking

Science.gov (United States)

Thomas, Laura E.; Seiffert, Adriane E.

2010-01-01

Investigations of multiple-object tracking aim to further our understanding of how people perform common activities such as driving in traffic. However, tracking tasks in the laboratory have overlooked a crucial component of much real-world object tracking: self-motion. We investigated the hypothesis that keeping track of one's own movement…

Common Input to Motor Units of Intrinsic and Extrinsic Hand Muscles During Two-Digit Object Hold

OpenAIRE

Winges, Sara A.; Kornatz, Kurt W.; Santello, Marco

2008-01-01

Anatomical and physiological evidence suggests that common input to motor neurons of hand muscles is an important neural mechanism for hand control. To gain insight into the synaptic input underlying the coordination of hand muscles, significant effort has been devoted to describing the distribution of common input across motor units of extrinsic muscles. Much less is known, however, about the distribution of common input to motor units belonging to different intrinsic muscles and to intrinsi...

Object-Oriented Type Systems

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Schwartzbach, Michael Ignatieff; Palsberg, Jens

binding. Existing languages employ different type systems, and it can be difficult to compare, evaluate and improve them, since there is currently no uniform theory for such languages. This book provides such a theory. The authors review the type systems of Simula, Smalltalk, C++ and Eiffel and present......Object-Oriented Type Systems Jens Palsberg and Michael I. Schwartzbach Aarhus University, Denmark Type systems are required to ensure reliability and efficiency of software. For object-oriented languages, typing is an especially challenging problem because of inheritance, assignment, and late...... a type system that generalizes and explains them. The theory is based on an idealized object-oriented language called BOPL (Basic Object Programming Language), containing common features of the above languages. A type system, type inference algorithm, and typings of inheritance and genericity...

Variation in expert source selection according to different objectivity standards

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Albæk, Erik

2011-01-01

Several scholars have tried to clarify how journalists handle and implement the abstract objectivity norm in daily practice. Less research attention has been paid to how common abstract professional norms and values, in casu the objectivity norm, may systematically vary when interpreted and imple......Several scholars have tried to clarify how journalists handle and implement the abstract objectivity norm in daily practice. Less research attention has been paid to how common abstract professional norms and values, in casu the objectivity norm, may systematically vary when interpreted...

Upgrading a TEXTOR Data acquisition system for remote participation using Java and Corba

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Korten, M.; Becks, B.; Blom, H.; Busch, P.; Kemmerling, G.; Kooijman, W.; Krom, J. G.; de Laat, C. T. A. M.; Lourens, W.; van der Meer, E.; Niderost, B.; Oomens, A. A. M.; Wijnoltz, F.; Samm, U.

2000-01-01

The partners in the Trilateral Euregio Cluster (TEC) are implementing and developing Remote Participation technologies that are expected to support a joint research programme on the experimental facility TEXTOR-94. A common TEC architecture for our heterogeneous data acquisition and storage systems

Java Test Driver Generation from Object-Oriented Interaction Traces

NARCIS (Netherlands)

M.M. Bonsangue (Marcello); F.S. de Boer (Frank); A. Gruener; M. Steffen

2009-01-01

htmlabstractIn the context of test-driven development for object-oriented programs, mock objects are increasingly used for unit testing. Several Java mock object frameworks exist, which all have in common that mock objects, realizing the test environment, are directly specied at the Java program

Common Sense dalam Epistemologi George Edward Moore dan Implikasinya terhadap Perkembangan Ilmu

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Abbas Hamami Mintaredja

2007-12-01

Full Text Available The birth of Moore's philosophy has a background in Bradley's Idealism-The philosophy of Bradley is rooted in Hegelianistic philosophy- and in Berkeley's immaterialism. Moore tried to revive English Realism tradition. Long before Bradley thoughts. The matterials of this research are all drawn from English philosophy that deals with Common Sense, both influencing and influenced by Moore's philsophy. The objective of this research is describe the function of Common Sense in Moore's philosophy. The aims of this research are (1 to determine the meaning of Common Sense, (2 to determine the realization of epistemology of Common Sense, and (3 to identify the contribution of epistemological Common Sense in the development of philosophy of science. This research uses three methods, (1 Factual-Historical Method, which is used to retrace the stream of development of the meaning of Common Sense in English philosophy. (2 Synthetico-Analitic method, which is used to find out specific meaning of the term Common Sense. (3 Hermeneutics. Which is useng to mediate the messeage drawn from realities (objects. The results of this research are (1 historically, the conception of Common Sense used by many philosophers. Despite differents of terminilogy and meaning according to them. (2 Synthetic-analitically, the meaning of Common Sense depends on the approaches of the respective philosophers. (3 Hermeneurtically, the meaning of Common Sense in Moore philosophy is to be understood as a unifeid ability of sense activities and consciuosness to grasp and understand material objects. Common Sense denotes to human capacity, that is a universal belief that produces certainty of knowledge of material things. Common Sense epistemology is specific ally Moore's epistemology. It is sparates the subjects from the objects distinictively. A subject sees factual objects in direct experiences, so that he gets the sense-data. Tp apprehend sense-data directly involves conscious activity

Moving object detection using background subtraction

CERN Document Server

Shaikh, Soharab Hossain; Chaki, Nabendu

2014-01-01

This Springer Brief presents a comprehensive survey of the existing methodologies of background subtraction methods. It presents a framework for quantitative performance evaluation of different approaches and summarizes the public databases available for research purposes. This well-known methodology has applications in moving object detection from video captured with a stationery camera, separating foreground and background objects and object classification and recognition. The authors identify common challenges faced by researchers including gradual or sudden illumination change, dynamic bac

Border collie comprehends object names as verbal referents.

Science.gov (United States)

Pilley, John W; Reid, Alliston K

2011-02-01

Four experiments investigated the ability of a border collie (Chaser) to acquire receptive language skills. Experiment 1 demonstrated that Chaser learned and retained, over a 3-year period of intensive training, the proper-noun names of 1022 objects. Experiment 2 presented random pair-wise combinations of three commands and three names, and demonstrated that she understood the separate meanings of proper-noun names and commands. Chaser understood that names refer to objects, independent of the behavior directed toward those objects. Experiment 3 demonstrated Chaser's ability to learn three common nouns--words that represent categories. Chaser demonstrated one-to-many (common noun) and many-to-one (multiple-name) name-object mappings. Experiment 4 demonstrated Chaser's ability to learn words by inferential reasoning by exclusion--inferring the name of an object based on its novelty among familiar objects that already had names. Together, these studies indicate that Chaser acquired referential understanding of nouns, an ability normally attributed to children, which included: (a) awareness that words may refer to objects, (b) awareness of verbal cues that map words upon the object referent, and (c) awareness that names may refer to unique objects or categories of objects, independent of the behaviors directed toward those objects. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

M&E-NetPay: A Micropayment System for Mobile and Electronic Commerce

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Xiaodi Huang

2016-08-01

Full Text Available As an increasing number of people purchase goods and services online, micropayment systems are becoming particularly important for mobile and electronic commerce. We have designed and developed such a system called M&E-NetPay (Mobile and Electronic NetPay. With open interoperability and mobility, M&E-NetPay uses web services to connect brokers and vendors, providing secure, flexible and reliable credit services over the Internet. In particular, M&E-NetPay makes use of a secure, inexpensive and debit-based off-line protocol that allows vendors to interact only with customers, after validating coins. The design of the architecture and protocol of M&E-NetPay are presented, together with the implementation of its prototype in ringtone and wallpaper sites. To validate our system, we have conducted its evaluations on performance, usability and heuristics. Furthermore, we compare our system to the CORBA-based (Common Object Request Broker Architecture off-line micro-payment systems. The results have demonstrated that M&E-NetPay outperforms the .NET-based M&E-NetPay system in terms of performance and user satisfaction.

The ARAC client system: network-based access to ARAC

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Leach, M J; Sumikawa, D; Webster, C

1999-01-01

The ARAC Client System allows users (such as emergency managers and first responders) with commonly available desktop and laptop computers to utilize the central ARAC system over the Internet or any other communications link using Internet protocols. Providing cost-effective fast access to the central ARAC system greatly expands the availability of the ARAC capability. The ARAC Client system consists of (1) local client applications running on the remote user's computer, and (2) ''site servers'' that provide secure access to selected central ARAC system capabilities and run on a scalable number of dedicated workstations residing at the central facility. The remote client applications allow users to describe a real or potential them-bio event, electronically sends this information to the central ARAC system which performs model calculations, and quickly receive and visualize the resulting graphical products. The site servers will support simultaneous access to ARAC capabilities by multiple users. The ARAC Client system is based on object-oriented client/server and distributed computing technologies using CORBA and Java, and consists of a large number of interacting components

Component Commonality and Its Cost Implications - Increasing the Commonality of the Right Components

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Lyly-Yrjänäinen, Jouni; Suomala, Petri; Israelsen, Poul

Component commonality (Labro 2004, Zhou & Gruppström 2004) can be defined as the use of the same version of a component across multiple products. It is usually seen as a means to manage costs without sacrificing product variety. However, when managing costs with component commonality, the managers...... constructions was identified as the most important bottleneck for the delivery process causing many indirect costs, especially with respect to project-management-related activities. Interestingly, by eliminating the need for mechanical engineering, the context starts to approach assembly-to-order context, also...... should be able to identify rather rapidly which group of components would enable the most significant cost reductions. Unfortunately, the existing literature lacks profound discussion of how to identify the right components for increased component commonality. The objective of the paper is to discuss how...

A comparison of moving object detection methods for real-time moving object detection

Science.gov (United States)

Roshan, Aditya; Zhang, Yun

2014-06-01

Moving object detection has a wide variety of applications from traffic monitoring, site monitoring, automatic theft identification, face detection to military surveillance. Many methods have been developed across the globe for moving object detection, but it is very difficult to find one which can work globally in all situations and with different types of videos. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate existing moving object detection methods which can be implemented in software on a desktop or laptop, for real time object detection. There are several moving object detection methods noted in the literature, but few of them are suitable for real time moving object detection. Most of the methods which provide for real time movement are further limited by the number of objects and the scene complexity. This paper evaluates the four most commonly used moving object detection methods as background subtraction technique, Gaussian mixture model, wavelet based and optical flow based methods. The work is based on evaluation of these four moving object detection methods using two (2) different sets of cameras and two (2) different scenes. The moving object detection methods have been implemented using MatLab and results are compared based on completeness of detected objects, noise, light change sensitivity, processing time etc. After comparison, it is observed that optical flow based method took least processing time and successfully detected boundary of moving objects which also implies that it can be implemented for real-time moving object detection.

Error-Driven Learning in Visual Categorization and Object Recognition: A Common-Elements Model

Science.gov (United States)

Soto, Fabian A.; Wasserman, Edward A.

2010-01-01

A wealth of empirical evidence has now accumulated concerning animals' categorizing photographs of real-world objects. Although these complex stimuli have the advantage of fostering rapid category learning, they are difficult to manipulate experimentally and to represent in formal models of behavior. We present a solution to the representation…

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.

The influence of object relative size on priming and explicit memory.

Science.gov (United States)

Uttl, Bob; Graf, Peter; Siegenthaler, Amy L

2008-09-01

We investigated the effects of object relative size on priming and explicit memory for color photos of common objects. Participants were presented with color photos of pairs of objects displayed in either appropriate or inappropriate relative sizes. Implicit memory was assessed by speed of object size ratings whereas explicit memory was assessed by an old/new recognition test. Study-to-test changes in relative size reduced both priming and explicit memory and had large effects for objects displayed in large vs. small size at test. Our findings of substantial size-specific influences on priming with common objects under some but not other conditions are consistent with instance views of object perception and priming but inconsistent with structural description views.

A Software Architecture for Intelligent Synthesis Environments

Science.gov (United States)

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

2001-01-01

The NASA's Intelligent Synthesis Environment (ISE) program is a grand attempt to develop a system to transform the way complex artifacts are engineered. This paper discusses a "middleware" architecture for enabling the development of ISE. Desirable elements of such an Intelligent Synthesis Architecture (ISA) include remote invocation; plug-and-play applications; scripting of applications; management of design artifacts, tools, and artifact and tool attributes; common system services; system management; and systematic enforcement of policies. This paper argues that the ISA extend conventional distributed object technology (DOT) such as CORBA and Product Data Managers with flexible repositories of product and tool annotations and "plug-and-play" mechanisms for inserting "ility" or orthogonal concerns into the system. I describe the Object Infrastructure Framework, an Aspect Oriented Programming (AOP) environment for developing distributed systems that provides utility insertion and enables consistent annotation maintenance. This technology can be used to enforce policies such as maintaining the annotations of artifacts, particularly the provenance and access control rules of artifacts-, performing automatic datatype transformations between representations; supplying alternative servers of the same service; reporting on the status of jobs and the system; conveying privileges throughout an application; supporting long-lived transactions; maintaining version consistency; and providing software redundancy and mobility.

Introduction of the information system research and development department at Kansai Electric Power Company. Company uses the latest information processing technology to respond to customers' needs to structure an information system; Kanden joho system no kenkyu kaihatsu bumon no shokai. Saishin no joho shori gijutsu ni yori, okyakusama no joho system ka no needs ni okotaeshimasu

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Ashida, Y. [Kansai Electric Power Co. Inc., Osaka (Japan)

1998-12-10

This paper introduces the research and development on the information processing technology at the Kansai Electric Power Company. In the research of a system development technology utilizing the object orientation, works are being made on the Java language drawing attention as an intranet development environment and the common object request broker architecture (CORBA). In the research of a technology to operate and control a large-scale network, basing on the current status of the KIND net of the Kansai Electric Power Company, discussions are being given on expanding and improving the functions of system tools made by Hitachi, Ltd. with an intention of achieving unified operation and control of the networks including not only the CSS system, but the host system. In the investigations and researches on different kinds of tools intended for data warehouse structuring, products are investigated and methods are discussed, such as the data extracting and editing tools to structure databases, and the on-line analysis processing (OLAP) tool to retrieve and analyze a great quantity of data. Researches are being made on application of the visual private office (VPO) service on the Internet, and on applicability evaluation for the individual certification technology. Investigations are being made on applicability of the enterprise resource planning (ERP) package. (NEDO)

The influence of object relative size on priming and explicit memory.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Bob Uttl

Full Text Available We investigated the effects of object relative size on priming and explicit memory for color photos of common objects. Participants were presented with color photos of pairs of objects displayed in either appropriate or inappropriate relative sizes. Implicit memory was assessed by speed of object size ratings whereas explicit memory was assessed by an old/new recognition test. Study-to-test changes in relative size reduced both priming and explicit memory and had large effects for objects displayed in large vs. small size at test. Our findings of substantial size-specific influences on priming with common objects under some but not other conditions are consistent with instance views of object perception and priming but inconsistent with structural description views.

Data needs for common cause failure analysis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Parry, G.W.; Paula, H.M.; Rasmuson, D.; Whitehead, D.

1990-01-01

The procedures guide for common cause failure analysis published jointly by USNRC and EPRI requires a detailed historical event analysis. Recent work on the further development of the cause-defense picture of common cause failures introduced in that guide identified the information that is necessary to perform the detailed analysis in an objective manner. This paper summarizes these information needs

AGRICULTURAL FRANCHISING AND CONTRIBUTION TO ACHIEVING OBJECTIVES OF THE EU COMMON AGRICULTURAL POLICY

OpenAIRE

Stanković, Milica

2014-01-01

The Common Agricultural Policy is the oldest, the most complex, the most expensive EU policy and it represents one of the most important drivers of European integration. Agrarian franchising is one of the innovations in the field of franchising, which implementation is still in its infancy and it is necessary to strive for the popularization of this business model. The aim of the paper is to emphasize the importance of agricultural franchising concept development and contribution of implement...

Common Fixed Point Theorems in Fuzzy Metric Spaces Satisfying -Contractive Condition with Common Limit Range Property

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sunny Chauhan

2013-01-01

Full Text Available The objective of this paper is to emphasize the role of “common limit range property” to ascertain the existence of common fixed point in fuzzy metric spaces. Some illustrative examples are furnished which demonstrate the validity of the hypotheses and degree of utility of our results. We derive a fixed point theorem for four finite families of self-mappings which can be utilized to derive common fixed point theorems involving any finite number of mappings. As an application to our main result, we prove an integral-type fixed point theorem in fuzzy metric space. Our results improve and extend a host of previously known results including the ones contained in Imdad et al. (2012.

The most common types of injuries in judo

OpenAIRE

Ječmínek, Jan

2014-01-01

Title: The most common types of injuries in judo Objectives: The aim of this study was to determine the most common injuries that occur during training and judo competitions. Identify treatment options, prevention and identify most common causes of injury. Methods: The chosen method was theoretical and empirical, ie collecting data and information from other publications and conduct its own research. Selecting what is relevant for judo injuries and comparsion whith author's experience and res...

Governing for the Common Good.

Science.gov (United States)

Ruger, Jennifer Prah

2015-12-01

The proper object of global health governance (GHG) should be the common good, ensuring that all people have the opportunity to flourish. A well-organized global society that promotes the common good is to everyone's advantage. Enabling people to flourish includes enabling their ability to be healthy. Thus, we must assess health governance by its effectiveness in enhancing health capabilities. Current GHG fails to support human flourishing, diminishes health capabilities and thus does not serve the common good. The provincial globalism theory of health governance proposes a Global Health Constitution and an accompanying Global Institute of Health and Medicine that together propose to transform health governance. Multiple lines of empirical research suggest that these institutions would be effective, offering the most promising path to a healthier, more just world.

An outline of object-oriented philosophy.

Science.gov (United States)

Harman, Graham

2013-01-01

This article summarises the principles of object-oriented philosophy and explains its similarities with, and differences from, the outlook of the natural sciences. Like science, the object-oriented position avoids the notion (quite common in philosophy) that the human-world relation is the ground of all others, such that scientific statements about the world would only be statements about the world as it is for humans. But unlike science, object-oriented metaphysics treats artificial, social, and fictional entities in the same way as natural ones, and also holds that the world can only be known allusively rather than directly.

A Survey of Complex Object Technologies for Digital Libraries

Science.gov (United States)

Nelson, Michael L.; Argue, Brad; Efron, Miles; Denn, Sheila; Pattuelli, Maria Cristina

2001-01-01

Many early web-based digital libraries (DLs) had implicit assumptions reflected in their architecture that the unit of focus in the DL (frequently "reports" or "e-prints") would only be manifested in a single, or at most a few, common file formats such as PDF or PostScript. DLs have now matured to the point where their contents are commonly no longer simple files. Complex objects in DLs have emerged from in response to various requirements, including: simple aggregation of formats and supporting files, bundling additional information to aid digital preservation, creating opaque digital objects for e-commerce applications, and the incorporation of dynamic services with the traditional data files. We examine a representative (but not necessarily exhaustive) number of current and recent historical web-based complex object technologies and projects that are applicable to DLs: Aurora, Buckets, ComMentor, Cryptolopes, Digibox, Document Management Alliance, FEDORA, Kahn-Wilensky Framework Digital Objects, Metadata Encoding & Transmission Standard, Multivalent Documents, Open eBooks, VERS Encapsulated Objects, and the Warwick Framework.

TEACHING OBJECT ORIENTED PROGRAMMING AT THE INTRODUCTORY LEVEL

OpenAIRE

OKUR , Prof.Dr. Mehmet C.

2006-01-01

Teaching object oriented programming has become a rapidly expanding preference at various educational environments. However, teachers usually experience problems when introducing object oriented concepts and programming to beginners. How to teach the fundamentals of object oriented programming at an introductory level course is still a common subject for debate. In this paper, an evaluation of these problems is presented and some possible approaches for improving the quality and success of su...

Static Extraction of Object-Oriented Runtime Architectures

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Abi-Antoun, Marwan; Aldrich, Jonathan

2008-01-01

.... But it is hard to statically extract runtime object graphs that provide architectural abstraction from an arbitrary program written in a general purpose language that follows common design idioms...

Magnesium Object Manager Sandbox, A More Effective Sandbox Method for Windows 7

Science.gov (United States)

2012-03-01

keys, synchronization primitives , etc.). The object body is specific to, and the same for, each object type; it contains information common to each...the Object Directory Specific Rights Synchronization Object (Event, Mutex, Semaphore , Timer) Synchronization objects allow multiple threads to... Synchronization Object Specific Rights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 2.5 File Object Specific Rights

Object color affects identification and repetition priming.

Science.gov (United States)

Uttl, Bob; Graf, Peter; Santacruz, Pilar

2006-10-01

We investigated the influence of color on the identification of both non-studied and studied objects. Participants studied black and white and color photos of common objects and memory was assessed with an identification test. Consistent with our meta-analysis of prior research, we found that objects were easier to identify from color than from black and white photos. We also found substantial priming in all conditions, and study-to-test changes in an object's color reduced the magnitude of priming. Color-specific priming effects were large for color-complex objects, but minimal for color-simple objects. The pattern and magnitude of priming effects was not influenced either by the extent to which an object always appears in the same color (i.e., whether a color is symptomatic of an object) or by the object's origin (natural versus fabricated). We discuss the implications of our findings for theoretical accounts of object perception and repetition priming.

The agricultural policy of Serbia and common agricultural policy

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Stanković Milica

2012-01-01

Full Text Available The agricultural sector has a relatively high importance in the economic structure of Serbia. The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP, Common Agricultural Policy is one of the main policies of the European Union. It is very important to point out the fundamental principles and objectives of the Common Agricultural Policy. Harmonization of the national agricultural policy of Serbia with the Common Agricultural Policy and acceptance of its mechanisms is crucial for the development of the agricultural sector as a whole.

Semantic memory in object use.

Science.gov (United States)

Silveri, Maria Caterina; Ciccarelli, Nicoletta

2009-10-01

We studied five patients with semantic memory disorders, four with semantic dementia and one with herpes simplex virus encephalitis, to investigate the involvement of semantic conceptual knowledge in object use. Comparisons between patients who had semantic deficits of different severity, as well as the follow-up, showed that the ability to use objects was largely preserved when the deficit was mild but progressively decayed as the deficit became more severe. Naming was generally more impaired than object use. Production tasks (pantomime execution and actual object use) and comprehension tasks (pantomime recognition and action recognition) as well as functional knowledge about objects were impaired when the semantic deficit was severe. Semantic and unrelated errors were produced during object use, but actions were always fluent and patients performed normally on a novel tools task in which the semantic demand was minimal. Patients with severe semantic deficits scored borderline on ideational apraxia tasks. Our data indicate that functional semantic knowledge is crucial for using objects in a conventional way and suggest that non-semantic factors, mainly non-declarative components of memory, might compensate to some extent for semantic disorders and guarantee some residual ability to use very common objects independently of semantic knowledge.

Neutron activation analysis of limestone objects

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Meyers, P.; Van Zelst, L.

1977-01-01

The elemental composition of samples from limestone objects were determined by neutron activation analysis to investigate whether this technique can be used to distinguish between objects made of limestone from different sources. Samples weighing between 0.2-2 grams were obtained by drilling from a series of ancient Egyptian and medieval Spanish objects. Analysis was performed on aliquots varying in weight from 40-100 milligrams. The following elements were determined quantitatively: Na, K, Rb, Cs, Ba, Sc, La, Ce, Sm, Eu, Hf, Th, Ta, Cr, Mn, Fe, Co and Zn. The data on Egyptian limestones indicate that, because of the inhomogeneous nature of the stone, 0.2-2 gram samples may not be representative of an entire object. Nevertheless, multivariate statistical methods produced a clear distinction between objects originating from the Luxor area (ancient Thebes) and objects found north of Luxor. The Spanish limestone studied appeared to be more homogeneous. Samples from stylistically related objects have similar elemental compositions while relative large differences were observed between objects having no relationship other than the common provenance of medieval Spain. (orig.) [de

Control of objects with a high degree of freedom

OpenAIRE

Wang, He

2012-01-01

In this thesis, I present novel strategies for controlling objects with high degrees of freedom for the purpose of robotic control and computer animation, including articulated objects such as human bodies or robots and deformable objects such as ropes and cloth. Such control is required for common daily movements such as folding arms, tying ropes, wrapping objects and putting on clothes. Although there is demand in computer graphics and animation for generating such scenes, li...

Multi-objective engineering design using preferences

Science.gov (United States)

Sanchis, J.; Martinez, M.; Blasco, X.

2008-03-01

System design is a complex task when design parameters have to satisy a number of specifications and objectives which often conflict with those of others. This challenging problem is called multi-objective optimization (MOO). The most common approximation consists in optimizing a single cost index with a weighted sum of objectives. However, once weights are chosen the solution does not guarantee the best compromise among specifications, because there is an infinite number of solutions. A new approach can be stated, based on the designer's experience regarding the required specifications and the associated problems. This valuable information can be translated into preferences for design objectives, and will lead the search process to the best solution in terms of these preferences. This article presents a new method, which enumerates these a priori objective preferences. As a result, a single objective is built automatically and no weight selection need be performed. Problems occuring because of the multimodal nature of the generated single cost index are managed with genetic algorithms (GAs).

Gestalt grouping and common onset masking.

Science.gov (United States)

Kahan, Todd A; Mathis, Katherine M

2002-11-01

A four-dot mask that surrounds and is presented simultaneously with a briefly presented target will reduce a person's ability to identity that target if the mask persists beyond target offset and attention is divided (Enns & Di Lollo, 1997, 2000). This masking effect, referred to as common onset masking, reflects reentrant processing in the visual system and can best be explained with a theory of object substitution (Di Lollo, Enns, & Rensink, 2000). In the present experiments, we investigated whether Gestalt grouping variables would influence the strength of common onset masking. The results indicated that (1) masking was impervious to grouping by form, similarity of color, position, luminance polarity, and common region and (2) masking increased with the number of elements in the masking display.

Sensor agnostic object recognition using a map seeking circuit

Science.gov (United States)

Overman, Timothy L.; Hart, Michael

2012-05-01

Automatic object recognition capabilities are traditionally tuned to exploit the specific sensing modality they were designed to. Their successes (and shortcomings) are tied to object segmentation from the background, they typically require highly skilled personnel to train them, and they become cumbersome with the introduction of new objects. In this paper we describe a sensor independent algorithm based on the biologically inspired technology of map seeking circuits (MSC) which overcomes many of these obstacles. In particular, the MSC concept offers transparency in object recognition from a common interface to all sensor types, analogous to a USB device. It also provides a common core framework that is independent of the sensor and expandable to support high dimensionality decision spaces. Ease in training is assured by using commercially available 3D models from the video game community. The search time remains linear no matter how many objects are introduced, ensuring rapid object recognition. Here, we report results of an MSC algorithm applied to object recognition and pose estimation from high range resolution radar (1D), electrooptical imagery (2D), and LIDAR point clouds (3D) separately. By abstracting the sensor phenomenology from the underlying a prior knowledge base, MSC shows promise as an easily adaptable tool for incorporating additional sensor inputs.

Common and differential electrophysiological mechanisms underlying semantic object memory retrieval probed by features presented in different stimulus types.

Science.gov (United States)

Chiang, Hsueh-Sheng; Eroh, Justin; Spence, Jeffrey S; Motes, Michael A; Maguire, Mandy J; Krawczyk, Daniel C; Brier, Matthew R; Hart, John; Kraut, Michael A

2016-08-01

How the brain combines the neural representations of features that comprise an object in order to activate a coherent object memory is poorly understood, especially when the features are presented in different modalities (visual vs. auditory) and domains (verbal vs. nonverbal). We examined this question using three versions of a modified Semantic Object Retrieval Test, where object memory was probed by a feature presented as a written word, a spoken word, or a picture, followed by a second feature always presented as a visual word. Participants indicated whether each feature pair elicited retrieval of the memory of a particular object. Sixteen subjects completed one of the three versions (N=48 in total) while their EEG were recorded simultaneously. We analyzed EEG data in four separate frequency bands (delta: 1-4Hz, theta: 4-7Hz; alpha: 8-12Hz; beta: 13-19Hz) using a multivariate data-driven approach. We found that alpha power time-locked to response was modulated by both cross-modality (visual vs. auditory) and cross-domain (verbal vs. nonverbal) probing of semantic object memory. In addition, retrieval trials showed greater changes in all frequency bands compared to non-retrieval trials across all stimulus types in both response-locked and stimulus-locked analyses, suggesting dissociable neural subcomponents involved in binding object features to retrieve a memory. We conclude that these findings support both modality/domain-dependent and modality/domain-independent mechanisms during semantic object memory retrieval. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Informed multi-objective decision-making in environmental management using Pareto optimality

Science.gov (United States)

Maureen C. Kennedy; E. David Ford; Peter Singleton; Mark Finney; James K. Agee

2008-01-01

Effective decisionmaking in environmental management requires the consideration of multiple objectives that may conflict. Common optimization methods use weights on the multiple objectives to aggregate them into a single value, neglecting valuable insight into the relationships among the objectives in the management problem.

Establishing Visual Category Boundaries between Objects: A PET Study

Science.gov (United States)

Saumier, Daniel; Chertkow, Howard; Arguin, Martin; Whatmough, Cristine

2005-01-01

Individuals with Alzheimer's disease (AD) often have problems in recognizing common objects. This visual agnosia may stem from difficulties in establishing appropriate visual boundaries between visually similar objects. In support of this hypothesis, Saumier, Arguin, Chertkow, and Renfrew (2001) showed that AD subjects have difficulties in…

Basic concept of common reactor physics code systems. Final report of working party on common reactor physics code systems (CCS)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2004-03-01

A working party was organized for two years (2001-2002) on common reactor physics code systems under the Research Committee on Reactor Physics of JAERI. This final report is compilation of activity of the working party on common reactor physics code systems during two years. Objectives of the working party is to clarify basic concept of common reactor physics code systems to improve convenience of reactor physics code systems for reactor physics researchers in Japan on their various field of research and development activities. We have held four meetings during 2 years, investigated status of reactor physics code systems and innovative software technologies, and discussed basic concept of common reactor physics code systems. (author)

The emerging causal understanding of institutional objects.

Science.gov (United States)

Noyes, Alexander; Keil, Frank C; Dunham, Yarrow

2018-01-01

Institutional objects, such as money, drivers' licenses, and borders, have functions because of their social roles rather than their immediate physical properties. These objects are causally different than standard artifacts (e.g. hammers, chairs, and cars), sharing more commonality with other social roles. Thus, they inform psychological theories of human-made objects as well as children's emerging understanding of social reality. We examined whether children (N=180, ages 4-9) differentiate institutional objects from standard artifacts. Specifically, we examine whether children understand that mutual intentions (i.e., the intentions of a social collective) underlie the functional affordances of institutional objects in ways that they do not for standard artifacts. We find that young children assimilate institutional objects into their intuitive theories of standard artifacts; children begin to differentiate between the domains in the elementary school years. Published by Elsevier B.V.

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

An unforgettable apple: memory and attention for forbidden objects.

Science.gov (United States)

Truong, Grace; Turk, David J; Handy, Todd C

2013-12-01

Are we humans drawn to the forbidden? From jumbo-sized soft drinks to illicit substances, the influence of prohibited ownership on subsequent demand has made this question a pressing one. We know that objects that we ourselves own have a heightened psychological saliency, relative to comparable objects that are owned by others, but do these kinds of effects extend from self-owned to "forbidden" objects? To address this question, we developed a modified version of the Turk shopping paradigm in which "purchased" items were assigned to various recipients. Participants sorted everyday objects labeled as "self-owned", "other-owned," and either "forbidden to oneself" (Experiment 1) or "forbidden to everyone" (Experiment 2). Subsequent surprise recognition memory tests revealed that forbidden objects with high (Experiment 1) but not with low (Experiment 2) self-relevance were recognized as well as were self-owned objects, and better than other-owned objects. In a third and final experiment, we used event-related potentials (ERPs) to determine whether self-owned and self-forbidden objects, which showed a common memory advantage, are in fact treated the same at a neurocognitive-affective level. We found that both object types were associated with enhanced cognitive analysis, relative to other-owned objects, as measured by the P300 ERP component. However, we also found that self-forbidden objects uniquely triggered an enhanced response preceding the P300, in an ERP component (the N2) that is sensitive to more rapid, affect-related processing. Our findings thus suggest that, whereas self-forbidden objects share a common cognitive signature with self-owned objects, they are unique in being identified more quickly at a neurocognitive level.

PRE: A framework for enterprise integration

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Whiteside, R.A.; Friedman-Hill, E.J. [Sandia National Labs., Livermore, CA (United States); Detry, R.J. [Sandia National Labs., Albuquerque, NM (United States)

1998-03-01

Sandia National Laboratories` Product Realization Environment (PRE) is a lightweight, CORBA based framework for the integration of a broad variety of applications. These applications are wrapped for use in the PRE framework as reusable components. For example, some of the PRE components currently available include: (1) product data management (PDM) system, (2) human resources database, several finite element analysis programs, and (3) a variety of image and document format converters. PRE enables the development of end user applications (as Java applets, for example) that use these components as building blocks. To aid such development, the PreLib library (available in both C++ and Java) permits both wrapping and using these components without knowledge of either CORBA or the security mechanisms used.

Beyond common features: The role of roles in determining similarity1

Science.gov (United States)

Jones, Matt; Love, Bradley C.

2007-01-01

Historically, accounts of object representation and perceived similarity have focused on intrinsic features. Although more recent accounts have explored how objects, scenes, and situations containing common relational structures come to be perceived as similar, less is known about how the perceived similarity of parts or objects embedded within these relational systems is affected. The current studies test the hypothesis that objects situated in common relational systems come to be perceived as more similar. Similarity increases most for objects playing the same role within a relation (e.g., predator), but also increases for objects playing different roles within the same relation (e.g., the predator or prey role in the hunts relation) regardless of whether the objects participate in the same instance of the relation. This pattern of results can be captured by extending existing models that extract meaning from text corpora so that they are sensitive to the verb-specific thematic roles that objects fill. Alternative explanations based on analogical and inferential processes are also considered, as well as the implications of the current findings to research in language processing, personality and person perception, decision making, and category learning. PMID:17094958

Recipe of the project Common Translation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Florencio Cabello Fernández-Delgado

2013-03-01

Full Text Available The recipe presented in this paper aims at synthetising metaphorically the methodology deployed in the project Commons Translation, an effort of distributed cooperative translation of books related to free culture and the commons carried out by university lecturers and students, as well as external collaborators. This recipe of what we call “commons-based peer translation” is inspired in the ideas of lots of cooks, and some of those ideas are extracted from the same works we translate. In this sense, two cookery books have been especially helpful: the first one is Yochai Benkler's The Wealth of Networks, a crucial recipe book about the art of commons-based peer production; the second one is Chris Kelty's Two Bits, where the anthropologist analyses thoroughly (and exquisitely the condiment characteristic of the best cooking of free software: recursion. Both works are an inspiration for our translation efforts and at the same time constituye the objects of such translation: the cooking of new communities and knowledges.

[Requirements imposed on model objects in microevolutionary investigations].

Science.gov (United States)

Mina, M V

2015-01-01

Extrapolation of results of investigations of a model object is justified only within the limits of a set of objects that have essential properties in common with the modal object. Which properties are essential depends on the aim of a study. Similarity of objects emerged in the process of their independent evolution does not prove similarity of ways and mechanisms of their evolution. If the objects differ in their essential properties then extrapolation of results of investigation of an object on another one is risky because it may lead to wrong decisions and, moreover, to the loss of interest to alternative hypotheses. Positions formulated above are considered with the reference to species flocks of fishes, large African Barbus in particular.

Electromagnetic Scattering by a Morphologically Complex Object: Fundamental Concepts and Common Misconceptions

Science.gov (United States)

Mischenko, Michael I.; Travis, Larry D.; Cairns, Brian; Tishkovets, Victor P.; Dlugach, Janna M.; Rosenbush, Vera K.; Kiselev, Nikolai N.

2011-01-01

Following Keller(Proc Symp Appl Math 1962;13:227:46), we classify all theoretical treatments of electromagnetic scattering by a morphologically complex object into first- principle (or "honest" in Keller s terminology) and phenomenological (or "dishonest") categories. This helps us identify, analyze, and dispel several profound misconceptions widespread in the discipline of electromagnetic scattering by solitary particles and discrete random media. Our goal is not to call for a complete renunciation of phenomenological approaches but rather to encourage a critical and careful evaluation of their actual origin, virtues, and limitations. In other words, we do not intend to deter creative thinking in terms of phenomenological short-cuts, but we do want to raise awareness when we stray (often for practical reasons) from the fundamentals. The main results and conclusions are illustrated by numerically-exact data based on direct numerical solutions of the macroscopic Maxwell equations.

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...

Mastering object-oriented Python

CERN Document Server

Lott, Steven F

2014-01-01

This book follows a standard tutorial approach with approximately 750 code samples spread through the 19 chapters. This amounts to over 5,900 lines of code that illustrate each concept.This book is aimed at programmers who have already learned the basics of object-oriented Python and need to write more sophisticated, flexible code that integrates seamlessly with the rest of Python. This book assumes a computer science background, with experience of common Python design patterns.

Glycaemic Response to some Commonly Eaten Fruits in Type 2 ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Background: It is not known which of the commonly consumed fruits in Nigeria are suitable for persons with diabetes mellitus especially with regards to the attendant plasma glucose response (PGR) to consumption of such fruits. Objectives: To determine and compare the PGR to commonly eaten fruits in patients with ...

Identifying marine pelagic ecosystem management objectives and indicators

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Trenkel, Verena M.; Hintzen, Niels T.; Farnsworth, Keith D.

2015-01-01

. Overall 26 objectives were proposed, with 58% agreement in proposed objectives between two workshops. Based on published evidence for pressure-state links, examples of operational objectives and suitable indicators for each of the 26 objectives were then selected. It is argued that given the strong......International policy frameworks such as the Common Fisheries Policy and the European Marine Strategy Framework Directive define high-level strategic goals for marine ecosystems. Strategic goals are addressed via general and operational management objectives. To add credibility and legitimacy...... scale in some cases. In the evidence-based approach used in this study, the selection of species or region specific operational objectives and indicators was based on demonstrated pressure-state links. Hence observed changes in indicators can reliably inform on appropriate management measures. (C) 2015...

A Common Representation of Spatial Features Drives Action and Perception

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Christiansen, Jens H; Christensen, Jeppe Høy; Grünbaum, Thor

2014-01-01

Spatial features of an object can be specified using two different response types: either by use of symbols or motorically by directly acting upon the object. Is this response dichotomy reflected in a dual representation of the visual world: one for perception and one for action? Previously, symb...... of matching object-processing characteristics is also in agreement with the idea of a common representation driving both response types....

Design and Implementation of an ASON Management System

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

无

2003-01-01

According to current management requirements, an ASON management information model and system architecture using CORBA and Java are proposed. A test platform is implemented to demonstrate multi-domain, connection and control plane management.

Do young guinea pigs (Cavia porcellus) develop an attachment to inanimate objects?

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Janzen, MID; Timmermans, PJA; Kruijt, JP; Vossen, JMH

1999-01-01

Filial imprinting has been studied extensively in precocial birds. In these studies, inanimate objects were used as imprinting objects. Although attachment to the parents is common in mammals, experiments with inanimate objects are rare and mostly restricted to guinea pigs (Cavia porcellus). The

Variation in diagnosis and management of common foot problems by GPs

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Gorter, K; de Melker, R; Kuyvenhoven, M; de Poel, S.

2001-01-01

Background. There are indications that the diagnosis and management of common foot problems vary widely in general practice. Objectives. Our aim was to explore the variation of GPs' diagnosis and management of common foot problems and the possible correlation between GPs' characteristics and their

The Common Technique for Analyzing the Financial Results Report

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Pasternak Maria M.

2017-04-01

Full Text Available The article is aimed at generalizing the theoretical approaches to the structure and elements of the technique for analysis of the Financial results report (Cumulative income report and providing suggestions for its improvement. The current methods have been analyzed, relevance of the application of a common technique for such analysis has been substantiated. A common technique for analyzing the Financial results report has been proposed, which includes definition of the objectives and tasks of analysis, subjects and objects of analysis, sources of its information. Stages of such an analysis were allocated and described. The findings of the article can be used to theoretically substantiate and to practically develop a technique for analyzing the Financial results report in the branches of Ukrainian economy.

A Configurable, Object-Oriented, Transportation System Software Framework

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

KELLY,SUZANNE M.; MYRE,JOHN W.; PRICE,MARK H.; RUSSELL,ERIC D.; SCOTT,DAN W.

2000-08-01

The Transportation Surety Center, 6300, has been conducting continuing research into and development of information systems for the Configurable Transportation Security and Information Management System (CTSS) project, an Object-Oriented Framework approach that uses Component-Based Software Development to facilitate rapid deployment of new systems while improving software cost containment, development reliability, compatibility, and extensibility. The direction has been to develop a Fleet Management System (FMS) framework using object-oriented technology. The goal for the current development is to provide a software and hardware environment that will demonstrate and support object-oriented development commonly in the FMS Central Command Center and Vehicle domains.

Variation in Expert Source Selection According to Different Objectivity Standards

Science.gov (United States)

Albaek, Erik

2011-01-01

Several scholars have tried to clarify how journalists handle and implement the abstract objectivity norm in daily practice. Less research attention has been paid to how common abstract professional norms and values, "in casu" the objectivity norm, may systematically vary when interpreted and implemented in daily journalistic practice. Allgaier's…

Institutional property rights structure, common pool resource (CPR), tragedy of the urban commons: A Review

Science.gov (United States)

Ling, G.; Ho, C. S.; Ali, H. M.

2014-02-01

There have been a plethora of researches on the significance of public open space (POS) in contributing to societies' sustainability. However, by virtue of identified maladaptive policy-based-property rights structure, such a shared good becomes vulnerable to tragedy of the urban commons (overexploitation) that subsequently leads to burgeoning number of mismanaged POS e.g., degraded and unkempt urban public spaces. By scrutinising the literatures within property rights domain and commons resources, an objective is highlighted in this paper which is to insightfully discourse institutional property rights structure pertaining to the mechanism, roles and interrelationship between property-rights regimes, bundle of property rights and resource domains; types of goods on how they act upon and tie in the POS with the social quandary. In summary, urban POS tragedy can potentially be triggered by the institutional structure especially if the ownership is left under open-access resource regime and ill-defined property rights which both successively constitute the natures of Common Pool Resource (CPR) within the commons, POS. Therefore, this paper sparks an idea to policy makers that property rights structure is a determinant in sustainably governing the POS in which adaptive assignment of property regimes and property rights are impelled.

Institutional property rights structure, common pool resource (CPR), tragedy of the urban commons: A Review

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ling, G; Ho, C S; Ali, H M

2014-01-01

There have been a plethora of researches on the significance of public open space (POS) in contributing to societies' sustainability. However, by virtue of identified maladaptive policy-based-property rights structure, such a shared good becomes vulnerable to tragedy of the urban commons (overexploitation) that subsequently leads to burgeoning number of mismanaged POS e.g., degraded and unkempt urban public spaces. By scrutinising the literatures within property rights domain and commons resources, an objective is highlighted in this paper which is to insightfully discourse institutional property rights structure pertaining to the mechanism, roles and interrelationship between property-rights regimes, bundle of property rights and resource domains; types of goods on how they act upon and tie in the POS with the social quandary. In summary, urban POS tragedy can potentially be triggered by the institutional structure especially if the ownership is left under open-access resource regime and ill-defined property rights which both successively constitute the natures of Common Pool Resource (CPR) within the commons, POS. Therefore, this paper sparks an idea to policy makers that property rights structure is a determinant in sustainably governing the POS in which adaptive assignment of property regimes and property rights are impelled

Objective neuromuscular monitoring of neuromuscular blockade in Denmark

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Söderström, C M; Eskildsen, K Z; Gätke, M R

2017-01-01

BACKGROUND: Neuromuscular blocking agents are commonly used during general anaesthesia but can lead to postoperative residual neuromuscular blockade and associated morbidity. With appropriate objective neuromuscular monitoring (objNMM) residual blockade can be avoided. In this survey, we investig...

Development of internet-based information systems using software components with the emphasis on the application in the military organization

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Miloš J. Pejanović

2011-01-01

development has many different but interconnected models: use case model, analysis model, design model and implementation model. The previously mentioned methods of development of information systems can be systematized and described in a unique way called the Larmanova method, usually through several stages: 1.Specification request 2.Analysis, 3. Design, 4.Implementation and 5. Testing. Development of information systems in a military organization The problem of development of information systems in the Internet environment by using software components is reduced to finding ways of determining a set of methodological procedures, concepts and approaches from the repositories of methods that support distributed information systems in Internet technology. Therefore, it is necessary to design a methodological approach that will be adaptive in accordance with the specific characteristics of military organizations. While developing their information systems, most foreign armed forces use standardized procedures and methodologies applied in their environment. In cases where it is not specifically defined, there is a tendency to use modern methodological procedures in accordance with technical and technological development. Component distributed information systems with an object-oriented approach in the Internet environment The usage of distributed objects can create client/server applications with a three-layer or multi-layer architecture which enables the implementation of synchronous or asynchronous solutions for the Internet and intranet. An example of a direct execution of transactions is an approach that relies on the CORBA model (Common Object Request Broker Architecture and the Object Request Broker (ORB. However, the applications that use them are difficult and expensive to maintain. It is one of the reasons why the development of component models has become popular and experienced great development in recent years. Components with the implemented mechanism for performing

A Roadmap Towards Intelligent and Autonomous Object Manipulation for assembly Tasks

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Polydoros, Athanasios; Nalpantidis, Lazaros; Krüger, Volker

Despite the large scientific interest on robot learning for object picking tasks, the research on object placing is too limited. Commonly, placing is simplistically considered as a trivial task, but real life manipulation problems indicate the exact opposite. A placing task can have different...

Mechanisms underlying selecting objects for action

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Melanie eWulff

2015-04-01

Full Text Available We assessed the factors which affect the selection of objects for action, focusing on the role of action knowledge and its modulation by distracters. 14 neuropsychological patients and 10 healthy aged-matched controls selected pairs of objects commonly used together among distracters in two contexts: with real objects and with pictures of the same objects presented sequentially on a computer screen. Across both tasks, semantically related distracters led to slower responses and more errors than unrelated distracters and the object actively used for action was selected prior to the object that would be passively held during the action. We identified a sub-group of patients (N=6 whose accuracy was 2SD below the controls performances in the real object task. Interestingly, these impaired patients were more affected by the presence of unrelated distracters during both tasks than intact patients and healthy controls. Note the impaired had lesions to left parietal, right anterior temporal and bilateral pre-motor regions. We conclude that: (1 motor procedures guide object selection for action, (2 semantic knowledge affects action-based selection, (3 impaired action decision is associated with the inability to ignore distracting information and (4 lesions to either the dorsal or ventral visual stream can lead to deficits in making action decisions. Overall, the data indicate that impairments in everyday tasks can be evaluated using a simulated computer task. The implications for rehabilitation are discussed.

Common and Innovative Visuals: A sparsity modeling framework for video.

Science.gov (United States)

Abdolhosseini Moghadam, Abdolreza; Kumar, Mrityunjay; Radha, Hayder

2014-05-02

Efficient video representation models are critical for many video analysis and processing tasks. In this paper, we present a framework based on the concept of finding the sparsest solution to model video frames. To model the spatio-temporal information, frames from one scene are decomposed into two components: (i) a common frame, which describes the visual information common to all the frames in the scene/segment, and (ii) a set of innovative frames, which depicts the dynamic behaviour of the scene. The proposed approach exploits and builds on recent results in the field of compressed sensing to jointly estimate the common frame and the innovative frames for each video segment. We refer to the proposed modeling framework by CIV (Common and Innovative Visuals). We show how the proposed model can be utilized to find scene change boundaries and extend CIV to videos from multiple scenes. Furthermore, the proposed model is robust to noise and can be used for various video processing applications without relying on motion estimation and detection or image segmentation. Results for object tracking, video editing (object removal, inpainting) and scene change detection are presented to demonstrate the efficiency and the performance of the proposed model.

Probabilistic active recognition of multiple objects using Hough-based geometric matching features

CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

Govender, N

2015-01-01

Full Text Available be recognized simultaneously, and occlusion and clutter (through distracter objects) is common. We propose a representation for object viewpoints using Hough transform based geometric matching features, which are robust in such circumstances. We show how...

MDSplus objects-Python implementation

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Fredian, T., E-mail: twf@psfc.mit.ed [Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Plasma Science and Fusion Center, NW17-268, 175 Albany Street, Cambridge, MA 02139 (United States); Stillerman, J. [Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Plasma Science and Fusion Center, NW17-268, 175 Albany Street, Cambridge, MA 02139 (United States); Manduchi, G. [Consorzio RFX, Euratom-ENEA Association, Corso Stati Uniti 4, Padova 35127 (Italy)

2010-07-15

MDSplus is a data acquisition and analysis software package used widely throughout the international fusion research community. During the past year, an important set of enhancements were designed under the project name of 'MDSobjects' which would provide a common, powerful application programming interface (API) to MDSplus in programming languages with object-oriented capabilities. This paper will discuss the Python language implementation of this API and some of the capabilities that this implementation provides for data storage and retrieval using the MDSplus system. We have implemented a new MDSplus Python module which exposes the MDSplus objects features to the language. The internal MDSplus programming language, TDI, has also been enhanced to be able to invoke Python commands from the TDI language. Now that Python is aware of the complex data structures in MDSplus such as Signals, the language becomes a very good candidate for applications ranging from data acquisition device support to analysis and visualization.

MDSplus objects-Python implementation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Fredian, T.; Stillerman, J.; Manduchi, G.

2010-01-01

MDSplus is a data acquisition and analysis software package used widely throughout the international fusion research community. During the past year, an important set of enhancements were designed under the project name of 'MDSobjects' which would provide a common, powerful application programming interface (API) to MDSplus in programming languages with object-oriented capabilities. This paper will discuss the Python language implementation of this API and some of the capabilities that this implementation provides for data storage and retrieval using the MDSplus system. We have implemented a new MDSplus Python module which exposes the MDSplus objects features to the language. The internal MDSplus programming language, TDI, has also been enhanced to be able to invoke Python commands from the TDI language. Now that Python is aware of the complex data structures in MDSplus such as Signals, the language becomes a very good candidate for applications ranging from data acquisition device support to analysis and visualization.

Using Mobile Agents to Implement Workflow System

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

LI Jie; LIU Xian-xing; GUO Zheng-wei

2004-01-01

Current workflow management systems usually adopt the existing technologies such as TCP/IP-based Web technologies and CORBA as well to fulfill the bottom communications.Very often it has been considered only from a theoretical point of view, mainly for the lack of concrete possibilities to execute with elasticity.MAT (Mobile Agent Technology) represents a very attractive approach to the distributed control of computer networks and a valid alternative to the implementation of strategies for workflow system.This paper mainly focuses on improving the performance of workflow system by using MAT.Firstly, the performances of workflow systems based on both CORBA and mobile agent are summarized and analyzed; Secondly, the performance contrast is presented by introducing the mathematic model of each kind of data interaction process respectively.Last, a mobile agent-based workflow system named MAWMS is presented and described in detail.

Wide field of view common-path lateral-shearing digital holographic interference microscope.

Science.gov (United States)

Vora, Priyanka; Trivedi, Vismay; Mahajan, Swapnil; Patel, Nimit; Joglekar, Mugdha; Chhaniwal, Vani; Moradi, Ali-Reza; Javidi, Bahram; Anand, Arun

2017-12-01

Quantitative three-dimensional (3-D) imaging of living cells provides important information about the cell morphology and its time variation. Off-axis, digital holographic interference microscopy is an ideal tool for 3-D imaging, parameter extraction, and classification of living cells. Two-beam digital holographic microscopes, which are usually employed, provide high-quality 3-D images of micro-objects, albeit with lower temporal stability. Common-path digital holographic geometries, in which the reference beam is derived from the object beam, provide higher temporal stability along with high-quality 3-D images. Self-referencing geometry is the simplest of the common-path techniques, in which a portion of the object beam itself acts as the reference, leading to compact setups using fewer optical elements. However, it has reduced field of view, and the reference may contain object information. Here, we describe the development of a common-path digital holographic microscope, employing a shearing plate and converting one of the beams into a separate reference by employing a pin-hole. The setup is as compact as self-referencing geometry, while providing field of view as wide as that of a two-beam microscope. The microscope is tested by imaging and quantifying the morphology and dynamics of human erythrocytes. (2017) COPYRIGHT Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE).

A Secure and Robust Object-Based Video Authentication System

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

He Dajun

2004-01-01

Full Text Available An object-based video authentication system, which combines watermarking, error correction coding (ECC, and digital signature techniques, is presented for protecting the authenticity between video objects and their associated backgrounds. In this system, a set of angular radial transformation (ART coefficients is selected as the feature to represent the video object and the background, respectively. ECC and cryptographic hashing are applied to those selected coefficients to generate the robust authentication watermark. This content-based, semifragile watermark is then embedded into the objects frame by frame before MPEG4 coding. In watermark embedding and extraction, groups of discrete Fourier transform (DFT coefficients are randomly selected, and their energy relationships are employed to hide and extract the watermark. The experimental results demonstrate that our system is robust to MPEG4 compression, object segmentation errors, and some common object-based video processing such as object translation, rotation, and scaling while securely preventing malicious object modifications. The proposed solution can be further incorporated into public key infrastructure (PKI.

Utilization-based object recognition in confined spaces

Science.gov (United States)

Shirkhodaie, Amir; Telagamsetti, Durga; Chan, Alex L.

2017-05-01

Recognizing substantially occluded objects in confined spaces is a very challenging problem for ground-based persistent surveillance systems. In this paper, we discuss the ontology inference of occluded object recognition in the context of in-vehicle group activities (IVGA) and describe an approach that we refer to as utilization-based object recognition method. We examine the performance of three types of classifiers tailored for the recognition of objects with partial visibility, namely, (1) Hausdorff Distance classifier, (2) Hamming Network classifier, and (3) Recurrent Neural Network classifier. In order to train these classifiers, we have generated multiple imagery datasets containing a mixture of common objects appearing inside a vehicle with full or partial visibility and occultation. To generate dynamic interactions between multiple people, we model the IVGA scenarios using a virtual simulation environment, in which a number of simulated actors perform a variety of IVGA tasks independently or jointly. This virtual simulation engine produces the much needed imagery datasets for the verification and validation of the efficiency and effectiveness of the selected object recognizers. Finally, we improve the performance of these object recognizers by incorporating human gestural information that differentiates various object utilization or handling methods through the analyses of dynamic human-object interactions (HOI), human-human interactions (HHI), and human-vehicle interactions (HVI) in the context of IVGA.

Objective consensus from decision trees.

Science.gov (United States)

Putora, Paul Martin; Panje, Cedric M; Papachristofilou, Alexandros; Dal Pra, Alan; Hundsberger, Thomas; Plasswilm, Ludwig

2014-12-05

Consensus-based approaches provide an alternative to evidence-based decision making, especially in situations where high-level evidence is limited. Our aim was to demonstrate a novel source of information, objective consensus based on recommendations in decision tree format from multiple sources. Based on nine sample recommendations in decision tree format a representative analysis was performed. The most common (mode) recommendations for each eventuality (each permutation of parameters) were determined. The same procedure was applied to real clinical recommendations for primary radiotherapy for prostate cancer. Data was collected from 16 radiation oncology centres, converted into decision tree format and analyzed in order to determine the objective consensus. Based on information from multiple sources in decision tree format, treatment recommendations can be assessed for every parameter combination. An objective consensus can be determined by means of mode recommendations without compromise or confrontation among the parties. In the clinical example involving prostate cancer therapy, three parameters were used with two cut-off values each (Gleason score, PSA, T-stage) resulting in a total of 27 possible combinations per decision tree. Despite significant variations among the recommendations, a mode recommendation could be found for specific combinations of parameters. Recommendations represented as decision trees can serve as a basis for objective consensus among multiple parties.

Objective consensus from decision trees

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Putora, Paul Martin; Panje, Cedric M; Papachristofilou, Alexandros; Pra, Alan Dal; Hundsberger, Thomas; Plasswilm, Ludwig

2014-01-01

Consensus-based approaches provide an alternative to evidence-based decision making, especially in situations where high-level evidence is limited. Our aim was to demonstrate a novel source of information, objective consensus based on recommendations in decision tree format from multiple sources. Based on nine sample recommendations in decision tree format a representative analysis was performed. The most common (mode) recommendations for each eventuality (each permutation of parameters) were determined. The same procedure was applied to real clinical recommendations for primary radiotherapy for prostate cancer. Data was collected from 16 radiation oncology centres, converted into decision tree format and analyzed in order to determine the objective consensus. Based on information from multiple sources in decision tree format, treatment recommendations can be assessed for every parameter combination. An objective consensus can be determined by means of mode recommendations without compromise or confrontation among the parties. In the clinical example involving prostate cancer therapy, three parameters were used with two cut-off values each (Gleason score, PSA, T-stage) resulting in a total of 27 possible combinations per decision tree. Despite significant variations among the recommendations, a mode recommendation could be found for specific combinations of parameters. Recommendations represented as decision trees can serve as a basis for objective consensus among multiple parties

Eye movements during object recognition in visual agnosia.

Science.gov (United States)

Charles Leek, E; Patterson, Candy; Paul, Matthew A; Rafal, Robert; Cristino, Filipe

2012-07-01

This paper reports the first ever detailed study about eye movement patterns during single object recognition in visual agnosia. Eye movements were recorded in a patient with an integrative agnosic deficit during two recognition tasks: common object naming and novel object recognition memory. The patient showed normal directional biases in saccades and fixation dwell times in both tasks and was as likely as controls to fixate within object bounding contour regardless of recognition accuracy. In contrast, following initial saccades of similar amplitude to controls, the patient showed a bias for short saccades. In object naming, but not in recognition memory, the similarity of the spatial distributions of patient and control fixations was modulated by recognition accuracy. The study provides new evidence about how eye movements can be used to elucidate the functional impairments underlying object recognition deficits. We argue that the results reflect a breakdown in normal functional processes involved in the integration of shape information across object structure during the visual perception of shape. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

ALMA software architecture

Science.gov (United States)

Schwarz, Joseph; Raffi, Gianni

2002-12-01

The Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) is a joint project involving astronomical organizations in Europe and North America. ALMA will consist of at least 64 12-meter antennas operating in the millimeter and sub-millimeter range. It will be located at an altitude of about 5000m in the Chilean Atacama desert. The primary challenge to the development of the software architecture is the fact that both its development and runtime environments will be distributed. Groups at different institutes will develop the key elements such as Proposal Preparation tools, Instrument operation, On-line calibration and reduction, and Archiving. The Proposal Preparation software will be used primarily at scientists' home institutions (or on their laptops), while Instrument Operations will execute on a set of networked computers at the ALMA Operations Support Facility. The ALMA Science Archive, itself to be replicated at several sites, will serve astronomers worldwide. Building upon the existing ALMA Common Software (ACS), the system architects will prepare a robust framework that will use XML-encoded entity objects to provide an effective solution to the persistence needs of this system, while remaining largely independent of any underlying DBMS technology. Independence of distributed subsystems will be facilitated by an XML- and CORBA-based pass-by-value mechanism for exchange of objects. Proof of concept (as well as a guide to subsystem developers) will come from a prototype whose details will be presented.

Modeling Common-Sense Decisions

Science.gov (United States)

Zak, Michail

This paper presents a methodology for efficient synthesis of dynamical model simulating a common-sense decision making process. The approach is based upon the extension of the physics' First Principles that includes behavior of living systems. The new architecture consists of motor dynamics simulating actual behavior of the object, and mental dynamics representing evolution of the corresponding knowledge-base and incorporating it in the form of information flows into the motor dynamics. The autonomy of the decision making process is achieved by a feedback from mental to motor dynamics. This feedback replaces unavailable external information by an internal knowledgebase stored in the mental model in the form of probability distributions.

THE COMMON AND PROPER NOUNS BETWEEN ALBANIAN AND ENGLISH

OpenAIRE

Shkelqim Millaku

2017-01-01

The noun in Albanian language classified as common and proper. The common nouns in turn divide into countable and uncountable. Collective nouns and substance nouns are subclasses of the other classes. The structure of noun formation between Albanian and English on the general aspect of morphology and syntax still didn’t study in the way of comparative, contrast and generative. Those fields are our object of study. In Albanian and English we find some concepts of studies for noun for exam...

42 CFR 457.710 - State plan requirements: Strategic objectives and performance goals.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-10-01

.... The State's strategic objectives, performance goals and performance measures must include a common... 42 Public Health 4 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false State plan requirements: Strategic objectives and...) ALLOTMENTS AND GRANTS TO STATES Strategic Planning, Reporting, and Evaluation § 457.710 State plan...

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.

Getting hold of approaching objects : In search of a common control of hand-closure initiation in catching and grasping

NARCIS (Netherlands)

van de Kamp, Cornelis; Bongers, Raoul M.; Zaal, Frank T. J. M.

Both in the catching and grasping component of prehension, the hand opens and closes before hand-object contact is made. The initiation of hand closure has to be coordinated with the time course of the decrease of the distance between the hand and the target object, i.e., with the reaching component

Objectivity and Subjectivity: an Argument for Rethinking the ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Objectivity and Subjectivity: an Argument for Rethinking the Philosophy Syllabus. ... South African Journal of Philosophy ... The aftermath of the rise of modern physics has been a picture of reality as alienated from our commonly experienced sense of purposes, aims, and intentions as defining our everyday lives, what we ...

Development of visuo-haptic transfer for object recognition in typical preschool and school-aged children.

Science.gov (United States)

Purpura, Giulia; Cioni, Giovanni; Tinelli, Francesca

2018-07-01

Object recognition is a long and complex adaptive process and its full maturation requires combination of many different sensory experiences as well as cognitive abilities to manipulate previous experiences in order to develop new percepts and subsequently to learn from the environment. It is well recognized that the transfer of visual and haptic information facilitates object recognition in adults, but less is known about development of this ability. In this study, we explored the developmental course of object recognition capacity in children using unimodal visual information, unimodal haptic information, and visuo-haptic information transfer in children from 4 years to 10 years and 11 months of age. Participants were tested through a clinical protocol, involving visual exploration of black-and-white photographs of common objects, haptic exploration of real objects, and visuo-haptic transfer of these two types of information. Results show an age-dependent development of object recognition abilities for visual, haptic, and visuo-haptic modalities. A significant effect of time on development of unimodal and crossmodal recognition skills was found. Moreover, our data suggest that multisensory processes for common object recognition are active at 4 years of age. They facilitate recognition of common objects, and, although not fully mature, are significant in adaptive behavior from the first years of age. The study of typical development of visuo-haptic processes in childhood is a starting point for future studies regarding object recognition in impaired populations.

Definition and measurement of statistical gloss parameters from curved objects

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kuivalainen, Kalle; Oksman, Antti; Peiponen, Kai-Erik

2010-09-20

Gloss standards are commonly defined for gloss measurement from flat surfaces, and, accordingly, glossmeters are typically developed for flat objects. However, gloss inspection of convex, concave, and small products is also important. In this paper, we define statistical gloss parameters for curved objects and measure gloss data on convex and concave surfaces using two different diffractive-optical-element-based glossmeters. Examples of measurements with the two diffractive-optical-element-based glossmeters are given for convex and concave aluminum pipe samples with and without paint. The defined gloss parameters for curved objects are useful in the characterization of the surface quality of metal pipes and other objects.

Definition and measurement of statistical gloss parameters from curved objects

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kuivalainen, Kalle; Oksman, Antti; Peiponen, Kai-Erik

2010-01-01

Gloss standards are commonly defined for gloss measurement from flat surfaces, and, accordingly, glossmeters are typically developed for flat objects. However, gloss inspection of convex, concave, and small products is also important. In this paper, we define statistical gloss parameters for curved objects and measure gloss data on convex and concave surfaces using two different diffractive-optical-element-based glossmeters. Examples of measurements with the two diffractive-optical-element-based glossmeters are given for convex and concave aluminum pipe samples with and without paint. The defined gloss parameters for curved objects are useful in the characterization of the surface quality of metal pipes and other objects.

Object relations in Harry Potter.

Science.gov (United States)

Lake, Suzanne

2003-01-01

Good fiction helps children address their emotional dilemmas by evoking repressed content, and offering strategies and meaningful values that help them work towards resolutions. Because certain fundamental conflicts continue to be revisited and reworked throughout adulthood, it follows that masterful children's literature might enthrall adults as well. Given the extraordinary, worldwide success of the Harry Potter stories with both children and adults, it might be inferred that they, indeed, are among such literature. Common object relations themes, as well as other intrapsychic processes, are presented in such an imaginative and resonant way that the unconscious is readily engaged. The character of Harry Potter, specifically, embodies such universal (repressed) torments as the agony of destroying and losing the mother; the ominous perception of good and bad objects at war within the self; and the earnest reparative efforts offered to save the self from eternal separation from the beloved other.

Methods for setting objectives and mission breakdown structure

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Riis, Eva

2013-01-01

Projects should create value for the organisations that instigate them or that will make use of their outcomes. This requires there be greater attention paid to defining the value expected of them, and it intensifies the need to formulate clear project objectives. Both tasks are complicated by th...... by the lack of a common terminology when setting objectives. This paper will propose concepts and a tool that should have a natural place in every project manager's toolbox.......Projects should create value for the organisations that instigate them or that will make use of their outcomes. This requires there be greater attention paid to defining the value expected of them, and it intensifies the need to formulate clear project objectives. Both tasks are complicated...

Primary school children\\'s perspectives on common diseases and ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Background: Existing school health programmes in Uganda target children above five years for de-worming, oral hygiene and frequent vaccination of girls of reproductive age. Objective:To assess primary school children\\'s perspectives on common diseases they experience and medicines used in order to suggest reforms ...

SEAL: Common Core Libraries and Services for LHC Applications

CERN Document Server

Generowicz, J; Moneta, L; Roiser, S; Marino, M; Tuura, L A

2003-01-01

The CERN LHC experiments have begun the LHC Computing Grid project in 2001. One of the project's aims is to develop common software infrastructure based on a development vision shared by the participating experiments. The SEAL project will provide common foundation libraries, services and utilities identified by the project's architecture blueprint report. This requires a broad range of functionality that no individual package suitably covers. SEAL thus selects external and experiment-developed packages, integrates them in a coherent whole, develops new code for missing functionality, and provides support to the experiments. We describe the set of basic components identified by the LHC Computing Grid project and thought to be sufficient for development of higher level framework components and specializations. Examples of such components are a plug-in manager, an object dictionary, object whiteboards, an incident or event manager. We present the design and implementation of some of these components and the und...

Infrared polarimetry and photometry of BL Lac objects

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Impey, C D; Brand, P W.J.L. [Edinburgh Univ. (UK); Wolstencroft, R D; Williams, P M [Royal Observatory, Edinburgh (UK)

1982-07-01

Infrared polarimetry and photometry have been obtained for a sample of 18 BL Lac objects. The data covers a period of one year and is part of a continuing monitoring programme; all observations were in the J,H and K wavebands. Large and variable degrees of polarization are a common property of the sample. Two BL Lac objects show wavelength-dependent polarization, with the polarization increasing towards shorter wavelengths, and two objects show evidence for position angle rotations over a five-day period. The relationship between changes in polarized and total flux is also discussed. The BL Lac objects cover an enormous range of infrared luminosity; the three most luminous having Lsub(IR) > 10/sup 46/ erg s/sup -1/ and the other end of the range having infrared luminosities similar to normal elliptical galaxies. These are the first published infrared polarimetric observations for eight of the sample.

Selection of Objective Function For Imbalanced Classification: An Industrial Case Study

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Khan, Abdul Rauf; Schiøler, Henrik; Kulahci, Murat

2017-01-01

In this article we discuss the issue of selecting suitable objective function for Genetic Algorithm to solve an imbalanced classification problem. More precisely, first we discuss the need of specialized objective function to solve a real classification problem from our industrial partner and the...... and then we compare the results of our proposed objective function with commonly used candidates to serve this purpose. Our comparison is based on the analysis of real data collected during the quality control stages of the manufacturing process....

Common approach to common interests

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

NONE

2001-06-01

In referring to issues confronting the energy field in this region and options to be exercised in the future, I would like to mention the fundamental condition of the utmost importance. That can be summed up as follows: any subject in energy area can never be solved by one country alone, given the geographical and geopolitical characteristics intrinsically possessed by energy. So, a regional approach is needed and it is especially necessary for the main players in the region to jointly address problems common to them. Though it may be a matter to be pursued in the distant future, I am personally dreaming a 'Common Energy Market for Northeast Asia,' in which member countries' interests are adjusted so that the market can be integrated and the region can become a most economically efficient market, thus formulating an effective power to encounter the outside. It should be noted that Europe needed forty years to integrate its market as the unified common market. It is necessary for us to follow a number of steps over the period to eventually materialize our common market concept, too. Now is the time for us to take a first step to lay the foundation for our descendants to enjoy prosperity from such a common market.

Quantifying object and material surface areas in residences

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Hodgson, Alfred T.; Ming, Katherine Y.; Singer, Brett C.

2005-01-05

The dynamic behavior of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in indoor environments depends, in part, on sorptive interactions between VOCs in the gas phase and material surfaces. Since information on the types and quantities of interior material surfaces is not generally available, this pilot-scale study was conducted in occupied residences to develop and demonstrate a method for quantifying surface areas of objects and materials in rooms. Access to 33 rooms in nine residences consisting of bathrooms, bedroom/offices and common areas was solicited from among research group members living in the East San Francisco Bay Area. A systematic approach was implemented for measuring rooms and objects from 300 cm{sup 2} and larger. The ventilated air volumes of the rooms were estimated and surface area-to-volume ratios were calculated for objects and materials, each segregated into 20 or more categories. Total surface area-to-volume ratios also were determined for each room. The bathrooms had the highest total surface area-to-volume ratios. Bedrooms generally had higher ratios than common areas consisting of kitchens, living/dining rooms and transitional rooms. Total surface area-to-volume ratios for the 12 bedrooms ranged between 2.3 and 4.7 m{sup 2} m{sup -3}. The importance of individual objects and materials with respect to sorption will depend upon the sorption coefficients for the various VOC/materials combinations. When combined, the highly permeable material categories, which may contribute to significant interactions, had a median ratio of about 0.5 m{sup 2} m{sup -3} for all three types of rooms.

A common objective, a variety of paths

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2009-01-01

High-level political, governmental and regulatory decision makers, as well as representatives of economic and social groups and implementing organisations met in Berne, Switzerland to present and to reflect on their collective experience towards meeting the challenge of implementing national disposal projects for placing radioactive waste in deep geological formations. This summary highlights the main lessons to be learnt and final recommendations to assist future developments in national radioactive waste management programmes seeking to meet both technical and social imperatives of modern society. (authors)

Common-Sense Realism and the Unimaginable Otherness of Science

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Bradley Monton

2007-12-01

Full Text Available Bas van Fraassen endorses both common-sense realism — the view, roughly, that the ordinary macroscopic objects that we take to exist actually do exist — and constructive empiricism — the view, roughly, that the aim of science is truth about the observable world. But what happens if common-sense realism and science come into conflict? I argue that it is reasonable to think that they could come into conflict, by giving some motivation for a mental monist solution to the measurement problem of quantum mechanics. I then consider whether, in a situation where science favors the mental monist interpretation, van Fraassen would want to give up common-sense realism or would want to give up science.

Common difficulties experienced by grade 12 students in learning ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

The objective of this study was to examine the nature and causes of common difficulties experienced by grade twelve students in learning chemistry in Ebinat preparatory school. A qualitative method was employed to investigate the questions, which used interviews and questionnaires with students and teachers. The key ...

A Comparison of Heuristics with Modularity Maximization Objective using Biological Data Sets

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Pirim Harun

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Finding groups of objects exhibiting similar patterns is an important data analytics task. Many disciplines have their own terminologies such as cluster, group, clique, community etc. defining the similar objects in a set. Adopting the term community, many exact and heuristic algorithms are developed to find the communities of interest in available data sets. Here, three heuristic algorithms to find communities are compared using five gene expression data sets. The heuristics have a common objective function of maximizing the modularity that is a quality measure of a partition and a reflection of objects’ relevance in communities. Partitions generated by the heuristics are compared with the real ones using the adjusted rand index, one of the most commonly used external validation measures. The paper discusses the results of the partitions on the mentioned biological data sets.

Ray-optics cloaking devices for large objects in incoherent natural light

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Hongsheng; Zheng, Bin; Shen, Lian; Wang, Huaping; Zhang, Xianmin; Zheludev, Nikolay I.; Zhang, Baile

2013-10-01

A cloak that can hide living creatures from sight is a common feature of mythology but still remains unrealized as a practical device. To preserve the wave phase, the previous cloaking solution proposed by Pendry and colleagues required transformation of the electromagnetic space around the hidden object in such a way that the rays bending around the object inside the cloak region have to travel faster than those passing it by. This difficult phase preservation requirement is the main obstacle for building a broadband polarization-insensitive cloak for large objects. Here we propose a simplified version of Pendry’s cloak by abolishing the requirement for phase preservation, as it is irrelevant for observation using incoherent natural light with human eyes, which are phase and polarization insensitive. This allows for a cloak design on large scales using commonly available materials. We successfully demonstrate the cloaking of living creatures, a cat and a fish, from the eye.

Common Courses for Common Purposes:

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Schaub Jr, Gary John

2014-01-01

(PME)? I suggest three alternative paths that increased cooperation in PME at the level of the command and staff course could take: a Nordic Defence College, standardized national command and staff courses, and a core curriculum of common courses for common purposes. I conclude with a discussion of how...

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....

Common safety approach for future pressurized water reactors in France and Germany

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Queniart, D.; Gros, G.

1994-01-01

In France and Germany all major activities related to future pressurized water reactors are now proceeding in a coordinated way among the two countries. This holds for utilities and industry in the development of a joint PWR project, the ''European Pressurized Water Reactor (EPR)'' by Electricite de France (EDF), German utilities, Nuclear Power International (NPI), Framatome and Siemens as well as for the technical safety objectives for future evolutionary reactors on the basis of a common safety approach adopted by the safety authorities of both countries for plants to operate form the beginning of the next century. The proposed paper covers this common development of a safety approach and particular technical safety objectives. (authors). 5 refs. 1 fig

The peri-saccadic perception of objects and space.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Fred H Hamker

2008-02-01

Full Text Available Eye movements affect object localization and object recognition. Around saccade onset, briefly flashed stimuli appear compressed towards the saccade target, receptive fields dynamically change position, and the recognition of objects near the saccade target is improved. These effects have been attributed to different mechanisms. We provide a unifying account of peri-saccadic perception explaining all three phenomena by a quantitative computational approach simulating cortical cell responses on the population level. Contrary to the common view of spatial attention as a spotlight, our model suggests that oculomotor feedback alters the receptive field structure in multiple visual areas at an intermediate level of the cortical hierarchy to dynamically recruit cells for processing a relevant part of the visual field. The compression of visual space occurs at the expense of this locally enhanced processing capacity.

The Simulation Intranet Architecture

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Holmes, V.P.; Linebarger, J.M.; Miller, D.J.; Vandewart, R.L.

1998-12-02

The Simdarion Infranet (S1) is a term which is being used to dcscribc one element of a multidisciplinary distributed and distance computing initiative known as DisCom2 at Sandia National Laboratory (http ct al. 1998). The Simulation Intranet is an architecture for satisfying Sandia's long term goal of providing an end- to-end set of scrviccs for high fidelity full physics simu- lations in a high performance, distributed, and distance computing environment. The Intranet Architecture group was formed to apply current distributed object technologies to this problcm. For the hardware architec- tures and software models involved with the current simulation process, a CORBA-based architecture is best suited to meet Sandia's needs. This paper presents the initial desi-a and implementation of this Intranct based on a three-tier Network Computing Architecture(NCA). The major parts of the architecture include: the Web Cli- ent, the Business Objects, and Data Persistence.

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...

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.

Revisiting child-based objections to commercial surrogacy.

Science.gov (United States)

Hanna, Jason K M

2010-09-01

Many critics of commercial surrogate motherhood argue that it violates the rights of children. In this paper, I respond to several versions of this objection. The most common version claims that surrogacy involves child-selling. I argue that while proponents of surrogacy have generally failed to provide an adequate response to this objection, it can be overcome. After showing that the two most prominent arguments for the child-selling objection fail, I explain how the commissioning couple can acquire parental rights by paying the surrogate only for her reproductive labor. My explanation appeals to the idea that parental rights are acquired by those who have claims over the reproductive labor that produces the child, not necessarily by those who actually perform the labor. This account clarifies how commercial surrogacy differs from commercial adoption. In the final section of the paper, I consider and reject three further child-based objections to commercial surrogacy: that it establishes a market in children's attributes, that it requires courts to stray from the best interests standard in determining custodial rights, and that it requires the surrogate to neglect her parental responsibilities. Since each of these objections fails, children's rights probably do not pose an obstacle to the acceptability of commercial surrogacy arrangements.

Common foundations of optimal control across the sciences: evidence of a free lunch

Science.gov (United States)

Russell, Benjamin; Rabitz, Herschel

2017-03-01

A common goal in the sciences is optimization of an objective function by selecting control variables such that a desired outcome is achieved. This scenario can be expressed in terms of a control landscape of an objective considered as a function of the control variables. At the most basic level, it is known that the vast majority of quantum control landscapes possess no traps, whose presence would hinder reaching the objective. This paper reviews and extends the quantum control landscape assessment, presenting evidence that the same highly favourable landscape features exist in many other domains of science. The implications of this broader evidence are discussed. Specifically, control landscape examples from quantum mechanics, chemistry and evolutionary biology are presented. Despite the obvious differences, commonalities between these areas are highlighted within a unified mathematical framework. This mathematical framework is driven by the wide-ranging experimental evidence on the ease of finding optimal controls (in terms of the required algorithmic search effort beyond the laboratory set-up overhead). The full scope and implications of this observed common control behaviour pose an open question for assessment in further work. This article is part of the themed issue 'Horizons of cybernetical physics'.

Adaptability in CORBA: The Mobile Proxy Approach

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Aziz, B.; Jensen, Christian D.

2000-01-01

Adaptability is one of the most important challenges in modern distributed systems. It may be defined as the ease with which a software application satisfies the different system constraints and the requirements of users and other applications. Adaptability is needed because distributed systems a...

Labor Dystocia: A Common Approach to Diagnosis.

Science.gov (United States)

Neal, Jeremy L; Lowe, Nancy K; Schorn, Mavis N; Holley, Sharon L; Ryan, Sharon L; Buxton, Margaret; Wilson-Liverman, Angela M

2015-01-01

Contemporary labor and birth population norms should be the basis for evaluating labor progression and determining slow progress that may benefit from intervention. The aim of this article is to present guidelines for a common, evidence-based approach for determination of active labor onset and diagnosis of labor dystocia based on a synthesis of existing professional guidelines and relevant contemporary publications. A 3-point approach for diagnosing active labor onset and classifying labor dystocia-related labor aberrations into well-defined, mutually exclusive categories that can be used clinically and validated by researchers is proposed. The approach comprises identification of 1) an objective point that strictly defines active labor onset (point of active labor determination); 2) an objective point that identifies when labor progress becomes atypical, beyond which interventions aimed at correcting labor dystocia may be justified (point of protraction diagnosis); and 3) an objective point that identifies when interventions aimed at correcting labor dystocia, if used, can first be determined to be unsuccessful, beyond which assisted vaginal or cesarean birth may be justified (earliest point of arrest diagnosis). Widespread adoption of a common approach for diagnosing labor dystocia will facilitate consistent evaluation of labor progress, improve communications between clinicians and laboring women, indicate when intervention aimed at speeding labor progress or facilitating birth may be appropriate, and allow for more efficient translation of safe and effective management strategies into clinical practice. Correct application of the diagnosis of labor dystocia may lead to a decrease in the rate of cesarean birth, decreased health care costs, and improved health of childbearing women and neonates. © 2015 by the American College of Nurse-Midwives.

Three Strikes Out: Objections to Segall's Luck Egalitarian Justice in Health

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Nielsen, Lasse; Axelsen, David Vestergaard

2012-01-01

distribution, this problem would often arise in actual health policy. Finally, the account has a way of intensifying blameworthy behaviour which seems contrary to luck egalitarian principles. Based on these three objections, we conclude that Segall’s luck egalitarian account of justice in health must either...... to coexist with a concern for meeting everyone’s basic needs thereby avoiding Elizabeth Anderson’s ‘abandonment objection’. In this article, we present three objections to Segall’s luck egalitarian justice in health. Firstly, the account is vulnerable to the common objection that luck egalitarianism becomes...

Evaluation of contaminated groundwater cleanup objectives

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Arquiett, C.; Gerke, M.; Datskou, I.

1996-01-01

The US Department of Energy's (DOE's) Environmental Restoration Program will be responsible for remediating the approximately 230 contaminated groundwater sites across the DOE Complex. A major concern for remediation is choosing the appropriate cleanup objective. The cleanup objective chosen will influence the risk to the nearby public during and after remediation; risk to remedial and non-involved workers during remediation; and the cost of remediation. This paper discusses the trends shown in analyses currently being performed at Oak Ridge National Laboratories' (ORNL's) Center for Risk Management (CRM). To evaluate these trends, CRM is developing a database of contaminated sites. This paper examines several contaminated groundwater sites selected for assessment from CRM's data base. The sites in this sample represent potential types of contaminated groundwater sites commonly found at an installation within DOE. The baseline risk from these sites to various receptors is presented. Residual risk and risk during remediation is reported for different cleanup objectives. The cost associated with remediating to each of these objectives is also estimated for each of the representative sites. Finally, the general trends of impacts as a function of cleanup objective will be summarized. The sites examined include the Savannah River site, where there was substantial ground pollution from radionuclides, oil, coal stockpiles, and other forms of groundwater contamination. The effects of various types of groundwater contamination on various types of future user is described. 4 refs., 3 figs., 2 tabs

Evaluating Multiple Object Tracking Performance: The CLEAR MOT Metrics

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Bernardin Keni

2008-01-01

Full Text Available Abstract Simultaneous tracking of multiple persons in real-world environments is an active research field and several approaches have been proposed, based on a variety of features and algorithms. Recently, there has been a growing interest in organizing systematic evaluations to compare the various techniques. Unfortunately, the lack of common metrics for measuring the performance of multiple object trackers still makes it hard to compare their results. In this work, we introduce two intuitive and general metrics to allow for objective comparison of tracker characteristics, focusing on their precision in estimating object locations, their accuracy in recognizing object configurations and their ability to consistently label objects over time. These metrics have been extensively used in two large-scale international evaluations, the 2006 and 2007 CLEAR evaluations, to measure and compare the performance of multiple object trackers for a wide variety of tracking tasks. Selected performance results are presented and the advantages and drawbacks of the presented metrics are discussed based on the experience gained during the evaluations.

Soft real-time alarm messages for ATLAS TDAQ

CERN Document Server

Darlea, G; Martin, B; Lehmann Miotto, G

2010-01-01

The ATLAS TDAQ network consists of three separate Ethernet-based networks (Data, Control and Management) with over 2000 end-nodes. The TDAQ system has to be aware of the meaningful network failures and events in order for it to take effective recovery actions. The first stage of the process is implemented with Spectrum, a commercial network management tool. Spectrum detects and registers all network events, then it publishes the information via a CORBA programming interface. A gateway program (called NSG—Network Service Gateway) connects to Spectrum through CORBA and exposes to its clients a Java RMI interface. This interface implements a callback mechanism that allows the clients to subscribe for monitoring "interesting" parts of the network. The last stage of the TDAQ network monitoring tool is implemented in a module named DNC (DAQ to Network Connection), which filters the events that are to be reported to the TDAQ system: it subscribes to the gateway only for the machines that are currently active in th...

Collaboration of Black See universities by merging values and common solutions

OpenAIRE

Ina MACOVEI

2015-01-01

The project University collaboration Network at the Black Sea – UNIVER-SEA. NET, is financed by the E.U. within Black Sea Basin Joint Operational Programme 2007- 2013, managed by the Ministry of Regional Development and Public Administration. The overall objective of the project is promoting exchange of educational values and experiences between universities in partner countries through a joint educational program and network, having as specific objectives the identification of the common...

On the Concepts of Usability and Reusability of Learning Objects

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Miguel-Angel Sicilia

2003-10-01

Full Text Available “Reusable learning objects” oriented towards increasing their potential reusability are required to satisfy concerns about their granularity and their independence of concrete contexts of use. Such requirements also entail that the definition of learning object “usability,” and the techniques required to carry out their “usability evaluation” must be substantially different from those commonly used to characterize and evaluate the usability of conventional educational applications. In this article, a specific characterization of the concept of learning object usability is discussed, which places emphasis on “reusability,” the key property of learning objects residing in repositories. The concept of learning object reusability is described as the possibility and adequacy for the object to be usable in prospective educational settings, so that usability and reusability are considered two interrelated – and in many cases conflicting – properties of learning objects. Following the proposed characterization of two characteristics or properties of learning objects, a method to evaluate usability of specific learning objects will be presented.

A Common, Conceptual Framework for Behavioral Ecology and Evolutionary Psychology

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Donald W. White

2007-04-01

Full Text Available Since evolutionary psychology and behavioral ecology have much in common despite their using different objects for their study, one might expect these disciplines to share a common conceptual framework with associated definitions. Unfortunately, such agreement does not entirely exist. To address the problem, we propose a common, conceptual framework, the Adaptive Behavioral System (ABS, which organizes behavior within an evolutionary framework around an organism's life history tasks. An ABS includes strategies that use decision rules and employs tactics administered by a hypothesized construct, the Evolved Processing Unit (EPU. The ABS also includes observed or predicted behavior which can be tested experimentally – the ultimate test of construct validity. Use of the proposed framework should help the two disciplines focus on their common, core business of behavior and, ultimately, be to the benefit of both.

Finding common ground in implementation: towards a theory of gradual commonality.

Science.gov (United States)

Ter Haar, Marian; Aarts, Noelle; Verhoeven, Piet

2016-03-01

This article reports on an empirical study that aimed to design a practice-based theory about collaboration on the local implementation of a nationally developed health-promoting intervention. The study's objective is to better understand the dynamic process of complex collaboration. The research is based on a Delphi study among some 100 individuals in local and regional networks, in which various professionals work together to implement the BeweegKuur, which translates as 'course of exercise'. The BeweegKuur is a combined lifestyle intervention aimed at promoting sufficient physical exercise and a healthy diet among people in the Netherlands who are overweight and at risk of diabetes. The Delphi study in three rounds systematically and interactively constructs a common perspective on implementation, reflecting stakeholders' ideas about the collaboration and providing an insight into how these ideas are influenced by the context of the implementation. The statistical and qualitative analyses of the responses to the feedback in the Delphi study form the basis for this practice-based theory on complex collaboration, called the theory of gradual commonality. During interaction, consensus gradually emerges about co-creation as a collaboration strategy. Co-creation leaves room for various ways of achieving the ambitions of the BeweegKuur. This article discusses the importance of this practice-based theory and the value of the Delphi research strategy for promoting health. © The Author 2014. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Automatic object recognition and change detection of urban trees

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Van der Sande, C.J.

2010-01-01

Monitoring of tree objects is relevant in many current policy issues and relate to the quality of the public space, municipal urban green management, management fees for green areas or Kyoto protocol reporting and all have one thing in common: the need for an up to date tree database. This study,

Genome-wide meta-analysis of observational studies shows common genetic variants associated with macronutrient intake

NARCIS (Netherlands)

T. Tanaka (Toshiko); J.S. Ngwa; F.J.A. van Rooij (Frank); M.C. Zillikens (Carola); M.K. Wojczynski (Mary ); A.C. Frazier-Wood (Alexis); D.K. Houston (Denise); S. Kanoni (Stavroula); R.N. Lemaitre (Rozenn ); J. Luan; V. Mikkilä (Vera); F. Renström (Frida); E. Sonestedt (Emily); J.H. Zhao (Jing Hua); A.Y. Chu (Audrey); L. Qi (Lu); D.I. Chasman (Daniel); M.C. De Oliveira Otto (Marcia); E.J. Dhurandhar (Emily); M.F. Feitosa (Mary Furlan); I. Johansson (Ingegerd); K-T. Khaw (Kay-Tee); K. Lohman (Kurt); A. Manichaikul (Ani); N.M. McKeown (Nicola ); D. Mozaffarian (Dariush); A.B. Singleton (Andrew); K. Stirrups (Kathy); J. Viikari (Jorma); Z. Ye (Zheng); S. Bandinelli (Stefania); I.E. Barroso (Inês); P. Deloukas (Panagiotis); N.G. Forouhi (Nita); A. Hofman (Albert); Y. Liu (YongMei); L.-P. Lyytikäinen (Leo-Pekka); K.E. North (Kari); M. Dimitriou (Maria); G. Hallmans (Göran); M. Kähönen (Mika); C. Langenberg (Claudia); J.M. Ordovas (Jose); A.G. Uitterlinden (André); F.B. Hu (Frank); I.-P. Kalafati (Ioanna-Panagiota); O. Raitakari (Olli); O.H. Franco (Oscar); A. Johnson (Anthony); V. Emilsson (Valur); J.A. Schrack (Jennifer); R.D. Semba; D.S. Siscovick (David); D.K. Arnett (Donna); I.B. Borecki (Ingrid); P.W. Franks (Paul); S.B. Kritchevsky (Stephen); R.J.F. Loos (Ruth); M. Orho-Melander (Marju); J.I. Rotter (Jerome); N.J. Wareham (Nick); J.C.M. Witteman (Jacqueline); L. Ferrucci (Luigi); G.V. Dedoussis (George); L.A. Cupples (Adrienne); J.A. Nettleton (Jennifer )

2013-01-01

textabstractBackground: Macronutrient intake varies substantially between individuals, and there is evidence that this variation is partly accounted for by genetic variants. Objective: The objective of the study was to identify common genetic variants that are associated with macronutrient intake.

Unconventional thermal cloak hiding an object outside the cloak

Science.gov (United States)

Gao, Y.; Huang, J. P.

2013-11-01

All the thermal cloaks reported in the literature can be used to thermally hide an object inside the cloak. However, a common limitation of this kind of thermal cloaks is that the cloaked object cannot feel the external heat flow since it is located inside the cloak; thus we call these cloaks “conventional thermal cloaks”. Here we manage to overcome this limitation by exploiting a class of unconventional thermal cloaks that enable the cloaked object to feel the external heat flow. Our finite-element simulations in two dimensions show the desired cloaking effect. The underlying mechanism originates from the complementary effect of thermal metamaterials with negative thermal conductivities. This work suggests a different method to design thermal devices where heat conduction can be controlled at will.

Sleep-related problems in common medical conditions.

Science.gov (United States)

Parish, James M

2009-02-01

Common medical problems are often associated with abnormalities of sleep. Patients with chronic medical disorders often have fewer hours of sleep and less restorative sleep compared to healthy individuals, and this poor sleep may worsen the subjective symptoms of the disorder. Individuals with lung disease often have disturbed sleep related to oxygen desaturations, coughing, or dyspnea. Both obstructive lung disease and restrictive lung diseases are associated with poor quality sleep. Awakenings from sleep are common in untreated or undertreated asthma, and cause sleep disruption. Gastroesophageal reflux is a major cause of disrupted sleep due to awakenings from heartburn, dyspepsia, acid brash, coughing, or choking. Patients with chronic renal disease commonly have sleep complaints often due to insomnia, insufficient sleep, sleep apnea, or restless legs syndrome. Complaints related to sleep are very common in patients with fibromyalgia and other causes of chronic pain. Sleep disruption increases the sensation of pain and decreases quality of life. Patients with infectious diseases, including acute viral illnesses, HIV-related disease, and Lyme disease, may have significant problems with insomnia and hypersomnolence. Women with menopause have from insomnia, sleep-disordered breathing, restless legs syndrome, or fibromyalgia. Patients with cancer or receiving cancer therapy are often bothered by insomnia or other sleep disturbances that affect quality of life and daytime energy. The objective of this article is to review frequently encountered medical conditions and examine their impact on sleep, and to review frequent sleep-related problems associated with these common medical conditions.

On Flew’s Compatibilism and His Objections to Theistic Libertarianism

OpenAIRE

GÜNDOĞDU, Hakan

2016-01-01

Flew strongly defends a compatibilist thesis in the free will debate before going on to totally object to theistic libertarianism. His objections basically rely on his compatibilism embracing the notion of agent causation, which is not very common in compatibilist theses. Since he is a strong proponent of ordinary language philosophy, he also holds that linguistic analyses can certainly solve the free will problem as well as many other problems of philosophy. In doing so, he first uses the pa...

The most common otorhinolaryngologic manifestations of granulomatous diseases

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Heshiki, Rosana Emiko

2008-09-01

Full Text Available Introduction: Granulomatous diseases result from immunopathologic processes in which there is a failure in the fagocitosis of intracellular organisms. They can cause oral, nasal and pharyngeal mucosa ulcers, vocal cords lesions, otorrhoea and oropharyngeal vegetant lesions. Objective: Describing the most frequent otorhinolaryngologic manifestations in common granulomatous diseases: hanseniasis, paracoccidioidomycosis, leishmaniasis. Method: A retrospective study has been carried out from records of patients diagnosed with the abovementioned diseases between January 1, 2005 and October 31, 2007 in an infectology ambulatory of a tertiary hospital. Results: 142 patients were evaluated; 93 with leishmaniasis, 39 with paracoccidioidomycosis and 10 with hanseniasis. In 93 cases of leishmaniasis, 16 (17.2% had mucosal affection, and the most common signs were septum perforation and nasal mucosal ulcers, both with 8 cases. In paracoccidioidomycosis, oropharyngeal ulcer was the most frequent, with 15 cases (38,4%. Conclusion: Head and neck signs and symptoms are common in patients with leishmaniasis and paracoccidioidomycosis. Nasal manifestations prevail in leishmaniasis and oropharyngeal ones in paracoccidioidomycosis.

Introductory Overview of Intermediate-luminosity X-ray Objects

Science.gov (United States)

Colbert, E. J. M.

2001-05-01

Intermediate-luminosity X-ray Objects (IXOs) are defined as compact objects having X-ray luminosities between those of X-ray binaries and low-luminosity AGNs (i.e., 1039.0 erg s-1 < ~ LX [IXOs] < ~ 1041.0 erg s-1). It is not currently known if these objects are intermediate-mass (M ~ 102-104 Msun) black holes accreting near the Eddington limit, near-solar-mass black holes in a super-Eddington state, or are, in some cases, just supermassive black holes accreting at very low rates. However, the first idea has been popularized by recent press coverage. IXOs are quite common (present in about half of spiral galaxies) and are typically found displaced from the optical nucleus, reducing the likelihood that they are low-luminosity AGN. Nearly all of our knowledge of these objects comes from X-ray observations, as observations of optical, NIR and radio counterparts are not widely known. In this session, we will address (1) the phenomenology of the objects, (2) possible geometry and accretion mechanisms for these objects (i.e., are they more similar to black hole X-ray binaries or AGNs), (3) the central black hole masses, and (4) the formation mechanism for these black holes, if they are of intermediate mass. In this talk, I will focus primarily on giving background information of these fascinating objects.

THE OBJECT OF THE ADMISSION OF GUILT

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Constantin NEDELCU

2015-07-01

Full Text Available This paper aims at studying how elements of negotiated justice specific to common law systems entered into the Romanian criminal procedural law system. It particularly deals with the admission of guilt and about one of its most controversial aspects – the object of recognition. The research concludes that what is recognized within this simplified procedure it is the deed and not its legal classification given by the criminal prosecution bodies.

Pollux: Enhancing the Quality of Service of the Global Information Grid (GIG)

Science.gov (United States)

2009-06-01

and throughput of standard-based and/or COTS-based QoS-enabled pub/sub technologies, including DDS, JMS, Web Services, and CORBA. 2. The DDS QoS...of ser- vice pICKER (QUICKER) model-driven engineering ( MDE ) toolchain shown in Figure 8. QUICKER extends the Platform-Independent Component Modeling

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.

Modeling guidance and recognition in categorical search: Bridging human and computer object detection

OpenAIRE

Zelinsky, Gregory J.; Peng, Yifan; Berg, Alexander C.; Samaras, Dimitris

2013-01-01

Search is commonly described as a repeating cycle of guidance to target-like objects, followed by the recognition of these objects as targets or distractors. Are these indeed separate processes using different visual features? We addressed this question by comparing observer behavior to that of support vector machine (SVM) models trained on guidance and recognition tasks. Observers searched for a categorically defined teddy bear target in four-object arrays. Target-absent trials consisted of ...

An object model for beamline descriptions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hill, B.W.; Martono, H.; Gillespie, J.S.

1997-01-01

Translation of beamline model descriptions between different accelerator codes presents a unique challenge due to the different representations used for various elements and subsystems. These differences range from simple units conversions to more complex translations involving multiple beamline components. A representation of basic accelerator components is being developed in order to define a meta-structure from which beamline models, in different codes, can be described and to facilitate the translation of models between these codes. Sublines of basic components will be used to represent more complex beamline descriptions and bridge the gap between codes which may represent a beamline element as a single entity, and those which use multiple elements to describe the same physical device. A C++ object model for supporting this beamline description and a grammar for describing beamlines in terms of these components is being developed. The object model will support a common graphic user interface and translation filters for representing native beamline descriptions for a variety of accelerator codes. An overview of our work on the object model for beamline descriptions is presented here. copyright 1997 American Institute of Physics

Classification of objects on hyperspectral images — further developments

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kucheryavskiy, Sergey V.; Williams, Paul

Classification of objects (such as tablets, cereals, fruits, etc.) is one of the very important applications of hyperspectral imaging and image analysis. Quite often, a hyperspectral image is represented and analyzed just as a bunch of spectra without taking into account spatial information about...... the pixels, which makes classification objects inefficient. Recently, several methods, which combine spectral and spatial information, has been also developed and this approach becomes more and more wide-spread. The methods use local rank, topology, spectral features calculated for separate objects and other...... spatial characteristics. In this work we would like to show several improvements to the classification method, which utilizes spectral features calculated for individual objects [1]. The features are based (in general) on descriptors of spatial patterns of individual object’s pixels in a common principal...

Common mental disorders and intimate partner violence in pregnancy

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ana Bernarda Ludermir

2014-02-01

Full Text Available OBJECTIVE : To investigate the association between common mental disorders and intimate partner violence during pregnancy. METHODS : A cross sectional study was carried out with 1,120 pregnant women aged 18-49 years old, who were registered in the Family Health Program in the city of Recife, Northeastern Brazil, between 2005 and 2006. Common mental disorders were assessed using the Self-Reporting Questionnaire (SRQ-20. Intimate partner violence was defined as psychologically, physically and sexually abusive acts committed against women by their partners. Crude and adjusted odds ratios were estimated for the association studied utilizing logistic regression analysis. RESULTS : The most common form of partner violence was psychological. The prevalence of common mental disorders was 71.0% among women who reported all form of violence in pregnancy and 33.8% among those who did not report intimate partner violence. Common mental disorders were associated with psychological violence (OR 2.49, 95%CI 1.8;3.5, even without physical or sexual violence. When psychological violence was combined with physical or sexual violence, the risk of common mental disorders was even higher (OR 3.45; 95%CI 2.3;5.2. CONCLUSIONS : Being assaulted by someone with whom you are emotionally involved can trigger feelings of helplessness, low self-esteem and depression. The pregnancy probably increased women`s vulnerability to common mental disorders

Shared genetic variants suggest common pathways in allergy and autoimmune diseases

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kreiner-Møller, Eskil; Waage, Johannes; Standl, Marie

2017-01-01

Background: The relationship between allergy and autoimmune disorders is complex and poorly understood. Objective: To investigate commonalities in genetic loci and pathways between allergy and autoimmune diseases to elucidate shared disease mechanisms. Methods: We meta-analyzed two GWAS on self-r...

Development and testing of a service concept for integration of simulation in the remote nuclear reactor monitoring system

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Grohmann, A.

2002-01-01

In this dissertation a framework for distributed software services is developed. This allows the easy integration of software components in complex systems. The capabilities of the components are offered as services, which can be consumed by others. Services share a common and generic interface, which increases flexibility and the potential use in systems that have to act, react and communicate flexibly. Services can be suspended, resumed and terminated at run-time. The service framework has been implemented in C++ and uses CORBA as distribution mechanism. It is fully multi-threaded and provides recovery mechanisms in order to safe computation time after a crash. The implementation aims at high flexibility, extensibility, clarity and the use of modern, object-oriented software technologies. The framework is independent of the actual domain and of the data objects that need to be exchanged. The service framework is used in the large-scale Remote Nuclear Reactor Monitoring System of Baden-Wuerttemberg. This mission-critical system simulates the dispersion and deposition of radioactive nuclides and their effects on humans. In the past, the single steps of the simulation had to be co-ordinated by humans. Now, they are provided as automated information services, integrated into the system and are always available. For the system, a special multi-agent system has been employed. The service framework is the backbone of that multi-agent system. Some experiences and insights on the system level are discussed, which cover mainly the distribution of system knowledge and its impact on maintenance costs as well as procedural vs. rule-based problems and approaches. (orig.) [de

Bidding in common value fair division games

OpenAIRE

Brünner, Tobias; Becker, Alice

2013-01-01

In a fair division game an indivisible object with an unknown common value is owned by a group of individuals and should be allocated to one of them while the others are compensated monetarily. Implementing fair division games in the lab, we fi nd many occurrences of the winner's curse under the first-price rule but only few occurrences under the second-price rule. Moreover, bidding behavior is very heterogeneous across subjects. A considerable share of our subjects anticipates that other bid...

Context-aware pattern discovery for moving object trajectories

Science.gov (United States)

Sharif, Mohammad; Asghar Alesheikh, Ali; Kaffash Charandabi, Neda

2018-05-01

Movement of point objects are highly sensitive to the underlying situations and conditions during the movement, which are known as contexts. Analyzing movement patterns, while accounting the contextual information, helps to better understand how point objects behave in various contexts and how contexts affect their trajectories. One potential solution for discovering moving objects patterns is analyzing the similarities of their trajectories. This article, therefore, contextualizes the similarity measure of trajectories by not only their spatial footprints but also a notion of internal and external contexts. The dynamic time warping (DTW) method is employed to assess the multi-dimensional similarities of trajectories. Then, the results of similarity searches are utilized in discovering the relative movement patterns of the moving point objects. Several experiments are conducted on real datasets that were obtained from commercial airplanes and the weather information during the flights. The results yielded the robustness of DTW method in quantifying the commonalities of trajectories and discovering movement patterns with 80 % accuracy. Moreover, the results revealed the importance of exploiting contextual information because it can enhance and restrict movements.

Biological activity of common mullein, a medicinal plant.

Science.gov (United States)

Turker, Arzu Ucar; Camper, N D

2002-10-01

Common Mullein (Verbascum thapsus L., Scrophulariaceae) is a medicinal plant that has been used for the treatment of inflammatory diseases, asthma, spasmodic coughs, diarrhea and other pulmonary problems. The objective of this study was to assess the biological activity of Common Mullein extracts and commercial Mullein products using selected bench top bioassays, including antibacterial, antitumor, and two toxicity assays--brine shrimp and radish seed. Extracts were prepared in water, ethanol and methanol. Antibacterial activity (especially the water extract) was observed with Klebsiella pneumonia, Staphylococcus aureus, Staphylococcus epidermidis and Escherichia coli. Agrobacterium tumefaciens-induced tumors in potato disc tissue were inhibited by all extracts. Toxicity to Brine Shrimp and to radish seed germination and growth was observed at higher concentrations of the extracts.

Specialization and Commonalization in Multi-branded Manufacturing Corporations

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Karlsson, Christer; Sköld, Martin

2018-01-01

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to identify areas and issues for management to consider in balancing specialization and commonalization in large manufacturing corporations with multiple brands from a strategic R&D and manufacturing point of view.Design/methodology/approach Three global...... manufacturing corporations from the automotive sector are used as a strategic sample composing three sequential clinical research projects. The data come from complementary data-gathering methods combining documents and interviews and workshops with top executives, project leaders, platform managers and product...... brand, missing the specific dynamics of large manufacturing corporations with many entities, such as individual products and brands. This paper adds knowledge regarding how to balance synergies from commonalization with important objectives to preserve the specialization and distinctiveness of each...

Preservice teachers’ objectives and their experience of practical work

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

V. Nivalainen

2013-01-01

Full Text Available This study explores third-year preservice physics teachers’ (n=32 views concerning the objectives of practical work at school and university. Content analysis of their essays about practical work revealed not only the objectives of the practical work undertaken but also how they had experienced teaching as school and university students. The objectives most commonly referred to were related to the connections between theory and practice, motivation, understanding phenomena, learning how to observe, and learning how to report. In contrast, some objectives were recognized only rarely, which is an important issue for discussion as a future challenge. Preservice teachers’ positive experiences of practical work resulted from the successful implementation of practical work. According to our findings, practical work can in many cases be regarded as successful, especially when the participants understand the objectives of the teaching. In contrast, negative experiences reflected failures or difficulties in implementation. We conclude by suggesting that preservice teachers should be offered opportunities to reflect on their previous experiences and to see and experience in practice the advantages of practical work.

Encounters for common illnesses in general practice increased in obese patients

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Wayenburg, van C.A.M.; Lerniengre, M.B.T.; Reenen-Schimmel, van A.H.; Bor, J.H.J.; Bakx, J.C.; Staveren, van W.A.; Weel, van C.; Binsbergen, van J.J.

2008-01-01

Background. Obese patients are known to have more chronic medical conditions. Objective. To compare the frequency of encounter for episodes of the 10 most common illnesses in general practice between obese and non-overweight patients. Methods. Data were derived from the Continuous Morbidity

Cortical control of object-specific grasp relies on adjustments of both activity and effective connectivity

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Tia, Banty; Takemi, Mitsuaki; Kosugi, Akito

2017-01-01

The cortical mechanisms of grasping have been extensively studied in macaques and humans. Here, we investigated whether common marmosets could rely on similar mechanisms despite striking differences in manual dexterity. Two common marmosets were trained to grasp-and-pull three objects eliciting d...

Knowledge Sharing in Construction Partnering - Redundancy, Boundary Objects and Brokers

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Koch, Christian; Thuesen, Christian Langhoff

2013-01-01

common assignment of meaning, brokers (e.g. design managers), boundary objects (e.g. drawings) and arenas (e.g. meetings). The paper presents an ethnographic case study of a project partnership between engineers, architects and contractors in construction using the partnering concept. The focus is on two...

Evaluation of common vaginal tunic ligation during field castration in draught colts.

Science.gov (United States)

Carmalt, J L; Shoemaker, R W; Wilson, D G

2008-09-01

The objective of this study was to determine if ligation of the common vaginal tunic could prevent or reduce the incidence of omental herniation and eventration in draught colts undergoing routine field castration. It was found that common vaginal tunic ligation, while not completely preventing omental herniation and evisceration, significantly reduced the incidence of these complications and should be considered in those males deemed at increased risk of significant post castration complications.

Common Errors in Ecological Data Sharing

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Robert B. Cook

2013-04-01

Full Text Available Objectives: (1 to identify common errors in data organization and metadata completeness that would preclude a “reader” from being able to interpret and re-use the data for a new purpose; and (2 to develop a set of best practices derived from these common errors that would guide researchers in creating more usable data products that could be readily shared, interpreted, and used.Methods: We used directed qualitative content analysis to assess and categorize data and metadata errors identified by peer reviewers of data papers published in the Ecological Society of America’s (ESA Ecological Archives. Descriptive statistics provided the relative frequency of the errors identified during the peer review process.Results: There were seven overarching error categories: Collection & Organization, Assure, Description, Preserve, Discover, Integrate, and Analyze/Visualize. These categories represent errors researchers regularly make at each stage of the Data Life Cycle. Collection & Organization and Description errors were some of the most common errors, both of which occurred in over 90% of the papers.Conclusions: Publishing data for sharing and reuse is error prone, and each stage of the Data Life Cycle presents opportunities for mistakes. The most common errors occurred when the researcher did not provide adequate metadata to enable others to interpret and potentially re-use the data. Fortunately, there are ways to minimize these mistakes through carefully recording all details about study context, data collection, QA/ QC, and analytical procedures from the beginning of a research project and then including this descriptive information in the metadata.

Applicability of Existing Objective Metrics of Perceptual Quality for Adaptive Video Streaming

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Søgaard, Jacob; Krasula, Lukás; Shahid, Muhammad

2016-01-01

Objective video quality metrics are designed to estimate the quality of experience of the end user. However, these objective metrics are usually validated with video streams degraded under common distortion types. In the presented work, we analyze the performance of published and known full......-reference and noreference quality metrics in estimating the perceived quality of adaptive bit-rate video streams knowingly out of scope. Experimental results indicate not surprisingly that state of the art objective quality metrics overlook the perceived degradations in the adaptive video streams and perform poorly...

Common Sense Biblical Hermeneutics

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Michael B. Mangini

2014-12-01

Full Text Available Since the noetics of moderate realism provide a firm foundation upon which to build a hermeneutic of common sense, in the first part of his paper the author adopts Thomas Howe’s argument that the noetical aspect of moderate realism is a necessary condition for correct, universally valid biblical interpretation, but he adds, “insofar as it gives us hope in discovering the true meaning of a given passage.” In the second part, the author relies on John Deely’s work to show how semiotics may help interpreters go beyond meaning and seek the significance of the persons, places, events, ideas, etc., of which the meaning of the text has presented as objects to be interpreted. It is in significance that the unity of Scripture is found. The chief aim is what every passage of the Bible signifies. Considered as a genus, Scripture is composed of many parts/species that are ordered to a chief aim. This is the structure of common sense hermeneutics; therefore in the third part the author restates Peter Redpath’s exposition of Aristotle and St. Thomas’s ontology of the one and the many and analogously applies it to the question of how an exegete can discern the proper significance and faithfully interpret the word of God.

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.

EPR-technical codes - a common basis for the EPR

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zaiss, W.; Appell, B.

1997-01-01

The design and construction of Nuclear Power Plants implies a full set of codes and standards to define the construction rules of components and equipment. Rules are existing and are currently implemented, respectively in France and Germany (mainly RCCs and KTA safety standards). In the frame of the EPR-project, the common objective requires an essential industrial work programme between engineers from both countries to elaborate a common set of codes and regulations. These new industrial rules are called the ETCs (EPR Technical Codes). In the hierarchy the ETCs are - in case of France - on the common level of basic safety rules (RFS), design and construction rules (RCC) and - in Germany - belonging to RSK guidelines and KTA safety standards. A set of six ETCs will be elaborated to cover: safety and process, mechanical components, electrical equipment, instrumentation and control, civil works, fire protection. (orig.)

The objectives and activities of the Canadian Radiation Protection Association

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Haynes, M.J.

1998-01-01

The Canadian Nuclear Society and the Canadian Radiation Protection Association are working to develop an agreement between the organizations to facilitate working together on issues of common interest. This paper will present the objectives, the organizational structure and major areas of activity of the Canadian Radiation Protection Association. It is a reciprocal presentation of one given earlier this year by Mr. Fred Boyd of the CNS to the CRPA annual conference. The intent is to help the membership of each organization better understand the objectives and interests of the other. (author)

Framework for teleoperated microassembly systems

Science.gov (United States)

Reinhart, Gunther; Anton, Oliver; Ehrenstrasser, Michael; Patron, Christian; Petzold, Bernd

2002-02-01

Manual assembly of minute parts is currently done using simple devices such as tweezers or magnifying glasses. The operator therefore requires a great deal of concentration for successful assembly. Teleoperated micro-assembly systems are a promising method for overcoming the scaling barrier. However, most of today's telepresence systems are based on proprietary and one-of-a-kind solutions. Frameworks which supply the basic functions of a telepresence system, e.g. to establish flexible communication links that depend on bandwidth requirements or to synchronize distributed components, are not currently available. Large amounts of time and money have to be invested in order to create task-specific teleoperated micro-assembly systems from scratch. For this reason, an object-oriented framework for telepresence systems that is based on CORBA as a common middleware was developed at the Institute for Machine Tools and Industrial Management (iwb). The framework is based on a distributed architectural concept and is realized in C++. External hardware components such as haptic, video or sensor devices are coupled to the system by means of defined software interfaces. In this case, the special requirements of teleoperation systems have to be considered, e.g. dynamic parameter settings for sensors during operation. Consequently, an architectural concept based on logical sensors has been developed to achieve maximum flexibility and to enable a task-oriented integration of hardware components.

Architecture of a wireless Personal Assistant for telemedical diabetes care.

Science.gov (United States)

García-Sáez, Gema; Hernando, M Elena; Martínez-Sarriegui, Iñaki; Rigla, Mercedes; Torralba, Verónica; Brugués, Eulalia; de Leiva, Alberto; Gómez, Enrique J

2009-06-01

Advanced information technologies joined to the increasing use of continuous medical devices for monitoring and treatment, have made possible the definition of a new telemedical diabetes care scenario based on a hand-held Personal Assistant (PA). This paper describes the architecture, functionality and implementation of the PA, which communicates different medical devices in a personal wireless network. The PA is a mobile system for patients with diabetes connected to a telemedical center. The software design follows a modular approach to make the integration of medical devices or new functionalities independent from the rest of its components. Physicians can remotely control medical devices from the telemedicine server through the integration of the Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA) and mobile GPRS communications. Data about PA modules' usage and patients' behavior evaluation come from a pervasive tracing system implemented into the PA. The PA architecture has been technically validated with commercially available medical devices during a clinical experiment for ambulatory monitoring and expert feedback through telemedicine. The clinical experiment has allowed defining patients' patterns of usage and preferred scenarios and it has proved the Personal Assistant's feasibility. The patients showed high acceptability and interest in the system as recorded in the usability and utility questionnaires. Future work will be devoted to the validation of the system with automatic control strategies from the telemedical center as well as with closed-loop control algorithms.

Common cause analysis of the TREAT upgrade reactor protection system

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Page, R.J.; Kamis, G.J.; Marbach, R.A.; Mueller, C.J.

1984-09-01

A triply redundant reactor scram system (RSS) has been designed for the upgraded TREAT facility. The independent failures reliability goal for the RSS is <10/sup -9/ failures per demand. An independent failures analysis indicated that this goal would be met. In addition, however, recognizing that in heavily redundant systems common-cause failures dominate, a common cause analysis of the TREAT upgrade RSS was done. The objective was to identify those common-cause initiators which could affect the functioning of the RSS, and to subsequently modify the design of the RSS so that the effect was minimized. A number of common-cause initiators were identified which were capable of defeating the triple redundancy feature of the reactor scram system. By means of a systematic analysis of the effect these initiators could have on the system, it was possible to identify seven necessary design and procedural modifications that would greatly reduce the probability of the reactor being run while the RSS was in a faulted condition.

Common bean grain yield as affected by sulfur fertilization and cultivars

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Adriano Stephan Nascente

Full Text Available ABSTRACT A better understanding of the differential growth of common bean cultivars with increasing soil sulfur (S availability can indicate how to improve common bean grain yield in soils of Savannas. The objective of this study was to evaluate the response of sprinkler-irrigated common bean cultivars to sulfur fertilization in a no-tillage system. The experiment was designed as a randomized block in a split-plot scheme with sulfur rates (0, 10, 20, 40, and 60 kg ha-1 as main plots and common bean cultivars (BRS Requinte, BRS Cometa, Diamante Negro, BRS Grafite, BRS Valente, and Corrente as subplots, with three replications. Common bean cultivars did not differ regarding grain yield response to sulfur rates, which fitted to a quadratic equation. Among the cultivars tested, only BRS Requinte and BRS Valente differed in grain yield for S fertilization, the first being more productive. Moreover, S fertilization allows significant increases in common bean grain yield in average of six cultivars and must be considered in cropping systems aiming for high yields.

Data quality objectives

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Haeberer, F. [Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, DC (United States)

1993-12-31

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) spends about $500 million annually in collecting environmental data for scientific research and regulatory decision making. In addition, the regulated community may spend as much as ten times more each year in responding to EPA compliance requirements. Among the EPA and the regulated community there are several important common concerns: both want to make informed decisions using the right type, quality, and quantity of data. Collecting new data is very resource intensive to all parties. Neither EPA nor the regulated community can afford to collect more or {open_quotes}better{close_quotes} data than are really needed; the Data Quality Objectives (DQO) process is a systematic planning tool for ensuring that the right data will be collected for arriving at a decision within the desired confidence constraints. Using the DQO process to plan environmental data collections can help improve their effectiveness and efficiency, and enhance the defensibility of the decisions for which the data are used.

Data quality objectives

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Haeberer, F.

1993-01-01

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) spends about $500 million annually in collecting environmental data for scientific research and regulatory decision making. In addition, the regulated community may spend as much as ten times more each year in responding to EPA compliance requirements. Among the EPA and the regulated community there are several important common concerns: both want to make informed decisions using the right type, quality, and quantity of data. Collecting new data is very resource intensive to all parties. Neither EPA nor the regulated community can afford to collect more or open-quotes betterclose quotes data than are really needed; the Data Quality Objectives (DQO) process is a systematic planning tool for ensuring that the right data will be collected for arriving at a decision within the desired confidence constraints. Using the DQO process to plan environmental data collections can help improve their effectiveness and efficiency, and enhance the defensibility of the decisions for which the data are used

An intuitive method to automatically detect the common and not common frequencies for two or more time-varying signals

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Doca, C.; Paunoiu, C.; Doca, L.

2013-01-01

Sampling a time-varying signal and his spectral analysis are, both, subjected to theoretically compelling, such as Shannon's theorem and the objectively limiting of the frequencys resolution. After obtaining the signals (Fourier) spectrum, this is processed and interpreted usually by a scientist who, presumably, has sufficient prior information about the monitored signal to conclude, for example, on the significant frequencies. Obviously, processing and interpretation of individual spectra are routine tasks that can be automated by suitable software (PC application). The problems complicate if we need to compare two or more spectra corresponding to different signals and/or phenomena. In the above context, this paper presents an intuitive method for automatic identification of the common and not common frequencies for two or more congruent spectra. The method is illustrated by numerical simulations, and by the results obtained in the analysis of the noise from some experimental measured signals. (authors)

The MATCH cohort study in the Netherlands: rationale, objectives, methods and baseline characteristics of patients with (long-term) common mental disorders.

Science.gov (United States)

Koekkoek, Bauke; Manders, Willeke; Tendolkar, Indira; Hutschemaekers, Giel; Tiemens, Bea

2017-03-01

Research in the last decades shows that common mental disorders may be long-term and severely disabling, resulting in severe mental illness (SMI). The percentage of Dutch SMI-patients with common mental disorders receiving mental health services is estimated at 65-70%. However, it is unclear which patients in fact become SMI-patients. We need to know more about the possible course of common mental disorders, understand the origins of chronicity in more detail, and have more insight in related care processes and care use of patients with common mental disorders. The MATCH cohort study is a four-year multicentre naturalistic cohort study, with yearly assessments in primary, secondary, and tertiary services in three large Dutch mental health services. Socio-demographics, mental disorders, course and severity of psychopathology, physiological health indicators, neurocognitive functioning, past and present life events, health care use and contact with mental health services, social functioning and quality of life, and recovery and well-being are assessed. Baseline findings of 283 participating individuals and their key clinicians are described. The sample appears to appropriately represent the distribution of individuals across diagnostic categories in services, and level of care (outpatient, day treatment, inpatient) in the Netherlands and other developed nations. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

User Interface Framework for the National Ignition Facility (NIF)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Fisher, J M; Bowers, G A; Carey, R W; Daveler, S A; Herndon Ford, K B; Ho, J C; Lagin, L J; Lambert, C J; Mauvais, J; Stout, E A; West, S L

2007-01-01

A user interface (UI) framework supports the development of user interfaces to operate the National Ignition Facility (NIF) using the Integrated Computer Control System (ICCS). [1] This framework simplifies UI development and ensures consistency for NIF operators. A comprehensive, layered collection of UIs in ICCS provides interaction with system-level processes, shot automation, and subsystem-specific devices. All user interfaces are written in Java, employing CORBA to interact with other ICCS components. ICCS developers use these frameworks to compose two major types of user interfaces: broadviews and control panels. Broadviews provide a visual representation of the NIF beamlines through interactive schematic drawings. Control panels provide status and control at a device level. The UI framework includes a suite of display components to standardize user interaction through data entry behaviors, common connection and threading mechanisms, and a common appearance. With these components, ICCS developers can more efficiently address usability issues in the facility when needed. The ICCS UI framework helps developers create consistent and easy-to-understand user interfaces for NIF operators

Multi Camera Multi Object Tracking using Block Search over Epipolar Geometry

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Saman Sargolzaei

2000-01-01

Full Text Available We present strategy for multi-objects tracking in multi camera environment for the surveillance and security application where tracking multitude subjects are of utmost importance in a crowded scene. Our technique assumes partially overlapped multi-camera setup where cameras share common view from different angle to assess positions and activities of subjects under suspicion. To establish spatial correspondence between camera views we employ an epipolar geometry technique. We propose an overlapped block search method to find the interested pattern (target in new frames. Color pattern update scheme has been considered to further optimize the efficiency of the object tracking when object pattern changes due to object motion in the field of views of the cameras. Evaluation of our approach is presented with the results on PETS2007 dataset..

A Calculus with Partially Dynamic Records for Typeful Manipulation of JSON Objects

OpenAIRE

Ohori, Atsushi; Ueno, Katsuhiro; Sasaki, Tomohiro; Kikuchi, Daisuke

2016-01-01

This paper investigates language constructs for high-level and type-safe manipulation of JSON objects in a typed functional language. A major obstacle in representing JSON in a static type system is their heterogeneous nature: in most practical JSON APIs, a JSON array is a heterogeneous list consisting of, for example, objects having common fields and possibly some optional fields. This paper presents a typed calculus that reconciles static typing constraints and heterogeneous JSON arrays...

FEM analysis of impact of external objects to pipelines

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Gracie, Robert; Konuk, Ibrahim [Geological Survey of Canada, Ottawa, ON (Canada)]. E-mail: ikonuk@NRCan.gc.ca; Fredj, Abdelfettah [BMT Fleet Technology Limited, Ottawa, ON (Canada)

2003-07-01

One of the most common hazards to pipelines is impact of external objects. Earth moving machinery, farm equipment or bullets can dent or fail land pipelines. External objects such as anchors, fishing gear, ice can damage offshore pipelines. This paper develops an FEM model to simulate the impact process and presents investigations using the FEM model to determine the influence of the geometry and velocity of the impacting object and also will study the influence of the pipe diameter, wall thickness, and concrete thickness along with internal pressure. The FEM model is developed by using LS-DYNA explicit FEM software utilizing shell and solid elements. The model allows damage and removal of the concrete and corrosion coating elements during impact. Parametric studies will be presented relating the dent size to pipe diameter, wall thickness and concrete thickness, internal pipe pressure, and impacting object geometry. The primary objective of this paper is to develop and present the FEM model. The model can be applied to both offshore and land pipeline problems. Some examples are used to illustrate how the model can be applied to real life problems. A future paper will present more detailed parametric studies. (author)

Tracking planets and moons: mechanisms of object tracking revealed with a new paradigm.

Science.gov (United States)

Tombu, Michael; Seiffert, Adriane E

2011-04-01

People can attend to and track multiple moving objects over time. Cognitive theories of this ability emphasize location information and differ on the importance of motion information. Results from several experiments have shown that increasing object speed impairs performance, although speed was confounded with other properties such as proximity of objects to one another. Here, we introduce a new paradigm to study multiple object tracking in which object speed and object proximity were manipulated independently. Like the motion of a planet and moon, each target-distractor pair rotated about both a common local point as well as the center of the screen. Tracking performance was strongly affected by object speed even when proximity was controlled. Additional results suggest that two different mechanisms are used in object tracking--one sensitive to speed and proximity and the other sensitive to the number of distractors. These observations support models of object tracking that include information about object motion and reject models that use location alone.

Hybrid Force and Position Control Strategy of Robonaut Performing Object Transfer Task

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Chen Gang

2018-01-01

Full Text Available This paper proposes a coordinated hybrid force/position control strategy of robonaut performing object transfer operation. Firstly, the constraint relationships between robonaut and object are presented. Base on them, the unified dynamic model of the robonaut and object is established to design the hybrid force/position control method. The movement, the internal force and the external constraint force of the object are considered as the control targets of the control system. Finally, a MATLAB simulation of the robonaut performing object transfer task verifies the correctness and effectiveness of the proposed method. The results show that all the targets can be control accurately by using the method proposed in this paper. The presented control method can control both internal and external forces while maintaining control accuracy, which is a common control strategy.

Predicting the duration of sickness absence for patients with common mental disorders in occupational health care

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Nieuwenhuijsen, K.; Verbeek, J.H.A.M.; Boer, A.G.E.M. de; Blonk, R.W.B.; Dijk, F.J.H. van

2006-01-01

Objectives: This study attempted to determine the factors that best predict the duration of absence from work among employees with common mental disorders. Methods: A cohort of 188 employees, of whom 102 were teachers, on sick leave with common mental disorders was followed for 1 year. Only

Predicting the duration of sickness absence for patients with common mental disorders in occupational health care

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Nieuwenhuijsen, Karen; Verbeek, Jos H. A. M.; de Boer, Angela G. E. M.; Blonk, Roland W. B.; van Dijk, Frank J. H.

2006-01-01

OBJECTIVES: This study attempted to determine the factors that best predict the duration of absence from work among employees with common mental disorders. METHODS: A cohort of 188 employees, of whom 102 were teachers, on sick leave with common mental disorders was followed for 1 year. Only

STRATEGIC COMBINED JOINT SPECIAL OPERATIONS AND THE BALANCE BETWEEN NATIONAL AND COMMON INTEREST

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Florin NEGULESCU

2011-01-01

Full Text Available This paper’s purpose is to explore how the relation between national interest and common interest of different countries determine them to build a transnational military alliance in order to achieve common strategic aims by launching strategic combined joint special operations. Those common strategic aims are composed, in variable percentages, of the partners’ national goals. The use of special operations for achieving national objectives is made after all political possibilities are ruled out and when using conventional forces is neither necessary nor recommended. The balance between the coalition’s common interest and member states’ national interest influences the strength of the partnership. There are three types of relations between the common interest of the coalition and the national interest of a state: direct, complementary, and opportunistic relationships

Gravitational Waves from Accreting Neutron Stars Undergoing Common-envelope Inspiral

Science.gov (United States)

Holgado, A. Miguel; Ricker, Paul M.; Huerta, E. A.

2018-04-01

The common-envelope phase is a likely formation channel for close binary systems containing compact objects. Neutron stars in common envelopes accrete at a fraction of the Bondi–Hoyle–Lyttleton accretion rate, since the stellar envelope is inhomogeneous, but they may still be able to accrete at hypercritical rates (though not enough to become black holes). We show that common-envelope systems consisting of a neutron star with a massive primary may be gravitational-wave (GW) sources detectable in the Advanced LIGO band as far away as the Magellanic Clouds. To characterize their evolution, we perform orbital integrations using 1D models of 12 M ⊙ and 20 M ⊙ primaries, considering the effects of density gradient on the accretion onto the NS and spin evolution. From the range of possible accretion rates relevant to common-envelope evolution, we find that these systems may be louder GW sources than low-mass X-ray binaries like Sco X-1, which are currently the target of directed searches for continuous GWs. We also find that their strain amplitude signal may allow for novel constraints on the orbital separation and inspiral timescale in common envelopes when combined with pre-common-envelope electromagnetic observations.

Effects of Transference Work in the Context of Therapeutic Alliance and Quality of Object Relations

Science.gov (United States)

Hoglend, Per; Hersoug, Anne Grete; Bogwald, Kjell-Petter; Amlo, Svein; Marble, Alice; Sorbye, Oystein; Rossberg, Jan Ivar; Ulberg, Randi; Gabbard, Glen O.; Crits-Christoph, Paul

2011-01-01

Objective: Transference interpretation is considered as a core active ingredient in dynamic psychotherapy. In common clinical theory, it is maintained that more mature relationships, as well as a strong therapeutic alliance, may be prerequisites for successful transference work. In this study, the interaction between quality of object relations,…

MDEP Design-Specific Common Position CP-APR1400WG-01. Common position addressing Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant accident

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2016-05-01

The MDEP APR1400 Working Group (APR1400WG) members consist of members from Republic of Korea, United Arab Emirates, and the United States. A main objectives of MDEP is to encourage convergence of code, standard and safety goals with exploring the opportunities for harmonization of regulatory practice and cooperation on safety review of APR-1400 specific designs. This common position addressing is aimed at sharing knowledge, information and experience on safety improvement related to lessons learned from the Fukushima Daiichi NPP Accident or Fukushima Daiichi NPP Accident-related issues amongst APR-1400 WG member states to achieve the MEDP goal. Because not all of these Regulators have completed the regulatory review of their APR1400 applications yet, this paper identifies common preliminary approaches to address potential safety improvements for APR1400 plants, as well as common general expectations for new nuclear power plants, as related to lessons learned from the Fukushima Daiichi NPP Accident or Fukushima Daiichi NPP Accident-related issues. While some asymmetry exists among those of three Regulators in terms of design, regulatory practice and licensing milestone sharing information and common understanding on post-Fukushima Daiichi NPP Accident enhancement would be promote resilient design for countering beyond design extreme external event like Fukushima Daiichi NPP nuclear disaster. This common position paper aims at identifying characteristics of post-Fukushima Daiichi NPP Accident enhancements putting in place by each country and setting common position to achieve balanced and harmonized APR-1400 design. After the safety reviews of the APR1400 design applications that are currently in review are completed, the regulators will update this paper to reflect their safety conclusions regarding the APR1400 design and how the design could be enhanced to address Fukushima Daiichi NPP Accident-related issues. The common preliminary approaches are organised into

Reliable Recognition of Partially Occluded Objects with Correlation Filters

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Alexey Ruchay

2018-01-01

Full Text Available Design of conventional correlation filters requires explicit knowledge of the appearance and shape of a target object, so the performance of correlation filters is significantly affected by changes in the appearance of the object in the input scene. In particular, the performance of correlation filters worsens when objects to be recognized are partially occluded by other objects, and the input scene contains a cluttered background and noise. In this paper, we propose a new algorithm for the design of a system consisting of a set of adaptive correlation filters for recognition of partially occluded objects in noisy scenes. Since the input scene may contain different fragments of the target, false objects, and background to be rejected, the system is designed in such a manner to guarantee equally high correlation peaks corresponding to parts of the target in the scenes. The key points of the system are as follows: (i it consists of a bank of composite optimum filters, which yield the best performance for different parts of the target; (ii it includes a fragmentation of the target into a given number of parts in the training stage to provide equal intensity responses of the system for each part of the target. With the help of computer simulation, the performance of the proposed algorithm for recognition partially occluded objects is compared with that of common algorithms in terms of objective metrics.

Object recognition memory: neurobiological mechanisms of encoding, consolidation and retrieval.

Science.gov (United States)

Winters, Boyer D; Saksida, Lisa M; Bussey, Timothy J

2008-07-01

Tests of object recognition memory, or the judgment of the prior occurrence of an object, have made substantial contributions to our understanding of the nature and neurobiological underpinnings of mammalian memory. Only in recent years, however, have researchers begun to elucidate the specific brain areas and neural processes involved in object recognition memory. The present review considers some of this recent research, with an emphasis on studies addressing the neural bases of perirhinal cortex-dependent object recognition memory processes. We first briefly discuss operational definitions of object recognition and the common behavioural tests used to measure it in non-human primates and rodents. We then consider research from the non-human primate and rat literature examining the anatomical basis of object recognition memory in the delayed nonmatching-to-sample (DNMS) and spontaneous object recognition (SOR) tasks, respectively. The results of these studies overwhelmingly favor the view that perirhinal cortex (PRh) is a critical region for object recognition memory. We then discuss the involvement of PRh in the different stages--encoding, consolidation, and retrieval--of object recognition memory. Specifically, recent work in rats has indicated that neural activity in PRh contributes to object memory encoding, consolidation, and retrieval processes. Finally, we consider the pharmacological, cellular, and molecular factors that might play a part in PRh-mediated object recognition memory. Recent studies in rodents have begun to indicate the remarkable complexity of the neural substrates underlying this seemingly simple aspect of declarative memory.

Java programming fundamentals problem solving through object oriented analysis and design

CERN Document Server

Nair, Premchand S

2008-01-01

While Java texts are plentiful, it's difficult to find one that takes a real-world approach, and encourages novice programmers to build on their Java skills through practical exercise. Written by an expert with 19 experience teaching computer programming, Java Programming Fundamentals presents object-oriented programming by employing examples taken from everyday life. Provides a foundation in object-oriented design principles and UML notation Describes common pitfalls and good programming practicesFurnishes supplemental links, documents, and programs on its companion website, www.premnair.netU

Performing Materiality: Rethinking the Subject-Object Relationship as a Site of Exchange in Performance Practice

OpenAIRE

Hussein, Nesreen

2011-01-01

This thesis reconsiders the relationship between the human subject and the physical object in performance practice, which has been commonly perceived within hierarchical systems of instrumentalisation. The thesis demonstrates that in processes of performance making and reception, the role of physical objects goes beyond mimesis and direct representation. Physical objects and materials have the capacity to take active parts in a complex and multilayered performance dynamic, articulating ways o...

Oxidized limonene and oxidized linalool - Concomitant contact allergy to common fragrance terpenes

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bråred Christensson, Johanna; Karlberg, Ann Therese; Andersen, Klaus E.

2016-01-01

Summary Background Limonene and linalool are common fragrance terpenes. Both oxidized R-limonene and oxidized linalool have recently been patch tested in an international setting, showing contact allergy in 5.2% and 6.9% of dermatitis patients, respectively. Objective To investigate concomitant r...

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

Science.gov (United States)

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).

Eugenol as an anesthetic for juvenile common snook

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jurandir Joaquim Bernardes Júnior

2013-08-01

Full Text Available The objective of this work was to evaluate the efficacy of eugenol as an anesthetic for juvenile common snook, and to determine the minimum effective concentration for use in handling procedures. In the first trial, juvenile common snook were subjected to immersion baths at 25, 50, 75, 100, 125, and 150 mg L-1 eugenol concentrations, after which induction and recovery times were evaluated. In the second experiment, the lethal exposure time (LT50 at 75 mg L-1 was estimated. Minimum effective eugenol concentration was 50 mg L-1, andthe stage of deep anesthesia and recovery were, respectively, reached at 126.3 and 208.8 s. At 75 mg L-1, LT50 was 1,314 s, and induction time and recovery were also satisfactory; however, fish cannot tolerate over 229 s exposure.

Evaluation of the appropriate use of commonly prescribed fluoroquinolones and the risk of dysglycemia

Science.gov (United States)

Kabbara, Wissam K; Ramadan, Wijdan H; Rahbany, Peggy; Al-Natour, Souhaila

2015-01-01

Background Fluoroquinolones are among the most widely prescribed antibiotics. However, concerns about increasing resistant microorganisms and the risk of dysglycemia associated with the use of these agents have emerged. Objective The primary objective of the study was to evaluate the appropriate use of commonly prescribed fluoroquinolones, including appropriate indication, dose, dose adjustment in renal impairment, and duration of treatment. The secondary objective was to investigate the dysglycemic effect of fluoroquinolone use (hypoglycemia and/or hyperglycemia) in diabetic and nondiabetic patients. Methods A prospective observational study at a teaching hospital in Lebanon was conducted over a 6-month period. A total of 118 patients receiving broad-spectrum fluoroquinolones (levofloxacin, ciprofloxacin, and moxifloxacin) were identified. Patients were mainly recruited from internal medicine floors and intensive care units. Results The final percentage for the appropriate indication, dose, and duration of fluoroquinolone therapy was 93.2%, 74.6%, and 57.6%, respectively. A total of 57.1% of the patients did not receive the appropriate dose adjustment according to their level of renal impairment. In addition, dysglycemia occurred in both diabetic and nondiabetic patients. Dysglycemia was more frequently encountered with ciprofloxacin (50.0%), followed by levofloxacin (42.4%) and moxifloxacin (7.6%). Hyperglycemia was more common than hypoglycemia in all groups. The highest incidence of hyperglycemia occurred with levofloxacin (70.0%), followed by ciprofloxacin (39.0%) and moxifloxacin (33.3%). In contrast, hypoglycemia did not occur in the ciprofloxacin group, but it was more common with moxifloxacin (11.1%) and levofloxacin (6.0%). Conclusion The major clinical interventions for the future will adjust the dose and duration of therapy with commonly prescribed fluoroquinolones. The incidence of hypoglycemia was less common than hyperglycemia. PMID:25960658

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.

Investigating differences between proper and common nouns using novel word learning

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Anastasiya Romanova

2014-04-01

Full Text Available Empirical studies have shown higher rates of tip-of-the-tongue states for proper nouns, in comparison to common nouns, in non-brain-damaged speakers (e.g., Valentine & Moore, 1995, and higher retrieval failure rates for proper nouns relative to common nouns in people with aphasia (e.g., Semenza, 2009. Some authors suggest the source of these differences lies in logical properties (e.g., Semenza, 2009. That is, common nouns refer to a category of beings or objects that share certain semantic properties, while proper nouns designate specific individual beings or objects with unique features. Other authors attribute the distinction in processing to a number of statistical properties that differ across common and proper nouns (Kay, Hanley, & Miles, 2001. The aims of the present study were: 1 to dissociate the effects of logical and statistical properties by using novel words with equal statistical properties; 2 to determine whether people with aphasia show disproportionate impairments in learning proper nouns relative to common nouns, compared to aged-matched subjects. Methods We tested young (n=16 and elderly (n=14 adult non-brain-damaged participants and people with aphasia (n=2. Items-to-be-learnt were given as representatives of an unknown species (n=10 in the common noun condition, or as individual creatures (n=10 in the proper noun condition. The experiment consisted of 5 sessions. Each session included a learning phase and a test phase with naming and word-picture verification tasks. Results and Discussion Preliminary analysis showed learning of both common and proper nouns for both younger (F(4=140.68, p<.01 and elderly (F(4=34.87, p<.01 non-brain-damaged participants, with learning being significantly better for the younger group (F(4=6.5, p<.01. Contrary to expectations, performance on proper nouns was better than that for common nouns for both young and elderly subjects (F(1=6.47, p=.02 and F(1=9.75, p<.01, respectively, possibly due to

A dataflow meta-computing framework for event processing in the H1 experiment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Campbell, A.; Gerhards, R.; Mkrtchyan, T.; Levonian, S.; Grab, C.; Martyniak, J.; Nowak, J.

2001-01-01

Linux based networked PCs clusters are replacing both the VME non uniform direct memory access systems and SMP shared memory systems used previously for the online event filtering and reconstruction. To allow an optimal use of the distributed resources of PC clusters an open software framework is presently being developed based on a dataflow paradigm for event processing. This framework allows for the distribution of the data of physics events and associated calibration data to multiple computers from multiple input sources for processing and the subsequent collection of the processed events at multiple outputs. The basis of the system is the event repository, basically a first-in first-out event store which may be read and written in a manner similar to sequential file access. Events are stored in and transferred between repositories as suitably large sequences to enable high throughput. Multiple readers can read simultaneously from a single repository to receive event sequences and multiple writers can insert event sequences to a repository. Hence repositories are used for event distribution and collection. To support synchronisation of the event flow the repository implements barriers. A barrier must be written by all the writers of a repository before any reader can read the barrier. A reader must read a barrier before it may receive data from behind it. Only after all readers have read the barrier is the barrier removed from the repository. A barrier may also have attached data. In this way calibration data can be distributed to all processing units. The repositories are implemented as multi-threaded CORBA objects in C++ and CORBA is used for all data transfers. Job setup scripts are written in python and interactive status and histogram display is provided by a Java program. Jobs run under the PBS batch system providing shared use of resources for online triggering, offline mass reprocessing and user analysis jobs

Early object relations into new objects.

Science.gov (United States)

Downey, T W

2001-01-01

. Pain deprived of meaning is buried as neurosis. As we see in John's story, experience that cannot be integrated at the time is locked away from whatever developmental progression has occurred. Intolerable affects and ideas require particular circumstances of object relation and verbalization such as are found in the context of psychoanalysis and arrived at through psychoanalytic interpretation. Or, as in John's case, they may give way only slowly and irregularly over long stretches of time, when subjected to life experiences in the company of new object relations. Broadly stated, the Freud-Dann paper helps us to appreciate that there are several pathways of protection and growth in the ego that involve the discovery or construction of new objects. Family-romance fantasies are a common manifestation of new-object phenomena. Transitional object phenomena are also related. For some individuals at a particular time or over a span of time, providing the right circumstances for the resumption of maturational and developmental growth is all it takes to make them whole. Changes in the adaptive ego are sufficient to alleviate the conflicts stemming from the neurotic ego. For others, depending upon the degree of their neurotic impairment, or for the same individual under other circumstances, therapeutic change in the deepest sense demands the relatively unconditional presence of the interactive and interpreting other. Children of the storm who come in for shelter and warmth may thrive, but they also require a means of getting at the storm in their core that has been internalized as part of the ego's survival mechanism. What can be extracted from the poignant story of the Bulldogs Bank children about current child-analytic technique? The psychoanalytic piano now may be more formally conceptualized as having white as well as black keys. Most analyses, adult and child, have been conducted as though the "black keys"--pressure to mastery through repetition and its subsequent

Scientific analysis of a calcified object from a post-medieval burial in Vienna, Austria.

Science.gov (United States)

Binder, Michaela; Berner, Margit; Krause, Heike; Kucera, Matthias; Patzak, Beatrix

2016-09-01

Calcifications commonly occur in association with soft tissue inflammation. However, they are not often discussed in palaeopathological literature, frequently due to problems of identification and diagnosis. We present a calcified object (40×27×27cm) found with a middle-aged male from a post-medieval cemetery in Vienna. It was not recognized during excavation, thus its anatomical location within the body remains unknown. The object was subject to X-ray, SEM and CT scanning and compared to historic pathological objects held in the collection of the Natural History Museum Vienna. Two of closest resemblance, a thyroid adenoma and goitre were subject to similar analytical techniques for comparison. Despite similarities between all objects, the structure of the object most closely conforms to a thyroid tumor. Nevertheless, due to similar pathophysiological pathways and biochemical composition of calcified soft tissue, a secure identification outside of its anatomical context is not possible. The research further highlights the fact that recognition of such objects during excavation is crucial for a more conclusive diagnosis. Historic medical records indicate that they were common and might therefore be expected to frequently occur in cemeteries. Consequently, an increasing the dataset of calcifications would also aid in extending the knowledge about diseases in past human populations. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Surrogate Based Uni/Multi-Objective Optimization and Distribution Estimation Methods

Science.gov (United States)

Gong, W.; Duan, Q.; Huo, X.

2017-12-01

Parameter calibration has been demonstrated as an effective way to improve the performance of dynamic models, such as hydrological models, land surface models, weather and climate models etc. Traditional optimization algorithms usually cost a huge number of model evaluations, making dynamic model calibration very difficult, or even computationally prohibitive. With the help of a serious of recently developed adaptive surrogate-modelling based optimization methods: uni-objective optimization method ASMO, multi-objective optimization method MO-ASMO, and probability distribution estimation method ASMO-PODE, the number of model evaluations can be significantly reduced to several hundreds, making it possible to calibrate very expensive dynamic models, such as regional high resolution land surface models, weather forecast models such as WRF, and intermediate complexity earth system models such as LOVECLIM. This presentation provides a brief introduction to the common framework of adaptive surrogate-based optimization algorithms of ASMO, MO-ASMO and ASMO-PODE, a case study of Common Land Model (CoLM) calibration in Heihe river basin in Northwest China, and an outlook of the potential applications of the surrogate-based optimization methods.

Architectural Implications for Spatial Object Association Algorithms*

Science.gov (United States)

Kumar, Vijay S.; Kurc, Tahsin; Saltz, Joel; Abdulla, Ghaleb; Kohn, Scott R.; Matarazzo, Celeste

2013-01-01

Spatial object association, also referred to as crossmatch of spatial datasets, is the problem of identifying and comparing objects in two or more datasets based on their positions in a common spatial coordinate system. In this work, we evaluate two crossmatch algorithms that are used for astronomical sky surveys, on the following database system architecture configurations: (1) Netezza Performance Server®, a parallel database system with active disk style processing capabilities, (2) MySQL Cluster, a high-throughput network database system, and (3) a hybrid configuration consisting of a collection of independent database system instances with data replication support. Our evaluation provides insights about how architectural characteristics of these systems affect the performance of the spatial crossmatch algorithms. We conducted our study using real use-case scenarios borrowed from a large-scale astronomy application known as the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST). PMID:25692244

Establishing Common Course Objectives for Undergraduate Exercise Physiology

Science.gov (United States)

Simonson, Shawn R.

2015-01-01

Undergraduate exercise physiology is a ubiquitous course in undergraduate kinesiology/exercise science programs with a broad scope and depth of topics. It is valuable to explore what is taught within this course. The purpose of the present study was to facilitate an understanding of what instructors teach in undergraduate exercise physiology, how…

Featureous: infrastructure for feature-centric analysis of object-oriented software

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Olszak, Andrzej; Jørgensen, Bo Nørregaard

2010-01-01

The decentralized nature of collaborations between objects in object-oriented software makes it difficult to understand how user-observable program features are implemented and how their implementations relate to each other. It is worthwhile to improve this situation, since feature-centric program...... understanding and modification are essential during software evolution and maintenance. In this paper, we present an infrastructure built on top of the NetBeans IDE called Featureous that allows for rapid construction of tools for feature-centric analysis of object-oriented software. Our infrastructure...... encompasses a lightweight feature location mechanism, a number of analytical views and an API allowing for addition of third-party extensions. To form a common conceptual framework for future feature-centric extensions, we propose to structure feature centric analysis along three dimensions: perspective...

Seismically induced common cause failures in PSA of nuclear power plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ravindra, M.K.; Johnson, J.J.

1991-01-01

In this paper, a research project on the seismically induced common cause failures in nuclear power plants performed for Toshiba Corp. is described. The objective of this research was to develop the procedure for estimating the common cause failure probabilities of different nuclear power plant components using the combination of seismic experience data, the review of sources of dependency, sensitivity studies and engineering judgement. The research project consisted of three tasks: the investigation of damage instances in past earthquakes, the analysis of multiple failures and their root causes, and the development of the methodology for assessing seismically induced common cause failures. The details of these tasks are explained. In this paper, the works carried out in the third task are described. A methodology for treating common cause failures and the correlation between component failures is formulated; it highlights the modeling of event trees taking into account common cause failures and the development of fault trees considering the correlation between component failures. The overview of seismic PSA, the quantification methods for dependent failures and Latin Hypercube sampling method are described. (K.I.)

Breaking object correspondence across saccadic eye movements deteriorates object recognition

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

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

Early (M170) activation of face-specific cortex by face-like objects.

Science.gov (United States)

Hadjikhani, Nouchine; Kveraga, Kestutis; Naik, Paulami; Ahlfors, Seppo P

2009-03-04

The tendency to perceive faces in random patterns exhibiting configural properties of faces is an example of pareidolia. Perception of 'real' faces has been associated with a cortical response signal arising at approximately 170 ms after stimulus onset, but what happens when nonface objects are perceived as faces? Using magnetoencephalography, we found that objects incidentally perceived as faces evoked an early (165 ms) activation in the ventral fusiform cortex, at a time and location similar to that evoked by faces, whereas common objects did not evoke such activation. An earlier peak at 130 ms was also seen for images of real faces only. Our findings suggest that face perception evoked by face-like objects is a relatively early process, and not a late reinterpretation cognitive phenomenon.

Risk Management of Jettisoned Objects in LEO

Science.gov (United States)

Bacon, John B.; Gray, Charles

2011-01-01

The construction and maintenance of the International Space Station (ISS) has led to the release of many objects into its orbital plane, usually during the course of an extra-vehicular activity (EVA). Such releases are often unintentional, but in a growing number of cases, the jettison has been intentional, conducted after a careful assessment of the net risk to the partnership and to other objects in space. Since its launch in 1998 the ISS has contributed on average at least one additional debris object that is simultaneously in orbit with the station, although the number varies widely from zero to eight at any one moment. All of these objects present potential risks to other objects in orbit. Whether it comes from known and tracked orbiting objects or from unknown or untrackable objects, collision with orbital debris can have disastrous consequences. Objects greater than 10cm are generally well documented and tracked, allowing orbiting spacecraft or satellites opportunities to perform evasive maneuvers (commonly known as Debris Avoidance Maneuvers, or DAMs) in the event that imminent collision is predicted. The issue with smaller debris; however, is that it is too numerous to be tracked effectively and yet still poses disastrous consequences if it intercepts a larger object. Due to the immense kinetic energy of any item in orbit, collision with debris as small as 1cm can have catastrophic consequences for many orbiting satellites or spacecraft. Faced with the growing orbital debris threat and the potentially catastrophic consequences of a collision-generated debris shower originating in an orbit crossing the ISS altitude band, in 2007 the ISS program manger asked program specialists to coordinate a multilateral jettison policy amongst the ISS partners. This policy would define the acceptable risk trade rationale for intentional release of a debris object, and other mandatory constraints on such jettisons to minimize the residual risks whenever a jettison was

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...

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...

Burden of common mental disorders in patients with Functional Dyspepsia

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sattar, A.; Salih, M.; Jafri, W.

2010-01-01

Objective: To assess the frequency of common mental disorders among diagnosed functional dyspepsia patients. Methods: A case-control study with 150 cases of functional dyspepsia (FD) and 150 healthy controls were recruited from Gastroenterology Clinic at the Aga Khan University Hospital Karachi from 1, March 2009 through 31, August 2009. Urdu version of WHO-developed Self-Reporting Questionnaire (SRQ) was administered to diagnose patients of FD and healthy controls. A cut off score of 8 on SRQ was used to confirm cases of Common mental disorders (CMD). Data was entered and analyzed by SPSS version 16.0. Result: There was significant difference in CMD i.e. 107 (71.33%) versus 23 (15.33%) in cases and controls respectively (p- <0.001). Among cases CMD was more common in females i.e. in 57 (80.3%) as compared 50 (63.3%) in males (p- 0.022). Conclusion: There is high prevalence of Common mental disorders among patients with functional dyspepsia and this needs to be addressed while treating patients. (author)

Common Technologies for Environmental Research Infrastructures in ENVRIplus

Science.gov (United States)

Paris, Jean-Daniel

2016-04-01

develop a common metrological language adapted to the observation of our environment? We aim at creating a space for exchange on the "hardware" issues of our networks of observatories, a forum that allows fast transmission across RIs of best practices and state of the art technology, a laboratory for joint research and co-development, where research infrastructures and their communities join efforts on well-identified objectives.

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.

Nano-objects emitted during maintenance of common particle generators: direct chemical characterization with aerosol mass spectrometry and implications for risk assessments

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Nilsson, Patrik T., E-mail: patrik.nilsson@design.lth.se; Isaxon, Christina [Lund University, Ergonomics and Aerosol Technology (Sweden); Eriksson, Axel C. [Lund University, Nuclear Physics (Sweden); Messing, Maria E. [Lund University, Solid State Physics (Sweden); Ludvigsson, Linus; Rissler, Jenny [Lund University, Ergonomics and Aerosol Technology (Sweden); Hedmer, Maria; Tinnerberg, Håkan [Lund University, Division of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Department of Laboratory Medicine (Sweden); Gudmundsson, Anders [Lund University, Ergonomics and Aerosol Technology (Sweden); Deppert, Knut [Lund University, Solid State Physics (Sweden); Bohgard, Mats; Pagels, Joakim H. [Lund University, Ergonomics and Aerosol Technology (Sweden)

2013-11-15

Nanotechnology gives us materials with enhanced or completely new properties. At the same time, inhalation of manufactured nano-objects has been related to an array of adverse biological effects. We characterized particle emissions, which occurred during maintenance of common metal nanoparticle generators and contrasted the properties of the emitted particles with those originally produced by the generators. A new approach using online aerosol mass spectrometry (AMS), for time- and size-resolved measurements of the particle chemical composition, was applied in combination with more conventional techniques for particle sampling and analysis, including electron microscopy. Emissions during maintenance work, in terms of mass and surface area concentration in the size range of 0.02–10 μm, were dominated by large agglomerates (1–5 μm). With AMS, we show that the particle composition depends on both generator type and maintenance task being performed and that the instrument can be used for highly time-resolved selective studies of metal nanoparticle emissions. The emitted agglomerates have a relatively high probability to be deposited in the lower respiratory tract, since the mean particle diameter coincided with a peak in the lung deposition curve. Each of these agglomerates consisted of a very high number (10{sup 3}–10{sup 5}/agglomerate) of nanometer-sized primary particles originating from the particle synthesis process. This made them possess large surface areas, one of the key properties in nanotoxicology. Similar agglomerates may be emitted in a wide range of processes when nanoparticles are manufactured or handled. The fate of such agglomerates, once deposited in the respiratory tract, is unknown and should therefore be considered in future particle toxicological studies. Our results highlight the importance of including micrometer-sized particles in exposure and emission assessments.

Nano-objects emitted during maintenance of common particle generators: direct chemical characterization with aerosol mass spectrometry and implications for risk assessments

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nilsson, Patrik T.; Isaxon, Christina; Eriksson, Axel C.; Messing, Maria E.; Ludvigsson, Linus; Rissler, Jenny; Hedmer, Maria; Tinnerberg, Håkan; Gudmundsson, Anders; Deppert, Knut; Bohgard, Mats; Pagels, Joakim H.

2013-01-01

Nanotechnology gives us materials with enhanced or completely new properties. At the same time, inhalation of manufactured nano-objects has been related to an array of adverse biological effects. We characterized particle emissions, which occurred during maintenance of common metal nanoparticle generators and contrasted the properties of the emitted particles with those originally produced by the generators. A new approach using online aerosol mass spectrometry (AMS), for time- and size-resolved measurements of the particle chemical composition, was applied in combination with more conventional techniques for particle sampling and analysis, including electron microscopy. Emissions during maintenance work, in terms of mass and surface area concentration in the size range of 0.02–10 μm, were dominated by large agglomerates (1–5 μm). With AMS, we show that the particle composition depends on both generator type and maintenance task being performed and that the instrument can be used for highly time-resolved selective studies of metal nanoparticle emissions. The emitted agglomerates have a relatively high probability to be deposited in the lower respiratory tract, since the mean particle diameter coincided with a peak in the lung deposition curve. Each of these agglomerates consisted of a very high number (10 3 –10 5 /agglomerate) of nanometer-sized primary particles originating from the particle synthesis process. This made them possess large surface areas, one of the key properties in nanotoxicology. Similar agglomerates may be emitted in a wide range of processes when nanoparticles are manufactured or handled. The fate of such agglomerates, once deposited in the respiratory tract, is unknown and should therefore be considered in future particle toxicological studies. Our results highlight the importance of including micrometer-sized particles in exposure and emission assessments

Enhanced sensitization and elicitation responses caused by mixtures of common fragrance allergens

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bonefeld, Charlotte Menné; Nielsen, Morten Milek; Rubin, Ingrid Maria Cecilia

2011-01-01

Background. Perfumes are complex mixtures composed of many fragrance ingredients, many of which are known to be only weak allergens when tested individually. It is therefore surprising that fragrance contact allergy is one of the most common forms of contact allergy. Objectives. To investigate wh...

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

Advantages of Task-Specific Multi-Objective Optimisation in Evolutionary Robotics.

Science.gov (United States)

Trianni, Vito; López-Ibáñez, Manuel

2015-01-01

The application of multi-objective optimisation to evolutionary robotics is receiving increasing attention. A survey of the literature reveals the different possibilities it offers to improve the automatic design of efficient and adaptive robotic systems, and points to the successful demonstrations available for both task-specific and task-agnostic approaches (i.e., with or without reference to the specific design problem to be tackled). However, the advantages of multi-objective approaches over single-objective ones have not been clearly spelled out and experimentally demonstrated. This paper fills this gap for task-specific approaches: starting from well-known results in multi-objective optimisation, we discuss how to tackle commonly recognised problems in evolutionary robotics. In particular, we show that multi-objective optimisation (i) allows evolving a more varied set of behaviours by exploring multiple trade-offs of the objectives to optimise, (ii) supports the evolution of the desired behaviour through the introduction of objectives as proxies, (iii) avoids the premature convergence to local optima possibly introduced by multi-component fitness functions, and (iv) solves the bootstrap problem exploiting ancillary objectives to guide evolution in the early phases. We present an experimental demonstration of these benefits in three different case studies: maze navigation in a single robot domain, flocking in a swarm robotics context, and a strictly collaborative task in collective robotics.

Advantages of Task-Specific Multi-Objective Optimisation in Evolutionary Robotics.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Vito Trianni

Full Text Available The application of multi-objective optimisation to evolutionary robotics is receiving increasing attention. A survey of the literature reveals the different possibilities it offers to improve the automatic design of efficient and adaptive robotic systems, and points to the successful demonstrations available for both task-specific and task-agnostic approaches (i.e., with or without reference to the specific design problem to be tackled. However, the advantages of multi-objective approaches over single-objective ones have not been clearly spelled out and experimentally demonstrated. This paper fills this gap for task-specific approaches: starting from well-known results in multi-objective optimisation, we discuss how to tackle commonly recognised problems in evolutionary robotics. In particular, we show that multi-objective optimisation (i allows evolving a more varied set of behaviours by exploring multiple trade-offs of the objectives to optimise, (ii supports the evolution of the desired behaviour through the introduction of objectives as proxies, (iii avoids the premature convergence to local optima possibly introduced by multi-component fitness functions, and (iv solves the bootstrap problem exploiting ancillary objectives to guide evolution in the early phases. We present an experimental demonstration of these benefits in three different case studies: maze navigation in a single robot domain, flocking in a swarm robotics context, and a strictly collaborative task in collective robotics.

Microworlds for Learning Object-Oriented Programming: Considerations from Research to Practice

Science.gov (United States)

Djelil, Fahima; Albouy-Kissi, Adelaide; Albouy-Kissi, Benjamin; Sanchez, Eric; Lavest, Jean-Marc

2016-01-01

Object-Oriented paradigm is a common paradigm for introductory programming courses. However, many teachers find that transitioning to teaching this paradigm is a difficult task. To overcome this complexity, many experienced teachers use microworlds to give beginner students an intuitive and rapid understanding of fundamental abstract concepts of…

Inhibition of Common Cold-Induced Aggravation of Childhood Asthma by Leukotriene Receptor Antagonists

OpenAIRE

Shigemi Yoshihara; Hironobu Fukuda; Toshio Abe; Mitsuhiro Nishida; Yumi Yamada; Noriko Kanno; Osamu Arisaka

2012-01-01

Background: : Virus infection is an important risk factor for aggravation of childhood asthma. The objective of this study was to examine the effect of drugs on aggravation of asthma induced by a common cold. Methods: : Asthma control was examined in a survey of 1,014 Japanese pediatric patients with bronchial asthma. The occurrence of common cold, asthma control, and drugs used for asthma control were investigated using a modified Childhood Asthma Control Test (C-ACT) for patients aged

Isometric surfaces with a common mean curvature and the problem of Bonnet pairs

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sabitov, Idzhad Kh

2012-01-01

Simple methods are used to give new proofs, and sometimes to make them more precise, of basic theorems on isometric surfaces with a common mean curvature, which are usually called Bonnet pairs. The considerations are conducted under the assumption of minimally admissible smoothness of the objects in question, and certain necessary or sufficient criteria are given for the non-existence of Bonnet pairs with a common non-constant mean curvature among compact surfaces. Bibliography: 26 titles.

A knowledge discovery object model API for Java

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Jones Steven JM

2003-10-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Biological data resources have become heterogeneous and derive from multiple sources. This introduces challenges in the management and utilization of this data in software development. Although efforts are underway to create a standard format for the transmission and storage of biological data, this objective has yet to be fully realized. Results This work describes an application programming interface (API that provides a framework for developing an effective biological knowledge ontology for Java-based software projects. The API provides a robust framework for the data acquisition and management needs of an ontology implementation. In addition, the API contains classes to assist in creating GUIs to represent this data visually. Conclusions The Knowledge Discovery Object Model (KDOM API is particularly useful for medium to large applications, or for a number of smaller software projects with common characteristics or objectives. KDOM can be coupled effectively with other biologically relevant APIs and classes. Source code, libraries, documentation and examples are available at http://www.bcgsc.ca/bioinfo/software.

Integrating knowledge based functionality in commercial hospital information systems.

Science.gov (United States)

Müller, M L; Ganslandt, T; Eich, H P; Lang, K; Ohmann, C; Prokosch, H U

2000-01-01

Successful integration of knowledge-based functions in the electronic patient record depends on direct and context-sensitive accessibility and availability to clinicians and must suit their workflow. In this paper we describe an exemplary integration of an existing standalone scoring system for acute abdominal pain into two different commercial hospital information systems using Java/Corba technolgy.

Discovering objects in a blood recipient information system.

Science.gov (United States)

Qiu, D; Junghans, G; Marquardt, K; Kroll, H; Mueller-Eckhardt, C; Dudeck, J

1995-01-01

Application of object-oriented (OO) methodologies has been generally considered as a solution to the problem of improving the software development process and managing the so-called software crisis. Among them, object-oriented analysis (OOA) is the most essential and is a vital prerequisite for the successful use of other OO methodologies. Though there are already a good deal of OOA methods published, the most important aspect common to all these methods: discovering objects classes truly relevant to the given problem domain, has remained a subject to be intensively researched. In this paper, using the successful development of a blood recipient information system as an example, we present our approach which is based on the conceptual framework of responsibility-driven OOA. In the discussion, we also suggest that it may be inadequate to simply attribute the software crisis to the waterfall model of the software development life-cycle. We are convinced that the real causes for the failure of some software and information systems should be sought in the methodologies used in some crucial phases of the software development process. Furthermore, a software system can also fail if object classes essential to the problem domain are not discovered, implemented and visualized, so that the real-world situation cannot be faithfully traced by it.

MULTIPLE OBJECTS

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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

Vitamin composition of ethnic foods commonly consumed in Europe

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Jane Ireland

2012-04-01

Full Text Available Background: Vitamin analyses are particularly important for estimating dietary intakes, determining nutritional status and regulating food labelling. Due to the increased popularity of ethnic foods, the vitamin composition of these foods is required to ensure that national food databases are up-to-date.Objectives: The key objective of this study was to generate new and reliable data on the contents of fat-soluble vitamins, including vitamins A (all trans-retinol, D3 & E (α-tocopherol and those that are water-soluble (vitamins B6, B12, C, biotin, folate, niacin, pantothenic acid, riboflavin, and thiamin in ethnic foods commonly consumed in Europe.Design: Thirty commonly-consumed ethnic foods in Europe (from Belgium, France, Israel, Italy, The Netherlands, and the UK were analysed using harmonised methodologies for identification of representative foods, sampling, data scrutiny and documentation to generate reliable data. Analyses were carried out using International standard methods. Results: Certain vitamins were present in appreciable amounts: β-carotene in tayer leaves (7919µg/100g, thiamin in frik dry (0.24mg/100g, riboflavin in mbinzo worms (0.79mg/100g, and niacin in commercial soy patty (17.5mg/100g. However, retinol, pantothenic acid, vitamins D and B12 were below detectable levels in the majority of the foods analysed.Conclusions: The majority of the foods contained most of the water-soluble vitamins but lacked fat-soluble vitamins. However, these preliminary data represent only a small number of foods per country and so no conclusions about vitamin imbalances can be drawn. Additional data are required on a much wider range of commonly-consumed ethnic foods to make firm conclusions about adequacy of diets.

Internet Based Robot Control Using CORBA Based Communications

Science.gov (United States)

2009-12-01

Proceedings of the IADIS International Conference WWW/Internet, ICWI 2002, pp. 485–490. [5] Flanagan, David , Farley, Jim, Crawford, William, and...Conference on Robotics andAutomation, ICRA’00., pp. 2019–2024. [7] Schulz, D., Burgard, W., Cremers , A., Fox, D., and Thrun, S. (2000), Web interfaces

3D Object Metamorphosis with Pseudo Metameshes

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MOCANU, B.

2015-02-01

Full Text Available In this paper we introduce a novel framework for 3D object metamorphosis, represented by closed triangular meshes. The systems returns a high quality transition sequence, smooth and gradual, that is visual pleasant and consistent to both source and target topologies. The method starts by parameterizing both the source and the target model to a common domain (the unit sphere. Then, the features selected from the two models are aligned by applying the CTPS C2a radial basis functions. We demonstrate how the selected approach can create valid warping by deforming the models embedded into the parametric domain. In the final stage, we propose and validate a novel algorithm to construct a pseudo-supermesh able to approximate both, the source and target 3D objects. By using the pseudo-supermesh we developed a morphing transition consistent with respect to both geometry and topology of the 3D models.

Searches with Boosted Objects at ATLAS and CMS

CERN Document Server

Behr, K; The ATLAS collaboration

2014-01-01

This talk presents an overview of searches for new physics in boosted final states conducted by the ATLAS and CMS experiments during Run-I of the LHC. An emphasis is put on techniques for the reconstruction and identification of both hadronic and leptonic decays of objects with large transverse momenta: Various substructure and grooming techniques as well as modified lepton isolation criteria are reviewed and their use in the most common algorithms for boosted top and boson tagging is discussed.

Identification of common allergens for united airway disease by skin prick test

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Vikas Deep Mishra

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Objective: Identification of common allergens by skin prick test in patients of united airway disease. Materials and Methods: Skin prick test was performed in 60 patients of United Airway Disease to identify the common allergens. A total of 62 allergens consisting of 36 types of pollen, 5 fungi, 4 insects, 8 type of dusts, 4 dander, 3 fabrics, Dust mite and Parthenium leaves were tested. Result: Most common allergens were Dust mite (60% followed by Parthenium leaves (45%, insects (18.75%, pollen (14.81%, dust allergens (8.51%, fabrics (8.33%, fungi (5.66%, dander (5%. Most common insect allergens were cockroach (female (30%, cockroach (male (23.33%. Common pollens were Ricinus communis (28.33%, Amaranthus spinosus (28.33%, Parthenium hysterophorus (26.66%, Eucalyptus tereticornis (26.66% and Cynodon dactylon (25%. Common dust allergens were house dust (21.66%, paper dust (11.66% and cotton mill dust (10%. Among fabrics kapok cotton (13.33% showed maximum positivity. Among fungi Aspergillus fumigatus (10% followed by A. niger (6.66% were most common. In animal dander group common ones were cat dander followed by dog dander. Conclusion: In conclusion it can be said that the knowledge drawn by above study will help to treat patients by immunotherapy or avoidance strategy.

Fixations on objects in natural scenes: dissociating importance from salience

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Bernard Marius e’t Hart

2013-07-01

Full Text Available The relation of selective attention to understanding of natural scenes has been subject to intense behavioral research and computational modeling, and gaze is often used as a proxy for such attention. The probability of an image region to be fixated typically correlates with its contrast. However, this relation does not imply a causal role of contrast. Rather, contrast may relate to an object’s importance for a scene, which in turn drives attention. Here we operationalize importance by the probability that an observer names the object as characteristic for a scene. We modify luminance contrast of either a frequently named (common/important or a rarely named (rare/unimportant object, track the observers’ eye movements during scene viewing and ask them to provide keywords describing the scene immediately after.When no object is modified relative to the background, important objects draw more fixations than unimportant ones. Increases of contrast make an object more likely to be fixated, irrespective of whether it was important for the original scene, while decreases in contrast have little effect on fixations. Any contrast modification makes originally unimportant objects more important for the scene. Finally, important objects are fixated more centrally than unimportant objects, irrespective of contrast.Our data suggest a dissociation between object importance (relevance for the scene and salience (relevance for attention. If an object obeys natural scene statistics, important objects are also salient. However, when natural scene statistics are violated, importance and salience are differentially affected. Object salience is modulated by the expectation about object properties (e.g., formed by context or gist, and importance by the violation of such expectations. In addition, the dependence of fixated locations within an object on the object’s importance suggests an analogy to the effects of word frequency on landing positions in reading.

Early (N170) activation of face-specific cortex by face-like objects

Science.gov (United States)

Hadjikhani, Nouchine; Kveraga, Kestutis; Naik, Paulami; Ahlfors, Seppo P.

2009-01-01

The tendency to perceive faces in random patterns exhibiting configural properties of faces is an example of pareidolia. Perception of ‘real’ faces has been associated with a cortical response signal arising at about 170ms after stimulus onset; but what happens when non-face objects are perceived as faces? Using magnetoencephalography (MEG), we found that objects incidentally perceived as faces evoked an early (165ms) activation in the ventral fusiform cortex, at a time and location similar to that evoked by faces, whereas common objects did not evoke such activation. An earlier peak at 130 ms was also seen for images of real faces only. Our findings suggest that face perception evoked by face-like objects is a relatively early process, and not a late re-interpretation cognitive phenomenon. PMID:19218867

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.

Objective Measures of Swallowing Function Applied to the Dysphagia Population: A One Year Experience.

Science.gov (United States)

Kendall, Katherine A; Ellerston, Julia; Heller, Amanda; Houtz, Daniel R; Zhang, Chong; Presson, Angela P

2016-08-01

Quantitative, reliable measures of swallowing physiology can be made from an modified barium swallowing study. These quantitative measures have not been previously employed to study large dysphagic patient populations. The present retrospective study of 139 consecutive patients with dysphagia seen in a university tertiary voice and swallowing clinic sought to use objective measures of swallowing physiology to (1) quantify the most prevalent deficits seen in the patient population, (2) identify commonly associated diagnoses and describe the most prevalent swallowing deficits, and (3) determine any correlation between objective deficits and Eating Assessment Tool (EAT-10) scores and body mass index. Poor pharyngeal constriction (34.5 %) and airway protection deficits (65.5 %) were the most common swallowing abnormalities. Reflux-related dysphagia (36 %), nonspecific pharyngeal dysphagia (24 %), Parkinson disease (16 %), esophageal abnormality (13 %), and brain insult (10 %) were the most common diagnoses. Poor pharyngeal constriction was significantly associated with an esophageal motility abnormality (p dysphagia symptoms as determined by the EAT-10 did not correlate with swallowing function abnormalities. This preliminary study indicates that reflux disease is common in patients with dysphagia and that associated esophageal abnormalities are common in dysphagic populations and may be associated with specific pharyngeal swallowing abnormalities. However, symptom scores from the EAT-10 did not correspond to swallowing pathophysiology.

Acute appendicitis: most common clinical presentation and causative microorganism

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Awan, M.Y.; Shukr, I.; Mahmood, M.A.; Qasmi, S.A.

2013-01-01

Objective: To determine the most common clinical presentation and causative microorganism for acute appendicitis. Study Design: Descriptive. Place and duration of study: Department of Surgery, Combined Military Hospital Multan, from June 2002 to May 2004. Patients and Methods: Clinical features of all the patients, older than 5 years of age diagnosed with acute appendicitis were recorded. Patients presented with other pathology which mimic acute appendicitis were excluded from the study. Surgery was done under general anaesthesia. Appendices of all the patient as well as pus swabs from abdominal cavity were sent to the laboratory for histopathology and microbiological cultures to confirm the diagnoses of acute appendicitis and causative organism. Results: The mean age of 75 subjects was 32.56 +- 11.93 years. The most common symptom was pain in right iliac fossa (80 % cases) and the most common physical sign was tenderness (92% cases). Some of the patients(9.3%) had a histologically normal appendix. Maximum isolates on culture were E. coli. Conclusion: The most common presentation of acute appendicitis was pain in right iliac fossa while the most sensitive sign was tenderness. Proper history and sharp clinical examination is the key to diagnosis. The most frequent organism of appendicitis was Escherichia Coli. (author)

A Scalable and Reliable Message Transport Service for the ATLAS Trigger and Data Acquisition System

CERN Document Server

Kazarov, A; The ATLAS collaboration; Kolos, S; Lehmann Miotto, G; Soloviev, I

2014-01-01

The ATLAS Trigger and Data Acquisition (TDAQ) is a large distributed computing system composed of several thousands of interconnected computers and tens of thousands applications. During a run, TDAQ applications produce a lot of control and information messages with variable rates, addressed to TDAQ operators or to other applications. Reliable, fast and accurate delivery of the messages is important for the functioning of the whole TDAQ system. The Message Transport Service (MTS) provides facilities for the reliable transport, the filtering and the routing of the messages, basing on publish-subscribe-notify communication pattern with content-based message filtering. During the ongoing LHC shutdown, the MTS was re-implemented, taking into account important requirements like reliability, scalability and performance, handling of slow subscribers case and also simplicity of the design and the implementation. MTS uses CORBA middleware, a common layer for TDAQ infrastructure, and provides sending/subscribing APIs i...

Channels as Objects in Concurrent Object-Oriented Programming

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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.

Significance of large Neptune-crossing objects for terrestrial catastrophism

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Steel, D.

2014-07-01

Over the past few decades a substantial number of objects have been discovered on orbits beyond Neptune (i.e. transneptunian objects, in various sub-classes), crossing Neptune's orbit (here: the Neptune-crossers of interest), and also others crossing the orbits of any or all of the jovian planets (i.e. Centaurs). These range in size from tens of kilometres across to hundreds of kilometres and more. Although formally classified as minor planets/asteroids, plus a few dwarf planets, the physical reality of these objects is that they are giant comets. That is, they seem to be composed largely of ices and if they were to enter the inner solar system then they would demonstrate the commonly-observed behaviour of comets such as outgassing, and the formation of ion and dust tails. Commonly-observed cometary behaviour, however, also includes fragmentation events and sometimes complete disintegration for no apparent cause (such as tidal disruption or thermal stresses). One might therefore wonder what the implications would be for life on Earth and terrestrial catastrophism if and when one of these objects, say 100 to 500 kilometres in size, dropped into a short-period orbit with perihelion distance (q) less than 1 au; or even q ˜ 5 au, given what Jupiter's gravity might do to it. How often might such events occur? One way to address that question would be to conduct numerical integrations of suitable test orbits and identify how often small-q orbits result, but this comes up against the problem of identifying very-infrequent events (with annual probabilities per object perhaps of order 10^{-12}-10^{-10}. For example, Emel'yanenko et al. [1] recently followed test orbits for approximately 5 × 10^{14} particle-years (8,925 objects with 200 clones of each, for 300 Myr) but because these were selected on the basis of initial values of q only below 36 (rather than ˜30) au many were not immediately Neptune-crossers; however, many test particles did eventually migrate into small

P3-22: Perception of Emotion on Object Movement

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Moritaka Kouroki

2012-10-01

Full Text Available Previous studies showed that perceived animacy from object movement using simple figures (i.e., Heider & Simmel, 1944 American Journal of Psychology 57 243–259. Other studies using a single figure suggested that the complexity and animacy on the object movement operating change timing, change frequency, and acceleration increased the preference to the object (Matsuda et al., 2010 8th Congress of the Japanese Society for Cognitive Psychology, showed that observers could estimate the common emotion from the simple object movement (Tomikawa & Oda, 2009 The Institute of Image Information and Television Engineers 33 1–4. The perception of emotion to the object movement might influence the increase of preference with perceiving animacy in Matsuda et al. (2010. This study examined the perception of the six basic emotions (Ekman & Freisen, 1975 Unmasking the Face on object movement using the paradigm in Matsuda et al. (2010. As a result, evaluation scores for “happiness” and “surprise” increased in a high frequency condition, and scores for “sad” increased in a low frequency condition. This result seemed to affect the increase of preference to the object with complex movement in Matsuda et al. (2010. Evaluation scores for the emotion needed for the subject to feel it—such as “anger”, “disgust”, and “fear”—were low for each condition. Also, in comparison with other emotions, evaluation scores for “surprise” were similar to the scores for animacy in Matsuda et al. (2010. This result seems to show that the perception of “surprise” contributed to the perception of animacy on a single object movement.

Collaboration of Black See universities by merging values and common solutions

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Ina MACOVEI

2015-12-01

Full Text Available The project University collaboration Network at the Black Sea – UNIVER-SEA. NET, is financed by the E.U. within Black Sea Basin Joint Operational Programme 2007- 2013, managed by the Ministry of Regional Development and Public Administration. The overall objective of the project is promoting exchange of educational values and experiences between universities in partner countries through a joint educational program and network, having as specific objectives the identification of the common components of educational programs between universities in partner countries and promoting educational values, by means of using online and offline instruments, as well as strengthening our regional identity by creating community between universities.

Optimising screening for cognitive dysfunction in bipolar disorder: Validation and evaluation of objective and subjective tools

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jensen, Johan Høy; Støttrup, Mette Marie; Nayberg, Emilie

2015-01-01

by correlation with established objective and subjective cognitive measures, and decision validity was determined with Receiver-Operating-Characteristic analyses. Correlations and linear regression analyses were conducted to determine the associations between objective and subjective cognitive impairment......Introduction Cognitive impairment is common in bipolar disorder and contributes to socio-occupational difficulties. The objective was to validate and evaluate instruments to screen for and monitor cognitive impairments, and improve the understanding of the association between cognitive measures...

The art collectives: microcosm and commons engine of the arts

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Teresa Marín García

2013-03-01

Full Text Available The collective artistic activity can be seen as a metaphor for the small-scale cultural commons. In its processes and strategies can be traced many of the key issues and conflicts that make the keys of the commons in regard to the arts, as cultural and intangible. The artistic groups are also essential elements for building assets/goods and resources that make up the cultural structure, very particular local contexts, while having great potential as builders of larger scale networks. After a brief discussion of these issues is presented an initiative of a collaborative platform project, CCCV, starting from the reality of a local context arises the objective of generating a network-file-laboratory to create and share knowledge about the collective culture.

International trade and investment law: a new framework for public health and the common good.

Science.gov (United States)

Delany, Louise; Signal, Louise; Thomson, George

2018-05-08

International trade and investment agreements can have positive outcomes, but also have negative consequences that affect global health and influence fundamental health determinants: poverty, inequality and the environment. This article proposes principles and strategies for designing future international law to attain health and common good objectives. Basic principles are needed for international trade and investment agreements that are consistent with the common good, public health, and human rights. These principles should reflect the importance of reducing inequalities, along with social and environmental sustainability. Economic growth should be recognised as a means to common good objectives, rather than an end in itself. Our favoured approach is both radical and comprehensive: we describe what this approach would include and outline the strategies for its implementation, the processes and capacity building necessary for its achievement, and related governance and corporate issues. The comprehensive approach includes significant changes to current models for trade and investment agreements, in particular (i) health, social and environmental objectives would be recognised as legitimate in their own right and implemented accordingly; (ii) changes to dispute-resolution processes, both state-to-state and investor-state; (iii) greater deference to international legal frameworks for health, environmental protection, and human rights; (iv) greater coherence across the international law framework; (v) limitations on investor privileges, and (vi) enforceable corporate responsibilities for contributing to health, environmental, human rights and other common good objectives. We also identify some limited changes that could be considered as an alternative to the proposed comprehensive approach. Future research is needed to develop a range of model treaties, and on the means by which such treaties and reforms might be achieved. Such research would focus also on

An Automated Scheme for the Large-Scale Survey of Herbig-Haro Objects

Science.gov (United States)

Deng, Licai; Yang, Ji; Zheng, Zhongyuan; Jiang, Zhaoji

2001-04-01

Owing to their spectral properties, Herbig-Haro (HH) objects can be discovered using photometric methods through a combination of filters, sampling the characteristic spectral lines and the nearby continuum. The data are commonly processed through direct visual inspection of the images. To make data reduction more efficient and the results more uniform and complete, an automated searching scheme for HH objects is developed to manipulate the images using IRAF. This approach helps to extract images with only intrinsic HH emissions. By using this scheme, the pointlike stellar sources and extended nebulous sources with continuum emission can be eliminated from the original images. The objects with only characteristic HH emission become prominent and can be easily picked up. In this paper our scheme is illustrated by a sample field and has been applied to our surveys for HH objects.

Manipulation of Unknown Objects to Improve the Grasp Quality Using Tactile Information.

Science.gov (United States)

Montaño, Andrés; Suárez, Raúl

2018-05-03

This work presents a novel and simple approach in the area of manipulation of unknown objects considering both geometric and mechanical constraints of the robotic hand. Starting with an initial blind grasp, our method improves the grasp quality through manipulation considering the three common goals of the manipulation process: improving the hand configuration, the grasp quality and the object positioning, and, at the same time, prevents the object from falling. Tactile feedback is used to obtain local information of the contacts between the fingertips and the object, and no additional exteroceptive feedback sources are considered in the approach. The main novelty of this work lies in the fact that the grasp optimization is performed on-line as a reactive procedure using the tactile and kinematic information obtained during the manipulation. Experimental results are shown to illustrate the efficiency of the approach.

The French-German common safety approach for future reactors

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Birkhofer, A.; Chevet, P.F.

1995-01-01

A common safety approach has been defined for future electronuclear plants in the framework of the French-German European Pressurised water Reactor (EPR) project. Improvements in the domain of containment are required in future reactors conception to prevent any risk of core fusion under high and low pressure. Another objective is to reduce significantly the radioactive releases due to other accidents in order to reduce spatial and temporal environmental and human protection procedures. Protection against external aggressions (plane fall, explosions, earthquakes,..), prevention of pipe rupture in the primary circuits, limitation of hydrogen production in the case of water-zirconium complete reaction, cooling of the reactor in the case of core fusion, and radiologic consequences of accidents are the main points discussed by the French-German safety authorities to define the common safety standards of the EPR project. (J.S.)

Environmental indicators: Establishing a common language for green building

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Dammann, Sven; Elle, Morten

2006-01-01

. The objective of this study was to investigate if (and to what extent) consensus on environmental indicators for buildings as ‘a common language for green building’ can be reached among core actors in the Danish building sector and what such indicators could look like. Based on an analysis of current indicator...... is unlikely. Instead, three likely scenarios are described for the future development of the indicator debate and the directions are identified into which different actors need to move in order to establish indicators that can serve as a common language for green building.......Environmental indicators for buildings have the potential to serve as a means of making the environmental impacts (and possibly benefits) of buildings visible to all relevant actors. In addition, indicators facilitate the consideration and management of an array of environmental issues...

A mean–variance objective for robust production optimization in uncertain geological scenarios

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Capolei, Andrea; Suwartadi, Eka; Foss, Bjarne

2014-01-01

directly. In the mean–variance bi-criterion objective function risk appears directly, it also considers an ensemble of reservoir models, and has robust optimization as a special extreme case. The mean–variance objective is common for portfolio optimization problems in finance. The Markowitz portfolio...... optimization problem is the original and simplest example of a mean–variance criterion for mitigating risk. Risk is mitigated in oil production by including both the expected NPV (mean of NPV) and the risk (variance of NPV) for the ensemble of possible reservoir models. With the inclusion of the risk...

Valuing hydrological alteration in Multi-Objective reservoir management

Science.gov (United States)

Bizzi, S.; Pianosi, F.; Soncini-Sessa, R.

2012-04-01

Water management through dams and reservoirs is worldwide necessary to support key human-related activities ranging from hydropower production to water allocation for agricultural production, and flood risk mitigation. Advances in multi-objectives (MO) optimization techniques and ever growing computing power make it possible to design reservoir operating policies that represent Pareto-optimal tradeoffs between the multiple interests analysed. These progresses if on one hand are likely to enhance performances of commonly targeted objectives (such as hydropower production or water supply), on the other risk to strongly penalize all the interests not directly (i.e. mathematically) optimized within the MO algorithm. Alteration of hydrological regime, although is a well established cause of ecological degradation and its evaluation and rehabilitation are commonly required by recent legislation (as the Water Framework Directive in Europe), is rarely embedded as an objective in MO planning of optimal releases from reservoirs. Moreover, even when it is explicitly considered, the criteria adopted for its evaluation are doubted and not commonly trusted, undermining the possibility of real implementation of environmentally friendly policies. The main challenges in defining and assessing hydrological alterations are: how to define a reference state (referencing); how to define criteria upon which to build mathematical indicators of alteration (measuring); and finally how to aggregate the indicators in a single evaluation index that can be embedded in a MO optimization problem (valuing). This paper aims to address these issues by: i) discussing benefits and constrains of different approaches to referencing, measuring and valuing hydrological alteration; ii) testing two alternative indices of hydrological alteration in the context of MO problems, one based on the established framework of Indices of Hydrological Alteration (IHA, Richter et al., 1996), and a novel satisfying the

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.

Malingering dissociative identity disorder: objective and projective assessment.

Science.gov (United States)

Labott, Susan M; Wallach, Heather R

2002-04-01

Verification of dissociative identity disorder presents challenges given the complex nature of the illness. This study addressed the concern that this disorder can be successfully malingered on objective and projective psychological tests. 50 undergraduate women were assigned to a Malingering or a Control condition, then completed the Rorschach Inkblot Test and the Dissociative Experiences Scale II. The Malingering group were asked to simulate dissociative identity disorder; controls received instructions to answer all materials honestly. Analysis indicated that malingerers were significantly more likely to endorse dissociative experiences on the Dissociative Experiences Scale II in the range common to patients with diagnosed dissociative identity disorder. However, on the Rorschach there were no significant differences between the two groups. Results suggest that the assessment of dissociative identity disorder requires a multifaceted approach with both objective and projective assessment tools. Research is needed to assess these issues in clinical populations.

Four Common Simplifications of Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis do not hold for River Rehabilitation.

Science.gov (United States)

Langhans, Simone D; Lienert, Judit

2016-01-01

River rehabilitation aims at alleviating negative effects of human impacts such as loss of biodiversity and reduction of ecosystem services. Such interventions entail difficult trade-offs between different ecological and often socio-economic objectives. Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) is a very suitable approach that helps assessing the current ecological state and prioritizing river rehabilitation measures in a standardized way, based on stakeholder or expert preferences. Applications of MCDA in river rehabilitation projects are often simplified, i.e. using a limited number of objectives and indicators, assuming linear value functions, aggregating individual indicator assessments additively, and/or assuming risk neutrality of experts. Here, we demonstrate an implementation of MCDA expert preference assessments to river rehabilitation and provide ample material for other applications. To test whether the above simplifications reflect common expert opinion, we carried out very detailed interviews with five river ecologists and a hydraulic engineer. We defined essential objectives and measurable quality indicators (attributes), elicited the experts´ preferences for objectives on a standardized scale (value functions) and their risk attitude, and identified suitable aggregation methods. The experts recommended an extensive objectives hierarchy including between 54 and 93 essential objectives and between 37 to 61 essential attributes. For 81% of these, they defined non-linear value functions and in 76% recommended multiplicative aggregation. The experts were risk averse or risk prone (but never risk neutral), depending on the current ecological state of the river, and the experts´ personal importance of objectives. We conclude that the four commonly applied simplifications clearly do not reflect the opinion of river rehabilitation experts. The optimal level of model complexity, however, remains highly case-study specific depending on data and resource

An Object-Oriented Approach of Keyword Querying over Fuzzy XML

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ting Li

2016-09-01

Full Text Available As the fuzzy data management has become one of the main research topics and directions, the question of how to obtain the useful information by means of keyword query from fuzzy XML documents is becoming a subject of an increasing needed investigation. Considering the keyword query methods on crisp XML documents, smallest lowest common ancestor (SLCA semantics is one of the most widely accepted semantics. When users propose the keyword query on fuzzy XML documents with the SLCA semantics, the query results are always incomplate, with low precision, and with no possibilities values returned. Most of keyword query semantics on XML documents only consider query results matching all keywords, yet users may also be interested in the query results matching partial keywords. To overcome these limitations, in this paper, we investigate how to obtain more comprehensive and meaningful results of keyword querying on fuzzy XML documents. We propose a semantics of object-oriented keyword querying on fuzzy XML documents. First, we introduce the concept of "object tree", analyze different types of matching result object trees and find the "minimum result object trees" which contain all keywords and "result object trees" which contain partial keywords. Then an object-oriented keyword query algorithm ROstack is proposed to obtain the root nodes of these matching result object trees, together with their possibilities. At last, experiments are conducted to verify the effectiveness and efficiency of our proposed algorithm.

Tactile object exploration using cursor navigation sensors

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kraft, Dirk; Bierbaum, Alexander; Kjaergaard, Morten

2009-01-01

In robotic applications tactile sensor systems serve the purpose of localizing a contact point and measuring contact forces. We have investigated the applicability of a sensorial device commonly used in cursor navigation technology for tactile sensing in robotics. We show the potential of this se......In robotic applications tactile sensor systems serve the purpose of localizing a contact point and measuring contact forces. We have investigated the applicability of a sensorial device commonly used in cursor navigation technology for tactile sensing in robotics. We show the potential...... of this sensor for active haptic exploration. More specifically, we present experiments and results which demonstrate the extraction of relevant object properties such as local shape, weight and elasticity using this technology. Besides its low price due to mass production and its modularity, an interesting...... aspect of this sensor is that beside a localization of contact points and measurement of the contact normal force also shear forces can be measured. This is relevant for many applications such as surface normal estimation and weight measurements. Scalable tactile sensor arrays have been developed...

Common Visual Preference for Curved Contours in Humans and Great Apes.

Science.gov (United States)

Munar, Enric; Gómez-Puerto, Gerardo; Call, Josep; Nadal, Marcos

2015-01-01

Among the visual preferences that guide many everyday activities and decisions, from consumer choices to social judgment, preference for curved over sharp-angled contours is commonly thought to have played an adaptive role throughout human evolution, favoring the avoidance of potentially harmful objects. However, because nonhuman primates also exhibit preferences for certain visual qualities, it is conceivable that humans' preference for curved contours is grounded on perceptual and cognitive mechanisms shared with extant nonhuman primate species. Here we aimed to determine whether nonhuman great apes and humans share a visual preference for curved over sharp-angled contours using a 2-alternative forced choice experimental paradigm under comparable conditions. Our results revealed that the human group and the great ape group indeed share a common preference for curved over sharp-angled contours, but that they differ in the manner and magnitude with which this preference is expressed behaviorally. These results suggest that humans' visual preference for curved objects evolved from earlier primate species' visual preferences, and that during this process it became stronger, but also more susceptible to the influence of higher cognitive processes and preference for other visual features.

Environmental Control and Life Support (ECLS) Hardware Commonality for Exploration Vehicles

Science.gov (United States)

Carrasquillo, Robyn; Anderson, Molly

2012-01-01

In August 2011, the Environmental Control and Life Support Systems (ECLSS) technical community, along with associated stakeholders, held a workshop to review NASA s plans for Exploration missions and vehicles with two objectives: revisit the Exploration Atmospheres Working Group (EAWG) findings from 2006, and discuss preliminary ECLSS architecture concepts and technology choices for Exploration vehicles, identifying areas for potential common hardware or technologies to be utilized. Key considerations for selection of vehicle design total pressure and percent oxygen include operational concepts for extravehicular activity (EVA) and prebreathe protocols, materials flammability, and controllability within pressure and oxygen ranges. New data for these areas since the 2006 study were presented and discussed, and the community reached consensus on conclusions and recommendations for target design pressures for each Exploration vehicle concept. For the commonality study, the workshop identified many areas of potential commonality across the Exploration vehicles as well as with heritage International Space Station (ISS) and Shuttle hardware. Of the 36 ECLSS functions reviewed, 16 were considered to have strong potential for commonality, 13 were considered to have some potential commonality, and 7 were considered to have limited potential for commonality due to unique requirements or lack of sufficient heritage hardware. These findings, which will be utilized in architecture studies and budget exercises going forward, are presented in detail.

Intelligent launch and range operations virtual testbed (ILRO-VTB)

Science.gov (United States)

Bardina, Jorge; Rajkumar, Thirumalainambi

2003-09-01

Intelligent Launch and Range Operations Virtual Test Bed (ILRO-VTB) is a real-time web-based command and control, communication, and intelligent simulation environment of ground-vehicle, launch and range operation activities. ILRO-VTB consists of a variety of simulation models combined with commercial and indigenous software developments (NASA Ames). It creates a hybrid software/hardware environment suitable for testing various integrated control system components of launch and range. The dynamic interactions of the integrated simulated control systems are not well understood. Insight into such systems can only be achieved through simulation/emulation. For that reason, NASA has established a VTB where we can learn the actual control and dynamics of designs for future space programs, including testing and performance evaluation. The current implementation of the VTB simulates the operations of a sub-orbital vehicle of mission, control, ground-vehicle engineering, launch and range operations. The present development of the test bed simulates the operations of Space Shuttle Vehicle (SSV) at NASA Kennedy Space Center. The test bed supports a wide variety of shuttle missions with ancillary modeling capabilities like weather forecasting, lightning tracker, toxic gas dispersion model, debris dispersion model, telemetry, trajectory modeling, ground operations, payload models and etc. To achieve the simulations, all models are linked using Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA). The test bed provides opportunities for government, universities, researchers and industries to do a real time of shuttle launch in cyber space.

Development of a common data model for scientific simulations

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Ambrosiano, J. [Los Alamos National Lab., NM (United States); Butler, D.M. [Limit Point Systems, Inc. (United States); Matarazzo, C.; Miller, M. [Lawrence Livermore National Lab., CA (United States); Schoof, L. [Sandia National Lab., Albuquerque, NM (United States)

1999-06-01

The problem of sharing data among scientific simulation models is a difficult and persistent one. Computational scientists employ an enormous variety of discrete approximations in modeling physical processes on computers. Problems occur when models based on different representations are required to exchange data with one another, or with some other software package. Within the DOE`s Accelerated Strategic Computing Initiative (ASCI), a cross-disciplinary group called the Data Models and Formats (DMF) group, has been working to develop a common data model. The current model is comprised of several layers of increasing semantic complexity. One of these layers is an abstract model based on set theory and topology called the fiber bundle kernel (FBK). This layer provides the flexibility needed to describe a wide range of mesh-approximated functions as well as other entities. This paper briefly describes the ASCI common data model, its mathematical basis, and ASCI prototype development. These prototypes include an object-oriented data management library developed at Los Alamos called the Common Data Model Library or CDMlib, the Vector Bundle API from the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory, and the DMF API from Sandia National Laboratory.

The science commons in health research: structure, function, and value.

Science.gov (United States)

Cook-Deegan, Robert

The "science commons," knowledge that is widely accessible at low or no cost, is a uniquely important input to scientific advance and cumulative technological innovation. It is primarily, although not exclusively, funded by government and nonprofit sources. Much of it is produced at academic research centers, although some academic science is proprietary and some privately funded R&D enters the science commons. Science in general aspires to Mertonian norms of openness, universality, objectivity, and critical inquiry. The science commons diverges from proprietary science primarily in being open and being very broadly available. These features make the science commons particularly valuable for advancing knowledge, for training innovators who will ultimately work in both public and private sectors, and in providing a common stock of knowledge upon which all players-both public and private-can draw readily. Open science plays two important roles that proprietary R&D cannot: it enables practical benefits even in the absence of profitable markets for goods and services, and its lays a shared foundation for subsequent private R&D. The history of genomics in the period 1992-2004, covering two periods when genomic startup firms attracted significant private R&D investment, illustrates these features of how a science commons contributes value. Commercial interest in genomics was intense during this period. Fierce competition between private sector and public sector genomics programs was highly visible. Seemingly anomalous behavior, such as private firms funding "open science," can be explained by unusual business dynamics between established firms wanting to preserve a robust science commons to prevent startup firms from limiting established firms' freedom to operate. Deliberate policies to create and protect a large science commons were pursued by nonprofit and government funders of genomics research, such as the Wellcome Trust and National Institutes of Health. These

Comparison of Object Recognition Behavior in Human and Monkey

Science.gov (United States)

Rajalingham, Rishi; Schmidt, Kailyn

2015-01-01

Although the rhesus monkey is used widely as an animal model of human visual processing, it is not known whether invariant visual object recognition behavior is quantitatively comparable across monkeys and humans. To address this question, we systematically compared the core object recognition behavior of two monkeys with that of human subjects. To test true object recognition behavior (rather than image matching), we generated several thousand naturalistic synthetic images of 24 basic-level objects with high variation in viewing parameters and image background. Monkeys were trained to perform binary object recognition tasks on a match-to-sample paradigm. Data from 605 human subjects performing the same tasks on Mechanical Turk were aggregated to characterize “pooled human” object recognition behavior, as well as 33 separate Mechanical Turk subjects to characterize individual human subject behavior. Our results show that monkeys learn each new object in a few days, after which they not only match mean human performance but show a pattern of object confusion that is highly correlated with pooled human confusion patterns and is statistically indistinguishable from individual human subjects. Importantly, this shared human and monkey pattern of 3D object confusion is not shared with low-level visual representations (pixels, V1+; models of the retina and primary visual cortex) but is shared with a state-of-the-art computer vision feature representation. Together, these results are consistent with the hypothesis that rhesus monkeys and humans share a common neural shape representation that directly supports object perception. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT To date, several mammalian species have shown promise as animal models for studying the neural mechanisms underlying high-level visual processing in humans. In light of this diversity, making tight comparisons between nonhuman and human primates is particularly critical in determining the best use of nonhuman primates to

Identification of common cause initiators in IRS database

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Nyman, R. [Swedish Nuclear Power Inspectorate, Stockholm (Sweden); Kulig, M.; Tomic, B. [ENCONET Consulting GmbH, Vienna (Austria)

1998-02-01

The objective of this project is to obtain practical insights relevant for the identification of Common Cause Initiators (CCIs) based on event data available in the NEA Incident Reporting System. The project is intended to improve the understanding of CCIs and, in consequence, their consideration in safety assessment of nuclear power plants and in particular plant specific probabilistic safety assessment. The project is a pilot study, and not expected to provide answers for all related questions. Its scope is limited to some practical insights that would help to improve the understanding of the issue and to establish directions for further work.

Identification of common cause initiators in IRS database

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nyman, R.; Kulig, M.; Tomic, B.

1998-02-01

The objective of this project is to obtain practical insights relevant for the identification of Common Cause Initiators (CCIs) based on event data available in the NEA Incident Reporting System. The project is intended to improve the understanding of CCIs and, in consequence, their consideration in safety assessment of nuclear power plants and in particular plant specific probabilistic safety assessment. The project is a pilot study, and not expected to provide answers for all related questions. Its scope is limited to some practical insights that would help to improve the understanding of the issue and to establish directions for further work

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 ...

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.

Use of interactive data visualization in multi-objective forest planning.

Science.gov (United States)

Haara, Arto; Pykäläinen, Jouni; Tolvanen, Anne; Kurttila, Mikko

2018-03-15

Common to multi-objective forest planning situations is that they all require comparisons, searches and evaluation among decision alternatives. Through these actions, the decision maker can learn from the information presented and thus make well-justified decisions. Interactive data visualization is an evolving approach that supports learning and decision making in multidimensional decision problems and planning processes. Data visualization contributes the formation of mental image data and this process is further boosted by allowing interaction with the data. In this study, we introduce a multi-objective forest planning decision problem framework and the corresponding characteristics of data. We utilize the framework with example planning data to illustrate and evaluate the potential of 14 interactive data visualization techniques to support multi-objective forest planning decisions. Furthermore, broader utilization possibilities of these techniques to incorporate the provisioning of ecosystem services into forest management and planning are discussed. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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

Organisational and human factors in risk management: common beliefs, deceived ideas

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2011-01-01

The author propose critical discussions of common beliefs about the ineluctability of human error, individual ability, the validity of written procedures, good organisation, the culture of safety, the contribution of quality approaches to safety, the continuous improvement of safety, the good usage of the return on experience, the rigour and objectivity of the FOH (organisational and human factor) approach, and appealing to experts in FOHs

A new objective criterion for IRIS localization

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Basit, A.

2010-01-01

Iris localization is the most important step in iris recognition systems. For commonly used databases, exact data is not given which describe the true results of localization. To cope with this problem a new objective criterion for iris localization is proposed in this paper based on our visual system. A specific number of points are selected on pupil boundary, iris boundary, upper eyelid and lower eyelid using the original image and then distance from these points to the result of complete iris localization has been calculated. If the determined distance is below a certain threshold then iris localization is considered correct. Experimental results show that proposed criterion is very effective. (author)

Shifting Weights: Adapting Object Detectors from Image to Video (Author’s Manuscript)

Science.gov (United States)

2012-12-08

Skateboard Sewing Machine Sandwich Figure 1: Images of the “ Skateboard ”, “Sewing machine”, and “Sandwich” classes taken from (top row) ImageNet [7...InitialBL VideoPosBL Our method(nt) Our method(full) Gopalan et al. [18] (PLS) Gopalan et al. [18] (SVM) Skateboard 4.29% 2.89% 10.44% 10.44% 0.04% 0.94...belongs to no event class. We select 6 object classes to learn object detectors for because they are commonly present in selected events: “ Skateboard

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.

Common rail fuel injection system for improvement of engine performance and reduction of exhaust emission on heavy duty diesel engine; Common rail system ni yoru seino haishutsu gas no kaizen

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kato, T; Koyama, T; Sasaki, K; Mori, K; Mori, K [Mitsubishi Motor Corp., Tokyo (Japan)

1997-10-01

With the objective of improvement of engine performance and reduction of exhaust emissions, influence of control method to decrease initial injection rate and effect of injector types on fuel leakage of common rail fuel injection system (Common Rail System) were investigated. As a results, it became clear that injector with 2-way valve brings improvement of engine performance and reduction of exhaust emissions as compared with injector with 3-way valve because injector with 2-way valve has lower fuel leakage and is able to use higher injection pressure than injector with 3-way valve. 5 refs., 13 figs., 1 tab.

The Common Core State Standards and the Role of Instructional Materials: A Case Study on EdReports.org

Science.gov (United States)

Watt, Michael G.

2016-01-01

The purpose of this study was to review research studies investigating the role of instructional materials in relation to the Common Core State Standards and to evaluate whether a new organisation, EdReports.org, founded to evaluate the alignment of instructional materials to the Common Core State Standards, has achieved its objectives. Content…

Repeatability of adaptability and stability parameters of common bean in unpredictable environments

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lidiane Kely de Lima

2013-09-01

Full Text Available The objective of this work was to estimate the repeatability of adaptability and stability parameters of common bean between years, within each biennium from 2003 to 2012, in Minas Gerais state, Brazil. Grain yield data from trials of value for cultivation and use common bean were analyzed. Grain yield, ecovalence, regression coefficient, and coefficient of determination were estimated considering location and sowing season per year, within each biennium. Subsequently, a analysis of variance these estimates was carried out, and repeatability was estimated in the biennia. Repeatability estimate for grain yield in most of the biennia was relatively high, but for ecovalence and regression coefficient it was null or of small magnitude, which indicates that confidence on identification of common bean lines for recommendation is greater when using means of yield, instead of stability parameters.

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…

Thermoluminescence dosimetry of electronic components from personal objects

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Beerten, Koen; Woda, Clemens; Vanhavere, Filip

2009-01-01

Owing to the existence of ceramic materials inside common personal objects such as cellular phones and USB flash drives, these objects may be very useful in emergency (accident) dosimetry. Here we will present initial results regarding the dosimetric properties as determined by thermoluminescence (TL) from two alumina-rich electronic components from a USB flash drive. The TL method was applied in order to investigate the potential of conventional TL equipment for such purposes. For comparison, the optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) of the components was investigated as well. The studied components are ceramic resonators and alumina-based substrates from electrical resistors. The results show that various TL-related properties such as fading, optical stability and zero-dose response are different for the two investigated components. On the basis of these properties, the ceramic resonator was selected for dose recovery tests using TL and OSL. The given dose could reliably be determined using both methods, assuming that prompt measurement and/or fading correction is possible.

Common neural substrates for visual working memory and attention.

Science.gov (United States)

Mayer, Jutta S; Bittner, Robert A; Nikolić, Danko; Bledowski, Christoph; Goebel, Rainer; Linden, David E J

2007-06-01

Humans are severely limited in their ability to memorize visual information over short periods of time. Selective attention has been implicated as a limiting factor. Here we used functional magnetic resonance imaging to test the hypothesis that this limitation is due to common neural resources shared by visual working memory (WM) and selective attention. We combined visual search and delayed discrimination of complex objects and independently modulated the demands on selective attention and WM encoding. Participants were presented with a search array and performed easy or difficult visual search in order to encode one or three complex objects into visual WM. Overlapping activation for attention-demanding visual search and WM encoding was observed in distributed posterior and frontal regions. In the right prefrontal cortex and bilateral insula blood oxygen-level-dependent activation additively increased with increased WM load and attentional demand. Conversely, several visual, parietal and premotor areas showed overlapping activation for the two task components and were severely reduced in their WM load response under the condition with high attentional demand. Regions in the left prefrontal cortex were selectively responsive to WM load. Areas selectively responsive to high attentional demand were found within the right prefrontal and bilateral occipital cortex. These results indicate that encoding into visual WM and visual selective attention require to a high degree access to common neural resources. We propose that competition for resources shared by visual attention and WM encoding can limit processing capabilities in distributed posterior brain regions.

Information Technology Framework for Pharmaceutical Supply Chain Demand Management: a Brazilian Case Study

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Pedro Domingos Antoniolli

2016-01-01

virtualized infrastructure environment (Cloud; 2. An information system solution to integrate partners applications, based on the reference component model structure (CORBA / CCM – Common Object Request Broker Architectures / Corba Component Model; 3. One element responsible for logistics operations, formed by fourth and fifth pieces: a tool to streamline the logistics flow, and to obtain prompt inven tory data, provided by a RFID (Radio Frequency Identification solution; and another to provide information about production and logistics lead times, applied to demand forecasts elaboration and to streamline the order fulfillmentprocess, based on OEE (Ov erall Equipment Effectiveness solution. This paper covers a field that is not widely researched that is IT solution application into pharmaceutical demand management processes, and related performance improvements.

Evaluation of the appropriate use of commonly prescribed fluoroquinolones and the risk of dysglycemia

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kabbara WK

2015-04-01

Full Text Available Wissam K Kabbara,1 Wijdan H Ramadan,1 Peggy Rahbany,2 Souhaila Al-Natour3 1Department of Pharmacy Practice, School of Pharmacy, Lebanese American University, Byblos, Lebanon; 2Children’s National Medical Center, Washington, DC, USA; 3Medex Pharmaceutical Company, Beirut, Lebanon Background: Fluoroquinolones are among the most widely prescribed antibiotics. However, concerns about increasing resistant microorganisms and the risk of dysglycemia associated with the use of these agents have emerged.Objective: The primary objective of the study was to evaluate the appropriate use of commonly prescribed fluoroquinolones, including appropriate indication, dose, dose adjustment in renal impairment, and duration of treatment. The secondary objective was to investigate the dysglycemic effect of fluoroquinolone use (hypoglycemia and/or hyperglycemia in diabetic and nondiabetic patients.Methods: A prospective observational study at a teaching hospital in Lebanon was conducted over a 6-month period. A total of 118 patients receiving broad-spectrum fluoroquinolones (levofloxacin, ciprofloxacin, and moxifloxacin were identified. Patients were mainly recruited from internal medicine floors and intensive care units.Results: The final percentage for the appropriate indication, dose, and duration of fluoroquinolone therapy was 93.2%, 74.6%, and 57.6%, respectively. A total of 57.1% of the patients did not receive the appropriate dose adjustment according to their level of renal impairment. In addition, dysglycemia occurred in both diabetic and nondiabetic patients. Dysglycemia was more frequently encountered with ciprofloxacin (50.0%, followed by levofloxacin (42.4% and moxifloxacin (7.6%. Hyperglycemia was more common than hypoglycemia in all groups. The highest incidence of hyperglycemia occurred with levofloxacin (70.0%, followed by ciprofloxacin (39.0% and moxifloxacin (33.3%. In contrast, hypoglycemia did not occur in the ciprofloxacin group, but it was

Are Categorical Spatial Relations Encoded by Shifting Visual Attention between Objects?

Science.gov (United States)

Uttal, David; Franconeri, Steven

2016-01-01

Perceiving not just values, but relations between values, is critical to human cognition. We tested the predictions of a proposed mechanism for processing categorical spatial relations between two objects—the shift account of relation processing—which states that relations such as ‘above’ or ‘below’ are extracted by shifting visual attention upward or downward in space. If so, then shifts of attention should improve the representation of spatial relations, compared to a control condition of identity memory. Participants viewed a pair of briefly flashed objects and were then tested on either the relative spatial relation or identity of one of those objects. Using eye tracking to reveal participants’ voluntary shifts of attention over time, we found that when initial fixation was on neither object, relational memory showed an absolute advantage for the object following an attention shift, while identity memory showed no advantage for either object. This result is consistent with the shift account of relation processing. When initial fixation began on one of the objects, identity memory strongly benefited this fixated object, while relational memory only showed a relative benefit for objects following an attention shift. This result is also consistent, although not as uniquely, with the shift account of relation processing. Taken together, we suggest that the attention shift account provides a mechanistic explanation for the overall results. This account can potentially serve as the common mechanism underlying both linguistic and perceptual representations of spatial relations. PMID:27695104

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

Perspectives on object manipulation and action grammar for percussive actions in primates.

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Hayashi, Misato

2015-11-19

The skill of object manipulation is a common feature of primates including humans, although there are species-typical patterns of manipulation. Object manipulation can be used as a comparative scale of cognitive development, focusing on its complexity. Nut cracking in chimpanzees has the highest hierarchical complexity of tool use reported in non-human primates. An analysis of the patterns of object manipulation in naive chimpanzees after nut-cracking demonstrations revealed the cause of difficulties in learning nut-cracking behaviour. Various types of behaviours exhibited within a nut-cracking context can be examined in terms of the application of problem-solving strategies, focusing on their basis in causal understanding or insightful intentionality. Captive chimpanzees also exhibit complex forms of combinatory manipulation, which is the precursor of tool use. A new notation system of object manipulation was invented to assess grammatical rules in manipulative actions. The notation system of action grammar enabled direct comparisons to be made between primates including humans in a variety of object-manipulation tasks, including percussive-tool use. © 2015 The Author(s).

Learning Object Repositories

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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.)

Physical activity and concordance between objective and perceived walkability.

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Arvidsson, Daniel; Kawakami, Naomi; Ohlsson, Henrik; Sundquist, Kristina

2012-02-01

The study's purpose was to investigate concordance between objective and perceived neighborhood walkability, their associations with self-reported walking and objective physical activity, and sociodemographic characteristics of individuals in neighborhoods with objectively assessed high walkability who misperceive it as low. In 1925 individuals age 20-66 yr of both high and low neighborhood walkability recruited from administrative areas in the city of Stockholm, Sweden, objective neighborhood walkability was assessed within a 1000-m radius of each individual's residential address using geographic information systems. Perceived walkability was based on the Neighborhood Environment Walkability Scale. Walking was assessed using the International Physical Activity Questionnaire, and total physical activity and moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) were assessed by an accelerometer (ActiGraph). Sociodemographic characteristics were self-reported. Objective and perceived neighborhood walkability agreed in 67.0% of the individuals, with κ = 0.34 (95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.30-0.38). One-third of the individuals in neighborhoods with objectively assessed high walkability misperceived it as low. This nonconcordance was more common among older and married/cohabiting individuals. After adjustment for sociodemographic characteristics, high objective neighborhood walkability was associated with 35.0 (95% CI = 14.6-64.6) and 10.5 (95% CI = -5.2 to 28.5) more minutes per week of walking for transportation and leisure, respectively, and 2.8 (95% CI = 0.9-5.0) more minutes per day of MVPA. High perceived neighborhood walkability was associated with 41.5 (95% CI = 15.8-62.9) and 21.8 (95% CI = 2.8-40.0) more minutes per week of walking for transportation and leisure, respectively, and 1.7 (95% CI = -0.3 to 3.7) more minutes per day of MVPA. Objective and perceived neighborhood walkability both contribute to the amount of walking and objective physical activity. Both

Effects of nitrogen availability and spore concentration on the biocontrol activity of Ascochyta caulina in common lambsquarters (Chenopodium album)

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Ghorbani, R.; Scheepens, P.C.; Zweerde, van der W.; Leifert, C.; McDonald, A.J.S.; Seel, W.

2002-01-01

Common lambsquarters is an annual weed of many important crops. Ascochyta caulina is a plant pathogenic fungus that causes necrotic lesions on the leaves and stems of common lambsquarters. The objective of the present study was to estimate the effect of plant N supply on the biocontrol activity of

Standardized reporting of functioning information on ICF-based common metrics.

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Prodinger, Birgit; Tennant, Alan; Stucki, Gerold

2018-02-01

In clinical practice and research a variety of clinical data collection tools are used to collect information on people's functioning for clinical practice and research and national health information systems. Reporting on ICF-based common metrics enables standardized documentation of functioning information in national health information systems. The objective of this methodological note on applying the ICF in rehabilitation is to demonstrate how to report functioning information collected with a data collection tool on ICF-based common metrics. We first specify the requirements for the standardized reporting of functioning information. Secondly, we introduce the methods needed for transforming functioning data to ICF-based common metrics. Finally, we provide an example. The requirements for standardized reporting are as follows: 1) having a common conceptual framework to enable content comparability between any health information; and 2) a measurement framework so that scores between two or more clinical data collection tools can be directly compared. The methods needed to achieve these requirements are the ICF Linking Rules and the Rasch measurement model. Using data collected incorporating the 36-item Short Form Health Survey (SF-36), the World Health Organization Disability Assessment Schedule 2.0 (WHODAS 2.0), and the Stroke Impact Scale 3.0 (SIS 3.0), the application of the standardized reporting based on common metrics is demonstrated. A subset of items from the three tools linked to common chapters of the ICF (d4 Mobility, d5 Self-care and d6 Domestic life), were entered as "super items" into the Rasch model. Good fit was achieved with no residual local dependency and a unidimensional metric. A transformation table allows for comparison between scales, and between a scale and the reporting common metric. Being able to report functioning information collected with commonly used clinical data collection tools with ICF-based common metrics enables clinicians

Pseudotumor of the distal common bile duct at endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography

Science.gov (United States)

Tan, Justin H.; Coakley, Fergus V; Wang, Zhen J.; Poder, Liina; Webb, Emily; Yeh, Benjamin M.

2010-01-01

Background Prior studies have described a pseudocalculus appearance in the distal common bile duct as a normal variant at cholangiography. The objective of this study is to describe the occurrence of pseudotumor in the distal common bile duct at endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP). Methods Nine patients who underwent ERCP between May 2004 and July 2008 were identified as having a transient eccentric mural-based filling defect in the distal common bile duct. A single reader systematically reviewed all studies and recorded the imaging findings. Results The mean diameter of the filling defect was 9 mm (range, 5 to 11). Eight patients had resolution of the filling defect during the same ERCP or on a subsequent ERCP, and in 2 of these patients the inferior border of the filling defect was not well visualized. The other patient underwent surgical resection of a presumed tumor with no evidence of malignancy on surgical pathology. Conclusion An eccentric mural-based filling defect in the distal common bile duct can be artifactual in nature and may reflect transient contraction of the sphincter of Oddi. Recognition of this pseudotumor may help avoid unnecessary surgery. PMID:21724120

Space Use in the Commons: Evaluating a Flexible Library Environment

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Andrew D. Asher

2017-06-01

Full Text Available Abstract Objective – This article evaluates the usage and user experience of the Herman B Wells Library’s Learning Commons, a newly renovated technology and learning centre that provides services and spaces tailored to undergraduates’ academic needs at Indiana University Bloomington (IUB. Methods – A mixed-method research protocol combining time-lapse photography, unobtrusive observation, and random-sample surveys was employed to construct and visualize a representative usage and activity profile for the Learning Commons space. Results – Usage of the Learning Commons by particular student groups varied considerably from expectations based on student enrollments. In particular, business, first and second year students, and international students used the Learning Commons to a higher degree than expected, while humanities students used it to a much lower degree. While users were satisfied with the services provided and the overall atmosphere of the space, they also experienced the negative effects of insufficient space and facilities due to the space often operating at or near its capacity. Demand for collaboration rooms and computer workstations was particularly high, while additional evidence suggests that the Learning Commons furniture mix may not adequately match users’ needs. Conclusions – This study presents a unique approach to space use evaluation that enables researchers to collect and visualize representative observational data. This study demonstrates a model for quickly and reliably assessing space use for open-plan and learning-centred academic environments and for evaluating how well these learning spaces fulfill their institutional mission.

Who Take Naps? Self-Reported and Objectively Measured Napping in Very Old Women.

Science.gov (United States)

Leng, Yue; Stone, Katie; Ancoli-Israel, Sonia; Covinsky, Kenneth; Yaffe, Kristine

2018-03-02

Despite the widespread belief that napping is common among older adults, little is known about the correlates of napping. We examined the prevalence and correlates of self-reported and objectively measured napping among very old women. We studied 2,675 community-dwelling women (mean age 84.5 ± 3.7 years; range 79-96). Self-reported napping was defined as a report of regular napping for ≥1 hour per day. Individual objective naps were defined as ≥5 consecutive minutes of inactivity as measured by actigraphy and women were characterized as "objective nappers" if they had at least 60 minutes of naps per day. Seven percent of the women only had self-reported napping, 29% only had objective napping, and 14% met the criteria for both. Multinomial logistic regression showed that the independent correlates of "both subjective and objective napping" were age (per 5 year odds ratio [OR] = 1.59; 95% CI: 1.31-1.93), depressive symptoms (per SD of score, OR = 1.53; 1.32-1.77), obesity (OR =1.93; 1.42-2.61), current smoking (OR = 3.37; 1.56-7.30), heavier alcohol drinking (OR = 0.49; 0.34-0.71), history of stroke (OR = 1.56; 1.08-2.26), diabetes (OR = 2.40; 1.61-3.57), dementia (OR = 3.31; 1.27-8.62), and Parkinson's disease (OR = 7.43; 1.87-29.50). Besides, having objective napping alone was associated with age and diabetes, whereas subjective napping was associated with stroke and myocardial infarction. These associations were independent of nighttime sleep duration and fragmentation. Daytime napping is very common in women living in their ninth decade and both subjective and objective napping were significantly related to age and comorbidities. Future studies are needed to better understand napping and its health implications. © The Author 2017. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Gerontological Society of America. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Are Face and Object Recognition Independent? A Neurocomputational Modeling Exploration.

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Wang, Panqu; Gauthier, Isabel; Cottrell, Garrison

2016-04-01

Are face and object recognition abilities independent? Although it is commonly believed that they are, Gauthier et al. [Gauthier, I., McGugin, R. W., Richler, J. J., Herzmann, G., Speegle, M., & VanGulick, A. E. Experience moderates overlap between object and face recognition, suggesting a common ability. Journal of Vision, 14, 7, 2014] recently showed that these abilities become more correlated as experience with nonface categories increases. They argued that there is a single underlying visual ability, v, that is expressed in performance with both face and nonface categories as experience grows. Using the Cambridge Face Memory Test and the Vanderbilt Expertise Test, they showed that the shared variance between Cambridge Face Memory Test and Vanderbilt Expertise Test performance increases monotonically as experience increases. Here, we address why a shared resource across different visual domains does not lead to competition and to an inverse correlation in abilities? We explain this conundrum using our neurocomputational model of face and object processing ["The Model", TM, Cottrell, G. W., & Hsiao, J. H. Neurocomputational models of face processing. In A. J. Calder, G. Rhodes, M. Johnson, & J. Haxby (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of face perception. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2011]. We model the domain general ability v as the available computational resources (number of hidden units) in the mapping from input to label and experience as the frequency of individual exemplars in an object category appearing during network training. Our results show that, as in the behavioral data, the correlation between subordinate level face and object recognition accuracy increases as experience grows. We suggest that different domains do not compete for resources because the relevant features are shared between faces and objects. The essential power of experience is to generate a "spreading transform" for faces (separating them in representational space) that

ERICA: prevalence of common mental disorders in Brazilian adolescents

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Claudia S Lopes

2016-02-01

Full Text Available ABSTRACT OBJECTIVE To describe the prevalence of common mental disorders in Brazilian adolescent students, according to geographical macro-regions, school type, sex, and age. METHODS We evaluated 74,589 adolescents who participated in the Cardiovascular Risk Study in Adolescents (ERICA, a cross-sectional, national, school-based study conducted in 2013-2014 in cities with more than 100,000 inhabitants. A self-administered questionnaire and an electronic data collector were employed. The presence of common mental disorders was assessed using the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12. We estimated prevalence and 95% confidence intervals of common mental disorders by sex, age, and school type, in Brazil and in the macro-regions, considering the sample design. RESULTS The prevalence of common mental disorders was of 30.0% (95%CI 29.2-30.8, being higher among girls (38.4%; 95%CI 37.1-39.7 when compared to boys (21.6%; 95%CI 20.5-22.8, and among adolescents who were from 15 to 17 years old (33.6%; 95%CI 32.2-35.0 compared to those aged between 12 and 14 years (26.7%; 95%CI 25.8-27.6. The prevalence of common mental disorders increased with age for both sexes, always higher in girls (ranging from 28.1% at 12 years to 44.1% at 17 years than in boys (ranging from 18.5% at 12 years to 27.7% at 17 years. We did not observe any significant difference by macro-region or school type. Stratified analyses showed higher prevalence of common mental disorders among girls aged from 15 to 17 years of private schools in the North region (53.1; 95%CI 46.8-59.4. CONCLUSIONS The high prevalence of common mental disorders among adolescents and the fact that the symptoms are often vague mean these disorders are not so easily identified by school administrators or even by health services. The results of this study can help the proposition of more specific prevention and control measures, focused on highest risk subgroups.

The relative frequency of common neuromuscular diagnoses in a reference center

OpenAIRE

Cotta, Ana; Paim, Júlia Filardi; Carvalho, Elmano; da-Cunha-Júnior, Antonio Lopes; Navarro, Monica M.; Valicek, Jaquelin; Menezes, Miriam Melo; Nunes, Simone Vilela; Xavier-Neto, Rafael; Baptista Junior, Sidney; Lima, Luciano Romero; Takata, Reinaldo Issao; Vargas, Antonio Pedro

2017-01-01

ABSTRACT The diagnostic procedure in neuromuscular patients is complex. Knowledge of the relative frequency of neuromuscular diseases within the investigated population is important to allow the neurologist to perform the most appropriate diagnostic tests. Objective: To report the relative frequency of common neuromuscular diagnoses in a reference center. Methods: A 17-year chart review of patients with suspicion of myopathy. Results: Among 3,412 examinations, 1,603 (46.98%) yielded confir...

Consciousness: a neural capacity for objectivity, especially pronounced in humans

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Dijker, Anton J. M.

2014-01-01

Consciousness tends to be viewed either as subjective experience of sensations and feelings, or as perception and internal representation of objects. This paper argues that neither view sufficiently acknowledges that consciousness may refer to the brain’s most adaptive property: its capacity to produce states of objectivity. It is proposed that this capacity relies on multiple sensorimotor networks for internally representing objects and their properties in terms of expectancies, as well as on motivational and motor mechanisms involved in exploration, play, and care for vulnerable living and non-living objects. States of objectivity are associated with a very special phenomenal aspect; the experience that subjective aspects are absent and one is “just looking” at the world as it really is and can be. However, these states are normally closely preceded and followed by (and tend to be combined or fused with) sensations and feelings which are caused by activation of sensory and motivational mechanisms. A capacity for objectivity may have evolved in different species and can be conceived as a common basis for other elusive psychological properties such as intelligence, conscience, and esthetic experience; all three linked to crucial behaviors in human evolution such as tool making, cooperation, and art. The brain’s pervasive tendency to objectify may be responsible for wrongly equating consciousness with feelings and wrongly opposing it to well-learned or habitual (“unconscious”) patterns of perception and behavior. PMID:24672506

Convergent and invariant object representations for sight, sound, and touch.

Science.gov (United States)

Man, Kingson; Damasio, Antonio; Meyer, Kaspar; Kaplan, Jonas T

2015-09-01

We continuously perceive objects in the world through multiple sensory channels. In this study, we investigated the convergence of information from different sensory streams within the cerebral cortex. We presented volunteers with three common objects via three different modalities-sight, sound, and touch-and used multivariate pattern analysis of functional magnetic resonance imaging data to map the cortical regions containing information about the identity of the objects. We could reliably predict which of the three stimuli a subject had seen, heard, or touched from the pattern of neural activity in the corresponding early sensory cortices. Intramodal classification was also successful in large portions of the cerebral cortex beyond the primary areas, with multiple regions showing convergence of information from two or all three modalities. Using crossmodal classification, we also searched for brain regions that would represent objects in a similar fashion across different modalities of presentation. We trained a classifier to distinguish objects presented in one modality and then tested it on the same objects presented in a different modality. We detected audiovisual invariance in the right temporo-occipital junction, audiotactile invariance in the left postcentral gyrus and parietal operculum, and visuotactile invariance in the right postcentral and supramarginal gyri. Our maps of multisensory convergence and crossmodal generalization reveal the underlying organization of the association cortices, and may be related to the neural basis for mental concepts. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

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

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

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.

Social object play among young Japanese macaques (Macaca fuscata) in Arashiyama, Japan.

Science.gov (United States)

Shimada, Masaki

2006-10-01

Social object play (SOP), i.e., social play using portable object(s), among young Japanese macaques (Macaca fuscata; 0-4 years old) in the Arashiyama E troop was studied using a modified sequence sampling method from July to October 2000. SOP was a relatively common activity for most of the young macaques and often continued for long periods. Participants used many kinds of object, including edible natural objects and artificial objects, such as plastic bottles, but they never used provisioned food or wild fruit in SOP bouts. An analysis of long bouts (>/=0.5 min) revealed the following interactive SOP features: (1) at any given time, participants used only one object, and only one participant held the object; (2) during SOP play-chasing, the object holder was likely to be chased by others; (3) during long bouts, the object changed hands frequently; and (4) agonistic competition for an object among young macaques was rare. Combinations of sexes, ages, relative ranks, or matrilines of the object holder and non-holder did not affect the tendency that the holder was chased by non-holder(s) during play-chasing. Even when there was a change in object holders, the repetitiveness of this interactive pattern, i.e., that the holder would be chased during SOP bouts, distinguished the SOP structure from that of other types of social play without object(s). General proximate social play mechanisms, such as self-handicapping or role taking, were associated with SOP. Other mechanisms that affected SOP included the following: (1) young macaques treated an object as a target in play competition, and (2) 'being the holder of a target object' was associated with the 'role of the chasee.'

COMMON MENTAL-DISORDERS AND DISABILITY ACROSS CULTURES - RESULTS FROM THE WHO COLLABORATIVE STUDY ON PSYCHOLOGICAL-PROBLEMS IN GENERAL HEALTH-CARE

NARCIS (Netherlands)

ORMEL, J; VONKORFF, M; USTUN, TB; PINI, S; KORTEN, A; OLDEHINKEL, T

1994-01-01

Objective.-To examine the impact of common mental illness on functional disability and the cross-cultural consistency of this relationship while controlling for physical illness. A secondary objective was to determine the level of disability associated with specific psychiatric disorders. Design.-A

It takes two-skilled recognition of objects engages lateral areas in both hemispheres.

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Merim Bilalić

Full Text Available Our object recognition abilities, a direct product of our experience with objects, are fine-tuned to perfection. Left temporal and lateral areas along the dorsal, action related stream, as well as left infero-temporal areas along the ventral, object related stream are engaged in object recognition. Here we show that expertise modulates the activity of dorsal areas in the recognition of man-made objects with clearly specified functions. Expert chess players were faster than chess novices in identifying chess objects and their functional relations. Experts' advantage was domain-specific as there were no differences between groups in a control task featuring geometrical shapes. The pattern of eye movements supported the notion that experts' extensive knowledge about domain objects and their functions enabled superior recognition even when experts were not directly fixating the objects of interest. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI related exclusively the areas along the dorsal stream to chess specific object recognition. Besides the commonly involved left temporal and parietal lateral brain areas, we found that only in experts homologous areas on the right hemisphere were also engaged in chess specific object recognition. Based on these results, we discuss whether skilled object recognition does not only involve a more efficient version of the processes found in non-skilled recognition, but also qualitatively different cognitive processes which engage additional brain areas.

The mind in the object-Psychological valuation of materialized human expression.

Science.gov (United States)

Kreuzbauer, Robert; King, Dan; Basu, Shankha

2015-08-01

[Correction Notice: An Erratum for this article was reported in Vol 144(4) of Journal of Experimental Psychology: General (see record 2015-33206-002). In the article the labels on the X-axis of Figure 1 "Remove Variance" and "Preserve Variance" should be switched.] Symbolic material objects such as art or certain artifacts (e.g., fine pottery, jewelry) share one common element: The combination of generating an expression, and the materialization of this expression in the object. This explains why people place a much greater value on handmade over machine-made objects, and originals over duplicates. We show that this mechanism occurs when a material object's symbolic property is salient and when the creator (artist or craftsman) is perceived to have agency control over the 1-to-1 materialized expression in the object. Coactivation of these 2 factors causes the object to be perceived as having high value because it is seen as the embodied representation of the creator's unique personal expression. In 6 experiments, subjects rated objects in various object categories, which varied on the type of object property (symbolic, functional, aesthetic), the production procedure (handmade, machine-made, analog, digital) and the origin of the symbolic information (person or software). The studies showed that the proposed mechanism applies to symbolic, but not to functional or aesthetic material objects. Furthermore, they show that this specific form of symbolic object valuation could not be explained by various other related psychological theories (e.g., uniqueness, scarcity, physical touching, creative performance). Our research provides a universal framework that identifies a core mechanism for explaining judgments of value for one of our most uniquely human symbolic object categories. (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved).

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.

Making the Common Good Common

Science.gov (United States)

Chase, Barbara

2011-01-01

How are independent schools to be useful to the wider world? Beyond their common commitment to educate their students for meaningful lives in service of the greater good, can they educate a broader constituency and, thus, share their resources and skills more broadly? Their answers to this question will be shaped by their independence. Any…

ACS sampling system: design, implementation, and performance evaluation

Science.gov (United States)

Di Marcantonio, Paolo; Cirami, Roberto; Chiozzi, Gianluca

2004-09-01

By means of ACS (ALMA Common Software) framework we designed and implemented a sampling system which allows sampling of every Characteristic Component Property with a specific, user-defined, sustained frequency limited only by the hardware. Collected data are sent to various clients (one or more Java plotting widgets, a dedicated GUI or a COTS application) using the ACS/CORBA Notification Channel. The data transport is optimized: samples are cached locally and sent in packets with a lower and user-defined frequency to keep network load under control. Simultaneous sampling of the Properties of different Components is also possible. Together with the design and implementation issues we present the performance of the sampling system evaluated on two different platforms: on a VME based system using VxWorks RTOS (currently adopted by ALMA) and on a PC/104+ embedded platform using Red Hat 9 Linux operating system. The PC/104+ solution offers, as an alternative, a low cost PC compatible hardware environment with free and open operating system.

Common Mathematical Model of Fatigue Characteristics

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Z. Maléř

2004-01-01

Full Text Available This paper presents a new common mathematical model which is able to describe fatigue characteristics in the whole necessary range by one equation only:log N = A(R + B(R ∙ log Sawhere A(R = AR2 + BR + C and B(R = DR2 + AR + F.This model was verified by five sets of fatigue data taken from the literature and by our own three additional original fatigue sets. The fatigue data usually described the region of N 104 to 3 x 106 and stress ratio of R = -2 to 0.5. In all these cases the proposed model described fatigue results with small scatter. Studying this model, following knowledge was obtained:– the parameter ”stress ratio R” was a good physical characteristic– the proposed model provided a good description of the eight collections of fatigue test results by one equation only– the scatter of the results through the whole scope is only a little greater than that round the individual S/N curve– using this model while testing may reduce the number of test samples and shorten the test time– as the proposed model represents a common form of the S/N curve, it may be used for processing uniform objective fatigue life results, which may enable mutual comparison of fatigue characteristics.

Common genotypes of hepatitis B virus

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Idrees, M.; Khan, S.; Riazuddin, S.

2004-01-01

Objective: To find out the frequency of common genotypes of hepatitis-B virus (HBV). Subjects and Methods: HBV genotypes were determined in 112 HBV DNA positive sera by a simple and precise molecular genotyping system base on PCR using type-specific primers for the determination of genotypes of HBV A through H. Results: Four genotypes (A,B,C and D) out of total eight reported genotypes so far were identified. Genotypes A, B and C were predominant. HBV genotype C was the most predominant in this collection, appearing in 46 samples (41.7%). However, the genotypes of a total of 5 (4.46%) samples could not be determined with the present genotyping system. Mixed genotypes were seen in 8(7.14% HBV) isolates. Five of these were infected with genotypes A/D whereas two were with genotypes C/D. One patient was infected with 4 genotypes (A/B/C/D). Genotype A (68%) was predominant in Sindh genotype C was most predominant in North West Frontier Province (NWFP) (68.96) whereas genotype C and B were dominant in Punjab (39.65% and 25.86% respectively). Conclusion: All the four common genotypes of HBV found worldwide (A,B,C and D) were isolated. Genotype C is the predominant Genotypes B and C are predominant in Punjab and N.W.F.P. whereas genotype A is predominant in Sindh. (author)

Diversity Strategies to Mitigate Postulated Common Cause Failure Vulnerabilities

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wood, Richard Thomas

2010-01-01

This paper describes an approach to establish effective mitigating strategies that can resolve potential common-cause failure (CCF) vulnerabilities in instrumentation and control (I and C) systems at nuclear power plants. A particular objective in the development of these strategies, which consist of combinations of diversity attributes and their associated criteria, is to address the unique characteristics of digital technology that can contribute to CCF concerns. The research approach employed to establish diversity strategies involves investigation of available documentation on diversity usage and experience from nuclear power and non-nuclear industries, capture of expert knowledge and lessons learned, determination of common practices, and assessment of the nature of CCFs and compensating diversity attributes. The resulting diversity strategies address considerations such as the effect of technology choices, the nature of CCF vulnerabilities, and the prospective impact of each diversity type. In particular, the impact of each attribute and criterion on the purpose, process, product, and performance aspects of diverse systems are considered.

Home-Explorer: Ontology-Based Physical Artifact Search and Hidden Object Detection System

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Bin Guo

2008-01-01

Full Text Available A new system named Home-Explorer that searches and finds physical artifacts in a smart indoor environment is proposed. The view on which it is based is artifact-centered and uses sensors attached to the everyday artifacts (called smart objects in the real world. This paper makes two main contributions: First, it addresses, the robustness of the embedded sensors, which is seldom discussed in previous smart artifact research. Because sensors may sometimes be broken or fail to work under certain conditions, smart objects become hidden ones. However, current systems provide no mechanism to detect and manage objects when this problem occurs. Second, there is no common context infrastructure for building smart artifact systems, which makes it difficult for separately developed applications to interact with each other and uneasy for them to share and reuse knowledge. Unlike previous systems, Home-Explorer builds on an ontology-based knowledge infrastructure named Sixth-Sense, which makes it easy for the system to interact with other applications or agents also based on this ontology. The hidden object problem is also reflected in our ontology, which enables Home-Explorer to deal with both smart objects and hidden objects. A set of rules for deducing an object's status or location information and for locating hidden objects are described and evaluated.

Contactless Measurement Of Rectilinearity Of An Elongated Object Based On The Example A Crane Rail

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ćmielewski Kazimierz

2015-07-01

Full Text Available The common aim of engineering surveys is to determine deviations from rectilinearity for elongated objects. We have developed a number of methods for measuring points that represent an elongated object. These are the constant straight (optical, laser, mechanical-string method, the trigonometric method, geometric levelling method, photogrammetric methods and terrestrial laser scanning. When taking these measurements, it is crucial to have a direct access to the survey points of the measured object. Factors impeding the measurements include: adverse lighting conditions, vibration, dust, refractory effects, lack of direct access to the survey points, etc.

The Implementation of Medical Informatics in the National Competence Based Catalogue of Learning Objectives for Undergraduate Medical Education (NKLM).

Science.gov (United States)

Behrends, Marianne; Steffens, Sandra; Marschollek, Michael

2017-01-01

The National Competence Based Catalogue of Learning Objectives for Undergraduate Medical Education (NKLM) describes medical skills and attitudes without being ordered by subjects or organs. Thus, the NKLM enables systematic curriculum mapping and supports curricular transparency. In this paper we describe where learning objectives related to Medical Informatics (MI) in Hannover coincide with other subjects and where they are taught exclusively in MI. An instance of the web-based MERLIN-database was used for the mapping process. In total 52 learning objectives overlapping with 38 other subjects could be allocated to MI. No overlap exists for six learning objectives describing explicitly topics of information technology or data management for scientific research. Most of the overlap was found for learning objectives relating to documentation and aspects of data privacy. The identification of numerous shared learning objectives with other subjects does not mean that other subjects teach the same content as MI. Identifying common learning objectives rather opens up the possibility for teaching cooperations which could lead to an important exchange and hopefully an improvement in medical education. Mapping of a whole medical curriculum offers the opportunity to identify common ground between MI and other medical subjects. Furthermore, in regard to MI, the interaction with other medical subjects can strengthen its role in medical education.

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

Measurements of WDS Objects Found in Images Taken for Detecting CPM Pairs in the LSPM Catalog

Science.gov (United States)

Knapp, Wilfried; Nanson, John

2017-10-01

During our research for CPM objects in the LSPM catalog so far not included in the WDS catalog part II (Knapp and Nanson 2017) we found by chance a surprisingly large number of WDS objects in the field of view of several images taken for this project. To use the existing image material in the best possible way we decided to take measurements of these objects and to look at other existing catalog data allowing a check for potential common proper motion. This report presents the findings of this research.

A Meta-Relational Approach for the Definition and Management of Hybrid Learning Objects

Science.gov (United States)

Navarro, Antonio; Fernandez-Pampillon, Ana Ma.; Fernandez-Chamizo, Carmen; Fernandez-Valmayor, Alfredo

2013-01-01

Electronic learning objects (LOs) are commonly conceived of as digital units of information used for teaching and learning. To facilitate their classification for pedagogical planning and retrieval purposes, LOs are complemented with metadata (e.g., the author). These metadata are usually restricted by a set of predetermined tags to which the…

Standardization of transportation classes for object-oriented deployment simulations.

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Burke, J. F., Jr.; Howard, D. L.; Jackson, J.; Macal, C. M.; Nevins, M. R.; Van Groningen, C. N.

1999-07-30

Many recent efforts to integrate transportation and deployment simulations, although beneficial, have lacked a feature vital for seamless integration: a common data class representation. It is an objective of the Department of Defense (DoD) to standardize all classes used in object-oriented deployment simulations by developing a standard class attribute representation and behavior for all deployment simulations that rely on an underlying class representation. The Extensive Hierarchy and Object Representation for Transportation Simulations (EXHORT) is a collection of three hierarchies that together will constitute a standard and consistent class attribute representation and behavior that could be used directly by a large set of deployment simulations. The first hierarchy is the Transportation Class Hierarchy (TCH), which describes a significant portion of the defense transportation system; the other two deal with infrastructure and resource classes. EXHORT will allow deployment simulations to use the same set of underlying class data, ensure transparent exchanges, reduce the effort needed to integrate simulations, and permit a detailed analysis of the defense transportation system. This paper describes EXHORT's first hierarchy, the TCH, and provides a rationale for why it is a helpful tool for modeling major portions of the defense transportation system.

Establishing experimental model of human internal carotid artery siphon segment in canine common carotid artery

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cui Xuee; Li Minghua; Wang Yongli; Cheng Yingsheng; Li Wenbin

2005-01-01

Objective: To study the feasibility of establishing experimental model of human internal carotid artery siphon segment in canine common carotid artery (CCA) by end-to-end anastomoses of one side common carotid artery segment with the other side common carotid artery. Methods: Surgical techniques were used to make siphon model in 8 canines. One side CCA was taken as the parent artery and anastomosing with the cut off contra-lateral CCA segment which has passed through within the S-shaped glass tube. Two weeks after the creation of models angiography showed the model siphons were patent. Results: Experimental models of human internal carotid artery siphon segment were successfully made in all 8 dogs. Conclusions: It is practically feasible to establish experimental canine common carotid artery models of siphon segment simulating human internal carotid artery. (authors)

An Evaluation Instrument for Object-Oriented Example Programs for Novices

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Christensen, Henrik Bærbak; Börstler, Jürgen; Nordström,, Marie

objectively and consistently requires some kind of measurement instrument. In this paper, we describe the development and initial validation of an evaluation instrument for example programs, based on three aspects of quality; technical quality, object-oriented quality, and didactical quality. Validation......Examples are important tools for programming education. In this paper, we investigate desirable properties of programming examples from a cognitive and a measurement point of view. We argue that some cognitive aspects of example programs are "caught" by common software measures......, but they are not sufficient to capture all important aspects of understandability. We propose a framework for measuring the understandability of example programs that also considers factors related to the usage context of examples. Research shows that examples play an important role for cognitive skill acquisition. Students...

Multi-objective design of fuzzy logic controller in supply chain

Science.gov (United States)

Ghane, Mahdi; Tarokh, Mohammad Jafar

2012-08-01

Unlike commonly used methods, in this paper, we have introduced a new approach for designing fuzzy controllers. In this approach, we have simultaneously optimized both objective functions of a supply chain over a two-dimensional space. Then, we have obtained a spectrum of optimized points, each of which represents a set of optimal parameters which can be chosen by the manager according to the importance of objective functions. Our used supply chain model is a member of inventory and order-based production control system family, a generalization of the periodic review which is termed `Order-Up-To policy.' An auto rule maker, based on non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm-II, has been applied to the experimental initial fuzzy rules. According to performance measurement, our results indicate the efficiency of the proposed approach.

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

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

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

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.

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...

Associative recognition and the hippocampus: differential effects of hippocampal lesions on object-place, object-context and object-place-context memory.

Science.gov (United States)

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.

ICDE project report: collection and analysis of common-cause failures of batteries

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2003-12-01

This report documents a study performed on the set of Common Cause Failure (CCF) events of batteries (BT). the events studied here were derived from the International CCF Data Exchange (ICDE) database, with contributions from organizations from several countries. 50 events in the ICDE database were studied by tabulating the data and observing the trends. The data span a period from 1980 through 2000. The database contains general information about event attributes such as root cause, coupling factor, common cause component group (CCCG) size, and corrective action. The objective of the report was also to develop the failure mechanisms and phenomena involved in the events, their relationship to the root causes, and possibilities for improvement

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...

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.

Daytime Sleepiness, Poor Sleep Quality, Eveningness Chronotype, and Common Mental Disorders among Chilean College Students

Science.gov (United States)

Concepcion, Tessa; Barbosa, Clarita; Vélez, Juan Carlos; Pepper, Micah; Andrade, Asterio; Gelaye, Bizu; Yanez, David; Williams, Michelle A.

2014-01-01

Objectives: To evaluate whether daytime sleepiness, poor sleep quality, and morningness and eveningness preferences are associated with common mental disorders (CMDs) among college students. Methods: A total of 963 college students completed self-administered questionnaires that collected information about sociodemographic characteristics, sleep…

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 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.

Now you see it, now you don’t: The context dependent nature of category-effects in visual object recognition

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Gerlach, Christian; Toft, Kristian Olesen

2011-01-01

In two experiments, we test predictions regarding processing advantages/disadvantages for natural objects and artefacts in visual object recognition. Varying three important parameters*degree of perceptual differentiation, stimulus format, and stimulus exposure duration*we show how different......-effects are products of common operations which are differentially affected by the structural similarity among objects (with natural objects being more structurally similar than artefacts). The potentially most important aspect of the present study is the demonstration that category-effects are very context dependent...

OAM system based on TMN for utility telecommunication network. Proposal of modeling method about managed objects; TMN ni motozuku denryoku tsushinmo no un`yo kanri system. Kanri object no sekkei shuho ni kansuru kento

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Hirozawa, T.; Yusa, H.; Otani, T. [Central Research Institute of Electric Power Industry, Tokyo (Japan); Okamura, K. [Tokyo Electric Power Co. Inc., Tokyo (Japan)

1996-03-01

To construct an advanced operation and management system for utility telecommunications management network (TMN), this paper proposes a modeling method of managed objects (MOs) required for managing and managed systems, such as an asynchronous transmission mode (ATM) exchanger. Flexible line setting and path switching control are required for the advanced TMN, which must cope with the extension and modification of functions, flexibly. Assignment of roles of managing sides and managed sides was determined. Then, structures of objects such as facilities and logic data, and their interaction were modeled. Common management functions and objects of each function were classified. Based on the TMN standard and MOs of the existing design peculiar to utility, new MOs peculiar to utility were defined in response to the models. The existing MOs can be effectively utilized, and the optimum MOs to be incorporated can be expected. The MOs peculiar to utility are added to the common specification of electric power industry. Since they can be reused for the extension and modification of functions, the cost can be reduced. The MOs applicable to path switching control of utility were designed as a trial. 9 refs., 16 figs., 10 tabs.

Effect of Pleurotus eryngii Mushroom β-Glucan on Quality Characteristics of Common Wheat Pasta.

Science.gov (United States)

Kim, SunHee; Lee, Jo-Won; Heo, Yena; Moon, BoKyung

2016-04-01

The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of β-glucan-rich fractions (BGRFs) from Pleurotus eryngii mushroom powder on the quality, textural properties, and sensory evaluation of common wheat pasta. Pasta was prepared from semolina flour and common wheat flour by replacing common wheat flour at 2%, 4%, and 6% with BGRFs. Semolina flour showed significantly higher viscosities than common wheat flour samples. However, all viscosities, except the breakdown viscosity, were reduced with increasing percentages of BGRFs. Replacement of the common wheat flour with BGRFs resulted in a reddish brown colored pasta with a lower L* value and a higher a* value. The common wheat pastas containing up to 4% BGRFs were not significantly different from semolina pasta with regard to cooking loss. Addition of up to 2% BGRFs had no significant impact on swelling index and water absorption. The addition of BGRFs in common wheat flour had a positive effect on the quality of common wheat pasta and resulted in hardness values similar to those of semolina pasta. In a sensory evaluation, cooked pasta with 2% BGRFs had the highest overall acceptability score. In summary, the results showed that common wheat flour containing 4% BGRFs could be used to produce pasta with an improved quality and texture properties similar to semolina pasta. © 2016 Institute of Food Technologists®

Software Design Concepts for Archiving and Retrieving Control System Data

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Christopher Larrieu; Matt Bickley

2001-01-01

To develop and operate the control system effectively at the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility, users require the ability to diagnose its behavior not only in real-time, but also in retrospect. The new Jefferson Lab data logging system provides an acquisition and storage component capable of archiving enough data to provide suitable context for such analyses. In addition, it provides an extraction and presentation-facility which efficiently fulfills requests for both raw and processed data. This paper discusses several technologies and design methodologies which contribute to the system's overall utility. The Application Programming Interface (API) which developers use to access the data derives from a view of the storage system as a specialized relational database. An object-oriented and compartmental design contributes to its portability at several levels, and the use of CORBA facilitates interaction between distributed components in an industry-standard fashion. This work was supported by the U.S. DOE contract No. DE-AC05-84ER40150

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)

Ruling the Commons. Introducing a new methodology for the analysis of historical commons

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tine de Moor

2016-10-01

Full Text Available Despite significant progress in recent years, the evolution of commons over the long run remains an under-explored area within commons studies. During the last years an international team of historians have worked under the umbrella of the Common Rules Project in order to design and test a new methodology aimed at advancing our knowledge on the dynamics of institutions for collective action – in particular commons. This project aims to contribute to the current debate on commons on three different fronts. Theoretically, it explicitly draws our attention to issues of change and adaptation in the commons – contrasting with more static analyses. Empirically, it highlights the value of historical records as a rich source of information for longitudinal analysis of the functioning of commons. Methodologically, it develops a systematic way of analyzing and comparing commons’ regulations across regions and time, setting a number of variables that have been defined on the basis of the “most common denominators” in commons regulation across countries and time periods. In this paper we introduce the project, describe our sources and methodology, and present the preliminary results of our analysis.

A component architecture for the two-phase flows simulation system Neptune

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Bechaud, C; Boucker, M; Douce, A [Electricite de France (EDF-RD/MFTT), 78 - Chatou (France); Grandotto, M [CEA Cadarache (DEN/DTP/STH), 13 - Saint-Paul-lez-Durance (France); Tajchman, M [CEA Saclay (DEN/DM2S/SFME), 91 - Gif-sur-Yvette (France)

2003-07-01

Electricite de France (EdF) and the French atomic energy commission (Cea) have planed a large project to build a new set of software in nuclear reactors analysis. One of the main idea is to allow coupled calculations in which several scientific domains are involved. This paper presents the software architecture of the two-phase flows simulation Neptune project. Neptune should allow computations of two-phase flows in 3 dimensions under normal operating conditions as well as safety conditions. Three scales are identified: the local scale where there is only homogenization between the two phases, an intermediate scale where solid internal structures are homogenized with the fluid and the system scale where some parts of the geometry under study are considered point-wise or subject to one dimensional simplifications. The main properties of this architecture are as follow: -) coupling with scientific domains, and between different scales, -) re-using of quite all or parts of existing validated codes, -) components usable by the different scales, -) easy introducing of new physical modeling as well as new numerical methods, -) local, distributed and parallel computing. The Neptune architecture is based on the component concept with stable and well suited interface. In the case of a distributed application the components are managed through a Corba bus. The building of the components is organized in shell: a programming shell (Fortran or C++ routines), a managing shell (C++ language), an interpreted shell (Python language), a Corba shell and a global driving shell (C++ or Python). Neptune will use the facilities offered by the Salome project: pre and post processors and controls. A data model has been built to have a common access to the information exchanged between the components (meshes, fields, physical and technical information). This architecture has first been setup and tested on some simple but significant cases and is now currently in use to build the Neptune

A component architecture for the two-phase flows simulation system Neptune

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bechaud, C.; Boucker, M.; Douce, A.; Grandotto, M.; Tajchman, M.

2003-01-01

Electricite de France (EdF) and the French atomic energy commission (Cea) have planed a large project to build a new set of software in nuclear reactors analysis. One of the main idea is to allow coupled calculations in which several scientific domains are involved. This paper presents the software architecture of the two-phase flows simulation Neptune project. Neptune should allow computations of two-phase flows in 3 dimensions under normal operating conditions as well as safety conditions. Three scales are identified: the local scale where there is only homogenization between the two phases, an intermediate scale where solid internal structures are homogenized with the fluid and the system scale where some parts of the geometry under study are considered point-wise or subject to one dimensional simplifications. The main properties of this architecture are as follow: -) coupling with scientific domains, and between different scales, -) re-using of quite all or parts of existing validated codes, -) components usable by the different scales, -) easy introducing of new physical modeling as well as new numerical methods, -) local, distributed and parallel computing. The Neptune architecture is based on the component concept with stable and well suited interface. In the case of a distributed application the components are managed through a Corba bus. The building of the components is organized in shell: a programming shell (Fortran or C++ routines), a managing shell (C++ language), an interpreted shell (Python language), a Corba shell and a global driving shell (C++ or Python). Neptune will use the facilities offered by the Salome project: pre and post processors and controls. A data model has been built to have a common access to the information exchanged between the components (meshes, fields, physical and technical information). This architecture has first been setup and tested on some simple but significant cases and is now currently in use to build the Neptune

Effect of objective function on multi-objective inverse planning of radiation therapy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Li Guoli; Wu Yican; Song Gang; Wang Shifang

2006-01-01

There are two kinds of objective functions in radiotherapy inverse planning: dose distribution-based and Dose-Volume Histogram (DVH)-based functions. The treatment planning in our days is still a trial and error process because the multi-objective problem is solved by transforming it into a single objective problem using a specific set of weights for each object. This work investigates the problem of objective function setting based on Pareto multi-optimization theory, and compares the effect on multi-objective inverse planning of those two kinds of objective functions including calculation time, converge speed, etc. The basis of objective function setting on inverse planning is discussed. (authors)

The SOFIA Mission Control System Software

Science.gov (United States)

Heiligman, G. M.; Brock, D. R.; Culp, S. D.; Decker, P. H.; Estrada, J. C.; Graybeal, J. B.; Nichols, D. M.; Paluzzi, P. R.; Sharer, P. J.; Pampell, R. J.; Papke, B. L.; Salovich, R. D.; Schlappe, S. B.; Spriestersbach, K. K.; Webb, G. L.

1999-05-01

The Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) will be delivered with a computerized mission control system (MCS). The MCS communicates with the aircraft's flight management system and coordinates the operations of the telescope assembly, mission-specific subsystems, and the science instruments. The software for the MCS must be reliable and flexible. It must be easily usable by many teams of observers with widely differing needs, and it must support non-intrusive access for education and public outreach. The technology must be appropriate for SOFIA's 20-year lifetime. The MCS software development process is an object-oriented, use case driven approach. The process is iterative: delivery will be phased over four "builds"; each build will be the result of many iterations; and each iteration will include analysis, design, implementation, and test activities. The team is geographically distributed, coordinating its work via Web pages, teleconferences, T.120 remote collaboration, and CVS (for Internet-enabled configuration management). The MCS software architectural design is derived in part from other observatories' experience. Some important features of the MCS are: * distributed computing over several UNIX and VxWorks computers * fast throughput of time-critical data * use of third-party components, such as the Adaptive Communications Environment (ACE) and the Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA) * extensive configurability via stored, editable configuration files * use of several computer languages so developers have "the right tool for the job". C++, Java, scripting languages, Interactive Data Language (from Research Systems, Int'l.), XML, and HTML will all be used in the final deliverables. This paper reports on work in progress, with the final product scheduled for delivery in 2001. This work was performed for Universities Space Research Association for NASA under contract NAS2-97001.

Monitoring post-fire vegetation rehabilitation projects: A common approach for non-forested ecosystems

Science.gov (United States)

Wirth, Troy A.; Pyke, David A.

2007-01-01

Emergency Stabilization and Rehabilitation (ES&R) and Burned Area Emergency Response (BAER) treatments are short-term, high-intensity treatments designed to mitigate the adverse effects of wildfire on public lands. The federal government expends significant resources implementing ES&R and BAER treatments after wildfires; however, recent reviews have found that existing data from monitoring and research are insufficient to evaluate the effects of these activities. The purpose of this report is to: (1) document what monitoring methods are generally used by personnel in the field; (2) describe approaches and methods for post-fire vegetation and soil monitoring documented in agency manuals; (3) determine the common elements of monitoring programs recommended in these manuals; and (4) describe a common monitoring approach to determine the effectiveness of future ES&R and BAER treatments in non-forested regions. Both qualitative and quantitative methods to measure effectiveness of ES&R treatments are used by federal land management agencies. Quantitative methods are used in the field depending on factors such as funding, personnel, and time constraints. There are seven vegetation monitoring manuals produced by the federal government that address monitoring methods for (primarily) vegetation and soil attributes. These methods vary in their objectivity and repeatability. The most repeatable methods are point-intercept, quadrat-based density measurements, gap intercepts, and direct measurement of soil erosion. Additionally, these manuals recommend approaches for designing monitoring programs for the state of ecosystems or the effect of management actions. The elements of a defensible monitoring program applicable to ES&R and BAER projects that most of these manuals have in common are objectives, stratification, control areas, random sampling, data quality, and statistical analysis. The effectiveness of treatments can be determined more accurately if data are gathered using

A Mathematical and Numerically Integrable Modeling of 3D Object Grasping under Rolling Contacts between Smooth Surfaces

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Suguru Arimoto

2011-01-01

Full Text Available A computable model of grasping and manipulation of a 3D rigid object with arbitrary smooth surfaces by multiple robot fingers with smooth fingertip surfaces is derived under rolling contact constraints between surfaces. Geometrical conditions of pure rolling contacts are described through the moving-frame coordinates at each rolling contact point under the postulates: (1 two surfaces share a common single contact point without any mutual penetration and a common tangent plane at the contact point and (2 each path length of running of the contact point on the robot fingertip surface and the object surface is equal. It is shown that a set of Euler-Lagrange equations of motion of the fingers-object system can be derived by introducing Lagrange multipliers corresponding to geometric conditions of contacts. A set of 1st-order differential equations governing rotational motions of each fingertip and the object and updating arc-length parameters should be accompanied with the Euler-Lagrange equations. Further more, nonholonomic constraints arising from twisting between the two normal axes to each tangent plane are rewritten into a set of Frenet-Serre equations with a geometrically given normal curvature and a motion-induced geodesic curvature.

Inhibition of common cold-induced aggravation of childhood asthma by leukotriene receptor antagonists.

Science.gov (United States)

Yoshihara, Shigemi; Fukuda, Hironobu; Abe, Toshio; Nishida, Mitsuhiro; Yamada, Yumi; Kanno, Noriko; Arisaka, Osamu

2012-09-01

Virus infection is an important risk factor for aggravation of childhood asthma. The objective of this study was to examine the effect of drugs on aggravation of asthma induced by a common cold. Asthma control was examined in a survey of 1,014 Japanese pediatric patients with bronchial asthma. The occurrence of common cold, asthma control, and drugs used for asthma control were investigated using a modified Childhood Asthma Control Test (C-ACT) for patients aged cold and aggravation of asthma were significantly higher in patients aged cold-induced aggravation was significantly less effective in patients aged cold, asthma control was significantly more effective for those treated with leukotriene receptor antagonists (LTRAs) compared to treatment without LTRAs. Asthma control did not differ between patients who did or did not take inhaled corticosteroids or long-acting β2 stimulants. These findings showed a high prevalence of common cold in younger patients with childhood asthma and indicated that common cold can induce aggravation of asthma. LTRAs are useful for long-term asthma control in very young patients who develop an asthma attack due to a common cold.

Intimate partner violence and incidence of common mental disorder

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Marcela Franklin Salvador de Mendonça

Full Text Available ABSTRACT OBJECTIVE To investigate the association of intimate partner violence against women reported in the last 12 months and seven years with the incidence of common mental disorders. METHODS A prospective cohort study with 390 women from 18 to 49 years, registered in the Family Health Program of the city of Recife, State of Pernambuco; from July 2013 to December 2014. The Self Reporting Questionnaire-20 (SRQ-20 assessed mental health. Intimate partner violence consists of concrete acts of psychological, physical or sexual violence that the partner inflicts on the woman. Poisson regression was used to estimate crude and adjusted relative risks (RR of the association between common mental disorders and intimate partner violence. RESULTS The incidence of common mental disorders was 44.6% among women who reported intimate partner violence in the last 12 months and 43.4% among those who reported in the past seven years. Mental disorders remained associated with psychological violence (RR = 3.0; 95%CI 1.9–4.7 and RR = 1.8; 95%CI 1.0–3.7 in the last 12 months, and seven years, respectively, even in the absence of physical or sexual violence. When psychological violence were related to physical or sexual violence, the risk of common mental disorders was even higher, both in the last 12 months (RR = 3.1; 95%CI 2.1–4.7 and in the last seven years (RR = 2.5; 95%CI 1.7–3.8. CONCLUSIONS Intimate partner violence is associated with the incidence of common mental disorders in women. The treatment of the consequences of IPV and support for women in seeking protection for themselves for public services is essential.

Acute fasting inhibits central caspase-1 activity reducing anxiety-like behavior and increasing novel object and object location recognition.

Science.gov (United States)

Towers, Albert E; Oelschlager, Maci L; Patel, Jay; Gainey, Stephen J; McCusker, Robert H; Freund, Gregory G

2017-06-01

Inflammation within the central nervous system (CNS) is frequently comorbid with anxiety. Importantly, the pro-inflammatory cytokine most commonly associated with anxiety is IL-1β. The bioavailability and activity of IL-1β are regulated by caspase-1-dependent proteolysis vis-a-vis the inflammasome. Thus, interventions regulating the activation or activity of caspase-1 should reduce anxiety especially in states that foster IL-1β maturation. Male C57BL/6j, C57BL/6j mice treated with the capase-1 inhibitor biotin-YVAD-cmk, caspase-1 knockout (KO) mice and IL-1R1 KO mice were fasted for 24h or allowed ad libitum access to food. Immediately after fasting, caspase-1 activity was measured in brain region homogenates while activated caspase-1 was localized in the brain by immunohistochemistry. Mouse anxiety-like behavior and cognition were tested using the elevated zero maze and novel object/object location tasks, respectively. A 24h fast in mice reduced the activity of caspase-1 in whole brain and in the prefrontal cortex, amygdala, hippocampus, and hypothalamus by 35%, 25%, 40%, 40%, and 40% respectively. A 24h fast also reduced anxiety-like behavior by 40% and increased novel object and object location recognition by 21% and 31%, respectively. IL-1β protein, however, was not reduced in the brain by fasting. ICV administration of YVAD decreased caspase-1 activity in the prefrontal cortex and amygdala by 55%, respectively leading to a 64% reduction in anxiety like behavior. Importantly, when caspase-1 KO or IL1-R1 KO mice are fasted, no fasting-dependent reduction in anxiety-like behavior was observed. Results indicate that fasting decrease anxiety-like behavior and improves memory by a mechanism tied to reducing caspase-1 activity throughout the brain. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The common good

OpenAIRE

Argandoña, Antonio

2011-01-01

The concept of the common good occupied a relevant place in classical social, political and economic philosophy. After losing ground in the Modern age, it has recently reappeared, although with different and sometimes confusing meanings. This paper is the draft of a chapter of a Handbook; it explains the meaning of common good in the Aristotelian-Thomistic philosophy and in the Social Doctrine of the Catholic Church; why the common good is relevant; and how it is different from the other uses...

Motivational Objects in Natural Scenes (MONS: A Database of >800 Objects

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Judith Schomaker

2017-09-01

Full Text Available 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.

Multispectral image analysis for object recognition and classification

Science.gov (United States)

Viau, C. R.; Payeur, P.; Cretu, A.-M.

2016-05-01

Computer and machine vision applications are used in numerous fields to analyze static and dynamic imagery in order to assist or automate decision-making processes. Advancements in sensor technologies now make it possible to capture and visualize imagery at various wavelengths (or bands) of the electromagnetic spectrum. Multispectral imaging has countless applications in various fields including (but not limited to) security, defense, space, medical, manufacturing and archeology. The development of advanced algorithms to process and extract salient information from the imagery is a critical component of the overall system performance. The fundamental objective of this research project was to investigate the benefits of combining imagery from the visual and thermal bands of the electromagnetic spectrum to improve the recognition rates and accuracy of commonly found objects in an office setting. A multispectral dataset (visual and thermal) was captured and features from the visual and thermal images were extracted and used to train support vector machine (SVM) classifiers. The SVM's class prediction ability was evaluated separately on the visual, thermal and multispectral testing datasets.

Evidence for similar early but not late representation of possible and impossible objects

Science.gov (United States)

Freud, Erez; Hadad, Bat-Sheva; Avidan, Galia; Ganel, Tzvi

2015-01-01

The perceptual processes that mediate the ability to efficiently represent object 3D structure are still not fully understood. The current study was aimed to shed light on these processes by utilizing spatially possible and impossible objects that could not be created in real 3D space. Despite being perceived as exceptionally unusual, impossible objects still possess fundamental Gestalt attributes and valid local depth cues that may support their initial successful representation. Based on this notion and on recent findings from our lab, we hypothesized that the initial representation of impossible objects would involve common mechanisms to those mediating typical object perception while the perceived differences between possible and impossible objects would emerge later along the processing hierarchy. In Experiment 1, participants preformed same/different classifications of two markers superimposed on a display containing two objects (possible or impossible). Faster reaction times were observed for displays in which the markers were superimposed on the same object (“object-based benefit”). Importantly, this benefit was similar for possible and impossible objects, suggesting that the representations of the two object categories rely on similar perceptual organization processes. Yet, responses for impossible objects were slower compared to possible objects. Experiment 2 was designed to examine the origin of this effect. Participants classified the location of two markers while exposure duration was manipulated. A similar pattern of performance was found for possible and impossible objects for the short exposure duration, with differences in accuracy between these two types of objects emerging only for longer exposure durations. Overall, these findings provide evidence that the representation of object structure relies on a multi-level process and that object impossibility selectively impairs the rendering of fine-detailed description of object structure. PMID

CMLOG: A common message logging system

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chen, J.; Akers, W.; Bickley, M.; Wu, D.; Watson, W. III

1997-01-01

The Common Message Logging (CMLOG) system is an object-oriented and distributed system that not only allows applications and systems to log data (messages) of any type into a centralized database but also lets applications view incoming messages in real-time or retrieve stored data from the database according to selection rules. It consists of a concurrent Unix server that handles incoming logging or searching messages, a Motif browser that can view incoming messages in real-time or display stored data in the database, a client daemon that buffers and sends logging messages to the server, and libraries that can be used by applications to send data to or retrieve data from the database via the server. This paper presents the design and implementation of the CMLOG system meanwhile it will also address the issue of integration of CMLOG into existing control systems. CMLOG into existing control systems

Comparisons of phaseolin type and α-amylase inhibitor in common bean(Phaseolus vulgaris L.)in China

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

Yang Yao; Yibo Hu; Yingying Zhu; Yue Gao; Guixing Ren

2016-01-01

The objective of this study was to characterize the phaseolin type and a-amylase（αAI） level in common bean（Phaseolus vidgaris L.） accessions deposited in the Chinese National Genebank.The 40 accessions sampled were common varieties originating in Asia,North America,South America,Europe,and Africa.No Inca（I-） phaseolin was observed in the accessions.Only four accessions contained Tendergreen（T-） phaseolin and the remaining36 contained Sanilac（S-） phaseolin.aAI proteins extracted from nine accessions showed higher a-amylase inhibitory activity than the control(Phase 2,IC50 = 0.65 μg).These common bean accessions have potential use as nutraceutical ingredients.

The art of anger: reward context turns avoidance responses to anger-related objects into approach.

Science.gov (United States)

Aarts, Henk; Ruys, Kirsten I; Veling, Harm; Renes, Robert A; de Groot, Jasper H B; van Nunen, Anna M; Geertjes, Sarit

2010-10-01

Anger has a special status among the emotions in that it can elicit avoidance as well as approach motivation. This study tested the ignored role of reward context in potentiating approach rather than avoidance responses toward objects associated with anger. In Experiment 1, angry and neutral facial expressions were parafoveally paired with common objects, and responses to the objects were assessed by subjective reports of motivation to obtain them. In Experiment 2, objects were again paired with angry or neutral faces outside of participants' awareness, and responses toward the objects were indexed by physical effort expended in attempting to win them. Results showed that approach motivation toward anger-related objects can be observed when responding is framed in terms of rewards that one can obtain, whereas avoidance motivation occurs in the absence of such a reward context. These findings point to the importance of a reward context in modulating people's responses to anger.

Space Station Freedom electrical power system hardware commonality with the United States Polar Platform

Science.gov (United States)

Rieker, Lorra L.; Haraburda, Francis M.

1989-01-01

Information is presented on how the concept of commonality is being implemented with respect to electric power system hardware for the Space Station Freedom and the U.S. Polar Platform. Included is a historical account of the candidate common items which have the potential to serve the same power system functions on both Freedom and the Polar Platform. The Space Station program and objectives are described, focusing on the test and development responsibilities. The program definition and preliminary design phase and the design and development phase are discussed. The goal of this work is to reduce the program cost.

iLOG: A Framework for Automatic Annotation of Learning Objects with Empirical Usage Metadata

Science.gov (United States)

Miller, L. D.; Soh, Leen-Kiat; Samal, Ashok; Nugent, Gwen

2012-01-01

Learning objects (LOs) are digital or non-digital entities used for learning, education or training commonly stored in repositories searchable by their associated metadata. Unfortunately, based on the current standards, such metadata is often missing or incorrectly entered making search difficult or impossible. In this paper, we investigate…

Common Amino Acid Subsequences in a Universal Proteome—Relevance for Food Science

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Piotr Minkiewicz

2015-09-01

Full Text Available A common subsequence is a fragment of the amino acid chain that occurs in more than one protein. Common subsequences may be an object of interest for food scientists as biologically active peptides, epitopes, and/or protein markers that are used in comparative proteomics. An individual bioactive fragment, in particular the shortest fragment containing two or three amino acid residues, may occur in many protein sequences. An individual linear epitope may also be present in multiple sequences of precursor proteins. Although recent recommendations for prediction of allergenicity and cross-reactivity include not only sequence identity, but also similarities in secondary and tertiary structures surrounding the common fragment, local sequence identity may be used to screen protein sequence databases for potential allergens in silico. The main weakness of the screening process is that it overlooks allergens and cross-reactivity cases without identical fragments corresponding to linear epitopes. A single peptide may also serve as a marker of a group of allergens that belong to the same family and, possibly, reveal cross-reactivity. This review article discusses the benefits for food scientists that follow from the common subsequences concept.

Identification Of Natural Dyes On Archaeological Textile Objects Using Laser Induced Fluorescent Technique

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Abdel-Kareem, O.; Eltokhy, A.; Harith, M. A.

2011-01-01

This study aims to evaluate the use of Laser Fluorescent as a non-destructive technique for identification of natural dyes on archaeological textile objects. In this study wool textile samples were dyed with 10 natural dyes such as cochineal, cutch, henna, indigo, Lac, madder, safflower, saffron, sumac and turmeric. These dyes common present on archaeological textile objects to be used as standard dyed textile samples. These selected natural dyes will be used as known references that can be used a guide to identify unknown archaeological dyes. The dyed textile samples were investigated with laser radiation in different wavelengths to detect the best wavelengths for identification each dye. This study confirms that Laser Florescent is very useful and a rapid technique can be used as a non-destructive technique for identification of natural dyes on archaeological textile objects. The results obtained with this study can be a guide for all conservators in identification of natural organic dyes on archaeological textile objects.

Identification Of Natural Dyes On Archaeological Textile Objects Using Laser Induced Fluorescent Technique

Science.gov (United States)

Abdel-Kareem, O.; Eltokhy, A.; Harith, M. A.

2011-09-01

This study aims to evaluate the use of Laser Fluorescent as a non-destructive technique for identification of natural dyes on archaeological textile objects. In this study wool textile samples were dyed with 10 natural dyes such as cochineal, cutch, henna, indigo, Lac, madder, safflower, saffron, sumac and turmeric. These dyes common present on archaeological textile objects to be used as standard dyed textile samples. These selected natural dyes will be used as known references that can be used a guide to identify unknown archaeological dyes. The dyed textile samples were investigated with laser radiation in different wavelengths to detect the best wavelengths for identification each dye. This study confirms that Laser Florescent is very useful and a rapid technique can be used as a non-destructive technique for identification of natural dyes on archaeological textile objects. The results obtained with this study can be a guide for all conservators in identification of natural organic dyes on archaeological textile objects.

Analysis of micro computed tomography images; a look inside historic enamelled metal objects

Science.gov (United States)

van der Linden, Veerle; van de Casteele, Elke; Thomas, Mienke Simon; de Vos, Annemie; Janssen, Elsje; Janssens, Koen

2010-02-01

In this study the usefulness of micro-Computed Tomography (µ-CT) for the in-depth analysis of enamelled metal objects was tested. Usually investigations of enamelled metal artefacts are restricted to non-destructive surface analysis or analysis of cross sections after destructive sampling. Radiography, a commonly used technique in the field of cultural heritage studies, is limited to providing two-dimensional information about a three-dimensional object (Lang and Middleton, Radiography of Cultural Material, pp. 60-61, Elsevier-Butterworth-Heinemann, Amsterdam-Stoneham-London, 2005). Obtaining virtual slices and information about the internal structure of these objects was made possible by CT analysis. With this technique the underlying metal work was studied without removing the decorative enamel layer. Moreover visible defects such as cracks were measured in both width and depth and as of yet invisible defects and weaker areas are visualised. All these features are of great interest to restorers and conservators as they allow a view inside these objects without so much as touching them.

Beginning Objective-C

CERN Document Server

Dovey, James

2012-01-01

Objective-C is today's fastest growing programming language, at least in part due to the popularity of Apple's Mac, iPhone and iPad. Beginning Objective-C is for you if you have some programming experience, but you're new to the Objective-C programming language and you want a modern-and fast-way forwards to your own coding projects. Beginning Objective-C offers you a modern programmer's perspective on Objective-C courtesy of two of the best iOS and Mac developers in the field today, and gets you programming to the best of your ability in this important language.  It gets you rolling fast into

How evidence based is the management of two common sports injuries in a sports injury clinic?

OpenAIRE

Murray, I; Murray, S; MacKenzie, K; Coleman, S; Cullen, M

2005-01-01

Objectives: To examine the diagnosis and management of adults attending a sports injury clinic, to establish to what extent the management of the two most common injuries treated at this clinic is evidence based, and to explore factors that affect management.

Common safety approach for future pressurized water reactors in France and Germany

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Frisch, W.; Jahns, A.; Queniart, D.; Gros, G.

1995-01-01

In France and Germany all major activities related to future pressurized water reactors are now proceeding in a coordinated way among the two countries. The proposed paper covers this common development of a safety approach and particular technical safety objectives. The main topics of this document are presented in this paper, together with a rationale for the approach and the recommended technical principles. (K.A.). 5 refs., 1 fig

The Common Good

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Feldt, Liv Egholm

At present voluntary and philanthropic organisations are experiencing significant public attention and academic discussions about their role in society. Central to the debate is on one side the question of how they contribute to “the common good”, and on the other the question of how they can avoid...... and concepts continuously over time have blurred the different sectors and “polluted” contemporary definitions of the “common good”. The analysis shows that “the common good” is not an autonomous concept owned or developed by specific spheres of society. The analysis stresses that historically, “the common...... good” has always been a contested concept. It is established through messy and blurred heterogeneity of knowledge, purposes and goal achievements originating from a multitude of scientific, religious, political and civil society spheres contested not only in terms of words and definitions but also...

Contextual object understanding through geospatial analysis and reasoning (COUGAR)