A linear evolution for non-linear dynamics and correlations in realistic nuclei

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Levin, E.; Lublinsky, M.

2004-01-01

A new approach to high energy evolution based on a linear equation for QCD generating functional is developed. This approach opens a possibility for systematic study of correlations inside targets, and, in particular, inside realistic nuclei. Our results are presented as three new equations. The first one is a linear equation for QCD generating functional (and for scattering amplitude) that sums the 'fan' diagrams. For the amplitude this equation is equivalent to the non-linear Balitsky-Kovchegov equation. The second equation is a generalization of the Balitsky-Kovchegov non-linear equation to interactions with realistic nuclei. It includes a new correlation parameter which incorporates, in a model-dependent way, correlations inside the nuclei. The third equation is a non-linear equation for QCD generating functional (and for scattering amplitude) that in addition to the 'fan' diagrams sums the Glauber-Mueller multiple rescatterings

Collective action for implementation: a realist evaluation of organisational collaboration in healthcare

OpenAIRE

Rycroft-Malone, Jo; Burton, Christopher R; Wilkinson, Joyce; Harvey, Gill; McCormack, Brendan; Baker, Richard; Dopson, Sue; Graham, Ian D.; Staniszewska, Sophie; Thompson, Carl; Ariss, Steven; Melville-Richards, Lucy; Williams, Lynne

2016-01-01

Background\\ud \\ud Increasingly, it is being suggested that translational gaps might be eradicated or narrowed by bringing research users and producers closer together, a theory that is largely untested. This paper reports a national study to fill a gap in the evidence about the conditions, processes and outcomes related to collaboration and implementation.\\ud \\ud \\ud Methods\\ud \\ud A longitudinal realist evaluation using multiple qualitative methods case studies was conducted with three Colla...

Tuukka Kaidesoja on Critical Realist Transcendental Realism

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Groff Ruth

2015-09-01

Full Text Available I argue that critical realists think pretty much what Tukka Kaidesoja says that he himself thinks, but also that Kaidesoja’s objections to the views that he attributes to critical realists are not persuasive.

A Generalized Pyramid Matching Kernel for Human Action Recognition in Realistic Videos

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Wenjun Zhang

2013-10-01

Full Text Available Human action recognition is an increasingly important research topic in the fields of video sensing, analysis and understanding. Caused by unconstrained sensing conditions, there exist large intra-class variations and inter-class ambiguities in realistic videos, which hinder the improvement of recognition performance for recent vision-based action recognition systems. In this paper, we propose a generalized pyramid matching kernel (GPMK for recognizing human actions in realistic videos, based on a multi-channel “bag of words” representation constructed from local spatial-temporal features of video clips. As an extension to the spatial-temporal pyramid matching (STPM kernel, the GPMK leverages heterogeneous visual cues in multiple feature descriptor types and spatial-temporal grid granularity levels, to build a valid similarity metric between two video clips for kernel-based classification. Instead of the predefined and fixed weights used in STPM, we present a simple, yet effective, method to compute adaptive channel weights of GPMK based on the kernel target alignment from training data. It incorporates prior knowledge and the data-driven information of different channels in a principled way. The experimental results on three challenging video datasets (i.e., Hollywood2, Youtube and HMDB51 validate the superiority of our GPMK w.r.t. the traditional STPM kernel for realistic human action recognition and outperform the state-of-the-art results in the literature.

Polyamine Metabolites Profiling for Characterization of Lung and Liver Cancer Using an LC-Tandem MS Method with Multiple Statistical Data Mining Strategies: Discovering Potential Cancer Biomarkers in Human Plasma and Urine

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Huarong Xu

2016-08-01

Full Text Available Polyamines, one of the most important kind of biomarkers in cancer research, were investigated in order to characterize different cancer types. An integrative approach which combined ultra-high performance liquid chromatography—tandem mass spectrometry detection and multiple statistical data processing strategies including outlier elimination, binary logistic regression analysis and cluster analysis had been developed to discover the characteristic biomarkers of lung and liver cancer. The concentrations of 14 polyamine metabolites in biosamples from lung (n = 50 and liver cancer patients (n = 50 were detected by a validated UHPLC-MS/MS method. Then the concentrations were converted into independent variables to characterize patients of lung and liver cancer by binary logic regression analysis. Significant independent variables were regarded as the potential biomarkers. Cluster analysis was engaged for further verifying. As a result, two values was discovered to identify lung and liver cancer, which were the product of the plasma concentration of putrescine and spermidine; and the ratio of the urine concentration of S-adenosyl-l-methionine and N-acetylspermidine. Results indicated that the established advanced method could be successfully applied to characterize lung and liver cancer, and may also enable a new way of discovering cancer biomarkers and characterizing other types of cancer.

Armageddon polytropos. Realistic thinking and nuclear fact, views on a half-century of inter-paradigmatic debates

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zajec, Olivier

2017-01-01

At the end of the Second World War, nuclear weapons immediately became a privileged topic of study for the nascent discipline of International Relations (RI). Within it, the realist school has attempted to integrate nuclear weapons into a general strategic reflection on the evolution of interstate foreign policy. So deeply indeed that, according to a common opinion, a kind of fusion occurred between the realist paradigm and nuclear power: in short, 'defending' nuclear deterrence would mean making profession of realism. However, the link between realism and nuclear power is more complex than is commonly thought. To grasp its nuances, it is probably necessary to draw a parallel between the concrete and practical evolution of the Western military nuclear doctrines, on the one hand, and, on the other hand, the theoretical and conceptual positions taken by realistic politicians from 1945 to the present day. It is the object of this article, which aims to recall the articulations between the realistic thought of the IR and the nuclear fact, in order to put them in historical perspective, so as to suggest that the 'interlocking web of thought' that is realism, far from being monolithic, has had - and continues to have - multiple nuclear facets

Generating realistic roofs over a rectilinear polygon

KAUST Repository

Ahn, Heekap

2011-01-01

Given a simple rectilinear polygon P in the xy-plane, a roof over P is a terrain over P whose faces are supported by planes through edges of P that make a dihedral angle π/4 with the xy-plane. In this paper, we introduce realistic roofs by imposing a few additional constraints. We investigate the geometric and combinatorial properties of realistic roofs, and show a connection with the straight skeleton of P. We show that the maximum possible number of distinct realistic roofs over P is ( ⌊(n-4)/4⌋ (n-4)/2) when P has n vertices. We present an algorithm that enumerates a combinatorial representation of each such roof in O(1) time per roof without repetition, after O(n 4) preprocessing time. We also present an O(n 5)-time algorithm for computing a realistic roof with minimum height or volume. © 2011 Springer-Verlag.

Development of a realistic human airway model.

Science.gov (United States)

Lizal, Frantisek; Elcner, Jakub; Hopke, Philip K; Jedelsky, Jan; Jicha, Miroslav

2012-03-01

Numerous models of human lungs with various levels of idealization have been reported in the literature; consequently, results acquired using these models are difficult to compare to in vivo measurements. We have developed a set of model components based on realistic geometries, which permits the analysis of the effects of subsequent model simplification. A realistic digital upper airway geometry except for the lack of an oral cavity has been created which proved suitable both for computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations and for the fabrication of physical models. Subsequently, an oral cavity was added to the tracheobronchial geometry. The airway geometry including the oral cavity was adjusted to enable fabrication of a semi-realistic model. Five physical models were created based on these three digital geometries. Two optically transparent models, one with and one without the oral cavity, were constructed for flow velocity measurements, two realistic segmented models, one with and one without the oral cavity, were constructed for particle deposition measurements, and a semi-realistic model with glass cylindrical airways was developed for optical measurements of flow velocity and in situ particle size measurements. One-dimensional phase doppler anemometry measurements were made and compared to the CFD calculations for this model and good agreement was obtained.

Kuhn: Realist or Antirealist?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Michel Ghins

1998-06-01

Full Text Available Although Kuhn is much more an antirealist than a realist, the earlier and later articulations of realist and antirealist ingredients in his views merit close scrutiny. What are the constituents of the real invariant World posited by Kuhn and its relation to the mutable paradigm-related worlds? Various proposed solutions to this problem (dubbed the "new-world problem" by Ian Hacking are examined and shown to be unsatisfactory. In The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, the stable World can reasonably be taken to be made up of ordinary perceived objects, whereas in Kuhn's later works the transparadigmatic World is identified with something akin to the Kantian world-in-itself. It is argued that both proposals are beset with insuperable difficulties which render Kuhn's earlier and later versions of antirealism implausible.

Genome-wide association study identifies multiple susceptibility loci for multiple myeloma

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Mitchell, Jonathan S; Li, Ni; Weinhold, Niels

2016-01-01

Multiple myeloma (MM) is a plasma cell malignancy with a significant heritable basis. Genome-wide association studies have transformed our understanding of MM predisposition, but individual studies have had limited power to discover risk loci. Here we perform a meta-analysis of these GWAS, add a ...

Restoration of γ-ray multiplicity distributions from experiments with low efficiency multiplicity filters

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bellia, G.; Del Zoppo, A.; Migneco, E.; Russo, G.; Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Catania

1984-01-01

The restoration of γ-ray multiplicity distributions from experimental p-fold coincidence distributions is discussed. It is shown that the restoration of the multiplicity from measurements with low total detection efficiency is an 'incorrectly posed problem'. While in the literature the analysis of the experimental data has been attempted only in terms of the lowest central moments of the multiplicity distribution, in this paper an unfolding method based on the minimization of the directioned discrepancies in the probability space is used. The method is found to work very well even if the total efficiency Ω <= 0.1. Realistic tests and a comparison with the usual method of analysis are presented. (orig.)

Discovering Hands - México

OpenAIRE

Salamanca Cárdenas, Daniela; Castelblanco Domínguez, Junio Andrés; Aguilar Ardila, Laura Andrea

2016-01-01

El modelo de Discovering Hands ha sido reconocido internacionalmente como un proyecto innovador que se ha expandido por diferentes países del mundo, como Austria, y se ha empezado a estudiar la propuesta en países como República Checa, India y Colombia. (Discovering Hands, 2016). Esto se debe a que no solo mejora el tratamiento de cáncer de mama, sino que también reduce los costos totales de tratamiento de la enfermedad y aumenta la fuerza laborar de los países donde esté presente. Al represe...

Predicting perceptual quality of images in realistic scenario using deep filter banks

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Weixia; Yan, Jia; Hu, Shiyong; Ma, Yang; Deng, Dexiang

2018-03-01

Classical image perceptual quality assessment models usually resort to natural scene statistic methods, which are based on an assumption that certain reliable statistical regularities hold on undistorted images and will be corrupted by introduced distortions. However, these models usually fail to accurately predict degradation severity of images in realistic scenarios since complex, multiple, and interactive authentic distortions usually appear on them. We propose a quality prediction model based on convolutional neural network. Quality-aware features extracted from filter banks of multiple convolutional layers are aggregated into the image representation. Furthermore, an easy-to-implement and effective feature selection strategy is used to further refine the image representation and finally a linear support vector regression model is trained to map image representation into images' subjective perceptual quality scores. The experimental results on benchmark databases present the effectiveness and generalizability of the proposed model.

Evaluation of photovoltaic panel temperature in realistic scenarios

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Du, Yanping; Fell, Christopher J.; Duck, Benjamin; Chen, Dong; Liffman, Kurt; Zhang, Yinan; Gu, Min; Zhu, Yonggang

2016-01-01

Highlights: • The developed realistic model captures more reasonably the thermal response and hysteresis effects. • The predicted panel temperature is as high as 60 °C under a solar irradiance of 1000 W/m"2 in no-wind weather. • In realistic scenarios, the thermal response normally takes 50–250 s. • The actual heating effect may cause a photoelectric efficiency drop of 2.9–9.0%. - Abstract: Photovoltaic (PV) panel temperature was evaluated by developing theoretical models that are feasible to be used in realistic scenarios. Effects of solar irradiance, wind speed and ambient temperature on the PV panel temperature were studied. The parametric study shows significant influence of solar irradiance and wind speed on the PV panel temperature. With an increase of ambient temperature, the temperature rise of solar cells is reduced. The characteristics of panel temperature in realistic scenarios were analyzed. In steady weather conditions, the thermal response time of a solar cell with a Si thickness of 100–500 μm is around 50–250 s. While in realistic scenarios, the panel temperature variation in a day is different from that in steady weather conditions due to the effect of thermal hysteresis. The heating effect on the photovoltaic efficiency was assessed based on real-time temperature measurement of solar cells in realistic weather conditions. For solar cells with a temperature coefficient in the range of −0.21%∼−0.50%, the current field tests indicated an approximate efficiency loss between 2.9% and 9.0%.

Realist synthesis: illustrating the method for implementation research

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Rycroft-Malone Jo

2012-04-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Realist synthesis is an increasingly popular approach to the review and synthesis of evidence, which focuses on understanding the mechanisms by which an intervention works (or not. There are few published examples of realist synthesis. This paper therefore fills a gap by describing, in detail, the process used for a realist review and synthesis to answer the question ‘what interventions and strategies are effective in enabling evidence-informed healthcare?’ The strengths and challenges of conducting realist review are also considered. Methods The realist approach involves identifying underlying causal mechanisms and exploring how they work under what conditions. The stages of this review included: defining the scope of the review (concept mining and framework formulation; searching for and scrutinising the evidence; extracting and synthesising the evidence; and developing the narrative, including hypotheses. Results Based on key terms and concepts related to various interventions to promote evidence-informed healthcare, we developed an outcome-focused theoretical framework. Questions were tailored for each of four theory/intervention areas within the theoretical framework and were used to guide development of a review and data extraction process. The search for literature within our first theory area, change agency, was executed and the screening procedure resulted in inclusion of 52 papers. Using the questions relevant to this theory area, data were extracted by one reviewer and validated by a second reviewer. Synthesis involved organisation of extracted data into evidence tables, theming and formulation of chains of inference, linking between the chains of inference, and hypothesis formulation. The narrative was developed around the hypotheses generated within the change agency theory area. Conclusions Realist synthesis lends itself to the review of complex interventions because it accounts for context as well as

Sotsialistlik realist Keskküla

Index Scriptorium Estoniae

1998-01-01

Londonis 1998. a. ilmunud inglise kunstikriitiku Matthew Cullerne Bowni monograafias "Socialist Realist Painting" on eesti kunstnikest Enn Põldroos, Nikolai Kormashov, Ando Keskküla, Kormashovi ja Keskküla maalide reproduktsioonid

Did the ancient egyptians discover Algol?

Science.gov (United States)

Jetsu, L.; Porceddu, S.; Porceddu, S.; Lyytinen, J.; Kajatkari, P.; Markkanen, T.; Toivari-Viitala, J.

2013-02-01

Fabritius discovered the first variable star, Mira, in 1596. Holwarda determined the 11 months period of Mira in 1638. Montanari discovered the next variable star, Algol, in 1669. Its period, 2.867 days, was determined by Goodricke (178). Algol was associated with demon-like creatures, "Gorgon" in ancient Greek and "ghoul" in ancient Arab mythology. This indicates that its variability was discovered much before 1669 (Wilk 1996), but this mythological evidence is ambiguous (Davis 1975). For thousands of years, the Ancient Egyptian Scribes (AES) observed stars for timekeeping in a region, where there are nearly 300 clear nights a year. We discovered a significant periodicity of 2.850 days in their calendar for lucky and unlucky days dated to 1224 BC, "the Cairo Calendar". Several astrophysical and astronomical tests supported our conclusion that this was the period of Algol three millennia ago. The "ghoulish habits" of Algol could explain this 0.017 days period increase (Battersby 2012).

Fault-Tolerant Robot Programming through Simulation with Realistic Sensor Models

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Axel Waggershauser

2008-11-01

Full Text Available We introduce a simulation system for mobile robots that allows a realistic interaction of multiple robots in a common environment. The simulated robots are closely modeled after robots from the EyeBot family and have an identical application programmer interface. The simulation supports driving commands at two levels of abstraction as well as numerous sensors such as shaft encoders, infrared distance sensors, and compass. Simulation of on-board digital cameras via synthetic images allows the use of image processing routines for robot control within the simulation. Specific error models for actuators, distance sensors, camera sensor, and wireless communication have been implemented. Progressively increasing error levels for an application program allows for testing and improving its robustness and fault-tolerance.

Are there realistically interpretable local theories?

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

d'Espagnat, B.

1989-01-01

Although it rests on strongly established proofs, the statement that no realistically interpretable local theory is compatible with some experimentally testable predictions of quantum mechanics seems at first sight to be incompatible with a few general ideas and clear-cut statements occurring in recent theoretical work by Griffiths, Omnes, and Ballentine and Jarrett. It is shown here that in fact none of the developments due to these authors can be considered as a realistically interpretable local theory, so that there is no valid reason for suspecting that the existing proofs of the statement in question are all flawed

Realistic Real-Time Outdoor Rendering in Augmented Reality

Science.gov (United States)

Kolivand, Hoshang; Sunar, Mohd Shahrizal

2014-01-01

Realistic rendering techniques of outdoor Augmented Reality (AR) has been an attractive topic since the last two decades considering the sizeable amount of publications in computer graphics. Realistic virtual objects in outdoor rendering AR systems require sophisticated effects such as: shadows, daylight and interactions between sky colours and virtual as well as real objects. A few realistic rendering techniques have been designed to overcome this obstacle, most of which are related to non real-time rendering. However, the problem still remains, especially in outdoor rendering. This paper proposed a much newer, unique technique to achieve realistic real-time outdoor rendering, while taking into account the interaction between sky colours and objects in AR systems with respect to shadows in any specific location, date and time. This approach involves three main phases, which cover different outdoor AR rendering requirements. Firstly, sky colour was generated with respect to the position of the sun. Second step involves the shadow generation algorithm, Z-Partitioning: Gaussian and Fog Shadow Maps (Z-GaF Shadow Maps). Lastly, a technique to integrate sky colours and shadows through its effects on virtual objects in the AR system, is introduced. The experimental results reveal that the proposed technique has significantly improved the realism of real-time outdoor AR rendering, thus solving the problem of realistic AR systems. PMID:25268480

Realistic real-time outdoor rendering in augmented reality.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hoshang Kolivand

Full Text Available Realistic rendering techniques of outdoor Augmented Reality (AR has been an attractive topic since the last two decades considering the sizeable amount of publications in computer graphics. Realistic virtual objects in outdoor rendering AR systems require sophisticated effects such as: shadows, daylight and interactions between sky colours and virtual as well as real objects. A few realistic rendering techniques have been designed to overcome this obstacle, most of which are related to non real-time rendering. However, the problem still remains, especially in outdoor rendering. This paper proposed a much newer, unique technique to achieve realistic real-time outdoor rendering, while taking into account the interaction between sky colours and objects in AR systems with respect to shadows in any specific location, date and time. This approach involves three main phases, which cover different outdoor AR rendering requirements. Firstly, sky colour was generated with respect to the position of the sun. Second step involves the shadow generation algorithm, Z-Partitioning: Gaussian and Fog Shadow Maps (Z-GaF Shadow Maps. Lastly, a technique to integrate sky colours and shadows through its effects on virtual objects in the AR system, is introduced. The experimental results reveal that the proposed technique has significantly improved the realism of real-time outdoor AR rendering, thus solving the problem of realistic AR systems.

'Semi-realistic'F-term inflation model building in supergravity

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kain, Ben

2008-01-01

We describe methods for building 'semi-realistic' models of F-term inflation. By semi-realistic we mean that they are built in, and obey the requirements of, 'semi-realistic' particle physics models. The particle physics models are taken to be effective supergravity theories derived from orbifold compactifications of string theory, and their requirements are taken to be modular invariance, absence of mass terms and stabilization of moduli. We review the particle physics models, their requirements and tools and methods for building inflation models

Generating realistic images using Kray

Science.gov (United States)

Tanski, Grzegorz

2004-07-01

Kray is an application for creating realistic images. It is written in C++ programming language, has a text-based interface, solves global illumination problem using techniques such as radiosity, path tracing and photon mapping.

Metasurface Cloak Performance Near-by Multiple Line Sources and PEC Cylindrical Objects

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Arslanagic, Samel; Yatman, William H.; Pehrson, Signe

2014-01-01

The performance/robustness of metasurface cloaks to a complex field environment which may represent a realistic scenario of radiating sources is presently reported. Attention is devoted to the cloak operation near-by multiple line sources and multiple perfectly electrically conducting cylinders. ...

Discovering the Solar System

Science.gov (United States)

Jones, Barrie W.

1999-04-01

Discovering the Solar System Barrie W. Jones The Open University, Milton Keynes, UK Discovering the Solar System is a comprehensive, up-to-date account of the Solar System and of the ways in which the various bodies have been investigated and modelled. The approach is thematic, with sequences of chapters on the interiors of planetary bodies, on their surfaces, and on their atmospheres. Within each sequence there is a chapter on general principles and processes followed by one or two chapters on specific bodies. There is also an introductory chapter, a chapter on the origin of the Solar System, and a chapter on asteroids, comets and meteorites. Liberally illustrated with diagrams, black and white photographs and colour plates, Discovering the Solar System also features: * tables of essential data * question and answers within the text * end of section review questions with answers and comments Discovering the Solar System is essential reading for all undergraduate students for whom astronomy or planetary science are components of their degrees, and for those at a more advanced level approaching the subject for the first time. It will also be of great interest to non-specialists with a keen interest in astronomy. A small amount of scientific knowledge is assumed plus familiarity with basic algebra and graphs. There is no calculus. Praise for this book includes: ".certainly qualifies as an authoritative text. The author clearly has an encyclopedic knowledge of the subject." Meteorics and Planetary Science ".liberally doused with relevant graphs, tables, and black and white figures of good quality." EOS, Transactions of the American Geophysical Union ".one of the best books on the Solar System I have seen. The general accuracy and quality of the content is excellent." Journal of the British Astronomical Association

Toward realistic pursuit-evasion using a roadmap-based approach

KAUST Repository

Rodriguez, Samuel; Denny, Jory; Burgos, Juan; Mahadevan, Aditya; Manavi, Kasra; Murray, Luke; Kodochygov, Anton; Zourntos, Takis; Amato, Nancy M.

2011-01-01

be applied to more realistic scenarios than are typically studied in most previous work, including agents moving in 3D environments such as terrains, multi-story buildings, and dynamic environments. We also support more realistic three-dimensional visibility

On Realistically Attacking Tor with Website Fingerprinting

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Wang Tao

2016-10-01

Full Text Available Website fingerprinting allows a local, passive observer monitoring a web-browsing client’s encrypted channel to determine her web activity. Previous attacks have shown that website fingerprinting could be a threat to anonymity networks such as Tor under laboratory conditions. However, there are significant differences between laboratory conditions and realistic conditions. First, in laboratory tests we collect the training data set together with the testing data set, so the training data set is fresh, but an attacker may not be able to maintain a fresh data set. Second, laboratory packet sequences correspond to a single page each, but for realistic packet sequences the split between pages is not obvious. Third, packet sequences may include background noise from other types of web traffic. These differences adversely affect website fingerprinting under realistic conditions. In this paper, we tackle these three problems to bridge the gap between laboratory and realistic conditions for website fingerprinting. We show that we can maintain a fresh training set with minimal resources. We demonstrate several classification-based techniques that allow us to split full packet sequences effectively into sequences corresponding to a single page each. We describe several new algorithms for tackling background noise. With our techniques, we are able to build the first website fingerprinting system that can operate directly on packet sequences collected in the wild.

Iterated interactions method. Realistic NN potential

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gorbatov, A.M.; Skopich, V.L.; Kolganova, E.A.

1991-01-01

The method of iterated potential is tested in the case of realistic fermionic systems. As a base for comparison calculations of the 16 O system (using various versions of realistic NN potentials) by means of the angular potential-function method as well as operators of pairing correlation were used. The convergence of genealogical series is studied for the central Malfliet-Tjon potential. In addition the mathematical technique of microscopical calculations is improved: new equations for correlators in odd states are suggested and the technique of leading terms was applied for the first time to calculations of heavy p-shell nuclei in the basis of angular potential functions

Realistic Material Appearance Modelling

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Haindl, Michal; Filip, Jiří; Hatka, Martin

2010-01-01

Roč. 2010, č. 81 (2010), s. 13-14 ISSN 0926-4981 R&D Projects: GA ČR GA102/08/0593 Institutional research plan: CEZ:AV0Z10750506 Keywords : bidirectional texture function * texture modelling Subject RIV: BD - Theory of Information http:// library .utia.cas.cz/separaty/2010/RO/haindl-realistic material appearance modelling.pdf

Discovering Multimodal Behavior in Ms. Pac-Man through Evolution of Modular Neural Networks.

Science.gov (United States)

Schrum, Jacob; Miikkulainen, Risto

2016-03-12

Ms. Pac-Man is a challenging video game in which multiple modes of behavior are required: Ms. Pac-Man must escape ghosts when they are threats and catch them when they are edible, in addition to eating all pills in each level. Past approaches to learning behavior in Ms. Pac-Man have treated the game as a single task to be learned using monolithic policy representations. In contrast, this paper uses a framework called Modular Multi-objective NEAT (MM-NEAT) to evolve modular neural networks. Each module defines a separate behavior. The modules are used at different times according to a policy that can be human-designed (i.e. Multitask) or discovered automatically by evolution. The appropriate number of modules can be fixed or discovered using a genetic operator called Module Mutation. Several versions of Module Mutation are evaluated in this paper. Both fixed modular networks and Module Mutation networks outperform monolithic networks and Multitask networks. Interestingly, the best networks dedicate modules to critical behaviors (such as escaping when surrounded after luring ghosts near a power pill) that do not follow the customary division of the game into chasing edible and escaping threat ghosts. The results demonstrate that MM-NEAT can discover interesting and effective behavior for agents in challenging games.

A Radiosity Approach to Realistic Image Synthesis

Science.gov (United States)

1992-12-01

AD-A259 082 AFIT/GCE/ENG/92D-09 A RADIOSITY APPROACH TO REALISTIC IMAGE SYNTHESIS THESIS Richard L. Remington Captain, USAF fl ECTE AFIT/GCE/ENG/92D...09 SJANl 1993U 93-00134 Approved for public release; distribution unlimited 93& 1! A -A- AFIT/GCE/ENG/92D-09 A RADIOSITY APPROACH TO REALISTIC IMAGE...assistance in creating the input geometry file for the AWACS aircraft interior. Without his assistance, a good model for the diffuse radiosity implementation

OFDM versus Single Carrier: A Realistic Multi-Antenna Comparison

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Moonen Marc

2004-01-01

Full Text Available There is an ongoing discussion in the broadband wireless world about the respective benefits of orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM and single carrier with frequency domain equalization (SC-FD. SC-FD allows for more relaxed front-end requirements, of which the power amplifier efficiency is very important for battery-driven terminals. OFDM, on the other hand, can yield improved BER performance at low complexity. Both schemes have extensions to multiple antennas to enhance the spectral efficiency and/or the link reliability. Moreover, both schemes have nonlinear versions using decision feedback equalization (DFE to further improve performance of the linear equalizers. In this paper, we compare these high-performance OFDM and SC-FD schemes using multiple antennas and DFE, while also accounting for the power amplifier efficiency. To make a realistic comparison, we also consider most important digital imperfections, such as channel and noise estimation, transmit and receive filtering, clipping and quantization, as well as link layer impact. Our analysis shows that for frequency-selective channels the relative performance impact of the power amplifier is negligible compared to the frequency diversity impact. The higher frequency diversity exploitation of SC-FD allows it to outperform OFDM in most cases. Therefore, SC-FD is a suitable candidate for broadband wireless communication.

Population of 224 realistic human subject-based computational breast phantoms

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Erickson, David W. [Carl E. Ravin Advanced Imaging Laboratories, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina 27705 and Medical Physics Graduate Program, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina 27705 (United States); Wells, Jered R., E-mail: jered.wells@duke.edu [Clinical Imaging Physics Group and Carl E. Ravin Advanced Imaging Laboratories, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina 27705 and Medical Physics Graduate Program, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina 27705 (United States); Sturgeon, Gregory M. [Carl E. Ravin Advanced Imaging Laboratories, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina 27705 (United States); Samei, Ehsan [Department of Radiology and Carl E. Ravin Advanced Imaging Laboratories, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina 27705 and Departments of Physics, Electrical and Computer Engineering, and Biomedical Engineering, and Medical Physics Graduate Program, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina 27705 (United States); Dobbins, James T. [Department of Radiology and Carl E. Ravin Advanced Imaging Laboratories, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina 27705 and Departments of Physics and Biomedical Engineering and Medical Physics Graduate Program, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina 27705 (United States); Segars, W. Paul [Department of Radiology and Carl E. Ravin Advanced Imaging Laboratories, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina 27705 and Medical Physics Graduate Program, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina 27705 (United States); Lo, Joseph Y. [Department of Radiology and Carl E. Ravin Advanced Imaging Laboratories, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina 27705 and Departments of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Biomedical Engineering and Medical Physics Graduate Program, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina 27705 (United States)

2016-01-15

Purpose: To create a database of highly realistic and anatomically variable 3D virtual breast phantoms based on dedicated breast computed tomography (bCT) data. Methods: A tissue classification and segmentation algorithm was used to create realistic and detailed 3D computational breast phantoms based on 230 + dedicated bCT datasets from normal human subjects. The breast volume was identified using a coarse three-class fuzzy C-means segmentation algorithm which accounted for and removed motion blur at the breast periphery. Noise in the bCT data was reduced through application of a postreconstruction 3D bilateral filter. A 3D adipose nonuniformity (bias field) correction was then applied followed by glandular segmentation using a 3D bias-corrected fuzzy C-means algorithm. Multiple tissue classes were defined including skin, adipose, and several fractional glandular densities. Following segmentation, a skin mask was produced which preserved the interdigitated skin, adipose, and glandular boundaries of the skin interior. Finally, surface modeling was used to produce digital phantoms with methods complementary to the XCAT suite of digital human phantoms. Results: After rejecting some datasets due to artifacts, 224 virtual breast phantoms were created which emulate the complex breast parenchyma of actual human subjects. The volume breast density (with skin) ranged from 5.5% to 66.3% with a mean value of 25.3% ± 13.2%. Breast volumes ranged from 25.0 to 2099.6 ml with a mean value of 716.3 ± 386.5 ml. Three breast phantoms were selected for imaging with digital compression (using finite element modeling) and simple ray-tracing, and the results show promise in their potential to produce realistic simulated mammograms. Conclusions: This work provides a new population of 224 breast phantoms based on in vivo bCT data for imaging research. Compared to previous studies based on only a few prototype cases, this dataset provides a rich source of new cases spanning a wide range

Multiple neoplasms, single primaries, and patient survival

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Amer, Magid H

2014-01-01

Multiple primary neoplasms in surviving cancer patients are relatively common, with an increasing incidence. Their impact on survival has not been clearly defined. This was a retrospective review of clinical data for all consecutive patients with histologically confirmed cancer, with emphasis on single versus multiple primary neoplasms. Second primaries discovered at the workup of the index (first) primary were termed simultaneous, if discovered within 6 months of the index primary were called synchronous, and if discovered after 6 months were termed metachronous. Between 2005 and 2012, of 1,873 cancer patients, 322 developed second malignancies; these included two primaries (n=284), and three or more primaries (n=38). Forty-seven patients had synchronous primaries and 275 had metachronous primaries. Patients with multiple primaries were predominantly of Caucasian ancestry (91.0%), with a tendency to develop thrombosis (20.2%), had a strong family history of similar cancer (22.3%), and usually presented with earlier stage 0 through stage II disease (78.9%). When compared with 1,551 patients with a single primary, these figures were 8.9%, 15.6%, 18.3%, and 50.9%, respectively (P≤0.001). Five-year survival rates were higher for metachronous cancers (95%) than for synchronous primaries (59%) and single primaries (59%). The worst survival rate was for simultaneous concomitant multiple primaries, being a median of 1.9 years. The best survival was for patients with three or more primaries (median 10.9 years) and was similar to the expected survival for the age-matched and sex-matched general population (P=0.06991). Patients with multiple primaries are usually of Caucasian ancestry, have less aggressive malignancies, present at earlier stages, frequently have a strong family history of similar cancer, and their cancers tend to have indolent clinical behavior with longer survival rates, possibly related to genetic predisposition

Survey of Approaches to Generate Realistic Synthetic Graphs

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Lim, Seung-Hwan [Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States); Lee, Sangkeun [Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States); Powers, Sarah S [Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States); Shankar, Mallikarjun [Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States); Imam, Neena [Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)

2016-10-01

A graph is a flexible data structure that can represent relationships between entities. As with other data analysis tasks, the use of realistic graphs is critical to obtaining valid research results. Unfortunately, using the actual ("real-world") graphs for research and new algorithm development is difficult due to the presence of sensitive information in the data or due to the scale of data. This results in practitioners developing algorithms and systems that employ synthetic graphs instead of real-world graphs. Generating realistic synthetic graphs that provide reliable statistical confidence to algorithmic analysis and system evaluation involves addressing technical hurdles in a broad set of areas. This report surveys the state of the art in approaches to generate realistic graphs that are derived from fitted graph models on real-world graphs.

Discovering workflow nets using integer linear programming

NARCIS (Netherlands)

van Zelst, S.J.; van Dongen, B.F.; van der Aalst, W.M.P.; Verbeek, H.M.W.

Process mining is concerned with the analysis, understanding and improvement of business processes. Process discovery, i.e. discovering a process model based on an event log, is considered the most challenging process mining task. State-of-the-art process discovery algorithms only discover local

A Low-cost System for Generating Near-realistic Virtual Actors

Science.gov (United States)

Afifi, Mahmoud; Hussain, Khaled F.; Ibrahim, Hosny M.; Omar, Nagwa M.

2015-06-01

Generating virtual actors is one of the most challenging fields in computer graphics. The reconstruction of a realistic virtual actor has been paid attention by the academic research and the film industry to generate human-like virtual actors. Many movies were acted by human-like virtual actors, where the audience cannot distinguish between real and virtual actors. The synthesis of realistic virtual actors is considered a complex process. Many techniques are used to generate a realistic virtual actor; however they usually require expensive hardware equipment. In this paper, a low-cost system that generates near-realistic virtual actors is presented. The facial features of the real actor are blended with a virtual head that is attached to the actor's body. Comparing with other techniques that generate virtual actors, the proposed system is considered a low-cost system that requires only one camera that records the scene without using any expensive hardware equipment. The results of our system show that the system generates good near-realistic virtual actors that can be used on many applications.

Problem Posing with Realistic Mathematics Education Approach in Geometry Learning

Science.gov (United States)

Mahendra, R.; Slamet, I.; Budiyono

2017-09-01

One of the difficulties of students in the learning of geometry is on the subject of plane that requires students to understand the abstract matter. The aim of this research is to determine the effect of Problem Posing learning model with Realistic Mathematics Education Approach in geometry learning. This quasi experimental research was conducted in one of the junior high schools in Karanganyar, Indonesia. The sample was taken using stratified cluster random sampling technique. The results of this research indicate that the model of Problem Posing learning with Realistic Mathematics Education Approach can improve students’ conceptual understanding significantly in geometry learning especially on plane topics. It is because students on the application of Problem Posing with Realistic Mathematics Education Approach are become to be active in constructing their knowledge, proposing, and problem solving in realistic, so it easier for students to understand concepts and solve the problems. Therefore, the model of Problem Posing learning with Realistic Mathematics Education Approach is appropriately applied in mathematics learning especially on geometry material. Furthermore, the impact can improve student achievement.

Novel high-fidelity realistic explosion damage simulation for urban environments

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Xiaoqing; Yadegar, Jacob; Zhu, Youding; Raju, Chaitanya; Bhagavathula, Jaya

2010-04-01

Realistic building damage simulation has a significant impact in modern modeling and simulation systems especially in diverse panoply of military and civil applications where these simulation systems are widely used for personnel training, critical mission planning, disaster management, etc. Realistic building damage simulation should incorporate accurate physics-based explosion models, rubble generation, rubble flyout, and interactions between flying rubble and their surrounding entities. However, none of the existing building damage simulation systems sufficiently faithfully realize the criteria of realism required for effective military applications. In this paper, we present a novel physics-based high-fidelity and runtime efficient explosion simulation system to realistically simulate destruction to buildings. In the proposed system, a family of novel blast models is applied to accurately and realistically simulate explosions based on static and/or dynamic detonation conditions. The system also takes account of rubble pile formation and applies a generic and scalable multi-component based object representation to describe scene entities and highly scalable agent-subsumption architecture and scheduler to schedule clusters of sequential and parallel events. The proposed system utilizes a highly efficient and scalable tetrahedral decomposition approach to realistically simulate rubble formation. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed system has the capability to realistically simulate rubble generation, rubble flyout and their primary and secondary impacts on surrounding objects including buildings, constructions, vehicles and pedestrians in clusters of sequential and parallel damage events.

Response of secondary production and its components to multiple stressors in nematode field populations.

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Doroszuk, A.; Brake, te E.; Crespo-Gonzalez, D.; Kammenga, J.E.

2007-01-01

Realistic measures of the impact of individual or multiple stressors are important for ecological risk assessment. Although multiple anthropogenic stressors are common in human-dominated environments, knowledge of their influence on functional population parameters such as secondary production (P)

Progress in realistic LOCA analysis

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Young, M Y; Bajorek, S M; Ohkawa, K [Westinghouse Electric Corporation, Pittsburgh, PA (United States)

1994-12-31

While LOCA is a complex transient to simulate, the state of art in thermal hydraulics has advanced sufficiently to allow its realistic prediction and application of advanced methods to actual reactor design as demonstrated by methodology described in this paper 6 refs, 5 figs, 3 tabs

Should scientific realists be platonists?

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Busch, Jacob; Morrison, Joe

2015-01-01

an appropriate use of the resources of Scientific Realism (in particular, IBE) to achieve platonism? (§2) We argue that just because a variety of different inferential strategies can be employed by Scientific Realists does not mean that ontological conclusions concerning which things we should be Scientific...

Discovering Diabetes Complications: an Ontology Based Model.

Science.gov (United States)

Daghistani, Tahani; Shammari, Riyad Al; Razzak, Muhammad Imran

2015-12-01

Diabetes is a serious disease that spread in the world dramatically. The diabetes patient has an average of risk to experience complications. Take advantage of recorded information to build ontology as information technology solution will help to predict patients who have average of risk level with certain complication. It is helpful to search and present patient's history regarding different risk factors. Discovering diabetes complications could be useful to prevent or delay the complications. We designed ontology based model, using adult diabetes patients' data, to discover the rules of diabetes with its complications in disease to disease relationship. Various rules between different risk factors of diabetes Patients and certain complications generated. Furthermore, new complications (diseases) might be discovered as new finding of this study, discovering diabetes complications could be useful to prevent or delay the complications. The system can identify the patients who are suffering from certain risk factors such as high body mass index (obesity) and starting controlling and maintaining plan.

Multiple neoplasms, single primaries, and patient survival

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Amer MH

2014-03-01

Full Text Available Magid H Amer Department of Medicine, St Rita's Medical Center, Lima, OH, USA Background: Multiple primary neoplasms in surviving cancer patients are relatively common, with an increasing incidence. Their impact on survival has not been clearly defined. Methods: This was a retrospective review of clinical data for all consecutive patients with histologically confirmed cancer, with emphasis on single versus multiple primary neoplasms. Second primaries discovered at the workup of the index (first primary were termed simultaneous, if discovered within 6 months of the index primary were called synchronous, and if discovered after 6 months were termed metachronous. Results: Between 2005 and 2012, of 1,873 cancer patients, 322 developed second malignancies; these included two primaries (n=284, and three or more primaries (n=38. Forty-seven patients had synchronous primaries and 275 had metachronous primaries. Patients with multiple primaries were predominantly of Caucasian ancestry (91.0%, with a tendency to develop thrombosis (20.2%, had a strong family history of similar cancer (22.3%, and usually presented with earlier stage 0 through stage II disease (78.9%. When compared with 1,551 patients with a single primary, these figures were 8.9%, 15.6%, 18.3%, and 50.9%, respectively (P≤0.001. Five-year survival rates were higher for metachronous cancers (95% than for synchronous primaries (59% and single primaries (59%. The worst survival rate was for simultaneous concomitant multiple primaries, being a median of 1.9 years. The best survival was for patients with three or more primaries (median 10.9 years and was similar to the expected survival for the age-matched and sex-matched general population (P=0.06991. Conclusion: Patients with multiple primaries are usually of Caucasian ancestry, have less aggressive malignancies, present at earlier stages, frequently have a strong family history of similar cancer, and their cancers tend to have indolent

Convective aggregation in idealised models and realistic equatorial cases

Science.gov (United States)

Holloway, Chris

2015-04-01

Idealised explicit convection simulations of the Met Office Unified Model are shown to exhibit spontaneous self-aggregation in radiative-convective equilibrium, as seen previously in other models in several recent studies. This self-aggregation is linked to feedbacks between radiation, surface fluxes, and convection, and the organization is intimately related to the evolution of the column water vapour (CWV) field. To investigate the relevance of this behaviour to the real world, these idealized simulations are compared with five 15-day cases of real organized convection in the tropics, including multiple simulations of each case testing sensitivities of the convective organization and mean states to interactive radiation, interactive surface fluxes, and evaporation of rain. Despite similar large-scale forcing via lateral boundary conditions, systematic differences in mean CWV, CWV distribution shape, and the length scale of CWV features are found between the different sensitivity runs, showing that there are at least some similarities in sensitivities to these feedbacks in both idealized and realistic simulations.

Discovering Wavelets

CERN Document Server

Aboufadel, Edward

1999-01-01

An accessible and practical introduction to wavelets. With applications in image processing, audio restoration, seismology, and elsewhere, wavelets have been the subject of growing excitement and interest over the past several years. Unfortunately, most books on wavelets are accessible primarily to research mathematicians. Discovering Wavelets presents basic and advanced concepts of wavelets in a way that is accessible to anyone with only a fundamental knowledge of linear algebra. The basic concepts of wavelet theory are introduced in the context of an explanation of how the FBI uses wavelets

Time management: a realistic approach.

Science.gov (United States)

Jackson, Valerie P

2009-06-01

Realistic time management and organization plans can improve productivity and the quality of life. However, these skills can be difficult to develop and maintain. The key elements of time management are goals, organization, delegation, and relaxation. The author addresses each of these components and provides suggestions for successful time management.

Triangulating and guarding realistic polygons

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Aloupis, G.; Bose, P.; Dujmovic, V.; Gray, C.M.; Langerman, S.; Speckmann, B.

2008-01-01

We propose a new model of realistic input: k-guardable objects. An object is k-guardable if its boundary can be seen by k guards in the interior of the object. In this abstract, we describe a simple algorithm for triangulating k-guardable polygons. Our algorithm, which is easily implementable, takes

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

The potential of the ILC for discovering new particles

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Fujii, Keisuke [High Energy Accelerator Research Organization (KEK), Ibaraki (Japan); Grojean, Christophe [DESY, Hamburg (Germany); Humboldt-Univ., Berlin (Germany). Inst. fuer Physik; ICREA, Barcelona (Spain); Peskin, Michael E. [Stanford Univ., Menlo Park, CA (United States). SLAC; Collaboration: LCC Physics Working Group; and others

2017-02-15

This paper addresses the question of whether the International Linear Collider has the capability of discovering new particles that have not already been discovered at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. We summarize the various paths to discovery offered by the ILC, and discuss them in the context of three different scenarios: 1. LHC does not discover any new particles, 2. LHC discovers some new low mass states and 3. LHC discovers new heavy particles. We will show that in each case, ILC plays a critical role in discovery of new phenomena and in pushing forward the frontiers of high-energy physics as well as our understanding of the universe in a manner which is highly complementary to that of LHC. For the busy reader, a two-page executive summary is provided at the beginning of the document.

The potential of the ILC for discovering new particles

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Fujii, Keisuke; Grojean, Christophe; Peskin, Michael E.

2017-02-01

This paper addresses the question of whether the International Linear Collider has the capability of discovering new particles that have not already been discovered at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. We summarize the various paths to discovery offered by the ILC, and discuss them in the context of three different scenarios: 1. LHC does not discover any new particles, 2. LHC discovers some new low mass states and 3. LHC discovers new heavy particles. We will show that in each case, ILC plays a critical role in discovery of new phenomena and in pushing forward the frontiers of high-energy physics as well as our understanding of the universe in a manner which is highly complementary to that of LHC. For the busy reader, a two-page executive summary is provided at the beginning of the document.

Toxicity effects of an environmental realistic herbicide mixture on the seagrass Zostera noltei.

Science.gov (United States)

Diepens, Noël J; Buffan-Dubau, Evelyne; Budzinski, Hélène; Kallerhoff, Jean; Merlina, Georges; Silvestre, Jérome; Auby, Isabelle; Nathalie Tapie; Elger, Arnaud

2017-03-01

Worldwide seagrass declines have been observed due to multiple stressors. One of them is the mixture of pesticides used in intensive agriculture and boat antifouling paints in coastal areas. Effects of mixture toxicity are complex and poorly understood. However, consideration of mixture toxicity is more realistic and ecologically relevant for environmental risk assessment (ERA). The first aim of this study was to determine short-term effects of realistic herbicide mixture exposure on physiological endpoints of Zostera noltei. The second aim was to assess the environmental risks of this mixture, by comparing the results to previously published data. Z. noltei was exposed to a mixture of four herbicides: atrazine, diuron, irgarol and S-metolachlor, simulating the composition of typical cocktail of contaminants in the Arcachon bay (Atlantic coast, France). Three stress biomarkers were measured: enzymatic activity of glutathione reductase, effective quantum yield (EQY) and photosynthetic pigment composition after 6, 24 and 96 h. Short term exposure to realistic herbicide mixtures affected EQY, with almost 100% inhibition for the two highest concentrations, and photosynthetic pigments. Effect on pigment composition was detected after 6 h with a no observed effect concentration (NOEC) of 1 μg/L total mixture concentration. The lowest EQY effect concentration at 10% (EC 10 ) (2 μg/L) and pigment composition NOEC with an assessment factor of 10 were above the maximal field concentrations along the French Atlantic coast, suggesting that there are no potential short term adverse effects of this particular mixture on Z. noltei. However, chronic effects on photosynthesis may lead to reduced energy reserves, which could thus lead to effects at whole plant and population level. Understanding the consequences of chemical mixtures could help to improve ERA and enhance management strategies to prevent further declines of seagrass meadows worldwide. Copyright © 2016

Separable expansion for realistic multichannel scattering problems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Canton, L.; Cattapan, G.; Pisent, G.

1987-01-01

A new approach to the multichannel scattering problem with realistic local or nonlocal interactions is developed. By employing the negative-energy solutions of uncoupled Sturmian eigenvalue problems referring to simple auxiliary potentials, the coupling interactions appearing to the original multichannel problem are approximated by finite-rank potentials. By resorting to integral-equation tecniques the coupled-channel equations are then reduced to linear algebraic equations which can be straightforwardly solved. Compact algebraic expressions for the relevant scattering matrix elements are thus obtained. The convergence of the method is tasted in the single-channel case with realistic optical potentials. Excellent agreement is obtained with a few terms in the separable expansion for both real and absorptive interactions

RenderGAN: Generating Realistic Labeled Data

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Leon Sixt

2018-06-01

Full Text Available Deep Convolutional Neuronal Networks (DCNNs are showing remarkable performance on many computer vision tasks. Due to their large parameter space, they require many labeled samples when trained in a supervised setting. The costs of annotating data manually can render the use of DCNNs infeasible. We present a novel framework called RenderGAN that can generate large amounts of realistic, labeled images by combining a 3D model and the Generative Adversarial Network framework. In our approach, image augmentations (e.g., lighting, background, and detail are learned from unlabeled data such that the generated images are strikingly realistic while preserving the labels known from the 3D model. We apply the RenderGAN framework to generate images of barcode-like markers that are attached to honeybees. Training a DCNN on data generated by the RenderGAN yields considerably better performance than training it on various baselines.

Neutron star models with realistic high-density equations of state

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Malone, R.C.; Johnson, M.B.; Bethe, H.A.

1975-01-01

We calculate neutron star models using four realistic high-density models of the equation of state. We conclude that the maximum mass of a neutron star is unlikely to exceed 2 M/sub sun/. All of the realistic models are consistent with current estimates of the moment of inertia of the Crab pulsar

Bell Operator Method to Classify Local Realistic Theories

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nagata, Koji

2010-01-01

We review the historical fact of multipartite Bell inequalities with an arbitrary number of settings. An explicit local realistic model for the values of a correlation function, given in a two-setting Bell experiment (two-setting model), works only for the specific set of settings in the given experiment, but cannot construct a local realistic model for the values of a correlation function, given in a continuous-infinite settings Bell experiment (infinite-setting model), even though there exist two-setting models for all directions in space. Hence, the two-setting model does not have the property that the infinite-setting model has. Here, we show that an explicit two-setting model cannot construct a local realistic model for the values of a correlation function, given in an M-setting Bell experiment (M-setting model), even though there exist two-setting models for the M measurement directions chosen in the given M-setting experiment. Hence, the two-setting model does not have the property that the M-setting model has. (general)

Blend Shape Interpolation and FACS for Realistic Avatar

Science.gov (United States)

Alkawaz, Mohammed Hazim; Mohamad, Dzulkifli; Basori, Ahmad Hoirul; Saba, Tanzila

2015-03-01

The quest of developing realistic facial animation is ever-growing. The emergence of sophisticated algorithms, new graphical user interfaces, laser scans and advanced 3D tools imparted further impetus towards the rapid advancement of complex virtual human facial model. Face-to-face communication being the most natural way of human interaction, the facial animation systems became more attractive in the information technology era for sundry applications. The production of computer-animated movies using synthetic actors are still challenging issues. Proposed facial expression carries the signature of happiness, sadness, angry or cheerful, etc. The mood of a particular person in the midst of a large group can immediately be identified via very subtle changes in facial expressions. Facial expressions being very complex as well as important nonverbal communication channel are tricky to synthesize realistically using computer graphics. Computer synthesis of practical facial expressions must deal with the geometric representation of the human face and the control of the facial animation. We developed a new approach by integrating blend shape interpolation (BSI) and facial action coding system (FACS) to create a realistic and expressive computer facial animation design. The BSI is used to generate the natural face while the FACS is employed to reflect the exact facial muscle movements for four basic natural emotional expressions such as angry, happy, sad and fear with high fidelity. The results in perceiving the realistic facial expression for virtual human emotions based on facial skin color and texture may contribute towards the development of virtual reality and game environment of computer aided graphics animation systems.

Fatigue - determination of a more realistic usage factor

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lang, H.

2001-01-01

The ability to use a suitable counting method for determining the stress range spectrum in elastic and simplified elastic-plastic fatigue analyses is of crucial importance for enabling determination of a realistic usage factor. Determination of elastic-plastic strain range using the K e factor from fictitious elastically calculated loads is also important in the event of elastic behaviour being exceeded. This paper thus examines both points in detail. A fatigue module with additional options, which functions on this basis is presented. The much more realistic determination of usage factor presented here offers various economic benefits depending on the application

Realistic rhetoric and legal decision

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

João Maurício Adeodato

2017-06-01

Full Text Available The text aims to lay the foundations of a realistic rhetoric, from the descriptive perspective of how the legal decision actually takes place, without normative considerations. Aristotle's rhetorical idealism and its later prestige reduced rhetoric to the art of persuasion, eliminating important elements of sophistry, especially with regard to legal decision. It concludes with a rhetorical perspective of judicial activism in complex societies.

Realistic molecular model of kerogen's nanostructure.

Science.gov (United States)

Bousige, Colin; Ghimbeu, Camélia Matei; Vix-Guterl, Cathie; Pomerantz, Andrew E; Suleimenova, Assiya; Vaughan, Gavin; Garbarino, Gaston; Feygenson, Mikhail; Wildgruber, Christoph; Ulm, Franz-Josef; Pellenq, Roland J-M; Coasne, Benoit

2016-05-01

Despite kerogen's importance as the organic backbone for hydrocarbon production from source rocks such as gas shale, the interplay between kerogen's chemistry, morphology and mechanics remains unexplored. As the environmental impact of shale gas rises, identifying functional relations between its geochemical, transport, elastic and fracture properties from realistic molecular models of kerogens becomes all the more important. Here, by using a hybrid experimental-simulation method, we propose a panel of realistic molecular models of mature and immature kerogens that provide a detailed picture of kerogen's nanostructure without considering the presence of clays and other minerals in shales. We probe the models' strengths and limitations, and show that they predict essential features amenable to experimental validation, including pore distribution, vibrational density of states and stiffness. We also show that kerogen's maturation, which manifests itself as an increase in the sp(2)/sp(3) hybridization ratio, entails a crossover from plastic-to-brittle rupture mechanisms.

Saturated Overburden Scattering and the Multiscatter Frontier: Discovering Dark Matter at the Planck Mass and Beyond

OpenAIRE

Bramante, Joseph; Broerman, Benjamin; Lang, Rafael F.; Raj, Nirmal

2018-01-01

We show that underground experiments like LUX/LZ, PandaX-II, XENON, and PICO could discover dark matter up to the Planck mass and beyond, with new searches for dark matter that scatters multiple times in these detectors. This opens up significant discovery potential via re-analysis of existing and future data. We also identify a new effect which substantially enhances experimental sensitivity to large dark matter scattering cross-sections: while passing through atmospheric or solid overburden...

On the Realistic Stochastic Model of GPS Observables: Implementation and Performance

Science.gov (United States)

Zangeneh-Nejad, F.; Amiri-Simkooei, A. R.; Sharifi, M. A.; Asgari, J.

2015-12-01

High-precision GPS positioning requires a realistic stochastic model of observables. A realistic GPS stochastic model of observables should take into account different variances for different observation types, correlations among different observables, the satellite elevation dependence of observables precision, and the temporal correlation of observables. Least-squares variance component estimation (LS-VCE) is applied to GPS observables using the geometry-based observation model (GBOM). To model the satellite elevation dependent of GPS observables precision, an exponential model depending on the elevation angles of the satellites are also employed. Temporal correlation of the GPS observables is modelled by using a first-order autoregressive noise model. An important step in the high-precision GPS positioning is double difference integer ambiguity resolution (IAR). The fraction or percentage of success among a number of integer ambiguity fixing is called the success rate. A realistic estimation of the GNSS observables covariance matrix plays an important role in the IAR. We consider the ambiguity resolution success rate for two cases, namely a nominal and a realistic stochastic model of the GPS observables using two GPS data sets collected by the Trimble R8 receiver. The results confirm that applying a more realistic stochastic model can significantly improve the IAR success rate on individual frequencies, either on L1 or on L2. An improvement of 20% was achieved to the empirical success rate results. The results also indicate that introducing the realistic stochastic model leads to a larger standard deviation for the baseline components by a factor of about 2.6 on the data sets considered.

Photo-Realistic Image Synthesis and Virtual Cinematography

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Livatino, Salvatore

2005-01-01

Realistic Virtual View Synthesis is a new field of research that has received increasing attention in recent years. It is strictly related to the grown popularity of virtual reality and the spread of its applications, among which virtual photography and cinematography. The use of computer generated...... characters, "virtual actors", in the motion picture production increases every day. While the most known computer graphics techniques have largely been adopted successfully in nowadays fictions, it still remains very challenging to implement virtual actors which would resemble, visually, human beings....... Interestingly, film directors have been looking at the recent progress achieved by the research community in the field of realistic visualization of virtual views, and they have successfully implemented state of the art research approaches in their productions. An innovative concept is then gaining consensus...

A video, text, and speech-driven realistic 3-d virtual head for human-machine interface.

Science.gov (United States)

Yu, Jun; Wang, Zeng-Fu

2015-05-01

A multiple inputs-driven realistic facial animation system based on 3-D virtual head for human-machine interface is proposed. The system can be driven independently by video, text, and speech, thus can interact with humans through diverse interfaces. The combination of parameterized model and muscular model is used to obtain a tradeoff between computational efficiency and high realism of 3-D facial animation. The online appearance model is used to track 3-D facial motion from video in the framework of particle filtering, and multiple measurements, i.e., pixel color value of input image and Gabor wavelet coefficient of illumination ratio image, are infused to reduce the influence of lighting and person dependence for the construction of online appearance model. The tri-phone model is used to reduce the computational consumption of visual co-articulation in speech synchronized viseme synthesis without sacrificing any performance. The objective and subjective experiments show that the system is suitable for human-machine interaction.

Hyper-realistic face masks: a new challenge in person identification.

Science.gov (United States)

Sanders, Jet Gabrielle; Ueda, Yoshiyuki; Minemoto, Kazusa; Noyes, Eilidh; Yoshikawa, Sakiko; Jenkins, Rob

2017-01-01

We often identify people using face images. This is true in occupational settings such as passport control as well as in everyday social environments. Mapping between images and identities assumes that facial appearance is stable within certain bounds. For example, a person's apparent age, gender and ethnicity change slowly, if at all. It also assumes that deliberate changes beyond these bounds (i.e., disguises) would be easy to spot. Hyper-realistic face masks overturn these assumptions by allowing the wearer to look like an entirely different person. If unnoticed, these masks break the link between facial appearance and personal identity, with clear implications for applied face recognition. However, to date, no one has assessed the realism of these masks, or specified conditions under which they may be accepted as real faces. Herein, we examined incidental detection of unexpected but attended hyper-realistic masks in both photographic and live presentations. Experiment 1 (UK; n = 60) revealed no evidence for overt detection of hyper-realistic masks among real face photos, and little evidence of covert detection. Experiment 2 (Japan; n = 60) extended these findings to different masks, mask-wearers and participant pools. In Experiment 3 (UK and Japan; n = 407), passers-by failed to notice that a live confederate was wearing a hyper-realistic mask and showed limited evidence of covert detection, even at close viewing distance (5 vs. 20 m). Across all of these studies, viewers accepted hyper-realistic masks as real faces. Specific countermeasures will be required if detection rates are to be improved.

Putting a Realistic Theory of Mind into Agency Theory

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Foss, Nicolai Juul; Stea, Diego

2014-01-01

Agency theory is one of the most important foundational theories in management research, but it rests on contestable cognitive assumptions. Specifically, the principal is assumed to hold a perfect (correct) theory regarding some of the content of the agent's mind, while he is entirely ignorant...... concerning other such content. More realistically, individuals have some limited access to the minds of others. We explore the implications for classical agency theory of realistic assumptions regarding the human potential for interpersonal sensemaking. We discuss implications for the design and management...

Realistic searches on stretched exponential networks

Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

We consider navigation or search schemes on networks which have a degree distribution of the form () ∝ exp(−). In addition, the linking probability is taken to be dependent on social distances and is governed by a parameter . The searches are realistic in the sense that not all search chains can be completed.

Results of recent calculations using realistic potentials

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Friar, J.L.

1987-01-01

Results of recent calculations for the triton using realistic potentials with strong tensor forces are reviewed, with an emphasis on progress made using the many different calculational schemes. Several test problems are suggested. 49 refs., 5 figs

An ensemble heterogeneous classification methodology for discovering health-related knowledge in social media messages.

Science.gov (United States)

Tuarob, Suppawong; Tucker, Conrad S; Salathe, Marcel; Ram, Nilam

2014-06-01

The role of social media as a source of timely and massive information has become more apparent since the era of Web 2.0.Multiple studies illustrated the use of information in social media to discover biomedical and health-related knowledge.Most methods proposed in the literature employ traditional document classification techniques that represent a document as a bag of words.These techniques work well when documents are rich in text and conform to standard English; however, they are not optimal for social media data where sparsity and noise are norms.This paper aims to address the limitations posed by the traditional bag-of-word based methods and propose to use heterogeneous features in combination with ensemble machine learning techniques to discover health-related information, which could prove to be useful to multiple biomedical applications, especially those needing to discover health-related knowledge in large scale social media data.Furthermore, the proposed methodology could be generalized to discover different types of information in various kinds of textual data. Social media data is characterized by an abundance of short social-oriented messages that do not conform to standard languages, both grammatically and syntactically.The problem of discovering health-related knowledge in social media data streams is then transformed into a text classification problem, where a text is identified as positive if it is health-related and negative otherwise.We first identify the limitations of the traditional methods which train machines with N-gram word features, then propose to overcome such limitations by utilizing the collaboration of machine learning based classifiers, each of which is trained to learn a semantically different aspect of the data.The parameter analysis for tuning each classifier is also reported. Three data sets are used in this research.The first data set comprises of approximately 5000 hand-labeled tweets, and is used for cross validation of the

Simple and Realistic Data Generation

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Pedersen, Kenneth Houkjær; Torp, Kristian; Wind, Rico

2006-01-01

This paper presents a generic, DBMS independent, and highly extensible relational data generation tool. The tool can efficiently generate realistic test data for OLTP, OLAP, and data streaming applications. The tool uses a graph model to direct the data generation. This model makes it very simple...... to generate data even for large database schemas with complex inter- and intra table relationships. The model also makes it possible to generate data with very accurate characteristics....

Realistic Approach for Phasor Measurement Unit Placement

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Rather, Zakir Hussain; Chen, Zhe; Thøgersen, Paul

2015-01-01

This paper presents a realistic cost-effectivemodel for optimal placement of phasor measurement units (PMUs) for complete observability of a power system considering practical cost implications. The proposed model considers hidden or otherwise unaccounted practical costs involved in PMU...... installation. Consideration of these hidden but significant and integral part of total PMU installation costs was inspired from practical experience on a real-life project. The proposedmodel focuses on the minimization of total realistic costs instead of a widely used theoretical concept of a minimal number...... of PMUs. The proposed model has been applied to IEEE 14-bus, IEEE 24-bus, IEEE 30-bus, New England 39-bus, and large power system of 300 buses and real life Danish grid. A comparison of the presented results with those reported by traditionalmethods has also been shown to justify the effectiveness...

Two-Capacitor Problem: A More Realistic View.

Science.gov (United States)

Powell, R. A.

1979-01-01

Discusses the two-capacitor problem by considering the self-inductance of the circuit used and by determining how well the usual series RC circuit approximates the two-capacitor problem when realistic values of L, C, and R are chosen. (GA)

A virtual auditory environment for investigating the auditory signal processing of realistic sounds

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Favrot, Sylvain Emmanuel; Buchholz, Jörg

2008-01-01

In the present study, a novel multichannel loudspeaker-based virtual auditory environment (VAE) is introduced. The VAE aims at providing a versatile research environment for investigating the auditory signal processing in real environments, i.e., considering multiple sound sources and room...... reverberation. The environment is based on the ODEON room acoustic simulation software to render the acoustical scene. ODEON outputs are processed using a combination of different order Ambisonic techniques to calculate multichannel room impulse responses (mRIR). Auralization is then obtained by the convolution...... the VAE development, special care was taken in order to achieve a realistic auditory percept and to avoid “artifacts” such as unnatural coloration. The performance of the VAE has been evaluated and optimized on a 29 loudspeaker setup using both objective and subjective measurement techniques....

Convective aggregation in realistic convective-scale simulations

Science.gov (United States)

Holloway, Christopher E.

2017-06-01

To investigate the real-world relevance of idealized-model convective self-aggregation, five 15 day cases of real organized convection in the tropics are simulated. These include multiple simulations of each case to test sensitivities of the convective organization and mean states to interactive radiation, interactive surface fluxes, and evaporation of rain. These simulations are compared to self-aggregation seen in the same model configured to run in idealized radiative-convective equilibrium. Analysis of the budget of the spatial variance of column-integrated frozen moist static energy shows that control runs have significant positive contributions to organization from radiation and negative contributions from surface fluxes and transport, similar to idealized runs once they become aggregated. Despite identical lateral boundary conditions for all experiments in each case, systematic differences in mean column water vapor (CWV), CWV distribution shape, and CWV autocorrelation length scale are found between the different sensitivity runs, particularly for those without interactive radiation, showing that there are at least some similarities in sensitivities to these feedbacks in both idealized and realistic simulations (although the organization of precipitation shows less sensitivity to interactive radiation). The magnitudes and signs of these systematic differences are consistent with a rough equilibrium between (1) equalization due to advection from the lateral boundaries and (2) disaggregation due to the absence of interactive radiation, implying disaggregation rates comparable to those in idealized runs with aggregated initial conditions and noninteractive radiation. This points to a plausible similarity in the way that radiation feedbacks maintain aggregated convection in both idealized simulations and the real world.Plain Language SummaryUnderstanding the processes that lead to the organization of tropical rainstorms is an important challenge for weather

Satellite Maps Deliver More Realistic Gaming

Science.gov (United States)

2013-01-01

When Redwood City, California-based Electronic Arts (EA) decided to make SSX, its latest snowboarding video game, it faced challenges in creating realistic-looking mountains. The solution was NASA's ASTER Global Digital Elevation Map, made available by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which EA used to create 28 real-life mountains from 9 different ranges for its award-winning game.

Interferometric data modelling: issues in realistic data generation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mukherjee, Soma

2004-01-01

This study describes algorithms developed for modelling interferometric noise in a realistic manner, i.e. incorporating non-stationarity that can be seen in the data from the present generation of interferometers. The noise model is based on individual component models (ICM) with the application of auto regressive moving average (ARMA) models. The data obtained from the model are vindicated by standard statistical tests, e.g. the KS test and Akaike minimum criterion. The results indicate a very good fit. The advantage of using ARMA for ICMs is that the model parameters can be controlled and hence injection and efficiency studies can be conducted in a more controlled environment. This realistic non-stationary noise generator is intended to be integrated within the data monitoring tool framework

Realist cinema as world cinema

OpenAIRE

Nagib, Lucia

2017-01-01

The idea that “realism” is the common denominator across the vast range of productions normally labelled as “world cinema” is widespread and seemly uncontroversial. Leaving aside oppositional binaries that define world cinema as the other of Hollywood or of classical cinema, this chapter will test the realist premise by locating it in the mode of production. It will define this mode as an ethics that engages filmmakers, at cinema’s creative peaks, with the physical and historical environment,...

The Effect of Realistic Mathematics Education Approach on Students' Achievement And Attitudes Towards Mathematics

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Effandi Zakaria

2017-02-01

Full Text Available This study was conducted to determine the effect of Realistic Mathematics Education Approach on mathematics achievement and student attitudes towards mathematics. This study also sought determine the relationship between student achievement and attitudes towards mathematics. This study used a quasi-experimental design conducted on 61 high school students at SMA Unggul Sigli. Students were divided into two groups, the treatment group $(n = 30$ namely, the Realistic Mathematics Approach group (PMR and the control group $(n = 31$ namely, the traditional group. This study was conducted for six weeks. The instruments used in this study were the achievement test and the attitudes towards mathematics questionnaires. Data were analyzed using SPSS. To determine the difference in mean achievement and attitudes between the two groups, data were analyzed using one-way ANOVA test. The result showed significant differences between the Realistic Mathematics Approach and the traditional approach in terms of achievement. The study showed no significant difference between the Realistic Mathematics Approach and the traditional approach in term of attitudes towards mathematics. It can be concluded that the use of realistic mathematics education approach enhanced students' mathematics achievement, but not attitudes towards mathematics. The Realistic Mathematics Education Approach encourage students to participate actively in the teaching and learning of mathematics. Thus, Realistic Mathematics Education Approach is an appropriate methods to improve the quality of teaching and learning process.

A comparison of spent fuel shipping cask response to 10 CFR 71 normal conditions and realistic hot day extremes

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Manson, S.J.; Gianoulakis, S.E.

1994-04-01

An examination of the effect of a realistic (though conservative) hot day environment on the thermal transient behavior of spent fuel shipping casks is made. These results are compared to those that develop under the prescribed normal thermal condition of 10 CFR 71. Of specific concern are the characteristics of propagating thermal waves, which are set up by diurnal variations of temperature and insolation in the outdoor environment. In order to arrive at a realistic approximation of these variations on a conservative hot day, actual temperature and insolation measurements have been obtained from the National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) for representatively hot and high heat flux days. Thus, the use of authentic meteorological data ensures the realistic approach sought. Further supporting the desired realism of the modeling effort is the use of realistic cask configurations in which multiple laminations of structural, shielding, and other materials are expected to attenuate the propagating thermal waves. The completed analysis revealed that the majority of wall temperatures, for a wide variety of spent fuel shipping cask configurations, fall well below those predicted by enforcement of the regulatory environmental conditions of 10 CFR 71. It was found that maximum temperatures at the cask surface occasionally lie above temperatures predicted under the prescribed regulatory conditions. However, the temperature differences are small enough that the normal conservative assumptions that are made in the course of typical cask evaluations should correct for any potential violations. The analysis demonstrates that diurnal temperature variations that penetrate the cask wall all have maxima substantially less than the corresponding regulatory solutions. Therefore it is certain that vital cask components and the spent fuel itself will not exceed the temperatures calculated by use of the conditions of 10 CFR 71

Rapid optimization of multiple-burn rocket flights.

Science.gov (United States)

Brown, K. R.; Harrold, E. F.; Johnson, G. W.

1972-01-01

Different formulations of the fuel optimization problem for multiple burn trajectories are considered. It is shown that certain customary idealizing assumptions lead to an ill-posed optimization problem for which no solution exists. Several ways are discussed for avoiding such difficulties by more realistic problem statements. An iterative solution of the boundary value problem is presented together with efficient coast arc computations, the right end conditions for various orbital missions, and some test results.

Realistic Noise Assessment and Strain Analysis of Iranian Permanent GPS Stations

Science.gov (United States)

Razeghi, S. M.; Amiri Simkooei, A. A.; Sharifi, M. A.

2012-04-01

To assess noise characteristics of Iranian Permanent GPS Stations (IPGS), northwestern part of this network namely Azerbaijan Continuous GPS Station (ACGS), was selected. For a realistic noise assessment it is required to model all deterministic signals of the GPS time series by means of least squares harmonic estimation (LS-HE) and derive all periodic behavior of the series. After taking all deterministic signals into account, the least squares variance component estimation (LS-VCE) is used to obtain a realistic noise model (white noise plus flicker noise) of the ACGS. For this purpose, one needs simultaneous GPS time series for which a multivariate noise assessment is applied. Having determined realistic noise model, a realistic strain analysis of the network is obtained for which one relies on the finite element methods. Finite element is now considered to be a new functional model and the new stochastic model is given based on the multivariate noise assessment using LS-VCE. The deformation rates of the components along with their full covariance matries are input to the strain analysis. Further, the results are also provided using a pure white noise model. The normalized strains for these two models show that the strain parameters derived from a realistic noise model are less significant than those derived from the white model. This could be either due to the short time span of the time series used or due to the intrinsic behavior of the strain parameters in the ACGS. Longer time series are required to further elaborate this issue.

Generating realistic roofs over a rectilinear polygon

KAUST Repository

Ahn, Heekap; Bae, Sangwon; Knauer, Christian; Lee, Mira; Shin, Chansu; Vigneron, Antoine E.

2011-01-01

Given a simple rectilinear polygon P in the xy-plane, a roof over P is a terrain over P whose faces are supported by planes through edges of P that make a dihedral angle π/4 with the xy-plane. In this paper, we introduce realistic roofs by imposing

Optimization of the Darrieus wind turbines with double-multiple-streamtube model

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Paraschivoiu, I.

1985-01-01

This paper discusses a new improvement of the double-multiple-stream tube model by considering the stream tube expansion effects on the Darrieus wind turbine. These effects, allowing a more realistic modeling of the upwind/downwind flow field asymmetries inherent in the Darrieus rotor, were calculated by using CARDAAX computer code. When the dynamic stall is introduced in the double-multiple-stream tube model, the aerodynamic loads and performance show significant changes in the range of low tip-speed ratio

Realistic Visualization of Virtual Views and Virtual Cinema

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Livatino, Salvatore

2005-01-01

Realistic Virtual View Visualization is a new field of research which has received increasing attention in recent years. It is strictly related to the increased popularity of virtual reality and the spread of its applications, among which virtual photography and cinematography. The use of computer...... generated characters, "virtual actors", in the motion picture production increases every day. While the most known computer graphics techniques have largely been adopted successfully in nowadays fictions, it still remains very challenging to implement virtual actors which would resemble, visually, human...... beings. Interestingly, film directors have been looking at the recent progress achieved by the research community in the field of realistic visualization of virtual views, and they have successfully implemented state of the art research approaches in their productions. An innovative concept...

Realistic and efficient 2D crack simulation

Science.gov (United States)

Yadegar, Jacob; Liu, Xiaoqing; Singh, Abhishek

2010-04-01

Although numerical algorithms for 2D crack simulation have been studied in Modeling and Simulation (M&S) and computer graphics for decades, realism and computational efficiency are still major challenges. In this paper, we introduce a high-fidelity, scalable, adaptive and efficient/runtime 2D crack/fracture simulation system by applying the mathematically elegant Peano-Cesaro triangular meshing/remeshing technique to model the generation of shards/fragments. The recursive fractal sweep associated with the Peano-Cesaro triangulation provides efficient local multi-resolution refinement to any level-of-detail. The generated binary decomposition tree also provides efficient neighbor retrieval mechanism used for mesh element splitting and merging with minimal memory requirements essential for realistic 2D fragment formation. Upon load impact/contact/penetration, a number of factors including impact angle, impact energy, and material properties are all taken into account to produce the criteria of crack initialization, propagation, and termination leading to realistic fractal-like rubble/fragments formation. The aforementioned parameters are used as variables of probabilistic models of cracks/shards formation, making the proposed solution highly adaptive by allowing machine learning mechanisms learn the optimal values for the variables/parameters based on prior benchmark data generated by off-line physics based simulation solutions that produce accurate fractures/shards though at highly non-real time paste. Crack/fracture simulation has been conducted on various load impacts with different initial locations at various impulse scales. The simulation results demonstrate that the proposed system has the capability to realistically and efficiently simulate 2D crack phenomena (such as window shattering and shards generation) with diverse potentials in military and civil M&S applications such as training and mission planning.

Analysis of Heterogeneous Networks with Dual Connectivity in a Realistic Urban Deployment

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Gerardino, Guillermo Andrés Pocovi; Barcos, Sonia; Wang, Hua

2015-01-01

the performance in this realistic layout. Due to the uneven load distribution observed in realistic deployments, DC is able to provide fast load balancing gains also at relatively high load - and not only at low load as typically observed in 3GPP scenarios. For the same reason, the proposed cell selection...

Increasing multiplicity, increasing P sub(T)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gaisser, T.K.

1984-01-01

Lattes et. al., discovered that high multiplicity events tend to have higher than average transverse momentum. It is discussed the possibility that this correlation may reflect the same underlying hard-scattering mechanism that produces well-separated jets with high transverse momentum, also seen in the Brazil-Japan experiments. The energy dependence of these effects may be important for interpretation of cascade experiments around 10 15 eV and above. (Author) [pt

Multiple solutions and stability of the steady transonic small-disturbance equation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ya Liu

2017-09-01

Full Text Available Numerical solutions of the steady transonic small-disturbance (TSD potential equation are computed using the conservative Murman−Cole scheme. Multiple solutions are discovered and mapped out for the Mach number range at zero angle of attack and the angle of attack range at Mach number 0.85 for the NACA 0012 airfoil. We present a linear stability analysis method by directly assembling and evaluating the Jacobian matrix of the nonlinear finite-difference equation of the TSD equation. The stability of all the discovered multiple solutions are then determined by the proposed eigen analysis. The relation of stability to convergence of the iterative method for solving the TSD equation is discussed. Computations and the stability analysis demonstrate the possibility of eliminating the multiple solutions and stabilizing the remaining unique solution by adding a sufficiently long splitter plate downstream the airfoil trailing edge. Finally, instability of the solution of the TSD equation is shown to be closely connected to the onset of transonic buffet by comparing with experimental data.

An Overview of Westinghouse Realistic Large Break LOCA Evaluation Model

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Cesare Frepoli

2008-01-01

Full Text Available Since the 1988 amendment of the 10 CFR 50.46 rule in 1988, Westinghouse has been developing and applying realistic or best-estimate methods to perform LOCA safety analyses. A realistic analysis requires the execution of various realistic LOCA transient simulations where the effect of both model and input uncertainties are ranged and propagated throughout the transients. The outcome is typically a range of results with associated probabilities. The thermal/hydraulic code is the engine of the methodology but a procedure is developed to assess the code and determine its biases and uncertainties. In addition, inputs to the simulation are also affected by uncertainty and these uncertainties are incorporated into the process. Several approaches have been proposed and applied in the industry in the framework of best-estimate methods. Most of the implementations, including Westinghouse, follow the Code Scaling, Applicability and Uncertainty (CSAU methodology. Westinghouse methodology is based on the use of the WCOBRA/TRAC thermal-hydraulic code. The paper starts with an overview of the regulations and its interpretation in the context of realistic analysis. The CSAU roadmap is reviewed in the context of its implementation in the Westinghouse evaluation model. An overview of the code (WCOBRA/TRAC and methodology is provided. Finally, the recent evolution to nonparametric statistics in the current edition of the W methodology is discussed. Sample results of a typical large break LOCA analysis for a PWR are provided.

Decision Tree Approach to Discovering Fraud in Leasing Agreements

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Horvat Ivan

2014-09-01

Full Text Available Background: Fraud attempts create large losses for financing subjects in modern economies. At the same time, leasing agreements have become more and more popular as a means of financing objects such as machinery and vehicles, but are more vulnerable to fraud attempts. Objectives: The goal of the paper is to estimate the usability of the data mining approach in discovering fraud in leasing agreements. Methods/Approach: Real-world data from one Croatian leasing firm was used for creating tow models for fraud detection in leasing. The decision tree method was used for creating a classification model, and the CHAID algorithm was deployed. Results: The decision tree model has indicated that the object of the leasing agreement had the strongest impact on the probability of fraud. Conclusions: In order to enhance the probability of the developed model, it would be necessary to develop software that would enable automated, quick and transparent retrieval of data from the system, processing according to the rules and displaying the results in multiple categories.

Nonstandard Farey sequences in a realistic diode map

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Perez, G.; Sinha, S.; Cerdeira, H.

1991-06-01

We study a realistic coupled map system, modelling a p - i - n diode structure. As we vary the parameter corresponding to the (scaled) external potential in the model, the dynamics goes through a flip bifurcation and then a Hopf bifurcation, and as the parameter is increased further, we find evidence of a sequence of mode locked windows embedded in the quasiperiodic motion, with periodic attractors whose winding numbers p = p/q, are given by a Farey series. The interesting thing about this Farey sequence is that it is generated between two parent attractors with p = 2/7 and 2/8, where 2/8 implies two distinct coexisting attractors with p = 1/4, and the correct series is obtained only when we use parent winding number 2/8 and not 1/4. So unlike a regular Farey tree, p and q need not be relatively prime here, p = 2 x p/2 x q is permissible, where such attractors are actually comprised of two coexisting attractors with p = p/q. We also checked that the positions and widths of these windows exhibit well defined power law scaling. When the potential is increased further, the Farey windows still provide a ''skeleton'' for the dynamics, and within each window there is a host of other interesting dynamical features, including multiple forward and reverse Feigenbaum trees. (author). 15 refs, 7 figs

A Novel CPU/GPU Simulation Environment for Large-Scale Biologically-Realistic Neural Modeling

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Roger V Hoang

2013-10-01

Full Text Available Computational Neuroscience is an emerging field that provides unique opportunities to studycomplex brain structures through realistic neural simulations. However, as biological details are added tomodels, the execution time for the simulation becomes longer. Graphics Processing Units (GPUs are now being utilized to accelerate simulations due to their ability to perform computations in parallel. As such, they haveshown significant improvement in execution time compared to Central Processing Units (CPUs. Most neural simulators utilize either multiple CPUs or a single GPU for better performance, but still show limitations in execution time when biological details are not sacrificed. Therefore, we present a novel CPU/GPU simulation environment for large-scale biological networks,the NeoCortical Simulator version 6 (NCS6. NCS6 is a free, open-source, parallelizable, and scalable simula-tor, designed to run on clusters of multiple machines, potentially with high performance computing devicesin each of them. It has built-in leaky-integrate-and-fire (LIF and Izhikevich (IZH neuron models, but usersalso have the capability to design their own plug-in interface for different neuron types as desired. NCS6is currently able to simulate one million cells and 100 million synapses in quasi real time by distributing dataacross these heterogeneous clusters of CPUs and GPUs.

TMS modeling toolbox for realistic simulation.

Science.gov (United States)

Cho, Young Sun; Suh, Hyun Sang; Lee, Won Hee; Kim, Tae-Seong

2010-01-01

Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) is a technique for brain stimulation using rapidly changing magnetic fields generated by coils. It has been established as an effective stimulation technique to treat patients suffering from damaged brain functions. Although TMS is known to be painless and noninvasive, it can also be harmful to the brain by incorrect focusing and excessive stimulation which might result in seizure. Therefore there is ongoing research effort to elucidate and better understand the effect and mechanism of TMS. Lately Boundary element method (BEM) and Finite element method (FEM) have been used to simulate the electromagnetic phenomenon of TMS. However, there is a lack of general tools to generate the models of TMS due to some difficulties in realistic modeling of the human head and TMS coils. In this study, we have developed a toolbox through which one can generate high-resolution FE TMS models. The toolbox allows creating FE models of the head with isotropic and anisotropic electrical conductivities in five different tissues of the head and the coils in 3D. The generated TMS model is importable to FE software packages such as ANSYS for further and efficient electromagnetic analysis. We present a set of demonstrative results of realistic simulation of TMS with our toolbox.

EPA True NO2 ground site measurements – multiple sites, TCEQ ground site measurements of meteorological and air pollution parameters – multiple sites ,GeoTASO NO2 Vertical Column

Data.gov (United States)

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency — EPA True NO2 ground site measurements – multiple sites - http://www-air.larc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/ArcView/discover-aq.tx-2013; TCEQ ground site measurements of...

DeBi: Discovering Differentially Expressed Biclusters using a Frequent Itemset Approach

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Vingron Martin

2011-06-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background The analysis of massive high throughput data via clustering algorithms is very important for elucidating gene functions in biological systems. However, traditional clustering methods have several drawbacks. Biclustering overcomes these limitations by grouping genes and samples simultaneously. It discovers subsets of genes that are co-expressed in certain samples. Recent studies showed that biclustering has a great potential in detecting marker genes that are associated with certain tissues or diseases. Several biclustering algorithms have been proposed. However, it is still a challenge to find biclusters that are significant based on biological validation measures. Besides that, there is a need for a biclustering algorithm that is capable of analyzing very large datasets in reasonable time. Results Here we present a fast biclustering algorithm called DeBi (Differentially Expressed BIclusters. The algorithm is based on a well known data mining approach called frequent itemset. It discovers maximum size homogeneous biclusters in which each gene is strongly associated with a subset of samples. We evaluate the performance of DeBi on a yeast dataset, on synthetic datasets and on human datasets. Conclusions We demonstrate that the DeBi algorithm provides functionally more coherent gene sets compared to standard clustering or biclustering algorithms using biological validation measures such as Gene Ontology term and Transcription Factor Binding Site enrichment. We show that DeBi is a computationally efficient and powerful tool in analyzing large datasets. The method is also applicable on multiple gene expression datasets coming from different labs or platforms.

Realistic edge field model code REFC for designing and study of isochronous cyclotron

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ismail, M.

1989-01-01

The focussing properties and the requirements for isochronism in cyclotron magnet configuration are well-known in hard edge field model. The fact that they quite often change considerably in realistic field can be attributed mainly to the influence of the edge field. A solution to this problem requires a field model which allows a simple construction of equilibrium orbit and yield simple formulae. This can be achieved by using a fitted realistic edge field (Hudson et al 1975) in the region of the pole edge and such a field model is therefore called a realistic edge field model. A code REFC based on realistic edge field model has been developed to design the cyclotron sectors and the code FIELDER has been used to study the beam properties. In this report REFC code has been described along with some relevant explaination of the FIELDER code. (author). 11 refs., 6 figs

Realistic terrain visualization based on 3D virtual world technology

Science.gov (United States)

Huang, Fengru; Lin, Hui; Chen, Bin; Xiao, Cai

2010-11-01

The rapid advances in information technologies, e.g., network, graphics processing, and virtual world, have provided challenges and opportunities for new capabilities in information systems, Internet applications, and virtual geographic environments, especially geographic visualization and collaboration. In order to achieve meaningful geographic capabilities, we need to explore and understand how these technologies can be used to construct virtual geographic environments to help to engage geographic research. The generation of three-dimensional (3D) terrain plays an important part in geographical visualization, computer simulation, and virtual geographic environment applications. The paper introduces concepts and technologies of virtual worlds and virtual geographic environments, explores integration of realistic terrain and other geographic objects and phenomena of natural geographic environment based on SL/OpenSim virtual world technologies. Realistic 3D terrain visualization is a foundation of construction of a mirror world or a sand box model of the earth landscape and geographic environment. The capabilities of interaction and collaboration on geographic information are discussed as well. Further virtual geographic applications can be developed based on the foundation work of realistic terrain visualization in virtual environments.

Realistic Affective Forecasting: The Role of Personality

Science.gov (United States)

Hoerger, Michael; Chapman, Ben; Duberstein, Paul

2016-01-01

Affective forecasting often drives decision making. Although affective forecasting research has often focused on identifying sources of error at the event level, the present investigation draws upon the ‘realistic paradigm’ in seeking to identify factors that similarly influence predicted and actual emotions, explaining their concordance across individuals. We hypothesized that the personality traits neuroticism and extraversion would account for variation in both predicted and actual emotional reactions to a wide array of stimuli and events (football games, an election, Valentine’s Day, birthdays, happy/sad film clips, and an intrusive interview). As hypothesized, individuals who were more introverted and neurotic anticipated, correctly, that they would experience relatively more unpleasant emotional reactions, and those who were more extraverted and less neurotic anticipated, correctly, that they would experience relatively more pleasant emotional reactions. Personality explained 30% of the concordance between predicted and actual emotional reactions. Findings suggest three purported personality processes implicated in affective forecasting, highlight the importance of individual-differences research in this domain, and call for more research on realistic affective forecasts. PMID:26212463

Developing a framework for a novel multi-disciplinary, multi-agency intervention(s), to improve medication management in community-dwelling older people on complex medication regimens (MEMORABLE)--a realist synthesis.

Science.gov (United States)

Maidment, Ian; Booth, Andrew; Mullan, Judy; McKeown, Jane; Bailey, Sylvia; Wong, Geoffrey

2017-07-03

Medication-related adverse events have been estimated to be responsible for 5700 deaths and cost the UK £750 million annually. This burden falls disproportionately on older people. Outcomes from interventions to optimise medication management are caused by multiple context-sensitive mechanisms. The MEdication Management in Older people: REalist Approaches BAsed on Literature and Evaluation (MEMORABLE) project uses realist synthesis to understand how, why, for whom and in what context interventions, to improve medication management in older people on complex medication regimes residing in the community, work. This realist synthesis uses secondary data and primary data from interviews to develop the programme theory. A realist logic of analysis will synthesise data both within and across the two data sources to inform the design of a complex intervention(s) to help improve medication management in older people. 1. Literature review The review (using realist synthesis) contains five stages to develop an initial programme theory to understand why processes are more or less successful and under which situations: focussing of the research question; developing the initial programme theory; developing the search strategy; selection and appraisal based on relevance and rigour; and data analysis/synthesis to develop and refine the programme theory and context, intervention and mechanism configurations. 2. Realist interviews Realist interviews will explore and refine our understanding of the programme theory developed from the realist synthesis. Up to 30 older people and their informal carers (15 older people with multi-morbidity, 10 informal carers and 5 older people with dementia), and 20 care staff will be interviewed. 3. Developing framework for the intervention(s) Data from the realist synthesis and interviews will be used to refine the programme theory for the intervention(s) to identify: the mechanisms that need to be 'triggered', and the contexts related to these

Beyond the realist turn: a socio-material analysis of heart failure self-care.

Science.gov (United States)

McDougall, Allan; Kinsella, Elizabeth Anne; Goldszmidt, Mark; Harkness, Karen; Strachan, Patricia; Lingard, Lorelei

2018-01-01

For patients living with chronic illnesses, self-care has been linked with positive outcomes such as decreased hospitalisation, longer lifespan, and improved quality of life. However, despite calls for more and better self-care interventions, behaviour change trials have repeatedly fallen short on demonstrating effectiveness. The literature on heart failure (HF) stands as a case in point, and a growing body of HF studies advocate realist approaches to self-care research and policymaking. We label this trend the 'realist turn' in HF self-care. Realist evaluation and realist interventions emphasise that the relationship between self-care interventions and positive health outcomes is not fixed, but contingent on social context. This paper argues socio-materiality offers a productive framework to expand on the idea of social context in realist accounts of HF self-care. This study draws on 10 interviews as well as researcher reflections from a larger study exploring health care teams for patients with advanced HF. Leveraging insights from actor-network theory (ANT), this study provides two rich narratives about the contextual factors that influence HF self-care. These descriptions portray not self-care contexts but self-care assemblages, which we discuss in light of socio-materiality. © 2018 Foundation for the Sociology of Health & Illness.

Role-playing for more realistic technical skills training.

Science.gov (United States)

Nikendei, C; Zeuch, A; Dieckmann, P; Roth, C; Schäfer, S; Völkl, M; Schellberg, D; Herzog, W; Jünger, J

2005-03-01

Clinical skills are an important and necessary part of clinical competence. Simulation plays an important role in many fields of medical education. Although role-playing is common in communication training, there are no reports about the use of student role-plays in the training of technical clinical skills. This article describes an educational intervention with analysis of pre- and post-intervention self-selected student survey evaluations. After one term of skills training, a thorough evaluation showed that the skills-lab training did not seem very realistic nor was it very demanding for trainees. To create a more realistic training situation and to enhance students' involvement, case studies and role-plays with defined roles for students (i.e. intern, senior consultant) were introduced into half of the sessions. Results of the evaluation in the second term showed that sessions with role-playing were rated significantly higher than sessions without role-playing.

Did Viking discover life on Mars?

Science.gov (United States)

Klein, H. P.

1999-01-01

A major argument in the claim that life had been discovered during the Viking mission to Mars is that the results obtained in the Labeled Release (LR) experiment are analogous to those observed with terrestrial microorganisms. This assertion is critically examined and found to be implausible.

The discovered preference hypothesis - an empirical test

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Lundhede, Thomas; Ladenburg, Jacob; Olsen, Søren Bøye

Using stated preference methods for valuation of non-market goods is known to be vulnerable to a range of biases. Some authors claim that these so-called anomalies in effect render the methods useless for the purpose. However, the Discovered Preference Hypothesis, as put forth by Plott [31], offers...... an nterpretation and explanation of biases which entails that the stated preference methods need not to be completely written off. In this paper we conduct a test for the validity and relevance of the DPH interpretation of biases. In a choice experiment concerning preferences for protection of Danish nature areas...... as respondents evaluate more and more choice sets. This finding supports the Discovered Preference Hypothesis interpretation and explanation of starting point bias....

Analytical multiple scattering correction to the Mie theory: Application to the analysis of the lidar signal

Science.gov (United States)

Flesia, C.; Schwendimann, P.

1992-01-01

The contribution of the multiple scattering to the lidar signal is dependent on the optical depth tau. Therefore, the radar analysis, based on the assumption that the multiple scattering can be neglected is limited to cases characterized by low values of the optical depth (tau less than or equal to 0.1) and hence it exclude scattering from most clouds. Moreover, all inversion methods relating lidar signal to number densities and particle size must be modified since the multiple scattering affects the direct analysis. The essential requests of a realistic model for lidar measurements which include the multiple scattering and which can be applied to practical situations follow. (1) Requested are not only a correction term or a rough approximation describing results of a certain experiment, but a general theory of multiple scattering tying together the relevant physical parameter we seek to measure. (2) An analytical generalization of the lidar equation which can be applied in the case of a realistic aerosol is requested. A pure analytical formulation is important in order to avoid the convergency and stability problems which, in the case of numerical approach, are due to the large number of events that have to be taken into account in the presence of large depth and/or a strong experimental noise.

Toward realistic pursuit-evasion using a roadmap-based approach

KAUST Repository

Rodriguez, Samuel

2011-05-01

In this work, we describe an approach for modeling and simulating group behaviors for pursuit-evasion that uses a graph-based representation of the environment and integrates multi-agent simulation with roadmap-based path planning. Our approach can be applied to more realistic scenarios than are typically studied in most previous work, including agents moving in 3D environments such as terrains, multi-story buildings, and dynamic environments. We also support more realistic three-dimensional visibility computations that allow evading agents to hide in crowds or behind hills. We demonstrate the utility of this approach on mobile robots and in simulation for a variety of scenarios including pursuit-evasion and tag on terrains, in multi-level buildings, and in crowds. © 2011 IEEE.

Entrepreneurial Education: A Realistic Alternative for Women and Minorities.

Science.gov (United States)

Steward, James F.; Boyd, Daniel R.

1989-01-01

Entrepreneurial education is a valid, realistic occupational training alternative for minorities and women in business. Entrepreneurship requires that one become involved with those educational programs that contribute significantly to one's success. (Author)

Protocol - realist and meta-narrative evidence synthesis: Evolving Standards (RAMESES

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Westhorp Gill

2011-08-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background There is growing interest in theory-driven, qualitative and mixed-method approaches to systematic review as an alternative to (or to extend and supplement conventional Cochrane-style reviews. These approaches offer the potential to expand the knowledge base in policy-relevant areas - for example by explaining the success, failure or mixed fortunes of complex interventions. However, the quality of such reviews can be difficult to assess. This study aims to produce methodological guidance, publication standards and training resources for those seeking to use the realist and/or meta-narrative approach to systematic review. Methods/design We will: [a] collate and summarise existing literature on the principles of good practice in realist and meta-narrative systematic review; [b] consider the extent to which these principles have been followed by published and in-progress reviews, thereby identifying how rigour may be lost and how existing methods could be improved; [c] using an online Delphi method with an interdisciplinary panel of experts from academia and policy, produce a draft set of methodological steps and publication standards; [d] produce training materials with learning outcomes linked to these steps; [e] pilot these standards and training materials prospectively on real reviews-in-progress, capturing methodological and other challenges as they arise; [f] synthesise expert input, evidence review and real-time problem analysis into more definitive guidance and standards; [g] disseminate outputs to audiences in academia and policy. The outputs of the study will be threefold: 1. Quality standards and methodological guidance for realist and meta-narrative reviews for use by researchers, research sponsors, students and supervisors 2. A 'RAMESES' (Realist and Meta-review Evidence Synthesis: Evolving Standards statement (comparable to CONSORT or PRISMA of publication standards for such reviews, published in an open

Fractional populations in multiple gene inheritance.

Science.gov (United States)

Chung, Myung-Hoon; Kim, Chul Koo; Nahm, Kyun

2003-01-22

With complete knowledge of the human genome sequence, one of the most interesting tasks remaining is to understand the functions of individual genes and how they communicate. Using the information about genes (locus, allele, mutation rate, fitness, etc.), we attempt to explain population demographic data. This population evolution study could complement and enhance biologists' understanding about genes. We present a general approach to study population genetics in complex situations. In the present approach, multiple allele inheritance, multiple loci inheritance, natural selection and mutations are allowed simultaneously in order to consider a more realistic situation. A simulation program is presented so that readers can readily carry out studies with their own parameters. It is shown that the multiplicity of the loci greatly affects the demographic results of fractional population ratios. Furthermore, the study indicates that some high infant mortality rates due to congenital anomalies can be attributed to multiple loci inheritance. The simulation program can be downloaded from http://won.hongik.ac.kr/~mhchung/index_files/yapop.htm. In order to run this program, one needs Visual Studio.NET platform, which can be downloaded from http://msdn.microsoft.com/netframework/downloads/default.asp.

Market segmentation for multiple option healthcare delivery systems--an application of cluster analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Jarboe, G R; Gates, R H; McDaniel, C D

1990-01-01

Healthcare providers of multiple option plans may be confronted with special market segmentation problems. This study demonstrates how cluster analysis may be used for discovering distinct patterns of preference for multiple option plans. The availability of metric, as opposed to categorical or ordinal, data provides the ability to use sophisticated analysis techniques which may be superior to frequency distributions and cross-tabulations in revealing preference patterns.

Using Combinatorial Approach to Improve Students' Learning of the Distributive Law and Multiplicative Identities

Science.gov (United States)

Tsai, Yu-Ling; Chang, Ching-Kuch

2009-01-01

This article reports an alternative approach, called the combinatorial model, to learning multiplicative identities, and investigates the effects of implementing results for this alternative approach. Based on realistic mathematics education theory, the new instructional materials or modules of the new approach were developed by the authors. From…

Principles of maximally classical and maximally realistic quantum ...

Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

Principles of maximally classical and maximally realistic quantum mechanics. S M ROY. Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Homi Bhabha Road, Mumbai 400 005, India. Abstract. Recently Auberson, Mahoux, Roy and Singh have proved a long standing conjecture of Roy and Singh: In 2N-dimensional phase space, ...

Toward the M(F)--Theory Embedding of Realistic Free-Fermion Models

CERN Document Server

Berglund, P; Faraggi, A E; Nanopoulos, Dimitri V; Qiu, Z; Berglund, Per; Ellis, John; Faraggi, Alon E.; Qiu, Zongan

1998-01-01

We construct a Landau-Ginzburg model with the same data and symmetries as a $Z_2\\times Z_2$ orbifold that corresponds to a class of realistic free-fermion models. Within the class of interest, we show that this orbifolding connects between different $Z_2\\times Z_2$ orbifold models and commutes with the mirror symmetry. Our work suggests that duality symmetries previously discussed in the context of specific $M$ and $F$ theory compactifications may be extended to the special $Z_2\\times Z_2$ orbifold that characterizes realistic free-fermion models.

Ultra-realistic imaging advanced techniques in analogue and digital colour holography

CERN Document Server

Bjelkhagen, Hans

2013-01-01

Ultra-high resolution holograms are now finding commercial and industrial applications in such areas as holographic maps, 3D medical imaging, and consumer devices. Ultra-Realistic Imaging: Advanced Techniques in Analogue and Digital Colour Holography brings together a comprehensive discussion of key methods that enable holography to be used as a technique of ultra-realistic imaging.After a historical review of progress in holography, the book: Discusses CW recording lasers, pulsed holography lasers, and reviews optical designs for many of the principal laser types with emphasis on attaining th

Discovering Technicolor

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

R. Andersen, J.; Antipin, O.; Azuelos, G.

2011-01-01

We provide a pedagogical introduction to extensions of the Standard Model in which the Higgs is composite. These extensions are known as models of dynamical electroweak symmetry breaking or, in brief, Technicolor. Material covered includes: motivations for Technicolor, the construction of underly...... the relevant experimental benchmarks for Vanilla, Running, Walking, and Custodial Technicolor, and a natural fourth family of leptons, by laying out the framework to discover these models at the Large Hadron Collider....... of underlying gauge theories leading to minimal models of Technicolor, the comparison with electroweak precision data, the low energy effective theory, the spectrum of the states common to most of the Technicolor models, the decays of the composite particles and the experimental signals at the Large Hadron...... Collider. The level of the presentation is aimed at readers familiar with the Standard Model but who have little or no prior exposure to Technicolor. Several extensions of the Standard Model featuring a composite Higgs can be reduced to the effective Lagrangian introduced in the text. We establish...

Using a Realist Research Methodology in Policy Analysis

Science.gov (United States)

Lourie, Megan; Rata, Elizabeth

2017-01-01

The article describes the usefulness of a realist methodology in linking sociological theory to empirically obtained data through the development of a methodological device. Three layers of analysis were integrated: 1. the findings from a case study about Maori language education in New Zealand; 2. the identification and analysis of contradictions…

Discovering English with the Sketch Engine

Science.gov (United States)

Thomas, James

2014-01-01

"Discovering English with the Sketch Engine" is the title of a new book (Thomas, 2014) which introduces the use of corpora in language study, teaching, writing and translating. It focuses on using the Sketch Engine to identify patterns of normal usage in many aspects of English ranging from morphology to discourse and pragmatics. This…

Synthesis for robust synchronization of chaotic systems under output feedback control with multiple random delays

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wen Guilin; Wang Qingguo; Lin Chong; Han Xu; Li Guangyao

2006-01-01

Synchronization under output feedback control with multiple random time delays is studied, using the paradigm in nonlinear physics-Chua's circuit. Compared with other synchronization control methods, output feedback control with multiple random delay is superior for a realistic synchronization application to secure communications. Sufficient condition for global stability of delay-dependent synchronization is established based on the LMI technique. Numerical simulations fully support the analytical approach, in spite of the random delays

What if Fleming had not discovered penicillin?

Science.gov (United States)

Alharbi, Sulaiman Ali; Wainwright, Milton; Alahmadi, Tahani Awad; Salleeh, Hashim Bin; Faden, Asmaa A; Chinnathambi, Arunachalam

2014-09-01

What would have happened had Alexander Fleming not discovered penicillin in 1928? Perhaps the obvious answer is that, someone else would have discovered penicillin during 1930s and the Oxford group, would still have purified it sometime in the early 1940s. Here, however, in this counterfactual account of the penicillin story, it is argued that without Fleming, penicillin might still be undiscovered and the antibiotic age would never have dawned. As a result, many of the recent developments in medicine, such as organ transplantation, might have been delayed or, at best, made more hazardous. Penicillin might have come onto the scene a few years later but, had Fleming overlooked the discovery, it seems certain that penicillin would not have saved countless Allied lives, during and after D-Day. Instead of having enjoyed fifty and more years of the antibiotic age, it is argued here, that we would have had to rely upon highly developed sulphonamides, so-called "supasulfas", and other chemically-derived antibacterial drugs. Indeed, it might be the case that, even well into this new millennium, the antibiotic age has yet to dawn, and medicine is still waiting for someone to chance upon penicillin. Here we discuss what might have happened had Fleming not discovered penicillin and come to the conclusion that the medical armoury available today would have been far different and might have relied solely upon highly developed varieties of sulphonamides or similar, synthetic, non-antibiotic antibacterial agents.

The Universe for all to discover

Science.gov (United States)

Ortiz-Gil, A.; Ballesteros, F.; Espinós, H.; Fernández-Soto, A.; Lanzara, M.; Moya, M. J.; Navarro, J.

2015-05-01

In the title of this paper, we have changed the slogan of the International Year of Astronomy, ``The Universe yours to discover" to ``The Universe for all to discover" in order to emphasize the need to think about broader audiences when we plan astronomical activities at school or during outreach events. The strategy we propose follows what is known as the Universal Design for Learning (UDL). UDL allows to reach to the general public as well as to audiences which might be regarded as ``special" because they have some disability. It has been shown that everybody has a preferred style of learning (some remember better what they see, others what they hear or what they touch) and therefore, everybody is more or less able under the different styles of learning. Through this talk I am going to outline some of the principles of the UDL that can be applied in the teaching and communication of Astronomy, along with an example of its implementation in the project ``A Touch of the Universe".

Discovering context-aware conditional functional dependencies

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

Yuefeng DU; Derong SHEN; Tiezheng NIE; Yue KOU; Ge YU

2017-01-01

Conditional functional dependencies(CFDs) are important techniques for data consistency.However,CFDs are limited to 1) provide the reasonable values for consistency repairing and 2) detect potential errors.This paper presents context-aware conditional functional dependencies(CCFDs) which contribute to provide reasonable values and detect potential errors.Especially,we focus on automatically discovering minimal CCFDs.In this paper,we present context relativity to measure the relationship of CFDs.The overlap of the related CFDs can provide reasonable values which result in more accuracy consistency repairing,and some related CFDs are combined into CCFDs.Moreover,we prove that discovering minimal CCFDs is NP-complete and we design the precise method and the heuristic method.We also present the dominating value to facilitate the process in both the precise method and the heuristic method.Additionally,the context relativity of the CFDs affects the cleaning results.We will give an approximate threshold of context relativity according to data distribution for suggestion.The repairing results are approved more accuracy,even evidenced by our empirical evaluation.

A knowledge-based integrated approach for discovering and repairing declare maps

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Maggi, F.M.; Jagadeesh Chandra Bose, R.P.; Aalst, van der W.M.P.; Salinesi, C.; Norrie, M.C.; Pastor, O.

2013-01-01

Process mining techniques can be used to discover process models from event data. Often the resulting models are complex due to the variability of the underlying process. Therefore, we aim at discovering declarative process models that can deal with such variability. However, for real-life event

Multiple steady states detection in a packed-bed reactive distillation column using bifurcation analysis

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Ramzan, Naveed; Faheem, Muhammad; Gani, Rafiqul

2010-01-01

A packed reactive distillation column producing ethyl tert-butyl ether from tert-butyl alcohol and ethanol was simulated for detection of multiple steady states using Aspen Plus®. A rate-based approach was used to make the simulation model more realistic. A base-case was first developed and fine...

Realistic electricity market simulator for energy and economic studies

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bernal-Agustin, Jose L.; Contreras, Javier; Conejo, Antonio J.; Martin-Flores, Raul

2007-01-01

Electricity market simulators have become a useful tool to train engineers in the power industry. With the maturing of electricity markets throughout the world, there is a need for sophisticated software tools that can replicate the actual behavior of power markets. In most of these markets, power producers/consumers submit production/demand bids and the Market Operator clears the market producing a single price per hour. What makes markets different from each other are the bidding rules and the clearing algorithms to balance the market. This paper presents a realistic simulator of the day-ahead electricity market of mainland Spain. All the rules that govern this market are modeled. This simulator can be used either to train employees by power companies or to teach electricity markets courses in universities. To illustrate the tool, several realistic case studies are presented and discussed. (author)

Einstein@Home discovers a radio-quiet gamma-ray millisecond pulsar.

Science.gov (United States)

Clark, Colin J; Pletsch, Holger J; Wu, Jason; Guillemot, Lucas; Kerr, Matthew; Johnson, Tyrel J; Camilo, Fernando; Salvetti, David; Allen, Bruce; Anderson, David; Aulbert, Carsten; Beer, Christian; Bock, Oliver; Cuéllar, Andres; Eggenstein, Heinz-Bernd; Fehrmann, Henning; Kramer, Michael; Kwang, Shawn A; Machenschalk, Bernd; Nieder, Lars; Ackermann, Markus; Ajello, Marco; Baldini, Luca; Ballet, Jean; Barbiellini, Guido; Bastieri, Denis; Bellazzini, Ronaldo; Bissaldi, Elisabetta; Blandford, Roger D; Bloom, Elliott D; Bonino, Raffaella; Bottacini, Eugenio; Brandt, Terri J; Bregeon, Johan; Bruel, Philippe; Buehler, Rolf; Burnett, Toby H; Buson, Sara; Cameron, Rob A; Caputo, Regina; Caraveo, Patrizia A; Cavazzuti, Elisabetta; Cecchi, Claudia; Charles, Eric; Chekhtman, Alexandre; Ciprini, Stefano; Cominsky, Lynn R; Costantin, Denise; Cutini, Sara; D'Ammando, Filippo; De Luca, Andrea; Desiante, Rachele; Di Venere, Leonardo; Di Mauro, Mattia; Di Lalla, Niccolò; Digel, Seth W; Favuzzi, Cecilia; Ferrara, Elizabeth C; Franckowiak, Anna; Fukazawa, Yasushi; Funk, Stefan; Fusco, Piergiorgio; Gargano, Fabio; Gasparrini, Dario; Giglietto, Nico; Giordano, Francesco; Giroletti, Marcello; Gomez-Vargas, Germán A; Green, David; Grenier, Isabelle A; Guiriec, Sylvain; Harding, Alice K; Hewitt, John W; Horan, Deirdre; Jóhannesson, Guðlaugur; Kensei, Shiki; Kuss, Michael; La Mura, Giovanni; Larsson, Stefan; Latronico, Luca; Li, Jian; Longo, Francesco; Loparco, Francesco; Lovellette, Michael N; Lubrano, Pasquale; Magill, Jeffrey D; Maldera, Simone; Manfreda, Alberto; Mazziotta, Mario N; McEnery, Julie E; Michelson, Peter F; Mirabal, Nestor; Mitthumsiri, Warit; Mizuno, Tsunefumi; Monzani, Maria Elena; Morselli, Aldo; Moskalenko, Igor V; Nuss, Eric; Ohsugi, Takashi; Omodei, Nicola; Orienti, Monica; Orlando, Elena; Palatiello, Michele; Paliya, Vaidehi S; de Palma, Francesco; Paneque, David; Perkins, Jeremy S; Persic, Massimo; Pesce-Rollins, Melissa; Porter, Troy A; Principe, Giacomo; Rainò, Silvia; Rando, Riccardo; Ray, Paul S; Razzano, Massimiliano; Reimer, Anita; Reimer, Olaf; Romani, Roger W; Saz Parkinson, Pablo M; Sgrò, Carmelo; Siskind, Eric J; Smith, David A; Spada, Francesca; Spandre, Gloria; Spinelli, Paolo; Thayer, Jana B; Thompson, David J; Torres, Diego F; Troja, Eleonora; Vianello, Giacomo; Wood, Kent; Wood, Matthew

2018-02-01

Millisecond pulsars (MSPs) are old neutron stars that spin hundreds of times per second and appear to pulsate as their emission beams cross our line of sight. To date, radio pulsations have been detected from all rotation-powered MSPs. In an attempt to discover radio-quiet gamma-ray MSPs, we used the aggregated power from the computers of tens of thousands of volunteers participating in the Einstein@Home distributed computing project to search for pulsations from unidentified gamma-ray sources in Fermi Large Area Telescope data. This survey discovered two isolated MSPs, one of which is the only known rotation-powered MSP to remain undetected in radio observations. These gamma-ray MSPs were discovered in completely blind searches without prior constraints from other observations, raising hopes for detecting MSPs from a predicted Galactic bulge population.

Discovering Science through Art-Based Activities

Science.gov (United States)

Alberts, Rebecca

2010-01-01

Art and science are intrinsically linked; the essence of art and science is discovery. Both artists and scientists work in a systematic but creative way--knowledge and understanding are built up through pieces of art or a series of labs. In the classroom, integrating science and visual art can provide students with the latitude to think, discover,…

Multiple discrete-energy ion features in the inner magnetosphere: 9 February 1998, event

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Y. Ebihara

2004-04-01

Full Text Available Multiple discrete-energy ion bands observed by the Polar satellite in the inner magnetosphere on 9 February 1998 were investigated by means of particle simulation with a realistic model of the convection electric field. The multiple bands appeared in the energy vs. L spectrum in the 1–100 keV range when Polar traveled in the heart of the ring current along the outbound and inbound paths. We performed particle tracing, and simulated the energy vs. L spectra of proton fluxes under the dipole magnetic field, the corotation electric field, and the realistic convection electric field model with its parameters depending on the solar wind data. Simulated spectra are shown to agree well with the observed ones. A better agreement is achieved when we rotate the convection electric potential eastward by 2h inMLT and we change the distribution function in time in the near-Earth magnetotail. It is concluded that the multiple bands are likely produced by two processes for this particular event, that is, changes in the convection electric field (for >3keV protons and changes in the distribution function in the near-Earth magnetotail (for <3keV protons. Key words. Magnetospheric physics (energetic particles, trapped; electric field – Space plasma physics (numerical simulation studies

Fully Realistic Multi-Criteria Multi-Modal Routing

OpenAIRE

Gündling, Felix; Keyhani, Mohammad Hossein; Schnee, Mathias; Weihe, Karsten

2014-01-01

We report on a multi-criteria search system, in which the German long- and short-distance trains, local public transport, walking, private car, private bike, and taxi are incorporated. The system is fully realistic. Three optimization criteria are addressed: travel time, travel cost, and convenience. Our algorithmic approach computes a complete Pareto set of reasonable connections. The computational study demonstrates that, even in such a large-scale, highly complex scenario, approp...

Quantifying introgression risk with realistic population genetics

OpenAIRE

Ghosh, Atiyo; Meirmans, Patrick G.; Haccou, Patsy

2012-01-01

Introgression is the permanent incorporation of genes from the genome of one population into another. This can have severe consequences, such as extinction of endemic species, or the spread of transgenes. Quantification of the risk of introgression is an important component of genetically modified crop regulation. Most theoretical introgression studies aimed at such quantification disregard one or more of the most important factors concerning introgression: realistic genetical mechanisms, rep...

Quantum cryptography: towards realization in realistic conditions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Imoto, M.; Koashi, M.; Shimizu, K.; Huttner, B.

1997-01-01

Many of quantum cryptography schemes have been proposed based on some assumptions such as no transmission loss, no measurement error, and an ideal single photon generator. We have been trying to develop a theory of quantum cryptography considering realistic conditions. As such attempts, we propose quantum cryptography with coherent states, quantum cryptography with two-photon interference, and generalization of two-state cryptography to two-mixed-state cases. (author)

Realistic absorption coefficient of each individual film in a multilayer architecture

Science.gov (United States)

Cesaria, M.; Caricato, A. P.; Martino, M.

2015-02-01

A spectrophotometric strategy, termed multilayer-method (ML-method), is presented and discussed to realistically calculate the absorption coefficient of each individual layer embedded in multilayer architectures without reverse engineering, numerical refinements and assumptions about the layer homogeneity and thickness. The strategy extends in a non-straightforward way a consolidated route, already published by the authors and here termed basic-method, able to accurately characterize an absorbing film covering transparent substrates. The ML-method inherently accounts for non-measurable contribution of the interfaces (including multiple reflections), describes the specific film structure as determined by the multilayer architecture and used deposition approach and parameters, exploits simple mathematics, and has wide range of applicability (high-to-weak absorption regions, thick-to-ultrathin films). Reliability tests are performed on films and multilayers based on a well-known material (indium tin oxide) by deliberately changing the film structural quality through doping, thickness-tuning and underlying supporting-film. Results are found consistent with information obtained by standard (optical and structural) analysis, the basic-method and band gap values reported in the literature. The discussed example-applications demonstrate the ability of the ML-method to overcome the drawbacks commonly limiting an accurate description of multilayer architectures.

Possible origin of Saturn's newly discovered outer ring

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Moehlmann, D.

1986-01-01

Within a planetogonic model the self-gravitationally caused formation of pre-planetary and pre-satellite rings from an earlier thin disk is reported. The theoretically derived orbital radii of these rings are compared with the orbital levels in the planetary system and the satellite systems of Jupiter, Saturn and Uranus. From this comparison it is concluded that at the radial position of Saturn's newly discovered outer ring an early pre-satellite ring of more or less evolved satellites could have existed. These satellites should have been disturbed in their evolution by the gravitation of the neighbouring massive satellite Titan. The comparison also may indicate similarities between the asteroidal belt and the newly discovered outer ring of Saturn

A possible definition of a {\\it Realistic} Physics Theory

OpenAIRE

Gisin, Nicolas

2014-01-01

A definition of a {\\it Realistic} Physics Theory is proposed based on the idea that, at all time, the set of physical properties possessed (at that time) by a system should unequivocally determine the probabilities of outcomes of all possible measurements.

Numerical computation of aeroacoustic transfer functions for realistic airfoils

NARCIS (Netherlands)

De Santana, Leandro Dantas; Miotto, Renato Fuzaro; Wolf, William Roberto

2017-01-01

Based on Amiet's theory formalism, we propose a numerical framework to compute the aeroacoustic transfer function of realistic airfoil geometries. The aeroacoustic transfer function relates the amplitude and phase of an incoming periodic gust to the respective unsteady lift response permitting,

Student Work Experience: A Realistic Approach to Merchandising Education.

Science.gov (United States)

Horridge, Patricia; And Others

1980-01-01

Relevant and realistic experiences are needed to prepare the student for a future career. Addresses the results of a survey of colleges and universities in the United States in regard to their student work experience (SWE) in fashion merchandising. (Author)

Discovering Phonemes of Bidayuh

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jecky Misieng

2012-07-01

Full Text Available There are generally three views of the notion of a phoneme. The structuralist view of the phoneme focuses on this language phenomenon as a phonetic reality. In discovering phonemes of a language, phonologists who hold this view will look for minimal contrasting pairs as a way to determine contrasting sounds of that language. They will also look for allophones or two sounds of the same phoneme which may appear in complementary distribution. This paper will discuss the possible application of the structuralist approach to analyzing the phonemes of a dialect of Bidayuh, one of the Malayo-Polynesian languages spoken in the northern region of Borneo.

Generalized Warburg impedance on realistic self-affine fractals ...

Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

Administrator

Generalized Warburg impedance on realistic self-affine fractals: Comparative study of statistically corrugated and isotropic roughness. RAJESH KUMAR and RAMA KANT. Journal of Chemical Sciences, Vol. 121, No. 5, September 2009, pp. 579–588. 1. ( ) c. L. R ω on page 582, column 2, para 2, after eq (8) should read as ...

Multiple Modes of Cell Death Discovered in a Prokaryotic (Cyanobacterial) Endosymbiont

Science.gov (United States)

Zheng, Weiwen; Rasmussen, Ulla; Zheng, Siping; Bao, Xiaodong; Chen, Bin; Gao, Yuan; Guan, Xiong; Larsson, John; Bergman, Birgitta

2013-01-01

Programmed cell death (PCD) is a genetically-based cell death mechanism with vital roles in eukaryotes. Although there is limited consensus on similar death mode programs in prokaryotes, emerging evidence suggest that PCD events are operative. Here we present cell death events in a cyanobacterium living endophytically in the fern Azolla microphylla, suggestive of PCD. This symbiosis is characterized by some unique traits such as a synchronized development, a vertical transfer of the cyanobacterium between plant generations, and a highly eroding cyanobacterial genome. A combination of methods was used to identify cell death modes in the cyanobacterium. Light- and electron microscopy analyses showed that the proportion of cells undergoing cell death peaked at 53.6% (average 20%) of the total cell population, depending on the cell type and host developmental stage. Biochemical markers used for early and late programmed cell death events related to apoptosis (Annexin V-EGFP and TUNEL staining assays), together with visualization of cytoskeleton alterations (FITC-phalloidin staining), showed that all cyanobacterial cell categories were affected by cell death. Transmission electron microscopy revealed four modes of cell death: apoptotic-like, autophagic-like, necrotic-like and autolytic-like. Abiotic stresses further enhanced cell death in a dose and time dependent manner. The data also suggest that dynamic changes in the peptidoglycan cell wall layer and in the cytoskeleton distribution patterns may act as markers for the various cell death modes. The presence of a metacaspase homolog (domain p20) further suggests that the death modes are genetically programmed. It is therefore concluded that multiple, likely genetically programmed, cell death modes exist in cyanobacteria, a finding that may be connected with the evolution of cell death in the plant kingdom. PMID:23822984

Multiple Modes of Cell Death Discovered in a Prokaryotic (Cyanobacterial Endosymbiont.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Weiwen Zheng

Full Text Available Programmed cell death (PCD is a genetically-based cell death mechanism with vital roles in eukaryotes. Although there is limited consensus on similar death mode programs in prokaryotes, emerging evidence suggest that PCD events are operative. Here we present cell death events in a cyanobacterium living endophytically in the fern Azolla microphylla, suggestive of PCD. This symbiosis is characterized by some unique traits such as a synchronized development, a vertical transfer of the cyanobacterium between plant generations, and a highly eroding cyanobacterial genome. A combination of methods was used to identify cell death modes in the cyanobacterium. Light- and electron microscopy analyses showed that the proportion of cells undergoing cell death peaked at 53.6% (average 20% of the total cell population, depending on the cell type and host developmental stage. Biochemical markers used for early and late programmed cell death events related to apoptosis (Annexin V-EGFP and TUNEL staining assays, together with visualization of cytoskeleton alterations (FITC-phalloidin staining, showed that all cyanobacterial cell categories were affected by cell death. Transmission electron microscopy revealed four modes of cell death: apoptotic-like, autophagic-like, necrotic-like and autolytic-like. Abiotic stresses further enhanced cell death in a dose and time dependent manner. The data also suggest that dynamic changes in the peptidoglycan cell wall layer and in the cytoskeleton distribution patterns may act as markers for the various cell death modes. The presence of a metacaspase homolog (domain p20 further suggests that the death modes are genetically programmed. It is therefore concluded that multiple, likely genetically programmed, cell death modes exist in cyanobacteria, a finding that may be connected with the evolution of cell death in the plant kingdom.

Characterizing performance improvement in primary care systems in Mesoamerica: A realist evaluation protocol.

Science.gov (United States)

Munar, Wolfgang; Wahid, Syed S; Curry, Leslie

2018-01-03

Background . Improving performance of primary care systems in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) may be a necessary condition for achievement of universal health coverage in the age of Sustainable Development Goals. The Salud Mesoamerica Initiative (SMI), a large-scale, multi-country program that uses supply-side financial incentives directed at the central-level of governments, and continuous, external evaluation of public, health sector performance to induce improvements in primary care performance in eight LMICs. This study protocol seeks to explain whether and how these interventions generate program effects in El Salvador and Honduras. Methods . This study presents the protocol for a study that uses a realist evaluation approach to develop a preliminary program theory that hypothesizes the interactions between context, interventions and the mechanisms that trigger outcomes. The program theory was completed through a scoping review of relevant empirical, peer-reviewed and grey literature; a sense-making workshop with program stakeholders; and content analysis of key SMI documents. The study will use a multiple case-study design with embedded units with contrasting cases. We define as a case the two primary care systems of Honduras and El Salvador, each with different context characteristics. Data will be collected through in-depth interviews with program actors and stakeholders, documentary review, and non-participatory observation. Data analysis will use inductive and deductive approaches to identify causal patterns organized as 'context, mechanism, outcome' configurations. The findings will be triangulated with existing secondary, qualitative and quantitative data sources, and contrasted against relevant theoretical literature. The study will end with a refined program theory. Findings will be published following the guidelines generated by the Realist and Meta-narrative Evidence Syntheses study (RAMESES II). This study will be performed

Scaling up complex interventions: insights from a realist synthesis.

Science.gov (United States)

Willis, Cameron D; Riley, Barbara L; Stockton, Lisa; Abramowicz, Aneta; Zummach, Dana; Wong, Geoff; Robinson, Kerry L; Best, Allan

2016-12-19

Preventing chronic diseases, such as cancer, cardiovascular disease and diabetes, requires complex interventions, involving multi-component and multi-level efforts that are tailored to the contexts in which they are delivered. Despite an increasing number of complex interventions in public health, many fail to be 'scaled up'. This study aimed to increase understanding of how and under what conditions complex public health interventions may be scaled up to benefit more people and populations.A realist synthesis was conducted and discussed at an in-person workshop involving practitioners responsible for scaling up activities. Realist approaches view causality through the linkages between changes in contexts (C) that activate mechanisms (M), leading to specific outcomes (O) (CMO configurations). To focus this review, three cases of complex interventions that had been successfully scaled up were included: Vibrant Communities, Youth Build USA and Pathways to Education. A search strategy of published and grey literature related to each case was developed, involving searches of relevant databases and nominations from experts. Data extracted from included documents were classified according to CMO configurations within strategic themes. Findings were compared and contrasted with guidance from diffusion theory, and interpreted with knowledge users to identify practical implications and potential directions for future research.Four core mechanisms were identified, namely awareness, commitment, confidence and trust. These mechanisms were activated within two broad scaling up strategies, those of renewing and regenerating, and documenting success. Within each strategy, specific actions to change contexts included building partnerships, conducting evaluations, engaging political support and adapting funding models. These modified contexts triggered the identified mechanisms, leading to a range of scaling up outcomes, such as commitment of new communities, changes in relevant

Building Realistic Mobility Models for Mobile Ad Hoc Networks

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Adrian Pullin

2018-04-01

Full Text Available A mobile ad hoc network (MANET is a self-configuring wireless network in which each node could act as a router, as well as a data source or sink. Its application areas include battlefields and vehicular and disaster areas. Many techniques applied to infrastructure-based networks are less effective in MANETs, with routing being a particular challenge. This paper presents a rigorous study into simulation techniques for evaluating routing solutions for MANETs with the aim of producing more realistic simulation models and thereby, more accurate protocol evaluations. MANET simulations require models that reflect the world in which the MANET is to operate. Much of the published research uses movement models, such as the random waypoint (RWP model, with arbitrary world sizes and node counts. This paper presents a technique for developing more realistic simulation models to test and evaluate MANET protocols. The technique is animation, which is applied to a realistic scenario to produce a model that accurately reflects the size and shape of the world, node count, movement patterns, and time period over which the MANET may operate. The animation technique has been used to develop a battlefield model based on established military tactics. Trace data has been used to build a model of maritime movements in the Irish Sea. Similar world models have been built using the random waypoint movement model for comparison. All models have been built using the ns-2 simulator. These models have been used to compare the performance of three routing protocols: dynamic source routing (DSR, destination-sequenced distance-vector routing (DSDV, and ad hoc n-demand distance vector routing (AODV. The findings reveal that protocol performance is dependent on the model used. In particular, it is shown that RWP models do not reflect the performance of these protocols under realistic circumstances, and protocol selection is subject to the scenario to which it is applied. To

Einstein@Home discovers a radio-quiet gamma-ray millisecond pulsar

Science.gov (United States)

Clark, Colin J.; Pletsch, Holger J.; Wu, Jason; Guillemot, Lucas; Kerr, Matthew; Johnson, Tyrel J.; Camilo, Fernando; Salvetti, David; Allen, Bruce; Anderson, David; Aulbert, Carsten; Beer, Christian; Bock, Oliver; Cuéllar, Andres; Eggenstein, Heinz-Bernd; Fehrmann, Henning; Kramer, Michael; Kwang, Shawn A.; Machenschalk, Bernd; Nieder, Lars; Ackermann, Markus; Ajello, Marco; Baldini, Luca; Ballet, Jean; Barbiellini, Guido; Bastieri, Denis; Bellazzini, Ronaldo; Bissaldi, Elisabetta; Blandford, Roger D.; Bloom, Elliott D.; Bonino, Raffaella; Bottacini, Eugenio; Brandt, Terri J.; Bregeon, Johan; Bruel, Philippe; Buehler, Rolf; Burnett, Toby H.; Buson, Sara; Cameron, Rob A.; Caputo, Regina; Caraveo, Patrizia A.; Cavazzuti, Elisabetta; Cecchi, Claudia; Charles, Eric; Chekhtman, Alexandre; Ciprini, Stefano; Cominsky, Lynn R.; Costantin, Denise; Cutini, Sara; D’Ammando, Filippo; De Luca, Andrea; Desiante, Rachele; Di Venere, Leonardo; Di Mauro, Mattia; Di Lalla, Niccolò; Digel, Seth W.; Favuzzi, Cecilia; Ferrara, Elizabeth C.; Franckowiak, Anna; Fukazawa, Yasushi; Funk, Stefan; Fusco, Piergiorgio; Gargano, Fabio; Gasparrini, Dario; Giglietto, Nico; Giordano, Francesco; Giroletti, Marcello; Gomez-Vargas, Germán A.; Green, David; Grenier, Isabelle A.; Guiriec, Sylvain; Harding, Alice K.; Hewitt, John W.; Horan, Deirdre; Jóhannesson, Guðlaugur; Kensei, Shiki; Kuss, Michael; La Mura, Giovanni; Larsson, Stefan; Latronico, Luca; Li, Jian; Longo, Francesco; Loparco, Francesco; Lovellette, Michael N.; Lubrano, Pasquale; Magill, Jeffrey D.; Maldera, Simone; Manfreda, Alberto; Mazziotta, Mario N.; McEnery, Julie E.; Michelson, Peter F.; Mirabal, Nestor; Mitthumsiri, Warit; Mizuno, Tsunefumi; Monzani, Maria Elena; Morselli, Aldo; Moskalenko, Igor V.; Nuss, Eric; Ohsugi, Takashi; Omodei, Nicola; Orienti, Monica; Orlando, Elena; Palatiello, Michele; Paliya, Vaidehi S.; de Palma, Francesco; Paneque, David; Perkins, Jeremy S.; Persic, Massimo; Pesce-Rollins, Melissa; Porter, Troy A.; Principe, Giacomo; Rainò, Silvia; Rando, Riccardo; Ray, Paul S.; Razzano, Massimiliano; Reimer, Anita; Reimer, Olaf; Romani, Roger W.; Saz Parkinson, Pablo M.; Sgrò, Carmelo; Siskind, Eric J.; Smith, David A.; Spada, Francesca; Spandre, Gloria; Spinelli, Paolo; Thayer, Jana B.; Thompson, David J.; Torres, Diego F.; Troja, Eleonora; Vianello, Giacomo; Wood, Kent; Wood, Matthew

2018-01-01

Millisecond pulsars (MSPs) are old neutron stars that spin hundreds of times per second and appear to pulsate as their emission beams cross our line of sight. To date, radio pulsations have been detected from all rotation-powered MSPs. In an attempt to discover radio-quiet gamma-ray MSPs, we used the aggregated power from the computers of tens of thousands of volunteers participating in the Einstein@Home distributed computing project to search for pulsations from unidentified gamma-ray sources in Fermi Large Area Telescope data. This survey discovered two isolated MSPs, one of which is the only known rotation-powered MSP to remain undetected in radio observations. These gamma-ray MSPs were discovered in completely blind searches without prior constraints from other observations, raising hopes for detecting MSPs from a predicted Galactic bulge population. PMID:29503868

Two Newly Discovered Plants in Taiwan

OpenAIRE

Tian-Chuan Hsu; Jia-Jung Lin; Shih-Wen Chung

2009-01-01

Two herbs are newly discovered in Taiwan. Limnophila fragrans (G. Forst.) Seem. (Scrophulariaceae), native in SE Asia, is recognized from southern lowlands. Anagallis minima (L.) E. H. L. Krause (Primulaceae), native in N America and Europe, was found from northern mountainous region at low altitudes. In this study, descriptions, line drawings, color photos and a distribution map of the two species are provided.

Non realist tendencies in new Turkish cinema

OpenAIRE

Can, İclal

2016-01-01

http://hdl.handle.net/11693/29111 Thesis (M.S.): Bilkent University, Department of Communication and Design, İhsan Doğramacı Bilkent University, 2016. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 113-123). The realist tendency which had been dominant in cinema became more apparent with Italian neorealism affecting other national cinemas to a large extent. With the changing and developing socio economic and cultural dynamics, realism gradually has stopped being a natural const...

Security of quantum cryptography with realistic sources

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lutkenhaus, N.

1999-01-01

The interest in practical implementations of quantum key distribution is steadily growing. However, there is still a need to give a precise security statement which adapts to realistic implementation. In this paper I give the effective key rate we can obtain in a practical setting within scenario of security against individual attacks by an eavesdropper. It illustrates previous results that high losses together with detector dark counts can make secure quantum key distribution impossible. (Author)

Quantum cryptography: towards realization in realistic conditions

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Imoto, M; Koashi, M; Shimizu, K [NTT Basic Research Laboratories, 3-1 Morinosato-Wakamiya, Atsugi-shi, Kanagawa 243-01 (Japan); Huttner, B [Universite de Geneve, GAP-optique, 20, Rue de l` Ecole de Medecine CH1211, Geneve 4 (Switzerland)

1997-05-11

Many of quantum cryptography schemes have been proposed based on some assumptions such as no transmission loss, no measurement error, and an ideal single photon generator. We have been trying to develop a theory of quantum cryptography considering realistic conditions. As such attempts, we propose quantum cryptography with coherent states, quantum cryptography with two-photon interference, and generalization of two-state cryptography to two-mixed-state cases. (author) 15 refs., 1 fig., 1 tab.

Security of quantum cryptography with realistic sources

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Lutkenhaus, N [Helsinki Institute of Physics, P.O. Box 9, 00014 Helsingin yliopisto (Finland)

1999-08-01

The interest in practical implementations of quantum key distribution is steadily growing. However, there is still a need to give a precise security statement which adapts to realistic implementation. In this paper I give the effective key rate we can obtain in a practical setting within scenario of security against individual attacks by an eavesdropper. It illustrates previous results that high losses together with detector dark counts can make secure quantum key distribution impossible. (Author)

A robust procedure for comparing multiple means under heteroscedasticity in unbalanced designs.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Esther Herberich

2010-03-01

Full Text Available Investigating differences between means of more than two groups or experimental conditions is a routine research question addressed in biology. In order to assess differences statistically, multiple comparison procedures are applied. The most prominent procedures of this type, the Dunnett and Tukey-Kramer test, control the probability of reporting at least one false positive result when the data are normally distributed and when the sample sizes and variances do not differ between groups. All three assumptions are non-realistic in biological research and any violation leads to an increased number of reported false positive results. Based on a general statistical framework for simultaneous inference and robust covariance estimators we propose a new statistical multiple comparison procedure for assessing multiple means. In contrast to the Dunnett or Tukey-Kramer tests, no assumptions regarding the distribution, sample sizes or variance homogeneity are necessary. The performance of the new procedure is assessed by means of its familywise error rate and power under different distributions. The practical merits are demonstrated by a reanalysis of fatty acid phenotypes of the bacterium Bacillus simplex from the "Evolution Canyons" I and II in Israel. The simulation results show that even under severely varying variances, the procedure controls the number of false positive findings very well. Thus, the here presented procedure works well under biologically realistic scenarios of unbalanced group sizes, non-normality and heteroscedasticity.

Rethinking Mathematics Teaching in Liberia: Realistic Mathematics Education

Science.gov (United States)

Stemn, Blidi S.

2017-01-01

In some African cultures, the concept of division does not necessarily mean sharing money or an item equally. How an item is shared might depend on the ages of the individuals involved. This article describes the use of the Realistic Mathematics Education (RME) approach to teach division word problems involving money in a 3rd-grade class in…

Realistic full wave modeling of focal plane array pixels.

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Campione, Salvatore [Sandia National Laboratories (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States). Electromagnetic Theory Dept.; Warne, Larry K. [Sandia National Laboratories (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States). Electromagnetic Theory Dept.; Jorgenson, Roy E. [Sandia National Laboratories (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States). Electromagnetic Theory Dept.; Davids, Paul [Sandia National Laboratories (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States). Applied Photonic Microsystems Dept.; Peters, David W. [Sandia National Laboratories (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States). Applied Photonic Microsystems Dept.

2017-11-01

Here, we investigate full-wave simulations of realistic implementations of multifunctional nanoantenna enabled detectors (NEDs). We focus on a 2x2 pixelated array structure that supports two wavelengths of operation. We design each resonating structure independently using full-wave simulations with periodic boundary conditions mimicking the whole infinite array. We then construct a supercell made of a 2x2 pixelated array with periodic boundary conditions mimicking the full NED; in this case, however, each pixel comprises 10-20 antennas per side. In this way, the cross-talk between contiguous pixels is accounted for in our simulations. We observe that, even though there are finite extent effects, the pixels work as designed, each responding at the respective wavelength of operation. This allows us to stress that realistic simulations of multifunctional NEDs need to be performed to verify the design functionality by taking into account finite extent and cross-talk effects.

Facilities upgrade for natural forces: traditional vs. realistic approach

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Terkun, V.

1985-01-01

The traditional method utilized for upgrading existing buildings and equipment involves the following steps: performs structural study using finite element analysis and some in situ testing; compare predicted member forces/stresses to material code allowables; determine strengthening schemes for those structural members judged to be weak; estimate cost for required upgrades. This approach will result in structural modifications that are not only conservative but very expensive as well. The realistic structural evaluation approach uses traditional data to predict structural weaknesses as a final step. Next, using considerable information now available for buildings and equipment exposed to natural hazards, engineering judgments about structures being evaluated can be made with a great deal of confidence. This approach does not eliminate conservatism entirely, but it does reduce it to a reasonable and realistic level. As a result, the upgrade cost goes down without compromising the low risk necessary for vital facilities

Early warning systems and rapid response to the deteriorating patient in hospital: A realist evaluation.

Science.gov (United States)

McGaughey, Jennifer; O'Halloran, Peter; Porter, Sam; Trinder, John; Blackwood, Bronagh

2017-12-01

To test the Rapid Response Systems programme theory against actual practice components of the Rapid Response Systems implemented to identify those contexts and mechanisms which have an impact on the successful achievement of desired outcomes in practice. Rapid Response Systems allow deteriorating patients to be recognized using Early Warning Systems, referred early via escalation protocols and managed at the bedside by competent staff. Realist evaluation. The research design was an embedded multiple case study approach of four wards in two hospitals in Northern Ireland which followed the principles of Realist Evaluation. We used various mixed methods including individual and focus group interviews, observation of nursing practice between June-November 2010 and document analysis of Early Warning Systems audit data between May-October 2010 and hospital acute care training records over 4.5 years from 2003-2008. Data were analysed using NiVivo8 and SPPS. A cross-case analysis highlighted similar patterns of factors which enabled or constrained successful recognition, referral and response to deteriorating patients in practice. Key enabling factors were the use of clinical judgement by experienced nurses and the empowerment of nurses as a result of organizational change associated with implementation of Early Warning System protocols. Key constraining factors were low staffing and inappropriate skill mix levels, rigid implementation of protocols and culturally embedded suboptimal communication processes. Successful implementation of Rapid Response Systems was dependent on adopting organizational and cultural changes that facilitated staff empowerment, flexible implementation of protocols and ongoing experiential learning. © 2017 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Challenges in service mining : record, check, discover

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Aalst, van der W.M.P.; Daniel, F.; Dolog, P.; Li, Q.

2013-01-01

Process mining aims to discover, monitor and improve real processes by extracting knowledge from event logs abundantly available in today’s information systems. Although process mining has been applied in hundreds of organizations and process mining techniques have been embedded in a variety of

Gauge coupling unification in realistic free-fermionic string models

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Dienes, K.R.; Faraggi, A.E.

1995-01-01

We discuss the unification of gauge couplings within the framework of a wide class of realistic free-fermionic string models which have appeared in the literature, including the flipped SU(5), SO(6)xSO(4), and various SU(3)xSU(2)xU(1) models. If the matter spectrum below the string scale is that of the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (MSSM), then string unification is in disagreement with experiment. We therefore examine several effects that may modify the minimal string predictions. First, we develop a systematic procedure for evaluating the one-loop heavy string threshold corrections in free-fermionic string models, and we explicitly evaluate these corrections for each of the realistic models. We find that these string threshold corrections are small, and we provide general arguments explaining why such threshold corrections are suppressed in string theory. Thus heavy thresholds cannot resolve the disagreement with experiment. We also study the effect of non-standard hypercharge normalizations, light SUSY thresholds, and intermediate-scale gauge structure, and similarly conclude that these effects cannot resolve the disagreement with low-energy data. Finally, we examine the effects of additional color triplets and electroweak doublets beyond the MSSM. Although not required in ordinary grand unification scenarios, such states generically appear within the context of certain realistic free-fermionic string models. We show that if these states exist at the appropriate thresholds, then the gauge couplings will indeed unify at the string scale. Thus, within these string models, string unification can be in agreement with low-energy data. (orig.)

The Electrostatic Instability for Realistic Pair Distributions in Blazar/EBL Cascades

Science.gov (United States)

Vafin, S.; Rafighi, I.; Pohl, M.; Niemiec, J.

2018-04-01

This work revisits the electrostatic instability for blazar-induced pair beams propagating through the intergalactic medium (IGM) using linear analysis and PIC simulations. We study the impact of the realistic distribution function of pairs resulting from the interaction of high-energy gamma-rays with the extragalactic background light. We present analytical and numerical calculations of the linear growth rate of the instability for the arbitrary orientation of wave vectors. Our results explicitly demonstrate that the finite angular spread of the beam dramatically affects the growth rate of the waves, leading to the fastest growth for wave vectors quasi-parallel to the beam direction and a growth rate at oblique directions that is only a factor of 2–4 smaller compared to the maximum. To study the nonlinear beam relaxation, we performed PIC simulations that take into account a realistic wide-energy distribution of beam particles. The parameters of the simulated beam-plasma system provide an adequate physical picture that can be extrapolated to realistic blazar-induced pairs. In our simulations, the beam looses only 1% of its energy, and we analytically estimate that the beam would lose its total energy over about 100 simulation times. An analytical scaling is then used to extrapolate the parameters of realistic blazar-induced pair beams. We find that they can dissipate their energy slightly faster by the electrostatic instability than through inverse-Compton scattering. The uncertainties arising from, e.g., details of the primary gamma-ray spectrum are too large to make firm statements for individual blazars, and an analysis based on their specific properties is required.

The Magic of Mathematics Discovering the Spell of Mathematics

CERN Document Server

Pappas, Theoni

2011-01-01

Delves into the world of ideas, explores the spell mathematics casts on our lives, and helps you discover mathematics where you least expect it. Be spellbound by the mathematical designs found in nature. Learn how knots may untie the mysteries of life. Be mesmerized by the computer revolution. Discover how the hidden forces of mathematics hold architectural structures together connect your telephone calls help airplanes get off the ground solve the mysteries of the living cell. See how some artists use a mathematical palette in their works and how many writers draw upon the wealth of its ideas

Measurable realistic image-based 3D mapping

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, W.; Wang, J.; Wang, J. J.; Ding, W.; Almagbile, A.

2011-12-01

Maps with 3D visual models are becoming a remarkable feature of 3D map services. High-resolution image data is obtained for the construction of 3D visualized models.The3D map not only provides the capabilities of 3D measurements and knowledge mining, but also provides the virtual experienceof places of interest, such as demonstrated in the Google Earth. Applications of 3D maps are expanding into the areas of architecture, property management, and urban environment monitoring. However, the reconstruction of high quality 3D models is time consuming, and requires robust hardware and powerful software to handle the enormous amount of data. This is especially for automatic implementation of 3D models and the representation of complicated surfacesthat still need improvements with in the visualisation techniques. The shortcoming of 3D model-based maps is the limitation of detailed coverage since a user can only view and measure objects that are already modelled in the virtual environment. This paper proposes and demonstrates a 3D map concept that is realistic and image-based, that enables geometric measurements and geo-location services. Additionally, image-based 3D maps provide more detailed information of the real world than 3D model-based maps. The image-based 3D maps use geo-referenced stereo images or panoramic images. The geometric relationships between objects in the images can be resolved from the geometric model of stereo images. The panoramic function makes 3D maps more interactive with users but also creates an interesting immersive circumstance. Actually, unmeasurable image-based 3D maps already exist, such as Google street view, but only provide virtual experiences in terms of photos. The topographic and terrain attributes, such as shapes and heights though are omitted. This paper also discusses the potential for using a low cost land Mobile Mapping System (MMS) to implement realistic image 3D mapping, and evaluates the positioning accuracy that a measureable

Neutron dosemeter responses in workplace fields and the implications of using realistic neutron calibration fields

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Thomas, D.J.; Horwood, N.; Taylor, G.C.

1999-01-01

The use of realistic neutron calibration fields to overcome some of the problems associated with the response functions of presently available dosemeters, both area survey instruments and personal dosemeters, has been investigated. Realistic calibration fields have spectra which, compared to conventional radionuclide source based calibration fields, more closely match those of the workplace fields in which dosemeters are used. Monte Carlo simulations were performed to identify laboratory systems which would produce appropriate workplace-like calibration fields. A detailed analysis was then undertaken of the predicted under- and over-responses of dosemeters in a wide selection of measured workplace field spectra assuming calibration in a selection of calibration fields. These included both conventional radionuclide source calibration fields, and also several proposed realistic calibration fields. The present state of the art for dosemeter performance, and the possibilities of improving accuracy by using realistic calibration fields are both presented. (author)

Two Newly Discovered Plants in Taiwan

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tian-Chuan Hsu

2009-11-01

Full Text Available Two herbs are newly discovered in Taiwan. Limnophila fragrans (G. Forst. Seem. (Scrophulariaceae, native in SE Asia, is recognized from southern lowlands. Anagallis minima (L. E. H. L. Krause (Primulaceae, native in N America and Europe, was found from northern mountainous region at low altitudes. In this study, descriptions, line drawings, color photos and a distribution map of the two species are provided.

Discovering cancer vulnerabilities using high-throughput micro-RNA screening.

Science.gov (United States)

Nikolic, Iva; Elsworth, Benjamin; Dodson, Eoin; Wu, Sunny Z; Gould, Cathryn M; Mestdagh, Pieter; Marshall, Glenn M; Horvath, Lisa G; Simpson, Kaylene J; Swarbrick, Alexander

2017-12-15

Micro-RNAs (miRNAs) are potent regulators of gene expression and cellular phenotype. Each miRNA has the potential to target hundreds of transcripts within the cell thus controlling fundamental cellular processes such as survival and proliferation. Here, we exploit this important feature of miRNA networks to discover vulnerabilities in cancer phenotype, and map miRNA-target relationships across different cancer types. More specifically, we report the results of a functional genomics screen of 1280 miRNA mimics and inhibitors in eight cancer cell lines, and its presentation in a sophisticated interactive data portal. This resource represents the most comprehensive survey of miRNA function in oncology, incorporating breast cancer, prostate cancer and neuroblastoma. A user-friendly web portal couples this experimental data with multiple tools for miRNA target prediction, pathway enrichment analysis and visualization. In addition, the database integrates publicly available gene expression and perturbation data enabling tailored and context-specific analysis of miRNA function in a particular disease. As a proof-of-principle, we use the database and its innovative features to uncover novel determinants of the neuroblastoma malignant phenotype. © The Author(s) 2017. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Nucleic Acids Research.

International Management: Creating a More Realistic Global Planning Environment.

Science.gov (United States)

Waldron, Darryl G.

2000-01-01

Discusses the need for realistic global planning environments in international business education, introducing a strategic planning model that has teams interacting with teams to strategically analyze a selected multinational company. This dynamic process must result in a single integrated written analysis that specifies an optimal strategy for…

Evolutionary Dynamics of Tumor-Stroma Interactions in Multiple Myeloma.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Javad Salimi Sartakhti

Full Text Available Cancer cells and stromal cells cooperate by exchanging diffusible factors that sustain tumor growth, a form of frequency-dependent selection that can be studied in the framework of evolutionary game theory. In the case of multiple myeloma, three types of cells (malignant plasma cells, osteoblasts and osteoclasts exchange growth factors with different effects, and tumor-stroma interactions have been analysed using a model of cooperation with pairwise interactions. Here we show that a model in which growth factors have autocrine and paracrine effects on multiple cells, a more realistic assumption for tumor-stroma interactions, leads to different results, with implications for disease progression and treatment. In particular, the model reveals that reducing the number of malignant plasma cells below a critical threshold can lead to their extinction and thus to restore a healthy balance between osteoclast and osteoblast, a result in line with current therapies against multiple myeloma.

Ultra-realistic 3-D imaging based on colour holography

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bjelkhagen, H I

2013-01-01

A review of recent progress in colour holography is provided with new applications. Colour holography recording techniques in silver-halide emulsions are discussed. Both analogue, mainly Denisyuk colour holograms, and digitally-printed colour holograms are described and their recent improvements. An alternative to silver-halide materials are the panchromatic photopolymer materials such as the DuPont and Bayer photopolymers which are covered. The light sources used to illuminate the recorded holograms are very important to obtain ultra-realistic 3-D images. In particular the new light sources based on RGB LEDs are described. They show improved image quality over today's commonly used halogen lights. Recent work in colour holography by holographers and companies in different countries around the world are included. To record and display ultra-realistic 3-D images with perfect colour rendering are highly dependent on the correct recording technique using the optimal recording laser wavelengths, the availability of improved panchromatic recording materials and combined with new display light sources.

Understanding how appraisal of doctors produces its effects: a realist review protocol.

Science.gov (United States)

Brennan, Nicola; Bryce, Marie; Pearson, Mark; Wong, Geoff; Cooper, Chris; Archer, Julian

2014-06-23

UK doctors are now required to participate in revalidation to maintain their licence to practise. Appraisal is a fundamental component of revalidation. However, objective evidence of appraisal changing doctors' behaviour and directly resulting in improved patient care is limited. In particular, it is not clear how the process of appraisal is supposed to change doctors' behaviour and improve clinical performance. The aim of this research is to understand how and why appraisal of doctors is supposed to produce its effect. Realist review is a theory-driven interpretive approach to evidence synthesis. It applies realist logic of inquiry to produce an explanatory analysis of an intervention that is, what works, for whom, in what circumstances, in what respects. Using a realist review approach, an initial programme theory of appraisal will be developed by consulting with key stakeholders in doctors' appraisal in expert panels (ethical approval is not required), and by searching the literature to identify relevant existing theories. The search strategy will have a number of phases including a combination of: (1) electronic database searching, for example, EMBASE, MEDLINE, the Cochrane Library, ASSIA, (2) 'cited by' articles search, (3) citation searching, (4) contacting authors and (5) grey literature searching. The search for evidence will be iteratively extended and refocused as the review progresses. Studies will be included based on their ability to provide data that enable testing of the programme theory. Data extraction will be conducted, for example, by note taking and annotation at different review stages as is consistent with the realist approach. The evidence will be synthesised using realist logic to interrogate the final programme theory of the impact of appraisal on doctors' performance. The synthesis results will be written up according to RAMESES guidelines and disseminated through peer-reviewed publication and presentations. The protocol is registered with

Discovering approximate-associated sequence patterns for protein-DNA interactions

KAUST Repository

Chan, Tak Ming

2010-12-30

Motivation: The bindings between transcription factors (TFs) and transcription factor binding sites (TFBSs) are fundamental protein-DNA interactions in transcriptional regulation. Extensive efforts have been made to better understand the protein-DNA interactions. Recent mining on exact TF-TFBS-associated sequence patterns (rules) has shown great potentials and achieved very promising results. However, exact rules cannot handle variations in real data, resulting in limited informative rules. In this article, we generalize the exact rules to approximate ones for both TFs and TFBSs, which are essential for biological variations. Results: A progressive approach is proposed to address the approximation to alleviate the computational requirements. Firstly, similar TFBSs are grouped from the available TF-TFBS data (TRANSFAC database). Secondly, approximate and highly conserved binding cores are discovered from TF sequences corresponding to each TFBS group. A customized algorithm is developed for the specific objective. We discover the approximate TF-TFBS rules by associating the grouped TFBS consensuses and TF cores. The rules discovered are evaluated by matching (verifying with) the actual protein-DNA binding pairs from Protein Data Bank (PDB) 3D structures. The approximate results exhibit many more verified rules and up to 300% better verification ratios than the exact ones. The customized algorithm achieves over 73% better verification ratios than traditional methods. Approximate rules (64-79%) are shown statistically significant. Detailed variation analysis and conservation verification on NCBI records demonstrate that the approximate rules reveal both the flexible and specific protein-DNA interactions accurately. The approximate TF-TFBS rules discovered show great generalized capability of exploring more informative binding rules. © The Author 2010. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.

New type of cells with multiple chromosome rearrangements

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Aseeva, Elena A. [National Research Centre for Hematology, Russian Academy of Medical Sciences, Novozykovsky proezd 4a, 125167 Moscow (Russian Federation); Snigiryova, Galina P. [Russian Scientific Centre of Roentgenology and Radiology, ul. Profsoyuznaya 86, 117997 Moscow (Russian Federation); Neverova, Anna L. [National Research Centre for Hematology, Russian Academy of Medical Sciences, Novozykovsky proezd 4a, 125167 Moscow (Russian Federation); Bogomazova, Alexandra N.; Novitskaya, Natalia N.; Khazins, Eva D. [Russian Scientific Centre of Roentgenology and Radiology, ul. Profsoyuznaya 86, 117997 Moscow (Russian Federation); Domracheva, Elena V. [National Research Centre for Hematology, Russian Academy of Medical Sciences, Novozykovsky proezd 4a, 125167 Moscow (Russian Federation)], E-mail: dom@blood.ru

2010-04-15

A comparative analysis of the distribution and the frequency of multiaberrant cells (MAC) among lymphocytes in different categories of low dose (up to 0.5 Gy) irradiated people was carried out. The highest MAC frequency was observed in people exposed to {alpha}-radiation (Pu, Rn) and in cosmonauts. This fact allows MAC to be considered as an indicator of a high-energy local exposure. A new type of cells with multiple chromosome rearrangements was discovered in the course of analysis of stable aberrations by the fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) method. The biological consequences of MAC formation and possibility of revealing the whole diversity of cells with multiple aberrations by means of modern molecular-cytogenetic methods are discussed.

Improving Mathematics Teaching in Kindergarten with Realistic Mathematical Education

Science.gov (United States)

Papadakis, Stamatios; Kalogiannakis, Michail; Zaranis, Nicholas

2017-01-01

The present study investigates and compares the influence of teaching Realistic Mathematics on the development of mathematical competence in kindergarten. The sample consisted of 231 Greek kindergarten students. For the implementation of the survey, we conducted an intervention, which included one experimental and one control group. Children in…

Development of realistic thermal hydraulic system analysis code

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Lee, Won Jae; Chung, B. D; Kim, K. D. [and others

2002-05-01

The realistic safety analysis system is essential for nuclear safety research, advanced reactor development, safety analysis in nuclear industry and 'in-house' plant design capability development. In this project, we have developed a best-estimate multi-dimensional thermal-hydraulic system code, MARS, which is based on the integrated version of the RELAP5 and COBRA-TF codes. To improve the realistic analysis capability, we have improved the models for multi-dimensional two-phase flow phenomena and for advanced two-phase flow modeling. In addition, the GUI (Graphic User Interface) feature were developed to enhance the user's convenience. To develop the coupled analysis capability, the MARS code were linked with the three-dimensional reactor kinetics code (MASTER), the core thermal analysis code (COBRA-III/CP), and the best-estimate containment analysis code (CONTEMPT), resulting in MARS/MASTER/COBRA/CONTEMPT. Currently, the MARS code system has been distributed to 18 domestic organizations, including research, industrial, regulatory organizations and universities. The MARS has been being widely used for the safety research of existing PWRs, advanced PWR, CANDU and research reactor, the pre-test analysis of TH experiments, and others.

Development of realistic thermal hydraulic system analysis code

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lee, Won Jae; Chung, B. D; Kim, K. D.

2002-05-01

The realistic safety analysis system is essential for nuclear safety research, advanced reactor development, safety analysis in nuclear industry and 'in-house' plant design capability development. In this project, we have developed a best-estimate multi-dimensional thermal-hydraulic system code, MARS, which is based on the integrated version of the RELAP5 and COBRA-TF codes. To improve the realistic analysis capability, we have improved the models for multi-dimensional two-phase flow phenomena and for advanced two-phase flow modeling. In addition, the GUI (Graphic User Interface) feature were developed to enhance the user's convenience. To develop the coupled analysis capability, the MARS code were linked with the three-dimensional reactor kinetics code (MASTER), the core thermal analysis code (COBRA-III/CP), and the best-estimate containment analysis code (CONTEMPT), resulting in MARS/MASTER/COBRA/CONTEMPT. Currently, the MARS code system has been distributed to 18 domestic organizations, including research, industrial, regulatory organizations and universities. The MARS has been being widely used for the safety research of existing PWRs, advanced PWR, CANDU and research reactor, the pre-test analysis of TH experiments, and others

An inexpensive yet realistic model for teaching vasectomy

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Taylor M. Coe

2015-04-01

Full Text Available Purpose Teaching the no-scalpel vasectomy is important, since vasectomy is a safe, simple, and cost-effective method of contraception. This minimally invasive vasectomy technique involves delivering the vas through the skin with specialized tools. This technique is associated with fewer complications than the traditional incisional vasectomy (1. One of the most challenging steps is the delivery of the vas through a small puncture in the scrotal skin, and there is a need for a realistic and inexpensive scrotal model for beginning learners to practice this step. Materials and Methods After careful observation using several scrotal models while teaching residents and senior trainees, we developed a simplified scrotal model that uses only three components–bicycle inner tube, latex tubing, and a Penrose drain. Results This model is remarkably realistic and allows learners to practice a challenging step in the no-scalpel vasectomy. The low cost and simple construction of the model allows wide dissemination of training in this important technique. Conclusions We propose a simple, inexpensive model that will enable learners to master the hand movements involved in delivering the vas through the skin while mitigating the risks of learning on patients.

MICRO-STRUCTURAL INVESTIGATION OF SOME ARTIFACTS DISCOVERED AT POROLISSUM

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

MUNTEANU Mihai

2014-09-01

Full Text Available the paper presents the investigation of two fragments of roman bronze artefacts, discovered during archaeological works performed at Porolissum, an important military and economical point on the northern limes of Dacia Province. One of the analyzed fragments (Mi1 was taken from a consistent fragment of a Roman bronze statue, while the second (Mi2 was among a lot of small metal pieces, discovered in the same investigated area. Using highly sophisticated micro-structural analysing techniques – X-Ray diffraction, the paper investigates the possibility that the Mi2 fragment may have belonged to the same statue from which the sample Mi1 was taken

Towards an agential realist concept of learning

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Plauborg, Helle

2018-01-01

Drawing on agential realism, this article explores how learning can be understood. An agential realist way of thinking about learning is sensitive to the complexity that characterises learning as a phenomenon. Thus, learning is seen as a dynamic and emergent phenomenon, constantly undergoing...... processes of becoming and expanding the range of components involved in such constitutive processes. With inspiration from Barad’s theorisation of spatiality, temporality and the interdependence of discourse and materiality, this article focuses on timespacemattering and material-discursivity. Concepts...

INDONESIA’S DEATH PENALTY EXECUTION FROM THE REALIST VIEW OF INTERNATIONAL LAW

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Alia Azmi

2015-06-01

Full Text Available During the first half of 2015, Indonesia executed fourteen prisoners who had been convicted of smuggling drugs to and from Indonesia. Twelve of them were foreigners. This execution led to withdrawal of the ambassador of Brazil, Netherlands, and Australia, whose citizens are among those executed. Criticism came from around the world, and small number of Indonesians. Most critics cited human rights abuse; and death penalty is against international law. However, the lack of further explanation can make the statement misunderstood. The distinctive nature of international law is one factor that makes death penalty issue is still debatable. Another factor is the inconsistent world’s reaction on human rights issues, showing realistic behavior in international relations. Therefore it is important to understand the nature of international law from the realist perspective of international relations in explaining death penalty in Indonesia. The purpose of this paper is to elaborate Indonesia’s death penalty from the realist perspective of international law. Keywords: realism, international law, international relations, death penalty

IBM parameters derived from realistic shell-model Hamiltonian via Hn-cooling method

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nakada, Hitoshi

1997-01-01

There is a certain influence of non-collective degrees-of-freedom even in lowest-lying states of medium-heavy nuclei. This influence seems to be significant for some of the IBM parameters. In order to take it into account, several renormalization approaches have been applied. It has been shown in the previous studies that the influence of the G-pairs is important, but does not fully account for the fitted values. The influence of the non-collective components may be more serious when we take a realistic effective nucleonic interaction. To incorporate this influence into the IBM parameters, we employ the recently developed H n -cooling method. This method is applied to renormalize the wave functions of the states consisting of the SD-pairs, for the Cr-Fe nuclei. On this ground, the IBM Hamiltonian and transition operators are derived from corresponding realistic shell-model operators, for the Cr-Fe nuclei. Together with some features of the realistic interaction, the effects of the non-SD degrees-of-freedom are presented. (author)

Realist review and synthesis of retention studies for health workers in rural and remote areas

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Dieleman, M.A.; Kane, Sumit; Zwanikken, Prisca A C; Gerretsen, Barend

2011-01-01

This report uses a realist review, which is a theory-based method, to address the questions of “why” and “how” certain rural retention interventions work better in some contexts and fail in others. Through applying a realist perspective to the review of these retention studies, a greater

Rewriting the Script: Multiple Modalities in a High School Humanities Classroom

Science.gov (United States)

Block, Joshua

2014-01-01

In this article, Joshua Block states that his high school students are creators discovering how to express their ideas and emotions in multiple, complex ways. He teaches students who write their lives through words on pages as they fill journal after journal. There are others who constantly write and create in the form of tweets, photos, videos,…

Realistic Gamow shell model for resonance and continuum in atomic nuclei

Science.gov (United States)

Xu, F. R.; Sun, Z. H.; Wu, Q.; Hu, B. S.; Dai, S. J.

2018-02-01

The Gamow shell model can describe resonance and continuum for atomic nuclei. The model is established in the complex-moment (complex-k) plane of the Berggren coordinates in which bound, resonant and continuum states are treated on equal footing self-consistently. In the present work, the realistic nuclear force, CD Bonn, has been used. We have developed the full \\hat{Q}-box folded-diagram method to derive the realistic effective interaction in the model space which is nondegenerate and contains resonance and continuum channels. The CD-Bonn potential is renormalized using the V low-k method. With choosing 16O as the inert core, we have applied the Gamow shell model to oxygen isotopes.

A strategy to discover new organizers identifies a putative heart organizer.

Science.gov (United States)

Anderson, Claire; Khan, Mohsin A F; Wong, Frances; Solovieva, Tatiana; Oliveira, Nidia M M; Baldock, Richard A; Tickle, Cheryll; Burt, Dave W; Stern, Claudio D

2016-08-25

Organizers are regions of the embryo that can both induce new fates and impart pattern on other regions. So far, surprisingly few organizers have been discovered, considering the number of patterned tissue types generated during development. This may be because their discovery has relied on transplantation and ablation experiments. Here we describe a new approach, using chick embryos, to discover organizers based on a common gene expression signature, and use it to uncover the anterior intestinal portal (AIP) endoderm as a putative heart organizer. We show that the AIP can induce cardiac identity from non-cardiac mesoderm and that it can pattern this by specifying ventricular and suppressing atrial regional identity. We also uncover some of the signals responsible. The method holds promise as a tool to discover other novel organizers acting during development.

Realistic tissue visualization using photoacoustic image

Science.gov (United States)

Cho, Seonghee; Managuli, Ravi; Jeon, Seungwan; Kim, Jeesu; Kim, Chulhong

2018-02-01

Visualization methods are very important in biomedical imaging. As a technology that understands life, biomedical imaging has the unique advantage of providing the most intuitive information in the image. This advantage of biomedical imaging can be greatly improved by choosing a special visualization method. This is more complicated in volumetric data. Volume data has the advantage of containing 3D spatial information. Unfortunately, the data itself cannot directly represent the potential value. Because images are always displayed in 2D space, visualization is the key and creates the real value of volume data. However, image processing of 3D data requires complicated algorithms for visualization and high computational burden. Therefore, specialized algorithms and computing optimization are important issues in volume data. Photoacoustic-imaging is a unique imaging modality that can visualize the optical properties of deep tissue. Because the color of the organism is mainly determined by its light absorbing component, photoacoustic data can provide color information of tissue, which is closer to real tissue color. In this research, we developed realistic tissue visualization using acoustic-resolution photoacoustic volume data. To achieve realistic visualization, we designed specialized color transfer function, which depends on the depth of the tissue from the skin. We used direct ray casting method and processed color during computing shader parameter. In the rendering results, we succeeded in obtaining similar texture results from photoacoustic data. The surface reflected rays were visualized in white, and the reflected color from the deep tissue was visualized red like skin tissue. We also implemented the CUDA algorithm in an OpenGL environment for real-time interactive imaging.

MetAssimulo:Simulation of Realistic NMR Metabolic Profiles

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

De Iorio Maria

2010-10-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Probing the complex fusion of genetic and environmental interactions, metabolic profiling (or metabolomics/metabonomics, the study of small molecules involved in metabolic reactions, is a rapidly expanding 'omics' field. A major technique for capturing metabolite data is 1H-NMR spectroscopy and this yields highly complex profiles that require sophisticated statistical analysis methods. However, experimental data is difficult to control and expensive to obtain. Thus data simulation is a productive route to aid algorithm development. Results MetAssimulo is a MATLAB-based package that has been developed to simulate 1H-NMR spectra of complex mixtures such as metabolic profiles. Drawing data from a metabolite standard spectral database in conjunction with concentration information input by the user or constructed automatically from the Human Metabolome Database, MetAssimulo is able to create realistic metabolic profiles containing large numbers of metabolites with a range of user-defined properties. Current features include the simulation of two groups ('case' and 'control' specified by means and standard deviations of concentrations for each metabolite. The software enables addition of spectral noise with a realistic autocorrelation structure at user controllable levels. A crucial feature of the algorithm is its ability to simulate both intra- and inter-metabolite correlations, the analysis of which is fundamental to many techniques in the field. Further, MetAssimulo is able to simulate shifts in NMR peak positions that result from matrix effects such as pH differences which are often observed in metabolic NMR spectra and pose serious challenges for statistical algorithms. Conclusions No other software is currently able to simulate NMR metabolic profiles with such complexity and flexibility. This paper describes the algorithm behind MetAssimulo and demonstrates how it can be used to simulate realistic NMR metabolic profiles with

Creating a Realistic Context for Team Projects in HCI

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Koppelman, Herman; van Dijk, Betsy

2006-01-01

Team projects are nowadays common practice in HCI education. This paper focuses on the role of clients and users in team projects in introductory HCI courses. In order to provide projects with a realistic context we invite people from industry to serve as clients for the student teams. Some of them

Creating photo-realistic works in a 3D scene using layers styles to create an animation

Science.gov (United States)

Avramescu, A. M.

2015-11-01

Creating realist objects in a 3D scene is not an easy work. We have to be very careful to make the creation very detailed. If we don't know how to make these photo-realistic works, by using the techniques and a good reference photo we can create an amazing amount of detail and realism. For example, in this article there are some of these detailed methods from which we can learn the techniques necessary to make beautiful and realistic objects in a scene. More precisely, in this paper, we present how to create a 3D animated scene, mainly using the Pen Tool and Blending Options. Indeed, this work is based on teaching some simple ways of using the Layer Styles to create some great shadows, lights, textures and a realistic sense of 3 Dimension. The present work involves also showing how some interesting ways of using the illuminating and rendering options can create a realistic effect in a scene. Moreover, this article shows how to create photo realistic 3D models from a digital image. The present work proposes to present how to use Illustrator paths, texturing, basic lighting and rendering, how to apply textures and how to parent the building and objects components. We also propose to use this proposition to recreate smaller details or 3D objects from a 2D image. After a critic art stage, we are able now to present in this paper the architecture of a design method that proposes to create an animation. The aim is to create a conceptual and methodological tutorial to address this issue both scientifically and in practice. This objective also includes proposing, on strong scientific basis, a model that gives the possibility of a better understanding of the techniques necessary to create a realistic animation.

Do absorption and realistic distraction influence performance of component task surgical procedure?

Science.gov (United States)

Pluyter, Jon R; Buzink, Sonja N; Rutkowski, Anne-F; Jakimowicz, Jack J

2010-04-01

Surgeons perform complex tasks while exposed to multiple distracting sources that may increase stress in the operating room (e.g., music, conversation, and unadapted use of sophisticated technologies). This study aimed to examine whether such realistic social and technological distracting conditions may influence surgical performance. Twelve medical interns performed a laparoscopic cholecystectomy task with the Xitact LC 3.0 virtual reality simulator under distracting conditions (exposure to music, conversation, and nonoptimal handling of the laparoscope) versus nondistracting conditions (control condition) as part of a 2 x 2 within-subject experimental design. Under distracting conditions, the medical interns showed a significant decline in task performance (overall task score, task errors, and operating time) and significantly increased levels of irritation toward both the assistant handling the laparoscope in a nonoptimal way and the sources of social distraction. Furthermore, individual differences in cognitive style (i.e., cognitive absorption and need for cognition) significantly influenced the levels of irritation experienced by the medical interns. The results suggest careful evaluation of the social and technological sources of distraction in the operation room to reduce irritation for the surgeon and provision of proper preclinical laparoscope navigation training to increase security for the patient.

Discovering Alaska's Salmon: A Children's Activity Book.

Science.gov (United States)

Devaney, Laurel

This children's activity book helps students discover Alaska's salmon. Information is provided about salmon and where they live. The salmon life cycle and food chains are also discussed. Different kinds of salmon such as Chum Salmon, Chinook Salmon, Coho Salmon, Sockeye Salmon, and Pink Salmon are introduced, and various activities on salmon are…

Modeling of ultrasonic wave propagation in composite laminates with realistic discontinuity representation.

Science.gov (United States)

Zelenyak, Andreea-Manuela; Schorer, Nora; Sause, Markus G R

2018-02-01

This paper presents a method for embedding realistic defect geometries of a fiber reinforced material in a finite element modeling environment in order to simulate active ultrasonic inspection. When ultrasonic inspection is used experimentally to investigate the presence of defects in composite materials, the microscopic defect geometry may cause signal characteristics that are difficult to interpret. Hence, modeling of this interaction is key to improve our understanding and way of interpreting the acquired ultrasonic signals. To model the true interaction of the ultrasonic wave field with such defect structures as pores, cracks or delamination, a realistic three dimensional geometry reconstruction is required. We present a 3D-image based reconstruction process which converts computed tomography data in adequate surface representations ready to be embedded for processing with finite element methods. Subsequent modeling using these geometries uses a multi-scale and multi-physics simulation approach which results in quantitative A-Scan ultrasonic signals which can be directly compared with experimental signals. Therefore, besides the properties of the composite material, a full transducer implementation, piezoelectric conversion and simultaneous modeling of the attached circuit is applied. Comparison between simulated and experimental signals provides very good agreement in electrical voltage amplitude and the signal arrival time and thus validates the proposed modeling approach. Simulating ultrasound wave propagation in a medium with a realistic shape of the geometry clearly shows a difference in how the disturbance of the waves takes place and finally allows more realistic modeling of A-scans. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

On a New Technique for Discovering Variable Stars

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mironov A. V.

2003-12-01

Full Text Available A technique for discovering variable stars based on the calculation of the correlation coefficients is proposed. Applications of the technique are shown on the results of numerical experiments and on the Hipparcos photometric data.

Realistic page-turning of electronic books

Science.gov (United States)

Fan, Chaoran; Li, Haisheng; Bai, Yannan

2014-01-01

The booming electronic books (e-books), as an extension to the paper book, are popular with readers. Recently, many efforts are put into the realistic page-turning simulation o f e-book to improve its reading experience. This paper presents a new 3D page-turning simulation approach, which employs piecewise time-dependent cylindrical surfaces to describe the turning page and constructs smooth transition method between time-dependent cylinders. The page-turning animation is produced by sequentially mapping the turning page into the cylinders with different radii and positions. Compared to the previous approaches, our method is able to imitate various effects efficiently and obtains more natural animation of turning page.

A realist evaluation of the management of a well-performing regional hospital in Ghana.

Science.gov (United States)

Marchal, Bruno; Dedzo, McDamien; Kegels, Guy

2010-01-25

Realist evaluation offers an interesting approach to evaluation of interventions in complex settings, but has been little applied in health care. We report on a realist case study of a well performing hospital in Ghana and show how such a realist evaluation design can help to overcome the limited external validity of a traditional case study. We developed a realist evaluation framework for hypothesis formulation, data collection, data analysis and synthesis of the findings. Focusing on the role of human resource management in hospital performance, we formulated our hypothesis around the high commitment management concept. Mixed methods were used in data collection, including individual and group interviews, observations and document reviews. We found that the human resource management approach (the actual intervention) included induction of new staff, training and personal development, good communication and information sharing, and decentralised decision-making. We identified 3 additional practices: ensuring optimal physical working conditions, access to top managers and managers' involvement on the work floor. Teamwork, recognition and trust emerged as key elements of the organisational climate. Interviewees reported high levels of organisational commitment. The analysis unearthed perceived organisational support and reciprocity as underlying mechanisms that link the management practices with commitment. Methodologically, we found that realist evaluation can be fruitfully used to develop detailed case studies that analyse how management interventions work and in which conditions. Analysing the links between intervention, mechanism and outcome increases the explaining power, while identification of essential context elements improves the usefulness of the findings for decision-makers in other settings (external validity). We also identified a number of practical difficulties and priorities for further methodological development. This case suggests that a well

A realist evaluation of the management of a well- performing regional hospital in Ghana

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kegels Guy

2010-01-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Realist evaluation offers an interesting approach to evaluation of interventions in complex settings, but has been little applied in health care. We report on a realist case study of a well performing hospital in Ghana and show how such a realist evaluation design can help to overcome the limited external validity of a traditional case study. Methods We developed a realist evaluation framework for hypothesis formulation, data collection, data analysis and synthesis of the findings. Focusing on the role of human resource management in hospital performance, we formulated our hypothesis around the high commitment management concept. Mixed methods were used in data collection, including individual and group interviews, observations and document reviews. Results We found that the human resource management approach (the actual intervention included induction of new staff, training and personal development, good communication and information sharing, and decentralised decision-making. We identified 3 additional practices: ensuring optimal physical working conditions, access to top managers and managers' involvement on the work floor. Teamwork, recognition and trust emerged as key elements of the organisational climate. Interviewees reported high levels of organisational commitment. The analysis unearthed perceived organisational support and reciprocity as underlying mechanisms that link the management practices with commitment. Methodologically, we found that realist evaluation can be fruitfully used to develop detailed case studies that analyse how management interventions work and in which conditions. Analysing the links between intervention, mechanism and outcome increases the explaining power, while identification of essential context elements improves the usefulness of the findings for decision-makers in other settings (external validity. We also identified a number of practical difficulties and priorities for further

Can complex health interventions be evaluated using routine clinical and administrative data? - a realist evaluation approach.

Science.gov (United States)

Riippa, Iiris; Kahilakoski, Olli-Pekka; Linna, Miika; Hietala, Minni

2014-12-01

Interventions aimed at improving chronic care typically consist of multiple interconnected parts, all of which are essential to the effect of the intervention. Limited attention has been paid to the use of routine clinical and administrative data in the evolution of these complex interventions. The purpose of this study is to examine the feasibility of routinely collected data when evaluating complex interventions and to demonstrate how a theory-based, realist approach to evaluation may increase the feasibility of routine data. We present a case study of evaluating a complex intervention, namely, the chronic care model (CCM), in Finnish primary health care. Issues typically faced when evaluating the effects of a complex intervention on health outcomes and resource use are identified by using routine data in a natural setting, and we apply context-mechanism-outcome (CMO) approach from the realist evaluation paradigm to improve the feasibility of using routine data in evaluating complex interventions. From an experimentalist approach that dominates the medical literature, routine data collected from a single centre offered a poor starting point for evaluating complex interventions. However, the CMO approach offered tools for identifying indicators needed to evaluate complex interventions. Applying the CMO approach can aid in a typical evaluation setting encountered by primary care managers: one in which the intervention is complex, the primary data source is routinely collected clinical and administrative data from a single centre, and in which randomization of patients into two research arms is too resource consuming to arrange. © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

How to Discover the Rogers–Ramanujan Identities

Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

IAS Admin

The purpose of this article is to introduce you to the. Rogers–Ramanujan identities, by discussing an approach to discover them. When you see that they appear from a very simple generalization of the simplest possible in- finite continued fraction, that in turn is related to the celebrated Fibonacci sequence, perhaps you may ...

Multiplicity Analysis during Photon Interrogation of Fissionable Material

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Clarke, Shaun D.; Pozzi, Sara A.; Padovani, Enrico; Downar, Thomas J.

2007-01-01

Simulation of multiplicity distributions with the Monte Carlo method is difficult because each history is treated individually. In order to accurately model the multiplicity distribution, the intensity and time width of the interrogation pulse must be incorporated into the calculation. This behavior dictates how many photons arrive at the target essentially simultaneously. In order to model the pulse width correctly, a Monte Carlo code system consisting of modified versions of the codes MCNPX and MCNP-PoliMi has been developed in conjunction with a post-processing algorithm to operate on the MCNP-PoliMi output file. The purpose of this subroutine is to assemble the interactions into groups corresponding to the number of interactions which would occur during a given pulse. The resulting multiplicity distributions appear more realistic and capture the higher-order multiplets which are a product of multiple reactions occurring during a single accelerator pulse. Plans are underway to gather relevant experimental data to verify and validate the methodology developed and presented here. This capability will enable the simulation of a large number of materials and detector geometries. Analysis of this information will determine the feasibility of using multiplicity distributions as an identification tool for special nuclear material.

European perspective on multiple myeloma treatment stratgies in 2014

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Ludwig, Heinz; Sonneveld, Pieter; Davies, Faith

2014-01-01

The treatment of multiple myeloma has undergone significant changes and has resulted in the achievement of molecular remissions, the prolongation of remission duration, and extended survival becoming realistic goals, with a cure being possible in a small but growing number of patients. In addition...... recommendations for the management of patients with myeloma. Treatment approaches depend on "fitness," with chronological age still being an important discriminator for selecting therapy. In younger, fit patients, a short three drug-based induction treatment followed by autologous stem cell transplantation (ASCT...

Discovering frequently recurring movement sequences in team-sport athlete spatiotemporal data.

Science.gov (United States)

Sweeting, Alice J; Aughey, Robert J; Cormack, Stuart J; Morgan, Stuart

2017-12-01

Athlete external load is typically analysed from predetermined movement thresholds. The combination of movement sequences and differences in these movements between playing positions is also currently unknown. This study developed a method to discover the frequently recurring movement sequences across playing position during matches. The external load of 12 international female netball athletes was collected by a local positioning system during four national-level matches. Velocity, acceleration and angular velocity were calculated from positional (X, Y) data, clustered via one-dimensional k-means and assigned a unique alphabetic label. Combinations of velocity, acceleration and angular velocity movement were compared using the Levenshtein distance and similarities computed by the longest common substring problem. The contribution of each movement sequence, according to playing position and relative to the wider data set, was then calculated via the Minkowski distance. A total of 10 frequently recurring combinations of movement were discovered, regardless of playing position. Only the wing attack, goal attack and goal defence playing positions are closely related. We developed a technique to discover the movement sequences, according to playing position, performed by elite netballers. This methodology can be extended to discover the frequently recurring movements within other team sports and across levels of competition.

The Effect of Realistic Mathematics Education Approach on Students' Achievement And Attitudes Towards Mathematics

OpenAIRE

Effandi Zakaria; Muzakkir Syamaun

2017-01-01

This study was conducted to determine the effect of Realistic Mathematics Education Approach on mathematics achievement and student attitudes towards mathematics. This study also sought determine the relationship between student achievement and attitudes towards mathematics. This study used a quasi-experimental design conducted on 61 high school students at SMA Unggul Sigli. Students were divided into two groups, the treatment group $(n = 30)$ namely, the Realistic Mathematics Approach group ...

Spectroscopy of light nuclei with realistic NN interaction JISP

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Shirokov, A. M.; Vary, J. P.; Mazur, A. I.; Weber, T. A.

2008-01-01

Recent results of our systematic ab initio studies of the spectroscopy of s- and p-shell nuclei in fully microscopic large-scale (up to a few hundred million basis functions) no-core shell-model calculations are presented. A new high-quality realistic nonlocal NN interaction JISP is used. This interaction is obtained in the J-matrix inverse-scattering approach (JISP stands for the J-matrix inverse-scattering potential) and is of the form of a small-rank matrix in the oscillator basis in each of the NN partial waves, providing a very fast convergence in shell-model studies. The current purely two-body JISP model of the nucleon-nucleon interaction JISP16 provides not only an excellent description of two-nucleon data (deuteron properties and np scattering) with χ 2 /datum = 1.05 but also a better description of a wide range of observables (binding energies, spectra, rms radii, quadrupole moments, electromagnetic-transition probabilities, etc.) in all s-and p-shell nuclei than the best modern interaction models combining realistic nucleon-nucleon and three-nucleon interactions.

A new screening method for discovering antibacterial agents from ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

A new screening method for discovering antibacterial agents from filamentous fungi. ... African Journal of Biotechnology ... Keywords: Drug-resistant bacterial pathogens, novel antibiotics; screening method, filamentous fungi products ...

Realistic shell-model calculations for Sn isotopes

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Covello, A.; Andreozzi, F.; Coraggio, L.; Gargano, A.; Porrino, A.

1997-01-01

We report on a shell-model study of the Sn isotopes in which a realistic effective interaction derived from the Paris free nucleon-nucleon potential is employed. The calculations are performed within the framework of the seniority scheme by making use of the chain-calculation method. This provides practically exact solutions while cutting down the amount of computational work required by a standard seniority-truncated calculation. The behavior of the energy of several low-lying states in the isotopes with A ranging from 122 to 130 is presented and compared with the experimental one. (orig.)

MANAJEMEN LABA: PERILAKU MANAJEMEN OPPORTUNISTIC ATAU REALISTIC ?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

I Nyoman Wijana Asmara Putra

2011-01-01

Full Text Available Earnings management is a still attractive issue. It is often associatedwith negative behavior conducted by management for its own interest. In fact,it also has different side to be examined. There is another motivation to do so,such as to improve the company’s operation. This literature study aims toreview management motivation of doing earnings management, whetheropportunistic or realistic. What conflict that earnings management brings,what pro and cons about it, what would happen if earnings is not managed,whether the company would be better off or worse off.

Realistic minimum accident source terms - Evaluation, application, and risk acceptance

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Angelo, P. L.

2009-01-01

The evaluation, application, and risk acceptance for realistic minimum accident source terms can represent a complex and arduous undertaking. This effort poses a very high impact to design, construction cost, operations and maintenance, and integrated safety over the expected facility lifetime. At the 2005 Nuclear Criticality Safety Division (NCSD) Meeting in Knoxville Tenn., two papers were presented mat summarized the Y-12 effort that reduced the number of criticality accident alarm system (CAAS) detectors originally designed for the new Highly Enriched Uranium Materials Facility (HEUMF) from 258 to an eventual as-built number of 60. Part of that effort relied on determining a realistic minimum accident source term specific to the facility. Since that time, the rationale for an alternate minimum accident has been strengthened by an evaluation process that incorporates realism. A recent update to the HEUMF CAAS technical basis highlights the concepts presented here. (authors)

Realistic diversity loss and variation in soil depth independently affect community-level plant nitrogen use.

Science.gov (United States)

Selmants, Paul C; Zavaleta, Erika S; Wolf, Amelia A

2014-01-01

Numerous experiments have demonstrated that diverse plant communities use nitrogen (N) more completely and efficiently, with implications for how species conservation efforts might influence N cycling and retention in terrestrial ecosystems. However, most such experiments have randomly manipulated species richness and minimized environmental heterogeneity, two design aspects that may reduce applicability to real ecosystems. Here we present results from an experiment directly comparing how realistic and randomized plant species losses affect plant N use across a gradient of soil depth in a native-dominated serpentine grassland in California. We found that the strength of the species richness effect on plant N use did not increase with soil depth in either the realistic or randomized species loss scenarios, indicating that the increased vertical heterogeneity conferred by deeper soils did not lead to greater complementarity among species in this ecosystem. Realistic species losses significantly reduced plant N uptake and altered N-use efficiency, while randomized species losses had no effect on plant N use. Increasing soil depth positively affected plant N uptake in both loss order scenarios but had a weaker effect on plant N use than did realistic species losses. Our results illustrate that realistic species losses can have functional consequences that differ distinctly from randomized losses, and that species diversity effects can be independent of and outweigh those of environmental heterogeneity on ecosystem functioning. Our findings also support the value of conservation efforts aimed at maintaining biodiversity to help buffer ecosystems against increasing anthropogenic N loading.

Nuclear properties with realistic Hamiltonians through spectral distribution theory

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Vary, J.P.; Belehrad, R.; Dalton, B.J.

1979-01-01

Motivated by the need of non-perturbative methods for utilizing realistic nuclear Hamiltonians H, the authors use spectral distribution theory, based on calculated moments of H, to obtain specific bulk and valence properties of finite nuclei. The primary emphasis here is to present results for the binding energies of nuclei obtained with and without an assumed core. (Auth.)

Automated Finger Spelling by Highly Realistic 3D Animation

Science.gov (United States)

Adamo-Villani, Nicoletta; Beni, Gerardo

2004-01-01

We present the design of a new 3D animation tool for self-teaching (signing and reading) finger spelling the first basic component in learning any sign language. We have designed a highly realistic hand with natural animation of the finger motions. Smoothness of motion (in real time) is achieved via programmable blending of animation segments. The…

Elements of a realistic 17 GHz FEL/TBA design

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hopkins, D.B.; Halbach, K.; Hoyer, E.H.; Sessler, A.M.; Sternbach, E.J.

1989-01-01

Recently, renewed interest in an FEL version of a two-beam accelerator (TBA) has prompted a study of practical system and structure designs for achieving the specified physics goals. This paper presents elements of a realistic design for an FEL/TBA suitable for a 1 TeV, 17 GHz linear collider. 13 refs., 8 figs., 2 tabs

Realistic-contact-induced enhancement of rectifying in carbon-nanotube/graphene-nanoribbon junctions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zhang, Xiang-Hua; Li, Xiao-Fei; Wang, Ling-Ling; Xu, Liang; Luo, Kai-Wu

2014-01-01

Carbon-nanotube/graphene-nanoribbon junctions were recently fabricated by the controllable etching of single-walled carbon-nanotubes [Wei et al., Nat. Commun. 4, 1374 (2013)] and their electronic transport properties were studied here. First principles results reveal that the transmission function of the junctions show a heavy dependence on the shape of contacts, but rectifying is an inherent property which is insensitive to the details of contacts. Interestingly, the rectifying ratio is largely enhanced in the junction with a realistic contact and the enhancement is insensitive to the details of contact structures. The stability of rectifying suggests a significant feasibility to manufacture realistic all-carbon rectifiers in nanoelectronics

Evaluation of Highly Realistic Training for Independent Duty Corpsmen Students

Science.gov (United States)

2015-05-21

that he or she can perform desired actions or behaviors ( Bandura , 1977). In the present study, three types of self-efficacy were assessed: general...such as resilience. IDC Highly Realistic Training 10 REFERENCES Bandura , A (1977). Self-efficacy: Toward a unifying theory of behavioral

Framing the Real: Lefèbvre and NeoRealist Cinematic Space as Practice

OpenAIRE

Brancaleone, David

2014-01-01

In 1945 Roberto Rossellini's Neo-realist Rome, Open City set in motion an approach to cinema and its representation of real life – and by extension real spaces – that was to have international significance in film theory and practice. However, the re-use of the real spaces of the city, and elsewhere, as film sets in Neo-realist film offered (and offers) more than an influential aesthetic and set of cinematic theories. Through Neo-realism, it can be argued that we gain access to a cinematic re...

Biochemical transport modeling, estimation, and detection in realistic environments

Science.gov (United States)

Ortner, Mathias; Nehorai, Arye

2006-05-01

Early detection and estimation of the spread of a biochemical contaminant are major issues for homeland security applications. We present an integrated approach combining the measurements given by an array of biochemical sensors with a physical model of the dispersion and statistical analysis to solve these problems and provide system performance measures. We approximate the dispersion model of the contaminant in a realistic environment through numerical simulations of reflected stochastic diffusions describing the microscopic transport phenomena due to wind and chemical diffusion using the Feynman-Kac formula. We consider arbitrary complex geometries and account for wind turbulence. Localizing the dispersive sources is useful for decontamination purposes and estimation of the cloud evolution. To solve the associated inverse problem, we propose a Bayesian framework based on a random field that is particularly powerful for localizing multiple sources with small amounts of measurements. We also develop a sequential detector using the numerical transport model we propose. Sequential detection allows on-line analysis and detecting wether a change has occurred. We first focus on the formulation of a suitable sequential detector that overcomes the presence of unknown parameters (e.g. release time, intensity and location). We compute a bound on the expected delay before false detection in order to decide the threshold of the test. For a fixed false-alarm rate, we obtain the detection probability of a substance release as a function of its location and initial concentration. Numerical examples are presented for two real-world scenarios: an urban area and an indoor ventilation duct.

Scientists discover planetary system similar to our own

CERN Multimedia

2003-01-01

'An international team of scientists has discovered a planet and star that may share the same relationship as Jupiter and our Sun, the closest comparison that researchers have found since they began their search for extra-solar planets nearly a decade ago' (1 page).

Measurement of time delays in gated radiotherapy for realistic respiratory motions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chugh, Brige P.; Quirk, Sarah; Conroy, Leigh; Smith, Wendy L.

2014-01-01

Purpose: Gated radiotherapy is used to reduce internal motion margins, escalate target dose, and limit normal tissue dose; however, its temporal accuracy is limited. Beam-on and beam-off time delays can lead to treatment inefficiencies and/or geographic misses; therefore, AAPM Task Group 142 recommends verifying the temporal accuracy of gating systems. Many groups use sinusoidal phantom motion for this, under the tacit assumption that use of sinusoidal motion for determining time delays produces negligible error. The authors test this assumption by measuring gating time delays for several realistic motion shapes with increasing degrees of irregularity. Methods: Time delays were measured on a linear accelerator with a real-time position management system (Varian TrueBeam with RPM system version 1.7.5) for seven motion shapes: regular sinusoidal; regular realistic-shape; large (40%) and small (10%) variations in amplitude; large (40%) variations in period; small (10%) variations in both amplitude and period; and baseline drift (30%). Film streaks of radiation exposure were generated for each motion shape using a programmable motion phantom. Beam-on and beam-off time delays were determined from the difference between the expected and observed streak length. Results: For the system investigated, all sine, regular realistic-shape, and slightly irregular amplitude variation motions had beam-off and beam-on time delays within the AAPM recommended limit of less than 100 ms. In phase-based gating, even small variations in period resulted in some time delays greater than 100 ms. Considerable time delays over 1 s were observed with highly irregular motion. Conclusions: Sinusoidal motion shapes can be considered a reasonable approximation to the more complex and slightly irregular shapes of realistic motion. When using phase-based gating with predictive filters even small variations in period can result in time delays over 100 ms. Clinical use of these systems for patients

Measurement of time delays in gated radiotherapy for realistic respiratory motions

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Chugh, Brige P.; Quirk, Sarah; Conroy, Leigh; Smith, Wendy L., E-mail: Wendy.Smith@albertahealthservices.ca [Department of Medical Physics, Tom Baker Cancer Centre, Calgary, Alberta T2N 4N2 (Canada)

2014-09-15

Purpose: Gated radiotherapy is used to reduce internal motion margins, escalate target dose, and limit normal tissue dose; however, its temporal accuracy is limited. Beam-on and beam-off time delays can lead to treatment inefficiencies and/or geographic misses; therefore, AAPM Task Group 142 recommends verifying the temporal accuracy of gating systems. Many groups use sinusoidal phantom motion for this, under the tacit assumption that use of sinusoidal motion for determining time delays produces negligible error. The authors test this assumption by measuring gating time delays for several realistic motion shapes with increasing degrees of irregularity. Methods: Time delays were measured on a linear accelerator with a real-time position management system (Varian TrueBeam with RPM system version 1.7.5) for seven motion shapes: regular sinusoidal; regular realistic-shape; large (40%) and small (10%) variations in amplitude; large (40%) variations in period; small (10%) variations in both amplitude and period; and baseline drift (30%). Film streaks of radiation exposure were generated for each motion shape using a programmable motion phantom. Beam-on and beam-off time delays were determined from the difference between the expected and observed streak length. Results: For the system investigated, all sine, regular realistic-shape, and slightly irregular amplitude variation motions had beam-off and beam-on time delays within the AAPM recommended limit of less than 100 ms. In phase-based gating, even small variations in period resulted in some time delays greater than 100 ms. Considerable time delays over 1 s were observed with highly irregular motion. Conclusions: Sinusoidal motion shapes can be considered a reasonable approximation to the more complex and slightly irregular shapes of realistic motion. When using phase-based gating with predictive filters even small variations in period can result in time delays over 100 ms. Clinical use of these systems for patients

Scientists discover how deadly fungal microbes enter host cells

OpenAIRE

Whyte, Barry James

2010-01-01

A research team led by scientists at the Virginia Bioinformatics Institute at Virginia Tech has discovered a fundamental entry mechanism that allows dangerous fungal microbes to infect plants and cause disease.

Multiple-scattering theory. New developments and applications

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Ernst, Arthur

2007-12-04

Multiple-scattering theory (MST) is a very efficient technique for calculating the electronic properties of an assembly of atoms. It provides explicitly the Green function, which can be used in many applications such as magnetism, transport and spectroscopy. This work gives an overview on recent developments of multiple-scattering theory. One of the important innovations is the multiple scattering implementation of the self-interaction correction approach, which enables realistic electronic structure calculations of systems with localized electrons. Combined with the coherent potential approximation (CPA), this method can be applied for studying the electronic structure of alloys and as well as pseudo-alloys representing charge and spin disorder. This formalism is extended to finite temperatures which allows to investigate phase transitions and thermal fluctuations in correlated materials. Another novel development is the implementation of the self-consistent non-local CPA approach, which takes into account charge correlations around the CPA average and chemical short range order. This formalism is generalized to the relativistic treatment of magnetically ordered systems. Furthermore, several improvements are implemented to optimize the computational performance and to increase the accuracy of the KKR Green function method. The versatility of the approach is illustrated in numerous applications. (orig.)

Multiple-scattering theory. New developments and applications

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ernst, Arthur

2007-01-01

Multiple-scattering theory (MST) is a very efficient technique for calculating the electronic properties of an assembly of atoms. It provides explicitly the Green function, which can be used in many applications such as magnetism, transport and spectroscopy. This work gives an overview on recent developments of multiple-scattering theory. One of the important innovations is the multiple scattering implementation of the self-interaction correction approach, which enables realistic electronic structure calculations of systems with localized electrons. Combined with the coherent potential approximation (CPA), this method can be applied for studying the electronic structure of alloys and as well as pseudo-alloys representing charge and spin disorder. This formalism is extended to finite temperatures which allows to investigate phase transitions and thermal fluctuations in correlated materials. Another novel development is the implementation of the self-consistent non-local CPA approach, which takes into account charge correlations around the CPA average and chemical short range order. This formalism is generalized to the relativistic treatment of magnetically ordered systems. Furthermore, several improvements are implemented to optimize the computational performance and to increase the accuracy of the KKR Green function method. The versatility of the approach is illustrated in numerous applications. (orig.)

Realistic modeling of chamber transport for heavy-ion fusion

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sharp, W.M.; Grote, D.P.; Callahan, D.A.; Tabak, M.; Henestroza, E.; Yu, S.S.; Peterson, P.F.; Welch, D.R.; Rose, D.V.

2003-01-01

Transport of intense heavy-ion beams to an inertial-fusion target after final focus is simulated here using a realistic computer model. It is found that passing the beam through a rarefied plasma layer before it enters the fusion chamber can largely neutralize the beam space charge and lead to a usable focal spot for a range of ion species and input conditions

Top quark discovered

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Anon.

1995-01-01

Nine months after a careful announcement of tentative evidence for the long-awaited sixth 'top' quark, physicists from the CDF and DO experiments at Fermilab's Tevatron proton-antiproton collider declared on 2 March that they had finally discovered the top quark. Last year (June 1994, page 1), the CDF experiment at the Tevatron reported a dozen candidate top events. These, said CDF, had all the characteristics expected of top, but the difficulties of extracting the tiny signal from a trillion proton-antiproton collisions made them shy of claiming a discovery. For its part, the companion DO Tevatron experiment reported a few similar events but were even more guarded about their interpretation as top quarks. Just after these hesitant announcements, performance at the Tevatron improved dramatically last summer. After the commissioning of a new linear accelerator and a magnet realignment, the machine reached a new world record proton-antiproton collision luminosity of 1.28 x 10 31 per sq cm per s, ten times that originally planned. Data began to pour in at an unprecedented rate and the data sample grew to six trillion collisions. Luminosity has subsequently climbed to 1.7 x 10 31 . The top quark is the final letter in the alphabet of Standard Model particles. According to this picture, all matter is composed of six stronglyinteracting subnuclear particles, the quarks, and six weakly interacting particles, the leptons. Both sextets are neatly arranged as three pairs in order of increasing mass. The fifth quark, the 'beauty' or 'b' quark, was also discovered at Fermilab, back in 1977. Since then physicists have been eagerly waiting for the top to turn up, but have been frustrated by its heaviness - the top is some 40 times the mass of its 'beautiful' partner. Not only is the top quark the heaviest by far, but it is the only quark which has been actively hunted. After the quarry was glimpsed last year, the net has now been

Margin improvement initiatives: realistic approaches

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Chan, P.K.; Paquette, S. [Royal Military College of Canada, Chemistry and Chemical Engineering Dept., Kingston, ON (Canada); Cunning, T.A. [Department of National Defence, Ottawa, ON (Canada); French, C.; Bonin, H.W. [Royal Military College of Canada, Chemistry and Chemical Engineering Dept., Kingston, ON (Canada); Pandey, M. [Univ. of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON (Canada); Murchie, M. [Cameco Fuel Manufacturing, Port Hope, ON (Canada)

2014-07-01

With reactor core aging, safety margins are particularly tight. Two realistic and practical approaches are proposed here to recover margins. The first project is related to the use of a small amount of neutron absorbers in CANDU Natural Uranium (NU) fuel bundles. Preliminary results indicate that the fuelling transient and subsequent reactivity peak can be lowered to improve the reactor's operating margins, with minimal impact on burnup when less than 1000 mg of absorbers is added to a fuel bundle. The second project involves the statistical analysis of fuel manufacturing data to demonstrate safety margins. Probability distributions are fitted to actual fuel manufacturing datasets provided by Cameco Fuel Manufacturing, Inc. They are used to generate input for ELESTRES and ELOCA. It is found that the fuel response distributions are far below industrial failure limits, implying that margin exists in the current fuel design. (author)

Bayesian inversion using a geologically realistic and discrete model space

Science.gov (United States)

Jaeggli, C.; Julien, S.; Renard, P.

2017-12-01

Since the early days of groundwater modeling, inverse methods play a crucial role. Many research and engineering groups aim to infer extensive knowledge of aquifer parameters from a sparse set of observations. Despite decades of dedicated research on this topic, there are still several major issues to be solved. In the hydrogeological framework, one is often confronted with underground structures that present very sharp contrasts of geophysical properties. In particular, subsoil structures such as karst conduits, channels, faults, or lenses, strongly influence groundwater flow and transport behavior of the underground. For this reason it can be essential to identify their location and shape very precisely. Unfortunately, when inverse methods are specially trained to consider such complex features, their computation effort often becomes unaffordably high. The following work is an attempt to solve this dilemma. We present a new method that is, in some sense, a compromise between the ergodicity of Markov chain Monte Carlo (McMC) methods and the efficient handling of data by the ensemble based Kalmann filters. The realistic and complex random fields are generated by a Multiple-Point Statistics (MPS) tool. Nonetheless, it is applicable with any conditional geostatistical simulation tool. Furthermore, the algorithm is independent of any parametrization what becomes most important when two parametric systems are equivalent (permeability and resistivity, speed and slowness, etc.). When compared to two existing McMC schemes, the computational effort was divided by a factor of 12.

Towards a Realist Sociology of Education: A Polyphonic Review Essay

Science.gov (United States)

Grenfell, Michael; Hood, Susan; Barrett, Brian D.; Schubert, Dan

2017-01-01

This review essay evaluates Karl Maton's "Knowledge and Knowers: Towards a Realist Sociology of Education" as a recent examination of the sociological causes and effects of education in the tradition of the French social theorist Pierre Bourdieu and the British educational sociologist Basil Bernstein. Maton's book synthesizes the…

Place of a Realistic Teacher Education Pedagogy in an ICT ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

This article is based on a study undertaken to examine the impact of introducing a realistic teacher education pedagogy (RTEP) oriented learning environment supported by ICT on distance teacher education in Uganda. It gives an overview of the quality, quantity and training of teachers in primary and secondary schools

Fast Ss-Ilm a Computationally Efficient Algorithm to Discover Socially Important Locations

Science.gov (United States)

Dokuz, A. S.; Celik, M.

2017-11-01

Socially important locations are places which are frequently visited by social media users in their social media lifetime. Discovering socially important locations provide several valuable information about user behaviours on social media networking sites. However, discovering socially important locations are challenging due to data volume and dimensions, spatial and temporal calculations, location sparseness in social media datasets, and inefficiency of current algorithms. In the literature, several studies are conducted to discover important locations, however, the proposed approaches do not work in computationally efficient manner. In this study, we propose Fast SS-ILM algorithm by modifying the algorithm of SS-ILM to mine socially important locations efficiently. Experimental results show that proposed Fast SS-ILM algorithm decreases execution time of socially important locations discovery process up to 20 %.

FAST SS-ILM: A COMPUTATIONALLY EFFICIENT ALGORITHM TO DISCOVER SOCIALLY IMPORTANT LOCATIONS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

A. S. Dokuz

2017-11-01

Full Text Available Socially important locations are places which are frequently visited by social media users in their social media lifetime. Discovering socially important locations provide several valuable information about user behaviours on social media networking sites. However, discovering socially important locations are challenging due to data volume and dimensions, spatial and temporal calculations, location sparseness in social media datasets, and inefficiency of current algorithms. In the literature, several studies are conducted to discover important locations, however, the proposed approaches do not work in computationally efficient manner. In this study, we propose Fast SS-ILM algorithm by modifying the algorithm of SS-ILM to mine socially important locations efficiently. Experimental results show that proposed Fast SS-ILM algorithm decreases execution time of socially important locations discovery process up to 20 %.

Starlight detectives how astronomers, inventors, and eccentrics discovered the modern universe

CERN Document Server

Hirshfeld, Alan

2014-01-01

NBC News “Top Science and Tech Books of the Year" selectionScientific American/FSG “Favorite Science Books of the Year" selectionNature.com “Top Reads of the Year" selectionKirkus Reviews “Best Books of the Year" selectionDiscover magazine “Top 5 Summer Read"“A masterful balance of science, history and rich narrative." —Discover magazine“Hirshfeld tells this climactic discovery of the expanding universe with great verve and sweep, as befits a story whose scope, characters and import leave

Electron percolation in realistic models of carbon nanotube networks

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Simoneau, Louis-Philippe; Villeneuve, Jérémie; Rochefort, Alain

2015-01-01

The influence of penetrable and curved carbon nanotubes (CNT) on the charge percolation in three-dimensional disordered CNT networks have been studied with Monte-Carlo simulations. By considering carbon nanotubes as solid objects but where the overlap between their electron cloud can be controlled, we observed that the structural characteristics of networks containing lower aspect ratio CNT are highly sensitive to the degree of penetration between crossed nanotubes. Following our efficient strategy to displace CNT to different positions to create more realistic statistical models, we conclude that the connectivity between objects increases with the hard-core/soft-shell radii ratio. In contrast, the presence of curved CNT in the random networks leads to an increasing percolation threshold and to a decreasing electrical conductivity at saturation. The waviness of CNT decreases the effective distance between the nanotube extremities, hence reducing their connectivity and degrading their electrical properties. We present the results of our simulation in terms of thickness of the CNT network from which simple structural parameters such as the volume fraction or the carbon nanotube density can be accurately evaluated with our more realistic models

Electron percolation in realistic models of carbon nanotube networks

Science.gov (United States)

Simoneau, Louis-Philippe; Villeneuve, Jérémie; Rochefort, Alain

2015-09-01

The influence of penetrable and curved carbon nanotubes (CNT) on the charge percolation in three-dimensional disordered CNT networks have been studied with Monte-Carlo simulations. By considering carbon nanotubes as solid objects but where the overlap between their electron cloud can be controlled, we observed that the structural characteristics of networks containing lower aspect ratio CNT are highly sensitive to the degree of penetration between crossed nanotubes. Following our efficient strategy to displace CNT to different positions to create more realistic statistical models, we conclude that the connectivity between objects increases with the hard-core/soft-shell radii ratio. In contrast, the presence of curved CNT in the random networks leads to an increasing percolation threshold and to a decreasing electrical conductivity at saturation. The waviness of CNT decreases the effective distance between the nanotube extremities, hence reducing their connectivity and degrading their electrical properties. We present the results of our simulation in terms of thickness of the CNT network from which simple structural parameters such as the volume fraction or the carbon nanotube density can be accurately evaluated with our more realistic models.

Music therapy for palliative care: A realist review.

Science.gov (United States)

McConnell, Tracey; Porter, Sam

2017-08-01

Music therapy has experienced a rising demand as an adjunct therapy for symptom management among palliative care patients. We conducted a realist review of the literature to develop a greater understanding of how music therapy might benefit palliative care patients and the contextual mechanisms that promote or inhibit its successful implementation. We searched electronic databases (CINAHL, Embase, Medline, and PsychINFO) for literature containing information on music therapy for palliative care. In keeping with the realist approach, we examined all relevant literature to develop theories that could explain how music therapy works. A total of 51 articles were included in the review. Music therapy was found to have a therapeutic effect on the physical, psychological, emotional, and spiritual suffering of palliative care patients. We also identified program mechanisms that help explain music therapy's therapeutic effects, along with facilitating contexts for implementation. Music therapy may be an effective nonpharmacological approach to managing distressing symptoms in palliative care patients. The findings also suggest that group music therapy may be a cost-efficient and effective way to support staff caring for palliative care patients. We encourage others to continue developing the evidence base in order to expand our understanding of how music therapy works, with the aim of informing and improving the provision of music therapy for palliative care patients.

Update on rehabilitation in multiple sclerosis.

Science.gov (United States)

Donzé, Cécile

2015-04-01

Given that mobility impairment is a hallmark of multiple sclerosis, people with this disease are likely to benefit from rehabilitation therapy throughout the course of their illness. The review provides an update on rehabilitation focused on balance and walking impairment. Classical rehabilitation focusing on muscle rehabilitation, neurotherapeutic facilitation is effective and recommended. Other techniques did not prove their superiority: transcutaneal neurostimulation, repetitive magnetic stimulation, electromagnetic therapy, whole body vibration and robot-assisted gait rehabilitation and need more studies to conclude. Cooling therapy, hydrotherapy, orthoses and textured insoles could represent a complementary service to other techniques in specific conditions. Multidisciplinary rehabilitation program provides positive effects and high satisfaction for patients with multiple sclerosis but needs more evaluation. New technologies using serious game and telerehabilitation seem to be an interesting technique to promote physical activity, self-management and quality of life. Rehabilitation like other therapy needs regular clinical evaluation to adapt the program and propose appropriate techniques. Moreover, the objective of rehabilitation needs to be decided with the patient with realistic expectation. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.

Bootstrap inference when using multiple imputation.

Science.gov (United States)

Schomaker, Michael; Heumann, Christian

2018-04-16

Many modern estimators require bootstrapping to calculate confidence intervals because either no analytic standard error is available or the distribution of the parameter of interest is nonsymmetric. It remains however unclear how to obtain valid bootstrap inference when dealing with multiple imputation to address missing data. We present 4 methods that are intuitively appealing, easy to implement, and combine bootstrap estimation with multiple imputation. We show that 3 of the 4 approaches yield valid inference, but that the performance of the methods varies with respect to the number of imputed data sets and the extent of missingness. Simulation studies reveal the behavior of our approaches in finite samples. A topical analysis from HIV treatment research, which determines the optimal timing of antiretroviral treatment initiation in young children, demonstrates the practical implications of the 4 methods in a sophisticated and realistic setting. This analysis suffers from missing data and uses the g-formula for inference, a method for which no standard errors are available. Copyright © 2018 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Phenomenology of a realistic accelerating universe using tracker fields

Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

We present a realistic scenario of tracking of scalar fields with varying equation of state. The astrophysical constraints on the evolution of scalar fields in the physical universe are discussed. The nucleosynthesis and the galaxy formation constraints have been used to put limits on and estimate during cosmic evolution.

Empirical Evidence for Niss' "Implemented Anticipation" in Mathematising Realistic Situations

Science.gov (United States)

Stillman, Gloria; Brown, Jill P.

2012-01-01

Mathematisation of realistic situations is an on-going focus of research. Classroom data from a Year 9 class participating in a program of structured modelling of real situations was analysed for evidence of Niss's theoretical construct, implemented anticipation, during mathematisation. Evidence was found for two of three proposed aspects. In…

Rehand: Realistic electric prosthetic hand created with a 3D printer.

Science.gov (United States)

Yoshikawa, Masahiro; Sato, Ryo; Higashihara, Takanori; Ogasawara, Tsukasa; Kawashima, Noritaka

2015-01-01

Myoelectric prosthetic hands provide an appearance with five fingers and a grasping function to forearm amputees. However, they have problems in weight, appearance, and cost. This paper reports on the Rehand, a realistic electric prosthetic hand created with a 3D printer. It provides a realistic appearance that is same as the cosmetic prosthetic hand and a grasping function. A simple link mechanism with one linear actuator for grasping and 3D printed parts achieve low cost, light weight, and ease of maintenance. An operating system based on a distance sensor provides a natural operability equivalent to the myoelectric control system. A supporter socket allows them to wear the prosthetic hand easily. An evaluation using the Southampton Hand Assessment Procedure (SHAP) demonstrated that an amputee was able to operate various objects and do everyday activities with the Rehand.

New type of cells with multiple chromosome rearrangements

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Aseeva, E.A.; Domracheva, E.V.; Neverova, A.L; Bogomazova, A.N.; Snigiryova, G.P.; Novitskaya, N.N.; Khazins, E.D.

2008-01-01

Full text: A comparative analysis of the distribution and the frequency of multiaberrant cells (MAC) among lymphocytes in different categories of low dose (up to 0.5 Gy) irradiated people was carried out. MAC were found in most of the examined groups and they were absent in the control population. A highest MAC frequency was observed in people exposed to alpha radiation (Pu, Ra). This fact allows MAC to be considered as an indicator of a high-energy local exposure. A new type of cells with multiple chromosome rearrangements was discovered in the course of analysis of stable aberrations by the FISH method. The biological consequences of MAC formation and possibility of revealing the whole diversity of cells with multiple aberrations by means of modern molecular-cytogenetic methods is discussed

A scan for models with realistic fermion mass patterns

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bijnens, J.; Wetterich, C.

1986-03-01

We consider models which have no small Yukawa couplings unrelated to symmetry. This situation is generic in higher dimensional unification where Yukawa couplings are predicted to have strength similar to the gauge couplings. Generations have then to be differentiated by symmetry properties and the structure of fermion mass matrices is given in terms of quantum numbers alone. We scan possible symmetries leading to realistic mass matrices. (orig.)

Evaluating the implementation of a national clinical programme for diabetes to standardise and improve services: a realist evaluation protocol.

Science.gov (United States)

McHugh, S; Tracey, M L; Riordan, F; O'Neill, K; Mays, N; Kearney, P M

2016-07-28

Over the last three decades in response to the growing burden of diabetes, countries worldwide have developed national and regional multifaceted programmes to improve the monitoring and management of diabetes and to enhance the coordination of care within and across settings. In Ireland in 2010, against a backdrop of limited dedicated strategic planning and engrained variation in the type and level of diabetes care, a national programme was established to standardise and improve care for people with diabetes in Ireland, known as the National Diabetes Programme (NDP). The NDP comprises a range of organisational and service delivery changes to support evidence-based practices and policies. This realist evaluation protocol sets out the approach that will be used to identify and explain which aspects of the programme are working, for whom and in what circumstances to produce the outcomes intended. This mixed method realist evaluation will develop theories about the relationship between the context, mechanisms and outcomes of the diabetes programme. In stage 1, to identify the official programme theories, documentary analysis and qualitative interviews were conducted with national stakeholders involved in the design, development and management of the programme. In stage 2, as part of a multiple case study design with one case per administrative region in the health system, qualitative interviews are being conducted with frontline staff and service users to explore their responses to, and reasoning about, the programme's resources (mechanisms). Finally, administrative data will be used to examine intermediate implementation outcomes such as service uptake, acceptability, and fidelity to models of care. This evaluation is using the principles of realist evaluation to examine the implementation of a national programme to standardise and improve services for people with diabetes in Ireland. The concurrence of implementation and evaluation has enabled us to produce formative

Reinventing Sex: The Construction of Realistic Definitions of Sex and Gender.

Science.gov (United States)

Small, Chanley M.

1998-01-01

Presents a set of criteria for constructing a fair and realistic understanding of sex. Recognizes the impact that science can have on social policies and values and recommends that the definitions of sex and gender be carefully crafted. (DDR)

Computational investigation of nonlinear microwave tomography on anatomically realistic breast phantoms

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jensen, P. D.; Rubæk, Tonny; Mohr, J. J.

2013-01-01

The performance of a nonlinear microwave tomography algorithm is tested using simulated data from anatomically realistic breast phantoms. These tests include several different anatomically correct breast models from the University of Wisconsin-Madison repository with and without tumors inserted....

Cultural diversity in heart failure management: findings from the DISCOVER study (Part 2).

Science.gov (United States)

Davidson, Patricia M; Macdonald, Peter; Moser, Debra K; Ang, Esther; Paull, Glenn; Choucair, Sam; Daly, John; Gholizadeh, Leila; Dracup, Kathleen

2007-01-01

Self-management is a critical dimension in managing chronic conditions, particularly in heart failure (HF). Knowledge, attitudes and beliefs, relating to both illness and wellness, are strongly influenced by culture and ethnicity, impacting upon an individual's capacity to engage in self-care behaviours. Effective management of HF is largely dependent on facilitation of culturally informed, self-care behaviours to increase adherence to both pharmacological and non-pharmacological strategies. The Understanding the cultural experiences of individuals with chronic heart failure (CHF) in South East Health (DISCOVER) study is an exploratory, observational study investigating health patterns, information needs and the adjustment process for overseas-born people with HF living in Australia. An integrative literature review was augmented by qualitative data derived from key informant interviews, focus groups and individual interviews. A key finding of this study is that culture provides an important context to aid interpretations of attitudes, values, beliefs and behaviours, not only in illness but in health. While individual differences in attitudes and beliefs were observed among participants, common themes and issues were identified across cultural groups. Data from the DISCOVER study revealed the primacy of family and kinship ties. These relationships were important in making decisions about treatment choices and care plans. Participants also revealed the critical role of the 'family doctor' in assisting people and their families in brokering the health care system. In this study, heart disease was considered to be a significant condition but cancer was the condition that people both feared and dreaded the most, despite the high mortality rates of HF. This sample reported that religious and traditional beliefs became more important as people aged and considered their mortality. As HF is predominately a condition of ageing, the information derived from this study will

An unusual case of idiopathic multiple invasive cervical resorption

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sathya Prakash Reddy Kesary

2014-01-01

Full Text Available Invasive cervical resorption is a rare form of root resorption, characterized by destruction of the cervical region of teeth resulting from the action of tooth resorbing cells. Being an asymptomatic condition, it is often discovered on routine radiographic examination. This multifactorial disease process can most commonly occur as a sequel to orthodontic treatment, dental trauma, bleaching procedures, and less commonly, as an outcome of segmental orthognathic surgery, periodontal root planning, tetracycline conditioning of the root canal, bruxism, transplantation of tooth, guided tissue regeneration, cementoenamel disjunction. In the absence of these predisposing factors, it can be labeled as ′idiopathic multiple cervical resorption′. This article describes the case of a medically fit Indian male, who displayed idiopathic invasive cervical resorption in multiple teeth.

Plasticity-modulated seizure dynamics for seizure termination in realistic neuronal models

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Koppert, M.M.J.; Kalitzin, S.; Lopes da Silva, F.H.; Viergever, M.A.

2011-01-01

In previous studies we showed that autonomous absence seizure generation and termination can be explained by realistic neuronal models eliciting bi-stable dynamics. In these models epileptic seizures are triggered either by external stimuli (reflex epilepsies) or by internal fluctuations. This

Re-discovering indigenous knowledge – Ulwazi Lwemveli for ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Therefore, the imperative to re-discover and re-store IK cannot be underestimated since building on this knowledge is particularly effective in helping to reach those living in rural communities. This knowledge is often the main asset they control, and certainly one with which they are more familiar. The case studies discussed ...

Using realist synthesis to understand the mechanisms of interprofessional teamwork in health and social care.

Science.gov (United States)

Hewitt, Gillian; Sims, Sarah; Harris, Ruth

2014-11-01

Realist synthesis offers a novel and innovative way to interrogate the large literature on interprofessional teamwork in health and social care teams. This article introduces realist synthesis and its approach to identifying and testing the underpinning processes (or "mechanisms") that make an intervention work, the contexts that trigger those mechanisms and their subsequent outcomes. A realist synthesis of the evidence on interprofessional teamwork is described. Thirteen mechanisms were identified in the synthesis and findings for one mechanism, called "Support and value" are presented in this paper. The evidence for the other twelve mechanisms ("collaboration and coordination", "pooling of resources", "individual learning", "role blurring", "efficient, open and equitable communication", "tactical communication", "shared responsibility and influence", "team behavioural norms", "shared responsibility and influence", "critically reviewing performance and decisions", "generating and implementing new ideas" and "leadership") are reported in a further three papers in this series. The "support and value" mechanism referred to the ways in which team members supported one another, respected other's skills and abilities and valued each other's contributions. "Support and value" was present in some, but far from all, teams and a number of contexts that explained this variation were identified. The article concludes with a discussion of the challenges and benefits of undertaking this realist synthesis.

Automatic procedure for realistic 3D finite element modelling of human brain for bioelectromagnetic computations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Aristovich, K Y; Khan, S H

2010-01-01

Realistic computer modelling of biological objects requires building of very accurate and realistic computer models based on geometric and material data, type, and accuracy of numerical analyses. This paper presents some of the automatic tools and algorithms that were used to build accurate and realistic 3D finite element (FE) model of whole-brain. These models were used to solve the forward problem in magnetic field tomography (MFT) based on Magnetoencephalography (MEG). The forward problem involves modelling and computation of magnetic fields produced by human brain during cognitive processing. The geometric parameters of the model were obtained from accurate Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) data and the material properties - from those obtained from Diffusion Tensor MRI (DTMRI). The 3D FE models of the brain built using this approach has been shown to be very accurate in terms of both geometric and material properties. The model is stored on the computer in Computer-Aided Parametrical Design (CAD) format. This allows the model to be used in a wide a range of methods of analysis, such as finite element method (FEM), Boundary Element Method (BEM), Monte-Carlo Simulations, etc. The generic model building approach presented here could be used for accurate and realistic modelling of human brain and many other biological objects.

Blending critical realist and emancipatory practice development methodologies: making critical realism work in nursing research.

LENUS (Irish Health Repository)

Parlour, Randal

2012-12-01

This paper examines the efficacy of facilitation as a practice development intervention in changing practice within an Older Person setting and in implementing evidence into practice. It outlines the influences exerted by the critical realist paradigm in guiding emancipatory practice development activities and, in particular, how the former may be employed within an emancipatory practice development study to elucidate and increase understanding pertinent to causation and outcomes. The methodology is based upon an emancipatory practice development approach set within a realistic evaluation framework. This allows for systematic analysis of the social and contextual elements that influence the explication of outcomes associated with facilitation. The study is concentrated upon five practice development cycles, within which a sequence of iterative processes is integrated. The authors assert that combining critical realist and emancipatory processes offers a robust and practical method for translating evidence and implementing changes in practice, as the former affirms or falsifies the influence that emancipatory processes exert on attaining culture shift, and enabling transformation towards effective clinical practice. A new framework for practice development is proposed that establishes methodological coherency between emancipatory practice development and realistic evaluation. This augments the existing theoretical bases for both these approaches by contributing new theoretical and methodological understandings of causation.

Trellis Tone Modulation Multiple-Access for Peer Discovery in D2D Networks

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Chiwoo Lim

2018-04-01

Full Text Available In this paper, a new non-orthogonal multiple-access scheme, trellis tone modulation multiple-access (TTMMA, is proposed for peer discovery of distributed device-to-device (D2D communication. The range and capacity of discovery are important performance metrics in peer discovery. The proposed trellis tone modulation uses single-tone transmission and achieves a long discovery range due to its low Peak-to-Average Power Ratio (PAPR. The TTMMA also exploits non-orthogonal resource assignment to increase the discovery capacity. For the multi-user detection of superposed multiple-access signals, a message-passing algorithm with supplementary schemes are proposed. With TTMMA and its message-passing demodulation, approximately 1.5 times the number of devices are discovered compared to the conventional frequency division multiple-access (FDMA-based discovery.

Discovering disease-associated genes in weighted protein-protein interaction networks

Science.gov (United States)

Cui, Ying; Cai, Meng; Stanley, H. Eugene

2018-04-01

Although there have been many network-based attempts to discover disease-associated genes, most of them have not taken edge weight - which quantifies their relative strength - into consideration. We use connection weights in a protein-protein interaction (PPI) network to locate disease-related genes. We analyze the topological properties of both weighted and unweighted PPI networks and design an improved random forest classifier to distinguish disease genes from non-disease genes. We use a cross-validation test to confirm that weighted networks are better able to discover disease-associated genes than unweighted networks, which indicates that including link weight in the analysis of network properties provides a better model of complex genotype-phenotype associations.

A tactical supply chain planning model with multiple flexibility options

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Esmaeilikia, Masoud; Fahimnia, Behnam; Sarkis, Joeseph

2016-01-01

Supply chain flexibility is widely recognized as an approach to manage uncertainty. Uncertainty in the supply chain may arise from a number of sources such as demand and supply interruptions and lead time variability. A tactical supply chain planning model with multiple flexibility options...... incorporated in sourcing, manufacturing and logistics functions can be used for the analysis of flexibility adjustment in an existing supply chain. This paper develops such a tactical supply chain planning model incorporating a realistic range of flexibility options. A novel solution method is designed...

Comparison of Personal Resources in Patients Who Differently Estimate the Impact of Multiple Sclerosis.

Science.gov (United States)

Wilski, Maciej; Tomczak, Maciej

2017-04-01

Discrepancies between physicians' assessment and patients' subjective representations of the disease severity may influence physician-patient communication and management of a chronic illness, such as multiple sclerosis (MS). For these reasons, it is important to recognize factors that distinguish patients who differently estimate the impact of MS. The purpose of this study was to verify if the patients who overestimate or underestimate the impact of MS differ in their perception of personal resources from individuals presenting with a realistic appraisal of their physical condition. A total of 172 women and 92 men diagnosed with MS completed Multiple Sclerosis Impact Scale, University of Washington Self Efficacy Scale, Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, Body Esteem Scale, Brief Illness Perception Questionnaire, Treatment Beliefs Scale, Actually Received Support Scale, and Socioeconomic resources scale. Physician's assessment of health status was determined with Expanded Disability Status Scale. Linear regression analysis was conducted to identify the subsets of patients with various patterns of subjective health and Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS) scores. Patients overestimating the impact of their disease presented with significantly lower levels of self-esteem, self-efficacy in MS, and body esteem; furthermore, they perceived their condition more threatening than did realists and underestimators. They also assessed anti-MS treatment worse, had less socioeconomic resources, and received less support than underestimators. Additionally, underestimators presented with significantly better perception of their disease, self, and body than did realists. Self-assessment of MS-related symptoms is associated with specific perception of personal resources in coping with the disease. These findings may facilitate communication with patients and point to new directions for future research on adaptation to MS.

ObamaNet: Photo-realistic lip-sync from text

OpenAIRE

Kumar, Rithesh; Sotelo, Jose; Kumar, Kundan; de Brebisson, Alexandre; Bengio, Yoshua

2017-01-01

We present ObamaNet, the first architecture that generates both audio and synchronized photo-realistic lip-sync videos from any new text. Contrary to other published lip-sync approaches, ours is only composed of fully trainable neural modules and does not rely on any traditional computer graphics methods. More precisely, we use three main modules: a text-to-speech network based on Char2Wav, a time-delayed LSTM to generate mouth-keypoints synced to the audio, and a network based on Pix2Pix to ...

Ultra-Reliable Communications in Failure-Prone Realistic Networks

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Gerardino, Guillermo Andrés Pocovi; Lauridsen, Mads; Alvarez, Beatriz Soret

2016-01-01

We investigate the potential of different diversity and interference management techniques to achieve the required downlink SINR outage probability for ultra-reliable communications. The evaluation is performed in a realistic network deployment based on site-specific data from a European capital....... Micro and macroscopic diversity techniques are proved to be important enablers of ultra-reliable communications. Particularly, it is shown how a 4x4 MIMO scheme with three orders of macroscopic diversity can achieve the required SINR outage performance. Smaller gains are obtained from interference...

Realist Stronghold in the Land of Thucydides? - Appraising and Resisting a Realist Tradition in Greece

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kyriakos Mikelis

2015-10-01

Full Text Available Given the integration of the discipline of International Relations in Greece into the global discipline since a few decades, the article addresses the reflection of the ‘realism in and for the globe’ question to this specific case. Although the argument doesn’t go as far as to ‘recover’ forgotten IR theorists or self-proclaimed realists, a geopolitical dimension of socio-economic thought during interwar addressed concerns which could be related to the intricacies of realpolitik. Then again at current times, certain scholars have been eager to maintain a firm stance in favor of realism, focusing on the work of ancient figures, especially Thucydides or Homer, and on questions of the offensive-defensive realism debate as well as on the connection with the English School, while others have offered fruitful insights matching the broad constructivist agenda. Overall, certain genuine arguments have appeared, reflecting diversified views about sovereignty and its function or mitigation.

Realistically Rendering SoC Traffic Patterns with Interrupt Awareness

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Angiolini, Frederico; Mahadevan, Sharkar; Madsen, Jan

2005-01-01

to generate realistic test traffic. This paper presents a selection of applications using interrupt-based synchronization; a reference methodology to split such applications in execution subflows and to adjust the overall execution stream based upon hardware events; a reactive simulation device capable...... of correctly replicating such software behaviours in the MPSoC design phase. Additionally, we validate the proposed concept by showing cycle-accurate reproduction of a previously traced application flow....

Realistic Simulations of Coronagraphic Observations with WFIRST

Science.gov (United States)

Rizzo, Maxime; Zimmerman, Neil; Roberge, Aki; Lincowski, Andrew; Arney, Giada; Stark, Chris; Jansen, Tiffany; Turnbull, Margaret; WFIRST Science Investigation Team (Turnbull)

2018-01-01

We present a framework to simulate observing scenarios with the WFIRST Coronagraphic Instrument (CGI). The Coronagraph and Rapid Imaging Spectrograph in Python (crispy) is an open-source package that can be used to create CGI data products for analysis and development of post-processing routines. The software convolves time-varying coronagraphic PSFs with realistic astrophysical scenes which contain a planetary architecture, a consistent dust structure, and a background field composed of stars and galaxies. The focal plane can be read out by a WFIRST electron-multiplying CCD model directly, or passed through a WFIRST integral field spectrograph model first. Several elementary post-processing routines are provided as part of the package.

UE4Sim: A Photo-Realistic Simulator for Computer Vision Applications

KAUST Repository

Mueller, Matthias; Casser, Vincent; Lahoud, Jean; Smith, Neil; Ghanem, Bernard

2017-01-01

We present a photo-realistic training and evaluation simulator (UE4Sim) with extensive applications across various fields of computer vision. Built on top of the Unreal Engine, the simulator integrates full featured physics based cars, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), and animated human actors in diverse urban and suburban 3D environments. We demonstrate the versatility of the simulator with two case studies: autonomous UAV-based tracking of moving objects and autonomous driving using supervised learning. The simulator fully integrates both several state-of-the-art tracking algorithms with a benchmark evaluation tool and a deep neural network (DNN) architecture for training vehicles to drive autonomously. It generates synthetic photo-realistic datasets with automatic ground truth annotations to easily extend existing real-world datasets and provides extensive synthetic data variety through its ability to reconfigure synthetic worlds on the fly using an automatic world generation tool.

UE4Sim: A Photo-Realistic Simulator for Computer Vision Applications

KAUST Repository

Mueller, Matthias

2017-08-19

We present a photo-realistic training and evaluation simulator (UE4Sim) with extensive applications across various fields of computer vision. Built on top of the Unreal Engine, the simulator integrates full featured physics based cars, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), and animated human actors in diverse urban and suburban 3D environments. We demonstrate the versatility of the simulator with two case studies: autonomous UAV-based tracking of moving objects and autonomous driving using supervised learning. The simulator fully integrates both several state-of-the-art tracking algorithms with a benchmark evaluation tool and a deep neural network (DNN) architecture for training vehicles to drive autonomously. It generates synthetic photo-realistic datasets with automatic ground truth annotations to easily extend existing real-world datasets and provides extensive synthetic data variety through its ability to reconfigure synthetic worlds on the fly using an automatic world generation tool.

Sim4CV: A Photo-Realistic Simulator for Computer Vision Applications

KAUST Repository

Müller, Matthias

2018-03-24

We present a photo-realistic training and evaluation simulator (Sim4CV) (http://www.sim4cv.org) with extensive applications across various fields of computer vision. Built on top of the Unreal Engine, the simulator integrates full featured physics based cars, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), and animated human actors in diverse urban and suburban 3D environments. We demonstrate the versatility of the simulator with two case studies: autonomous UAV-based tracking of moving objects and autonomous driving using supervised learning. The simulator fully integrates both several state-of-the-art tracking algorithms with a benchmark evaluation tool and a deep neural network architecture for training vehicles to drive autonomously. It generates synthetic photo-realistic datasets with automatic ground truth annotations to easily extend existing real-world datasets and provides extensive synthetic data variety through its ability to reconfigure synthetic worlds on the fly using an automatic world generation tool.

Operator representation for effective realistic interactions

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Weber, Dennis; Feldmeier, Hans; Neff, Thomas [GSI Helmholtzzentrum fuer Schwerionenforschung GmbH, Darmstadt (Germany)

2013-07-01

We present a method to derive an operator representation from the partial wave matrix elements of effective realistic nucleon-nucleon potentials. This method allows to employ modern effective interactions, which are mostly given in matrix element representation, also in nuclear many-body methods requiring explicitly the operator representation, for example ''Fermionic Molecular Dynamics'' (FMD). We present results for the operator representation of effective interactions obtained from the Argonne V18 potential with the Uenitary Correlation Operator Method'' (UCOM) and the ''Similarity Renormalization Group'' (SRG). Moreover, the operator representation allows a better insight in the nonlocal structure of the potential: While the UCOM transformed potential only shows a quadratic momentum dependence, the momentum dependence of SRG transformed potentials is beyond such a simple polynomial form.

Discovering time-lagged rules from microarray data using gene profile classifiers

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ponzoni Ignacio

2011-04-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Gene regulatory networks have an essential role in every process of life. In this regard, the amount of genome-wide time series data is becoming increasingly available, providing the opportunity to discover the time-delayed gene regulatory networks that govern the majority of these molecular processes. Results This paper aims at reconstructing gene regulatory networks from multiple genome-wide microarray time series datasets. In this sense, a new model-free algorithm called GRNCOP2 (Gene Regulatory Network inference by Combinatorial OPtimization 2, which is a significant evolution of the GRNCOP algorithm, was developed using combinatorial optimization of gene profile classifiers. The method is capable of inferring potential time-delay relationships with any span of time between genes from various time series datasets given as input. The proposed algorithm was applied to time series data composed of twenty yeast genes that are highly relevant for the cell-cycle study, and the results were compared against several related approaches. The outcomes have shown that GRNCOP2 outperforms the contrasted methods in terms of the proposed metrics, and that the results are consistent with previous biological knowledge. Additionally, a genome-wide study on multiple publicly available time series data was performed. In this case, the experimentation has exhibited the soundness and scalability of the new method which inferred highly-related statistically-significant gene associations. Conclusions A novel method for inferring time-delayed gene regulatory networks from genome-wide time series datasets is proposed in this paper. The method was carefully validated with several publicly available data sets. The results have demonstrated that the algorithm constitutes a usable model-free approach capable of predicting meaningful relationships between genes, revealing the time-trends of gene regulation.

Report of the workshop on realistic SSC lattices

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1985-10-01

A workshop was held at the SSC Central Design Group from May 29 to June 4, 1985, on topics relating to the lattice of the SSC. The workshop marked a shift of emphasis from the investigation of simplified test lattices to the development of a realistic lattice suitable for the conceptual design report. The first day of the workshop was taken up by reviews of accelerator system requirements, of the reference design solutions for these requirements, of lattice work following the reference design, and of plans for the workshop. The work was divided among four working groups. The first, chaired by David Douglas, concerned the arcs of regular cells. The second group, which studied the utility insertions, was chaired by Beat Leemann. The third group, under David E. Johnson, concerned itself with the experimental insertions, dispersion suppressors, and phase trombones. The fourth group, responsible for global lattice considerations and the design of a new realistic lattice example, was led by Ernest Courant. The papers resulting from this workshop are roughly divided into three sets: those relating to specific lattice components, to complete lattices, and to other topics. Among the salient accomplishments of the workshop were additions to and optimization of lattice components, especially those relating to lattices using 1-in-1 magnets, either horizontally or vertically separated, and the design of complete lattice examples. Selected papers are indexed separately for inclusion in the Energy Science and Technology Database

Complete methodology on generating realistic wind speed profiles based on measurements

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Gavriluta, Catalin; Spataru, Sergiu; Mosincat, Ioan

2012-01-01

, wind modelling for medium and large time scales is poorly treated in the present literature. This paper presents methods for generating realistic wind speed profiles based on real measurements. The wind speed profile is divided in a low- frequency component (describing long term variations...

Neural Correlates of Realistic and Unrealistic Auditory Space Perception

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Akiko Callan

2011-10-01

Full Text Available Binaural recordings can simulate externalized auditory space perception over headphones. However, if the orientation of the recorder's head and the orientation of the listener's head are incongruent, the simulated auditory space is not realistic. For example, if a person lying flat on a bed listens to an environmental sound that was recorded by microphones inserted in ears of a person who was in an upright position, the sound simulates an auditory space rotated 90 degrees to the real-world horizontal axis. Our question is whether brain activation patterns are different between the unrealistic auditory space (ie, the orientation of the listener's head and the orientation of the recorder's head are incongruent and the realistic auditory space (ie, the orientations are congruent. River sounds that were binaurally recorded either in a supine position or in an upright body position were served as auditory stimuli. During fMRI experiments, participants listen to the stimuli and pressed one of two buttons indicating the direction of the water flow (horizontal/vertical. Behavioral results indicated that participants could not differentiate between the congruent and the incongruent conditions. However, neuroimaging results showed that the congruent condition activated the planum temporale significantly more than the incongruent condition.

Molecular evidence for high frequency of multiple paternity in a freshwater shrimp species Caridina ensifera.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Gen Hua Yue

2010-09-01

Full Text Available Molecular genetic analyses of parentage provide insights into mating systems. Although there are 22,000 members in Malacostraca, not much has been known about mating systems in Malacostraca. The freshwater shrimp Caridina ensifera blue, is a new species belonging to Malacostraca which was discovered recently in Sulawesi, Indonesia. Due to its small body size and low fecundity, this species is an ideal species to study the occurrence and frequency of multiple paternity and to understand of how the low fecundity species persist and evolve.In this study, we developed four polymorphic microsatellites from C. ensifera and applied them to investigate the occurrence and frequency of multiple paternity in 20 C. ensifera broods caught from Lake Matano, Sulawesi. By genotyping the mother and all offspring from each brood we discovered multiple paternity in all 20 broods. In most of the 20 broods, fathers contributed skewed numbers of offspring and there was an apparent inverse correlation between reproductive success of sires and their relatedness to mothers.Our results in combination with recent reports on multiple paternity in crayfish, crab and lobster species suggests that multiple paternity is common in Malacostraca. Skewed contribution of fathers to the numbers of offspring and inverse correlation between reproductive success of sires and their relatedness to mothers suggest that sperm competition occurred and/or pre- and postcopulatory female choice happen, which may be important for avoiding the occurrence of inbreeding and optimize genetic variation in offspring and for persistence and evolution of low fecundity species.

Seismic PSA method for multiple nuclear power plants in a site

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Hakata, Tadakuni [Nuclear Safety Commission, Tokyo (Japan)

2007-07-15

The maximum number of nuclear power plants in a site is eight and about 50% of power plants are built in sites with three or more plants in the world. Such nuclear sites have potential risks of simultaneous multiple plant damages especially at external events. Seismic probabilistic safety assessment method (Level-1 PSA) for multi-unit sites with up to 9 units has been developed. The models include Fault-tree linked Monte Carlo computation, taking into consideration multivariate correlations of components and systems from partial to complete, inside and across units. The models were programmed as a computer program CORAL reef. Sample analysis and sensitivity studies were performed to verify the models and algorithms and to understand some of risk insights and risk metrics, such as site core damage frequency (CDF per site-year) for multiple reactor plants. This study will contribute to realistic state of art seismic PSA, taking consideration of multiple reactor power plants, and to enhancement of seismic safety. (author)

32 CFR 644.533 - Contamination discovered after return of land to owner, or sale.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-07-01

... 32 National Defense 4 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 true Contamination discovered after return of land to owner, or sale. 644.533 Section 644.533 National Defense Department of Defense (Continued) DEPARTMENT OF... Other Contamination from Proposed Excess Land and Improvements § 644.533 Contamination discovered after...

Discovering disease associations by integrating electronic clinical data and medical literature.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Antony B Holmes

Full Text Available Electronic health record (EHR systems offer an exceptional opportunity for studying many diseases and their associated medical conditions within a population. The increasing number of clinical record entries that have become available electronically provides access to rich, large sets of patients' longitudinal medical information. By integrating and comparing relations found in the EHRs with those already reported in the literature, we are able to verify existing and to identify rare or novel associations. Of particular interest is the identification of rare disease co-morbidities, where the small numbers of diagnosed patients make robust statistical analysis difficult. Here, we introduce ADAMS, an Application for Discovering Disease Associations using Multiple Sources, which contains various statistical and language processing operations. We apply ADAMS to the New York-Presbyterian Hospital's EHR to combine the information from the relational diagnosis tables and textual discharge summaries with those from PubMed and Wikipedia in order to investigate the co-morbidities of the rare diseases Kaposi sarcoma, toxoplasmosis, and Kawasaki disease. In addition to finding well-known characteristics of diseases, ADAMS can identify rare or previously unreported associations. In particular, we report a statistically significant association between Kawasaki disease and diagnosis of autistic disorder.

[Case of lymphangioleiomyomatosis (LAM) discovered during cesarean section under spinal anesthesia].

Science.gov (United States)

Nakanishi, Mika; Okura, Nahomi; Kashii, Tomoko; Matsushita, Mitsuji; Mori, Masanobu; Yoshida, Masayo; Tsujimura, Shigehisa

2014-02-01

We experienced a case of scheduled cesarean section under spinal anesthesia in a patient with LAM which had been missed in spite of preoperative medical examination and consultation with specialists but discovered because of perioperative hypoxia A 35-year-old woman, Gravida 1 Para 0, with breech presentation was scheduled to undergo cesarean section under spinal anesthesia at 38 weeks of gestation. She had no history of asthma or abnormal findings at annual medical examination. She had suffered from dry cough and nocturnal dyspnea for 7 weeks and an inhaled bronchodilator was administered with diagnosis of inflammatory airway disease by her respiratory physicians. Spinal anesthesia was performed with bupivacaine 12.5 mg. At the beginning of anesthesia SPO2 was 97% in supine position, but it rapidly decreased to less than 90% and 3 l x min(-1) oxygen was supplied with a facial mask. The anesthetic level was thoracal 4 bilaterally and her breathing was stable. The circulatory state, Apgar score and other vital signs were within normal ranges. Postoperative chest X-ray showed bilateral numerous grained spots and computed tomography scans showed multiple thin-walled cysts. The characteristic history and the fluoroscopic data gave her clinical diagnosis of LAM.

A case series of clinically undiagnosed hematopoietic neoplasms discovered at autopsy.

Science.gov (United States)

Podduturi, Varsha; Guileyardo, Joseph M; Soto, Luis R; Krause, John R

2015-06-01

In the United States, autopsy rates have diminished to less than 5% during the last half of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century for a multitude of reasons. Many believe this results in unrecognized malignancies that could have explained a patient's death. We describe six deaths in which hematopoietic neoplasms were identified at autopsy but were not diagnosed clinically. The six undiagnosed hematopoietic malignancy cases discovered at autopsy include four men and two women ranging from 50 to 78 years of age. One patient was African American and five patients were white, all with multiple comorbidities. The tumors included diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, activated B-cell type, intravascular large B-cell lymphoma, ALK-negative anaplastic large cell lymphoma arising in a setting of human immunodeficiency virus, and a myeloid sarcoma. These cases illustrate the importance of the traditional postmortem examination in not only confirming clinical diagnoses but also identifying previously unknown diagnoses. Hematologic malignancies may present with nonspecific clinical manifestations, and this series of cases also emphasizes the necessity for widening the differential diagnosis in patients with unexplained lactic acidosis and hepatic failure to include hematopoietic malignancies since prompt treatment may be lifesaving. Copyright© by the American Society for Clinical Pathology.

Strontium-90 Error Discovered in Subcontract Laboratory Spreadsheet. Topical Report

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Brown, D.D.; Nagel, A.S.

1999-07-01

West Valley Demonstration Project health physicists and environment scientists discovered a series of errors in a subcontractor's spreadsheet being used to reduce data as part of their strontium-90 analytical process

[Multiple sclerosis in literature, cinema and television].

Science.gov (United States)

Collado-Vazquez, S; Carrillo, J M; Cano-de-la-Cuerda, R

2016-12-16

Today, the care of patients with multiple sclerosis and those around them represents a clinical and therapeutic challenge for healthcare professionals. The aim of this study is to analyse the appearance of multiple sclerosis in literature, cinema and television, and to reflect upon the image it has in these media. Several representative works that have addressed multiple sclerosis were reviewed, and many of them were seen to offer a very true-to-life vision of the disease. Likewise, a review was also conducted of the most relevant films and TV series that, on occasions, offer the general public a close look at the impact of the disease on patients or relatives, although they are sometimes somewhat exaggerated for the sake of increased dramatic effect and offer a slightly distorted view of reality. Literature largely reflects the real epidemiology, the symptoms and development of the disease, while less attention seems to be given to the diagnostic and therapeutic options open to patients. Cinema and television have offered a correct image but sometimes with the addition of more dramatic effects. It is important for literature, cinema and television to offer a realistic view of this neurological disease so as to make it better known among the public and to help lessen the stigma attached to it.

Discovering More Accurate Frequent Web Usage Patterns

OpenAIRE

Bayir, Murat Ali; Toroslu, Ismail Hakki; Cosar, Ahmet; Fidan, Guven

2008-01-01

Web usage mining is a type of web mining, which exploits data mining techniques to discover valuable information from navigation behavior of World Wide Web users. As in classical data mining, data preparation and pattern discovery are the main issues in web usage mining. The first phase of web usage mining is the data processing phase, which includes the session reconstruction operation from server logs. Session reconstruction success directly affects the quality of the frequent patterns disc...

Effect of geometry on concentration polarization in realistic heterogeneous permselective systems

Science.gov (United States)

Green, Yoav; Shloush, Shahar; Yossifon, Gilad

2014-04-01

This study extends previous analytical solutions of concentration polarization occurring solely in the depleted region, to the more realistic geometry consisting of a three-dimensional (3D) heterogeneous ion-permselective medium connecting two opposite microchambers (i.e., a three-layer system). Under the local electroneutrality approximation, the separation of variable methods is used to derive an analytical solution of the electrodiffusive problem for the two opposing asymmetric microchambers. The assumption of an ideal permselective medium allows for the analytic calculation of the 3D concentration and electric potential distributions as well as a current-voltage relation. It is shown that any asymmetry in the microchamber geometries will result in current rectification. Moreover, it is demonstrated that for non-negligible microchamber resistances, the conductance does not exhibit the expected saturation at low concentrations but instead shows a continuous decrease. The results are intended to facilitate a more direct comparison between theory and experiments, as now the voltage drop is across a realistic 3D and three-layer system.

Realistic nuclear shell theory and the doubly-magic 132Sn region

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Vary, J.P.

1978-01-01

After an introduction discussing the motivation and interest in results obtained with isotope separators, the fundamental problem in realistic nuclear shell theory is posed in the context of renormalization theory. Then some of the important developments that have occurred over the last fifteen years in the derivation of the effective Hamiltonian and application of realistic nuclear shell theory are briefly reviewed. Doubly magic regions of the periodic table and the unique advantages of the 132 Sn region are described. Then results are shown for the ground-state properties of 132 Sn as calculated from the density-dependent Hartree-Fock approach with the Skyrme Hamiltonian. A single theoretical Hamiltonian for all nuclei from doubly magic 132 Sn to doubly magic 208 Pb is presented; single-particle energies are graphed. Finally, predictions of shell-model level-density distributions obtained with spectral distribution methods are discussed; calculated level densities are shown for 136 Xe. 10 figures

A Realistic Human Exposure Assessment of Indoor Radon released from Groundwater

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yu, Dong Han; Han, Moon Hee

2002-01-01

The work presents a realistic human exposure assessment of indoor radon released from groundwater in a house. At first, a two-compartment model is developed to describe the generation and transfer of radon in indoor air from groundwater. The model is used to estimate radon concentrations profile of indoor air in a house using by showering, washing clothes, and flushing toilets. Then, the study performs an uncertainty analysis of model input parameters to quantify the uncertainty in radon concentration profile. In order to estimate a daily internal dose of a specific tissue group in an adult through the inhalation of such indoor radon, a PBPK(Physiologically-Based Pharmaco-Kinetic) model is developed. Combining indoor radon profile and PBPK model is used to a realistic human assessment for such exposure. The results obtained from this study would be used to the evaluation of human risk by inhalation associated with the indoor radon released from groundwater

Realistic Paleobathymetry of the Cenomanian–Turonian (94 Ma Boundary Global Ocean

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Arghya Goswami

2018-01-01

Full Text Available At present, global paleoclimate simulations are prepared with bathtub-like, flat, featureless and steep walled ocean bathymetry, which is neither realistic nor suitable. In this article, we present the first enhanced version of a reconstructed paleobathymetry for Cenomanian–Turonian (94 Ma time in a 0.1° × 0.1° resolution, that is both realistic and suitable for use in paleo-climate studies. This reconstruction is an extrapolation of a parameterized modern ocean bathymetry that combines simple geophysical models (standard plate cooling model for the oceanic lithosphere based on ocean crustal age, global modern oceanic sediment thicknesses, and generalized shelf-slope-rise structures calibrated from a published global relief model of the modern world (ETOPO1 at active and passive continental margins. The base version of this Cenomanian–Turonian paleobathymetry reconstruction is then updated with known submarine large igneous provinces, plateaus, and seamounts to minimize the difference between the reconstructed paleobathymetry and the real bathymetry that once existed.

Book Review: A Liberal Actor in a Realist World the European Union ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Abstract. Book Title: A Liberal Actor in a Realist World the European Union Regulatory State and the Global Political Economy of Energy. Book Author: Andreas Goldthau & Nick Sitter. Oxford University Press Oxford 2015. ISBN 9780198719595 ...

Comparison of temporal realistic telecommunication base station exposure with worst-case estimation in two countries

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mahfouz, Z.; Verloock, L.; Joseph, W.; Tanghe, E.; Gati, A.; Wiart, J.; Lautru, D.; Hanna, V. F.; Martens, L.

2013-01-01

The influence of temporal daily exposure to global system for mobile communications (GSM) and universal mobile telecommunications systems and high speed down-link packet access (UMTS-HSDPA) is investigated using spectrum analyser measurements in two countries, France and Belgium. Temporal variations and traffic distributions are investigated. Three different methods to estimate maximal electric-field exposure are compared. The maximal realistic (99 %) and the maximal theoretical extrapolation factor used to extrapolate the measured broadcast control channel (BCCH) for GSM and the common pilot channel (CPICH) for UMTS are presented and compared for the first time in the two countries. Similar conclusions are found in the two countries for both urban and rural areas: worst-case exposure assessment overestimates realistic maximal exposure up to 5.7 dB for the considered example. In France, the values are the highest, because of the higher population density. The results for the maximal realistic extrapolation factor at the weekdays are similar to those from weekend days. (authors)

Comparison of temporal realistic telecommunication base station exposure with worst-case estimation in two countries.

Science.gov (United States)

Mahfouz, Zaher; Verloock, Leen; Joseph, Wout; Tanghe, Emmeric; Gati, Azeddine; Wiart, Joe; Lautru, David; Hanna, Victor Fouad; Martens, Luc

2013-12-01

The influence of temporal daily exposure to global system for mobile communications (GSM) and universal mobile telecommunications systems and high speed downlink packet access (UMTS-HSDPA) is investigated using spectrum analyser measurements in two countries, France and Belgium. Temporal variations and traffic distributions are investigated. Three different methods to estimate maximal electric-field exposure are compared. The maximal realistic (99 %) and the maximal theoretical extrapolation factor used to extrapolate the measured broadcast control channel (BCCH) for GSM and the common pilot channel (CPICH) for UMTS are presented and compared for the first time in the two countries. Similar conclusions are found in the two countries for both urban and rural areas: worst-case exposure assessment overestimates realistic maximal exposure up to 5.7 dB for the considered example. In France, the values are the highest, because of the higher population density. The results for the maximal realistic extrapolation factor at the weekdays are similar to those from weekend days.

The Use of a Performance Assessment for Identifying Gifted Lebanese Students: Is DISCOVER Effective?

Science.gov (United States)

Sarouphim, Ketty M.

2009-01-01

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of DISCOVER, a performance- based assessment in identifying gifted Lebanese students. The sample consisted of 248 students (121 boys, 127 girls) from Grades 3-5 at two private schools in Beirut, Lebanon. Students were administered DISCOVER and the Raven Standard Progressive Matrices…

Highly Realistic Training for Navy Corpsmen: A Follow-up Assessment

Science.gov (United States)

2017-10-12

based training for military medical providers. One such training is highly realistic training. Based on the success of the Infantry Immersion ...observation with minimal participation improves paediatric emergency medicine knowledge, skills and confidence. Emergency Medicine Journal , 32(3), 195... immersive training for Navy corpsmen: Preliminary results. Military Medicine, 179(12), 1439–1443. Booth-Kewley, S., McWhorter, S. K., Dell’Acqua, R

Realistic microscopic level densities for spherical nuclei

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cerf, N.

1994-01-01

Nuclear level densities play an important role in nuclear reactions such as the formation of the compound nucleus. We develop a microscopic calculation of the level density based on a combinatorial evaluation from a realistic single-particle level scheme. This calculation makes use of a fast Monte Carlo algorithm allowing us to consider large shell model spaces which could not be treated previously in combinatorial approaches. Since our model relies on a microscopic basis, it can be applied to exotic nuclei with more confidence than the commonly used semiphenomenological formuals. An exhaustive comparison of our predicted neutron s-wave resonance spacings with experimental data for a wide range of nuclei is presented

Presence of extensive Wolbachia symbiont insertions discovered in the genome of its host Glossina morsitans morsitans.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Corey Brelsfoard

2014-04-01

Full Text Available Tsetse flies (Glossina spp. are the cyclical vectors of Trypanosoma spp., which are unicellular parasites responsible for multiple diseases, including nagana in livestock and sleeping sickness in humans in Africa. Glossina species, including Glossina morsitans morsitans (Gmm, for which the Whole Genome Sequence (WGS is now available, have established symbiotic associations with three endosymbionts: Wigglesworthia glossinidia, Sodalis glossinidius and Wolbachia pipientis (Wolbachia. The presence of Wolbachia in both natural and laboratory populations of Glossina species, including the presence of horizontal gene transfer (HGT events in a laboratory colony of Gmm, has already been shown. We herein report on the draft genome sequence of the cytoplasmic Wolbachia endosymbiont (cytWol associated with Gmm. By in silico and molecular and cytogenetic analysis, we discovered and validated the presence of multiple insertions of Wolbachia (chrWol in the host Gmm genome. We identified at least two large insertions of chrWol, 527,507 and 484,123 bp in size, from Gmm WGS data. Southern hybridizations confirmed the presence of Wolbachia insertions in Gmm genome, and FISH revealed multiple insertions located on the two sex chromosomes (X and Y, as well as on the supernumerary B-chromosomes. We compare the chrWol insertions to the cytWol draft genome in an attempt to clarify the evolutionary history of the HGT events. We discuss our findings in light of the evolution of Wolbachia infections in the tsetse fly and their potential impacts on the control of tsetse populations and trypanosomiasis.

Screening individual hybridomas by microengraving to discover monoclonal antibodies

Science.gov (United States)

Ogunniyi, Adebola O; Story, Craig M; Papa, Eliseo; Guillen, Eduardo; Love, J Christopher

2014-01-01

The demand for monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) in biomedical research is significant, but the current methodologies used to discover them are both lengthy and costly. Consequently, the diversity of antibodies available for any particular antigen remains limited. Microengraving is a soft lithographic technique that provides a rapid and efficient alternative for discovering new mAbs. This protocol describes how to use microengraving to screen mouse hybridomas to establish new cell lines producing unique mAbs. Single cells from a polyclonal population are isolated into an array of microscale wells (~105 cells per screen). The array is then used to print a protein microarray, where each element contains the antibodies captured from individual wells. The antibodies on the microarray are screened with antigens of interest, and mapped to the corresponding cells, which are then recovered from their microwells by micromanipulation. Screening and retrieval require approximately 1–3 d (9–12 d including the steps for preparing arrays of microwells). PMID:19528952

Discovering the secrets of the Olifants sediments

CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

Petersen, C

2012-07-01

Full Text Available is an important component of an aquatic ecosystem in that it provides habitat, feed- ing and spawning areas for aquatic fauna such as fish and benthic Discovering the secrets of THE OLIFANTS SEDIMENTS The polluted Upper Olifants River, in Mpumalanga, has... the distribution of bed material sizes. This allows for the determination ? Top right: The Koffie- spruit, a tributary of the Upper Olifants River. Middle right: Bank erosion was evident throughout the Koffiespruit study reach. This section of river...

Lessons learned in using realist evaluation to assess maternal and newborn health programming in rural Bangladesh.

Science.gov (United States)

Adams, Alayne; Sedalia, Saroj; McNab, Shanon; Sarker, Malabika

2016-03-01

Realist evaluation furnishes valuable insight to public health practitioners and policy makers about how and why interventions work or don't work. Moving beyond binary measures of success or failure, it provides a systematic approach to understanding what goes on in the 'Black Box' and how implementation decisions in real life contexts can affect intervention effectiveness. This paper reflects on an experience in applying the tenets of realist evaluation to identify optimal implementation strategies for scale-up of Maternal and Newborn Health (MNH) programmes in rural Bangladesh. Supported by UNICEF, the three MNH programmes under consideration employed different implementation models to deliver similar services and meet similar MNH goals. Programme targets included adoption of recommended antenatal, post-natal and essential newborn care practices; health systems strengthening through improved referral, accountability and administrative systems, and increased community knowledge. Drawing on focused examples from this research, seven steps for operationalizing the realist evaluation approach are offered, while emphasizing the need to iterate and innovate in terms of methods and analysis strategies. The paper concludes by reflecting on lessons learned in applying realist evaluation, and the unique insights it yields regarding implementation strategies for successful MNH programming. © The Author 2015. Published by Oxford University Press in association with The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

Metagenomic approach for discovering new pathogens in infection disease outbreaks

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Emanuela Giombini

2011-09-01

Full Text Available Viruses represent the most abundant biological components on earth.They can be found in every environment, from deep layers of oceans to animal bodies.Although several viruses have been isolated and sequenced, in each environment there are millions of different types of viruses that have not been identified yet.The advent of nextgeneration sequencing technologies with their high throughput capabilities make possible to study in a single experiment all the community of microorganisms present in a particular sample “microbioma”.They made more feasible the application of the metagenomic approach, by which it is also possible to discover and identify new pathogens, that may pose a threat to public health.This paper summarizes the most recent applications of nextgeneration sequencing to discover new viral pathogens during the occurrence of infection disease outbreaks.

Automated multiple failure FMEA

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Price, C.J.; Taylor, N.S.

2002-01-01

Failure mode and effects analysis (FMEA) is typically performed by a team of engineers working together. In general, they will only consider single point failures in a system. Consideration of all possible combinations of failures is impractical for all but the simplest example systems. Even if the task of producing the FMEA report for the full multiple failure scenario were automated, it would still be impractical for the engineers to read, understand and act on all of the results. This paper shows how approximate failure rates for components can be used to select the most likely combinations of failures for automated investigation using simulation. The important information can be automatically identified from the resulting report, making it practical for engineers to study and act on the results. The strategy described in the paper has been applied to a range of electrical subsystems, and the results have confirmed that the strategy described here works well for realistically complex systems

Elastic scattering of protons at the nucleus 6He in the Glauber multiple scattering theory

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Prmantayeva, B.A.; Temerbayev, A.A.; Tleulessova, I.K.; Ibrayeva, E.T.

2011-01-01

Calculation is submitted for the differential cross sections of elastic p 6 He-scattering at energies of 70 and 700 MeV/nucleon within the framework of the Glauber theory of multiple diffraction scattering. We used the three-particle wave functions: α-n-n with realistic intercluster potentials. The sensitivity of elastic scattering to the proton-nuclear interaction and the structure of nuclei had been investigated. It is shown that the contribution of small components of the wave function as well as the multiplicity of the scattering operator Ω should be considered to describe a cross-section in broad angular range . A comparison with available experimental data was made. (author)

mEBT: multiple-matching Evidence-based Translator of Murine Genomic Responses for Human Immunity Studies.

Science.gov (United States)

Tae, Donghyun; Seok, Junhee

2018-05-29

In this paper, we introduce multiple-matching Evidence-based Translator (mEBT) to discover genomic responses from murine expression data for human immune studies, which are significant in the given condition of mice and likely have similar responses in the corresponding condition of human. mEBT is evaluated over multiple data sets and shows improved inter-species agreement. mEBT is expected to be useful for research groups who use murine models to study human immunity. http://cdal.korea.ac.kr/mebt/. jseok14@korea.ac.kr. Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.

The Spy VI child : A newly discovered Neandertal infant

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Crevecoeur, Isabelle; Bayle, Priscilla; Rougier, Helene; Maureille, Bruno; Higham, Thomas; van der Plicht, Johannes; De Clerck, Nora; Semal, Patrick

2010-01-01

Spy cave (Jemeppe-sur-Sambre Belgium) is reputed for the two adult Neandertal individuals discovered in situ in 1886 Recent reassessment of the Spy collections has allowed direct radiocarbon dating of these individuals The sorting of all of the faunal collections has also led to the discovery of the

Discovering significant evolution patterns from satellite image time series.

Science.gov (United States)

Petitjean, François; Masseglia, Florent; Gançarski, Pierre; Forestier, Germain

2011-12-01

Satellite Image Time Series (SITS) provide us with precious information on land cover evolution. By studying these series of images we can both understand the changes of specific areas and discover global phenomena that spread over larger areas. Changes that can occur throughout the sensing time can spread over very long periods and may have different start time and end time depending on the location, which complicates the mining and the analysis of series of images. This work focuses on frequent sequential pattern mining (FSPM) methods, since this family of methods fits the above-mentioned issues. This family of methods consists of finding the most frequent evolution behaviors, and is actually able to extract long-term changes as well as short term ones, whenever the change may start and end. However, applying FSPM methods to SITS implies confronting two main challenges, related to the characteristics of SITS and the domain's constraints. First, satellite images associate multiple measures with a single pixel (the radiometric levels of different wavelengths corresponding to infra-red, red, etc.), which makes the search space multi-dimensional and thus requires specific mining algorithms. Furthermore, the non evolving regions, which are the vast majority and overwhelm the evolving ones, challenge the discovery of these patterns. We propose a SITS mining framework that enables discovery of these patterns despite these constraints and characteristics. Our proposal is inspired from FSPM and provides a relevant visualization principle. Experiments carried out on 35 images sensed over 20 years show the proposed approach makes it possible to extract relevant evolution behaviors.

Development of Contextual Mathematics teaching Material integrated related sciences and realistic for students grade xi senior high school

Science.gov (United States)

Helma, H.; Mirna, M.; Edizon, E.

2018-04-01

Mathematics is often applied in physics, chemistry, economics, engineering, and others. Besides that, mathematics is also used in everyday life. Learning mathematics in school should be associated with other sciences and everyday life. In this way, the learning of mathematics is more realstic, interesting, and meaningful. Needs analysis shows that required contextual mathematics teaching materials integrated related sciences and realistic on learning mathematics. The purpose of research is to produce a valid and practical contextual mathematics teaching material integrated related sciences and realistic. This research is development research. The result of this research is a valid and practical contextual mathematics teaching material integrated related sciences and realistic produced

Realistic Avatar Eye and Head Animation Using a Neurobiological Model of Visual Attention

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Itti, L; Dhavale, N; Pighin, F

2003-01-01

We describe a neurobiological model of visual attention and eye/head movements in primates, and its application to the automatic animation of a realistic virtual human head watching an unconstrained...

Development of Realistic Head Models for Electromagnetic Source Imaging of the Human Brain

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Akalin, Z

2001-01-01

... images is performed Then triangular, quadratic meshes are formed for the interfaces of the tissues, Thus, realistic meshes, representing scalp, skull, CSF, brain and eye tissues, are formed, At least...

Protocol for a realist review of workplace learning in postgraduate medical education and training.

Science.gov (United States)

Wiese, Anel; Kilty, Caroline; Bergin, Colm; Flood, Patrick; Fu, Na; Horgan, Mary; Higgins, Agnes; Maher, Bridget; O'Kane, Grainne; Prihodova, Lucia; Slattery, Dubhfeasa; Bennett, Deirdre

2017-01-19

Postgraduate medical education and training (PGMET) is a complex social process which happens predominantly during the delivery of patient care. The clinical learning environment (CLE), the context for PGMET, shapes the development of the doctors who learn and work within it, ultimately impacting the quality and safety of patient care. Clinical workplaces are complex, dynamic systems in which learning emerges from non-linear interactions within a network of related factors and activities. Those tasked with the design and delivery of postgraduate medical education and training need to understand the relationship between the processes of medical workplace learning and these contextual elements in order to optimise conditions for learning. We propose to conduct a realist synthesis of the literature to address the overarching questions; how, why and in what circumstances do doctors learn in clinical environments? This review is part of a funded projected with the overall aim of producing guidelines and recommendations for the design of high quality clinical learning environments for postgraduate medical education and training. We have chosen realist synthesis as a methodology because of its suitability for researching complexity and producing answers useful to policymakers and practitioners. This realist synthesis will follow the steps and procedures outlined by Wong et al. in the RAMESES Publication Standards for Realist Synthesis and the Realist Synthesis RAMESES Training Materials. The core research team is a multi-disciplinary group of researchers, clinicians and health professions educators. The wider research group includes experts in organisational behaviour and human resources management as well as the key stakeholders; doctors in training, patient representatives and providers of PGMET. This study will draw from the published literature and programme, and substantive, theories of workplace learning, to describe context, mechanism and outcome configurations for

Dynamic apeerture in damping rings with realistic wigglers

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Cai, Yunhai; /SLAC

2005-05-04

The International Linear Collider based on superconducting RF cavities requires the damping rings to have extremely small equilibrium emittance, huge circumference, fast damping time, and large acceptance. To achieve all of these requirements is a very challenging task. In this paper, we will present a systematic approach to designing the damping rings using simple cells and non-interlaced sextupoles. The designs of the damping rings with various circumferences and shapes, including dogbone, are presented. To model realistic wigglers, we have developed a new hybrid symplectic integrator for faster and accurate evaluation of dynamic aperture of the lattices.

Using remotely sensed data and stochastic models to simulate realistic flood hazard footprints across the continental US

Science.gov (United States)

Bates, P. D.; Quinn, N.; Sampson, C. C.; Smith, A.; Wing, O.; Neal, J. C.

2017-12-01

Remotely sensed data has transformed the field of large scale hydraulic modelling. New digital elevation, hydrography and river width data has allowed such models to be created for the first time, and remotely sensed observations of water height, slope and water extent has allowed them to be calibrated and tested. As a result, we are now able to conduct flood risk analyses at national, continental or even global scales. However, continental scale analyses have significant additional complexity compared to typical flood risk modelling approaches. Traditional flood risk assessment uses frequency curves to define the magnitude of extreme flows at gauging stations. The flow values for given design events, such as the 1 in 100 year return period flow, are then used to drive hydraulic models in order to produce maps of flood hazard. Such an approach works well for single gauge locations and local models because over relatively short river reaches (say 10-60km) one can assume that the return period of an event does not vary. At regional to national scales and across multiple river catchments this assumption breaks down, and for a given flood event the return period will be different at different gauging stations, a pattern known as the event `footprint'. Despite this, many national scale risk analyses still use `constant in space' return period hazard layers (e.g. the FEMA Special Flood Hazard Areas) in their calculations. Such an approach can estimate potential exposure, but will over-estimate risk and cannot determine likely flood losses over a whole region or country. We address this problem by using a stochastic model to simulate many realistic extreme event footprints based on observed gauged flows and the statistics of gauge to gauge correlations. We take the entire USGS gauge data catalogue for sites with > 45 years of record and use a conditional approach for multivariate extreme values to generate sets of flood events with realistic return period variation in

Hydrogen Balmer alpha intensity distributions and line profiles from multiple scattering theory using realistic geocoronal models

Science.gov (United States)

Anderson, D. E., Jr.; Meier, R. R.; Hodges, R. R., Jr.; Tinsley, B. A.

1987-01-01

The H Balmer alpha nightglow is investigated by using Monte Carlo models of asymmetric geocoronal atomic hydrogen distributions as input to a radiative transfer model of solar Lyman-beta radiation in the thermosphere and atmosphere. It is shown that it is essential to include multiple scattering of Lyman-beta radiation in the interpretation of Balmer alpha airglow data. Observations of diurnal variation in the Balmer alpha airglow showing slightly greater intensities in the morning relative to evening are consistent with theory. No evidence is found for anything other than a single sinusoidal diurnal variation of exobase density. Dramatic changes in effective temperature derived from the observed Balmer alpha line profiles are expected on the basis of changing illumination conditions in the thermosphere and exosphere as different regions of the sky are scanned.

Yes, Aboriginal Australians can and did discover the variability of Betelgeuse

Science.gov (United States)

Schaefer, Bradley E.

2018-04-01

Recently, a widely publicized claim has been made that the Aboriginal Australians discovered the variability of the red star Betelgeuse in the modern Orion, plus the variability of two other prominent red stars: Aldebaran and Antares. This result has excited the usual healthy skepticism, with questions about whether any untrained peoples can discover the variability and whether such a discovery is likely to be placed into lore and transmitted for long periods of time. Here, I am offering an independent evaluation, based on broad experience with naked-eye sky viewing and astro-history. I find that it is easy for inexperienced observers to detect the variability of Betelgeuse over its range in brightness from V = 0.0 to V = 1.3, for example in noticing from season-to-season that the star varies from significantly brighter than Procyon to being greatly fainter than Procyon. Further, indigenous peoples in the Southern Hemisphere inevitably kept watch on the prominent red star, so it is inevitable that the variability of Betelgeuse was discovered many times over during the last 65 millennia. The processes of placing this discovery into a cultural context (in this case, put into morality stories) and the faithful transmission for many millennia is confidently known for the Aboriginal Australians in particular. So this shows that the whole claim for a changing Betelgeuse in the Aboriginal Australian lore is both plausible and likely. Given that the discovery and transmission is easily possible, the real proof is that the Aboriginal lore gives an unambiguous statement that these stars do indeed vary in brightness, as collected by many ethnographers over a century ago from many Aboriginal groups. So I strongly conclude that the Aboriginal Australians could and did discover the variability of Betelgeuse, Aldebaran, and Antares.

Development of Realistic Head Models for Electromagnetic Source Imaging of the Human Brain

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Akalin, Z

2001-01-01

In this work, a methodology is developed to solve the forward problem of electromagnetic source imaging using realistic head models, For this purpose, first segmentation of the 3 dimensional MR head...

Simulation of realistic background noise using multiple loudspeakers

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Song, Wookeun; Marschall, Marton; Gil Corrales, Juan David

2015-01-01

Three methods for reproduction of sound using a maximum of eight loudspeakers were investigated in the context of testing telecommunication devices. They are the four-loudspeaker-based method as described in ETSI EG 202 396-1, Higher-Order ambisonics (HOA), and a matrix inversion method. HOA opti...

Level density from realistic nuclear potentials

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Calboreanu, A.

2006-01-01

Nuclear level density of some nuclei is calculated using a realistic set of single particle states (sps). These states are derived from the parameterization of nuclear potentials that describe the observed sps over a large number of nuclei. This approach has the advantage that one can infer level density for nuclei that are inaccessible for a direct study, but are very important in astrophysical processes such as those close to the drip lines. Level densities at high excitation energies are very sensitive to the actual set of sps. The fact that the sps spectrum is finite has extraordinary consequences upon nuclear reaction yields due to the leveling-off of the level density at extremely high excitation energies wrongly attributed so far to other nuclear effects. Single-particle level density parameter a parameter is extracted by fitting the calculated densities to the standard Bethe formula

A Hybrid Genetic Algorithm for the Multiple Crossdocks Problem

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Zhaowei Miao

2012-01-01

Full Text Available We study a multiple crossdocks problem with supplier and customer time windows, where any violation of time windows will incur a penalty cost and the flows through the crossdock are constrained by fixed transportation schedules and crossdock capacities. We prove this problem to be NP-hard in the strong sense and therefore focus on developing efficient heuristics. Based on the problem structure, we propose a hybrid genetic algorithm (HGA integrating greedy technique and variable neighborhood search method to solve the problem. Extensive experiments under different scenarios were conducted, and results show that HGA outperforms CPLEX solver, providing solutions in realistic timescales.

SDG multiple fault diagnosis by real-time inverse inference

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zhang Zhaoqian; Wu Chongguang; Zhang Beike; Xia Tao; Li Anfeng

2005-01-01

In the past 20 years, one of the qualitative simulation technologies, signed directed graph (SDG) has been widely applied in the field of chemical fault diagnosis. However, the assumption of single fault origin was usually used by many former researchers. As a result, this will lead to the problem of combinatorial explosion and has limited SDG to the realistic application on the real process. This is mainly because that most of the former researchers used forward inference engine in the commercial expert system software to carry out the inverse diagnosis inference on the SDG model which violates the internal principle of diagnosis mechanism. In this paper, we present a new SDG multiple faults diagnosis method by real-time inverse inference. This is a method of multiple faults diagnosis from the genuine significance and the inference engine use inverse mechanism. At last, we give an example of 65t/h furnace diagnosis system to demonstrate its applicability and efficiency

SDG multiple fault diagnosis by real-time inverse inference

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Zhang Zhaoqian; Wu Chongguang; Zhang Beike; Xia Tao; Li Anfeng

2005-02-01

In the past 20 years, one of the qualitative simulation technologies, signed directed graph (SDG) has been widely applied in the field of chemical fault diagnosis. However, the assumption of single fault origin was usually used by many former researchers. As a result, this will lead to the problem of combinatorial explosion and has limited SDG to the realistic application on the real process. This is mainly because that most of the former researchers used forward inference engine in the commercial expert system software to carry out the inverse diagnosis inference on the SDG model which violates the internal principle of diagnosis mechanism. In this paper, we present a new SDG multiple faults diagnosis method by real-time inverse inference. This is a method of multiple faults diagnosis from the genuine significance and the inference engine use inverse mechanism. At last, we give an example of 65t/h furnace diagnosis system to demonstrate its applicability and efficiency.

Development and application of a deterministic-realistic hybrid methodology for LOCA licensing analysis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Liang, Thomas K.S.; Chou, Ling-Yao; Zhang, Zhongwei; Hsueh, Hsiang-Yu; Lee, Min

2011-01-01

Highlights: → A new LOCA licensing methodology (DRHM, deterministic-realistic hybrid methodology) was developed. → DRHM involves conservative Appendix K physical models and statistical treatment of plant status uncertainties. → DRHM can generate 50-100 K PCT margin as compared to a traditional Appendix K methodology. - Abstract: It is well recognized that a realistic LOCA analysis with uncertainty quantification can generate greater safety margin as compared with classical conservative LOCA analysis using Appendix K evaluation models. The associated margin can be more than 200 K. To quantify uncertainty in BELOCA analysis, generally there are two kinds of uncertainties required to be identified and quantified, which involve model uncertainties and plant status uncertainties. Particularly, it will take huge effort to systematically quantify individual model uncertainty of a best estimate LOCA code, such as RELAP5 and TRAC. Instead of applying a full ranged BELOCA methodology to cover both model and plant status uncertainties, a deterministic-realistic hybrid methodology (DRHM) was developed to support LOCA licensing analysis. Regarding the DRHM methodology, Appendix K deterministic evaluation models are adopted to ensure model conservatism, while CSAU methodology is applied to quantify the effect of plant status uncertainty on PCT calculation. Generally, DRHM methodology can generate about 80-100 K margin on PCT as compared to Appendix K bounding state LOCA analysis.

Simplified realistic human head model for simulating Tumor Treating Fields (TTFields).

Science.gov (United States)

Wenger, Cornelia; Bomzon, Ze'ev; Salvador, Ricardo; Basser, Peter J; Miranda, Pedro C

2016-08-01

Tumor Treating Fields (TTFields) are alternating electric fields in the intermediate frequency range (100-300 kHz) of low-intensity (1-3 V/cm). TTFields are an anti-mitotic treatment against solid tumors, which are approved for Glioblastoma Multiforme (GBM) patients. These electric fields are induced non-invasively by transducer arrays placed directly on the patient's scalp. Cell culture experiments showed that treatment efficacy is dependent on the induced field intensity. In clinical practice, a software called NovoTalTM uses head measurements to estimate the optimal array placement to maximize the electric field delivery to the tumor. Computational studies predict an increase in the tumor's electric field strength when adapting transducer arrays to its location. Ideally, a personalized head model could be created for each patient, to calculate the electric field distribution for the specific situation. Thus, the optimal transducer layout could be inferred from field calculation rather than distance measurements. Nonetheless, creating realistic head models of patients is time-consuming and often needs user interaction, because automated image segmentation is prone to failure. This study presents a first approach to creating simplified head models consisting of convex hulls of the tissue layers. The model is able to account for anisotropic conductivity in the cortical tissues by using a tensor representation estimated from Diffusion Tensor Imaging. The induced electric field distribution is compared in the simplified and realistic head models. The average field intensities in the brain and tumor are generally slightly higher in the realistic head model, with a maximal ratio of 114% for a simplified model with reasonable layer thicknesses. Thus, the present pipeline is a fast and efficient means towards personalized head models with less complexity involved in characterizing tissue interfaces, while enabling accurate predictions of electric field distribution.

THINK LIKE CONSTRUCTIVIST: DISCOVERING A POLYPHONIC WORLD

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

T. A. Alexeyeva

2014-01-01

Full Text Available The article covers the specific features an main ideas of the constructivist attitude to international relations studies. The article consists of two parts. In the first part the ontology, epistemology and main principles of constructivism is explained. In the second part, the author’s attention is directed towards the key concepts of the international relations theory (anarchical structure of the international system, power, national interest, identity, war and peace, etc.. The author’s conclusion is the following: principally constructivism managed «to build a “bridge” between neorealism and liberal instututionalism. The latest versions of constructivism have a propensity either for neorealism (realist constructivism, or for liberalism ( liberal constructivism.

Processing of the GALILEO fuel rod code model uncertainties within the AREVA LWR realistic thermal-mechanical analysis methodology

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mailhe, P.; Barbier, B.; Garnier, C.; Landskron, H.; Sedlacek, R.; Arimescu, I.; Smith, M.; Bellanger, P.

2013-01-01

The availability of reliable tools and associated methodology able to accurately predict the LWR fuel behavior in all conditions is of great importance for safe and economic fuel usage. For that purpose, AREVA has developed its new global fuel rod performance code GALILEO along with its associated realistic thermal-mechanical analysis methodology. This realistic methodology is based on a Monte Carlo type random sampling of all relevant input variables. After having outlined the AREVA realistic methodology, this paper will be focused on the GALILEO code benchmarking process, on its extended experimental database and on the GALILEO model uncertainties assessment. The propagation of these model uncertainties through the AREVA realistic methodology is also presented. This GALILEO model uncertainties processing is of the utmost importance for accurate fuel design margin evaluation as illustrated on some application examples. With the submittal of Topical Report GALILEO to the U.S. NRC in 2013, GALILEO and its methodology are on the way to be industrially used in a wide range of irradiation conditions. (authors)

Electronic structure of single- and multiple-shell carbon fullerenes

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lin, Y.; Nori, F.

1994-01-01

We study the electronic states of giant single-shell and the recently discovered nested multiple-shell carbon fullerenes within the tight-binding approximation. We use two different approaches, one based on iterations and the other on symmetry, to obtain the π-state energy spectra of large fullerene cages: C 240 , C 540 , C 960 , C 1500 , C 2160 , and C 2940 . Our iteration technique reduces the size of the problem by more than one order of magnitude (factors of ∼12 and 20), while the symmetry-based approach reduces it by a factor of 10. We also find formulas for the highest occupied and lowest unoccupied molecular orbital energies of C 60n 2 fullerenes as a function of n, demonstrating a tendency towards a metallic regime for increasing n. For multiple-shell fullerenes, we analytically obtain the eigenvalues of the intershell interaction

Realistic modelling of the seismic input: Site effects and parametric studies

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Romanelli, F.; Vaccari, F.; Panza, G.F.

2002-11-01

We illustrate the work done in the framework of a large international cooperation, showing the very recent numerical experiments carried out within the framework of the EC project 'Advanced methods for assessing the seismic vulnerability of existing motorway bridges' (VAB) to assess the importance of non-synchronous seismic excitation of long structures. The definition of the seismic input at the Warth bridge site, i.e. the determination of the seismic ground motion due to an earthquake with a given magnitude and epicentral distance from the site, has been done following a theoretical approach. In order to perform an accurate and realistic estimate of site effects and of differential motion it is necessary to make a parametric study that takes into account the complex combination of the source and propagation parameters, in realistic geological structures. The computation of a wide set of time histories and spectral information, corresponding to possible seismotectonic scenarios for different sources and structural models, allows us the construction of damage scenarios that are out of the reach of stochastic models, at a very low cost/benefit ratio. (author)

Developing a learning environment on realistic mathematics education for Indonesian student teachers

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Zulkardi, Z.

2002-01-01

The CASCADE-IMEI study was started to explore the role of a learning environment (LE) in assisting mathematics student teachers learning Realistic Mathematics Education (RME) as a new instructional approach in mathematics education in Indonesia. The LE for this study has been developed and evaluated

Fabrication of a set of realistic torso phantoms for calibration of transuranic nuclide lung counting facilities

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Griffith, R.V.; Anderson, A.L.; Sundbeck, C.W.; Alderson, S.W.

1983-01-01

A set of 16 tissue equivalent torso phantoms has been fabricated for use by major laboratories involved in counting transuranic nuclides in the lung. These phantoms, which have bone equivalent plastic rib cages, duplicate the performance of the DOE Realistic Phantom set. The new phantoms (and their successors) provide the user laboratories with a highly realistic calibration tool. Moreover, use of these phantoms will allow participating laboratories to intercompare calibration information, both on formal and informal bases. 3 refs., 2 figs

Dynamic Enhanced Inter-Cell Interference Coordination for Realistic Networks

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Pedersen, Klaus I.; Alvarez, Beatriz Soret; Barcos, Sonia

2016-01-01

Enhanced Inter-Cell Interference Coordination (eICIC) is a key ingredient to boost the performance of co-channel Heterogeneous Networks (HetNets). eICIC encompasses two main techniques: Almost Blank Subframes (ABS), during which the macro cell remains silent to reduce the interference, and biased...... and an opportunistic approach exploiting the varying cell conditions. Moreover, an autonomous fast distributed muting algorithm is presented, which is simple, robust, and well suited for irregular network deployments. Performance results for realistic network deployments show that the traditional semi-static e...

Nuclear fission discovered fifty years ago

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Weis, M.

1988-01-01

Fifty years ago, Otto Hahn, Lise Meitner and Fritz Strassmann discovered the process of nuclear fission which, more than other scientific discoveries to date, profoundly has changed the world and continues to influence our life significantly: This discovery made the up to then incontestable physicists' view of the atom as an inseparable whole suddenly shatter to pieces. It has brought about the invaluable advantages of a peaceful utilization of nuclear energy, and at the same time put scientists in the position to build the most terrible weapon ever, threatening mankind and earth with complete destruction. All this certainly is reason enough to recall the scientists, their work and the spirit of the time. (orig.) [de

Discovering network behind infectious disease outbreak

Science.gov (United States)

Maeno, Yoshiharu

2010-11-01

Stochasticity and spatial heterogeneity are of great interest recently in studying the spread of an infectious disease. The presented method solves an inverse problem to discover the effectively decisive topology of a heterogeneous network and reveal the transmission parameters which govern the stochastic spreads over the network from a dataset on an infectious disease outbreak in the early growth phase. Populations in a combination of epidemiological compartment models and a meta-population network model are described by stochastic differential equations. Probability density functions are derived from the equations and used for the maximal likelihood estimation of the topology and parameters. The method is tested with computationally synthesized datasets and the WHO dataset on the SARS outbreak.

Learning Faster by Discovering and Exploiting Object Similarities

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tadej Janež

2013-03-01

Full Text Available In this paper we explore the question: “Is it possible to speed up the learning process of an autonomous agent by performing experiments in a more complex environment (i.e., an environment with a greater number of different objects?” To this end, we use a simple robotic domain, where the robot has to learn a qualitative model predicting the change in the robot's distance to an object. To quantify the environment's complexity, we defined cardinal complexity as the number of objects in the robot's world, and behavioural complexity as the number of objects' distinct behaviours. We propose Error reduction merging (ERM, a new learning method that automatically discovers similarities in the structure of the agent's environment. ERM identifies different types of objects solely from the data measured and merges the observations of objects that behave in the same or similar way in order to speed up the agent's learning. We performed a series of experiments in worlds of increasing complexity. The results in our simple domain indicate that ERM was capable of discovering structural similarities in the data which indeed made the learning faster, clearly superior to conventional learning. This observed trend occurred with various machine learning algorithms used inside the ERM method.

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.

Realistic Simulation of Rice Plant

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Wei-long DING

2011-09-01

Full Text Available The existing research results of virtual modeling of rice plant, however, is far from perfect compared to that of other crops due to its complex structure and growth process. Techniques to visually simulate the architecture of rice plant and its growth process are presented based on the analysis of the morphological characteristics at different stages. Firstly, the simulations of geometrical shape, the bending status and the structural distortion of rice leaves are conducted. Then, by using an improved model for bending deformation, the curved patterns of panicle axis and various types of panicle branches are generated, and the spatial shape of rice panicle is therefore created. Parametric L-system is employed to generate its topological structures, and finite-state automaton is adopted to describe the development of geometrical structures. Finally, the computer visualization of three-dimensional morphologies of rice plant at both organ and individual levels is achieved. The experimental results showed that the proposed methods of modeling the three-dimensional shapes of organs and simulating the growth of rice plant are feasible and effective, and the generated three-dimensional images are realistic.

ISLSCP II IGBP DISCover and SiB Land Cover, 1992-1993

Data.gov (United States)

National Aeronautics and Space Administration — This data set describes the geographic distributions of 17 classes of land cover based on the International Geosphere-Biosphere DISCover land cover legend (Loveland...

Active and realistic passive marijuana exposure tested by three immunoassays and GC/MS in urine

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mule, S.J.; Lomax, P.; Gross, S.J.

1988-01-01

Human urine samples obtained before and after active and passive exposure to marijuana were analyzed by immune kits (Roche, Amersham, and Syva) and gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS). Seven of eight subjects were positive for the entire five-day test period with one immune kit. The latter correlated with GC/MS in 98% of the samples. Passive inhalation experiments under conditions likely to reflect realistic exposure resulted consistently in less than 10 ng/mL of cannabinoids. The 10-100-ng/mL cannabinoid concentration range essential for detection of occasional and moderate marijuana users is thus unaffected by realistic passive inhalation

Active and realistic passive marijuana exposure tested by three immunoassays and GC/MS in urine

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Mule, S.J.; Lomax, P.; Gross, S.J.

1988-05-01

Human urine samples obtained before and after active and passive exposure to marijuana were analyzed by immune kits (Roche, Amersham, and Syva) and gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS). Seven of eight subjects were positive for the entire five-day test period with one immune kit. The latter correlated with GC/MS in 98% of the samples. Passive inhalation experiments under conditions likely to reflect realistic exposure resulted consistently in less than 10 ng/mL of cannabinoids. The 10-100-ng/mL cannabinoid concentration range essential for detection of occasional and moderate marijuana users is thus unaffected by realistic passive inhalation.

Discovering and explaining work-family strategies of parents in Luxembourg

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Zhelyazkova, Nevena

2014-01-01

The presented analysis discovers and explains typical patterns of work-family reconciliation for parents who had a child in the same period (2003) and in the same country (Luxembourg), thus facing the same macroeconomic and institutional conditions. Work-family trajectories are reconstructed as

Autumn Algorithm-Computation of Hybridization Networks for Realistic Phylogenetic Trees.

Science.gov (United States)

Huson, Daniel H; Linz, Simone

2018-01-01

A minimum hybridization network is a rooted phylogenetic network that displays two given rooted phylogenetic trees using a minimum number of reticulations. Previous mathematical work on their calculation has usually assumed the input trees to be bifurcating, correctly rooted, or that they both contain the same taxa. These assumptions do not hold in biological studies and "realistic" trees have multifurcations, are difficult to root, and rarely contain the same taxa. We present a new algorithm for computing minimum hybridization networks for a given pair of "realistic" rooted phylogenetic trees. We also describe how the algorithm might be used to improve the rooting of the input trees. We introduce the concept of "autumn trees", a nice framework for the formulation of algorithms based on the mathematics of "maximum acyclic agreement forests". While the main computational problem is hard, the run-time depends mainly on how different the given input trees are. In biological studies, where the trees are reasonably similar, our parallel implementation performs well in practice. The algorithm is available in our open source program Dendroscope 3, providing a platform for biologists to explore rooted phylogenetic networks. We demonstrate the utility of the algorithm using several previously studied data sets.

Context problems in realistic mathematics education: A calculus course as an example

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Gravemeijer, K.P.E.; Doorman, L.M.

1999-01-01

This article discusses the role of context problems, as they are used in the Dutch approach that is known as realistic mathematics education (RME). In RME, context problems are intended for supporting a reinvention process that enables students to come to grips with formal mathematics. This approach

Critical reflections on realist review: insights from customizing the methodology to the needs of participatory research assessment.

Science.gov (United States)

Jagosh, Justin; Pluye, Pierre; Wong, Geoff; Cargo, Margaret; Salsberg, Jon; Bush, Paula L; Herbert, Carol P; Green, Lawrence W; Greenhalgh, Trish; Macaulay, Ann C

2014-06-01

Realist review has increased in popularity as a methodology for complex intervention assessment. Our experience suggests that the process of designing a realist review requires its customization to areas under investigation. To elaborate on this idea, we first describe the logic underpinning realist review and then present critical reflections on our application experience, organized in seven areas. These are the following: (1) the challenge of identifying middle range theory; (2) addressing heterogeneity and lack of conceptual clarity; (3) the challenge of appraising the quality of complex evidence; (4) the relevance of capturing unintended outcomes; (5) understanding the process of context, mechanism, and outcome (CMO) configuring; (6) incorporating middle-range theory in the CMO configuration process; and (7) using middle range theory to advance the conceptualization of outcomes - both visible and seemingly 'hidden'. One conclusion from our experience is that the degree of heterogeneity of the evidence base will determine whether theory can drive the development of review protocols from the outset, or will follow only after an intense period of data immersion. We hope that presenting a critical reflection on customizing realist review will convey how the methodology can be tailored to the often complex and idiosyncratic features of health research, leading to innovative evidence syntheses. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Realistic thermodynamic and statistical-mechanical measures for neural synchronization.

Science.gov (United States)

Kim, Sang-Yoon; Lim, Woochang

2014-04-15

Synchronized brain rhythms, associated with diverse cognitive functions, have been observed in electrical recordings of brain activity. Neural synchronization may be well described by using the population-averaged global potential VG in computational neuroscience. The time-averaged fluctuation of VG plays the role of a "thermodynamic" order parameter O used for describing the synchrony-asynchrony transition in neural systems. Population spike synchronization may be well visualized in the raster plot of neural spikes. The degree of neural synchronization seen in the raster plot is well measured in terms of a "statistical-mechanical" spike-based measure Ms introduced by considering the occupation and the pacing patterns of spikes. The global potential VG is also used to give a reference global cycle for the calculation of Ms. Hence, VG becomes an important collective quantity because it is associated with calculation of both O and Ms. However, it is practically difficult to directly get VG in real experiments. To overcome this difficulty, instead of VG, we employ the instantaneous population spike rate (IPSR) which can be obtained in experiments, and develop realistic thermodynamic and statistical-mechanical measures, based on IPSR, to make practical characterization of the neural synchronization in both computational and experimental neuroscience. Particularly, more accurate characterization of weak sparse spike synchronization can be achieved in terms of realistic statistical-mechanical IPSR-based measure, in comparison with the conventional measure based on VG. Copyright © 2014. Published by Elsevier B.V.

HackAttack: Game-Theoretic Analysis of Realistic Cyber Conflicts

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Ferragut, Erik M [ORNL; Brady, Andrew C [Jefferson Middle School, Oak Ridge, TN; Brady, Ethan J [Oak Ridge High School, Oak Ridge, TN; Ferragut, Jacob M [Oak Ridge High School, Oak Ridge, TN; Ferragut, Nathan M [Oak Ridge High School, Oak Ridge, TN; Wildgruber, Max C [ORNL

2016-01-01

Game theory is appropriate for studying cyber conflict because it allows for an intelligent and goal-driven adversary. Applications of game theory have led to a number of results regarding optimal attack and defense strategies. However, the overwhelming majority of applications explore overly simplistic games, often ones in which each participant s actions are visible to every other participant. These simplifications strip away the fundamental properties of real cyber conflicts: probabilistic alerting, hidden actions, unknown opponent capabilities. In this paper, we demonstrate that it is possible to analyze a more realistic game, one in which different resources have different weaknesses, players have different exploits, and moves occur in secrecy, but they can be detected. Certainly, more advanced and complex games are possible, but the game presented here is more realistic than any other game we know of in the scientific literature. While optimal strategies can be found for simpler games using calculus, case-by-case analysis, or, for stochastic games, Q-learning, our more complex game is more naturally analyzed using the same methods used to study other complex games, such as checkers and chess. We define a simple evaluation function and employ multi-step searches to create strategies. We show that such scenarios can be analyzed, and find that in cases of extreme uncertainty, it is often better to ignore one s opponent s possible moves. Furthermore, we show that a simple evaluation function in a complex game can lead to interesting and nuanced strategies.

Global Profiling and Novel Structure Discovery Using Multiple Neutral Loss/Precursor Ion Scanning Combined with Substructure Recognition and Statistical Analysis (MNPSS): Characterization of Terpene-Conjugated Curcuminoids in Curcuma longa as a Case Study.

Science.gov (United States)

Qiao, Xue; Lin, Xiong-hao; Ji, Shuai; Zhang, Zheng-xiang; Bo, Tao; Guo, De-an; Ye, Min

2016-01-05

To fully understand the chemical diversity of an herbal medicine is challenging. In this work, we describe a new approach to globally profile and discover novel compounds from an herbal extract using multiple neutral loss/precursor ion scanning combined with substructure recognition and statistical analysis. Turmeric (the rhizomes of Curcuma longa L.) was used as an example. This approach consists of three steps: (i) multiple neutral loss/precursor ion scanning to obtain substructure information; (ii) targeted identification of new compounds by extracted ion current and substructure recognition; and (iii) untargeted identification using total ion current and multivariate statistical analysis to discover novel structures. Using this approach, 846 terpecurcumins (terpene-conjugated curcuminoids) were discovered from turmeric, including a number of potentially novel compounds. Furthermore, two unprecedented compounds (terpecurcumins X and Y) were purified, and their structures were identified by NMR spectroscopy. This study extended the application of mass spectrometry to global profiling of natural products in herbal medicines and could help chemists to rapidly discover novel compounds from a complex matrix.

StackGAN++: Realistic Image Synthesis with Stacked Generative Adversarial Networks

OpenAIRE

Zhang, Han; Xu, Tao; Li, Hongsheng; Zhang, Shaoting; Wang, Xiaogang; Huang, Xiaolei; Metaxas, Dimitris

2017-01-01

Although Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs) have shown remarkable success in various tasks, they still face challenges in generating high quality images. In this paper, we propose Stacked Generative Adversarial Networks (StackGAN) aiming at generating high-resolution photo-realistic images. First, we propose a two-stage generative adversarial network architecture, StackGAN-v1, for text-to-image synthesis. The Stage-I GAN sketches the primitive shape and colors of the object based on given...

Rational versus Emotional Reasoning in a Realistic Multi-Objective Environment

OpenAIRE

Mayboudi, Seyed Mohammad Hossein

2011-01-01

ABSTRACT: Emotional intelligence and its associated with models have recently become one of new active studies in the field of artificial intelligence. Several works have been performed on modelling of emotional behaviours such as love, hate, happiness and sadness. This study presents a comparative evaluation of rational and emotional behaviours and the effects of emotions on the decision making process of agents in a realistic multi-objective environment. NetLogo simulation environment is u...

Newly Discovered Items of the Zoomorphic Style from the Left Bank of the Lower Dniester

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sinika Vitalij S.

2017-09-01

Full Text Available The article presents an overview of items corresponding to the Scythian zoomorphic style discovered at barbaric and ancient sites of the Northwestern Black Sea Region, and a publication of two new findings. They were discovered on the left bank of the Lower Dniester. The first item discovered at Parkany-II settlement is a fragment of a bronze horse plaque (its lower part crafted in the shape of a "rooster"-hippocampus. The other artifact discovered near Tokmazeya village also represents a horse plaque with an image of a cat predator's head. Presently, there are no counterparts of the images on these findings in the Northwestern Black Sea Region, which is the westmost periphery of the Scythian steppe culture. These fragments of horse apparel broaden our knowledge of the Scythian "bestiary" in the region. Besides, apart from the other items of material culture, the published findings confirm the presence of Scythian population at settlement sites, which contradicts the generally accepted opinion on the exclusively nomadic cattle breeding lifestyle of the Scythians in 5th –4th centuries B.C.

US NSF: scientists discover planetary system similar to our own

CERN Multimedia

2003-01-01

An international team of scientists has discovered a planet and star that may share the same relationship as Jupiter and our Sun, the closest comparison that researchers have found since they began their search for extra-solar planets nearly a decade ago (1 page).

Capturing and reproducing realistic acoustic scenes for hearing research

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Marschall, Marton; Buchholz, Jörg

Accurate spatial audio recordings are important for a range of applications, from the creation of realistic virtual sound environments to the evaluation of communication devices, such as hearing instruments and mobile phones. Spherical microphone arrays are particularly well-suited for capturing....... The properties of MOA microphone layouts and processing were investigated further by considering several order combinations. It was shown that the performance for horizontal vs. elevated sources can be adjusted by varying the order combination, but that a benefit of the higher horizontal orders can only be seen...

Sensitivity studies on the approaches for addressing multiple initiating events in fire events PSA

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kang, Dae Il; Lim, Ho Gon [Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, Daejeon (Korea, Republic of)

2016-10-15

A single fire event within a fire compartment or a fire scenario can cause multiple initiating events (IEs). As an example, a fire in a turbine building fire area can cause a loss of the main feed-water (LOMF) and loss of off-site power (LOOP) IEs. Previous domestic fire events PSA had considered only the most severe initiating event among multiple initiating events. NUREG/CR-6850 and ANS/ASME PRA Standard require that multiple IEs are to be addressed in fire events PSA. In this paper, sensitivity studies on the approaches for addressing multiple IEs in fire events PSA for Hanul Unit 3 were performed and their results were presented. In this paper, sensitivity studies on the approaches for addressing multiple IEs in fire events PSA are performed and their results were presented. From the sensitivity analysis results, we can find that the incorporations of multiple IEs into fire events PSA model result in the core damage frequency (CDF) increase and may lead to the generation of the duplicate cutsets. Multiple IEs also can occur at internal flooding event or other external events such as seismic event. They should be considered in the constructions of PSA models in order to realistically estimate risk due to flooding or seismic events.

Comparative study of the effectiveness of three learning environments: Hyper-realistic virtual simulations, traditional schematic simulations and traditional laboratory

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Maria Isabel Suero

2011-10-01

Full Text Available This study compared the educational effects of computer simulations developed in a hyper-realistic virtual environment with the educational effects of either traditional schematic simulations or a traditional optics laboratory. The virtual environment was constructed on the basis of Java applets complemented with a photorealistic visual output. This new virtual environment concept, which we call hyper-realistic, transcends basic schematic simulation; it provides the user with a more realistic perception of a physical phenomenon being simulated. We compared the learning achievements of three equivalent, homogeneous groups of undergraduates—an experimental group who used only the hyper-realistic virtual laboratory, a first control group who used a schematic simulation, and a second control group who used the traditional laboratory. The three groups received the same theoretical preparation and carried out equivalent practicals in their respective learning environments. The topic chosen for the experiment was optical aberrations. An analysis of variance applied to the data of the study demonstrated a statistically significant difference (p value <0.05 between the three groups. The learning achievements attained by the group using the hyper-realistic virtual environment were 6.1 percentage points higher than those for the group using the traditional schematic simulations and 9.5 percentage points higher than those for the group using the traditional laboratory.

Realistic methods for calculating the releases and consequences of a large LOCA

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Stephenson, W.; Dutton, L.M.C.; Handy, B.J.; Smedley, C.

1992-01-01

This report describes a calculational route to predict realistic radiological consequences for a successfully terminated large-loss-of-coolant accident (LOCA) at a pressurized-water reactor (PWR). All steps in the calculational route are considered. For each one, a brief comment is made on the significant differences between the methods of calculation that were identified in the benchmark studies and recommendations are made for the methods and data for carrying out realistic calculations. These are based on the best supportable methods and data and the technical basis for each recommendation is given. Where the lack of well-validated methods or data means that the most realistic method that can be justified is considered to be very conservative, the need for further research is identified. The behaviour of inorganic iodine and the removal of aerosols from the atmosphere of the reactor building are identified as areas of particular importance. Where the retention of radioactivity is sensitive to design features, these are identified and, for the most importance features, the impact of different designs on the release of activity is indicated. The predictions of the proposed model are calculated for each stage and compared with the releases of activity predicted by the licensing methods that were used in the earlier benchmark studies. The conservative nature of the latter is confirmed. Methods and data are also presented for calculating the resulting doses to members of the public of the National Radiological Protection Boards as a result of work carried out by several national bodies in the UK. Other, equally acceptable, models are used in other countries of the Community and some examples are given

Discovering Multidimensional Structure in Relational Data

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jensen, Mikael Rune; Holmgren, Thomas; Pedersen, Torben Bach

2004-01-01

On-Line Analytical Processing (OLAP) systems based on multidimensional databases are essential elements of decision support. However, most existing data is stored in “ordinary” relational OLTP databases, i.e., data has to be (re-) modeled as multidimensional cubes before the advantages of OLAP to...... algorithms for discovering multidimensional schemas from relational databases. The algorithms take a wide range of available metadata into account in the discovery process, including functional and inclusion dependencies, and key and cardinality information....... tools are available. In this paper we present an approach for the automatic construction of multidimensional OLAP database schemas from existing relational OLTP databases, enabling easy OLAP design and analysis for most existing data sources. This is achieved through a set of practical and effective...

Discovering the Library with Google Earth

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Michaela Brenner

2008-06-01

Full Text Available Libraries need to provide attractive and exciting discovery tools to draw patrons to the valuable resources in their catalogs. The authors conducted a pilot project to explore the free version of Google Earth as such a discover tool for Portland State Library’s digital collection of urban planning documents. They created eye-catching placemarks with links to parts of this collection, as well as to other pertinent materials like books, images, and historical background information. The detailed how-to-do part of this article is preceded by a discussion about discovery of library materials and followed by possible applications of this Google Earth project.

Discovering functional interdependence relationship in PPI networks for protein complex identification.

Science.gov (United States)

Lam, Winnie W M; Chan, Keith C C

2012-04-01

Protein molecules interact with each other in protein complexes to perform many vital functions, and different computational techniques have been developed to identify protein complexes in protein-protein interaction (PPI) networks. These techniques are developed to search for subgraphs of high connectivity in PPI networks under the assumption that the proteins in a protein complex are highly interconnected. While these techniques have been shown to be quite effective, it is also possible that the matching rate between the protein complexes they discover and those that are previously determined experimentally be relatively low and the "false-alarm" rate can be relatively high. This is especially the case when the assumption of proteins in protein complexes being more highly interconnected be relatively invalid. To increase the matching rate and reduce the false-alarm rate, we have developed a technique that can work effectively without having to make this assumption. The name of the technique called protein complex identification by discovering functional interdependence (PCIFI) searches for protein complexes in PPI networks by taking into consideration both the functional interdependence relationship between protein molecules and the network topology of the network. The PCIFI works in several steps. The first step is to construct a multiple-function protein network graph by labeling each vertex with one or more of the molecular functions it performs. The second step is to filter out protein interactions between protein pairs that are not functionally interdependent of each other in the statistical sense. The third step is to make use of an information-theoretic measure to determine the strength of the functional interdependence between all remaining interacting protein pairs. Finally, the last step is to try to form protein complexes based on the measure of the strength of functional interdependence and the connectivity between proteins. For performance evaluation

What works for whom in pharmacist-led smoking cessation support: realist review.

Science.gov (United States)

Greenhalgh, Trisha; Macfarlane, Fraser; Steed, Liz; Walton, Robert

2016-12-16

New models of primary care are needed to address funding and staffing pressures. We addressed the research question "what works for whom in what circumstances in relation to the role of community pharmacies in providing lifestyle interventions to support smoking cessation?" This is a realist review conducted according to RAMESES standards. We began with a sample of 103 papers included in a quantitative review of community pharmacy intervention trials identified through systematic searching of seven databases. We supplemented this with additional papers: studies that had been excluded from the quantitative review but which provided rigorous and relevant additional data for realist theorising; citation chaining (pursuing reference lists and Google Scholar forward tracking of key papers); the 'search similar citations' function on PubMed. After mapping what research questions had been addressed by these studies and how, we undertook a realist analysis to identify and refine candidate theories about context-mechanism-outcome configurations. Our final sample consisted of 66 papers describing 74 studies (12 systematic reviews, 6 narrative reviews, 18 RCTs, 1 process detail of a RCT, 1 cost-effectiveness study, 12 evaluations of training, 10 surveys, 8 qualitative studies, 2 case studies, 2 business models, 1 development of complex intervention). Most studies had been undertaken in the field of pharmacy practice (pharmacists studying what pharmacists do) and demonstrated the success of pharmacist training in improving confidence, knowledge and (in many but not all studies) patient outcomes. Whilst a few empirical studies had applied psychological theories to account for behaviour change in pharmacists or people attempting to quit, we found no studies that had either developed or tested specific theoretical models to explore how pharmacists' behaviour may be affected by organisational context. Because of the nature of the empirical data, only a provisional realist analysis

Multiple Colliding Electromagnetic Pulses: A Way to Lower the Threshold of e+e- Pair Production from Vacuum

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bulanov, S. S.; Mur, V. D.; Narozhny, N. B.; Nees, J.; Popov, V. S.

2010-01-01

The scheme of a simultaneous multiple pulse focusing on one spot naturally arises from the structural features of projected new laser systems, such as the Extreme Light Infrastructure (ELI) and High Power laser Energy Research (HiPER). It is shown that the multiple pulse configuration is beneficial for observing e + e - pair production from a vacuum under the action of sufficiently strong electromagnetic fields. The field of focused pulses is described using a realistic three-dimensional model based on an exact solution of the Maxwell equations. The e + e - pair production threshold in terms of electromagnetic field energy can be substantially lowered if, instead of one or even two colliding pulses, multiple pulses are focused on one spot. The multiple pulse interaction geometry gives rise to subwavelength field features in the focal region. These features result in the production of extremely short e + e - bunches.

Realistic versus Schematic Interactive Visualizations for Learning Surveying Practices: A Comparative Study

Science.gov (United States)

Dib, Hazar; Adamo-Villani, Nicoletta; Garver, Stephen

2014-01-01

Many benefits have been claimed for visualizations, a general assumption being that learning is facilitated. However, several researchers argue that little is known about the cognitive value of graphical representations, be they schematic visualizations, such as diagrams or more realistic, such as virtual reality. The study reported in the paper…

The tenants in the vineyard (GThom 65/Mark 12:1-12): A realistic ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

p1243322

understanding and his own realistic reading of the Wirkungsgeschichte of the ...... maximize the quality of the wine, while the tenants' interest was to harvest the grapes later in ..... appreciation of that person in the eyes of others (i. e., claim and.

Thymolipoma combined with hyperthyroidism discovered by neurological symptoms.

Science.gov (United States)

Takahashi, Hidenobu; Harada, Masahiko; Kimura, Masakazu; Kato, Harubumi

2007-04-01

Thymolipomas are rare slow-growing mediastinal thymic neoplasms. Most cases are asymptomatic and are sometimes discovered as a huge mass on chest x-ray films. A few cases have been discovered during examinations for other diseases. We report the second case of thymolipoma combined with hyperthyroidism in the English language literature. Neurological symptoms suddenly appeared in a 45-year-old woman. Central nervous system disorder was suggested but no significant abnormalities were found on brain MR nor were there any neurological signs. Several months later, neurological and systemic examinations on admission revealed hyperthyroidism and an anterior mediastinal tumor, 9.0x5.0x3.0 cm in size on chest CT films. Despite treatment of hyperthyroidism by medication, her neurological symptoms remained. Neurologists recommended resection of the mediastinal tumor. Malignancy could not be ruled out because of the irregularity of the tumor appearance on contrast-enhanced chest CT. Furthermore, the tumor appeared to be attached to the ascending aorta, so cytological and/or pathological diagnosis by CT-guided needle biopsy before operation were contraindicated. Extended thymectomy was performed in May 2005. The pathological diagnosis was benign thymolipoma consisting of mature fatty tissue and thymic tissue structures with Hassall's corpuscles. Her neurological symptoms seemed slightly but not markedly improved. The relationship between thymolipoma and hyperthyroidism is still unknown.

Discovering and Exploring State-based Models for Multi-perspective Processes

NARCIS (Netherlands)

van Eck, M.L.; Sidorova, N.; van der Aalst, W.M.P.; La Rosa, M.; Loos, P.; Pastor, O.

2016-01-01

Process mining provides fact-based insights into process behaviour captured in event data. In this work we aim to discover models for processes where different facets, or perspectives, of the process can be identified. Instead of focussing on the events or activities that are executed in the context

Realistic electrostatic potentials in a neutron star crust

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ebel, Claudio; Mishustin, Igor; Greiner, Walter

2015-01-01

We study the electrostatic properties of inhomogeneous nuclear matter which can be formed in the crusts of neutron stars or in supernova explosions. Such matter is represented by Wigner–Seitz cells of different geometries (spherical, cylindrical, cartesian), which contain nuclei, free neutrons and electrons under the conditions of electrical neutrality. Using the Thomas–Fermi approximation, we have solved the Poisson equation for the electrostatic potential and calculated the corresponding electron density distributions in individual cells. The calculations are done for different shapes and sizes of the cells and different average baryon densities. The electron-to-baryon fraction was fixed at 0.3. Using realistic electron distributions leads to a significant reduction in electrostatic energy and electron chemical potential. (paper)

Tools and strategies for discovering novel enzymes and metabolic pathways

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

John A. Gerlt

2016-12-01

Full Text Available The number of entries in the sequence databases continues to increase exponentially – the UniProt database is increasing with a doubling time of ∼4 years (2% increase/month. Approximately 50% of the entries have uncertain, unknown, or incorrect function annotations because these are made by automated methods based on sequence homology. If the potential in complete genome sequences is to be realized, strategies and tools must be developed to facilitate experimental assignment of functions to uncharacterized proteins discovered in genome projects. The Enzyme Function Initiative (EFI; previously supported by U54GM093342 from the National Institutes of Health, now supported by P01GM118303 developed web tools for visualizing and analyzing (1 sequence and function space in protein families (EFI-EST and (2 genome neighbourhoods in microbial and fungal genomes (EFI-GNT to assist the design of experimental strategies for discovering the in vitro activities and in vivo metabolic functions of uncharacterized enzymes. The EFI developed an experimental platform for large-scale production of the solute binding proteins (SBPs for ABC, TRAP, and TCT transport systems and their screening with a physical ligand library to identify the identities of the ligands for these transport systems. Because the genes that encode transport systems are often co-located with the genes that encode the catabolic pathways for the transported solutes, the identity of the SBP ligand together with the EFI-EST and EFI-GNT web tools can be used to discover new enzyme functions and new metabolic pathways. This approach is demonstrated with the characterization of a novel pathway for ethanolamine catabolism.

Satisfaction and sustainability: a realist review of decentralized models of perinatal surgery for rural women.

Science.gov (United States)

Kornelsen, Jude; McCartney, Kevin; Williams, Kim

2016-01-01

This article was developed as part of a larger realist review investigating the viability and efficacy of decentralized models of perinatal surgical services for rural women in the context of recent and ongoing service centralization witnessed in many developed nations. The larger realist review was commissioned by the British Columbia Ministry of Health and Perinatal Services of British Columbia, Canada. Findings from that review are addressed in this article specific to the sustainability of rural perinatal surgical sites and the satisfaction of providers that underpins their recruitment to and retention at such sites. A realist method was used in the selection and analysis of literature with the intention to iteratively develop a sophisticated understanding of how perinatal surgical services can best meet the needs of women who live in rural and remote environments. The goal of a realist review is to examine what works for whom under what circumstances and why. The high sensitivity search used language (English) and year (since 1990) limiters in keeping with both a realist and rapid review tradition of using reasoned contextual boundaries. No exclusions were made based on methodology or methodological approach in keeping with a realist review. Databases searched included MEDLINE, PubMed, EBSCO, CINAHL, EBM Reviews, NHS Economic Evaluation Database and PAIS International for literature in December 2013. Database searching produced 103 included academic articles. A further 59 resources were added through pearling and 13 grey literature reports were added on recommendation from the commissioner. A total of 42 of these 175 articles were included in this article as specific to provider satisfaction and service sustainability. Operative perinatal practice was found to be a lynchpin of sustainable primary and surgical services in rural communities. Rural shortages of providers, including challenges with recruitment and retention, were found to be a complex issue, with

The architecture of gene regulatory variation across multiple human tissues: the MuTHER study.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Alexandra C Nica

2011-02-01

Full Text Available While there have been studies exploring regulatory variation in one or more tissues, the complexity of tissue-specificity in multiple primary tissues is not yet well understood. We explore in depth the role of cis-regulatory variation in three human tissues: lymphoblastoid cell lines (LCL, skin, and fat. The samples (156 LCL, 160 skin, 166 fat were derived simultaneously from a subset of well-phenotyped healthy female twins of the MuTHER resource. We discover an abundance of cis-eQTLs in each tissue similar to previous estimates (858 or 4.7% of genes. In addition, we apply factor analysis (FA to remove effects of latent variables, thus more than doubling the number of our discoveries (1,822 eQTL genes. The unique study design (Matched Co-Twin Analysis--MCTA permits immediate replication of eQTLs using co-twins (93%-98% and validation of the considerable gain in eQTL discovery after FA correction. We highlight the challenges of comparing eQTLs between tissues. After verifying previous significance threshold-based estimates of tissue-specificity, we show their limitations given their dependency on statistical power. We propose that continuous estimates of the proportion of tissue-shared signals and direct comparison of the magnitude of effect on the fold change in expression are essential properties that jointly provide a biologically realistic view of tissue-specificity. Under this framework we demonstrate that 30% of eQTLs are shared among the three tissues studied, while another 29% appear exclusively tissue-specific. However, even among the shared eQTLs, a substantial proportion (10%-20% have significant differences in the magnitude of fold change between genotypic classes across tissues. Our results underline the need to account for the complexity of eQTL tissue-specificity in an effort to assess consequences of such variants for complex traits.

Comparison of multiple support excitation solution techniques for piping systems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sterkel, H.P.; Leimbach, K.R.

1980-01-01

Design and analysis of nuclear power plant piping systems exposed to a variety of dynamic loads often require multiple support excitation analysis by modal or direct time integration methods. Both methods have recently been implemented in the computer program KWUROHR for static and dynamic analysis of piping systems, following the previous implementation of the multiple support excitation response spectrum method (see papers K 6/15 and K 6/15a of the SMiRT-4 Conference). The results of multiple support excitation response spectrum analyses can be examined by carrying out the equivalent time history analyses which do not distort the time phase relationship between the excitations at different support points. A frequent point of discussion is multiple versus single support excitation. A single support excitation analysis is computationally straightforward and tends to be on the conservative side, as the numerical results show. A multiple support excitation analysis, however, does not incur much more additional computer cost than the expenditure for an initial static solution involving three times the number, L, of excitation levels, i.e. 3L static load cases. The results are more realistic than those from a single support excitation analysis. A number of typical nuclear plant piping systems have been analyzed using single and multiple support excitation algorithms for: (1) the response spectrum method, (2) the modal time history method via the Wilson, Newmark and Goldberg integration operators and (3) the direct time history method via the Wilson integration operator. Characteristic results are presented to compare the computational quality of all three methods. (orig.)

Development of vortex model with realistic axial velocity distribution

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ito, Kei; Ezure, Toshiki; Ohshima, Hiroyuki

2014-01-01

A vortex is considered as one of significant phenomena which may cause gas entrainment (GE) and/or vortex cavitation in sodium-cooled fast reactors. In our past studies, the vortex is assumed to be approximated by the well-known Burgers vortex model. However, the Burgers vortex model has a simple but unreal assumption that the axial velocity component is horizontally constant, while in real the free surface vortex has the axial velocity distribution which shows large gradient in radial direction near the vortex center. In this study, a new vortex model with realistic axial velocity distribution is proposed. This model is derived from the steady axisymmetric Navier-Stokes equation as well as the Burgers vortex model, but the realistic axial velocity distribution in radial direction is considered, which is defined to be zero at the vortex center and to approach asymptotically to zero at infinity. As the verification, the new vortex model is applied to the evaluation of a simple vortex experiment, and shows good agreements with the experimental data in terms of the circumferential velocity distribution and the free surface shape. In addition, it is confirmed that the Burgers vortex model fails to calculate accurate velocity distribution with the assumption of uniform axial velocity. However, the calculation accuracy of the Burgers vortex model can be enhanced close to that of the new vortex model in consideration of the effective axial velocity which is calculated as the average value only in the vicinity of the vortex center. (author)

Evaluating impact of clinical guidelines using a realist evaluation framework.

Science.gov (United States)

Reddy, Sandeep; Wakerman, John; Westhorp, Gill; Herring, Sally

2015-12-01

The Remote Primary Health Care Manuals (RPHCM) project team manages the development and publication of clinical protocols and procedures for primary care clinicians practicing in remote Australia. The Central Australian Rural Practitioners Association Standard Treatment Manual, the flagship manual of the RPHCM suite, has been evaluated for accessibility and acceptability in remote clinics three times in its 20-year history. These evaluations did not consider a theory-based framework or a programme theory, resulting in some limitations with the evaluation findings. With the RPHCM having an aim of enabling evidence-based practice in remote clinics and anecdotally reported to do so, testing this empirically for the full suite is vital for both stakeholders and future editions of the RPHCM. The project team utilized a realist evaluation framework to assess how, why and for what the RPHCM were being used by remote practitioners. A theory regarding the circumstances in which the manuals have and have not enabled evidence-based practice in the remote clinical context was tested. The project assessed this theory for all the manuals in the RPHCM suite, across government and aboriginal community-controlled clinics, in three regions of Australia. Implementing a realist evaluation framework to generate robust findings in this context has required innovation in the evaluation design and adaptation by researchers. This article captures the RPHCM team's experience in designing this evaluation. © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Realistic modeling of seismic input for megacities and large urban areas

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Panza, Giuliano F.; Alvarez, Leonardo; Aoudia, Abdelkrim

2002-06-01

The project addressed the problem of pre-disaster orientation: hazard prediction, risk assessment, and hazard mapping, in connection with seismic activity and man-induced vibrations. The definition of realistic seismic input has been obtained from the computation of a wide set of time histories and spectral information, corresponding to possible seismotectonic scenarios for different source and structural models. The innovative modeling technique, that constitutes the common tool to the entire project, takes into account source, propagation and local site effects. This is done using first principles of physics about wave generation and propagation in complex media, and does not require to resort to convolutive approaches, that have been proven to be quite unreliable, mainly when dealing with complex geological structures, the most interesting from the practical point of view. In fact, several techniques that have been proposed to empirically estimate the site effects using observations convolved with theoretically computed signals corresponding to simplified models, supply reliable information about the site response to non-interfering seismic phases. They are not adequate in most of the real cases, when the seismic sequel is formed by several interfering waves. The availability of realistic numerical simulations enables us to reliably estimate the amplification effects even in complex geological structures, exploiting the available geotechnical, lithological, geophysical parameters, topography of the medium, tectonic, historical, palaeoseismological data, and seismotectonic models. The realistic modeling of the ground motion is a very important base of knowledge for the preparation of groundshaking scenarios that represent a valid and economic tool for the seismic microzonation. This knowledge can be very fruitfully used by civil engineers in the design of new seismo-resistant constructions and in the reinforcement of the existing built environment, and, therefore

Improvements on a simple muscle-based 3D face for realistic facial expressions

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Bui, T.D.; Heylen, Dirk K.J.; Nijholt, Antinus; Badler, N.; Thalmann, D.

2003-01-01

Facial expressions play an important role in face-to-face communication. With the development of personal computers capable of rendering high quality graphics, computer facial animation has produced more and more realistic facial expressions to enrich human-computer communication. In this paper, we

Multivariant design and multiple criteria analysis of building refurbishments

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kaklauskas, A.; Zavadskas, E. K.; Raslanas, S. [Faculty of Civil Engineering, Vilnius Gediminas Technical University, Vilnius (Lithuania)

2005-07-01

In order to design and realize an efficient building refurbishment, it is necessary to carry out an exhaustive investigation of all solutions that form it. The efficiency level of the considered building's refurbishment depends on a great many of factors, including: cost of refurbishment, annual fuel economy after refurbishment, tentative pay-back time, harmfulness to health of the materials used, aesthetics, maintenance properties, functionality, comfort, sound insulation and longevity, etc. Solutions of an alternative character allow for a more rational and realistic assessment of economic, ecological, legislative, climatic, social and political conditions, traditions and for better the satisfaction of customer requirements. They also enable one to cut down on refurbishment costs. In carrying out the multivariant design and multiple criteria analysis of a building refurbishment much data was processed and evaluated. Feasible alternatives could be as many as 100,000. How to perform a multivariant design and multiple criteria analysis of alternate alternatives based on the enormous amount of information became the problem. Method of multivariant design and multiple criteria of a building refurbishment's analysis were developed by the authors to solve the above problems. In order to demonstrate the developed method, a practical example is presented in this paper. (author)

Discover 4-H Clubs: The Essential Resource for 4-H

Science.gov (United States)

MacArthur, Stacey; Nelson, Cindy; Brower, Naomi; Memmott, Margie; Peterson, Gaelynn

2016-01-01

Obstacles facing new 4-H volunteers include time constraints and difficulty finding project-specific information, resources, and opportunities available for club members. As a solution to these obstacles and an aid for assisting volunteers in becoming confident in delivering information to youth, content experts produced Discover 4-H Clubs, a…

REVIEW: Discovering Statistics Using SPSS for Windows ANDY FIELD (2000)

OpenAIRE

SHARMA, Reviewed By Ashok

2015-01-01

The book "Discovering Statistics Using SPSS for Windows" is exactly that! Since it calculates amazingly fast, in the recent years, the computer has become the most useful and helpful tool for the researchers in almost every field of knowledge - be it open and distance education, psychology, sociology, management or else.

On the performance of dual-hop systems with multiple antennas: Effects of spatial correlation, keyhole, and co-channel interference

KAUST Repository

Yang, Liang

2012-12-01

In this paper, taking into account realistic propagation conditions, namely, spatial correlation, keyhole channels, and unequal-power co-channel interference, we investigate the performance of a wireless relay network where all the nodes are equipped with multiple antennas. Considering channel state information assisted amplify-and-forward protocol, we present analytical expressions for the symbol error rate (SER) and outage probability. More specifically, we first derive the SER expressions of a relay system with orthogonal space-time block coding (OSTBC) over correlated/keyhole fading channels. We also analyze the outage probability of interference corrupted relay systems with maximal ratio combing (MRC) at the receiver as well as multiple-input multiple-output MRC (MIMO MRC). Numerical results are given to illustrate and verify the analytical results. © 2012 IEEE.

On the performance of dual-hop systems with multiple antennas: Effects of spatial correlation, keyhole, and co-channel interference

KAUST Repository

Yang, Liang; Alouini, Mohamed-Slim; Qaraqe, Khalid A.; Liu, Weiping

2012-01-01

In this paper, taking into account realistic propagation conditions, namely, spatial correlation, keyhole channels, and unequal-power co-channel interference, we investigate the performance of a wireless relay network where all the nodes are equipped with multiple antennas. Considering channel state information assisted amplify-and-forward protocol, we present analytical expressions for the symbol error rate (SER) and outage probability. More specifically, we first derive the SER expressions of a relay system with orthogonal space-time block coding (OSTBC) over correlated/keyhole fading channels. We also analyze the outage probability of interference corrupted relay systems with maximal ratio combing (MRC) at the receiver as well as multiple-input multiple-output MRC (MIMO MRC). Numerical results are given to illustrate and verify the analytical results. © 2012 IEEE.

A continuous family of realistic SUSY SU(5) GUTs

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Bajc, Borut, E-mail: borut.bajc@ijs.si [J. Stefan Institute, Jamova cesta 39, 1000, Ljubljana (Slovenia)

2016-06-21

It is shown that the minimal renormalizable supersymmetric SU(5) is still realistic providing the supersymmetric scale is at least few tens of TeV or large R-parity violating terms are considered. In the first case the vacuum is metastable, and different consistency constraints can give a bounded allowed region in the tan β − m{sub susy} plane. In the second case the mass eigenstate electron (down quark) is a linear combination of the original electron (down quark) and Higgsino (heavy colour triplet), and the mass ratio of bino and wino is determined. Both limits lead to light gravitino dark matter.

Exophobic Quasi-Realistic Heterotic String Vacua

CERN Document Server

Assel, Benjamin; Faraggi, Alon E; Kounnas, Costas; Rizos, John

2009-01-01

We demonstrate the existence of heterotic-string vacua that are free of massless exotic fields. The need to break the non-Abelian GUT symmetries in k=1 heterotic-string models by Wilson lines, while preserving the GUT embedding of the weak-hypercharge and the GUT prediction sin^2\\theta_w(M(GUT))=3/8, necessarily implies that the models contain states with fractional electric charge. Such states are severely restricted by observations, and must be confined or sufficiently massive and diluted. We construct the first quasi-realistic heterotic-string models in which the exotic states do not appear in the massless spectrum, and only exist, as they must, in the massive spectrum. The SO(10) GUT symmetry is broken to the Pati-Salam subgroup. Our PS heterotic-string models contain adequate Higgs representations to break the GUT and electroweak symmetry, as well as colour Higgs triplets that can be used for the missing partner mechanism. By statistically sampling the space of Pati-Salam vacua we demonstrate the abundan...

Pancreatic sarcoidosis discovered during Whipple procedure.

Science.gov (United States)

Cook, Jonathan; Spees, Tanner; Telefus, Phillip; Ranaudo, Jeffrey M; Carryl, Stephen; Xiao, Philip

2013-04-04

Pancreatic sarcoidosis is a rare variant of systemic sarcoidosis, with cases described in literature as recently as January 2010. We present here a case of pancreatic involvement with non-caseating granulomas discovered on laparotomy in a patient with a preoperative diagnosis of pancreatic carcinoma. Computer tomography scan without contrast revealed a well-marginated smooth-shaped tumor in the head of the pancreas morphologically consistent with malignancy. During Whipple procedure, the mass was found to be a large lymph node that contained numerous non-caseating granulomas. Radiologically and clinically, non-caseating granulomas of the pancreas are often misdiagnosed as malignant tumor. Special attention given to this differential diagnosis by surgeons, pathologists and clinicians can avoid misdiagnosis and unnecessary treatment. Published by Oxford University Press and JSCR Publishing Ltd. All rights reserved. © The Author 2013.

CASCADE-IMEI: A learning environment of realistic mathematics for student teachers in Indonesia

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Zulkardi, Z.; Nieveen, N.M.

2001-01-01

This paper reports on the second phase of a four-year study which aims to develop a learning environment that supports prospective mathematics teachers learning realistic mathematics education (RME) in teacher education in Indonesia. The results suggest that by giving student teachers experiences in

Two Herbig-Haro objects discovered by narrow-band CCD imagery

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ogura, Katsuo

1990-01-01

Two new Herbig-Haro objects, HH 132 and HH 133, have been discovered by CCD imagery behind interference filters on and just off the forbidden S II lines in the red. They are located in Puppis R2 and in Vela R2. Possible locations of their exciting sources are discussed. 12 refs

Estimation of Multiple Pitches in Stereophonic Mixtures using a Codebook-based Approach

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hansen, Martin Weiss; Jensen, Jesper Rindom; Christensen, Mads Græsbøll

2017-01-01

In this paper, a method for multi-pitch estimation of stereophonic mixtures of multiple harmonic signals is presented. The method is based on a signal model which takes the amplitude and delay panning parameters of the sources in a stereophonic mixture into account. Furthermore, the method is based...... on the extended invariance principle (EXIP), and a codebook of realistic amplitude vectors. For each fundamental frequency candidate in each of the sources, the amplitude estimates are mapped to entries in the codebook, and the pitch and model order are estimated jointly. The performance of the proposed method...

A multiple-dimension liquid chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry data strategy for the rapid discovery and identification of unknown compounds from a Chinese herbal formula (Er-xian decoction).

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Caihong; Zhang, Jinlan; Wu, Caisheng; Wang, Zhe

2017-10-06

It is very important to rapidly discover and identify the multiple components of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) formula. High performance liquid chromatography with high resolution tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC-HRMS/MS) has been widely used to analyze TCM formula and contains multiple-dimension data including retention time (RT), high resolution mass (HRMS), multiple-stage mass spectrometric (MS n ), and isotope intensity distribution (IID) data. So it is very necessary to exploit a useful strategy to utilize multiple-dimension data to rapidly probe structural information and identify chemical compounds. In this study, a new strategy to initiatively use the multiple-dimension LC-MS data has been developed to discover and identify unknown compounds of TCM in many styles. The strategy guarantees the fast discovery of candidate structural information and provides efficient structure clues for identification. The strategy contains four steps in sequence: (1) to discover potential compounds and obtain sub-structure information by the mass spectral tree similarity filter (MTSF) technique, based on HRMS and MS n data; (2) to classify potential compounds into known chemical classes by discriminant analysis (DA) on the basis of RT and HRMS data; (3) to hit the candidate structural information of compounds by intersection sub-structure between MTSF and DA (M,D-INSS); (4) to annotate and confirm candidate structures by IID data. This strategy allowed for the high exclusion efficiency (greater than 41%) of irrelevant ions in er-xian decoction (EXD) while providing accurate structural information of 553 potential compounds and identifying 66 candidates, therefore accelerating and simplifying the discovery and identification of unknown compounds in TCM formula. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

A case of radiation-induced cutaneous angiosarcoma 15 years after simultaneously occurring uterine cervical and gastric cancers discovered by autopsy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Okuyama, T.; Enomoto, Yasunori; Yoshikawa, Takafumi; Nonomura, Akitaka; Ichijima, Kunio

2005-01-01

A case of cutaneous angiosarcoma in the skin on the left hip previously irradiated for cervical uterine squamous cell carcinoma is discovered by autopsy. The patient, a 79-year-old woman, at age 64 had been then underwent radiotherapy for the cervical uterine carcinoma. A total dose of 50 Gy was administrated. At 79 years of age, she noticed multiple purple black nodular skin lesions on the left hip and thigh. She was hospitalized for 8 days, but her general condition rapidly deteriorated and she died. An autopsy revealed that the skin lesion was composed of atypical polygonal cell proliferation forming irregularly anastomosing vascularity, together with hemorrhage and necrosis. The tumor cells were positive for both CD34 and factor 8-related antigens. The final diagnosis was angiosarcoma. (author)

Asymmetric author-topic model for knowledge discovering of big data in toxicogenomics.

Science.gov (United States)

Chung, Ming-Hua; Wang, Yuping; Tang, Hailin; Zou, Wen; Basinger, John; Xu, Xiaowei; Tong, Weida

2015-01-01

The advancement of high-throughput screening technologies facilitates the generation of massive amount of biological data, a big data phenomena in biomedical science. Yet, researchers still heavily rely on keyword search and/or literature review to navigate the databases and analyses are often done in rather small-scale. As a result, the rich information of a database has not been fully utilized, particularly for the information embedded in the interactive nature between data points that are largely ignored and buried. For the past 10 years, probabilistic topic modeling has been recognized as an effective machine learning algorithm to annotate the hidden thematic structure of massive collection of documents. The analogy between text corpus and large-scale genomic data enables the application of text mining tools, like probabilistic topic models, to explore hidden patterns of genomic data and to the extension of altered biological functions. In this paper, we developed a generalized probabilistic topic model to analyze a toxicogenomics dataset that consists of a large number of gene expression data from the rat livers treated with drugs in multiple dose and time-points. We discovered the hidden patterns in gene expression associated with the effect of doses and time-points of treatment. Finally, we illustrated the ability of our model to identify the evidence of potential reduction of animal use.

Asymmetric author-topic model for knowledge discovering of big data in toxicogenomics

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ming-Hua eChung

2015-04-01

Full Text Available The advancement of high-throughput screening technologies facilitates the generation of massive amount of biological data, a big data phenomena in biomedical science. Yet, researchers still heavily rely on keyword search and/or literature review to navigate the databases and analyses are often done in rather small-scale. As a result, the rich information of a database has not been fully utilized, particularly for the information embedded in the interactive nature between data points that are largely ignored and buried. For the past ten years, probabilistic topic modeling has been recognized as an effective machine learning algorithm to annotate the hidden thematic structure of massive collection of documents. The analogy between text corpus and large-scale genomic data enables the application of text mining tools, like probabilistic topic models, to explore hidden patterns of genomic data and to the extension of altered biological functions. In this paper, we developed a generalized probabilistic topic model to analyze a toxicogenomics dataset that consists of a large number of gene expression data from the rat livers treated with drugs in multiple dose and time-points. We discovered the hidden patterns in gene expression associated with the effect of doses and time-points of treatment. Finally, we illustrated the ability of our model to identify the evidence of potential reduction of animal use.

Chandra Discovers Cosmic Cannonball

Science.gov (United States)

2007-11-01

One of the fastest moving stars ever seen has been discovered with NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory. This cosmic cannonball is challenging theories to explain its blistering speed. Astronomers used Chandra to observe a neutron star, known as RX J0822-4300, over a period of about five years. During that span, three Chandra observations clearly show the neutron star moving away from the center of the Puppis A supernova remnant. This remnant is the stellar debris field created during the same explosion in which the neutron star was created about 3700 years ago. Chandra X-ray Image of RX J0822-4300 in Puppis A Chandra X-ray Image of RX J0822-4300 in Puppis A By combining how far it has moved across the sky with its distance from Earth, astronomers determined the neutron star is moving at over 3 million miles per hour. At this rate, RX J0822-4300 is destined to escape from the Milky Way after millions of years, even though it has only traveled about 20 light years so far. "This star is moving at 3 million miles an hour, but it's so far away that the apparent motion we see in five years is less than the height of the numerals in the date on a penny, seen from the length of a football field," said Frank Winkler of Middlebury College in Vermont. "It's remarkable, and a real testament to the power of Chandra, that such a tiny motion can be measured." Labeled Image of RX J0822-4300 in Puppis A Labeled Image of RX J0822-4300 in Puppis A "Just after it was born, this neutron star got a one-way ticket out of the Galaxy," said co-author Robert Petre of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. "Astronomers have seen other stars being flung out of the Milky Way, but few as fast as this." So-called hypervelocity stars have been previously discovered shooting out of the Milky Way with speeds around one million miles per hour. One key difference between RX J0822-4300 and these other reported galactic escapees is the source of their speed. The hypervelocity stars are

Discovering the quantum universe the role of particle colliders

CERN Document Server

2006-01-01

What does "Quantum Universe" mean? To discover what the universe is made of and how it works is the challenge of particle physics. "Quantum Universe" defines the quest to explain the universe in terms of quantum physics, which governs the behavior of the microscopic, subatomic world. It describes a revolution in particle physics and a quantum leap in our understanding of the mystery and beauty of the universe.

Bridges between multiple-point geostatistics and texture synthesis: Review and guidelines for future research

Science.gov (United States)

Mariethoz, Gregoire; Lefebvre, Sylvain

2014-05-01

Multiple-Point Simulations (MPS) is a family of geostatistical tools that has received a lot of attention in recent years for the characterization of spatial phenomena in geosciences. It relies on the definition of training images to represent a given type of spatial variability, or texture. We show that the algorithmic tools used are similar in many ways to techniques developed in computer graphics, where there is a need to generate large amounts of realistic textures for applications such as video games and animated movies. Similarly to MPS, these texture synthesis methods use training images, or exemplars, to generate realistic-looking graphical textures. Both domains of multiple-point geostatistics and example-based texture synthesis present similarities in their historic development and share similar concepts. These disciplines have however remained separated, and as a result significant algorithmic innovations in each discipline have not been universally adopted. Texture synthesis algorithms present drastically increased computational efficiency, patterns reproduction and user control. At the same time, MPS developed ways to condition models to spatial data and to produce 3D stochastic realizations, which have not been thoroughly investigated in the field of texture synthesis. In this paper we review the possible links between these disciplines and show the potential and limitations of using concepts and approaches from texture synthesis in MPS. We also provide guidelines on how recent developments could benefit both fields of research, and what challenges remain open.

A Local Realistic Reconciliation of the EPR Paradox

Science.gov (United States)

Sanctuary, Bryan

2014-03-01

The exact violation of Bell's Inequalities is obtained with a local realistic model for spin. The model treats one particle that comprises a quantum ensemble and simulates the EPR data one coincidence at a time as a product state. Such a spin is represented by operators σx , iσy ,σz in its body frame rather than the usual set of σX ,σY ,σZ in the laboratory frame. This model, assumed valid in the absence of a measuring probe, contains both quantum polarizations and coherences. Each carries half the EPR correlation, but only half can be measured using coincidence techniques. The model further predicts the filter angles that maximize the spin correlation in EPR experiments.

HELIOSEISMOLOGY OF A REALISTIC MAGNETOCONVECTIVE SUNSPOT SIMULATION

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Braun, D. C.; Birch, A. C.; Rempel, M.; Duvall, T. L. Jr.

2012-01-01

We compare helioseismic travel-time shifts measured from a realistic magnetoconvective sunspot simulation using both helioseismic holography and time-distance helioseismology, and measured from real sunspots observed with the Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager instrument on board the Solar Dynamics Observatory and the Michelson Doppler Imager instrument on board the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory. We find remarkable similarities in the travel-time shifts measured between the methodologies applied and between the simulated and real sunspots. Forward modeling of the travel-time shifts using either Born or ray approximation kernels and the sound-speed perturbations present in the simulation indicates major disagreements with the measured travel-time shifts. These findings do not substantially change with the application of a correction for the reduction of wave amplitudes in the simulated and real sunspots. Overall, our findings demonstrate the need for new methods for inferring the subsurface structure of sunspots through helioseismic inversions.

Discovering the cosmos with small spacecraft the American explorer program

CERN Document Server

Harvey, Brian

2018-01-01

Explorer was the original American space program and Explorer 1 its first satellite, launched in 1958. Sixty years later, it is the longest continuously running space program in the world, demonstrating to the world how we can explore the cosmos with small spacecraft. Almost a hundred Explorers have already been launched.  Explorers have made some of the fundamental discoveries of the Space Age.Explorer 1 discovered Earth’s radiation belts. Later Explorers surveyed the Sun, the X-ray and ultraviolet universes, black holes, magnetars and gamma ray bursts. An Explorer found the remnant of the Big Bang. One Explorer chased and was the first to intercept a comet. The program went through a period of few launches during the crisis of funding for space science in the 1980s. However, with the era of ‘faster, cheaper, better,’ the program was reinvented, and new exiting missions began to take shape, like Swift and the asteroid hunter WISE.  Discovering the Cosmos with Small Spacecraft gives an account of ...

Realist identification of group-level latent variables for perinatal social epidemiology theory building.

Science.gov (United States)

Eastwood, John Graeme; Jalaludin, Bin Badrudin; Kemp, Lynn Ann; Phung, Hai Ngoc

2014-01-01

We have previously reported in this journal on an ecological study of perinatal depressive symptoms in South Western Sydney. In that article, we briefly reported on a factor analysis that was utilized to identify empirical indicators for analysis. In this article, we report on the mixed method approach that was used to identify those latent variables. Social epidemiology has been slow to embrace a latent variable approach to the study of social, political, economic, and cultural structures and mechanisms, partly for philosophical reasons. Critical realist ontology and epistemology have been advocated as an appropriate methodological approach to both theory building and theory testing in the health sciences. We describe here an emergent mixed method approach that uses qualitative methods to identify latent constructs followed by factor analysis using empirical indicators chosen to measure identified qualitative codes. Comparative analysis of the findings is reported together with a limited description of realist approaches to abstract reasoning.

A critical realist evaluation of a music therapy intervention in palliative care.

Science.gov (United States)

Porter, Sam; McConnell, Tracey; Clarke, Mike; Kirkwood, Jenny; Hughes, Naomi; Graham-Wisener, Lisa; Regan, Joan; McKeown, Miriam; McGrillen, Kerry; Reid, Joanne

2017-12-08

Music therapy is increasingly used as an adjunct therapy to support symptom management in palliative care. However, studies to date have paid little attention to the processes that lead to changes in patient outcomes. To fill this gap, we examined the processes and experiences involved in the introduction of music therapy as an adjunct complementary therapy to palliative care in a hospice setting in the United Kingdom (UK). Using a realistic evaluation approach, we conducted a qualitative study using a variety of approaches. These consisted of open text answers from patients (n = 16) on how music therapy helped meet their needs within one hospice in Northern Ireland, UK. We also conducted three focus groups with a range of palliative care practitioners (seven physicians, seven nursing staff, two social workers and three allied health professionals) to help understand their perspectives on music therapy's impact on their work setting, and what influences its successful implementation. This was supplemented with an interview with the music therapist delivering the intervention. Music therapy contains multiple mechanisms that can provide physical, psychological, emotional, expressive, existential and social support. There is also evidence that the hospice context, animated by a holistic approach to healthcare, is an important facilitator of the effects of music therapy. Examination of patients' responses helped identify specific benefits for different types of patients. There is a synergy between the therapeutic aims of music therapy and those of palliative care, which appealed to a significant proportion of participants, who perceived it as effective.

Design principles and optimal performance for molecular motors under realistic constraints

Science.gov (United States)

Tu, Yuhai; Cao, Yuansheng

2018-02-01

The performance of a molecular motor, characterized by its power output and energy efficiency, is investigated in the motor design space spanned by the stepping rate function and the motor-track interaction potential. Analytic results and simulations show that a gating mechanism that restricts forward stepping in a narrow window in configuration space is needed for generating high power at physiologically relevant loads. By deriving general thermodynamics laws for nonequilibrium motors, we find that the maximum torque (force) at stall is less than its theoretical limit for any realistic motor-track interactions due to speed fluctuations. Our study reveals a tradeoff for the motor-track interaction: while a strong interaction generates a high power output for forward steps, it also leads to a higher probability of wasteful spontaneous back steps. Our analysis and simulations show that this tradeoff sets a fundamental limit to the maximum motor efficiency in the presence of spontaneous back steps, i.e., loose-coupling. Balancing this tradeoff leads to an optimal design of the motor-track interaction for achieving a maximum efficiency close to 1 for realistic motors that are not perfectly coupled with the energy source. Comparison with existing data and suggestions for future experiments are discussed.

A multiple shock model for common cause failures using discrete Markov chain

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chung, Dae Wook; Kang, Chang Soon

1992-01-01

The most widely used models in common cause analysis are (single) shock models such as the BFR, and the MFR. But, single shock model can not treat the individual common cause separately and has some irrational assumptions. Multiple shock model for common cause failures is developed using Markov chain theory. This model treats each common cause shock as separately and sequently occuring event to implicate the change in failure probability distribution due to each common cause shock. The final failure probability distribution is evaluated and compared with that from the BFR model. The results show that multiple shock model which minimizes the assumptions in the BFR model is more realistic and conservative than the BFR model. The further work for application is the estimations of parameters such as common cause shock rate and component failure probability given a shock,p, through the data analysis

Discovering Communicable Scientific Knowledge from Spatio-Temporal Data

Science.gov (United States)

Schwabacher, Mark; Langley, Pat; Norvig, Peter (Technical Monitor)

2001-01-01

This paper describes how we used regression rules to improve upon a result previously published in the Earth science literature. In such a scientific application of machine learning, it is crucially important for the learned models to be understandable and communicable. We recount how we selected a learning algorithm to maximize communicability, and then describe two visualization techniques that we developed to aid in understanding the model by exploiting the spatial nature of the data. We also report how evaluating the learned models across time let us discover an error in the data.

SoftSearch: integration of multiple sequence features to identify breakpoints of structural variations.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Steven N Hart

Full Text Available BACKGROUND: Structural variation (SV represents a significant, yet poorly understood contribution to an individual's genetic makeup. Advanced next-generation sequencing technologies are widely used to discover such variations, but there is no single detection tool that is considered a community standard. In an attempt to fulfil this need, we developed an algorithm, SoftSearch, for discovering structural variant breakpoints in Illumina paired-end next-generation sequencing data. SoftSearch combines multiple strategies for detecting SV including split-read, discordant read-pair, and unmated pairs. Co-localized split-reads and discordant read pairs are used to refine the breakpoints. RESULTS: We developed and validated SoftSearch using real and synthetic datasets. SoftSearch's key features are 1 not requiring secondary (or exhaustive primary alignment, 2 portability into established sequencing workflows, and 3 is applicable to any DNA-sequencing experiment (e.g. whole genome, exome, custom capture, etc.. SoftSearch identifies breakpoints from a small number of soft-clipped bases from split reads and a few discordant read-pairs which on their own would not be sufficient to make an SV call. CONCLUSIONS: We show that SoftSearch can identify more true SVs by combining multiple sequence features. SoftSearch was able to call clinically relevant SVs in the BRCA2 gene not reported by other tools while offering significantly improved overall performance.

Interactive Gaussian Graphical Models for Discovering Depth Trends in ChemCam Data

Science.gov (United States)

Oyen, D. A.; Komurlu, C.; Lanza, N. L.

2018-04-01

Interactive Gaussian graphical models discover surface compositional features on rocks in ChemCam targets. Our approach visualizes shot-to-shot relationships among LIBS observations, and identifies the wavelengths involved in the trend.

Integrated presentation of ecological risk from multiple stressors

Science.gov (United States)

Goussen, Benoit; Price, Oliver R.; Rendal, Cecilie; Ashauer, Roman

2016-10-01

Current environmental risk assessments (ERA) do not account explicitly for ecological factors (e.g. species composition, temperature or food availability) and multiple stressors. Assessing mixtures of chemical and ecological stressors is needed as well as accounting for variability in environmental conditions and uncertainty of data and models. Here we propose a novel probabilistic ERA framework to overcome these limitations, which focusses on visualising assessment outcomes by construct-ing and interpreting prevalence plots as a quantitative prediction of risk. Key components include environmental scenarios that integrate exposure and ecology, and ecological modelling of relevant endpoints to assess the effect of a combination of stressors. Our illustrative results demonstrate the importance of regional differences in environmental conditions and the confounding interactions of stressors. Using this framework and prevalence plots provides a risk-based approach that combines risk assessment and risk management in a meaningful way and presents a truly mechanistic alternative to the threshold approach. Even whilst research continues to improve the underlying models and data, regulators and decision makers can already use the framework and prevalence plots. The integration of multiple stressors, environmental conditions and variability makes ERA more relevant and realistic.

Integrated presentation of ecological risk from multiple stressors.

Science.gov (United States)

Goussen, Benoit; Price, Oliver R; Rendal, Cecilie; Ashauer, Roman

2016-10-26

Current environmental risk assessments (ERA) do not account explicitly for ecological factors (e.g. species composition, temperature or food availability) and multiple stressors. Assessing mixtures of chemical and ecological stressors is needed as well as accounting for variability in environmental conditions and uncertainty of data and models. Here we propose a novel probabilistic ERA framework to overcome these limitations, which focusses on visualising assessment outcomes by construct-ing and interpreting prevalence plots as a quantitative prediction of risk. Key components include environmental scenarios that integrate exposure and ecology, and ecological modelling of relevant endpoints to assess the effect of a combination of stressors. Our illustrative results demonstrate the importance of regional differences in environmental conditions and the confounding interactions of stressors. Using this framework and prevalence plots provides a risk-based approach that combines risk assessment and risk management in a meaningful way and presents a truly mechanistic alternative to the threshold approach. Even whilst research continues to improve the underlying models and data, regulators and decision makers can already use the framework and prevalence plots. The integration of multiple stressors, environmental conditions and variability makes ERA more relevant and realistic.

Discovering Sentinel Rules for Business Intelligence

Science.gov (United States)

Middelfart, Morten; Pedersen, Torben Bach

This paper proposes the concept of sentinel rules for multi-dimensional data that warns users when measure data concerning the external environment changes. For instance, a surge in negative blogging about a company could trigger a sentinel rule warning that revenue will decrease within two months, so a new course of action can be taken. Hereby, we expand the window of opportunity for organizations and facilitate successful navigation even though the world behaves chaotically. Since sentinel rules are at the schema level as opposed to the data level, and operate on data changes as opposed to absolute data values, we are able to discover strong and useful sentinel rules that would otherwise be hidden when using sequential pattern mining or correlation techniques. We present a method for sentinel rule discovery and an implementation of this method that scales linearly on large data volumes.

Hemodynamic Changes Caused by Flow Diverters in Rabbit Aneurysm Models: Comparison of Virtual and Realistic FD Deployments Based on Micro-CT Reconstruction

Science.gov (United States)

Fang, Yibin; Yu, Ying; Cheng, Jiyong; Wang, Shengzhang; Wang, Kuizhong; Liu, Jian-Min; Huang, Qinghai

2013-01-01

Adjusting hemodynamics via flow diverter (FD) implantation is emerging as a novel method of treating cerebral aneurysms. However, most previous FD-related hemodynamic studies were based on virtual FD deployment, which may produce different hemodynamic outcomes than realistic (in vivo) FD deployment. We compared hemodynamics between virtual FD and realistic FD deployments in rabbit aneurysm models using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations. FDs were implanted for aneurysms in 14 rabbits. Vascular models based on rabbit-specific angiograms were reconstructed for CFD studies. Real FD configurations were reconstructed based on micro-CT scans after sacrifice, while virtual FD configurations were constructed with SolidWorks software. Hemodynamic parameters before and after FD deployment were analyzed. According to the metal coverage (MC) of implanted FDs calculated based on micro-CT reconstruction, 14 rabbits were divided into two groups (A, MC >35%; B, MC 0.05). The normalized mean WSS in Group A after realistic FD implantation was significantly lower than that of Group B. All parameters in Group B exhibited no significant difference between realistic and virtual FDs. This study confirmed MC-correlated differences in hemodynamic parameters between realistic and virtual FD deployment. PMID:23823503

Discovering and Promoting Commodity Health Attributes: Programs and Issues

OpenAIRE

Carman, Hoy F.

2007-01-01

There is a growing consumer segment demanding healthy foods and diets, health and nutrition messages can expand food demand, and governments in the U.S. and EU, faced with increasing obesity and associated health outcomes, want consumers to have reliable information to choose healthy diets. California commodity organizations, charged with expanding the demand for almonds, avocados, strawberries and walnuts, are funding health and nutrition research as a means to discover a unique selling prop...

Advancing the application of systems thinking in health: a realist evaluation of a capacity building programme for district managers in Tumkur, India.

Science.gov (United States)

Prashanth, Nuggehalli Srinivas; Marchal, Bruno; Devadasan, Narayanan; Kegels, Guy; Criel, Bart

2014-08-26

(policy and socio-political environment) attributes of the organisation. At the design and implementation stage, intervention planners need to identify opportunities for such triggering alignments. Local health systems may differ in their internal configuration and hence capacity building programmes need to accommodate possibilities for change through different pathways. By a process of formulating and testing hypotheses, making critical comparisons, discovering empirical patterns, and monitoring their scope and extent, a realist evaluation enables a comprehensive assessment of system-wide change in health systems.

A rare case of multiple meningiomas with different histology

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Toma I. Papacocea

2017-11-01

Full Text Available Meningiomas are generally benign tumors but sometimes they manifest tendency to progress towards malignancy. It is not yet clear if anaplastic meningiomas have an innate malignancy characteristic, or an initially beginning histological appearance that degenerates malignantly in time. According to literature data, the risk of a benign meningioma to progress towards malignant phenotype is about 0.16-2%, such malignant transformation occurring after a variable period of time (2-16 years. A still unanswered question is how many of the malignant meningiomas present this appearance as an innate feature and how many of them originate from benign meningiomas. Multiple meningiomas are defined as the presence of two or more distinct meningiomas. They occur in 6-10% of all patients that present meningiomas. Multiple meningiomas with a distinct histological appearance are rarely discovered. They support the theory of meningiomas that develop independently in the same patient. Different histology of multiple meningiomas is found in less than a third of the patients who suffer from this pathology. We are presenting the case of a patient with multiple meningiomas with distinct histology, one being benign and the other malignant. In connection with this case we are raising a question of therapeutic management in patients diagnosed with malignant meningiomas, namely if other possible small/ benign meningiomas should be also entirely resected.

Discover Earth: an earth system science program for libraries and their communities

Science.gov (United States)

Dusenbery, P.

2011-12-01

The view from space has deepened our understanding of Earth as a global, dynamic system. Instruments on satellites and spacecraft, coupled with advances in ground-based research, have provided us with astonishing new perspectives of our planet. Now more than ever, enhancing the public's understanding of Earth's physical and biological systems is vital to helping citizens make informed policy decisions especially when they are faced with the consequences of global climate change. While the focus for education reform is on school improvement, there is considerable research that supports the role that out-of-school experiences can play in student achievement. Libraries provide an untapped resource for engaging underserved youth and their families in fostering an appreciation and deeper understanding of science and technology topics. The Space Science Institute's National Center for Interactive Learning (NCIL) in partnership with the American Library Association (ALA), the Lunar and Planetary Institute (LPI), and the National Girls Collaborative Project (NGCP) have received funding from NSF to develop a national project called the STAR Library Education Network: a hands-on learning program for libraries and their communities (or STAR-Net for short). STAR stands for Science-Technology, Activities and Resources. STAR-Net includes two exhibitions: Discover Earth and Discover Tech. The Discover Earth exhibition will focus on local earth science topics-such as weather, water cycle, and ecosystem changes-as well as a global view of our changing planet. The main take-away message (or Big Idea) for this exhibition is that the global environment changes - and is changed by - the host community's local environment. The project team is testing whether this approach will be a good strategy for engaging the public, especially in rural America. This presentation will provide an overview of the Discover Earth project and how it is integrating climate change ideas into the exhibit

Machine Learning for RealisticBall Detection in RoboCup SPL

OpenAIRE

Bloisi, Domenico; Del Duchetto, Francesco; Manoni, Tiziano; Suriani, Vincenzo

2017-01-01

In this technical report, we describe the use of a machine learning approach for detecting the realistic black and white ball currently in use in the RoboCup Standard Platform League. Our aim is to provide a ready-to-use software module that can be useful for the RoboCup SPL community. To this end, the approach is integrated within the official B-Human code release 2016. The complete code for the approach presented in this work can be downloaded from the SPQR Team homepage at http://spqr.diag...

CSA: An efficient algorithm to improve circular DNA multiple alignment

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Pereira Luísa

2009-07-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background The comparison of homologous sequences from different species is an essential approach to reconstruct the evolutionary history of species and of the genes they harbour in their genomes. Several complete mitochondrial and nuclear genomes are now available, increasing the importance of using multiple sequence alignment algorithms in comparative genomics. MtDNA has long been used in phylogenetic analysis and errors in the alignments can lead to errors in the interpretation of evolutionary information. Although a large number of multiple sequence alignment algorithms have been proposed to date, they all deal with linear DNA and cannot handle directly circular DNA. Researchers interested in aligning circular DNA sequences must first rotate them to the "right" place using an essentially manual process, before they can use multiple sequence alignment tools. Results In this paper we propose an efficient algorithm that identifies the most interesting region to cut circular genomes in order to improve phylogenetic analysis when using standard multiple sequence alignment algorithms. This algorithm identifies the largest chain of non-repeated longest subsequences common to a set of circular mitochondrial DNA sequences. All the sequences are then rotated and made linear for multiple alignment purposes. To evaluate the effectiveness of this new tool, three different sets of mitochondrial DNA sequences were considered. Other tests considering randomly rotated sequences were also performed. The software package Arlequin was used to evaluate the standard genetic measures of the alignments obtained with and without the use of the CSA algorithm with two well known multiple alignment algorithms, the CLUSTALW and the MAVID tools, and also the visualization tool SinicView. Conclusion The results show that a circularization and rotation pre-processing step significantly improves the efficiency of public available multiple sequence alignment

Autapse-induced multiple stochastic resonances in a modular neuronal network

Science.gov (United States)

Yang, XiaoLi; Yu, YanHu; Sun, ZhongKui

2017-08-01

This study investigates the nontrivial effects of autapse on stochastic resonance in a modular neuronal network subjected to bounded noise. The resonance effect of autapse is detected by imposing a self-feedback loop with autaptic strength and autaptic time delay to each constituent neuron. Numerical simulations have demonstrated that bounded noise with the proper level of amplitude can induce stochastic resonance; moreover, the noise induced resonance dynamics can be significantly shaped by the autapse. In detail, for a specific range of autaptic strength, multiple stochastic resonances can be induced when the autaptic time delays are appropriately adjusted. These appropriately adjusted delays are detected to nearly approach integer multiples of the period of the external weak signal when the autaptic strength is very near zero; otherwise, they do not match the period of the external weak signal when the autaptic strength is slightly greater than zero. Surprisingly, in both cases, the differences between arbitrary two adjacent adjusted autaptic delays are always approximately equal to the period of the weak signal. The phenomenon of autaptic delay induced multiple stochastic resonances is further confirmed to be robust against the period of the external weak signal and the intramodule probability of subnetwork. These findings could have important implications for weak signal detection and information propagation in realistic neural systems.

CWI cryptanalyst discovers new cryptographic attack variant in Flame spy malware

NARCIS (Netherlands)

M.M.J. Stevens (Marc); R.J.F. Cramer (Ronald)

2012-01-01

htmlabstractCryptanalyst Marc Stevens from the Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica (CWI) in Amsterdam, known for breaking the https security in 2008 using a cryptanalytic attack on MD5, analyzed the recent Flame virus this week. He discovered that for this spy malware an as yet unknown cryptographic

A non-parametric hierarchical model to discover behavior dynamics from tracks

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Kooij, J.F.P.; Englebienne, G.; Gavrila, D.M.

2012-01-01

We present a novel non-parametric Bayesian model to jointly discover the dynamics of low-level actions and high-level behaviors of tracked people in open environments. Our model represents behaviors as Markov chains of actions which capture high-level temporal dynamics. Actions may be shared by

Orbits of the Asteroids Discovered at the Molėtai Observatory in 2000–2004

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Černis K.

2014-12-01

Full Text Available The paper presents statistics of the asteroids observed and discovered at the Molėtai Observatory, Lithuania in 2000–2004 within the project for astrometric observations of the near-Earth objects (NEOs, the main belt asteroids and comets. CCD observations of asteroids were obtained with the 35/51 cm Maksutov-type meniscus telescope and the 1.65 m Ritchey-Chretien reflector. In the Minor Planet Circulars and the Minor Planet Electronic Circulars (2000–2004 we published 6629 astrometric positions of 1114 asteroids. Among them 78 were newly discovered asteroids at Molėtai, a few NEOs were found by our team independently. For the 67 asteroids discovered at Molėtai the precise orbits were calculated. Because of small number of observations, a few asteroids have low-precision orbits and some asteroids have been lost. For seven objects we present their ephemerides for 2015.

Uncovering multiple populations with washington photometry. I. The globular cluster NGC 1851

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Cummings, Jeffrey D.; Geisler, D.; Villanova, S. [Departamento de Astronomía, Casilla 160-C, Universidad de Concepción (Chile); Carraro, G. [ESO, Alonso de Cordova 3107, Casilla 19001, Santiago de Chile (Chile)

2014-08-01

The analysis of multiple populations (MPs) in globular clusters (GCs) has become a forefront area of research in astronomy. Multiple red giant branches (RGBs), subgiant branches (SGBs), and even main sequences (MSs) have now been observed photometrically in many GCs, while broad abundance distributions of certain elements have been detected spectroscopically in most, if not all, GCs. UV photometry has been crucial in discovering and analyzing these MPs, but the Johnson U and the Stromgren and Sloan u filters that have generally been used are relatively inefficient and very sensitive to reddening and atmospheric extinction. In contrast, the Washington C filter is much broader and redder than these competing UV filters, making it far more efficient at detecting MPs and much less sensitive to reddening and extinction. Here, we investigate the use of the Washington system to uncover MPs using only a 1 m telescope. Our analysis of the well-studied GC NGC 1851 finds that the C filter is both very efficient and effective at detecting its previously discovered MPs in the RGB and SGB. Remarkably, we have also detected an intrinsically broad MS best characterized by two distinct but heavily overlapping populations that cannot be explained by binaries, field stars, or photometric errors. The MS distribution is in very good agreement with that seen on the RGB, with ∼30% of the stars belonging to the second population. There is also evidence for two sequences in the red horizontal branch, but this appears to be unrelated to the MPs in this cluster. Neither of these latter phenomena have been observed previously in this cluster. The redder MS stars are also more centrally concentrated than the blue MS. This is the first time MPs in an MS have been discovered from the ground, and using only a 1 m telescope. The Washington system thus proves to be a very powerful tool for investigating MPs, and holds particular promise for extragalactic objects where photons are limited.

Students’ Critical Mathematical Thinking Skills and Character:Experiments for Junior High School Students through Realistic Mathematics Education Culture-Based

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Anderson L. Palinussa

2013-01-01

Full Text Available This paper presents the findings of a quasi-experimental with pre-test-post-test design and control group that aims to assess students’ critical mathematical thinking skills and character through realistic mathematics education (RME culture-based. Subjects of this study were 106 junior high school students from two low and medium schools level in Ambon. The instruments of the study are: students’ early math skills test, critical thinking skills mathematical test and perception scale of students’character. Data was analyzed by using t-test and Anova. The study found that: 1 Achievements and enhancement of students’ critical mathematical thinking skills who were treated with by realistic mathematics education is better then students’ skills were treated by conventional mathematics education. The differences are considered to: a overall students, b the level of early math skills, and c schools’ level; 2 Quality of students’ character who were treated by realistic mathematics education is better then students’ character who were treated by conventional mathematics education The differences are considered to: a overall students, b the level of early math skills, and c schools’ level  Keywords: Critical Thinking, Students’ Character, Realistic Mathematics Education Culture-Based DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.22342/jme.4.1.566.75-94

Methodology for estimating realistic responses of buildings and components under earthquake motion and its application

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ebisawa, Katsumi; Abe, Kiyoharu; Kohno, Kunihiko; Nakamura, Hidetaka; Itoh, Mamoru.

1996-11-01

Failure probabilities of buildings and components under earthquake motion are estimated as conditional probabilities that their realistic responses exceed their capacities. Two methods for estimating their failure probabilities have already been developed. One is a detailed method developed in the Seismic Safety margins Research Program of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in U.S.A., which is called 'SSMRP method'. The other is a simplified method proposed by Kennedy et al., which is called 'Zion method'. The Zion method is sometimes called 'response factor method'. The authors adopted the response factor method. In order to enhance the estimation accuracy of failure probabilities of buildings and components, however, a new methodology for improving the response factor method was proposed. Based on the improved method, response factors of buildings and components designed to seismic design standard in Japan were estimated, and their realistic responses were also calculated. By using their realistic responses and capacities, the failure probabilities of a reactor building and relays were estimated. In order to identify the difference between new method, SSMRP method and original response factor method, the failure probabilities were compared estimated by these three methods. A similar method of SSMRP was used instead of the original SSMRP for saving time and labor. The viewpoints for selecting the methods to estimate failure probabilities of buildings and components were also proposed. (author). 55 refs

Lean and leadership practices: development of an initial realist program theory.

Science.gov (United States)

Goodridge, Donna; Westhorp, Gill; Rotter, Thomas; Dobson, Roy; Bath, Brenna

2015-09-07

Lean as a management system has been increasingly adopted in health care settings in an effort to enhance quality, capacity and safety, while simultaneously containing or reducing costs. The Ministry of Health in the province of Saskatchewan, Canada has made a multi-million dollar investment in Lean initiatives to create "better health, better value, better care, and better teams", affording a unique opportunity to advance our understanding of the way in which Lean philosophy, principles and tools work in health care. In order to address the questions, "What changes in leadership practices are associated with the implementation of Lean?" and "When leadership practices change, how do the changed practices contribute to subsequent outcomes?", we used a qualitative, multi-stage approach to work towards developing an initial realist program theory. We describe the implications of realist assumptions for evaluation of this Lean initiative. Formal theories including Normalization Process Theory, Theories of Double Loop and Organization Leaning and the Theory of Cognitive Dissonance help understand this initial rough program theory. Data collection included: key informant consultation; a stakeholder workshop; documentary review; 26 audiotaped and transcribed interviews with health region personnel; and team discussions. A set of seven initial hypotheses regarding the manner in which Lean changes leadership practices were developed from our data. We hypothesized that Lean, as implemented in this particular setting, changes leadership practices in the following ways. Lean: a) aligns the aims and objectives of health regions; b) authorizes attention and resources to quality improvement and change management c) provides an integrated set of tools for particular tasks; d) changes leaders' attitudes or beliefs about appropriate leadership and management styles and behaviors; e) demands increased levels of expertise, accountability and commitment from leaders; f) measures and

Detailed performance analysis of realistic solar photovoltaic systems at extensive climatic conditions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gupta, Ankit; Chauhan, Yogesh K.

2016-01-01

In recent years, solar energy has been considered as one of the principle renewable energy source for electric power generation. In this paper, single diode photovoltaic (PV) system and double/bypass diode based PV system are designed in MATLAB/Simulink environment based on their mathematical modeling and are validated with a commercially available solar panel. The novelty of the paper is to include the effect of climatic conditions i.e. variable irradiation level, wind speed, temperature, humidity level and dust accumulation in the modeling of both the PV systems to represent a realistic PV system. The comprehensive investigations are made on both the modeled PV systems. The obtained results show the satisfactory performance for realistic models of the PV system. Furthermore, an in depth comparative analysis is carried out for both PV systems. - Highlights: • Modeling of Single diode and Double diode PV systems in MATLAB/Simulink software. • Validation of designed PV systems with a commercially available PV panel. • Acquisition and employment of key climatic factors in modeling of the PV systems. • Evaluation of main model parameters of both the PV systems. • Detailed comparative assessment of both the modeled PV system parameters.

Simplicity of state and overlap structure in finite-volume realistic spin glasses

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Newman, C.M.; Stein, D.L.

1998-01-01

We present a combination of heuristic and rigorous arguments indicating that both the pure state structure and the overlap structure of realistic spin glasses should be relatively simple: in a large finite volume with coupling-independent boundary conditions, such as periodic, at most a pair of flip-related (or the appropriate number of symmetry-related in the non-Ising case) states appear, and the Parisi overlap distribution correspondingly exhibits at most a pair of δ functions at ±q EA . This rules out the nonstandard mean-field picture introduced by us earlier, and when combined with our previous elimination of more standard versions of the mean-field picture, argues against the possibility of even limited versions of mean-field ordering in realistic spin glasses. If broken spin-flip symmetry should occur, this leaves open two main possibilities for ordering in the spin glass phase: the droplet-scaling two-state picture, and the chaotic pairs many-state picture introduced by us earlier. We present scaling arguments which provide a possible physical basis for the latter picture, and discuss possible reasons behind numerical observations of more complicated overlap structures in finite volumes. copyright 1998 The American Physical Society

Robust mode space approach for atomistic modeling of realistically large nanowire transistors

Science.gov (United States)

Huang, Jun Z.; Ilatikhameneh, Hesameddin; Povolotskyi, Michael; Klimeck, Gerhard

2018-01-01

Nanoelectronic transistors have reached 3D length scales in which the number of atoms is countable. Truly atomistic device representations are needed to capture the essential functionalities of the devices. Atomistic quantum transport simulations of realistically extended devices are, however, computationally very demanding. The widely used mode space (MS) approach can significantly reduce the numerical cost, but a good MS basis is usually very hard to obtain for atomistic full-band models. In this work, a robust and parallel algorithm is developed to optimize the MS basis for atomistic nanowires. This enables engineering-level, reliable tight binding non-equilibrium Green's function simulation of nanowire metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET) with a realistic cross section of 10 nm × 10 nm using a small computer cluster. This approach is applied to compare the performance of InGaAs and Si nanowire n-type MOSFETs (nMOSFETs) with various channel lengths and cross sections. Simulation results with full-band accuracy indicate that InGaAs nanowire nMOSFETs have no drive current advantage over their Si counterparts for cross sections up to about 10 nm × 10 nm.

Realistic Scheduling Mechanism for Smart Homes

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Danish Mahmood

2016-03-01

Full Text Available In this work, we propose a Realistic Scheduling Mechanism (RSM to reduce user frustration and enhance appliance utility by classifying appliances with respective constraints and their time of use effectively. Algorithms are proposed regarding functioning of home appliances. A 24 hour time slot is divided into four logical sub-time slots, each composed of 360 min or 6 h. In these sub-time slots, only desired appliances (with respect to appliance classification are scheduled to raise appliance utility, restricting power consumption by a dynamically modelled power usage limiter that does not only take the electricity consumer into account but also the electricity supplier. Once appliance, time and power usage limiter modelling is done, we use a nature-inspired heuristic algorithm, Binary Particle Swarm Optimization (BPSO, optimally to form schedules with given constraints representing each sub-time slot. These schedules tend to achieve an equilibrium amongst appliance utility and cost effectiveness. For validation of the proposed RSM, we provide a comparative analysis amongst unscheduled electrical load usage, scheduled directly by BPSO and RSM, reflecting user comfort, which is based upon cost effectiveness and appliance utility.

Multiple Clustering Views via Constrained Projections

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Dang, Xuan-Hong; Assent, Ira; Bailey, James

2012-01-01

Clustering, the grouping of data based on mutual similarity, is often used as one of principal tools to analyze and understand data. Unfortunately, most conventional techniques aim at finding only a single clustering over the data. For many practical applications, especially those being described...... in high dimensional data, it is common to see that the data can be grouped into different yet meaningful ways. This gives rise to the recently emerging research area of discovering alternative clusterings. In this preliminary work, we propose a novel framework to generate multiple clustering views....... The framework relies on a constrained data projection approach by which we ensure that a novel alternative clustering being found is not only qualitatively strong but also distinctively different from a reference clustering solution. We demonstrate the potential of the proposed framework using both synthetic...

Statistical multi-path exposure method for assessing the whole-body SAR in a heterogeneous human body model in a realistic environment.

Science.gov (United States)

Vermeeren, Günter; Joseph, Wout; Martens, Luc

2013-04-01

Assessing the whole-body absorption in a human in a realistic environment requires a statistical approach covering all possible exposure situations. This article describes the development of a statistical multi-path exposure method for heterogeneous realistic human body models. The method is applied for the 6-year-old Virtual Family boy (VFB) exposed to the GSM downlink at 950 MHz. It is shown that the whole-body SAR does not differ significantly over the different environments at an operating frequency of 950 MHz. Furthermore, the whole-body SAR in the VFB for multi-path exposure exceeds the whole-body SAR for worst-case single-incident plane wave exposure by 3.6%. Moreover, the ICNIRP reference levels are not conservative with the basic restrictions in 0.3% of the exposure samples for the VFB at the GSM downlink of 950 MHz. The homogeneous spheroid with the dielectric properties of the head suggested by the IEC underestimates the absorption compared to realistic human body models. Moreover, the variation in the whole-body SAR for realistic human body models is larger than for homogeneous spheroid models. This is mainly due to the heterogeneity of the tissues and the irregular shape of the realistic human body model compared to homogeneous spheroid human body models. Copyright © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Mean-Field and RPA Approaches to Stable and Unstable Nuclei with Semi-Realistic Interactions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nakada, H.

2009-01-01

We have developed semi-realistic NN interactions [1, 2] by modifying the M3Y interaction [3] that was derived from the G-matrix. The modification has been made so that the saturation and the spin-orbit splittings could be reproduced. The new interactions contain finite-range LS and tensor channels, as well as Yukawa-form central channels having reasonable spin and spin-isospin properties. In order to handle such interactions in practical calculations, we have also developed new numerical methods [4-6], in which the Gaussian expansion method [7] is applied. It is noted that these methods have the following advantages: (i) we can efficiently describe the energy-dependent asymptotics of single-particle wave functions at large r, as is typified in arguments on the deformed neutron halo in 4 0M g [6], (ii) we can handle various effective interactions, including those having non-locality, and (iii) a single-set of bases is applicable to wide mass range of nuclei and therefore is suitable to systematic calculations. Thereby we can implement Hartree-Fock, Hartree-Fock-Bogolyubov and RPA calculations for stable and unstable nuclei with the semi-realistic interactions. It will be shown first that the new interactions have desired characters for the nuclear matter and for the single- and double-closed nuclei. We shall particularly focus on roles of specific channels of the effective interaction, by studying (a) 'shell evolution' and role of the spin-isospin and the tensor channels [8] in stable and unstable nuclei, and (b) the magnetic response in a fully self-consistent RPA calculation with the tensor force [9]. All these properties seem to be simultaneously and naturally reproduced by the semi-realistic interactions. Thus the semi-realistic interactions are promising in describing various aspects of nuclear structure from stable to drip-line nuclei, in a self-consistent and unified manner. Since they have microscopic origin with minimal modification, we can expect high

Evolutionary Debunking of Normative Realism. Not a Real Threat for Realists

OpenAIRE

Pellegrino, Gianfranco

2017-01-01

A debunking argument has been recently levelled against normative realism. According to this line of reasoning, most of our normative beliefs have been strongly influenced by evolutionary forces. As evolution is a non-truth-tracking process, this influence may lead our normative beliefs off track. If so, normative realists need to provide an explanation of how it is possible that our normative beliefs track stance-independent truth, or of how their falsity could be spotted, when evolution pow...

Transport properties in a monolayer graphene modulated by the realistic magnetic field and the Schottky metal stripe

Science.gov (United States)

Lu, Jian-Duo; Li, Yun-Bao; Liu, Hong-Yu; Peng, Shun-Jin; Zhao, Fei-Xiang

2016-09-01

Based on the transfer-matrix method, a systematic investigation of electron transport properties is done in a monolayer graphene modulated by the realistic magnetic field and the Schottky metal stripe. The strong dependence of the electron transmission and the conductance on the incident angle of carriers is clearly seen. The height, position as well as width of the barrier also play an important role on the electron transport properties. These interesting results are very useful for understanding the tunneling mechanism in the monolayer graphene and helpful for designing the graphene-based electrical device modulated by the realistic magnetic field and the electrical barrier.

Assessing Outcomes of a Realistic Major Preview in an Introductory Sport Management Course

Science.gov (United States)

Pierce, David; Wanless, Elizabeth; Johnson, James

2014-01-01

This paper assessed the outcomes of a field experience assignment (FEA) in an introductory sport management course designed as a realistic major preview. Student learning outcomes assessed were commitment to the major, intent to pursue the major, expectation of a career in sports, and perceived preparation for a career in sports. A…

Discovering new information in bibliographic databases

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Emil Hudomalj

2005-01-01

Full Text Available Databases contain information that can usually not be revealed by standard query systems. For that purpose, the methods for knowledge discovery from databases can be applied, which enable the user to browse aggregated data, discover trends, produce online reports, explore possible new associations within the data etc. Such methods are successfully employed in various fields, such as banking, insurance and telecommunications, while they are seldom used in libraries. The article reviews the development of query systems for bibliographic databases, including some early attempts to apply modern knowledge discovery methods. Analytical databases are described in more detail, since they usually serve as the basis for knowledge discovery. Data mining approaches are presented, since they are a central step in the knowledge discovery process. The key role of librarians who can play a key part in developing systems for finding new information in existing bibliographic databases is stressed.

MEVA--An Interactive Visualization Application for Validation of Multifaceted Meteorological Data with Multiple 3D Devices.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Carolin Helbig

Full Text Available To achieve more realistic simulations, meteorologists develop and use models with increasing spatial and temporal resolution. The analyzing, comparing, and visualizing of resulting simulations becomes more and more challenging due to the growing amounts and multifaceted character of the data. Various data sources, numerous variables and multiple simulations lead to a complex database. Although a variety of software exists suited for the visualization of meteorological data, none of them fulfills all of the typical domain-specific requirements: support for quasi-standard data formats and different grid types, standard visualization techniques for scalar and vector data, visualization of the context (e.g., topography and other static data, support for multiple presentation devices used in modern sciences (e.g., virtual reality, a user-friendly interface, and suitability for cooperative work.Instead of attempting to develop yet another new visualization system to fulfill all possible needs in this application domain, our approach is to provide a flexible workflow that combines different existing state-of-the-art visualization software components in order to hide the complexity of 3D data visualization tools from the end user. To complete the workflow and to enable the domain scientists to interactively visualize their data without advanced skills in 3D visualization systems, we developed a lightweight custom visualization application (MEVA - multifaceted environmental data visualization application that supports the most relevant visualization and interaction techniques and can be easily deployed. Specifically, our workflow combines a variety of different data abstraction methods provided by a state-of-the-art 3D visualization application with the interaction and presentation features of a computer-games engine. Our customized application includes solutions for the analysis of multirun data, specifically with respect to data uncertainty and

Transforming the patient care environment with Lean Six Sigma and realistic evaluation.

Science.gov (United States)

Black, Jason

2009-01-01

Lean Six Sigma (LSS) is a structured methodology for transforming processes, but it does not fully consider the complex social interactions that cause processes to form in hospital organizations. By combining LSS implementations with the concept of Realistic Evaluation, a methodology that promotes change by assessing and considering the individual characteristics of an organization's social environment, successful and sustainable process improvement is more likely.

Very Bright CV discovered by MASTER-ICATE (Argentina)

Science.gov (United States)

Saffe, C.; Levato, H.; Mallamaci, C.; Lopez, C.; Lipunov, F. Podest V.; Denisenko, D.; Gorbovskoy, E.; Tiurina, N.; Balanutsa, P.; Kornilov, V.; Belinski, A.; Shatskiy, N.; Chazov, V.; Kuznetsov, A.; Yecheistov, V.; Yurkov, V.; Sergienko, Y.; Varda, D.; Sinyakov, E.; Gabovich, A.; Ivanov, K.; Yazev, S.; Budnev, N.; Konstantinov, E.; Chuvalaev, O.; Poleshchuk, V.; Gress, O.; Frolova, A.; Krushinsky, V.; Zalozhnih, I.; Popov, A.; Bourdanov, A.; Parkhomenko, A.; Tlatov, A.; Dormidontov, D.; Senik, V.; Podvorotny, P.; Shumkov, V.; Shurpakov, S.

2013-06-01

MASTER-ICATE very wide-field camera (d=72mm f/1.2 lens + 11 Mpix CCD) located near San Juan, Argentina has discovered OT source at (RA, Dec) = 14h 20m 23.5s -48d 55m 40s on the combined image (exposure 275 sec) taken on 2013-06-08.048 UT. The OT unfiltered magnitude is 12.1m (limit 13.1m). There is no minor planet at this place. The OT is seen in more than 10 images starting from 2013-06-02.967 UT (275 sec exposure) when it was first detected at 12.4m.

Modeling and Analysis of Realistic Fire Scenarios in Spacecraft

Science.gov (United States)

Brooker, J. E.; Dietrich, D. L.; Gokoglu, S. A.; Urban, D. L.; Ruff, G. A.

2015-01-01

An accidental fire inside a spacecraft is an unlikely, but very real emergency situation that can easily have dire consequences. While much has been learned over the past 25+ years of dedicated research on flame behavior in microgravity, a quantitative understanding of the initiation, spread, detection and extinguishment of a realistic fire aboard a spacecraft is lacking. Virtually all combustion experiments in microgravity have been small-scale, by necessity (hardware limitations in ground-based facilities and safety concerns in space-based facilities). Large-scale, realistic fire experiments are unlikely for the foreseeable future (unlike in terrestrial situations). Therefore, NASA will have to rely on scale modeling, extrapolation of small-scale experiments and detailed numerical modeling to provide the data necessary for vehicle and safety system design. This paper presents the results of parallel efforts to better model the initiation, spread, detection and extinguishment of fires aboard spacecraft. The first is a detailed numerical model using the freely available Fire Dynamics Simulator (FDS). FDS is a CFD code that numerically solves a large eddy simulation form of the Navier-Stokes equations. FDS provides a detailed treatment of the smoke and energy transport from a fire. The simulations provide a wealth of information, but are computationally intensive and not suitable for parametric studies where the detailed treatment of the mass and energy transport are unnecessary. The second path extends a model previously documented at ICES meetings that attempted to predict maximum survivable fires aboard space-craft. This one-dimensional model implies the heat and mass transfer as well as toxic species production from a fire. These simplifications result in a code that is faster and more suitable for parametric studies (having already been used to help in the hatch design of the Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle, MPCV).

Solving Multiple Isolated, Interleaved, and Blended Tasks through Modular Neuroevolution.

Science.gov (United States)

Schrum, Jacob; Miikkulainen, Risto

2016-01-01

Many challenging sequential decision-making problems require agents to master multiple tasks. For instance, game agents may need to gather resources, attack opponents, and defend against attacks. Learning algorithms can thus benefit from having separate policies for these tasks, and from knowing when each one is appropriate. How well this approach works depends on how tightly coupled the tasks are. Three cases are identified: Isolated tasks have distinct semantics and do not interact, interleaved tasks have distinct semantics but do interact, and blended tasks have regions where semantics from multiple tasks overlap. Learning across multiple tasks is studied in this article with Modular Multiobjective NEAT, a neuroevolution framework applied to three variants of the challenging Ms. Pac-Man video game. In the standard blended version of the game, a surprising, highly effective machine-discovered task division surpasses human-specified divisions, achieving the best scores to date in this game. In isolated and interleaved versions of the game, human-specified task divisions are also successful, though the best scores are surprisingly still achieved by machine discovery. Modular neuroevolution is thus shown to be capable of finding useful, unexpected task divisions better than those apparent to a human designer.

Effects of realistic force feedback in a robotic assisted minimally invasive surgery system.

Science.gov (United States)

Moradi Dalvand, Mohsen; Shirinzadeh, Bijan; Nahavandi, Saeid; Smith, Julian

2014-06-01

Robotic assisted minimally invasive surgery systems not only have the advantages of traditional laparoscopic procedures but also restore the surgeon's hand-eye coordination and improve the surgeon's precision by filtering hand tremors. Unfortunately, these benefits have come at the expense of the surgeon's ability to feel. Several research efforts have already attempted to restore this feature and study the effects of force feedback in robotic systems. The proposed methods and studies have some shortcomings. The main focus of this research is to overcome some of these limitations and to study the effects of force feedback in palpation in a more realistic fashion. A parallel robot assisted minimally invasive surgery system (PRAMiSS) with force feedback capabilities was employed to study the effects of realistic force feedback in palpation of artificial tissue samples. PRAMiSS is capable of actually measuring the tip/tissue interaction forces directly from the surgery site. Four sets of experiments using only vision feedback, only force feedback, simultaneous force and vision feedback and direct manipulation were conducted to evaluate the role of sensory feedback from sideways tip/tissue interaction forces with a scale factor of 100% in characterising tissues of varying stiffness. Twenty human subjects were involved in the experiments for at least 1440 trials. Friedman and Wilcoxon signed-rank tests were employed to statistically analyse the experimental results. Providing realistic force feedback in robotic assisted surgery systems improves the quality of tissue characterization procedures. Force feedback capability also increases the certainty of characterizing soft tissues compared with direct palpation using the lateral sides of index fingers. The force feedback capability can improve the quality of palpation and characterization of soft tissues of varying stiffness by restoring sense of touch in robotic assisted minimally invasive surgery operations.

The work is never ending: uncovering teamwork sustainability using realistic evaluation.

Science.gov (United States)

Frykman, Mandus; von Thiele Schwarz, Ulrica; Muntlin Athlin, Åsa; Hasson, Henna; Mazzocato, Pamela

2017-03-20

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to uncover the mechanisms influencing the sustainability of behavior changes following the implementation of teamwork. Design/methodology/approach Realistic evaluation was combined with a framework (DCOM®) based on applied behavior analysis to study the sustainability of behavior changes two and a half years after the initial implementation of teamwork at an emergency department. The DCOM® framework was used to categorize the mechanisms of behavior change interventions (BCIs) into the four categories of direction, competence, opportunity, and motivation. Non-participant observation and interview data were used. Findings The teamwork behaviors were not sustained. A substantial fallback in managerial activities in combination with a complex context contributed to reduced direction, opportunity, and motivation. Reduced direction made staff members unclear about how and why they should work in teams. Deterioration of opportunity was evident from the lack of problem-solving resources resulting in accumulated barriers to teamwork. Motivation in terms of management support and feedback was reduced. Practical implications The implementation of complex organizational changes in complex healthcare contexts requires continuous adaption and managerial activities well beyond the initial implementation period. Originality/value By integrating the DCOM® framework with realistic evaluation, this study responds to the call for theoretically based research on behavioral mechanisms that can explain how BCIs interact with context and how this interaction influences sustainability.

Spontaneous emission in the presence of a realistically sized cylindrical waveguide

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Dung, Ho Trung

2016-01-01

Various quantities characterizing the spontaneous emission process of a dipole emitter including the emission rate and the emission pattern can be expressed in terms of the Green tensor of the surrounding environment. By expanding the Green tensor around some analytically known background one as a Born series, and truncating it under appropriate conditions, complicated boundaries can be tackled with ease. However, when the emitter is embedded in the medium, even the calculation of the first-order term in the Born series is problematic because of the presence of a singularity. We show how to eliminate this singularity for a medium of arbitrary size and shape by expanding around the bulk medium rather than vacuum. In the highly symmetric configuration of an emitter located on the axis of a realistically sized cylinder, it is shown that the singularity can be removed by changing the integral variables and then the order of integration. Using both methods, we investigate the spontaneous emission rate of an initially excited two-level dipole emitter, embedded in a realistically sized cylinder, which can be a common optical fiber in the long-length limit and a disk in the short-length limit. The spatial distribution of the emitted light is calculated using the Born-expansion approach, and local-field corrections to the spontaneous emission rate are briefly discussed. (paper)

The tenants in the vineyard (GThom 65/Mark 12:1-12): A realistic ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Kloppenborg's reading of the parable of the tenants (Mk 12:1- 12/GThom 65) can be regarded as the first thoroughgoing realistic interpretation of the Tenants. By using extensive literary evidence on viticulture from 300 BCE to 300 CE, Kloppenborg argues that GThom 65 most probably comes closest to the original form of ...

Two politicians in a realistic experiment: attraction, discrepancy, intensity of delivery, and attitude change

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Wiegman, O.

1985-01-01

The leader of the Socialists in the Dutch Parliament and his Liberal opponent participated in this realistic experiment. Identical TV interviews with the two politicians were recorded and shown to subjects of both parties. The intensity of delivery was also varied: emotional versus rational. Our

Multiple Stressors and Ecological Complexity Require A New Approach to Coral Reef Research

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Linwood Hagan Pendleton

2016-03-01

Full Text Available Ocean acidification, climate change, and other environmental stressors threaten coral reef ecosystems and the people who depend upon them. New science reveals that these multiple stressors interact and may affect a multitude of physiological and ecological processes in complex ways. The interaction of multiple stressors and ecological complexity may mean that the negative effects on coral reef ecosystems will happen sooner and be more severe than previously thought. Yet, most research on the effects of global change on coral reefs focus on one or few stressors and pathways or outcomes (e.g. bleaching. Based on a critical review of the literature, we call for a regionally targeted strategy of mesocosm-level research that addresses this complexity and provides more realistic projections about coral reef impacts in the face of global environmental change. We believe similar approaches are needed for other ecosystems that face global environmental change.

Realistic generation cost of solar photovoltaic electricity

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Singh, Parm Pal; Singh, Sukhmeet

2010-01-01

Solar photovoltaic (SPV) power plants have long working life with zero fuel cost and negligible maintenance cost but requires huge initial investment. The generation cost of the solar electricity is mainly the cost of financing the initial investment. Therefore, the generation cost of solar electricity in different years depends on the method of returning the loan. Currently levelized cost based on equated payment loan is being used. The static levelized generation cost of solar electricity is compared with the current value of variable generation cost of grid electricity. This improper cost comparison is inhibiting the growth of SPV electricity by creating wrong perception that solar electricity is very expensive. In this paper a new method of loan repayment has been developed resulting in generation cost of SPV electricity that increases with time like that of grid electricity. A generalized capital recovery factor has been developed for graduated payment loan in which capital and interest payment in each installment are calculated by treating each loan installment as an independent loan for the relevant years. Generalized results have been calculated which can be used to determine the cost of SPV electricity for a given system at different places. Results show that for SPV system with specific initial investment of 5.00 cents /kWh/year, loan period of 30 years and loan interest rate of 4% the levelized generation cost of SPV electricity with equated payment loan turns out to be 28.92 cents /kWh, while the corresponding generation cost with graduated payment loan with escalation in annual installment of 8% varies from 9.51 cents /kWh in base year to 88.63 cents /kWh in 30th year. So, in this case, the realistic current generation cost of SPV electricity is 9.51 cents /kWh and not 28.92 cents /kWh. Further, with graduated payment loan, extension in loan period results in sharp decline in cost of SPV electricity in base year. Hence, a policy change is required

"Discovering the Cell": An Educational Game about Cell and Molecular Biology

Science.gov (United States)

Spiegel, Carolina N.; Alves, Gutemberg G.; Cardona, Tania da S.; Melim, Leandra M. C.; Luz, Mauricio R. M. P.; Araujo-Jorge, Tania C.; Henriques-Pons, Andrea

2008-01-01

The role of games within education becomes clearer as students become more active and are able to take decisions, solve problems and react to the results of those decisions. The educational board game "Discovering the Cell" ("Celula Adentro"), is based on problem-solving learning. This investigative game attempts to stimulate…

Design of a Realistic Test Simulator For a Built-In Self Test Environment

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

A. Ahmad

2010-12-01

Full Text Available This paper presents a realistic test approach suitable to Design For Testability (DFT and Built- In Self Test (BIST environments. The approach is culminated in the form of a test simulator which is capable of providing a required goal of test for the System Under Test (SUT. The simulator uses the approach of fault diagnostics with fault grading procedure to provide the tests. The tool is developed on a common PC platform and hence no special software is required. Thereby, it is a low cost tool and hence economical. The tool is very much suitable for determining realistic test sequences for a targeted goal of testing for any SUT. The developed tool incorporates a flexible Graphical User Interface (GUI procedure and can be operated without any special programming skill. The tool is debugged and tested with the results of many bench mark circuits. Further, this developed tool can be utilized for educational purposes for many courses such as fault-tolerant computing, fault diagnosis, digital electronics, and safe - reliable - testable digital logic designs.

Decision Tree Approach to Discovering Fraud in Leasing Agreements

OpenAIRE

Horvat Ivan; Pejić Bach Mirjana; Merkač Skok Marjana

2014-01-01

Background: Fraud attempts create large losses for financing subjects in modern economies. At the same time, leasing agreements have become more and more popular as a means of financing objects such as machinery and vehicles, but are more vulnerable to fraud attempts. Objectives: The goal of the paper is to estimate the usability of the data mining approach in discovering fraud in leasing agreements. Methods/Approach: Real-world data from one Croatian leasing firm was used for creating tow mo...

Using ADOPT Algorithm and Operational Data to Discover Precursors to Aviation Adverse Events

Science.gov (United States)

Janakiraman, Vijay; Matthews, Bryan; Oza, Nikunj

2018-01-01

The US National Airspace System (NAS) is making its transition to the NextGen system and assuring safety is one of the top priorities in NextGen. At present, safety is managed reactively (correct after occurrence of an unsafe event). While this strategy works for current operations, it may soon become ineffective for future airspace designs and high density operations. There is a need for proactive management of safety risks by identifying hidden and "unknown" risks and evaluating the impacts on future operations. To this end, NASA Ames has developed data mining algorithms that finds anomalies and precursors (high-risk states) to safety issues in the NAS. In this paper, we describe a recently developed algorithm called ADOPT that analyzes large volumes of data and automatically identifies precursors from real world data. Precursors help in detecting safety risks early so that the operator can mitigate the risk in time. In addition, precursors also help identify causal factors and help predict the safety incident. The ADOPT algorithm scales well to large data sets and to multidimensional time series, reduce analyst time significantly, quantify multiple safety risks giving a holistic view of safety among other benefits. This paper details the algorithm and includes several case studies to demonstrate its application to discover the "known" and "unknown" safety precursors in aviation operation.

A computational framework for cortical microtubule dynamics in realistically shaped plant cells.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Bandan Chakrabortty

2018-02-01

Full Text Available Plant morphogenesis is strongly dependent on the directional growth and the subsequent oriented division of individual cells. It has been shown that the plant cortical microtubule array plays a key role in controlling both these processes. This ordered structure emerges as the collective result of stochastic interactions between large numbers of dynamic microtubules. To elucidate this complex self-organization process a number of analytical and computational approaches to study the dynamics of cortical microtubules have been proposed. To date, however, these models have been restricted to two dimensional planes or geometrically simple surfaces in three dimensions, which strongly limits their applicability as plant cells display a wide variety of shapes. This limitation is even more acute, as both local as well as global geometrical features of cells are expected to influence the overall organization of the array. Here we describe a framework for efficiently simulating microtubule dynamics on triangulated approximations of arbitrary three dimensional surfaces. This allows the study of microtubule array organization on realistic cell surfaces obtained by segmentation of microscopic images. We validate the framework against expected or known results for the spherical and cubical geometry. We then use it to systematically study the individual contributions of global geometry, cell-edge induced catastrophes and cell-face induced stability to array organization in a cuboidal geometry. Finally, we apply our framework to analyze the highly non-trivial geometry of leaf pavement cells of Arabidopsis thaliana, Nicotiana benthamiana and Hedera helix. We show that our simulations can predict multiple features of the microtubule array structure in these cells, revealing, among others, strong constraints on the orientation of division planes.

A computational framework for cortical microtubule dynamics in realistically shaped plant cells

KAUST Repository

Chakrabortty, Bandan; Blilou, Ikram; Scheres, Ben; Mulder, Bela M.

2018-01-01

Plant morphogenesis is strongly dependent on the directional growth and the subsequent oriented division of individual cells. It has been shown that the plant cortical microtubule array plays a key role in controlling both these processes. This ordered structure emerges as the collective result of stochastic interactions between large numbers of dynamic microtubules. To elucidate this complex self-organization process a number of analytical and computational approaches to study the dynamics of cortical microtubules have been proposed. To date, however, these models have been restricted to two dimensional planes or geometrically simple surfaces in three dimensions, which strongly limits their applicability as plant cells display a wide variety of shapes. This limitation is even more acute, as both local as well as global geometrical features of cells are expected to influence the overall organization of the array. Here we describe a framework for efficiently simulating microtubule dynamics on triangulated approximations of arbitrary three dimensional surfaces. This allows the study of microtubule array organization on realistic cell surfaces obtained by segmentation of microscopic images. We validate the framework against expected or known results for the spherical and cubical geometry. We then use it to systematically study the individual contributions of global geometry, cell-edge induced catastrophes and cell-face induced stability to array organization in a cuboidal geometry. Finally, we apply our framework to analyze the highly non-trivial geometry of leaf pavement cells of Arabidopsis thaliana, Nicotiana benthamiana and Hedera helix. We show that our simulations can predict multiple features of the microtubule array structure in these cells, revealing, among others, strong constraints on the orientation of division planes.

A computational framework for cortical microtubule dynamics in realistically shaped plant cells

KAUST Repository

Chakrabortty, Bandan

2018-02-02

Plant morphogenesis is strongly dependent on the directional growth and the subsequent oriented division of individual cells. It has been shown that the plant cortical microtubule array plays a key role in controlling both these processes. This ordered structure emerges as the collective result of stochastic interactions between large numbers of dynamic microtubules. To elucidate this complex self-organization process a number of analytical and computational approaches to study the dynamics of cortical microtubules have been proposed. To date, however, these models have been restricted to two dimensional planes or geometrically simple surfaces in three dimensions, which strongly limits their applicability as plant cells display a wide variety of shapes. This limitation is even more acute, as both local as well as global geometrical features of cells are expected to influence the overall organization of the array. Here we describe a framework for efficiently simulating microtubule dynamics on triangulated approximations of arbitrary three dimensional surfaces. This allows the study of microtubule array organization on realistic cell surfaces obtained by segmentation of microscopic images. We validate the framework against expected or known results for the spherical and cubical geometry. We then use it to systematically study the individual contributions of global geometry, cell-edge induced catastrophes and cell-face induced stability to array organization in a cuboidal geometry. Finally, we apply our framework to analyze the highly non-trivial geometry of leaf pavement cells of Arabidopsis thaliana, Nicotiana benthamiana and Hedera helix. We show that our simulations can predict multiple features of the microtubule array structure in these cells, revealing, among others, strong constraints on the orientation of division planes.

Turbulence studies in tokamak boundary plasmas with realistic divertor geometry

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Xu, X.Q.; Cohen, R.H.; Porter, G.D.; Rognlien, T.; Ryutov, D.D.; Myra, J.R.; D'Ippolito, D.A.; Moyer, R.; Groebner, R.J.

2001-01-01

Results are presented from the 3D nonlocal electromagnetic turbulence code BOUT and the linearized shooting code BAL for studies of turbulence in tokamak boundary plasmas and its relationship to the L-H transition, in a realistic divertor plasma geometry. The key results include: (1) the identification of the dominant resistive X-point mode in divertor geometry and (2) turbulence suppression in the L-H transition by shear in the ExB drift speed, ion diamagnetism and nite polarization. Based on the simulation results, a parameterization of the transport is given that includes the dependence on the relevant physical parameters. (author)

Turbulence studies in tokamak boundary plasmas with realistic divertor geometry

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Xu, X.Q.; Cohen, R.H.; Por, G.D. ter; Rognlien, T.D.; Ryutov, D.D.; Myra, J.R.; D'Ippolito, D.A.; Moyer, R.; Groebner, R.J.

1999-01-01

Results are presented from the 3D nonlocal electromagnetic turbulence code BOUT and the linearized shooting code BAL for studies of turbulence in tokamak boundary plasmas and its relationship to the L-H transition, in a realistic divertor plasma geometry. The key results include: (1) the identification of the dominant resistive X-point mode in divertor geometry and (2) turbulence suppression in the L-H transition by shear in the E x B drift speed, ion diamagnetism and finite polarization. Based on the simulation results, a parameterization of the transport is given that includes the dependence on the relevant physical parameters. (author)

Breaking with fun, educational and realistic learning games

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Duus Henriksen, Thomas

2009-01-01

are commonly conceived as means for staging learning processes, and that thinking learning games so has an inhibiting effect in regard to creating learning processes. The paper draws upon a qualitative study of participants' experiences with ‘the EIS Simulation', which is a computer-based learning game......This paper addresses the game conceptions and values that learning games inherit from regular gaming, as well as how they affect the use and development of learning games. Its key points concern the issues of thinking learning games as fun, educative and realistic, which is how learning games...... for teaching change management and change implementation. The EIS is played in groups, who share the game on a computer, and played by making change decisions in order to implement an IT system in an organisation. In this study, alternative participatory incentives, means for creating learning processes...

Resolving conflict realistically in today's health care environment.

Science.gov (United States)

Smith, S B; Tutor, R S; Phillips, M L

2001-11-01

Conflict is a natural part of human interaction, and when properly addressed, results in improved interpersonal relationships and positive organizational culture. Unchecked conflict may escalate to verbal and physical violence. Conflict that is unresolved creates barriers for people, teams, organizational growth, and productivity, leading to cultural disintegration within the establishment. By relying on interdependence and professional collaboration, all parties involved grow and, in turn, benefit the organization and population served. When used in a constructive manner, conflict resolution can help all parties involved see the whole picture, thus allowing freedom for growth and change. Conflict resolution is accomplished best when emotions are controlled before entering into negotiation. Positive confrontation, problem solving, and negotiation are processes used to realistically resolve conflict. Everyone walks away a winner when conflict is resolved in a positive, professional manner (Stone, 1999).

Astronomers Discover Fastest-Spinning Pulsar

Science.gov (United States)

2006-01-01

Astronomers using the National Science Foundation's Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope have discovered the fastest-spinning neutron star ever found, a 20-mile-diameter superdense pulsar whirling faster than the blades of a kitchen blender. Their work yields important new information about the nature of one of the most exotic forms of matter known in the Universe. Pulsar Graphic Pulsars Are Spinning Neutron Stars CREDIT: Bill Saxton, NRAO/AUI/NSF (Click on image for larger version) "We believe that the matter in neutron stars is denser than an atomic nucleus, but it is unclear by how much. Our observations of such a rapidly rotating star set a hard upper limit on its size, and hence on how dense the star can be.," said Jason Hessels, a graduate student at McGill University in Montreal. Hessels and his colleagues presented their findings to the American Astronomical Society's meeting in Washington, DC. Pulsars are spinning neutron stars that sling "lighthouse beams" of radio waves or light around as they spin. A neutron star is what is left after a massive star explodes at the end of its "normal" life. With no nuclear fuel left to produce energy to offset the stellar remnant's weight, its material is compressed to extreme densities. The pressure squeezes together most of its protons and electrons to form neutrons; hence, the name "neutron star." "Neutron stars are incredible laboratories for learning about the physics of the fundamental particles of nature, and this pulsar has given us an important new limit," explained Scott Ransom, an astronomer at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory and one of Hessels' collaborators on this work. The scientists discovered the pulsar, named PSR J1748-2446ad, in a globular cluster of stars called Terzan 5, located some 28,000 light-years from Earth in the constellation Sagittarius. The newly-discovered pulsar is spinning 716 times per second, or at 716 Hertz (Hz), readily beating the previous record of 642 Hz from a pulsar

The Impact of Emotion on Negotiation Behaviour during a Realistic Training Scenario

Science.gov (United States)

2007-11-01

Sorce, Emde, & Svejda; cited in van Kleef, et al., 2004a), and induce reciprocal emotions in others ( Keltner & Haidt, 1999; cited in van Kleef, et al...DRDC Toronto CR 2007-166 THE IMPACT OF EMOTION ON NEGOTIATION BEHAVIOUR DURING A REALISTIC TRAINING SCENARIO by: Michael H. Thomson...made to dig what look like their own graves. This experiment explored the impact of emotion on military trainees’ negotiation behaviour and

Caught in the act: discovering secreted proteins from fungi and oomycetes in action

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Roth, Doris; Grell, Morten Nedergaard; Jensen, Annette Bruun

Host-microbe relationships largely rely on secreted proteins like enzymes, virulence factors and antimicrobial peptides. To discover proteins secreted by microbe and host during the interaction with each other, we produced dual-organism cDNA libraries from three different fungus- or oomycete-infe......, by applying a similar strategy with a fungus-only library. As a result, we will show that our approach is widely applicable and allows us to deepen the understanding a variety of different host-microbe systems.......Host-microbe relationships largely rely on secreted proteins like enzymes, virulence factors and antimicrobial peptides. To discover proteins secreted by microbe and host during the interaction with each other, we produced dual-organism cDNA libraries from three different fungus- or oomycete...

Interactive Web-based Floodplain Simulation System for Realistic Experiments of Flooding and Flood Damage

Science.gov (United States)

Demir, I.

2013-12-01

Recent developments in web technologies make it easy to manage and visualize large data sets with general public. Novel visualization techniques and dynamic user interfaces allow users to create realistic environments, and interact with data to gain insight from simulations and environmental observations. The floodplain simulation system is a web-based 3D interactive flood simulation environment to create real world flooding scenarios. The simulation systems provides a visually striking platform with realistic terrain information, and water simulation. Students can create and modify predefined scenarios, control environmental parameters, and evaluate flood mitigation techniques. The web-based simulation system provides an environment to children and adults learn about the flooding, flood damage, and effects of development and human activity in the floodplain. The system provides various scenarios customized to fit the age and education level of the users. This presentation provides an overview of the web-based flood simulation system, and demonstrates the capabilities of the system for various flooding and land use scenarios.

Do Preschoolers Recognize The Emotional Expressiveness of Colors in Realistic and Abstract Art Paintings?

Science.gov (United States)

Pouliou, Dimitra; Bonoti, Fotini; Nikonanou, Niki

2018-01-01

The present study was designed to examine preschoolers' ability to recognize the emotional expressiveness of an art painting, through its colors. To attain this aim 78 children, 3-5 years old were presented with realistic and abstract paintings conveying either happiness or sadness and were asked to choose those which matched the appropriate emotion. In total 16 paintings were used, which varied in color, while their subject matter was held as constant as possible after they had been previously rated by a group of adults to ensure that they conveyed the two emotions under investigation. Results showed that children's ability to recognize the emotional expressiveness of a painting through its colors appears at 3 years old and increases significantly at 4 and 5 years old. It was also found that the mood of happiness was more easily recognized than that of sadness, while the style of art paintings (realistic vs. abstract) did not affect children's ability to recognize emotions.

Discovering Pediatric Asthma Phenotypes on the Basis of Response to Controller Medication Using Machine Learning.

Science.gov (United States)

Ross, Mindy K; Yoon, Jinsung; van der Schaar, Auke; van der Schaar, Mihaela

2018-01-01

Pediatric asthma has variable underlying inflammation and symptom control. Approaches to addressing this heterogeneity, such as clustering methods to find phenotypes and predict outcomes, have been investigated. However, clustering based on the relationship between treatment and clinical outcome has not been performed, and machine learning approaches for long-term outcome prediction in pediatric asthma have not been studied in depth. Our objectives were to use our novel machine learning algorithm, predictor pursuit (PP), to discover pediatric asthma phenotypes on the basis of asthma control in response to controller medications, to predict longitudinal asthma control among children with asthma, and to identify features associated with asthma control within each discovered pediatric phenotype. We applied PP to the Childhood Asthma Management Program study data (n = 1,019) to discover phenotypes on the basis of asthma control between assigned controller therapy groups (budesonide vs. nedocromil). We confirmed PP's ability to discover phenotypes using the Asthma Clinical Research Network/Childhood Asthma Research and Education network data. We next predicted children's asthma control over time and compared PP's performance with that of traditional prediction methods. Last, we identified clinical features most correlated with asthma control in the discovered phenotypes. Four phenotypes were discovered in both datasets: allergic not obese (A + /O - ), obese not allergic (A - /O + ), allergic and obese (A + /O + ), and not allergic not obese (A - /O - ). Of the children with well-controlled asthma in the Childhood Asthma Management Program dataset, we found more nonobese children treated with budesonide than with nedocromil (P = 0.015) and more obese children treated with nedocromil than with budesonide (P = 0.008). Within the obese group, more A + /O + children's asthma was well controlled with nedocromil than with budesonide (P = 0.022) or with placebo

Discovering genes underlying QTL

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Vanavichit, Apichart [Kasetsart University, Kamphaengsaen, Nakorn Pathom (Thailand)

2002-02-01

A map-based approach has allowed scientists to discover few genes at a time. In addition, the reproductive barrier between cultivated rice and wild relatives has prevented us from utilizing the germ plasm by a map-based approach. Most genetic traits important to agriculture or human diseases are manifested as observable, quantitative phenotypes called Quantitative Trait Loci (QTL). In many instances, the complexity of the phenotype/genotype interaction and the general lack of clearly identifiable gene products render the direct molecular cloning approach ineffective, thus additional strategies like genome mapping are required to identify the QTL in question. Genome mapping requires no prior knowledge of the gene function, but utilizes statistical methods to identify the most likely gene location. To completely characterize genes of interest, the initially mapped region of a gene location will have to be narrowed down to a size that is suitable for cloning and sequencing. Strategies for gene identification within the critical region have to be applied after the sequencing of a potentially large clone or set of clones that contains this gene(s). Tremendous success of positional cloning has been shown for cloning many genes responsible for human diseases, including cystic fibrosis and muscular dystrophy as well as plant disease resistance genes. Genome and QTL mapping, positional cloning: the pre-genomics era, comparative approaches to gene identification, and positional cloning: the genomics era are discussed in the report. (M. Suetake)

Discovering, Indexing and Interlinking Information Resources.

Science.gov (United States)

Celli, Fabrizio; Keizer, Johannes; Jaques, Yves; Konstantopoulos, Stasinos; Vudragović, Dušan

2015-01-01

The social media revolution is having a dramatic effect on the world of scientific publication. Scientists now publish their research interests, theories and outcomes across numerous channels, including personal blogs and other thematic web spaces where ideas, activities and partial results are discussed. Accordingly, information systems that facilitate access to scientific literature must learn to cope with this valuable and varied data, evolving to make this research easily discoverable and available to end users. In this paper we describe the incremental process of discovering web resources in the domain of agricultural science and technology. Making use of Linked Open Data methodologies, we interlink a wide array of custom-crawled resources with the AGRIS bibliographic database in order to enrich the user experience of the AGRIS website. We also discuss the SemaGrow Stack, a query federation and data integration infrastructure used to estimate the semantic distance between crawled web resources and AGRIS.

Michael Maier--nine newly discovered letters.

Science.gov (United States)

Lenke, Nils; Roudet, Nicolas; Tilton, Hereward

2014-02-01

The authors provide a transcription, translation, and evaluation of nine newly discovered letters from the alchemist Michael Maier (1568-1622) to Gebhardt Johann von Alvensleben (1576-1631), a noble landholder in the vicinity of Magdeburg. Stemming from the final year of his life, this correspondence casts new light on Maier's biography, detailing his efforts to secure patronage amid the financial crisis of the early Thirty Years' War. While his ill-fated quest to perfect potable gold continued to form the central focus of his patronage suits, Maier also offered his services in several arts that he had condemned in his printed works, namely astrology and "supernatural" magic. Remarks concerning his previously unknown acquaintance with Heinrich Khunrath call for a re-evaluation of Maier's negotiation of the discursive boundaries between Lutheran orthodoxy and Paracelsianism. The letters also reveal Maier's substantial contribution to a work previously ascribed solely to the English alchemist Francis Anthony.

Improving the Interpretability of Classification Rules Discovered by an Ant Colony Algorithm: Extended Results.

Science.gov (United States)

Otero, Fernando E B; Freitas, Alex A

2016-01-01

Most ant colony optimization (ACO) algorithms for inducing classification rules use a ACO-based procedure to create a rule in a one-at-a-time fashion. An improved search strategy has been proposed in the cAnt-Miner[Formula: see text] algorithm, where an ACO-based procedure is used to create a complete list of rules (ordered rules), i.e., the ACO search is guided by the quality of a list of rules instead of an individual rule. In this paper we propose an extension of the cAnt-Miner[Formula: see text] algorithm to discover a set of rules (unordered rules). The main motivations for this work are to improve the interpretation of individual rules by discovering a set of rules and to evaluate the impact on the predictive accuracy of the algorithm. We also propose a new measure to evaluate the interpretability of the discovered rules to mitigate the fact that the commonly used model size measure ignores how the rules are used to make a class prediction. Comparisons with state-of-the-art rule induction algorithms, support vector machines, and the cAnt-Miner[Formula: see text] producing ordered rules are also presented.

Depictions and Gaps: Portrayal of U.S. Poverty in Realistic Fiction Children's Picture Books

Science.gov (United States)

Kelley, Jane E.; Darragh, Janine J.

2011-01-01

Researchers conducted a critical multicultural analysis of 58 realistic fiction children's picture books that portray people living in poverty and compared these depictions to recent statistics from the United States Census Bureau. The picture books were examined for the following qualities: main character, geographic locale and time era, focal…

Ecologically relevant levels of multiple, common marine stressors suggest antagonistic effects.

Science.gov (United States)

Lange, Rolanda; Marshall, Dustin

2017-07-24

Stressors associated with global change will be experienced simultaneously and may act synergistically, so attempts to estimate the capacity of marine systems to cope with global change requires a multi-stressor approach. Because recent evidence suggests that stressor effects can be context-dependent, estimates of how stressors are experienced in ecologically realistic settings will be particularly valuable. To enhance our understanding of the interplay between environmental effects and the impact of multiple stressors from both natural and anthropogenic sources, we conducted a field experiment. We explored the impact of multiple, functionally varied stressors from both natural and anthropogenic sources experienced during early life history in a common sessile marine invertebrate, Bugula neritina. Natural spatial environmental variation induced differences in conspecific densities, allowing us to test for density-driven context-dependence of stressor effects. We indeed found density-dependent effects. Under high conspecific density, individual survival increased, which offset part of the negative effects of experiencing stressors. Experiencing multiple stressors early in life history translated to a decreased survival in the field, albeit the effects were not as drastic as we expected: our results are congruent with antagonistic stressor effects. We speculate that when individual stressors are more subtle, stressor synergies become less common.

Providing a New Model for Discovering Cloud Services Based on Ontology

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

B. Heydari

2017-12-01

Full Text Available Due to its efficient, flexible, and dynamic substructure in information technology and service quality parameters estimation, cloud computing has become one of the most important issues in computer world. Discovering cloud services has been posed as a fundamental issue in reaching out high efficiency. In order to do one’s own operations in cloud space, any user needs to request several various services either simultaneously or according to a working routine. These services can be presented by different cloud producers or different decision-making policies. Therefore, service management is one of the important and challenging issues in cloud computing. With the advent of semantic web and practical services accordingly in cloud computing space, access to different kinds of applications has become possible. Ontology is the core of semantic web and can be used to ease the process of discovering services. A new model based on ontology has been proposed in this paper. The results indicate that the proposed model has explored cloud services based on user search results in lesser time compared to other models.

Medicinal benefits of marine invertebrates: sources for discovering natural drug candidates.

Science.gov (United States)

De Zoysa, Mahanama

2012-01-01

Marine invertebrates are one of the major groups of organisms, which could be diversified under the major taxonomic groups of Porifera, Cnidaria, Mollusca, Arthropoda, Echinodermata, and many other minor phyla. To date, range of medicinal benefits and a significant number of marine natural products (MNPs) have been discovered from marine invertebrates. Seafood diet from edible marine invertebrates such as mollusks and crustaceans has been linked with various medicinal benefits to improve human health. Among marine invertebrates, spongers from phylum Porifera is the most dominant group responsible for discovering large number of MNPs, which have been used as template to develop therapeutic drugs. MNPs isolated from invertebrates have shown wide range of therapeutic properties including antimicrobial, antioxidant, antihypertensive, anticoagulant, anticancer, anti-inflammatory, wound healing and immune modulator, and other medicinal effects. Therefore, marine invertebrates are rich sources of chemical diversity and health benefits for developing drug candidates, cosmetics, nutritional supplements, and molecular probes that can be supported to increase the healthy life span of human. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The effect of problem posing and problem solving with realistic mathematics education approach to the conceptual understanding and adaptive reasoning

Science.gov (United States)

Mahendra, Rengga; Slamet, Isnandar; Budiyono

2017-12-01

One of the difficulties of students in learning mathematics is on the subject of geometry that requires students to understand abstract things. The aim of this research is to determine the effect of learning model Problem Posing and Problem Solving with Realistic Mathematics Education Approach to conceptual understanding and students' adaptive reasoning in learning mathematics. This research uses a kind of quasi experimental research. The population of this research is all seventh grade students of Junior High School 1 Jaten, Indonesia. The sample was taken using stratified cluster random sampling technique. The test of the research hypothesis was analyzed by using t-test. The results of this study indicate that the model of Problem Posing learning with Realistic Mathematics Education Approach can improve students' conceptual understanding significantly in mathematics learning. In addition tu, the results also showed that the model of Problem Solving learning with Realistic Mathematics Education Approach can improve students' adaptive reasoning significantly in learning mathematics. Therefore, the model of Problem Posing and Problem Solving learning with Realistic Mathematics Education Approach is appropriately applied in mathematics learning especially on the subject of geometry so as to improve conceptual understanding and students' adaptive reasoning. Furthermore, the impact can improve student achievement.

Thermohydraulic simulation of HTR-10 nuclear reactor core using realistic CFD approach

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Silva, Alexandro S.; Dominguez, Dany S.; Mazaira, Leorlen Y. Rojas; Hernandez, Carlos R.G.; Lira, Carlos Alberto Brayner de Oliveira

2015-01-01

High-temperature gas-cooled reactors (HTGRs) have the potential to be used as possible energy generation sources in the near future, owing to their inherently safe performance by using a large amount of graphite, low power density design, and high conversion efficiency. However, safety is the most important issue for its commercialization in nuclear energy industry. It is very important for safety design and operation of an HTGR to investigate its thermal–hydraulic characteristics. In this article, it was performed the thermal–hydraulic simulation of compressible flow inside the core of the pebble bed reactor HTR (High Temperature Reactor)-10 using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD). The realistic approach was used, where every closely packed pebble is realistically modelled considering a graphite layer and sphere of fuel. Due to the high computational cost is impossible simulate the full core; therefore, the geometry used is a column of FCC (Face Centered Cubic) cells, with 41 layers and 82 pebbles. The input data used were taken from the thermohydraulic IAEA Benchmark (TECDOC-1694). The results show the profiles of velocity and temperature of the coolant in the core, and the temperature distribution inside the pebbles. The maximum temperatures in the pebbles do not exceed the allowable limit for this type of nuclear fuel. (author)

Local realistic theories and quantum mechanics for the two-neutral-kaon system

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Dalitz, R.H.; Garbarino, G.

2001-01-01

The predictions of local realistic theories for the observables concerning the evolution of a K 0 K-bar 0 quantum entangled pair (created in the decay of the phi-meson) are discussed. It is shown, in agreement with Bell's theorem, that the most general local hidden-variable model fails in reproducing the whole set of quantum-mechanical joint probabilities. We achieve these conclusion by employing two different approaches. In the first approach, the local realistic observables are deduced from the most general premises concerning locality and realism, and Bell-like inequalities are not employed. The other approach makes use of Bell's inequalities. In the first approach, under particular conditions for the detection times, the discrepancy between quantum mechanics and local realism for the time-dependent asymmetry turns out to be not less than 20%. A similar incompatibility can be made evident by means of a Bell-type test by employing both Wigner's and (once properly normalized probabilities are used) Clauser-Horne-Shimony-Holt's inequalities. Because of its relatively low experimental accuracy, the data obtained by the CPLEAR collaboration for the asymmetry parameter do not yet allow a decisive test of local realism. Such a test, both with and without the use of Bell's inequalities, should be feasible in the future at the Frascati PHI-factory

ROSAT Discovers Unique, Distant Cluster of Galaxies

Science.gov (United States)

1995-06-01

galaxies as they were 5,000 million years ago. Knowing the intensity of the X-ray emission as measured by ROSAT and also the distance, the astronomers were then able to estimate the total X-ray energy emitted by this cluster. It was found to be extremely high [3], in fact higher than that of any other cluster ever observed by ROSAT. It amounts to no less than 1.5 million million times the total energy emitted by the Sun. It is believed that this strong X-ray emission originates in a hot gas located between the galaxies in the cluster. The high temperature indicates that the components of the gas move very rapidly; this is related to the strong gravitational field within the cluster. THE GRAVITATIONAL ARCS To their great surprise and delight, the astronomers also discovered two bright arcs, 5 - 6 arcseconds long and symmetrically placed about 35 arcseconds to the North-East and South-West of the brightest galaxies in the cluster (see the photo). They were detected on exposures of only 3 minutes duration with the 2.2-metre telescope and are among the brightest such arcs ever found. At the indicated distance, the arcs are situated at a projected distance of about 500,000 light-years from the centre of the cluster. It is an interesting possibility that the two arcs may in fact be two images of the same, very distant galaxy, that is situated far beyond RXJ1347.5-1145 and whose light has been bent and split by this cluster's strong gravitational field. This strange phenomenon was first discovered in the late 1970's and is referred to as gravitational lensing. Quite a few examples are now known, in most cases in the form of double or multiple images of quasars. About three dozen cases involve well visible galaxy clusters and elongated arcs, but few, if any, of these arcs are as bright as those seen in the present cluster. This particular arc configuration enables a very accurate determination of the total mass of the cluster, once the distance of the background galaxy has been

Knots and surfaces a guide to discovering mathematics

CERN Document Server

Farmer, David W

1995-01-01

In most mathematics textbooks, the most exciting part of mathematics-the process of invention and discovery-is completely hidden from the reader. The aim of Knots and Surfaces is to change all that. By means of a series of carefully selected tasks, this book leads readers to discover some real mathematics. There are no formulas to memorize; no procedures to follow. The book is a guide: its job is to start you in the right direction and to bring you back if you stray too far. Discovery is left to you. Suitable for a one-semester course at the beginning undergraduate level, there are no prerequi

Comparing Realistic Subthalamic Nucleus Neuron Models

Science.gov (United States)

Njap, Felix; Claussen, Jens C.; Moser, Andreas; Hofmann, Ulrich G.

2011-06-01

The mechanism of action of clinically effective electrical high frequency stimulation is still under debate. However, recent evidence points at the specific activation of GABA-ergic ion channels. Using a computational approach, we analyze temporal properties of the spike trains emitted by biologically realistic neurons of the subthalamic nucleus (STN) as a function of GABA-ergic synaptic input conductances. Our contribution is based on a model proposed by Rubin and Terman and exhibits a wide variety of different firing patterns, silent, low spiking, moderate spiking and intense spiking activity. We observed that most of the cells in our network turn to silent mode when we increase the GABAA input conductance above the threshold of 3.75 mS/cm2. On the other hand, insignificant changes in firing activity are observed when the input conductance is low or close to zero. We thus reproduce Rubin's model with vanishing synaptic conductances. To quantitatively compare spike trains from the original model with the modified model at different conductance levels, we apply four different (dis)similarity measures between them. We observe that Mahalanobis distance, Victor-Purpura metric, and Interspike Interval distribution are sensitive to different firing regimes, whereas Mutual Information seems undiscriminative for these functional changes.

Early years interventions to improve child health and wellbeing: what works, for whom and in what circumstances? Protocol for a realist review.

Science.gov (United States)

Coles, Emma; Cheyne, Helen; Daniel, Brigid

2015-06-06

Child health and wellbeing is influenced by multiple factors, all of which can impact on early childhood development. Adverse early life experiences can have lasting effects across the life course, sustaining inequalities and resulting in negative consequences for the health and wellbeing of individuals and society. The potential to influence future outcomes via early intervention is widely accepted; there are numerous policy initiatives, programmes and interventions clustered around the early years theme, resulting in a broad and disparate evidence base. Existing reviews have addressed the effectiveness of early years interventions, yet there is a knowledge gap regarding the mechanisms underlying why interventions work in given contexts. This realist review seeks to address the question 'what works, for whom and in what circumstances?' in terms of early years interventions to improve child health and wellbeing. The review will be conducted following Pawson's five-stage iterative realist methodology: (1) clarify scope, (2) search for evidence, (3) appraise primary studies and extract data, (4) synthesise evidence and draw conclusions and (5) disseminate findings. The reviewers will work with stakeholders in the early stages to refine the focus of the review, create a review framework and build programme theory. Searches for primary evidence will be conducted iteratively. Data will be extracted and tested against the programme theory. A review collaboration group will oversee the review process. The review will demonstrate how early years interventions do or do not work in different contexts and with what outcomes and effects. Review findings will be written up following the RAMESES guidelines and will be disseminated via a report, presentations and peer-reviewed publications. PROSPERO CRD42015017832.

Entropy stable modeling of non-isothermal multi-component diffuse-interface two-phase flows with realistic equations of state

KAUST Repository

Kou, Jisheng

2018-02-25

In this paper, we consider mathematical modeling and numerical simulation of non-isothermal compressible multi-component diffuse-interface two-phase flows with realistic equations of state. A general model with general reference velocity is derived rigorously through thermodynamical laws and Onsager\\'s reciprocal principle, and it is capable of characterizing compressibility and partial miscibility between multiple fluids. We prove a novel relation among the pressure, temperature and chemical potentials, which results in a new formulation of the momentum conservation equation indicating that the gradients of chemical potentials and temperature become the primary driving force of the fluid motion except for the external forces. A key challenge in numerical simulation is to develop entropy stable numerical schemes preserving the laws of thermodynamics. Based on the convex-concave splitting of Helmholtz free energy density with respect to molar densities and temperature, we propose an entropy stable numerical method, which solves the total energy balance equation directly, and thus, naturally satisfies the first law of thermodynamics. Unconditional entropy stability (the second law of thermodynamics) of the proposed method is proved by estimating the variations of Helmholtz free energy and kinetic energy with time steps. Numerical results validate the proposed method.

Entropy stable modeling of non-isothermal multi-component diffuse-interface two-phase flows with realistic equations of state

KAUST Repository

Kou, Jisheng; Sun, Shuyu

2018-01-01

In this paper, we consider mathematical modeling and numerical simulation of non-isothermal compressible multi-component diffuse-interface two-phase flows with realistic equations of state. A general model with general reference velocity is derived rigorously through thermodynamical laws and Onsager's reciprocal principle, and it is capable of characterizing compressibility and partial miscibility between multiple fluids. We prove a novel relation among the pressure, temperature and chemical potentials, which results in a new formulation of the momentum conservation equation indicating that the gradients of chemical potentials and temperature become the primary driving force of the fluid motion except for the external forces. A key challenge in numerical simulation is to develop entropy stable numerical schemes preserving the laws of thermodynamics. Based on the convex-concave splitting of Helmholtz free energy density with respect to molar densities and temperature, we propose an entropy stable numerical method, which solves the total energy balance equation directly, and thus, naturally satisfies the first law of thermodynamics. Unconditional entropy stability (the second law of thermodynamics) of the proposed method is proved by estimating the variations of Helmholtz free energy and kinetic energy with time steps. Numerical results validate the proposed method.

Quantifying introgression risk with realistic population genetics.

Science.gov (United States)

Ghosh, Atiyo; Meirmans, Patrick G; Haccou, Patsy

2012-12-07

Introgression is the permanent incorporation of genes from the genome of one population into another. This can have severe consequences, such as extinction of endemic species, or the spread of transgenes. Quantification of the risk of introgression is an important component of genetically modified crop regulation. Most theoretical introgression studies aimed at such quantification disregard one or more of the most important factors concerning introgression: realistic genetical mechanisms, repeated invasions and stochasticity. In addition, the use of linkage as a risk mitigation strategy has not been studied properly yet with genetic introgression models. Current genetic introgression studies fail to take repeated invasions and demographic stochasticity into account properly, and use incorrect measures of introgression risk that can be manipulated by arbitrary choices. In this study, we present proper methods for risk quantification that overcome these difficulties. We generalize a probabilistic risk measure, the so-called hazard rate of introgression, for application to introgression models with complex genetics and small natural population sizes. We illustrate the method by studying the effects of linkage and recombination on transgene introgression risk at different population sizes.

Cerebral blood flow simulations in realistic geometries

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Szopos Marcela

2012-04-01

Full Text Available The aim of this work is to perform the computation of the blood flow in all the cerebral network, obtained from medical images as angiographies. We use free finite elements codes as FreeFEM++. We first test the code on analytical solutions in simplified geometries. Then, we study the influence of boundary conditions on the flow and we finally perform first computations on realistic meshes. L’objectif est ici de simuler l’écoulement sanguin dans tout le réseau cérébral (artériel et veineux obtenu à partir d’angiographies cérébrales 3D à l’aide de logiciels d’éléments finis libres, comme FreeFEM++. Nous menons d’abord une étude détaillée des résultats sur des solutions analytiques et l’influence des conditions limites à imposer dans des géométries simplifiées avant de travailler sur les maillages réalistes.

Among cosmopolitan values and strategic interests: liberal and realist discourses of canada’s international security policy during post- cold war

OpenAIRE

Rodríguez M., Federmán

2014-01-01

The purpose of the article is to explain the liberal and realist discourses that underpinned the Canadian International Security Policy (CISP) during the post-Cold War. In particular, it offers evidence to show that Canadian governments inevitably debate between cosmopolitan values and strategic interests in formulating their respective policies of international security. After considering how liberal and realist orientations of this policy have been studied in the literature on CISP, it expl...

Tuppiap Qeqertaa (Tobias Island): a newly discovered island off northeast Greenland

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bennike, O.; Mikkelsen, N.; Forsberg, René

2006-01-01

The small island of Tuppiap Qeqertaa, formerly known as Tobias circle divide or Tobias Island, is situated 80 km off the northeast Greenland coast. The island was discovered in 1993 and is approximately 2 km long and 1.5 km wide. Most of the island is covered by an ice cap that rises to 35 in abo...

Discovering the Art of Mathematics: Using String Art to Investigate Calculus

Science.gov (United States)

von Renesse, Christine; Ecke, Volker

2016-01-01

One goal of our Discovering the Art of Mathematics project is to empower students in the liberal arts to become confident creators of art and imaginative creators of mathematics. In this paper, we describe our experience with using string art to guide liberal arts students in exploring ideas of calculus. We provide excerpts from our inquiry-based…

Effects of classical and neo-classical cross-field transport of tungsten impurity in realistic tokamak geometry

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Yamoto, S.; Inoue, H.; Sawada, Y.; Hatayama, A. [Faculty of Science and Technology, Keio University, Yokohama (Japan); Homma, Y.; Hoshino, K. [Japan Atomic Energy Agency, Rokkasho, Aomori (Japan); Bonnin, X. [ITER Organization, St. Paul Lez Durance (France); Coster, D. [Max-Planck-Institut fuer Plasmaphysik, Garching (Germany); Schneider, R. [Ernst-Moritz-Arndt University Greifswald (Germany)

2016-08-15

The initial simulation study of the neoclassical perpendicular self-diffusion transport in the SOL/Divertor regions for a realistic tokamak geometry with the IMPGYRO code has been performed in this paper. One of the most unique features of the IMPGYRO code is calculating exact Larmor orbit of the test particle instead of assuming guiding center approximation. Therefore, effects of the magnetic drifts in realistic tokamaks are naturally taken into account in the IMPGYRO code. This feature makes it possible to calculate neoclassical transport processes, which possibly become large in the SOL/divertor plasma. Indeed, neoclassical self-diffusion process, the resultant effect of the combination of magnetic drift and Coulomb collisions with background ions, has already been included in the IMPGYRO model. In the present paper, prior to implementing the detailed model of neoclassical transport process into IMPGYRO, we have investigated the effect of neoclassical selfdiffusion in a realistic tokamak geometry with lower single null X-point. We also use a model with guiding center approximation in order to compare with the IMPGYRO full orbit model. The preliminary calculation results of each model have shown differences in the perpendicular average velocity of impurity ions at the top region of the SOL. The mechanism which leads to the difference has been discussed. (copyright 2015 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH and Co. KGaA, Weinheim)

Application of the 2-D discrete-ordinates method to multiple scattering of laser radiation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zardecki, A.; Gerstl, S.A.W.; Embury, J.F.

1983-01-01

The discrete-ordinates finite-element radiation transport code twotran is applied to describe the multiple scattering of a laser beam from a reflecting target. For a model scenario involving a 99% relative humidity rural aerosol we compute the average intensity of the scattered radiation and correction factors to the Beer-Lambert law arising from multiple scattering. As our results indicate, 2-D x-y and r-z geometry modeling can reliably describe a realistic 3-D scenario. Specific results are presented for the two visual ranges of 1.52 and 0.76 km which show that, for sufficiently high aerosol concentrations (e.g., equivalent to V = 0.76 km), the target signature in a distant detector becomes dominated by multiply scattered radiation from interactions of the laser light with the aerosol environment. The merits of the scaling group and the delta-M approximation for the transfer equation are also explored

Magnetic exchange at realistic CoO/Ni interfaces

KAUST Repository

Grytsiuk, Sergii

2012-07-30

We study the CoO/Ni interface by first principles calculations. Because the lattice mismatch is large, a realistic description requires a huge supercell. We investigate two interface configurations: in interface 1 the coupling between the Ni and Co atoms is mediated by O, whereas in interface 2 the Ni and Co atoms are in direct contact. We find that the magnetization (including the orbital moment) in interface 1 has a similar value as in bulk Ni but opposite sign, while in interface 2 it grows by 164%. The obtained magnetic moments can be explained by the local atomic environments. In addition, we find effects of charge transfer between the interface atoms. The Co 3d local density of states of interface 2 exhibits surprisingly small deviations from the corresponding bulk result, although the first coordination sphere is no longer octahedral. © Springer-Verlag 2012.

Magnetic exchange at realistic CoO/Ni interfaces

KAUST Repository

Grytsyuk, Sergiy; Cossu, Fabrizio; Schwingenschlö gl, Udo

2012-01-01

We study the CoO/Ni interface by first principles calculations. Because the lattice mismatch is large, a realistic description requires a huge supercell. We investigate two interface configurations: in interface 1 the coupling between the Ni and Co atoms is mediated by O, whereas in interface 2 the Ni and Co atoms are in direct contact. We find that the magnetization (including the orbital moment) in interface 1 has a similar value as in bulk Ni but opposite sign, while in interface 2 it grows by 164%. The obtained magnetic moments can be explained by the local atomic environments. In addition, we find effects of charge transfer between the interface atoms. The Co 3d local density of states of interface 2 exhibits surprisingly small deviations from the corresponding bulk result, although the first coordination sphere is no longer octahedral. © Springer-Verlag 2012.

GraphTeams: a method for discovering spatial gene clusters in Hi-C sequencing data.

Science.gov (United States)

Schulz, Tizian; Stoye, Jens; Doerr, Daniel

2018-05-08

Hi-C sequencing offers novel, cost-effective means to study the spatial conformation of chromosomes. We use data obtained from Hi-C experiments to provide new evidence for the existence of spatial gene clusters. These are sets of genes with associated functionality that exhibit close proximity to each other in the spatial conformation of chromosomes across several related species. We present the first gene cluster model capable of handling spatial data. Our model generalizes a popular computational model for gene cluster prediction, called δ-teams, from sequences to graphs. Following previous lines of research, we subsequently extend our model to allow for several vertices being associated with the same label. The model, called δ-teams with families, is particular suitable for our application as it enables handling of gene duplicates. We develop algorithmic solutions for both models. We implemented the algorithm for discovering δ-teams with families and integrated it into a fully automated workflow for discovering gene clusters in Hi-C data, called GraphTeams. We applied it to human and mouse data to find intra- and interchromosomal gene cluster candidates. The results include intrachromosomal clusters that seem to exhibit a closer proximity in space than on their chromosomal DNA sequence. We further discovered interchromosomal gene clusters that contain genes from different chromosomes within the human genome, but are located on a single chromosome in mouse. By identifying δ-teams with families, we provide a flexible model to discover gene cluster candidates in Hi-C data. Our analysis of Hi-C data from human and mouse reveals several known gene clusters (thus validating our approach), but also few sparsely studied or possibly unknown gene cluster candidates that could be the source of further experimental investigations.

Stroke patients' utilisation of extrinsic feedback from computer-based technology in the home: a multiple case study realistic evaluation.

Science.gov (United States)

Parker, Jack; Mawson, Susan; Mountain, Gail; Nasr, Nasrin; Zheng, Huiru

2014-06-05

Evidence indicates that post-stroke rehabilitation improves function, independence and quality of life. A key aspect of rehabilitation is the provision of appropriate information and feedback to the learner.Advances in information and communications technology (ICT) have allowed for the development of various systems to complement stroke rehabilitation that could be used in the home setting. These systems may increase the provision of rehabilitation a stroke survivor receives and carries out, as well as providing a learning platform that facilitates long-term self-managed rehabilitation and behaviour change. This paper describes the application of an innovative evaluative methodology to explore the utilisation of feedback for post-stroke upper-limb rehabilitation in the home. Using the principles of realistic evaluation, this study aimed to test and refine intervention theories by exploring the complex interactions of contexts, mechanisms and outcomes that arise from technology deployment in the home. Methods included focus groups followed by multi-method case studies (n = 5) before, during and after the use of computer-based equipment. Data were analysed in relation to the context-mechanism-outcome hypotheses case by case. This was followed by a synthesis of the findings to answer the question, 'what works for whom and in what circumstances and respects?' Data analysis reveals that to achieve desired outcomes through the use of ICT, key elements of computer feedback, such as accuracy, measurability, rewarding feedback, adaptability, and knowledge of results feedback, are required to trigger the theory-driven mechanisms underpinning the intervention. In addition, the pre-existing context and the personal and environmental contexts, such as previous experience of service delivery, personal goals, trust in the technology, and social circumstances may also enable or constrain the underpinning theory-driven mechanisms. Findings suggest that the theory-driven mechanisms

Discovering and explaining work-family strategies of parents in Luxembourg

OpenAIRE

Zhelyazkova, Nevena

2014-01-01

The presented analysis discovers and explains typical patterns of work-family reconciliation for parents who had a child in the same period (2003) and in the same country (Luxembourg), thus facing the same macroeconomic and institutional conditions. Work-family trajectories are reconstructed as sequences of states using administrative records, so that working hours and use of leave provisions or other social security benefits are taken into account. Next, a clustering algorithm is applied to ...

Discovering Social Circles in Ego Networks (Author’s Manuscript)

Science.gov (United States)

2013-01-10

refer to as social cir- cles. Practically all major social networks provide such functionality, for example, ‘circles’ on Google+, and ‘lists’ on Facebook ...Discovering Social Circles in Ego Networks Julian McAuley and Jure Leskovec Stanford jmcauley@cs.stanford.edu, jure@cs.stanford.edu January 11, 2013...Abstract People’s personal social networks are big and cluttered, and currently there is no good way to automatically organize them. Social networking

A Topic Space Oriented User Group Discovering Scheme in Social Network: A Trust Chain Based Interest Measuring Perspective

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Wang Dong

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Currently, user group has become an effective platform for information sharing and communicating among users in social network sites. In present work, we propose a single topic user group discovering scheme, which includes three phases: topic impact evaluation, interest degree measurement, and trust chain based discovering, to enable selecting influential topic and discovering users into a topic oriented group. Our main works include (1 an overview of proposed scheme and its related definitions; (2 topic space construction method based on topic relatedness clustering and its impact (influence degree and popularity degree evaluation; (3 a trust chain model to take user relation network topological information into account with a strength classification perspective; (4 an interest degree (user explicit and implicit interest degree evaluation method based on trust chain among users; and (5 a topic space oriented user group discovering method to group core users according to their explicit interest degrees and to predict ordinary users under implicit interest and user trust chain. Finally, experimental results are given to explain effectiveness and feasibility of our scheme.

Using Appreciative Inquiry to Discover and Deliver Change for Surgical Technology Students

Science.gov (United States)

Cabai, Katherine A.

2012-01-01

The purpose of this study was to examine efficacious teaching-learning strategies that community college stakeholders employ that enhance surgical technology student outcomes. Knowles's adult learning theory, constructivist theory, and appreciative inquiry served as the theoretical foundation for this study. Discovering effective aspects and…

Realistic teenage fiction with a sexrelated theme: Readers’ responses to Slinger-slinger by Francois Bloemhof

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

M.N. Wiggill

2004-07-01

Full Text Available Francois Bloemhof submitted his novel for teenagers, “Slinger-slinger” for the Sanlam competition for youth fiction in 1996. Eventually this prizewinner in the beginners’ category was published in 1997. The main theme of “Slinger-slinger” is the sexual awakening and identity of teenagers. A study was undertaken to obtain the opinions of teenage readers about the success of “Slinger-slinger” as a whole, as well as to gauge the success of integrating sexual aspects in this novel. The study also served to obtain information about the reading needs of teenage readers with regard to realistic teenage fiction and teenage fiction with a sex-related theme. The findings of the study underlying this article indicated that the participating teenage readers regarded “Slinger-slinger” as successful and interesting, and that they would like to read more realistic Afrikaans teenage fiction such as “Slinger-slinger”.

Prospects for Ground-Based Detection and Follow-up of TESS-Discovered Exoplanets

Science.gov (United States)

Varakian, Matthew; Deming, Drake

2018-01-01

The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) will monitor over 200,000 main sequence dwarf stars for exoplanetary transits, with the goal of discovering small planets orbiting stars that are bright enough for follow-up observations. We here evaluate the prospects for ground-based transit detection and follow-up of the TESS-discovered planets. We focus particularly on the TESS planets that only transit once during each 27.4 day TESS observing window per region, and we calculate to what extent ground-based recovery of additional transits will be possible. Using simulated exoplanet systems from Sullivan et al. and assuming the use of a 60-cm telescope at a high quality observing site, we project the S/N ratios for transits of such planets. We use Phoenix stellar models for stars with surface temperatures from 2500K to 12000K, and we account for limb darkening, red atmospheric noise, and missed transits due to the day-night cycle and poor weather.

Bacterial diversity and community structure of a sub-surface aquifer exposed to realistic low herbicide concentrations

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Lipthay, Julia R. de; Johnsen, Kaare; Albrechtsen, H.-J.

2004-01-01

contaminants. We examined the effect of in situ exposure to realistic low concentrations of herbicides on the microbial diversity and community structure of sub-surface sediments from a shallow aquifer near Vejen (Denmark). Three different community analyses were performed: colony morphology typing, sole...... community analyses. In contrast, no significant effect was found on the bacterial diversity, except for the culturable fraction where a significantly increased richness and Shannon index was found in the herbicide acclimated sediments. The results of this study show that in situ exposure of sub-surface...... aquifers to realistic low concentrations of herbicides may alter the overall structure of a natural bacterial community, although significant effects on the genetic diversity and carbon substrate usage cannot be detected. The observed impact was probably due to indirect effects. In future investigations...

Using technology to engage hospitalised patients in their care: a realist review.

Science.gov (United States)

Roberts, Shelley; Chaboyer, Wendy; Gonzalez, Ruben; Marshall, Andrea

2017-06-06

Patient participation in health care is associated with improved outcomes for patients and hospitals. New technologies are creating vast potential for patients to participate in care at the bedside. Several studies have explored patient use, satisfaction and perceptions of health information technology (HIT) interventions in hospital. Understanding what works for whom, under what conditions, is important when considering interventions successfully engaging patients in care. This realist review aimed to determine key features of interventions using bedside technology to engage hospital patients in their care and analyse these in terms of context, mechanisms and outcomes. A realist review was chosen to explain how and why complex HIT interventions work or fail within certain contexts. The review was guided by Pawson's realist review methodology, involving: clarifying review scope; searching for evidence; data extraction and evidence appraisal; synthesising evidence and drawing conclusions. Author experience and an initial literature scope provided insight and review questions and theories (propositions) around why interventions worked were developed and iteratively refined. A purposive search was conducted to find evidence to support, refute or identify further propositions, which formed an explanatory model. Each study was 'mined' for evidence to further develop the propositions and model. Interactive learning was the overarching theme of studies using technology to engage patients in their care. Several propositions underpinned this, which were labelled: information sharing; self-assessment and feedback; tailored education; user-centred design; and support in use of HIT. As studies were mostly feasibility or usability studies, they reported patient-centred outcomes including patient acceptability, satisfaction and actual use of HIT interventions. For each proposition, outcomes were proposed to come about by mechanisms including improved communication, shared

Discovering Land Cover Web Map Services from the Deep Web with JavaScript Invocation Rules

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Dongyang Hou

2016-06-01

Full Text Available Automatic discovery of isolated land cover web map services (LCWMSs can potentially help in sharing land cover data. Currently, various search engine-based and crawler-based approaches have been developed for finding services dispersed throughout the surface web. In fact, with the prevalence of geospatial web applications, a considerable number of LCWMSs are hidden in JavaScript code, which belongs to the deep web. However, discovering LCWMSs from JavaScript code remains an open challenge. This paper aims to solve this challenge by proposing a focused deep web crawler for finding more LCWMSs from deep web JavaScript code and the surface web. First, the names of a group of JavaScript links are abstracted as initial judgements. Through name matching, these judgements are utilized to judge whether or not the fetched webpages contain predefined JavaScript links that may prompt JavaScript code to invoke WMSs. Secondly, some JavaScript invocation functions and URL formats for WMS are summarized as JavaScript invocation rules from prior knowledge of how WMSs are employed and coded in JavaScript. These invocation rules are used to identify the JavaScript code for extracting candidate WMSs through rule matching. The above two operations are incorporated into a traditional focused crawling strategy situated between the tasks of fetching webpages and parsing webpages. Thirdly, LCWMSs are selected by matching services with a set of land cover keywords. Moreover, a search engine for LCWMSs is implemented that uses the focused deep web crawler to retrieve and integrate the LCWMSs it discovers. In the first experiment, eight online geospatial web applications serve as seed URLs (Uniform Resource Locators and crawling scopes; the proposed crawler addresses only the JavaScript code in these eight applications. All 32 available WMSs hidden in JavaScript code were found using the proposed crawler, while not one WMS was discovered through the focused crawler

Investigasi Kemampuan Problem Solving dan Problem Posing Matematis Mahasiswa Via Pendekatan Realistic

OpenAIRE

Afriansyah, Ekasatya Aldila

2016-01-01

Mathematical problem solving and problem posing skill are the mathematical skills that need to be owned by students. By having this skill, students can be more creative in expressing ideas by connecting the knowledge that they held previously. But in reality, there are some students who are lack of problem solving skill; therefore it is really important to improve learning through appropriate approach. Realistic approach had been chosen as the learning theory to be applied in the class. This ...

Intelligible design a realistic approach to the philosophy and history of science

CERN Document Server

Gonzalo, Julio A

2014-01-01

This book provides realistic answers to hotly debated scientific topics: Science is about quantitative aspects of natural realities (physical, chemical, biological) but it is the result of human intellectual inquiry and therefore not "per se" materialistic. This book, with contributions from experts in physics, cosmology, mathematics, engineering, biology and genetics, covers timely and relevant topics such as the origin of the universe, the origin of life on Earth, the origin of man (intelligent life) and the origin of science.

[A new age of mass casuality education? : The InSitu project: realistic training in virtual reality environments].

Science.gov (United States)

Lorenz, D; Armbruster, W; Vogelgesang, C; Hoffmann, H; Pattar, A; Schmidt, D; Volk, T; Kubulus, D

2016-09-01

Chief emergency physicians are regarded as an important element in the care of the injured and sick following mass casualty accidents. Their education is very theoretical; practical content in contrast often falls short. Limitations are usually the very high costs of realistic (large-scale) exercises, poor reproducibility of the scenarios, and poor corresponding results. To substantially improve the educational level because of the complexity of mass casualty accidents, modified training concepts are required that teach the not only the theoretical but above all the practical skills considerably more intensively than at present. Modern training concepts should make it possible for the learner to realistically simulate decision processes. This article examines how interactive virtual environments are applicable for the education of emergency personnel and how they could be designed. Virtual simulation and training environments offer the possibility of simulating complex situations in an adequately realistic manner. The so-called virtual reality (VR) used in this context is an interface technology that enables free interaction in addition to a stereoscopic and spatial representation of virtual large-scale emergencies in a virtual environment. Variables in scenarios such as the weather, the number wounded, and the availability of resources, can be changed at any time. The trainees are able to practice the procedures in many virtual accident scenes and act them out repeatedly, thereby testing the different variants. With the aid of the "InSitu" project, it is possible to train in a virtual reality with realistically reproduced accident situations. These integrated, interactive training environments can depict very complex situations on a scale of 1:1. Because of the highly developed interactivity, the trainees can feel as if they are a direct part of the accident scene and therefore identify much more with the virtual world than is possible with desktop systems

The Past as Prologue: Realist Thought and the Future of American Security Policy

Science.gov (United States)

2011-01-01

Recently, and in large part due to a reaction to cultural relativism , some realists have sided with those who support universal human rights. They do...for ethics, justice, or morality .7 Similarly, John Herz is emphatic about how his realism is different from that of Morgenthau who, like Thucydides...Prologue survival pressures tightly constrain state behaviors, we should not expect internal characteristics or moral considerations to seriously